Vintage Adept Q & A #3: Go Time

[Demonic Attorney]

I guess I will just throw out a question, one that can make a decent article topic perhaps:

How do you prepare for a tournament, either big or local? I am talking about not only the lead up testing as in what gauntlets and such but also certian tricks you use to be at your best for the day of the event?

I really like this question, because I think it's the most likely one so far to produce a broad scope of varied responses from the Adepts.  The reason for that is, preparation before a tournament is usually limited by other life circumstances, like personal and professional obligations, travel distance to the event, availability of teammates, and stability of internet connection (for MWS).

I expect that different VA's will be in vastly different positions in terms of those situations.

[Demonic Attorney]

For Local Tournaments

For me, I usually start thinking about the parameters of the upcoming tournament early in the week leading up to the date of the event.  I consider who said they were coming, what decks they're likely to play, and what the local field usually looks like.  After that, I'll take some time in the early evenings in the middle of the week to decide what I'm going to play; this usually just involves making some tweaks to the dominant blue deck of the moment, but has sometimes led me to run combo.  I'll usually end this process with a rough sketch of a list in mind, with a couple of alternative configurations.

The real preparation doesn't begin until the Friday night before the event.  Rich and I have a great tradition of getting in all our nuts-and-bolts testing between the hours of 8:00 and 1:00 the night before an event.  We usually limit our testing to two decks:  The most powerful deck we expect will show up at the event, and the most popular one.  Everything else we pretty much write off, at least during the maindeck testing phase.  For example, Tez/Oath was born of a night of testing against Team Hadley's Tezzeret list and Fish.  Thoughtcast Painter and OM Meditate/Remora came from testing against Tez and combo. 

We make tweaks to our respective lists based on the outcome of that testing, to maximize our chances against what we see as the biggest considerations.  Once that's done, we then expand our planning to the entire field and construct a sideboard.  This takes us all the way back to the thinking I did in the beginning of the week about who is coming and what archetypes are likely to be represented in what numbers.  That process usually only goes on for a half hour or so, and it's rare that we'll conduct any post-board testing, if only because at this point, the time is usually pretty late.

Going back to my own personal preparation ritual, I always make sure to get to sleep by 1:30 or so the night before an event.  If I had to pick one specific step I take to prepare for an event as the most important, this is it.  My worst performances almost always come on the heels of not getting sufficient sleep.  The next morning, I'll usually leave directly for the venue without getting breakfast in my town, because the commutes can sometimes have unpredictable delays and I prefer to get food only after arriving at the event with time to spare. 

I'll bring some of the runner-up sideboard considerations with me to the tournament, to allow for last-minute changes to the sideboard based on how the field looks when I'm actually at the venue.  Sometimes it's markedly different than what Rich and I predicted the night before.  I make a practice of avoiding making significant changes to the maindeck on the day of the tournament, because this can lead to deck reg errors or forgetting what tutor targets are available during a match.     

That's pretty much it in terms of regular preparation tactics.  The last thing that bears mentioning is that, if there's a relatively new that seems promising, or a list that a lot of players seem to be copying, I'll pull it up on TMD just before going to sleep and study it, looking for any unusual card choices or significant singletons like Misdirection, as well as cards that are likely to come in against me out of the sideboard.  That often allows me to play around new tech, or quirky metagame choices.

The whole process doesn't involve investing more than 6-7 hours over the course of the week leading up to the event itself, because that's honestly all the time I can spare to devote to tournament Vintage these days.  It took a while for me (and maybe Rich too, but I'll let him speak to that) to figure out how to maximize the value of my tournament preparation time; back in the day of Control Slaver, I think my preparation process was much less efficient.  But at this point, I think I've found something that works for me and for my schedule.

For Marquee Tournaments

Back when we had these large-scale events regularly, I didn't take them very seriously and didn't put in much more effort than what I did for local events.  Now that they're less common and I have fewer opportunities to go them, I've changed my approach.  Also, now that I'm financially independent, I'm aware of the difference in monetary investment between 1 hour of travel, 6 hours of tournament play, plus $25 entry fee versus several hours of travel, an entire weekend of tournament play, hotel costs, and $30+ entry fee.

I'll use the Waterbury that saw the birth of Tyrant Oath as the example of my new approach to big events.  Rich and I got a lot of help from our other teammates in preparing for that event, and we started much earlier.  We kept close track of the metagame pulse on TMD.  I conducted several two-fisted testing sessions against less-popular decks (like Ichorid) to maximize the effectiveness of our sideboard, and took detailed notes of those games to post on the team forums. 

We had several night-long testing sessions against many different configurations of the most powerful and popular decks (which at that time were one and the same in GAT), to make sure we had an advantage.  We kept a running log of our preparation on our team boards and requested feedback from everyone on our team.  We were in frequent phone contact with each other to pitch new ideas as they came to us.  By the day of the event, we had a novel idea, finely tuned, that had a major advantage against the field. 

The major difference between local and marquee events is degree of investment.  Marquee events demand more time and more money, for higher stakes, against stiffer competition, with a wider field.  So, preparation demands more time, much greater attention to detail, deeper human resources, and a commitment to producing the biggest possible advantage against the field.

[Yare]

There are really two parts to my tournament tactics that don't involve actual magic playing: things that happen in the days before the tournament and things that happen during the day of the event. This stuff I’m about to say is intended for small events, but some of it applies to large events.

Stuff Before the Day of the Event:

Like Demonic Attorney, I try to pick the deck I'm playing by midweek or so. This doesn't mean I’ll decide what precise build I'll necessarily use, but at least I'll figure out what archetype it's going to be. If I pick earlier in the week and I have time, I'll probably test some and make adjustments based upon what I expect to show up at the event or my own personal quirks. If it's later in the week and I end up not having time to test, I typically err in favor of netdecking rather than trying my own tweaks. When netdecking, the testing has already been done for you. The deck is proven, to a greater or lesser extent. Yeah, changing one card or two won’t make that big a difference, but as you change a deck more, it can lose its synergy. Netdecking just makes things easier. In any case, I absolutely, positively do not make deck changes the day of the tournament. Ever. It’s just easier to get my head wrapped around what I’m going to be playing and what I’m going to be sideboarding if I have everything laid out the night before. People building decks at the event just kill me; I really have no idea how these people expect to win. Perhaps they don’t and they’re just there for fun, which is fine and I don’t have a problem with that. However, switching cards all about on tournament day is just meh in my opinion. This is also true for my sideboard. Yeah, I might find out what a person or two is playing once I get there, but in all probability I won’t. I generally just stick to my guns so I don’t have to rework on tournament day.

Besides picking the deck, I get all my stuff together the day before that I’m taking to the tournament. That way I don’t have to worry about it the day of or forget anything. To every tournament, I take the following: backpack (to hold all my stuff), deck, sideboard, pre-printed decklist, pad of paper, pens, sharpies, dice, trade binder, Gatorade, snack (Chex Mix or something), a few toploaders, timer, and loupe. Yeah, I know those last two are a little non-standard.

The decklist I make just so I don’t have to figure out what all I’ve got in my deck at the tournament and make a mistake. I actually just print it directly from MWS nowadays, so it makes it even easier.

I cannot emphasize enough how import bringing at least a drink to the tournament is. Matches will sometimes drag on and you’ll be playing back to back matches more often than you’d like, without even a chance to go buy something in between rounds. That little extra energy kick from the drink really can make a difference. A number of events (rightfully) ban drinks from the table, so you may only be able to drink between rounds or from your bag during the match. However, you’ll have that drink, so no worries. Try to bring it in a container that you can just throw in your bag and won’t have to worry about spilling. Obviously, spills are very, very bad at Vintage events. Regarding food, this is slightly more optional, though similar rules apply. Bring napkins with you if it’s something greasy.

The sharpies are to lend to people who are making proxies at the event. A lot of times there is difficulty finding an appropriate writing implement to make proxies with or there are not enough to go around, so this solves those problems (see: delays).

The toploaders are to hold any cards that I get during the day, be it from trading, buying, or winning, but don’t have anywhere else to put.

I started bringing a small timer with me to small events a few years ago after attending one too many events where there was no timer.  This is irritating for a number of reasons, primarily the fact that rounds don’t start or end on time. If the round “ends at 3:50,” what does that even mean, particularly if there isn’t an obvious master clock in the room? Not only does this delay things, but not having a timer can cause all kinds of ruling problems, particularly if nobody is actually watching when the round ends. If players don’t know when extra turns start, how can anybody make a fair ruling? You get the point. If I bring a timer, those problems go away. Perhaps it’s slightly on the ridiculous side, but I haven’t been to an event without a timer since.

Regarding the loupe, I just bring it to inspect really high end cards to see if they’re fake. I’ve never actually used it, but I keep it on hand just in case because it’s very small and very useful.

Note that I left out “other decks” and “parts of my collection” from the list of things that I bring. I used to haul a lot of stuff with me but stopped a few years ago. If I don’t have all those other valuables on me I don’t have to worry about them being stolen. This is not to say I worried about this previously (clearly I didn’t or I wouldn’t have brought it), but after reading story after story about theft at Magic tournaments, leaving the non-essential cards at home is just easier than the alternative. It’s one less thing I have to worry about which equals that much more energy I can devote to the game. I also loop my backpack under my chair leg during matches for this reason. Bringing trade stuff is fine, though realize that as the value of your binder goes up, the bigger the theft liability becomes.

Stuff the Day of the Event:

I used to show up like an hour before an event was scheduled to start, but after having tournaments start half an hour or an hour later than the posted time, I have started showing up just half an hour before events at the earliest. Having to wait two hours for the first round is unbearably draining. I essentially assume events will start late; that way when they start on time I’m pleasantly surprised. However, I suspect this problem is more uniquely mine than most players because I have changed locales numerous times over my Magic career (and in fact started at yet another new venue this past weekend). Consequently, I usually don’t know anybody when I set foot in the store, making for a boring pre-tournament. Obviously as I attend more events in a new location, this becomes less of a problem.

Make sure the prize structure and round structure are fixed before the tournament starts. Nothing is worse than a prize or round negotiation halfway through an event.

Finally, I would say using the restroom between every round or almost every round is something pretty easy to do that can sometimes make the difference. I do this for two reasons 1) I don’t have to get up in the middle of the round and leave my $3000+ deck out of my sight as a result or, in the alternative, 2) I don’t have to “hold it” and have it disrupt my thinking. This is a particularly important tip if you bring the above-recommended drink to the tournament.

As you can probably tell, I’ve had many, many problems with tournaments over the years, so I’ve built in contingencies to deal with all these problems and to just make things run a little more smoothly. However, as a result of these preparations, I have found my tournament experiences far more enjoyable, even when the matches themselves do not go well. While I doubt many of you will adopt all of these ideas I’ve given about, hopefully you found some of them useful.

[Marske]

Before the Day of the Event
My preparation starts about 2-3 weeks before the event, our team gets together in a local store every week. Although I'm not able to attend all of these testing sessions I'll try to be at 1 or 2 of these just to get some of the “rust” out of my system before playing in a event. We communicate a lot using the internet / phone mostly because some of our members are located in Europe and others are in the US.

If I have the opportunity to test with some of our US members I'll use this to fine tune my play, in my local face to face sessions I'll throw some ideas around because the time isn't so limited. Having a group to play and test with is a huge advantage over players that don't have this imo because you'll get feedback about stuff you won't notice on your own. I don't take notes of my testing but I'll likely post some findings on our teams boards as to what idea I tried and if it worked the way I expected and I'll ask for feedback about it. I'll usually settle for a deck the week before an event and I never change stuff around when I'm actually at the tournament, like others have stated before me this could lead to deck registration errors,  harder tutor decisions etc.

In the week before the event I make sure to at least get 3-4 hours of testing (1 evening) done to make sure I've got all the kinks out of my system and re familiarize myself with the deck I'm going to be playing. The evening before the event I'll most likely be doing something that's not really taxing like: no party's, late night working / testing if possible. This enables you to rest your mind and mentally prepare for what you're about to do the next day. I'll also use the night before to get everything ready, I'll pack my backpack with the following things:

Main stuff:
- Deck + Sideboard which I decided on during the week before the event.
- Printed deck list, I use MWS for this, quick, easy and simple.
- Notepad + at least 2 pens (nothing is worse then having a empty pen during a round)
- Dice, playmat, extra sleeves
- Bottle of water (the best way to keep yourself hydrated during rounds and usually easily refillable)
- Some food that's easy enough to get in you within a min or 5 in between long rounds (crackers whatever) because nothing is worse then playing when hungry. Lots of events don't let you have a lunch break or you can run into time and have very little time to actually eat something.
- Some fruit usually apples, this is just something of a personal preference because unlike other players  I don't drink Cola, Pepsi, Energy drinks or stuff like that  (because of the caffeine) during events, but I do want to have some sugars in my system to keep a clear head and keep my energy level going.

Secondary stuff:
- Box with cards my teammates wanted to borrow (if necessary)
- If I expect there to be lots of people trading or a onsite dealer and I'm looking for something I'll bring a trade binder. I'll make sure to know what I'm looking for and what's in my binder and what I value it at.  This is something I very rarely do because  keeping track of all this stuff along with doing trades can be draining away energy more then you'd imagine.

The Day of the Event
I'll get up early and travel to the central meeting place because we almost always carpool. I usually make it a goal to at least be at a venue around a half hour before it actually starts to get an idea of what it looks like, see other players and maybe catch a glimpse of what's going to be played. If it's a long car ride and I'm not driving I try not to fall asleep because waking up and having to immediately be sharp on your feet when arriving at a event is next to impossible, humans need some time to get out of sleeping and to get into that state of being alert.

When the round starts:
I'll not bother myself with who I'm getting paired with, if it's a “name” player you're going to have to duke it out anyway. I'll just look for my own name and table number and go and have a seat. I make sure to arrive at the table in time and get everything I need out of my backpack: play mat, dice, Notepad , pens, deck. If it isn't the first round I'll do a quick mainboard / sideboard check to see if I boarded everything out correctly and didn't leave any cards behind, stuff that gets stolen by threads of disloyalty or something can easily be shuffled into your opponents deck by mistake (especially true if you use popular sleeves) just to avoid getting warnings for trivial stuff like that.

During the round
I'll try not to get distracted with what my neighbors are doing (unless it's severely disturbing me). I'll also ignore everything that's being said to me that's not coming from my opponent (unless there is nothing on the line I'll drop my guard and just have some fun) It's not that I'm trying to be a jerk I just don't want to have to deal with stuff that isn't the match to keep all of my energy and focus on what I'm doing. I see lots of players fall into this trap, chatting with teammates / friends that are sitting at the same table or just watching in between shuffling, boarding or stuff like that. It's small distractions like that which keep you out of focus and not paying enough attention to what you're doing.

After the round
I make sure to sideboard everything out and sign the result slip etc. I'll try to have something to drink / eat and do a bathroom break even if It's not really needed. Like stated before there's nothing worse then having to “hold it” when under stress.  Usually if there is time after rounds our team talks about how they did, who they faced and what they played along with any strange tech that came along. You might not be able to do anything about it if it's something that foils your plan completely but at least you'll see it coming and maybe you'll be even able to prevent it from ever getting that far.

The round up
As most of you may have noticed by reading this far, everything I try to do before and during the event is geared at maintaining my mental energy and keeping my head clear of trivial stuff. You don't want your mind wandering along about which stuff your going to trade for that sweet mint card you saw before the round, if you sideboarded out correctly, having to really take a leak etc etc.

This can be less crucial in  5 round + top 8 events but when you get to the really big 9 rounds + top 8 stuff you'll need every ounce of energy you have to come out on top. Using the smaller events to make sure you're prepared for the bigger stuff is key.

I hope you enjoyed reading this stuff and take with you some of the stuff I said to have a more relaxing and successful tournament experience.

[The Atog Lord]

Tournaments begin the night before. I'm not going to tell you to get a good night's sleep before an event; I often get just four hours myself. But what I do advise is that you focus -- not only during your matches, but starting the night before. There should be no surprises. The more play scenarios you've walked through in your mind beforehand, the fewer will come as a surprise during the match. So think about what decks you'll have a reasonable chance to play at the tournament. This includes the obvious tier one decks, plus the reasonable second tier decks, plus the pet decks of anyone liable to show. Then consider how your deck interacts with each of them -- the deck as a whole, and the card by card interactions. Do you have a plan for each match? If not, it might be time to consider one. Are you the aggressor in the match, or the control player? What do you need to counter? Should you be navigating your deck toward Tinkering up a Robot, or are you instead working on establishing your Vault/Key lock? How sketchy a hand can you keep against a given deck?

And that is to say nothing of sideboarding. While not always possible, in an ideal situation, you should have a solid idea how to sideboard in every match. And you should know what to remove in each match, too. It's no good having eight cards in the sideboard against Goblins if you're only going to be able to remove seven cards from you main deck before you begin to compromise its core strength. So, you should have this worked out prior to the event. I will often have written out all of my matchups and sideboard strategy before the event.