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There's a couple of things I'd like to chat to you about today. Without further ado...

 

Ok, so yesterday I pointed my browser to magic.tcgplayer.com and noticed Riki's new article which I started to read. Imagine my surprise when saw a big quotation from a piece I did for the site I write for, Twincast, regarding Teferi.

 

I can only speak for myself here but I'm going to take a risk and suggest I speak for the vast majority of writers out there in any field - I need affirmation. When I write, I need people to respond to the things I have said. Now Riki goes on in his (disappointingly short) piece to disagree with most of my assumptions. How can that be in any way affirming? Well I guess it's just nice that my opinion (and Mr Loucks) was considered. I'd like the think that the reason Riki put my quote in his article was because it was reasoned and rational and put forward one side of a case that needed to be discussed. The fact that he disagreed is by the by. I guess what I am trying to say that as a writer, it isn't my goal to make everyone agree with me, rather read what I write, look at the reasoning and then go forth and debate or dissect the piece. If I feel that something I have written has done that, it gives me a happy glow (TM) inside. It's sometimes difficult to get as much feedback as I would like from what I write over here in the UK so agree or disagree, Riki's article cheered me up.

 

What disappointed me slightly was the spelling / punctuation / grammar within the quotation in question. I was very lucky to get the opportunity, essentially from nowhere to get a writing gig at Twincast. Tony, my editor over there, has done an amazing job of turning the site from something very small to a collective of Magic players who are gaining reputations and recognition outside of the UK - the highlight being getting someone on the UK National team for Worlds in NY this year with Sti Wright and Prof Jones.

 

Because of the work Tony puts into the site and his other commitments however, he isn't able to put in the time proof-reading and editing. I do try and proof-read my articles but sometimes things slip through the cracks. It makes me incredibly embarrassed to read back the quote from Riki's article and see the mistakes that are in there. I do wonder if my writing could improve if I had someone I could constantly exchange ideas with and bounce articles to. Or perhaps it's an intrinsic limitation within myself. I don't think so and certainly I hope not.

 

And now for something completely different... I mentioned Prof earlier. I was reading his article on SCG today and noticed that he is finishing his writing there for a wee while because of his PhD. What he is suggesting is that he won't have the time he would like to devote to Magic due to writing his thesis.

 

Now Mr Jones has spent the last month telling us all how much he would love to make the Invitational and it seemed like there was the possibility this would happen at one point with the Storyteller ballot. I don't believe anybody going to Essen, other than maybe Evan himself, would have put in as much testing and effort into doing well as Prof. And that's not to say all the hard work he would have put in during and afterwards giving us tournament coverage.

 

We all know that Craig is a thoroughly good chap and I'm not about to pigeon-hole him in the same box as Rich Hoaen, but it does make you wonder if he would have hung up his proverbial pen and paper had he been one of the 16 chosen for Germany. Just a thought.

 

Anyways, you know where to get me.

 

-Flame on-

Dave

I've always wanted to be a Magic Pro Player. It's never a goal I considered realistic - something along the lines of owning a Ferrari or dating the entire female cast of the OC. Ok, maybe not quite as extreme as those - there's always the outside chance that I qual for a PT and then ace it, but it's pretty unlikely. And yet I always dreamt that one day I might get to join the elite...

Until this week.

Before we go any further, I am going to quite clearly specify that Pro Magic Players are like any other group of people - there are always exceptions to the rule, you can't generalise an entire group, etc. But I'm going to generalise anyway. Why? Because the Pro Player community has come across as a bunch of arrogant, self-absorbed morons over the Invitational and various ballots. What I am going to go over has been covered by others in the last week or so such as Riki here on his blog and Rich Hagon on SCG but I really needed to put my perspective on things - I feel incredibly strongly about this but wanted to take some time before getting all my thoughts down here on my blog rationally.

Firstly, we have Rich Hoaen not included in the Limited Genius ballot. Now this is, at best, a gross oversight on Wizards part. But, at this point, Rich has a good chance of getting in on one of the other ballots. Rich has a reputation for being one of the less 'happy' members of the Tour. Whether this is true or not, it's the perception that the general Magic populus has and one SCG (and therefore one would presume Rich himself) were happy to promote.

Within a couple of weeks of this slight, 'Drafting with Rich' finishes on SCG and Kenji takes over. Now I am not aware of the circumstances in which he stopped writing for SCG (and if anyone could clarify this for me, I'd be very much grateful). So the situation stands that Rich is omitted from the Limited Genius ballot and almost immediately ends his writing column. Coincidence ftw? Seriously, you get to play a card game for a living - hundreds of thousands of people would love to take your place - stop spitting the dummy because you didn't get your way.

Then we have the Storyteller ballot. Amongst the non-Pro Magic playing community (I'm not going to say Casual here - I wouldn't classify myself as a Casual player, rather an enthuiast with lofty dreams of greatness) this announcement was greeted with with open-arms. The thought of one of 'us' (as close as we've gotten so far anyway) playing in the Invitational was great. Someone who would go and stand with the giants of the game and represent the wee guy.

Forsyth has said it raised discussion at Wizards. Reading between the lines, that probably means there were big arguments. But Forsyth won out which says a couple of things to me. Firstly, he is a bloody good guy with a well rounded view of the game and the people who make it the success that it is - i.e. not the Pros. And secondly, he has the debating capabilities and punch required to take his ideas and make them happen, in the face of obvious opposition. It's good that we have someone in Renton in that position.

Anyways, how did the Pros respond to the Storyteller ballot? Did they go 'Oh well, it's only one slot out of 16'? Did they agree that the only reasons the Pros exist and have the prestige and chance to travel and earn so much money is because of the multitude of little guys that look up to them? Did they embrace the whole concept with open arms as a chance to bridge the great divide between us and them?

No, they didn't. They (or at least their most vocal representatives) were morons. I'm not going to go into the specifics of what was said on the various forums because it has been talked to death by other people. The fallout of those discussions is still there for anyone who may be interested to see at places like the Wizards boards. Needless to say, the Pros did not shower themselves in glory and a lot of the work done by people like Craig Jones to try and take us into the world of the professional Magic player has been undone by a vocal minority.

It makes me disappointed that these people do not have due consideration and appreciation for the masses of people who give them their position. And my dream, of one time joining those guys at the top of the game I invest so much of my life to, has diminished slightly.

/rant

-Flame on-

Dave

This isn't going to be about Magic. Not directly anyway. Just warning you and stuff. I've spent the last few days thinking about whether or not everything I blog on here should be explicitly about Magic. I've come to the conclusion that I need an outlet for the other stuff that happens in my life that isn't MtG. And that outlet is this blog. I will still be writing about Magic here and over on Twincast and I will still have a go at submitting the odd piece for the main site article contest but you are going to have the opportunity to hear about some of the other aspects of my life. Enjoy the ride.

So this morning I woke up feeling crap. I had been having sneezing fits yesterday but had assumed it was nothing more than that. Then late last night I was feeling really snotty and bunged up. This morning I have woke up constantly sneezing and coughing and it feels like the area around my nose and forehead is totally stuffed up. Not good. Especially not good as I'm DJing tonight and tomorrow night when I really cannot be hooped. And I have a bunch of uni coursework to do this weekend.

As you all know, I DJ in two of the major nightclubs here in Aberdeen. That means I constantly need to have an ear open for hip-hop, r'n'b and dance music - especially house (small aside - if you have any recommendations on any of that kind of stuff, drop me a PM or add a comment here or whatever). But I'm also into indie music in a big way. I've been listening to stuff like Idlewild, Aqualung and Ash a lot lately. You should all go and 'obtain' yourselves some Idlewild, especially the singles such as You Held The World, American English and A Modern Way Of Letting Go. And if you are a fan of music at all, you all need to go and check out the Ash back catalogue. Stuff like Kung Fu is just timeless.I keep meaning to head over for the SXSW Festival but I can never justify the expense.

Lately, it kind of feels like my time is just getting eaten up. I don't know if it's partly because I'm getting older or whatever - I'm cracking on 30 which is rather depressing in itself. I work full time, I DJ 3 nigths a week, I'm in the 2nd year of my Physics degree and on top of all of this I have to try and find the time to play and write about Magic. I keep feeling that something has to give - it's like an intricate house of cards just waiting to fall down. I'm on top of everything so far. To give you an example, there is PTQ in Glasgow this weekend. It's about a 3 hour drive there and the same back (no way!). I just can't make the journey. Block isn't something I enjoy at the best of times and I have so much other stuff to get done. That said I think some of the boys might nip round my place for a quick draft.

Anyways, that's it for now. If you've got this far, cheers for letting me unload a little. I promise to keep these kind of blogs to a minimum but I won't preclude them entirely. Keep your chin up.

-Flame on-

Dave

After exploiting my friends and position in every way possible, I was able to get an interview this side of the pond with Mr Lee Singleton - Organised Play Manager for WotC in UK, Ireland and South Africa (...?).

Anyways, Lee took the time to answer a short interview. It's probably worth 10 minutes of your time - if nothing else, there is a little information on next years GP schedule on there.

http://mtgtwincast.com/Articles/David%20W/WoTCInterview.html

Hope you enjoy.

-Flame on-

Dave

Hey peeps,

Time your faithful Scotsman tried some actual strategy. Here are my draft orders for 10th. Commons only, obv. Let me know what you guys think.

Blue

1. Sift

2. Merfolk Looter

3. Snapping Drake

4. Counsel of the Soritami

5. Unsummon

Yes, Aven Windreader is very good but in a format where the ground is going to get clogged up very quickly, card advantage and, therefore, overlap is king. And Unsummon is vastly underrated. It only costs U and can swing a close combat situation into a winning one or save one of your guys once damage is on the stack. All for one measly U.

 

Black

1. Terror

2. Gravedigger

3. Phyrexian Rager

4. Assassinate

5. Mind Rot

Recover should maybe be on there instead of Mind Rot - it's close. Turn 3 Mind Rot on the play is so so huge.

 

Red

1. Incinerate

2. Shock

3. Splitting Earth

4. Prodigal Pyromancer

5. Demolish

Maybe Tim should be over Splitting Earth. Depends on how 'red' your deck is. I love Demolish. There are some artifacts that will just destroy you if you can't find a way to deal with them - Platinum Angel and Warhammer spring to mind. Whilst I never advocate maindecking artifact removal by itself, Demolish doubles up as a way to mana-screw your opponent making it a winner for me.

 

Green

1. Civic Wayfinder

2. Craw Wurm

3. Spined Wurm

4. Aggressive Urge

5. Kavu Climber

As I have said in other places, another key thing in 10th is fat - there aren't that many ways to deal with big creatures so value the fat highly. Not much else to say here.

 

White

1. Pacifism

2. Loxodon Mystic

3. Skyhunter Prowler

4. Skyhunter Patrol

5. Angelic Wall

Benalish Knight is very nice as well. I just like flyers in this set which colours my judgment. And Angelic Wall is also a big fav card of mine. Dropping it turn 2 shuts off so many creatures in this set.

 

So basically, remember the three key things in this set - card advantage, fat and evasion. I know this is nothing new but these things are at a premium in this set so make sure you value them highly.

Cheers guys,

Dave

'I wrote the following piece a couple of months back, not too long before the release of FS. A lot of the points are still relevant however and I'm just interested to get some feedback from a different forum on one of the more controversial pieces I've written. Let me know what you think...'

 

Something new has been creeping into the forum as of late. It’s a topic everyone
likes to skirt around maybe because we’re a little scared of it. A
Magic playing friend of mine recently brought it up in an email after
reading my last article. I kind of touched upon it there a little but,
as he pointed out to me, it’s a fairly massive subject which isn’t
discussed in Magic playing circles. Certainly not that I have ever seen
anyway. Buckle up because we’re going in…

How addictive is Magic? How addicted to the game is the ‘average’ Magic player? Is it
just the cards we get addicted to or does the game make us all that
little more greedy with increasing ‘win at all costs’ attitudes? Why do
we think that is justifiable to spend the time and money we do on cards
and Magic Online? Do Wizards consider us as players or as addicts they
need to keep hooked? Is Magic just one huge con with the Pro Tour being
some kind of junkie heaven? Let’s break this down then….

How addictive is Magic?

This is a fairly open question and a lot of it comes down to the individual.
But let’s look at our demograph. The vast majority of people playing
this game are men from the age of say 12-30. Let’s not kid ourselves,
the average Magic player isn’t the guy going to football on a Saturday
or getting hammered on a Friday night or driving motorbikes at 120mph
down the highway. As a collective, we’re a fairly geeky bunch and Magic
is a bit of a release for us; a chance to pit ourselves in a field of
mental combat with one another. And being young men, there’s a bit of
testosterone, and most of us want to win, even the casual guys.
Unfortunately, to be good at Magic you need to buy a lot of cards.
Whether it’s getting those dual lands for your constructed deck or
refining your drafting tactics by taking part in your 4th TS/TS/PC
draft online that day, you need to have cards. This would be all well
and good if every three months, WotC didn’t shift the goalposts by
releasing a new set. And that is only considering the financial aspect.
Tournaments take time. Drafting takes time. Having a free for all
multiplayer game with your mates round the kitchen table takes time.
This can be a far worse drain on us as people than on our wallets.

Magic is an outlet for people like me and you. It preys on our wishes to
improve ourselves. How addictive is the card game we know and love? As
addictive as we let it. Which is a lot.

How addicted to the game is the ‘average’ Magic player?

You’ll all be sat there thinking I’m not describing you. ‘I only play for
fun!’, ‘I don’t care if I win or lose’, ‘I spend hardly anything on
Magic!’…

Have you ever really wanted a Magic card? You
tried to get it forever – you couldn’t afford it so you tried to trade
for it, you proxied it and put it in decks? Maybe you managed to save
up so you could buy it at last? This happened to me from my very first
deck. Man, I wanted two more Ornithopters to go into the crappy elf /
artefact 80-card monstrosity. Brining things forward, I was at Worlds
with my girlfriend. We’d saved up so were in the fortunate position of
having plenty of pennies. I had booked dinner with her up the Eiffel
Tower. That day in the Louvre, I was PTQing. Not an issue. 0-2, drop,
plenty of time to get to the venue. So it rolls around to half 6ish and
I’m 4-0. She tells me not to worry about it and I stay. I made top 8 of
a 256 man PTQ – my first ever ‘big’ top 8. With hindsight, I turned
down dinner in the Eiffel Tower with my beautiful girlfriend for a game
of cards. I ended up with a box of boosters. Seriously. It’s ludicrous
when you think about it. But see when she told me I could stay, I was
over the moon.

I’d like to consider myself a fairly average,
grounded Magic player and the above describes two situations I’ve found
myself in. I’d imagine most people can relate to one of the stories
above. I’d love to think this game doesn’t have me hook, line and
sinker but I’d be fooling myself. I’m a total addict.

Is it just the cards we get addicted to or does the game make us all that
little more greedy with increasing ‘win at all costs’ attitudes?

This is an interesting one. If I am honest with myself, the longer I’ve
played the game, and the better I’ve got at it, the more I’ve wanted to
win. A lot of this can just be explained by me wanting to get something
out of the time invested. But surely I should be happy just enjoying
the game itself? Surely that in itself is worth the time and expense I
put into the game? It makes me sad to say no. I do find myself wanting
to win more, the older I get. And see if I extensively playtest before
a big tournament, this I want to win twice as much.

I’d always wanted to write about Magic. I love the game. It’s a big part of
my life and I honestly felt that I might have something interesting to
say. Not only that but I felt I could communicate it in a way that
people could relate to when they read it. Yet I never wrote anything.
There’s a few reasons for this – didn’t feel experienced enough, had
never done any ‘real’ writing before, I simply didn’t have a forum to
put what I wanted to write. So what made me start writing here for
mtgtwincast? The writing competition. I’d love to say that it was
something a friend said, or a burst of inspiration but no. The writing
competition and the chance to win £150 to spend on Magic wasn’t what
caused me to write my first article but it was the catalyst.

It’s not something that makes me proud but there you go. Maybe as a side
effect of being addicted, I do find myself looking for ways to be able
to attend that big event or getting that next playset I need. I don’t
feel my writing is even remotely good enough to stand up to the other
guys in the competition but the slimmest opportunity of being able to
write to get that playset of dual lands spurred me into action.

Does this also roll into a ‘win at all costs’ scenario? When was the last
time you were at a top level event when someone wasn’t DQed? It seems
to be happening more and more often. You only have to look at Worlds to
see some of the problems that are going on. Numbers of players being
DQed are increasing all the time and Worlds 2006 was a Pro Tour record.
And when the top players, such as Bracht are doing it, what kind of
example does that set to our up-and-comers? You may suggest that these
are isolated incidents and are quickly stamped on but are we curing the
disease or merely covering up the symptoms?

Why do we think that is justifiable to spend the time and money we do on cards and Magic Online?

I’m going to give a very, very rough breakdown of what I think I spent on Magic in 2006.

Drafting - 5-6 times a month - £720 (£60 a month)

This includes the odd packet of new sleeves, a bite to eat during the draft, etc, etc.

Release events and Champs - £90

GP Cardiff - £400

I did this on the mega cheap with my girlfriend. We Megabus-ed it down
which was over 24hrs each way from Thurso. We stayed in a nice
cheap-ish hotel for 3 nights and we didn’t take a lot of spending
money. Was a fun trip all the same.

2 Standard decks - £100

I trade as much as possible for cards so I need so I didn’t need to spend
too much on the couple of Standard decks I built last year

Worlds at Paris - £800

Both myself and my girlfriend went but I’m not going to include costs for
both of us as this was our holiday for the year as well. So I’m only
including costs for myself here.

Total for the year…..

£2110

£2110!!

That works out at about £175 a month. That is a serious wedge of cash. I’m
very lucky to have a decent Magic budget and a girlfriend that likes
seeing new places so tolerates my hobby. But how do I justify this all
to myself?

Pure love of the game. People reading this and my last article may think I have some massive downer on Magic. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love playing Magic. And I want to
improve. And there’s the rub. As I mentioned earlier, I have fun
sitting down and duelling. I have more fun sitting down to duel and winning.
And I want to compete at the top level. I want to play Magic as a Pro.
I don’t think it’s ever going to happen but the only way I’ll know is
if I keep watching the best players and pit myself against them. So I
go to Worlds and PTQ like crazy and I go to GPs.

These might all be reasons I use to justify an addiction, like the drunk guy who
drinks all the time to forget about his problems, but that doesn’t make
them any less legitimate. That drunk guy really does want to forget
about his problems. And I really do want to play Magic and improve my
game.

Do Wizards consider us as players or as addicts they need to keep hooked?

Firstly a quote from Old Vig in the forums…

‘One thing you did not say is that WotC are listening to the players a lot
harder recently. If they are contractually bound to print more sets,
they at least are trying to give us what we want. What we want does
vary, so TS and coldsnap both fill niches. OTOH a lot of players are
acting like junkies, and falling over themselves to grab whatever WotC
throws their way. 42 at the pre-release yesterday! Many of those 42
have been saying that sets come out too fast, and yet they lap up the
spoilers and turn out to the pre's, never mind if the cards are not
legal for another month.’

I think we forget sometimes that Wizards of the Coast is a company. It ultimately exists to make
money. Most of the things they do will be to get us to buy more cards.
We don’t need to like the decisions WotC make – if they ultimately end
up with us spending more money on cards then Wizards have achieved
there goal. So they release four sets a year. The opinion from the
forum seems to be that four is too many in one year. So what do we do?
Do we not draft that fourth set? Do we forgo the Coldsnap release
event? Do we choose to live without that playset of Ohran Vipers? No,
we lap it up. We eat up all the snippets of news on mtgsalvation and
we’re there, money in hand at the Pre-Re begging the shop owner to take
those crisp notes out of our hand to play a set that we really disagree
with in theory.

WotC is a business. They know we love the
‘cardboard crack’ so they give us what we want. And despite us
complaining about it, we lap it up. If Wizards consider us as addicts,
is it their fault for getting us addicted or our own faults for letting
ourselves get that way?

But of course, we all remember the pinnacle of what Wizards and us, as players, hope to achieve…

Is Magic just one huge con with the Pro Tour being some kind of junkie heaven?

Is Magic a con? I’m not so sure. We’re all big boys and girls. As Magic
players we’re meant to be an intelligent bunch yet we let Wizards take
advantage of us over and over again. We are, as a group of people,
clearly addicted. I guess the more important question is, as long as
are enjoying ourselves without smashing up cars and hurting people, is
it a problem?

It’s definitely a very well marketed game
which preys on the people who play it as a demograph. Don’t look at
Wizards of the Coast as some kind of almighty guardian of the game we
love. They aren’t. For as long as they can they’ll keep us playing.
This is actually a good thing because, for the most part, to keep us
playing, they need to keep improving the game. When they start
reprinting the P9, then you know we’re in trouble...

As for the Pro Tour, well lets be honest, it’s just an extension of the
business plan. It gives us all the largely unattainable goal to aim
for. Could there be anything better than being a Pro Magic player? The
number of actual totally professional Magic players is very small. In a
recent Ask The Pro question on mtg.com, Raphael Levy put the number at
much less than 100. Most people have to get there through qualification
in smaller events. The unfortunate fact is that for most of us, even
playing in the Pro Tour off the back of a PTQ is not a cheap trip.
Sure, you get your air fare but there are the costs involved with
accommodation, getting a deck together, playtesting… I’ve heard of many
people who have went out to Japan and the US and not had change from
£1k after they totalled up all the costs of their trip. Of all the
ploys Wizards use to keep money coming from our wallets, perhaps the
Pro Tour is the most outright cynical of all.

And hey, as I have discussed in a previous article, maybe it is starting to backfire
for the guys in Seattle. Sure, they have us, the old guard, wrapped
round their little finger but it would appear in the UK that playing
numbers are falling. Who knows what new tricks they may have up there
sleeves. It will be interesting to see what happens in Summer ’08.

Well, I think that’s enough for another week. Remember, addiction is a disease, not a choice ;)

-Flame On-

Dave

My name is Dave Whitelaw and I live here in Aberdeen, Scotland. Unlike Mr. Spaniel, I do play Magic, but I’m just not very good. No sob-story here; I can throw around 40-card decks with a reasonable degree of confidence and ability, but constructed Magic is something which seems to escape me. Therefore, any strategy contained within is likely to be as useful as a three-legged haggis (reinforcing stereotypes since 2007).

But I am passionate about the game. And I’m opinionated. Do you know what’s worse than being opinionated? Being opinionated on something you really aren’t an authority on. What’s worse than both of these things? Not having a forum to vent your opinions. So expect uneducated opinions and tips aplenty. Just don’t trust them to be gospel.

Over here in the UK, I’m part of a group of guys who are pretty much all superior to me in terms of playskill. This is a good thing™ because it can only help me become a better player, right? To a degree this is true. But I wanted to contribute something a bit more to the team than the barn who nicks decklists and prestige by swimming in their wake. I’m not going to make a name for myself by smashing into the top 8 of a Pro Tour or by making the deck one of the other guys takes to the same.

So I started writing about eight or nine months back. I was fairly decent at English in school and, hey, I’m a loud Scotsman so I’ll have a bash at forcing my opinions on other people, amrite? Rather surprisingly, my articles over on mtgtwincast.com have been pretty well received since then. Anyways, you aren’t all that interested in my background. Scottish lad, writes a good game, yadda, yadda, yadda….

And so it was that I jumped on a flight last Wednesday evening and made my way to M Fest. For those of you not in the know, M Fest was a big, 4-day Magic event happening here in the UK and incorporating our National Championships. If you’ve been keeping up with Blake’s [Rasmussen] articles, then I have to back up what he said… The UK Championships are no different than the US counterparts – whether you are qualified or not, you should make the journey. It’s an experience. The UK scene isn’t as prevalent throughout the world as certain other countries of a similar size. When you look at nations like the Netherlands and France, we’re batting pretty much below our league; the likes of Prof [recently crowned Champion Craig Jones], Quentin Martin and Sam Gomersall maintain a general awareness of the UK throughout the world but once you crack that surface, there ain’t much else going on. Play numbers throughout the UK have been falling a bit, and it has been decided that the annual GP trip here needs to become biannual. The compromise is M Fest.

Hey, it could have been a lot worse. We got a nice venue down in Birmingham with loads of GPTs, a PTQ each day and as many wee side events as you can shake a stick at. Needless to say, as I flew down with my judge buddy, Brett, we were very excited. By the time we landed and escaped the clutches of the baggage carousel, we made our way to our beds for the evening (props to Bogi for giving me and some other guys a great HQ for the weekend), and managed to get a fairly early night.

As I mentioned earlier, superstar Magic player your writer is not, so I was aware that Thursday would be spent having a go at grinding into the main event. Looking back, I had quite a strange attitude towards grinders; part of me was just desperate to qualify, knowing that all my friends were already there. It is the event of the weekend and the chance, however slim, of getting an invite to Worlds is hard to ignore. But more than a small part of me couldn’t help but feel a little bit distant towards the whole process. If I qualify and make it, I probably spend the weekend scrapping it out on the lower tables as I watch hundreds of players take part in all the cool side events. Bad attitude, I know. I’m not sure if it affected the way I played or not on Thursday. I’d love to be able to say yes to justify how badly it went but I think I’m only kidding myself…

What? How did I do? Well, there were two Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQs). The first was limited and started round about 2pm. My deck was decidedly ‘ok.’ I really couldn’t see it going 7-0 and top-8ing but given a bit of luck I might have scraped in. I drew one of my Twincast buddies round one, who proceeded to hand me my bootay on a plate in fairly quick order. Round two, I don’t really remember all that much but I managed to get the win. So I am at 1-1, it’s around 5:30pm and I have a decision to make. The next LCQ starts at 6pm. It’s constructed. I’m pretty much on the bubble, and I’m not confident of winning out from where I am with my sealed deck, but on the other hand, 60 card decks aren’t my bag. I dropped out and signed up for the constructed LCQ with UB Teachings Control.

1-2, drop. Good times. Once again, paired in the first round with one of my playgroup friends; once again, I was pwned. Second round and Tendrils and Damnation do the job for me fairly easily. Round three and I keep a slow hand at 1-1 and get outraced by Gruul. This came down to a little bit of inexperience and a little bit of being stupid. It’s really important if you are playing against aggro and on the draw in game three to mulligan aggressively. It always makes me nervous shipping a 50/50 hand and most of the time I’ll generally keep it. This was the wrong time to keep and it was a hard lesson to learn. With a fond farewell to my chances of making the main event, I do what any self-respecting person does - drop n’ draft.

Let's not beat around the bush here; your fearless writer has had his confidence shaken a bit up to this point. How to get over his rather awful start to the weekend? Draft 10th Edition. Beating up on noobs sounds like the kind of plan I know I feel comfortable with. Sit down to draft and feel a little bit anxious because I knew signalling might be kind of difficult. I can’t even remember what I first-picked but it was my second pick that blew me away… Overrun. The rest of my draft was fairly straight forward; some cheap guys in the form of Bears and Lumengrid Wardens, some acceleration, some green fat and some blue tricks and card draw. I won the first two rounds, seeing Overrun for 3 out of the 4 game wins. In the final, I played the guy who had been to my right as we drafted. I asked what he had taken instead of the Overrun: Grave Pact. He needed it for a deck back home seemingly. He then kicked my head in game one and it wasn’t even close. Game two, and I have lots of little guys out, but he has lots of bigger guys. Overrun ftw much? Game three and you’ll be shocked to hear than Overrun once again did the final damage. ‘Guess that’ll be karma for me passing it to you then?’ Winning the draft cheered me up somewhat. A trip to a local pub and plenty of sleep complete the first day.

Friday and I wake up feeling like I could do with another four hours of sleep - nothing that should affect my game too badly. No, it wouldn’t be the fact that I was tired which would hurt my game on Friday. What would really hurt my chances of qualifying for a Pro Tour or winning a Grand Prix Trial is not actually being about to play the game with any degree of ability. I borrowed Mono U Pickles at the last minute from my friend Chris (having never played with the deck before) for the Valencia PTQ.

‘28 land?’
‘It’s good enough for Tsumura.’
‘I guess so….’

Lesson number one; don’t play with a control deck in a PTQ that you have never before piloted. This is straight-forward basics to most of you guys. Never forget however that your author here misses out on certain tech such as ‘test the deck you’ll be playing with’ due to being stuck in the middle of nowhere. I missed the start of round one mainly due to trying to get my decklist written up correctly; game loss – tardiness. Round two, I sit down and a judge comes over. Turns out I hadn’t added the two copies of Serrated Arrows that were in the main deck to my registration sheet; game loss – misregistration of a deck (or whatever it’s called). I was in a bad mood before round three. By this point they had started the first draft of the main event and I went over to watch some of the Scottish guys before the next round started. Didn’t hear the announcer broadcast that pairings were up for the next round; games loss – tardiness. Lesson number two; three games losses in three matches are going to restrict your chances of a top 8 a tad. Now I know what you are all thinking – in each match I was only 1-0 down. Surely in one of the matches I could have come from behind and pinched one match win? You’d think, wouldn’t you? It would appear Pickles isn’t the best deck to pick up from scratch and try to win a blue envelope with.

But seriously, three games losses in three matches. I spoke to one of the judges afterwards who told me that if I had sat down for round four, it was highly likely I’d have been match-lossed for repeat offences. I really don’t do myself any favours, do I?

There’s another issue here though. My heart wasn’t in the deck. I’m going to level with you. I’m an aggro player through and through. It might be due to a lack of skill (almost certainly) or it might just be the Timmy deep inside me but I like dropping creatures, turning them sideways and pointing burn at my opponents’ heads. Pickles is pretty much the absolute antithesis of the kind of deck I would normally play. So my heart just wasn’t there. And if your heart ain’t there, you may as well scoop them up before you sit down for round one because it will cascade into your play decisions and your attitude. Preach over.

Hey-ho. Let’s tick the drop box on the match slip and try our hands at the GPT for Firenze, also Block Constructed. Lost the first round and managed to scrape a draw in round two before dropping. I gave the deck back to Chris half disgusted with myself and half offended at that pile of 60. Certain decks appear to be ‘skill-testers’; this was never more apparent to me than that afternoon. And as I said, I just wasn’t in a place, both in terms of playtesting and in mindset, to take that list into a Top 8. Happens.

So how does a boy cheer himself up? Yep, I sat down for another 10th draft. 2 Merfolk Looters, a Platinum Angel, Reya Dawnbringer plus plenty of tricks and flyers makes a good deck. I won the draft at a canter. It also transpired that the bar in the venue would be open on the Friday night. Much merrymaking ensues…

Time for another little bit of advice here. When you are drafting 10th, whatever you do, force blue. Certain cards always seemed to completely wreck my opponents; stuff going very late like Councel of the Soratami or Unsummon would turn a close board position into an auto-win. I found that pairing blue with green for fat or white for evasion in the form of flying worked really well for me. There are only very limited ways in 10th to deal with cards like Craw Wurm or Enormous Baloth. In a simple triple core set draft, especially if drafting with less experienced players, do whatever you can to force blue. It shouldn’t be too tricky as new players tend to avoid blue like the plague anyway.

We slept in Saturday. By this point, there had been no limited GPTs or PTQs and none were scheduled. I couldn’t face running another gauntlet of 'Goyfs and Korlashes. The plan was to have lunch, followed by a nice quiet afternoon of drafting. It was cracking on half two by the time we arrived at the conference centre where we headed to the side events table. There I asked my very good friend, Sarah (also my landlady by coincidence) which events were due to start. She then informed me that there had been a wee change to the schedule that I might be interested in – GPT Stuttgart would now be Sealed. Sealed is a format close to my heart and certainly my forte. (My only PTQ top 8 happened in Paris in one of the 256-man events for Geneva. I went 6-0 in the first six rounds before IDing the last two to make Top 8 - where I lost in the quarters. It didn’t dampen my spirits – top 8 of a 256 man event was, and still is, the highlight of my playing career.) And by happy coincidence, the GPT was due to start in thirty minutes. I sat down and registered a mediocre pool, getting an equally mediocre pile to build my deck from after deck-swapping. I ended up RG with plenty of removal but not much else. My top end was essentially a Sporesower Thallid and a Tectonic Fiend. I did however splash white for Castle Raptors and Judge Unworthy mainly because I was short of playables. This was a risk but worth it I felt.

Round one and I am owned by an opponent using Empty the Warrens, Sprout Swarm and Pyrohemia to rather good effect. This was feeling like another 0-2, drop. I don’t know what happened at this point. It was the weirdest thing – I just kind of went into auto-pilot. I managed to win the next four rounds, all 2-1, all very tight and me playing like a demon. I was nearly always on my back foot, but I just managed to make the deck work. I was able to ID round six to finish 4-1-1 and make Top 8. The draft went amazingly well. It felt like I was the only black drafter at the table, while pick one Soul Collector, pick two Endrek Sahr made for good times. I ended up BU and a very happy man. Toughest decision of the build was whether to run sixteen or seventeen land. I had a Chronatog Totem and plenty of draw. I took the risk and ran sixteen.

My round one opponent was a Lithuanian. He seemed nice enough, but he was playing very, very slowly to the point where I had no option but to call a judge to watch him halfway through the match. I screwed really badly game one - very disappointed. Game two, I came out lightning quick with Pit Keeper, Skulking Knight, Basal Sliver and Gauntlet of Power. It was too much for him. Game three and I am in complete dominance of the board. He has maybe two turns at best to find an answer and he has been flooding badly. He is on low life when he draws and looks at the card before tapping eight and windmill slamming Scourge of Kher Ridges. I can’t kill him on my turn, and the dragon wins him the game.

Dave = :(

My very good mate, Scott, also from Aberdeen, had also made Top 8. He beat the Lithuanian in the semis before losing in the final, so at least that was something. So I had made a GPT Top 8. I was a bit disappointed to lose the way I did, but it happens. Least my friend got the guy who got me. God, I sound like a nasty Spike when I say that…

I think what I learned from the GPT was that if you have enough removal and enough reasonable creatures, you can still do well. I always focus so much on the quality of the beef I am running. This is a mistake. Good removal is better than good creatures. One time, I managed to swing a 3/3 Vitaspore Thallid in for the win because of Thelon of Havenwood. That’s some savage tech.

Much drinking and rejoicing took place once again in the hotel that evening, where we had a damned good game of EDH with a bunch of judges (including a thoroughly nice level 5 by the name of Gis). The game had been going for hours when Les cast Living Wish. General chaos ensued and the game finished a few laps of the table later.

Sunday was a bit of an anti-climax, to be fair. I did another 10th draft, losing to one of my other friends from Aberdeen, Ken, in the final. It would appear that you can’t actually win them all… I watched a bit of the main event Top 8. My teammate, Marco Orsini-Jones, made the semis before losing to an inspired performance by Craig Jones. Prof was a very deserving winner – he’s a bloody nice chap and very well liked and respected in the UK community. The vast majority of people at the event held him as a worthy champ.

The flight home was long but enjoyable. Brett and I almost missed the final call for our flight, but we caught it ok after sprinting like loons from Starbucks. Getting home to my very tolerant better half, Denise, and the dogs brought a smile to the face. No matter how much I love the game, after four days of continuous Magic, I need some time to just chill out. And thoughts on the event itself? Well, in my opinion, it was just about as good an advert for Magic as you could get. I was at Worlds in Paris at the end of last year and M Fest really couldn’t have been much more different. Most stuff at M Fest ran like clockwork, the venue was more than big enough for everyone attending, there were a good range of events for everyone to take part in, and the judging staff was absolutely impeccable throughout. I know I must sound like a complete Wizards fanboy when reading that back but you are just going to have to trust that your faithful narrator is telling the truth.

I’m going to bimble off now; Harry Potter is calling me and I’ve got a bit of course work to do. Hopefully the three-legged haggis-ness of the advice contained in the past few thousand words hasn’t caused you to be too dismissive (‘Removal is good’ ftw!!!?!?!!111). One thing that I am very keen on is getting feedback from you guys, both positive and negative. Don’t sit there and troll like a moron because it doesn’t help anyone. If you have a valid point to make, go for it, but please try and be as constructive as possible. Until next time (hopefully), keep your chin up.

-Flame on-
Dave'

Why do certain individuals always find it so damned easy to sit and troll on people's writing?

It's happened for a long time on the forums with MM. I don't always agree with a lot of what Willy says in his articles but I do admire his craft and respect his opinion. Too often people feel the need to be morons when they are faceless posters.

I again noticed this in the forums after reading Matt Walker's piece on Luck or Skill? It was the kind of piece that I guess must have been difficult to write - self-analysis is never easy for me anyway. And yet you get a couple of guys that just have to be idiots. If certain individuals put in even 10% of the time thinking about their replies compared to the amount of time taken by the author to put the original article together, the whole mtg fraternity would be a much better place.

Constructive criticism is never a bad thing imo. It's just way too easy to cross that like between being constructive and being a muppet. Don't be a muppet.

/rant

-Flame on-

Dave

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