Lessons from October Qualifier Weekend
I’m regretful to report that Zendikar Qualifier Weekend just didn’t go as I hoped it would. However, there are some really important lessons I came away with that I’d like to share. My hope is that they’ll help you on your journey and in preparations for your next event.
My preparations for Qualifier Weekend definitely weren’t as well-planned as they needed to be. I didn’t realize until the day before the event that the deck I had played all week and originally planned to register - GB Adventures - was super poorly positioned going into the weekend. It comes down to insufficient testing, improper prioritization of goals (see below) and not properly assessing the meta. I underestimated just how much Yorion decks had taken over the format, and so it wasn’t until the day before when I began looking at alternatives to Golgari.
I had some success on the ladder that night with Abzan Doom Foretold, going 5-3. I stayed up pretty late trying a couple other Yorion builds, including Esper Blink and Jeskai. I couldn’t get any traction with either of those decks in the limited time that I had though, so I ultimately registered a variation of the Abzan Doom list linked above.
In short, the matches couldn’t have gone worse. While I didn’t draw very well most games, some games I simply didn’t mulligan optimally, keeping hands with too few lands at times. After three quick 0-2 matches against various Yorion decks, my October Qualifier Weekend appearance was over within less than 90 minutes.
As disappointing as this experience may have felt, it was truly a net positive since it highlighted the actions that I need to take everyday in order to reach higher levels of play. Those actions include:
1) Assess the meta daily. The Standard meta is shifting super fast right now. In fact, on the day of publishing this article, Yorion decks are no longer as well-positioned in the meta as they were even less than a week ago. Gruul Adventures cleaved through Yorion decks and overthrew them from the top of the meta.
That said, people will continue to find ways to attack a currently aggressive meta led by Gruul and Rogues, and there is still a lot of untapped potential in Standard. It’s important to remain cognizant of these changes on a daily basis if you want to position yourself for success.
2) Be flexible. My innate personality isn’t one that is quick to embrace change. Most of my success comes from mastering a specific archetype over an extended period of time and leveraging the advantages I gain through experience and consistency. In times like these when Standard is so unstable, it’s better to be proficient with multiple decks than to be a master of one.
Flexibility in deck selection is key. Practice multiple archetypes, learn the ins and outs of each deck and don’t worry about achieving mastery. In times like these, relying on proficiency, an understanding of the meta and strong Magic intuition can be enough to win.
3) Manage time and goals more effectively. The only reason I was up until the wee hours of the morning again is because I didn’t manage my time effectively enough throughout the week. If I had identified a few different decks to test at the outset of the week, I wouldn’t have had to try to scramble at the last minute to get proficient in a specific archetype.
Instead, I spent the week playing Golgari trying to reach Mythic. While I did reach Mythic, I got there with a deck that ended up being poorly positioned going into the weekend. This misstep is a testament to the fact that laddering often doesn’t reflect competitive play and the true nature of the current metagame.
Additionally, in doing so I prioritized reaching Mythic over ensuring that I was well-prepared for the weekend. Though reaching Mythic was a goal for the month, I could have focused on reaching Mythic this week. Succeeding in the Qualifier Weekend was really the priority. Simply put, my actions weren’t congruent with what would have been more effective goal management.
Moving Forward
At the time of publishing, I’m in the low 90 percent range of Mythic. I spent the week tuning a Jeskai Yorion deck I built, but with varying levels of success. I even reached as high as #1140 with it, but fell back down on Thursday. It’s been rewarding to have some ladder success with my own deck, but I’ll likely switch to Gruul or Rogues to try to make a run in the final 24+ hours. Reaching Top 1200 will be challenging, but definitely doable. After all - a challenge is really a growth opportunity.
My goal is to come away from each night of laddering knowing that I’ve truly tried my best and played my absolute best. If I can go to bed knowing that, then I can rest assured that even if I ‘m not winning, I’m still improving as a Magic player.
Thanks for reading.
