I have been playing MTGO a lot, and watched other writers discussing their online testing. I know MTGO is a lot of fun, and a great option when you can’t play the real thing, but is online testing really useful? I figured I would check it out. I built an extended deck, and have taken it for a spin in the various MTGO play areas.
As a reference, I am a good, but not great, player. I can expect a wining record at a PTQ, but require a lot of luck to make Top 8 and cannot realistically ever hope to qualify. I’m too sloppy a player. My deck (Green/Black Aggro, with Bob) is also suboptimal, mainly because I don’t have the lands to make it seriously competitive.
This means that if I win consistently in any room, the room should not be considered a meaningful test-bed for tournament-caliber decks.
The first area is the Casual Play: Constructed Games: Casual Decks room. I talked about taking the old version of my deck into this room last time, and about blowing outs the competition. I decided to build a more casual-friendly version, splashing White for Worship and Armadillo Cloak. Here’s the current build, which contains all the Fetchlands and Ravnica duals I own (I can’t open them to save my soul.)
G/B/w Four of a Kind = Tuned Deck
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Phantom Centaur
3 Dark Confidant
3 Troll Ascetic
3 Vinelasher Kudzu
3 Llanowar Elves
3 Sakura Tribe Elder
2 Withered Wretch
1 Viridian Zealot
3 Putrefy
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Armadillo Cloak
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Worship
1 Living Wish
1 Windswept Heath
3 Swamp
6 Forest
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Llanowar Wastes
2 City of Brass
2 Temple Garden
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Plains
2 Brushland
Sideboard:
1 City of Brass
1 Withered Wretch
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Genesis
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Razormane Masticore
3 Smother
2 Naturalize
3 Duress
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
The deck has three paths to victory. The first is Vinelasher Kudzu, pumped with Fetchlands and Sakura-Tribe Elders. The second is Troll Ascetic and Worship. The third is Armadillo Cloaks and Swords on Phantom Centaurs and Birds. None of those options are going to be particularly effective against Heartbeat or Slide decks, but it should be fine against most beatdown.
The “Casual Decks” room has a default of single games, and best two-of-three matches are rare. For single games, the sideboard is only relevant for Living Wish. In the casual room, I sometimes join existing games, but usually created my own table with the note “testing extended tourney deck.” I figured that might scare off the most casual of players, which is fine.
I lost one game early. I had both my Armadillo Cloaks in hand, but when I sacrificed my Sakura-Tribe Elder, I realized that I had not yet added any Plains to my deck. I had Swamps instead. Once I fixed that problem, I won every single game I played in the room. None were even close.
The Casual Decks room is great for casual play and fun decks. It is not a reasonable test-bed for tournament decks. I faced a number of cards that I would not expect in a PTQ, and certainly not at a Grand Prix or Pro Tour. I would not even expect cards like Spy Network, Ceta Sanctuary, Rabid Elephant and Breath of Life at Friday Night Magic.
Time to move on.
The “Casual Play: Constructed Decks: Tournament Practice” room is where I would expect more tuned decks and better players. As I mentioned last week, you see more matches than single games in the tournament practice room. I’ll play half the matches with the G/B/w version, and half with the G/B version. I expect the G/B/w version to get crushed – the mana does not work without more lands, and the deck has only a pair of Cabal Therapies for disruption. Also, the sideboard needs further tuning.
G/B/w Playtesting:
In my first match, I faced a Combo deck and had a mulligan-into-color-screw start. He comboed, then conceded from the match. I guess he didn’t find testing against me worthwhile. I don’t even remember what he played – probably Heartbeat. It was a standard Tier 1 archetype.
The second match had me facing a mono-black Death Cloud deck- pretty much a straight Mirrodin/Kamigawa Standard throwback, but with the addition of Chainer’s Edict. I started out mana-screwed: just two land on turn 8, when his Death Cloud crushed me. I tried to recover. After sideboarding in Duress and Naturalize and so forth, I mulliganed to five looking for anything useful, but never saw any sideboard cards. I did make one significant mistake mid-game, but I’m not sure that would have swung the match. He powered out a Death Cloud, and I could not recover in time. The three-color version is not great against Death Cloud – then again, why worry about mono-black Death Cloud in Extended?
The third match was against an Isochron Scepter deck. I call these Scepter Chant, although Lightning Helix is a much more common imprint target. He had all the luck this match: I guessed his deck early and fired off Cabal Therapy naming Isochron Scepter turn 3. I saw a hand with two Scepters, Fire/Ice, Counterspell and Exalted Angel. I flashed back Cabal Therapy and he countered. Next turn he dropped a third, top-decked Scepter and imprinted Fire and Ice, and topdecked another counter for my Putrefy two turns later. Game 2 was about the same – his topdecking was insane, mine was not.
The fourth match in the tourney practice room was against an “interesting” deck that put Slagwurm Armor on Carrion Howler, along with Grimclaw Bats and Lightning Elemental. When he attacked with an Armored Howler, I let him spend eight life, then Putrefied the Armor. He was mana-screwed both games, while I was beating down with a foil Bird of Paradise wielding a Sword of Fire and Ice and wearing an Armadillo Cloak. Kudos to him for trying, but I felt like I was kicking puppies in this match.
The fifth match was against Confit, with a pretty standard version of Red Deck Wins 2005. Game 1 he beat me down almost to zero, while frying my birds with Lava Darts and bashing my life total. However, I eventually got a Phantom Centaur, which is tough for his deck to deal with – and next turn I dropped an Armadillo Cloak, which he cannot deal with at all. Game 2 he brought in Genjus, playing one on turn 1. I was reduced to trading a Troll for a Mountain on turn 3, but I had four mana and a Viridian Zealot on turn 4. We did some tricky stuff for a while, but I played Phantom Centaur and Razormane Masticore… and he was unable to recover. Sword of Fire and Ice (and pro-Red) on the Phantom sealed the deal.
Because one match ended in a concession, I played an extra match. I mulliganed to six, then started beating. My opponent was G/W/b, splashing black for Dark Confidant and Putrefy. I dropped a fast Worship, while he developed with a bunch of creatures. He drew an early Confidant, then various pieces of equipment and put an Armadillo Cloak on a Bird of Paradise. Over time, he got a Sword of Fire and Ice, and a Jitte, and began killing my creatures. The game ended with him Putrefying my Genesis, after killing my other creatures. I had seen 25 cards, never pulling a Troll or a Sword to put on my Centaur. He had seven cards left in his library, and three Confidants in play. Had I drawn a single Troll, or my own Jitte, or a Putrefy for his Bird, or managed to kill my Genesis earlier, I would have won. He conceded from the match rather than play games two and three.
The G/B/w version of the deck is a blast to play. If I get a few more lands, and maybe a Loxodon Hierarch or two, I expect to play it frequently. Now, however, it was time to switch back to the more competitive G/B version (decklist below).
Back into the tourney room, and Confit wants another match. I join and tell him I have a new deck. He does, too. Now he’s R/W/G, with Trolls and Armadillo Cloaks of his own. I’m fast, and beat him to seven, then my Troll starts bouncing off his Troll. I find extra creatures – he finds burn. I draw Jitte first, and it gets a lot of counters. Finally, one of my Birds lives into an attack phase, grabs the Jitte and it’s all over. Game 2, I curve out with Bird, Kudzu (burn victim), Phantom Centaur and Razormane Masticore. Razormane eats his Kird Apes and swings, but he covers it with an Armadillo Cloak. Finally, he’s at twelve, and I can beat for thirteen with the Masticore, Centaur and an Elf. I do, we congratulate each other on some fun games – then we are both surprised when Masticore does First Strike damage. This, of course, means Armadillo Cloak resolves before he dies. He draws a couple Lightning Helixes to stay in the game, but that is not enough.
The next match is against Bishop, playing a Rock deck with maindeck Oblivion Stone. I’m faster, and have Putrefy for the Stone. I also manage to get a Sword on a Troll, and he is dead very quickly. Game 2 is about the same, and although I make a mistake (I am just not a good player), but it looks like I can recover and he concedes with the comment “your deck beats mine about 80%.” I don’t know if I would like to play out game 2 – or play game 3 – if I were in his shoes.
The third match is against Vangaard123, who is playing a Heartbeat deck, but one with Hunting Pack for the kill. He also runs the Future Sight/Sensei’s Divining Top card-drawing engine, and plays Temporal Fissure. I talked about this exact matchup in my previous article. I won this match, doing pretty much the same things I described before.
The fourth match is against Olorin, with Land Destruction. Game 1 I mulligan twice, and he plays seven Stone Rains, Molten Rains and Pillages by turn 9. Game 2 is the similar, including the double mulligan, but I have some lands and mana critters. This time he has nothing but burn. I gamble on turn 5, when I have only four mana available, and play a Troll. He has two cards in hand, and one is a Pyroclasm.
I play another match, against a deck that opens with back-to-back Floating Dream Zuberas. I try a Cabal Therapy naming Second Sunrise (I have seen a Zubera deck in real life), but see Meloku, Auriok Steelshaper and Yoshi. Okay… I guess. I kill his Sword of Fire and Ice and win game 1 fairly quickly, and he concedes from the match.
I open another match request, and this time I face a G/W weenie deck with Jitte and random Ravnica cards, like Veteran Armorer and Centaur Safeguard. I played my own Jitte, then a Sword of Fire and Ice and smashed him to five. He conceded from the match.
Okay, with last week’s information, we have twenty-plus matches of data. For comparison, I’ll use my experience, backed up a table of the Top 64 deck information from Grand Prix Charlotte. GP: Charlotte had a wide range of decks, indicating that the format is still quite healthy and varied, but it still defines a clear set of Tier 1 and Tier 2 decks.
Here’s Charlotte’s breakdown, from the Wizards coverage:
Friggorid: 11
Boros Deck Wins: 8
Heartbeat Combo: 6
Affinity: 6
Rock Variations: 9
CAL: 3
Tooth and Nail: 2
U/W Control: 2
G/W Aggro: 2
Scepter Chant: 2
PT Junk: 2
Psychatog: 2
Rift/Slide: 1
Others: 5
Here’s what I faced in this room:
Friggorid: 2
Boros: 1
Heartbeat Combo: 3 (two with Future Sight and Top)
Rock Variants: 4
Scepter Chant: 1
Affinity: 1
Goblins: 1
Zoo: 1
Red Deck Wins: 1
Elemental Bidding: 1
Quirion Dryad: 1
Land Destruction: 1
Death Cloud: 1
Slagwurm Armor: 1
Zubera / Steelshaper: 1
GW Veteran Armorer: 1
I played four Tier One decks – the Friggorids, one of the Heartbeat Combos and Boros. I played another half-dozen that were either Tier 1 but missing cards, or just bad versions (Future Sight / Top / Hunting Pack Heartbeat combos.) I also played a number of strange, interesting, but totally noncompetitive decks. Based on these numbers, and my other experiences playing in the room, I see the breakdown as follows:
Quality opponents playing decks worth testing against: 25-30%
Decent opponents playing competitive but Tier 1.5 to 2.5 decks: 30-50%
Extended decks being played for fun or by kids: 30-40%
This may vary by time of day, and the quality may be falling as Extended season recedes into the past, but that seems to be pretty much par for the course.
Overall, I note that I am winning close to 75% of my matches in the tournament practice room. I am winning. I am not a good player. My goal at PTQs is to come out with a winning record – and that is typically the best I can do. However, in the tournament practice room I’m winning, and doing it with a marginal deck that plays multiple Cities of Brass because I can’t get real lands.
Something to think about.
If the competition in the various Casual Play rooms are not going to do it for you, the next option is to play Premier Events. These come in two main flavors: eight-man events and larger organized tournaments. The downside of the eight-man events is that they are single elimination, so you can end up paying 2.5 tickets per game if you lose. The downside of the larger events is that they are held only occasionally – often at inconvenient times. They also take a long time to finish – I rarely have enough spare time to compete.
Extended Tourney Number One
I entered an Extended Premier Event on 12/27/05. The event started at 2pm, my time, so I had to blow the last of my vacation for the year. Staying home playing Magic when I could have been at work reading briefs – I hope you all appreciate the sacrifices I make to produce these articles.
I logged in, clicked “join” and I was out six tickets. The tourney ran six rounds. I got a free Braingeyser for entering, so the cost was actually a bit less than one ticket per round. It’s considerably less if you make Top 8, but that’s not going to happen. Just before the event started, however, I scored another City of Brass, Sword of Fire and Ice and a third Dark Confidant (I’m into pain). It’s just minutes before the event, so I dropped, wedged the cards into the decklist and rejoined. Changing your deck just before an event – always a smart move.
Here’s the list going into the event:
Four-ofs Equal Tuned Deck v. 3.2
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Dark Confidant
3 Troll Ascetic
3 Withered Wretch
3 Vinelasher Kudzu
3 Phantom Centaur
3 Sakura Tribe Elder
1 Viridian Zealot
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Putrefy
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Living Wish
1 Windswept Heath
7 Swamp
9 Forest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 City of Brass
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
Sideboard
2 Naturalize
3 Duress
2 Smother
1 City of Brass
1 Withered Wretch
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Genesis
1 Eternal Witness
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Phantom Centaur
Note that I am playing every copy I own of all these rares (and Putrefies, Smothers, etc.) The only exception is the fourth copy of Troll Ascetic, which I cut for Bob. Yes, the deck could be better.
Round 1: Daega: Tooth & Nail 0-2
Game 1 I beat him down a bit, and cleared his hand with Cabal Therapy. The turn before I killed him he ripped Moment’s Peace off the top, then ripped and played Tooth and Nail to get Triskelion and Mephidross Vampire. The stack got silly, but in the end he killed everything but my Troll Ascetic, while my Zealot and a Putrefy kill his creatures. I recovered, but he ripped another Tooth and Colossus plus Sundering Titan were too much for me.
He comments that this is a bad matchup for me. Maybe… I’m not too sure. I side in Duress and Phantom Centaur for… I can’t remember.
Game 2 I mulligan a one swamp hand into Duress, Elder, Elf. I get more lands, and no gas at all. I Duress and see the UrzaTron, but Duress and Therapy clears the rest. Then I commence Elf beatdown. He draws Tooth and Nail on turn 6 and goes for Mephidross Vampire and Triskelion. I draw no answer, and when he Tooths again, I concede.
Round 2: KitzuneNinja: Balancing Act 2-1
Game 1 I won going very long. He had Balance, but I had speed. I beat him down, and he had to Balance without being able to cast Terravore early. Later, he had the mana and Terravore, but I floated Putrefy mana and killed it. I did screw up once and let Anurid Brushhopper phase out before a Balance, but my hoard of cheap creatures meant I could recover faster than he could and Phantom Centaurs held the day, since he could not draw enough cards to make the Hopper hop.
Sideboarding: +3 Duress, +1 Centaur, +1 Genesis, +1 Witness, +1 City of Brass, -3 Wretches, -2 Jittes, -1 Elder, -1 Swamp.
Game 2 went very long as well. He Balanced three times, and when he finally dropped the Terravore, I had no answer. I saw over half my library and never saw serious gas, Duress or Therapy all game. Game 3, however, I opened with Duress taking Balancing Act turn 1, played Dark Confidant turn 2, then just crushed him with Vinelashers and fast beats while clearing his hand with discard at the same time.
Dark Confidant = card advantage = some good.
Round 3: Lakdec: Affinity 2-0
Game 1 I got a fast Jitte and used Jitte tricks to negate the three Ravagers, two Cranial Platings and two Ornithopter he played by turn 5. Viridian Zealot was huge here.
Sideboarding: +2 Naturalize, +1 Zealot, +1 Centaur, +2 Smother, +1 Witness, -4 Therapy, -3 Wretch
Game 2 he opened with Vault, Arcbound Worker, then Ornithopter, Cabal Therapy naming Deed (as if – but I had played my foil bird, so he must have thought I was much richer than I am). He saw my hand of 2 Smother and nothing, so he flashed back Therapy, but sacrificed the Ornithopter instead of the Worker. After that, I ripped Dark Confidant. Eventually, my card advantage produced Blinkmoth Nexus, Putrefy and a Jitte, and I decimated his board. I just plain outplayed him, which raises some questions about his play skill.
Round 4: Princess Clara: Affinity 1-2
Game 1 I smashed his slow draw, and my Vinelasher Kudzus were bigger than his Enforcers.
Sideboarding: (see above)
Game 2 he ripped Cranial Plating, and Blinkmoth Nexus knocked me to four life on turn 4. I almost stabilized, but ended one turn short. Game 3 was all mine – I eventually had Troll with regeneration mana, a 5/5 and 6/6 Kudzu, and a Bird of Paradise with both Swords attacking uncontested. I had the game in hand, but completely screwed up – I clicked past my second main phase without playing any of the Elves in my hand, and was one blocker short the next turn when he attacked with multiple creatures and Ravager in play.
I started this project to determine whether the quality of players in MTGO is comparable to the average PTQ competitors. Well, in this case, I was the MTGO player, and I just completely threw it away.
Sh**.
Round 5: dseay: Astral Slide 2-1
Game 1, he dropped Lightning Rifts on turns two and four, and had a Wrath when he needed it. The match was over very quickly, without me ever seeing a useful creature or spell. I did see multiple Putrefies.
Sideboard: + 3 Duress, + 2 Naturalize + 1 Zealot, +1 Wretch, +1 Genesis, + 1 Witness, +1 City of Brass, -1 Living Wish, -1 Troll, – 2 Jitte, – 2 Elf, – 3 Kudzu, – 1 Forest, – 1 Putrefy.
Note: The City comes in when the Wretch does, if I am not concerned about quick beats. Mana consistency is more important than the pain. Kudzus leave because Slide and counters don’t mix. Putrefy stays if I see Loxodons, but I didn’t, and he played a lot of his deck.
Game 2 was very short, as I hit with Duress and Cabal Therapy, then powered into Centaurs on turns three and four. Game 3 was much longer, but Withered Wretch and Genesis pulled it out. Wretch was huge, and the turning point was probably my eating his Life of the Loam, as well as the dead Eternal Dragons. The games were long and hard, but Genesis provided more threats than he had answers.
Round 6: Manu Chao: Control Rock, 0-2
He was playing classic, old-style Rock. I was never in it. I mulliganed both games and had no gas. Game 1 I drew three Birds and two Elves, and he had Pernicious Deed. Game 2 was about the same. No point in wasting much time on this – you will never see his deck played much anywhere. The Deeds are ridiculously expensive online, and the deck is simply poor in the current real-life metagame.
Final result: 3-3
Summary
We had about 35 people start the tourney, but I did not get an accurate count, nor did I stick around to watch the Top 8. Sorry. During round 1 I tried to replay the first game of all the other matches, to see what was being played. I wasn’t able to get everything, but here’s what I saw:
Tooth and Nail: 4
Ichorid: 4
Heartbeat: 3
Affinity: 4
Boros: 3
Mono-Green: 3
Goblins: 1
Other / Strangeness: 5
In general, this tournament looked like a typical PTQ. A few players had the cards for the best decks (e.g. Ichorid, Heartbeat.) A few players were playing tier two or outdated decks (e.g. Erayo Affinity.) Some players appeared to be pretty good- others made mistakes (like me.) The deck breakdown is similar to that of GP: Charlotte.
One difference I did notice was that more players appeared to have trouble finding the cards they needed. Several decks seemed to be missing lands, or newer tech cards. This is not only true of cards that have always been impossible to find/unaffordable online (like Pernicious Deed), but it also looked like other players were (like me) playing suboptimal lands. In real life tournaments, the good players are far more likely to be able to borrow the cards they need, and this is less of a problem.
Richard Feldman recently wrote about the evolution of his Tog deck during the Extended season. He talked about adding cards like Haunting Echoes and Cremate – cards that can be tough to obtain on MTGO. I didn’t see anyone playing that sort of tech, and I think the large number of Affinity players may be a result of them not having cards for better decks. Affinity may be good, but it is not in the same league as Ichorid.
The Premier Event larger tournaments appear to be a good playtesting resource, if you can afford both the cost and the time. This event ran six rounds, and lasted at least that many hours, not counting the Top 8. In the Casual Play: Tournament Practice room I would expect to be able to play two to three times that number of matches in the same amount of time… and for free.
The eight-man single elimination events might be viable for playtesting, but I have not had a chance to play them. My evenings and weekends are booked for the near future (and this is 4000 words already) so I am going to cut it off here. I will play in some single elimination Extended events, and do a similar test with Standard decks (although I don’t have the cards for a competitive Standard deck, so I probably limit myself to the casual rooms.) If what I find is worth another article, you will read it here.