First off, whatever you make of the rest of the article, please take the time to visit http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=iuI1LdP0G&b=276341 and donate whatever you can to help the victims of the tsunami which hit Asia and Africa. When you’ve done so, then read on…
Dear readers,
This is the time of year for making new resolutions for the year ahead. I have a suggestion, which I hope will be more advantageous and enjoyable than any of the usual sorts of resolution. The resolution that I’d like to suggest that you adopt for the months ahead is to read and write more about Magic.
I will read most articles about Magic on the internet. From strategy for formats which I shall never play to theory I don’t understand, I find them all fascinating. But my favorite kind of article, by far, is the tournament report. I understand from my editor that tournament reports aren’t the most popular kind of article, but whether you are a Pro Tour wannabe or a casual player interested in good stories about the game we all enjoy, a well-written report has got to be at least as much worth a read as yet another of those boring strategy articles about Red Deck Wins or a discussion about Magic ethics.
At its best, the tournament report teaches you how to be a better player, explains how a deck works and, most importantly, tells a fantastic story. Yet I know that many people think that there’s nothing to be gained from reading about someone else’s games in some tournament which happened a while back. If you think that, then you are not making best use of information that is available to you. From deck design to the mental side of Magic to good ways to test for tournaments to improving your play skill, some of the best players of all time have produced some invaluable advice, and done so not in some arid strategy article, but as part of a story about a tournament which would be well worth reading even if it didn’t improve your playing skills. Equally, I know that not every tournament report meets the highest standards, and that reading a collection of jokes amusing to about three people, all of them known to the author, and minimalist discussions of the actual games played doesn’t make for a thrill-a-minute experience.
With all this in mind, I have compiled a list of reports which I think any Magic player would enjoy and benefit from reading, for your viewing pleasure. The rules are that no author is featured more than once, and for obvious reasons only articles which I could find a weblink to are included (which means I’ve had to miss out a few favorites). I’ve included a brief commentary, to help make the reports comprehensible and explain what it is I like about them. As the old saying goes, study and grow strong.
1. Jamie Wakefield meets a Time Elemental at Regionals
This article was so good it was one of the articles which featured in Jamie Wakefield book “Tournament Reports”, which people actually went to bookshops and paid money for, back in the Good Old Days before this interweb thingy. It’s Regionals time, and Jamie has tested and tested his mono-Blue deck (yeah, I know). Then as now, Regionals is one of the most important tournaments for anyone trying to make it as a top player. Not to spoil too much, but with one round to go, Jamie is 6-1 and seemingly on the verge of qualifying for Nationals. We’ve all been there, just one match away from triumph. But no one has described what happens next better than Jamie.
2. Brian Kibler channels the power of “Johnnies” everywhere, summons a Dragon, enchants it, attacks with it, wins
Before Onslaught, big creatures costing lots of mana were rarely played. Brian Kibler managed to defeat Jon Finkel, then the best player in the world, by summoning a Dragon, putting a creature enchantment on it and attacking, all things which Pros at the time (and Blue/White mages ever since) usually found distasteful. Then all he needed to do to complete the dream and win the Pro Tour was beat some random German guy.
.named Kai Budde.
3. Mike Flores attempts to prove that high level Magic is a game even for the horrible
It’s U.S. Nationals. Mike Flores drafts his way to a 5-1 record, loses back to back matches, and still gets to the last round in 9th place, presumably just a win away from a place in the Top 8 of the U.S. Nationals. As Mike says, “this would be greatest marketing ploy that the WotC could possibly have had. If a Bad Player like me could break into the top 8, what would that do for PTQ attendance? Ah yes, Magic is a game for even the horrible!” What could possibly go wrong?
4. Anthony Goh storms Nationals, without knowing what any of the cards do
Anthony Goh is probably a less familiar name than some of the others on this list, but in some ways this report details the most impressive feat out of all of these. Anthony is a friend of mine who used to be a very good Magic player. For one reason or another, he’d kind of stopped playing, but had an invite to English Nationals because of his high ranking. So he decided to turn up, didn’t really know what any of the cards did, and embarked on a novel sort of combination of National Championships and prerelease. For example, he cast Treachery on two of his opponents’ creatures, and then when he tapped out, his opponent cast a White instant in Japanese which he had never seen or heard of before and said it binned both the Treacheries somehow. So Anthony humored him and went with it and beat him anyway. And, come the end of the weekend, he was playing for the National Championship. How? Read it!
5. Aaron Forsythe unleashes the Angry Hermit, discovers about the Ice Deck, makes US National Team
Before Aaron Forsythe worked for Wizards, he was a half decent Magic player. This report has everything – deck tech, a guide on how to make the U.S. National Team, how to take old decks and tweak them ’til they dominate and comments about the Magic community that are still relevant today. For all this, the story of the 30/30 creature and the tech that is the Ice Deck, click the link.
6. Dave Price Wins a Pro Tour with the Red Deck
Mmm, building a Red House. Worth reading for the fantastic introduction alone, how could anyone not like reading about Dave Price playing in the Tempest-only Pro Tour and beating down with Moggs which have Giant Strength?
7. Randy Buehler plays a Green Sliver deck at the same Pro Tour, unsurprisingly fails to win
It’s worth having a look at all of Randy’s tournament reports, but this is my favorite. Any aspiring writers should check out the way he analyses his deck, and anyone preparing for a new Constructed format could benefit from applying the techniques he uses to analyze the different decks and their strengths and weaknesses.
8. [author name="Tomi Walamies"]Tomi Walamies[/author] is top Red Mage at Pro Tour: Venice
This was Tomi Walamies‘ debut report at StarCityGames.com. Going into the tournament, Tomi hadn’t exactly been putting up stellar tournament finishes, or as he puts it, “I struggle to remember the days when some people were actually looking up to me. Well, I suppose things could be worse. I could be English.” Happily, with a little help from his friends Mountain, Clickslither and Rorix Bladewing, his fortunes are transformed. [I believe Walamies is the greatest (and most perfectionist) Tournament Report writer ever. -Knut, who misses the Finn stand-up comedian]
9. Eric Taylor and the Story of Low Tide
Most reports follow the same pattern – introduction, deck analysis, round by round reporting. This isn’t, of course, the only kind of tournament report possible. Eric article focuses in on just one game in a tournament, and shows how much can be learned from each and every game that you play. This description doesn’t remotely do the article justice – go and read it!
10. Chad Ellis taps Underground River, summons Slivers at Grand Prix: Phoenix
Grand Prix are my favorite sort of Magic tournament – high levels of competition, but something which you can go along to with all your friends regardless of how long you’ve been playing or how good you are. Reading this report reminded me more than any other how fun these kinds of tournament are, and after reading it you’ll be sure to take a little more care with the little pre-tournament ritual known as “deck registration”.
There are loads more great reports, far too many even to list, but I hope the above whet your appetite to go and read more, and helps inspire you – maybe by this time next year your report could be the latest addition to the list of great articles. Suggestions of other favorite reports (complete with a link, thanks) would be most welcome in the forums – due to technological incompetence I haven’t been able to post in the forums for a while, but I do read all comments, and always want to find and read great reports.
Until next time, may the Orcish Librarian always have the book you’re looking for,
Take care
Dan Paskins
p.s. Hopefully reading all of that will have inspired you so that next time you go to a tournament and do well, you’ll write and let us all know how it went. If not, the only additional incentive I can offer is the opportunity to receive feedback on your work like the following:
“Dear Dan Paskins, Regarding your article “Why Red is Simply the Best Color”: I honestly don’t think you have the greatest experience in Magic. There have, admittedly, been a few great red decks, but it is far from the best color. What with Wizards trying to maintain the image that all color’s are created equal, i don’t understand why they let you post this. My opinion is that blue is the best, and i could get in an argument as to why that is, however red being best is simply your opinion, and a pretty bad one. You make the argument of simple blowing up stuff and attacking with stuff. This may work amongst a group of bad magic player’s, however in realy format’s it doesnt play well anywhere. Compared to TnN, you might get in some early damage, kill some birds, etc. however later on, when they have a couple 11/11 industructables out, you stand no chance. In T1 you’re red strategy can’t come close to combo decks, like Dragon or Storm. Again you might get in a few early damage, however, when it counts, you lose really quickly. In 1.5 Red Deck Win’s might actually win, but against competitive affinity decks, you can compete with the turn 1, 2, or 3 drops, especially if they turn out to be 4/4’s. I think you should seriously take a step back and re-evaluate how you play magic.”
“Dear Dan Paskins, Regarding your article “Why Red is Simply the Best Color”: red is nasty yes i have a deck in red i call “Forward Dragonstorm” so i do believe burn spells and ways to burn are best but i also have my first ever deck that is elves now if you can burn here and there what good is it when wellwishers and timberwatch elves with defiant elves and some of sorts are out then goblins or not your gonna be trampled. Well I put both decks against each other and the elves won but a friend with goblins i went up against and we went 3 to 1 in my favor so its questionable im sure im not the first email about it either”
“ok, I admit my two red decks are awesome relentless and simply powerful, as all red decks… but come on the combo Pristine Angel +Vedalken Orrery is nearly unstoppable and will kill a red deck in about a minute”
“I’m not really sure what I think of this article overall…I mean, it was kind of funny, but I felt the attitude behind it seemed a bit snotty (no offense to the author of it. Maybe he did that by accident). Also, when one of the main “points” is some ridiculous thing about Goblins working for Wizards of the Coast…I mean, that’s a kind of funny idea, but it shouldn’t be in one of your apparent main arguments. Also, all it seemed to be saying was that Red was the easiest color to win with, not necessarily the most fun to play. I do wish it gave a little more leniency in the opinion, though, make it seem more like “Well, Red is my favorite color” instead of “Red is automatically the best color”. Maybe I’m overanalyzing the article, of course…”
“most of the red creatures have nasty drawbacks like Goblin Cadet, which lower their effectivenes if the other player doesnt have the same “What is blocking?” attitude. i prefer gustcloaks and white soldiers much more ability wise and strength wise to red mass weak creatures with crappy abilities. anyway, i could poke any number of holes in this articles opinions but i am not going to point out any more obvious problems.”