Articles

Scott Landis

The RCQ season has officially begun! In the Northeast, my season began in Allentown at The Encounter. Nineteen players arrived for the event, at least five of which made the long journey from Pittsburgh, and after six rounds of swiss and a Top 8, I ended the day in second place with Samaku ramp. I was disappointed in my eventual loss (to my friend and teammate James Kandziolka) in the finals, since I did not leave with the gorgeous Deathwing promo, but most importantly I received my Realm Championship qualification. I refuse to rest on my laurels and hang it up though, since not only do I enjoy playing in the RCQs and want to see my other teammates qualified, but there is still a lot of work to do before both the Realm Championship and Darkmoon Faire Los Angeles. I believe there was an article written about why you should continue to play in these events after you are qualified. Hrm...where did that go...

I digress, and I am not really here to talk about my own individual performance. The question you need to be asking yourselves for this Constructed season is what decks you are going to be playing. You need to make a choice, and potentially more than one choice.

This answer is not as simple as “the best deck” since where you stand in your quest to qualify is an important factor. I am fortunate to live in an area where I can play in four RCQs over the next two weeks within a two hour driving radius. Not all players are as fortunate, and the fact that so many Pittsburgh players make a 5.5 hour drive is clear evidence of always wanting to arrive at the end with your game face on and your deck tuned.

“But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.”
-Grail Knight, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

There are four important basic approaches to selecting a deck for the RCQ season, and remember that the format will change with the release of Crown of the Heavens (previews start tomorrow!):

1) Choose a known deck (or “netdeck”) early on, tune it as the season progresses based on the local metagame; practice with it and master it. Currently this would include what is considered the “big five” decks: Ooga Booga Grand Crusader, Hans’ Grand Crusader Aggro, Samaku Ramp, Alliance Hunter Aggro, and Poison Tipped.

By choosing one popular build and simply attempting to improve it as the season goes on, you are gaining valuable insight into an already established archetype. Clearly there is nothing wrong with this behavior since you have a high percentage to win the event overall based on established metagames, and you are practicing with a deck you should expect to face. You should prepare for many mirror matches throughout the season, especially if you do well with the deck locally a tournament or two before hand.

There are additional merits to this method, especially if you plan on attending some of the more national events during the RCQ season. Darkmoon Faire Los Angeles uses the same Core format as the RCQ season (taking place virtually half way into the season) and the second Metamart tournament occurs two weeks later. Now even though the Metamart Phoenix tournament will feature Crown of the Heavens, it is likely that players will first test the viability of the “Big 5” with the new cards as well before writing them off too quickly.

If you feel you want to play an established deck for these events, maybe given the short time frame, you will want to test them in a “real” setting of an RCQ in order to test out any potential tweaks you might make based on your results. You need that real tournament practice with the deck in order to tune it for the big event. Though I would say you should test any deck you choose to play in these larger tournaments at an RCQ before traveling (say, across the country twice in two weeks as I plan on doing), if you plan on sticking with a known commodity, it is important to choose it early on in the season, tweak it a bit, and then play it again, over and over again. Remember, Worlds 2011 was the first time where Throne of the Tides was legal in Core and even the decks that did very well are potentially not finished products.

2) Switch your deck each RCQ to whatever you believe is best positioned for that tournament, regardless of what you played in previous tournaments. I would suggest adopting this method if you are playing later in the Constructed season and still need those elusive points to qualify. I only recommend this method if you have the ability to playtest extensively. You see, for many players the RCQs are like playoff games: it is not always the better team overall, it is the better team on the field that day that advances. Similarly it is not the overall best deck of the day that wins it, but instead the most consistent and powerful deck and player that day who will take home the Deathwing (and qualification).

The main difference in this method is that you are not truly tuning your deck from tournament to tournament, but instead taking up either an established archetype or a new one you believe can win that one day. You may never play that deck ever again, but for that one local RCQ your only goal is that qualification and you believe this specific deck can take it.

“He chose...poorly.”
-Grail Knight, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

3) Run the deck that is popular that week. Various strategy sites have been posting results from the RCQs each week and will continue to do so as the season develops. From this, you can determine the overall metagame you should expect to face, with a heavy bias on what was popular in recent weeks. You can assume that the astute tournament players will scour these decklists for the latest web tech and metagame ideas. This is the essence of netdecking at its most rare form: simply taking the most popular or best performing deck the week before, doing no alterations to it, and then playing it locally. Many local players will take this approach, especially if they do not plan to travel outside a small radius to qualify for the Realm Championship.

If you do not have a lot of playtest time, but you trust your overall skills as a player, this may be the method for you. In contrast, if you are confident in your ability to qualify for the RC without a strong showing in this one event, you may want to use your upcoming RCQ as a test ground for this new seemingly powerful deck. You do not want to ignore any potential powerhouse strategies that are out there, especially in test preparation for the Championship.

I feel the best time to use this strategy will be closer to the end of the constructed RCQ season. After the Metamart Phoenix tournament, the metagame featuring Crown of the Heavens will be immediately established, through too early on to really form any lasting conclusions. Since absorbing an entire set in such a short period of time (to say nothing of actually securing the cards themselves so quickly) it is perfectly acceptable to choose this method in the later weeks of February.

Personally, I find myself always disappointed with this method going into a tournament because I do not consider myself an “adaptable player”. If you are the type that can pick up any deck, sight unseen, and make quick decisions, then this is the method for you!

4) Design your own deck for the RCQs, potentially tuning it as the season goes on. It's similar to the first method in that you are tuning your deck as the season goes on, but this time you are starting with an unknown commodity. Many players choose to go this route to “buck the system” and take a great amount of pride in playing their own creations to victory. This method is great for tuning your personal creations before the new set is released, and then you can continue to tune that potential powerhouse with Crown of the Heavens leading up to the Realm Championship.

Many players do not enjoy playing the established netdecks, whether week in and week out or really ever. I fully support players who want to test out their own creations, but be prepared for a potentially rough ride. This is especially true if you do not have adequate playtesting time available, or you find a weakness against the established strategies.

“The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.”
-George Eliot

It doesn't matter which of these methods you choose to use. You can even use a combination of them throughout the RCQ Constructed season. Remember, we are all products of the choices we make, and deck choice is based on your goals for the upcoming tournaments.

For the next couple of weeks I will be taking a break for Crown of the Heavens previews. See most of you at DMF LA and as usual, please feel free to discuss any upcoming topics you would like me to cover and good luck in the RCQ season!

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