Lately we’ve seen a growing trend in the Magic community: the forming of teams. Quite often a team is a group of established local players who are trying to get an edge for the next major tournament. Anyone can attempt to start or join a team, although having some playing experience probably helps. There are even a few local Arizona teams such as AZ Magic Team and the nowdefunct Team Gamer’s Edge.
While the Gamer’s Edge team was everything you’d expect from the name, the AZ Magic Team is a different take on the typical team set up. Instead of being made up of aspiring Pro Tour-level competitors, it’s a team of up-and-coming players whose sole purpose is getting better. This is where I got the idea for this article. I’m hoping to teach any players aspiring to form or join a team some tips and tricks to help ease the learning curve and be more efficient in testing. While I am not always directly involved in testing myself, I try to be involved in conversations about theory and strategy. I also overhear conversations of other players and teams who are testing while I am at local tournaments.
Let’s start with the first rule of testing:
1. Do not keep questionable hands. If you wouldn’t keep your hand at a competitive tournament, you should not keep it in practice. If you keep a skeptical hand hoping for variance to pay off in your favor, you are not providing an accurate depiction of how the match would play out in a tournament setting. Doing so defeats the purpose of practicing and is a waste of time for everyone involved.
Instead, treat all games as if they counted towards something. Ideally you will have an additional person or two to watch over your shoulder and possibly present you with different lines of play. If someone is doing this they should let you decide on a line before saying anything. It’s difficult to learn anything if somebody else does all the work. I always let the person I am helping choose a line of play and ask them what their reasoning is before I make any suggestions. Sometimes I’ll even mention worse lines just so they see them just as long as I think the opponent might actually make that play.
I do not believe a two man team is optimal; three or more is where you want to be. I don’t know where the cutoff point for quantity of team members is but it probably depends on the goal of your team. If you’re trying to win PTQs and the like then fewer is better. If you’re just trying to get better then I don’t believe there is a top end. The more people on the team, the more personalities there will be. People won’t always get along and hopefully somebody has already stepped up in some form of a leadership or organizational role.
I’m all for constructive criticism and how that pertains to debates that may come up within the team. What I’m not for is pointless arguing in online threads or at practice. My advice would be if it gets to a point you think someone needs to be kicked out, then kick both parties out. Both parties involved have shown they can’t participate in healthy debate or could not ignore someone that was clearly a distraction and no use to the cause. This goes hand in hand with rule two:
2. Everyone on the team should have the same goal in mind. There’s not much to be gained for a grinder looking to get an edge playing against someone trying to learn their deck and strategy. If even one person has a lower goal than the rest of your group then every game tested with that player has the potential to provide false outcomes. They aren’t making optimal plays or playing the deck at a level you should expect from your opponents.
Now that everyone’s on the same page and getting some games in, you need to have a way to track what your learning. Having a way to track games won pre/post board is a good start. Discussing a sideboard plan with your teammates and perhaps putting it into an Excel layout might be the cleanest way of doing it while giving everybody access to it.
I also believe you should be testing two sideboard games for every one preboard game. In theory, you’re not 2-0ing all your opponents and will play more sideboarded games than main deck. One of the key benefits of having an Excel sheet is if a teammate can’t make the practice they can look at your notes and get filled in on any new technology relatively quickly. Secondly you can visualize results and see that maybe your deck is an underdog against a couple of tier 1 or 1.5 decks and you can try and tweak the deck to shore up those matches or see that your sideboard needs to have some dedicated hate cards.
Lastly you need to show progress. Start putting up results. Validation for all your hard work will hopefully keep you hungry for more. If this isn’t happening then your dynamics need to change. Is everyone equally dedicated? If not, then your play testing is just spinning the wheels. Are there players on the team just mooching off of everyone else’s work? The more people that know what you’re doing the less unique what you’re doing is. Cut the fat and keep your results in house. This is the 3rd and final rule I use towards team testing.
3. Success. This is why we play! While I try to have fun playing the games, I also find joy in actually winning as well. You’ll find a lot less conflict and more progress within your team if you and your team are showing signs of growth and improvement. Actively working to become a better player is the difference in being a part of a team and playing games with your friends. Hopefully your group is able to take some of my thoughts about how to properly function as a team and are able to get over whatever hurdle you have in front of you.
The last tip I have for you is if everything is going well and you’re winning now, SAVE YOUR PACKS! You and your team can build draft sets and practice your limited skills as well for no additional cost. This will go a long way in becoming a complete player and it’s cost efficient too.
Like the Modern format? Then here is some bonus content!
GRIXIS TWIN!
Back when Twin was legal in Standard it was all I wanted to play. While I have been playing Faeries for the past month or so, my heart still lies with attacking for a million. Here is the list I am currently working on. It’s not quite tournament ready but we’re getting there. Please post and thoughts or suggestions in the comments section.
| Creatures (12) 2 Spellskite 4 Deceiver Exarch 2 Perstermite 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Spells (22) 4 Splinter Twin 2 Gitaxian Probe 2 Dismember 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 serum visions 2 thoughtseize Lands (17) 1 Breeding Pool 2 Watery Grave 3 Steam Vents 1 Blood Crypt 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Marsh Flats 1 Mountain 1 Temple of Deceit | Sideboard (15) 3 Anger of the Gods 2 Batterskull 2 Thoughtseize 2 Flame Slash 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Shatterstorm 3 Ancient Grudge |
Gerald Fabiano wrote about Grixis Twin awhile back and re-inspired me to start trying to find a way to making it competitive in Modern. It needs tweaking and testing but hopefully can become a playable tier 1.5 deck at least. My main concern is the amount of damage the deck does to itself with shocklands and fetchlands. Hopefully you can combo out before it matters game 1 and you have Batterskull to gain some life in sideboard games. That’s all I have this week! Thanks for reading and I hope to have another tournament report for you real soon.