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!)

Catching Up On Magic - Part 3

Planeswalkers

Planeswalkers are a new card type, introduced in Lorwyn. They are fairly complex, but add more depth to the game. I'll walk you through the type, step by step.

The name, expansion symbol (Lorwyn), converted mana cost and art do not need explanation, so let's go to the second half of the card.

Type line: A planeswalker's type is it's subtype. If two planeswalkers that share a subtype are on the battlefield, both are put into their owner's graveyards as a state-based effect, just like legends, except Ajani Goldmane and Ajani Vengeant would both be affected by the legend rule (both are Planeswalker - Ajani).

Loyalty: At the bottom-right, the number 5 is the planeswalker's starting loyalty. Loyalty is similar to life: one damage = one loyalty counter removed. Any damage dealt to a player, combat or not, may be redirected to a planeswalker of your choice that they control instead. Targets are declared with the spell or declaration of attackers.

Loyalty is used as a cost: see the +1, -2 and -8. Each turn, at sorcery speed, you may use one of a planeswalker's abilities (activated ability) if you can pay it's cost by adding / removing the loyalty counters. When a planeswalker's loyalty reaches 0, it is put into it's owner's graveyard.

The rise of creatures

We've covered the new rules: you're now up to speed to play casually. However, if you want to play competitively, you should read the rest of this series, which is the meat and potatoes of the column.

In the last several years, creatures have vastly increased in power. Take a look at these powerful beasts:

Both powerful, tournament-quality creatures in their time. Now allow me to introduce you to a new breed of creature:

The bar's been raised a lot higher. Have a guess at how many of these creatures are tournament-calibre?

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The answer is two. Broodmate Dragon and Baneslayer Angel. The other two creatures are not played in Standard. They aren't good enough or don't fit decks well enough. They are played, but not in Tier 1 decks, and that's what we need to focus on to get you back up to the top.

At the same time, a new breed of creature has arrived: the army in a can.

All this combines to ensure that creatures, especially in the 4-6 mana range, now need to be absolutely incredible to compete, and/or not die to a single removal spell. Combined with the ability to play almost anything in Standard in a single, five-color deck and we need to make sure our creatures are as powerful as they can possibly be.

But the rise of multi-colored decks is a topic for tomorrow.

To be continued...