Generally I would say Thopters would be fav just because of the consistency. The problem I see here is that Hakeem is gonna get behind manawise and body wise if he goes for esperzoa/vial. T3 zoa after vial vs Clutch + 2drop is pretty brutal. You get to chose wether you recast Zoa for a single body vs 3/4 bodies on the other side or just forget the Zoa and hope you have a rogue/PianKiran. If you redrop the Zoa you risk getting attacked for 12 or something close next turn. Lucky for Hakeem Peeps is only running 2 clutch.

If peeps doesn't get manascrewed I'll put him favourite, because Hakeem has way less practice playing vs Jeskai tokens than the other way around. And it's a deck that has very explosive turns.

Well being boring is a separate issue. Your first point is not a very good argument , I would disagree with him on quite a few card picks as well but this sort of thing can be quite subjective, nevertheless despite my disagreements I still acknowledge his skills overall - something I cannot do about the players that have played so far ( except perhaps Mackey ). I know hakeem is quite good too so I'm looking forward to that , although it did seem he was out of form after the holidays.



Whats a friendly scrimmage without some banter ? I haven't seen any lines being crossed.

Legend is very good. I noticed a while ago a tournament report he did on an excellent showing he had at a GP. There have certainly been some questionable plays, but outside of Owen Turtenwald, humans tend to make those from time to time, especially when subject to unfamiliar public scrutiny.

Hakeem, thank you very much for organizing this. It's been awesome to watch so far, and I think it will be tremendously instructive.

Edit: And with no disrespect intended towards Hakeem's deck or playing strength, I think Jeskai Tokens is advantaged in that match-up. It goes over the top with its combo element, and Lantern Scout is a trump if it ends up in a race.

If anyone watched our match up apologies for that messed up game 3, there was some sort of lag going on and I'm guessing it was from my side...havent had it happen like that before while playing duels. If anyone is dreading having to sit through some games with me I don't actually play at the speed of smell

Can we get a bit more warning on live games, like 'we are starting in fifteen minutes on :twitch/...' I keep missing the live matches, and it's making me sadface.

Longer warning is even betterer.

When is Hakeem's game? Today starts my attempt to get back into the swing of things at the gym and I'm already looking for reasons to put it off

We agreed to play around 10pm EST tonight so my video should be live on YT a few hours later. I don't know if PeepySqueeps is planning to stream his side of the match or not.

First of all, thanks for the compliment. Not gonna lie, it's always nice to be appreciated.

But to live up to the reputation of being humble, I make plenty misplays or forget a lot of things. Nice example of me not realizing something, is at the end of my match against Beast. I have all these elementals and, although I know it, at that moment I do not realize that the Outburst is simply gonna kill him. Off course he was hesitating because he did realize that. When he did play it, I even sacced an elemental to do 3 damage, while obviously it wasn't necessary.

I just wanna point out that everyone makes mistakes and misplays. Even better, eventually it's what gonna decide who wins this tournament. All decks are well tested because you aren't gonna bring a test deck to a tourney. So ok, there are some decks that are better build and have an advantage or you get a bad matchup, but there aren't any bad decks around. They already proved themselfs to the player who brings them to the table. So most of the time the matches will be decided by who will make the biggest mistake first. Does that make them terrible players? Off course not! Because we all know the feeling of slapping ourselves in the face for doing something stupid. So the question is not:"Will I make a mistake?" Because sooner or later, especially in a tournament with some stress, you will make a mistake. The question is: " Who will make the critical mistake first?" The results so far show this to be true. On paper I would never have won that game. And I'm sure that Megabeast is a better and more concentrated player than me. But he made the mistake with Nissa and that's what I think cost him the game. Beast, if you read this, I hope you take no offence of me saying this. Just my opinion. ;-)

And frankly I don't think that players on Steam are more resistant to that, than on Xbone. What is possible, is that there are perhaps even better players there because the user base is bigger. But I'm pretty sure none of us would be eaten alive. ;-)

So that's just my opinion. If I offended someone, sorry for that, I didn't mean to.

I do agree with you about Legend though, I think he's good and I builded my sultai deck after I saw a video of him. I also agree with Babassoonist in the fact that he's absolutely boring. I cannot watch his vids when I'm sleepy. Actually, I agree with many people here... I guess I'm just an easy going guy!

Every content creator is going to appeal to different segments of viewers. I don't think anyone out there is objectively bad, but everyone is subjectively bad. That's something you just have to be able to handle if you're going to put yourself out there.

That's actually very well said. And it took less words to say it. Once again I agree.

My match will begin in short order. I will restart and rename my stream on Twitch.

The game will begin at 12Pm EST sharp.

http://www.twitch.tv/infamousgemini/profile

Make sure to link the VOD directly after the match so I can add it to the main page. Good luck!

Made a account just to say I've been watching all the vids good work to everyone in the tourney and special thanks to Gemini on the being able to witness your spectacular plays.

Gemini won 2-1

Play testing helps, good job gemini. Out of curiosity who did covert pick to win our game hakeem? I assume he picked you. Like I said when I built the tokens deck it's hard to lose when you have perfect mana but when you don't it's so hard to win. I still believe the matchup is in his favor. One thing I realized is zoa isn't that great in the games I tested. I hope me and hakeem can bring calculated play to the table.

I'd like to ask a question in a constructive manner without being misconstrued as offensive. Let me just say I come from a poker back ground, so I get the whole taking your time on every decision to genuinely give it thought and not to give away any timing tells. I'm watching the Gemini vs from his perspective and I there are moments where different plays can be made depending on his strategy, but when the decision is 100% obvious why take such an abundance of time to make it? I've never played/watched any competitive magic tournaments, is this common?

Very diverse it's all about knowing what your options are and what your opponent could have to change your game plan. Small things like taking time or casual talk can get inside of an opponents head. Magic also can have mind games

Simple. Because I'm playing for $$$

It's not about being oblivious all the time and greedy. Jumping at the first opportunity you get to play that flashy card. It's about temperament. Accounting for the most likely line of play based on the last few plays. Foreseeing your route to victory and making plays to ensure that you continue on that route until you have a good reason to pick a different road. Game 1 I knew Ravaging Blaze was how I would win. I remember counting lands and scion mana over and over each and every turn, while forcing through attacks to put my opponent in striking range. Also, the instant speed clause on Blaze makes it so that I can break my opponents spirit...it was an emotional attack rather than trolling. I also wanted to see him Nissa's Renewal. He decked me but I still won. That can throw him off for games 2 and 3. Game 2 I likely made a misplay by cracking my fetch too early and when I did I didn't grab a 2nd G to Moss > Moss > Greenwarden > Moss. I missed a land drop and lost. Game 3...as soon as a saw both Angelic Edict and Planar Outburst I knew I couldn't lose. I knew exactly what they were for and I wanted MAXIMUM value out of them.

Enjoying the games, and learning tricks...nice!