Test Your Brain

This update has two sections. One talking about how the brain works and "short cuts" it will take for itself, and a second section where I briefly discuss my pregame plan, talk, size up etc.

PART THE FIRST

A fantastic show is on Discovery channel right now, talking about the brain and how it works. They run a few games to show this, and one has actress saying "ga", but it sounds like she's saying Ba. The truth is she is "Ba" comes out of her mouth, but the eyes don't see the characteristic "B" bump on the lips. Because of this brain rewires it to believe you are hearing "Ga." After all, it's what you see and it's what's correct, right? What they have done is played the film of her saying "Ga" over the sound of her saying "ba."

It makes sense that the same applies to Magic. What you're opponent is saying (casting, attacking) is what you can hear with your proverbial ears. What your opponent is physically mouthing (what your eyes tell you) is how your opponent sets up their board. If they've got Island Island untapped and it's turn 2, you're expecting a Mana Leak on your play. But if you pass and they don't have it, you were hearing Ga not Ba. Further, you've got no information to verify whether they had Mana Leak or not, they may never have had it.

Another cute trick is where they play a sound that's rather gibberish. It doesn't make sense, but you can imagine it sounds like something. Speech. Then they play a spoken sentence, "she cuts with a knife." Once people have heard that, they replay the original sound. Usually people can't "unhear" the words, now believing that the gibberish now sounds like the sentence "she cuts with a knife." This is amazing once again for Magic tricks. If your opponent lost their round 1, then they've been told already tonight that their deck doesn't work, they're not on the their game, they aren't going to win, etc. This is more commonly known as "tilting", and there's no reason that your opponent won't feel it already. I'm aware you could feel the same, losing your first round, but the sensible player will identify why or where they screwed up, and not make the same mistake.

Knowing a few tricks like this can really help you to carry out your plays with spiced information. It's no secret that players will organise their hand in a certain way. I personally organise my hand Lands, then via mana cost. Once I realise I'm doing this I shuffle my hand after every draw, but I won't always catch myself. Some people like to put the kill spells (Terror, Terminate) in the right of their hand, so you can watch where their cards go as soon as they draw them. Occasionally people draw a land and plop it immediately onto the field, deck to table top. They're happy and relieved that they can finally do something, so they go auto for a second and the brain says "YES, do it!" These moments cost players games, and it's usually the calm and alert opponent who can capitalise on it.

An example from last year would be me against Owen Egan. He's a great player who I often play against in drafts, and for the first time in a while I was winning against him. I drew a nice big 3/3, he had no one that could block well, and I had the 2/1 haste infect goblin. Excited to beat down, I cast the fatty and moved the Strider Harness off the Goblin onto my new fatty and went straight to combat, to which everyone watching and Owen himself said "No, wait. The Goblin dies." In my excitement, I'd forgotten all about the -1/-1 counter on the goblin, and moving the equipment off killed it. Go on auto, lose the game.

Tomorrow night I'm taking my man Rony to FNM at Blacktown, as a birthday gift. I hope I don't play him, and not because I can't beat him. In Limited we're 4-2 in my favour. It's because I've promised to concede to him as a birthday gift. Yah, that'll happen.

What I aim to do is put to use some of these ideas above, that teaching a player something in game 1 will make them "see" or "hear" the same pattern occuring in games 2 or 3. I'm taking my blue/white build [same as last time, though vastly improved] and I'll Mana Leak turn 2 game 1 every time. Then see how my opponent plays game 2. I imagine plenty of the time they'll respect the Mana Leak, whether I have it or not.

PART THE SECOND

My own pre-game is simple enough for me. Appearance is first. A lot of players, especially at bigger events, like to wear the suits. The tie, the shirt, the jacket. It makes a big speech about the player, they are "the business man". For me I imagine myself as much the same, so I don't feel intimidated. I've known other players who do, but I usually just compliment the player and get on with it. I mean, I've got a suit at home too. I could wear it, but am I more comfortable in my jacket tonight, or would I prefer my "I love beer" shirt?

Age also comes into it, as a younger player tends to have a deck filled with their favourite cards that they think are good. And they indeed might be, but often there's a good percentage of the deck that are cute/favourite cards which rather play like blanks against a real/seasoned deck. For a good example, check out my deck from last week. Even earlier then that, it used to have Myr Battlesphere (good) and Golden/Silver Myr to back it up (very bad).

You can try and garner some information from the look of your opponent's face, but I've learnt that this is stupid. For me certainly. People who've looked like stupid, cavemen type opponents have continued to simply crush me into the ground and 4-0 FNM or 3-0 a draft. Plus there will always be stupid luck anyway, so sizing up brains from appearance is rather a waste.

After the image comes the pregame banter. Depending on who it is and how well I know them, I either go through the "So how long have you been playing," routine, or just ask them whether they think they can beat my awesomeness/specific deck contents. With someone like Rony I'd talk about the weather or how soon he expects his Consecrated Sphinx's back, give him something to be distracted by all game long.
Depending on how chatty the person is, I usually tell them I've been playing since 1999. This can be impressive, seeing these days saying "I've played since original Mirrodin," can impress upon players, though someone told me the other day they started in 93, and I was the one going all googly eyed. Time, I imagine, in a trained brain, equals more skill through sheer volume of exposure. Of course that's utter cock anyway. I've been playing since 1999 and to my memory have only won one draft.

After the "how long" question I usually like to drop the "level 1 judge" bomb, to see if that doesn't get a reaction. It might, or might not, but mostly I'm happy to tell players that I judged because I couldn't play. That way, I feel like it conveys an intimidating knowledge of the rules, while still making it sound like I'm not unbeatable. Some kind of balance.

After the banter comes the shuffle and mulligans. I try to do my mulligans after my opponent. I love watching them spy their hand and go "Um." That's the most interesting part. Not an obvious "Keep," but a tentative, "Hmm... I know it's not a great hand," and now they've got to consider going to 6. After that, I'll mulligan but I always watch their eyes and eyebrows when they're peeling their opening 7/6/5/what have you.

Myself, I've never noticed if my opponent has watched me while I mull over a mulligan, but I'm sure some have. I like to keep a blank face, or imagine I do. If I am going to keep a hand, I'll tell myself a story of how the games going to play out using this hand, and I'll know how good my 4-ofs could help get into a better position to win. If I'm happy with either of those (the story of winning, or of the 4-of's getting me there) I feel I can keep.

And all this before the first land is even played!

This is just a simple look at how I go about my Magic experience, and I try to do it for every single game. If I were at a GP I'd look (possibly a tiny bit harder) at my opponent's face when they're drawing their opening hand, but even with casual games or silly repack drafts I'll do it. I never let myself take back mistakes, and expect the same of my opponent.

That's it for now. Though I'd like to leave it on the following note. A lot of pro players are just nice people, who aren't playing the game because they must win. If they lose, they do so graciously, and I'm thinking of LSV and Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa when I say that. To play like them, I certainly can't, but I can win and lose like them, that is with good humour and a sense of "that's just how it went." Granted there are going to be a lot more mistakes for me to make that they wouldn't have, and they'll play the game how I couldn't have imagined before seeing them do it, but even LSV has tried to Mana Leak Thrun, the Last Troll.

So grapes and all, just shuffle up again.

Thanks for reading,
Fox "Mulligan aggresively, yo," Murdoch.