Less than a year ago I wrote somewhere or replied to someone who credited me as a pro player, that I wasn’t a pro, I was a guy who played in the Pro Tour. I still don’t feel like a pro player, or at least my play level does not correspond to it. But right now, I’m living like one, being on the road for a month traveling to multiple Magic events. In consecutive weeks I attended Grand Prix: Bilbao, Grand Prix: Beijing and Worlds in Yokohama. I was qualified for Worlds and as soon as I heard of a GP Beijing a few days prior to Worlds, I thought the same as Eugene Levin: Why not attend?
Meanwhile, there was a GP in Spain the week before Beijing. There was a bus full of Magic players heading to Bilbao. The total price was 30 euros only so I signed in for it, although it was hard because it took me longer going from Lisbon to Bilbao by bus, than going from Lisbon to Beijing by plane. Leaving home for a month changed my perception towards this game. Today, I’m sharing some of the lessons I learned in this journey.
1 – Metagaming Extended
“There are no good or bad matchups in Extended. There are good and bad opening hands” – Antoine Ruel
For Grand Prix Bilbao I was expecting a field of Boros, Affinity and Tog, like I predicted in my last article about Crazy Pedro’s Deck. I came very close to playing the deck in Bilbao, but decided to play the exact same list of Boros as my friend Márcio Carvalho. We had some maindeck Silver Knights and Obsidian Acolyte in the sideboard which were very very tech versus Tog. Márcio made Top 8, I made Day 2 but the deck did not convince me.
Day 1:
Affinity: Win
Tog: Lose
Madness Tog: Win
Tog: Win
Balancing Act: Lose
UG Madness: Win
Day 2:
Boros: Lost
Aggro Rock: Draw
Boros: Win
Tog: Win
Scepter Chant: Lose
UW Control: Lose
The deck went 50-50 in the mirror, won the good matchup that is Affinity, and performed well versus the bad matchup that is Tog. So how come I decided to switch for the next GP? I was still in contention for something that wasn’t a Top 8 until I lost the last 2 rounds. I felt completely dominated by those control decks that had Wrath of God and Cunning Wish for Pulse of the Fields. During those games, I had the feeling all the time that I was losing, so I decided that I was playing Control in Beijing.
After Bilbao, we had a 12 hour ride back to Lisbon. In the bus, I exchanged some ideas with my friend Kuniyoshi Ishii. We all know how good the Japanese are, so there’s no way things can go wrong (though he’s half Portuguese). He liked the idea of UW Control but wanted to splash for Fire/Ice to get rid of annoying creatures such as Dark Confidant and Grim Lavamancer (and Birds and Elves of course) without having to Wrath. In the end, the list looked like Scepter-Chant with no Scepters and Meloku as the primary win condition.
In Beijing, I decided to play in a Trial to see how the deck performed. I didn’t had the chance to play many spells due to a mulligan to 5 and a mana flood. The trials were single elimination and that was the last one. In all 4 trials there was something I saw that got my attention. Or, better said, something that I did not see, which was Affinity. I immediately remembered a friend of mine who played Tog in Bilbao to a Day 2 finish. His only losses were to Affinity; unfortunately, he faced 4 or 5 during the weekend. I went back to the hotel and tried to find him on the internet and ask his list. He made some changes to Nujiten’s winning decklist from Copenhagen, moving the Deeds to the maindeck.
So there I was quite happy with my deck and thinking how smart I was with this move. Like the day before, the GP itself had very few Affinity decks. Instead, the most played decks were Psychatog and Aggro Rock, which is also a bad matchup for Tog.
Day 1:
UB Tog: Lost
Boros: Win
Opponent Match Loss: Win
Aggro Rock: Lost
Day 2:
Aggro Rock: Lost
Boros: Lost
Rock: Win
Aggro Rock: Win
Aggro Rock: Win
Affinity: I.D.
For Day 3 of Worlds, Extended, I was expecting a field of Aggro Rock and Control decks, Tog and Scepter-Chant. Based on these assumptions, the correct choice was to play Affinity. I had the following conversation with Tomoharu Saito who Top 8’d Beijing the week before.
Me: Can I have your Affinity decklist?
Saito: (flattered) You want my list?
Me: Yeah, I don’t like Erayo.
Saito: (still flattered) Ok
– Saito writes down the decklist –
Saito: But don’t play Affinity. Affinity is bad.
Me: You played it in Beijing, didn’t you liked it?
Saito: Beijing is Beijing, Worlds is Worlds. Affinity no good.
Me: But still, you’re gonna play it tomorrow?
Saito: (no answer)
Which obviously means Yes.
I tried to borrow the cards for Affinity, but lacked the Ravagers so eventually I gave up and decided to play the same as the two other Portuguese still in Top 8 contention like me, Márcio Carvalho and Andre Coimbra. We played the same list of Aggro Rock. Andre had played it the week before in Beijing earning a very respectable record of 4-2 in the first day, one of the losses he missed the round because he was eating and 4-1-1 in Day 2. The deck is supposed to do well versus Control because of all the discard, so that worked for me since I expected the top tables to be dominated by Tog and Scepter-Chant. After Day 3 of Worlds, Andre and Marcio were high fiving and hugging each other screaming: “We sure picked the right deck.” At least, it worked for them.
Rock with Gifts: Lost
Affinity: Won
Astral Slide: Lost
Affinity: Lost
CAL: Lost
Tog: Lost
For each event, I picked a different deck based on what the metagame would be, and clearly lost the bet. Right now, I don’t think there is a correct deck choice. Even if you know the metagame, the format is diverse enough and has plenty of top competitive decks for players to choose. Even if you know what the most predominant deck will be, it’s still not by a huge margin and you can very well be paired against the other decks during the entire tournament. Even if you get paired against your good matchup it’s not guaranteed that you’ll win. With Boros I scored 2-1 Vs Tog in Bilbao.
With Tog I held my ground vs Aggro Rock, which is a bad matchup. And, with Aggro Rock, I lost to everything. Antoine’s words echoed through my head. There are no good matchups or bad matchups. There are good draws and bad draws.
For this metagame in Extended, as it is, my advice is find a good deck that fits your style, that you’re convertible playing and don’t waste too much time trying to figure the best deck. There is no unbeatable deck. Concentrate in tuning the maindeck and have a well prepared and balanced sideboard plan and have your game as tight as possible with that deck. If you did not win the tournament, maybe it’s not because of the deck’s fault, even if you played flawless. Take Tomoharu Saito as an example. As far as he told me, he didn’t think Affinity was a good choice for Worlds, but decided to play it nevertheless. And sometimes a metagame call is incorrect. I thought Affinity was the best choice, Saito thought it was bad. Someone was wrong.
2 – Selesnya Evangel is the best common card in Ravnica
I didn’t do many drafts with Ravnica before Worlds. One draft Online, and less than 10 in reality, almost all of them being 3 on 3 side drafts at PT LA. I usually listened to discussions in Portugal about which was the best common in Ravnica. Galvanic Arc or Faith’s Fetters? Faith’s Fetters or Last Gasp? In one draft in Portugal I was highly criticized for first picking Selesnya Evangel. Since I didn’t have much experience with the set, I didn’t replied to them, but I should have said something like: “Have any of you ever drafted Squirrel Nest?”
At both drafts in Worlds I drafted Selesnya. In the first pod I went 3-0. More important than the bombs were the 3 Selesnya Evangels I had. In the second draft I didn’t have any, and more important, no way to deal with opposing ones. I drew and lost in the first 2 rounds because my opponents, Bas Postema with R/W splashing for Selesnya Evangel and Tomohiro Kaji with G/B/W also with Selesnya Evangel. They both played the annoying 1/2 vs me, and the 1/1 tokens it produced absorbed more than 100 points of combat damage over the course of both rounds. I had no way to deal with it, so my options were attack just to prevent the tokens from accumulating, or don’t attack and be overwhelmed. Neither seemed like a good plan.
Not only is Selesnya Evangel the best common in Ravnica, but Selesnya Guildmage is also the best uncommon, and a card that I don’t see many rares I would pick above it. Glare of Subdual is arguably the best card for Limited in the set. Can you spot a pattern here? My friend Márcio also drafted Selesnya both times and finished 5-1. Right now, Selesnya seems to have the most powerful cards. I’m really curious about the next set, because I’m pretty convinced that the U/R guild will be the nuts then. I think besides the 4 guilds in Ravnica, U/R is the only viable plan, and I’m sure that among the U/R gold cards that will appear there will be something that deals damage and draws cards.
3 – The Pro Player Lifestyle
This trip made me realize what really is the Pro Player lifestyle. It’s spending 12 hours travelling from one place to another, completely unsure when your next big paycheck will come. Play a couple of rounds and drop, or play until the end and realize that had you dropped earlier you would’ve gained the same amount. It’s a struggle counting your money and your pro points. But, until your body and mind became tired, it is fun. After this trip I feel like a nomad, and I’m still wandering in Asia. These events here gave me the opportunity to visit some relatives in China which I never saw or heard of, and I feel sorry there’s no other GP in Asia right now for me to attend. A true Magic addict would return to Europe just in time to play Grand Prix: Lille, but I don’t play Legacy and I’m starting to miss home, and Portugal (never thought I’d say that).
Being a Pro Tour regular gives the chance to meet people from all around the world that share the same interests. You can also be with players from your own country whom you most often see when you’re away, because otherwise each one of you will have your own occupation. I don’t see any of my friends take a few days off work and college to hang out with me, but they will do it for the Pro Tours.
It’s not only about money and winning. It’s about having good times doing Magic and non-Magic stuff with persons that you won’t get to see that often. Like for example, some very expensive and suspicious massages requested by one of the eventual Worlds Top 8 competitor that made me and Eugene Levin leave the room, or a Pro Tour player birthday’s party after a PT Sunday with more than 30 players from all around the world.
There are different kinds of Magic players and each have their own motivations as to why they play the game, or what the Pro Tour means to them. I guess that’s a subject for another article.