In a game of Magic, you often face choices that seem absolutely obvious. However, it is necessary to check there is no information to gain from your opponent before playing a card.
Draw Before Acting
For instance, let’s say you have played a turn 1 Seal of Fire and your opponent opens with Birds of Paradise. Many people don’t even think and kill the Birds immediately in this situation. In a way, their analysis is correct, as killing it is very likely to be your next move. However, there is absolutely no reason to do it during your opponent’s turn. Indeed, the situation will be the same after your draw your card, meaning you get free information as to whether it is the correct play or not.
This example may seem very simple, but it applies to lots of situations of different levels of complexity.
A common mistake lots of people make (and I mean at competitive level) is to decide that a card or an ability that says” draw a card” must be played at instant speed if possible. It may be better to do this when playing a Constructed Blue deck, as you don’t want information to leak to your opponent, such as “I don’t have a counterspell, so you can play your best spell,” but it is just awful in Limited. An Instant must, in general, be played during your opponent’s turn, as you hide any information from your opponent as to what you have in hand, and can thus surprise him, but draw spells in Limited are often better played in your first main phase, so they can give you better cards to play, and so that you pick up additional information to aid you in deciding what to do in your next attack phase.
Let’s see some more examples…
It’s your turn 3, you have a Forest and Mountain on the board, and a Jungle Weaver and a combination of lands and spells you can’t cast yet in hand. Many people play a land, then pass, and only during the opponent’s turn do they cycle. Are you sure you don’t run any one-drop, any triple-land that comes into play tapped, or Borderposts? Isn’t there any combination of draws that could make you want to play a different land?
A very similar case can occur when you have exactly what it takes in hand to tap out to play the best card in your hand plus a draw spell card. You should always play the draw spell first, and only then make your final decision as to what to play.
Never Concede When You Have a Draw Step Left Before You Die
As long as you have a card to draw, and you have at least one life, do not concede, even if you want to do so very badly. The disappointment caused by mulligans, mana issues, or opponents’ topdecks often lowers your ability to judge and focus. In most of the games that seem to be lost, there still exists one draw, or a combination of draws, that can create a miracle.
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Never Concede a Non-Decisive Game If You Have Enough Time to Finish the Match
When your deck leaves you no chance to turn the tables, but you are either still in game 1 or in you’re in game 2 and you’re 1-0 up, keep on playing. This way, you will push your opponent to reveal more about his deck. The simple fact of knowing he has one more pump sell, bounce spell, or removal spell can change the whole way you will be playing the games yet to come.
How do you force this information out of him? Simply by staying alive. Don’t show any more non-creature spells if they won’t help you, and just play your guys out until the end. Often, your opponent will show you one or two useful cards.
However, you shall pay attention to the clock. Most Limited games (including shuffling and mulliganing) take between 10 and 15 minutes. Therefore, if you have less than 10 minutes left per game, the wisest choice will often be to give up.
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Never Play Your Creatures Before Attacking
You have five lands and Beacon Behemoth in play, and your hand contains Mountain and Cavern Thoctar, while your opponent only has an Island, a Mountain, and a Swamp untapped. Apparently, playing the land and the 5/5 in the first main phase and then attacking won’t change a thing. However, you give your opponent two precious pieces of information if you do this: you don’t have a pump spell, and you have a bigger guy. This can change a lot of things if he has:
Agony Warp, Resounding Thunder, or Grixis Charm: He’ll play it now, while he could have kept it for a better occasion.
Terminate: He could have killed your second best guy, but now will take five to take down your biggest monster.
Any removal plus Soul Manipulation/Spell Snip: He will neutralize both of your cards.
Keep an Eye on the Graveyard
Threshold, Flashback, Exhume, any reanimation spell… it is good to keep in mind that cards put in the graveyard don’t automatically become useless. It is good, sometimes, to have a quick look in both players graveyard to check you haven’t forgotten about anything. Also, if you see something interesting there, and fear you might forget about it or remind it to your opponent as well, don’t forget you’re allowed to take notes during the game. So feel free to use a reminder.
When you hope to draw a specific card, or if you fear your opponent could have a specific threat/answer, check in both graveyards that these cards haven’t been played yet. In general, having a look at both players’ graveyards once in a while (such as when your opponent is taking a long time to think through his turn) takes nearly no time, and it can be pretty useful.
There is one exception. If you are convinced that your opponent isn’t aware of a piece of information concerning a graveyard, don’t remind him of anything by checking the discard pile.
If you have just obtained the seventh card for Threshold, don’t count your graveyard, as it will push your opponent to ask you how many cards you have in there, or to check by himself. The same goes if one of you has a Flashback/Unearth spell. On the other side of the coin, when your opponent looks carefully at his graveyard, he’s often giving you the indication he might have something going on there.
“How many cards in hand?”
When you want to play a discard spell, you always need to know how many cards your opponent has in hand. Therefore, if you really need to know how many cards he is holding, just count by the number of turns that have passed, and how many cards he should have drawn. Then subtract his cards in graveyard, removed from the game pile, and (of course) his permanents. If you’re not too bad in math, and if you remember who played first and if he took mulligans, that should do.
If a Red/Black opponent asks you about your cards in hand, you can be scared of Blightning. In this situation, there are two choices. You must either empty your hand as fast as possible, or try and keep a shield (such as by not playing one or two lands, even though they might be useful).
Guessing the Opponent’s Hand
Players always reveal more information than they think. Things can be revealed in the way they look at their cards, the way they hold them, or they time they take to think on the decisive turn of a game.
A player usually plays a land a turn for as long as he can, until he reaches the point when he has only lands in hand. If he misses a land drop from turn 4 to 6, you should be able to determine the number of spells he has in hand for quite a while.
This type of information may seem extremely precious. For instance, let’s say your opponent doesn’t play a land or a spell on turn 4. You attack with a 3/3 into his 2/2 and he doesn’t seem like he even considers blocking an option. He probably doesn’t have a pump spell in hand. If two turns later he has played two more lands, he still doesn’t have any Giant Growth effect, so you can keep on attacking with the bigger dudes freely.
Also, when you are afraid of facing a specific card, you must wonder if your opponent already had a window to play it, and when that window was. Let’s say, for instance, you and the bad guy are in topdeck mode. Two turns ago, he could have made a two-for-one block with Agony Warp if he had it, and on the next two turns he has played guys. Whatever the opponent has in hand, he is very unlikely to play Warp in your next attack, so feel free to go.
Useful Note-Taking
On a regular basis, you are in a position in which you know one card or more from your opponent’s hand… following a discard spell, or a bounce spell, etc.. Always take notes on what you know, and pay attention to the type of card (foil or not, expansion, possibly even language).
You play Thoughtseize and see the following : Vivid Meadow, Vivid Marsh, Mirage Island, Mulldrifter, Textless Terror, Fourth Edition Terror. If, after several turns of a game, your opponent has played only one Terror, and he has drawn a third one, there is good chance he doesn’t remember which one you have seen. If he plays a second Fourth Edition Terror, for instance, you now know about one of his cards in hand. A classic example – your opponent sacrifices Armillary Sphere and goes for a Mountain and a Swamp. Try to remember what they look like, and keep in mind (or write it down if you can’t) their numbers. He won’t, most of the time, remember himself which exact land he has searched for, as long as you don’t make to obvious he should do so (that’s why I would recommend not writing the number).
Where Does He Place His Freshly-Drawn Cards?
Many players need to pile-sort their cards in hand so they have a better overall vision of the game. Most players put the card they are about to play on the right-hand side of their grip, starting with their next land. You can keep an eye on what he is doing with his cards in hand for a few turns, and over time you’ll know if he separates spells and lands or not. If he doesn’t, it’s no big deal… checking that didn’t take much time. But if he does, he nearly plays with his hand revealed. Another classic way to know when your opponent has a land in hand is to note, when he is hesitating between two cards to play before he eventually drops a land, where the other card is situated in his grip, and to try and follow the card until he actually plays it.
Reading Reactions to Drawn Cards
When your opponent has no cards in hand, he can draw three types of cards to cause different thought processes:
A) A land. No (or not much) reaction, but rarely a happy face.
B) Another permanent. Not much thinking required, as he generally plays it.
C) A non-permanent spell. This requires immediate thinking, which may be short, but it’s almost automatic.
A player with a good poker face can make the topdecking of A, B and C look very much alike. However, most people don’t have that aptitude to mask their reactions (not even many pros).
In the case of A, there’s no need to worry excessively. He probably doesn’t have anything in hand. B should not have an impact either on your next decisions. However, when C occurs, your opponent won’t necessarily play a spell this turn, but you will have to pay attention as the signals are there. He is very likely to be holding a card in hand that he is willing to keep while waiting for the best opportunity to play it. It will often be a removal spell, a pump spell, or a bounce spell. However, pay attention to one exception: Countermagic. Drawing a counterspell pushes someone to pass the turn very quickly. Therefore, when facing a Blue deck, stay vigilant in the when they appear to have drawn a card in the A category.
Every single one of the points we have walked through may be a minor detail, but it doesn’t mean they can be neglected. When you add them all together, both players’ tiny deductions often decide of the result of a game.
Until next week!