Playing To Win At Magic: The Gathering

A good part of this article is inspired by David Sirlin's excellent book Playing To Win, which can be viewed for free online at www.sirlin.net/ptw. This article will have many of the same concepts, but also has my own ideas and examples specific to Magic: The Gathering. Reading Playing To Win is not required to understand this text.

Playing To Win At Magic: The Gathering

An article by Jay Bailey (mtgsalivanth)

Introduction

Many of the concepts found in these texts will be ones that you do not agree with. If you wish to argue them, I'll make it easier on you by providing my e-mail address (www.salivanth@live.com) and my Twitter account. (mtgsalivanth). I routinely check both of these.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the meat of the article: Playing to win at this game. Some of you do not want to play to win. Some of you play casually, and don't want to progress past the level you are at right now. That's fine: these concepts do not apply to you. I speak to the ones who aim to improve their game.

Magic: The Gathering is a game, and the first thing you must accept is the following:

Magic: The Gathering must be treated like Magic: The Gathering.

This means that no tournament-legal card, deck, or strategy is cheap, wrong, or should not be used for reasons other than 'It will not help me win'. If you are playing casually, play casually, but in tournaments, PLAY TO WIN.

This means accepting truths about the game. A combo deck is not cheap because it does not interact with the opponent. It's not a deck that 'does not 'play' Magic'. It does not interact with the opponent because it's not designed to. If you think that's wrong, you're not playing Magic: The Gathering. You're playing a different version of the game, and you must play the version that the tournament is playing.

If a deck is going to cost several hundred dollars to build and you can't afford it, fine. But don't whinge about the fact that you can't afford it. If you cannot remain competitive with your budget, then you should set your sights to other places other than improving at the game and playing at higher levels.

Counterspells are a valid strategy. Discard is a valid strategy. Land destruction is a valid strategy. (Note that I'm not saying these are valid as in 'They are competitive' for they may not be at the time of your reading. However, it is valid as in if it is a competitive strategy, you should not refrain from using it because it's 'cheap' 'dishonorable' or 'no fun'.)

I believe David Sirlin himself said it best.

"The game knows no rules of "honor" or of "cheapness." The game only knows winning and losing". 

- David Sirlin, author of Playing To Win.

I could give many other examples. Netdecking, metagaming, rules lawyering...but the principle is the same. If you want to win, you must accept that every tournament-legal strategy is fair game if it increases your chance of winning.

You do not decide what is fair and what is not. Wizards of the Coast does. If they say it can be done (by not banning or restricting it) then it can (and if it is good, will) be done. End of story.

Sir Scrub

Let's introduce a player I call Sir Scrub. Sir Scrub has many names and many guises. He may appear at your table or your FNM. If you haven't met him, or have met him in a large tournament where you do not have to put up with him again, be grateful.

You can never outplay Sir Scrub. Ever. You can beat him, of course, but it's always due to luck. You drew better or he drew worse. He was mana screwed or mana flooded. You got a lucky cascade, he never did. Sir Scrub is cursed with terrible luck, but at least he plays with honor.

Sir Scrub is the guy who draws cards off the top when he loses and then says 'In 3 turns, I would have had you.' The fact that you made sure the game DIDN'T last longer than it had to doesn't seem to resonate with Sir Scrub. He still had all these in his deck, he just never drew them.

Do you recognise him? You probably do, and if not, it's a good thing, too.

You

The previous section seemed to make no sense. It offers no advice on winning, and just bashes people. I wrote that section to show you the opposite of what you should be.

You should not chalk matches up to luck. Sometimes you WERE mana-screwed or mana-flooded. But could you have prevented it? By saying that mana-screw cost you the game, you're saying that:

A) You fully randomised your deck.

B) You made the correct mulliganing decisions.

C) You played perfectly.

D) There was no way you could have psyched your opponent into thinking you had something to stop him doing what he did to win.

Only if all of these are true can you blame mana-screw or mana-flood, or any other luck-based occurence.

When you lose, be humble. How could you have performed better, played more tightly, anticipated your opponent's moves better? Was his lucky topdeck lucky or was he holding you off until he could draw it? Did you push him as hard as you could, or in control, did you defend and prioritise threats to the best of your ability?

You must trust your decisions and your deck. A classic example is mulliganing. Do you, after mulliganing, look at the top card to see if you would have drawn the card you need? Okay, so there WAS that third land off the top. Who cares? You still made the right decision. This is something I consciously stopped doing, since by doing so, I basically say 'I don't trust that I made the mathematically correct move.' You must trust your decisions after you make them.

You must do everything you can to win. If you need a certain card, did you aggressively mulligan to find it? Did you defend as best you could to attempt to draw the card? Did you overextend into your opponent's sweeper? These are things that could cost you the game, but can be hard to notice. A 5-land hand against your opponent's Black-Red deck in Zendikar draft can very well be suicide, even if it looks good against a slower deck. If you don't know what your opponent is playing, that's one thing, but Game 2 you should not make that mistake.

Did you do your research? You didn't know what to do in that situation. Perhaps you should have tested more.

Essentially, there are a thousand things that you probably could have done, but did not, that can contribute to your loss, a lot more than mere luck. If you're not trying your best in a situation, luck merely helped your opponent win, not sealed it for them.

Conclusion

A great deal of my blog and many other hands have written about how to improve your play skill at Magic, so I shall leave that to other articles and other hands. This is the mindset you MUST take into any serious tournament, and if you do not, you may as well not go. If you still disagree with me, as some of you probably will, my e-mail is once again www.salivanth@live.com. My Twitter account is mtgsalivanth. Feel free to argue as much as you like, but in the end, as I have come to realise: this is the mindset that counts when you want to win.

How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 4

Part 4 - Sideboarding for the Event Metagame

Sorry for the delay between parts: Zendikar spoilers will do that. I've learnt my lesson. I will aim to finish this series, Zendikar or no, within the next week, and then I'll only do series' that I stick with once a day until it's done. I'm also going to aim to finish the Last Look At Lorwyn series.

Now, on to the actual advice.

At a PTQ, your metagame will probably be subtly different to the ones in another country or even another city. Perhaps a lot of good players in your area play Faeries: so you shouldn't, facing the double threat of being outplayed in the mirror and outhated by the lesser players who can only win through excessive sideboard hate.

Instead you'd want to play a deck that has a good match against Faeries and against anti-Faeries. An anti-Faeries deck would work, if you were confident in beating the lesser players in the mirror.

Either way, if you bring a specific sideboard and turn out to be wrong, you're in trouble. That's why you should bring about 30 cards, and construct your sideboard at the event.

Note: you should not construct your sideboard piecemeal unless you have to. Make plans. For example, with GSS Jund, I might bring in my 30:

Kitchen Finks
Volcanic Fallout
Firespout
Maelstrom Pulse
Vithian Renegades
Guttural Response
Cruel Ultimatum
Mulldrifter
Doom Blade
Broodmate Dragon
Glen Elendra Archmage
Stillmoon Cavalier

This would leave me free to have several sideboard plans. For example:

Heavy 5CC metagame:

4 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Firespout
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Volcanic Fallout

This is a fairly balanced sideboard, but with 4 slots dedicated to Glen Elendra Archmage, an excellent foil to Five-Color. The deck also features light anti-Time Sieve (Maelstrom Pulse and Archmage) with some anti-aggro and Elf Combo, and a good plan against Blightning, which often beats Five-Color Control. With Great Sable Stag and Fallout, the deck is strong vs. Faeries, and the GSS / Anathemancer combo gives you a good chance in the Jund mirror.

Heavy Fae metagame:

4 Volcanic Fallout
3 Deathmark
3 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Kitchen Finks

Here, the Volcanic Fallouts cede to Fae, but mostly the sideboard relies on the maindeck Stags and the Stags  in other sideboards to beat Fae. Kithkin, B/R Blightning, Elf Combo and the mirror are all handled here: the main decks expected to survive the first few rounds. The hope is that most of the Fae will die in the middle rounds, since there's a lot of hate ready for it.

Heavy Elf Combo metagame:

4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Firespout
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Glen Elendra Archmage

This deck is aimed at Elf Combo with the 8 sweepers, and the decks likely to beat it, with Volcanic Fallout hitting Faeries, Kitchen Finks hitting burn, and Archmages hitting Five-Color Control and Time Sieve.


I could go on with specific examples, but that isn't worth the space. These are merely examples. A fourth option is a transformational sideboard, against say, a heavy Jund mirror which won't be expecting it. The point is, you want to have multiple sideboard plans, and the cards to handle all of them. I wouldn't do this for say, FNM, but for a PTQ, every edge is important, and this is certainly a formidable one.

Until next time, may you outplan your opponents.

Last Turn At Lorwyn: U/W Reveillark

With Lorwyn nearly out of the picture, I want to give a few matches to each deck that will be dead come rotation: that is: Lark, Elf Combo, Five-Color Control, Mannequin and Merfolk. Kithkin I've already played.

First off is W/U Reveillark. This is the list I used:

Lands (21)

4 Glacial Fortress
7 Island
4 Mystic Gate
6 Plains

Creatures (24)

1 Baneslayer Angel
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Meddling Mage
4 Mulldrifter
4 Reveillark
3 Sower of Temptation

Spells (15)

3 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Path to Exile

Sideboard (15)

2 Austere Command
2 Baneslayer Angel
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Celestial Purge
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Hallowed Burial
1 Sower of Temptation

I hopped on MWS to do battle.

Match 1 vs. B/G Elves

He wins the die roll. He plays a land, then I follow suit. Second turn he plays another land, and I play Meddling Mage naming Maelstrom Pulse, having only seen black and green.

He plays Farhaven Elf. I swing for 2 (20, 18), then play a Borderpost. I pass. He swings (19, 18) and plays another Farhaven Elf. I evoke a Mulldrifter and swing. (19, 16). I pass. He plays Elvish Archdruid and swings for 4. (15, 16). On my turn I play Sower of Temptation to steal the Archdruid, then swing with Meddling Mage. (15, 14) I end the turn.

He plays another Elvish Archdruid and swings. I play Path to Exile to kill the Archdruid, and then block his 1/1's with my 2/2's. Ouch. I swing for 6, (15, 8) then play Glen Elendra Archmage and pass. He draws and concedes.

Game 2 He makes the first play, a Turn 2 Wren's Run Vanquisher. I pass. He swings (17, 20) and passes. I pass, stuck on 2 land. He swings, I Path his Vanquisher. I untap, topdeck Knight of the White Orchid and play it to get my third land. I then play a Fieldmist Borderpost now that I have a basic in play, and then play the Plains again. I end my turn, and he Nameless Inversions my Knight, but the damage is done.

He plays Profane Command for 4, and then remembers Vanquisher was exiled, not put in the graveyard. Thus, his 6 mana only makes me lose 4 life. (13, 20). He passes. I topdeck a fifth land, play it, and lay Baneslayer Angel.

He passes. I swing. (18, 15) and pass. He passes, and I swing again. (23, 10). I pass again. He evokes a Shriekmaw, and I use Cryptic Command. He taps out for a Profane Command for 5! (18, 10) My Baneslayer Angel dies.

I play Knight of the White Orchid, then Mulldrifter. I pass. He plays Primal Command (18, 17) searching for Masked Admirers. I play an Archmage, and swing with my guys (18, 13). I pass. He plays Farhaven Elf and swings. (15, 13). He then plays Wren's Run Packmaster, championing Farhaven Elf. Luckily he only has 2 mana open.

I swing with everything, he blocks the Knight. That was a blunder on my part. (15, 9) After combat, I play Sower of Temptation to steal the Packmaster. He plays Scepter of Fugue, and uses it. I discard one of the three Reveillarks in my hand. He attacks with Masked Admirers, I block with the 5/5. He plays Llanowar Elves, recurring the Admirers. I untap, play Cryptic Command to tap his guys, and go all in to win.

1-0

Match 2 vs. Blightning

I win the die roll and mulligan to 6. I lay a land and go. He plays Figure of Destiny. I play a land, as does he. He attacks for 1. (19, 20). He plays Goblin Outlander and passes. I play a Plains, and then pay a full-price Borderpost. I pass.

He makes Figure a 2/2 and swings. (15, 20) I play Sower of Temptation, stealing Figure of Destiny. He plays Blightning, and I discard a Borderpost and Path to Exile, leaving a Path as the last card in my hand. (12, 20) He swings. (10, 20) I untap, pump Figure, and swing. (10, 16). I play Sower of Temptation and steal Goblin Outlander. At EOT he plays Flame Javelin on my Sower that stole Figure. I Path my Figure in response.

He untaps, draws, and plays Demigod of Revenge. He swings. (5, 16) I draw and Path his Demigod, then swing for 4. (5, 12)

He plays double Anathemancer (1, 12) and passes. I concede, since as soon as one dies, he can bring it back to win.

Game 2: The first play comes on Turn 2, as he plays a Figure of Destiny. I play my third land and pass. He plays Goblin Outlander and swings. (19, 20). He passes. I play a land, and play Meddling Mage naming Blightning. He swings with the Outlander (17, 20) then plays another Outlander and passes.

I pass. During his beginning of combat step, I use tap-draw with Cryptic Command. He plays Anathemancer (15, 20). I play Baneslayer Angel. He Terminates it, and swings. (11, 20). I trade Anathemancer with Meddling Mage.

I play Forge-Tender and pass. He swings with the Outlanders. (7, 20) and plays Blightning. I Broken it, revealing Meddling Mage. He reveals Ram-Gang. On my turn, I play Knight of the White Orchid, and Meddling Mage (naming Boggart Ram-Gang). He swings with the Outlanders (3, 20) and plays Anathemancer. (1, 20) I draw, and concede.

1-1

Match 3 vs. White Weenie

I win the die roll. He plays Honor of the Pure Turn 2. I untap, play Knight of the White Orchid, and pass. He plays Spectral Procession. Luckily, I draw into my fourth mana, which I play. I Sower one of them and swing with the Knight. (20, 18). I pass. He plays Spectral Procession and swings. I block one with the Sower and one with the Spirit, leaving him with no damage. I swing with the Knight. He blocks, and Harm's Ways me. (18, 18). I play Mulldrifter and pass. He plays Honor of the Pure and Figure of Destiny, and swings. I block a token with Mulldrifter and take 9. (9, 18). I evoke Lark, bringing back Sower and Mulldrifter. I steal a token.

He attacks. I go to 3, and he plays Spectral Procession. I concede.

Game 2 he mulligans to 5, and I'm on the play. Ouch. The first play is again his, with a Turn 2 Elite Vanguard. I play my third land and evoke Mulldrifter.

He plays Figure, and swings. (18, 20). He passes. I play Glen Elendra Archmage and pass. He swings with the Vanguard. (16, 20) then plays another Figure. I play Baneslayer Angel. He Paths it, and swings with the Vanguard. (14, 20). I Sower his Figure of Destiny. He pumps his Figure at EOT. He swings, I block, and he uses Harm's Way. I add a counter to Archmage, and it's binned. Both Figures die.

I play a Mulldrifter and swing with Sower and Archmage. (14, 17). I pass. He swings with Vanguard, I block with Mulldrifter. He goes for Harm's Way, and I sacrifice my Archmage. He passes. I evoke Reveillark and bring back Archmage and Mulldrifter. I swing with the Sower. (14, 15). He untaps, and passes.

I swing, he goes for Harm's Way. I put a counter on the Archmage (deja vu, anyone?) and he takes 4. (14, 11). I then play a fresh Archmage. He plays Ranger of Eos, searching for double Figure, and plays one. I untap, and play Meddling Mage, stranding the second one in his hand. I swing for 5 in the air (14, 4) and pass. He draws and concedes.

Game 3 he plays an Elite Vanguard. I pass. He plays a Figure, and swings. (18, 20). I play a second land and play Meddling Mage, naming Spectral Procession. I pass.

He makes his Figure a 2/2, and swings. (14, 20). I evoke a Mulldrifter. He swings. (10, 20). I play Sower of Temptation to steal Figure of Destiny, and pass. He plays Elite Vanguard and swings with the first one. I let it through. (8, 20). I untap, and play Glen Elendra Archmage. I swing with the Sower. (8, 18) I pass.

He swings with his Vanguards. I block with my guys. He uses Harm's Way. I counter it. He uses another Harm's Way, and I'm out of mana for Archmage. All my guys die, one of his Vanguards live.

I simply play a Baneslayer Angel. He plays a Vanguard and passes. I evoke Reveillark for Sower and Mulldrifter. I swing with Baneslayer, it gets Pollen Lullabied. I have control of the game, so I decide to let it through and simply wait. He plays Spectral Procession, and I sacrifice the Archmage. I untap and play a fresh one. I swing with Sower, Mulldrifter, and Vanguard. He takes 6. (8, 12). I play Meddling Mage, naming Figure of Destiny.

He plays Spectral Procession, and I put a counter on Archmage. I swing with everything. (13, 1). He draws, and concedes.

2-1

I lost the records to this match, but I beat Elementals 2-0. I remember thinking at one point how unfair it is that my 3WW creature trumped the WUBRG creature he played next turn. Horde of Notions has vigilance, trample and haste, but no first strike. The next turn, I Sowered it, and murdered him.

3-1

W/U Reveillark is powerful. I noticed that against non-red decks, there was no need to hurry. Against White Weenie, I was happy to go down to 8, because I knew I'd soon control the game.

If I was to play it over again, I'd probably take out one Reveillark for Baneslayer Angel, and a Meddling Mage for Sower of Temptation. Baneslayer Angel is just awesome, but Reveillark + Archmage, Sower and Mulldrifter is insane as well. I think 3/2 is the right ratio here.

Until next time, may you enjoy what's there before it's gone.

How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3

Hello, and welcome back to my series of How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 3. Last week we covered analysing the metagame, and this week, we'll be covering the nuts and bolts of bringing two decks to a tournament. The list which inspired this series can be found here. 


Why Two Decks?


Why would you bring two decks to a metagame? Simple: The local metagame at the PTQ you're attending is likely to be a bit different to the world's metagame. So by bringing two decks each designed to oppose certain metagames, e.g, W/U Reveillark for Anathemancer-heavy metagames and Five-Color Control for Elf Combo / Time Sieve Combo heavy metagames, you can be sure of attacking the metagame from the right angle. 


Make sure you bring decks with different weaknesses. Elf Combo and Jund seem quite different, but they're both vulnerable to the same thing: sweepers.Whereas Elf Combo and Five-Color Control on the other hand operate on totally different realms, and both require totally different sideboard plans. So you could pick one of these decks based on which one the event was less hostile towards in sideboard choices.


Testing Two Decks


Most people would advise testing two decks equally, but I think that you should become equally competent at both. Becoming competent at Elf Combo requires less matches than Five-Color Control, so if you were to run 100 matches, I'd suggest 30-40 Elf Combo matches and 60-70 Five-Color Control matches in your testing. That way you're confident with both of them, and ready no matter what deck you pick.


More complex decks require more matches to master, so take the time to learn them well.


This has been a very short post, but the concept doesn't require too many words to explain. Join me next week as I talk about doing the same anti-metagame move for your sideboard before the event.


Until next time, may you say only what needs to be said (yes I know this is a short post!)

How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 1

Hello and welcome to my series of How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ. Each week for 6 weeks, I'll be taking a point from the list of 10 Ways To Do Better At Your Next PTQ and expanding on it, and going into much further detail. I shall release this series biweekly, and over the next three weeks will cover the following parts:

Part 1 - Testing Your Deck

Part 2 - Analysing the Metagame

Part 3 - Bringing Two Different Decks

Part 4 - Sideboarding for the Event Metagame

Part 5 - DCI Penalties

Part 6 - Understanding Tiebreakers

Not all the points on the list are worthy of a part in the series. However, now that you know what's in store, let's move on!

Part 1 - Testing Your Deck

Practice, practice, practice is the mantra of athletes, and for you it should be no different. You should know your deck inside and out. You should know why every card is in there, and how they interact. You should know how to fight all the common decks, how to sideboard against them, whether you are aggro or control, etc. But rather than tell you the different things you need to know, I'll give you a step-by-step guide.

Step 1 - Pick Your Deck (4 weeks before the PTQ)

Note: these durations are minimum. I suggest picking a stable deck: one that's been part of the metagame for a long time, e.g Faeries, Five-Color Control, especially if a new set is coming out in the next four weeks. Check out the decks that have been solidly winning for months or a year, and choose one you feel is powerful and you can play. It doesn't matter if Five-Color Control is best in the meta if you've played Faeries for 8 months. Your advantage will surpass meta choices unless Fae is absolutely hosed (which it has been, but not so badly it's unplayable).

However, if you're like me, and your deck of choice has been cut out of the meta (Kithkin) go through the decks and pick what you think is the strongest. Test each deck you think is good on Magic Workstation for 5-10 matches, and see which one works best for you.

Step 2 - Research (3.5 weeks before the PTQ)

The next step is to research your chosen deck. How to play it, how to board, how to fight different decks. The more you read up on it, the better. Read tournament reports where the reporter played that deck to get a feel for how these theories are put into practice. Read primers, strategy guides, testing reports, etc. Assimilate the Magic community's knowledge about the deck.

I will add, if you want to play GSS Jund, you've got a great head start:)

Step 3 - Test online (3 weeks before the PTQ)

Here, you'll want to use Magic Workstation again. What decks you play doesn't matter, as long as you play the Tier 1 decks. You want quantity here: A good total to shoot for is 30 matches in the week. You're in the early stages now where every match teaches you something new about the deck. Hopefully you're winning most of them. I mean, I'm 7-1 with Jund so far and I'm not exactly a great player. Good, but not great.

Once you've gotten about 30 matches under your belt, you're ready to test the specific metagame.

Step 4 - Test against a gauntlet (2 weeks before the PTQ)

Now you'll want to build a gauntlet, generally consisting of 3-4 decks that you're most likely to face at the PTQ. Testing the fringe strategies will dilute your testing against the decks you'll face 2, 3, or even 4 times during the PTQ and if you make Top 8, are almost certain to face. For the current metagame, your gauntlet would probably consist of Faeries, Five-Color Control, Jund and Elf Combo. You want to get in 10-12 matches against each deck throughout the week. Preferably you'll have offline testing partners who are also going through the gauntlet, whom you can test with. If not, keep testing online as much as you can.

Step 5 - Re-evaluate (Less than one week, more than three days before the PTQ)

Now your metagame data will be 2-3 weeks old, so it's time to recalibrate. You're probably still 90% on the money, but the 10% is crucial too. Is a certain deck you haven't tested against rising in supremacy? Keep an eye out for the latest tech. Make sure you're not caught off-guard in the PTQ.

Step 6 - Test the changes (3-4 days before the PTQ)

This is twofold: offline, test the gauntlet which includes any new decks that have risen up, and online test with the 75 you've now locked in. This is the final testing: aim to get in 10 offline matches and 10 online in the 3 days.

Then rest for the day before the PTQ, maybe play 1 or 2 matches online to keep your skill up, and get a good night's rest. More than likely, you'll have outprepared your opponents, and it'll show where it counts: on the battlefield.

Until next time, may a hundred matches teach you a hundred lessons to gain you a hundred advantages.