Tip of the Day #1

Reid Duke's win at Grand Prix: Nashville was a wild ride for everyone but the eventual victor.  The new draft format has proven to be a tough nut to crack.  Wizards has been pushing card quality since Shards of Alara, and the new reality is that your drafts are going to play more and more like Constructed matches.  To that end, our first tip comes from Reid's interview with Rich Hagon.

Adjust for real life play by becoming more aware of your draft.  


Reid discussed the transition from online grinding to success at major tournaments, noting especially that the fact that MTGO tracks your picks and can even display your curve can make for awkward situations in live drafting.

Understanding the role that different options can play in your deck can be the difference between a 3-0 or 2-1 and a 1-2 performance.  Practice making the right decision in the moment, but don't fall into the trap of missing out on a curve-filling choice because you are attracted to the shiny rare or uncommon.

Silverchase Fox is probably worse than Smite the Monstrous, but if you've already filled your four-drop slot with Inquisitors, Mausoleum Guards, and Sentries, you might need the body.  Similarly, if your deck is comprised mostly of token generators, having the Fox might get you out of a sticky situation when you face down a surprise Curse of Death's Hold.

To re-iterate, Reid Duke credited his ability to adjust to memorizing the relevant cards in a given draft as one of the most important steps he took in becoming a more complete player.  You can do the same.

Electrifying: A MTG Article by Ben Snyder

Electrifying

So last time I ran through a few ideas I had for the shape of post-Innistrad standard.  One thing that I definitely wasn’t expecting was the speed at which the metagame shifts now as opposed to ten years ago.  While I compulsively devour every midnight update of SCG and ChannelFireball, it’s different when you are actively trying to play in the new environments.

With that in mind, I’m going to try and publish an article every week, especially once Innistrad is online and I can actually playtest more than ten or fifteen games every five days.  For those of you who don’t remember, or haven’t bothered to check out my archives from the various websites, I take playtesting seriously.  I do not like small sample sizes.  But now, I think, I’ll have to accept that it isn’t possible to spend three to six months tinkering with a deck any more as the metagame will just evolve around it while you try and do so.