By 5ylver
So, I've decided I'm bad at writing. Ok, maybe not at writing, but I do know that I am really good at procrastinating, then getting annoyed that my writing isn't what I expected, so I scrap the idea and start over, and over, and over, and over, until I finally create something that I feel is worth posting. Ah well, such is the way of things. This turned out okay though, I feel. 
Back to my second favorite hobby outside of video games, Magic: The Gathering! I have been playing a lot of this wonderful card game lately, and as such, I am currently #3 in my state for Planeswalker Points, and #52 in the country. COMMENCE EGO BOOST NOW!
Just the other day (Sunday) I competed in an event for TCGPlayer.com, it was a Gold Series tournament, which meant that there was 500$ available for Top8 and a custom TCGPlayer playmat to Top16. 20$ entry fee, I felt my odds were good; I had custom tailored my deck to what I expected to be at the tournament, playtested it thoroughly, and felt it was solid enough to walk in with. I played a deck named "Esper Superfriends," it was Black/Blue/White and based around 'Planeswalkers' which are basically allies that the opponent needs to deal with, or lose. This wasn't the only deck I built however, I went in with a group of 5, my girlfriend (currently #10 in the state!), and three good friends. They played RDW (a mono-red deck based on fast creatures and direct damage), Tezzeret (a black/blue deck based on the Planeswalker Tezzeret and artifacts), G/W humans (a green/white tribal deck, with only humans as its creatures, along with a small bit of control), and G/R aggro (a green/red aggressive deck based on rushing as fast out of the gates as possible). I had a hand in all the decks, but I built the G/R aggro deck. This will become important later, for some more ego stroking.
My day started out horrid, my first match was against a good friend playing Black/Blue zombies. It's never fun to play against someone you know that early in the tournament. I ended up taking the win, making his chances of getting into Top8 extremely difficult, but not impossible, luckily. The match was heavily in my favor, he was having mana issues (which made him unable to keep up with my amount of control), I went 2-0.
My day was getting better as I went into match #2, vs. Spirit Delver (a Black/Blue/White deck based around the card "Delver of Secrets" it also features a lot of Spirit token generation) I won uncontested 2-0.
Match #3 vs. Hexblade (a Blue/Green/White deck based around 'hexproof' creatures with weapons, meaning I cannot target them), it was a tough match. I lost the first game on turn #5, which made me think that I may have met my match with this extremely quick deck. The next two games, however, were mine to control. I kept the creatures I could off the board, dealt with the harder ones, and ultimately controlled the board until I won with my few creatures. 2-1.
Match #4 vs. Mage-Blade (a Blue/White deck based around Delver of Secrets and weapons, with control to keep them alive). This was a turning point in the day, if I won this match, I could take a break until the Top8. Being 4-0 for matches meant that you could just 'draw' the next two matches and still make Top8. Which would put me at 4-0-2 for the day. But that wouldn't happen. My opponent outplayed me, I made a couple simple mistakes and it cost me. I lost 0-2.
Match #5 vs. Ravager Ramp (a Green/Red deck based around getting as much mana as possible, as fast as possible, then playing larger creatures repeatedly). The first game was silly; he was drawing all land, I was drawing none. The situation was better in his favor, which put me on a decline as it was. We ended up going to time, where I lost in the last five turns. 0-2.
Match #6 vs. Spirit Delver (same as above, with a different pilot and a few different cards). This was it, we were fighting to make it into Top8. We both played to the best of our ability, I was on my best game, ended up taking it, 2-1, sealing my place in the Top8!
Out of the group I went in with, one other made it into Top8 undefeated was the G/R Aggro deck, which I built (ego flex!). He had amazing consistency with the deck, and won out through most of his games. This meant that two of my group were in the Top8, and out of those 8, there was one other player from my Game store that I play at. Unfortunately, it was not the friend that I beat at the beginning of the night.
The Top8 decks were; Mine (Esper Superfriends), two different G/R Aggro, Solar Flare (a Black/Blue/White deck focused on reanimating creatures from the graveyard for cheaper than their original cost), the R/G Ramp I lost to earlier, the Mage-Blade I lost to earlier, an America color control (Red/White/Blue), and Tempered Steel (a very fast deck focused on pumping their cheap artifact creatures). And as luck would have it, I played against the G/R Aggro deck I built. He out raced me, and took the match 2-0. I walked out in 8th place, winning my self 25$ and a really nifty playmat. He lost in his next round to the Delver deck, ended up taking 3rd, winning 50$ and a playmat. Overall, a good day.
So, I learned that I need to fix my decks matchup against aggressive decks. There are a few cards that I have in mind.. though we will have to see how it works!
