Frustrated only in Losing (Part 1 of 2)

Several years ago, my wife and I went on a weekend jaunt to another city to get away for the weekend.  While strolling through a desperate looking mall, we discovered something… there was a Magic PTQ event going on that day.  My wife, knowing me, told me to go inside and explore while she would go through the rest of mall looking at the things she’d want to, without a bored husband standing nearby.  Sounds like the perfect plan to me.

The event of the day was Extended which I did not know well, nor did I bring any Magic cards with me.  But I did watch a few games, met one of the Magic artists and ran into someone who is from my local area.

Physical Magic in my area is sparse.  One can be from this town, but be 50 miles away.  I had seen him at Pre-releases and some store shops but beyond that, did not know him.  Likewise, he recognized me and said it was refreshing to see a familiar face.

From what I understand, he has a reputation of being a pretty good player.  I asked him how he was doing, and he said he was getting clobbered.  I looked at his deck.  Didn’t recognize the theme of his deck, which I expected.  I didn’t see anything which screamed “threat” but at the same time, I didn’t see any dead cards.

I watched him play his next match, and I didn’t see him make any big mistakes, but I also didn’t see anything where one play would change the course of a game.  Decent play, but nothing spectacular.  Then it hit me…  I realized what was going on.  What was it and how does it affect us bot owners?  You’ll just have to wait until next time.