citanul
10-05-2009, 07:19 AM
I've recently started writing, mostly out of boredom. And what's better to write about than something you love and adore, Magic. I'm looking for feedback on anything, the content, sentence structure, anything to improve myself. Thanks in advance. And here's the Article:
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I recently asked a teammate what he thought of me as a player. He gave me several compliments and one jumped out to me ‘You see all the plays’. I thought about it for a while, why was I able to see a certain play while an other might’ve missed it. Is it because I have a better understanding of the game? Is it because I’m smarter or is my logic more adaptable to magic? The answer I came up with is knowledge. Knowledge is the key to everything.
Most people know their deck. They played with it for a while, they build it even if it was copied, they wrote down a deck list. They know what it can and can’t do. They also know their match-ups, either by checking it on the internet or testing it themselves. So you can say they have the knowledge of their deck. The problem is that people lack the knowledge of other parts of the game, such as the opponents deck or rules. And that will be the topic of this article, the importance of knowing cards that you are not playing with. Before we can talk about that, I do want to stress the importance of knowing the stack and being able to play around with it. I’ll elaborate on this in another article someday.
I’ll start of with a basic example that every Legacy and even Vintage player should know about, Bridge from Below. It is played in a popular deck called Ichorid. It’s obvious that Bridge from Below creates 2/2 tokens if a non-token creature dies from the owner. It’s also known that the Bridges get removed when an opponents creature goes to the graveyard. What doesn’t seem familiar is that Bridge checks if it is still in the graveyard before it creates those 2/2 tokens. You see, triggers usually don’t care if the origin of that trigger is still in play. Dark Confidant will reveal that card and Goblin Matron will look for a child to nurture, even if they die before the trigger resolves. Bridge is different, it clearly sais so on the card.
If the Ichorid player sacrifices a creature to Cabal Therapy with Bridges in the graveyard several things happen. First Cabal Therapy comes onto the stack, as a casting cost for that a creature was sacrificed and Bridge Triggers will go on the stack. You can react to those triggers by removing the Bridges in any way possible, be it sacrificing a creature, using Tormod’s Crypt or even using Wasteland on your own animated Mishra’s Factory. Bridges will be removed first, then the 2/2 Zombies trigger but someone destroyed their Bridge, they can’t cross. Easy no? Apparently it isn’t as obvious as I’ve seen plenty of people miss it. They got their brains eaten by 2/2 Zombies because they didn’t know everything about that Bridge. They thought that the triggers where on the stack and it would be irrelevant to remove them now, it was to late for them while it really wasn’t.
This is a play I saw in the quarterfinals of a Legacy tournament. It was Merfolk against AnT, Merfolk had maindeck Divert. AnT has 3 mana and uses one to cast Duress. The merfolk player casts Daze, AnT player pays. Divert gets cast on the Duress with a Cursecatcher still in play. The play was well thought out, Daze made him pay that 2nd mana he needed to pay for Divert, Cursecatcher prevented any form of mana acceleration like Dark Ritual of that remaining mana. There was no way that the AnT player was getting around Divert. There was only one thing that he missed. Duress sais target opponent. Divert resolves and a new target is chosen for Duress but there is only one legal target, the merfolk player. He knew that Duress makes you discard a non-creature card but he didn’t know the full card and he paid a heavy price for it.
Last example. You are playing Merfolk, your opponent is playing Ichorid. You have cursecatcher in hand, an Aether Vial at 1, an Aether Vial at 2, Island, Island, Island, Mutavault, Merrow Reejerey, Merrow Reejerey and a Lord of Atlantis in play. Your opponent has amassed an army of to many Zombie tokens for you to hit through but enough to kill you next turn if he attacks. He himself is at 2 life, no cards in hand, nothing relevant in graveyard and has 32 Zombie tokens, Gemstone Mine with 2 counters, City of Brass, Golgari Thug, Golgari Thug and a Narcomoeba in play. He passes the turn to you because he can’t attack yet. You hope to draw an Echoing Truth to bounce the tokens and swing but draw a Merfolk Sovereign instead. It would have won you the game if it came a turn earlier yet there is a way to win this game right here and now. I’ll give the answer at the end of the article.
So how do you learn all this stuff? You can’t possibly know every card in existence. Ok it is possible but it would be unneeded. First of all there are the rules, you can ask a judge anything concerning cards at anytime, even if the card isn’t present in the game. You can ask clarifications on it but you can’t ask for the result of certain plays, the judges are just there to aid you with rules and cards. Also, know the stack. I already mentioned this before but it is really useful. Since the stack is part of the rules, you can ask the judge about this. You can ask what comes on the stack first and what after like the Cabal Therapy play, do the Bridge triggers come first or does the Therapy come first? If you are not sure and think it might be important, just ask. Something else important that is in the rules, your opponent is not allowed to lie to you about public information such as asking for a creatures power and toughness when it is attacking you. He can’t say that it is a 2/2, making you block and then telling you it’s a 3/3 due to exalted because that makes him a cheater. He can choose not to tell you stuff like the cards in his graveyard but you can count that if you want to. He is not obliged to tell you hidden information such as which cards are in his hand or in his deck.
There is also reading and understanding the cards. Try reading the cards and at the same time think about what it changes about other cards in play or just in general. What does the card specifically do? Let’s take Leyline of the Void and Planar Void as an example. Leyline has “If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, remove it from the game instead” while Planar Void has “Whenever another card is put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile that card.” They generally do the same, remove cards from the game if they go to the graveyard yet there is a difference. Leyline is a replacement effect and the card will never go to the graveyard, therefore triggers that happen when things go to the graveyard won’t happen if there is a Leyline in play, they will happen when Planar Void is in play. The difference is in the word ‘Instead’. So if you read Leyline but don’t understand it completely you might miss that the Helm of Obedience in play will kill you. If you read Leyline and aren’t sure what happens, ask a judge. It is a rules question and he or she will answer it.
I promised the answer to the Merfolk against Ichorid problem and it’s rather easy. You can cast your Cursecatcher and Sovereign. This means that you have 4 triggers to resolve from Merrow Reejerey. Cast one of your merfolk and place the Reejerey triggers on the stack, untap City of Brass, tap City of Brass. Stack resolves so Brass gets tapped then untapped, dealing one damage to the Ichorid player. Yes that’s correct, City of Brass sais whenever it becomes tapped, it doesn’t matter how it got tapped. Do the same with your other merfolk in hand and you have successfully dealt the last two damage, winning you the game.
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I recently asked a teammate what he thought of me as a player. He gave me several compliments and one jumped out to me ‘You see all the plays’. I thought about it for a while, why was I able to see a certain play while an other might’ve missed it. Is it because I have a better understanding of the game? Is it because I’m smarter or is my logic more adaptable to magic? The answer I came up with is knowledge. Knowledge is the key to everything.
Most people know their deck. They played with it for a while, they build it even if it was copied, they wrote down a deck list. They know what it can and can’t do. They also know their match-ups, either by checking it on the internet or testing it themselves. So you can say they have the knowledge of their deck. The problem is that people lack the knowledge of other parts of the game, such as the opponents deck or rules. And that will be the topic of this article, the importance of knowing cards that you are not playing with. Before we can talk about that, I do want to stress the importance of knowing the stack and being able to play around with it. I’ll elaborate on this in another article someday.
I’ll start of with a basic example that every Legacy and even Vintage player should know about, Bridge from Below. It is played in a popular deck called Ichorid. It’s obvious that Bridge from Below creates 2/2 tokens if a non-token creature dies from the owner. It’s also known that the Bridges get removed when an opponents creature goes to the graveyard. What doesn’t seem familiar is that Bridge checks if it is still in the graveyard before it creates those 2/2 tokens. You see, triggers usually don’t care if the origin of that trigger is still in play. Dark Confidant will reveal that card and Goblin Matron will look for a child to nurture, even if they die before the trigger resolves. Bridge is different, it clearly sais so on the card.
If the Ichorid player sacrifices a creature to Cabal Therapy with Bridges in the graveyard several things happen. First Cabal Therapy comes onto the stack, as a casting cost for that a creature was sacrificed and Bridge Triggers will go on the stack. You can react to those triggers by removing the Bridges in any way possible, be it sacrificing a creature, using Tormod’s Crypt or even using Wasteland on your own animated Mishra’s Factory. Bridges will be removed first, then the 2/2 Zombies trigger but someone destroyed their Bridge, they can’t cross. Easy no? Apparently it isn’t as obvious as I’ve seen plenty of people miss it. They got their brains eaten by 2/2 Zombies because they didn’t know everything about that Bridge. They thought that the triggers where on the stack and it would be irrelevant to remove them now, it was to late for them while it really wasn’t.
This is a play I saw in the quarterfinals of a Legacy tournament. It was Merfolk against AnT, Merfolk had maindeck Divert. AnT has 3 mana and uses one to cast Duress. The merfolk player casts Daze, AnT player pays. Divert gets cast on the Duress with a Cursecatcher still in play. The play was well thought out, Daze made him pay that 2nd mana he needed to pay for Divert, Cursecatcher prevented any form of mana acceleration like Dark Ritual of that remaining mana. There was no way that the AnT player was getting around Divert. There was only one thing that he missed. Duress sais target opponent. Divert resolves and a new target is chosen for Duress but there is only one legal target, the merfolk player. He knew that Duress makes you discard a non-creature card but he didn’t know the full card and he paid a heavy price for it.
Last example. You are playing Merfolk, your opponent is playing Ichorid. You have cursecatcher in hand, an Aether Vial at 1, an Aether Vial at 2, Island, Island, Island, Mutavault, Merrow Reejerey, Merrow Reejerey and a Lord of Atlantis in play. Your opponent has amassed an army of to many Zombie tokens for you to hit through but enough to kill you next turn if he attacks. He himself is at 2 life, no cards in hand, nothing relevant in graveyard and has 32 Zombie tokens, Gemstone Mine with 2 counters, City of Brass, Golgari Thug, Golgari Thug and a Narcomoeba in play. He passes the turn to you because he can’t attack yet. You hope to draw an Echoing Truth to bounce the tokens and swing but draw a Merfolk Sovereign instead. It would have won you the game if it came a turn earlier yet there is a way to win this game right here and now. I’ll give the answer at the end of the article.
So how do you learn all this stuff? You can’t possibly know every card in existence. Ok it is possible but it would be unneeded. First of all there are the rules, you can ask a judge anything concerning cards at anytime, even if the card isn’t present in the game. You can ask clarifications on it but you can’t ask for the result of certain plays, the judges are just there to aid you with rules and cards. Also, know the stack. I already mentioned this before but it is really useful. Since the stack is part of the rules, you can ask the judge about this. You can ask what comes on the stack first and what after like the Cabal Therapy play, do the Bridge triggers come first or does the Therapy come first? If you are not sure and think it might be important, just ask. Something else important that is in the rules, your opponent is not allowed to lie to you about public information such as asking for a creatures power and toughness when it is attacking you. He can’t say that it is a 2/2, making you block and then telling you it’s a 3/3 due to exalted because that makes him a cheater. He can choose not to tell you stuff like the cards in his graveyard but you can count that if you want to. He is not obliged to tell you hidden information such as which cards are in his hand or in his deck.
There is also reading and understanding the cards. Try reading the cards and at the same time think about what it changes about other cards in play or just in general. What does the card specifically do? Let’s take Leyline of the Void and Planar Void as an example. Leyline has “If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, remove it from the game instead” while Planar Void has “Whenever another card is put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile that card.” They generally do the same, remove cards from the game if they go to the graveyard yet there is a difference. Leyline is a replacement effect and the card will never go to the graveyard, therefore triggers that happen when things go to the graveyard won’t happen if there is a Leyline in play, they will happen when Planar Void is in play. The difference is in the word ‘Instead’. So if you read Leyline but don’t understand it completely you might miss that the Helm of Obedience in play will kill you. If you read Leyline and aren’t sure what happens, ask a judge. It is a rules question and he or she will answer it.
I promised the answer to the Merfolk against Ichorid problem and it’s rather easy. You can cast your Cursecatcher and Sovereign. This means that you have 4 triggers to resolve from Merrow Reejerey. Cast one of your merfolk and place the Reejerey triggers on the stack, untap City of Brass, tap City of Brass. Stack resolves so Brass gets tapped then untapped, dealing one damage to the Ichorid player. Yes that’s correct, City of Brass sais whenever it becomes tapped, it doesn’t matter how it got tapped. Do the same with your other merfolk in hand and you have successfully dealt the last two damage, winning you the game.