Here I am again, kids!
I’m back with the column you guys all loved as much – back when I was still on the train and all – and I hope that nothing has changed now that I am off it.
Yeah, that’s right… I am basically done, as far as the Pro Tour goes.
The last two years on the PT have been horrible for me. I feel I have lost focus, enjoyment, and drive to keep succeeding at the highest level. This is not the first time this has happened. However, all is not lost… Trust me, I do plan on getting back to the top.
The main reasons for my decline are:
The Disbanding of the Dutch Pros
We used to be a band of merry men that, together from our little corner of the world, would try and dominate the world of Magic. This has changed, and made me care less.
My Growing Dislike for Random Travel
I love travelling, and I love visiting friends around the world. What I hate is going to a city, staying in a hotel and convention center for two days, and flying back home. This means I especially dislike going to Grand Prix tournaments, which leads us nicely to…
The Inability to Stay On The Train Without Going to Grand Prix Tournaments
Back in the days when pros simply attended each and every Pro Tour event, performing reasonably well at each and slightly better at one in particular, the pros were set. This year, with the Team Pro Tour virtually handing out zero pro points to speak off, and with only four other Pro Tours to visit… it meant that people had to play at Grand Prix tournaments in order to ensure they had the points needed to stay around. As I mentioned above, I dislike the GP circuit… so there you go.
My Friends Quitting the Game
The people I enjoyed hanging out with the most lost interest in Magic… which meant I didn’t try as hard anymore.
So what am I going to do?
This is the first official day of my Return to the Game of Magic. I haven’t played much since Worlds. I haven’t written, though I have been reading. I needed, and took, an extended break. The reboot of this site – with the introduction of the column system – and the fact that I still don’t feel I am done playing this game… this means I am going to give it another shot.
As for the new title to my column…
If you guys have ever seen the TV-Show Entourage, you may already have drawn comparisons between my good self and one of the main characters… Johnny Drama. Here’s a rundown of our similarities…
He used to be good. I won a PT.
He was paid a steady salary on Melrose Place. I was on the Gravy Train.
He can’t get a job. I dropped off the Gravy Train.
He begs for handouts. Can I please do coverage at the next Pro Tour, fair Wizardsfolk?
He goes to auditions to get back on the screen. PTQs much?
Add all this to the fact that he is a worn-out veteran of the game who dispenses sage advice to his up-and-coming little brother…
Okay, so I don’t have a brother in the game. You guys will just have to do.
It may not fit perfectly, but I like it, so hence, the new title.
So what can you expect of me, as far as this column goes? It will basically be the same basis as before: you guys send me questions, and I’ll give you my honest answers as far as it goes. I am no longer on top of the PT ladder, but this does not change what I know about the game. (There are some changes, of course, regarding the content. There’ll be fewer secrets, for one. I am one of you guys again, battling it out on the PTQ circuit, and this means I can talk about relevant stuff whenever I need to.)
I’ll have more opinions too, as I have more of a reason to care about stuff now that it’s fun again. This means that if I feel like Planar Chaos is the laziest set I have ever seen, as far as Design goes – which I do – I’ll just say it.
What it boils down to is this: it’s still the same column. It’s just no longer an “Ask the Pro” thing. It’s more an “Ask the Grizzled Veteran that Wants Another Shot” thing. You know, something they could make multiple movies about if it was about boxing…
With this in mind, I am once again asking all of you guys to start sending me those questions! The address is the same: [email protected], and the need is still there. I still have a bunch of things left over, but it would be awesome to start with fresh questions again.
It’s good to be back.
Here we go!
The first email is one by Sy Johnston, and it’s the type of emails I am loving at the moment. It’s not just a question… it’s a nice little excuse for me to rant.
Hey Jeroen.
Haven’t seen one of your articles up for a while, but I did see you post in the forums. Did you run out of questions, or did you get tired of the column? Hope you’re just busy traveling. Anyway, I do have another question for you.
Not so much traveling here, buddy… more being stuck and done for a while, like I explained earlier.
When you do your testing for various Constructed formats, do you just test online? If you do cardboard testing, how many proxies do you use? Do you sleeve the decks that you are testing, and if so, how is your sleeve situation? Do you have to keep using old sleeves to test so many decks?
I love testing online, as there is no physical way to get as many paper games played as you can on Magic Online. You don’t need to shuffle, and the best thing is that when you want to change cards in your deck, you can do it quickly and efficiently, and try them out immediately. The big problem, of course, is that you need to have all the cards. Some people have everything available, but formats like Extended make it virtually impossible to gather all the online cards and resources.
If you do test online though, make sure you always have an opponent you know is good. Results in the various casual rooms don’t mean anything, and are mostly bad testing. If you do want to do anything, at least try the eight-man queues
As for paper testing, the way we test the most. We’ll use as many proxies as is needed to test. This means we’ll have decks with no proxies, decks with a couple, or even all-proxy decks. The worst mistake you can make is not test certain cards or combinations just because you don’t have them available. If you want the best possible deck, you cannot limit yourself in this way.
We always sleeve, unless a deck is all proxies, because it speeds up shuffling and testing a great deal. It also helps to distinguish all the decks from each other by color. I buy new sleeves for every tournament I play, as the last thing I want is a game loss for marked sleeves. This means I always have plenty of sleeves to test with. I’ll even use old and beat up sleeves, and at times mixed colors. Sure, if someone so desired they could easily cheat this system… but if you cheat in testing, then something is definitely very wrong with you.
Thanks for your time and I hope to read another one of your articles in the future. I liked how you always had an unbiased opinion.
I bet your thinking that the Time Spiral block is looking pretty boring, considering almost all of the cards are using old ideas or are straight up just the same old cards. I think it’s kind of boring too, but next time I go to build a deck that Planeshift is legal in, I might be thankful that my color now has access to cards I would normally have had to dip into another color for.
Sure, that’s one way of looking at it… But like I said in my intro, I really feel like the current set is just as lazy as it gets. From the cards I have seen, at least 100 of them have no original ideas whatsoever. Yes, it’s a nice gimmick and all, and some cards do look awesome. But were we really waiting for a White Phyrexian Boon, or a Blue Primal Clay? I sure hope this future Timeshifting gives us something good, because lord knows that if this set didn’t have Damnation it would be a complete dud. And I am not even sure Damnation is good for Magic… but that’s a different subject altogether.
Next up: a mail regarding Worlds, from Jeremy Fuentes:
Hello Mr. Remie,
I have a few questions today, all pertaining to the upcoming Extended PTQs. Based on Frank Karsten’s "Online Tech" article, and from the results of Worlds, it appears that Boros IS indeed the deck to beat for the Extended season. Given that, and his implications in the article, it appears that "Boros tuned to beat Boros" would be among the more popular decks being run…
Despite this question being a bit out-of-date, what with the surge of TEPS and everything, I still feel Boros is the best deck out there. It is just so incredibly consistent, and so good at what it does, that it will definitely be my first choice for deck to play in the upcoming PTQs (We get them a little late here).
“Boros tuned to beat Boros” is a virtually identical strategy to the one you ran at Worlds (to great success, might I add). Obviously it was a fine choice. My first question is: what led you to decide that THIS was the deck to play (as opposed to a B/G deck with Pernicious Deed)?
As most of my readers will know, the first Extended deck I tried out for Worlds was, of course, any version of B/G.
I tried regular Rock.
I tried Flow Rock.
I tried Gifts Rock.
I tried Aggro Rock.
None of them were good enough.
Sure, I could tune each of them to beat a certain part of the field, but I never could make them beat a random field, which is what we were expecting. Even worse, I could never ever get myself to a winning record versus our standard Boros deck. Our stupid, random, thrown-together, gauntlet Boros deck. As a matter of fact, nothing really beat it.
At that point, we decided that Boros was the best deck. We decided to work on that as our main deck, and never looked back. The deck was the best we had, and I still think it is the strongest in the field.
Since you have the experience tuning for a proper meta (as seen by this deck) I was wondering if you have any tips or general strategies for the "Boros tuned to beat Boros" MIRROR MATCH? (as it’s bound to happen) Do you think that the tech will even go that far? Or is it too much of a stretch to think that far ahead?
You mean if I have a plan to beat all the decks that plan to beat Boros decks? Well, those are just your random, general, standard metagame decks… right? Like Rock, and stuff? The problem is that Boros will be around, and you just have to be able to beat it. Even Boros decks that are tuned to beat Boros are still basically just Boros decks. This makes it so hard to fix.
If you mean the pure mirror of “anti-Boros” Boros decks, there is something you need to know about what we found out in testing. No matter what cards you board in the mirror, it doesn’t really matter all that much. The matchup is all about, in order of priority:
1. Sliver Knight
2. Mana
3. Other pro-Red men
4. Sideboard cards
5. Grim Lavamancer
This means that you can board as much as you want, but still fall short of plan 1 and 2. That’s why we chose the package we did. Cheap, efficient, focused… and the best plan with cards like Soltari Priest and Silver Knight.
The Extended metagame is fairly diverse, so I don’t want to go too far into the "beating the deck that beats ‘the deck to beat’" mode. But from my little testing, it DOES appear that majority of the decks can’t get over 50-50 versus Boros. However, at the same time, I don’t want to be facing 75 card mirror matches all day (like in Kamigawa Block Constructed)…
This is exactly what we found out, and sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. If you can’t beat em, join em… all that jazz. (Wow, am I Cliche Boy here!) I am going to play Boros at my PTQs, and hope that my play skill (all that’s left of it) is enough carry me home.
I appreciate your input on this. Though I have been playing competitive Magic for over a year, it’s nothing compared to your years of experience. I’m not trying to kiss ass, but I just want to let you know how much I value your opinion (as well as the opinion of many other Pro-Tour veterans). Thanks!
You’re welcome. I hope I helped, despite the fact that I didn’t give you any precise answers.
That’s it for this first edition. Expect more questions and answers next week, as I am expecting more emails at [email protected].
Laterz kids,
Jeroen, a.k.a. Johnny Drama
PS: Are you all as excited as I am that Jamie Wakefield is writing again? I know I seem like a giggling fanboy here, but having read everything he has ever written, I am just thrilled he is back in the game!