[This entry was originally posted in Japanese on May 22, 2014. In the meantime, our shop’s owner, Tomoharu Saito, became the finalist of GP Atlanta just a few hours ago! Thus, we decided to translate his secret practice tech
Let’s try out his peculiar method and have some fun with it! –Ed.]PT Atlanta has come to a close.
Congratulations to Patrick Chapin on his ☆Victory☆!
He is not only a skilled deck builder and theoretician, but he is also a true gentleman and is amongst the world’s greatest performing players.
In this match video in particular, there’s a lot to learn from him about advantageous card sequencing.
Anyway, this weekend I make an expedition for GP Atlanta!
The week after the PT, the GP is also held in the very same place, Atlanta.
Last time, PT Valencia → GP Barcelona was about three hours by Super Express Train, but this time, Atlanta → Atlanta is, well, the same place.
By the way, next time is also in the US-Portland, Oregon → Portland. For international PT participants, this is wonderful because you can double your pleasure on one passport run. Wizards has been pretty nice lately.^^
However, even just competing in GPs, it seems they have become even tougher competitions than usual.
From the release of Nyx to the present, aside from the Standard prepwork of my “#SaitoWayfinder” event, all my Magic focus has been on Limited. The week after the set’s release was GP Warsaw (Limited), so I had to cram in as much experience as possible with the new set.
But it wasn’t enough.
This go around, it wasn’t just the sheer difficulty of the event, but there was a lot riding on it for me. It was particularly about this season’s Pro Points (I currently have 14); a Top 8 would lock up double PT invites, as it would promote me to Silver Level, granting me an automatic invite, in addition to the natural invitation from Top8ing a GP of Warsaw’s size.
[GP Warsaw had 1,005 players, so top 4 was actually necessary for double invites.–Ed.]
I drafted about twenty times, got a good grasp of the overall card pool and individual card rankings, and also formulated strategies for the set. But it wasn’t enough for a Top 8.
But there’s not enough time for all that now. And right now there’s not even enough time for full drafts.
With that in mind, I was considering how to efficiently increase my chances at victory.
Which brings us to……
In the time it takes for one draft, I decided to try opening 100 packs and making 100 first picks!
The result is an exercise in pick selection, environmental analysis, advancing self-analysis, and clarifying the direction of my potential draft.
Though this was my first attempt, I have extremely high, explosive hopes.
100 First Picks……
BOOOOM!!
Above you can see my 100 First Picks.
■Color Ranking
1st…26 picks – White
2nd…20 picks – Green
3rd…18 picks – Black
4th…15 picks – Blue
5th…13 picks – Red
6th…6 picks – Gold
7th…2 picks – Artifact
■Rarity Ranking
1st…46 picks – Mythic Rare, Rare
2nd…31 picks – Uncommon
3rd…23 picks – Common
■Card Ranking
1st(tie)…6 picks – Banishing Light
1st(tie)…6 picks – Golden Hind
3rd(tie)…5 picks – Akroan Mastiff
3rd(tie)…5 picks – Hour of Need
3rd(tie)…5 picks – Mogis’s Warhound
3rd(tie)…5 picks – Silence the Believers (A lot of noise made it through today)
So yeah, get it, got it, good. ^^
Studying this image closely, perhaps you can try to clarify my thoughts. After all was said and done, it took about an hour to crack all those packs. If I were to use the three hours of a regular draft with this process, I could practice opening 300 packs.
This is indeed an explosive exercise method, one quite happily devised!
I SHALL CALL THIS PRACTICE METHOD, “TOMOHUNDRED FIRST-PICKED ONE!!” (Laughs)
Ripping a hundred packs in one run is a little extreme, but when you’re cracking your next pack, try to think about your first pick with just as much effort as it takes to make a hundred first picks.♪
Armed with the experience and strategy gleaned from this experiment, I head off for some field research for my impending ☆Victory☆! Report at GP Atlanta!←
See ya☆
Tomoharu
