“How can I get better at Magic?”

Ahhh, yes. The age-old question…

Magic is one complicated game. It is a game that attracts people from all over the world. While some people prefer to just play casually, everyone else only wants one thing in the end: they want to get better at the game. However, this is a lot harder than a lot of people think. On the bright side, you may be doing things to help your card slinging ability without even knowing it!

A day does not go by in this world when we are not using our brains. Magic encompasses a lot of topics, some of which you may practice all the time. Personally, I am a math major at Rutgers University and have to understand combinatorics, along with the ability to do quick calculations in my head with ease. When I took General Psychology, I learned about many strategies that could be helpful to traders, such as the Foot-in-Door technique. Spanish class allowed me to communicate with foreign Magic players online and in person. All right… maybe the last one is a stretch, but the point is that by simply taking classes in college (and playing Magic in class…), I can understand certain aspects of Magic better.

“What is the probability of drawing out of this one-land hand when I am on the play? How about the draw?”

Questions like these are ones in which being a math major really helps. For the record, I keep a lot more one-land hands on the draw than a lot of other people.

Other card games can help with your Magic abilities. One of them is poker. While a lot of people already know this, I think it is important to mention it. In poker, one has to be able to calculate the odds of them “finding their outs.”

Another important aspect is tells. As a poker player, it is vital to be able to make a very strong educated guess about the cards in your opponent’s hand, much like in Magic. You find out that if you ask certain questions, your opponent may give a certain reaction that tells you what they’re thinking.

A good Magic example is from Brad Nelson’s article a few weeks ago when he played against Adam Yurchick in Grand Prix Pittsburgh. Adam was playing Splinter Twin, and Brad had to know whether or not he could afford to kill Adam next turn at the cost of tapping out this turn. If Brad were to tap out and Adam had the combo, Brad would lose on the spot. Instead of just playing it safe, he decided to look at Adam’s eyes and saw Adam frantically looking around the board and was able to determine this probably meant that Adam was looking for an answer instead of just having the win in his hand. Poker can yield very similar situations, and practice makes perfect after all!

Ascension

Another great game that I enjoy playing a lot is Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer. This game is amazing, and if you don’t already have a copy, I highly recommend buying one here at StarCityGames.com. If you have no idea how to play this game, I suggest you skip the next couple of lines.

Anyhow, the game has a lot to do with Magic. I find that a lot of control players like drafting Mystics and buying big things, while aggressive players in Magic enjoy drafting a ton of Heavy Infantry. Some aggro-control players like drafting a mix of Heavy Infantries and Mystics.

So, what does this have to do with anything? Well, a week at college doesn’t go by without my playing this game with my super-special-awesome friend Alex Wong. For practically hours at a time, we are willing to discuss what “the right play” is given a certain board state. Sometimes, you’ll see interactions that come up in Magic. For instance, if you have a Wolf Shaman and Stone Circle out, you can purchase a Hero, put it on top of your deck, and then draw it with Wolf Shaman. However, sometimes, the right play could be to play Wolf Shaman and then try to draw a Mystic or Apprentice to buy a big card.

While this may seem obvious, I have seen many Magic players miss similar plays in a game of Magic. Even though the concept and goal of Ascension is different, card evaluations can be very important.

I’ve played Great-Omen Raven with one card in my deck and never missed. This shows the importance of knowing your deck. It doesn’t matter how long you had to memorize your deck; if you are wielding a weapon, you should be aware of what it’s capable of doing.

Similar games, such as Dominion, can help in the same way. I find that Ascension inherently helps with one’s ability to draft in Magic. It’s important to know how the cards you are drafting will interact with the cards in our pile. Getting used to this can be important.

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So, this is great and all… but how about getting better at Magic by playing Magic?

Let me begin by reiterating what I said in last week’s article. It’s possible to get worse at Magic by playing Magic. In order to prevent this, I think it is important to understand how playtesting should be done. Many people with very good results have posted how they playtest. Please don’t compare my methods to theirs; treat everyone’s opinion separately and use what you think is most effective.

First things first. Who should be in your playtesting group? You don’t want too many people, but if there are not enough people, you won’t be able to get enough results quickly. Personally, I think a playtesting session should have about eight to ten people present. Next, you should try to establish a goal. There are only two types of goals when testing:

You can be playtesting to get better at Magic.

You can be playtesting to figure out matchups and tweak decks.

In my opinion, these two goals can’t coexist. I’ll explain how I would conduct playtesting sessions for each of these goals.

Playtesting to Get Better at Magic

For this example, there will be eight players of varying ability. Anyone can play any deck they want, preferably the one they are most comfortable with. Only two games should go on at a time. Why? The other four people watch the four people who are playing.

Ideally, each player would have a partner who is a watcher. You can treat each game as a two-on-two battle, or you can choose to just have the watcher ask questions after a play is made. Anytime the player and watcher don’t agree, they should have a discussion. After reaching a conclusion that everyone can agree with, play will resume.

This is important because people should learn many different lines of play. Many great Presidents have had a Cabinet full of people with different points of view. This will help both the good players and the not-so-good players. The not-so-good players are encouraged to ask questions about why someone did something.

Normally, this shouldn’t be an issue. However, people always care about what other people think of them. If they are put in a comfortable environment where they won’t be judged for asking “stupid” questions, they are more likely to grow as a Magic player. The good players are forced to always play tight and justify their plays. I described last week how having Hepburn Best ask me a ton of questions caused me to rethink a lot of my plays. Friends can always help friends, no matter what their ability is.

Playtesting to Tweak and/or Figure out a Metagame

First of all, you want to play with the best other seven people you know. You want to play competitive games with the best, established decks. All four of the matches go on at the same time.

However, I tend to go against public opinion on one thing. I feel, when trying to tweak a deck or figure out a metagame, it is important to allow take-backs in game play. The reason is because you want to see how the decks play out against each other. You are not trying to win because your opponent makes a little misplay. This would be more fitting when trying to become a better Magic player. Allowing take-backs leads to more accurate results in testing. You can find out if your matchup against Tempered Steel is really 60/40 or if it is closer to 50/50.

Players should try to play decks that they consider themselves experts with. Try to play more sideboarded games than maindeck ones. In a tournament, you’ll at least play one maindeck game and one sideboarded game. However, you may have to play two sideboarded games, which means that the sideboarded games are more important than the maindeck ones.

Remember: Not everyone’s matchups can go up after sideboarding. Two people can’t both have a positive matchup at the same time.

When you play a maindeck game, try to keep hands not knowing what your opponent is playing. If you’re testing against Red Deck Wins, it doesn’t help if you are aggressively mulliganing just to have an answer to turn 1 Goblin Guide. It is important to make sure that the results are consistent for other players that are capable of playing that deck well. Having multiple people who can play the same deck well is important because they will be able to discuss whether a certain play is optimal or not. This will lead to the most accurate results of a metagame.

Lastly, how do we improve upon rogue decks? When someone builds a rogue deck, they build it with a certain metagame and matchups in mind. First, test against the decks it is designed to beat until it is clear that it has a favorable matchup against said deck. If the deck can’t even do what it is designed to do, it should be changed a lot or simply sent to the junkyard. The best examples I can think of were all of the decks that “beat Faeries” in one format or another. Here’s a hint for those of you who didn’t play back then: they didn’t beat Faeries as often as they thought.

Second, test against the bad matchups; confirm they are bad matchups. If the matchup is as bad as envisioned, try to improve it unless you are either satisfied with it or give up on the matchup. Most decks will have at least one really bad matchup.

This is where understanding the metagame can come into play. If you determine that your worst matchup will likely not be around after round three, then you’re building a deck to win the tournament. However, if you want to prey upon the decks that will only show up in the early rounds, you’re building a deck that will Top 8 but will probably not win the tournament. You should know what your goal is with regards to the tournament upon deck construction and deck choice. Personally, I would rather play a deck that will either 0-2 drop or win the tournament than a deck that will consistently Top 16 but never Top 4.

After you make sure you beat the decks you should beat and improve the bad matchups, what is there left to do? Play against the good matchups again. Wait…what?

Yeah, you heard me. You need to play against the good matchups again. If you’re putting cards into a deck for a bad matchup, you’re taking out other cards. More often than not, these are the cards that make your good matchups good. It is vital to the rogue deck to make sure that it is not sacrificing too many of its strengths to improve its weaknesses. In my opinion, that is the hardest part about building rogue decks.

How to Playtest on Magic Online

The best way to do this is to constantly make changes and make friends. Tournaments fire so often and so rapidly that most people forget to work on and tweak their deck. Personally, if I’m not grinding (unfortunately, if I’m on Magic Online, I’m usually grinding), I’ll work on my deck after every tournament. You’re also able to talk to the people around the world who are playing the same deck as you. Most people on Magic Online are friendly and willing to chat. I know that I am!

Watching replays and using the What’s Happening page on the Wizards site is very helpful for tweaking your deck and seeing what everyone else is doing. You can always have other people watch your matches, and you can screenshot a situation and then send it to your friends to see what they would do. Working on decks with friends either online or in person can be some of the most fun you have in Magic.

Hopefully, these tips gave you some insight as to how to grow as a Magic player. Before I say goodbye for this week, I wanted to say thanks to all of you readers! I’ve been writing for only a little bit over a month, but I have had over twenty people message me on Magic Online to chat with me and such. I really appreciate all the support and hope I was able to answer all of your questions. Like I have said before, I am always up for a chat!

Thanks for reading,

Jonathan “Watchwolf92” Sukenik