It has been quite a while since I wrote something here, and now I am back, thanks to Ogie Jaro. Yes, Ogie had some indirect influence in this article. I was reading his Filipino Field Journal and saw his disclaimer about it not being a strategy column but one for entertainment purposes only. After the bad beating that the Japanese handed to us last Grand Prix, I think that the country actually needs a strategy column for it to produce better players or at least to shed some light for those who have no time to practice anymore.

I am aware that there are strategy columns from other sites, but personally, I don’t read them because of lack of flavor. Yes, you can copy net decks, but they rarely tell you how to play it to its full potential. Sometimes, they even give out bad information. I also think that they leave out some important details on purpose. Imagine yourself in the shoes of the pro, why would you give out and broadcast your detailed strategies to your competitors?

As for me, I just want to put this country in the Magic map. Unfortunately, I do not have time to play as much as I did 2 years ago, and so I guess it’s best to pass some knowledge to the new and active players. My article will cover topics based on my own personal experience. If my writings end up similar to what you read in the foreign articles, it is purely coincidence because I do not read articles (and it upsets my team mates, sinasayang ko daw yung premium).

On to the pilot episode!

Lesson #1: Play to win.

There are a couple of ways to win in Magic, and there are also some ways to not-win in Magic. So why do people love to do the latter? I do not really know, but I am sure that I did it in the past too.

1.1: Creature control

Here is a sample scenario in the extended format:

• Affinity vs. UW. Both players have no cards in hand and have nothing relevant on the board.
• The UW player is at 5 life, he topdecks and plays a face-up Exalted Angel
• The Affinity player topdecks a Shrapnel Blast and kills the angel
• The UW player draws another Exalted Angel (#2)
• The Affinity player draws nothing but artifact lands for the next few turns
• Exalted Angel #2 goes all the way

Most players will blame this to the bad draw (naglupa) and the 2nd topdeck. What they do not realize is that there was a mistake that cost the affinity player the game. If you did not see the mistake, read line 2 and 3 again.

Shrapnel blast to the opposing player was supposed to win the game but sometimes, we tend to lose focus on the game and shift our attention to the relevant threat. I have played Extended in 3 foreign countries (GP Beijing 2005, Worlds 2006, and GP Singapore 2007) so far and this exact scenario (or something similar) is very common.

There is also a common mistake in the recent standard and block constructed format involving Profane Command. Many players love the removal and reanimation mode of the card because it’s cool. Set aside the cool dude in you for a while, we have a game to win. Yes, I know that the card is very versatile, but the most effective use for it is to give your creatures fear and the fireball function. 2 Tarmogoyfs and X to the opposing player is often enough to end games but players rarely see that.

I have a theory on why most of us love to kill creatures and we have to thank the network gaming industry for producing players like this. You gain experience in DOTA by killing creatures, you score in Counterstrike by killing opponents, etc. Magic is different, there is no XP, and there are no frags to gain. You do not gain extra points in your match slip for killing creatures and you cannot win the game just by doing so. All we have to deal with is the opponent and his 20 life; let’s not make it more complicated.

1.2: Combat

Most people like to keep things tidy. They want a clear board to work with and are fond of having as few creatures on the board as possible.

Here’s another common sample scenario:

• Kithkin mirror, both players start with a Goldmeadow Stalwart
• Player 1 plays a land and attacks with his 2/2 on the 2nd turn while player 2 is tapped out due to a freshly summoned stalwart
• Player 2 blocks

Let’s leave the story at that. I have a question though; why did he block? Is 2 damage on 20 life so dangerous that he needs to block? At this point, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. The most obvious would be a reinforced Rustic Clatchan. The not so obvious could be a bad curve from player 1, meaning; he is only trying to buy time by simplifying the board. In any case, blocking would do more harm than good.

I learned this principle in my very 1st Pro Tour. I was watching Pierre Canali and Terry Soh play each other in a money draft. They just kept attacking each other, no blocks every time. During the Pro-tour itself, I was able to verify that most pros adhere to this principle. They rarely block with their larger creatures and more important creatures.

Do not be afraid to take a little damage. There is nothing to be gained on a clear board, but preserving your creatures / win-conditions is an important key to winning you a game.

1.3: Control Mirrors

Control mirrors are often very complicated matches, but it always boils down to 1 basic principle; “Whoever gets a threat to stick on the board will win”. In the recent block constructed format, when faeries play each other, the player who gets his Bitterblossom out earlier will most often win the match. As for Quick and Toast mirrors, the player who is able to protect his Kitchen Finks (or any threat) and gets to beat down is likely to win the match.

A hand full of counters would often be irrelevant if your opponent has an active threat on the board. It would be really good if you have an active threat and some cards to protect it rather than being in a situation wherein you are pressed with finding a quick solution for your opponent’s threat.

This is something that I learned while watching the Japanese playing Psychatog in the extended format (GP Beijing 2005). Unlike the local players, they do not take forever to finish. They play it in such a way that they power out the tog and protect it while it chips the opponent’s life total away. They are rarely reluctant to tap out for a Psychatog or Meloku. If you read the coverage of the World Championships that Carlos Romao won, you will notice that he played the Psychatog mirror differently by choosing not to counter the draw spells. He dealt with the threats instead.

1.4: Deck building

Filipino players are well known for ingenuity and creative concepts. These are 2 really good traits, but we often forget 1 very important thing when building homebrew decks; the win condition. I have seen a fair share of decks with goals of “locking” the opponent. This was a good concept a few years back but I don’t think we should adhere to it anymore. The 1st thing you should keep in mind when building a deck is your win condition, the second should be a plan on how to deliver your win condition in a timely manner. Ever wonder why Tarmogoyf is so expensive? Because it’s simply the best and most cost-efficient threat in any format and any deck that can support it cost.

Back in high school, when I was a purely casual gamer, I distinctly remember being afraid of playing this guy who had a really expensive land destruction deck. It featured a lot of dual lands, sets of Sinkholes, Stone Rains, Pillages, Ice Storms, and a lot of control cards like The Abyss which would guarantee that you would not be able to stick a threat on the board.

It occurred to me that I never really lost to the guy, it’s just that the games were really annoying and one-sided, I always wanted to concede. I built a mono blue deck one day and challenged his land destruction deck. I ended up winning all of our games via library death. The trick was that I packed my mono blue deck with a set of Vision Charms. Yes, he had a good deck, but his deck could not win because it did not have a win condition. He eventually packed Millstones in his deck and I was back to losing to it.

Whichever deck or format you play, always remember that you have to focus on the main objective which is to destroy your opponent by reducing his life from 20 to 0 or whatever win-condition you choose.

JT
(Comments are much appreciated and would be a good basis for future articles.)