PT Nats 2011 - Tournament Preparation

Despite my mediocre performance at PT Nats 2011 I decided to write a tournament report. I encourage all Portuguese players to write more articles or tournament reports and here I am showing an example. As long as you have something to say, and I do, plus a website willing to publish what you write, which I don't but I have a Blog I guess that will do. ~

My Nats 2011 tournament report starts in September 2010. After Pro Tour Amsterdam I returned to China for a new job which killed any chances to play Magic. I skipped the whole Block of Mirrodin 2, Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia. I did however planned to play M12 Core Set for Limited for about a Month since there was a GP in August in my "hometown" of Shanghai, a Limited GP. I had already made plans with Magic and non-Magic friends to take a week off work and be in Shanghai with them the week before or after the Grand Prix.

To my disappointment, things changed, due to some circumstances in China and in Portugal I was requested to leave China as soon as possible and stay the whole summer in Portugal. When I say as soon as possible, it means I was on the waiting list for the next available flights during the summer season. There went the GP and all the plans I had.

That however opened another window, I would most likely arrive just in time to compete at PT Nats, the question was, Do I want to play PT Nats? I had never done a draft of the current block, and the last time I played t2 I was Bloodbraiding into Blightning and redirecting the damage to Elspeth, Knight Errant. Luckily for me, two things happened. Our Nats was scheduled for after the M12 release, which meant everyone had 2 weeks to prepare for a new draft format, and Jace the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic were banned, it didn't meant a new constructed format, but at least it reduced my disadvantage of catching up.

My playtesting started still in China. I work from 7.30AM till 16:30. In Portuguese time that means 00:30 AM till 9:30AM. The only person from my contact list who was online during the whole night was Goncalo Pinto Madcat. We talked about the format and played some MWS games. Madcat was convinced that Garruk 2.0 was going to be the nuts, the new keycard of the format, everyone would be playing 4 of, or at least he would. At the time I knew nothing about Standard, so I believed him and with that information and after reading all the Red cards of the format I made a Land Destruction deck. I tought that if the key card of the format costs 5 mana, attacking the lands was a good idea. Plus the deck played like a Mono Red aggro, and it had a oops I win card, Tectonic Rift.

God draw would be. Turn 1 Goblin Guide (18), turn 2 Kiln Fiend (16), turn 3 Staggershock your guy (10), turn 4 rebound target you (8) Tectonic Rift attack for lethal.

However the Red creatures didn't hit hard enough except for Kiln Fiend, so eventually I shifted into this list.

4 Goblin Guide
4 Steppe Lynx
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Plated Geopede
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Staggershock
4 Tectonic Rift
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Terramorphic Expanse
Mountains and Plains

I was very happy with this deck. I think it's the perfect deck for Tectonic Rift since the creatures hit very hard, and everyone is tapping out in this format. Then something happened. Someone played Timely Reinforcements against me, which made me have the "Is that for real" look.

Arriving in Portugal

I landed in Portugal on July 15th at 3:00AM with 8 days to go before Nationals. Less than 12 hours later I was already cracking my first M12 pack. But let me first talk about the scenario I found in Portugal.

I started my preparation on MSN with Madcat. He is a good friend who happened to be Online at the same hours I was. He is a very capable Magic player, one of the best of our country, and I like to listen what he has to say and playtest with him. He gets mocked all the time, because he has been Marcio Carvalho #1 apprentice for like 7 years. His game did get better by getting close to him, but still far from the Master. I will talk about Madcat later in some other post, for now the relevant thing is because of his Master/Apprentice relation with Marcio, playtesting with Madcat in Portugal means the following main core.

Marcio Carvalho
Goncalo Pinto "Madcat"
Tiago Fonseca
Pedro Pereira "Rossa"

Some of my best friends are in this group.

There is another playtesting group which also has some of my best friends, it's sort of the remaining Team Next Level members plus some old school guys, so Let's call them New Team Next Level until they come up with a name by themselves.

Narciso Ferreira "Goon"
Vasco Bonifacio
Manuel Luis
Frederico Bastos
Helder Coelho
Pedro Reis

Problem is, there are persons from Marcios group who don't speak with persons from Next Level, the situation even got a bit physical last year. Plus, Marcio and Fred Bastos they like to be annoying to each other just for the fun of it, and their new funny thing was keeping information secret from each other for Nats. Now if there are two persons to which I talk openly about Magic are Marcio and Fred Bastos, so the situation became a little awkward.

There was also Mauro Peleira. Mauro is also a good friend and very strong Magic strategist. We often talk about Magic related stuff, and he helped me prepare for many tournaments which he wasn't even attending or profiting from it. He wrote some articles for international websites, including Starcity and I believe he mentioned me in most of them either as an example of a situation or story or whatever. Some readers might think that he wanted to captivate audience or make a point by name dropping me. which is false. I owe him lots of things in Magic, if there was ever a book like 100 most influential Magic players in your carreer, Mauro Peleira would be on mine. What happened was, while I was on China still unsure of attending Nats I messaged Mauro and said, "I might need a decklist and the cards for it to play Nats". Mauro answered: "Ok".

His playtest group has the following core:

Mauro Peleira
Joao Andre
Igor Barreiras
Andre Mendes

They are 4 friends from the Mem Martins suburban area of Lisbon who play together. I playtested with them for Nats 2010 and I felt very well prepared. These guys always have an edge in Portuguese constructed tournaments, even when they play stocklists. They often show up with different decks matching personal playing styles and they will have good performances. I compare their presence in Portuguese constructed Magic, to Your Move Games in the USA back in the old days.

But now I didn't wanted to be shipped a decklist anymore, I had one week and I wanted to be active in playtesting, to contribute and to help. Problem was, subway to the train station, plus train to Mem Martins plus from the station to their places took too much time to be done everyday twice a day, and it put time constrains on my returning hours back home.

For Portuguese Magic I usually don't use the concept of a playtesting team. I have my friends, with who I like to play, chat and hang out and I prepare with them and whoever else shows up at where we're playing. Only this year, the plan of Magic friends from the Lisbon area wasn't going to work due to some rifts caused by misunderstandings, silly attitudes or overreactions.

Friday, July 15th

At 4:00 AM before going to sleep I talked to Madcat on MSN and we left open the possibility for me to go to his place for the weekend, then to his area local store play some Constructed games, crash at Madcat's for the night then play the M12 Release on Saturday, and play some more Constructed afterwards. However due to my long travel, and to Madcat weird sleeping hours we were both unsure at what time we would wake up, so we decided to talk it over after we wake up.

I woke up a couple of hours later, waited until after lunch for Madcat, but he never log in online. I also didn't felt so much to go far away, his place is outside Lisbon and you need to cross the river by boat. Meanwhile I heard of a draft starting in Lisbon that afternoon, with Frederico Bastos, Narciso Ferreira, Tiago Fonseca, Marcio Carvalho, among others, but more important with my friends from both opposite groups. I talked my way to be invited for it, and Marcio Carvalho offered himself to bird the draft and let me be the 8th.

What do I mean for "being invited". A Portuguese singles dealer bought 6 Boxes of M12 and offered to let us draft during this period to prepare for Nats. It's not like you show up and pay the draft fee. You draft for free, and afterwards you separate all your cards by rarity and return them. Sleeves are a must, and I personally consider to be rude if you are invited for these drafts and don't sleeve.

Invited also meant the drafts were played at non-Magic place, but perhaps the best place I ever played Magic in Portugal. It's a members only association, a small cozy place with some tables to play Role Play and Board games mostly. It has a bar, a small catering service and sometimes they run events like Quizz nights. However the owner is good friends with some old school Magic players who were into Role Play, so he let us playtest for Nats there. I would like to thank everyone for being invited for the drafts and invited to the association.

First draft I opened Aegis Angel. Ended up with a decent WB aggro deck topped by the Angel and two Serra Angels, with some Black removal. The mana wasn't so good as usually happens with WB, so many double WW and BB. I won rounds 1 and 2 by close 2-1 that could go either way, and 2-0 the finals against a better deck by nut drawing him twice.

After dinner, we ran a second draft, I first picked Garruk 2.0 which is ridiculous enough for me to force Green, which isn't that hard actually since everyone avoids it unless they open a bomb.I ended with a GR deck with a Fireball as well. I won the first two rounds, but Garruk only showed in the finals. Game one I played Garruk on turn 4, could have been turn three but he killed my elf. I made a token, next turn played a 5/6 and drew 5 cards, eventually won. Game two he kind of has me locked with a Call to Grave, but mid game I draw Garruk, and start making tokens every turn, until I made ten 6/6 tokens.

The night ended with everyone saying "Same time tomorrow? Don't be late". Since I've been invited to draft here, invited to show up at the association and between drafts I was playing games with their Constructed decks and typing the results on their database, I felt I that I was accepted and would be playtesting here for Nats. Great place, great friends, free drafts, gamer's paradise?

Saturday, July 16th

someone: "Who won the drafts yesterday?"
Me: "I did"
someone: "Which one?"
Me: "Both of them" (smirk)

Yup, it's these little things I miss the most when I'm not active.

For the third draft I opened Bloodlord of Vaasgoth. So many bombs in M12. Second pick I took Cemetery Reaper. Ok, so with two picks only I have a Vampire Lord and a Zombie lord, but both cards are good by their own. Third pick I took Adaptive Automaton, and I got a good feeling about this draft. With 3 picks, I already had, 2 Vampire Lords, 2 Zombie Lords, and a Zombie or a Vampire to go with them. Later in the draft I got a Call to Grave, and for the first time I played with Zombie Infestation. The deck was nearly Black splashing White for Pacifism and 2 Assault Pegasus (added value for Adaptive Automaton).

I easily won Round 1, and could I be keeping this winning streak for long. It did seemed so, looking at this deck.

Round 2 was the most interesting. Game 1 I'm heavily mana screw, but played Zombie Infestation with my 2 lands, so instead of discarding on my end step back to 7, I can discard to make a Zombie. This is also gaining me time, since opponent is not attacking, as I can make 3 Zombies from Infestation to block. When I drew my third land, I'm very very behind on tempo, so I feel I can't cast my cards one by one. I played land and Cemetery Reaper and discarded my hand for Zombies. I can now make one 3/3 Zombie from Reaper every turn, and one from Infestation every two turns. It wasn't enough, but it was close and interesting. Game two I won with Call to Grave, Game three I have once again Call to Grave but he has one last remaining creature, a big flyer I can't block. Last turn he needs to draw a creature to sac to keep his flyer alive and he does. I did won the final round to end 2-1 with this draft.

Fourth draft I finally went into Blue for the first time with a first pick Mind Control over Angelic Destiny. I ended with an agressive Blue/Red deck, with 3 Phantasmal Bear, Phantasmal Illusion and Phantasmal Dragon. There was a Lord of Illusions in the draft but I didn't get it. I split the first two rounds, and play Frederico on round 3 to see who goes 2-1. His deck had Alabaster Mage, Crimson Mage, 2 Gideon Lawkeeper, 2 Goblin Bangchucker, so I lose the first game and have to side out all the Phantasmal creatures, leaving me with a very sub optimal deck. I won the second but lost the third, being grinded out by his Druidic Satchel.

Draft 5, was depressing even tough it looks very good on paper. It's a white weenie, with 2 Gideon Lawkeeper, Vanguard Elite, 3 Stormfront Pegasus, 2 Armored Warhorse, 2 Griffin Rider, multiples of Sentinel and Assault Griffins and most important 3 Guardian's Pledge, splash of Fireball. Playing with it, you just feel underpowered when facing better guys, and you run out of gas much quicker than everyone else. One game I just scooped on turn 4, I had two or three creatures on the table, one more in hand, and I knew I didn't have enough gas to battle against his 6 cards hand. I ended 1-1 with this draft and didn't play the last round to play Constructed.

So from 6-0 on Day 1 of testing, to 4-4 on Day two.

Sunday July 17th, Monday July 18th

The place was closed these two days as well as the local store, so I just stayed home looking at the results of SCG and Japan Nats. Based on them, I predicted the metagame for Nats the following week to be 15% Caw Blade, 15% Valakut and 12% Tempered Steel. Since I only had a week to catchup one year of Constructed Magic and we were drafting twice a day, I decided I couldn't afford much time to get a big picture, and just stick myself to playing one of these 3 or my Boros.

I liked our Valakut decklist, it's really straightforward, no removal, no cute things, it's all ramp or monsters. List was something like:

4 Explore
4 Rampant Growth
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Primeval Titan
3 Inferno Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
3 Green Sun Zenith
3 Summoning Trap
2 Harrow

What I like about this deck is, what are you gonna do on your turn three? Because I will most likely have 6 mana on turn four, and from there you're close to dead.

What I don't like is, because I never played with the card Valakut Molten Pinnacle before, I missed lots of interactions, and I would often fetch the wrong land or pair of lands, and do small subtle mistakes. It took me while than I would like to make really small decisions in Valakut, something which I wasn't happy with, so I put this deck as my Option 4, behind all others.

Meanwhile I burgled Marcio Carvalho's 75 card decklist for Nats. Caw-Blade with Emeria Angel and Consecrated Sphinx. I opened two MWS applications and run some games vs myself. 14-6 for Boros pre sb, 18-2 for Caw Blade after. Yes, Timely Reinforcements keeps red decks in check no matter all the quality burn spells available for now. Played some more games with Marcio's Caw Blade, and it was losing to Valakut and Steel.

In my view, the metagame had 3 tier 1 decks, the three I mentioned before, and something like 8 tier 1.5 decks. When your deck loses against 2/3 of the tier 1 and it's 50% against the other, it can't be a good choice. I addressed this concern to Marcio on MSN, here's the conversation we had 5 days before Nats.

Me: Bla Bla Bla, decklist not so good, loses in important matchups Bla Bla Bla.

Marcio: it's my decklist, and I'm not gonna change a single card out of the 75. You want to play it, play it, don't want to play it, don't play it, just don't bother me cause I'm busy playing Cube drafts 1 on 1.

Me: Have you played against Valakut and Steel at least?

Marcio: Uh... I think I have the other day. I won. Easily.

Me: I think it's not as simple.

Marcio: If you're afraid of losing, then don't play Magic. Bye, and don't bother me, cause I'm busy doing things way too cool and totally not related to Magic, which by the way I don't care a single bit.

Tuesday, July 19th

Limited: tried a bunch of wacky decks, including a UB Mill which killed more opponents by attacking 4 times with Harbor Serpent than milling. Another one where I first picked Call to Grave to try and see how broken it could be, and another draft where I went 4 color Green. I 2-1 with all of them, never starting 2-0.

Standard: Most of the guys were leaning towards Tempered Steel, because it had good game pre board vs the other decks. I liked a mono white version with no Glint Hawk and no Ornitopthers. Everytime I landed a Tempered Steel on turn 3 I won, 100% of the times. Everytime I didn't the deck was underperforming. That and the fact that I would probably not get the cards made me abandon the deck.

Wednesday, July 20th

I warned the guys the day before that I would be arriving late, maybe at dinner time. I had somewhere to go. I went to Marcio's place, where some guys were staying for the week to test. My conversations with them on MSN weren't very productive, as usually happens when 3 or 4 guys were there playing. Marcio's sister opened the door and invited me in. I head across the hall to Marcio's room and I'm warmly welcomed with a: "Why didn't my sister told you we already left?"

After some talking and exchanging impressions based on what we played, it seemed that Marcio and Pedro Pereira disagreed with some of my opinions. I did however raised questions on Madcat who had found the same problems I had, and later with Tiago Fonseca.

We went to the local store where Marcio played cube 1 on 1 all the time while saying you guys are non sense I'm not changing the list. After some games and brainstorming, me and Madcat changed the decklist to something very similar to what we would end up playing. We cut all the expensive stuff, the biggest casting cost was now Hero of the Bladehold. I also added a couple of Deprives now that we got rid of the big casting costs.

The list I had when I left Madcat.

4 preordain
3 spellskite
4 squadrow hawk
4 mana leak
2 Deprive
4 Blade splicer
3 Oblivion ring
2 dismember
3 mix and match of Sword of Feast and Famine or War and Peace
4 Hero of the Bladehold
1 open slot (Spell Pierce, Into the Roil, 4th Sword)

First thing Marcio said after I left: "So what changes did you guys made?"

Thursday July 21st

Standard:

I guess I'm kind of set on playing Caw-Blade after eliminating the other possibilities, either because of the existance of Timely Reinforcements, the need to have a Tempered Steel on the table on turn 3, or the many subtle things with fetching lands with Valakut.

That meant I had to start scrambling for the cards, a big thanks to Vasco Bonifacio for half of the deck, and to Nuno Amorim and Jordao Pereira for the other half. Narciso Ferreira, Mauro Peleira, Madcat and Sergio Ventura also contributed with one or two cards each, so I had a deck ready, altough a deck in which I had no faith as I was losing so much in so many matchups.

Limited:

I warned Frederico Bastos, with only packs for two more drafts before Nats, it was time for me to start drafting seriously. No more White weenies, Phantasmal decks, Mill decks, theme decks or wacky decks.

I started with a huge dillema, Sorin Markov or Flameblast Dragon. I agonized on this pick for ages. They both have the same casting cost and require a color commitment.

I think creatures are the worst card type in Magic. I also think Planeswalkers, despite being good for marketing, were bad for game play because the card type is way too powerful. Despite being easier to deal with Flameblast Dragon (also not that many cards who will deal with him), and Sorin Markov not having summoning sickness, so he will do something even if he dies, I went with Flameblast Dragon. I think Flameblast will end the game if you untap, while Sorin Markov might not. I'm probably wrong because everyone I asked the pick said Sorin Markov, except for Marcio.

Second pick I got passed a Sengir Vampire, oh well, you had to choose between 50-50, Red or Black, I choose Red, and it landed on Black. Final pack I opened Rune-Scarred Demon and I passed to the same player I passed Sorin Markov, so yeah definitely bet on black.

I did end up with a very solid RW agressive deck, and I won the draft without swinging a single time with Flameblast. Only time I played it, it was Mind Controled.

Friday July 22nd

The least action packed day. Did one draft, a non spectacular Green/Black deck, with a Druidic Satchet, went 3-0 with it, which at least allowed me to end the draft sessions with a "I told you I was going to start drafting seriously again" to Frederico Bastos.

Drafts recap:
3-0 (BW aggro)
3-0 (GR Garruk)
2-1 (Zombie / Vampires Bw deck)
1-2 (Phantasmal creatures UR aggro deck)
1-1 (white weenie)
2-1 (UB Mill)
2-1 (First pick Call to Grave deck)
2-1 (4 color Green, 2 Rampant Growth, 2 Manalith deck)
3-0 (RW aggro Flameblast Dragon)
3-0 (GB average deck)

Nats is split like 4 small 3 rounds tournaments, Standard, Draft, Draft and Standard. You need 9-3 for Top 8 which means you have to win a mini tournament. Given that I wasn't satisfied with my deckchoice, and given the results from the 10 live drafts, I figured I could maybe with some luck 3-0 one of the pods. After all 40% chances of 3-0, 40% chances of 2-1 and 20% chances of something going very wrong. Of course these numbers are very unreal, but at the time I did believe that at any random pod of PT Nats my chances of 3-0 were better than the mathematical 12,5%.

The rest of the day I spent mostly silent thinking to myself about the numbers of the cards in my decklist and sideboard numbers and plans. I'll give you my decklist and sideboard on my next post where I'll write about the tournament itself.