This past weekend, I was geared up to play in the TCG Player 5k in Indianapolis. My girlfriend and I traveled out to Indiana on Thursday night to stay with some friends. Friday, my friend and I were going to do some testing and finalize our decks before making the drive Saturday morning to go play.

Then it happened. We turned on coverage of the 2014 World Championships to watch while we discussed Standard. Once we got started watching this amazing event, our plans got thrown out the window. When was the last time you got to watch the best players in the world battle every round on camera in four different formats? It doesn’t happen very often. Immediately we were engrossed in the high level of technical play and analyzing some next level plays by the world’s best. Vintage Masters Draft, Modern, Khans of Tarkir Draft, and Standard were the four formats for the event and there was some amazing Magic happening.

Instead of watching your favorite player commentate on their own MTGO 8-man event, make time for the archived coverage of this event. There is so much you can learn from watching in detail how these pros played their games and thinking through the decisions they made.

Although I regret missing out on the TCG Player event, the amount I learned this past weekend was worth much more than playing in one tournament. Here’s a summary of the things I learned that are able to be put into words. I couldn’t be more excited to share one of the best Magic weekends with everyone.

[cardimage cardname='Force of Will'][cardimage cardname='Sylvan Library']

Vintage Masters Draft: Context is Key

The value of cards in Limited depends highly on the other cards available in the format. Some grumbling occurred from the living room I was in because of what a couple commentators were saying regarding choices specifically in the limited portion of the event.

Take a card like Deftblade Elite. This 1/1 for one would not normally be a playable creature, especially with the high level of power creep. We are used to a good one-mana creature being a 2/1 with an ability and dismissing it otherwise. In Vintage Masters however, this creature is amazing in a few different archetypes. With removal in the format being unwieldy and expensive, playing auras on creatures like Deftblade Elite is a legitimate way to kill one of your opponent's creatures every turn.

Cards like Battle Screech and Choking Tethers were drastically undervalued when the format was first released. The framework within which the set operates determines which cards are going to be better. You can have the same exact card be great in one format and completely irrelevant in another.

For example, when was the last time a Fog effect was playable in Limited? The answer is not very often. So, when you see a player casting Tangle, don’t immediately dismiss it like the people commenting on the play did. Take a moment to think about why a professional Magic player would be casting a card like that. For the record, I loved having a Tangle in my green decks in that format. It was a complete blowout.

Improving this skill is tricky. First of all, drafting many different formats will definitely help. Do things like draft a couple different Cubes or combine M14 and M15. A great way to improve your card analysis that competitive players often dismiss is Chaos Drafting. In case you don’t know what it is, each player drafts whatever packs they want (or randomly distributed packs). This makes for some interesting draft picks, crazy deck construction, and genuinely fun times.

[cardimage cardname='Scalding Tarn'][cardimage cardname='Cryptic Command']

Modern: Power Isn’t Everything, Except When It Is

You may know this but Modern is a huge format. Over half of the game’s history is legal for play in this format and Wizards has done a great job keeping it balanced. I’ve heard players say they don’t like Modern but that has never been because Deck X is so powerful it’s making the format no fun. If you don’t like Modern, my opinion is that you haven’t tried out enough decks yet to find one you enjoy playing.

In my store, I have built over a dozen different decks that all play very differently from one another and that’s not all the viable choices! Because there are so many different decks in the format, there will always be a diverse set of decks that show up at any given tournament. That’s why building a deck that is built to beat one or two of the best decks is likely not going to win you any tournaments. You are better off tweaking whatever deck you are playing in order to deal with the shifts in the metagame. Additionally, different decks will shift in power level depending on what is happening in the format.

What this means is that playing the best deck of the week tends to be the best bet. Certainly players are rewarded for putting in the time to fully understand and practice with a deck, but there will be fewer players jumping between decks in Modern because jumping into a new deck is a huge financial cost.

Modern was a blast to watch this past weekend. Watching Chapin show his skill mastery with while playing a new and potent deck like U/R Delver was epic. He destroyed the other players with his U/R Delver build and showed off its power in the format. If you ever play Modern, those three rounds of coverage are an invaluable resource.

[cardimage cardname='Dig Through Time'][cardimage cardname='Mantis Rider']

Khans Draft: Not All Decks Are Equal

There was one thing concept I honed in on while watching the draft coverage. Not every draft deck will be great but that doesn’t mean you will lose. Bad cards don’t necessarily make for bad decks so make the best of bad situations. You can have an unimpressive deck and still do well against other opponents from your pod.

The only thing you can do is make the best picks from the seat you are put in. Sometimes you need to make the best from a bad seat at the table. Certainly there are possible mispicks and identifying them is important, but sometimes you are in the right archetype based on what’s being passed to you and your deck still ends up mediocre. Don’t give up though. Keep reading your signals and build the best deck you can.

In terms of play, remember timing on your removal spells is key. New players need to learn this for the first time. Save your removal for something important or something in your way that will help you win the game if you remove. Players that have been around a long time, you may be used to Limited formats where removal is plentiful, but that is not every format. Learn each format and assess how easily you should throw away your interactive spells.

No matter what, persevere even if the draft didn’t go just as you would have liked it to. Play your games out like you should win them all and play each of them to the best of your ability no matter what ended up in your deck.

[cardimage cardname='Wingmate Roc'][cardimage cardname='Ajani, Mentor of Heroes']

Standard: Plans and Tokens

Have a plan. Allow your plan to change. Think to yourself, ‘How am I going to win this game?’ and execute that plan. Testing is practicing that concept and figuring out the ones that worked the best.

At the World Championships I watched this concept come to life in the hands and minds of the pros. Every game, they analyzed the deck they were playing against and their draw, and combined that with their possible future draws to determine their best course of play. This is a hard concept in practice but you may be working towards developing this skill and don’t even know it. If you find yourself saying, “One time,” before your draw your card then you are thinking along the right lines of what you need to draw in order to win.

Take that process to the next level by playing the game as if you will eventually draw that one card you need to win the game. Sometimes you won’t need that card to win because you’ve played well to get to that point. Sometimes you will need that card to win and when you draw it you will be victorious because you made your plays accordingly the whole game. You need to know that games will be lost sometimes even when you play well because you didn’t draw what you needed.

Focus on what your overall win percent looks like. If your overall wins increase after you are practicing this, then you are on the right track. Additionally, you will need to adjust this practice depending on the deck you are playing.

Right before the Standard portion started my friend and I were talking about the players we respected the most and after some discussion I mentioned Sam Black. It was funny because I said one reason I admire him so much is because we often end up playing the same deck and we frequently are on the same page with how to attack the metagame. Right after that, Sam’s deck tech came on and we watched as he talked about the same deck that I’ve been writing about for weeks now. It was so fitting and hilarious that we saw the deck tech right after that conversation. Here’s his version of the deck.

This build is somewhat different than the one I’ve been running. First of all, he has Monastery Swiftspear, which I dislike, but that is the only part of the deck I don’t like. It’s easy to dismiss the Heliod's Pilgrim but once you play a game with it, you won’t ever go back. It was hard for me to adopt this card as well but you have to think of it more like versatile Mardu Heart-Piercer or a different kind of Nekrataal.

Sam stated that the Eidolon of Countless Battles was the weakest of the cards in his deck followed by Monastery Swiftspear. I don’t like either of those so it was easy for me to remove those for cards I already loved in the deck like Purphoros, God of the Forge and Brimaz, King of Oreskos. I do like Sam’s inclusion of Chandra, Pyromaster though.

After we watched the deck tech we decided to combine my current deck with the new innovations from this tournament. Here’s what my current build looks like.

This build has been amazing so far and I love the Heliod's Pilgrims in the deck. Not only do they give you more copies of Chained to the Rocks at your disposal, but since it is a creature, it helps with Purphoros triggers as well as convoke. A 1/2 is nothing spectacular but it is another body to attack with which is important. Think of it like another soldier or goblin token in your army that brings with it a removal spell.

As you can see, watching the World Championships was a great experience and one that I learned a lot from. Playing will always be important but watching and learning from the best in the game will certainly help you improve as well. So, make time to watch these big events and use that time to better yourself as a player.

Unleash the Force!

Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com