So, as a tournament organizer, I am busy a lot of weekends. When your week is done, and you are getting ready to enjoy the weekend, I am packing up to get ready to run an event somewhere. Your Friday is my Monday. On the bright side, my workweek is normally only two or three days, while yours is probably five.

 

I have had an event booked every weekend since November. It gets draining after a while. My wife works a normal workweek, so she comes home and wants to relax, and she finds me prepping for the next big event, and it seems like there was just no actual "rest time" in our household.

 

Except this weekend! This is my one free weekend up until May. I have no events planned, and am not going to PT Kobe, so for once I conceivably have a free weekend. Yay!

 

Well, sort of. The first part of my free weekend was spent at the store. I had a judge trying for level 1 that needed to work an event under me, so I had to be there for Friday Night Magic to work with him. Oh well, a little bit of my weekend shot, but no big deal. In reality, it takes up very little time, as this particular person’s rules knowledge is extremely good. He needs to learn a bit more on player interaction and penalties, but I expect him to pass the level 1. So I actually had some free time during the night while he took most of the calls for practice.

 

So, I learned how to draft .hack. Every year there is a convention called the GAMA Trade Show. It’s a trade show for gaming manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. This convention often has tournaments and game times for the retailers, some with prizes some without, which is great for people like me who love to play games but never have the time. I can play games and call it work!

 

This year, Decipher is doing a cool tournament for .hack, utilizing the draft format. They even have some great prizes. And, hey, it worked for me! I set out to learn how to play better.

 

In this particular case, “better” meant learning how to play period. In a way, this promotion did exactly what it probably was meant to do. I have always wanted to learn .hack like I want to learn every game I can, but never had the time. This provided me with the incentive to make the time. In addition, I did it at the storefront counter, so suddenly people saw one of the storeowners learning and playing .hack, and it generated interest.

 

After the first few games with a starter, I was ready to try to draft. I had prepped myself in the most conniving way I could think of; I talked to a developer at Decipher, and asked him to send me a list of “cards to draft.” I figured if anyone could tell me how to draft well, it would be someone who helped create the draft format.

 

Drafting .hack is similar to Magic in most ways, except 4 packs are used, and the deck size is 35 cards. Now, .hack packs are 11 cards each, so if you do the math, that means you only get to cut 9 cards. Not a lot of cuts.

 

I sat down with my list in front of me of things I needed to draft, and drafted according to the list. I then built my deck, which included leaving in one card I couldn’t even play, but had high destiny, because of the card limit.

 

I got smashed.  I think I went 1-4 in that draft. But I learned a lot, and the main reason I am telling this story is because it applies to Magic as well.

 

I drafted a bunch of good cards. I did NOT draft a good deck.

 

My deck had no synergy. I had done the Magic equivalent of drafting a five-color deck with a few bombs, but too many limitations to make the bombs worthwhile. Half the time I couldn’t even use the cards I had in my hand, because I could not fulfill the requirements to play them.

 

This applies very well to Magic. Drafting the best card out of each pack in a draft does not give you the best deck. While, technically the current draft format of Mirrodin and Darksteel may let you get away with it more often because quite often the best card is an Artifact, in general, drafting a bunch of cards they fit together and have synergy is where you want to go. It makes your deck more reliable and consistent, less card draw dependent.

 

So the next draft, I threw the list out the window. Not because the list was useless, but because now I understood what made a good card, so I was much better off. I then proceeded to draft a DECK, keeping to a few “colors” and making sure my cards worked together instead of drafting independently good cards.

 

I went 2-1 that time, and felt a lot more comfortable about the format and what makes it work or not. A few more drafts and I think I’ll be able to do very well at the fun event. Its just a matter of knowing the rules better, and not missing some obvious things that make sense, but are different from other card games so I don’t think about them…

 

So, speaking of consistency, did everyone read the coverage of Pro Tour Kobe? It was amazing to watch all the professional players bash the format, although I can see their point. They themselves need a format that has consistency and reliability, and no one seemed to think the format had any. There were multiple comments of how two people with similar abilities and identical decks would be VERY differently ranked at the end of day one. While I will state that I think this actually happens EVERY Pro Tour, because often deck performance is HIGHLY dependant on match ups, and the same two decks can, and will, end up playing completely different opponents. Still, by the sheer number of complaints I saw about this, I have to assume they are not exaggerating, at least not too much.

 

This leads me to think of three things.

 

First, it may be that people simply aren’t playing enough card draw/card search, which is admittedly low in this format. Card drawing and card searching makes decks more stable, and therefore more consistent. People may argue that decks like sligh are consistent, and in some respects they are, but they ARE draw dependant. If you get a bad draw in sligh, not much fixes it because it lacks search and card draw to get you through it. Whether lack of card draw is an issue with the format, or an issue with the decks, I am not sure yet.

 

Second, if the format had an “I just win” deck, then it causes many problems. In this case I think the format does. Although it did not win the Pro Tour, the Affinity Ravager Deck had the ability to just kind of win when a ravager and a disciple hit the table. While not as cool looking and combolicious as Pros Bloom, it combines card draw and a “just win” condition that makes the deck a problem for the format over all.

 

Finally, the most important gem of information is right here (taken from http://www.magicthegathering.com):

 

Anton Jonsson - If you want to have a block Pro Tour, which I'm not sure you should have, then it should be with three sets. It would be a better format, because then you have complete decks instead of decks with like, ten good cards and ten bad ones, and whoever draws the good ones wins.

 

I have to agree with this analysis. This format may change quite a bit with the addition of a third set, and in fact, the development of the format may actually have hinged on the third set being legal. Not having all three sets in a block format at the Pro Tour format is, in my opinion, a mistake. Not only does it limit viable deck types, but also, from an event perspective, it makes block constructed much less interesting when the third set comes out. They Pro Tour has already been played for block format, why would the high level players continue to develop block decks when the third set comes out now?

 

In short, this Pro Tour seemed really unexciting… but I didn’t care! I had an open weekend! And now, I am going to do what I should be doing on my only weekend off.

 

I am going to sleep.