Cambridge PTQ

[Daniel Royde]

I heard a wild chifley appeared and top 8ed....?

[Dan Barrett]

"Good for her for winning it, but it deffo should have gone to better players."

 

I'm not white-knighting, this is the point I most disagree with, regardless of how good she was - because it pushes into what I think is the dangerous territory of "only these X players should win a (UK) PTQ, no one else deserves to, why do they even bother coming to play when they're just getting in the way of more deserving players".

 

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to convince you that anyone who turns up to a Magic event and has the right combination of luck, skill, and running well to win fully deserves it though, so I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. 

 

Fair play on offering constructive criticism though. :)

[Jason Savage]

So does the magic some of they play!!!

Philip Dickinson said:

this thread sucks

[Gary Lynch]

 If someone is bad, then they are bad. How you go about letting them know that is what makes the difference.

 

If you just say people are terrible, then your not helping them and your not helping yourself. I remember Peter Dunn would always try and help people to get better. His theory was that if you help them to get better it will push you to get better too.

 

Couple of things though:

 

Magic is a game with a luck element. I know there are times when this hurts, but to be fair, dont like it? play chess.

 

The best player doesnt always win the PTQ,  if they did less skilled players wouldnt turn up, organisers would make less money and then stop running the events. Also while its good to play against a skilled player and win, sometimes its nice to play against people less good. It gives you a confidence boost.

 

I understand what Chifley is saying, if he is statiting a fact, dont get upset about it. On the flipslide, how you say it make the differnce. One way your a person stating their opinion, the other your a dick. I wasnt there so I cant comment.

 

Remember, being good at magic doesnt make you cool. I have noticed those players at events that think they are better than everyone else because they are better at magic. This is not the case, they are usually dicks.

 

Also Charlie, how much testing have you done with the affinity deck? Have you tried it with open the vaults? It could be sick tech that most people hadnt thought of.

 

[Paul Hodgson]

What Gary said :)

 

Not sure if OTV has a place in standard aggro affinity, as you run light on lands, and hitting 6 is going to be tricky.  A more controllish build could find a place for it I guess, but then you open yourself up to getting hit by anti dredge hate as well as anti artifact.

[Dan Barrett]

Also, I heard from one of the Oxford guys: "Windbrisk Heights in Tempered Steel just seems so obvious now!"

 

Maybe some of the card choices were wrong, but it certainly had some different ideas worth considering from the sound of things.

Paul Hodgson said:

What Gary said :)

 

Not sure if OTV has a place in standard aggro affinity, as you run light on lands, and hitting 6 is going to be tricky.  A more controllish build could find a place for it I guess, but then you open yourself up to getting hit by anti dredge hate as well as anti artifact.

[Paul Hodgson]

Heights seems fine, you're swarming with small mans so should be able to hit 3 attackers pretty reliably. Not sure what you'd want to cast from the hideaway though, as your curve tops out at 3. Possibly can use as an excuse to shave another land tho that would have to be a ETBT one rather than a basic.

Dan Barrett said:

Also, I heard from one of the Oxford guys: "Windbrisk Heights in Tempered Steel just seems so obvious now!"

 

Maybe some of the card choices were wrong, but it certainly had some different ideas worth considering from the sound of things.

Paul Hodgson said:

What Gary said :)

 

Not sure if OTV has a place in standard aggro affinity, as you run light on lands, and hitting 6 is going to be tricky.  A more controllish build could find a place for it I guess, but then you open yourself up to getting hit by anti dredge hate as well as anti artifact.

[Thom Richardson]

I'm sure it is hard playing in PTQs when you really want to win them, and you have the play skill to do so.  But i really don't buy the idea that better players deserve it more.  

To me its the same as when you've got an 80-20 matchup, you still have to play the games out.  You dont just look at the decks and say, well fearies clearly beats,  Homebrew RG Bear Umbra/Hellkite Charger Combo, so lets just mark down 2-0 and move on.

Even if it does win 95% of the time, you shouldn't complain about the times it doesn't, becuase that is just variance and thats just part of the game. If you play enough the variance will probably even out to be irrelevant in the long term (and even if it doesnt you can't fight it anyway).

Props for giving her constructive criticism afterwards though, its easy not to do that.

[Charlie Grover]

OK some points...

 

Im not bitter about not winning the PTQ. Im pretty sure I never said I was. I went 2-2 drop after running bad in rounds 3 and 4. Thats fine, I dropped and won a couple of cube team drafts then went out for dinner with Marco OJ, Dan G and Chifley involving brewing for next weekend. 

 

I know Open the Vaults isnt good because I am part of an online team which plays probably more than 100 games/day of magic (mostly not me) and we've tested it. Its ok post board against 4c, but really only ok. Her list was nice though. Im pretty sure I said that earlier, it was Chifley who disagreed..

 

@Phil I wouldnt be bothered. Doesnt stop you being pretty good. I dont play much anymore either, though im trying to get back in after not playing for 2 months.

 

I never complained about her winning. I just said she didnt deserve it. IF she was playing well in the top 8, then she might have deserved it, but she gave chifley a lot of chances to win she didnt need to. If James A won, I would have said he didnt deserve it. Not because he is bad; he is easily good enough to win a PTQ, but ask him. He played atrociously in the quarters, (pretty sure Matt said to him after: "get your game face on, that was shit" or similiar words) but Dan drew terribly and lost anyway despite playing pretty well (debatably made a mistake in game 3, but could defend his play to me and marco and would have lost either way). And I get what you mean Dan; the problem is that she just wasnt playing well. For example, I probably deserved to win the PTQ I won but just on playskill Barnett deserved it; he is quite a bit better than me (and almost all UK players infact) but I had made a deck choice that was better than his for the event. I dont think Carrie's deck choice was the best for the event; pretty sure Naya or me and Chifley's 4c naya deck was, but me, chifley, and the best naya player (Matt Light) all ran badly for a round or 2. 

And you all seem to miss out that I would never say any of this to her! I liked her. She was nice. I tried to help her. She even admitted to not being particularly good......

[Dan Barrett]

"I would never say any of this to her!"

 

I'm not sure that "I said it behind her back" is a great defense, particularly when it's posted on a public forum such as this one.

 

It's difficult, but I'd advise anyone not to avoid where possible saying things online they wouldn't say face-to-face - I know of people who've lost jobs or received uni/work reprimands for their online actions. Not a huge deal in this case, and pretty off-topic, but it's worth bearing in mind for future.

[Charlie Grover]

I know. I havent actually said anything bad about her btw. Being bad at magic isnt a sin. I was terrible for 3 years, didnt mean I didnt enjoy it (or very, very nearly win a PTQ). Pretty sure I wanted her to win once the top4 was around. Doesnt mean she earnt it or isnt bad.

[Philip Dickinson]

extra extra some magic players have questionable social skills, read all about it

 

also i only just realised who chifley cole is... he's that australian dude right? that guy owns, i can't be mad at him regardless of what he did or didn't say

 

also who was the girl who won the ptq? i have serious doubts about a girl even turning up to a ptq let alone winning one.

[Charlie Grover]

Some girl called Carrie. And given that all of you know who I am you all know that I have social skills...

 

I think Dan has a problem with me saying someone is bad at magic. She is. The reason Vs. failed and Magic didnt was because bad players can win; higher variance. She did well to win a PTQ, but she could have played much better and her mistake in game 3 should have been punished but wasnt.