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