Release Party of Fate Reforged

"When people try something new, many of them play over and over without reflecting on what is happening. They might be intoxicated with their wins; they might not want to
take stock of why it isn't working. Regardless, it isn't a good way to do things — so do
not be that guy. Reflect on what you are seeing and what it means. Take action, and then learn from the feedback. After that, adjust to what you have learned and take action again. Make no mistake: experience alone will not improve your game to the degree that you arecapable of. Without honest self-examination, those experiences will actually tend to make you worse at Magic." -Patrick Chapin

Those line from Patrick Chapin is really powerful. It makes me realize that my slow and weak development as a Yugioh Player may be caused by my lack of reflection toward what I have done. If only I spend as much time reflecting as I'm playtesting, perhaps I could have produced a better result in Yugioh.

As I'm learning to play Magic, I have this kind of urge that tells me to keep on playing and playing until my mind goes crazy. Especially in Draft, there is this addictive feeling for opening a new booster pack and making a new deck based on the interaction found in those packs. This kind of thing is what make every pod of draft is a new experience that begs to be explored so explore I am.

However, if I only keep on playing and playing, without spending time to reflect on what I have done, then I will only repeat the same mistake I made in Yugioh and that's not what I planned to do. So here goes, the report of my FNM yesterday.

Believe it or not, I played 4 pod of draft yesterday. It was a release party so the shop has an abundant stocks of the newest set, Fate Reforged. Everyone is so excited to play new cards and whenever the shopkeeper said it should be the last pod, people keep begging for new pod, like mad fans begging for an Encore of their favorite band.

In my first pod, I played an Abzan deck which turned out to be a mistake. Since there are not so many three mana fixing in Fate Reforged set, playing 3-color deck forced me to pick so many gainland card and passing on many good fillers. My bomb itself is not really impressive, as it is only a Sandsteppe Mastodon and Wooly Loxodon which can still be blocked and is vulnerable to premium removals. It was quite a fair deck and it works well, but it begs for a super good play that can outplay any opponent and I'm still not capable to do that. There are many cases when I was faced with so many options and when I think about it again after I lose, I could chose the other option and the result could be different.

In my second pod, I played an U/W control deck with a lot of evasive creatures. My bomb is Ojutai and it's really good once it came out. To my surprise, I actually really enjoy playing the deck. Waiting for an opponent to rush and able to remove all of their creatures is super satisfying. However, this deck lacks one of its most important card, which is counter spells. As a result, I'm completely decimated by Wildan's token based deck who abuse the super stupid ability of Harsh Sustenance. Against other player, the deck is fine and overwhelmingly good. However, against a good player, such as Madi, I'm still vulnerable to be outplayed. However, due to the very tense match, our match ended up in draw.

In my third pod, I played a G/R aggro deck, supposedly, who abuse the raw card advantage maker's ability from Abzan Beastmaster. However, it didn't work quite as well as I thought it could be. First of all, my deck lacks of premium removals and evasive creatures which makes me not able to abuse the card advantage as good as I want it to be. Most importantly, I have no flying creatures which makes me completely decimated by Cloudform or any Jeskai's flying monks.

In my fourth pod, I played another form of control deck, but this time the color is U/R. At first, I'm completely underestimating my card choices but it turns out to be a great deck. The red card, mostly having a dash ability, making me able to make a relevant threat every single turn. This time, I make sure not to repeat the same mistake from the second pod again by picking a Mindswipe and a Disdainful Stroke. My bomb, Pilgrim of Fires, a card that I'm underestimating at first, is turned out to be super-effective as there is not much way to remove a 6/4 creature with First Strike and Trample.

The first match against Didit is so intense, as he's using a super aggro deck that abuses the ability of Battle Cry-like spell that pumped all of his creatures with +2/+1. However, by sacrificing almost all of my life, I managed to take control of the board and my Pilgrim of Fires can just wreck havoc. The second match against mas Malik is a really fun as we're just massing each other's card and see who did the best. Obviously, my Pilgrim of Fire is the champion and he remained my champion in the third match against Dimas. This gives me another victory in draft and I feel so satisfied. After 3 pods of bitter experience, I manage to give myself a win.

Winning in Magic is a very amazing experience and I wish to feel it more.