Aceman on Preparing for the Pro Tour

by Aceman | posted at 2010-03-08 01:03:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, Pro Tour, PT, Aceman, Charles Gendron Dupont

 

The Pro Tour. The highest level of competitive play. The culmination of tens of thousands of players spending hundreds of thousands of hours competing using the most prestigious TCG ever made.

 

And you’ve finally made it.

 

Of course, this was long overdue. Everyone agrees you’re the best player in the area, and you’re confident if you just put in enough time drafting and playtesting, you’ll be on the train, baby. You know what comes next: gathering up all the best local players, putting together a gauntlet of the current format, fine tuning the top lists. Breaking for lunch. Drafting three cases of the new set, nitpicking over pick orders and breaking down archetypes. Finally, you’re ready.

 

I hope you’re not surprised when you play the “best deck in the format” to a 2-3 performance, get “unlucky” in draft (can you believe he had double Marsh Casualties??) and go home with a bag of dirty clothes and a nice 231st place finish. No justice, right? Surely you prepared the best you could.

 

I’d disagree.

 

“Oh really, Aceman? And what do you suggest, playing Tempest drafts online and throwing together Burn lists 12 hours before the tournament?”

 

Yeah, that sounds about right.

 

The Reality

 

The Pro Tour, in its current configuration, is attended by roughly 400 players. The invitation list looks a bit like this: Any player with 15+ current year pro points, the Hall of Famers, the top 100 total DCI rated players, the last Pro Tour’s top 50, some Grand Prix top finishers, a whole slew of PTQ winners, and Dave Williams.

 

Try to realistically evaluate where you are in that group. If Randall McRandomson, the non-biased statistician from California were to try to calculate your finish based solely on your DCI rating and invitation origin, what would he guess?

 

Being realistic can go a long way towards helping you get a better finish. If you’re an average PT player playing an average Jund list after playtesting has shown that, on average, this is the best performing deck, expect an average performance.

 

Drafting is no different. The best players in the game realistically claim no more than a 70-30 edge over the PT field, even with extensive knowledge of a format. That’s a 4-2 record. Chances are, not only will every player in your pod be used to sweeping the competition at home, but they’ll also have done their fair share of drafts in preparation for the event.

 

What can you do?

 

My Recommendation for Constructed

 

So far, I have used two different approaches for constructed at a Pro Tour level, and both have been very effective.

 

The first approach is the one I used for Pro Tour-Austin, and netted me a 7-2-1 record. After being quite undecided as to what to play in the format, I waited until the last minute to make a choice. This would allow me to, hopefully, choose my deck based on the most current metagame possible.

 

The night before the PT the expected decks were Zoo, Dredge, lots of blue based control, and Hypergenesis. Inevitably, there would also be some new breakout decks, so I wanted a deck that could quickly win the game. After a good 20 minutes of consideration, I concluded that Burn with a strong sideboard against dredge and Hypergenesis would be a good choice.

My matchup was favorable against stock Zoo as well as blue control, I could board in 7-8 cards against Dredge, and at least four versus Hypergenesis.

 

“But wait a minute Aceman… how can you know what’s a favorable matchup if you haven’t played a single game?”

 

I looked at the decklists on paper and drew a conclusion. If you think that’s impossible, consider the following exercise: Write down a few decklists, and mentally play them out against each other. Compare to real results. Practice until you’re good enough to get roughly the same results by looking at the decklists as you do when playing the decks out against each other. Wonder why you haven’t thought of this before, and cry about all the hours you’ve wasted. Here’s the point:

 

Shuffling 60 cards and drawing 7 of them gives you no information you didn’t have just looking at the decklist.

 

In about 20 minutes, I put together a solid list against the expected metagame. Notice that to get a good metagame prediction, I actually had to wait until the night before the Pro Tour to make a deck choice. So what did I do all those weeks before the PT?

 

I played Magic. Lots and lots of Magic. Tempest drafts, money draft, cube, sealed, grab bag, whatever. I spent my time killing my opponents in a variety of ways, in a variety of formats, to hone my skills, in the hopes that I would never miss a damage. I prepared myself for the unpredictable. 

 

The second approach is the one I used for Pro Tour-San Diego. This one is much riskier, yet much more common. Essentially, I tried to break the format.

 

When trying to break the format, I like to follow a certain recipe I’ve come up with. It goes something like this:

 

4x Proven busted card

4x Underrated, but played card

Xx Cards from the new set

-x Blank your opponent’s answers

20+ lands.

 

Throw everything together, and hopefully it’s good. After a few failed deck ideas, this one stuck:

 

4x Proven busted card (Noble Hierarch)

4x Underrated, but played card (Time Warp and Garruk)

Xx Cards from the new set (Jace, the Mind Sculptor)

-x Blank your opponent’s answers (Make Path and Bolt terrible)

20+ lands. (Creature lands!)

 

That was the core of the deck. Four Hierarchs didn’t seem like enough, so Birds of Paradise doubled them up. Rhox War Monk and Lorescale Coatl would provide early bodies. Sphinx of Jwar Isle and a few counterspells and Bant Charms rounded out the list, and the deck was done.

 

Now comes the traditional playtesting everyone seems so fond of, with one large caveat: If the deck isn’t performing well, scrap it and start over. We’re not looking for a 60% win rate here, we need to demolish every stock list and rogue deck thrown our way.

 

After a few weeks of tweaking, the final list was very close to the original list, with Calcite Snappers taking over for Lorescale Coatl, since that thing was eating too many Lightning Bolts. (In retrospect, Leatherback Baloth would probably have been the best creature for the job).

 

The Pro Tour results were acceptable. My personal record was 6-4. The deck’s communal record was close to 50%, which is very good considering the playskill and preparation effort of the four players running the deck.

 

Which method is better? Trying to break the format can have bigger rewards, but it’s more time consuming. Waiting until the night before means you’ll make a great metagame choice, but it means you have to do some serious last-minute work. No matter which one you choose, it’s also sure to cut into your draft time.

 

That reminds me…

 

My recommendation for Limited

 

Don’t call your draft buddies. Don’t order that case of Worldwake. Please, PLEASE don’t read any “drafting with the pros” articles or common pick orders.

 

Instead, go ahead and open up Magic Online and get in a draft queue. Any draft queue will work. Tempest, Mirrodin, Zendikar, it doesn’t matter. What you’re doing here is becoming accustomed to drafting. Draft two drafts simultaneously if possible. Draft like it’s your job, and you’re getting fired if you lose. Do ten drafts a day. Draft until you’re sick of drafting, and then keep drafting.

 

If you recognize every card by artwork and it feels like you have to wait an hour between each pick, you’re on the right track.

 

You want your decisions in game to become more automatic. You want to easily recognize when you should be trading and when you should be racing.

 

The more automatic your game actions become, the more mental strength you can devote to the game’s specifics, like memorizing your deck for example.

 

Once you have that down, time to learn the format. Since everyone will have the same general knowledge of the set, what can you do to put yourself above the competition?

 

You need to disagree with common opinion, and be right. 

 

Here are three Worldwake cards that I think are much, much better than warranted by their usual pick order:

 

Stone Idol Trap – first pick over almost everything.

Razor Boomerang – playable, even good, in almost every deck.

Twitch – I will play as many as 3 of these in my blue deck.

 

As long as most readers disagree, then I still have an edge.

 

Good luck in preparing for your next Pro Tour! 

 

Aceman

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