#wmcq

Big changes to high level event structures. Here’s the TL;DR

WMCQs are ending and Nationals is returning.

Instead of three WMCQ events in each country, each participating country will have a single Nationals tournament.

National teams at the WMC will have 3 members instead of 4.

Each country’s national team will consist of the player in the country with the top Pro Point total (team captain) and the top two finishers at Nationals.

The format for Nationals (and the constructed format for the WMC) will be Standard.

In-store GPTs are being discontinued.

GPTs for Grand Prix Las Vegas will be the final in-store GPTs.

GPTs will continue only as last-chance trials on the Friday of each GP.

Sunday PTQs return to Grands Prix

He makes casting things again a snap.

I've been considering doing this for a while, initially it was going to be about Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix Lille but then something actually worth talking about came up, other than my miraculous 4-4 drop from the main event. That being said, a huge congratulations are in order for the 5 representatives from Northern Ireland, Desmond Carson, Conor Kerr, Declan Doherty, Marianne Laird and Rene Verheesen, who made day 2, in particular to Rene Verheesen and Conor Kerr for earning themselves a pro point each, and for Marianne Laird achieving day 2 at her first GP.

The reason for this post is the issues which have arisen regarding the Scottish team captaincy. At the World Magic Cup (WMC) 2015 the Scottish world cup team put up an amazing performance, reaching the top 8, and have also never failed to reach the day two of this prestigious event. Stephen Murray, Ray Doyle, Grant Hislop and Martin Clement navigated the savage gauntlet of ridiculous KTK-BFZ standard block mana bases and a quite removal-light limited format to come out at the top of the hill alongside Austria, Denmark, France, Guatemala, Italy, Japan and Thailand. While regrettably, in my wholly biased opinion based upon solidarity, they were defeated 2-1 by Italy in the quarter-finals, this was a great day for Scottish Magic.[1]

But now, almost a year later, things are not looking so good for the Scottish WMC team, where in a post by Duncan Tang on the "Competitive Magic Scotland" Facebook page, writes in depth about the situation. I will summarise for now, but will post the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CompetitiveMagicScotland/permalink/1852496894974088/

"This weekend past, Grand Prix Lille was held and there was a good Scottish contingent sent out. Congrats to Bradley Barclay and Wayne Dillion for finishing well and scoring some Pro Points for their troubles. This sets up the start of the race for Scotland Captain for the World Magic Cup in 2017! However, if you look on the current standings right now there is another person tied with Brad and Wayne with 2 Pro Points.

That person is Basil Nabi...

...Until GP Lille, Basil was actually leading the race for [Scotland's] captaincy...

...This would not be a problem if Basil was actually ‘Scottish’, or if he had done what many other wonderful foreign players do when they come to our small nation and integrate with our Magic community when they spend their university lives here or make the actual choice to live here – shout out to Nathan who I’ve come to appreciate very much as a lovely addition to our Glasgow scene. I do not want to appear xenophobic by any means. I am a fan of our various visitors, temporary and permanent. Hell, my full name does not exactly ring Highlander! I’m very much against this with a view to “Spirit of the World Magic Cup”. This does not feel like the best player in Scotland, or the best Scottish player for that year. It feels like cheating and abusing the fact that our captain slot has been less competitive in years past." – Duncan Tang

 Scotland, like Northern Ireland and many other smaller countries, suffers from small player bases and relative isolation from large events. While, for example, GP Lille was brilliantly positioned to allow players from all over Europe to convene with relative ease, with accessibility by train being quite frankly brilliant, the United Kingdom and Ireland have a little more trouble. This is not a huge factor,  indeed there are many countries which have less access to these events than ourselves, but it is simply to set the scene, as going in to the WMC2017 race, 2 pro points (the amount one receives for attending the WMC), is actually a genuine and very relevant amount – not to discredit the value of pro points or our quality of players in any way, but we certainly don't have anyone putting up top 32's on a regular occasion. And ultimately the means are there, if someone wants to hit up every Grand Prix event.

Now the issue, which is covered in much more detail by Duncan, is that Basil Nabi is a California-based player of Scottish heritage, making him eligible for Scottish Citizenship and by extension, to be a representative of the Scottish team. And if that is truly how they feel, that they feel so impassioned to take up the mantle of his family roots and heritage, then more power to them and this is likely a huge misunderstanding. However, while the change was made at some point during 2015 and 2016, they have allegedly made zero contribution to the Scottish community, local play, or attended a WMCQ, however have changed their nationality to Scottish, and are subsequently tied in the 2017 race. Now again, this is all a view of one side of the story, but from another small country player it does seem quite intimidating that if a player is dissatisfied with their performance in their respective home country can defer to a country of heritage and try and "snipe" a position there.

Now this draws an interesting parallel with one of the players I mentioned earlier, Rene Verheesen. Rene moved to Northern Ireland some years ago, and subsequently changed his nationality to ours. He was a full time resident, a member of the community and a known face and name. This year he moved back, but was unable to change his nationality back to his home, the Netherlands. Now Rene's story does end with a happy ending, where he flew over for our first World Magic Cup Qualifier (WMCQ), playing Jeskai control and eventually winning the entire event and a place on the Northern Irish team! But when this occurred the attitude was overwhelmingly positive, in stark contrast to the controversy in question.

In my view the reasoning is simple; Rene, despite not living here currently, was always an active member of the community, a regular sight at FNM and larger events alike. A consistent and competitive player, who was also a friend to others in the community. Rene was more than a name, he was a person, a personality, a player we could recognise and were happy to see rewarded for what was quite frankly, just bad luck and bureaucracy. And on top of that, the issues with his nationality have been resolved, and aims to change them at the end of the season and return to playing under his homeland.

Now all this raises an interesting question; what makes a "National player?" Basil has claim to heritage, but little to do with the Scottish MTG community. Rene is quite the opposite. For me Magic has always been about the community and the people, with the game as the glue holding things together, a common ground through which people of all sorts come together. It was why I initially started playing Collectible Card Games, with Yu-Gi-Oh before Magic, switching from the former to the latter in 2014. As a result, I am harshly against the idea of swooping in and trying to snatch positions from members of the ingrained communities of smaller countries, as I previously mentioned. It seems against the spirit of the game as a whole to, ultimately, break up communities in a grab for power.

Though obviously the argument against this is that from a competitive stand point, it is absolutely the way to go about things. In a huge region like the United States of America, where Basil currently resides, it must be damn near impossible to break that impenetrable glass ceiling unless you're some sort of prodigy or already part of the large cliques of professional players.

This kind of thing is strange; for example Northern Ireland probably has around 80-100 competitive players, with many more casual players. America? I wouldn't even want to guess. The Guardian newspaper states the player base in 2015 was around 20million, while "Echo MTG" stated that in 2014 the player base was closer to 22million, with a 35% growth from 2013.[2][3] Regrettably neither stated sources, but I'd like to assume the collateral view was at least somewhat accurate. America is no doubt a huge chunk of that.

In my personal opinion, it seems very against the spirit of the World Magic Cup, an event based and grounded in solidarity and community, to been taken in this way, but ultimately what can be done? Well, there are a number of factors that can be investigated;

1) A player must have played X games in the country

Pros: Local players obviously favoured.

Cons: Are Local Game Stores (LGSs) accessible or even viable in these countries? For example, Belfast (the Northern Irish capital city) no longer has an LGS, with the closest one 30 minutes out of town by car, the North Down Wargaming Centre in Newtownards.

2) A player must be accepted by the community

Pros: Community-driven.

Cons: Unwieldy in larger countries, as well as bias within separate groups, LGS etc and within smaller ones such as our own, where we literally know half if not more of the player base by name.

3) A player must have residence within a country

Pros: Local player favoured.

Cons: Situations as of that with Rene, previously mentioned in the article. Also more paperwork, potentially impractical and unwieldy to perform.

These are simply small suggestions and all of them are heavily flawed due to huge variance in community size; ultimately the claims to nationality WOTC have in place are not that bad given the circumstances.

"In order to be eligible for the residential-specific participation or invitation criteria during a particular year, a player must be either:

• a citizen of that country, or

• a continuous resident of that country from January 1 of the previous year through the date of the participatory tournament or award of invitation." – WOTC Planeswalker Points Information 2016[4]

The only thing not considered in this are the community-driven factors, how a player is viewed within the community and whether they are active within the community. Perhaps the idea of nominating a community leader could work, but even then it would scale up massively in complexity and management for larger countries. Having a certain number of games or tournaments played within a community is also a factor, but then surely the planeswalker point requirement already assures that a player must be active and would be assumed to play within their community. Mapping points to a location may be possible, but I'm not going to say it is and nod defiantly while a bunch of computer programmers and coders look at me like I'd insulted their saintly mother.

This issue is not an issue of the DCI, or of WOTC itself. It is a measure of community and ethical and moral views versus competitive drive and will to succeed. Ultimately, the latter usually looks and feels worse, but is the harsh reality.

Richard

[1] http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/2015WMC/top-8-profiles-2015-12-12

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/10/magic-the-gathering-pop-culture-hit-where-next

[3] https://www.echomtg.com/blog/post/45/the-number-of-magic-players-worldwide-by-year/

[4] https://www.wizards.com/Magic/PlaneswalkerPoints/Information#PlayerNationality

After a fairly long break from writing I’ve decided that there may indeed be some benefit to cataloging my Magical thoughts, hopefully helping some new players and getting some feedback from those more experienced than myself.

For my first really solid finish at a large event (excluding GPs) I decided that it might be worth writing a tournament report and musing a little on what makes Infect good. This will cover the list and how things are shaping up moving forward for my favourite modern archetype. At this point I’d like to start out by saying that most Infect lists are fairly stock and the differences tend to be quite minimal. Most of this comes from the homogenisation after Owen Turtenwald wrote about the deck and set the standard for good Blue/Green based builds. 

My list is certainly not unique and a lot of the differences you do find tend to be in the sideboard or are personal choices for the local meta. 

Decklist: Blue Green Infect 

1 Viridian Corrupter 4 Blighted Agent 4 Glistener Elf 4 Noble Hierarch

4 Gitaxian Probe 1 Slip Through Space 4 Become Immense 4 Might of Old Krosa 4 Mutagenic Growth 2 Apostle's Blessing 4 Vines of Vastwood 1 Spell Pierce 2 Twisted Image 1 Dismember

2 Forest 4 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Pendelhaven 2 Breeding Pool 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard: 

2 Spell Pierce 1 Twisted Image 2 Dismember 2 Dispel 1 Grafdigger's Cage 2 Nature's Claim 1 Dryad Arbor 4 Kitchen Finks

A good place to start would be the cards I am not playing and the reasoning behind my choices. The main ones that are missing from the main are: Spellskite, Groundswell, Distortion Strike and Wild Defiance.

First of all, the main reason I’m not playing Spellskite is that with a main deck Viridian Corrupter it can be a bit dangerous playing odd artifacts that I might have to end up destroying unwittingly. As one of the best cards in the mirror and very useful against removal heavy decks, a switch for Spellskite would be a fine addition and likely one that I would make moving forward. Another compelling reason is that in game one, it is often advantageous to be as proactive as possible and seek to play in a streamlined fashion. Though it costs three mana, which is incredibly expensive and clunky for this deck, the Corrupter adds an important thirteenth infector, that with 2 power and toughness, doesn’t auto die to -1-1 effects and makes counting to 10 a little easier. 

Groundswell is quite all-in and doesn’t play defence as well as other pump options while also suffering from the problem of not always being active. With only 20 lands in the deck and then only 4 fetch able sources, it can be quite hit and miss reliably turning landfall on. 

Distortion strike is likely better than Slip through space and I have made the switch. The cantrip is nice, but have a double unblockable allows for kills to be sequenced over two turns while also saving on mana - a crucial aspect of the Infect deck.

Wild Defiance is an acceptable choice in a bolt heavy meta, but doesn’t do very much alone and consequentially (in addition to costing three) isn’t a viable option in the main generally speaking. 

The deck has a fairly straightforward 20 card sideboard, where you play several one or two copies of a card in the main that gives you an edge in certain match ups, offering some interaction, while also not diluting your game plan too much. The fact that the Twisted Images also happen to beat opposing Spellskites, one of the best cards against you, while also cantripping and keeping the cards flowing adds something to the deck for certain. 

In terms of the WMCQ itself, it was 242 players in Birmingham and that meant 9 rounds of swiss before Top 8. 

My swiss rounds in order: 

Storm: 2-0

Merfolk: 2-1 

Living End: 2-0

Affinity: 2-0

Burn: 2-1

Bant Eldrazi: 1-2 

Suicide Zoo: 2-0

Infect: 2-0

Infect: ID

Top 8

Abzan: 2-0

Jeskai Prowess 0-2 

Why Infect? 

Infect is a very strong, pro active deck that can punish your opponent for not interacting or threatening to win the game quickly. At times, even through multiple removal spells, Infect is capable of putting the win together with a mix of protection and pump spells, perhaps best exemplified by Vines of Vastwood which plays both sides of the ball effectively. Infect is about a turn faster than most of the other linear aggro decks, while also having solid game against midrange and control. Able to pull out wins from nowhere, Infect also utilises Phyrexian mana in probably the best possible way of all the decks in modern aside from Suicide Zoo. In part due to the explosive nature of it’s draws and the single mindedness of the strategy, Infect often feels quite challenging to play against and borderline unfair. 

Access to Gitaxian Probe means that you are often working with perfect information and casting multiple spells per turn, all the while cycling through your deck. Become Immense also utilises another under appreciated resource in your graveyard, granting access to a greatly discounted pump spell that synergies with all your fetches, free and cheap spells. 

Of all the decks I played I felt favoured against Storm, Living End, Merfolk, Affinity and Bant Eldrazi. Burn, Suicide Zoo, Abzan, Jeskai and the Mirror are all quite tough to handle and often rely on strong sideboard cards such as Spell Pierce or Dismember. Spell Pierce especially is probably my favourite card in the deck, offering a lot of utility for one Blue and covering the angles against a wide range of potential problem cards; ranging from Lingering Souls to Liliana of the Veil to Living End. One of the main reasons that it is so effective is that with all your spells being quite cheap, it puts the pressure on your opponent very early on, often leading to “Hail Mary” plays that matchup poorly against Pierce. Cryptic Command for example starts to looks much worse as a defensive tool when it ends up being an incredibly mana inefficient play. 

When sequencing threats and spells I like to default on leading with a Noble Hierarch if given the option between that and a Glistener Elf. In my experience, early mana development tends to pay off more on turns 2 and 3 and painless blue mana can be very important in certain match ups. However, if you know that either you are in a pure race or if you have multiple infect threats in hand then leading on elf, following up with a Hierarch on T2 for the exalted damage, is acceptable. 

Unless you are digging for something specific, I like to hold onto the Gitaxian Probes until the turn where you go for a big attack. The longer you hold it, the more information you will get and T1-T2 your plays might not change all that much. Where I think this is actively a mistake is against Burn, the threat of an Eidolon of the Great Revel means that you can’t really delay on casting Probe, which afterwards becomes unfeasibly costly to cast. 

This isn’t exactly true when it comes to your pump-spells. A lot of deciding on when to pump comes down to managing your mana, graveyard count and feasibility of getting in for damage. For example, if Glistener Elf is your only creature then it is often correct to jam for as much damage as you can early, given that it will likely become harder to push damage through later. Filling your yard for BI and using your mana in an efficient way ends up being crucial on the final kill turn, because given limited resources the ability to delve for the max amount can mean the difference between victory and a narrow defeat. 

Kitchen Finks is one of the all-star sideboard cards that give you a fighting chance against Burn, Suicide Zoo, Jeskai, Abzan and Jund. They fill a multi faceted role of blocking, gaining life, pressuring Planeswalkers and being great sacrifice fodder. 

The main mistakes I made were not punished too heavily, but the most egregious was boarding in Grafdigger’s Cage against Living End. Fortunately I did not draw it during the games but as a PSA, it doesn’t work how you might want it to. I also missed onboard regular damage lethal with a Noble Hierarch, in Infect mirror. As a player, one of my main flaws is getting too set on a single path to victory and therefore missing alternate lines of play. This can be especially important with Infect, where it’s important to be patient and vigilant which means waiting for the best time to move in and not rushing into bad attacks. This can typically mean waiting multiple turns to make an attack, slowly building up resources and crafting a game plan. 

I’ve got a few PPTQs coming up in the next month so will be looking to battle with Infect again. 

Thanks to Axion for the event and Congrats to Graeme for winning with Jeskai Nahiri.

Tom Russell-Mésenge