Spielbyweb, Magic: the Gathering

I finished my first two-player game of Reef Encounter on spielbyweb.com. I liked it a lot. It has a great element of forward planning that I missed playing on the table top. Having played once in real life was a huge advantage, though, as I think my opponent struggled with assessing the manipulation of the coral strength tiles. I ended up winning in a bit of a landslide, but I'm not sure how much attention he was really paying. This makes me feel I understand and like the game quite a bit better, but I'm no closer to buying it, as playing online seems so much superior... maybe down the road sometime.

Bill has apparently decided that the Magic drafts at the store are not competitive enough, and invited a group of us to come and draft on our own, in order to better prepare people for nationals, or something. It ended up being myself, Bill, Mech, Tyler, Pete, Scott, Blake, and Gary. I was being fed by Blake and passing to Bill. This was only my second time drafting this block with all three sets (I drafted triple Ravnica once and RRG twice). I am still not too familiar with the cards, as I don't play so much, but I guess I was invited on the strength of my past accomplishments.

Right off the bat I wasn't sure what to take, and I admit I probably took the wrong card first pick, an instant that is like basilisk/regenerate in one that can be played with black or green. After that, I took a green/white guildmage and the black/green one. I was a little worried about going g/b/w, though, as I'd only have one guild left, and there would be a pack I could only take mono-colored cards out of, unless I splashed a fourth color. I dabbled in blue a little, just in case. Of course, that meant I'd be in two guilds in the third pack... I still haven't got this figured out! So, if this is making any sense, I tried to stick mainly with green and white, but took some black and blue figuring they would work into the mix somewhere. In the end, I was a little shy on removal, but had a solid three color deck whichever way I went. I was quite short of mana fixers, so I couldn't really go four color. I ended up w/g/u. I played the blue for the graft/flying guy and the 4/3 flyer that can forecast to draw cards. When I took it, I forgot that forecast works only during your upkeep... I had plenty of creatures, and some fair non-creature spells, but I wish I would have gotten one or two bounce spells.

Round one - Tyler

Tyler was playing pretty much the same as me, except four color with plenty of black. He had a bunch of mana fixing lands, though, which made it easy for him to do. Game one he mulliganed into a one land hand and kept it. He didn't draw more mana and I smashed him. Game two, I drew way too many land and he smashed me over time. Game three I started OK and ran into a land clump, if I remember right.

Round two - Andy

Andy is a young man who took over playing the deck that Scott drafted when Scott had to leave. He was a pretty decent player, although he kept switching around the cards he had in his hand and the lands he had in play, which always makes me nervous. I'm sure there wasn't anything shady here, but too much movement always makes me think there's some sleight of hand going on. Paranoia, I guess. I honestly don't remember too much about these games. They lasted a long time, and were pretty close. I won the first game, then he won the second. The second game was very interesting, he alpha-struck for the win, I played a damage prevention spell and lived, but he had a guy to play that could take out two of mine, so I could only get him to two. Game three was mostly in my favor and I won.

Third round - Blake

I wish I had better stuff to say about these games, but I didn't take notes. I beat Blake in two games. His deck had lots of removal, which just didn't show up for him. I was able to put a lot of pressure on him with flyers, and then the guildmages were a real pain in his ass in the late game. I ended up having three of them, and, given the mana, could create token guys, put boost tokens on guys, and move them around. I had a couple graft guys, too, and the sorcery that puts x tokens on x guys.

All of my opponents were cureous and skillful players. Not too bad of an event, although there were still the obligatory people standing around acting amazed at the cards that were being passed in the draft, etc.. I don't think I'll be getting too heavily back into this scene.

So, I ended up 2-1, in third place, behing Mech and Tyler. I ended up with a shock land and some random junk. It was a pretty good night, and reminded me a little of all the nights we spent drafting in Jerod's basement. Even Gary was there!

GG, GL