In fact, this has happened many times. I could almost blame ALL of my losses on this fact. However, I won't.

One thing to remember when preparing for a tournament, you need to pick a deck that fits your style of playing. Don't play something that requires a lot of thinking and math if you aren't accustomed to doing it. Otherwise, you WILL make a mistake or get extremely bored playing the deck. These both result in game/match losses.

This is a theory of mine, that covers everything from the amount of times you shuffle the deck, to how many cards you need to win the game.

I've played Bargain at a few tournaments, going through the combination over and over. I'll tell you what: it never gets more exciting. It takes a lot of thinking to pull this off game after game, and as soon as you get bored with the deck, it shows. You start thinking more about completing the match, and not enough about what your opponent has in play or in their hand.

If you do not like to shuffle, and have a tendency to shuffle two or three times and wants to start the match. Some people will shuffle for the full five minutes without thought, some of us just do it enough to randomize the deck and want to get started. If this is the case, don't think about playing combination or Oath, because your cards will clump together after the first few rounds of going through the entire deck.

Trust me, this is why I've lost matches.

It's all about your style of playing. If you don't like to think a lot about a situation, if you don't want to shuffle 3-9 different times during a match, then consider playing a deck like Stompy.

There are a few people that can't play Weenie decks. Believe it or not, for every person that get bored playing Combination, a few people can't play Weenie.

Many people shuffle too much and don't draw enough weenies in order to function. In weenie decks, you actually NEED clumps in order to be fully effective. How many times have you seen a triple Rancor draw and just sit back with a smile on your face? If that was a triple Vampiric Tutor draw, you'd be thinking a lot differently.

So, lets look at a few of the top decks that are hanging around in Type II now.

Bargain
Rebel Weenie
Tinker
Accelerated Blue
Stompy

Bargain requires a lot of math and statistics, you need to know how many cards are in your library, and what the odds are of you drawing the card you need. You can gamble a lot with this deck, using your last four life to Tutor for a card and draw it with Bargain, or try to pay the life to draw more cards so you'll have more mana to cast another Feast. It's all about your style of playing. If you are caught in this situation too often, then you will quickly become bored with the deck unless you like problems such as this.

Rebel Weenie is less of a problem than Bargain, however, the shuffling in this deck is unreal. You have to shuffle around ten times per game (in a normal matchup) to have an edge over your opponent. This takes a lot of patience as well, because if you do a poor job or randomizing, you may be drawing land the next few turns rather than the Disenchant you're trying to get. This situation almost NEVER arises, but it is possible.

Tinker is a deck of massive mana-calculation. You have to know if you have enough to make a Processor token AND cast a Sanctuary or enough to untap the Processor and make a second token then Tinker for a Sanctuary, leaving just enough open to counter a Disenchant your opponent may cast. Trust me, this deck gets easier to play over time, but it can be somewhat boring. At least it doesn't take you 10 minutes to complete your final turn like Bargain.

Accelerated Blue is a deck of patience. Can you sit back and take a few hits by a Rancor'd Albino Troll or will you drop the Keg as quickly as possible and kill only 1 creature? It also requires you to make a lot of decisions. Do you want to counter their Jaguar or let them pay echo (which will slow them down) Will you counter their Albino Troll or wait to see if they have a River Boa? A lot of people just don't like doing this, and if you don't want to sit through the full 50 minute round, you shouldn't play this deck.

Stompy takes no patience and almost no math. The only thing you have to worry about are the hosers. Do you think they just Tutored for a Perish or for an Acadamy Rector? Should you attack with everything or leave a little behind to block? These decisions usually make themselves and require no thought. The only decisions that require more than three seconds of thinking are along the lines of "should I Giant Growth my blocked creature to save it? Or should I deal more damage to my opponent?" or "What cards should I remove to play my Dryad?" and my favorite "Should I play a turn one Cradle in the mirror match? Or hope they didn't draw one?" This is the deck of choice for anybody that's spent the day at work and got only an hour of sleep. =)

These are only a few examples of what decks require to play them (besides the cards). If you want to become a serious tournament player, you have to understand the psychology that goes with it. You could have the best deck ever made, but if you can't take the strain of playing it for a few hours, then don't. You'd have a better chance playing with a deck that you are comfortable with, and won't give you a headache for 50 minutes out of an hour. You should try to find your strengths in every situation, and play the decks that best suites those strengths. This could win you a few games.

It may sound like a lot of rambling, but after talking to a guy who played New Age Bloom at the last qualifier. I quickly understood why he started making so many mistakes after the first six hours.

Until next time,

Jeff Wrobleski
wfamily@airmail.net