Quick Tips 1: Combat

Hey everyone.  Updates are delayed while I'm applying for scholarships, but this series of Quick Tips should give you some healthy pointers in convenient bulleted-list format.

This set of Quick Tips is all about combat.  I am a documented fan of turning creatures sideways, and these should help you turn sideways more successfully.  Just remember that Quick Tips are guidelines, not rules.

• First and foremost: Learn to cast spells after combat.  This is especially true in draft.  Unless your spell will affect the combat (like Overrun), leave your mana open when you swing.  Your opponent then has less information for their blocking or removal-spell decisions, and the spells in your hand matter more.
  
• Pump spells are for saving your creatures, not as burn.  It's much better to have your creature stick around in the long-term than to waste a spell to flick someone's life total.  If you time it right, you can even get the both benefits if the opponent tries to use a burn spell to kill your attacking creature.  Of course, if the pump spell will win you the game, that's acceptable.
  
• Attack before you wipe the board. If you plan to cast something that destroys all creatures on the field, see if you can sneak some damage at your opponent first! They're going to die anyway, so you might as well.  That being said, hold off on attacking if they have blockers with lifelink or if you think your board wipe could get countered.
  
• Deathtouch and Trample are best friends.  Deathtouch means that just one point of damage will kill any of their creatures.  Trample means that leftover damage goes right to their face.  Guess what happens when you combine the two? Every one of their blockers might has well have a toughness of 1. It's awesome.
  
• Take your early hits. I often see people at 20 life immediately throw a small creature in front of an opponent's attacker.  Your life total is a resource -- it's okay to take a couple of early hits!  That little 1/3 could stop 3 points of damage now, but if you leave him around, he could stop 7 points of damage later.  Or he could just stop an opponent's 1-power creatures all game. Or he could smack your opponent a couple of times after getting rid of the enemy creatures.  If your deck is well made, you should be able to deal with an early attacker before sacrificing your guy for a couple points of life.
  
• Love the block-sac. If you have a creature that can sacrifice for some gain, get full value out of it! Wait for your opponent to attack, then block their biggest guy.  Before damage happens, sacrifice your guy and get its ability.  You just stopped a bunch of damage and got your creature's ability. Nice!
  
• Beware the block-sac against your lifelink creature. If your lifelink creature is in combat and its blocker suddenly isn't there, it can't deal damage.  If it can't deal damage, you can't gain life to survive a counterattack.  And if you can't gain life to survive a counterattack, you're gonna have a bad time.  Don't have a bad time.
  
• Combat math. Learn it. Love it. Don't be the person who forgets that an all-out attack can win.  Also, don't be the person who does an all-out attack when s/he could have won by waiting for a turn.  Actually, this probably warrants a post of its own. Quick Tips can't do it justice.
  
• Finally, respect your opponents. And not just for sportsmanship.  Assume your opponent has read these Quick Tips.  Assume your opponent knows how to do combat.  Make sure s/he can't blow you out with what you've learned here.  If you're wrong, you should be able to beat him/her anyway! 

While I attack and block these applications, I hope you can attack and block with more fun things this Friday.  Like creatures.  And magical cardboard.  What, you weren't going to play in FNM? Read the post below this!  All the cool kids are doing it.

Happy Planeswalking.

B-Tops

Step Forward: Why You Should Play in FNM.

Hey everyone.  I'm going to cut to the gist of this right now. You should be playing in Friday Night Magic.

Not because we want your money.  Not because casual players are "lame" (they aren't).  You should be playing in FNM because it's awesome.

This post is dedicated to why FNM is awesome, and why most arguments against it are misconceptions.

Why FNM is awesome:

• You get to play Magic. This is the most obvious point, but it's also the most important.  You get to play Magic consistently.  You don't have to worry about your friends bailing on you or getting sick because FNM is always going to run at the same time, at the same place.  You get to schedule your Magic fix quickly and easily.
  
• The community is diverse. The first thing that dazzled me about the Magic community was its diversity.  I don't just mean ethnically, though that is pretty astonishing.  At Big Ben's, we might have high school students, college students, bankers, doctors, servicemen, industry workers, and the head of a big non-profit playing with us on any given week.  One of my personal friends and #22 ranked Magic player in the world as of this post, Ari Lax, lives in Cambridge as a professional engineer when he's not crushing huge tournaments on the weekends.  There's so much to learn from just talking to these people; it can even overshadow the game itself.  After all, you'll always have something to talk about: Magic!
  
• It's an affordable night out. A movie ticket will set you back at least ten bucks anymore, and that lasts for about two to three hours.  Entry to FNM will cost you about the same and will last the whole night.  You can bring your friends, talk as much as you want, grab a bite to eat between rounds, and just enjoy your evening without any barriers.  Also, viewing a movie really well won't win you any prizes to see a movie next week for free, but kicking some tail at FNM means that you can come back next week for cheap.
  
• You get better. I tell everyone who has never been to FNM the same thing.  If you want to get better at Magic, you have to play with and against people who are better than you.  FNM is the perfect place to learn stronger play and deckbuilding because the stakes are low and all kinds of players, from competitive to laid-back, show up.

Numerous casual players are often nervous about "the tournament scene" and don't join.  They're doing themselves and the rest of us a disservice.  We always welcome more people in the community!

To dispel some of these fears, here are some misconceptions about FNM:

• "You need a thousand-dollar deck to have a chance." I understand why someone might think this way.  Some Magic cards are expensive, and these expensive cards are often strong (that's why they're expensive).  However, another option always exists.  As of this writing, a $15 Black-Red Aggro deck is easy to make and use; I've seen it crush many faces.  Draft tournaments don't involve bringing your own deck, so everyone is equal in those.  Of course, you can always take a pet deck and give it a whirl.  Even if you don't win every game, experimenting and fun are the purposes of FNM!
  
• "Tournament players are scary." The vast majority of FNM players are good people.  Frankly, I've never been in a "geek" community this friendly and open.  Magic players love to help newcomers to the FNM scene -- it makes us feel important and reminds us of when we were new.  In fact, just a couple months ago, one of our regulars saw a young man deciding on an Intro Pack to buy.  Without meeting the new player or expecting to see him again, that veteran bought the Intro Pack for him.  Every so often you will find someone rude, but that will happen in any group of people.  As a whole, the FNM community is great.
  
• "What if the Judge DQ's me?" We judges are not the Magic Police, and we certainly don't want to disqualify anyone (it's a lot of paperwork).  If you make a mistake in a match or you aren't sure what should happen, call us over.  The worst you'll usually get from us is, "Try not to do that again."  So don't worry -- the judges are here to make your evening of Magic as great as possible.
  
• "I'm not ready for that yet." No, you aren't, and you won't be. No matter how much he or she  "prepares," nobody is ready for their first tournament.  Embrace it! Ask questions, listen to answers, and observe the skilled players and how they play.  Make friends.  You won't ever be ready until you just do it!

So what are you waiting for? It's Friday night! Go play some Magic at your local game store!

Happy Planeswalking.

B-Tops

The Mana Curve: Make the Most of Your Mana

My apologies for the delay.  I'm preparing to transfer schools, so I've had a lot on my plate.  I hope this post makes up for it!

Okay, so we know what our deck wants to do, and we know what cards can help us do it.  Now what?

Now we need to make the deck flow.

We can define a deck's "flow" as its efficient use of mana throughout each turn of the game. Most decks can rely on playing one land per turn for the first 4-5 turns (though green decks can often accelerate their mana production).  For now, your goal is to use as much mana as possible while still being productive during those turns -- because if you don't, your opponent will.

However, the cards we draw are random.  How can we maximize our productivity during these crucial early turns if we don't even know what we're drawing? The answer is simple: We do.  At least we have an idea, and that's because we are the ones building the deck.  Even though we might not know the exact hand we'll draw in a given game, we control what goes into the deck, so we can have a good guess as to what will come out.

This leads me to my useful tool for the post: The Mana Curve.  If you want to get an idea for how your deck flows, this tool is as simple as it is useful.  Simply separate every spell in your deck according to its converted mana cost (total amount of mana they cost).  Be honest with your assessments -- sure, that Hopeful Eidolon only costs 1 mana, but we all know you plan on paying its 4-mana bestow cost unless you're desperate, so put it under the 4's. Here's an example:

It's as simple as ABC. Courtesy Channel Fireball

Where your curve actually falls will depend on your deck archetype.  Aggro decks tend to have lower curves featuring low-mana Threats and Answers.  Control decks have higher curves, with heftier but more potent Answers and expensive but resilient Threats. Midrange decks have, well, midrange curves.  (Combo decks by their nature are hard to classify.)  However, the overall curves between the Archetypes do not change all that much -- Control decks still need inexpensive Answers to stop Aggro decks before they get overwhelmed, and Aggro decks often feature a couple of expensive cards to finish an opponent off.  I don't want to break out my graphs so as not to scare people away, but a Google image search for "mana curve" will demonstrate my point.

Competitive players are familiar with the concept of the Mana Curve, such that it has become part of the Magic jargon.  For example, an Aggro player casting a 1-mana card on turn 1, 2-mana card on turn 2, and so on is considered to be "curving out" because he is using his mana optimally.  In general, it's better to "curve out" than not, so make sure to keep the Mana Curve in mind when you build your decks!

I'm looking forward to the upcoming posts.  I want to talk about Limited, Combat, and so much more.  But the next one is a break from theory and more about you, the player.  Make sure to come back and discover why you should be playing in Friday Night Magic (and the misconceptions that keep you home)!

Happy Planeswalking.

B-Tops

IMPORTANT: Make Sure to Avoid Counterfeits!

Hi everyone. No strategy post today -- this is far more serious.

If you haven't read this article, you need to.  Now. http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27693_Counterfeit-Cards.html

This is a big deal.  It's not an apocalypse scenario, but it is important to ALL Magic players, no matter how casual or competitive, that we beat this tide back.  I encourage you all to print out those pictures and keep them with your trades consistently. I know I will.

Honestly, the most important thing you can do is go through people you trust.  Your friends and your local game shop, including us at Big Ben's, are your best source.  Make sure they know about this issue.  Make sure they're vigilant. If you trade with someone you don't know very well, don't worry about being rude -- inspect anything you might get in a trade.

Hopefully this will pass.  This game is resilient, and it's endured through tougher times.  I think all of Chas Andres's suggestions are sensible.  Don't sell off or panic; just be careful.

Happy (and vigilant) Planeswalking.

B-Tops

Evaluating Card Roles: Threats, Answers, Engines, and Utilities

Now that we have an idea of what we want our deck to do, we have to actually pick the cards that will make the deck. So how do we pick the right cards? In Standard alone there are at least 1000 unique cards to choose, and that pool skyrockets as we get into older formats. But a deck will often contain no more than 20 unique non-land cards. That's quite a filter we need to make!

If there were a simple formula to making a competitive deck, we'd all be using it.  I'm not going to pretend that this is an easy process, and most of the decks you make will initially be terrible.  I know this because most of the decks I make are initially terrible, and many stay that way, despite my experience and knowledge of the game.  The best way to learn is to do; deck-building is more art than it is science. Don't be afraid to scrap an idea that isn't working and try a different angle.

However, there are categories for our cards that will aid our decisions.  It's a bit of a simplification, but I've found it useful to divide cards into Threats, Answers, Utilities, and Engines. Most decks will have examples of each category, but the mix thereof often depends on your deck's archetype (last post).

• Threats: Threats are cards that, if left alone, will win the game. Many of them are creatures, but many Planeswalkers and even some artifacts or enchantments can constitute Threats.  When you play a Threat, the opponent only has a limited amount of time/turns to get a suitable Answer or a comparable Threat of their own (referred to as a "clock"). Some Threats are scarier than others, usually because they have a faster clock.  Many Aggro decks rely on deploying a lot of threats in a short time.  These combined threats reduce the opponent's overall clock significantly at the risk of losing all the threats at once to a large Answer.  Other decks rely on using a Threat that is very difficult to Answer, such as a hexproof, unblockable, or indestructible Threat. Examples: AEtherling, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Pack Rat, Elspeth Sun's Champion, Assemble the Legion, Polukranos World Eater
  
• Answers: Answers are cards that stop Threats. Most "removal" cards -- cards that destroy or exile one or many cards on the battlefield -- are Answers.  Many Answers are conditional, meaning that they can only stop certain kinds of threats. Because almost anything can be a threat in the right context, a common saying is "There are no wrong Threats, only wrong Answers." Therefore, Answers that cost less mana, have less conditions on them, or can stop multiple Threats at once are the best for most decks.  Once a player has successfully Answered all Threats the opponent has deployed, they have "stabilized" and can typically start to mount a counterattack.  Occasionally, a player will actually use an Answer to stop an opponent's Answer, such as a spell to make creatures indestructible Answering an opponent's attempt to destroy all creatures. Examples: Detention Sphere, Hero's Downfall, Supreme Verdict, Chained to the Rocks
  
• Engines: Engines are cards that make a deck "run."  They usually serve as enablers for the rest of a deck.  The most common engines either draw cards or produce mana, giving the player more resources for later in the game.  Engines are powerful and can lead to snowballing, but often they do not impact the battlefield on their own, so a player must always consider if his/her time is best spent setting up an engine or deploying a Threat or an Answer. Examples: Underworld Connections, Sphinx's Revelation, Jace Architect of Thought, Whip of Erebos
  
• Utilities: Utilities are cards that are useful in a wide variety of circumstances but do not take consistent roles as Threats, Answers, and Engines.  Good Utilities efficient in mana cost and offer fleeting but useful benefits.  Utilities are most difficult to quantify because they can usually take multiple roles, depending on the context of the game, but this is what makes them so powerful.  Modal cards, cards that require the player to select one or two from a number of options, are usually Utility cards. Examples: Azorius Charm, Snapcaster Mage, Brave the Elements, Giant Growth

So how do these roles factor into our previous discussion about deck archetypes? Here's a basic rundown.

• Aggro decks usually want to fill their decks with Threats and a few Answers.  A couple Utility cards are nice if they can double as a Threat, but because Aggro wants to end the game ASAP, Engines are not useful.
  
• Control decks want to use plentiful, various Answers to opposing Threats. Knowing what Threats the opponent will use may dictate which Answers are correct for that match. After surviving the first few turns, selective Utility and Engine cards let Control decks set up their classic late-game domination. Control decks typically only play a couple of Threats, all of which are very difficult to Answer but require more mana than other decks' threats.
  
• Midrange decks often contain many cards that can serve multiple roles. Most Midrange Threats either serve as an Answer or bring another Threat alongside them, and efficient, unconditional Answers are a staple of the archetype. Most Midrange Engines are either Threats or Answers too.  Utilities see a bit of play, but are redundant in many Midrange decks because so many cards already serve multiple roles.
  
• Combo decks' contents usually use very few Answers and instead try to set up the Engines for their combos  The Threats, of course, are the combos themselves.  Some Utilities may be used to provide temporary Answers as well as aiding the Engines, but they are clearly not the focus of the decks.

Many cards' roles in these categories depend on the context of the game.  A large creature can be both a Threat against the opponent's life points and an answer to his/her smaller creature, not allowing it to attack.   A card like Underworld Connections in mono-Black Devotion is clearly an Engine, but because it aids Gray Merchant of Asphodel, it might also be a threat later in the game.  Knowing what role a card usually fills AND what role a card might need to fill in one context will win us a lot of games we might otherwise lose.

I hope this helps in your game.  On a side note, I'd like to thank everyone who came out last Friday for the biggest FNM Big Ben's has ever hosted! We're so glad to support such an awesome community.

Happy Planeswalking!

-B-Tops

Archetypes: What Does This Deck Do?

The most basic but most fundamental question for any Magic player is: What does this deck do?

It seems obvious, but it isn't.  It's easy to get caught up in nifty little themes -- everyone having deathtouch, or gaining a bunch of life, or whatnot -- that we forget that we need to, you know, win the game with this deck.  This is probably the most common issue with decks I see at work. Either they're diffuse and never get a plan throughout the game, or they're built around a concept that doesn't end up winning the game.

Much wiser individuals than myself addressed this issue by categorizing four deck archetypes: Aggro, Control, Midrange, and Combo.  A proper deck will recognize its archetype and embrace it, regardless of it color(s) or format.  As I tell many customers, if you're going to make a deck, make it all the way instead of halfway.

• Aggro: Aggro, or "aggressive" decks have a simple goal: Finish the game as soon as possible.  Aggro decks usually use low-cost, high-power creatures from the start of the game, even on the first turn, and want to crush the opponent before s/he can put up defenses and enact a plan. Typically, each turn that passes in the game makes an aggro deck less likely to win. Because it focuses so much on the early game, the deck "runs out of gas" in later turns and has no use for the mana it's accumulated.  Some variations of aggro decks flood the battlefield with creatures, whereas others rely on riding a few high-power cards to victory, but the same principle holds for all of them: You've got to go fast.

• Control: Control decks are the polar opposites of Aggro decks. They want to extend the game and stop the opponent in his/her tracks, eventually crushing the enemy with a devastating haymaker, often called a "win condition." Often these win conditions take only two or three slots of the sixty-card deck; the rest is dedicated to mana and spells that impede the opponent's progress. Unlike Aggro decks, the cards in a Control deck often scale well into the later turns of a game.  However, the biggest weakness of this archetype is that it needs to know the opponent's plan and draw the correct tools to halt it. As such, Control decks rely on knowledge of the local metagame more than other archetypes (something we'll cover in a later post).

• Midrange: Midrange decks are the hardest to quantify because their method of play varies from opponent to opponent.  In general, Midrange decks play like Aggro when they battle against Control and play like Control when they battle against Aggro. Cards in Midrange decks are used for their efficiency and ability to generate immediate advantage. As the name implies, Midrange decks exceed in the middle of the game, usually around turns 5 to 7 when they can "snowball" best. They want games to be neither too short, lest they be overwhelmed, nor too long, lest they run out of gas (though Midrange's gas lasts longer than the Aggro archetype).

• Combo: Combo decks rely on assembling a combination of cards (hence the name) that either wins the game immediately or causes insurmountable advantage.  Such combos are immensely powerful, and the strongest ones are often difficult to disrupt. However, Combo decks do have disadvantages.  Combo decks offer few ways to interact with opposing decks because most of the deck must dedicate itself to assembling the combo, so the speed of execution is a major concern. Additionally, cards in Combo decks are often underwhelming on their own, making the decks vulnerable if the combo fails. For these reasons, many Combo decks are also Control decks that use the combo as their main win condition, though plenty of pure Combo decks exist as well.

Of course, many decks do not fit squarely within one of these categories.   Blends and combinations of archetypes happen and often find success.  In addition, some decks must alter their play style's "archetype" based on their opponent. For example, at the time of this writing, Black/White Humans is clearly an Aggro deck, yet it must shift to a Midrange style when facing Mono-Red.

Still, if you're new to the tournament scene or Magic in general, I advise you to pick an archetype and stick with it for now. Don't hesitate to look at decks others have made on the Internet and copying the ones you like -- it's hard to build a good deck until you've played with a good deck.  And of course, ask the people around you at FNM or me here at Getting There.  The community remains your greatest resource.

I hope you enjoyed and found use from this overview of deck archetypes. Happy Planeswalking!

B-Tops

Grand Opening

Hello everyone! My name is Ben, and I run Magic: the Gathering events at Big Ben's Comix Oasis.  It's an awesome job at an awesome place to play an awesome game.  And believe me, I love this game; I've played for five years and have never looked back.

One thing I might enjoy more than playing Magic is talking about and teaching Magic.  To that end, I read countless articles and watch my fair share of videos.  However, I find that the barrier to entry is often high; if someone is just starting and barely knows the basics, there's no way he or she could understand those articles.  Thus, the only people benefiting from those pieces of wisdom are those who are already pretty good. Hopefully, Getting There will change that.

My goal with Getting There is to give players of any skill level insight and ideas to improve their technical game and deckbuilding.  Veterans among you readers might already know the topics in this blog, but I encourage you to read it through. You might find something you'd forgotten or never got to analyze in detail!

Please enjoy your stay. I encourage feedback in the comments for this and any other posts.

B-Tops