Pro Tour: Yokohama will be my seventh Block Constructed Pro Tour. In this week preceding the Pro Tour I can’t give away much information about Time Spiral Block Constructed. I have to preserve my interests, as well as those of my playtest partners who worked hard with me. I can, however, share my experiences from playing so many Block Pro Tours with only two sets. By looking back at what happened in previous blocks, it is possible to preview what to expect in Yokohama. Today I’m telling you my experiences playing Block Constructed Pro Tours, and what I’ve learned over the years.
Pro Tour: Tokyo 2001 – Invasion and Planeshift
Tokyo was my second Pro Tour, and my first Constructed outing. I won a two-slot PTQ together with Frederico Bastos (who would become one of my closest friends). For reasons I can’t remember, there where only three Portuguese players attending Tokyo, even though we had four PTQ slots (a number we still maintain). We thought the metagame would be R/B control or R/B aggro decks, because there were so many good gold cards in those colors: Void, Pyre Zombie, and Blazing Specter to name but a few. We also thought there’d be some U/W/B control decks, using Absorb, Undermine, Fact or Fiction, and Dromar. And R/G beatdown, plus some Domain control decks with Collective Restraint.
A friend of mine who was not qualified build the core of my U/B/R control deck, which I then tweaked. I have never been a deckbuilder myself… I’m better at tweaking. It was good against every deck in the field except Red/Green. But the R/G decks we had didn’t seemed too good.
At the Pro Tour I went 2-5. I can’t exactly recall why, but probably four of my losses where to R/G beatdown. Frederico picked an early draw and played the rest of the swiss decks against other control decks, and we went 10-2-2 good enough for a Top 8 slot. His two losses were against Red/Green. The metagame was almost what we expected, except there was R/G all over the place, which was our worst matchup. There were very good Red cards like Skizzik, Urza’s Rage, Ghitu Fire, Flametongue Kavu… we had paired these with the gold Black and Red cards to make a R/B deck. They also paired well with cheap efficient Green creatures, but somehow our R/G was not good and we assumed R/B was better. Big mistake.
The lesson we can learn from Pro Tour: Tokyo is that sometimes you think that a deck is bad because you have a weak version of it in your playtesting gauntlet. In my preparation for Pro Tour: Yokohama, I tried to make sure I always had good lists. I always paid attention to the decks I knew I wasn’t playing, just to make sure I had the strongest possible builds in order to have better playtesting results.
Pro Tour: Osaka 2002 – Odyssey and Torment
For Pro Tour: Osaka, there were four players from my country attending, including myself. I had a Top 16 from a Grand Prix, a feat that I would repeat many times in my Magic career, as some of you may have heard. Frederico Bastos was qualified for being on the gravy train ever since his Top 8 in Tokyo. The other two won PTQ slots, but I have no clue why the other two PTQ-winners decided to skip.
One of the players attending just didn’t care at all. He arrived in Japan and asked us for a spare deck. The other was playtesting with his own team, which at the time were very secretive and selective about who was involved, even if they weren’t the top players in Portugal (they don’t exist anymore). I joined them once, and didn’t like the idea of playtesting with them. First because I wasn’t too familiar with them, and second because they had tight schedules regarding playtesting, and the place was pretty far from my home. I decided to work mainly alone.
At the time there was no Magic Online, and I had no connections to the outside world of Magic away from Portugal. I guess many players who qualify nowadays would still have this problem if not for Magic Online. I don’t remember about Frederico, only that he didn’t put much effort into it. He said that last year, for Tokyo, he elected to play with my deck when he was on the plane on his way to Japan, so he would just do the same this year.
I ended with a U/B Psychatog deck, with Compulsions and the usual stuff. Removal spells, card drawing, and the killer combo of Upheaval / Psychatog. This was one of the very rare occasions where I had a deck 100% designed by myself. It wasn’t even too hard, as there were only three colors in Odyssey Block, as shown by the Top 8 decks: Blue, Green, and Black. Those were the top two decks (U/G and Mono-Black), with Psychatog being a distant third… but at least it was still in the three “good” colors of the block. Frederico liked it and stuck with his plan. He did make Day 2, but ended in the middle of the pack. I didn’t. He was a much better player than I was at the time.
The obvious lesson from anyone looking at Pro Tour: Osaka can only be to play one of the top two decks. I agree. But I also learned something very important, which is to not playtest alone. I was kind of forced into it, and I realized all the versions I had of the three decks – U/G Madness, Mono-Black Control, and Psychatog – were not optimized.
For Pro Tour: Yokohama, I sensed the situation was pretty similar with that of Osaka. Of the qualified Portuguese players, there are two that I don’t know at all. I have no idea who they are, or where they live, and I’ve never seen their names or faces. This is surprising, since Portugal is such a small country with a small Magic-playing populous. Another one of the qualifiers doesn’t have the time to play, since he’s a working student. The other lives far from Lisbon, crossing the river to the south and beyond. We happen to never playtest with Andre Coimbra. And Márcio Carvalho never attends events outside Europe, even though he still says he’ll attend until the day before we’re supposed to leave.
Looking at these elements, I found the solution in the Netherlands. I decided to come to the Netherlands one week before the Pro Tour, to tune my decks and playtest to exhaustion, and here I am typing on Frank Karsten’s laptop. Dutchies aren’t particularly known for being deckbuilders, but they are excellent deck tuners with plenty of ideas. It’s also much more profitable than playtesting on Magic Online, as you can play many more games in an hour in real life than on MTGO. It’s also more fun, to be able to spend a week in the Netherlands visiting some friends, and celebrating Ruud Warmenhoven birthday… or should I say “birthdays,” as the party continued for many days.
Pro Tour: Venice 2003 – Onslaught and Legions
This time no qualified Portuguese player decided to skip, because the Pro Tour was in Europe and the traveling costs were very low. I had won a PTQ myself and was working and exchanging feedback with the other PTQ winners through a mailing list. Frederico Bastos was no longer qualified, having fallen from the gravy train the Pro Tour before at Chicago. Ever since that day, Frederico never played an individual Pro Tour again, despite a couple of appearances at the Team Limited Pro Tour with Rui Mariani and myself.
Speaking of Rui Mariani, he qualified for Venice on rating, and (starting three weeks before the Pro Tour) we met daily at a local game store to play Block Constructed.
I searched for a report from Rui Mariani on an old Portuguese Magic site, and can share his own words to describe our preparation:
“We were pretty sure to play Astral Slide in Venice, until the twins gave Tiago a Beast Bidding deck. It beat Astral Slide, with the combo of Aether Charge plus Patriarch’s Bidding on beasts after having cycled some away (like Krosan Tusker). After some testing, we added Blue for Read the Runes and Complicate. The other decks in our gauntlet were Goblins and Astral Slide. Basically, we reached three out of four important decks, missing a Green deck with Explosive Vegetations and fatties”.
Some quick explanation:
Astral Slide was by far the most obvious deck of the format, thanks to cards like Lightning Rift, Astral Slide, Exalted Angel, Akroma’s Vengeance, and Starstorm.
Complicate was quite popular back in the day, as it could be a Counterspell, a cycling card, and card advantage, and I’m sure Avril Lavigne’s single “Complicated” had debuted some months ago because the joke was everywhere.
“The twins” are two twins from Portugal who are crazy deckbuilders, and they rarely build a deck that works outside of their own hands. But occasionally they happen to find something wonderful. I won the PTQ for Tokyo 2001 playing one of their decks: Replenish for Pandemonium and Saproling Burst. They’re my good friends both in and outside of Magic, and I’m happy to say they’re still playing today. They’re rooming with Frederico Bastos and I for Grand Prix: Stockholm.
You can find a picture of them at Grand Prix: Cardiff, here.
Rui Mariani started 3-0 with Beast-Bidding, playing against Astral Slide, before being paired against three non-Astral Slide decks and being eliminated from Day 2. I posted a 2-2-2 record, losing to Goblins and Zombies and drawing twice in the mirror. Our deck definitely beat Astral Slide, but had many problems against the others. In the end, we felt maybe we should’ve played Astral Slide, instead of something that beats it 90% at the expense of other matchups. Astral Slide did win the Pro Tour, but only put one deck in the Top 8.
Suppose that a deck percentage of the metagame is 25%, which is a lot – it’s still one quarter of the rounds, which means you’ll probably face two during the first seven rounds. If your “hate deck” can only beat the top deck, then it’s probably too risky. There are some exceptions, as we’re gonna see right now.
Pro Tour: Kobe 2004 – Mirrodin and Darksteel
Kobe had one of the worst metagames in which I’ve ever played. Arcbound Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, Skullclamp, artifact lands… it was all legal. The format was full of Affinity decks and anti-Affinity decks, like the Big Red playing with maindeck Echoing Ruin or Shatter plus Detonate plus Furnace Dragon. The Red deck won the Pro Tour. This was one of the exceptions I mentioned before. Since there weren’t other decks except for Affinity and this anti-Affinity deck, it was a more valid choice than the year before. There were also some differences, as Affinity was definitely the most powerful deck of the format, while Astral Slide was just the most obvious one to build.
Still, the Big Red deck that won was the one packing the least amount of maindeck artifact removal, and more burn spells. Masashiro Kuroda played against two Red mirrors and Tooth and Nail in the Top 8, where artifact removal was not needed.
There were four Portuguese qualified. One was from a distant city, and the other didn’t care that much. I worked together with the remaining guy, a friend of mine. We played mostly online, as he was graduating from College or started a work. Once again I stubbornly refused to play “the best deck of the format,” just like in Osaka where I didn’t play U/G Madness or Mono-Black Control, and in Venice where I didn’t play Astral Slide. My friend and I both played a deck built by me: Black Control Death Cloud, with seven or eight Talismans and Solemn Simulacrum, splashing Red for main deck Shatter and Blue for sideboard March of the Machines. We should’ve played Affinity.
By now, it was painfully obvious to me that, in Block Constructed with two sets, it is a fine choice to pick one of the obvious decks, and don’t be scared of the mirror matches or all the hate. Usually in Block there’s a specific mechanic that is very strong, and decks can be built around it, like Cycling and Affinity. Or there’s a deck that just screams to be built because there are many cards that combine for that color or strategy. For Pro Tour: Yokohama, I’m not afraid to play the one obvious and known deck of the format, if I’m prepared for the mirror.
Pro Tour: Philadelphia 2005 – Champions and Betrayers
I do believe this was the first Pro Tour where we could test on Magic Online. The program existed long before this, but maybe the date of the Pro Tour was before the online release of the second set in years before. By the time Philadelphia rolled into view, I was already on the gravy train, which translated to today’s terminology means I was already a Level 3 (or at least I had that status mathematically guaranteed at some point in the future – I believe I had to attend the next Limited Pro Tour, which I was qualified for on rating, to obtain the requisite twenty Pro Points). Some of my friends qualified for this event, including one that also managed to qualify for Pro Tour: Yokohama.
Most of our testing was done online, and the decks known in the online world were White Weenie, Snakes, Godo Legends deck with Honor Worn Shauku, and Green/Black control splashing Blue for Meloku. There was a little-used card in this format called Umezawa’s Jitte – you might have heard of it – that was present in the first three deck mentioned above. White Weenie and Snakes turned out to be the two most played decks on the Pro Tour. The Portuguese contingent, including myself, played Snakes. One made Top 32, another made Day 2, and I was eliminated by the end of Day 1 despite starting 2-0.
Despite the numbers of White Weenie and Snakes, the better and most successful deck was no doubt Gifts Ungiven, with the recursion combo of Hana Kami and Souless Revival plus an arcane spell. This deck wasn’t seen that much on Magic Online, mostly because most of the top players were planning to run it, and thus tried to keep it off the radar. Like us, for example… we knew about the deck, but thought it wasn’t very big on the metagame as we guided ourselves a little too much by the online metagame. It’s also very slow and boring to play online.
I have some friends who almost quit paper Magic but play more than fifty hours a week online. According to them, if it’s not online, it doesn’t exist. They only prepare for events online, own absolutely no cards or sleeves… in fact, if you eliminated Magic Online there wouldn’t be a single spot evidence to connect them to Magic in their rooms. I found this to be wrong if you want to prepare competitively. Magic Online is a great tool to help your playtest, but it shouldn’t be your only method unless you have absolutely no other way to prepare, like having no one to play against and no connections.
For known metagames, and after big events like Grand Prix and Pro Tours, the online metagame looks like its real life counterpart. But before, it can only be seen as a sample, as there are many Pro Players who are very secretive about their own decks and don’t play them online. With only two sets available to build decks – roughly 500 cards – everyone, or at least every major playtest group, will eventually reach the same deck conclusions. But if someone has something secret, something big, it’s unlikely you’re going to see it online.
From Pro Tour: Philadelphia, I realized playing exclusively online was not an option, so I decided to join a place where I could play some real life games, and I’m glad I did.
Pro Tour: Charleston 2006 – Ravnica / Guildpact / Dissension
Charleston was innovative because not only it was played in Team Constructed format, but also because for the first time we had a Block Constructed Pro Tour with the three sets available. The format is much better, more diverse, as with only two sets it always feels like there are missing parts of the puzzle. I can see a reason why they schedule the Block Constructed Pro Tour for a time where there’s only two sets, and that’s to have different Constructed metagames. One with only two blocks for the Pro Tour, so they can use the block format for the PTQs… but with a different metagame, they make the qualifying season run when the third set is available. This was also the missing format, as it was barely played after the Pro Tour.
I tested for this Pro Tour in the middle of Europe, together with three or four other European teams. I think we had good decks, and one of the secrets was everyone added a little of something original. We had a Step 1 in our preparation, where we playtested in isolated groups: me in Portugal, the Dutchies in the Netherlands, and the French in France, all trying to come up with the best decks we could muster with minimum communication between the parts. We’d then meet before the Pro Tour, to compare and fuse together the ideas and conclusions. And that’s pretty much what we did for Yokohama before we got together in the Netherlands.
…
Today, I’ve been over six years of Block Constructed history, but also six years in which I grew as a Magic player, accumulating experience on how to test for Block Constructed Pro Tours. I’m still learning new things every day, which hopefully will be useful for next year. I know it’s pretty difficult to pass on all this acquired experience through a single Magic article, but I tried my best to tackle the main ideas. Any more than this would involve me writing down all the ideas we had so far, as well as the results of our playtesting games and our final decklist for the event, which we’re still unsure at this time (I’m still on the Netherlands, and the Pro Tour is still a few days away). Of course, that’s what I’ll be doing next week.
Finally, Rich Hagon – from Mox Radio and recently from the sideboard podcasts, also a writer here for StarCityGames.com – recently wrote me a new profile for my articles, at my request. I had no idea what should I say about myself. He sees me as a Constructed expert, and “off the record” he told me he believes I’ll do really well in Yokohama. I don’t know about that… I don’t see myself as a Constructed specialist, but I like the pressure, and the expectation from people who believe in me (like Rich). It gives me a lot of strength and motivation to succeed, not only for me, but also for people who believe in me.
Come on, one (more) time… wish me luck!
Thank you for reading,
Tiago