However, that doesn't mean that you can't do well at a big tournament like this one. If you can't play test for more than thirty minutes at a time, you might be better served spending your efforts on research and brainstorming than on actual games. As long as you have played enough to know what your strengths and weaknesses are (both in terms of your own play skill and in terms of your deck choice), you can greatly improve your performance in a long tournament.

Picking a Deck I think that this topic is something that each player needs to approach in their own way. When I first started winning at UFS, my deck selection couldn't have been easier: I learned to play with chain throws, strike heads and military rank.  So I played a deck that I could lean on to make up for my lack of skill and play experience; Rare Yun-Seong.  I think that this initial success was actually bad for my progress as a great UFS player; it taught me skill pretty doesn’t win; the brokenness of characters and their supporting cards wins. 

Now I’m in the quarter-finals of my local AOP pretty much getting into top 8 on the back of my ridiculous character ability, as at this point I have been able to successfully dodge most absurd strengths and mortal strikes aim at me and my momentum loving buddy.  I ask my mentor, Chris AKA Da Prof, about my next opponent, Simon Tang: Team Leader of Team Pacific.  I am informed that he is a really good and to watch out for his order control antics.  I sit down starting with a game loss due to deck mis-registration, again showing my lack of experience at UFS.  I look at his character, almost chuckle when I read his character ability.  He is playing 7 Hand size M. Bison.  I could not possible how his character ability could even matter in this game. We start the game, and Simon is pulling 4-5 different mini-combos locking me down including the infamous M.Bison + You will Not Escape combo. 

VS 

I win game one, because he Heisheng-Jiang enhance and pulled up a bunch of bad checks on top of his deck and could not win during his attack turn.  I end up losing game 2 due to his “bad” character ability when I reveal a Bird of Prey as my 1^st attack.  The same useless ability I read at the beginning of our match.
Not understanding how and why I lost, when my cards hit harder (bird or prey) and my character was a lot faster then his character.  Of course being a magic player, I proxied up his deck from memory and tested it out.  Immediate failure ensued to the point where I gave up on playing the deck because it was not my style and my lack of patience.  I learned my 1^st important lesson of UFS:  Don’t play other people’s decks, play your deck, only the owner of the deck knows how the deck truly ticks, and you’ll have more fun playing your own creation.

These days, I still think that practicing with your deck of choice is important, but I no longer think that it's enough to get you to the level of finish that you desire. When I look for a deck to play now, I actually give myself the opportunity to see each deck that I might choose before actually making my choice. For this, then, the most important resource is a source of deck lists and your playgroup should make “The gauntlet”.  My personal Gauntlet choice would be something like All Talbain, Evil Ibuki, Water Ukyo, Order Athena, a Death character of choice, and Mill Voldomar.

This is where the most important part of having friends or teammates comes up. When you are looking at a problem that really just takes analysis, having multiple heads working on it in parallel will give you a better answer. If I'm trying to just think about what field I'm going to be looking at and what strengths I'll need to win, I'd rather also have my associates thinking about the same problem. If we both arrive at the same answer, I'm much more confident that we're correct.  In the same manner of splitting the analysis up among different people, I also think that it's a good idea to allow yourself a large amount of time to think about these problems in the back of your mind. You don't need to sit down at the computer for five hours and figure out what deck you're playing; you can easily contemplate the strengths of Ukyo, All/Fire Alex, Air Felicia etc. while you're waiting for the bus or falling asleep at night. By allowing your subconscious more time to work on the problem, you'll more thoroughly analyze the situation.

Improving the Deck

I'm talking about this section as deck improvement as opposed to playtesting because I don't usually spend that much time actually playtesting, in the common sense of the word. For me, the first step along this path is just learning my deck. After I've become familiar with the deck as a whole (and this includes the sideboard), I'll start modifying it and trying out these changes. A lot of people use traditional playtesting to serve both of these ends. I prefer to use smaller tournaments, such as the weekend tournaments at where I scout.  It is a true testing ground  where people won’t hold back and might not know your deck list.  Beyond these decisions, which are relatively concrete and easy to see, there's the simple process of brainstorming up what cards to run. For me, this comes from two sources: more deck lists and TwoHeadedDragon. I looked at every Evil, Order, Death, All and Chaos card before the tournament, thinking about whether or not I wanted any of them in my deck and how to deal with them if they come up. I even looked at the Air cards (mentally Unstable/Feline Spike). Much like my process for choosing a deck, my process for tuning a deck is largely mental, looking at what’s popular and what really isn’t, for instance with the resurgence of Talim decks, I might have to consider using mortal strike again, which I removed from all my decks before the ECC and WCC because the lack of true momentum decks in the meta.

Playing the Tournament

 I will recommend a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast, to sharpen your senses and allow your mind to worry about UFS, and not about your next meal. I find it lets you focus on your game, don’t forget to bring your bottle of water to keep yourself hydrated.  Remember to keep your wits about you, and not to be intimated by the player across from you, especially if he is wearing a huge goofy red Canada hat and is sporting Canada tatoos on his face (thats me).When I play tournament UFS, I want to win, Correction, I need to win.   After all, I wouldn't pay to play in a big tournament if I wasn't interested in taking down first place. However, unlike other players, I am willing to accept losses in certain situations. If I do the best that I can and still lose, I'd much rather keep a level head than completely tilt and spiral out of control. After all, if that loss is my first of the Swiss rounds, it isn't lethal to my tournament. My goal is to win, and so I need to be able to survive losses. You can't let losses get you down. Even if you lose because you make a horrible mistake in a game you had in the sack, you need to keep a positive perspective. After the tournament, you can cry yourself to sleep with alcohol and rock n' roll. But make sure to learn from your mistakes, and shake off bad vibes. But don't ever let the loss you just took have an effect on your next match. That sort of thinking is just way too dangerous to engage in. Big tournaments is all about focusing on the matter at hand. All you have to do is win the game you're playing. Second Most Important Lesson: Believe in yourself.

Mentality and Superstition (And bonus the "Darkside"):

I am a superstitious person, I'd rather be superstitious and win than be logical and lose. Perhaps my will allows me to see the complex plays that I miss while I'm in a slump, or perhaps it makes no difference at all. Either way, I avoid thinking "this is where I drop" or anything like it at all costs.  As preposterous as this sounds, I tend to believe in superstition.  Do I believe in the “heart of the cards”?  Yes I do.  I put my heart and soul into my decks through hours of gruelling play testing, In my spare time while listening to my tunes, I’ll just sit there with my pet deck shuffling it, wondering why I don’t have a character card. I also believe that I believe I am destined to win. I am hungry for my character card, just like most other serious UFS players that are going to GenCon this year.

Now here is where I am different then other players.  Most other people will tell you to remain cool and level headed, I would agree with them when talking about other people.  I unfortunately play my best games when I am angry, when I have something to prove, when I am fuming and when people doubt me.  I use my anger and frustration to play my best games.  For instance, I have to somewhat thank one of the NY players for making really bad comments about Canadian players in the forums right before the NY Teams AOP.  Because of him, I went to the AOP with ruthlessness, vengeance and hunger for victory I never really had beforehand.  I played some of best games that day only personally losing once to Team Oreo (some of the coolest cats I’ve played against) and beating Team World Champion Protoaddict during semi-finals and beating Scubadude in a casual match afterwards.  Personally by having using anger, I don’t tend to goof around and go for really fast kills and try to finish the match quick so I can go for a smoke.  I guess that’s the only good thing about being an angry agro chain smoker, you want to finish your matches faster so you can leave for a smoke.  Think of using anger like using the “Dark side of the Force”, it has it’s downside, but it sure gets the job done at least for me.

By the way, I do not endorse smoking or using the Darkside of the Force, It has a nasty habit, and has many negative health repercussions. Although it does let you chill with me and possibly Vic (this probably isn't a good thing, I'm a jerk, and Vic is kind of crazy I hear, and isn't a master of the Sith ways) in the smoking section.