After many years on the magic battlefield I believe that testing was the hardest but most helpful lesson that I’ve learned, or at least kinda learned. As in DO IT if you want to win. I mean sure some people can just raw dog some tournament and X-0 because they’re a sack but I know me and I’m not often that someone.
But I’m not about to just tell you to test and leave it there or this would be a very short article among other things. I think the biggest mistake I see people make is how they test. For example I use a variety of ways to achieve what I want out of testing so the first question I ask myself is “What do I want to gain out of this testing”? This can be anything from improving my play skill with a certain deck or strategy or to find out which deck I want to play.
1 The Beginning
Ok so I’m going to take a crazy wild guess and say that the first thing you do when thinking about testing is to choose a deck. If you do this you’re wrong. Most people decide what deck they want to play because their favourite card is in it or because the best deck for the tournament is just not their style. If you start your testing process wrong then how are you supposed to get anywhere? The way I start my testing is to look at the format and pick out lets say the five most popular decks of the metagame I’m going to have to tackle and to find a few cards that stick out to me as inherently powerful against those strategies.
2 Gathering relevant information for brewing
Brewing is one of my favourite things to do in magic, I mean winning is fun but winning with something you created is awesome. So it is a lot easier to start brewing when you already know what you have to beat. When I start to brew for a tournament I do step one and go through gatherer and write down every card that interests me a little bit until I find something that works amazingly. Draft commons and uncommons often make it on to my lists to be tested. I am one of those people who will rarely think something is just plain bad (Except for Kuan’s drafting advice). So any idea is worth exploring. Then you have to see where those random cards could fit,if they actually have potential or maybe you had one beer too many when you wrote that one down but never mind because to succeed once you have to fail about a thousand times.
3 Who you test with
This is an interesting topic to discuss I think a lot of other players will tell you to only test with good players because they will make you better. But I personally never give up an opportunity to test because I believe something can be learn from any situation no matter how simple it may seem. I just read an article by Mori which interested me a lot on channel fireball because he discussed the merits of dealing damage with Goblin Guide. Most players on turn 1 play that guy and turn him sideways but Mori states several times when he didn’t because the card advantage would have been devastating how could he make that call without testing. I believe that you can learn a similar amount from playing a game against some scrub at your local store than you can from playing some of the best players I mean you’ll learn something different and it may not be as valuable but hey learning is learning and it’s what magic is about.
4 Fine tuning
I hate fine tuning; it is boring and tedious and possibly the biggest grind of all, but boy does it help you familiarise yourself with your deck. To fine tune you have to identify the problems your deck has and what cards are problematic for you to see. Another big wrong I see people make is to test only preboarded games. To understand a match up fully from enough testing you have to understand how to play in every situation for example. Are you on the play? Does this affect how you play/sideboard? Is their a deck that you would want to draw against? If your opponents sideboard cards are a certain way does it effect how you play? When going into a magic tournament with enough testing you should be prepared for anything and you should’ve thought out most scenarios and know how to react in said situations.
Once I’ve done these four steps with my deck and sideboard and am happy all that’s left to do is grind as many games as possible. Each game you play makes you more familiar with your deck and makes you a better player.
If you really want to be a better magic player then PLAY. This is the best advice I can give you, while it may be hard to find people to test when it fits in with you find a way. I know I often have this problem and resign myself to grinding on Magic Workstation and while I’m not the biggest fan of this program it is an excellent tool to play more magic. Also if you need to test with someone leave me a message and would you believe I’ll play with you.
I know after Nationals I’m sure I need it.
Thanks Guys
Aaron
