A French Disaster

Pro Tour Paris was a total disaster for me. I went 1-1-3 in Standard and thus dropped before the draft. In my article then I wish to talk about why I think this happened, evaluate myself as a player and explore ideas for becoming better and what it takes to be a top pro.

Impending Disaster
Versions:
Urza's Legacy (Foil)

I didn't know whether I’d be attending this PT until a few days before the event. This meant that I didn't have a tested deck, I hadn't arranged accommodation and was just generally not in the right mind state one should be when entering into the highest level of play. Nothing was planned and so everything was on my mind. I believe that my play reflected this lack of focus. You know the feeling when you are playing so well that you play around everything they could have? Well in Paris I was playing right in to their spells. I lost at least two rounds to play mistakes and didn't win the other two because my deck was outdated. I played U/W Control with Squadron Hawks, but without Sword of Feast and Famine. Coming off the back of my Worlds performance I was confident that I’d do well, but after Paris I have to seriously reevaluate my standing as a player. It's not easy making a PT Top 8, and I’m proud that I managed it... but that - by no means - makes you a top player. It seems that every Pro Tour there is a random player who makes it to Sunday. At Worlds, I was one of those players. Everyone is, until they make it there a second time, then a third. That is the mark of a great player. I have that ambition, but you have to work hard for it. For Paris I didn't work at all, and my results showed as it was by far my worst ever Pro Tour.

When you look at the team who came up with the CawBlade deck, you are looking at a collection of some of the finest players in the world. They worked together, worked hard and that, in combination with their talent, enabled them to dominate the tournament. That is an incredible feat. A group of players dominating an event which is being played at the highest level is remarkable. It means something. You can look at other groups too, the French that made the G/W Quest deck, or Chapin's crew that built the Tezzeret deck. Should anyone else wish to compete with that then they too have to put in the hours, with a well-trained, dedicated group with a structured testing program. Otherwise, you'll just be another random Top 8er like me.

My Caw-Go list was essentially the one that Kibler designed for Worlds. It's a great deck from a great designer, but it’s outdated. I was playing a deck designed by the group that won Paris except that it was for the last Pro Tour. That is a pretty weak position to be in considering they had already moved on. I was never going to win Paris in a million years. Had I played better, been more focused then perhaps I could have made day two. I could still have won in the draft portion but I was never, ever going to win the tournament. So why compete in a tournament unless you can win? If you don't win then you have lost. So by the time Nagoya comes around, I will have tested and I will be ready, and give myself the opportunity, at least, to win. Do not go to a Pro Tour unprepared - you will lose.

The CawBlade deck that dominated the event was one of the sweetest, sickest decks I’ve seen in a long time. It was a straightforward enough idea, but so elegant in its design and so deadly effective. To go into a tournament when you have such a cutting edge deck fills one with confidence as well as the ability to surprise opponents. I want a deck like that next time, so I’m calling out to the Blackborder team to come together and prepare like they did. Are we going there to win, or just to have fun (Paris was still a lot of fun though, but that's why staying with Dan G is a good thing)?

Every Pro Tour is history in the making. It is significant, yet ruthless. When I’ve won in the past it's often been because I’ve had the right deck for that tournament. When you go match after match, slicing through people because you have such good matchups then things can become simple and clear. But when you don't then you have to battle hard round and round. In one match in Paris, a UW mirror, I lost game 3 because my opponent made Stoneforge Mystic on the play. I was effectively dead before my own second turn. That's a feeling that will stay with me since it knocked me out. I was stone dead because his did something so powerful and I was so unprepared. I was going home and I deserved it. The funny thing though is that I had actually come across the Mystic/Sword before I left for France. I had played about 20 games in preparation, over the course of one day, and someone at my local shop had had it. But I dismissed it, because I was too set on my own opinions, too arrogant and too naive to truly consider theirs. This is another lesson I’m going to really try to learn.

Team Spirit

There was quite a large group of UK players in Paris, but we did horrendously badly. Only a few made day 2 and only Brad Barclay put up a good showing. The English are far too fragmented to be seriously competitive at the moment. At a Pro Tour you need to innovate. You need something new. The effort and time that this takes is just not being taken seriously by the English, and as a result we are nowhere near where we should be, but the potential is there. Deck building is a very difficult skill and I don't believe I’m especially good at it. In fact there aren't many people in the UK who are except for Marco Orsini Jones. Marco is in my opinion the finest builder in the country and it was unfortunate that he wasn't qualified for Paris, but nevertheless I should have picked his brain some more about Standard. This is another important lesson, to use all available resources in preparation for a big event. Dan G was staying with me and he was pretty much in the exact same position as I was and he didn't make day two either. He is good friends with Lucas Florent (top man), who was one of the players behind the G/W Quest deck, yet Dan didn't ask him about his testing either.

Sleep is another factor when getting ready to play the next day. I'm a big believer in getting enough sleep so that you are ready and awake before you play. This is normally easy to do but in Paris Dan and I were staying in a last minute booked hostel in a shady area and were kept awake every night due to the people next door shagging relentlessly. I even think it is possible that the hostel was being used as a brothel because for some reason the shagging started like clockwork, at 1am, every single night.

There is a big difference between expecting to do well, and expecting to just do okay. If you were to take a big exam for University and the night before you hadn't slept, and you know that you hadn't studied, then do you expect to do well? I don't think so, and this is how I felt for the Pro Tour when the time came to play. I didn't have the belief and I was half expecting to fail since I didn't deserve to succeed.

I think that I’m a talented player, and have the capacity to learn and get better, but I need to work much harder if I want to achieve my goals. I need to work with a team of players, to prepare properly and to focus myself in order to succeed. Anyone aspiring to win a Pro Tour needs to do this too. Blackborder has many exceptionally talented players writing for it, from all over the world. If we can pull together and become our own team then we could most certainly apply pressure on the other groups that are taking down each PT. One should always seek to be the best they can be. I could be so much better if I was part of a strong team of players and I know that I am willing to put in the time and effort to contribute to that team.

Here's hoping that I learn my lessons,

Jonathan Randle