Hello Mage Warriors, convention season is upon us so I thought I'd do a quick post to help you prepare for the various battles you may find yourself in.
1. Read the rule books. Simple sounding but you don't want to lose an important match over something stupud like not knowing how walls work or something. Yeah there's judged to help clarify but the better understanding you have the better. Don't want to pull out two cards thinking you understand how a situation works only to find out you wasted your planning phase right?
2. Practice your mage. Odds are you've chosen which mage you're going to use ahead of time. Read that mages stay card and strategies concerning them. There likely isn't a mage in existence that doesn't have a post or 10 about how to play them. Decide on what you want your book to be able to do, then go practice doing that. Always be ready to adjust as needed.
3. Read up on and practice against as much variety as you can. For example, Mind's Eye is making Force Masters scarier, it behooves you to fight one before a big event. Same with new mages like the Siren and Paladin. This will help you adapt on the fly against new opponents.
4. Practice grinding matches. I'm not gonna lie after 4 or 5 rounds of matches you're going to be mentally exhausted. Well guess what? Those last couple of rounds are what decide if you advance to the next tier or not! It ain't the time to run out of gas so practice fighting several matches back to back. Build endurance and mental stamina so hopefully you can outlast the scrub across the arena from you.
5. Keep up to date with what's new and what's coming out. Make sure you know whats legal for your event and prepare accordingly. Lost Grimoire changed the land scape for a lot of books, make sure you're familiar with it and can use it to your advantage. Academy Force Master releases soon as well so pay attention to spoilers. Don't get caught off guard by some card you've never seen "What do you mean Beast Masters can shoot lasers from their eyes now!?!?"