Last week, we left off after acquiring new players from scratch. We had attracted people with no exposure to Magic, and who have probably have never played a Collectible Card Game in their life. We covered how to get them in and intrigued by the game. But now what? You don’t just let them jump in head first. Imagine, they bought a few boosters, and you gave them a deck made of commons and uncommons. They come down to ye olde Game Shop, and promptly get beaten, soundly I might add, by a 13 year-old with acne and an attitude. Not exactly the best method for retention, is it? So, what can we do to make sure they keep playing?
We teach them to play better. Seems simple, I know, but it is actually very difficult. I mean, if it were easy to get better, we wouldn’t be at this very site, sitting at the virtual feet of Chapin and Ruel, seeking for the morsels of knowledge they delicately portion out to us. So, how do we make our new player better? How do we take them from newborn to competent opponent? Like any process, very carefully.
Tuesdays with Aaron:
You may recall from last week, I mentioned that a friend of mine had originally interested me in the game way back in the day. His name is Aaron* and he’s getting back into the game. Now, Aaron and I have been best friends for over half of our lives, since about 1994. We’ve been friends for even longer, but that’s tangential to the point. We’ve played games together for over 15 years, from Magic to Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars Minis and Chez Geek, Munchkin and FluXX. Board games galore, and more Magic knockoffs than I care to remember. Remember last week, I said you had to find the fire in them, what will drive them to keep playing?
Aaron likes to feel unique, and he likes to win. So, as long as I give him a deck that no one else is playing at the tournament, he gets to feel unique. And if it’s a good deck, he has a chance to win. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t build it, or that it’s a net deck. He doesn’t want to be “the only one” in the universe, just the only one in the room. Here’s the deck I started him playing:
Red Rover
4 Spark Elemental
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Flame Javelin
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Incinerate
4 Shard Volley
2 Banefire
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Hell’s Thunder
4 Ghitu Encampment
18 Mountain
We have since made a few changes, tweaking things by his choice. This allowed him to learn why certain things worked and certain things didn’t work. From there, he has now progressed to a very basic Black/Red Blightning beatdown deck. It keeps a lot of the familiarity from his original deck, but gives him a little more power and flexibility. This is the deck he sleeved up this past Friday for our FNM:
Basic Blightning
2 Banefire
4 Blightning
4 Flame Javelin
4 Incinerate
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Spark Elemental
1 Auntie’s Hovel
2 Graven Cairns
4 Savage lands
1 Sulfurous Springs
14 Mountain
Sideboard
4 Shard Volley
4 Hell’s Thunder
4 Stigma Lasher
2 Everlasting Torment
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 10th Edition Tips and Tricks Parts of the Turn
It’s a pretty fundamental Blightning-based aggro-burn deck that’s legal in standard right now. In the future, I’ll probably transition him into either a G/B Elf deck, or B/W Tokens (Depending on land availability. Curse you, Caves of Koilos!) More importantly, it’s teaching him the lessons he needs to learn right now, to progress to one of those decks. Further down this article, I will break down those lessons for you, and how each card teaches a different lesson or lessons. Before I do that, though, let me alleviate some of the expected outcry of the deck listed above. The lands are based on what I have right now. Obviously, I would love to have a full boat of Graven Cairns in the deck, but I only have two. I traded my other two for Cascade Bluffs for Five Color Control. (My deck of choice right now) It’s built that way for the same reason we don’t have him playing B/W Tokens yet. I have all the spells, but I need the Caves of Koilos and Windbrisk Heights to finish the build. But that’s a lesson for another week.
One other card that’s listed is the 10th Edition Tips and Tricks card “Parts of the Turn.” If you have these, do not throw them away. They are incredibly valuable for a new player learning the game. I have one sleeved up (in a different color, natch) and put in the deck box with him. He plays with it next to his deck box, so that if he has a question, he can remember the steps of the turn. This is something that many of us could benefit from as players, simply as a reminder of upkeep, and combat phase progression (As an aside to the judging community: Is this legal? I’m assuming it is, as it’s printed and distributed by Wizards of the coast in packs, and it’s just the rules of the game, which players are allowed to access. Please, weigh in on the forums if you can.) Other Tips and tricks cards are also decent reading material to give specific instruction on specific rules of the game.
Okay, on to the breakdown.
Burn Cards (Flame Javelin and Incinerate): These cards teach the player a few lessons. One is proper application of resources. When do you use burn, and what do you target? For instance, Aaron once aimed two consecutive Flame Javelins at his opponent, instead of aiming one of them at their Rhox War Monk. Aaron learned where and when to point his burn. He learned a lesson on the best way to win that race. (Hint: it’s not letting them do a 6 point life-swing every turn with the Pancake Flipper.) He’s learned to hold his burn until the opponent is close enough to kill, to maintain maximum flexibility (Like if they drop a War Monk, and you’ve already wasted your Javelins, you’ll wish you had them)
Banefire: This card teaches Aaron the value of a finisher, a win card. We took them out for a short while, and he was having trouble finishing certain games, especially against control decks that were countering his kill cards. This may seem obvious, but sometimes, players need to learn that you need to have a way to win the game, a bomb spell. (insert Cruel Ultimatum reference here ; )
Blightning: Ah, the power of discard. This was a pretty easy lesson for Aaron to grasp. He quickly learned that every card his opponent discarded was a weapon that couldn’t be used against him, and thus the early stages of card advantage have been implanted. He also learned about drawbacks, as this required him to diversify his landbase, so the spell had tradeoffs for its power. One lesson that he hasn’t learned yet is the power of casting this when they have two cards instead of three. I’ve seen him run it out there, and he hasn’t learned that if he casts is when they have more than 2 cards, they are getting rid of their two worst spells. But if he casts it when they have 2 cards in hand, they are losing all their spells, and probably one of their best spells.
Spark Elemental and Boggart Ram-Gang: Basic Aggro critters to show combat and damage, Boggart Ram-Gang also teaches him about wither. Both cards also show him the power of haste compared to non-hasty options.
Volcanic Fallout: The power of the Sweeper. Volcanic Fallout teaches the player lessons about sweeping away opponents creatures, as well as being uncounterable. This also teaches him about timing and damage. Playing this after damage in a combat step has helped him sweep away more than one fatty. Much like burn, it’s also teaching him about the stack. Finally, this also teaches a lesson about one of the facets of card advantage: The 2 (or more) for 1.
Mogg Fanatic: Ah, the combat trick. Mogg Fanatic teaches about how the stack and priority operate during the combat phase. Teaching Aaron about “Block, damage on the stack, sacrifice” was a great learning experience for him to understand how the rules operate now.
Hellspark Elemental: The unearth ability of this card teaches the pilot of the deck that he can use the graveyard as a resource. They learn that just because a card is in the graveyard does not mean it isn’t potentially dangerous. It also has taught a valuable lesson on resource allocation. If you have 1R open, do you cast the Hellspark from your hand, or Unearth the one in your graveyard? Aaron was always running the one from his hand out, but learned that in some cases, the better play is running the graveyard one out. Cards in your hand are unknown, and that makes them dangerous. Sometimes, you do want to play the one from your hand, so you can unearth them both on your next turn. The point is, stop and think. Think it through, and reason out which one is the better play.
Figure of Destiny: This card gives a strong lesson on activated abilities. Many players struggle to learn about the timing and effects of activated abilities. Furthermore, we learn more about getting value out of card advantage. In this case, the card is four creatures in one, growing as you need it to without costing you another card from your hand. This was a good card for Aaron to learn about avoiding sweepers. He would spend a turn or two growing his figure, forcing the opponent to deal with this one threat, then overwhelm them with the cards he was still holding.
The lands: We originally saw Man-lands in the mono-red build, and learned the difficulty of killing something that isn’t always a creature. We also learned more about card advantage in getting multiple features out of one card. Now, in the Black/Red build, Aaron sees how multiple colors don’t come free, and we have to balance the amount of Black we need versus the drawbacks we’re willing to accept.
Teaching the Stack:
One area a lot of players have problems is learning the stack. Even veteran players commonly mess up the stack, allowing all sorts of errors and bad beats to get through. Here is a nice little trick I have picked up to show players exactly how the stack works. Take a pile of cards, and physically create a stack. Put a spell on, put a response on, and so on and so on. Once a player is able to visualize the stack, to see it, it is rather easy. Let’s use an example from Patrick Chapin article this week:
“I was playing a Faeries mirror this weekend and at one point I had a Visions going off during my upkeep. My opponent had 6 mana (to my 4) and Stifled my Visions. I Spellstutter Sprited his Stifle, to which he Spell Snared my Sprite. I Spellstuttered his Spell Snare, which drew the Cryptic Command. I simply pitched a Sower of Temptation to Shoal his Cryptic Command.”
~Patrick Chapin,
So, I would take out some proxies, or the actual cards, if I had them handy, and literally show this. Put out an Ancestral Visions first, on the bottom. Then, put a Stifle on top of that. Put a Spellstutter Sprite on the pile next, followed by a Spell Snare. Another Spellstutter Sprite goes onto our impromptu stack next, and a Cryptic Command on top of that. The pile is now 6 cards high, and we’re putting a Disrupting Shoal on top of all of that. Now show how each card resolves in order, and how that affects the stack.
Do this with burn, and other stack shenanigans that are hard to figure out. Have a question that’s hard to figure out? Work it out step by step, using your own stack. Combo pieces are great to figure out, especially if someone is comboing you out, and you want to figure out the best time to disrupt. The stack becomes a lot easier for anyone to figure out by actually making a stack. I like to use the stack when I’m playing Combo, to allow the opponent to pass priority at each step. It also helps ensure I’m not getting a win by any means other than superior play, such as my opponent misunderstanding, or a communication error. Each step, one at a time, the first time through. After one complete loop (If it is a loop) I say that I intend to repeat as necessary until they are dead. If they have a disruption, or request another pass through, I will. I learned more about the stack by actually making a stack than by all the rules articles I’ve ever read.
Finally, last week, in the forums, I had a request for my personal teaching deck-lists. I’ll post them later, but I wanted to try a little thought exercise.
As I mentioned last week, you can obtain the planeswalker half-decks for free from www.hereirule.com by inputting your information. I have two of these decks with me, and I’m going to list them out. Then, I want you to tell me what changes you would make, and why. Keep in mind, this is for teaching new players, not power tripping up the decks. (BTW, we call them the planeswalker half decks because each color come in a box with the appropriately colored Lorwyn Planeswalker on it, and they’re only 30 cards.)
Chandra Halfsies
1 Blaze
2 Lava Axe
1 Demolish
2 Incinerate
2 Shock
1 Kindled Fury
1 Axegrinder Giant
2 Lightning Elemental
1 Hill Giant
1 Anaba Bodyguard
1 Wall of Fire
1 Prodigal Pyromancer
2 Flamekin Brawler
12 Mountain
Lilliana .5
1 Corrupt
1 Gloomlance
2 Essence Drain
2 Mind Rot
1 Megrim
1 Afflict
1 Distress
1 Contaminated Bond
2 Highway Robber
2 Moonglove Winnower
2 Ravenous Rats
2 Smolder Initiate
12 Swamp
Here are the rules of the game:
1. No rares. You need to be willing to part with these cards as a gift. If you’re willing to do that, awesome. As for me, I have more bills and less money.
2. Only 2 non-basic lands. Let’s not make it too tricky in the land department
3. 30 cards, no more, no less.
4. Keep in mind, these are for new players. No Quillspike / Devoted Druid infinite combo, or other high powered shenanigans. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
5. No more than 2 of any card. We want the players to see as much of the flavor as possible, as many different cards as possible. We want them to be exposed to the game, not tune the deck into a mean dueling machine.
So, there you go, have at it in the forums. I’ll post my version, along with some notes, at the end of next week’s article. Feel free to make your own decks as well.
Until next time, this is Jeff Phillips, reminding you: Don’t make the Loser Choice
* Aaron’s name has not been changed, because it’s a freaking Magic site. How much secrecy do you need?