my game with marshall

At the Card Kingdom Prerelease there were two gunslingers (spellslingers?), both from Limited Resources. I got in line and was paired up against Marshall Sutcliffe. The other guy was (I'm a disaster with names) Jon, I think, it was Jon but it could have been Ryan, regardless he's not with the cast anymore. If you don't listen to their podcast you should start.  [EDIT: Marshall blogged me back: http://lrcast.com/a-view-from-the-other-side-of-the-table/]

Here's Marshall

He was friendly but once the game began he morphed into something more like this:

I win the roll and elect to play. Marshall, with a bit of disgust dumps his original seven back on top of his library and mulls. He contemplates a pile shuffle and then is like, ~"fuck it~". Shuffles a little, bit draws six, and keeps. I had kept my seven because I had three lands, three three drops (two evasive), and a Serra Angel (here's a reminder of my deck: http://magicanotes.blogspot.com/2013/07/m14-prerelease-deck-tech.html).

Nothing exciting happens on the first two turns. I put out an Island and Plains, Marshall plays a Forest and and Island. I couldn't tell if his lands were Alpha or Beta but they were sweet. I respect the play. I myself was rocking Zendikar lands.

 vs. 

Right off the bat I'm behind, I mean I just can't compete with the truly old school lands. I was super happy I decided not to run my revised lands, that would have been embarrassing. Anyways turn three is where I made my first play mistake. I drop a Master of Diversion which he counters with an Essence Scatter.

 

The mistake here isn't that I played a creature. I had three 3-drop creatures in my hand and nothing else to do. Clearly playing a creature is correct. The mistake was being totally blindsided by the counter. What makes it even worse was that I had just listened to Marshall's podcast where he and Brian discussed the merits of Essence Scatter and how it can be a solid move on turn two. Especially if you don't have enough stuff in the two slot. It was a total "You magnificent bastard, I read your book!" situation.

I had listened to the podcast ... and completely forgot about it. 

I could have played a worse 3-drop which he most likely would have countered. Instead I went straight for the jugular and got punished. On his turn Marshall untaps and drops a Rootwalla. Ugggg, I hate that guy. Over the next few turns he is able to get in consistently with that guy. Insert "Threat of Activation" rant here. Additional early plays from him are Deadly Recluse and a Divination.

 

I continued to drop those three drops I mentioned (one on turn 3 and one on turn 4). I manage to get in for 2 at one point and the game stands at 18-18. On my turn five I make a timely Serra Angel. Marshall attacks with the Rootwalla and I choose not to block with the Serra Angel. Not a problem. Over the next few turns I also choose not to attack with the Angel because I don't want to trade it with the Recluse. Let's talk strategy here.

    vs 

Awkward!

My opponent is able to get in consistently for two damage a turn with the Rootwalla. I can trade my angel for it. But that feels wrong. I can start racing him and my Angel bites it to the Reculse, also feels wrong. Maybe I should have been trying to get in with my durdly dudes? But let's get back to the moment and what I was thinking at the time.

At this point in the match I saw two options. Option one is to continue getting plinked by the Rootwalla and hope to draw removal thus allowing my Angel to race, option two is to force the issue and attack, trading away stuff on the board. I've got 5 removal spells in my deck and have seen none so far, I elect to wait back and hope to draw into one.  No removal comes. And I am falling deeper into a hole. Life is suffering. Perhaps I should have stopped digging myself into the hole.

On a previous blog I discussed seeing the whole board. This situation is what I was talking about. I think I just miss options. I don't see some lines and perhaps there was a sweet avenue for me to follow. But I only saw the two options and elected to hope I would draw into removal. In the meantime ... 

Marshall pulls out the big guns, a Messenger Drake followed by a Jace's Mindseeker.

 

Balls to me, both of those cards are in my deck but I haven't seen them yet. I trade the angel for the Mindseeker. Some good news for me was that his Mindseeker whiffed. After the trade I ran a bluff (with a trick backup, so I guess not really a bluff) and came in with a Trained Condor picking up something like a Coral Merfolk. 

 

At this point I gotta hand it to Marshall. I knew Coral Merfolk was the target of my Condor's ability. But I'm pretty sure I didn't say it out loud. Poor communication on my part. Marshall immediately confirmed that the Merfolk was the target of the Condor. It was obvious but I didn't announce the trigger. He saw it coming the whole way and clarified the situation immediately. Straight class (Again it's hilarious because I heard him discuss this exact situation on the podcast and again I forgot all about it). However the attack wasn't that good for me. He blocked the Condor with his Messenger Drake and I went to Time Ebb the drake pre-damage

That's the moment in the prerelease when I learned Time Ebb was as sorcery. I at least caught it before I attempted to cast it. But still, now it just looked like an embarrassing attack. At this point in the match we both have some dudes out and I drop a Messenger Drake to match his. The score is something like 8-18. My position on the board is not horrible, but the hand is a different situation. I had a Time Ebb and a Cancel, while Marshall was rocking like 5 cards. I'm in a pretty hard situation. I can mess with him a little bit but all of my major creature bullets are gone. Basically I gotta hope to draw removal for the next few turns while he draws nothing but lands and doesn't have anything spicy in his hand. That is not a winning plan.

I do draw a Tidebinder Mage to take his Rootwalla out of commission. But then all I draw for the rest of the match is lands. I think I finished with like 9 lands in play. He was able to drop some more dudes and over the next few turns I was dead. GG.

~~~~~

All in all I really enjoyed the game, we both got lands and were able to play some magic. I made a couple tactical mistakes that I saw, and I bet Marshall saw a few more mistakes that I didn't see. My strategy of waiting around until I draw good cards did not work. It is a solid plan against players who play worse cards than you do but against someone with equal to better card selection you are reducing your chances to a toss up at best. I didn't like the line of trying to trade away creatures so I'm not really sure what I should have done.

If my plan is to draw removal then I should play like I'm going to do so. In this case sitting back with the Serra Angel is ok, but any of my dorks what would out class the Recluse should have attacked. If the Recluse trades then my Angel is good to go, if it doesn't then he's taking hits from my dudes and instead of me being 8-18, I'm keeping pace. Then a my Time Ebb and Cancel may have been able to push through a win.

I made some tactical mistakes and that didn't help me but overall it was the poor strategy that did me in. I just didn't know what to do about the Rootwalla and Recluse. Which is bad, because they are common and going to make any 23 of a green mage. But it was the prerelease. But they have both been around for a while.

Playing with Marshall was a blast and I hope to face off against him again. Thanks Marshall!

~~~~~

ps: Joke of the day came when the Recluse kept my team at bay for an eternity. The peanut gallery clearly thought I should have gone into race mode against the Rootwalla. Jokes were made about the life gain from the Recluse and how I was tossing the match, but Marshall took the prize when he remarked of the Recluse, "He's got his claw up". Hilarious!!

[1] all photos via google images

[2] ~" means paraphrase