Matthew Vienneau's Most Costly Mistakes Matt Vienneau During GP St. Louis I was in several money drafts that demonstrated some truly horrible play on my part and the part of my opponents. The weekend was topped off with an error by teammate Gary Krakower in the finals of a two-on-two money draft against Dave Williams and Bob Maher that cost us all the marbles. Of course, the fact that an earlier error on Dave's part was all that put us in the finals in the first place didn't make Gary feel any better. Despite what you might expect, I didn't make an issue of Gary's error as I've made more than my share of mistakes before, including the previous money draft against Dave and William Jensen where I just made atrocious play after atrocious play. Of course, Dave wasn't at his best either, giving the match right back to me on a misplay of his own. So as I sit here reviewing my error-prone Magic history and after several minutes, it occurs to me that I've lost a lot more than a $25 money draft due to playing mistakes. A LOT more. I mean, LOTS of money. Not quite "screwed up twice in the finals" David Mills-type money, but it's been costly. So for all you out there who have made mistakes and are castigating yourself over it (not "castrating"; if you're doing that over Magic then I hope you're enjoying the rubber walls in your room), I offer this self-incriminating list of my most expensive Magic mistakes ever. I hope you all feel better! I'll start with the cheapest and work my way up as a crude incentive to read to the bottom. Please forgive any historical errors as it's been a long time and I'm getting old and forgetful. 12) The Situation: PT LA 1999 COST = $0 with potential for more - TOTAL = $0 I'm playing Tsuyoshi Fujita in the first round of the PT with an absolutely horrible deck. I'm splashing two Swamps and a Diabolic Servitude, as it was the best card I managed to draft at this crazy multi-color table. Tsuyoshi is the one player at the table that I have a chance to defeat, as his deck is worse than mine is. He has an Anaconda that is beating me down but I suddenly draw a blocker and I'm going to win in a couple turns through the air. The Mistake: I lay a Swamp. The Kicker: I had absolutely no need to play the swamp. I hadn't seen the Servitude, I was in a dominant position, and I didn't need the land in play. I even had a different land in my hand (I wanted to hold just one back) but I figured if I was going to play either one of the lands, it might as well be my third color unless, of course, your opponent has a swampwalker. Tsuyoshi was very confused as I kept attempting to block his Anaconda, and he eventually had to point vigorously at the Swamp to make me understand. On The Plus Side: I ended up going 0-4 at the first table, so 1-3 still would have kept me out of the second day. And you don't know bad drafting until you've spent time at the 0-4 table - I've got some great stories! 11) The Situation: Toronto PTQ, 07/31/99 COST = $250; TOTAL = $250 In the semi-final match against Jason The, I continually complain about the excess number lands I've been drawing. We're running out of cards in our decks and Jason is hitting me for one a turn and I won't survive long. I'm trying to figure out a way to use Multani's Decree to remove his recurring enchantment and mine in order to even get a one turn fog so I can survive long enough to mill him to death. The other person in the finals has a weak deck so all I have to do is win this match and I'm qualified. The Mistake: Being incredibly stupid, it doesn't occur to me until the turn that he brings out a surprise extra point of damage to finish me off that I GAIN 4 LIFE from the Decree when I destroy two enchantments! So it would have been a 4-turn fog, not one. The Kicker: The reason I had so much land? I had sideboarded in 4 lands to splash an additional color, but I had FORGOTTEN TO SIDEBOARD 4 OUT! No wonder I was drawing so much land and able to run Jason out of cards so easily! On The Plus Side: I would later go 9-0 in a PTQ in Rochester to qualify and lift my ranking enough to get invitations to (hopefully) several other events. 10) The Situation: Kitchener PTQ, 11/14/1999 COST = $250 - TOTAL = $500 Another semi-final match, this time against John Hong. His deck seems sub-optimal but as I'm forcing him to discard Volcanic Winds with Spectre's Wail, I can hardly complain. Again, the other player in the finals does not expect to do well against me so all I have to do is win this match to qualify. The Mistake: First turn, I lay a land and choose not to play the 1CC creature in my hand, for no particular reason. I lay it second turn but miss out on a second turn attack. I say to the spectators "what are the odds that one point of attacking damage will make a difference?" The Kicker: It made a difference. On The Plus Side: Uh, I only lost 9 ranking points by going 5-2-1? I guess the good side is that I qualified anyway in PT Chicago, so I'm happy to see local Jeremy Elgar go to PT LA. 9) The Situation: PT Mainz 1998 COST = $400 (minimum) - TOTAL = $900 I'm sitting beside my roommate Matt Place in the first round of the Pro Tour. Matt took a first pick Rolling Thunder, and now I've opened the second pack and have to choose. My choices are between Pacifism and Legacy's Allure. The Mistake: I take the Pacifism. The Allure is UU and locks me into blue more than the Pacifism would lock me into white. But the real reason is that Gary Wise had mentioned earlier that week that Europeans didn't like playing white so I figured I'd take advantage of that and get good picks. Gary was wrong. The Kicker: The Allure goes EIGHTH to Matt Place who wins the whole darn Pro Tour! To make it even more disgusting, two other blue cards are picked over the Allure - a third pick Fylamarid BEFORE the fifth pick Wind Drake! A high quality red card was also left for Matt to pick up. As Matt picks up all the blue from two people to each side, I draft a decidedly mediocre deck and go 1-2, missing second day and a minimum $400 by being 65th! On The Plus Side: They changed the cutoff to the top 96 for every PT after that. Oh wait, that's not it. I guess the plus is that I wrote my first scathing tournament report for The Dojo that announced my arrival as a thorn in the side of WotC judges and tournament organizers. 8) The Situation: PT LA 1998 COST = $400 (minimum) - TOTAL = $1,300 Round two versus Miura Takahiro, I'm playing white/blue Staunch Defender control versus the Japanese mono-black deck that no one expected because it didn't seem to do all that well. My opponent gets an aggressive start with a Blood Pet and is beating me down for one a turn when he taps out to cast a Dauthi Marauder. I have a Counterspell and a Power Sink in hand. The Mistake: I Power Sink the Marauder for one mana. He sacrifices the Blood Pet and beats me down with a much more effective 3/1 shadow creature. The Kicker: I had FOUR UNTAPPED MANA. But I wanted to play efficiently so I didn't see the point in tapping all my land, what if he did something else and I needed to counter? Forgetting, of course, that there was nothing else he could do in an all-Tempest environment with his lands tapped! I end up in 87th place, at least one match out of the money. On The Plus Side: This mistake distracted me from thinking about how I desperately wished I had followed teammate Terry Borer's advice to include four Grindstones in the sideboard as I lost to them over and over throughout the 14 hour second day. Oh wait, that's just another mistake. 7) The Situation: PT Paris 1997 COST = $400 - TOTAL = $1,700 Having built nothing decent ourselves, all the other Canadian players went with a Paul McCabe/Terry Borer creation based on their estimation of the meta-game (fast black). We all went in with a R/G/W deck with four main-deck Scalebane's Elite, four Wall of Roots and four Rampant Growth (for the two plains in the deck to support eleven white cards). The Mistake: There was only 20 land in the deck. After round one we had seven mulligans among five players. Keeping a one forest, two Wall of Roots opening hand was suicide. I still ended up 74th, missing out on day two and $400 after losing to several much worse decks. The Kicker: We had the ProsBloom deck from Eric Taylor several months earlier but hadn't figured out that Infernal Contract would work well with it so our version wasn't winning against faster decks. On The Plus Side: We all got ourselves really neat team shirts for that Pro Tour with our names on the back and everything! 6) The Situation: PT Dallas 1997 COST = $400 - TOTAL = $2,100 It's the third round and I've already defeated the infamous Mark Chalice in round one with my own 3-color creation of R/G/B fatties. I'm paired against Worth Wollpert with his Necro deck that he's playing despite the fact that Hymn had been restricted and everyone knew Necro was no good anymore (!). I Earthquake (I said it was home-made!) for a draw in game one, and manage to win one of the other two. Worth offers to play a fourth game to decide who will win the match as we're both 1-1 and drawing now doesn't help either of us. He puts no pressure on me to decide either way. The Mistake: I take the offer and play again. Strangely, Necro played by one of the top Standard players of the time dominates my "Made in Canada" deck. The Kicker: The night before I was with Paul McCabe as he worked on an Ankh of Mishra deck. Deciding that his efforts were pointless I went to bed thus missing out on everyone's decision to go with the Necro deck that Paul won the Pro Tour with. Meanwhile Nathan Russell was trying to sell us on some crappy red deck with Orcish Artillery and Orcish Librarian (the early Sligh deck) but we all thought he was pulling our leg. On The Plus Side: I came in 76th, one spot ahead of Canadian rival Gary Wise who was using Paul's Necro deck! And, of course, Paul won, which was great news. 5) The Situation: PT Columbus 1996 COST = $1,500 - TOTAL = $3,600 I believe it's the final round (the rankings database is unclear) and I'm playing Chris Pikula, who seems pleasant enough. He's playing a format-defining "Inheritance" deck (!), where he can draw cards every time his creatures die. Despite this massive card advantage, my 'tech W/R/G Insect/Haups/Pillage/Pyroclasm/Outpost/Plow/Gargoyle/Thaw deck manages to hang on and I'm still at 26 life when Chris has only two cards left in his library and no effective way of attacking me. I decide it can't hurt to throw another creature into play, and I feel I should be doing something more than just watching him run out of cards, so I cast a Deadly Insect. The Mistake: I used a Brushland to do it. Chris is thinking about his play and I impatiently say "Come on, if you can't do 25 points of damage in two turns, you're not going to win. He replies "25 damage? I thought you were at 26?" I say "No, I just took a point from casting the Insect". Chris replies "Tap all my land, Lava Burst you for TWELVE". If his final card is a land, he can kill me on his last turn. Of course It's a land. I end up in 29th place instead of the top 16 costing me around $1,500. The Kicker: Alvaro Marques, who went 13-0 in the Swiss and ended up taking home $7,500 at the last tax free Pro Tour, had play-tested with me the night before and made key changes to his deck after I destroyed him game after game. On The Plus Side: Terry Borer and Paul McCabe played each other in the finals of the Junior PT using the same deck as me and another friend came in 5th. And I qualified for a second Pro Tour! And when Mario Robaina cost himself a spot on the 1997 US Nationals team by tapping a Brushland, I knew I was in good company with this particular mistake. 4) The Situation: Canadian Nationals 1996 (Winnipeg!) COST = $2,000 and much mental anguish - TOTAL = $5,600 The first day consisted of 12 round of Magic, four of which were based on a giant 32 person 4th Edition/Ice Age/Alliances draft table where I defeated players wielding Shivan Dragons, Zuran Orbs and Infinite Hourglasses - Splintering Wind is some good! I'm in the top 8, double elimination and we're allowed to use new decks. Knowing that three of the Western Canadian players are going with Necro, I design a deck two hours before the top 8 (after five hours of sleep - there were *12* rounds the day before) that will definitely beat Necro with four each of Lightning Bolts, Incinerates and Tactics. Despite this and a turn two Autumn Willow, I still lose to Terry Lau and his Necro deck. So facing elimination, I'm paired against Eric Tam, former champion and all around nice guy. Or so I thought. The Mistake: Trusting Eric Tam. I believe Eric was playing a W/G Winter Orb deck with Titania's Song, but he may have been splashing a third or fourth color (he does that). I'm trying to draw enough land to Earthquake him to death (or something like that) and I'm holding some burn. He casts Circle of Protection: Red. I ask him if I can Incinerate him in response. He responds "Yes, you can do it". So I do. And he activates the Circle that he is still casting, and prevents the damage. Welcome to 4th edition rules, where damage resolves at the end of the stack once everything has been resolved and the CoP can be activated after that during the damage prevention step. Yeah, Sixth Edition is really complex compared to that! So I waste an Incinerate and Eric proceeds to beat me down with an animated Fellwar Stone that should have burned. Granted, I'm an idiot for trusting him, but he had been nothing but helpful earlier by pointing out things such as my Zuran Orb when he cast Titania's Song and so on. And he had genuinely seemed like a decent sort in local Magic. The Kicker: The Canadian team goes on to win money and Eric makes top 8, an invitation to the Duelist Invitational and people everywhere know and love him. On The Plus Side: Eric who? He's MIA since 1997. Crime doesn't pay! 3) The Situation: PT Chicago 1999 COST = $1,810 - TOTAL = $7,410 Round 6 against Tony Dobson. Mogg Squad has generously provided me with the Tinker deck and I'm facing Necro-Pebbles and we're both 5-0. I believe Tony is in a dire position where needs to sacrifice his Academy Rector to get out of it and win the match. It's extremely close. I draw Phyrexian Furnace and the match is obviously mine to lose, as the Furnace will prevent the Rector from successfully activating so I will win. The Mistake: I don't know the interaction between Rector and Furnace, so I flippantly say "well, that's no good to me, I wonder what I can cycle into" and sacrifice the Furnace. The Kicker: I don't even realize the mistake until I read Tony's net report (that I can't currently find) many days later. On The Plus Side: I came in 32nd for the first time in a long time and got invited to PT LA, my favorite Pro Tour. 2) The Situation: PT Chicago 1999 *ONE ROUND LATER* COST = $1,840 (or much more, if I hadn't made the previous error) - TOTAL = $9,220 Round 7 against Lan D. Ho who just doesn't seem that threatening. He's playing an inferior (:p) Tinker deck and isn't even close to as lucky as I am when it comes to drawing Hurkyl's Recall, the key card in the mirror, despite him having multiples while I only have one. It's the third game, and Lan has me in a precarious position, except for the Hurkyl's Recall in my hand that's going to win me the game. I'm going to attack, Recall his stuff, and attack the next turn for the win with my two big fatties. I'm at 2 life, but Crumbling Sanctuary is in play. I draw, and it's the Blasted Landscape that no one else on the team thought was worth it. I figure I should play correctly and cycle it first in case I draw into an Arcane Denial. But my mana's a little tricky and I'll have to use a Grim Monolith to do it. But that's no problem as I can tap it and an island for 3U, cycle, and then cast the Recall. It's an impossible game to lose. The Mistake: I tap for four mana, and cycle. I don't want to make any mistakes so I study the board very carefully to make sure I can attack and nothing is going to interfere with my master plan. I declare my attack phase. I judge steps in and say "Didn't you have two mana in your mana pool?" The Kicker: Like you need a kicker after unintentionally mana-burning in the 7th round of a Pro Tour! It didn't help that teammate Gary Krakower was less than sympathetic when I surprised him with the news. Not that I could feel any worse than I already did! On The Plus Side: I came in 32nd for the first time in a long time and got invited to PT LA, my favorite Pro Tour. And now, the biggest mistake I ever made in Magic, if not the most expensive... 1) The Situation: Grand Prix Birmingham 10/17/98 and part of 10/18/98 COST = $1,000 in travel costs, who knows how much in prizes and in terms of personal devastation - priceless - TOTAL = $10,000+ After dominating a 22 person local PTQ and not losing a game with an Awakening deck that didn't have any Forests in it due to a deck registration error, I felt that TSE constructed was MY format. I believed it so much that I went to GP Austin (where teammate Gary Krakower took it all) and then GP Birmingham the following week. The Mistake(S): I didn't triple check for sheets listing my byes, so I didn't get any of my three round byes. Since then, no one else has ever been penalized for this. My opponent, Damien Guillemard, casts Lobotomy and I lose my four Tradewinds against the worst TSE deck I've ever seen (with Dauthi Ghouls!). I still win the game (somehow) but I forget to put them back in the deck for game two and earn myself a match loss under REL 5. Since then, Grand Prix are run at REL on day 1. I stuck around for the overnight delay between rounds 5 and 6 only to lose and still not make day two. Since then, every Grand Prix has completed day one on the first day. At least with the other mistakes I only lost "virtual money" in that it wasn't mine before I lost it. In this case the only reason I went to the Grand Prix was the three byes that I didn't end up receiving, making the entire trip a waste of money. The Kicker: I got fired the first day back from the Grand Prix for being away too often (among other things). No one at the office tells me just before lunch. On The Plus Side: I met some incredible people in London and Birmingham who I have kept in contact with and visited again in the subsequent trip to PT London (which was vast improvement). So there you have it. Next time YOU think you suck at Magic, or make colossal blunders, think back to this article and be relieved that you're not me! And for Dave Price and Gary Krakower, my teammates on Team Paradox - Don't worry, I'm much better now; we'll win it all in PT New York! Matthew Vienneau Mattv99@hotmail.com