Nats and Nats Qualifiers - explanation, dates... and organisation? (!)

[Dan Barrett]

I sort-of explained (not very well i might add!) what the deal is with Nationals and Nationals qualifiers to a couple of people (Louis, Alex), and said i would do a better job of it here on DT. Well, here's to trying...


What is "Nats"?

Nats = Great British National Championship, an annual event in which 200-odd of the country's best players are invited to battle it out over 12-14 rounds of standard constructed and draft Magic, in order to determine a champion for that year, and the 4-player team which will go on to represent our fine country at Worlds. It also is a breeding ground for many shenanigans and fun times, such as sleeping on a beach and losing all your belongings in the sea...

This year Nationals will be held here in London, at the Royal National Hotel, August 19 to 22. I believe the format this year will be 4 rounds standard, 3 rounds draft on day 1, same again day 2, then cut to a top 8 single-elim on day 3.

An important thing to note is that Nats is not just for players who have qualified! There are a billion (possible overestimate...) side-events, which i am sure Jason will announce shortly, which likely include GPTs, PTQs, old set draft/sealed, discount drafts, etc...

So how to i get to play at Nats?

To earn an invite/qualify for Nats, you need to either be in one of the country's top 75 based on your rating (very unlikely to most reading this, you need to be around 1900 to autoqualify), or, win a place via one of many National Qualifiers...

And what exactly are those?

Each Nats Qualifier is a standard constructed tournament, at which there is 1 place at Nationals for every 8 players who participate.So if 72 players turn up, the top 9 qualify, etc. These are held all over the country on weekends between March and April. Plus, there are likely to be last chance qualifiers (LCQs) on the night before Nationals, which may include limited formats as well as standard.

So when are these?

The following list is taken from the Wizards UK group, and may be likely to change - contact individual TO's for details. In bold are the ones within an hour and a half travel time, and thus most likely to be attended by London players.

13/03/2010     Southampton
14/03/2010     Newcastle
21/03/2010     Glasgow
21/03/2010     Reading
28/03/2010     Plymouth
03/04/2010     Manchester
04/04/2010     Bury St Edmunds
04/04/2010     Dundee
10/04/2010     Nottingham
11/04/2010     Oxford
02/05/2010     Gravesend
08/05/2010     London
09/05/2010     Downend
15/05/2010     Birmingham
16/05/2010     Portsmouth
16/05/2010     Altrincham
15/05/2010     Cambridge
23/05/2010     Milton Keynes
23/05/2010     Cardiff
29/05/2010     Sheffield
29/05/2010     Coventry
30/05/2010     Brighton

Will post some more on testing, and organisation, in a bit...

[James Mills]

I've read a lot about it and kinda know some of the tricks. I think I should be able to organise with Dan to pick it on Friday at FNM and play some games with it.

Need to know about changes that you guys would make. I'm seem to have a knack for picking up decks that Dan gives me and doing well with them hehehe!

Also I reckon there is going to be a ton of U/W control at the PTQ.

Jason Savage said:

James,

I thought about put 2 in the SB, but I have not tested it. In theory it sounds good.

Overall I really liked the deck and would recommend it. If you want to do well I would suggest not just picking it up and playing, for a creature deck there are quite a few in game decisions.

[Dan Barrett]

Linvala was mentioned a fair bit over the GP DC coverage, so seems legit.

Jason's right about a lot more decisions than you'd expect, but i think you should be able to handle it (if i can!) - most of them were things like: running out vengevines before bloodbraids in most matchups, remembering to keep enough cards as a buffer in your hand against blightnings, shifting equipment around, fetching the right things with Ranger, etc...

[James Mills]

Awesome - well would be good to get some practise games in. You at the FNM on Friday?

Dan Barrett said:

Linvala was mentioned a fair bit over the GP DC coverage, so seems legit.

Jason's right about a lot more decisions than you'd expect, but i think you should be able to handle it (if i can!) - most of them were things like: running out vengevines before bloodbraids in most matchups, remembering to keep enough cards as a buffer in your hand against blightnings, shifting equipment around, fetching the right things with Ranger, etc...

[Charlie Grover]

I'd rather have Master of the WIld hunt outta the board in the mirror than linvala. Although baneslayer is better than either of those probably.

[James Mills]

There is an updated list that Gerry T and LSV ran at the GP - Probably going to play that.

That Ginger One said:

I'd rather have Master of the WIld hunt outta the board in the mirror than linvala. Although baneslayer is better than either of those probably.

[Philip Rogers]

Provisional qualified list:

http://community.wizards.com/mtguk/blog