The Phoenix player I’m referring to is a Black Gold regular, and I do think he deserved to make it. The problem is that this fact makes the mistakes he made much more frustrating to watch because we’ve taught him better than that. Particularly missing damage, overextending, and forgetting how his cards work.
It’s the teacher feeling of pride and crippling frustration: “Yes! He learned my lesson and is succeeding! NO, he didn’t learn it well enough and should be doing so much better!”