Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 77

Thread: Legacy Resources - Articles and Stuff

Hybrid View

  1. #1

    Legacy Resources - Articles and Stuff

    In the past couple of months, I've noticed that there has been a serious lack of knowledge and understanding of basic magic theory. I'm going to post some links to various articles dealing with multiple aspects of Magic theory, from metagaming, tempo, card advantage, and (rogue) deckbuilding.

    Some of these articles will just be giving names and titles to concepts you already may understand simply because they are inherent parts of the game. In doing so, it will allow you to see when such concepts are occuring in game and how to apply them while playing. When reading some of these articles, you'll experience many a moment of "Oh, well, that make sense," and "Well, duh." Regardless, knowing and understanding these concepts will make you a better player.

    Without further ado, the articles.

    Basic Stratagy

    The Way of the Sideboard
    by Rob Dougherty

    The Basics Of Playing The Game: Paranoia Is Good
    By Peter Jahn


    Intermediate Concepts

    Who's the Beatdown
    by Mike Flores

    Clear the Land and the Fundamental Turn
    by Zvi Mowshowitz

    The Art of the Mulligan
    by Ken Krouner

    The Art Of The Mulligan: Eight Case Studies

    by Ken Krouner


    Advanced Concepts

    Philosophy of Fire
    by Mike Flores

    Advanced Stratagy: Investment
    by Mike Flores


    Tempo

    Tempo and Card Advantage
    by Eric "Danger" Taylor

    Tempo is Really Interesting
    by Mike Flores

    Metagaming

    Sullivan Library: How to do your own Metagame Analysis
    by Adrian Sullivan

    Finding the Tinker Deck
    by Mike Flores


    Rogue Deckbuilding

    Basic Rogue Deck Design: Natural Strategy, Anti-Strategy, and Strategy Superiority


    General "How to get better by not being totally irrational"

    The Danger of Cool Things
    by Chad Ellis

    Is this your Card?
    by The Ferret

    The Next Level
    by Mike Flores

    Play to Win
    (not about magic, but generally improving)


    Some of these articles are long. Read them anyways. They're all very good, and they'll all improve your game.




    Edited By TeenieBopper on 1087878676
    Last edited by Nightmare; 10-20-2007 at 01:15 PM.
    SOURCE ASSHOLE
    Now Epic-ly Sexy
    My blog

    Buy the ticket, take the ride.

  2. #2
    Last edited by Nightmare; 10-20-2007 at 01:17 PM.

  3. #3
    The King of Lockjobs
    Peter_Rotten's Avatar
    Join Date

    Oct 2003
    Location

    Middle of Nowhere, NY
    Posts

    1,214

    TB, you beat me to the update on posting Flores' latest article. A good read.

    Very basic summary:
    To get better:
    1. Draft and Play a lot
    2. Play with people better than you
    3. Play tight (don't make mistakes or fall for "Cool things")
    4. Understand the environment (going to be key for the Big Arse Tournament)
    Quote Originally Posted by Cavius The Great View Post
    Germany seems to find me influential. Have you ever Googled "Nourishing Lich"?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nihil Credo View Post
    No, Peter_Rotten, you are the problems.

  4. #4
    The King of Lockjobs
    Peter_Rotten's Avatar
    Join Date

    Oct 2003
    Location

    Middle of Nowhere, NY
    Posts

    1,214

    Here's another good one. Chad once again explains to us the danger of cool things and a provides a few tips on improving your game.

    Are You Kidding Yourself?
    by Chad Ellis (Author of the classic and probably my personal favorite, The Danger of Cool Things)

    Definitive quote:
    Falling in love with a card is like falling in love with a person: It can blind you to faults and makes it hard to see when something better comes along.
    Brief Summary:
    Kidding yourself is hard to avoid. The best way to resist this disease is to make a commitment to ruthless honesty with yourself and then look out for the following symptoms:

    1. The card or deck you have an emotional attachment to seems better to you than it does to everyone else. A lot better.

    2. You've tested your deck a large enough number of times to be statistically reliable but you're convinced that its "real" win/loss percentage is much better than your playtest results show. Your wins in testing are due to your deck having good matchups or to you playing it well, while your losses are due to factors other than the deck or your skill.

    3. Your deck seems immune to hate -- with "seems" coming from a source other than play testing a significant number of games against good opponents.
    PS. I love the double post.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cavius The Great View Post
    Germany seems to find me influential. Have you ever Googled "Nourishing Lich"?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nihil Credo View Post
    No, Peter_Rotten, you are the problems.

  5. #5
    The King of Lockjobs
    Peter_Rotten's Avatar
    Join Date

    Oct 2003
    Location

    Middle of Nowhere, NY
    Posts

    1,214

    Here's one by Oscar teaching us how to avoid 7 types of bad cards. He provides clear examples that easily apply to our format, and he explains one way to evaluate new cards.

    Six Delusions You Meet in Heaven by Oscar Tan

    Sorry for the influx on new material, but for some reason there has been some worthwhile material on SCG the past week.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cavius The Great View Post
    Germany seems to find me influential. Have you ever Googled "Nourishing Lich"?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nihil Credo View Post
    No, Peter_Rotten, you are the problems.

  6. #6
    The King of Lockjobs
    Peter_Rotten's Avatar
    Join Date

    Oct 2003
    Location

    Middle of Nowhere, NY
    Posts

    1,214

    Got another good one. This one is another attempt to truly define tempo and clearly explores several Type 1 examples of the term. It is relevant to 1.5, even though those examples include Moxes and other Type 1 nonsense. Steve makes an interesting point that Aggro-Control has killed Pure Control (like Landstill does to UW Scepter) and that Tempo has replaced Card Advantage in Type 1. Do you think that this has happened to 1.5 also?

    Here's the defining quote from the article:

    Tempo is important because there is a direct relationship between winning and maintaining your tempo advantage (or successfully negating it). However, Tempo is interesting because it manifests itself in so many different ways. It isn't limited to decks with creatures that attack or virtual card advantage. If you are utilizing Tempo effectively, you are keeping your opponent off balance and dictating the terms of the game.
    Tempo IS Interesting
    by
    Steve Menendian

    For an interesting tangent, look at this point he makes.

    The guiding principle behind aggro-control is board advantage at the expense of card advantage.
    You're welcome, Diablos. Nick, I couldn't resist!

    One other note... I think that you should likely ignore what he says about Aggro. Or I should say that the points Steve makes about aggro in Type 1 do not and cannot apply to 1.5. Aggro in many (odd) shapes and forms is alive and kicking in 1.5.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cavius The Great View Post
    Germany seems to find me influential. Have you ever Googled "Nourishing Lich"?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nihil Credo View Post
    No, Peter_Rotten, you are the problems.

  7. #7

    Threads Merged. Some of these may be duplicate.
    ~ Nightmare

    A while back, Ric_Flair at www.themanadrain.com posted links to some articles that are "required reading" for players of MTG. I'm posting those articles here for 2 reasons:

    1 ) They apply to Legacy, and
    2 ) This will serve as a backup in the event TMD ever removes the thread.

    Here is what Ric_Flair said:
    So for a while there has been discussion of having a thread with the classic articles in Magic on it. A while ago, I tried to gather the best of the best together. I have the following articles on my list of classics. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I think that no list would be complete without these articles.
    Here are the links:

    The Way of the Sideboard
    by Rob Dougherty

    http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/art...?x=sb20001220b

    The Danger of Cool Things
    by Chad Ellis

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3689

    Who's the Beatdown?
    by Mike Flores

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3692

    Finding the Tinker Deck
    by Mike Flores

    http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/art...?x=sb20010607a

    Clear the Land and the Fundamental Turn
    by Zvi Mowshowitz

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3688

    The Rule
    by Zvi Mowshowitz

    http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/art...?x=sb20001016a

    Tempo and Card Advantage
    by Eric Taylor

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3690

    Others added the following:

    Advanced Strategy: Investment
    Mike Flores

    http://www.classicdojo.org/b981/bou.980320mfl1.txt

    The Metagame Clock
    Leon Workman

    http://web.archive.org/web....o.shtml

    Basic Rogue Deck Design: Natural Strategy, Anti-Strategy, and Strategy Superiority
    By Mike Flores

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...rticle=6984%22

    Mind over Magic
    By Robert Hahn

    http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/207

    The philosophy of fire
    Mike Flores

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=7157

    Tempo is Really Interesting
    by Mike Flores

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=7249

    The Orthodoxy of 60 Cards
    Robert A.C. Nanka-Bruce

    http://web.archive.org/web....a.shtml

    Deck Clinic
    Zvi Mowshowitz

    http://web.archive.org/web....zmo.txt

    Realizing how bad you are
    Mike Flores

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=6596

    The Mathematics of Magic: The Gathering
    Jon Prywes

    http://www.kibble.net/magic/magic01.php

    Type 1 Players Have All the Fun
    Bryce Reynolds
    (possibly the best Tournament report ever written)

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3565

    The Art Of The Mulligan
    Ken Krouner

    Part 1: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=5509

    Part 2: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=5622

    And today I found the following article by Mike Flores:

    Degree of Difficulty
    Mike Flores

    http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=8452

    All of these are worth reading. If you can afford to print them out they can make an impressive tool for increasing your skill.

    Dave.




    Edited By DavidHernandez on 1100880043
    Last edited by Nightmare; 10-20-2007 at 01:22 PM.
    I will Find a way...or make one.
    Check out my wife! http://DanceKitten.com
    Card Carrying Member: Team Mind Trick
    Best.Fortune.Cookie.Evar: \"Among the lucky, you are the chosen one.\"
    Noloam said, "i lost an unloseable game against miracles, where i accidentally tapped my tomb for lethal.."

  8. #8
    The King of Lockjobs
    Peter_Rotten's Avatar
    Join Date

    Oct 2003
    Location

    Middle of Nowhere, NY
    Posts

    1,214

    Here is another Flores' for the masses:

    Linkity LInk

    Defining quote:
    It is empowering to realize that there is only one right play on every priority of every stack... more than just winning a game, gunning for the tightest possible plays is a goal that every Magic player can strive for.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cavius The Great View Post
    Germany seems to find me influential. Have you ever Googled "Nourishing Lich"?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nihil Credo View Post
    No, Peter_Rotten, you are the problems.

  9. #9
    The King of Lockjobs
    Peter_Rotten's Avatar
    Join Date

    Oct 2003
    Location

    Middle of Nowhere, NY
    Posts

    1,214

    Here's another link to help you (and me :( ) not suck anymore.

    Chad Ellis... Revisting The Scarce Resource

    Defining quote:
    The fundamental concept of scarce resource theory is that when you rely on multiple distinct inputs to do something, your capacity is constrained only by the scarce resource. Thus, the scarce resource is the one you must protect or increase, while the plentiful resource is less important.

    Since I like to use simple analogies, let's assume you're making lemonade, and need water, lemons and sugar to do it. You want to make as much as possible. You have virtually unlimited water, enough lemons to make two gallons and enough sugar to make six gallons. What do you go buy at the store first? Lemons, obviously. Adding more water or sugar to your supply won't increase the amount of lemonade you can make - the whole system is constrained by the scarce resource.
    Chad then applies the theory to many worthy Extended examples that can easily ported over to Legacy. The article is worth your time.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cavius The Great View Post
    Germany seems to find me influential. Have you ever Googled "Nourishing Lich"?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nihil Credo View Post
    No, Peter_Rotten, you are the problems.

  10. #10

    The Way Out

    Basically it tells you to think outside the box when playing. You have no idea how many retarded things I saw FakeSpam do with Dragon to win on turn 3 or how many times I went beatdown with Landstill starting on turn 2.
    SOURCE ASSHOLE
    Now Epic-ly Sexy
    My blog

    Buy the ticket, take the ride.

  11. #11
    Sweet Sixteenth
    Happy Gilmore's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jul 2004
    Location

    Fairfax City, VA
    Posts

    1,497

    A Lesson in Symmety

    Another recent article by Mike Flores, good read.
    Quote Originally Posted by Krieger View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Getsickanddie View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Parcher View Post
    Looks like Team Unicorn has about sixteen coming to this.

    What's the term for a plural group of Unicorns? Y'know, like a murder of crows. Well that's what's on it's way.
    ******s?
    While this is close it's still wrong. Every one knows it's an orgy of unicorns.
    Team Unicorn is too hetero for me.
    TeaM NOVA for life.

  12. #12
    Epic Library
    Brushwagg's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2004
    Location

    Syracuse New York
    Posts

    2,159

    Four Leaf Clover

    By Mike Flores. He talks about increasing your "luck" when building decks. Pretty good read.
    Quote Scrumdogg @ Amrod's:
    "Didn't you know that Mike Glow invented this format?? We are all just renting it."

    The EPIC Syndicate - Grindermen
    Team Disquailified Poster Duey Cheatem & Howe.

  13. #13
    That other Stax guy
    Silverdragon's Avatar
    Join Date

    Dec 2004
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    327

    I haven't found the link yet on this page so here is Fearlessness by Jeremy Muir. Definately a good read and a great addition to all those basic strategy articles.
    You see, sometimes people don't play cards for some reason or another. Examples of this would be if you had a Skizzik in hand and mana to cast it with kicker on the board - but you hold back on casting it, because they may have a Counterspell. Maybe they have a Wrath of God and are just waiting for one more creature to use it on?

    So you hold your Skizzik (or whatever).

    Your opponent is winning the game more than he was before now.
    "Anybody want some . . . toast?" —Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

  14. #14
    Slo' Play
    brolio's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jan 2004
    Location

    #!%
    Posts

    61
    Last edited by Nightmare; 05-17-2006 at 09:39 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wastedlife
    Hey, it's smokey McPot!.

  15. #15
    Arbitrary Wielder of Justice

    Join Date

    Oct 2003
    Posts

    3,195

    Four Magical Myths

    Go read this right now. In particular, #4.




    Edited By frogboy on 1133327315
    When in doubt, mumble.

    When in trouble, delegate.

  16. #16
    Member
    Bardo's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2004
    Location

    Portland, Oregon
    Posts

    3,844

    Re: [Articles] - Required Reading


  17. #17
    Administrator
    Zilla's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2003
    Location

    Portland, OR
    Posts

    5,532

    Re: [Articles] - Required Reading

    Legacy Fundamentals by Carsten "Welcome Back" Kotter

  18. #18

    Download Legacy Decklists Here!

    There's a whole lot of competitive legacy decks out there. I think we would all benefit (especially people new to legacy) if we could download a package with all of them, to simply copy and paste directly into Magic Workstation. Silverdragon initially put together 50+ competitive legacy decklists for people to download and have instant access to, and people have been steadily adding to it...

    Here's the link to the most current and up to date compilation....

    http://www.mediafire.com/

    I want anyone that wants to add a deck or update a particular decklist, to be able to contribute to or make changes to the compilation, and update the rar package. So I'm posting the username and password to the mediafire account.

    Username: legacydecks@gmail.com
    Password: mtgthesource

    Simply go to mediafire.com, and login with the above information, and you can modify, then reupload the "Legacy Decks.rar" file with the additions and changes you made to the decklists.

    The idea is to have the community be in charge of policing and updating decklists itself. It would help if you add a date after the name of any deck you modify or add to the zip file.
    Last edited by Jon Stewart; 12-24-2011 at 01:25 PM.

  19. #19
    That other Stax guy
    Silverdragon's Avatar
    Join Date

    Dec 2004
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    327

    Re: Could we collaborate to compile a download set of legacy decklists for MWS & OCTG

    Sadly Starcitygames only does MTGO and Apprentice deckformats so it takes some effort to convert those lists into .mwdeck
    Luckily I already did some work with http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...of_Legacy.html

    If anyone wants to download in .mwdeck format, here's a .rar folder:

    http://rapidshare.com/files/38779979...decks.rar.html
    "Anybody want some . . . toast?" —Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

  20. #20

    Re: Could we collaborate to compile a download set of legacy decklists for MWS & OCTG

    Thank you so much. That's a fantastic compilation. :)


    I think your compilation is already a great starting point for the community pulling something like this off.

    The people who play the decks regularly and have top 8ed (or atleast regularly compete with their lists) at tournaments should feel encouraged to posts their decklists below to be added to or included in place of suboptimal lists already included in the compilation. I will be happy to add them myself. I would submit my Mono-Blue Control, Death and Taxes and Pox lists, but I think that would be unfair as I never top 8ed with my list. I would rather someone who has submit their Pox, Mono-Blue Control, Death and Taxes and Enchantress lists instead.
    Last edited by Jon Stewart; 05-08-2011 at 07:42 PM.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)