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Tips for newer and older players
Topic Started: August 18, 2011, 2:09 pm (158 Views)
Amethyst
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I felt like writing this article after I saw the movie "City of God". It's an incredible drama based on a true story,
which tells about 2 friends, whom choose different paths in life. One of the becomes a drug dealer, while the other -
a photographer.

The same happens in magic, there are no born pros, everyone has a choice, a choice to be a competative magic player who
keeps winning tournaments, or a kicthen table player, who plays for fun. I chose the first, even though I haven't made
any great appearances yet. I started playing last year, and devoted an incredible amount of time in magic, even though
my priority was studying. I watched all the big tournaments live, read alot of articles, played in countless local
tournaments,and won most of them, but that still didn't give me enough to qualify for a pro tour. I came second at
Natinals, again loosing my chance to qualify. At one year I was able to make second place by ratings in my country,
also winning almost all my standart tournaments. My weakness? Limited and sealed. Every good player has to know he's
weakness and fight in order to overcome it. Also, I can tell you for sure that practice means absolutely nothing, in
limited and sealed of course, can't say that about standart, but still, practice is overrated. All you need to do to
be good is to understand the mechanics of the game, I don't mean the rules, I mean understanding difficult situations
and combinations of cards. Let's start with standart. Standart is easy compared to other formats, you only have 2 years
of cards to examine, and when you build your 75, you're good to go. You know what your deck is capable off, and of course
you know it's weaknesses. The most important rule of the game is not written anywhere, never give up, no matter what, even
if your opponent has overwhelming advantage you may still be able to win. Alot of new players like to scoop because they
don't feel like they can beat their opponents when they start comboing off or resolve a powerfull effect that changes the
pace of the game.
Drafts are easier in preparation compared to constructed formats, all you need to do is know all the cards in the set,
figure out the possible combination of cards that work together, aswell as pick the best cards in the set and try to work
with them, if you get any. Analyzing the best colours is also a great way to prepare, for example black was always
considered good because of its removal (doom blade, go for the throat, dismember and so on), while blue had card cycling
like draw a card, then discard a card and a basic draw advantage engine. Every colour has it's strenghts and weaknesses.

Let's go back to standart for a while now, I started playing UW last year and I still do. Here's with that I've started:
26 lands(now I always play 26 lands in my control based deck, no more, no less),
4 Jace Beleren,
4 Sun Titan,
4 Wall of Omens,
3 Oblivion Rings,
4 Day of Judgment
and what are the 15 other cards I played? Counterspells ! 4 Cancel, 4 Negate, 4 Mana Leaks and 3 Deprives.
Awfull ? No. The only problem was I didn't know what cards to counter, since I didn't know the metagame, I countered every
card my opponent played. Huge mistake, you only counter huge threats, which can immidiatelly impact the game.
I slowly learned to only get rid of the cards that I can't deal with later, and started valuing my cards alot more.
I see alot of new players at my locals who try counter decks, and try playing, but without studying your opponents
plays you cannot defeat them. You opponent can teach you alot more magic than you think.
Then I switched to Caw-Blade, since it was still UW. The deck was overpowered. I used Ben Starks version from PT Paris,
but changed to deck to suit me better. I added main deck condemns, more day of judgments, less gideons, more counter
spells.
Now I still play UW and most of the time I go undefeated with it. Why? Not because I spent an incredible amount of time
and know every deck that plays in standart, but because my main deck is prepared for almost every match up.
I play cards that are good against almost any deck, like dismember and spellskite. Spellskite is amazing btw, it can
serve as a 0/4 blocked at early game, while being a life saver in the process.

So what's my final advice? Love the game, you can't win just with skill or a good deck, you need to love what you do,
and then you will surely succeed, but all in due time.
2003-2011 Countless Regional tops and wins
2009 Quoter Finalist
2010 National Champion (BW)
2011 Top 8 Nationals (BW)
Dedicated Blackwing Player
Magic the Gathering UB & UW control player

Magic the Gathering 2011 Nationals Finalist
Countless tops and wins
Legacy beginner
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Pepsi
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The Legend

Nice article!

I totally agree. I'm pretty good in standard myself, but I always do horrible in drafts. Well not completely horrible. I usually place in drafts and sealed events, but i can never manage to win. I don't have the funds to draft as frequently as I would like to though. I expect to get better though with each event I play in every format.

Also might want to include to always learn from your misplays. I manage to take mental note of my misplays so it DOES NOT happen again. Still looking to do well in a major event though. I plan on playing in my first SCG open in September though. so that will be my first big competitive test.
"Greatness at any Cost!"
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Amethyst
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GL at your stacity event ) I walys watch the standart portion of the event , anyway, what do you think fo the article itself? and yeah , about the misplay part , there's a whole article coming up on that, so just you wait )
2003-2011 Countless Regional tops and wins
2009 Quoter Finalist
2010 National Champion (BW)
2011 Top 8 Nationals (BW)
Dedicated Blackwing Player
Magic the Gathering UB & UW control player

Magic the Gathering 2011 Nationals Finalist
Countless tops and wins
Legacy beginner
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Pepsi
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The Legend

Article seems good.

I think people can learn from it.

I do think skill can be important though. "love of the game" really doesn't seem that relevant. I guess it could help, but it just depends on the type of player you are. If you are obviously more skilled than your opponent you win a majority of the time. Because the other player is going to make bad plays. So skill is relevant and having a good deck is as well. You don't have to have a "tier one" deck, as long as you are prepared for all decks you will see you are good. If you give a bad player a Caw Blade deck then i can see the logic in that argument.

Overall good article and I agree on most points. Some of which can be argued which I tried to display with that short rant. Anyways good job. Looking forward to reading future articles.
"Greatness at any Cost!"
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VINdication
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Nothing Stops Progress

Well written Amethyst; I love the message you tell by this article. If you love Magic, you will surely get better in time and with hard work, you can become a very skilled magic player. Keep up the great work!
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