Well it's 7 in my time zone, so it's not that bad for me. It was actually quite difficult to find suitable time. It had to be somewhere between 2 and 6am GMT.

Hi guys. I'm sorry, but I won't be able to stream the match after all. I can't get FFSplit to capture the MTGO window, and on top of that, I'm losing like 50% of frames when I start doing something. I invite you to either join the match as spectators on MTGO or watch Caley's stream. I will however at least try to make a recording of my match without directly streaming it. If it goes smoothly, I'll upload it to my stream channel afterwards.

I had a similar problem with XSplit (the non-capture of the MTGO window). I got it fixed by playing around with the general settings like not disabling the Aero theme and/or enabling optimized rendering or some such.

Don't know if FFSplit is anything like that though.

I eventually got it to see MTGO, but I can't do anything about losing frames. I'm using a laptop, so I guess the issue is kinda low spec hardware. Although, I'm running on i3 and 4 gigs of RAM with a dedicated GPU. I thought that should be enough.

Despite Deckbuilder's MASSIVE mistake of not mulliganing his hand in that final game (because 4 land, a bronze sable, a combat trick and a shock is totally playable lol) the amount of luck you had in that final game was ridiculous lol.

I'm not sure what you could have possibly had to consider mulling to 5 though. Only 1 land or something?

Good matches though. From what I saw there's not much to mention that would significantly change the game. Game 2 you played that absolutely correct (don't play the aggro against a deck like that, play control lol).

I would have liked to seen how you sideboarded though. Honestly that was a match that I think Phalanx Leader should have been immediately sided out of your deck after game 1 and seeing how fast of a deck you were playing, and especially after game 2 after you saw Spark Jolt being played (he sided out a Divine Verdict for that Spark Jolt XD). Phalanx Leader is good, but in our deck he's slow.

Either way you managed to win despite mulling to 4. Good job.

First hand: nolander
Second: 1 land, 3drop and more expensive stuff
Third: nolander
Fourth: 3 lands, SGR

First game, I got wrecked, there wasn't anything I could do about his Hammer and an unblockable 4/3.

Game two, there was a moment when I attacked with both the Giant and Emissary and he blocked my Giant with the 3/2. I wasn't expecting that block, and when I saw it, I really thought he wanted me to tap out for monstrosity and that his next move would be to swing with Pegasus and the Philosopher next turn and add Dauntless Onslaught for lethal. Otherwise that block didn't make sense to me. I had Griptide so I was really thinking whether I should swallow the pill and keep my fingers crossed, or if I should trade, keep the griptide up and lose an entire turn in case he didn't have the Onslaught. I made a ballsy call there and it paid off.

I didn't really sideboard much. I swapped Akroan Crusader for Ray after getting wrecked by that Hammer in game one, but in when I thought of it after game 2, I considered it a hasty decision affected by my immediate feeling of being crushed, so I swapped it for our instance of Spark Jolt.

I was sooooo sure we're losing game three. I mean, mulling to four felt almost like hitting the concede button. I'm gonna watch the replay on Caley's stream. I'm curious about his commentary.

Additional comment to sideboarding: Neither of the boarded cards ever had shown in my hand.

Caley criticized Deckbuilder's sideboarding and mulling decisions mostly.

I think you were sorta overthinking the choice to monsterous in that second game. Sure, he may of had a card that would allow him to swing for game on the next turn, but if he had those cards you were losing that game regardless. I mean are you really going to come back from a situation where he wipes your board with a Dauntless Assault?

You have to play with victory in mind and exclude possibilities of if he has X card you are going to lose regardless of what you do.

That being said. He used his pump spells VERY inefficiently. Sure, he's an aggro deck, but I think in general when going up against a mid range deck you need to use them as mid range creature removal cards and not early burn spells.

Supersun: "but if he had those cards you were losing that game regardless" - that's exactly what I figured.

I talked with DeckBuilder after the match, and I told him exactly the same thing about pump spells. He said he needed those scries, but I still think he didn't need that desperately to waste them on an attack that isn't gonna affect the board.

Pretty much what I said on the stream. You don't need the scry's that badly when your opponent mulls to 4 lol.

Either way, he essentially tossed that game himself from just flat out not mulling that hand. You can't start with 4 land in your hand in a deck as aggroy as that. Sure, he flooded from there, but he would have won that game if he even had even 1 more non land card from the beginning of the game, and mulling would have almost certainly netted him way better hand than 1 creature and 4 land lol.

I would've spark jolted the face turn 3 or 4, which would've made a lot more sense than using the dauntless onslaught, since that combat trick is a lot better, especially since god's willing can't protect from colorless - which ironically makes the bronze sable better in some situations. The god's willing pretty much kept him from scrying and maybe not flooding out so badly.

I just rewatched the replay. Good lord, I had no idea it took me so long in between plays. That was excruciating to watch. The reason why it took me so long was that I was trying to record the match, so I was talking aloud about stuff that went through my head without really thinking about people who were watching and obviously couldn't hear me. Unfortunately, the recording turned out no good, but at least next time, I'll play at a little bit faster pace.

And yeah. Watching the replay later actually made me second guess some of my decisions. Primarily, the keep in game one. That hand was sketchy and I should have mulled it.

What hand did you have game 1?

It may have been a fairly bad hand, but it may still have been better to keep it and run it. From my experience solitaring the deck you should only really mul if you have an unplayable amount of land. Our mana base is already on the verge of not working and mulling to 6 will make it a lot harder to make key drops.

I had 2 Mountains, Satyr Rambler, Leonin Snarecatcher, Phalanx Leader, Ill-Tempered Cyclops and Triton Tactics. I think it was bad. I should have mulliganed because the odds of getting 3 lands or at least one of both Moutains and Plains were pretty good.

I couldn't help but wonder about some of DeckBuilder's decisions when I watched the game from his perspective. In fact, in game 1, I would have sacrificed lands into the Hammer without hesitation. He was so much ahead on the race due to the Helm that I think it would have been safe to just rush into it. And some of his blocks against me were pretty questionable too.

Yeah, I think so too. I think he could've won the second game if he played it a bit better, too. Basically he was almost always winning the races, but then got scared and blocked your things although he didn't need to.

I guess that's what happens if you play against someone with an unknown deck :)

Yeah, on the other hand, I was in a position where I pretty much couldn't play it differently. Especially in the last game. I just went with the flow. And I must admit that DeckBuilder had especially bad luck in that game, considering that he had 5 lethal combat tricks in the deck that he could draw. His odds were pretty damn high.

Oh, and by the way, I didn't know we (pilots) were allowed to consult our plays and decisions with our team during the match like DeckBuilder did. I'll ask Caley how exactly that works and what are the limitations.

Well usually it goes through the stream chat on the stream you didn't stream :P

Since we obviously would need to see your hand to make choices. And if we do that, we're not allowed to watch Caley's stream at the same time.

So basically if we have the same information as you do, we can write on the stream chat what you'd rather play (or through other means of communication like voice chat).

I see. Well, not being able to see the game state makes it a bit sketchy, but we can consult mulliganing and sideboarding options at least. Let me know if any of you would like to have a Skype conference next time. I don't think I want to consult you guys excessively during the game, because first, that would lead to even longer pauses between plays and I don't want to become infamous for that, and second, if we did that, my piloting would not be exactly "my" piloting any longer, and that is a personal experience I don't wish to let go (sorry guys).

No problem :)

I think it worked out quite well in my games last DDD. Basically I talked to the stream and they answered or made suggestions through the chat. I still would make my own decisions but sometimes people see things that you don't, so that's helpful.

Also, not gonna happen for me if you play at 6am in the morning :P

Yeah I guess, this is a bit of a problem for us. I think most of our opponents will be from around the States which will make it quite difficult for me to play at any reasonable time. Supersun was watching the stream last time, though, so at least there was someone up and ready.

Hmm, I would have kept that hand in your situation Game 1.

Game 2 or 3 after I know I'm playing against an aggro deck though I mulligan that without question (though Phalanx Leader would have been in my board after game 1. He's good, but in our deck he's more of a turn 5-6 play and that's WAY too slow against aggro)

If I get some time I'll create another "On the Play" deck without a Phalanx Leader that you can use for reference if you need it (I suspect the mana base should change considerably).

Regardless, good job getting that first win, Absinthman!

All those Absinth-empered Cyclomans, Trabsinthman Tactics, Purphrabsinths Emmimans, and Absinthman God's Revenge are doing work!

Our next round has been tentatively scheduled for Thursday 7pm PST.

Is it possible to delete all of the pick updates? They're making the page quite large.