The pairings are posted and the infamous "win and you're in" round has started. Every Magic tournament has this round. The round when you take your undefeated record up against an opponent one more time before being able to draw into the top eight of the tournament. The win in this round means a two hour break to get food, scout, drink, or do whatever your heart desires while everyone else has to play to make the cut.

Such was the case for me in High Point, North Carolina. As, I sit down across from my opponent he seems familiar. I had seen his deck before the tourney, he was at Biscuitville when I had breakfast this morning, and he slept in my hotel room last night. In fact, he slept at the bottom of my bed. I look to the left at table one, and see another man from my hotel room versus a gent I have known for a long while. I pause for a moment and look to the right. There I find another hotel roommate accompanied by three other play-test partners. It is at this point that I realized something. After this round, fifty percent of the Top 8 will consist of people I play with on a regular basis. If the two of us that got paired against one another both win the next round, then seventy-five percent of the Top 8 will be Compatriots. At that point I remember a Ben Bleiweiss article, and laugh at the correctness of it: "To be good you have to play with people that are better than you."

I remember my old definition of team. It was a group of players that I played with on a weekly basis. We all had defined roles within the team, and in the end the success of our best player depended on the success at which the team operated. Unfortunately, we have all moved away. Some, like Matt and Kyle, have had their time in the Pro Tour sun, while others like Blair have faded away into obscurity. The team has long since collapsed, but has now been replaced with my new team. While we don't all live in the same area, and we don't playtest solely with each other the end result is still the same. We all have defined roles, share information, and playtest against each other on a semi-regular basis. I see other groups do the same thing, but they are unsuccessful and we are not. I thought about it for a while, and decided to begin to write a guide to developing a good team. The first part of the guide will be on understanding the people you need to have a team.

The Card Guy
This guy's name says it all. Every deck he plays is one hundred percent foil, and it is always the deck with the most expensive cards in it. It doesn't have to be the best deck, just the most expensive. He feels compelled to be able to play any deck at any time. He therefore has all the cards required to field the decks on the "Decks to Beat" link. It doesn't matter whether it is Extended, Standard, or Block, he has it all. He is easy to spot, as he spends ninety-percent of his time trading, and ten percent playing. He is essential to any team's success. He provides seventy percent of the cards played by the team during any Constructed season. Think of him as your Sugar Daddy. You must be nice to him during the Limited seasons. You may not need him during that time, but you can't have anyone else steal your Sugar Daddy, as they need constant attention.

The Judge
This is the most valuable person on the team. They frequently review the judge mailing list. They are actively involved in the fabulous judge program, and serve as a ruling source for the team. They watch play-test games, and assist with complex rules situations. They also freely comment about possible stack manipulation possibilities, as well as providing a list of potentially abusable cards to the deck designers. These cards are ones that can take advantage of different game states such as the At End of Turn step combined with Waylay, or how to draw a card with Sensei's Divining Top and have it become the third card down from the top of your library. Their assistance is invaluable, and no team can be complete without a Judge.

The Pro
This is the most esteemed position on the team, but is detrimental to the person filling the role. This is the best player in your group in the field you are practicing. A different person may fill this role depending on the format. On my current team there is a different person for Sealed, Draft, Rochester, Constructed Standard, and Constructed Extended. The reason the spot is desirable is easy. Everyone looks up to you. You are seen as the player to beat, the best in the group. Who doesn't like the sun to shine on their ass? The problem with this spot on the team is that the person occupying it will not improve their game. Playing with people of lower skill will never improve your game as quickly as getting your ass whooped. You learn by making mistakes, and being beaten. You then can see your errors, and understand what you should have done to get a win. It takes a true genius to see all their mistakes while still winning the game. If at any time one person is The Pro in more than three formats, they should truly move onto another team. Their skill level is a fabulous tool for those around them, but in the end they will receive very little in return for their investment of time.

The Deck Builder
Rob Dougherty is probably one of the best-known deck designers. Their task is a tedious one. They work with The Judge to see if new cards and tricks can be broken. They spend hours usually playing against The Judge to test new constructs. Those that have tested favorably are sent out to the team for further testing. The team then gives constructive criticism back to the designer, and the deck is either scrapped or retooled. This person is valuable to the team, but usually gets the least respect. This is the guy that says, "I really think this Arcbound Ravager is better than Broodstar."

He hears the voice of the test group, "Man whatever, Ravager doesn't fly, it's not huge, and it takes down your Affinity count. Furthermore why would you play this Disciple dude? He is only good when you are losing your stuff anyway."

Sometimes the group is right, and sometimes the builder is right. It is the job of the group to test any deck that is presented to them without having preconceived notions. It is the job of the Deck Builder to test a deck well enough before presenting a bomb to the group. A majority of the Deck Builders time is spent not creating new decks, but testing cards to decide what the optimal build of each known deck is considering a variety of expected metagames.

The Specialist
This makes up the rest of the playtest group. There are a variety of specialists, but each one serves an important role on the team. One Specialist is Mr. Aggro. He is a master of the beatdown. He is known to play RDW, Goblins, Affinity, and any deck that puts pressure on an opponent to find an answer, and find it fast. While ADD might run in his family, he usually has a long enough attention span to defeat his opponents. He is a master of the combat step, and every trick in it. While he is able to complete the most test games the data from them tends to be the least valuable.

Next up is Mr. Tempo. While the days of piloting his favorite Pirates deck is gone, Hoodwink, Temporal Spring, Fallow Earth, and Rishadan Brigand will always be in his heart. He will hold onto Ponza with his cold dead hands. You know, the one with Chrome Mox, Slith Firewalker, and some land destruction? His current input to Constructed formats is less than spectacular, but the state of CHK Limited more than makes him useful. His knowledge of creating the perfect mana curve, as well as understanding the importance of one less two drop for one more combat trick is the key to winning in the current limited format. He completely understands that all advantages of tempo are lost over time, but the key is to reduce your opponent from twenty to zero before that time passes.

Now we get to talk about Mr. Control. He is not satisfied by just reducing an opponent from twenty to zero life. Instead he must dominate/control the match. In order for a victory to be truly satisfying, he must be able to control each and every one of his opponents' plays. For every threat he will have an answer, and with one foul swoop, he will play his huge threat and end the game. Whether the threat is Rude Awakening, or Serra Angel doesn't matter. In the end, the victor is decided not by who reaches zero first, but by who controls the game. He believes life total to just be a measure of when the game ends, not who actually won.

Control players learn the least from others in the group, as they tend to dismiss losses to the luck of their opponent, but they teach all the other players more than they could ever know. All the players playing against the Control Player get to learn the threshold of their deck. The threshold is the point at which their chance for achieving a win is unobtainable; therefore, the other players get the knowledge of when to go all in and when to hold something back. They get to learn when control will be established and the Control Player will get the win. This is what defines who finishes 8-0 with Affinity and who finishes 5-3.

Last up is Mr. Aggro-Control. It is his job to play the various Black/Green or Fish type decks. He is a master of knowing when to flip the switch. He must understand who is the beatdown. If he misjudges that information, then he will be quickly putting a mark in the loss column. The Aggro-Control player is the one who has to put in the most testing, and who also must possess the greatest understanding of the format. In order for him to win, he must understand how all of the other decks in the format work. He must playtest the game from both sides of the battlefield. He has to understand every deck's biggest threat against his deck, as well as understanding the spells he must resolve in order to achieve victory. Joe Bags and his Freshmaker deck would be a perfect example. He could handle all the decks in the Block format with his precious pet deck. I first played the deck without any testing and finished 3-4 with it. The next time I played the deck after much testing, I finished 7-1-1. Testing is the key for this specialist and he cannot succeed without a test group.

That completes the introduction of the team.

Back at the High Point PTQ, I find myself not making the finals. I lost to Star Wars Kid and his sideboarded Stone Rains, as they just pounded my slower deck. In the end ,five out of the eight players in the finals are people I play with on a weekly basis, or have played with on a weekly basis. I thank each one of them for improving me as a player. I hope each team now has an idea of the roles of each of its members. If you do not have all the people mentioned, then the team would not function properly. Go out and seek other people to join your group. It takes everyone for the team to succeed, and each piece must be present.

Last but not least are follow-up points to some articles from last week.

What is the biggest bomb in the set?
My answer is The Dragon Sword. [Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang. - Knut, wishing the lazy would learn Kamigawa names] There are exactly four answers to this bomb in the entire format. Answers one and two are Hearth Kami and Wear Away. These cards actually destroy the Equipment, but only if its controller does not have six mana untapped to turn it into a dragon in response. While Hearth Kami will be in your main deck, it is doubtful that it would still be around on turn 6 when this bomb hits the table. Typically it would be traded for another creature in the early game. Anyone playing Wear Away in their main deck is quite the "winner" and should not worry about reading the article any further. This isn't Mirrodin block, and this card would reside in the sideboard of most sealed decks.

The two most effective ways to deal with the sword are Cage of Hands and Mystic Restraints. Both are able to take care of the Dragon token once it is made. An honorable mention goes to Cranial Extraction, as it was my sealed deck's only way to deal with this beast, though it resided in the sideboard. I brought it in after seeing the awesome equipment in game 1, and it made sure the Sword would not make a repeat appearance to take over game 2. Unfortunately for me, black mana did not surface in time to take care of the beast in game three before it smashed my face into the ground.

The Most Underrated Cards in Limited CHK?
Several forum users were greatly upset with the inclusion of Hankyu, and Hana Kami as underrated cards. First let me come to the defense of the powerful Hana Kami.

Hana Kami is absolutely insane in combination with Black. Let's examine what the Kami lets you do: Pay six mana to prevent all combat damage every turn; pay six mana to give a creature plus two plus two every turn; pay seven mana to deal two damage to target creature or player every turn; pay eight mana to kill a non-spirit every turn, or pay eleven mana to give any creature negative five negative five every turn. The combination of Hana Kami, Soulless Revival, and any arcane spell creates a continuous loop. All you do is splice Soulless Revival onto any arcane spell and Voila! you have instant recursion of that spell. Just think of it as arcane with buyback. Very few Limited decks can defeat the ability of a deck to cast Fog every turn. In the appropriate deck, Hana Kami can be classified as absolutely insane.

While the Kami can be insane, Hankyu is slightly less than spectacular. While it is not insane it has its place in one draft deck and one deck only. That deck will have several of the best bear in the format Mr. Wicked Akuba. The damage that Hankyu deals allows you to have your opponent lose life for every black mana you have available. While the card works very slowly it is a late game powerhouse. The ability to deal six to eight damage without attacking will force your opponent into dealing with the nasty artifact, or creature immediately. If on turn 7 or 8 I can make my opponents use their removal on Wicked Akuba, I will be quite the happy gamesman. So while not insane, I would not put Hankyu in the garbage either.

What is your new favorite pet card?
For block it was Endless Whispers. For Standard it has become Night of Soul's Betrayal. Let me give you a little background. When I first saw this card being played, I laughed. Then James quickly reminded me that I actually played Leveler in Constructed. I considered that a valid point and began to play test the card. While it is not an early game answer, this card is nothing less than amazing. Let's take a quick look at how it shapes up in the metagame.

Versus Affinity
After surviving the early rush by utilizing your green spells you can then drop this beastly enchantment. Let's see which creatures Affinity can kill you with.

Disciple of the Vault: It dies as a state based effect when it comes into play leaving zero chances to sacrifice anything to make you lose life.

Arcbound Ravager: It dies as a state based effect when it comes into play leaving zero chances to sacrifice anything to make it bigger.

Arcbound Worker: Yep, dead.

Blinkmoth Nexus: Activate it and then place it into the graveyard. At no point do you have priority to pump it.

That leaves Affinity with the ability to Shrapnel Blast you out, or kill you with 1/1 Frogmites, and 3/3 Myr Enforcers. I will take my chances of that happening.

Versus G/W or U/G
Let's all have three cheers for not having to worry about Eternal Witness providing continuous blockers. Also, I heard it is a lot better to require your opponent to have twenty lands in play versus ten to kill you with Rude Awakening. Now Pristine Angel is still a 3/3, but that means it takes seven versus five turns to kill you with her.

In the end, Night of Souls' Betrayal maybe needs to be in the sideboard instead of the main deck, but it deserves a spot on any Black/Green Deck list.

Till we meet again, Happy Beatings!

JD