Gabriel Nassif vs. Ari Lax Format: Modern Visit www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptrtr12/welcome for complete coverage of Pro Tour Return to Ravnica.
I find it amusing that Nassif recieved a second slow-play warning for taking a minute and a half to resolve his turn, and then immediately afterwards Ari takes 45 seconds to decide how he wants to accept the damage of the next turn.
They were suggesting Ari take the hit from inkmoth 10-11 minutes in, but they weren't taking into account that Gabriel could have tapped the drum to make another land into an artifact, making the inkmoth hit for 10.
I wish people would not come down so hard on nassif he is a great player with 9 pro tour top 8's and a hall of famer. He achieved this by taking his time and thinking through the best lines of play
I don't even think that Gabriel comes forth as a douche. I mean, he wasn't even playing so slow, I habe ALWAYS seen at least one slower player at every event. And the event's aren't as big as a Pro Tour, most of the time not even close to them. So I understand the "slow playing". The judge is an idiot.
To be fair, the guy who was head judge did become much better, politer and cleaner with the way he inforces the rules in the Dragon's Maze Pro Tour. I was actually really impressed with how he handled the situations that came up in the feature match area in that Pro Tour.
What an absolutely awful judge. He warns for slow-playing 1:40 after the start of Nassif's turn in the deciding game of a Pro Tour event. 1 minute and 40 seconds should not be considered too long to decide what to do on the the most important turn of the game.
The line of play was so easy, he waited an eternity to even play a land when was two copies of the same in hand. He deserves a warning and he deserve another warning and a game loss to even having the courage of criticize the judges. He slow play that’s it. You are tense? Wel guess what everybody are, your deck is difficult? (And it isnt!) wel guess what u practice at home before the tournament. Honestly he has been ridiculous here and same they people who defend him...
On Ari's second last turn in Game 3, the commentators were surprised by Ari's decision not to blow up Nassif's Blinkmoth Nexus before it had a chance to block. They should not have been surprised with this decision, because it wasn't necessarily wrong and possibly the strictly best one of his options. It seems that Ari was playing around a DISMEMBER, because this could have blown Ari out if he went all-in on the Vines of Vastwood. It seems reasonable for Ari to fear a Dismember, because Nassif's version of Affinity was mono blue, so Ari must have known about the possibility that Nassif would add Dismembers in his sideboard to replace the function of Galvanic Blasts (the more typical removal in an Affinity deck). Remember that these two players have not seen each other's decklist in this match so Nassif's sideboard must have been playing on Ari's mind.
It's completely justified when the judges say "You're playing slow, please keep the game moving" and he continues to whine about the judges hounding him instead of just making it better.
Nassif's pace of play is absolutely inexcusable. Regardless of the difficulty of the play decision at hand, no one should ever take that much time to deliberate and act. That's very frustrating and inconsiderate. He should've gotten a loss for that. He already was warned once. He was lucky the head judge was so nice.
I don't know. These types of things should have more thought, and not absolute rules that are always enforced, when sometimes, it's unruly. Like no player can playtest every single situation to know, what the correct play to do, in the allowed time you're given, but yeah, I guess I do see you're point. And even in those situation players can just "Wing it". But when they do guess and fail, because of it, it won't be because of the deprived amount of playtesting, it'll be because of the time.
man, despite how long nassif took to think, he missed a lot of edges. could have killed a glistener elf, could have had a +1+1 counter on his signal pest, etc
Well, that's irrelevant. The point is that rules can't objectively define which decks are more complex or judge the complexity of a situation. HJ also said that he won't upgrade the warning to a game loss because he believes that this won't affect the outcome of the match (since there were about 15min left and it was G3). A big part of being successful in magic is making decisions under pressure. That's why playtesting is so important.
Nassif was ABSOLUTELY reasonable in taking the amount of time he did in both instances; and if you're going to say that the rules can't account for deck/game state complexity to the point that you want to hurry a player during the single critical turn of a game with this high of stakes you're ignoring reality for the sake of rules pedantry.
If there is 60 minutes allocated for a match, should that not imply that each player has 30 minutes of priority? I'm all for split match timers such as those in chess. If a player takes more than his fair share of time, then it's his own darn fault.
I like Gabriel. Even tough he comes forth as a douche in this match, he did have huge pressure on him vs that deck AND vs Ari. But I personally think that Gabriel is a better deckbuilder than he is a player of the game.
Gabriel could win if he deal one more point of damage (following the next steps): Put the welding jar onto the battlefield, sacrifice it and put one +1/+1 counter on a Arcbound Ravager. Sacrifice the Steel Overseer and put another +1/+1 counter on a Arcbound Ravager. Tap a Arcbound Ravager with the Springleaf Drum and add one mana to activate the first ability of the Blinkmoth Nexus. Sacrifice the Blinkmoth Nexus for another +1/+1 counter, then sacrifice the Mox Opal and the Springleaf Drum.
With respect Dan Walker, I don't believe that you are correct. Gabriel could not have had lethal on his last turn in Game 3. The problem with your reasoning is that there was no Blinkmoth Nexus by Line 4 of your comment. It had died the turn before (and Gabriel had to lose it because if he didn't block Ari's Inkmoth Nexus with it, he would have died on the previous turn). The cards Gabriel drew with the Thoughtcast were Cranial Plating and Welding Jar, and he had no other cards in hand. So why do you say there is a Blinkmoth to sacrifice? (the land on the battlefield is a Darksteel Citadel, not Blinkmoth Nexus).
It's not that Gabriel Nassif is a bad player. He isn't playing a "complex" deck. It's just does as much damage output as infect. Really, his second turn took over 4 minutes. That's slow play, mostly for an all in aggro deck.
Then Sacrifice the tapped Arcbound Ravager put a +1/+1 counter on the untapped Arcbound Ravager and the respective counters from the Modular ability of the Arcbound Ravager (The Arcbound Ravager were a 8/8). And at the end have a 12/12 Arcbound Ravager. And leave Ari at 1 life!!!
The difference between a good player and a great player, how long they take to make a hard decision...not saying a Noob can just take ages and they be good, but at this level of play in an aggro matchup, time shouldnt be a problem.
I get what you mean. Out of the few times I've watched a video with Nassif playing, this is the second time the slow play warning has come up (other time playing Storm); every time he complains about it. Just comes off as bad sportsmanship. I understand he's probably way better at MTG than I am. I even recall LSV at one point saying Nassif is one of the top 8 players he doesn't want to face in a top 8. But he chose to play that deck. There's a difference between playing a deck that just takes a lot of time to go through its motions (like Eggs or Storm), and sitting there thinking about what you're going to do forever. I don't even mind the slow play, I just get annoyed when he whines about it.
PiroMunkie All extremely valid points, Yes he chose to play the deck, But the math of some of the board states is incredibly complicated because potential cards he can draw and potential cards his opponent can draw, Playing methodically and analytically in an aggro mirror shouldn't be punished.
The commentary has evolve by a lot... Rashad and Zac has absolutely no clue about what they're talking about. Saying that there was a lethal attack at 39:00 when he had just drawn the Vine of Vastwood only that Vines gives +4/+4 only when it's kicked. Not to mention when they were stunned on the very first attack by Ari Lax where he didn't pump the Glistener Elf with Pendelhaven at 1:13 (obviously) because the right play was to play Blighted Agent.
That's an unjustified measure. Decks that take reasonably more thought will take more time for any individual. Even if one person happens to think faster than another.
Sergey Barbashin he thought of all options if lax had a dismember or a nature claim... And remember, Nassif is a poker player so he try to read his opponent if it’s possible... Is it unfair ? No for me, it’s just the game.
10:39 gabriel tu prends clairement beaucoup trop de temps pour faire une seule action (genre piocher 2 et tu mets 1:32 secondes) Certes tu réfléchis, mais même si ce n’est pas volontaire c’est du slowplay
all you had to do was tap a creature with spring leaf drum and made a blink /ink a creature and it would have been 10 infect dmg.... announcers dident see it
I can understand that Affinity and Infect are fact deck when given the right combination, but when you realize the pairing matchup - even in present time - it is not as easy to pilot. Not to mention that these judges are getting paid to do this shit, so they need to stop with rushing battles.
Steve Stamopz He's correct, this dude fucking plays slow because "of the pressure" it's a magic trading card game, grow the hell up. It isn't hard the dude's a bitch.
gregrocks1223 affinity to pilot well might be the most skill intensive deck in the format. It's not a matter of just turning things side ways there is a lot of math involved
Playing so slow, criticizes judges, missleading the game by not unequip the plating on the land, nassif, what a guy.... if u being such a cry baby at least play clean and good
