Hello My Fellow Planeswalkers!
Mathew here from GenericBadMagic with a subject we can all relate to. Whether it’s on the kitchen table, your local FNM or PPTQ we have all had a misplay that lingers in memory long after the fact. Something you find yourself thinking about months later, wondering why? Why? Why didn’t I play that differently.
Here’s mine:
Picture the scene, round one of GP Birmingham 2017, the format is Modern, I’m playing Burn and I’m tied at 1-1 against a Scapeshift deck, I have an empty hand, four land plus a fetchland in play, on 9 life facing down an angry Thragtusk while my opponent is on 3 life.
Seeing this raging Thragtusk I made the rookie mistake of trying to preserve my life total, choosing not to fetch and find a land. Two turns in a row I fail to topdeck that all important burn Spell or creature to apply pressure, two turns in a row I neglect to fetch, reluctant to spend that seemingly precious one life.
I should truly have fetched at the earliest opportunity, thinned out my deck and gave myself the best possible chance of finding what I needed, a Lava Spike, Lightning Bolt, Rift Bolt, anything. The simple truth of it was that I was on a two turn clock, whether I fetched or not Thragtusk had to hit me twice to kill me and I failed to appreciate that.
I finished 3-6 for that tournament and while I wasn’t expecting anything special from my first run at a major event I didn’t see any other top tier decks that I knew I had a decent matchup against from my very underwhelming testing experience. I only naturally feel that I could have don much better if I’d only won that game but it would be a mistake to beat myself up about it, to decide that I definitely would have went 7-2 or 8-1 or otherwise made day two and excelled if I had just made the correct play. That would be too easy an excuse to hide behind.
The right thing to do now is to learn from it, apply my knowledge of using life totals as a resource in future games, reading the boardstate and understanding the clock my opponent puts me on and use that to make more optimal gameplay choices going forward.
So just remember, whatever the mistake, learn from it. Do yourself a service and work to understand what you did wrong, don’t hide behind it. Make better choices, informed by the errors of games gone by. Be mindful of this and you will improve as a player, certain things will become second nature, you’ll miss less of the nuances of the game and over time become a better player. Keep in mind though, it’s virtually impossible to catch everything and you will make errors in judgement. Think of these as lessons and every day becomes a school day!
I’d love to hear from everyone else, catch me on Twitter @GenericBadMtg or in the comments here with the plays you wish had gone differently, let’s learn together as a community and work to truly better our understanding of the game.
Until next time, enjoy yourself, draw well and respect each other.
Yours,
GenericBadMagic
genericbadmtg 