Letting Your Proteges Go - Part 1

One thing I had a lot of in my old personal development blog was, well, personal things. I don't want to do too much of that with this blog, but I do have a Magic story to tell, so I figured, why not?

Have you ever taught a player to play Magic?

What about taught a bad player to become better?

This story will first cover my journey to here, and then it'll cover the journey of my proteges.

A couple of years ago, I entered Mega Games Trader for the first time. I'd heard that they had an Arena tournament there (whatever THAT was). The friend who invited me actually never showed, and I then proceeded to be told the following by the store owner:

See those guys out there? They've forgotten more about Magic than you ever knew. Listen to them. Learn from them.

Of course I thought I knew strategy. Here was my entire bevy of knowledge about strategic thinking.

• Build your decks to be 60 cards
• Have 4 of each of your key cards
• Instants should be played on your opponent's turn. I...think...

No card advantage, deck matchups, sideboarding (what's a SIDEBOARD?) or anything that I now take for granted. My first deck was a Saproling Overrun deck. Mono-green, no removal whatsoever except a single Wear Away which was part of the snake deck I started with.

It sucked. I went 2-2 at Arena though, because other people sucked just as much as me.

Then, the best thing that would ever happen to me, happened. The thing that would sculpt me into a competitive player, the thing that rocketed me into FNM and into competition.

What was it? A staggering insight? An awesome mentor?

Well, actually, I lost my deck.

Because I lost my crappy Saproling deck, I had to build another deck, and I figured "Why not make it Standard legal?"

At this point, all I knew of Standard and Extended was that Standard was Time Spiral, Lorwyn, and Tenth Edition, and FNM was Standard. My deck was Extended. Whatever that meant.

So from the little I'd heard about Lorwyn I decided to make a Kithkin deck, since I figured it'd be budget.

4 Goldmeadow Stalwart, 4 Wizened Cenn, 4 Knight of Meadowgrain, 4 Cloudgoat Ranger made up the core of my deck. I can't remember what else I had, but I do remember it was a deck I played for months.

It rocked. I tore through Arena. And then, next week, I showed up and there was nobody there, so Manuel said he'd put me in FNM and see how I fared.

I came 3rd. I went 3-1. Of course, the competition at my store was FAR, FAR less at this point, but I didn't know that. I was on top of the world. Two months later, I won my first FNM.

Two months later, I tanked at Regionals. In fact, I got a disqualification for insufficient randomization. See, the store owner knew I wasn't good enough at shuffling so he told me to manaweave before each round started: but then I didn't shuffle it as well as he'd hoped: I only cut the deck, albeit numerous times. The end result was that when my deck got taken away (for a random deck check or someone reported it was shady, I'll never know) it was found that my deck had a near perfect land-creature distribution. I said I understood.

It was the worst day in my Magic career. Ever. I vowed to stick to FNM from then on. The months went by. I continued to do well. I even won again. And then, OMG showed up.

Team OMG (originally standing for Omega Games) were pros. They came with netdecks. They came with tech. They creamed us all. Ben was the first to rise up, but the rest of us were slow to follow. As for me, I maintained my 'netdecks are evil' policy for quite some time. I did, however, start to study the metagame in depth. I learnt about Faeries, about Quick 'n' Toast when it first came out, about Reveillark, about Red Deck Wins.

I fell in love with Red Deck Wins. It was like Kithkin, but it had removal! And it WINS! I built it, and won once with it. OMG weren't there. Then things got really tough.

Other people started netdecking. They built good decks. I was not to win another FNM for a year.

I built a red shaman deck next. It had Rage Forger, Incandescent Soulstoke, and lots of one-drop and two-drop elementals. It was frighteningly fast, but it DIED to a Wrath of God. I remember winning a game on Turn 4...through a Pro-Red creature. The problem was it didn't even have burn. It had 32 creatures and 4 Shared Animosity. This was a 50c rare that nobody knew about til I bought it.

Creatures I controlled got +1/+0 for each other attacking creature. It was amazing. I built the deck to power out 3-4 elementals by Turn 3, then drop Rage Forgers or Shared Animosity for the win. It did pretty well. Except against OMG.

Alara Reborn came out. By now I knew about aggro and control and combo, and I had some idea of my own inadequacy as a player. So I played aggro. I built a R/G deck with Giantbaiting, Bloodbraid Elf, Hellsparks, and Boggart Ram-Gang. Essentially, every card could go to the face (which was pretty nuts with Bloodbraid Elf). Shame I couldn't cascade into Flame Javelin.

Then I opened 3 Pulses over 3 weeks. These were chase rares, and I knew this, having gone ape about the card when it was previewed. I decided then and there to build a Jund deck. Next week, I asked my teammate Jeremy if he had a Jund deck I could use. He then took a deck out of his bag, and told me it was Five-Color Blood, which was similar.

I didn't see the point of splashing UUU for one card. The world soon followed suit. I took out the Cryptics and Cruels, and added in more aggro. It did great. I loved it.

Then Jeremy lost the deck. I went back to playing R/G Aggro while I collected the cards for Jund. Shortly before M10 came out, I managed it.

I got better at Jund, learnt it, added Bolts to it...and then made this blog. I wrote a lot about Jund in my early days. Everything went great.

When Zendikar rolled out, I went with the punches. I'd finally gone full-circle. Lorwyn was gone, I'd now been around for the release of all of Standard. I won again, two weeks ago. OMG weren't there, but I triumphed over some great players.

Jund is everywhere now. As is Soldiers, Vampires, and control builds. As I look around the room every Saturday, I realise it took me 18 months to catch up to the level I used to be at: but now I'm 20 times better at the game. I owe OMG more than I ever could have fathomed. And the store owner, Manuel, was right. I had no idea of how much I had to learn. Now, as a player, I realise how far I still have to go.

But that's Magic for you: the game of a lifetime.

Next bonus post, I'll talk about three kids who I decided to mentor, and how their stories have affected me, and made me into the player, and person, I am today.

Miniseries Series 1: W/U Control Part 2

Hi guys, and welcome back to the W/U Control Miniseries. Last week we discussed the theory of W/U Control. Today we're going to do a slight amount of theory, and then move into deckbuilding.

What are the four aspects that make up any blue-based control deck?

The answer is:

Card advantage, removal, finishers, and countermagic.

We're going to need all of these in our deck, so we're going to run through it element by element, discussing the different cards that might be good for each. Then, afterwards, we'll work out how many of each type we want, and then finally build the deck.

Card Advantage


Ior Ruin Expedition: This card from Zendikar is essentially a time-delayed 2-mana 2-card spell. The problem is, it's a terrible topdeck.Worth considering if there's a lack of other good options.

Jace Beleren: The best card advantage spell in Standard right now, by far.

Elspeth, Knight Errant: While it doesn't actually give us cards, it gives us fractions of a card every turn and stymies the opponent's attempts to kill her.

Divination: Unplayable.

Hindering Light: We won't be playing many creatures, so this card isn't really worth it.

Mind Spring: We absolutely need 2-3 of these in here. They can pull a game in your favor instantly.

Removal


Path to Exile: Absolutely. Best removal in the format, and an automatic 4-of.

Journey to Nowhere: Also good, takes care of most creatures permanently. It also doesn't trigger Cascade if it's broken, since the spell isn't being played. Add to the fact that Pulse costs more than it, and we have a good card.

Celestial Purge: Most decks nowadays with White are maindecking a couple of these, and I'm going to follow suit.

Oblivion Ring: Probably more of a sideboard card.

Finishers


Baneslayer Angel: Best creature in Standard, and the first choice for finisher.

Sphinx of Jwar Isle: A good choice, and can certainly close the game away.

Sphinx of Lost Truths: Card advantage, flying, and a beefy toughness. What's not to love?

Conqueror's Pledge: Not really playing to it's strengths in this kind of deck.

Countermagic


Flashfreeze: This card has targets against virtually all decks in the metagame right now. I think I'll try two.

Essence Scatter + Negate: Both good, situational, 2-mana counters. I think they make the cut: most decks in Standard have a nice balance between creatures and spells. Negate is slightly better though since it gets rid of cards that can't be stopped in other ways.

Offering to Asha: Too expensive.

Cancel: Also too expensive.

Mindbreak Trap: Essentially Double Negative, this card might be worth a sideboard option.

Other:


Day of Judgement: A hybrid of removal and card advantage. We'll want to play four.

Wall of Denial: Excellent for holding off big creatures. Hard to kill except with Gatekeeper.


Now we go on to the deckbuilding phase.

First we're going to want about 25 lands in this kind of deck, so that leaves us with 35 cards.

In today's Standard, I think we'll want about 6-7 finishers. Today's Control can't stall the game forever, so we want to stall it long enough to play our big cards.

IN: 4 Baneslayer Angel

4 of the finishers simply have to be Baneslayer. Baneslayer is that good.

IN: 2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
IN: 1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

I'm going to go with 7 finishers, and I'd like to have a 2-1 ratio since I think Jwar is better, but I'm not entirely sure.

28 slots remaining.

We'll now go with removal. I'd say we'd want about 10-12 pieces of removal, including Day of Judgement.

IN: 4 Day of Judgement
IN: 4 Path to Exile

Path and Day are both very good cards, and should be featured. Next, we'll want to add a couple of purges:

IN: 2 Celestial Purge

I'm going to leave the last piece of removal open, since I'm not sure how many I'll want. I'm going to base that on how many other cards I add to the deck.

18 slots left.

Now on to card advantage. We're going to want 3 Jaces, no question. 4 is too many, since you can only have one out. The fourth should go in the side.

IN: 3 Jace Beleren

We'll then want a couple of Mind Springs:

IN: 2 Mind Spring

And lastly, we want about 2-3 other card-advantage providers. The question is, what?

IN: 1 Mind Spring
IN: 1 Ior Ruin Expedition

Mind Spring is better than Ior Ruin, but 4 is too many, so I'll add one.

11 slots remaining.

That leaves us with 9-10 slots for Wall of Denial and countermagic. Based on that, I think we'll want about 6 counterspells. I don't like Essence Scatter since we'll have so many anti-creature cards, so:

IN: 4 Negate
IN: 2 Flashfreeze

Now we have 5 slots left. I think we'll want 4 Walls, since almost every deck plays quite a lot of creatures nowadays.

IN: 4 Wall of Denial

Which leaves us with our last card:

IN: 1 Journey to Nowhere

So let's look at the deck we have.

Lands (25)

2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Glacial Fortress
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Sejiri Refuge

Creatures (11)

4 Baneslayer Angel
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Wall of Denial

Spells (24)

2 Celestial Purge
4 Day of Judgement
2 Flashfreeze
1 Ior Ruin Expedition
3 Jace Beleren
1 Journey to Nowhere
3 Mind Spring
4 Negate
4 Path to Exile

Now, we'll need a sideboard.

My first step in a sideboard is adding extra copies of cards in the main that aren't 4-of's, and are situational.

IN: 1 Jace Beleren
IN: 1 Mind Spring
IN: 2 Celestial Purge
IN: 2 Flashfreeze

Next, we'll want some anti-Jund cards, since Jund is just dynamite at the moment. We have Celestial Purge and Flashfreeze, so we don't need too much.

IN: 3 Devout Lightcaster

Now some anti-control:

IN: 3 Luminarch Ascension

Which leaves us with three slots to go. For this, I'd like to use a catch-all Oblivion Ring.

IN: 3 Oblivion Ring.

So here's the final list:

Lands (25)

4 Glacial Fortress

9 Island

8 Plains

4 Sejiri Refuge

Creatures (11)

4 Baneslayer Angel

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

4 Wall of Denial

Spells (24)

2 Celestial Purge

4 Day of Judgement

2 Flashfreeze

1 Ior Ruin Expedition

3 Jace Beleren

1 Journey to Nowhere

3 Mind Spring

4 Negate

4 Path to Exile

Sideboard (15)

2 Celestial Purge

3 Devout Lightcaster

2 Flashfreeze

1 Jace Beleren

3 Luminarch Ascension

1 Mind Spring

3 Oblivion Ring

And here's our (probably horrible) W/U Control list. I'll test it out tomorrow, and give you my thoughts! See you for the finale!

Playing The Best Deck

Lately, I've been noticing something. For the first time in my (short) competitive Magic career, I have been playing The Best Deck. Everyone knows what the best deck is right now. It's Jund. Jund has power, consistency, and cascade (into power). It has a wide variety of angles, it can attack from aggro and control. Essentially, I'm in love. Jund does have a few weaknesses, like Baneslayer Angel, but lately decks have been playing 2x Terminate main, something which I'll probably have to do.

This is something I partially lucked into. When Faeries and Five-Color were the best decks, I didn't play them since I didn't have the cards or the skill to do so. When ALA came out, and Jund rose up to a borderline Tier-1 strategy, I realised that after the rotation it would survive intact. So I decided to get good at it now. I started playing Jund before M10 came out.

But never, never did I imagine I would end up playing The Best Deck. Everyone said, even me, that once control shapes up, Jund isn't that good anymore: but it is. It has card advantage, card quality, and powerful explosive starts. Essentially it shares the traits of Faeries.

Faeries is a control deck that can go aggro at a moment's notice. Jund is an aggro deck that can go control at a moment's notice. Both have card advantage. Bloodbraid Elf vs. Cryptic Command. Both have strong beasts: Mistbind Clique vs. Broodmate Dragon. And in both decks, the mirror is the most important to side against.

I am running eight sideboard cards in my sideboard this week to combat Jund. 4 Deathmark, 4 Goblin Ruinblaster. Why? Because just about every time I actually lose a match, it's to Jund.

It's a weird experience, to be honest. Everyone was talking about the evil Fae menace last year, and I stuck by that it was a good deck and perfectly legitimate, but beatable. Now? I'm playing that deck. People everywhere are talking about beating Jund, about how they can't beat Jund, about how they're sick of Jund: and I realise I'm playing That Deck.

Now, I'm a competitive player, and for any competitive player right now, I recommend you check your schedule and make sure it's blank for the next two hours, since there's a link I'm going to provide that you must, repeat, MUST read in order to cultivate the mindset of a competitive player.

So I don't see anything inherently wrong with playing the best deck apart from the sideboard hate it's likely to receive. I had a white deck last week sideboard 15 cards in against me. So is it time to give up Jund? I think not. Jund is a powerful machine, and it's got a long way to go before it's pushed out when Alara rotates. Part of me thinks Jund isn't going anywhere: and so I'll be playing the deck.

Why? Because I'm skilled at it. Because I have the cards. Because I love the deck. But mostly? I like playing the best deck. And Jund, without a doubt, is.

EDIT: Like an absolute dumbass, I forgot the link. Here it is:

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw

Read it all. You might disagree with a lot of the concepts. I did. It actually took me about a year to come to accept it as the cold hard truth. It's a very good use of your time.

Miniseries Series 1: W/U Control Part 1

Welcome to the first installment of the Miniseries Series. The topic for this miniseries will be W/U Control. We'll be studying what makes it tick, then make and test a deck based on the concept. So let's get into the theory of W/U Control, shall we?

The Foundations


Control is a form of Magic deck that focuses on stopping any card the opponent plays, and then using a big finisher to seal things up. It's the exact opposite of Aggro, which aims to win before the deck sets up. Control isn't too powerful these days thanks to Cascade and it's barrage of card advantage, but it's worth a try anyway.

The reason W/U Control is popular is because blue has card advantage and counterspells while White can deal with all kinds of permanent except lands. Essentially it makes for a combination that's consistent and has very few holes.

Analysing Past W/U Control Decks


Arguably the most famous W/U control deck is a deck made by Zvi Mowshowitz, known as The Solution. In an aggro-filled metagame, he metagamed perfectly to come up with the following control deck that decimated the field.

60 cards 4  Coastal Tower 10  Island 10  Plains 24 lands 4  Crimson Acolyte 4  Galina's Knight 4  Meddling Mage 4  Stormscape Apprentice 4  Voice of All 20 creatures 4  Absorb 4  Exclude 4  Fact or Fiction 4  Repulse 16 other spells

Sideboard 2  Aura Blast 3  Crusading Knight 4  Disrupt 3  Gainsay 3  Pure Reflection 15 sideboard cards

So what can we learn from this?

The Metagamed Cards: Crimson Acolyte and Galina's Knight were certainly there for a very specific solution. The key here is that sometimes the metagame allows for such things.

Modern Application: Celestial Purge. Most Standard decks run targets for this card and some decks now run 2 maindeck.

The Cantrips: Exclude and Repulse were certainly there for a reason. The ability to stop something the opponent played and draw a card was excellent, even if it only stopped it temporarily. The deck could then draw into more answers.

Modern Application: There actually aren't that many good cantrips in Standard at the moment, so we need to gain card advantage through our spells, like Day of Judgement.

Fact or Fiction: One of the best cards ever in Standard, this card is a machine.

Modern Application: Mind Spring. With enough mana, this card can totally turn a game around.

The one thing this deck did NOT have was a big finisher: but against a field where the best decks all ran red, it was only a matter of time before Zvi's protection creatures made it through.

Lessons Learnt: A control deck should have answers, card advantage, and a way to close the game. It should have a way to gain tempo and gain incremental advantage over the opponent. The metagame is also important. In a more balanced metagame this deck might not do so well (though aggro decks were weaker back then).

The next deck we shall look at is an Extended deck: W/U Urzatron. This is also a more current deck, legal and active in Extended just a few months ago.

Maindeck:

Artifacts
4 Azorius Signet
2 Chalice Of The Void
2 Chrome Mox
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt

Artifact Creatures
2 Sundering Titan

Creatures
3 Exalted Angel
4 Meddling Mage

Instants
3 Condescend
3 Fact Or Fiction (Restricted in Vintage)
4 Thirst For Knowledge

Sorceries
2 Decree Of Justice
4 Wrath Of God

Lands
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Skycloud Expanse
4 Tolaria West
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower

Legendary Lands
1 Academy Ruins

Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Leyline Of The Void
3 Threads Of Disloyalty
3 Disenchant
2 Mindslaver
1 Academy Ruins

So what do we have here?

The Urzatron lands are the biggest thing. Rather than gain incremental card advantage, this deck seeks a Spell Burst lock: able to generate enough mana to continue to buy back Spell Burst repeatedly and stop the opponent from ever doing anything.

Modern Application: Standard doesn't really have a hard lock at the moment, unfortunately.

Big Spells: This deck operates under a paradigm that we have to in the new Standard: If you tap out, it doesn't matter if what you play is more powerful than whatever the opponent will play. Decree of Justice was usually Cycled, but Sundering Titan and Wrath of God fell under these categories.

Modern Application: Baneslayer Angel. Sphinx of Jwar Isle...they both operate under the tap-out theory.

Card Advantage: The deck ran lots of instant-speed card advantage: one of the reasons Control is fading today.

Modern Application: None

Lastly, we shall look at another Standard deck.

Threats 1 Yosei, the Morning Star 1 Keiga, the Tide Star 1 Debtor’s Knell 3 Jötun Grunt Card Drawing 3 Gifts Ungiven 3 Telling Time General Control 3 Counterbalance 4 Sensei's Divining Top  4 Hinder 3 Rewind

Control vs Aggro 4 Wrath of God 3 Cover of Winter 3 Condemn Land 4 Scrying Sheets 4 Boreal Shelf 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Ghost Quarter 4 Snow-Covered Plains 6 Snow-Covered Island

Sideboard 3 Jester’s Cap 3 Pithing Needle 3 Jester’s Scepter 3 Evacuation 1 Jötun Grunt 2 Mouth of Ronom

This deck is from 2006's Standard. It features so many powerful cards that there's little wonder that it was so powerful.

Counterbalance: Naturally, this is so degenerate that it's even in Legacy (though in a format where few spells surpass 3 mana it is more powerful) and in Standard is just amazing. This is of course combined with Sensei's Divining Top which allowed a lot of free counterspells.

Modern Application: Unfortunately none.

Big Finishers: Keiga and Yosei were both great cards. They operated under the tap-out theory mentioned earlier. If your turn is better than their turn, you can tap out.

Cover of Winter: This card essentially stops all aggressive moves until you have complete control of the game. It was an amazing card. It truly is very very strong.

Modern Application: Luminarch Ascension. If you can get this to activate, you essentially win.

Gifts Ungiven: The card that made so many decks tick. You essentially got two of the four best spells in your deck. Absolute gold.

Modern Application: None.

So what have we learnt from our analysis?

We've learnt that control decks need either card advantage or card quality advantage to win.

We've learnt that control decks usually establish incremental advantages before taking complete control.

We've learnt that control decks can take as much time as they like to kill you.

So join me tomorrow as we build a W/U Control deck from scratch in Standard, and then Thursday we'll see how it fares!

Editor's Note: Due to the miniseries' schedule, Fetch A Shockland will be going up on Friday, not Thursday.

See you tomorrow!

Announcing The Miniseries Series!

Greetings one and all, to my latest proclamation! Or something like that. Over the next period of time that I feel like it, I'll be doing some random number of 3-part miniseries' about topics that you guys get to pick. There'll be a theory article, a deckbuilding article, and a deck testing article, all on the topic you choose!

Here are the (rather forgiving) rules for the topic:

The topic must relate to Magic.
The topic must be able to translate into theory and deckbuilding.
The topic cannot be supremely narrow (i.e, Black commons in Time Spiral Limited with an 'A' in their name)
The topic cannot be far too broad (i.e, Magic: The Gathering)
The topic must be submitted via blog comments on this blog, or via Twitter. My username on Twitter is mtgsalivanth.

You guys shall have 24 hours to send me your topics. You can send multiple topics, but let's not send every topic you can think of. I'm gonna make three the limit. In the unlikely event that you guys AREN'T the totally awesome dudes I think you are and refuse to send me topics, I have one lined up. I'll send out a call for topics every time I decide to do one of these (I'm thinking once a month or so).

So get cracking! The first series starts tomorrow! The series will end Wednesday, and then you'll have Fetch A Shockland on Thursday. So you guys get 5 straight blog posts, including this one. Enjoy!

Fetch A Shockland: Intermission

Due to connection problems which were only resolved today, I was unable to actually finish any matches for Fetch A Shockland. Next week will be better now that the problem is completely resolved.

How To Use Magic Workstation Part 4 - Etiquette

Hi, and welcome to the final article in How To Use Magic Workstation! In the final article, we'll be covering etiquette. These are the kind of things that a new MWS player won't know, but can seriously piss off a veteran, even though they won't even know they're doing it. They're also quite important, so let's get to it! (This is all stuff I wish I knew when I was a newbie at MWS)

Your first piece of etiquette should be before you even play a game. Go to Game -> Test Deck in Solo Mode. Then, under your name in the right side of the screen, change it from Player to whatever username you like. A lot of MWSers don't like Player as a name as it's too anonymous and also can be symbolic of a noob (or an experienced player trying to catch people out). Personally, I'll play with people named Player but a lot of people don't.

Now we're ready to play. If you decide to create a game, specify what you want. "T2" isn't a good description. "T2 2/3 sb" is. (Note: that means a game of Type 2 (Standard) 2 out of 3 games, with sideboarding: i.e, a standard tournament-style match.)

Also make sure not to be too exacting with your requirements, because it makes you look like an asshole. "T2 Tier 1 no quitters no griefers no Player no noobs 2/3 sb must be fast and use phases" is the kind of game I simply won't join, because it seems to me that that person is very likely to fly off the handle if I'm a bit too slow or even if I lag a bit.

Once you get in the game, greet your opponent (a simple "Hi" will suffice), and then Ctrl + S to shuffle your deck a few times. Ctrl + I rolls the dice to determine who goes first, and then you should say whether you play or draw. If you keep, say so, if you mulligan, feel free to simply press Ctrl + M rather than say 'mull'.

Under M10 rules, after your first mulligan, you then wait for your opponent to decide. If they are reticent (generally trying to get you to reveal further information) ask them 'keep?'. They'll then have to reply.

When you play, at the end of your turn, it is a good idea to say 'End my turn'. Your opponent will then end your turn, or say EOT and perform something in that step. You do the same for him. This gives players the opportunity to respond to the end of turn step.

As to phases, generally you use them in more complex situations (such as when you're attacking with a Putrid Leech and expect a removal spell). or if you're in a tournament game or your opponent expects it. If you're a precise kind of person, you have the right to ask them to use phases (but if they aren't used to it, they may forget).

If you have a rules question, and you can't work it out with your opponent, go to magic-league.com and join the #judges4you chat. They'll be able to answer it.

If you want to play combo, it's a good idea to become fluent at goldfishing it before playing on MWS, for the happiness of all concerned.

Last but certainly not least, if you play against a rude or abusive opponent, simply leave. There's plenty of other opponents out there: don't waste time playing against someone who abuses you. It isn't worth it.

These are all tips that I simply picked up from learning. There seems to be a lot there, but don't worry: you'll pick it up bit by bit until most of it is second nature. It's okay to be slow with the program at first (just make sure you solitaire enough to remember the basic functions before you play), and you'll get faster before you know it. And now, you people who don't know how to use MWS have absolutely no excuse:) Hop on MWS, and play some games!

Enjoy!