This is a primer. It discusses some basic theory; the fact that bluffing is good, revealing your hand is bad, and the main reason you should never – well, almost never – play anything during your first main phase. If you know this theory – really know it – then it won’t be much more than a refresher course, but with decklists.
If you have ever seen a long volley, then you may have seen pushing. Watch as one tennis player keeps knocking the ball further and further left until – BAM! A line drive down the right side. But you are hardly playing against reflexes, speed, or power; just intellect. Which means that pushing means more.
Of late, many cantankerous online Magic net-nannies have seen fit to opine that every Magic article or piece of Magic writing on the Internet should serve a purpose, and leave the reader better off, strategically, than he or she was before reading. It won’t ever be that way with me.
Team PhatBeats has been doing some playtesting – and in addition to the usual tweaks of U/G Madness and mono-black, they share some of the less-popular decks that have been faring well in their testing…
If a player still needs Back to Basics after packing a deck full of the most efficient counters ever printed, the strongest card draw and manipulation selection in a single color, a smooth mana base, plus Morphling-wall and Powder Kegs… Well, he should go play Pokemon.
I can’t believe I made it to the semi-finals for the four-way prize split in the OBC tourney; I have the actual crisp, green bill in my hands, and I still can’t believe it. But it wasn’t my amazing play skills that brought me to the peak.
You have to know your deck and your strategy all the way to the marrow. Once you know yourself well enough not to ask,”What am I going to do now?” you can focus on asking the question,”What is my opponent going to do now?” And that’s what wins games.
The setting is a darkened movie theatre. After a few seconds of inactivity, soft footsteps are heard, and four people, black figures silhouetted against the blank screen, begin to make their way to the center of a row of seats.
During my last artwork critique, I offhandedly stated that Worldgorger Dragon was the best red artwork in Judgment. Well, I was browsing through the Magic Arcana archives on magicthegathering.com, and let me tell you I missed a doozie.
So Geordie went 1-2 at the latest GPT trial. What were the ten mistakes he made while creating his barrel-scraping Llawan Reality deck – and how can YOU avoid them?
Why shouldn’t Wizards just drop the policy and make us all happy with affordable Moxen and Time Walks and Sinkholes, oh my? There is a simple reason… And it’s all about YOU!
Well, it turns out that last week we posted #13 and missed #12! So Stijn backtracks to discuss the prevalence of newbie Rhox players in his area and how he deals with them graciously, defeating them whilst teaching them.
Geordie’s back now that his new modem has arrived – and the Daily Shot continues! Today, he discusses the reasons for bringing his Alter Reality-based OBC deck to a Grand Prix Trial…
I really wanted to make G/R work in OBC… And I disagree with The Ferrett. I think there is a way to make it work. And I went to Origins to prove myself right, and him wrong.
We’re devoting pretty much all of today to Type One debate… But really, I want to get back to strategy. Strategy – you know, what this site is ostensibly about? Anyway, in the decapitated-chicken flailings of many a Type One player or hater, many facts seem to go by the wayside – and I really need to address some of these from a business perspective.
