Bad Deck Wins (Great Gameplay Lessons at the Bottom of this Post)

Well I wanted to try a deck based around the tap/untap shenanigans of power of fire and presense of gond. The deck ended up being a total train wreck and for future reference power of fire=amazing, devoted druid=amazing, presense of gond=not amazing.

Here's the list

5 Mountain
1 Power of Fire
1 Consign to Dream
1 Merrow Grimeblotter
1 Burn Trail
2 Silkbind Faerie
1 Mossbridge Troll
2 Presence of Gond
1 Leech Bonder
4 Island
2 Devoted Druid
1 Plains
1 Morselhoarder
2 Crabapple Cohort
6 Forest
1 Pili-Pala
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Puncture Bolt
2 Scuzzback Scrapper
1 Scrapbasket
1 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Safewright Quest
1 Roughshod Mentor

Sideboard
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Inescapable Brute
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Forest
1 Lockjaw Snapper
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Safehold Duo
1 Loamdragger Giant
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Blazethorn Scarecrow
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Safehold Elite
1 Strip Bare
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Gloomwidow's Feast
1 Deepchannel Mentor
1 Gravelgill Duo
2 Crimson Wisps
1 Revelsong Horn
1 Briarberry Cohort

Match 1: I don't remember this match very well, i think i'm mentally blocking it. I was paired against a 1566 rating and we both had horrible decks and made multiple play mistakes. I do remember he had blowfly infestation and that it kept wiping out both sides of the board as I put -1/-1 counters on his creatures via wither. I managed to eek out ahead. (P.S. I do recall wanting to concede at one point but I stuck it out and got 2 lucky topdecks, don't give up if ur behind)

Match 2: This was one of the most odd matches i've played in my life. My opponent is around 1730 playing a U/some other stuff (I think black and red) deck with plenty of card drawing including flow of ideas but no bombs
Game 1: My opponent seems distracted and makes multiple play mistakes walking into combat 2-for-1's even when the I have no relevent cards in hand (although leech bonder does make math tricky). A game he should have won easily turns into a fierce battle where he outdraws me nearly 2 to 1 but continues to screw up combat. Finally he starts focusing and finishes me off after a 25 minute battle.
Game 2: I open with a hand containing only an island and green and red card. I somehow draw into a forest and plains and druid myself into a turn 3 marauder. He stabalizes and we have a nice chat about eventide previews and the state of magic, he is a really nice guy but easily distracted. I pull off more leech bonder tricks and he draws more cards. I lack the mountain for power of fire and the game goes back and forth as I try to draw the pivitol red mana source. Unfortunately for him, my opponent makes the novice mistake of only thinking about life totals as a way to win. When he drops an elsewhere flask he is shocked to lose by drawing from an empty library, guess that blue card drawing isn't so great after all.
Game 3: As I said my opponent hasn't been paying attention to alternate win conditions, I on the other hand have been closely watching the clock and after 2 long games my opponent starts with only 48 seconds left. I feel bad for him but he is a big man and admits that he wasted too much time before he concedes (admitting a mistake is the first step to fixing it)

Match 3: My opponent is around 1660 playing G/R
Game 1: I open a hand of 2 forest, plains, mountain, island, devoted druid and power of fire. I keep figuring this deck needs some luck to win and I really have to pull of the power of fire combo. I have amazing luck and I topdeck marauders into crabapple cohort into leech bonder+power of fire. He concedes on my 5th turn.
Game 2: I open with devoted druid into turn 3 crabapple cohort. He concedes and I WIN THE DRAFT!



I learned a lot from playing with this deck so without further ado...

Lesson 1: Never give up, if you have even the slightest chance to win go for it, sometimes you just get lucky

Lesson 2: PAY ATTENTION! If you get overconfident and walk into your opponents traps you can turn an easy victory into a rout. Also paying attention to the game state includes cards in hand, cards in library, card in graveyard, time of the clock. You need to take everything into account not just what's on the board. As you get better you should even take into account what you can expect in your opponent's hand based on cards in the block, card you've seen in their deck and cards you passed in the draft, as well as their behavior on previous turns. How does your opponent tap mana? Did you pass a powerful combat trick in their colors? It's a skill I'm still working on and one that no one ever really masters but it can't hurt to try
O, and on the matter of the clock, you should never lose on time. I almost always notice other people playing slower than me and I have one major suggestion, use the hotkeys. If you don't know what the F2-8 hotkeys do check out the begining of the article at this link. Actually you might want to check out Momir too, its a fun format that Hatter and I love to play (or at least I love to play it and I've played Hatter before)

Lesson 3: Don't let your emotions get to you. This goes along with lesson 1 because the biggest mistake people make is getting frustrated and conceding early. My opponent had no reason to conced in Match 3 Game 2 and in fact my hand was void of usful cards after the cohort so he might have won.

Lesson 4: Go for solid decks not flashy decks. Even though this deck won it was pure luck. I would have been much better off with a deck that had a solid curve and aggresive drops instead of some zany easy to disrupt combos. Of course this deck was a unique situation because I just wanted to try out a specific style of deck whether it was good or not but in general consistent>powerful


Well I hope that helps you guys.
-Squest, signing off