Why did he burn for 1?

[RoddyVR]

Sorry if this isnt the right forum to ask this, I thought maybe community... but figured here is more appropriate.

I just played someone on MWS, finaly a nice person, with a good deck, no random quiting.

Anyway, on like game 3 or 4, he played an island first turn (volc i think) and passed, then i played an island and a Aether Vial, what i dont understand is his response.

He tapped his land for mana, then dazed my vial, and then took one mana burn.

After he dazed the vial, i thought he was gonna use the mana for a brainstorm or something, but he didnt, just burned himself for 1 at eot.

I dont think it was just a mistake, i'm fairly certain he did this on purpose, but what it can be i just cant figure out, probably cause i dont play enough (or any realy) control decks. If this is a "normal" occurence, i'd love to know what it is he thought he might have needed the mana for.

[legacyplayer0]

Maybe he thought you could have Daze. Or if it was your second main phase, it could have been Spell Snare.

[Nightmare]

Generally it's better to burn for 1 in a deck that runs Daze than it would be to get Dazed back, be unable to pay it, and have Vial resolve.

[Dilettante]

Maybe he thought you could have Daze. Or if it was your second main phase, it could have been Spell Snare.

Or he could have been trying to fake a Spell Snare. It's the Iocaine Powder talking again. The better player you are, the more prone you are to psychological tricks since your opponent knows what options you would consider in peculiar scenarios.

[RoddyVR]

Ah, that might be it. Thanks...
It was my first turn, so he likely had a spell snare (or reb) ready if i dazed his daze.
I meant to ask him about it when we finished the game but forgot till after we'd already both left.

[Nightmare]

Why in the name of shit would he Snare or REB the Daze, when he could just say "Pay the 1."?

[Obfuscate Freely]

The obvious answer is that he was playing around your potential Daze, but another likely explanation is that he had a Brainstorm in his hand.

If your opponent was worred that you had a Force of Will to protect your Vial, he may have wanted access to the Brainstorm, to dig for a Force of his own. Thus, by floating mana, he gave himself the best chances of stopping the Vial, whether you had a Daze or a Force. You would have needed both in order to guarantee the Vial's resolution.

Now, he had to decide whether or not to play the Brainstorm before the mana left his pool. In this case, once the Vial was successfully countered, your opponent decided to hold the Brainstorm, in order to maximize its value later. The cost of this was a single point of life, which he assumed would be negligible against a deck that opens with "Island, Aether Vial."

[quicksilver]

He could have had force spike in hand too.

[RoddyVR]

Why in the name of shit would he Snare or REB the Daze, when he could just say "Pay the 1."?

Where's a red faced smilie when you need one... :frown:

@all. Wow, there sure were a lot of things he could have been planning with that one mana. Learn something new every day. I guess i realy should try out a control deck for a bit just so i can get a sense of what it's like from that side of the table.

[freakish777]

so he likely had a spell snare (or reb)

Obv, if you see this at a tournament ask them what color they're floating. It should almost always be blue, but if you see them float red instead, that should be a big tip off that they either run REB (or want you to think they do). Clearly you really don't want to let them float mana only to let them choose what color it is after they see what color they need.

[Nihil Credo]

He could have had force spike in hand too.
On a related note, does anyone else keep finding a shitload of MUC players on MWS these days?

[raharu]

On a related note, does anyone else keep finding a shitload of MUC players on MWS these days?
Not quite, but I've seen fucktons of DragonStompy and Enchantress. Most of the MUC that I see played is deformed and butchered.