“So, what does Jonathan have in store for us today?”
I’ll tell you upfront that you will not be seeing decklists in this article. I wouldn’t want to waste anyone’s time if that’s what they’re here for. And before you ask, I think this Standard format is very healthy, and I’ll be working on some decks in both Standard and Block Constructed when I’m not studying for exams.
However, what I will discuss is how to ask questions and why you should be doing it. Some of it will be Magic related; some won’t be.
Every question can have anywhere from one to an infinite number of answers. For example, your Hero of Bladehold is a question that can only be answered by: Dismember, Go for the Throat, Doom Blade, etc. There are only a certain amount of answers, and it is finite. Your opponent can only have so many cards in his or her hand, but if you just ask yourself some questions, you can get some free information.
Let’s consider the following scenario. You are playing a version of “Solar Flare,” and your opponent is playing a U/W deck (which you determine by his lands). You are on the draw, and your opponent plays nothing relevant until a turn 3 Mirran Crusader. Your hand does not have Mana Leak but instead has Liliana of the Veil, Day of Judgment, and some other cards. What questions can you ask yourself?
“Why is Mirran Crusader in his deck?”
These days, there are a decent amount of decks that Mirran Crusader is very good against. He fights the Wolf Run Ramp decks very easily along with providing a very fast clock on U/B Control players. But, this doesn’t matter to you; you are playing “Solar Flare” and have two answers to it in your hand. So, that’s the answer, right?
Wrong!
You can milk a lot more information out of the fact that he is playing Mirran Crusader. It is very likely that he is playing Sword of Feast and Famine or maybe even Sword of War and Peace. You are going to have to keep that in mind in your later turns if you are considering tapping out.
Since your opponent is playing Mirran Crusader, he is probably not playing Blade Splicer. There are certain counterexamples, such as the list that won last week’s StarCityGames.com Open. However, it is very daring to play one of the best creatures against Solar Flare when they have two mana up. It would probably be a better idea for him to play Blade Splicer if he could to lure out Mana Leak and mitigate the effect that Liliana of the Veil has on the field. Perhaps this was the reason why your opponent played Mirran Crusader. Maybe he wanted to bait a potential Mana Leak and then follow up with Blade Splicer to make your Liliana of the Veil virtually useless.
It is also worth noting what lands he used to cast Mirran Crusader. Using Seachrome Coast, Plains, Ghost Quarter is a lot different from using Glacial Fortress, Plains, Moorland Haunt. Ghost Quarter tends to show up in slower decks that play Sun Titan, while Moorland Haunt means that the deck has a higher creature density and is probably aggressive. This can dramatically change how you play with your Day of Judgment. Time for another question!
“What else could be in his hand?”
Don’t worry, you did not play Gitaxian Probe (unless you are Aaron Petronico). There are no reasons why you should know the cards in his hand. Except for the fact… that he played turn 3 Mirran Crusader!
What does this mean? It probably means that he is not playing a Humans-based U/W aggro deck. Those decks have a very low curve and will most likely mulligan a hand that would start on turn 3, unless if it had a Mana Leak. So, this means that if he reveals himself to be Humans later on, you can play around the Mana Leak in his hand.
On the other hand, if he is playing a more controlling U/W deck, you can just as easily expect him to have Mana Leak. This can be concluded from the fact that he did not play Think Twice, Gitaxian Probe, or any other card that either gets him information or digs him into his deck. Once again, there has to be a reason why he kept his opening hand, and the reason was not that he would start playing “real” cards on turn 3.
I think it would be safe to assume that he does not play Geist of Saint Traft because personally, I would have rather played a Geist of Saint Traft on an empty board than a Mirran Crusader. It is possible that he is running Sun Titan and/or Phantasmal Image because Mirran Crusader is a three-drop. There is not enough information to conclude that yet though. Last question:
“How should I proceed?”
Since we concluded that he probably has Mana Leak in his hand, it seems right to play Liliana of the Veil and -2 her. While this seems like it was the obvious play from the beginning, it is imperative to understand that every play has, or should have, a reason.
If your opponent instead played a two-drop like Grand Abolisher and then followed up with Mirran Crusader, you might try to two- or three-for-one with your Day of Judgment because there is nothing that has said that he does have a Mana Leak.
Once again, I want to stress how important it is to question every single play and try to narrow down the cards that your opponent may or may not have in his or her hand. Everything has a reason.
Here is another example:
Your first pick was Daybreak Ranger out of a pack with some good white and blue. You get passed a pack with both Bloodline Keeper and Brimstone Volley. You are about to windmill slam the Bloodline Keeper, but you remember an article by Yours Truly, and you ask yourself a question.
“Why did he not take Bloodline Keeper?”
You have the same information as the person on your right. You are looking at the same cards he looked at except for the card that he took. Let’s think. What rarity is the card that is missing? It seems like it is a rare/mythic rare. How many rares or mythic rares could be picked over Bloodline Keeper? You go through a mental checklist. Maybe he took Snapcaster Mage or Liliana of the Veil to rare draft. On the other hand, maybe he took Olivia Voldaren or Curse of Death’s Hold. So what? He took some random rare over Bloodline Keeper; can I just windmill slam the Bloodline Keeper and maybe just splash red or green for the Daybreak Ranger?
The answer is probably yes. Even though Brimstone Volley is a good card and is “on color” with your Daybreak Ranger, Bloodline Keeper is a huge bomb in Limited and can be responsible for singlehandedly winning matches and drafts. Since it is very likely that the card the person to your right took was black, you can conclude that if you were to take Bloodline Keeper, black will be cut hard. In doing so, there is no way that the people to your left should be black. This ensures that even though you won’t get the best black cards in packs one and three, you will end up with really sweet cards in black during pack two. In fact, having a neighbor that is the same color as you can be an advantage for this very reason. Bloodline Keeper is so powerful that it is most likely correct to move into black.
How about if the person to your left opened and took Bloodline Keeper? You may want to consider not fighting over black, since his choice of a transform card gave you free information. It could be right to take a slightly less powerful card just to stay out of a certain color. An example could be Victim of Night vs. Moon Heron.
Lastly, if you open up a Bloodline Keeper, you probably want to take it. If adjacent drafters use the previous logic I have stated, the person to your right will likely do everything he or she can do to stay out of black. The person to your left could go black but will only receive good cards in one of the three packs. Note that I only said that I would knowingly get cut off of black in packs one and three if I could be sure that pack two would yield cards of that color and because I picked a game-breaking bomb, like Bloodline Keeper.
Just remember that every pack in draft contains a boatload of information that is just waiting to be uncovered. Have fun playing the role of Sherlock Holmes or Encyclopedia Brown at your next draft!
Here is a question that I have asked myself multiple times:
“Why do you play Magic?”
Sometimes, I find myself in positions where Magic is taking up a lot of time, and I just can’t afford the time to play. When these times happen (such as right now, due to all of the courses I am taking), I ask myself why I play Magic.
The answer, naturally, has multiple parts. First and foremost are the friends that I have made through this game. I have met very many people both in real life and on Magic Online, and we all have this great game in common. As I write this, I am in the suite of some of my closest friends at Rutgers. I go here practically every night and sleep over often. I can talk to them about a lot of things: Magic, girls, life, school, Ascension, obscure references that only we know (It’s over lawbreaker!!). The reason why I met them? Magic.
Another reason why I like to play is because it is the best and most complicated game I have ever played. It has so many interactions, and there is hardly ever only one correct answer. Sometimes, there are judgment calls. Other times, you just got to believe in the heart of the cards! When I look at other games, I just relate it to something in Magic, and I instantly have knowledge of the game despite never playing it before.
Personally, I am a person that always thinks and needs something to occupy my mind. Magic is the perfect outlet for that. If I am walking around by myself or just relaxing, I can think about card interactions and deck concepts that I want to work on for the current format. If I have just a piece of paper and a pencil, I will be able to put all of my thoughts to paper and be able to discuss it with other Magic players.
While having things in common with friends is good, it is even better to have things in common with family. I love seeing siblings, like Reid and Ian Duke, test for tournaments together and do well. I have seen many parents and children play Magic together. A great example of this is my own family.
My father Mr. Sukenik (to most of you guys; to me, he is Dad), my older sister Sara, and I all started with Portal and Portal Second Age when I was in second grade. We have played Three-Man Team events at Prereleases and have traveled to tournaments together. A lot of times, we go with my whole family, which includes us three, my little sister Emily, and my mom. Emily and Mom understand how much this game means to our family and supports it. Whenever I come home from a tournament, Emily always greets me and asks how I did in my tournament. When I tell her that I naturally Top 8ed a StarCityGames.com Open and won some money, she always responds with a “Niiiiiiiice.” I am really glad that I am always able to talk to my family about Magic, along with various other things. Games are good!!!
Lastly, I have always wanted to be well known. I felt like it would be great if the name Jonathan Sukenik or Watchwolf92 became a mainstay. StarCityGames.com is helping me with that, and I really appreciate it. Writing and doing well in various tournaments allowed a lot of people to know my name. However, no matter how well known or not well known I become, I will never forget where it all started. I really like all of the local friends that I have and go to Magic tournaments just to see them sometimes. And it’s because you guys are awesome, and you know who you are!!!!
Going back to the topic of questions, asking questions is relevant to everyday life, too. As my dad has told me many times, “The smart people are those who ask questions.” Two weeks ago, I was a stupid person. I had an exam and interpreted the material that we had to study wrong. I thought the exam was going to be a different format with different theorems on it. However, I was stupid for not asking for clarification because I thought it was obvious what he was saying and didn’t want to look bad. Luckily, since practically everyone got a 46% or less the exam, that exam is not going to count. Running good!!!
There are also some things that you can never know the answer to unless you ask questions:
- Why did he not block my 2/2 with his 3/3?
- How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
- Why is the sky blue?
- Does the girl I like like me back?
It takes a lot of self-confidence to ask questions. You have to be willing to deal with how other people respond when you ask the question. No one likes being viewed as an idiot for asking a “stupid” question. It is important to be strong and be willing to step out of your comfort zone and just ask away.
For instance, there is this girl that I have liked for about a year. We eat lunch together every week, we have great conversations, and I talk about her all the time. Many people have encouraged me to tell her that I like her. So, what am I waiting for? The problem is that I just don’t have enough self-confidence. I keep on coming up with things she does that say that she doesn’t like me instead of that she does like me. The problem is that I am simply scared of being rejected. No person wants to not be liked. (Don’t worry, ladies; I’m still single!!)
The major point I am trying to make is that everyone, including myself, needs to learn how to ask more questions. Asking more questions will not only give you answers, but it will probably help with your self-confidence, too. It may make you better at Constructed Magic. It may improve your ability to draft. Maybe, you never really knew the reason why you liked something until you asked yourself. Or… maybe the girl you like feels the same way about you. We can never be sure until we ask.
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan “Watchwolf92” Sukenik