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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 7:42 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
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--- description ---
A step by step council into dropping amateur Magic player status by challenging the Pro Tour with the upcoming PTQ’s for Prague and Charleston. Also includes a rogue decklist for beating an unsuspecting Metagame.
--- end description ---
The audience here at Cobra Cards, by virtue of spending money on singles alone, is filled with players who have once shed their casual Magic goals and are exploring the world of tournament Magic. Many of these players are already well-versed, and I know because of the good comments I’ve received on my deck suggestions.
However, I also know that there are a large amount of players that take interest in the game and read strategy articles, but either due to a lack of money, time or anticipation never entered deeply into the tournament world. This article is meant for those players that have attended maybe prereleases and FNMs but never really committed to trying a PTQ.
This will be a walkthrough, plain and simple, on starting with Amateur Status to getting a deck to playtesting to attending the PTQ.
Step 1: the goal
Mark your calendars for the dates of the Pro Tour Qualifiers. There should be several events per state.
Prague: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=protour/prague06/qualifiers-na
Charleston: to be announced on magicthegathering.com
These are the Pro Tour Qualifiers. I realize that the actual Pro Tour, in Prague, Czech Republic, is off limits to many aspiring players, but the prizes even for 2-8 and experience from a high-level tournament qualifier are good things to have. Pro Tour Charleston, on the other hand, should be much more accessible (It is in South Carolina).
If a player wins a PTQ they get invited to the Pro Tour.
Possible dates: PTQ Prague (Jan-Feb-March-May) PTQ Charleston (Late March – April-May) Largely dependent on which state you are in
Step 2: basic information
These tournaments will last all day. They should be on Saturdays. Don’t be late.
The cost for these tournaments are usually anywhere from $15 to $35.
Winners receive free plane tickets to the Pro Tour with their Invite.
Non-1st place gets prizes, most likely Guildpact Boosters.
Know the rules of the game, and don’t hesitate to call the judge to clear a problem.
Use sleeves, but only new, one color, no design ones.
Step 3: To Enter
You will need a DCI number to compete. This number identifies you, keeps track of the tournaments you played in, and occasionally gets you free promotional cards as part of the Magic Player Rewards system. If you don’t have a DCI number, registration takes literally 5 minutes, just fill out your name, address, and email and you’ll get one.
Bring a trade binder if you wish, because there are plenty of people with cards there. Be careful with your cards though. Sometimes there will be lowlifes that want to steal your stuff. Consider this a word of warning and use some common sense.
Bring food with you. Most states will have food stands next to the tournament, but these are usually expensive and you don’t want to go out to eat in case you don’t get back in time and get disqualified.
Some competition can get cutthroat. Do not let a stranger touch your deck. Surprise (especially in sealed) is excellent, and you also could get disqualified if your deck contents are changed after you register your deck.
Step 4: PTQ formats
PTQ Prague will have Ravnica sealed deck format, with Booster draft finals.
Players will get a Rav Tourney Pack (75 cards) and two Guildpact boosters (15 apiece) to make a minimum 40 card deck. This will depend on your deckmaking skills and how well you know the Limited format. I could go into strategy but there are plenty of other articles out there that focus on that topic. The Top 8 players after the day of playing will be put into a separate tournament where they will Rav/Rav/Gpt booster draft to determine the final placement.
PTQ Charleston will be Team Standard format, and have Team finals.
Team Standard is where you and two other players (Your Team) make T2 decks and compete against other teams. All three of your decks must obey the 4-of rule. If one deck has 4 maindeck Mana Leak, then no other decks/sideboards may have Mana Leak. Pick your two most-skilled companions, and create the most powerful decks around this restriction. I’ll be giving advice later. Each team gets matched with another team, and each player gets an opponent to play a normal match against. Whichever team has their players win the most wins that round. There should be 6 rounds total in the PTQ.
Step 5: Sealed Deck and Booster Draft
This is fairly straightforward. You open packs to get a card pool, but you don’t get to use those cards. Instead, you will get a checklist and check off every card you opened. After this, you will pass this card pool into the judge and get a random one back. This process insures that no one adds cards they already own to their card pool.
Check internet forums (mtgsalvation.com) for good strategies to use in Rav limited
You’ll want to play guild colors though, because they are the most powerful combinations. If I had to give only one hint though, it is this:
If you see Glare of Subdual, even if its pack3 and you are B/R, take it. If you resolve this in a game you will win. If you get it resolved by your opponent you will lose. It is that simple.
Step 6: Team Standard
Here is the bulk of this article. Team games, in my experience are some of the most fun in tournament Magic. Please note that this isn’t three-headed giant, but rather this; (here is an example with Team 1 and Team 2 in Round 1 of team sealed)
Team 1 has players Johnny, Timmy and Spike. Team 2 has players Bob, Kai and Chris. The judge starts the random paring.
Johnny and Bob are paired up. Timmy and Chris are paired up, and Spike and Kai are paired. They each play a best 2 out of 3 game with their opponent.
Johnny wins against Bob. Timmy loses against Chris, and Spike wins against Kai.
Team A has two wins and one loss. It wins the round and has record of 1 win 0 loss. In Round 2 Team A will play against another team with a 1 – 0 record.
Team B has one win and two losses. It loses the round and has record of 0 win 1 loss. In Round 2 Team B will play another team with a 0 – 1 record.
After 6 rounds, the Top 8 best record teams, those with 6 – 0, 5 – 0 – 1 and 5 – 1 (Maybe 4 – 1 – 1) get advanced to a new tournament where those 8 teams will duke it out.
Your team will want to play the best possible decks, so I suggest pooling your card collections to make the 3 best decks in Standard to play. I will be giving deck suggestions, but note that by PTQ Charleston Standard will include Guildpact set, so the new cards will affect what decks are still good and what are not.
Type 2 for PTQ Charleston will include the following:
9th Edition
Champions of Kamigawa
Betrayers of Kamigawa
Saviors of Kamigawa
Ravnica
Guildpact
(Shameless plug: all cards purchasable on CobraCards  )
Make sure not to overlap any cards within you decks. Gifts Ungiven and Bob the Builder will have to share the Rav shocklands, while make sure not to go over the 4 card limit on staples like Mana Leak and Naturalize.
You will want to play a fast deck, a control deck and the top deck (by popular consent) in the format. That way, you have game against any team that shows up. I recommend playing Gifts Ungiven Control / Critical Mass / White Weenie splashing red
You may also opt to play “shock and awe” decks. Because this is not a normal Swiss tournament and the pairings within teams are random, you’ll have a very high percent chance that you’ll only play each player once. This allows you to take advantage of decks that do well on the first blow, but lose some power if your opponent knows what to expect. Decks like these that tend to win the first encounter are Eye of The Storm Combo, la_sin_grail’s new land destruction deck  , and this deck below, which I think is pretty powerful stuff.
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Death by Erayo, “Shock and Awe” deck for Team Standard.
12 Island
4 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
4 Ornithopter
4 Izzet Guildmage (see below)
2 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
4 Shock
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Telling Time
4 Reach through Mists
4 Spellbook
This deck uses only one playset of a staple – mana leak – and can serve up serious frustration in an unprepared opponent.
Ornithopter + Reach Through Mists + Erayo, Soratami Ascendant + Spellbook
= flipped Erayo, the ultimate pain to play against for only 1UU
Chance that your opponent will have Naturalize in hand with a spell to get countered first, the mana to pay for them both, and you without a counter in your hand before turn 5: less than 5%
Play Erayo as the 3rd spell so even if they try to instant-kill it their spell will flip Erayo and then do nothing because Erayo’s Essence is not a creature.
In fact, any disruption they play at all will be better for you because it increases the spell count so flipping Erayo is easier. Remand is also a beast of a counter spell when Erayo is out. You opponent gets a cheap spell countered intentionally by Erayo to play their real spell, when suddenly for 1U you counter their spell, put it in their hand where they will have to use another fodder spell to play it, and you draw a card. It is very, very good.
Ornithopters can also serve as cheap ninjustsu targets for Ninja of the Deep Hours, one of your win conditions and also a great card-drawer.
Izzet Guildmage, for those of you that haven’t seen it on the Guildpact spoiler, is this
Izzet Guildmage (U/R) (U/R) Uncommon
Creature – Human Wizard
2U: Copy target Instant spell if its converted mana cost is 2 or less
2R: Copy target Sorcery spell if its converted mana cost is 2 or less
2/2
Note that I am not using it as a combo killer, but actually as utility. Once you have this guy and a decent amount of lands out, your Mana Leaks become twice as effective, your shocks become one-sided pyroclasms, you can dig through your library with Telling Time, and you can negate enemy lightning helix or mana leak or other spells.
Shock is there for the early on cheap Erayo flipper, and late game for Izzet duplication.
Meloku is there as an obvious finisher. Consuming Vortex gets rid of uncountered threats.
Mulligan aggressively, pitch any hand that has more than 3 land, and only keep hands that have Ornithopter + Erayo + counter + some cheap spell. With this tactic, I’ve goldfished 50 times, getting a flipped Erayo turn 3 in about 40% of those games, more results pending more testing.)
Sideboard: Transformation (change into a completely different deck if you have to)
4 Char
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
4 Pyroclasm
4 Hinder
2 Electrolyze (Guild Pact)
Electrolyze 1UR Instant, Uncommon
Electrolyze deals 2 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players.
Draw a card.
In case your opponent sides in destruction and you don’t have a good matchup, side out ornithopters, erayos, remands, spellbooks and vortexes to transform this deck into U/R control. I got this idea from how the old Tooth and Nail decks would side out Tooth and Nail and side in Troll Ascetic + Sword of Fire and Ice to surprise the opponent.
Matchups:
WWr, WW, WW with Hokori: The major trouble is early Isamaru or Savanah Lions, but they can be dealt with by the shocks and vortexes. You don’t need a permanent solution, just a speedbump for when you flip Erayo and make them run out of gas twice as fast. Umezawa’s Jitte is no problem as playing and equipping takes them 2 turns and you can bounce or burn their equipped creatures. If you can get a turn 3 or 4 Erayo while still at around 10-12 life, the game is yours.
Gifts Ungiven: They are simply not going to resolve their signature spell, or their one-of fatties. Early Erayo and Ninja of the Deep Hours is key in this matchup. These games will be harder than others if you hit a mana clump or don’t get counters. Again, mulligan aggressively, and their engine will fall apart to an Erayo.
G/B control: Creature kill is useless against the Erayo engine, actually helping you flip Erayo if they don’t know what to expect and kill a guildmage or something. Meloku should create a path to victory, but watch out for a channeled Arashi or uncountered Kagemaro. 60-40 first game, if they board in enchantment destruction transform into U/R control for a 70-30 matchup as now they have dead cards against you.
Critical Mass: Bounce Vinelasher Kudzu if it gets to be 5/5 or greater, depending on your life total. Don’t play Meloku until you have the counters to back it up. 70 -30 first game; they will side in naturalizes so transform your sideboard for an about 55-45 second game.
Greater Good: Erayo should be flipped before they ever get to do Sac-Dragon tricks. This is by far your best matchup. Shock those Birds of Paradise!
Edit: See below post for extended mulligan and probability analysis
Back to the original article, hopefully you have competent team mates. Don’t watch your teammate’s game if you win early because they might be pressured to know that their game decides the outcome of the whole team. You simply winning and leaving should be encouragement enough.
Step 7: the money
How much is all of this going to cost?
Each state has their own tournament, so usually distance isn’t a problem. Post on internet forums to find players near you so you can carpool or something. Turnouts for PTQs are usually huge, so unless you live in like Wyoming or something you should easily find some new pals.
The Pro Tour Qualifier Prague tournament is limited, so you make your deck there and only have to play about $25 - $30 for the card pool and prize support. That’s it. Very easy.
Pro Tour Qualifier Charleston needs about $20-$30 to register each team, and you need to make your own decks. The deck I suggested above is around $50, the best decks of the format, if you are starting from scratch, will run you anywhere from $75-$300 if you want all the shock lands and kukoshos and cranial extractions and pithing needles. Hopefully your team is pooling cards so you only have to buy odds and ends.
Bring money for food if you don’t bring food. I’ve found that the hungrier you are, the worse you do, but that’s just me.
You can buy cards you need at the site because most states will have dealers. Watch out, these can be expensive. ($5 for a Tomorrow, Azami’s Familiar? WTF?)
Step 8: Deck Registration
Type up each of your decklists, including the full name of each card, the quantity, and your sideboard too. Maindeck is usually 60 cards (that’s the minimum) while sideboards have to be 15 cards exactly. Doing this before you go to the tournament will save you loads of time and frustration.
Step 9: Prepare and Go
The times for the tournaments are mentioned above. You have until that time to get you cards, and, most importantly, practice. Try to do many limited games, especially at the Guildpact Pre-releases, because those are the most common Sealed tournaments. Go to your local card shop and there will usually be a group playtesting. You can trade or even team up with the people there, and you should playtest until there is no tomorrow. You can also use Magic Online if you have access to that.
Find out exactly when to mulligan, what to board. Be a master of your deck if you want to rank high. If you don’t have opponents, find someone, teach them magic, and proxy up (Print out cards from online and put them in the sleeves of another deck) if you have to, although I can’t guarantee the results of the last suggestion. But the most important thing is to PLAYTEST.
Step 10: Fin
With this walkthrough I hope to get many previously amateur players on track to playing higher-level magic. You know the dates, the cost, the rules, the game, so show up to the next PTQ and lay down some serious beats.
----Osion |
| Last edited by Osion on Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:45 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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| inresponse |
![]() Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 7:23 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 162
Location:
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wow, a lot of info. seems to be generally correct stuff though. I like the idea for a deck, but losing 2 copies of meloku fromt he blue control deck will be tough. Also, mana leaks are the most important counterspell in flores blue and all other blue agro/control and control decks. In an isolated environment, erayo might be good, but when you need the cards from the deck in your others, it might not be a possibility.
plus remand is in all the blue decks, and so is hinder from your board.
your advice for losing the noobness is good though, ptqs are definitely the fastest way to get introduced into the pro environment, even if you don't win. |
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 7:36 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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yep, the 4-of rule is kind of tough
2 Meloku is a sacrifice, but a needed one; the other two copies should be sufficient for a Gifts/Critical Mass/Random Bob deck.
If the Erayo deck is to be used, I recommend it being paired up with WWr and either Gifts Ungiven or B/G Control. (I am looking at the 1st place Gifts Builds that runs no counterspells but instead Goryo's Vengeance and Puetrfy)
This allows for the lowest overlap, though a few things should be taken into account;
The WWr player will always finish their game first,
And with 2 control-heavy decks your team may run into several draws on account of time.
On the other hand, a team with all aggro will surely overlap on cards and thus lose to a team with maximized builds. |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:44 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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I'm not quite sure why you needed all that stuff that has nothing to do with the deck... you could have just said
"Don't be dumb, go to PTQ! And here's a good deck to play"
I like the idea that you are trying to help people out, but people who can't figure out the stuff (outside the deck) that you said shouldn't be going to a PTQ.
I do like the deck, but it really didn't need any of this extra stuff. Might want 12-4 island to mountain because with the four reefs that still 16 sources of blue, but you should have eight of a card if you want to count on it. In this case that means eight sources of red. Anything to go off turn two is great.
I would have really enjoyed a little description of when exactly to mulligan. If you have a good hand with no erayo, will you? How about a bad hand with erayo? Is a telling time enough if you don't draw erayo? I'd like to know what worked best in testing, and I'm thinking your general description was a little overdemanding of luck... |
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:44 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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Sure, Grail: Here is what counts for the deck:
Update: The added probability of getting Spellbooks and Card Draw allow for an easier time flipping Erayo, with the only side effect being that you don't want to draw a late-game spellbook or something.
Erayo, first of all, is a must for an opening hand. If a hand has all the components to flip an Erayo except for the Erayo itself, if you are unlucky, then it is a dead hand. To show this, I have some sample hands shown here (from the actual deck I built. I need some cards for it by the way, I'm still proxying Shivan Reef x1 and Erayo x2)
I will type the hands as I draw them
Shivan Reef
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Mountain
Erayo, Soratmi Ascendant
Island
Telling Time
Ninja of the Deep Hours
(Instant pitch)
Mountain
Island
Shock
Ornithopter
Mana Leak
Island
Reach Through Mists
(Keep if on the draw, or if you want to take a chance. Can hold out for about 3-4 turns on the play but if you hit a land clump you are dead)
Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
Shivan Reef
Remand
Remand
Island
Telling time
Reach Through Mists
(With the Aggressive mull strategy, this will go, but with some doubts. If on the draw against, say, Greater Good, then definitely Keep this)
Island
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Telling Time
Spellbook
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Shivan Reef
Ornithopter
(Very close to a god hand, you could always go Ornithopter + Ninja)
Island
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Island
Mountain
Shivan Reef
Telling Time
Island
(Mulligan. No guarantee that you can do anything with this at all)
Shivan Reef
Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
Ornithopter
Shock
Island
Reach Through Mists
Reach Through Mists
(Where is the Erayo?  keeper if it was in there, but do actually keep this on the draw)
Island
Island
Shivan Reef
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Ornithopter
Spell Book
Mana Leak
(Wowzers. Let's go on to the next game already. you are sure to get another cheap spell in the next 2 or 3 draws)
Mana Leak
Mountain
Shivan Reef
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Reach Through Mists
Shock
Shock
(That Shivan Reef could cause you plenty of pain, but this looks to be a turn 4 flip hand)
Remand
Remand
Mana Leak
Telling Time
Island
Mountain
Island
(Prepare for a long game if you take this. Good Stall, just be fearful you don't run out of gas. Mulligan if using the aggressive strategy)
NOW, what do you mulligan to? Here are some 6 - card hands I mulled into
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Reach Through Mists
Island
Ornithopter
Mountain
Island
(Yowza, keep this)
Mountain
Island
Reach Through Mists
Ornithopter
Telling Time
Ornithopter
(Keep this instead of going to 5)
Island
Shivan Reef
Mountain
Island
Island
Telling Time
(Mulligan)
Okay,
Against WWr you'll want to get a shock or two opening hand. Erayo can actually be subbed for card draw if you want in the beginning 7
Against Greater Good keep a hand with card draw and counters. Should be a piece of cake if you have an Erayo
Against Gifts, you will unfortunately need the combo opening hand or have Erayo + one of the two pieces + Reach through Mists / Telling Time
Telling Time is not a subsititute for Erayo. Unless you have the other combo pieces or have 2 counter then you'll want to mulligan.
The 24 times I flipped Erayo in goldfishing usually was
Island, Reach
Island, Go
Mountain, Ornithopter, Ornithopter, Erayo, Shock
or
Island, go
Island, Telling Time
Shivan Reef, Ornithopter, Spellbook, Erayo, Reach Through Mists
or
Island, go
Island, Telling Time
Island, Erayo
Mountain, then during their turn: their spell, Mana Leak, Shock, Reach Through Mists
or
Shivan Reef,
Island,
Island, Telling Time, Ornithopter
Mountain, Nijutsu Ninja, draw a card, Ornithopter, Spellbook, Erayo, Ornithopter
The reason that I could flip Erayo so often but still go only 50-50, 60-40 or 70-30 is because of mana clumps after the deck goes off
Interesting tidbit: Against G/B control once I beat them to death with a Nija of The Deep Hours and a second unflipped 1/1 Erayo While my flipped one rendered their spells useless. |
| Last edited by Osion on Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:47 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:27 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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Thanks much, but I'm worried what you can do against counterspell, kami of the ancient law, and turn two jitte. (as well as a 1-0 mana anything + naturalize).
This would be the funniest thing ever against my landkill deck. Like you drop erayo, I play uncounterable landkill.... you have no land, anything I play is countered... that would suck so bad. |
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| inresponse |
![]() Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:46 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:44 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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Excuse Me, completely my fault
sorry about that; here I am talking about losing amateur status and then get mixed up on a card's reprinting.
As a sign of repent, Within the last hour and a half I completely retested; researched my cards, subbing in choices such as Trusted Advisor, Consuming Vortex, and even Maindeck volcanic hammer / Char
So far the results have been pointing toward Vortex as a slow, but more applicable card replacement, being that it could splice onto a Reach Through Mists. The rest of the combo, which involves drawing/looking at 4 cards before turn 3 to Ornithopter/ Spellbook up an Erayo flip.
Off to do more testing, I'll update soon |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:21 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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| Ouch... you'll need to find another instant- one mana instants really make this deck fly! |
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:42 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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Revision complete, the substitution will be 2x Spellbook and 2x Reach Through Mists.
I considered adding/subbing:
Sleight of Hand
Index
Telepathy
Lava Spike
Desperate Ritual
Volcanic Hammer
maindeck Char
Rewind
Blazing Shoal
Trusted Advisor
Consuming Vortex
Genju of the Spires (more offense power)
Genju of the Falls
But in the end the shuffle up revealed another 2 draw spells and 2 free cards kept the deck's focus intact and allowed for the best chance to pull off the original combo, the new lowered mana ratio and card advantage allowed for the combo to move smoothly at the expense of not having more bounce. With the new Mists the Erayo search is easier and Izzet Guildmage also has much more game.
That concludes that mess-up. Perhaps a Guildpact Revelation will show up to take the slot.
Thanks,
Osion |
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