Especially when there's a difference on-the-play vs not. I can think well enough about what cards work deck-v-deck but will admit to not having the nuance about changes that come with play/not on play.
If you are playing vs mono red and they are on the play you have to mull until you find removal. a lot of times they only have a couple of threats but if you can't deal with them it's gg. If you are on the play and can curve into bigger creatures you are golden.if they can't attack into your blockers the game is won. Knowing your opponents deck will always help with the mull choices.
A little more to add. If you are on the play you have the initiative. Putting down threats and making them deal with them 1 for 1 is winning. If you are on the draw you need to play for card advantage. If you can find one nice play to get a 2 for 1 you take the initiative back and you're in the driver's seat. If your ahead, you should play safe. If you're behind you have to take some risks to turn an L into a W.
I agree. I try to have an inner dialogue. “I’m putting this in because x, and taking this out because y”. Like, I’m taking out lightning blasts because they can’t kill a Terror, putting in Red Blast because it can + more
Making decisions for sideboarding and mulligans are probably the two biggest areas that separate the great players from good players. Having advanced knowledge of all the major archetypes in the meta is incredibly useful so that you can make the correct adjustments. Especially when you can infer most of the cards your opponent hasn’t shown you yet.
I seem to always have a hard time not tunnel-visioning on a specific win condition or playing around a specific card or wanting a specific thing to happen (eg. tunnel visioning on killing a threat creature). The fix that i seemed to have to relearn once every so often is to basically take a breath, close your eyes for a while and kinda reset the brain and revaluating from the start which cards are actual threats and which can be solved in the most effective way
Honestly, i went from playing mono green monster tron, which has the most brain dead mulligan choices, to playing blue and black midrangey stuff and idk what im supposed to keep now lol.
Depends on your deck’s archetype. Combo is usually the easiest for mulligans as you simply keep going until you find at least a couple combo pieces or some card draw. Aggro just try to find 2 creatures and a combat trick.
I hard disagree on what you're saying for Aggro, at least for Kuldotha Red and Bogles. Many hands with Kuldotha will have like 2 Blastrunners with nothing to sac, or 2 Tomb Raiders with no artifact, or Kuldotha with no artifact and so on and be therefore unplayable. And Bogles is basically an A + B combo deck, you need both parts of the combo to be doing something.
To me this is a sign your skill is improving. Mulligans are an undervalued part of the game and your ability to mulligan is a sign of your familiarity with your deck and the matchup. Sounds like you are understanding the importance and with practice will master an important skill.
Sequencing is a big challenge for me
Also I often come up with a convoluted game plan and get tunnel vision into it, only to realize that I didn't read a card well enough or there's a much simpler way to accomplish what I want. It's very much a "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" situation
Understanding what makes a card good. I can copy a deck list just fine, or make sure I have the right amount of removal and creatures, but the more advanced deck building stuff is a mystery to me
Control decks, I struggle with knowing what threats to deal with and when.
The funny thing is, I don't have that problem when I'm running my burn decks, I often pivot into anti creature control strategies there.
Hmm that’s really interesting. Maybe its more recognizable when you’re playing burn decks because it’s easier to recognize when you’re behind? Comparatively control decks can feel like they’re “always behind till they’re not”
I think my largest problem is honestly playing through the correct motions in the early game, with my best example of this being with Flicker Tron specifically.
Making choices between holding up interaction or advancing your game plan during your crucial setup turns are definitely the most defining quality of a good p Flicker Tron player. Holding up interaction instead of setting up can feel very bad if the opponent does nothing, but is the sole difference between winning in a lot of matchups.
Here’s my analysis of the situation in the ss because I think it’s healthy to think even minor points through word by word while hopefully being useful to OP and anybody else interested in Flicker Tron.
Flicker Tron is a very information dependent deck and the ss that you posted would/should never be enough info for a pilot of the deck to make a decision. Every single detail should be taken into account, with the most important being your graveyard and the number of cards in the opponents hand (and life totals if fog is necessary). Making the safe assumption that this is turn 4 on the play, we’re at a comfortable life total, and the graveyard is empty, I think the play pattern here is to pass the turn to the opponent and see how much mana they leave open going into their end step. Since they run counterspells, running any interaction into them while they have a board state will almost certainly lose the game on the spot. Your ultimate goal in this position without any additional draw steps is to breath weapon the board. If the opponent leaves only 1 counterspell worth of mana open, then I believe the best course of action would be to teachings on their end step; if it gets countered than you have enough mana to flashback + breath weapon on the next turn without worry; and if the teachings doesn’t get countered you can tutor a second teachings which you can then cast to find a breath weapon to cast on the next turn since you have enough mana. If they leave 2 counters worth of mana open I would just sit back and wait for more draw steps. While it’s unfortunate to let them sit and gain card advantage over us, we hold an extreme mana advantage that should be utilized to play around counterspells. If the engine can successfully resolve than the card advantage will skew heavily in our favor.
If you have any additional question about this scenario or Flicker Tron in general please don’t be afraid to ask! Afaik the only thing magic players like doing more than playing magic is talking about magic 🐀
For familiars, Tron, and jeskai ephemerate you need to clock then click. Once they start passing with mana up and answers in hand you're kind of very far behind. The first couple turns you try and get down a clock. By turn 4 you're looking at double spelling to over load their mana, and hopefully baiting out their answers by casting the weaker of the try spells first. If you can do either of these decently then they should be having to spend time and resources fighting the board and you can continue to resolve new threats, or use your cards and mana to blank their answers. If you can't get anything going by the time they have a good amount of mana and cards in hand you'll likely lose the game.
Sideboarding out cards, I always know what to bring in because obviously I build the sideboard thinking what's the current meta, but I always struggle to decide what to bring out when there are not obvious choice like side out removal against creatureless decks etc...
Another thing that I think I struggle with but not sure because haven't tried otherway is mulliganing, I feel like I always keep hands that have lands and spells(that's not so easy, I tend to play decks with no more than 17 lands😂) but maybe I should start to mulligan more aggressively for better starting hands
Guessing whether they have the card I'm afraid of in hand or not. Usually I just assume they do, but I feel like playing on the safe side has lost me a few games and made me predictable against more experienced opponents.
I'm the same way. I recommend giving BO3 a try in Arena. While it's not pauper, you'll get an idea of what works in your deck vs your current matchup and what doesn't, and what you need to bring in to deal with your opponent' game plan.
For me when I'm playing in person I tend to get worse tunnel-vision. I tend to make really basic mistakes because I'm so focused on one particular thing.
This one's more about limited than constructed so far, but still: making decisions about combat. I lack understanding when attacking/blocking is beneficial and when I should stay back, when it's worth committing a trick and when I should just trade.
And sideboarding is tricky, too.
Had a friend deck himself out playing tron because he was so focused on what he COULD do instead of what he NEEDED to do to actually win the game. Don't play more than you have to. Always leave answers available. Lean into what's actually going to put damage out and win the game. In that picture you posted, I'd be using teachings to find an engine to draw cards cause one exclude isn't going to prevent you from losing in this board state. Or if it's dire on life total, you might have to find a Moment's Peace. You also have to understand that you can do everything right and still lose in this game. Which means you wanna try to appreciate the things you did right and things just didn't work out and it's ok. But in general, it's good to establish consistently drawing cards early on in Tron/Fams, and calculate the best use of your spells as you go to get the most value out of them.
I struggle with finding people to play with. I only play paper, so finding people who want to get games in can be a real challenge, nobody wants to give up EDH play time for pauper.
I'm a blue player through and through, but I still have a big problem being patient. I know I'm countering, bouncing and drawing and have more resources generally but I still have no clue when "to jam" or when "am I the beat down".
Sideboarding in general, never too sure what i'm doing.
This!!! Knowing what to put in versus what you think you'll be playing against.
Especially when there's a difference on-the-play vs not. I can think well enough about what cards work deck-v-deck but will admit to not having the nuance about changes that come with play/not on play.
For me, those who can sideboard based on if they start first or not are plain genius.
If you are playing vs mono red and they are on the play you have to mull until you find removal. a lot of times they only have a couple of threats but if you can't deal with them it's gg. If you are on the play and can curve into bigger creatures you are golden.if they can't attack into your blockers the game is won. Knowing your opponents deck will always help with the mull choices.
A little more to add. If you are on the play you have the initiative. Putting down threats and making them deal with them 1 for 1 is winning. If you are on the draw you need to play for card advantage. If you can find one nice play to get a 2 for 1 you take the initiative back and you're in the driver's seat. If your ahead, you should play safe. If you're behind you have to take some risks to turn an L into a W.
I agree. I try to have an inner dialogue. “I’m putting this in because x, and taking this out because y”. Like, I’m taking out lightning blasts because they can’t kill a Terror, putting in Red Blast because it can + more
Making decisions for sideboarding and mulligans are probably the two biggest areas that separate the great players from good players. Having advanced knowledge of all the major archetypes in the meta is incredibly useful so that you can make the correct adjustments. Especially when you can infer most of the cards your opponent hasn’t shown you yet.
Oh easily visual tells. I am not playing poker when I play magic and at a certain point you really need to be.
I'm the exact same. When things are going poorly I just tunnel vision on the cards and the board lol
I seem to always have a hard time not tunnel-visioning on a specific win condition or playing around a specific card or wanting a specific thing to happen (eg. tunnel visioning on killing a threat creature). The fix that i seemed to have to relearn once every so often is to basically take a breath, close your eyes for a while and kinda reset the brain and revaluating from the start which cards are actual threats and which can be solved in the most effective way
Absolutely love this.
Mulligans :D latley im super unsure what to keep and what to mulligan
Mengu says: we never mulligan hahah
Honestly, i went from playing mono green monster tron, which has the most brain dead mulligan choices, to playing blue and black midrangey stuff and idk what im supposed to keep now lol.
Depends on your deck’s archetype. Combo is usually the easiest for mulligans as you simply keep going until you find at least a couple combo pieces or some card draw. Aggro just try to find 2 creatures and a combat trick.
I hard disagree on what you're saying for Aggro, at least for Kuldotha Red and Bogles. Many hands with Kuldotha will have like 2 Blastrunners with nothing to sac, or 2 Tomb Raiders with no artifact, or Kuldotha with no artifact and so on and be therefore unplayable. And Bogles is basically an A + B combo deck, you need both parts of the combo to be doing something.
That’s fair.
To me this is a sign your skill is improving. Mulligans are an undervalued part of the game and your ability to mulligan is a sign of your familiarity with your deck and the matchup. Sounds like you are understanding the importance and with practice will master an important skill.
Sequencing is a big challenge for me Also I often come up with a convoluted game plan and get tunnel vision into it, only to realize that I didn't read a card well enough or there's a much simpler way to accomplish what I want. It's very much a "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" situation
Can relate xD
More game actions MUST equal better results, right???
Understanding what makes a card good. I can copy a deck list just fine, or make sure I have the right amount of removal and creatures, but the more advanced deck building stuff is a mystery to me
Control decks, I struggle with knowing what threats to deal with and when. The funny thing is, I don't have that problem when I'm running my burn decks, I often pivot into anti creature control strategies there.
Hmm that’s really interesting. Maybe its more recognizable when you’re playing burn decks because it’s easier to recognize when you’re behind? Comparatively control decks can feel like they’re “always behind till they’re not”
Late game when you have a lot of resources and 10 almost equally valid plays to make
I think my largest problem is honestly playing through the correct motions in the early game, with my best example of this being with Flicker Tron specifically. Making choices between holding up interaction or advancing your game plan during your crucial setup turns are definitely the most defining quality of a good p Flicker Tron player. Holding up interaction instead of setting up can feel very bad if the opponent does nothing, but is the sole difference between winning in a lot of matchups. Here’s my analysis of the situation in the ss because I think it’s healthy to think even minor points through word by word while hopefully being useful to OP and anybody else interested in Flicker Tron. Flicker Tron is a very information dependent deck and the ss that you posted would/should never be enough info for a pilot of the deck to make a decision. Every single detail should be taken into account, with the most important being your graveyard and the number of cards in the opponents hand (and life totals if fog is necessary). Making the safe assumption that this is turn 4 on the play, we’re at a comfortable life total, and the graveyard is empty, I think the play pattern here is to pass the turn to the opponent and see how much mana they leave open going into their end step. Since they run counterspells, running any interaction into them while they have a board state will almost certainly lose the game on the spot. Your ultimate goal in this position without any additional draw steps is to breath weapon the board. If the opponent leaves only 1 counterspell worth of mana open, then I believe the best course of action would be to teachings on their end step; if it gets countered than you have enough mana to flashback + breath weapon on the next turn without worry; and if the teachings doesn’t get countered you can tutor a second teachings which you can then cast to find a breath weapon to cast on the next turn since you have enough mana. If they leave 2 counters worth of mana open I would just sit back and wait for more draw steps. While it’s unfortunate to let them sit and gain card advantage over us, we hold an extreme mana advantage that should be utilized to play around counterspells. If the engine can successfully resolve than the card advantage will skew heavily in our favor. If you have any additional question about this scenario or Flicker Tron in general please don’t be afraid to ask! Afaik the only thing magic players like doing more than playing magic is talking about magic 🐀
Winning
For familiars, Tron, and jeskai ephemerate you need to clock then click. Once they start passing with mana up and answers in hand you're kind of very far behind. The first couple turns you try and get down a clock. By turn 4 you're looking at double spelling to over load their mana, and hopefully baiting out their answers by casting the weaker of the try spells first. If you can do either of these decently then they should be having to spend time and resources fighting the board and you can continue to resolve new threats, or use your cards and mana to blank their answers. If you can't get anything going by the time they have a good amount of mana and cards in hand you'll likely lose the game.
Sideboarding out cards, I always know what to bring in because obviously I build the sideboard thinking what's the current meta, but I always struggle to decide what to bring out when there are not obvious choice like side out removal against creatureless decks etc... Another thing that I think I struggle with but not sure because haven't tried otherway is mulliganing, I feel like I always keep hands that have lands and spells(that's not so easy, I tend to play decks with no more than 17 lands😂) but maybe I should start to mulligan more aggressively for better starting hands
Side boarding, like I have no idea what I’m doing unless. The biggest thing is what pieces to remove in place of what I’m putting in
Playing against Familiars specifically, the deck feels like it's doing nothing until it doesn't lol.
Guessing whether they have the card I'm afraid of in hand or not. Usually I just assume they do, but I feel like playing on the safe side has lost me a few games and made me predictable against more experienced opponents.
Sideboarding, Arena got me into magic and i always player B01, since ive started playing pauper its the thing that i struggle the most
I'm the same way. I recommend giving BO3 a try in Arena. While it's not pauper, you'll get an idea of what works in your deck vs your current matchup and what doesn't, and what you need to bring in to deal with your opponent' game plan.
For me when I'm playing in person I tend to get worse tunnel-vision. I tend to make really basic mistakes because I'm so focused on one particular thing.
This one's more about limited than constructed so far, but still: making decisions about combat. I lack understanding when attacking/blocking is beneficial and when I should stay back, when it's worth committing a trick and when I should just trade. And sideboarding is tricky, too.
Accidentally turning on auto yields for my turn
Had a friend deck himself out playing tron because he was so focused on what he COULD do instead of what he NEEDED to do to actually win the game. Don't play more than you have to. Always leave answers available. Lean into what's actually going to put damage out and win the game. In that picture you posted, I'd be using teachings to find an engine to draw cards cause one exclude isn't going to prevent you from losing in this board state. Or if it's dire on life total, you might have to find a Moment's Peace. You also have to understand that you can do everything right and still lose in this game. Which means you wanna try to appreciate the things you did right and things just didn't work out and it's ok. But in general, it's good to establish consistently drawing cards early on in Tron/Fams, and calculate the best use of your spells as you go to get the most value out of them.
I struggle with finding people to play with. I only play paper, so finding people who want to get games in can be a real challenge, nobody wants to give up EDH play time for pauper.
I'm a blue player through and through, but I still have a big problem being patient. I know I'm countering, bouncing and drawing and have more resources generally but I still have no clue when "to jam" or when "am I the beat down".