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...

[Dan Barrett]

The Naya deck?

Yes - i will need to get it and my jaces back from Tom first, then you'll have to arrange when you can a) pick it up from me and b) return it - Facebook message me.

[James Mills]

Cool, cool will do.

Dan Barrett said:

The Naya deck?

Yes - i will need to get it and my jaces back from Tom first, then you'll have to arrange when you can a) pick it up from me and b) return it - Facebook message me.

[Charlie Grover]

I cut the baneslayer from the MD and a bird for a cobra (im not sure whether bird or cobra woulda been better, there was a game I might have been able to win if he was playing a slightly different list and I had a bird over a cobra (i lost, but if he had drawn his second eldrazi consription rather than it being in his deck a bird woulda saved me where a cobra was poor), but all the cobras were super solid all day.

[Dan Barrett]

I heard the bird for cobra on an article and was considering it, but didn't make the change on the day.

Almost won a game against Amar when he was on 1 and had walls in play by Rangering up BoP + Hierarch.

That Ginger One said:

I cut the baneslayer from the MD and a bird for a cobra (im not sure whether bird or cobra woulda been better, there was a game I might have been able to win if he was playing a slightly different list and I had a bird over a cobra (i lost, but if he had drawn his second eldrazi consription rather than it being in his deck a bird woulda saved me where a cobra was poor), but all the cobras were super solid all day.

[Raymond Wat]

Awesome! Welldone Charlie and Jason S. This Naya deck, did any of you played against any Jund on Sunday? What's the march up like?

Louis Mackie said:

Jason and Charlie qualified at 4-0-2 with Naya. Looks like an insane deck.

[Amar Dattani]

By almost you mean if I hadn't had 2 celestial colonnades with mana to activate them and a path to exile in hand...

;)
All our games were really close though. If you had named Gideon instead of Jace you might have won.

Dan Barrett said:

I heard the bird for cobra on an article and was considering it, but didn't make the change on the day.

Almost won a game against Amar when he was on 1 and had walls in play by Rangering up BoP + Hierarch.

That Ginger One said:

I cut the baneslayer from the MD and a bird for a cobra (im not sure whether bird or cobra woulda been better, there was a game I might have been able to win if he was playing a slightly different list and I had a bird over a cobra (i lost, but if he had drawn his second eldrazi consription rather than it being in his deck a bird woulda saved me where a cobra was poor), but all the cobras were super solid all day.

[Jason Savage]

I played one BOP over a Noble. The deck does not have flyers, so sledging a BOP to fly in or blocking a Baneslayer was good.

Charlie and myself both felt the deck was great, but not finished, it was missing something, not sure what.

[Dan Barrett]

I felt you often wanted the 3rd cobra, and the sb needs some retooling IMO - a second collar seems a necessity against matchups where sparkmage-collar is your main win-con (eg: Bant) in case they destroy your first one. Nacatl felt weak most of the time and was often boarded out. Also while i used all of my sideboard, it didn't always feel that great.

[Charlie Grover]

Nacatl is great, but not in the way you would expect; its just there to create more pressure rather than be the role player it normally is. I only found them bad against bant, but given that i played that 3 times perhaps its bad lol... was good vs. red and seems find against jund though.

[Jason Savage]

The Nacatl are not that bad against Bant, I sledged one up and 5/5 is bigger than most of their deck.

I said to Mike last night that there should be another collar in the SB.

I played 3 cobra and that felt right.

[James Mills]

Regarding the Vengvine Naya deck - What do you guys think of Linvala, Keeper Of Silence in the sideboard?

She seems good against the mirror and quite good against Jund.

[Jason Savage]

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.