Winning unwinnable matches

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Baskil

Guest
Ok, I know this is a little out of place on a casual play board, but since a lot of you are of the 'casual competitive' set, I decided to start this discussion here.

How do *you* handle an unwinnable matchup? What tactics, if there are any, do you employ when you're facing down the deck that beat you down senseless in testing?

Example: Playing Three-Deuce, how do you win when your opponent is using Back to Basics?

or

You are playing a new version of Green Speed. Nothing hard, just cast spells and turn sideways. What do you do to win against 4 boarded Perish w/ Vampiric Tutor backup?

I'm writing a column now about it (for ccgprime), and I wanted to hear what tactics other people use.
 
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Rando

Guest
Always think that you are going to win even if retarded monkeys can tell otherwise.

Beliving that the game is still yours, or was yours in the first place, is one of the most important things to keep in the back of your mind for every game.
 
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Darsh

Guest
Think strategically, take your second example for instance, only put out 1 or 2 creatures instead of as many as possible make him waste a Perish to kill just one of your creatures and as soon as he kills one craeture bring out another one, it will most likely frustrate your opponent.(serves them right for playing color-hosers:))
 
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Landkiller

Guest
as is my bad habit, I wrote a really long reply, that, in everyone's interest I will put in another thread. Titled, "Ten Tips for Tournaments"
 
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Apollo

Guest
I say a couple Hail Mary's, sacrifice a goat or two, give my opponent the "Mana Screw Cut," push a couple of pins into a voodoo doll shaped like my opponent. If all else fails, I Incinerate his library and land a bird dropping on his head.

No, really, I just try to stay positive. I never forget that I have a chance. I virtually never concede, just on the off-chance that something weird will happen.

I won a game in a tournament a few weeks back, where I needed to get a Replenish to resolve in a Pandeburst deck in order to win. I had the Replenish and an Intuition in my hand. My opponent was playing control with a Forbid, Counterspell, Dissipate, and Mana Leak in his hand along with another card I didn't know. I thought about conceding, but figured I might as well continue. I drew a Force of Will, and cast my Replenish. He casted Forbid, and accidentally paid the buyback with the Counter and Dissipate. I Forced the Forbid, and he reached for the Counter, swore, and scooped up his cards.:)

Yesterday, I was playing a friend with Secret Force. I had a great hand, with Natural Order, some Elves, land (including Cradle), and Wall of Roots. He double Hymned me (type 1) on the second turn, and I dumped my hand with an Elf, Wall, and Cradle in play. This was after he Ritualed out the Hyppie first turn. It looked bad, until I topdecked two straight Natural Orders (for a total of three in the first 10 cards). He was not happy.
 
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dw51688

Guest
OW! How do you win a match if its unwinnable? If it is already unwinnable then you can’t win it. Unwinnable means that it can’t be won. If it can’t be won, then winning is the antithesis and so it can’t be possible. Winning an unwinnable match is impossible right? If unwinnable is negative and win is positive, then the outcome is negative, or unwinnable right? Or is it… I AM CONFUSED! :confused: :(
 

Killer Joe

New member
When I'm in a good mood:
I start to babble senseless utterances, like: "I love chicken pot pie, do you?"
When I feel like I've been 'had' by a shiester:
I start asking for their hand size ever yother turn or so and I start fumbling through my graveyard and stack those cards into neat and highly visible piles. It's annoying. Also, if it's game two and I knoe for a fact I'm going to lose to a schmuck, I pile shuffle several times.
 
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Hawaiian mage

Guest
If the game is unwinnable, abandon all hopes of winning and just try to annoy your opponent by surviveing.

Sometimes they concede. :)
 
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Gizmo

Guest
1. No match is unwinnable, you always have a teeny chance of getting past.

2. Know what you need to do to win. Then make sure you get it. You need to god-draw their shaky start, so don`t be afraid to Paris a hand that would otherwise be 'ok'.
ie. I`m playing RDW against Magpie, and I know my only chance is to get a Goblin Cadet/Patrol down first turn before he can Chill me away from the board. I Parissed away a perfectly good hand in each of the three games in order to see a Goblin. I beat Replenish by Parissing into a hand with a Goblin, a Port, and a Pillage - I knew I needed the LD to help me out.

3. Spend ages on deciding how to sideboard against them. For instance I was scared of the Magpie match, above, because it was hard and I knew I would have to face it a lot. So what was my SB - Scald? Boil? No, it was Mogg Salvage. Correctly sideboarding to exploit a weakness your opponent doesn`t know he has, or doesn`t expect you to be targetting, can give you an edge. Secret SB tech is awesome, and it`s just a shame I wasn`t able to use my greatest anti-Chill card (no longer in the basic set) - Primordial Ooze.

4. Know when to walk away. Some matches are just too hard - you spend so much of your deck and SB trying to win them that you wreck your chances of winning other matches. Just walk away and accept the loss, then try to make up that defeat by not losing any other matches.
 
V

Volradon

Guest
Originally posted by Gizmo
you spend so much of your deck and SB trying to win them that you wreck your chances of winning other matches.
what do u mean i spend my deck? Expalin this one plese? :)
 
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Darsh

Guest
He doesn't mean you specifically Volradon, he means people in general.
 
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Apollo

Guest
What he means is that you can put so much hate in against one particular deck that you wreck your deck against various other decks. An example would be to put in so much hate against Magpie (main deck REB, Scalds, etc.) that your deck does much worse against, say, BlastoGeddon.
 
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Gizmo

Guest
Yeah, you might decide, if you are scared of Masticores in the Trinity match, to run 4 Pillage. But how much does that weaken the deck in other matches?
 
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Thrash Golem

Guest
how would you win if you were playing a mono color deck with no artifacts, you cast mana severance, and then the other guy had a grindstone?
 
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Apollo

Guest
Disenchant it when he doesn't have enough mana open to use it?
 
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Multani

Guest
For 1. :You sideboard Disenchants, or splash blue counters. Also, a 3-colored deck will have some basic lands.

For 2. :Ouch. Well, splashing blue counters is always an option. As an alterative, splash Light of Day, or use Lifeforces.

The Light of Day is just to annoy them. Nothing more annoying than having a horde of creatures, but unable to attack because of some stupid white, unkillable enchantment. :D
 
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Baskil

Guest
Actually, I have yet to see a Three-deuce with basic land in it. From what I can tell, they can't afford not to run duals in that deck.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I'd have to agree with Apollo's and Gizmo words as they were the most articulate. You never know a match in "unwinnable" and should always try to play it out to see if you can pull it out.
 
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Ristik

Guest
I always make it seem like I can win, because my decks always have qualities that allow them to win where the conventional version of the deck would fail. For example, I almost won a game using Counter-Phoenix in the Rath/Urza's t2 environment with all my Phoenixes and Forbids gone from Lobotomy. My opponent was confused for about 7 turns when I didn't concede, then I dropped Faerie Conclave 3 turns in a row and beat. For me, there is no unwinnable game because I won't EVER concede unless somebody somehow strips all the lands from my deck and I have nothing in play, and sometimes not even then.
 
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