How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3

Hello, and welcome back to my series of How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3. Last week we covered analysing the metagame, and this week, we'll be covering the nuts and bolts of bringing two decks to a tournament. The list which inspired this series can be found here. 


Why Two Decks?


Why would you bring two decks to a metagame? Simple: The local metagame at the PTQ you're attending is likely to be a bit different to the world's metagame. So by bringing two decks each designed to oppose certain metagames, e.g, W/U Reveillark for Anathemancer-heavy metagames and Five-Color Control for Elf Combo / Time Sieve Combo heavy metagames, you can be sure of attacking the metagame from the right angle. 


Make sure you bring decks with different weaknesses. Elf Combo and Jund seem quite different, but they're both vulnerable to the same thing: sweepers.Whereas Elf Combo and Five-Color Control on the other hand operate on totally different realms, and both require totally different sideboard plans. So you could pick one of these decks based on which one the event was less hostile towards in sideboard choices.


Testing Two Decks


Most people would advise testing two decks equally, but I think that you should become equally competent at both. Becoming competent at Elf Combo requires less matches than Five-Color Control, so if you were to run 100 matches, I'd suggest 30-40 Elf Combo matches and 60-70 Five-Color Control matches in your testing. That way you're confident with both of them, and ready no matter what deck you pick.


More complex decks require more matches to master, so take the time to learn them well.


This has been a very short post, but the concept doesn't require too many words to explain. Join me next week as I talk about doing the same anti-metagame move for your sideboard before the event.


Until next time, may you say only what needs to be said (yes I know this is a short post!)

5 Ways To Get Ahead Before A Rotation

Greetings readers. The Zendikar rotation is happening in a month, and is certain to shake up Standard. Almost all of the current archetypes will be thrown out the window, and those that aren't will still change. Thus, it's a perfect time to write an article I've been holding onto for a while: how to get ahead of the competition before a rotation.

1. Practice with a resilient deck.

A lot of people, after a rotation, will suddenly have to audible into a brand new, unproved, untested deck. If you can pick a deck, for example Jund, or Time Sieve Combo, that will remain relatively untouched by the rotation, and become familiar with it, you'll be like a shark among the minnows as they try to master their new decks while you use the one you've been familiar with for a month.

This is the precise reason I'm using Jund: only six non-land cards in it will actually be affected by the rotation, so I should easily be able to adjust it to the new metagame and the new card pool.

2. Keep up on the spoilers.

If you want to get an edge, you want to know what gets spoiled basically immediately. To that end, I advise subscribing to @mtgsalvation on Twitter, and checking the spoiler sites regularly. Twitter is a great place to find breaking news: I've only recently started using it, but it's quite useful already.

If you know the cards before the rotation actually happens, you'll be able to formulate a deck for when it does happen, continuing in the spirit of point 1.

3. See what people are saying about it.

Just by reading this you're on the right track to achieving point 3: finding out information. What are people thinking about the rotation? To that end, I suggest visiting Starcitygames.com, mtgsalvation.com, this blog, and any other Magic sites that have strategy articles several times a week. With the rotation looming large, that's what everyone will talk about, so plug into the flow of information.

4. Be aware of what will be lost.

Be aware of what decks will become unworkable. For example, Faeries, Elf Combo and Five-Color Control become impossible, since the core of each deck has been nuked with Lorwyn's departure. Blightning may survive, Jund and Time Sieve Combo will survive.

You also need to be aware of the metagame shift. For example, if Jund and Time Sieve are likely to appear in large numbers, how should you adjust your deck / sideboard for it?

5. Be prepared to adapt on the fly.

Lastly, the time after a rotation is a time of great flux. New decks will appear and become invalid by the day, so be prepared to change decks after the format settles down after a few weeks. You never know: new decks may pop up to make Jund utterly impossible in the new metagame, and White Soldiers may pop up and seize power. Be prepared to adapt to anything.

Until next time, may you be calm in a sea of confusion.

How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 2

Hello, and welcome back to my series of How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ. We've covered testing your deck here, so now it's time to move on to analysing the metagame. The list which inspired this series can be found here.

The Three Types of Metagame

There are generally three different types of metagame that you'll face in a particular format in a particular year. These modes are about more than decks: they're about how the whole metagame interacts, and understanding it is crucial to victory.

The Deck vs. The Anti-Deck

This type of metagame is when there is one particular 'best' deck that makes up about a third of the field, and generally beats most of the minor decks. The second most popular deck is the anti-deck, which beats the best deck, and generally has passable matchups against the minor decks.

An example here would be Affinity. Affinity was THE deck, and anti-affinity was THE anti-deck. This is a greatly exaggerated example of how it usually is, but it's ideal for our purposes. If you couldn't beat Affinity, you basically couldn't show up.

How this matters: In this case, you need to make a choice: The Deck, which is strong but everyone will pack hate for, the Anti-Deck, which beats The Deck but can lose to minor decks, or a minor deck with a good matchup vs. The Deck and the Anti-Deck. I would generally recommend playing a minor deck if it's strong enough to get a 55-60% win chance against The Deck and the Anti-Deck, because people are less likely to sideboard against and test against it. The Deck, unless ridiculously powerful, is often not a good place to be at if the players have figured out how to beat it.

Rock-Paper-Scissors Metagame

Generally the most common, the rock-paper-scissors metagame features three major decks with favourable matches vs. one, and unfavourable vs. the other. The three major decks all perform well against the minor decks almot all of the time.

An example of this would be last year's metagame, where Faeries beat Five-Color Control, Five-Color Control beat Kithkin, and Kithkin beat Faeries. All three decks performed well against random decks (except Faeries vs. Mono-Red) and all of them were good vs. one deck and bad vs. another.

How this matters: Generally, one deck will be the most popular. The deck it beats will be second, and the deck that the second deck beats will be third. Thus, we need to examine the pros and cons of Deck 1, Deck 2 and Deck 3.

Deck 1: Playing Deck 1 is often a good choice, especially if you're good with it. Most players won't play Deck 3, and plenty of them play Deck 2. Of course the problem with Deck 1 is that minor decks can do well against it if they sideboard heavily.

Deck 2: Playing Deck 2 is generally a bad choice. Losing to Deck 1 is never a good thing. I personally would not recommend it. People will sideboard against Deck 2 as well. Deck 2 = bad idea.

Deck 3: Playing Deck 3 is a good idea. If you can survive the first few rounds of a PTQ, Deck 2 will be mostly eliminated by Deck 1, and you're designed to prey on Deck 1. Most decks will only devote 3-4 sideboard slots to Deck 3 as well. Personally, this is the one I would pick unless I was quite skilled with Deck 1.

Minor deck: I wouldn't recommend it. It's basically impossible to build a minor deck with decent matchups against Deck 1, 2 and 3. In this case, the best move is to go with Deck 1 or Deck 3.

One Deck Many Decks Metagame

The rarest of the three, a one deck many deck metagame is when one deck or subset of decks makes up about 20-25% of the metagame, and the rest of it is spread among minor decks.

A perfect example of this is Legacy. CounterTop decks make up the One Deck, and the other decks (notably Dreadstill and Thresh) are mostly fairly minor, with a couple of 10-15% players. This metagame is hard to predict. It depends on how much hate is brought against the One Deck.

How this matters: In this scenario, it all depends on how new the One Deck is. If the One Deck has recently surfaced, play it. If it's been winning for a few weeks, I suggest playing a minor deck with a good matchup against the One Deck and passable matchups against most minor decks. It's hard to know how this kind of metagame will turn out, but a solid plan against the One Deck is never a bad thing.

The Role of Minor Decks

Minor decks, the ones that make up a small but appreciable segment of the metagame, generally 5-10% are an excellent, valuable addition to the metagame. For one, it keeps the major decks honest. They need to be able to defend against a wide variety of angles of attack to remain in their catbird seats. For another, it provides variety. Sometimes you don't want to play a major deck, and then you can always move to the Merfolks or Blightings of the world and try to strike from an unexpected angle.

I could include some information about how to collect statistics for the metagame, but I'm fairly sure that if you're at the level of seriously analysing it, you already know how to do that. My only tip I will give you is to check out the latest tournaments: StarCityGames.com is good for this. Other than that, it's up to you to ascertain what pattern of metagame you're in.

The best part about this advice is that it will still be applicable 5 or 10 years from now. I'm sure I'll write many articles about the metagame that will go out of date in mere months, but this content is timeless. Enjoy it, and use it wisely.

Until next time, may you see the pattern you've seen before.

10 Ways To Do Better At Your Next PTQ

1. Test your deck.

Any deck you take to a PTQ you want to have tested for a minimum two weeks before hand, hopefully more. Test online, test offline, play it at FNM, read about it. Test as much as you think is necessary, then double it. Then test some more. The more you test the better you'll become with the deck, and it's important to get every advantage you can get.

Yes, sometimes people can win with a brand-new deck or an audibled deck, but most PTQ's are won by someone who has mastered a particular archetype that is well-placed in the metagame. Which brings me to point 2...

2. Analyse the metagame.

And make sure it's up-to-date. For example, people who played Kithkin last week were likely to get their asses kicked, even though it was a great, PTQ-winning deck just a fortnight ago. The metagame can change very quickly.

If you don't analyse the metagame, it's like not bringing a sideboard. Why the hell would you go to a PTQ without a sideboard? Exactly.

3. Bring two different decks.

There's no rule that says you need to know your deck in advance. This is NOT contrary to Rule 1: you simply need to do more testing. Test both decks. And don't pick two similar decks, like Elf Combo and Kithkin which are both vulnerable to the same thing. A better idea might be Kithkin and Five-Color or Jund. Both are very, very different and beat different decks.

Arrive early before the tournament, and scope out the PTQ metagame, then pick which of the two decks you will use based on that information. Some call it overkill, but why would you not get every advantage you can get? More than two decks is not recommended however, because it's hard to test more adequately.

4. Get a good night's sleep beforehand.

Yes, this is obvious. Yes it's been said before. Yes, you already know it. But so many people don't DO IT. I know I would much rather be well-rested for a tournament than bleary-eyed and subsiding on caffeine. You may not feel the difference, but you'll probably have lots of 'bad luck' that day, and end up dropping. But through no fault of your own of course. *end sarcasm*

If you're serious about the PTQ, get a good night's sleep. If you have to choose between fine-tuning your deck and adequate sleep, you haven't prepared enough. Have your lists ironclad several days in advance.

5. Bring more than 15 sideboard cards.

An extension of Part 3. However, there's an art to this. Rather than tossing together 15 cards 10 minutes before registration ends, have a piece of paper with a few different sideboard plans on it. An example might go like this for GSS Jund:

Cards to bring:

Anathemancer

Jund Charm

Thought Hemorrhage

Firespout

Deathmark

Broodmate Dragon

Maelstrom Pulse

Sygg, River Cutthroat

Stillmoon Cavalier

Five-Color Control Centric Metagame:

4 Anathemancer, 4 Jund Charm, 4 Thought Hemorrhage, 3 Firespout

Jund-Centric Metagame:

4 Anathemancer, 4 Firespout, 4 Deathmark, 2 Broodmate Dragon, 1 Maelstrom Pulse

Fae-Centric Metagame:

4 Firespout, 3 Deathmark, 1 Broodmate Dragon, 2 Maelstrom Pulse, 2 Sygg, River Cutthroat, 3 Stillmoon Cavalier

Note that especially in the Fae example, where you have almost an auto-win against them, you not only aim your sideboard at the dominant deck, but also at the deck that BEATS the dominant deck. Note these sideboards are very rough, and probably not optimal for the situation. (I would run Anathemancer maindeck in a PTQ now anyway).

6. Eat healthily.

Eating highly crappy, greasy food is a norm at tournaments, and is fine for FNM, but if you've done all this extra preparation, you may as well eat well. Otherwise it's like fitting your car with the latest and greatest safety features and parts, and then feeding it garbage fuel. Treat your body with more respect than that.

It may be hard to obtain food at the event that's healthy, so a good idea might be to pack some sandwiches just in case. Still healthier than take-out, and quicker to eat, and it won't grease up your sleeves either.

7. Play precisely.

Unlike in FNM, where it's usually fine to draw then untap, or forget your Bitterblossom trigger until you're about to play a land, these things can haunt you in a PTQ. A couple of missed triggers and that's a game loss right there. And won't that make you feel stupid?

Announce when you're entering the following: upkeep, draw, main, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, postcombat main, end. Anything more is fairly anal, but those seven are a necessity. Also, don't play two spells at once. Allow your opponent time to reply. Give them about 3-5 seconds unless they give a verbal cue that they are considering. Such a wait time is expected and will not get you penalised for slow play.

Work out your plays in your head during your opponent's turn so you don't spend 20 seconds every turn thinking: only when your draw changes your plans. That'll make it far less likely for you to be warned for Slow Play. However, it is worth noting that some minor infractions will receive two warnings rather than one. Of course, it's best to avoid them altogether.

8. Be ruthless.

On the flip side of 7, is to penalise your opponents for their misplays. If they flip over one of your cards, or miss a trigger, or play too fast / too slow, CALL A JUDGE. Your opponents will do the same to you, and I've heard several cases where a player has committed a minor infraction, their opponent chose not to penalise it, and then that player did the same thing again later that match, and were warned. If they'd called a judge first time, it would have been a game loss, and they would have won the match.

Always call a judge if players don't play correctly. And if you make an obvious mistake, call a judge immediately rather than trying to hush it up. You're more likely to receive a lighter penalty if you call a judge after flipping an opponent's card rather than try to shrug it off and have the opponent call one instead (and they almost certainly will).

9. Know your tiebreakers.

You're 6-1, and you're offered a draw by your last-round opponent. You don't take it, and lose, and later find out you would have gone into the Top 8. Even worse, you DO take it, and wind up 10th place. Know your tiebreakers. Before the round starts you should know whether or not you can ID into the Top 8 (this only matters in rounds 7+, so is not applicable to all players, but it would suck to hit a miracle streak then not have the knowledge you need to hit the Top 8).

Knowledge is power. If you can ID into the Top 8, go ahead and try. But you need to know if you can first.

10. Maintain focus.

You're in the Top 8, but you've just fought 6-8 grueling rounds of Magic. In an ideal situation, you've ID'ed the last round and can relax and grab some food with friends before the Top 8. However, if that's not possible, at least take a few minutes to relax your mind and bolster your resources. The Top 8 will be the toughest part of the tournament. You don't want to be playing at anything less than your best.

Now sometimes you'll do everything right and still X-2 drop: this advice is not an automatic ticket to the Pro Tour. But there's only finite amounts of PTQ's in a year (This advice is even more important in Australia. The competition is only slightly less than America, and unless you're willing to fly, there's only 1-2 PTQ's you can get to in a year!) and you may as well do your best. Do not take a PTQ likely. Don't attend on a whim. Some of the area's best will be there, and the more preparation you do, the better.

Because rest assured: if you're not well-rested, prepared, tuned for the metagame and ready to play your best, you'll be competing against someone who is.

Until next time, may you prepare for a month so that people can label you an overnight success when you win.