Losing to a bad draw

[arhar]

I don't know about you, but I just hate when it happens. You have drafted a very good deck, and you're playing againt an equally good deck. You are playing flawlessly, but so does your opponent, no one is manascrewed / mana flooded, but your opponent beats you senseless without too much effort. Why? Because he draws all his bombs, and you don't. He topdecks that Terminate right after you drop the Crosis. Or he just draws all of his best creatures while you draw only your dorks. Or you're playing Constructed, say Fires versus Fires.. While he is busy dropping a Saproling Burst after a Blastoderm, you play a second Llanowar Elf staring at the Fires in play and two in hand.. In conclusion, I wish you to avoid that happening to you

 

[Chaos Turtle]

And hope for the best!

 

[Gizmo]

Basically you`ll win as many as you lose because of this - it`s just part of the game. It`s also what Paris Mulligans are for.

 

[Sammy Dead-O]

Originally posted by arhar
In conclusion, I wish you to avoid that happening to you

Thank you.

Gizmo speaks the truth; we hardly ever think about it when we get the good hand and our opponent gets screwed.

I'm often amused by the great care that we all put into building decks and refining our play...and then we start each game by shuffling 60 cards and drawing 7 of them. I guess it's supposed to keep us all humble...

 

[Hetemti]

I played against Goku for a few hours yesterday.
One of the most common phrases heard is "this hand sucks, but I'll keep it anyway."

For him it's because he takes forever to shuffle, attempting to ensure perfect randomization until I get so old the AARP starts sending me freebies.

For me it's cause no matter how much I shuffle, I'll get two colors of land, two good utility weenies of the absent color, and two bombs of the colors I have...and I won't get that last land I need to cast them until I'm dead.


Such is the nature of the game. It means he can actually win a game with that Blasted-Ernie-Geddon deck that has NO geddons. I tried one myself, but I've only two Geddons.

 

[Spiderman]

you gotta love the game where BOTH of you are drawing your best cards and foiling each other's strategy...

"I'll Wrath..."
"I'll put out <this creature>"
"I'll 'Geddon..."
"I'll put out this land I was saving..."

 

[cbearsbro]

Originally posted by Spiderman
you gotta love the game where BOTH of you are drawing your best cards and foiling each other's strategy...

"I'll Wrath..."
"I'll put out <this creature>"
"I'll 'Geddon..."
"I'll put out this land I was saving..."

Had a few of those games. It was great! Matter or attrition and who had the last counter or creature. Lifes down to the wire.

But overall seems it's either me or the opponent that has all the good/bad hands alternately. Either I have all creatures no land or vice versa. Or they do Weird game, but ya gotta love it. Skill is a learned talent, but luck be a fickle creature

 

[Gizmo]

All too often tournament reports should read like this:

Round 5 : Jose Punteros, U/B Discard
Game One : I got screwed.
Game Two: He got screwed.
Game Three: We played Magic.

 

[Zadok001]

"All too often tournament reports should read like this:"

Are you sure you meant "should" in that sentance? I would think that's about the worst type of report, having written them myself. Mana screw sucks, without question - Here's a solution that I've been practicing:

SHUFFLE LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW!

I do a mana weave before every round, then pile shuffle four times (5-7-5 is my favorite pattern), then riffle four times, then pile four times. Between games I pile twice, riffle four times, and pile twice again. Mana screw still happens, but a well randomized deck is a great assistant.

 

[Istanbul]

In my experience, the best thing to do is pocket shuffle...for those who don't know, here's how that's done.

Deal yourself out cards in this pattern.....

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Repeat the process until you run out of cards. Scoop up the piles, and shuffle a bit more, and the amount of times you get screwed should decrease.

 

[Spiderman]

This is sort of drifting off-topic and someone started a thread in Voting Issues a while back about this, but I firmly believe in riffle-shuffling as much as seven times. Riffle-shuffle your "played" cards and then with your library.

 

[Istanbul]

Oh, and one more thing. If you draw, and you only have one land?

NEVER EVER EVER KEEP THAT HAND.

I did that once in a match for first place in my Burn deck, in which nothing costs more than three mana to play...on turn 18 (I kept track), I hit my second land. By then, it was hopeless.

 

[Killer Joe]

you're with Land Grant .

 

[xreemer]

Doesn't it seem like no matter what game you play, whether it's Magic, chess, Risk, or you name whatever else, you can never play with pure skill? There's always a factor of luck even in the most complex games. You're lucky when your opponent doesn't see a good move, when you start with a good position, when you get the first move, and so on.