If it isn't broke, don't fix it...

It was a difficult evening at the Magic tournament tonight. I decided about an hour beforehand that I wanted to switch it up and try Conley Woods' B/G Wolf Run deck from the Orlando tournament. I made a few changes to the deck, but nothing major, and nothing to justify the terrible 1-2 result I had with it.

The evening started off horribly. On my way to Guardian Games I was photographed by one of those automatic machines that ticket you for speeding. I think I was going about 40 in a 30 m.p.h. zone. Anyone who knows me knows that speeding has been my Achilles heel, so to speak. The number of tickets I've received for that offense are basically innumerable. I kept thinking about how the ticket was already in the mail, so that put the whole evening in kind of a funk.

I sat down to play my first match after navigating through a ridiculous amount of traffic. My opponent and I rolled two six-sided die to see who would go first, and I rolled snake eyes. It was then I knew; this was not going to be my night. My opponent was playing Mage-Blade, a deck which has taken over Standard lately, and which my B/G deck was supposed to be well prepared for. My opponent drew amazing hands in both games. The first game, he drew 2 Mana Leaks, 2 Snapcasters, a Runechanter's Pike, and a slew of other instants. I was killed quickly. The second game, he drew Delver of Secrets, it transformed to a Mana Leak on the next turn, and he had sufficient counter-magic to protect it. The game was over shortly thereafter. I don't think I played badly in either game, I just didn't draw as well.

In the second round I faced some noob playing U/B control. I won the first game, lost the second, and at one point I had to ask him to stop stalling and speed up his play, because it seemed like he was trying to draw the match. He was nice enough to speed up though, and I managed to win the game on the back of a Thrun.

In the third round I faced Alec Baker, a Knightfall Games regular and a frequent opponent. I have a winning record against Alec, but tonight he got the best of me with his B/W/G Birthing Pod deck. Alec has now beaten me twice in a row, which is especially upsetting.

Disheartened from the loss to Alec and from my new deck's poor performance in general, I dropped out of the tournament and headed home. I totally forgot not to speed through the same section of road, though by this time the ticket machine had apparently been removed. I immediately dismantled this bullshit B/G deck and remade the R/G version. I guess the lesson from this tournament is: "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." Until next time readers.