I’m Not Dead Yet

Just a quick update to let you know what I’ve been up  to lately. I’ve had an absolutely insane last few weeks of work, writing tons of reports, working from morning to night without any breaks in between,  but luckily that is all going to be behind me soon (I’ll be able to sleep in past 7 am again starting next week!). Here’s just a few things I’ve been doing:

Standard

I’ve been playing with R/b devotion and haven’t really had much time to play. Starting this Friday I’ll be able to do FNM again thank goodness. I did manage a FNM about two weeks ago and went 3-0 which made me feel pretty good. The drawback to not playing as much as I used to is that sideboarding for the metagame has become pretty difficult. I feel like a have finally got a good grip on it though. Look for a post about standard in the next week or two before Grand Prix Nagoya.

Modern

I’ve played in a few more modern tournaments recently, but nothing too big. I’ve switched over to playing Modern Red Devotion, and it’s a lot more fun to play than BW tokens was. This weekend there is going to be a decent sized Modern tournament (40+ people) at Big Magic, and I look forward to testing my original deck out against a large variety of decks. Prices in Nagoya have also continued to rise in anticipation for the modern Pro Tour Qualifier season. 

Limited 

This is where I’ve been putting most of my focus recently. I’ve played in a Grand Prix Trial and a Pro Tour Qualifier in March, and I’ve also done a few booster drafts at Big Magic in town to keep my skills fresh for the Pro Tour in May. Speaking of which, I have reserved my hotel room for the Pro Tour Weekend, as well the following weekend for GP Atlanta. I’ve gone 2-1 at pretty much every draft I’ve done, which is promising but not where I want to be before PT Atlanta. I also need to work more on my sealed deck building skills ahead of GP Nagoya in 3 weeks. Theros sealed is highly reliant on getting powerful cards to be successful, and all colors aren’t equal. My previous Limited GP outing was GP Yokohama last year which was GTC/RTR, and I finished absolutely miserably (2-6 drop I believe). I’ve been putting a lot into limited since then, and I think I can make day 2 this time at GP Nagoya. There is also another Pro Tour Qualifier in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka on April 5th I plan on going to the week before the Grand Prix. These should all be really good practice for the big event. I feel pretty confident about my chances. 

Block Constructed

The other piece of the puzzle for Pro Tour Journey into Nyx is block constructed. I’ve built a B/u aggro deck, a GR midrange deck, and a RW control deck  for this event, and I’ve started to test them out with friends. GR has the highest win percentage so far, but my black deck is improving all the time. The more I play it, the better it gets. As for the RW deck, I’m still tweaking it a little bit and haven’t really tested it out too much yet. I’ll be taking these decks to FNMs to get a feel for them and to get some feedback. I won’t have time to really test different strategies after Journey into Nyx is released, so it’s important to get used to them now. I’m also working on putting together playsets of important rares in case I decide to change my decks around before the Pro Tour. 

As you can see, I’ve been all over the place. I haven’t really had time to collect a lot of solid data for  metagames thanks largely in part to changing formats, and I also haven’t had time to collect my thoughts for a MTG related article (though I have a few in the works). There will definitely be some metagame diaries by this weekend, as well as some information on 3 new stores I’ve visited over the past few weeks. I want to thank you for your continued support and patience, and I look forward to see you back here this weekend.