i thought it would be good for awful players like myself to have a record of their own misplays as well as others, to learn from them and avoid them.

i played combo elves at the ptq yesterday. started out 4-0, then finished off the day by going 1-3 to finish without any prize at all. i played well for the most part, but made a few mistakes:

• i cast primal command to gain seven life and search while my opponent had everlasting torment. lesson learned: cards have text. read cards.
• round five, on the turn i could go off, i had [card]heritage druid[/card], [card]nettle sentinel[/card] and a bunch of other kids in play. i cast [card]ranger of eos[/card] for heritage and nettle, in case he killed heritage when he untapped (he was tapped out). i'm 75% sure that, if i had searched up two nettles, i could have played the regal force in my hand and won the game. lesson learned: do the math and think about the outcomes of your hand before casting your spells. it had been a long day and i just rushed through it. i was one or two short of casting regal force, he untapped, cast infest, and won easily.
  
• my opponent had glorious anthem and murderous redcap, which he swung into my ranger of eos and devoted druid. i blocked, and he obviously killed the druid. i was confused, before he pointed to his glorious anthem. lesson learned: redcap doesn't just do two damage, then one. think.
  
• on the draw game one of my last round, i kept a hand of [card]mosswort bridge[/card], five or six one-drops. my reasoning was that, worst-case, i could cast llanowar turn two, which isn't all that terrible, and after that i was probably fine. on turn two and three, he boomerang'd mosswort bridge. turn four, he destroyed it with fulminator mage. lesson learned: scout.
  
• i had a horrible headache later in the day, and seemingly, so did everyone else. this probably affected at least one of those misplays. lesson learned: bring tylenol.

post your worst misplays here!!!

This post has been edited by kingcobweb on Jun 21 2009, 04:45 PM

i don't mulligan enough. back when i was honing my game with the cymbrogi boys, we all agreed that we needed to mulligan more, with our rule of thumb being if you have to think about it, you should mulligan.

i can't think of any misplays off the top of my head, but i do like this thread

ooh okay, i remembered one

i have two [card]naya hushblade[/card]s and a random borderpost in play, and my opponent is on 5 with no cards in hand. he has a [card]jund sojourners[/card] and a [card]knight of the skyward eye[/card] on D, without enough mana to pump it. he also has a tapped [card]lightning reaver[/card] that will kill me in two turns. before combat i play a [card]bloodpyre elemental[/card], intending to take out one of the blockers, but then decide i should take out the reaver instead, and swing into his defenders... without sacrificing the elemental.

obviously he blocks and the jund sojourners kill the elemental before i can use it, and the reaver kills me on the following turn, because he topdecked a [card]resounding thunder[/card]. i'm pretty sure if i hadn't thrown away the elemental, the thunder wouldn't have saved him

e: now with card tags!

This post has been edited by blister on Jun 21 2009, 05:34 PM

a classic i did at new zealand nationals 2008, which caused me to lose the match to the eventual champ and ending up with a 5-1 draft record.

i had a [card]quillspike[/card] with [card]shield of the oversoul[/card] in play, and three [card]devoted druid[/card] in my deck. he has a [card]rise of the hobgoblins[/card] and a [card]fang skulkin[/card] amongst his guys. i [card]tower above[/card] my quillspike and swing in to clean out some of his guys, because it's looking like he'll soon be able to attack for the win.

he blocks and gives a bunch of guys first strike, and uses the skulkin to give somebody wither. i kill a bunch of guys and then at the end of turn, put my quillspike in the graveyard because of the -1/-1 counters...

note: i did not take the first strike wither damage, and then pump my quillspike before normal damage and tample over for even more, nor did i think of removing the counters after combat. i just let the indestructable quillspike die

Played Doran at the Atlanta PTQ last weekend. Two misplays in two matches were all it took to put me at 1-2 drop.

1. Had Chameleon Colossus and Wilt-Leaf Liege x2 out vs. B/W Tokens. Instead of playing Dauntless Escort, I play the third Wilt-Leaf. He Wraths, I'm blown out.

2. He's Jund Aggro, he casts Boggart Ram-Gang and swings. I Nameless Inversion it. "... You take seven?" Oh, my bad, Noble Hierarch has Exalted.

Given this is my first tournament in about 15 months, it's still inexcusably sloppy on both counts.

After Sam's fearless inventory article, one of the most important misplays I found myself making was improper shuffling when I was upset. One of the many functions of going on tilt, tended to make another game with awful draws. To avoid this, I standardized my shuffling routine to something simple, effective, and fast, and I use that in every game... casual or otherwise.

I've occasionally found that I misplay the same card more then once, and it just doesn't stick for some reason. To avoid this, I mentally rename the card. For example Blind with Anger became in my mind Blind a Non-Legend.

Most of my recent misplays usually come down to fatigue. Staying up to play online is fun, but it doesn't bring out my best play. Last night I cast Agony Warp on Nyxlathidthinggy, and failed to take into account I was losing a card to do it.

This post has been edited by zaphod on Jun 21 2009, 05:42 PM

i saw someone nameless inversion an incoming hill giant at a GP, only to have a [card]briarhorn[/card] turn his removal spell into 9 to the face

Considering I used to Invert my own [card]Phyrexian Ironfoot[/card] I should know better

This post has been edited by gaspoweredrobot on Jun 21 2009, 05:48 PM

Played at FNM last week.

I have 3 untapped lands, a Merrow Reejerey, a Stonybrook Banneret and Sower of Temptation in my hand vs. my opponents 2 Wizened Cenn and Goldmeadow Stalwart. I attack with the Banneret, he blocks with his Cenn, (his other creatures are tapped). I was going to cast my Sower and take Cenn so his other one would die, then realized that Sower cost 4 because my guy died. I won this game somehow.

The real misplay was playing merfolk though.

In the fifth or sixth round of the 5k, my opponent was playing Faeries. He had a Mistbind Clique, and I swung into it with my Stillmoon Cavalier. When he blocked, I pumped twice and gave my guy first strike.

Then I saw his Scion of Oona sitting next to his Mistbind and my Cavalier went straight to the graveyard.

Then I felt real bad about being named Jarvis.

One time I threw away a game with Top by putting back duplicate legends in the wrong order.

It turns out sometimes you do have to legend rule your own Keiga.

...but there's nothing more recent that I remember because I am garbage at this game.

edit: okay, so I replayed some games on MODO

OBVIOUSLY you keep, on the play:
Forest
Mountain
Kathari Bomber
Rhox Brute
Singe-Mind Ogre
Slave of Bolas
Giant Ambush Beetle

This post has been edited by Seeker on Jun 21 2009, 06:19 PM

I had a Type II Mind's Desire deck a while back. Against Goblins, I went off on turn 6, hitting big with a Desire that would likely make my Tendrils lethal. Before I cast Desire, I cast [CARD]Trade Secrets[/CARD]. My opponent repeats. He repeats again. He then Shocks me, and I die.

I failed to counterspell 2 spells in a row since they were only chump blockers. If I had thought about it enough I should have figured out that chump blockers were good enough. I would have still won if I had ever drawn a 6th land, but that is no accuse.

My opponent played Cruel Ultimatum then I looked at my UUUU untapped and discarded Cryptic Command and two other cards.

I think my favorite misplay ever was Psychatog in standard against a Patron Wizard deck. I played a spell, he tapped some Wizards and I paid for them. He played Counterspell and I played Counterspell. He played Force Spike and I... played Counterspell.

I have Sygg on the board and I attack with bloodbraid elf. Opponent activates mutavault and blocks. This leaves him with only two nonbasic lands so my post combat anathemancer only hits him for two and I can't draw a card that turn. Several turns later I lose the game with my answer to his colossus on top.

This post has been edited by Pterrus on Jun 21 2009, 07:00 PM

Well, I always make mistakes because I'm not a particularly careful player (though, to be fair, of my three match losses this weekend, two of those were blowouts I had no part in causing, and the third was a counter-intuitive misplay*). Though I was able to both block an Exalted Wren's Run Vanquisher with 3/3 in guys and then trade two over-large tokens with it, not realizing it had Deathtouch. I won that match, at least.

* sticking a Wrath under a Windswept Heath. What really happened was he had great draws, I never saw my removal, he had Garruk, etc. (I was playing BW Tokens, which was stupid).

Oh, but my biggest misplay ever - in another match I won, mind you - was when I went off playing Gro in Vintage and didn't win right away, because I forgot to Duress him after YawgWilling and walked into a Force, and had to use a Mystical Tutor and a Brainstorm to go get a counterspell to stop my plan from collapsing and ended up without the mana necessary to win. That got a chuckle from the assembled.

This post has been edited by Xyre on Jun 21 2009, 07:06 PM

Last night in draft I was seriously behind after we both mulled to 5 yet he curved out to Obelisk of Alara. I bounced the Obelisk at end of turn. I had an 0/1 to his 3 dudes, but had bone splinters and Brainbite in hand with only 4 mana. I drew a mountain but only had 1 black source. I thought about it and decided I could only win if I TD swamp off brainbite, to kill a dude with splinters and start stabilizing. I played mountain......

Shit.

I played brainbite, taking obelisk, leaving just a land.

I drew the swamp.

I scooped.

Top 4 of a PTQ, reanimator before rotation. Long time ago, my 2nd top 8 ever and I'm still quite bad. I can't remember the early game, but he was BGW jank. I had him down to low life totals but his unblockables were killing me, I was dead next turn and had no graveyard and a hand full of reanimation. I draw Buried Alive and put 3 guys in my bin, Spirit of the Night being one of them. I then slap an Animated dead on him and send it in. "hold up" says the opponent/judges/crowd. The enchantment falls off due to pro black. I despair, and being a little bewildered by the commotion I thought I had somehow used my attack phase already. I scooped while holding Exhume and the mana to cast it.

Top 8 of a PTQ with UG madness, playing against GW madness with Glory. I'm pushing through more damage than he is with his glory in the bin, but I still need a bit more gas. I manage to draw [card]Quiet Speculation[/card], getting a Moment's Peace, Roar, Roar. I cast a roar, then instead of leaving mana up for Peace, I cast another roar, as he's one short of killing me.

At end of turn he discards basking rootwalla.

everything in the past 3 days that did not involve the last side draft i played on sunday.

Finals of a PTQ. ALA sealed/draft. After having information about my opponents deck it becomes apparent that I really need to play one of my 3 stingers before he plays one of his 2 growing BR stingers. Despite this knowledge and preplanning I didn't play my stinger turn 3, and his pinger destroyed me.

Top 8 of a Mirrodin Block Constructed PTQ. I was playing Tooth against a U/W control deck. He beats me down "quickly" with a pair of [CARD]Pristine Angel[/CARD]s. At four life, I hardcast [CARD] Platinum Angel[/CARD]. He attacks me into the negatives, but doesn't have anything. I'm also able to get a Darksteel Colossus and an Oblivion Stone into play. "That won't do me much good," I say to the assembled audience. I decide not to attack with the Colossus, as he had multiple Solemn Simulacrums and play and I did't want to give him more chances to draw an Echoing Truth.

We draw go for a long time, him emphatically hitting the top of his deck. Eventually, I draw a Tooth and Nail: with four [CARD]Cloudpost[/CARD] in play, I am able to loop it multiple times with Witness and get an Abunas for the Angel, and win the turn after.

I go on to split for the invite, then not go to a pt that was a six hour drive away.

wait, so you cast yawgmoth's will, and he had a force and cast it on something you played using will?