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.

Gatecrash Mechanics Primer

Gatecrash Previews are in full swing, and I am hopelessly addicted to refreshing the internet just after midnight to get a look at the new goodies that await us with each passing day. Those of you who know me should be aware that my loyalties lay with the Orzhov Church, and their blessings are mighty and sustain me even as they sap the strength of my foes. That aside, however, I am under the impression that some of these other Ravnican guilds have come up with a few more tricks, and I think that we should all take a close look at them, deciphering their varius strengths and weaknesses

A word of warning: I am posting this article three days into spoiler season. These opinions are based on the cards that I feel are likely going to be printed, and the strength of the mechanics themselves. These opinions are prone to changes, depending on cards that are going to be previewed between now and the prerelease.

Boros – Batallion

The first of the mechanics we'll be analyzing today belongs to the Boros Legion. Their newest trick is Batallion, a mechanic that gives you benefits for attacking with three or more creatures.

As Mark Rosewater has said on his blog regarding the entire block, it was very important to them to capture the feel of the guild, and Boros certainly fits the bill on that count. The guild revolves around the city-guard, military feeling, and a communal combat blessing feels both red and white. This mechanic is a flavor home run, and I know a couple Boros players who are very pleased with it.

From a Constructed viability standpoint, this mechanic has many of the same issues that Metalcraft had. That is, it requires a pretty significant commitment to the board. For many decks, attacking with three creatures isn't a common occurrence. Perhaps some kind of Tokens shell could enable it, or a critical-mass stlye aggro deck that presents a strong front that enables Batallion to go over the top, but as a general part of a deck, I'm less than impressed with it.

In Limited, on the other hand, Batallion gives Boros a lot of strength in the midgame, when they're hoping to push through the last few points of damage. When you're not worried about Supreme Verdict and other board wipes, it seems much less likely that you'll be punished for casting all your creatures.

When constructing a Boros deck, try to keep the relative costs down, so you can get your troops to the field of battle early and often, enabling Batallion as quickly as possible in an attempt to overwhelm your foes.

Dimir – Cipher

The Dimir mechanic is the only non-permanant mechanic of the bunch, and certainly the most mechanically complex. A close relative of auras and imprint, Cipher allows you to reuse some of your expended spells – as long as you can keep connecting with a creature. It does require some concessions in deck building to make it work, but it's definitely something that we can work with.

By playing with Cipher, you're making a commitment to at least some matter of evasive creatures, with a special bonus to creatures that are hard to deal with. A cheap, hexproof, unblockable creature comes to mind as a recent example of where the mechanic could go in Standard, and depending on the effects that we see attached to the mechanic, this could be a standard powerhouse.

On the other hand, in Limited, how good Cipher is going to be will be dictated entirely by your creature base, and what you think you can connect with. Repeating spells in Limited is an extremely powerful option for any deck, so the raw power available isn't in question. However, Cipher has many of the same issues that Auras do. The cards are budgeted with their cipher ability in mind – so if you're unable to utilize that portion of the card because your spell-carriers keep getting killed, then you're likely to feel like you're playing with subpar spells.

For the Dimir, though, getting to connect seems less of an issue than with most guilds. Blue and Black have a plethora of effects that allow you to get through to your opponent so that you can get the most out of your spells. Try to always have one creature making it through the front lines, so that your repeatable spells take control of the game.

Gruul – Bloodrush

“Does he have the trick?”

How many times have you thought that in a game of Magic? Regardless if you're slinging spells at a prerelease, or sitting in Top 8 of a Grand Prix, being able to play around combat tricks is a critical skill that we all need to learn. This mechanic – a variation on Kamigawa's Channel – provides a simple answer.

“I always have the trick.”

This mechanic is simple and effective, much like the Gruul themselves. It allows you to discard any creature with the ability for a commensurate increase to power, toughness, and even keywords. This puts combat strictly in the hands of the Gruul, allowing them to dictate the pace of the game based on their untapped mana. I expect a few cards to see Constructed play, given that they're looking fairly aggressively costed for their relative power/toughness ratios, and the addition of Domri Rade to the Red/Green arsenal is certainly going to make creatures with spell-like-effects a premium. The Gruul mechanics seem to marry this idea well, and I'd be shocked if we didn't see a breakout from this guild.

On the other hand, Bloodrush comes with it a cost, and an extreme one at that. While you can use the leverage that your ability gives you to force through an attacker, be wary of opposing combat tricks – or removal. A quick removal spell in response to your bloodrush provides a two for one in the opposite direction, and blowouts like that hurt aggressive decks far more, without the card advantage to make up for it.

Because of this, I expect that Gruul will either be one of the best or worst preforming guilds at the prerelease, based entirely on the playskill of the pilot. The ability to minimize the risk and maximize the benefit of every bloodrush creature is going to be key to doing well with the guild. Make sure that you take into account your opponent's possible actions whenever you plan to lean on a Bloodrush. The Gruul may be portrayed as stupid and simple, but that doesn't mean that you have to be!

Orzhov – Extort

The next mechanic that we'll be looking at belongs to the Glorious, Ineffable, Wonderous Church Of Deals. While everyone paying attention realizes that the Orzhov, in their benevolent (yet fair) rule, are truly the best of the ten guilds, some may need further convincing. To those, the Orzhov offer merely this:

The Orzhov mechanic is the distilled essence of nickel and diming someone to death. With each spell, you drain a bit of their life, granting it to yourself (for an incidental cost). While this ability didn't initially excite me much, despite my loyalties, abilities like it in the past have been powerful.

There is some evidence that effectively spending your mana is the key to winning a vast number of Magic games, and Extort provides an easy mana sink for you to get the most out of every turn. In Constructed, it could (if placed on the right cards) provide a late-game win condition for a control deck. I would expect that it will see play as long as it's not valued too high in the budget – allowing competitive cards to be printed with the ability almost as an afterthought.

My main concern with the ability comes in Limited play. Gatecrash has a number of guilds and draft strategies that reward linear, aggressive play. The Boros and Gruul both seem very aggressive, while the Simic have a powerful lategame with their growing creatures. This array of early game rushes, and late game powerhouses, could overwhelm the Orzhov defenses before they're able to extract enough life to survive or threaten a kill. We'll have to see the quality of aggressive cards at common in the other guilds – or else the measure of the defenses that the Orzhov colors could muster. Either way, the mechanic is a powerful one, and certainly not one to be ignored.

You're going to want to have extra mana laying around to pay for Extort with. I'd recommend adding one land more than you might otherwise choose, to maximize the tax for each card you play.

Simic – Evolve

The final guild mechanic in my writeup is Evolve. Designed as part of the Great Designer Search (along with Batallion), it provides Green and Blue with a method to constantly grow their creatures, and provides fodder for other abilities that key off these +1/+1 counters.

Of the five mechanics, Evolve seems like the one that has the most potential for Spikes. It provides constant choice making, and complex decision trees that allow a good player to maximize the benefit that they get from their cards. Just based on the few previews that we've seen so far, the Simic will have no lack of choices for their games.

In Constructed matches, Evolve will provide you with an ever-growing force, assuming you construct your deck carefully and manage to maintain a reasonable curve of creatures. The potential issue that I see involves the cards being generally slow to work up to their full potential, and often requiring mana expenditure for their abilities. This could mean that the deck will struggle to do all that it wants to be able to, which could cost it some board presence in the early game, potentially putting it too far behind the metaphorical 8-ball by the time that it stabilizes.

In Limited, however, especially sealed, when games can be expected to go a little longer, and decks to be a little less refined, Evolve seems like a powerful tool to make your early creatures relevant through the late game, and your late game unparalleled among the guilds. I know that despite my diehard loyalty towards Orzhov colors in every format that I can play them, some of the early Simic previews have sorely tempted me towards these mad scientists.

One recommendation that my early observations would lead me to is this: Simic will never want for things to do with their mana. Your job is to make sure that you can slake that thirst. Play one land more than you otherwise might in your Simic decks.

Conclusion

While each guild has it's strengths and weaknesses, one of them is surely right for you. If you favor aggressive decks, I'd lean towards Boros or Gruul. For those of you who like controlling options, Orzhov, and Dimir have your back. For simplicity, look to Boros. While Simic seem to rule the complexity spectrum.

Each guild will give you opportunities to out maneuver, out-think, and outplay your fellow planeswalkers. Choose carefully at the end of the month, and prizes will flow to you.

And, as always, may all your spells resolve. 

M13 Prerelease, or "How I Became A Level 1 Judge"

Last weekend, like the vast majority of you, I attended the M13 prerelease. My shop of choice this go-around was All-Stars Collectables, which always manages to put on a good show.

This weekend was a little different from previous ones however, since I’d be donning the mantle of judge for Sunday’s tournament. I’ve been working with our local Level 2 judge – Mike Noss – to get me up to snuff, and while he is a cruel, evil man who deliberately tries to slip you up at every opportunity, he’s also one of the most knowledgeable judges that I have met in my life, and prepared me well. I asked him about working towards becoming a Judge during the Dark Ascension prerelease, and since then, we've been working on and off with practice exams and other quizzes. Playing in high-level events has also helped a bit. Finally, I felt like I was ready (and Mike agreed, thankfully.)

We arranged for me to play in the Saturday Sealed event, and judge on Sunday under a Level 1 named Dave. I’d planned on giving a tournament report here, but frankly, limited match reports are boring as all hell, and my pool was terrible in both of the events that I played. I was only half joking when I told people that Sunpetal Grove was the best of the 12 rares. I battled to a 2-3 record in the first event, and a 2-2 in the second, which was an extremely disappointing finish, but was about where I’d expect given the shallow nature of my sealed pool. Heebs managed to win a side event, which was good for a stack of packs.

It may have been that I should have been more ambitious with my mana, and gone into a third color for better card quality, but two just seems so much more stable. I suppose that’s an argument for another day though.

I woke up bright and early Sunday morning, making it to the venue by 8am since the event was scheduled to start at 10. George, our TO, wanted help setting up the community room that we were playing in. Dealer Booths needed to be set up, as well as the store’s own table. Table numbers needed to be placed, and ice fetched from the local store. Many players don’t realize how much organization goes into having a well run tournament, but George made the whole thing seem like old hat. The one hiccup being that the Mall didn’t open until 10am – and neither would the air conditioning, leaving the tournament venue sweltering.

One of the dealers joked that we should buy a crate of deodorant and give it out as Door Prizes. I thought that was pretty amusing.

The event started a couple of minutes after ten. There was some question about starting a few minutes late, since some players who had pre-paid weren’t there yet, but they all got phone calls or showed up. With all our ducks in a row, we started things off for the 31 player, 5 round event.

Mike was playing in the event, and ended up winning the whole thing with the most insane BW Sealed pool that I’ve seen in a long time. He spent his free time between matches drilling me with rules questions.

Dave gave me a few decks to practice deck-check, and while my speed is a little slow, Mike assures me that will come with more practice. The deck in question being Vintage Oath of Druids probably didn’t help at all. It has even more 1-off copies than most vintage decks. Still, it is something to work on in the future.

Since it was a prerelease, the majority of the judge calls were simple, ordinary things. “Is Prey Upon combat damage?”, “Does Fight take Deathtouch and Lifelink into account?”, “Does Exalted stack if a creature has it more than once?”, “If I kill the source of an ability after it’s already triggered, does it still happen?”, “What if I kill one of the creatures being exchanged with a Switcheroo?”

Pretty benign stuff for the most part. The most complex call of the day involved a misplaced card. A player raised his hand and called for a judge. I meandered over and asked what was wrong – since neither player appeared to have drawn any cards or anything yet.

“So, there’s a pacifism here, and I’m pretty sure it belongs to my friend over there. We played here last round, and it’s in one of his sleeves.”

He gestured to a player a few tables away, so I walked over and asked him to count out his deck. When he came up with 39 cards, I told him to be more careful in the future, asked if any cards in the deck were known, and when they told me no, I shuffled the card in.

His opponent asked me if it should be a Game Loss for improper deck, and I informed him that it would be at Competitive REL, but Prereleases are run at Regular, where there is no Game Loss penalty.

And that’s all for the interesting judge calls. I tested during the first round of Top 8, after Mike and George wrestled with the printer for a while. I managed to get every question but one of them (which I waffled on for ages before ultimately picking the not-correct one.) The test wasn’t especially difficult – certainly about on par with the easy practice exams. I'd discuss some of the more interesting questions on there, but we're not allowed to talk about the content of the tests. I'd encourage anyone to go and practice some of them on the DCI Judge Center.

And just like that, I’m a Level 1 judge – or more accurately, a Level 0 who has passed his evaluation and is currently waiting to be accepted in the system. Still, in the last 48 hours, I feel like a giant vault of information has come flooding out of the woodwork. I’ve been added to facebook groups and mailing lists. I have phone numbers for local shops and arrangements to judge an event already. I’m reading the MTGJudge twitter account, and I find it very interesting to read the articles that they’re posting. I find myself flipping through the Comprehensive Rules on my iPhone (There’s an app called MTGJudge that ALL Magic players should download immediately. It’s incredible, and also includes Oracle Text for every card, plus all the rules documentation.)

For those of you who are just starting out in Magic, or perhaps think that you need a more firm grasp of the rules, I’d encourage you to run over to the DCI Judge Center – http://judge.wizards.com – and take a few of the practice exams. They’ll expose you to rules and interactions that you hadn’t thought about before, and it will improve both your mechanical play and ability to leverage the rules to your advantage in-game. If you legitimately think that you have a great grasp of the rules, check out the hard practice exam.

This weekend, it felt like I took a big step towards the future. I don’t know where I’ll be in five years, but I can certainly tell you that I’ll still be playing Magic and judging tournaments on a regular basis.

On Thursday, we’re going to brew something using M13 cards, and update a few decks that I have built at the moment, to account for the new additions to Standard. This coming weekend, I will be at Connecticon, and will happily be playing Magic a healthy (unhealthy?) amount of the time there. If you’d like to meet up, grab a bite to eat, or even just sling a few spells, let me know.

Always topdeck like a champion.

-Andrew

Innistrad Pre-Release at All-Star Collectables

This weekend, I went to the pre-release for Innistrad, the fall release for Magic: The Gathering by Wizards of the Coast. As is customary, I attended and had a great time. Here's a brief tournament report.

The closest event to me was being held at Redcap's Corner, in Philadelphia, but because my friends and I do monthly gatherings to play Magic, DnD, and other wonderful games like that, I instead went to All-Stars Collectables at the Oxford Valley Mall, about 45 minutes away, near Trenton, NJ.

We walked in at the crack of dawn, almost. Forgive me the exaggeration, but it was a weekend, and I figured that starting at 10am was beginning to get a little insane. I was used to noon-starts, but since the shop owner was planning on running two events, he wanted to start a little earlier. I guess that's why he owns a store and I play at one, because he ended up being correct, in spades.

There were some technical issues with getting started, between making sure the printer was running and signing up the over 100 (!) people who wanted to play in the first event. Our wonderful Tournament Organizer George was on hand, with his beaituful wife providing support and acting as a salesperson. When I went over to buy my intro pack, she seemed like she was doing some pretty swift business. On the other side of the room, we had Joel and his crew, who were the official singles vendors for the event. I'm told they didn't do too badly either, and picked up a fair number of good transactions for the day.

First event started at around 11am, by the time everyone was seated and started cracking their packs. I opened my set of six and admittedly, I was a little disappointed. Not that opening a new set isn't exciting, but I was less than thrilled by what I had opened. From what I'd looked at in spoilers and such, I didn't feel like I wanted to be in green, but lo and behold, there it was. There were just too many good werewolves to ignore, and beyond that, I had about even choice between:

-Red with a good removal suite, but a pretty poor creature base

-Blue with not enough to make it work

-White, with 8 cards in total, most not playable

and the option I ended up going with – Black with some removal and a few evasive creatures.

Taking the evasion to creep some damage through after my green fatties clogged up the ground seemed like the best choice, so I sleeved up the deck and sat down for my first round.

Admittedly, I did not expect to be writing this post, so I didn't take any kind of significantly accurate notes on individual games and rounds. I'll just sum this one up as an overall feel.

First, werewolves are interesting. Since the duel-side cards are kind of the elephants in the room, my opinion is that they're very dynamic, and easy to keep track of. I never found myself missing triggers on them, and everyone I was playing with felt that they were a very intuitive answer to them. Some of my opponents used the checklist cards, though I opted to sleeve up the originals. The only issue that I noticed that was detrimental at all was having to de-sleeve and re-sleeve so often in more constructed situations. A full-on tribal werewolf deck seems like it would be a hassle to switch back every two or three turns. Other than that, however, they played wonderfully. It was an interesting mini-game to switch them how I wanted, but it was never insurmountable. Overall, I liked it.

Morbid played well too. I found myself actively refusing to block, taking the damage rather than risking activating morbid at an inopportune time. It made me afraid of death in the games, and that's a wonderful translation of flavor to game mechanics.

Hexproof also seemed to fit here very well, giving me a real feel for the inevitability of certain creatures. The removal all felt powerful, but conditional. Bomb rares still felt powerful, but less overwhelming than normal. Making the format slower than m12 meant that I could effectively hold removal for the 'real threats', which mitigated their effect once they hit the field.

My first four rounds went 4-0, putting me in a great place to get into the top-8. I needed to win one of the last two rounds to seal my spot. Unfortunately, I lost the fifth round to an onslaught of blue and white flyers, and the sixth round to Garruk. A sad end to the first round of the day, but my friend Marshall managed to make it into the top-8 despite his round 3 loss (to the person I faced in round 6, actually. He also made top-8.)

The second sealed started just as the top-8 was running, and I made sure to get my name on the list. I opened a fairly solid pool, where I could have chosen any color but red. I ultimately decided to go with White/Black on the strength of the evasive creatures, even though there was only a single rare in those colors – an Elite Inquisitor. I was rewarded with a 3-0 record, and then an intentional draw into the top-8.

This sealed had three rounds that were very memorable for me, so I'll recount them a bit.

In the first round, I was paired with someone who unfortunately didn't have nearly the grasp of the rules that I did. He pulled a Liliana, but he was misplaying left and right. Even though the games were incredibly one-sided, I tried to keep the mood light-hearted so he wouldn't be discouraged. We had a bunch of laughs, and I got a handshake and a smile at the end of the game.

Playing against someone who's worse than you is always tough. You want to win and advance, but you don't want to hurt someone's feelings – it is, after all, a game, even if there's 100 bucks worth of boosters on the line. That round left me feeling a bit somber.

Second round, however, was a bit of a wake-up. The first game was pretty routine, with me winning on the strength of my flyers. Game two, however, was normal until my opponent got a rather large looking treefolk ready to beat me in the face. I counted a bit, doing the math, and figured that I could kill him before he could break through and counterswing for lethal. I even had a counterspell for backup. I swing out, and proclaim “So, that's it?”

He blinks at me, confused. “I'm at four.”

I look down at the spindown on my side of the table. He's at two by my count. He missed the swing last turn for two damage, by my reckoning. That said, his spindown still read four, and I didn't really have any way to prove one way or another. I all of a sudden realize why so many competitive players count with a pad – because it takes priority over a simple die. Without any method of deciding who had the correct count, I consider calling over a judge. That's probably the correct move, but I don't understand if there's anything they can do to correct the issue. I look over at the clock, and see fifteen minutes left, then make the snap call.

“That's fine. You're at four.”

He looks a little penitant, and protests that he doesn't want to be a (bad word redacted), but I assure him that it's fine. On his turn, he gains fifteen life, putting him safely out of range of my flyer and kills me on the backswing.

It bothers me, but I know it's not HIS fault. He clearly didn't miss the damage deliberately. We go to game three quickly and continue playing. The game goes down to the wire, but I manage to push enough damage through to kill him with less than a minute before turns.

I don't quite know if I handled that situation how I should have. There was a disagreement, but I didn't want to seem like 'that guy' by calling the judge – who knows me and doesn't know the guy – and ask him to make a ruling on the matter. I know George would have been impartial, and probably would have ordered us replay the game. (Since there's no other way to find an equitable solution, that I can see, at least.)

I gave him the match because I was fairly sure of my ability to win the third match, but the whole thing still left a sour taste in my mouth. I'll be bringing a pad next time, to avoid something like that.

We have to evacuate the community room at this point, because it's after 9pm. We go back down to the shop proper and resume the third round, with the shopkeep calling out that the soda is on him for the rest of the night. Thanks Warren!

The third match was one of the most technical games of magic I've ever played. It involved staring down a Bloodline Keeper in three successive games, and managing to win out over it despite having nothing on the field that could directly answer it. It was a long game of trying to fight tempo games and not fall behind while still maintaining enough offensive pressure that I didn't lose to a transformed Keeper. Winning that round, and against someone I knew from FNM's as a great player, gave me a nice ego boost – and happy day, my opponent managed to get into Top-8 on the strength of his breaks, so good news all around.

Because it was after 10pm, the top-8 decided to split the prize fund amongst us, rather than playing it out. We split to 9 packs each, and the shop closes. Total of about 14 hours of magic, all said and done.

I also did a healthy amount of trading, picking up a bunch of the utility lands that I needed, as well as a playset of Mentor of the Meek. By the end of the day, I had half a play set of Stromkirk Nobles as well, which makes my RDW nearly complete, and my Puresteel Deck 'finished' and ready for testing to prepare for the next constructed tournament I'm able to make it to (which depends largely on free time, sadly, since my Saturdays are notoriously terrible for the rest of the month).

Innistrad is the first set to have me really excited for the mechnical side of things. Ironic that as a long time player, I was more interested in New Phyrexia from a lore standpoint, but Innistrad really has me sold on a blending of the mechanics with the flavor of the set.

Overall: Favorable impression. Would buy again.

Till Next Time Everyone,

-Andrew