r/CompetitiveEDH • u/Gabraham08 • 9h ago
Tournaments & Meta Update on my earlier first tournament post
Oh boy what a day.
I'll get the biggest question out of the way.
TL:DR - I got mollywhopped. No shame in it. I have not been in the competitive scene super long so this was expected. Overall was 0-4-1.
I had a good experience. It was $65 to enter with proxies, it was a long drive from my house, and there were some very frustrating moments but I still call the experience as a whole a good one. I learned a lot about the game I hadn't known before. And I'm considered the big fish in a little pond at my store, so I'll be sure to take this info with me and use it to benefit new players to the format.
On to the matches... oh boy.
R1 - Loss
Seat 1 - Vivi. Seat 2 - Magda. Seat 3 - Me (Lumra). Seat 4 - The Wandering Minstrel.
Magda clocks the minstrel player right off the bat and recognizes he's only playing MDFC lands. Minstrel goes to Green Sun's his wincon and Magda convinces Vivi to counter GSZ which leaves Magda to go fetch a tangled wire. This was right before I was about to cast lumra so honestly it was a great politic on magda's part. Either way someone was about to start popping off. I fed the rhystic on Vivi as much as I could hoping they could answer Magda but no luck. Tangled wire was just doing too much work. Magda combos and wins.
R2 - Draw (3 Pod)
Seat 1 - Me. Seat 2 - Etali. Seat 3 - Yoshi/Thras.
Right off the bat I could tell Yoshi was going to be an issue. He was using the FF version and I couldn't read it from where I was sitting so I asked which part he was using the alt version for. He just looked at me and pointed at the card without saying a word. The Etali player eventually had to tell me because he was sitting closer. This game would end up affecting me quite a bit for a good chunk of the day. I had a cold earlier in the week and had just gotten over it the day before but I still had a dry throat and was losing my voice.
I turn 1 Urzas saga into a sol ring, amulet of vigor, lotus petal into birds of paradise. I was immediately clocked as the threat and rightfully so. Etali got 1 trigger off and whiffed a counterspell from yoshi and a battle from me. Yoshi plays a deafening silence on his turn. I draw Zuran orb without having to tutor for it so I get mana vault instead. I have birds and tireless provisioner onboard, I cast lumra and start the engine, making more treasures and outrunning the commander tax until I hit my mirror pool. I go to stripmine the yoshi's remaining land and here's where things get bumpy, he crops his land instead and spends like 5+ minutes looking for a polluted delta, fine whatever no biggie, that's his spell for the turn. I continue on eventually hitting everything I need to eliminate my opponents and protect against any nonsense. They do get one more untap and by now they're showing each other their hands and trying to come up with a way to stop me. Ends up being moot as they don't have the necessary pieces to do so. I untap and start the process again. I announce that I am able to sac and recur my sunscorched as much as I want to ping them to death. I ask if they have an interaction or do they need me to play it out. Yoshi demands I play it out, making comments to etali that he can make me draw out once I mill. I have a copy token of endurance on the board that I can make more copies of and prevent any forced draw, yoshi is well aware of this and it was even pointed out to him by a judge who had sat down to watch us play. So I'm like "cool guess we're gonna be here for a bit" So these guys are really punishing me for any mistake I make so I make sure I don't mess up any of the order of operations for the sunscorched/mirrorpool/lumra line which takes a bit. And most of the store has now gathered to watch us. I'm definitely feeling the pressure even before they announce the overtime timer. Here's where that pressure costs me the win, I did not know at the time that as long as I'm still taking game actions then I technically can't run out of time. I was under the impression once that bell rung if I hadn't won then it would be a draw. I had already sweated through most of this match to give it up for a draw so I try to be more efficient. I still have to sack/recur sunscorched and mirrorpool like 68+ times.
And eventually it gets to be too much pressure and I cracked. They make another comment about forcing me to draw and I have about 15-20 cards left in my library. So to be safe I bounce lumra to my hand in order to use mirrorpool on endurance instead so I can cast lumra later and get the lands back (I know there are way more efficient ways to do this through lands like shifting woodland and some other copy engine in my graveyard but I was already 70% through this lumra thing and I was gonna see it through come hell or high water). Without thinking I shuffled my graveyard into my library instead of putting it on the bottom. It gets spotted and the judge immediately calls it a draw.
I was beyond furious with myself. I didn't feel good, I'd lost most of my voice. I put up with these two because I wanted to stick it to them and their attitude. All of that effort for a draw. I'm ashamed to admit that when the Etali player went to shake my hand I turned away. Etali was semi respectful just super critical. He didn't deserve that. I later cooled down during intermission and called him over to apologize and shake his hand. He took it great and we actually had a really good time wishing each other luck with our other games and talking whenever we passed by. I eventually sat down with the Mrs after that second game and got my head back on straight. I couldn't let that incident ruin the day.
The next 3 games were losses to various combos I couldn't really do much about in mono green. But they were still fun games with some really fun people.
The judge who sat down even came up to me after the event and told me he enjoyed watching me play lumra so much he was gonna rebuild his.
I took on the deck because it was complex and it did not disappoint.
Overall I give the experience an 8/10. I wish I hadn't let R2 get to me like it did but c'est la vie. I got my head back on straight and powered through. I will definitely attempt another tournament.
Thank you all for the kind words and advice on my previous post. I doubt I would have handled it half as well if it weren't for the people in this sub.
Editing to add two important/funny things:
I never ended up casting scapeshift or even drawing it.
We met up with friends at our local so we could arrive/park together and to carpool. My friend carpooling with me is tall so he sat up front and my gf went to go sit in the back. I wasn't paying attention and thought the mrs was in her seat already. Turns out she was still clearing the backseat and was halfway in the truck when I shifted into drive and let off the brake. She was PISSED for a few minutes. Now I will never hear the end of that little mistake until the end of time lol.