Everyone is talking about it, and you know how much of a wagon-jumper I am (well not really, but I do like saying wagon. Wagon, wagon, wagon!) So I thought I would throw my thoughts into an article as it has been a while, rather than a very late and ‘so last year’ forum post. All the cool kids do articles these days (Hear that Lawrence? It’s like the new top 8!).
So when I was thinking about this topic, I couldn’t really decide upon what worked in order to help someone improve. This is why I had not posted anything in the forums. I finally decided that the best way to give my opinion was to retell the epic tale of my ascension from mediocrity to someone relevant in the Brisbane magic scene. My methods, therefore, are beyond your scorn. They are statistically proven to be 100% accurate.
As a side note, this article may be really uninteresting if you know what you are doing already. I simply hope that something from my path will be helpful to someone who realises his or her potential for improvement and wants to start heading toward it.
I started back when Urza’s Saga was still on the shelves for a reasonable price and in type 2. I loved Saga. You could never be unhappy about the boosters you opened. Anyway I wasn’t really a competitive player, just had the odd duel or massive multiplayer game with my friends from school. Casting the 6-mana dragon, followed by that really huge 8/8 guy no one could deal with. Those were the days. Infinite massive creatures on every side of the table. Everyone was a Timmy.
Eventually my local store announced they were having a tournament, and I was encouraged to come along. I beat all my school friends all the time, lets see how many more I can beat, I thought. The correct answer is zero, unless we are talking about games….in which case the answer was still zero.
My deck was way too slow (which I realised), outclassed by powerful cards and cheap removal (which I also realised,) and inconsistent with all of the one-of’s (which I didn’t really realize yet.) The most important factor is that I wasn’t really disheartened by the experience. Sure, I was a little disappointed that I had gone from the number 1 to the bottom of everyone’s list, but I at least realized the reasons for my losing, at least in a way, which made me accept it more rather than questioning it.
Now the problem was I didn’t have many cards to improve my deck, as I had traded in a fashion to supply myself with dragons and other fatties. I knew my deck couldn’t compete, but all I could really do was add more low drops and some acceleration for the huge guys, and try again. I got smashed again. But at least the games were closer (so I thought).
Time called for a new deck. Invasion was out and I was buying packs here and there, buying the odd card. Eventually I had assembled a RB deck, with a bunch of 2 drops, burn spells, and pyre zombies. Sickness. I played some guy who had a sick way of killing all the land in my deck with some card called Eradicate! Unfair, and unfun! He killed all my swamps game one, and all my mountains game 2. Yet I still won 2-0. I felt a lot better about myself winning when I was somewhat disadvantaged, and appreciated the power of a few quick guys backed up by burn spells.
I think aggressive decks are a good way to start, because the general complexity of your turn is decreased, and you don’t necessarily need to spend the entire game focusing on how best to use your cards to answer your opponents. There is nothing wrong with a newer player playing a dedicated control deck, just that in my experience; their tendency to misplay would be higher than if they were just turning guys sideways. Bringing it down to a level of more straightforward interaction is a good way to get used to the mechanical steps of the game, and teaches you about playing in the control seat through observation. Plus, you get to point spells at someone’s head and say ‘take three?’
I came 6th at that tournament, meaning I actually won some games. This was a boost for my confidence, which is important in an attitude sense (I’m not going over that…already beat that article to death). It made me want to continue playing more and more tournaments in new areas, such as sealed events called Sneak Peeks.
Sneak Peeks were awesome. I get new cards and a tournament? Wow! Here’s where it gets a little strange (and time accelerates a little more) I came 4th, 3rd, and 2nd twice in consecutive sneak peeks. Since when was I good at sealed?
Then I started understanding the game more, and flunked out. I came 32nd (out of 32) at the Scourge release, and left magic for a while.
Sometime later, at Christmas, my mother bought me a random Mirrodin booster. All these new shiny cards. Look at all the artefacts! The magic was back in me, and I played the Champions of Kamigawa Sneak Peek. Shortly after was the GP Trial, which was conveniently CHK sealed. I scrape into the top 8 with a win in the last round, then instinctively ‘get’ the Rochester format, and draft a ridiculous RW samurai deck and win 6 easy games, including knocking off Tim Robinson, who was the resident ‘win every tournament guy’. I didn’t see him around after that.
After this tournament, I thought to myself that maybe I could actually be good at this game. The desire to want to get better, and believing that you can is pretty important for the jump from noob to intermediary. Playing the same way with the same deck every week and asking ‘why am I not winning?’ is not going to help you learn anything. You must accept that you aren’t winning for a reason. Then you have to listen, adapt, observe and ask every question you think of to the people that keep winning all the time. Most decent magic players love hearing themselves talk about how they would have made such a play, or what cards they would remove from a deck, so don’t be shy. Obviously, learning is the key to success in whatever field you pursue. So why limit yourself to how much you can learn?
I started playing in PTQ’s next, the next big stage for learning. Unfortunately, I was still living on the coast, so my questions could only really be directed to Luke Gration for advice on my decks. I learned very quickly that if you want to do well at a PTQ, you need to invest in the game, or have contacts. Playing to win means playing with good cards, not whatever you can find.
FNM is a different animal though, so it really depends upon the individual in question. I’ve won FNM with decks I wouldn’t dare touch at a PTQ. It’s a different environment. The players are more relaxed, and everyone else isn’t necessarily borrowing all they can to make their decks the best they can be. Many people have a deck that improves slowly over time with the cards they win at odd events. This is a good system too. It saves you a little on money, and it lets you learn as you go how to craft a deck into the perfect duelling machine. I would actually encourage this system for the mega new, rather than spending loads of cash on a new deck idea (though, some people like buying new decks all the time, and that’s fine. It’s still important to take your hobby in the direction that you enjoy most). If some of the cards choices are going to be bad either way, wouldn’t you rather have spent less money on them?
The next step for me was to double the FNM dosage. I played in Brisbane on Fridays, and on the coast on Saturdays. This step represented dedication. You can’t expect to be the next magical master only spending the four hours of FNM every week on your game and deck. Dedication does not imply that much of your free time should be devoted to reading articles, playtesting and sorting your cards, but reading the odd piece of magic-related material or talking about your deck on an off day can be helpful. Again, not saying Magic should take over your life and be the subject of every conversation, but it is your hobby for a reason. Clearly there is something that people get from the game; so bringing it up from time to time will keep your mind ticking over the wonderful possibilities for you and your deck. The desire to learn and improve has to be followed up with time spent upon improving. FNM is a great resource. There are a lot of games to watch. Even the lower tables can teach you things sometimes. Watch every game you can stand to. If you can take one thing away from every game you see, your game will improve dramatically.
Coming down to Brisbane, I got to experience a new field of players and different decks in an arguably stronger field. Brisbane FNM is where I got my first dealings with Dave Crewe’s deck mastery, as he was useful for the odd question about a card choice. He and Colin Petersen were also help on my Kamigawa block deck when I asked. That deck had bad cards in it (Glitterfang!) but it was a deck about synergy and aggressiveness, combined with reach in a format that featured a deck capable of stopping early aggressiveness. Reach was the step White Weenie needed to be top dog. These two experts understood that, and therefore were not centred on making a deck of good cards. They suggested improvements and obvious omissions (such as Jitte), teaching me not only about this deck but aggressive decks in general. Obviously I made top 8. (That deck was so good in the format!) It didn’t even matter that I lost the quarterfinals to a terrible sideboarding choice. It was another rung on the ladder that helped me to continue to believe I could achieve. And rhyme.
Another step that helped me improve my game was developing a testing group, consisting of Andrew, Sam, Henry, Huxley, Tim and myself. Please note – this step not for everyone. The reason this step was good for me was because it helped me identify my weaknesses, and gradually improve upon them. I think Huxley is a limited master, and he unknowingly taught me a lot about drafting and sealed on the rare occasions we would meet at tournaments. I still have a lot to improve upon in the sealed arena, but I have just recently isolated my biggest flaw by playing Magic online, and now I can notice what I am doing before I make that mistake. The other weakness I had was in deck construction. I was alright at tuning decks (to a degree), but lacked the imagination to step out and create something amazing. This is where Huxley came through again, as he had a great many ideas about random decks and certain subtle interactions. He taught me to experiment with ideas (on workstation, or simply by spending the time to lay some cards out and just see what works) and I got better at both building my own decks and refining other peoples.
For all I know there is probably some massive gap that I am leaving out, which could result in a PTQ win for some new guy, but I probably inherently melded with it than blanked it out to protect myself from being knocked out of contention ever again. There are also a lot of things you have to learn for yourself, and a lot of different ways to be taught/to teach. Some people pick things up better when they don’t say anything at all. This is just what has worked for me. And I hope that somehow, somewhere in these ramblings you can look at something and say ‘that makes sense to me.’
Until next time,
Cameron Veigel
PTQ Kuala Lumpur champion (sorry Dave. Pity about the mana-screw)
