Analyzing a loss
I want to go through a game I played recently because I think it highlights some interesting things about Solforge and how we as players react to losses. First a brief summary.
The Deck
A pretty straightforward NT Visage deck. A good core of high quality creatures focusing on mobility and resilience. Three Infernal Visage to put the pressure on and a smattering of removal spells for use when appropriate. It feels like a solid deck that I should be able to 3-1 with.
Rank 1
Opponent leads with a Gemhide Basher which is a peculiar first turn play. It's possible that they just had a really awkard hand. I ignore it, playing two creatures in the side lanes to set up my Visage plays. Opponent plays Seal of Deepwood on the Basher and Anatomizes both of the creatures. At this point I start to feel pretty good about the game. My opponent has leveled three cards that aren't very scary and I'm about to have a nice lead on board. I decide to get aggressive, opting to play a Rimehorn Charger to eat the Gemhide Basher instead of playing a card that levels for the late game. I'm playing Visage so it's good to be as aggressive as possible, making it easier to dictate side lane play. Things go pretty normally for the rest of the rank and here's what it looked like going into rank 2.
Opponent's leveled cards: Gemhide Basher, Anatomize, Anatomize, Seal of Deepwood, Battletech Inventor, Spiritsteel Infiltrator, Flowsteel Carrier, Batterbot
My leveled cards: Zombie Titan, Zombie Infantry, Rimehorn Charger, Infernal Visage, Scourge Hydra, Arc Wurm, Nargath Bruiser, Kadrasian Stoneback
Opp Life: 79 My life: 94
Rank 2
Here's where things start to go south. We both miss on level 2 cards to start out. My opponent had hit Flowsteel Carrier onto a Batterbot at the end of rank 1 so I spend an Ashurian Brawler to clean that up. On the second turn I miss again but my opponent Seals a level 1 creature. It's not a big threat but it's kind of annoying because I don't have a good way to answer it in this hand and I'm starting to lose momentum. Next turn I finally hit my level 2's but have to use them to win back the board rather than put on pressure. Turn 2.4 is very nice and let's me play Scourge Hydra 2 into Visage 2, giving me a 15/15 in one side lane and a 14/13 in the other. I had to take some damage to make it happen but I still have a lead in the life totals so I'm feeling pretty good going into rank 3.
Opponent's level 3 cards: Seal of Deepwood, Anatomize, Flowsteel Carrier, Spiritsteel Infiltrator, Gemhide Basher
My level 3 cards: Arc Wurm, Zombie Infantry, Infernal Visage, Scourge Hydra
Opp life: 39 My life: 60
Rank 3
My opponent bricks to start off rank 3, chump blocking the big Scourge Hydra and Dendrifying my other pumped creature. I have Visage 3 which makes the Scourge Hydra huge and turns the left-over tree into a threat again. Recovering well, my opponent hits the Hydra with a level 3 Anatomize leaving it with just 5 attack. The treefolk gets blocked by a level 3 Spiritsteel Infiltrator, which survives with 4 health. I have a mediocre hand that can answer the Infiltrator but not put any real pressure on.
It's here that I should have paused for a moment to think about how I could lose this game. Looking at my opponent's leveled cards, there isn't anything really scary there. Anything except Spiritsteel Infiltrator + Seal of Deepwood, which is really scary. My opponent has basically one way to win this game and it involves a two card combo that will be very hard to set up when they are at 16 life and have to block basically anything that I play.
My hand is Dirge Banshee (level 2), Patron of Tarsus, Corpulent Shambler, Catacomb Spider and Burnout (all level 1). I ended up playing the Patron of Tarsus in front of the Spiritsteel thinking that it didn't matter much what I played as long as I cleared it and it would be nice to have a level 2 Patron. What I should have been thinking was, "Holy crap, I can't let them Seal that Spiritsteel" and used the burn spell to get rid of it immediately. Hindsight is for Monday morning quarterbacks, or something like that. By now you've figured out that of course they had the Seal and of course it killed me.
It can be really hard to get over games that you “should’ve won” and our first reaction is to blame the losses on bad luck. Yeah, I drew bad in rank 2. Yeah, my opponent got just the right cards in just the right order and I probably would've won with more average draws. But even with all the disadvantages, if there was something I could've done differently that would've led to a win, then that loss is on me. If I Burnout the Spiritsteel instead of blocking, I probably win. But I didn't and hopefully I learned something. So next time you're getting salty after a loss (and boy was I salty), try to first go back and look for other lines of play before blaming level screw, or some other random element of the game. You can't change the shuffler but you can change your plays.