Okay so before I jump into this time around, we have made some changes to the deck. I will not be sharing those changes until after the GP. Gotta keep some secrets ladies and gents. Overall though the changes are minor and only act to shore up some minor inconsistencies that the deck exibited over the weekend. I played extrememly well but definitely feel that I can continue to improve. I still kept some weak hands and got incredibly lucky with my opponent also stalling out. I need to remember that a good 6 is better than a mediocre 7. If I take anything away from this tournament it is that.
Okay so we went 6-0-2 on the day. I dropped from the tournament and split prizes with Nick Harry once we were set to play each other in the finals. The reason I did this is simple, I don't play legacy and would not be able to prepare in time for the Invitational. Nick meanwhile, can smash face and I wish him well. So we split some cash and the better part of a box of Dark Ascension.
The deck is just so incredibly resilient now with all those undying guys and the swords just give the deck so much reach. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the deck performed against Spirits, Pod Decks and Wolf Run Ramp decks. It even did extremely well against Solar Flare. The only major deck that I didn't get a chance to play was Zombies, but I feel in my testing that this isn't a horrible match for us either.
I will be playing this deck at the GP and i feel pretty good about it. I'm sure I'll have a more comprehensive update after the event.
As an aside, I had one guy tell me that his Pod deck just should never lose to Werewolves. I asked him if he had tested against it. He said it wasn't on his radar and it shouldn't be. I replied that I had just 2-0ed him so clearly it was something to consider. His reply to me was that if we played 10 games he would win 7 out of 10. Remember kids actual wins mean more than theroretical wins.
Showing posts with label tournaments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tournaments. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Making the Jump
Good morning kiddies! Today I'd like to talk about something that is very near and dear to my heart because i'm currently trying to accomplish the feat, and that is making the jump from small local tournaments to large national "semi-pro or even pro" level events.
If you're like me, you've spent most of your time at local FNM's grinding away and winning packs, or not winning packs for that matter. The biggest tournament you've probably ever been to is more than likely a large regional pre-release. Not a lot of pressure there. Recently, and if you read this blog you know, I attended the Star City Games Open in Washington D.C. This was a huge jump for me in a lot of ways and I'll detail why.
1) At local FNM's you will find good players, but more often than not 90% of the field is going to be made up of new players or casual players. You find a lot of rogue decks at these events, a lot of decks that really don't do anything, and occasionally you'll find some Tier 1 and Tier 1.5 decks to play against. For example at my shop (Collector's Corner, Harford Rd. in beautiful Parkville, MD...end shameless plug) often we find maybe 3 or 4 really good players. Everyone else is a mish mash of casual and new. At these events it's not uncommon for me to Top 8 and typically Top 4. I don't feel i get the even spread of players that I will see at a big event. This SEVERELY impacted me at the Open because a large majority of the field are really good players all playing competitive Magic. This brings me to my second point...
2) Playtesting! It is absolutely imperative that you playtest regularly. Have all the top decks sleeved up and play games and figure out what you're going to come up against. I luckily have a group that I playtest with (TEAM BIG SEXY in DA HOUSE) and although we get together fairly regularly, I don't feel we do enough playtesting and I certainly was not prepared for the Open. I feel this will get better as we move along, but if you're not playtesting you're not ready. Even if you don't have all the cards (although playing with a team gives you access to a rather large card pool) proxy out the top decks, even play sideboard games. It's important to know the ins and outs of every deck you anticipate seeing.
3) TILT. This is something I really harp on and especially recently because of the type of player I am. I'm a passionate player and I HATE to lose, just like i'm sure everyone else. However traditionally I'm a little more vocal about it. I have recently begun curbing this in an effort to become a better player. Getting upset at misplays, the game itself, etc is a good way to continue playing bad for the rest of the tournament. It's important to keep a level head and understand the lessons that you can learn from every game you play. It doesn't matter if you lose or win, there is information to be garnered from the time spent playing that game and you need to mentally document it and save it for future match ups. Playing Caw Blade is perfect example of this. In playtesting before the tourney, i expected aggro to be very heavy (Vampires, Boros, K Red, etc) and so I thought Arc Trail a better burn spell to have in the deck. It turns out Lightning Bolt and instant speed is the way to go to keep them from equipping their Hawks. Had we done a better job of playtesting we may have discovered this. As it stands I garnered that from my first match and sideboarded accordingly. The point is, don't get upset and don't go on tilt. If you do you are going to make play mistakes and you are more than likely going to lose. We must all keep level heads when playing the game.
4) Reading Articles and Understanding the National Meta. This is huge. I have my premium subscription to Star City Games. I read the mothership. I read the forums. It's so important to do this. It's important to understand what is currently dominating and looking at the future as well. Who would have expected Red Deck Wins to win the Open in Edison? No one! But by reading the tells in the meta, we can sometimes sneak one in. Magic is constantly evolving and we need to evolve too. We can't just sit on a deck for months and be lazy with deck building. We should constantly be trying to improve ourselves and we should want to take advantage of shifts in the game. It's how tournaments are won. Listen we all net deck, but good players should be able to make changes on the fly to account for these shifts. It's so important.
I hope you learned something from this, or maybe you hated it. Feel free to send me feedback or just shoot the breeze at kierandraven@gmail.com or on Twitter @draven_corvinus. Till next time!
If you're like me, you've spent most of your time at local FNM's grinding away and winning packs, or not winning packs for that matter. The biggest tournament you've probably ever been to is more than likely a large regional pre-release. Not a lot of pressure there. Recently, and if you read this blog you know, I attended the Star City Games Open in Washington D.C. This was a huge jump for me in a lot of ways and I'll detail why.
1) At local FNM's you will find good players, but more often than not 90% of the field is going to be made up of new players or casual players. You find a lot of rogue decks at these events, a lot of decks that really don't do anything, and occasionally you'll find some Tier 1 and Tier 1.5 decks to play against. For example at my shop (Collector's Corner, Harford Rd. in beautiful Parkville, MD...end shameless plug) often we find maybe 3 or 4 really good players. Everyone else is a mish mash of casual and new. At these events it's not uncommon for me to Top 8 and typically Top 4. I don't feel i get the even spread of players that I will see at a big event. This SEVERELY impacted me at the Open because a large majority of the field are really good players all playing competitive Magic. This brings me to my second point...
2) Playtesting! It is absolutely imperative that you playtest regularly. Have all the top decks sleeved up and play games and figure out what you're going to come up against. I luckily have a group that I playtest with (TEAM BIG SEXY in DA HOUSE) and although we get together fairly regularly, I don't feel we do enough playtesting and I certainly was not prepared for the Open. I feel this will get better as we move along, but if you're not playtesting you're not ready. Even if you don't have all the cards (although playing with a team gives you access to a rather large card pool) proxy out the top decks, even play sideboard games. It's important to know the ins and outs of every deck you anticipate seeing.
3) TILT. This is something I really harp on and especially recently because of the type of player I am. I'm a passionate player and I HATE to lose, just like i'm sure everyone else. However traditionally I'm a little more vocal about it. I have recently begun curbing this in an effort to become a better player. Getting upset at misplays, the game itself, etc is a good way to continue playing bad for the rest of the tournament. It's important to keep a level head and understand the lessons that you can learn from every game you play. It doesn't matter if you lose or win, there is information to be garnered from the time spent playing that game and you need to mentally document it and save it for future match ups. Playing Caw Blade is perfect example of this. In playtesting before the tourney, i expected aggro to be very heavy (Vampires, Boros, K Red, etc) and so I thought Arc Trail a better burn spell to have in the deck. It turns out Lightning Bolt and instant speed is the way to go to keep them from equipping their Hawks. Had we done a better job of playtesting we may have discovered this. As it stands I garnered that from my first match and sideboarded accordingly. The point is, don't get upset and don't go on tilt. If you do you are going to make play mistakes and you are more than likely going to lose. We must all keep level heads when playing the game.
4) Reading Articles and Understanding the National Meta. This is huge. I have my premium subscription to Star City Games. I read the mothership. I read the forums. It's so important to do this. It's important to understand what is currently dominating and looking at the future as well. Who would have expected Red Deck Wins to win the Open in Edison? No one! But by reading the tells in the meta, we can sometimes sneak one in. Magic is constantly evolving and we need to evolve too. We can't just sit on a deck for months and be lazy with deck building. We should constantly be trying to improve ourselves and we should want to take advantage of shifts in the game. It's how tournaments are won. Listen we all net deck, but good players should be able to make changes on the fly to account for these shifts. It's so important.
I hope you learned something from this, or maybe you hated it. Feel free to send me feedback or just shoot the breeze at kierandraven@gmail.com or on Twitter @draven_corvinus. Till next time!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Getting My Bearings Back
So lately I've had a lot of trouble not getting upset about losing when I play Magic. I think it's because of where I'm at as a player. And I think this ties in to my rant on the reserved list. I am becoming what I ranted against and hate most. I am becoming someone who cares more about the monetary aspect of the game than the game itself. I've gotten into the mindset where if I can't go top 4 at an FNM and get promo cards and prize packs, there's no reason for me to go.
This is the worst kind of player and it's exactly the reason why I was excited that BHJ created a tourney at the Rotunda Mall because most of the guys who play up at Legends are these types of players.
This game is supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be a GAME. Somewhere along the line I have forgotten that and I need to find my way back to where it's a game first and winning tourneys is secondary. That is my goal in the next few weeks.
For those that don't know I will be running Standard tournaments of my own at Collectors Corner MD on Harford Rd in Parkville starting April 3rd. Signups at 11am and we start play at 11:30am. This is in no way meant to intrude on the Rotunda's business which is why I'm doing the tourneys when I'm doing them. I figure those that don't play Magic League or on Magic League off weeks can come support my tourney. This month we're giving out promo Baloths and Kor Firewalkers. In addition 2 packs per entry for the prize pool. Come out and help me get back into enjoying this game ya'll!
This is the worst kind of player and it's exactly the reason why I was excited that BHJ created a tourney at the Rotunda Mall because most of the guys who play up at Legends are these types of players.
This game is supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be a GAME. Somewhere along the line I have forgotten that and I need to find my way back to where it's a game first and winning tourneys is secondary. That is my goal in the next few weeks.
For those that don't know I will be running Standard tournaments of my own at Collectors Corner MD on Harford Rd in Parkville starting April 3rd. Signups at 11am and we start play at 11:30am. This is in no way meant to intrude on the Rotunda's business which is why I'm doing the tourneys when I'm doing them. I figure those that don't play Magic League or on Magic League off weeks can come support my tourney. This month we're giving out promo Baloths and Kor Firewalkers. In addition 2 packs per entry for the prize pool. Come out and help me get back into enjoying this game ya'll!
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