[Article] Eternal Europe: Autodestruct in Amsterdam

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

The GP didn't go the way I'd hoped at all. Wanna know what happened and see the list I played? Here you go:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/23060_Eternal_Europe_Autodestruct_In_Amsterdam.html

[lebarion]

The GP didn't go the way I'd hoped at all. Wanna know what happened and see the list I played? Here you go:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/23060_Eternal_Europe_Autodestruct_In_Amsterdam.html

Interesting article. In general, I find it more interesting to read about "failure" stories than about success.
I recently realized that I have a kind of low self-confidence, in the sense that when I face opponents in the X-0 branch later in a tournament I believe he plays better than me, and this leads me to play badly.

Noticing this kind of behavior from ourselves is key to enhance our play skills, I guess.

[catmint]

Liked the article very much.

I am not an experienced magic player, but was a semi-professional online poker player for 3 years. What I found out is that it is the same challenge for me "not to be tilt" in magic like it is in poker. In poker I learned to deal with variance, so I have to accept if someone wins having a 20% chance. That is not tilting me.... what is a problem if I make a mistake (like you describe in your article).

It is on one hand good if we try to deliver our best, but mistakes are normal in the process. So if a mistake tilts us for the next game(s) we do something wrong and should try to reflect more and work on our "expectation management".

I came to amsterdam (my first big tournament) to have fun. I played BUG with 0 byes since my job does not allow me to play a lot of qualifiers. After 3:1 I played against an infect-pump deck where I lost game 1 really close. Beeing in control of the next 2 games, I had the win on board in G3 and did not see it. Additionally to that my opponend topdecked what I make him discard and he tramples over my goyf delivering the last 4 poison. After that I still had a theoretical chance, but got paired versus Merfolk 2 times, where things did really not go my way. (for example i lost a G1 to Merfolk on the play where he mulliganned to 5 and I started with Thoughtseize, Hymn)

Of course that tilted me a lot and I played poorly from there on... Not that I was thinking about Top32 or something but reaching day2 was my dream. So what I learned is that of course you need a good portion of luck (parings, draws) to reach something, but you can also not make these mistakes. Who knows... maybe I would have been paired twice against a good matchup rather than a bad one, if I would not have made this mistake...

[SpikeyMikey]

It's interesting that you feel you have to be under pressure to play your best game. For me, it's the other way around. I crumble under pressure. I have no problem beating great players, as long as it's in the early rounds. In the later rounds, when the heat is on, I make obvious mistakes because I'm so nervous.

Back in January, I went to the SCG Open in KC. I started off 4-0 at which point I got a video feature match and choked like I was in a porn with John Holmes. I ended the day 4-4. And the opponents I had to start the day off were, generally speaking, better than my opponents in the last 3 rounds. But I made play errors and gave games away.

Then I went to an Open in Indy a month or two later. I started off 5-1, playing through a number of people who ended up in the money and 1 semi-pro. I desperately tried to lose to a Rock deck in round 6, winning only because he played worse than I did. Then I succeeded in punting G3 against Goblins to lose by exactsies with a lethal swing the next turn. Then I got paired up against Reanimator and Lands. Reanimator went off through double Force on turns 2 and 4 respectively (I stopped him on turn 2 G2, but he reloaded quickly) and Lands was a deck I was hoping to dodge; I had no board and little chance of winning. I ended 5-4, once again with top breakers for my record but out of the money.

As the tournament wears on and I'm still in contention for T8/T16, my inner Bruce gets stronger and stronger.

[Cthuloo]

Very good article, a lot of content, as usual.

I'm not 100% convinced on your interpretation, though. Are you sure that your bad performance in the final rounds is only due to your lack of motivation and not to simply being tired? After all you've played an highly complex control deck for 13 rounds split among two days and with few hours of sleep in between, it's easy to think that you could have some troubles concentrating in the end. I had similar experiences, by the way, of playing a brain grindind control deck, starting 3-0 and ending up going 4-3, having the very real feeling that I was playing badly, but just didn't have much brain power left after some point.

Anyways, making day 2 with a self-built deck is still a fine accomplishment!

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Sorry for the late response, as usual. My fault. Happy you enjoyed the article, though. That way at least someone gets something out of my misery ;)

@catmint: I was wondering if what I experienced was in any way similar to what is called "being on tilt" in Poker. The thing is, I wasn't playing badly because of the mistakes I had made (at least that wasn't my impression) but I was making mistakes because I couldn't get my brain to fully focus on the game at hand the way I usually do. I simply didn't manage to achieve the state of mind I can play well in.

@Cthuloo: No, I'm quite sure it wasn't just being tired. I know what I feel like when the day has just been too long and my brain is fried and I simply can't play well any more. This was totally different. I was making the same kind of bad plays but was conscious I was doing so and but simply couldn't stop myself from making them anyway because that's what my brain told me I should be doing.