With life as our brief subject, let me give you a brief breakdown. After I left the game store I was working for I was looking for a new job. Within a week, I had a job offer. I accepted it, and showed up promptly for my first day of orientation. The same day another job offer with substantially more money was offered to me. So, now I was torn. I had Job A which I had already started, and now Job B which was offering me more money. I ended up telling Job A that I had another offer with more money on the table.
I show up for Job B, filled out my paperwork and I am pumped to start. It turns out though.... years ago, I had applied for Job B back in Indiana. Similarly to my job offer with Job A, I had accepted it, and then found a better job offer that was more money and closer to home. As a result they had put me in as "non-rehireable". The final outcome here was me not having either Job A or Job B.
The lesson to be had here is that you take what is given to you and you are grateful for it. You can't accept a job offer, start it, and then just leave it for something else despite however many job applications you have out.
Fortunately, I was offered another job Friday which I promptly accepted, and start on Monday. I was upfront that the job was something to help me stabilize until I figured out what path I was on, but I was committed to it and welcomed any career growth opportunity they had to offer, but I also wanted to keep my options open for higher paying careers.
So at least a job was landed. But now, I still have until Monday to find a new home for myself and my friend, and her dog. I have scouted out some options but it being Labor Day weekend, no one really wanted to make an appointment with me.
Moving on.
Magic Talk. Our Happy Time. The past two weeks have overall been fairly successful. Since my last entry, I have played in 8 tournaments. I've only missed Top 8 in one of them, so overall, I am doing fairly well. My winnings from playing Magic is now up to $155. So, I have a lot of catching up to do in order to hit my average for the first month. If I don't I am confident I'll make up for it next month, but I still have a week to go, and tomorrow is a cash tournament at The Game Academy which is also a GPT for Orlando.
Currently for the state of Indiana, I am ranked number 2. This is just a momentary glory seeing as there was both an Invitational in Jersey and a WMCQ in Indy, both of which offer multipliers and I will most certainly drop in ranking. Fortunately, I have an opportunity to catch up with a x3 Multiplier tomorrow at the GPT.
I'm still playing Mono Black. During the IQ yesterday, I actually decided to mainboard 2 Duress. This was a metagame call, and overall, it paid off fairly well. The additional look at my opponent's hand was not only helpful, but almost all the decks that I played against had plenty of non-creature, non-land cards I could pick from.
My match-ups went as followed:
Rd 1: 2-0 vs RW Burn
I wasn't expecting to see this deck at the event, but I was fortunate. After game 1, I didn't have a lot of obvious cards in my sideboard to put in. I took out most the removal spells, and put in my extra Duress, and Erebos, God of the Dead for Warleader's Helix. Then I put Pharika's Cure and Devour Flesh to replace the Hero's Downfalls. I figured, if I'm going to have removal spells in my deck without a choice, I'd rather have removal spells where I can deal 2 damage to my own Nightveil Specter in response to his Lightning Strikes, or Devour Flesh for my own Desecration Demon so I can try to throw off his sequencing. It ended up paying off with the help of Gray-Merchant and Pack Rat.
Rd 2: 2-1 vs Rabble Red
Rabble Red is scary deck for me to play against because if it explodes early, I'm just dead. In game 1, my opponent stumbled sitting on a Mutavault and Mountain as I Nightveiled into his third land for the whole game. In Game 2, I stumbled missing my land drop on turn 3, which would put me way behind. Fortunately Game 3, I think my opponent had a hard time making the best decisions which ultimately cost him the game. Such as, "When do I Bloodrush Rubblebelt Maaka for damage, or when do I use it to ensure my creature's survival and kill the one blocking it." People definitely underestimate amount of thought it takes.
Rd 3: 1-2 vs Slivers
I played against a new take on Slivers, and I legitimately didn't know how to respond. In Game 1, I managed to plow through with Lifebane Zombies. But in Games 2 and 3, I probably didn't play my removal spells correctly. Being unfamiliar with the slivers, I had a hard time picking what was going to be the most imperative for the match.
Rd 4: 2-1 vs Rabble Red
Similarly to Rd 2, I felt like a big underdog here. Losing Game 1, I thought it was an inevitable loss. But I muscled through Game 2, and my opponent rushed through a sequence in Game 3 where he thought he had a guaranteed victory, which technically he did, but because he didn't think twice before acting, he misplayed. He had me down to 1 life with a Mutavault on his side of the table, and I had a Desecration Demon and a Mutavault on mine. He played Goblin Rabblemaster, and as when he went to Combat, he sacrifices the token to tap Desecration Demon down rather than the Rabblemaster. In turn, he wasn't able to attack with Rabblemaster because of Summoning Sickness. So I activated Mutavault and traded with him. Had he sacrificed the Rabblemaster instead, the 1 damage from the token would have been lethal. But instead, I had a removal spell next turn to handle Rabblemaster and take the game back.
Rd 5: Draw in to Top 8
Tomorrow at the GPT, I expect to see a lot more Rabble Red and Jund decks. While I think Rabble Red is super strong, I feel like it also runs of gas quickly if you have answers for it.
In my Mono Black deck, my list currently consists of
1 Ultimate Price
1 Doom Blade
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Bile Blight
I'm considering adding 2 more Bile Blights to my main board, and 2 Pharika's Cure to my sideboard. I think winning Game 1 against Rabble Red is much more important than winning Game 1 against Jund Walkers or Monsters, and I think I have a better shot at winning Game 1 against Jund based on explosiveness if anything, whereas Rabble Red can blow me out by turn 3 or 4, so having guaranteed trump cards to slow it down are more important to me.
We'll see tomorrow. That's it for today though!
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