Nothing to see here. You are in the wrong place. If you are looking for something to read, I will (in proper Two Turns Ahead fashion) point you toward the most up-to-date Tim on the Internet. Tim of the future. Tim that is currently in Atlanta.
You see, Two Turns Ahead Tim is currently living in Monday, writing things that will be read on Friday. Those four days are way longer than the five-hour or so time difference ahead that he (I) is (am). Meanwhile, Tim of the Future is (will be) writing up a storm at the Pro Circuit. Sure, technically his coverage is (will be) going up shortly after whatever he’s writing about, but unless you’re there, it’s about as close to live coverage as you can reasonably expect to get. And no, I will not be accepting phone calls from people who want literally up-to-the-minute coverage. The only calls I will be accepting will be from hot girls, and possibly radio shows telling me that I’ve won some kind of a trolley dash. If you want to hear these dulcet tones, you’ll have to petition somebody to get webcast coverage of the Pro Circuit.
Event coverage is something that I really enjoy doing, and for those of you who can’t make it to the big show itself, I truly hope that it is something you enjoy reading. The good thing is, in addition to being pretty entertaining (I hope), the coverage here on Metagame is a great tool for improving your game.
Coverage typically consists of a few elements: features on players and decks, feature match coverage, Draft coverage, and (usually after the event has finished) the decklists themselves. Each can be of use to the careful reader, as long as you know what you’re looking for.
Ideally, everything should be pretty entertaining, and for that reason alone, I would recommend that you dip in and out of all the Pro Circuit coverage you see. The Powers That Be at Metagame have ultimate control of the caffeinated beverages that keep a writer’s world spinning, and they use this ruthlessly to keep everything at top-notch quality. If all you are is entertained by what my compatriots and I have written, then I will be able to rest easy.
However, there is a lot more to what we do than just that. For the wily player looking to get an edge, there are highly valuable insights to be gleaned from coverage. The best way to learn is by playing against and observing the play of players better than you. Why make mental leaps for every hurdle when you can pick up a few tips by watching how the very best do it?
Feature matches are great for this. I should warn you that treating the way a feature match goes as a good analogue for how a matchup works is probably not a good idea. In many cases, it won’t even necessarily be a fair representation of how any individual deck plays out. While great care is taken in cherry-picking the most potentially interesting matches to cover throughout the Pro Circuit, we can’t force the cards to fall in a particular way. That wouldn’t be allowed. I shudder to think what would happen if the powers of “The Chark” battled the powers of Metagame as a whole. It could be the end of the world, which would be a bit of a shame, because there’s still a lot I want to do in my life. Like eat a burrito.
What feature matches are good for is picking up on the little plays that distinguish a great player from a good one. I hadn’t even realized about the nifty “double evade” trick with The Evil Eye until I read about Andre Müller doing it in last weekend’s $10K coverage. Not sure what the biggest threat is on a particular turn in a particular matchup? Not sure which initiative to take when you win your flips? The pros have thought about it, and by reading about it, you can get help from the best in the business. The key cards in matchups, the points where the tide of battle turns . . . these are the things to look out for in feature match coverage, the things that you can’t learn just by looking at a decklist and trying to puzzle it out for yourself.
Even better, for my money, is the Draft coverage. If ever there were a format full of decisions where real-life examples are always welcome, it is Draft. Personally, I’m always pretty chuffed to have the opportunity to sit down and watch exactly how the best in the game go about crafting a deck based on what is going on at the table and what is being passed to them. To then be able to sit down with them, get some idea of what their plan was, and hear where it worked and where it didn’t is just the cherry on an American-sized portion of ice cream. This is passed right on to you, the reader, occasionally with the odd quip for no extra charge.
Metagame also takes pride in utilizing writers who are up to date with what is going on in the game. This means that not only will you have information about what is happening, but you will also on occasion get a whole second opinion on why it is happening the way it is. The reasoning behind a decision is often as important as the decision itself, and whenever possible, we make sure that you get to see what’s going on in three brains in each match: both players’ and the writer’s. I apologize if the exposure to my brain makes you a little uncomfortable, but if it makes you feel any better, the editors have to endure it with the original spelling.
We really do our very best to keep you up to date with information as quickly as is humanly possible. Believe it or not, most feature matches are finished and sent off within five minutes of the results slip being signed. All that quippery and such is written in real time. The article is then sent for editing, checking, double checking, passport control, crowd control, volume control . . . the works. Photos are added, layouts are set, and it all gets posted within a relative heartbeat of its happening. We’ve moved a long way on from pen and paper.
Of course, some jobs do take a little longer, like the typing out of every single decklist from the Constructed portion of the event. But it does get done, and the result is one of the most powerful resources a deckbuilder can have: not just a few opinions on what the best deck in a metagame is, but about 300 of them. Want to know what the best build of just about any viable decklist is? Have a hunt through, compare lists with finishes, see what worked and what didn’t, and start to decide where best to go from there.
As far as getting the most out of decklists is concerned, I would strongly advise that you look to the standings at the end of Day 1 as the best indication of the power of various archetypes. Overall, over 1,500 games are played on Day 1 of a Pro Circuit, and any deck with a high win percentage against the best players in the world is worthy of careful note. The Day 1 results haven’t been tainted by any Sealed Pack shenanigans, so they are the best representation of a Constructed metagame. Don’t forget that the players in the Top 8 got there through a combination of Draft and Constructed skills.
Throughout the course of the weekend, the Metagame staff does their best to highlight any unusual decks or strategies that we come across, but being rather outnumbered, we will on occasion miss the odd list. This leads to the fun sport of hunting for diamond decklists in the rough about a week after the PC when the lists finally go up. These are happy days for the deckbuilders among us, as we get to go from being fairly solitary creative souls to uniting with the most innovative minds from all over the world. If there’s a feature match to let you see what a deck was doing, so much the better!
I would be lying if I said that all this talk of the PC hasn’t made me even more excited about Atlanta than I was before. If anything, I’m a little jealous of my readers right now. For you, it’s already Friday and the coverage is going up for you to read, but it will still be four days until I get to write it.
Have fun, be lucky, and read all the coverage. (You can even email toby@metagame.com if you have any suggestions for improvements!)
Tim “Will See You in the Feature Match Area” Willoughby
timwilloughby@hotmail.com