Hello there. I've been playing Magic since Feb of 2013. I've always liked the concept of milling and jumped right into the Nephalia Drownyard version of Esper Control. I want to be competitive at magic, i love the idea of playing at big 500+ man tournaments and placing well and I'm actually trying to prepare a deck for my first ever IQ on Nov. 23rd. Though it seems my ideas are not plausible and I'm not sure what direction to go.
I've tried playing RDW, USA Control, Esper Control, U/W Control, Bant Hexproof (pre-rotation), and Junk midrange. Out of all of them, I would say my heart falls for the control decks, as I don't seem to be too good with aggro. My biggest issue though is that I hate creatures. After playing the different variants of control, I just shrug creatures off, between Supreme Verdicts or quick instant removal spells, I don't see creatures as a huge threat.
I've gone through recent tournament results, and I have to say, just about all of them look boring to me to play. I like, interaction, I like being able to have a decision every turn instead of the "hurr durr swing". I've been trying to build a deck based around Traumatizeing my opponent and then popping a Psychic Spiral for the win. This worked extremely well while Snapcaster Mage was in rotation in a U/W Control shell. Though, i've been told it is not a "Competitive" style.
Trolls aside, is there something I'm missing or an article I haven't read to help better judge my decisions to take MTG to the next level?
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Cant give a real advise in this but you should really get rid of your attitude about creatures because answers(removal) dont win games, questions(creatures) do. Even control decks run creatures be it Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Aetherling, Prognostic Sphinx etc.
I dont see how you want win with mill because you are dead long before the opponent will have no cards anymore. At least against any decent deck.
I'd say the deck that would prob best suit you atm would be Esper control. It aims to go late game and win via either a resolved Aetherling or Elspeth, Sun's Champion.
As for your question, I always advise people to read "Who's the Beatdown" as a first step in improving their play. There is also Patrick Capin's book "Next Level Magic" that you can buy on StarCityGames.com. There really isn't one article in particular that will change your mind/play style. It's a culmination of many sources, both internal and external. Creatures are the bread and butter of MTG. Yes spells are a big part too, but since it's earliest versions creatures are typically what have assisted decks in winning. It's entirely possible to win without creatures, as many different decks over the years have shown. But barring specific blocks here and there wins will typically come from creatures of some sort.
I've gone through recent tournament results, and I have to say, just about all of them look boring to me to play. I like, interaction, I like being able to have a decision every turn instead of the "hurr durr swing".
Just out of curiosity, did you actually sleeve up proxies and try playing them though? Because the black devotion deck, for example, might have a bunch of creatures but plays much more like a control deck than aggro.
If you want to be competitive in mtg the first thing you have to do is to forget about your personal preferences and focus your energy in winning.
Trying to force certain play style is not how you take TCGs to the next level. Forget your preferences and look objectively to the card pool and the metagame and try to choose the optimal choice. You can play what you like when you're screwing around but for tournaments don't. Of course your ability with certain archetypes appears somewhere in that equation. It might sound a bit boring to forget about 'fun' and look at the game so objectively but the thing is, you end up discoring new stuff in this process.
Also it's very impoirtant to have a certain level of experience with all archtypes and all decks in the meta (that's why a play group with many different decks are important, so people can test many match ups and switch decks a lot).
EX: Playing RDW vs. Esper will surely teach you one thing or two about being beating RDW with Esper.
What others have said is a pretty key element to taking your game to the next level.
I despise green and white and also am not the biggest fan of mono red decks either, but the truth is that I like this game far too much to stop me from playing colors and decks I am not the biggest fan of. I also like winning... who doesn't?
There is a lot of information out there to really help you take your game to the next level and while Patrick Chapin and "Next Level Magic" are great sources of information to help you do that, I personally am not a player who enjoyed that book as much as I have enjoyed other reads. It does make my list of must read material for MTG though.
When I was younger, we had an event known as the Jr. Super Series and hopefully there are others here that remember it as I am sure there are. It was not the most competitive event in the world, but I was really young (I am 24 years old). It was not the typical FNM event I was use to at the time. There were also States, which was a big deal for me because I was beating people far older than me and when I lost it would just drive me to win the next one.
I was also playing extended events back when Odyssey came out which was not the typical Standard format I was use to, which helped me understand more game states I was not typically use to seeing.
It was not until about 2007 when I started dipping into Magic Theory and game mechanics (not card mechanics) which brought me to a period in which I really started to hit GP's pretty hard. I was still living at my parents and pulling in cash from working and just saving up. Man, if anything pushed me as a magic player, it was grinding GP's. They were so far above my play level at the time that I would get completely crushed some rounds.
Those are kind of the highlights of how I developed as a magic player. Losing a lot, and despite losing, putting myself in a position to lose just so I could push myself. Losing and being able to be proud of yourself for pushing yourself because you lost is really the mentality you need above everything else. You will consume yourself if you cannot keep that attitude up and it will just burn you out. That was why I ended up taking a break from magic. I crushed a PTQ and burned myself out before I had a chance to even attend.
There is a link to some of the greatest magic theory articles of all time, I actually came across it a little over a week ago and bookmarked it, because I had pretty much all of them bookmarked and it was a complete pain to dig through them to find one I wanted to review again. I have read them all so many times it is kind of silly, but I would recommend hearing about these straight from the horse's mouth.
Finally, learn to take things like FNM results with a complete grain of salt, or ignore playing them all together like I usually do. Try and find other skilled players and hold private discussions and testing sessions. It is always good to have team members that can anchor you down when you start venturing away from the path to victory or ones that can pick you up after a day of beatings at the tables.
Just try to practice good habits as well. One thing I have noticed is that if I start playing against players that have a lower skill level then me, it is so easy for me to just get sloppy and when that happens, it is a straight path to a match loss. I know I personally need to work on that, because the level of play I have had over the last week and a half is completely inexcusable and I need to get back on track before GP Albuquerque.
I am primarily a drafter, meaning I don't get be "always control" or "always aggro", but outside of casual my constructed tastes lean toward aggressive decks. This began in 8th when counterspell wasn't reprinted, and I fell in love with speed, burn, and turning dudes sideways. The problem is that you are wanting mill people. Milling is at best an FNM strategy most of the time (like right now), sometimes WotC will throw you enough bones to make it doable, but they are very happy with that being a fringe thing. Aetherling is all but unanswerable (it even dodges edicts and wraths unlike it's forefather), and will draw the game to a close, bloodbaron and ghost dad are both very hard to answer, and will draw the game to a close (and gain you life). Given how flagrantly many aggro decks ignore their own life total (which is actually the correct call), and how much damage people take from land and thoughseize, it's much easier to deal damage than rip through 60 cards (though I would love to see someone rip the game apart with the legendary dimir mill vampire).
And let me tell you a little secret, aggressive decks are the actual control decks, and "control decks" are actually the controlled decks. The aggressive deck sets the pace and tells the other deck what it has to deal with, the other deck has to adapt and adjust. Who's the one in charge; the deck forcing you to deal with it, or the deck madly digging for removal to keep up? The one asking questions is nearly aways in charge, especially when compared to the person answering them.
Your attitude is part of what is holding you back from higher level competitive play;
- aggro decks aren't mindless and no strong player thinks that. Many of them prefer to play aggro;
- mill is rarely competitive and strong players can tell when there is or isn't the quality if compact mill win-cons available to validate the archetype.
You need to let go of your presumptions and like the others have said, the more reading and testing you can do the better.
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I've tried playing RDW, USA Control, Esper Control, U/W Control, Bant Hexproof (pre-rotation), and Junk midrange. Out of all of them, I would say my heart falls for the control decks, as I don't seem to be too good with aggro. My biggest issue though is that I hate creatures. After playing the different variants of control, I just shrug creatures off, between Supreme Verdicts or quick instant removal spells, I don't see creatures as a huge threat.
I've gone through recent tournament results, and I have to say, just about all of them look boring to me to play. I like, interaction, I like being able to have a decision every turn instead of the "hurr durr swing". I've been trying to build a deck based around Traumatizeing my opponent and then popping a Psychic Spiral for the win. This worked extremely well while Snapcaster Mage was in rotation in a U/W Control shell. Though, i've been told it is not a "Competitive" style.
Trolls aside, is there something I'm missing or an article I haven't read to help better judge my decisions to take MTG to the next level?
Co-Owner / Systems Administrator
Fail Gaming
www.FailGaming.com
Skype: Kibbelznbitz69
I dont see how you want win with mill because you are dead long before the opponent will have no cards anymore. At least against any decent deck.
UBR Sedris
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage
UB The Scarab God
RUG Maelstrom Wanderer
WU Dragonlord Ojutai
As for your question, I always advise people to read "Who's the Beatdown" as a first step in improving their play. There is also Patrick Capin's book "Next Level Magic" that you can buy on StarCityGames.com. There really isn't one article in particular that will change your mind/play style. It's a culmination of many sources, both internal and external. Creatures are the bread and butter of MTG. Yes spells are a big part too, but since it's earliest versions creatures are typically what have assisted decks in winning. It's entirely possible to win without creatures, as many different decks over the years have shown. But barring specific blocks here and there wins will typically come from creatures of some sort.
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.
Maybe read the book titled "Next Level Magic"?
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
Co-Owner / Systems Administrator
Fail Gaming
www.FailGaming.com
Skype: Kibbelznbitz69
Just out of curiosity, did you actually sleeve up proxies and try playing them though? Because the black devotion deck, for example, might have a bunch of creatures but plays much more like a control deck than aggro.
Trying to force certain play style is not how you take TCGs to the next level. Forget your preferences and look objectively to the card pool and the metagame and try to choose the optimal choice. You can play what you like when you're screwing around but for tournaments don't. Of course your ability with certain archetypes appears somewhere in that equation. It might sound a bit boring to forget about 'fun' and look at the game so objectively but the thing is, you end up discoring new stuff in this process.
Also it's very impoirtant to have a certain level of experience with all archtypes and all decks in the meta (that's why a play group with many different decks are important, so people can test many match ups and switch decks a lot).
EX: Playing RDW vs. Esper will surely teach you one thing or two about being beating RDW with Esper.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
I despise green and white and also am not the biggest fan of mono red decks either, but the truth is that I like this game far too much to stop me from playing colors and decks I am not the biggest fan of. I also like winning... who doesn't?
There is a lot of information out there to really help you take your game to the next level and while Patrick Chapin and "Next Level Magic" are great sources of information to help you do that, I personally am not a player who enjoyed that book as much as I have enjoyed other reads. It does make my list of must read material for MTG though.
When I was younger, we had an event known as the Jr. Super Series and hopefully there are others here that remember it as I am sure there are. It was not the most competitive event in the world, but I was really young (I am 24 years old). It was not the typical FNM event I was use to at the time. There were also States, which was a big deal for me because I was beating people far older than me and when I lost it would just drive me to win the next one.
I was also playing extended events back when Odyssey came out which was not the typical Standard format I was use to, which helped me understand more game states I was not typically use to seeing.
It was not until about 2007 when I started dipping into Magic Theory and game mechanics (not card mechanics) which brought me to a period in which I really started to hit GP's pretty hard. I was still living at my parents and pulling in cash from working and just saving up. Man, if anything pushed me as a magic player, it was grinding GP's. They were so far above my play level at the time that I would get completely crushed some rounds.
Those are kind of the highlights of how I developed as a magic player. Losing a lot, and despite losing, putting myself in a position to lose just so I could push myself. Losing and being able to be proud of yourself for pushing yourself because you lost is really the mentality you need above everything else. You will consume yourself if you cannot keep that attitude up and it will just burn you out. That was why I ended up taking a break from magic. I crushed a PTQ and burned myself out before I had a chance to even attend.
The game is also more than just playing it.
http://thoughtscour.com/the-best-magic-theory-articles-of-all-time/
There is a link to some of the greatest magic theory articles of all time, I actually came across it a little over a week ago and bookmarked it, because I had pretty much all of them bookmarked and it was a complete pain to dig through them to find one I wanted to review again. I have read them all so many times it is kind of silly, but I would recommend hearing about these straight from the horse's mouth.
Finally, learn to take things like FNM results with a complete grain of salt, or ignore playing them all together like I usually do. Try and find other skilled players and hold private discussions and testing sessions. It is always good to have team members that can anchor you down when you start venturing away from the path to victory or ones that can pick you up after a day of beatings at the tables.
Just try to practice good habits as well. One thing I have noticed is that if I start playing against players that have a lower skill level then me, it is so easy for me to just get sloppy and when that happens, it is a straight path to a match loss. I know I personally need to work on that, because the level of play I have had over the last week and a half is completely inexcusable and I need to get back on track before GP Albuquerque.
And let me tell you a little secret, aggressive decks are the actual control decks, and "control decks" are actually the controlled decks. The aggressive deck sets the pace and tells the other deck what it has to deal with, the other deck has to adapt and adjust. Who's the one in charge; the deck forcing you to deal with it, or the deck madly digging for removal to keep up? The one asking questions is nearly aways in charge, especially when compared to the person answering them.
- aggro decks aren't mindless and no strong player thinks that. Many of them prefer to play aggro;
- mill is rarely competitive and strong players can tell when there is or isn't the quality if compact mill win-cons available to validate the archetype.
You need to let go of your presumptions and like the others have said, the more reading and testing you can do the better.
Want to see me in action? Check out my stream! Currently broadcasting Boros Burn in Standard. Full archive available.
Want to play better magic? Come join us at diestoremoval.com