well, i have never won a pcq but i am supposed to have 8-10 points (darn it, innovation gaming!!).

my meta choices are frequently way ahead of the actual meta.
so i tend to out think myself. i was doing nasty/overload/ beatdown back when the only set was marvel origins. it was won of my xmen auto stun strategies. but since where were so few decks interested in attacking other than brotherhood, (since everyone and there brother and sister were playing doom stall whenever they could, it became a bit of a week strategy. then b.hood decks started to run not so fast to counter overloads, and it just kind of died.

i have been running betrayal since mor as well, and when d.c. came around, i have been running gk as my deck of choice, and the betrayals have been a staple. i beat all 5 commone enemy decks i played at one pcq because of betrayals. common enemy just couldn't handle a deck like a gk response.

curve sentinels was an odd matchup as it really was always a toss of the dice. there were cs decks thati whipped, and then times that i couldn't seem to get a good shuffle to save my life.

titans was always interesting, as annoying donkey roy could screw it up if he got going before you could get out a utility belt. but if i could get the belt first, it was always a different game.

brave and the bold is a bad match up due to garth usually, so the need for removal is great. deaths and have a blasts were next to useless due next to the opponent having dw and fizzles also. and with them having garth, fizzle fights are pointless.

team superman builds were simply dead in the water against gk. they didn't have the bringing power to stop denial.

evil medical school was another easy win usually, since they lost to removal really badly.

Here is another tip for the loners:
Don't play any team-up deck that doesn't include GK or LoA. Or else Teen Titans with Foiled will kill you past July 1st, and those teenies will be everywhere I tell you. Or replace all your ongoing plot twist team-ups with Metropolis.

While 'lone wolfing it' is something that is on occasion unavoidable, I would strongly urge people to test with anyone, regardless of their skill level when the opportunity is available. There are a few reasons for this;

1) Playing against real people is more fun
2) Every now and again someone will come up with something you haven't thought of, which will improve your game. It is hard to develop without these sorts of external stimuli.
3) There are various elements of the game which you simply cannot practice solitaire that will improve your win record. Being able to get a read on people's play styles and likely plot twists is an edge that will slowly but surely add up. Additionally, appropriate play speed is really hard to guage in solitaire games.
4) If you have a whole bunch of friends that play VS too, then you have a reasonable chance of being able to borrow the odd card here and there, making it all the easier to build exactly the deck you want to play.

Obviously in a perfect world you would play against somebody better than you regularly until your relative skill levels were pretty even. Realistically, this is often not possible. While at university I was in a bit of a VS dead zone, and as such was happy to test with whomsoever was up for a game. This testing is still valuable. Feel free to augment it with some solitaire action, but trust me, you can have a lot more fun with a partner than you can on your own ;)

TW

Personally Id rather play with myself:) But yes it is more ‘fun’, but I do not have time through out the week to playtest with anyone I come across so I have to be efficient with my time. ‘Fun’ is for hobby league on SaturdayJ

I thought I would resurrect this thread. Gary Wise mentioned it in his win amp interview (check it out. It’s a gem of wisdom)
To update: I still need some consistent players to play with who want to make the leap to the next level or have made it.

Since I made this post I got killed at 10k Sandiego playing new school. I thought that it was the best deck and it probably was to some degree, but even though I tested under time with myself I did not test IRL against anyone else within time limits. Stupid yes. Most of my matches went to time on turn 7 when the deck was ready to win on 8 or 9. The good players that had teams obviously understood that people would not be in any hurry or else you would run into janky decks piloted by players who had never seen new school/ EMS before.

I did run into a good player from Mexico who was in a similar situation as myself also playing NS. We exchanged ideas before the tournament but our records were the same at the end of the day. We were both very frustrated and it was not fun to struggle and make mistakes each match against an unknown deck, or play a flawless game only to lose to time. The more frustrated I became the worse I played. The worse I played the more bizarre the decks I encountered were. However I did have fun and learned more from losing horribly than I might have thought.

Recently I won a PCQ, running my personal deck of choice. That will pay my airfare to Indy at least. Im feeling pretty ready with some more testing.

My conclusion is that you need to find a deck and know it inside and out and just play and play some more against solid competition.

I have seen teams become somewhat in-breed with their deck ideas and testing, everyone on the team playing the exact same deck the exact same way. This is obviously a very powerful way to prepare but the drawbacks to this approach are also obvious.
So how do you continue to get better and develop relationships with top players that will allow you to be successful? I do no agree with the philosophy of playing anyone any chance you get. The rare insight I get by playing random people with random decks is not enough to justify my lost time. Since I have a life and can only play test 2-3 hours a day at the very most, I have to make the absolute most of my time I have. Quality play testing is far more valuable to me than quantity.

Well, I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm more or less in the same boat. I'm interested in playing more competitively, and I follow the game pretty obsessively, but my chances to actually get out to 10Ks and the like have been pretty non-existent. I've played in a few PCQs, Top 8'd in one of them, but don't really have anyone to test with or a team to speak of.

My main problem is lack of transportation, and an hour drive to the nearest place that holds PCQs. The friends of mine who play are, for the most part, not really interested in playing on a more competitive level. So I'm stuck solitaire testing, like you said, or playing the odd game on OCTGN. I'd be interested in joining some sort of online team.

I'll make any of you guys that want an offer, my schudeule is fairly open cept in the evenings from about 8CST to 12 CST. I will be judging at Indy so i don't really need to test myself, but i love the game and like helping people, hence the judging, I'd be willing to help you test online playing whatever deck you want to play against. I'm a fairly decent player, almost always top 8 though i've been out of the loop for a few months, placed 3/4 at a sealed pcq recently though i hadn't looked at any GL b4 that day. You can leave a message here, pm me, or email me at [email protected] if you are interested in using me as a test dummy =).

Team Lone Wolf -

Yeah I've been in that boat since I decided I like to play competetively in Jan - I test fairly rigourously - Both with my brother and solitaire, and now we hace a really good former magic player who tests with us, but it would help to have discourse with others - I end up being the deckbuilder for my group (although the new guy is awesome once he gets a game down) and realy shine in limited. I'm 2-0 for the only 2 PCQ's I've entered and plan on using 10 of my 20 points in Southern Cal -

What I have to offer - I draft 3 boxes a set to get a really good feel for the limited play - I usually put together a pick list for each set - I keep a set of the top archetypes for each format to test against and am very good at guessing meta's and tweaks.

I have good kung fu. I would like to share it.

Let me know how.

It's a problem, with the majority of 'borderline' players it seems; the inability to test successfully. I think a solid online group may be the best route.
If anyone is going to Indy and feels like they have
a deck or two they are ready to test competitvely with let me know and we can set something up.

I have a similar problem as Final Darkness. Granted the place I play still has a few people, most of them play really jank decks (cept this one guy where he has a ####ing crazy good Witching Hour deck) so I really dont get the playtesting that is required (unless I solitare on OCTGN).

thats hateful, lol......wow....u rock

That is pretty brutal ...lol
My friends and their 'janky decks' have helped me in ways other than preparing me for tier 1 match ups. I still try to have as much fun as possible, and having an unexpected deck whoop on you is fun and humbling. Having fun and having humility is more important to me than anything else.
Yes if people are throwing together random things and not meeting your level of dedication it is frustrating. But I still like to play with my friends as much as I can. Granted sometimes its like goldfishing, but its a great opportunity to play something really fun.

Although my only actual acomplishment is a few Limited PCQ top 8 and 54th at 10K NJ I'm a lone wolf player.

I also copy all the 10K and PC top 8 decks and play Solitaire games against them.

I just wish I could join/form a team here. It's so damned hard finding one that fits and it's so frustrating playing solitaire. :cry:

Well anyone who is testing for Indy email me and we will try to get some testing in. I think I have managed this format pretty well on my own. But we will see. It takes allot of time to do but can be done.