With roughly a month before State/Provincial/Territorial events, it’s necessary to set your game plan leading up to them. That game plan – known colloquially as “play-testing” – can be defined simply as the process by which you improve your deck and/or your in-game skills.
Simple, right? Well, there’s a lot more to it than that: there’s a “how,” a “what,” a “who,” a “where,” and a “when” too. In short, there are principles – “pillars” – to play-testing, and once you get those pillars firmly established, your pre-tournament preparation will be miles ahead of the competition. And with that in mind, I’ll address these five critical points about play-testing:
- Methodology Suggestions
- Deck List Evolution (inc. Luxchomp deconstruction)
- Opponents
- Places to Play
- Time Remaining Before an Event
“How”: Methodology Suggestions
There are several ways to play your games in such a way that you test as efficiently and effectively as possible. Some decisions may need to be made dependent on how much time you have, or what your purpose is, but all of the below should give you a new perspective on a very old process.
The “Ten-Game-a-Day” Regimen
The main point behind this testing style is to get a large number of games in, thereby having as many opportunities to find new things as possible. Our theory at work here is a subversion of the notion that quantity isn’t quality: the belief that if you don’t know what you want to play, then you will inevitably approach something satisfactory through constant experimentation.
Once you’ve settled on a deck, it then carries with it the convenient secondary effect of improving your skills with a deck tremendously.
Although this is a fairly crude way to do things, I’ve found a certain level of correlation between this method and personal success. In each July preceding the 2008 and 2009 World Championships, I followed this exact routine, and as a result, pulled 7-1 records in each; and in the March before Regionals 2010, I followed a miniature “five-game-a-day” regime, and won my event. These results, while not deterministic, give credit to the possibility that repetition does improve both categories.
All in all, I would recommend that you set some sort of game quota if you’re serious about doing well at a major event. Whether you’re God’s gift to Pokémon and are just in search of the best new combo, or a struggling player trying to find his/her bearings through repetition, familiarity with the deeper aspects of the game may certainly increase your chances of success.
