GP Madrid, or the process of losing.

The tournament was supposed to start at 9 AM.

Now, I realize that the start times for Magic tournaments are usually inaccurate. The nature of both the players involved and the event in question makes it a practical guarantee that no tournament with more than 8 players will ever begin exactly on time.

However, this particular tournament didn't get started until at least 10:30AM.

If this were the only time-related issue with the tournament, it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, almost every round had a 45-minute delay between the end of the round and the beginning of the next.

I suppose that's reality when a tournament has 1,466 players, but it was still torturous.

Without further ado, my Sealed pool:

1 Barrenton Medic
1 Endure
1 Goldenglow Moth
1 Kithkin Shielddare
1 Recumbent Bliss
1 Rune-Cervin Rider

1 Plumeveil
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Swans of Bryn Argoll
1 Thistledown Duo

1 Edge of the Divinity
1 Nightsky Mimic
2 Nip Gwyllion

1 Biting Tether
1 Cache Riders
2 Consign to Dream
1 Dream Thief
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Merrow Levitator
1 Prismwake Merrow
1 Sinking Feeling

1 Dream Salvage
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Oona's Gatewarden

1 Inside Out
1 Noggle Ransacker
1 Shrewd Hatchling

1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Nightmare Incursion
1 Raven's Crime
1 Splitting Headache

1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Poison the Well

1 Gift of the Deity
1 Odious Trow
1 Rendclaw Trow
1 Worm Harvest

1 Fire at Will

1 Heartlash Cinder
1 Hotheaded Giant
1 Inescapable Brute
1 Outrage Shaman
1 Puncture Blast
1 Smash to Smithereens

1 Runes of the Deus
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Tattermunge Maniac
1 Wort, the Raidmother

1 Medicine Runner
1 Mercy Killing
1 Safehold Duo
1 Safewright Quest

1 Grazing Kelpie
1 Invert the Skies
1 Trapjaw Kelpie

1 Aerie Ouphes
1 Devoted Druid
1 Gloomwidow
1 Gloomwidow's Feast
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Prismatic Omen
1 Roughshod Mentor

1 Chainbreaker
1 Fang Skulkin
1 Jawbone Skulkin
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Scrapbasket
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Shell Skulkin

1 Leechridden Swamp

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Okay.

My first impression of this pool was that it was acceptable. I saw a number of very strong cards like Outrage Shaman, Biting Tether and Kulkrath Knight, some removal and a bunch of fliers.

On setting it out, though, I quickly realized the pool's glaring weakness; a near-total lack of two-drops.

This pool is actually pretty easy to build, though, as both Black and White can be pretty easily removed from contention. This leaves some combination of Red, Blue, and Green.

Red is the color with the strongest cards, but is pretty shallow beyond them.

Blue is both deep and powerful, but has no real removal and many of its creatures are pretty fragile.

Green is the deepest color, but none of its cards are terribly exciting.

Seeing as how my pool was underpowered to begin with, I decided to go with the Red/Blue configuration. I saw the strongest synergy in my deck being the one between Cache Raiders and Outrage Shaman/Wort/Biting Tether, and this build was meant to maximize it.

1 Oona's Gatewarden

1 Scuttlemutt
1 Dream Thief
1 Plumeveil
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Thistledown Duo

1 Shell Skulkin
1 Shrewd Hatchling
1 Swans of Bryn Argoll
1 Merrow Levitator

1 Cache Raiders
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Outrage Shaman
1 Scuzzback Marauders

1 Wort, the Raidmother

1 Puncture Blast
1 Fire at Will
1 Recumbent Bliss
2 Consign to Dream
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Biting Tether

8 Island
8 Mountain
2 Plains

The problem with this build, of course, is that it has a single spell that costs less than three. The splash for Recumbent Bliss is almost a "free" splash -- I'm pretty sure I would have played at least one Plains regardless, as it serves as a sort of dual land for both of my hard-to-cast spells (Plumeveil and Fire at Will). However, the deck desperately needed removal, and Bliss is a pretty strong card, so I took the risk.

This deck has a lot of synergies -- mostly involving Cache Raiders, who were surprisingly strong -- but includes a lot of really mediocre cards (Shell Skulkin, Merrow Levitator, Helm of the Ghastlord) and again has no early game defense. I toyed with the idea of including Fang Skulkin as a vanilla 2/1, but it just seemed so terrible and fragile in my already-underpowered deck.

I considered a Green/Blue build, but it glutted up the three-drop slot and didn't really offer much early-game to shore up the loss the best cards in my pool (the Red ones). I also tried Green/Red splashing either Biting Tether and Silkbind Faerie -- which resulted in awful mana -- or Recumbent Bliss and Silkbind Faerie -- which had better mana, but still involved a terrible curve and, again, the loss of many powerful cards in blue.

I figure the URw option gave me the best chance to simply overwhelm my opponents should they not come out of the gates. I chose to play at all points, since I needed the turn to not fall impossibly behind.

So, with no bombs and only a single bye, I charged into the fray.

After my first-round rating bye, I got crushed by a deck with Firespout and Deus of Calamity in two short games. Besides being worse than his, my deck also simply decided not to show up in terms of both lands and good spells. He was also probably the best player I played against on the day, making a solid read on Fire at Will and playing around a potential bounce spell at one point (which, despite having two Consigns, I didn't have).

I won the next five rounds almost effortlessly. I beat decks much better than mine, which in retrospect makes me feel a lot better about my performance. Playing with Cache Raiders is pretty difficult, as it requires a lot of planning ahead and percentage predictions on draws. I only screwed up with it once that I can remember, returning a land instead of Gatewarden when I could draw a sixth land for Wort the one turn I actually drew the land. I wanted to cast a five-drop and therefore didn't want to not have Gatewarden in play the next turn, but it was pretty irrelevant as a blocker at the time and drawing a land would have given me the option of playing it anyway. It was irrelevant, though, as whenever I had Cache Raiders going I usually ended up winning.

I then got summarily crushed two rounds in a row by two people I can only describe as "brain-dead". Somehow the quality of player worsened as the rounds went on, and by round 7 I was playing against a guy who couldn't seem to attack or block effectively. His deck was built to destroy mine, though. He had a bevy of quality two-drops, Repel Intruders (which blew me out in both games, despite him making it terribly obvious that he had it), and multiple god-Auras that I should have been able to beat but wasn't. My removal didn't show up in time and my four- and five-drops were not getting it done.

My next opponent was even worse. I kept, on the draw:

Mountain, Mountain, Puncture Blast, Fire at Will, Silkbind Faerie, Consign to Dream, Shrewd Hatchling.

I'm good here with any land, and a Plains is a blowout. Of course, I never see another land this game, while my opponent "curves" out with Nip Gwyllion -> Nip Gwyllion -> Blight Sickle, Odious Trow. Fire at Will would have been huge, but I never got there.

Game two I mulligan to five but actually draw spells and lands, which is more than enough to beat his pile (how did this guy get to 5-2?)

Game three he reveals the good part of his deck, which includes Stillmoon Cavalier (to which I have few answers), Voracious Hatchling, Gloomlance, Soul Reap, and Gnarled Effigy. While obviously decent in Sealed, this is the first game I've ever lost to Gnarled Effigy, as I usually find it way too slow to ever have an impact when I have a good deck. Of course, my current deck's glacial pace can't beat such a card, and after torturously killing every creature on my side with the Effigy -- despite my being dead on board for multiple turns beforehand -- he kills me and my GP experience is over.

So, the GP was not a success. This is nothing new. I didn't even get my cards signed by Mark Tedin or Rob Alexander, as they were both gone by the time I was out, and there was not enough time in-between rounds to get through the massive lines at their booths.

But in the spirit of this blog, I want to analyze what I learned from it. While I haven't gotten around to doing a Fearless Magical Inventory on this blog yet -- although it's certainly something I want to do soon -- I think I have to address what is one of my weakest points, if not the weakest.

I need to learn how to lose.

I don't necessarily mean avoiding "tilt" (getting mad after a loss, to the point where anger clouds one's judgment and ability). While I was certainly someone who went on tilt a great deal, I made special efforts this past year to rectify them. I still get somewhat frustrated when I lose in a particularly embarassing or unlucky fashion, and I'll still bitch a bit to people I know about losing -- as everyone in Magic does -- but I have managed to lower my anger level at my opponent when I lose.

No, this is more about my own internal process after a loss. I tend to put everything on the line at every significant (PTQ level or above) tournament I go to, despite the amount of preparation I put in. As such, whether I get unlucky or make mistakes, I leave every unsuccessful tournament thinking three things:

• I'm terrible at Magic.
• As an result, I'm worthless.
• I didn't have fun.

While the truth of these statements can vary, I can say with certainty that they are hard to prove through a single unsuccessful tournament. My Magic record is actually better than a large number of "good" people I play with, and Magic has little to no reflection on me as a person in other respects. As for the third statement, the only reason I think this is because of the first two; were I able to not think such things, I would probably realize I was having a good time both playing Magic and hanging out with friends at the tournaments.

I can rationalize this to no end, but it doesn't defeat the feelings that rise up every time I get knocked out of another tournament. It's especially frustrating in Limited, because my draft records are very good but I can never seem to make it through the Sealed Deck portion. My deck is never strong enough and I always feel like I'm outclassed card-for-card starting around Round 4. I feel if I can just make it to a t8 or Day 2, I'll be in great shape, but I rarely do.

I have to remember that there will be more tournaments, and until then more time to improve. If I let every single defeat get me down, I won't put in the effort and practice I need to actually ever win. As much as I can attribute my failure at this GP to a very weak pool, I certainly made some misplays, and I'm pretty glad I recognized most of them immediately afterward. In addition, I'm glad I built close to optimally given the tools I was handed.

Personally, I think the psychology of Magic players is very interesting, and definitely something I want to keep a focus on in this blog. There are the "downers" like me, but there are also the "bad-beaten" that attribute every loss to bad luck, the "blind eyes" who think that their mistakes are not relevant or not worth pointing out, and the "unaffected" who don't seem to care whether they win or lose at all. I think all of these are intrinsic weaknesses, and it is rare to see someone who can objectively evaluate their mistakes, learn from them, and not be affected by them in the future.

To become one of those players is not easy -- especially for someone as easily affected by losing as I am -- but it is a worthwhile goal, and one of the most important things I'm striving for.

Otherwise, the GP was not terribly exciting. It was cool to be in such a large tournament, but ultimately it was slow, I had almost no one to talk to between rounds (which contributed to the slow feeling of the tournament), and I was quite honestly feeling pretty ill after a couple of rounds due to lack of sleep and food. It was not the experience I hoped for, but by putting it in a positive light I'll get everything I can out of it.

With this tournamnet out of the way, I can start writing some more theoretical and specific entries. I have a few thoughts on the new SHM/SHM/EVN draft format, a few new decklists to talk about, and of course the MagicHouse Cube to introduce and discuss. Finals for my classes here in Madrid are this week, so updates will be more sporadic, but in my downtime I hope to keep my thoughts on the game.

~Andres