The Real Next Level:
Part 2
Aftermath
Now
that certain actions have been taken that suggest the DCI is willing to act as
necessary when cheaters are unmasked, it means that diligence in the future
will be key to making sure that something along these lines does not happen
again. Community policing has proven to
be effective, and if players are more aware of the possibility of illicit
actions being employed by their opponents, it stands to reason that those
actions will not be as popular.
Of
course, you can argue that in this instance, the cheater profited to the tune
of over $10,000 in cash and prizes, so the deterrent may not be strong enough,
but I still prefer to believe that the environment can change.
Since I
spent the last article outlying a tongue-in-cheek guide to cheating, I thought
it was only fair to take the time in this post to explore some of the options
for improving your win rate and +EV that are well within the rules and aren’t “sleep
well and eat a healthy breakfast” – not to say that this is bad advice, but it
is akin to books on writing that offer hints to starting your career like “get
an agent” and “network”. In both cases,
the advice is solid and relevant, but probably isn’t something that you didn’t
already know before.
The
following list may contain suggestions that you’ve seen in other places, and I
apologize for any redundant information, but I’ve found that employing these
strategies may lead to the same incremental gains potential that some of the
cheats mentioned in the last article do.
5 Ways to Improve
Your Win Rate that Don’t Involve #twoexplores
1) Sit in the Right Place – When you first
walk into a large tournament hall, notice the enormous number of
posters/signs/flashing lights that typically accompany major tournaments. All of these things are capital “d”
distractions. Whether you are consciously aware of your surroundings,
or have the ability to “get in a zone” and focus on your game, the reality is
that your mind is forced to filter the things happening around you one way or
another. A really simple trick is to sit
so that you are not facing the bulk of the tournament crowd. At the top tables this can be a major
advantage; since if you are facing a relatively quiet wall and your opponent is
staring at 700 milling people and @cspranklerun, you can rest assured that your
mind is dealing with considerably fewer stimuli that can make it impossible to
make the correct mulligan decision.
2) Take Breaks – Playing live Magic is physically and mentally
draining. Sitting around your friends’
money draft discussing pick orders and the playability of some 23rd
common versus another land is not letting your mind relax. I’m not recommending taking up smoking, but getting
away from the tournament hall and doing something other than thinking/talking
about/playing Magic is another easy
way to click the dial on your win rate up another small notch. Some professionals prefer to stay “focused”
concentrating only on the upcoming match and playing your best—see Woods,
Conley at Worlds (RIP) 2011—but for most players, this is dramatically
counterproductive. Analyzing your
possible misplays or celebrating clever card-slinging is important, but it can
be even more useful to do so later than right away. Odds are, if you focus so much on not
accidently playing the second Plains when you needed a Forest to cast
Darkthicket Wolf, you might miss that you have a Spectral Rider in hand this
game that you didn’t the time before. So
relax, go outside, call your significant other and talk about 2 Broke Girls or Rick Perry.
3) Avoid Traps – Oftentimes, players fall
into believing that some action they took directly precipitated their loss or
win. These tend to be “obvious in
hindsight” sorts of errors or successes that actually create issues in the
future. You know that you do this if you’ve
ever found yourself saying something like: “Well, on turn 3 I cast Ponder and
shuffled, even though I would have flipped my Delver if I would have ordered it
right. But if I would have kept those
three, I would have lost to her Olivia on turn 6, so in retrospect, I made the
right play.” You didn’t make the right
play, you made the wrong play, and you got rewarded incorrectly for it. It happens, but don’t start passing up 3/2
creatures with Flying for one because you might get lucky and top-deck a timely
Dissipate when you do.
4) You Can’t Read Your Opponents—I’m sorry
to be the one to tell you this, but most players are not psychic. The ability to “read” your opponents and
determine what they have in hand is one of the most overrated “skills” amateurs
and semi-pros believe professionals have.
The truth is that in the overwhelming majority of situations, the
correct play is available to be made regardless of your opponent’s hand. The game has changed to this, it didn’t used
to be like that, but spells are much less powerful than they ever were before,
so the value of mind-tricks and recognizing “tells” has gone down
considerably.
a. Any
sort of example for this is inherently flawed, but I’m going to attempt one
anyway. Keep in mind that this is for
illustration only. Game two, you have a Fiend
Hunter in play that is removing a Big-Scary Monster. You are at 8 life, your opponent is at
3. The enemy has left up three mana and
you are facing down a 3/3 Elder Cathar that is tapped from attacking you (you
blocked with a Festerhide Boar and your opponent played Ranger’s Guile). Your opponent has one card in hand, you have
no cards in hand. Does your opponent
have Rebuke or Village Bell-ringer or Spidery Grasp or Midnight Haunting or
Ambush Viper or nothing? The obvious
answer is: It doesn’t matter. At
all. This is a simple situation, I admit
that, but knowing what your opponent has in hand is irrelevant. Whatever card they have, you have to
attack. A number of pros and players
would probably hold back unless they had a “read” that told them it was a land
in their opponent’s hand. Because they might draw their Angel of Flight Alabaster or Rebuke
of their own or any one of the 13 cards left in their deck that represent an
out to the 3/3. But if you are correct
in assuming any one of the tricks I just listed for your opponent, then they
are massively favored to win the game any way, no matter what you draw and if
you are incorrect and they don’t actually have anything, then you will force
them on the defensive after just one more swing.
I know that the example is not
particularly complicated, and you may even have a differing opinion, but
remember that I am trying to suggest tiny ways in which you can gain percentage
points in your future match-ups. It is
possible to get a read on your opponent and “know” what they have, but for most
players, it is usually better to not worry about it. I’m not recommending blindly running your
best spells into Mana Leak or swarming the board into Day of Judgment, but the
situations in which players steadfastly believe that their opponent has some
magical ability to see into their souls and play around their game plan are
usually situations where your highest percentage play is to just go for it (or
not go for it, whatever the case may be).
The Mana Leak is still going to be there next turn and the Day of
Judgment isn’t going anywhere. They
might even draw another one or two by the time you decide you can “fight
through the counter war”.
5)
Play in
the Moment—Often, players, especially good players, plan ahead. You know what you are going to do over the
next few turns and you know how you are going to do it. I’m not going to attempt to argue against
that, but more people need to be aware of how fast Magic shifts now. Especially
in Limited. If you can learn how to
respond correctly right now, you will be better positioned to press your
advantage in the endgame. Mike Flores
used to talk often about “sculpting an endgame” and dozens of writers exhort
their ability to visualize the board the turn that they win and then work
backwards to figure out how to get there.
What this amounts to for those of us who don’t live in Magical Christmas
Land is a strategy that is about as useful as listening to John Edwards or
perhaps akin to the Army watching you play GI Joes in your backyard to pre-empt
Cobra Commander’s nefarious plan to take over the world.
a.
Let’s say your “visualization”--or “random-ass
completely made-up dream scenario” if you will—involves Kessig Cagebreakers
attacking alongside six Wolf Tokens when your opponent is at 7 life. Then your opponent opens with Dream Twist,
binning the Cagebreaker. Sure, you
adapt, and now you imagine winning with Spider Spawning tokens swarming out of
your graveyard. Then your opponent casts
Curse of Oblivion. Time to adapt again,
and you plan on beating down with Deranged Assistants and Orchard Spirits. The game plays out, and you lose the turn
before your Spirit would swing for lethal when your opponent flashbacks Silent
Departure. You just wasted tons of
mental energy and formulated a game plan that was mostly irrelevant, since
attacking with random dudes is basic Limited strategy.
Again, I’m not trying to say that
pre-visualization is completely useless (yes I am) but that I think your time
could be better spent elsewhere. Staying
in the moment and focusing on what to do with the cards you have is a critical
skill that people tend to ignore because they love to believe in the top of
their deck. To go back to suggestion
three: don’t fall into that trap.
Conclusion
I am not trying to craft a frame of reference that is going
to replace the enormous output from the most influential thinkers the game has
seen. Everything that I’ve said is not
necessarily the absolute best sort of strategy, instead, I’m trying to suggest
tricks and minor tweaks to any one’s repertoire that can improve your game in
the short term and help shore up the foundation to becoming a better
player. Having realistic expectations is
critical to moving forward. Setting
attainable goals is the hallmark of improving oneself.
If you aren’t willing to Ancestral Brainstorm (and I do hope
you aren’t), then finding other options to help make your decisions easier is
crucial. And easy. Nothing I’ve suggested is that complicated or
difficult to implement, and there’s no downside to trying it out.
I’ll be back soon with some Innistrad Limited and Constructed discussion.
As always, thanks for reading.
Ben Snyder
@snglmaltproof
Stormskull on MTGO
