Playing at Competitive REL – A Beginner's Guide

You've been playing at FNM's for a couple of months now, and you're starting to notice that you're winning more often than not. The same at your local shop's Tuesday standard.

You like your deck – no, actually, you love your deck. You built it yourself, and maybe it's not exactly a netdeck, but it has a solid game plan and you know how to pilot it against all the major decks in the format.

You're wondering if you should maybe take your game to the next level. You hear some guys at your shop talking about travel plans. You saunter over to them and ask them what they're talking about.

“Oh, dude, you didn't know? This weekend is the Grand Prix.”

“The Grand Prix?” you ask. You've heard some of the guys talk about how they went to Boston a few months ago, but you've never been to one. “What's that?”

“It's a huge tournament – usually more than a thousand people – over two days. There's one this weekend in Atlantic City! A bunch of us from the shop are going down there.”

“Wow, awesome.”

“One more thing – it's a competitive tournament, a little bit different from an FNM.”

“Oh?”

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It can be a little intimidating stepping into your first Competitive REL tournament. In fact, it can be downright terrifying. My first was a side event at Pro Tour Philadelphia (back when they were open to the public.) It was a big tournament for an iPad, and I got a game loss in my first game. Unfortunately, at the time, I had no idea that there was any difference between my local FNM and a tournament for $15,000. I assumed we were just playing Magic, and that was that.

The reality is a little different, and as a player who hates seeing people get screwed because they weren't aware of the difference, I'm going to be going into some detail about some of the things that you can expect at a Competitive event.

First off, what is Competitive REL? Because of the high prizes associated with them, some tournaments are run at a stricter level of rules enforcement than others. Notable events are the first day of a Grand Prix, TCGPlayer Max Events, Grand Prix Trials, Pro Tour Qualifiers, and Star City Games Opens, Invitational Qualifiers, and Invitationals

At these tournaments, there is some measure of high prizes at stake. It could be playmats, invites to other tournaments, byes, or large cash prizes. Regardless, because of the prizes being offered, the tournament is to be held in as skill-testing an environment as possible. That's where we hit the first major difference between Regular REL and Competitive REL.

During Regular REL tournaments, like FNM, the emphasis is on educating players. At Competitive REL, the emphasis is on an individual's play skill.

That might seem like a minor thing, but it really has a whole lot of implications. The most obvious way that you can see it is that at a Competitive REL tournament, there will be a judge who can hand out the penalties found in the Infraction Procedure Guide (or IPG, for short.) That's the document that all judges (and players, if they so choose) have access to, which tells about all the things that you can be penalized for at a Competitive tournament.

Some of these things are fairly simple. The IPG has a whole boatload of ways of saying simple things like “Don't Cheat”. Luckily, you're a good person, and you're not going to cheat. We don't have to worry about the vast majority of that section because it doesn't apply to you as long as you are being open and honest while playing.

That brings us to the first major rule that I'm going to give you if you've never played at Competitive REL. It's the first rule because I honestly believe that it is the most important.

Do not lie to the judge.

The judge does not exist to punish you. He exists to make sure that the game is being played by the rules, and to ensure an even playing field, and to make sure that everyone at the tournament is comfortable.

Sometimes, the judge will punish someone. That could very well mean anything from a verbal Caution (which means literally nothing as far as you playing the game goes) to a Disqualification (which is very bad.) For the record, receiving multiple instances of the same penalty does eventually lead to an upgrade in penalty to a more severe one. That said, lying to a tournament official is a one-way street to a disqualification. Period. End of Story. Just don't do it.

The IPG lists out a full treatment of everything you can get punished for. This is a good thing, because it means that judges can't just capriciously punish for anything, only things covered by the existing document. They can't 'go rogue' and just make things up. Please keep in mind that at larger events, you ALWAYS have the right to appeal a decision to the Head Judge of the tournament if you believe that your ruling was incorrect. For the majority of players in the majority of situations, none of that is important. In all my time playing competitively, I believe that I've received only a handful of warnings (and one game loss, as you'll see below).

How do you avoid such penalties? It's actually pretty simple. Play according to the rules, and be clear, open, and obvious about what you're doing. Below, I'm going to list what I consider to be the 5 most commonly given out errors and penalties, and how to avoid them:

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1) Tournament Error: Deck/Decklist Error

This one is the top of the list, and it isn't even close. In Round 2 of GP Boston-Worcester last year, over 100 of these were given out at the start of Round 4. This penalty refers to something fairly broad – there's a problem with your deck, or your decklist.

At Competitive REL, you will be responsible for filling out (either before the tournament begins for Constructed, or during deck constuction for a Limited Event) a deck list. Be very careful with this list, because as far as the tournament officials are concerned, that's what you're playing. In order to curb cheating and provide some measure of security for the integrity of the tournament, judges will be checking decks throughout the tournament. As long as what's in your deck matches what's on the sheet, there's likely to be no problem whatsoever. However, there's always a few things that can go wrong. Here's some of the common ways to earn yourself a Deck/Decklist Error:

-You made a last minute change to your deck, and forgot to update your decklist.

-You forgot to de-sideboard your deck after your last round

-You had a bunch of cards that aren't in your deck or sideboard in the same box as your deck and sideboard.

-You don't have at least 60 cards (or 40 for limited) in your main deck, and in Constructed tournaments, you have a number other than 0 or 15 in your sideboard.

-You are playing cards that aren't legal in the format that you are playing.

There are other ways to earn them, but those are what I'd consider the most common. The penalty for Deck/Decklist Error is usually a Game Loss – a steep penalty because the potential for abuse is so high. Be careful with this one, and when the judge tells everyone to take one last look over their decklists, I implore you to actually do it. Judges hate giving this one out, because it's usually so easily avoided.

My first infraction ever was a Deck/Decklist Problem. I didn't fill one out because I didn't know it was required. Whoops. By the time I was informed of this, round 1 was already well underway, and my opponent was happy to be cruising onto game 2.

2) Game Rule Violation

A Game Rule Violation is a general catchall category for an issue that takes place during the game, but doesn't fall into any of the other categories. Generally, it means that you did something that you shouldn't have done. At the moment, the most common one of these that comes to mind is putting a creature into the graveyard after it's been killed by a Pillar of Flame. There isn't much to say about this one except that you should make sure that you are doing your best to adhere to the text on cards.

3) Missed Trigger

Everyone take a deep breath, because I know that you've heard tons about this one. You've heard things about lapsing and nonlapsing triggers. You've heard tons about people getting disqualified for ignoring triggers, and abilities that don't happen when they should.

Relax. Take a deep breath. This one isn't that tricky.

First off, some info, and the largest change between Regular and Competitive REL. At Competitive REL, you are required to demonstrate awareness of each one of your triggers. If you (or your opponent) do not, then the trigger is considered missed, and a judge should be called.

Full stop.

When a judge is called, a couple of things will happen. First, the judge will establish if the trigger was actually missed. A trigger is considered missed if the player who's trigger it was has taken an action after the trigger would have resolved without indicating that they were aware of the trigger. Second, the judge will ask the opponent of the player if they would like to place the ability on the stack. (The answer will generally be no. Do I want my opponent to gain 2 life and a 2/2 wolf token – no, no I do not.) As far as the game goes, that's the end of it.

Then, based on if the ability is detrimental to the player, they may get a warning, but that's not generally something that players will need to worry about.

The penalty for a missed trigger is usually nothing, but is occasionally a Warning, however, you likely won't get your trigger unless it hurts you in some way. Failing to activate a trigger deliberately and pretending you missed it, by the way, is cheating, so don't do that.

If you have any more questions about missed triggers, I strongly suggest you read Level 5 Judge Toby Elliot's Blog on the Topic. It can be found HERE. There is additional commentary HERE as well.

4) Looking At Extra Cards

This one is actually remarkably common. Have you ever been shuffling your opponent's deck and accidentally spilled it all over the table? You looked at some extra cards. Ever try to draw a card and the top one flipped over onto the table? Looking at extra cards.

It generally takes place whenever someone looks at (but doesn't draw!) extra cards.

To avoid this one, just simply be deliberate with your actions. Be sure you've only picked up one card. Shuffle gently (but thoroughly!) with your opponent's deck. Doing this is a Warning.

5) Drawing Extra Cards

On the other hand, if instead of just looking at extra cards, you actually draw extra cards into your hand (indicated by the cards making contact with the rest of your hand) we've entered into a different penalty altogether. Drawing Extra Cards is one of the most extreme infractions that can be committed, because of how much potential for abuse there is, and how little an opponent could potentially do to stop it. Worse, because there's no easy fix, drawing extra cards is almost always a Game Loss.

There are some exceptions that you could look up, but those are extreme corner cases, and it's best to just simply be extra careful any time that you're drawing cards – this goes for drawing for turn, drawing dozens of cards in a single turn off a Glimpse of Nature, or casting a Sphinx's Revelation for a whole bunch. Count the cards before putting them into your hand, and we won't have an issue.

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There are a number of other infractions that can be given out for a variety of things, the vast majority won't actually apply in almost any situation. If you want to take a look at the entire list, the entire IPG is available for your perusal HERE.

I'd also like to point to a pair of articles that Jackie Lee, a notable professional player, has written on the topic of Competitive REL and Judges – Here and Here. They are both well-written, well-informed articles that I recommend to anyone looking to break into the competitive scene.

I want to take a couple of paragraphs at the end of this article to ease some concerns as well. If you're looking into starting at a Competitive tournament, you should consider the judge an ally. We exist to help you at all times, and make sure that the tournament is a fun experience for all. If someone at the venue, even another player or tournament official, is giving you a problem, please, speak to a judge about it. Likewise, if you are unsure of an interaction, or you think something has gone wrong in your game, call a judge. They will be more than happy to help you sort it out.

If, at any point, in any tournament, you ever need the assistance of a Judge, just raise your hand high (some of us have trouble seeing through all the spell-slinging, so clearer is better), and yell loudly “Judge!” One of us black-shirted folks will be by shortly to sort things out.

With that, may all your spells resolve, and good luck at any future events you take part in.

Bye Bye Bye - Why Planeswalker Points Are Important

Hey man! I haven't seen you around here in ages.

Yea, I've been pretty busy traveling.

So, you coming to Sunday drafts now?

Absolutely. I’m grinding for points. Didn’t you hear? There’s a GP in Philadelphia in October. Got to be ready.

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As some of you may know, this coming Sunday represents the end of the second Planeswalker Points season. For some of us, that makes this week a flurry of furious playing and grinding, with the hopes of gathering those last few points. For others, the entire idea of planeswalker points seems alien and obtuse.

Why are we seeking planeswalker points like they’re some finite resource? Why do some of us keep track of the number with post-its and bookmark the page in our browser to make sure that everything is up to date?

There’s a couple reasons for it, honestly, and to start, I’d like to tell you my story.

A few months ago, I decided that I was interested in joining the Magic Competitive Scene. Previously, this meant going to GP’s and PTQ’s, hoping to qualify and make it to the Pro Tour. Unfortunately, my level of skill at that point was nowhere near where it would need to be to have a chance at either of those events. I wasn’t thinking clearly about what I’d need to do to succeed. I was flush with success with a Top 8 at a 75 person GPT, and I thought I was one of the best players ever. Seriously. I actually thought that.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really have anything to work towards. There weren’t any GP’s in the area, so I just shrugged it  off and kept playing in GPT’s and SCG:IQ’s. The story could have ended here.

Then there was an announcement. A special tournament – held three places across America. The World Magic Cup Qualifier. All jokes about qualifying for a qualifier aside, I knew that this was an event I wanted to participate in – and it was fairly local: just past Baltimore, maybe a two hour drive. I checked the requirements and found that I needed 300 Planeswalker Points to get an invitation.

I fired up the handy website and took a look. The system is pretty simple – three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss, and then multiplied by the kind of event it was.

FNM – 7 points

FNM – 4 points

FNM – 7 points

This looked like it was going to take a while.

GPT Baltimore – 66 points.

Wait, what? Sixty six? Well, I suppose that the event was seven rounds of Swiss, where I went 6-1, and you get some points for participation…

 If you’re looking to grind points, events with a multiplier are where it’s at. There’s just no competition. You could win 9 rounds of FNM, and it’s likely worth less than winning three at a GPT – or just a little bit more than two at a PTQ. A single win at a GP is worth more than two flawless Friday victories at your local game shop.

But why do we want these points? Even ignoring the primal urge – present in every nerd – to make numbers go upwards. (Seriously, take a look at every RPG ever. That’s all we’re doing) Surely there are rewards for earning all these points! Well, luckily for us, there are – and the rewards are significant. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers to know for the current system.

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Byes:

By gaining planeswalker points in the current system, you can earn Byes at Grand Prix events. A bye is a free win in one of the early rounds, and any player can have up to three. Having them is an enormous advantage, and for many, these are the primary benefit of Planeswalker Points. These points accrue over the course of a season. The most recent season ran from April 2, 2012 – August 19, 2012. The next season, which begins on Monday, runs from August 20, 2012 – December 16, 2012. If you earn byes during a season, they will apply for the duration of that season and for the next one as well.

                -One Bye: 400 points

                -Two Byes: 750 points

                -Three Byes: 1500 points

Invitation to the World Magic Cup Qualifier:

 Where Grand Prix Byes count based on a single season, the World Magic Cup Qualifier tracks points over an entire year. The most recent World Magic Cup Qualifier season began on April 2, 2012, and will end on March 17, 2013. To be invited, you need to reach a threshold based on your country. These range from the USA – where you’d need 500 points within the year, to small countries like Peru, where the cutoff is a mere 100 points. You can find the list of thresholds HERE.

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For those of you wondering if a Bye is even worth anything to you, it’s a fairly simple question. If you are going to a GP, the bye is absolutely worth it. Compared to the FNM’s and other events that you’ve gone to, GP’s can be more likened to a marathon. With two days of play and thousands of dollars of prize on the line, you need to be at your best to have a chance, and that means giving yourself advantages before you walk in the door.

A normal GP plays 9 rounds on Day 1. To advance, you need to be 7-2 or better. Going 7-2 in a tournament is no mean feat, and even a single bad mulligan could spell the end of your tournament aspirations. With three byes under your belt, you mitigate that to a paltry 4-2 to make the second day of play (and put yourself in contention for a reasonable cash payout!) In addition, the three byes have the related side effect of making your tiebreakers markedly higher than those without byes. Because people playing since round one will have their tie breaks calculated off all their opponents, they account for the person who started off 0-1, 1-1, and 2-1. Your worst tiebreaker player is the person you hit in the fourth match, who (assuming you win) will be 3-1 at that point. This could buy you the crucial percentage points that elevate you into the “I won something!” arena.

This coming season, for example, I’m planning on attending two GP’s – one in Boston, and one in Philadelphia. Each Bye I earn puts me that much closer to Day 2. Because I played in GP Atlanta, as well as a number of other events, I’ve earned over 900 points, easily enough for my second bye, but still a far cry away from my third. With the addition of a second GP to my personal schedule in this coming season, it would be a reasonable thing for me to expect getting a third bye in the coming season. As my play gets more precise, I expect to earn more points for any given tournament. GP Atlanta earned me a cool 200 points, and I didn’t even make Day 2. If I had, it easily could have been a 350-400 point weekend.  I certainly wouldn’t have been as close as I was if not for the three byes I had.

This is more or less how GP Atlanta felt with three free wins..

This coming season, I’d encourage you to set yourself a goal – be it your first bye, in case you attend a GP early next year (the schedule should be announced soon!) or qualification for the World Magic Cup Qualifiers, or whatever you decide. Set yourself a goal, and then set out to attain it!

[Editor's Note: The Planeswalker Point website can be found HERE.]

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I hope that you guys enjoyed this look at the planeswalker point system, and what we can get out of it as a competitive player. Next post comes in Thursday, where I’ll talk a little bit about what I see in the format going forward.

Beat em or Join Em?: The Problem With Bonfire

Format Warping

There, I said it. I’ve played in quite a few tournaments since the release of Avacyn Restored, and one thing has started to become more and more clear over the last few days. Bonfire of the Damned is – and is going to - warp the format.

When Miracles first came out, many Magic writers took their fingers to keyboard and decided to write a bit about the issues with Miracle. What were they trying to do? What does the mechanic accomplish? Is the mechanic any good in reality?

Well, we have our answer. With the price of Bonfires reaching $35 at most online vendors and rising steadily, it looks like we’re going to be living in a world where Bonfire is the shadow looming large over the whole format. Whenever a player has Red in their deck, I cringe every time that their hand touches their deck for the draw. The primer for the Hallelujah deck that won the Pro Tour said it best – you need to play up your draws, make the opponent tilt every single time you touch your deck.

When I’ve got six 2/2 tokens in play, there are no safe top decks anymore if you have a mountain.

The word 'Boom' comes to mind.

 

I wasn’t sure how good it was myself. I kept playing BW Tokens, and I was shocked when my matchup against GR, which had previously been fairly close (if they didn’t blow me out with a Sword) was all of a sudden turned around by a crippling Bonfire at any stage of the game. I feel like you’d need to be playing 12 anthems to have a chance of ‘outrunning’ it. Naya, running Restoration Angel and Thalia, doesn’t even feel close. They just stone-wall me at every turn, keep me from casting anything of consequence, and crush me with a vastly superior creature base.

 I still didn’t believe it though. I kept playing events with BW Tokens, and every time someone cast Bonfire, I lost. It seemed normal though – it seemed fair. Lights didn’t go on in my head until my girlfriend and I were sorting through some Alara Block commons and uncommon (I’m working on the Shard Wars, and while she doesn’t play the game, she seems to really enjoy the art.) I was flipping through the Conflux section and I pulled out a card, instantly knowing the story behind it.

I'd be Bitterblossem if this was printed too.

 

“Oh hun, check this card out.”

“I like the movement in the picture. And the quote is pretty awesome too.”

“This card changed tournament magic. Remember that Faerie deck that I was telling you about?”

“Yea?”

“This card single handedly turned the tide on it. Once this card was printed, Faeries wasn’t the bad guy of the format anymore. It was to tailor built to kill Faeries that they just couldn’t compete.”

“That’s evolution for you.”

And then I stopped. I remembered every time I saw Bonfire get a four for one, or a six for one. I remembered seeing a field of creatures – twice lethal damage – during testing on Tuesday. I peeled the Bonfire, set X = 5, and killed him that turn from 20. The game wasn’t close – and then he lost it.

Let's be honest though. Cards warp formats all the time. Snapcaster has turned Unsummon from an unplayable card into a format staple. Jace caused Hero of Bladehold to be an actively terrible creature. The Eldrazi have made mill nonviable in EDH without bending over backwards to do it. That doesn't mean that we should call for bans, or complain. That means that it's time to innovate and figure out a solution to the problem. We have two choices here - we can either join the Bonfire crew (as I have at the moment with Naya) or fight against it (as I'm trying to do.) 

When that can happen, and you need to account for a one sided wrath of god for 3-4 mana, it’s going to change a format pretty significantly. You need to be on one of two sides in this format – for it or against it.

For Bonfire:

There’s a whole slew of decks that you can use to battle with Bonfire. There’s Naya in all its variations, R/G Aggro, we’ve got UR Delver, and even some zombie variants have the capability of running it. In the end, any deck with a reasonable board presence can and should run the card.

Reasonable board presence? Yes. Because if you’re not a deck that can capitalize on the “All your creatures are dead, but mine aren’t!” angle, you’d be better off with Slagstorm or Pyroclasm. Bonfire works very specifically when the effect is also a Falter for your whole team. This means that it’s best as the primary removal spell in an otherwise aggressive deck. Simple enough.

You should play Bonfire in any deck like this, because it’s frankly the highest impact card available for use. It does so much for it’s cost – even at standard cost, it’s just a slightly weaker, but more Flexible Flame Wave. That sounds like a reasonable card to me, and Bonfire is actually just better than that.

All hope is not lost for the rest of us though! There are options to be had if you don’t have the money to invest in cards that are more expensive than some fat packs.

Against Bonfire:

It seems like only yesterday that we were all trying to figure out a deck that could defeat Delver consistently, and rid us of the menace that was Delver, Mana Leak, Vapor Snag, and Snapcaster Mage. Fortunately, they appear to be on the decline, but it’s still a very reasonable deck. There are two main things that the deck does very well that allow it to combat Bonfire – a pro-active way and a reactive way.

Pro actively, Delver is able to deal a lot of damage with few cards. When your 1-drop is capable of being a lightning bolt every turn, you don’t generally need to overextend into the board to find your victory. Delver is very capable of killing you using only 2-3 cards, and using the rest as support. This minimizes the ability of the deck to expose itself to a Bonfire.

On the other hand, Delver has reactive answers to Bonfire. Restoration Angel, allows you to keep the offence going if a Bonfire does happen – letting you sneak a creature in ‘with haste’. Alternatively, you could use a mana leak/dissipate to remove the offending spell from contention. Bonfire is a fairly mana intensive spell, and with positive benefit for each added mana you use, so there’s a pretty decent chance that he’ll run it into your leak pretty hard.

The other option is a Ramp deck. Creatures scale upwards in toughness with mana cost – generally. You’re more likely to get a substantial body on a 6-7 mana creature than on a 2 mana guy. It seems obvious, but if you jump the curve with mana dorks or actual Ramp spells, then you’ll often be able to ‘outrun’ the Bonfire’s kill range. A turn 4 titan is way too fast for a bonfire player to deal with – by the time that he’s got 7 mana available, and can even potentially draw a Bonfire to kill it, the game is likely over. Elesh Norn fits into a similar area here, where her toughness makes her mostly-bonfire-proof. You also get the benefit of playing individual creatures that can win the game on their own.

In conclusion, the best ways to fight bonfire are the ways we’ve traditionally fought good sweepers – be bigger than them, be faster than them, or be able to stop them from casting it. Regardless, don’t you dare walk into a tournament right now without a plan, or you’ll end up on the receiving end of “Miracle Bonfire, X = 4, swing for lethal?”

It happens more than you’d think. This wekeend is Magic Game Day, and there will almost certainly be Bonfires in the room. Don't go in unprepared. Know your formats, sling some spells, come out on top.

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This weekend, I'll be at SCG: Washington DC on Saturday, spellslinging in the Standard Open. I don't have terribly high hopes for this tournament, but I'll be in the area, and it seems a waste to be in the city without participating. I've yet to decide what I'll actually be playing. It'll depend a lot on how I feel about the Naya mana base tomorrow, or if I'd rather just innovate BW Tokens to fight it. I'm hedging at the moment.

Scheduling Your Grind

Today we’re going to take a bit of a break from Tournament Reports and Deck Lists and narrow in on something that isn’t often talked about in the Magic Community – finding and scheduling these high-level events. Everything I write in this article is from my own point of view, so if you live in a foreign country, things may be subtly different for you. For certain, the required number of planeswalker points is likely to change, so be wary that your mileage may vary.

When we talk about Grinding, we’re usually referring to going to as many tournaments as possible in a given period, trying to ‘grind out’ rewards related to those tournaments. The first step towards this is determining what’s out there. Here’s a quick overview. The Magic tournament scene is broadly split into three circuits right now, as well as independent events. The first and most well-known of these is the Pro Tour Series.

The Pro Tour Series

The Pro Tour is the crowning event of Magic. Held three times per year in varying locations, they offer the largest payout for a Wizards-run tournament. They are held over multiple days in multiple formats, and often feature names that you’ll hear when running around your local card shop. They’ve also got a pretty significant prize payout - $40,000 for first place, and then staggering downwards to the top 75, who each get $1000.

However, the Pro Tour isn’t something you can just walk into. You need to qualify for it. To that end, there’s three major ways to achieve this. You can Top 25 a Pro Tour, Top 4 a Grand Prix, or win a Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ). All of those are monumental accomplishments, and represent the goal for a number of aspiring grinders.

A step down from the Pro Tour is a Grand Prix (GP). Held most weekends in varied locations on the globe, they feature an 8x planeswalker point multiplier and two days of play – if you make the cut. In addition, they’re the most prominent tournament that offers byes to players for good play. You can earn between 1 and 3 byes for any given GP. The simplest way to get 3 is to win a Grand Prix Trial (Held in local stores) for the appropriate Grand Prix, though you can also qualify for them through Planeswalker Points. Grand Prix’s are the largest public events in Magic, and can break 1500 attendees regularly.

In addition, there’s the World Cup, which has only been added this year. This is an invite only tournament and has the dubious distinction of being the only tournament that you need to qualify to qualify for. You need to achieve the same number of planeswalker points as you would for a single bye at a GP to Qualify for the World Cup Qualifier – which are held three times per country. Alternatively, you could win player of the year, but the Qualifier seems a bit more likely.

That’s a rough sketch of the Pro Tour Series, but it’s hardly the only show in town.

The Star City Games Open Series

Star City Games is arguably the most well known magic sales hub on the internet. They also happen to run the largest independent tournament series on the market. The Star City Games Open series is basically a fully fledged competitor to the Pro Tour, and has comparable prizes.

The crown jewel in the Open Series is the Invitational. Held four times a year, it pays $75,000 out to the top 64 players, including $15,000 for first prize. However, like the Pro Tour, the Invitational doesn’t allow just anyone to walk in – you need to qualify first. There are broadly four methods of qualification. The first is to place highly at the previous Invitational. You can also win a SCG Invitational Qualifier (which come in three flavors – Normal, Super, and Elite, with increasing prize for each), or accumulate enough Open Points (Star City’s reward program, earned from placing well at their events), and finally, you can perform exceptionally well at an Open.

Star City Opens are to the Invitational what Grand Prixs are for the Pro Tour. They’re open events – no qualification needed – with hundreds of players. There’s one most weekends in some city in the USA. They generally feature two types of events – a Standard Open on Saturday and a Legacy Open on Sunday. Achieving top 8 in either of these will get you an invite to the Invitational of your choice that year.

The TCGPlayer Max Series

While I haven’t participated in any of their events as of the writing of this piece, but from the looks of it, it’s got a healthy following as well. The crown event is a $50,000 championship – paying $12,000 to the top finisher. To get there, you need to earn TCGPlayer points, which are available from tons of events held all around the country. Some stores even run weekly events.

While it appears to be the smallest of the big circuits, it could be true that there’s less interest in them, making the tournaments softer by comparison. Again, I haven’t attended any of their events, so your mileage may vary.

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Now for the real question: Why is this important? Why do we care about all these different tournaments that are being run all around the world? Well, we want to go to some of them! We’ve got a couple of free weekends for the next few months and we want to play some high level magic and maybe see some prizes. If that all sounds fun, then there’s something you should know off the bat.

This stuff gets complicated quick.

I’m not an organized person by nature. In fact, I’m very unorganized. I need to-do lists to keep track of my day-to-day tasks. I keep a notebook on me like it’s a crutch. For me, doing this kind of thing requires preparation. The rest of this article is going to more or less go through my methodology for deciding what I’m doing with my weekends for the next two months. (And it should also give you a reasonable idea about the tournament reports that you can expect to see here on a weekly basis!)

First thing I’m going to do is block off the days that I can’t do anything. Understandably, there’s a fair amount of events going on between now and July that I can’t miss for one reason or another.

June 3 – Brother’s Graduation

June 22-24 – Meeting Girlfriend’s Family

July 6-8 – M13 Prerelease (Weekend at Marshalls)

July 12-14 – Connecticon

Seems easy enough. We just won’t look for events on those days. Next up is to hit the ‘big fish’. These are huge events, and I can’t see anything else interfering with me going to them. Because I played like a madman during the previous planeswalker point season, I have enough points for a single bye to all GP’s, and I have a qualification for the World Cup Qualifier. I generally use www.mtgmom.com to track the dates of important events, so I’ve got that in the background while I do this. It tracks the location of all Pro Tours, GP’s, Star City and TCGPlayer events, which makes it pretty invaluable.  According to that site, the only World Cup Qualifier that I can reasonably go to is in Maryland, and held on the 16^th of June. That’s an open weekend for me, so we’ll slot that into our schedule. I probably won’t win, but it’ll be a fun time, and it’s only a couple of hours drive.

Always check the details of a big event like this, because there might be more interesting things going on. For example, the World Cup Qualifier is a two day event if you make Top 8, so I’ll have to plan to either have a hotel room, or drive there and back if I turn out to make Top 8. Checking the event’s website, it looks like there’s going to be a PTQ on Sunday – so even if I don’t make the Top 8, I’ll likely still want to be there. I’ll plan on getting a hotel room for the night – they have a deal with the event so that it’s less than 100 dollars with a complimentary breakfast thrown in, which is probably cheaper than driving there and back twice, including tolls – and it’s certainly easier on my mind if I don’t need to wake up at 6am to be there by registration.

The other major event on my calendar for this period is GP Atlanta. Pop has agreed to go with me, so we’ll be spell slinging for the weekend in Legacy fashion. I’ve still not 100% settled on a deck, but preliminary results seem to be pointing at a Burn deck. I don’t know legacy too well, so a strong linear deck might just be the best option. This is taking place on June 30-31, but we’ll need to fly out on the 29^th to be there in the morning. Note to self, book hotel, book your plane flight.

The schedule now looks like this:

May 25-27 – n/a

June 1 -3 – Brother’s Graduation

June 8-10 – n/a

June 15-17 – Magic World Cup Qualifier

June 22-24 – Meeting Girlfriend’s Family

June 29-July 1 – GP Atlanta

July 6-8 – Weekend at Marshalls

July 12-14 – Connecticon

We have three weekends free during this period, and with all the travel that I’m going to be doing, I don’t think I’m going to want to do a ton of long-distance travel during those. I check the weekends on MTGMom to find out if anything is really local. The 26^th of May is a PTQ in my hometown, run by my home shop. It’s literally within walking distance of my apartment, so we can add that to the list. June 8-10 has nothing worth noting.  I’d like to have something on June 8-10 so that I’m at least warmed up for the Qualifier the following weekend. MTGMom doesn’t count GPT’s as major events, and so doesn’t list them. You need to use locator.wizards.com for that – search for Grand Prix Trials.

A quick search for premier events on that weekend in my area reveals that two stores are having a double GPT Saturday. I very much prefer Ron’s Comic World for that even though Top Deck Games is closer, though the two affiliated GP’s for either aren’t exactly within travel distance. I’ve got options here, but I’ll leave it up to me on those dates to decide if it’s worth going to. Sometimes you should leave flex in your schedule to account for being tired, sick, or just not feeling like playing Magic. Burnout is a real thing, and you need to take your mental fatigue into account whenever you have major events coming up.

On a lark, I do a quick check for the weekends that I’m not available, and I find something interesting. My brother’s graduation is on Sunday, in New York, and I’ll be traveling up through NJ on the Saturday before. As a result, I’ll be passing by a major event being held in Edison NJ – a $5,000 TCGPlayer Tournament. It starts early in the morning, so if I go and play in it, I can leave as soon as I’m reasonably out of the prize running (or if I win) and head home for dinner. It’s not something I’m married to, idea wise, but it’s certainly a possible thing I could do if I’m in the mood to that weekend.

Also, the weekend of Connecticon isn’t going to be a bust, Magic-wise, because there’s a number of events being held there by Star City Games – including an Elite Qualifier. I’ll most likely play in something, but I wouldn’t want to miss too much of the convention itself, so I’ll make that call once I see the program for the convention.

May 25-27 – Redcap’s Corner PTQ

June 1 -3 – Brother’s Graduation

June 8-10 – (Double GPT Weekend at Ron’s)

June 15-17 – Magic World Cup Qualifier

June 22-24 – Meeting Girlfriend’s Family

June 29-July 1 – GP Atlanta

July 6-8 – Weekend at Marshalls

July 12-14 – Connecticon

Seems like a busy couple of months, but it should also be extremely exciting. Just based on that list, I’ll be traveling to a state I’ve never been to, flying on my own for the first time, playing in two of the biggest tournaments of my life, and all of that wrapped up in a couple of very significant life events. I’m going to be exhausted and running off adrenaline for half of the time, but I couldn’t be more thrilled for the whole thing.

Wish me luck, and check back on Thursday, where I’ll be building a Standard deck from scratch – including sideboard and a few test matches against the top decks in the format. What deck, you might ask? Well, that’s up to you guys! Let me know in the comments section, either here or on Reddit, what kind of deck you’d like to see my construct. I’ll take the suggestion that I like the best, and we’ll see it come to life on Thursday.

Also, a question for the community. I generally have been using Thursdays to write articles on Tournament Reports and Deck Techs, but I've gotten a few comments from people saying that those have gone over their head a bit because they're not as experienced with deckbuilding. How would you guys feel about Tuesdays becoming an introductory deckbuilding series? Again, let me know in the comments - both here and on Reddit.

Top 8 at SCG: IQ with BW Tokens!

I’ll be honest. I didn’t want to get out of bed the next morning.

I'd just won a GPT for Atlanta, had a nice dinner with the girlfriend, and settled in for the night. As is becoming a perennial issue with me, I hated my sideboard from the day before. Despite my win, I was unhappy with my performance against RG aggro the day before. I felt like half of the slots in my sideboard weren’t going to do anything against any decks.

Worst, the tournament was about an hour away by car, and Facebook told me that it started at 1030. That meant that I’d want to be there by 10, which meant leaving before 9, getting up at 830. This was getting to be a production and I hadn’t even gone to bed the night before yet.

I turned off my alarm.

-----

It’s 8am and I’m wide awake. The room is warm – which happens when you both have a couple extra beers the night before and then pass out on top of each other. She’s up too, and she looks at the clock.

“Well, looks like you’re going to the tournament after all.”

Looks like.

I drive up to the shop, just before 10. I figure I’ve got half an hour to root through my commons and uncommons to find some better sideboard cards, plus rearrange the maindeck for a more general meta. The tournament is a Star City Games invitational.

And no one is there.

I pull out my smartphone, check the event on facebook. 1030am-8pm. Seems about right. I wait for five minutes and the store owner shows up.

“Hey,”

“Hey, isn’t there an event today?”

“Yea. Starts at noon.”

I check the phone again.

“It says 10:30.”

“That’s when we open. First pairings are noon.”

The girlfriend finds this amusing.

“Looks like you’ve got time for breakfast and sideboard.”

Looks like.

 I fiddle with the deck for a while, eating a pack of Pop-Tarts: strawberry, with frosting. Anyone who likes another flavor better is just wrong. I pull the Revoke Existences out of the deck. Sure, they’re versatile, but I’m not really using all the spots anyway, and I’d rather use twice as many spots on instant speed removal, if it comes down to that. I add in a couple of Divine Offerings and Ray of Revelation.

You’re still not running any green sources.

Oh right. Wouldn’t want to be an idiot and run a spell I couldn’t actually use. I pull out my phone again, searching for any white card in standard that references enchantments at instant speed. The list is not overwhelming, but I don’t want to mess with my mana base with only an hour or two before a tournament. That’s not the kind of audible that actually ever helps. I look over the cards on the list, not finding anything worth playing, and then I spot one.

“I’ll be right back.”
I rummage through commons, find some, and slot the cards into the deck and shake my head.
"Take a look at this," I tell the store owner.
"That card looks pretty bad."
"Yea, but I think it's right."

I register the following.

Some explanations:

First, I disliked the Angel of Jubilation yesterday. He’d done good work, but he’d never done something that Hero of Bladehold couldn’t have served, and there were definitely times where Hero would have done the job better. I dropped them out of the main deck, only to add them in as I looked around the room and saw a ton of Naya variants. Maybe being able to turn off Pod incidentally would be pretty good. I added one back in.

My earlier search for enchantment removal only turned up one servicible candidate in standard. Urgent Exorcism. This card has got to be terrible, but it serves its purpose. Instant speed enchantment destruction wins the Tokens mirror in ways that sorceries never can. Plus, it lets me have an instant speed answer to Drogskull Captain, which could be relevant if anyone actually played that card anymore. Spirits seems like such a good deck. Why don’t more people run it? Probably corrosive gale. Good thing no one runs that either. Both of those cards hurt me a ton.

The rest of the cards in the sideboard are justified with a  mix of “I guess that could be useful in this corner case” and “This is never going to actually help, but it looks reasonable.” I need sideboarding lessons. I’m god-awful at it. Good thing my game 1 strategy is solid.

Pairings go up, and we’re off to the races. 28 people in the room means 5 rounds, then top 8.

Round 1 vs Ben (Esper Control)

Always watch them shuffle. At a competitive event, you can learn a lot about a person by how they conduct themselves. Ben knew his deck, how it fit in his hands. He was comfortable playing. His mat was this custom-looking two-entwined-dragons thing.  On the other hand, he let me know his deck – flashing me the bottom of his stack of cards while he shuffled. Seachrome Coast, Liliana of the Veil. I couldn’t have gotten a better read on him if I’d seen his deck list. Kids, some advice, don't shuffle with the bottom of your deck pointing at your opponent. He will begin to keep hands that murder you.

We joked around about the die roll for a few minutes before the clock started and we drew our starting seven. I beat on him for a bit with a Doomed Traveler, but we can both tell that my offensive pressure if having trouble punching through his Lingering Souls stall tactics. He hits 5 mana his health on 10, then 6 with his health on 8. Then plays a Ratchet Bomb.

Boom.

I flashback my Lingering Souls and start to rebuild, but he's tapping his mana again. Sun Titan into Phantasmal Image into Ratchet Bomb.

Boom. Ouch.

I scoop shortly after that, and we’re off to the sideboards. I find one card there that seems helpful, and even that appears marginal. If he’s running O-rings, Shrine is probably not as good as I’d hope. Oh well.

Game two, he mulligans, and then keeps the second hand after agonizing over it a bit.

“Island, Thought Scour me, Go.”

He mills two lands.

“Plains, Champion, Go.”

“Thought Scour me.” He mills a third land and a Sun Titan. “Go.”

My eyebrows perk up.

“No second land?”

He shakes his head. “Nope. Seems pretty dumb now.”

Nevertheless, he makes it a fight with a pair of Ratchet Bombs. I’m trying to kill him before he gets back into the game, but he nevertheless gets to 5 mana staring down lethal on my next turn. He taps the deck. “Just a land…” he whispers. I know what’s coming. Ratchet Bomb in the yard, Sun Titan in hand, and me with half a dozen tokens on the field. He lands the Sun Titan and he stabilizes at 5 life.

He draws the card, flips the Seachrome Coast, tapped, and sighs. Game Three.

He’s not in this one. I kill him on turn 5 despite a Lingering Souls as defense. The Champion beats keep coming, and he’s sided out his spot removal. One of the best parts about BW Tokens is the diversity of threats. With Champions and Heros, they need to have spot removal, or you can just run them over. However, that same spot removal is lackluster at best against the 2-for-1 token generation that the rest of the deck is built on. It’s a problem, and I’m not sure what the solution is. Luckily, I’m playing the problem, so I don’t have to deal with it.

1-0   (2-1 in games)

Round 2 – Kevin Stenborg with UW Delver

I went against Kevin last time I was at an Invitational. He was playing RB Vampires and I beat him 2-0, but the games were closer than I’d like, primarily because of Shrine. I’d talked to him earlier, and I knew he was on Delver. I also knew he was dreading the Tokens matchup.

As soon as I walk over to the table, he sees me and hangs his head. Sorry man.

“Let’s try some shenanigans,” he says while he cuts my deck, eight different ways, then takes the top seven cards and puts them on the bottom. “Got any shuffle effects?”

“Nope,” I respond – forgetting about my evolving wilds. “We’ll have to check what they were at the end of the game.

The end of the game is pretty soon after that. My scorepad reads “20-18-11-4-Win”. I don’t know what the sequence of play was, but I never took a point of damage. No idea what it could have been except a not-close game.

The bottom 7 was 2 Champions, 2 Gathers, a Hero, a Lingering Souls, and a Midnight Haunting. No lands. Guess those shenanigans hurt a bit. I sideboard in some Timely Reinforcements, taking out Doomed Travelers.

He does better the second game, but after I Oblivion Ring the first Delver, he’s got second Delver that refuses to flip for 6 turns. I end the game on 9 life, having never played a flyer. Sometimes, that’s the breaks.

2-0   (4-1 in games)

Round 3 – Mario with RB Zombies

When he plays the Diregraf Goul on turn 1, I’m estatic.

“What?” he asks.

“I actually have sideboard cards against you! That never happens!”

He looks a little confused, but we play on.

The first game doesn’t go his way. I start faster than him and he’s on the defensive right away. As a tip, if you’re playing a RB aggressive tribal deck, being on the defensive is NOT a good thing. You should avoid that if possible in the future.

As a second tip, if you’re against a Tokens player, and he has a board presence and a Vault of the Archangel running, you’re probably not coming back. I gained 8 life, then 7 life, ending at 25 when I finish off the first game.

I pull out my Oblivion Rings and bring in the Celestial Purges. I need to maintain some board presence, so I don’t want to side out threats for additional removal, but upgrading the removal I have seems just fine.

This game really slams home how unfair the lifelink on Vault is. I cast 3 spells the whole game – Champion of the Parish, Intangible Virtue, and Lingering Souls (once, not flashback.) He on the other hand, amassed a slew of zombies and a Phyrexian Obliterator. With vigilance, evasion, and lifelink, what should have been a blowout turned into a gentle race that ended with me comfortably two turns from death.

3-0   (6-1 in games)

Round 4 & 5

Because of the relatively high number of draws, followed by a relatively high number of pair-downs losing in previous rounds, the top 4 undefeated people were safe to double draw into the Top 8. I took my time to go and get some Subway and creep on a friend of mine who was playing a GWr Ramp Deck focused around Sigarda and other cool nonsense like that. He ended up at a disappointing 3-2 for the day, but missed the top 8.

3-0-2 (6-1 in games)

Round 6 – Kamikaze

 I’d read about this deck online. It uses Blood Artist and zombies to set up a Killing Wave for a pseudo-combo finish. It’s apparently been making some waves, but I’d never actually played against it in practice. Just judging from what I saw in these games, I think it’s the real deal, but I’d have to play against it more. I suspect it might be a deck with a favorable matchup against us, but we can probably board to kill it effectively.

He starts game one with a Gravecrawler, and I’m already generally pleased because I’ve got a ton of tokens to clog the board up with. Late game favors us immensely in the Zombie matchup, but all that fades when he casts Blood Artist on turn 2.

“What’s that do?” I ask, motioning at the card.

“Whenever a creature dies, I gain one, you lose one.”

“Seems decent,” I respond.

And the game goes on. A few turns later, he’s attacking with a Geralf’s Messenger, which I block and kill with a token.

“I’ll gain two, you lose two, then you lose two more from Geralf’s coming back?”

I look down at the table, then at the Blood Artist. “Each creature? Not just yours?”

“Yep.”

“That card seems nuts.”

“He’s pretty good.” He admits.

I draw for my turn, it’s a Swamp. I’ve got 8 power and toughness in the air, and he’s on 13. If I attack, he’ll be dead in two turns. I have four lands in play. I have a Vault of the Archangel and the Swamp in hand. Then, then unthinkable happens.

“Land for turn,” I declare, dropping the Swamp.

Yep, you read that right.

I stare at the Swamp, willing for it to be the Vault of the Archangel that would let me gain 8 life and be well out of reach of any kind of nonsense. Sadly, my psychic powers haven’t progressed to that level quite yet, and it remains a basic land. I attack for 8 and pass my turn.

He checks his life pad. “You’re at 9?”

“Yep.”

“Blood Artist, Killing Wave on 0?”

“Okay…”

“I’ll sacrifice everything. You take 10. I’ll gain 10?”

“…..huh. So I’m dead?”

“Looks like.”

Looks like.

I couldn’t tell you why I did it. I’d planned the Vault. I’d even not played it early, to goad him into trying to race when I secretly had 8 life more than he thought I did. The game was over – I just needed to actually remember how to play my own cards.

I win the second game with a quick start off a Champion, despite another misplay involving not blocking with a mortarpod, then sacrificing it directly after combat. Taking 4 damage for no reason is the best way to lose games, but thankfully, he draws dead and I beat him.

Game three, I look at my hand. Two Honor of the Pure, a Champion of the Parish, a Hero of Bladehold, a Plains, and two Lingering Souls. Plenty of gas, and a Champion to boot! Oh, it’s a one lander? I’m on the draw. Everything will be fine.

“Land, Diregraf, go.”

I draw. Another Hero. No problem.

“Land, Champion, go.”

“Land, Gravecrawler, Tragic Slip, beat for two?”

Oh no. I draw. Midnight Haunting.

“Pass.”

“Really?”

I look down at my hand and sigh. “Yep.”

“Sometimes your deck doesn’t get there man.”

“Looks like.”

He was wrong. Not about what he said – sometimes your deck just doesn’t get there. That’s true. But I’m willing to say that it’s happening a lot less than you think it does. You’re failing your deck far more than it fails you, and this was an iconic example of it. I’m not the world’s best player. I don’t think I overreach in saying that I’m good, and that I’ll find most of the lines of play that I should be taking, but every so often, I’ll have a match like this. No matter what I do, it seems like I make the wrong play, or the play that runs right into something I knew was there, or don’t take the obvious line like “Block with Mortarpod, Sacrifice before damage to kill your Blood Artist,” or “Don’t keep the terrible one-land hand.”

Unsurprisingly, he crushed me in the rest of that game with a very mediocre draw. I never got him below 20, and never hit my third land. I screwed that match up horribly, and I knew it. What I didn’t know was why.

I still managed to Top 8 the tournament, which was nice. I earned my second Top 8 pin from IQ’s, and I’ll certainly be participating in them again – I’d love to earn an invite to the Invitational one way or another. Still, I can’t help but think that I was *right there*. I win that round, and I’ve got one more against a miracle-y control deck that I think I could beat if I just didn’t overextend too hard. Top 2 drew, and that was that.

And you misplayed and missed it.

Take that, brain. Play better next time. Maybe you’ll learn something here.

As for you, reader, maybe you’ll learn something here too. When you’re in a game, if you remember this, slow down. Think. Look at the cards in your hand and actually use your brain. Look for the line you missed. Don’t just drop your lands like they’re not the important things in your deck. Don’t nod and say “Yep,” when your opponent does something, unless you’re sure you don’t actually want to block with that Mortarpod.

-----

I’ve gotten some questions about a few cards over the last week or so, and I’d like to touch on them.

The Fours

Hero of Bladehold, Angel of Jubilation, and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad made up a trio of cards that are all extremely awkward in Tokens for one reason or another.

Sorin is slow, giving us either a 1/1 useless creature on turn 4, or half an anthem that I’d usually pay half as much for (and get twice the value, if not more.) He can grind out a ton of value against  UB Control – if you can slip him past counterspells – but otherwise, he seems nearly useless to me. I would not play him.

Angel of Jubilation has a lot of promise, and I say that because I think she’ll be great once we get our next rotation and lose Hero of Bladehold. She pumps our team, and she turns off a couple of critical spells (all of which are from the Mirrodin block, ironically, but hey, who knows what’s coming.) Plus, she’s a reasonable threat all on her own that gets bonuses from half our anthems. Seems great, and she is, when you’re winning. When you’re ahead, casting an Angel closes out the game – often giving them one less draw than they’d otherwise have. Plus, she’s very reasonable against removal, often having an immediate effect on the board even if they have sorcery speed removal (and a lot of the instant speed stuff won’t hit her.) There’s only one reason she’s not a 3-4 of in my deck.

Hero of Bladehold is insane. She’s a 3/4, which invalidates just about all the nonblack removal in the game. She gets benefits from both your anthems – her tokens take Intangible Virtue buffs – and she’s easier on the mana than Angel is (with one less white mana.) While she doesn’t have evasion, you generally don’t need it when you’re the most dangerous thing you can do with 4 mana since Jace the Mind Sculptor. Hero of Bladehold is the real deal, and you should all be playing her in your tokens deck – three of, if not four, depending on how many 4’s you want to play.

Blood Artist + Killing Wave

After seeing Kamikaze in action, I’ve got to say that I’m impressed. Blood Artist makes every combat into a miserable experience full of loathing. Zombies can just trade away creatures like they’re nothing, and laugh hysterically as you try to come back. The combo-finish with Killing Wave is just icing on the cake.

If only I had a deck that played tons of relatively disposable creatures that also happened to run black mana for Blood Artist and Killing Wave…

Wait.

Wait, I know this one.

This merits testing. Luckily, I have some people who play magic on tap, and I’ll be prodding them for test games in the near future.

Entreat the Angels

My conclusion on this card is simple. How much are you going to get out of it? Well, I took a look at my games this weekend and counted out how many of them went beyond 7 turns. The answer was virtually none of them. I say virtually because there was a game against control that went past that, but it was during a Ratchet Bomb lock, and so that doesn’t really count. Since my version of the deck doesn’t go late, nearly as a rule, we’ve got to look at this spell for its miracle cost alone, which seems much better. Unfortunately, though, I don’t think it has what we need. I think it misses the cut for the same reasons that Elspeth isn’t in the mainboard. This is a powerful linear strategy. Entreat plays well with the strategy, but isn’t ultimately aggressive enough for use here. Maybe if the deck slows down dramatically for some reason in the future, but as for now, don’t bother.

A Splash of Nature

Something I’ve been thinking about recently has been splashing green. I think that I could do it with little cost, and it would let me run Ray of Revelation in the sideboard, or naturalize. Both of these seem like much better options for the current metagame than Revoke Existence or Urgent Exorcism, but I’ll have to play with it to see. I suspect it won’t be possible to do this and Blood Artist/Killing Wave, and it may be true that neither is actually good enough to improve the main deck.

Thanks for reading everyone. Next Thursday, we’ll take a look at a new brew from AVR – something non-token-y for a change! If you’ve got any suggestions, please throw them in the comments, and I’ll be sure to see what I can do.

First Place at GPT Atlanta with BW Tokens!

It started out as one of those days.

You know the type. It’s that day when you sit there in your car, half an hour early for the event, scrambling to find a couple of sideboard cards because watching reruns of How I Met Your Mother seemed so much more important last night. The clock is ticking, you don’t have any money on you, your gas tank is dry, and you haven’t eaten breakfast.

I find the two Revoke Existence that I wanted, finally, after flipping through about a thousand assorted commons and uncommons. That’s another thing I should do when I’ve got more than twenty minutes to spare. Apparently, having a life makes doing other important things – like Magic - inconvenient.

I get into the shop, which is already filling up. I spot a few of the regulars that I know, and start chatting. Alex is on Tokens today, which is unusual. Alex is one of the better players in the store. He won a thousand dollar tournament about a month and a half ago – plus winning States earlier in the year. He’s probably the biggest worry in the room. I wonder if he feels the same way about me – I don’t have any big wins like that to my name. Lance – who I’m 2-0 against in recent play - is on Esper Control It’s a worse matchup than his previous Delver, but nothing that I wouldn’t be reasonable against. I also spot Bernard, who made Top 8 in the GPT that I took 2^nd place in. A bunch of other reasonable players round out the field of 14. Certainly not a big tournament, but not a soft one either.

 I make a change to my maindeck on speculation after I pick up a second Angel of Jubilation. The card looks insanely good in BW Tokens. I finish my deck list and turn it in with my entry fee.

We’re about to start when the door opens up, admitting Justin and Mike.

Someone chimes in. “There’s the Ringers.”

Justin is good. He’s been on a three week winning spree at FNM’s – not dropping a match yet with RG. I’ve heard tell that Sword of War and Peace is a pretty good card on turn 2. He Top-4’d the GPT, though I never had to play against him. RG is a tough matchup for me. Him being at the tournament worries me a bit.

Mike isn’t much better. He plays one deck, and plays it relentlessly well. Once upon a time, it was Valakut, and he racked up win after win with it before it rotated. He switched to Delver and never looked back. He’s been in the Top-8 situation more times than I can remember, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him misplay. He’s also notoriously against splitting prize. It’s all or nothing, in his books. He’s here to win.

As for me, I haven’t eaten in nearly 18 hours because I’m an idiot, and I got around 5 hours of sleep last night, which isn’t enough for me. It’s going to be a long day.

Round 1 – Justin with RG Aggro

The pairings are called, and I’m matched against Lance, but there’s a repair and I breathe a sigh of relief. I’m hoping to get an easy match in the first round so I can go grab some food. Unfortunately, it’s not to be, and I draw the short straw. Round 1: Your Worst Matchup, Piloted by one of the Best Players in the Store.

In game one, our life totals go in opposite directions. His upwards in small chucks, and mine down in significantly larger ones. I never get him below 20. I guess keeping Anthem-Anthem-Hero and lands isn’t the best idea against an aggressive deck. If he’d been a little slower, I could have attacked with the Hero and activated Vault to bump me back up to near-20, but he kills me on his fifth turn.

Game two doesn’t go much better, except I actually case a few spells. After I forget that Wolvir Avenger is a card and lose a token for no reason, I promptly pass a turn without casting a spell, ignoring the active Huntmaster. I deserve to lose this game just as much as I do the first – and I do in short order.

I walk over to the judge afterwards, shaking my head.

“Time on the round?”

“Forty minutes left.”

Well, at least I’ve got plenty of time to eat.

“I’m going to go take a walk,” I inform the judge. I go and get some McDonalds. Maybe I should eat healthier, but at this point, I’m tired, I’m hungry, I have a headache, and I just want some fries.

I dislike losing. I’m sure most people can sympathize with that, but something that I hate way more is not playing my best. Looking back, the first hand was absolutely a mulligan. When your first play can run directly into their Primeval Titan, you probably shouldn’t keep that. The second game was winnable if I’d actually played it smart and not walked into every trick in the RG aggro playbook. I played the match poorly, but I am not a poor player. That game was NOT me. I sat down, watched a match play out while I ate my burgers, took two Excedrin for the headache, and refocused. Four rounds, top 8. I’m still in this.

0-1 (0-2 in games)

Round 2 – Morbid Werewolves

I disliked this guy. He sat down, took one look at me and bitterly spat out “I really hope you’re not on Delver. That card is bullshit.” I shrug. I guess he went against UW in the first round and it went poorly. I’m not of the opinion that Delver is this monolithic institution – it’s beatable like almost anything else if you’re willing to tune your deck to do it.

I’m on the play without any one-drops, and he starts off with a Young Wolf. Werewolves never seemed like a spectacular deck to me, but I know it’s quick and aggressive and can steal wins if you play into a bad Moonmist. I play an anthem and he follows it up with a Vexing Devil.

“I’ll take the four, thanks.”

“Fine by me,” he responds with a smile. “Hunger of the Howlpack?”

The 4/4 young wolf crashes in, taking me to 12 on turn 2.

“That’s a pretty solid line.” I comment as I mark my rapidly dwindling life total.

I pass my next turn, and he taps the Young Wolf like his life depended on it. I flash in a couple spirits via Midnight Haunting and double block. He balks, looks at his hand, and nods. The Wolf dies, and he tries to put it back in play.

“Doesn’t undie.” I note. “It had counters on it.”

“Oh, really?” I think he genuinely didn’t know.

The game ends with me playing a Hero, followed by two Honor of the Pure and an attack.

“That card is bullshit,” he says.

“It is pretty good,” I admit I’m feeling a little dumb about removing one from my main board for an Angel. Angel would have been little better than a 4 mana 3/3 in that situation.

He gets the same opening in the second game, but an O-ring solves that problem. He plays six creatures that all eventually fall to tokens and repeated Vault of the Archangel activations. He makes a bunch of bad attacks into deathtouch effects. Eventually, I play a Hero that closes out the game.

“I can’t find a Moonmist to save my life, and I didn’t draw any creatures!”

“Good games.” I don’t really have anything more to say to that. Like I said, I didn’t really like this guy.

1-1 (2-2 in games)

Round 3 – Bernard on UW Delver

I’m feeling much better with a win under my belt, and food in my gut. The wonders of modern medicine have cured my headache, and the adrenaline is flowing, which is mitigating the worst of the fatigue. Bernard is a solid Delver player, and I’d generally count on him to not make many play mistakes. Thankfully, I’m doing great against Delver recently, so I’m feeling confident as we shuffle.

I’ve got the Champion into Honor draw, which normally seems really good. Putting early pressure onto Delver is a great way to slow them down a bit. They’ll pay mana for their Gitaxian Probes and just generally be less dangerous.

Of course, that’s all assuming that they don’t play and flip a pair of Delvers in the first three turns. Sometimes you just get there regardless of anything else.

Game two is even less one sided, but in the opposite direction. Champion into Gather into Intangible Virtue has him at 10 on turn 3, with blockers available for the Geist of St. Traft that he plays. He tries to balance out with a Timely Reinforcements, but a Lingering Souls off the top puts too much P/T on the field for him to stop – plus, my tokens are just all bigger than his.

Game three is closer than I’d like, and mostly revolves around him beating me with a Runechanter’s Pike on a Geist while I flew over him. Vault of the Archangel is a champion again as I gain 14 life over two turns to stay alive on 5 when I kill him.

2-1 (4-3 in games)

I’m able to draw the fourth round, because Justin is still undefeated and helps my breakers out a ton. This makes me very happy, because my opponent was Alex, and the tokens mirror is something out of hell. It all comes down to who has more Anthems, and how you leverage that to your advantage. With two main deck Angels, and one vault more than him, I should have the edge in the mirror, but it’s still not something I want to do.

Luckily, a clean draw lets me watch an awesome BW Control brew fight into the top 8 in a spectacular set.

Round 5 Quarterfinals: Esper Delver

Esper Delver is slightly different from the UW version. He’s got a bunch of tokens instead of an invisible stalker package, but he’s much more effective at clogging the board and waiting for a Sword to kill me with.

Game one starts slowly for both of us, with a non-flipped delver beating on me for three turns before I manage to get tokens and anthems running. I O-ring his Sword of War and Peace, and eventually, vigilant fliers take the day.

Game two is scary. He manages to beat me down to 2 before I stabilize in the air. Being that low against someone playing Gut Shot, Vapor Snag, and Snapcaster is always nerve wracking. You want to push for lethal as fast as possible because every draw you give them could kill you. On the other hand, you can’t go all-in because a single flashed in creature, or a vapor snag to remove a blocker, could leave you dead. You run the numbers, and in the end, either he has it or he doesn’t. This time, he didn’t.

3-1-1 (6-3 in games)

Round 6 Semifinals: Justin with RG Aggro Redux

I hope it won’t sound like bragging to say that the top 4 was a stacked set of people. Justin and I paired off, and the other table was Alex and Mike. That is a brutal set of opponents no matter how you cut it – and Mike’s presence means that there would be no splitting of prizes.

I wanted this win more than any in the tournament. He’d beaten me when I wasn’t at my best, and I wanted to prove that I was just as good as he was. I wanted to prove that my deck wasn’t some janky thing he could just walk over.

Game one started slow for both of us, with the first major action being a turn 3 Huntmaster from him, and a Honor of the Pure powered Lingering Souls from him. He flips his huntmaster to kill one token, but I come back with a second honor and the flashback on the souls, shrinking his huntmaster down and giving me a huge flying armada that kills him over three turns of Vault-augmented attacks.

Game two can be summed up with “Double Sword.” There’s not much that I can do against that. If he draws one, I can usually race it, or have the removal for it. The second makes it nearly impossible to handle.

Mike looks over at our match, having beaten Alex in the unfavorable tokens matchup.

“Justin, you gonna lose your streak?”

“Tokens are pretty good man.” He shoots back.

Mike shrugs towards Alex. “Doesn’t seem too bad.”

“We’ll see about that.” I chime in. “It’s a bad matchup for you.”

“Seems fine,” Mike says.

“We’ll see.”

In game three, I overload the ground with one of those nut draws you only read about. Champion into Gather into Champion and Gather into Hero of Bladehold. He tanks for a while before extending the hand.

4-1-1 (8-4 in games)

Round 6: Mike on UW Delver

After beating the much more difficult RG matchup, I honestly felt pretty relieved. I was 4-0 in competitive play against Delver with this list. Tokens are just so absurdly good against it. Every spell they cast seems less powerful than what you’re doing natively, unless they have multiple swords or something else nutty like that. Barring that, they need to either win with a trick – snapcasts and snags on end step to push through damage – or a fast delver and a ton of counter magic.

Game one isn’t close. I crush him with a double Champion draw. He never touches me because his Geist can never attack without dying.

Game two is close, but eventually, an equipped sword goes the distance and I don’t draw enough power to keep my head above water with Vault. Beating with a 2/2 lifelink deathtouch is nice, but not when it costs you 5 mana every turn and you don’t have any other plays.

The third game comes uncomfortably close. While Delver might be a good matchup for Tokens, it’s also an extremely good deck when piloted by a competent player, and Mike certainly qualifies. I end up with six vigilant flyers staring him down, while I’m on 10.

He taps his deck. “So, draw an equipment for the win, or anything else and I die.”

“Pass turn,” I say. He draws, looks at the card, sets it down, and then goes into the tank.

He thinks, and thinks. Long moments.

“Pass turn.” His voice is even. I’m on ten. He has nine power on the board. He’s at one. I don’t think there’s any outs, but my brain is frantic now. I’m checking for everything. I even look to see if he’s got green mana for a fog effect. (Ironically, he does have the green mana off a Hinterland Harbor, for Ray of Revelation flashback, which I personally really like in his deck.)

I untap, upkeep, draw. Survey the board, sandbag a land and go to combat. No effects. Swing. Effects before blocks? Effects before damage?

He flips the Seachrome Coast and extends the hand.

I won.

That’s never happened before.

5-1-1 (10-5 in games)

I’m a pretty nice guy at tournaments. I banter with my opponents, I joke around when we’re rolling to see who goes first. We’re all here to have fun, even if the game is very serious on both sides of the table. It’s nice to be able to smile and laugh. An extension of that is that I’ll almost always offer a split in Top 8 and above. Some people think that’s weak – and that you should always play to win, but frankly, unless the top spot gets something special, I’ve never seen the point to that at FNM level.

I’ve gotten plenty of good finishes, but never first place.

Aftermath

Being a GPT, the prize included just over half a box for me (which turned out to be pretty good) and three byes for GP Atlanta – a fourteen hour drive from me.

I text people, letting them know that I’d won, and the congratulatory texts started rolling in. At the time, I’d figured that the big win here was the Planeswalker Points – 5 wins and a draw was over 50 points towards the byes that I want for GP Philadelphia in the fall. Between this and the GPT Top 4 from Ron’s Comic World, I was nearly halfway to my first bye at the GP I really cared about.

I get a text from Marshall:

“So, going to learn legacy?”

“Fourteen hour drive for legacy? I don’t even have a deck.”

Then a text shows up from George:

“Congrats. We going to Atlanta?”

Gears start turning. I get a text from Pop:

“Sick! So we’re going right?”

The jury is still out on the final verdict, but the more I think about it, the more that a 14 hour drive doesn’t seem THAT bad. I could learn legacy, put a deck together, but if I’m going to do it, it can’t be alone. I’m going to talk to a few of my friends and see how we could work this out, what decks we could field among us. I’m currently qualified for the World Cup Qualifier, which happens to include a GPT for Atlanta on Sunday alongside a PTQ, which should take some of the sharks out of the water.

This could happen, and that’s pretty exciting.

The next day, I went to a StarcityGames Invitiational Qualifier, but that’s a story for Thursday. Check back then to find out how I did!