Tournament Preperation

So something I wanted to talk about today, this Tuesday, was tournament prep. The reason? With GP Sacramento coming up in a few months, and it fresh in my mind, I thought it would be a good time to talk about.

Now this is talking about competitive REL tournaments, but here is a simple checklist of things you should do before and during a tournament:

1. Sleep Well
2. Bring snacks and water
3. Double check your decklist the night before and print out a decklist (if constructed)
4. Write your decklist legibly if in sealed or draft
5. Announce all triggers and life totals
6. Play slow
7. Bring dice, bring a notepad and pen
8. Don't bring anything more than you absolutely need to play
9. Relax and have fun.

 So I'm going to go into a bit of detail with each of these. Following all of these tips will help ensure maximizing your play and giving you the best edge to doing well!

1. Sleep well: This one is pretty obvious. Don't bother test playing the night before, instead just make

Don't let sleep deprivation lead to this

sure you sleep well. It might be especially hard if you are excited to play the next day, but sleeping well is good for many reasons. One, if you have to drive to the tournament location, you want to have the mental capacity to drive safely. Two, again if this is your first big tournament, it will be a lot, A LOT longer of a tournament than normal. You can expect to be playing magic for twelve hours, and when the later rounds matter most, those are the rounds you will be most tired.

Drinking this round 1 will cause a crash 

by round 8

2. Bring snacks and water: This is pretty important. There are probably not going to be any food areas in your immediate area, sometimes the nearest food place will take half an hour to walk there. You do not want to be in this situation, playing against slow decks and never having a long break. You also
don't want your mind being on the fact you are hungry while in the middle of a match, and you can't always depend on having a friend having the time to get you food. Additionally, water is even more important. You must stay hydrated. Dehydration will cause slight lapses in judgment, headache, and make it harder to think in general. I say water and healthy snacks because, things high in sugar will eventually cause your blood sugar to fall faster, which will ultimately mean you will need more sugar to boost you back up or your mind will start to crash.

3. You always want to double or triple check a decklist, have it all ready the day before and don't make any changes on the way there. I have been on the side where you make those last minute changes and forget to write one card, causing game losses. Printing out a decklist is almost always preferred as you can go back and double or triple check it and easily edit it before printing it. Additionally, judges will like it as typed is always easier to read than handwriting.

Can you even read this?

4. Especially in limited, you will always want to write legibly. If a judge deems your handwriting illegible, he might give you a warning or a loss, or even a DQ if he thinks its intentional. Just better to take the extra time.





5. Announce all triggers and life totals. You want to announce everything. In casual games or casual REL you probably may never do this. However, you want everything announced right away in case there is any disparity, the game has not moved forward at all. Additionally, you do not want an opponent accusing you of missing a trigger to a judge, that is usually an automatic warning for missing triggers, even you are trying to shortcut them and just go past them. Always announce everything.

6. Play slow: I will say this with caution. Playing too slowly may make your opponent think you are stalling, and you will be given a warning by a judge. However, always play slowly and think everything out. Do not assume any play is automatic, always take an extra second to think if there is something else you need to do, if you are walking into a trap, etc. This is especially true for those opponents who try to rush you.

You don't need tokens this expensive or fancy, but have something!

7. Bring dice, notepad, and a pen: Dice is always important. Assume that no one will lend you dice, and assume that your opponent won't have any either. Always keep track of life on pen and paper. Never with dice, never with a phone. Some judges may disallow phone apps, with paper you can
always keep track of all life from beginning of a game to end, and if there is ever a dispute the judge will always look more favorably with the person with the pen and paper vs those without. Finally, if you are going to be using tokens, don't use dice as your tokens. You cannot tell if a dice is tapped or untapped, and your opponent may tell you that you cannot use dice. Additionally, in longer games that exhaust you easier, you may forget as well. It's best to play it safe and err on the side of caution.

8. Don't bring anything more than you need: outside of your pen, paper, tokens, dice, deckbox, snacks, water, do not bring anything else. In big tournaments, there will always be people looking to

Type of bag I would bring

get easy steal. These places will easily get crowded and it is very easy to get stuff stolen. If you need to, bring a messenger bag or something that will go over your shoulder and can't be easily snatched, has zippers so people can't easily slip their hand inside and do a quick grab, and you can sit on your lap during a match just so no one else will take it.





9. Finally, relax and have fun. You play the card game to have fun, so do it! Relaxing is very important. Letting your nerves get to you can be really bad, cause you to make misplays, and is very easy to read in terms of body language. Your opponents may even pick up on this and press you, causing further misplays or oversight on simple things. Just relax, slow down, and take a deep breath if you need to.

Finally a bonus tip. Always call a judge when in doubt of anything! Use your biggest voice, and call a judge. Don't think of it as a jerk move, just do it.