Introduction
Hello Unker supporters! It’s Shang (@slyx183), and this time I wanted to bring something a bit different to the table instead of the usual deck profile/warstory. Instead, I want to share a bit more about my experience playing and qualifying for Asia Finals 3 years in a row, and what I’ve learned about consistently performing at a high level when it matters.
This year, I had genuine intentions to take a step back and be less involved in the qualification route, but it became rather clear to me after SG and ID GAO that there are certain fundamental skills and habits I had cultivated that allowed me to continue to do well, even without playing as much. Having the support of the Unkers also helped me streamline my learning and practice as well, so I could still keep up even without attending locals or evo cups with as much frequency as previous years.
Hopefully, some of these tips will help you in your tournament preparation and execution, but if not, perhaps you can also just humor me as I reflect over what I think is a pretty successful 3 years, all things considered.
Tournament Preparation
I believe that tournament preparation can be broadly split into 3 sections: Meta Analysis, Deck Selection, and Matchup Repetitions.
Meta Analysis is definitely a tricky one. With limited time, there needs to be a balance between testing out every winning decklist you can find on Twitter/YouTube, and dismissing every result that you don’t agree with as “Ah that deck can only win locals, it will never top a major”. For me, that balance lies in understanding and experiencing potentially new broken interactions, or technical board states that require precise ordering to avoid hidden timing traps. For example, Tao Loop is a deck that plays very differently from other decks because it has a very long chain of effects once the combo begins. It was one of the decks that I was considering playing at SG Championship Series Cycle 2, so I put in considerable time to learn the deck. Without playing the deck against other decks with responsive effects like Mirage or Levia, I would not have been able to learn via experience that i can control when Mirage gains memory depending on when i trigger my EX2 Viximon’s draw 1 ESS, or control when Biting Crush triggers by queuing new effects in front of BT19 Sakuyamon’s mandatory Token generation effect. It’s only natural that the more interactions you learn and commit to memory before tournaments, the less effort you need to recall the correct way to play out these scenarios. For me, the best way to learn these quickly is to do the wrong thing in practice and feel the pain of the misplay, then never do it again xD.
Practicing a few games each for meta relevant decks helps you understand their win conditions, mulligan strategies, and what their bricked hands look like! A lot of times, we may focus too much on what decks look like when they are operating under perfect conditions. But in a tournament match, it is equally important to be able to quickly identify what your opponent is waiting on or missing, and what is the appropriate play to punish and fully exploit their less than ideal hand, without overcommitting. I believe that every safe play you make while your opponent is bricking gives your opponent one more turn/draw to unbrick themselves, so learning how to shut the door to a comeback for your opponent will greatly increase your win rate.
When it comes to deck selection, perhaps it is appropriate to look back at decks I have played at high stakes events over the last 3 years at this time of writing:
2022-23 Prelim 1 (BT11 Format) - Blackwargreymon X, 5-0 Winner Advance to Prelim 2
2022-23 Prelim 2 (BT12 Format) - Grandiskuwagamon, 6-1 2nd/80+ players Advance to Asia Finals
2022-23 Asia Finals (BT12 Format) - Grandiskuwagamon, 3-2 7th/24 players, Season ends
2023-24 Championships Preliminaries (BT15 Format) - Apocalymon, 6-1 2nd/80+ players Advance to SG Finals
2023-24 SG Finals (BT16 Format) - Masaru Hybrid, 3-0 Advance to Asia Finals
2023-24 Asia Finals (BT16 Format) - NumeUkko, 3-1 6th/16 players, Season Ends
2024-25 SG Grand Asia Open (BT17 Format) - NumeUkko, 8-2 2nd/128 players
2024-25 ID Grand Asia Open (BT18 Format) - NumeUkko, 11-0 1st/130 players
2024-25 SG DC-1 Grand Prix (BT18 Format) - MirageGaoga, 6-2 Top4/62 players
2024-25 SG Championship Series Cycle 2 (BT19 Format) - MirageGaoga, 8-1 1st/62 players Advance to Asia Finals
The first thing you probably think when you see the list of decks played is “Ew! All these boring/degenerate decks!” Believe me, a lot of these decks are boring for me to play too xD. But I also have to be realistic with myself. I do not have the longest history nor experience in playing TCGs. In fact DTCG is my first truly competitive TCG i have ever invested time in. I recognize that if I play very technical decks, I may not have the mental stamina to have perfect execution throughout a long day. Given the harsh qualification requirements in SG (usually need to win or Top2 a major qualifier of 60-100+ people), it would be a shame to make it deep into a tournament only to make a mistake in the finals due to mental fatigue. Therefore, in this case, a boring but strong deck is highly beneficial to conserve mental stamina. I also think that all these decks are able to end games proactively and quickly, which is very valuable to finish rounds before time call and hydrate, eat, and go to the toilet. Local shops are very welcome for the amount of water I have bought between rounds when majors are hosted there >.>
To summarize, it’s important to be honest with yourself and what your strengths and weaknesses are as a player, and be open to play the strongest deck that fits that playstyle. If there ever comes a day where I can play decks like Takemikazuchi perfectly for a 10 hour day, maybe we’ll see less boring decks in my lineups LOL
Last but not least, once you are familiar with the common decks of the meta and decide on what deck you will be playing, it’s time to get in the reps to execute your deck as cleanly as possible, in addition to making necessary adjustments to the decklist. Although this sounds a bit of a no brainer, I think there are some tips I have to share to improve your practice efficiency.
Practice unfavorable matchups more, even if you think you might not meet those matchups. Learning how to play towards the 30% of a 30-70 matchup can help you steal an all important early swiss round or even a win and in. It’s important to understand why the matchup is bad, and what outs you need to get over the line so you can start planning for it the moment your opponent’s digitama is flipped
Practice playing bad hands. Bricking is inevitable, even with a mulligan, so it’s good to spend some time playing bad hands instead of mulliganing them away during practice
Make risky plays! The whole point of practice is to learn, winning doesn’t matter. Take the risk and explore new lines of play that you identify instead of playing the safe line again for the 100th time. If it works out, you’ve learned a situation to use in tournament that your opponent may not be familiar with! If it blows up in your face, you know not to do it again! Of course, these kind of risky plays need to be made with purpose, and the result may not be definitive as well. For example, if an expensive hard cast doesn’t work out in practice because your opponent had a very specific counter requiring a combination of exactly 3-4 cards, maybe it’s still okay to send it during a tournament game if your back is against the wall. The whole purpose is to be able to increase your situational recall and reduce the number of unfamiliar lines you are forced to play out in tournament games.
Finally, quality over quantity. Playing many games or for many hours doesn’t really help if you learn nothing from the session. Of course not every time you touch the game has to be serious practice if that’s not what you enjoy. But there can be a lot done and learned from just a few games of grinding out one particular matchup if both parties are down for it compared to mindlessly playing out many games over the same period of time.
Tournament Time!
As a former student athlete, I still apply a lot of what I learned in terms of taking care of my body before important tournaments. Most of the time, the extra time you spend grinding out games the night before the tournament is better spent just having a good dinner and getting a good night’s sleep.
Although less applicable to playing cards v.s. sports, staying healthy also definitely still helps your mind function clearly on the day. Unkers are also older now, and are less able to function on poor rest/health, so this is even more important now than in the past xD This also extends to throughout the tournament day as well. Playing while hungry, dehydrated, needing to go to the toilet, etc are just stacking unnecessary cards against you for no reason. UNKER SAY TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES.
Other than that, trust in your preparations, and take time to carefully think through your plays before making them. Double check whether you actually have the card you thought you had in your hand/trash, do you need to trigger scramble before draw phase, etc. It’s generally the small things that differentiate the very consistent players from good players that may just miss the mark due to minor “luck” issues that could be avoided with slightly cleaner play that may be missed in the moment.
Enjoy the moment! It’s probably funny to hear this coming from me since a lot of my opponents tend to tell me that my stressed face tends to stress them out also, but in a weird twisted way I enjoy the stress that comes with the pressure I put on myself to always put on a clean and good showing, and push my opponent to the brink, regardless of the result.
If you’ve read up to here, thank you for humoring me, and I genuinely hope you’ve taken a thing or two away to help you better prepare for your next event. I understand that my way of playing the game might be too sweaty or serious, and not for everyone. Please play the game in the way that makes you happiest. But for me, I derive joy from pushing the competitive limits within the confines of game, and for those who wish to travel this same journey as me, I look forward to playing against you at the highest stage one day, if I can get there myself :) Until next time!
