Simon Says #61: Merry Christmas (2013 Holiday Cube Swiss)

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Simon Goertzen

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  2. WOW! What ann awesome set of games! I especially like the final game against monored. And the 2nd game in round 3. Its rare to see so many sweet plays from both sides of the table even in cube drafts. Happy new year!

  3. As always grate content! :)

    I think after finally realizing hat Earthquake is an out to win Game 2 in Round 3, you should have not played the Bounce land because of your opponents strip mine (while having other lands in hand). With only playing your normal lands you would still have enough mana to use it without connecting with a creature.
    In this situation it is also pretty bad to put the Hymn on top of your library. If your only life draw is the Snapcaster replacing ANY card with a non-Snapcaster draw for sure doesn’t help you. If you hit Snapcaster with the FoF it doesn’t matter because you just simple snag the pile with the Snapcaster, because you don’t need any other cards (mana sources are nice because of the potential strip mine, but other than that it simple doesn’t matter).

  4. Great games as always Simon, unfortunately your final opponent’s deck was on another level in terms of brokenness. It seemed to me like you got a bit demoralized in the final match however due to the strong power cards in your opponent’s deck and perhaps conceded the “mental” game. The misplays the poster above noted definitely stood out to me as very unlike your normally flawless level of technical play. It is an unfortunate fact of the powered Cube that some people simply open more power than others, and you whiffed on all 3 packs. Once again, great content and commentary!

  5. Regarding Match 3 Game 2. You had the sphinx out and your opponent copied it. I don’t understand why you attacked into your opponent. Essentially, your sphinx holds back his entire team and you can just wait for him to get milled out. He can’t attack you with sphinx for fear of being attacked back. You were very worried about him possibly drawing the crucible but I don’t see why it should matter to you at that point.
    You also missed a bunch of points of damage with the inferno titan. I know you were trying to protect it from the shackles but your opponent had 4 islands in play and your creature has 6 power. What can he realistically do to get 2 islands down in one turn? You know he doesn’t have time walk and he’s not playing green so how is he playing multiple islands in the same turn?
    I could see leaving one red mana open but I believe you had 3 red sources open. If you had hit your opponent for 9 instead of 7 with the titan, you could have won with the snapcaster earthquake play instead of settling for a draw.

    I realize it is not easy to play optimally while commentating. Especially when the game is long and the boards are complicated.

  7. Simon, I really enjoyed these games, and I know that the Holiday Cube is more about fun than trying to be competitive, but I noticed that your play in these games lacked some of the caution and deliberateness that I have come to admire from you. There was a lot of “Why not?” and “Who needs X?” and “He might counter it, but oh well,” from you. That said, the only match you lost was to a deck that was ridiculously, almost implausibly overpowered, so who am I to judge?