The Secret to Team Events
The biggest impact to your success in team events is choosing your teammates. I know this may seem obvious but it doesn't get brought up much. Clearly to have the best chance of success you want to have the best teammates possible. There are a bunch of factors that go into this process, and much of it is navigating complicated social dynamics that even I am no expert in. If success at a team event is important to you, find the best players you can that are also looking for success at the team event. My friend Jack Dobbin put on a clinic in this regard at GP Denver. He picked up members of the last two domestic Team Limited Grand Prix winning teams (Jack is no slouch either), and they cruised to an easy victory only losing one match on the weekend.
One thing I keep in mind for team events is managing the personalities of the teammates. I'm very easy going and can get along with almost anyone, but many of the people I want to team with aren't quite the same. If someone on your team doesn't want to team with the third person, you have to pick between the two. It is not worth it to have that potential conflict there for 14+ rounds. Maybe this means teaming with neither person, no matter how good you think they are or how much chance for success they will add to your team.
For this event I was lucky I could have both Will Lowry and Collin Rountree on my team. I get along great with both of them, and while many others might not get along with them all the time, they respect and like each other enough that I knew it would work out. We teamed before at a Team Constructed SCG Open, but Team Limited is a different animal where we actually need to be on the same page strategically.
Guilds of Ravnica Team Sealed
We did two practice Team Sealed during prerelease weekend, and I built many simulated pools on the various websites that try to do this. We wanted to have one person being the "architect" of the pool, with the other two people giving feedback on the decks. For our team, Will would be the architect, Collin would give feedback for the Dimir deck, and I would give feedback for the Boros deck. My other duty is to make sure the right player is playing the right deck. Most of the time this means I play Boros, but I considered all the options before we submitted the lists.Because of the guilds, team sealed for GRN is easier than most sets. In just about every pool there will be a Dimir deck and a Boros deck. I saw one pool that didn't end up with Boros, and every pool had Dimir or UBx. The not-so-secret consensus is that Golgari is by far the worst of the guilds. We didn't think Selesnya was much better. Many teams tried to avoid the green cards by playing Dimir (sometimes splashing the good GB cards), Boros (could include Naya), and Izzet, but sometimes the colors just weren't deep enough or the green cards were too strong.
Our strategy was to find a way to win with the green decks. There are not many easy ways to do this. The simplest strategy is to get paired vs the opposing Boros deck and hope it's weak enough to take down with larger creatures. Another strategy is to open some incredible rares. A third strategy might be to do something weird like splashing red in Golgari to play Cosmotronic Wave. All of these were on the table and it was up to Will to figure out what gave the green deck the best chance to win if we had to play green cards.
Our Event
Our first pool made winning with green very clear: we had two Find // Finality. The Boros deck was a bit weak without any rares, but had two Truefire Captain. The Dimir deck splashed red for the Izzet cards we weren't playing and included 10 gates and Guild Summit. I took the Boros, Collin played Grixis, and Will played Golgari.
We went 7-1 on day 1. We were very fortunate our losses were spread out correctly. Collin started 4-0 but finished 0-4. I started 1-3 but finished 4-0. Will went 6-2. My personal highlight was hitting my 1 out Cosmotronic Wave in game 3 of round 8 to not be dead to an army of X/1s, and then having my opponent brick on the next 5 drawsteps while I killed him with a lone Skyknight Legionairre.
Our second pool had a much better Boros deck. It ended up with Light of the Legion, Venerated Loxodon, Tajic, and Runaway Steamkin for rares. We had a good Dimir deck, but all the good cards were single color Blue or Black. We tried splitting White for Selesnya but couldn't find a build we liked. We then split the Blue and Black. The Golgari deck had 3x Dead Weight and multiple early game threats to actually put pressure on the opponent. The Izzet deck was the weakest but splashed Black for Etrata and Artful Takedown, and green for Vivid Revial (and Chamber Sentry) to have a strong lategame. Double Chemister's Insight provided additional card advantage. I assigned Will to the Blue deck and Collin to the Golgari deck, and once again I was on the Boros cards.
My deck was incredible and I went 5-1, only losing to an Izzet deck that Quasiduplicated a Murmuring Mystic. Collin was 4-2 and Will went 3-3. Our losses didn't quite line up as well as before, and we finished the day 4-2 when both Collin and Will lost after I easily dispatched my opponet while playing for top 4.
Last Place
It's very rare to play an entire tournament while still in contention to win the event. This was a nice experience where up until the final game we still had a chance to win the GP. When you get knocked out of contention early but still have other prizes to play for that may or may not be important to you personally, it can be hard to have your head in the game to play those final rounds. We didn't have to experience that at all, but it did make the sting of losing feel a bit harsher. I remember reading a quote from someone at a World Championship many many years ago that described getting 10th place as "a blur of wins but somehow a disappointment". I understand that feeling now.
It's also hard to reflect on this event at a personal level. In the three matches we lost, I won my personal match twice. The other time we all lost in very quick fashion. When I think back, it's hard to find something I could have done to give us a better chance. Losing round 14 was basically losing in the finals of a PTQ, or losing in top 4 of RPTQ. Basically last place if the goal is to make it to the Pro Tour. But we did end up with $700 each (it's also very rare to play a Magic event and turn a profit, especially one you fly to). And I got the points I needed to be Bronze (which isn't really anything for me anymore anyway, but I guess I did it.)
It had been almost 4 years since I had last played Team Limited, and I really don't know why I haven't played more. I really enjoyed it, especially with the two people I teamed with. I'll be looking to play again in the future, hopefully sooner than 4 years from now.
Thanks,
Ty
