EPTI forgot how much fun I had playing MTG until I was bored at my gf's house and her brother had the XBOX Live version of MTG Duels of the Planeswalkers on there. Shortly after I got it on Steam for my own computer and played it tons, which inspired me to get back into playing it with the paper cards again.
There's a local gaming shop, Millenium Games, here in Rochester NY that has a bunch of regular MTG events. My gf's brother Rob goes there all the time and recommended I check it out. I was a little nervous since I hadn't played much live since getting back into it and there's many new mechanics I still wasn't too familiar with, but I went.
Booster Draft Event
For $15 you can play in their Friday Night Magic (FNM) booster draft event. I misunderstood how the draft worked and made a dumb mistake - I opened up two packs: took one from each and passed one to the left and the other to the right. Then I found out I was only supposed to open one pack - wait for it to finish, then open the second. Whoops... ah well, people there were really friendly and helped me out with my noob questions.
I built a pretty basic RG aggro deck there full of minotaurs and monstrosity creatures. I ended up winning 2 of 4 rounds, earning myself 2 booster packs (as well as all the cards from when I built my deck - though nothing really special other than Bow of Nylea which I want for a green deck I'm building).
I'm definitely going to these events every chance I can get!
Standard Tournament
Just yesterday (Monday), I went to my first standard tournament there. I had net-decked some Red Deck Wins (RDW) decks and swapped around a couple cards I didn't have yet (like Boros Reckoner and Chandra's Phoenix).
The format for the standard tournament is pretty simple: you play 4 rounds, and you only get a prize if you win 3 of them. I lost my first two rounds with only 1 game that was even close, and then my 3rd round opponent didn't want to play because she was 0-2 and "why play if I can't get a prize". I just wanted more experience playing against more decks damnit! My friend Rob also got knocked out 0-2 early on and conceded the remainder of his games. I asked him for a casual game, but he was so dispirited from his losses against aggro decks that he didn't want to play. I regretfully left early - wanting to play more MTG.
I posted a breakdown of the games in the MTGO thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=155049¤tpage=506#10116
Basically, first round was against a slower paced mono-red deck, with much more expensive cards than my budget RDW. He pulled out Purphorous, Storm Dragon, Boros Reckoner, and Muta Vault, for instance. Once he had Boros and Storm Dragon out the game was pretty much over - I had no way of dealing with them really. The second game I subbed in some Seismic Stomp and Act of Treasons, but never even drew the Act of Treasons. I also didn't get the opportunity to play Seismic Stomp. Nonetheless, it was a much closer game, where I had him down to 4 life at the end. I feel like I made one critical mistake early on when I had board control and 5 creatures around turn 4-5. I just kept rushing out more and more creatures, and he cleared the board with Anger of the Gods. That was the turning point. Then he Chained to Rocks my Ash Zealot and Fanatic of Mogis when they came out. GG...
Second round was against a mono-blue devotion Nightveil Spector and Master of Waves deck. Neither game was even close. I made a foolish mistake completely misreading the board in game 1, not understanding how many elementals he really had out nor what their power/toughness were. I attacked with three creatures expecting a good trade or do some hefty damage - instead I lost all my creatures for nothing. I asked him after the game for constructive feedback on how to deal with his deck as red, and he advised I splash white for Chained to Rocks, or use Anger of Gods to board clear when things get out of hand.
Making MTG Friends
Though I've been going to these events, and been very friendly, good mannered and sociable with the people I've played, I still only have one MTG friend really. Sometimes I stop in the store and sit at a table messing around with my cards and decks with a seat open across from me - no one has sat and asked for a game yet though. I just see groups of 2-6 people at the same table playing, trading, and chatting with each other and feel uncomfortable going up to them and being like "hey I'm new to scene and want to find more people to play MTG with, care for a game"?. I know it's silly and nothing I should worry about, I should just do it.
How would you recommend making new MTG friends? Anyone else just started to get back into MTG recently?
