Sometimes the best advice you can give someone is the last thing you’d ever think of.
I found this out pretty quick when I received an absolutely overwhelming response to my article last week on stepping up your game. Most of the things I addressed in that piece are things that are second nature to me, and what I consider to be the ground level attributes of any winning player. While they are very basic, they are also essential to winning play.
I’d like to thank everyone who sent me e-mail with magic related questions and other issues, and also say that I do plan to respond to all of your emails in the next week. My computer managed to somehow contract a virus in the Internet Explorer program, so checking my hotmail account has been far less than easy, and I’ve been doing what I can at school to respond to emails, but I promise to have the rest of them answered in the next week.
Anyway, since I only touched the tip of the iceberg last week and got a huge response from you guys, I figure it would only be fitting to go a little deeper into the topic this week.
Having the Winning Attitude
Don’t Think You’re Good, Know It
In The Matrix (the first movie), Morpheus and Neo are engaged in a Kung Fu match in a sparring program. Despite the fact that Neo has perfect technique and knows everything there is to know about Kung Fu, he still loses to Morpheus every time.
Why is this?
Neo claims that Morpheus is just too fast for him. Morpheus’s response is”Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place?”
This same type of logic applies to the game of Magic.
In the Matrix sparring program, the fight was based on a set of rules, just like the game of Magic. Good players not only know all of these rules, but they also know how to give themselves the best chance possible of winning without actually breaking the rules.
The fact of the matter is, most of you go into a match or an entire tournament, expecting to lose. I’ve actually heard people say”Well, I hope the side drafts start early today,” immediately after registering for the main event of a PTQ.
Are you crazy?
Saying something like that is basically giving up before you even begin to play, and you might as well put that Jackson back in your wallet and go play some slot machines where you don’t have to use your brain to win.
It’s been said that a sport like baseball is 90% mental and 10% physical. In baseball you have to run, pitch, catch, and bat. In Magic, you sit in a chair, shuffle cards, and play the game, so how much mental energy do you think is involved? You better believe it’s all 100% and if your mind has already given up before you even play that first land, you better pick up a new attitude or you’re toast.
While there can only be one winner to every tournament, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go into every single one knowing that you have what it takes to win. Jon Becker wrote a great article about this a little while back, and I don’t really think it had as much impact on the community as it should have. Some days you may end up getting all the bad matchups, or mulliganning to five every game, but even in those cases, at least you did everything possible to try and win the tournament.
When you’ve already given up beforehand, you may end up keeping an opening hand with only one land because hey, you were going to lose anyway. Never allow yourself to admit defeat before you’ve even begun.
Now that I’m done busting your chops for a little there, I do have some advice.
If you ever have any desire to reach the heights of your game in Magical cards, you need to sit down and convince yourself that you’re the best. You almost have to go to a point of arrogance on this, and while it does take a lot of work to actually get to the point where you’re making very few misplays, it all starts with the right mindset. Why do you think most of the professional Magic players are cocky jerks? Because they all think they’re God’s gift to man, and the best player that ever lived. While most of them are only fooling themselves, and there’s no reason to be a jerk or extremely cocky, they are at least headed in the right direction in terms of confidence.
Trust me, confidence produces results, and you can be oozing self-esteem and still be a nice guy about it.
Watch For Potholes
While I hit on most of this last week, someone brought up an important point in the forum that I meant to say and just forgot in the midst of writing. That point is that after every game you play, you should go back over it in your mind a couple of times and see if there was anything you could have done differently. This applies to every game, and in some cases, especially the games you win! Most people respond to this with the classic”Well I won anyway, so who cares?” That attitude is getting you nowhere fast. When you are able to reflect on a mistake, you’ll be much less likely to make one like it again, and when you do this after every game, you’ll constantly be improving over time.
A situation-specific idea I’d like to talk about here is when you are able to win the game on your turn, but don’t do so because you fear your opponent has set some sort of trap for you. This sometimes arises when your opponent has attacked with a few creatures, but still left lethal damage on your side of the table if you simply attack with all of your creatures. Sometimes your opponent really is setting a trap, but in most cases they are just hoping you don’t attack so that they can win the game with an attack on their turn. Don’t fall for it. Honestly, I’ve seen so many games lost this way and unless you have ample reason to believe your opponent has something like Moment’s Peace or the like, go for the kill.
Some more good points about improving your game were found upon reflection of some questions sent to me in email this week.
Some Good Questions
Since I did receive a huge amount of email from my last article, I thought I’d discuss some of the questions people asked me here in a public forum.
The first is from Greg Peloquin, and he says :
It’s round two of a MMD draft tournament and I am in control but my opponent, who is playing RG, is beginning to stabilize. He is at 8 and I have a Hoverguard Overseer. He has 8 mana untapped. Last game I managed to win despite seeing two Tangle Spiders.
This game I have yet to see one.
He also has 4 cards in hand. He has an Oxidda Golem, Bottle Gnomes, Spikeshot Goblin and a Fangren Hunter in play. I have an unequipped Cub, Yotian Soldier and an Arcbound Hybrid in play.
So my dilemma is, do I attack and risk running into the spider, or do I hold back and save my Overseer? I reasoned that I should attack and risk walking into the spider because if he had it, I basically lost anyway as the Overseer would be useless on defense. If I held back, and he didn’t have the spider, then I would give him a chance to recover. Basically the only way I could win is if I attacked and he didn’t have the spider. So I attacked and walked right into the spider and proceeded to lose the game. I was criticized for this by people watching my game. I maintain I made the correct play. What do you think?
Well Greg, this is the classic Second Thoughts problem.
Back in Odyssey block, it was common knowledge that it was incorrect to attack into an opponent who left five mana up in the early or mid-game. While there were specific situations where you would risk it, most of the time it was better to simply make them keep the mana open every turn or not attack.
This situation, however, is quite different. Not only are you on a continuous clock from the Spikeshot Goblin, but your opponent still has a handful of cards and is slowly mounting an offense. Your decision to attack with the Hoverguard Overseer is absolutely correct, as you point out, it also does nothing on defense.
The point this question brings about, however, is not about attacking with the Overseer in this situation.
It’s about fear.
Some players play in constant fear that their opponent has every possible card necessary to beat them. I’ve actually heard people say they were playing around Molder Slug, when they had absolutely no reason to fear it. Playing around something like a Tangle Spider is feasible in situations where not doing so will cost you the game. This is because it is common, and because you can afford to wait a turn to see if your opponent has it.
Don’t sit there and play around every rare in the format, you’ll have a heart attack at a very young age if you’re constantly treading that lightly.
The second question I want to discuss is from David Scott :
Here’s my question: Most of my trouble seems to be deciding what to play, particularly early in the game.
Here’s an example that illustrates this type of situation:
Opponent’s Board: 2 Forests (tapped), Great Furnace, Iron Myr (tapped), Viridian Joiner (just cast)
Your Board: Swamp, Mountain, Leaden Myr, Slagworm Armor, Nim Replica
My Hand: Mountain, Electrostatic Bolt, Nim Shrieker, Icy Manipulator, Goblin Replica (just drawn)
For this example, let’s say I’m playing an artifact-heavy R/B sealed deck (Nims, Pewter Golem, Krark-Clan dudes, Skeleton Shard, a handful of red artifact removal with a Triskelion/Pentavus type creature to finish). So what’s the best play here? Do I equip the Replica with the Armor and charge in, risking removal and serious tempo loss? Or do I just play another permanent and try to drop the Shrieker once I get more artifacts built up? Or go straight beatdown and Bolt the Joiner and then charge in?
This question makes me all nostalgic to my old series of articles that I called”Situations.” Anyone who remembers those, will remember that stuff like this comes up all the time and it certainly is worth analyzing.
In this case, I’d certainly just cast the Nim Shrieker and keep the Nim Replica back, since your opponent is very likely to trade his Joiner for it. The only way he wouldn’t block here with the Joiner is if he didn’t have a fifth land in his hand, which is pretty unlikely. Then you can either Equip the Shrieker next turn, or drop the Icy and tap something if you draw a land, and he plays a blocker than can stop your Shrieker.
While these situations may seem somewhat basic in premise, hopefully they help you in areas where you can possibly improve your game.
Remember, confidence is the key. Get some.