[Article]Eternal Europe: Why You Win

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Some fundamental theory this week:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26809_Why-You-Win.html

Enjoy and let me know what you think - and why!

[Zombie]

Because it helps me win, of course :P

A truly excellent article.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Well, that's the easy answer ;p Happy you like it :)

[Hardcore]

Problem is people will still struggle figuring out how to apply this to their own deck.
A sort of flow chart aid or step by step procedure for folk to use when analysing their own deck is something I would like to see.

Still, I enjoy your articles Carsten! So keep them coming.

[arj]

Excellent article. Food for thought.

[anwei]

Great article - I continue to think these are the best eternal articles around.

One complementary piece to (or subset of) "Why you win", which I think often gets overlooked, is asking "Why you lose" in certain match-ups, and how that should affect in-game strategies, boarding, etc.
Specific common example: I often find myself playing different Ux Midrange/Control decks against RUG Delver, and trying to evaluate FoW post-board. The arguments I most often read and here for cutting it is pretty WYW: "You want the game to go long, where card disadvantage is a big deal, and you don't want to 2-for-1 yourself in the middle of that grind." True enough. But when you lose, why do you lose? Frequently, because they kept you off mana and/or landed an early Delver/Goose that you couldn't answer in time. You want to be able to interact as much as possible in those early turns to not lose (or get within burn range), and trading some of your late game strength to get to the late game is worth it. So, depending on the deck, I keep some number in. (This could, of course, be a subpoint of "Why you win" - you don't lose to them by letting them get there "why you win" set of conditions - but it's an important question to ask.)

[Bed Decks Palyer]

I liked the article.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

@hardcore: Happy you like 'em :) I see what you mean about the problem of direct application, not sure exactly how to do anything about it as each deck has it's own unique plan and I don't see any easy ways to generalize there - the player just has to learn how their deck works...

@arj: thanks! :)

@anwei: Thanks a lot! The observation on "why you lose" is definitely important, especially to understand which conditions need to be met to win certain matchups. In a way it's implicitly included in WYW (because you lose when your opponent shuts down your plan for winning) but approaching it from the side of losing will make a number of things more understandable/evident a lot of the time. I should probably have talked about that a little.

@Bed Decks Player: Thanks :)

[Tombstalker]

I enjoyed the article brother thanks for sharing.

[Purgatory]

I liked this a lot. Thanks!

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Thanks to both of you, happy you liked it :)