Intelligence
Good intelligence is a very valuable tool in the game. It allows the player to manage her actions wisely by taking calculated risks. It also allows her to anticipate the opponent’s possible moves and guard against them. This principle has several components:
*Knowledge of the cards in the set: The player must know well the cards in the set she plays. This may help her anticipate traps the opponent sets for her. It is of particular importance to know the common cards in the set because they are probably the ones the opponent is holding. Of the common cards, special attention should be paid to the instant speed spells since they are the tricks the opponent will probably use. A player should memorize by heart the instants of each set, or at least the ones considered playable. The amount and type of mana the opponent chooses to leave open or odd actions she makes may be used as clues to the cards she holds, but the use of these clues obviously requires prior familiarity with the cards in the set.
*Remembering the cards played by the opponent: During the first (and second) game, the opponent reveals many of the cards in his deck. This allows the player to obtain more accurate information than that provided by simply memorizing the cards in the set. That is why it is important to remember the cards played by the opponent, and for that the player can also use registration.
Knowing the opponent
Another level of intelligence can be drawn from knowing the opponent. Different players play in different ways. Some like to ‘play it safe’ and avoid gambling. Others like to take risks. If I know that the player in front of me does not like to take risks, I will know better how to ‘read’ her actions. For example, if she attacks under conditions that presumably put her at a disadvantage, I will assume that she is preparing some kind of surprise for me. By contrast, if I know that the opponent tends to bluff, I will be more willing to expose the bluff. Knowing the opponent also affects my proactive moves: for example, whether to try to bluff. Bluffing is more likely to work against cautious players and less against players who like to take risks.
Additional information can be derived from knowing the opponent’s experience. New players tend to make more mistakes than veteran players and this may be relevant to how we decide our own moves. Examples of typical mistakes for inexperienced players: lack of awareness or insufficient attention to the order in which abilities or spells resolve; mistakes in blocking attackers, especially when it comes to blocking several attackers at the same time; failure to pay attention to the reserve or security principles, such as wasting removals on negligible creatures and abandoning defense in favor of attack.
Cunningness
‘With tricks you will make war’, so it is written in the Bible. This is one of the oldest principles of war and there is no military thinker throughout history who did not place great emphasis on the need to deceive the opponent and surprise her in order to gain an advantage on the battlefield. In MTG trickery and bluffing is an integral part of the game, even if many players, due to over-caution or lack of imagination, tend to neglect it. Basically, trickery is an action (or lack of action) designed to get the opponent to act in a way that is convenient for us. This is a manipulation, and its chances of success depend on the opponent being unaware of it.
Example of a very simple trick:
Preempt and cast a medium creature as a diversionary action in order to attract the opponent’s removals before casting a higher quality creature. A ruse can also be much more complex. In fact, there are countless ways in which players can deceive their opponents. There is no way to try to cover the various options here. Nevertheless, it is possible to introduce several rules that may help with cunning thinking. The first rule was introduced by the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu in the second millennium BCE: ‘Being weak I will appear strong, and being strong I will appear weak’. The player suffering from disadvantages needs time to stabilize his situation on the battlefield. By presenting herself as strong, she prevents the opponent from exploiting his advantage and buys herself the time required to grow in strength.
At the same time, there is a great advantage in transmitting weakness to the opponent precisely when the player has ‘surprises’ in hand. For example: cast a number of relatively weak creatures and thus tempt the opponent to cast as many creatures as possible as a preliminary move to use mass removal; or avoid attacking and thereby encourage the opponent to attack in turn to allow maximum utilization of CT.
Another example of trickery:
This one provided by one of the greatest Magic players of all time, John Finkel. During a tournament, Finkel placed a goblin capable of inflicting damage on a creature equal to the number of goblins on the table (Sparksmith Goblin). Finkel’s problem was that she had no more goblins on the battlefield: in fact, she had very few in his deck. Finkel’s opponent placed a Wirewood Herald, a 1/1 elf creature, which, upon reaching the graveyard, allows the player controlling it to search for another elf creature in the deck and put it in her hand.
Finkel knew that the opponent wanted to look for a very specific elf: a creature capable of giving +1/+1 on every elf on the table (Timberwood Elf). Finkel realized that she had to prevent the introduction of the Timberwood at all costs because this would have almost certainly resulted in his defeat (the Sparksmith alone could not eliminate the elf as the Timberwood has a toughness of 2). What did Finkel do? she ‘shot’ the Wirewood Herald, allowing her to instantly search for the Timberwood. In doing so, she actually signaled to the opponent, ‘I don’t care if you summon the Timberwood as I have a means to eliminate it (an additional Goblin for example)’, and indeed the opponent avoided casting the Timberwood and allowed Finkel to gain time and ultimately win the game. By appearing strong, Finkel overcame his weakness.
Sparksmith
mana costs:
mana amount: 2
complexity: 1
Timberwatch Elf
mana costs:
mana amount: 3
complexity: 1
Wirewood Herald
mana costs:
mana amount: 2
complexity: 1
Good bluff, John!
Flexibility
A commander on the battlefield must show flexibility in the face of changing circumstances. she should be able to forget for a moment all the martial arts she learned in military colleges and act according to the conditions in the field. A general’s ability to break familiar patterns is what differentiates a professional officer from a military genius. At the Battle of Cannae in the third century BCE, Hannibal deployed his army in a way that defied all logic and in so doing managed to reap a military success that is almost unparalleled in history.
A good Magic player is a player who is well acquainted with the principles of the game but knows when to deviate from them. There are times when insisting on playing by the ‘book’ is not an optimal decision. Good players notice that they are facing an infrequent situation in the game and must behave flexibly, demonstrating willingness to break the rules. Less flexible players continue to play according to the usual prescriptions, hurting, sometimes badly, their chances of winning.
Take for example:
a rule of thumb known to every experienced player: chump blocking isn’t good. Chump blocking is a play action where a creature blocks an attacking creature without trading with it. At this point in the guide, the reader should know why this is a wrong play: it buys a little time but is detrimental to your card balance compared to your opponent. However, chump blocking is often the right move. For example, when you have a creature attacking from the air and you need a few more turns to achieve victory. Another situation in which chump blocking would be a good play is when the opponent attacks with a very large creature that you can’t or don’t want to spend the cards to deal with. Sacrificing a small creature allows you to gain time to find a solution.
Another example:
casting your removal on the first creature the opponent summons is usually considered a mistake. As we have learned, removals are the most effective cards in the game and have a lot of weight in achieving victory. You want to save them to deal with the opponent’s bombs or creatures that you have no other way to deal with. However, in some situations early use of removals would be the right play. For example, when the opponent suffers from a lack of mana and you have a fast hand. In this case, eliminating a creature that can replace your creature will give you the tempo needed to achieve victory before the opponent stabilizes the ground.
The opposite case is a situation in which you have an expensive hand and your opponent has an aggressive opening. Eliminating one of her creatures is essential in order to buy the time needed to stabilize the battlefield.
Last example: casting spells in the first main phase is usually a wrong play. You want to give minimum information to the opponent in your attack phase so that she will have to consider the possibility that you will use CT and hide from her what intentions you have for your mana this turn. That is why it is recommended that you cast spells in the second main phase, and this is admittedly the default for Magic players. Yet sometimes casting the spells before the attack phase is the right play. For example, when a certain spell can strengthen a creature intended to attack or give it a useful ability. Players often facepalm after going on automatic pilot and forgetting to play a spell that might have given them an advantage in the attack phase.
example from real life
In October 2010, I spent some time in Toronto as part of a postdoctoral fellowship. To my delight, it turned out that in the same month there was going to be a Grand Prix sealed format in the city (it might be that I chose the post-doc according to the Wizards schedule). A week before the Grand Prix, as usual, a preliminary tournament was organized at the local game store: the first prize was a triple-by for the big event. I managed to make it to the top 8 of the sealed, and, after winning the first 2 rounds of the draft, reached the finals.
After that won the first game and was in a great position to win the second one as well. I had one of the strongest cards in the format in play: Grafted Exoskeleton. If that wasn’t enough, the armor was put on Kemba, Kha Regent, allowing me to spawn a 2/2 cat every turn. And that was exactly the problem. Since I wanted to fully utilize the tokens’ production capacity, I could not use the equipment for offensive purposes. My strategy was to sit back and wait to have an overwhelming advantage in creatures before sacrificing Kemba.
In the meantime, I took damage from an opponent’s flying creature that I was unable to block. My misplay was that I wasn’t flexible enough in changing my game plan once the flying creature appeared in the skies of the battlefield. I preferred to stick to my strategy despite the slow but steady gnawing at my life total. When I finally came to my senses and went on the attack, it was already too late. Of course, also lost the third match and missed the free bys.
Coolness
MTG is an exciting game, full of surprises and twists. That’s why we love it so much. The fact that the game arouses emotions does not mean that we are supposed to play in an emotional way. A player who manages to keep her cool, even in the face of developments in the game that are not particularly encouraging, increases her chances of winning. Several emotions are directly responsible for the countless game losses around the world. Here I will try to review the main ones from my own experience and the unhappy experience of others. I will try to describe several mistakes that players make because they let emotions influence their decisions.
Despair is an important emotion because it prevents individuals from wasting their time and energy in a futile attempt to achieve an impossible goal or one whose payoff is not worth the investment. Every time an electrical apparatus breaks down in my house, I am filled with optimism about my chances of fixing it. Fortunately, my optimism is also limited, so after half an hour or so I am filled with despair and, without wasting more precious time, I put it in the trashcan (recycling of course) or send it to a professional for repair.
But despair also has less beneficial sides. It may dishearten players even though all hope isn’t lost. Even in the face of a seemingly desperate situation on the battlefield, redemption is possible. I can’t remember how many games I’ve watched where one side’s loss seemed certain, yet the game ended with her victorious. Keeping calm in moments of crisis is very important. It also has a psychological effect on the opponent because an appearance of calmness can trick her into believing that you have an ace up your sleeve.
Avoid the trap
Many MTG players fall into the trap of smugness. When they are confident of winning, they become too relaxed and make mistakes. A typical mistake is to mess with the poor victim (the opponent in this case) instead of landing a coup de grace. More than once I have seen a player delay victory, confident that the latter is inevitable, and thus allow the opponent to unexpectedly return to business. Smugness, like despair, has evolutionary advantages. The feeling of ease and self-confidence it instills prevents unnecessary effort and saves energy. But in Magic, it’s best to always be alert. It’s not over until it’s over, as the proverb says.
Emotions management.
There is no emotion that is responsible for more defeats than the fear of regret. Every Magic player will identify with the following scenario: you have a clear advantage on the battlefield but not yet an overwhelming one. You and the opponent play from the library. Every time she draws, you miss a heartbeat fearing a turnover. You fear that if the opponent stabilizes, you will regret not acting sooner, and you feel an uncontrollable urge to exploit your advantage while it lasts. This leads to a premature attack that the opponent has no difficulty absorbing. You were better off waiting for a better opportunity. Wanting to win is good, wanting to win too much is bad.
As humans, we share a tendency to persist with an investment that turned out to be bad. Imagine you are calling the cable company to complain about a malfunction. While you expect an emphatic human voice, you hear instead a recorded message, ‘Your call is important to us. We are doing our best to respond quickly. Thank you for your patience’. Half an hour later you are tired of waiting, yet you find it difficult to hang up. Since you have already invested 30 minutes of our time, you are reluctant to let this investment go down the drain. The hatred of losing leads you to another half hour of waiting (which usually ends with the call being disconnected)
Sunk Costs
This phenomenon is known in economics as sunk cost. It means making a decision based on previous decisions even though they are no longer relevant. It is one of the most common pitfalls lurking at the door of MTG players. Suppose you’ve decided to avoid attacking with a flying creature, preferring to keep it on defense so that it can trade with one of your opponent’s attacking creatures. However, as the opponent declares attack, you suddenly ponder whether the exchange is indeed worthwhile. In principle, you should decide regardless of the fact that you gave up the creature’s offensive services in the previous turn. In fact, the decision not to attack during the previous turn is likely to affect your judgment: not trading the creature now means that it was left in defense for nothing.
