I am now also writing a series on TCGPlayer.com. For those of you who enjoyed my Standard metagame analyses, those will be living on that site now, and done regularly through the various Standard seasons on Magic Online. I've agreed to do this series for them because they are already collecting the data and are providing it to me, so I don't have to collect it myself.

As for SCG Atlanta, I managed to go 0-2 drop in Standard, 2-2 (with a bye) in Legacy, and what might just be the least-deserved 2-1 in the history of Draft. With that in mind, I'm not unhappy with my play in Standard or Legacy - I made only one minor error in Standard, and just lost to bad matchups in Legacy.

In Standard, I played U/W Caw-Blade, got paired against RUG twice, and got owned by a seemingly endless stream of Precursor Golems and Inferno Titans.

In Legacy, my first round saw me facing Devin Koepke once again, who was running MUD much like he was in Memphis. Fortunately, I was running Zoo so his turn one Chalice of the Void (for 0 this time) wasn't nearly as scary as it was when I was running Tendrils. However, his turn 2 Trinisphere and turn 4 Wurmcoil Engine were enough to shut me out of game 1.

Game 2 I brought in Null Rods among other things, and got a terrible 1-lander which I mulliganed into a hand of a dual land, a pair of Null Rods, a couple of creatures, and a burn spell. I thought for some time, then devised the following game plan: keep the hand, hope to draw a fetchland or a basic off the top, then play the dual on turn 3. So I kept the hand and passed the turn. My topdeck? Another dual land, which promptly got hit by a Wasteland as expected. I didn't get a second land right away, so he got a Trinisphere down. I drew the second land after that, but couldn't Rod him out of the game. He laid Wurmcoil, I got the third land, and promptly Rodded him. He sent me to 13, I landed a creature. He sent me to 7, I landed another creature and double-blocked, losing both my creatures. Having made it to 6 mana, I traded a Wild Nacatl with one token and used a removal spell for the other. He never got another creature down, and I got plenty.

Game 3 he went Ancient Tomb, Grim Monolith, Trinisphere followed by Metalworker. I didn't do anything of relevance.

Round 2 I got the odd player bye. Shame I wasted it.

Round 3 I got paired against Painter-Stone Affinity, which seems worse than regular Affinity. I won game 1 because Grindstone can't wear a Cranial Plating, lost game 2 because he topdecked Painter's Servant after I killed all his creatures and was set up to go kill him, and won game 3 because I landed turn 2 Null Rod. He made an effort for a bit with Memnites, Frogmites, and Myr Enforcer, but it wasn't going to work out and he conceded.

Round 4 I was paired against Stoneforge Mystic/Vengevine Green-White, which is a terrible matchup for me. Game 1 he just got more big creatures than I did. Game 2 I got more Qasali Pridemages than he did equipment. Game 3 he got multple Stoneforges, Vengevine and a re-buy, and Thrun, the Last Troll. While I got him down to 5, he kept gaining life off Umezawa's Jitte to keep himself out of the danger zone.

The deck is solid, but I would really like to find a way to fit 2 Stoneforge Mystic and 1 Umezawa's Jitte in there. My current idea is -1 Sylvan Library, -1 Knight of the Reliquary, and -1 Price of Progress to put them in the maindeck, then cut the Lightning Helixes and Umezawa's Jitte from the board for +1 Price of Progress, +1 Null Rod, and +1 Pyroblast or Path to Exile. I haven't fully worked out all the implications of this, though.

In the Draft Open, I got a reasonable but somewhat slow RW deck with no real aerial presence, and got owned by a fast WR skies deck. My Oxidda Scrapmelter, 2 A-Shattered Seraph, 2 Revoke Existence deck was able to keep him from beating me with 2 Myr Galvanizers and Myr Turbine, but they were useless against a team of Leonin Skyhunter, Kemba's Skyguard, and Glint Hawk. I punted the next game while in a losing board position, so that knocked me out of top 8 contention unless something really strange happened.

The Draft Open was Swiss, but my round 2 opponent didn't get the memo so I got a freebie.

Round 3 my opponent had lost in round 2 and didn't realize he was still in the event but checked when he saw someone in his pod sitting across from an empty chair. He got a game 1 loss for tardiness, and in game 2 I topdecked Sword of Body and Mind to put on my 2-power creature against his Cystbearer when he had finally stabilized at 4 life.

Moving on from recounting my inability to win in Atlanta to the real meat of the article.

When attending all these tournaments, you have to ask yourself:

What is your goal in playing this game? Are you trying to turn a profit off cardboard? Make a living? Or are you simply grinding tournaments and trades aimlessly because you've got nothing better to do?

I've got a solution. Achievements.

Tournament Play

- Play in a tournament
- Top 8 a tournament
- Win a tournament
- Win money at a cash tournament
- Win at a tournament which gives out a trophy

Rating

- Hit 1700
- Hit 1800
- Current Total rating above 1850 (threshold for one bye at a Grand Prix)
- Hit 1900
- Current Total rating above 1950 (threshold for two byes at a Grand Prix)
- Hit 2000
- Current Total rating above 2050 (threshold for three byes at a Grand Prix)
- Hit 2100
- Hit 2200
- Be the current highest-rated player

Third Party Series

- Qualify for a SCG Invitational
- Money a SCG Invitational
- Top 8 a SCG Invitational
- Win a SCG Invitational

- Qualify for a TCGPlayer Championship Tournament
- Money a TCGPlayer Championship Tournament
- Top 8 a TCGPlayer Championship Tournament
- Win a TCGPlayer Championship Tournament

Pro Play

- Top 8 a PTQ
- Qualify for the Pro Tour

- Day 2 a Pro Tour
- Money a Pro Tour
- Top 8 a Pro Tour
- Win a Pro Tour

- Qualify for Nationals (where applicable)
- Top 8 Nationals
- Win Nationals

- Qualify for Worlds
- Money at Worlds
- Top 8 Worlds
- Win Worlds
- Win Player of the Year

Digital Gaming

- Maintain a current Standard deck
- Maintain a current PTQ Season deck (block or extended)
- Maintain a current Legacy deck
- Maintain a current Vintage deck
- Qualify for a MOCS
- Win a MOCS
- Qualify for the Magic Online Championship
- Be the Magic Online Player of the Year

Running Things

- Become a Rules Advisor

- Become a Judge
-- Level 2
-- Level 3
-- Level 4
-- Level 5

-- Judge 100 Tournaments
-- Judge 1000 Tournaments
-- Judge 10,000 Tournaments

- Become a Tournament Organizer
-- Organize 100 Tournaments
-- Organize 1000 Tournaments
-- Organize 10,000 Tournaments

-- Hold a 50-player tournament
-- Hold a 100-player tournament
-- Hold a 250-player tournament
-- Hold a 500-player tournament
-- Hold a 1000-player tournament

- Run a store
-- Keep it running for 5 years
-- Keep it running for 10 years
- Run a digital store
-- Keep it running for 5 years
-- Keep it running for 10 years

Collection

- Maintain a current Standard deck
- Maintain a current PTQ Season deck (block or extended)
- Maintain a current Legacy deck
- Maintain a current Vintage deck

- Acquire a complete set
- Acquire a complete playset

- Acquire 4 of every card in Standard
- Acquire 4 of every card in Extended

- Fetchlands: 4x10
- Dual Lands: 4x10
- Black-bordered Dual Lands: 4x10

- Acquire a Piece of Power
-- Timetwister
-- Time Vault
-- Mox Pearl
-- Mox Sapphire
-- Mox Jet
-- Mox Ruby
-- Mox Emerald
-- Ancestral Recall
-- Time Walk
-- Black Lotus
- Complete set Power Nine: Classic Variation (Timetwister)
- Complete set Power Nine: Modern Variation (Time Vault)

- Acquire a Beta Piece of Power
- Complete set Beta Power Nine: Classic Variation
- Complete set Beta Power Nine: Modern Variation
- Acquire an Alpha Piece of Power
- Complete set Alpha Power Nine: Classic Variation
- Complete set Alpha Power Nine: Modern Variation

- Complete set of Homelands
- Complete set of Revised
- Complete set of Arabian Nights
- Complete set of Legends
- Complete set of Antiquities
- Complete set of Beta
- Complete set of Alpha

- Collect 1 of every tournament-legal card ever printed
- Collect 1 of every card ever printed

- Ultimate Tournament Playset: 1 of each Restricted card and 4 of every card legal in other formats.
-- Wacky Bonus: 4 of each Unglued and Unhinged card

- Ultimate Collector's Achievement: 4 of every card, in every version. Strictly impossible due to 1996 World Champion and Shichifukujin Dragon, as well as the likely impossibility of getting 4 copies of Proposal.
-- Theoretical Maximum Collector: 4 of every card in a regular printing, both regular and foil (where possible). 4 of every promo that was printed enough to be acquirable.

- Guru Land Addendum: 20 of each Guru Basic Land
- APAC Land Addendum: 20 of each APAC Basic Land
- Euro Land Addendum: 20 of each Euro Basic Land
- Unglued Land Addendum: 20 of each Unglued Basic Land
- Unhinged Land Addendum: 20 of each Unhinged Basic Land
-- Foil bonus

- Oversized Card Addendum: 1 of each
- Big Game Player: 4 of each oversized card and 20 of each oversized Basic Land

- One of each Vanguard card

Community

- Get published
- Write 100 articles
- Write 1000 articles
- Write 10,000 articles

- Introduce someone to the game
- Introduce a dozen people to the game
- Introduce 100 people to the game

Miscellaneous

- Get a card signed in person
- Own an original artwork
- Get a job working on Magic

Joshua Justice

@JoshJMTG on Twitter