So you want to be the best? (At your lgs)
General forum
Posted on Dec. 16, 2019, 7:20 p.m. by RNR_Gaming
Disclaimer
This is not a road map on how to spike a casual table. This is for players who are interested in tournment play with prize support but unsure how to go about it; mostly for edh but some of the information can be applied to other formats aswell.
Why should you listen to me?
I've been playing a long time and I play A LOT and I've even got somewhat of a reputation at my lgs due to my win rate being so high; granted, I'm just an average fish in a small pond and I still make mistakes but in tournment play I have had a 100% win percentage for 6+ months at my LGS; the store owner actually had to switch to a point system and a superlative point system due to people complaining about how much I was winning. I'm not exaggerating.
Deck choice and Deck building
First and foremost be flexible. Often times what a player likes to play and what wins are two entirely different things. Be open to playing different colors and strategies. Playing different styles helps with understanding and pinpointing problematic cards and can greatly improve threat assessment and card evaluation. Additionally, use as many resources as you can while deck building. Friends, other players, scyfall, edhrec, gatherer, facebook groups, tappedout, and dedicated discord servers are all awesome resources that can help you brew and spark new ideas; with new cards being printed every few months decks are always in flux.
Metagaming
Take notes on what everyone is playing and what their playstyle is. If you notice no one at your lgs is playing a deck with islands its probably a good idea not to run cards like Carpet of Flowers or Choke . Where as if players at your lgs gravitate towards tribal decks sweepers and wraths become some of the strongest cards in your deck. Metagaming on a small scale isn't particularly but definitely takes some time and thought to make the correct choices
Dealing with Mistakes
No takesies backsies. Hold yourself to a higher standard and if you make a mistake see if you can play your way out of it. Punish yourself so you won't repeat it. Don't blame others for your loss; evaluate what you did wrong and figure out where you may of slipped up. Sure, poor threat assessment can be a contributing factor to a loss but it's far from the only factor.
Conclusion
Basically, use your resources, be flexible and humble, never stop trying to improve, and always be trying to learn new things if you guys have anything else to add please feel free; especially you veteran players.
Last_Laugh says... #3
I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was! To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause!
December 16, 2019 10:06 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #4
enpc well said. I do find players over estimating their decks quite often and it always turns out poorly. Had a guy this weekend say his deck was a solid 8. Granted, it was a pile of money loaded with judge foils and box toppers but he didn't have a focused strategy or much in the way of interaction, one said his was a 7 and he was playing mono white oloro hate bears and one guy said his was an 8 and he was playing a deck with some random mono green commander from kamigawa. I killed table on turn 7 with doubling season and jace aot combo. The doubling season sat on the feild for 3 turns and was never answered...
December 16, 2019 10:16 p.m.
All solid points. I recently won a game because the new player decided to use Chaos warp (he's rakdos, warp is his only answer to enchantments) on his 1/1 instead of my Lurking Predators which already got me 2 beatsticks.
I think a large issue is threat assessment. Most people don't have the capacity (IMO) [sometimes myself included) to determine who is the threat. I played another game where Player A played Army of the Damned so someone cast Decree of Pain , even though they saw me tutor for Avenger of Zendikar + Cradle + Genesis Wave. He didn't understand....so he paid the ultimate price :)
December 17, 2019 1:18 a.m.
Rabid_Wombat says... #7
I allow my opponents to do "takesie backsies" but I don't allow myself to do them. If I don't win, half of the time it's because of a mistake that I made myself...like yesterday when I drew 86 cards and decked myself :D
December 17, 2019 5:03 a.m.
Last_Laugh says... #8
My playgroup typically allows 1 small rewind per game (per player). If I'm playing in a competitive group, we don't even allow that. I.e. in a competitive game I countered an opponent's Enter the Infinite by morphing Stratus Dancer (Animar deck). Before thinking he slammed down Pact of Negation to counter my counter. He wasted Pact because Stratus Dancer isn't a spell and then lost to his mistake (his best friend/roommate destroyed his 2nd blue source).
December 17, 2019 11:48 a.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #9
Well, that feels like the wrong fix. There were no spells on the stack. Only a trigger. He couldn't actually cast the pact.
enpc says... #2
One of the big things I see that will hold a lot of players back is the deckbuilding as well. Lots of comments like "my deck is really fast", however it has an average CMC of 4+ and all of 7 ramp cards in it. Understanding what makes a good deck is important and knowing where your deck could use improvement (even in a vacuum) is a crucial skill to develop.
As a general rune, all decks need 4 main things:
A well defined win condition (you'd be surprised how often people actually forget this),
Mana and mana acceleration (i.e. ramp),
Card advantage (which includes both pure draw and tutoring), and
Removal (be it couterspells or permanent removal).
Getting the balance between these is four elements is key and will define how well your deck works. After all, you only have 100 cards total to play with, so understanding what cards do what and how cards can fulfil multiple roles is super important.
Win condition is a big one as well - I see a lot of decks which haven't actually thought out their win conditions beyond "turn sideways?" Even within that statement there are lots of questions: Do you want to beat down with a few large creatures, are your trying to swarm the battlefield with tokens, Are you running anthem effects, are you trying to win in one turn or whittle your opponents down? All of these are important, because you need to measure theeffectiveness of a strategy vs the amount of card slots your need to devote to it (which in turn takes away from other areas).
There is a really great saying I have heard (which was actually to do with finance but applies here too), "You can have anything you want, you just can't have everything you want". So many people build decks trying to do all the things and it ends up just being slow and unresponsive because you're missing key elements.
December 16, 2019 9:20 p.m.