Learning to Play Magic - Part 5 - The Psychology of Magic: The Gathering - Extra Credits
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- Опубліковано 14 лип 2024
- Download Magic: The Gathering Arena on PC today: bit.ly/2JCLzP8 Learn how to read the state of the game board and predict your opponent's probable next moves based on what they just played! The twitch stream with James & Matt with be at 5pm EST so check it out at twitch.tv/ExtraCredits
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Today's the last episode of this how-to-play Magic series! Do you have any of your own MTG tips and tricks to share that weren't mentioned in these videos?
Extra Credits great episode love everything you do
Reminds me of enclothed cognition
It would be cool if you could go over different formats as well.
Cover Dwarf Fortress next!
Side boarding to do a whole switch a roo of your deck or just doing that in the first game
Fun moment: Had a young opponent stalled for several turns because he was convinced the lone card in my hand was a counter spell. It was a spare forest.
Heh - it's an important lesson. Sometimes you just have to force your opponent to have the answer.
I've made people who by all counts should have been confident in their chances of victory surrender using such tricks. It helps that I love filling my decks with instant type counterspells that I can deploy whenever I so choose. I also enjoy putting a couple really powerful creatures that can derail someone's entire strategy just by entering play in there with a bunch of weaker ones so if it drags on I can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat or just completely blindside them.
Talks about not having to demean an opponent
> Demeans the goblin assailant, a valuable ally in the strategy presented.
Poor assailant.
Goblin Assailant is known for his aggresivness.
HE AMAZING
6:38 DID THAT CAT JUST FRIGGIN' WINK AT ME!?
Micolino9878 Zoie is great at physiological manipulation. ;)
Yes
SHE KNOWS
She was hoping he didn't notice she already tapped that land.
Thank Irene I thought I was crazy
Instructions unclear, got a Royal Flush.
Master ball it
came here to talk about poker, and you did it better
And summon a BLACK MAGICIAN
Play Uno card to terminate friendship.
oh, thats unfortunate... go fish.
1:32 - Yes; this. A thousand times, this.
Long live good sportsmanship and the search for self improvement.
Gamers, take note
Don't be mean to the goblin, he is a perfect bear!
Solid 2/2 for 2. A good trooper in any draft.
"Red Bear, reporting for dutty"
Imagining a goblin being as tough as a bear is difficult.
Such are the ways of old magic.
I don't know, in core 20, bears don't seem that great, allot of common level 3 toughness running about. Though, elementals do have allot at 2 toughness at 3 and below, and that's the most common arcatype..
@@UltraWeebMaster what it lacks in strength, it makes up for in enthusiasm.
The number of times that a poker face and a land have been the best counter is scary.
The moment that you have to demean an opponent is the moment you have failed as a player
to scare one may need to flash a few counters in the opponents face. ones that could be used in more critical moments
30% of Hearthstone players are failures then
@@user-bf5sc8pn8x more like 60% lol
@@angelomarasigan4347 depends on your rank.
The fighting game community could stand to learn this
I actually always do that with the lands. So simple, yet, so effective way to bluff.
its not always a bluff. some cards have effects and needs discard. a powerfull card or tricky ability a big dilema.
It's a bit less effective in Arena, due to the auto priority passing. Gotta remember to hit Ctrl every turn!
@@donbionicle Actually, that makes it even more effective if you're able to stay on top of it. If you see that your opponent has to pass priority every phase of every turn, and you don't expect them to go to the effort of keeping priority when they have nothing, it's that much more telling that they do have something.
@@guildardaze1438 Well of course it might be actually important to keep that land in your hand with some decks. But most of the time, keeping a land in your hand can keep your opponent guessing.
@@donbionicle I think you can enable full control so the game doesn't auto-pass.
I haven't played Arena much so I'm not sure.
"Hidden Information"
*Laughs in Blue*
Laughs in thoughtseize
A good general principle is to work out the last possible opportunity to do something without making a difference to your benefit from it, and hold off until that moment.
If the last card in your hand is a land (and you've got nothing that needs that mana already on the battlefield) then you don't lose anything by hanging onto it (worst case, your opponent comes up with something that makes you discard - and uses it on a land rather than on a crucial spell that could have won the game for you).
If you're going to play a land, play a creature, and attack this turn, then, unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, you should play the land before combat, and the creature after - that gives you as much flexibility as possible to play any combat tricks you have (and your opponent reason to play around the possibility) and doesn't alert your opponent to the fact you're not able to do anything about any combat tricks they may have (or otherwise upset their carefully planned blocking) the same way emptying your hand, or tapping all your lands would.
If you plan to use an instant, then the last opportunity to play it without "wasting" mana by not tapping some of your lands before they would untap anyway is at the end of your opponent's turn - sometimes you have a good reason to play it sooner (if a 4/2 is attacking you, that's probably a better time to play Shock (2 damage to target) on it than after you've taken 4 damage from it), but end of your opponent's turn should be your default option.
And so on.
The general effect is that, if you have options, you keep them open longer and may end up changing your plans in response to enemy action; if you have no real options, you at least require your opponent to consider that you might.
Also it is important to play to your outs if one of your outs requires to discard cards as part of the spells cost it may still be worth holding onto the land even if it prevents you casting some potential cards you might draw as it provides a greater upside.
"They don't need smack-talk, posturing, or intimidation."
Yeah, some field setups are plenty intimidating on their own, no additional input required :x
Yugioh, but a card game story:
Recently I was playtesting with a friend and I did a short combo that required me to search my deck for a card. I start the combo and he knows he has nothing to stop it so scoops up his cards and gets ready for the next game. After he’s done getting ready, I show him that card I needed to search (literally, I can’t do the combo if I already have that card) already in my hand. He scooped for a non threat.
And then he did it again at a tournament later that week winning me that round.
Always, always make people play their cards before cleaning up.
There is actually an example of this on the Pro Tour from a very long time ago, one player had dealt with his oppoennts one win condition, but the oppoennt kept on playing as if he was searching for a second copy of his win con or for an alternative one, in the end the player who if he choose to play couldn't actually lose scooped and the player no wincon in his deck won.
I had to actually reread this. Yeah, a strategy like this can be a handy trick. The main golden rule is, NEVER activate any card that specifically searches the card you need. As, that's an illegal activation, and if your opponent decides to call your bluff? Congrats, enjoy the DQ for cheating.
@@chloebrett3400 Is this MTG or Yugioh? Because in MTG you can just 'fail to find'.
@@chloebrett3400 as if a lot of the search cards in this game says "search for X card" and only that X card alone.
6:33
Matt: "Yup, that one's a good one, but, uh, but you already used it."
Zoe: *winks* "No I haven't."
YES! We need those other episodes on fallacies! These videos are finally getting really interesting!
When he said that winning is just a statistic that represents how well your playing, the first thing I thought was “or how many bullshit 2nd turn infinite combos you lost to in commander”
He’s right, Goblin Assailant sucks, now Goblin Instigator, THATS A CARD.
Folks might laugh at this. They might think "What? But that doesn't make sense. Goblin Instigator just creates a 1/1 Goblin token and is itself a 1/1. It's the exact same amount of power and toughness that the Goblin Assailant has." Then they play Trashmaster Goblin, and you are suddenly introduced to the importance of board presence. And then you die to a Heartfire cast off an expendable token.
Erik Johnson And then your opponent plays a Chainwhirler
@@Stray7 God remember the time when solo red made you instantly consider suicide? >_>
Either way GI is solid...
@@PuddingXXL Considering how often I myself am playing monored? Not so much. Hazoret was still annoying, though even when I'm the one playing her.
I don't play Magic the Gathering but my sister did for a long time, and between the fact that she was a girl and she would riffle Shuffle her cards (plus she was decent at the game) tilted so many people at locals that she managed to win quite a few. Never underestimate the power of psychological warfare
Don't hate on the goblin! 2 2 for 2 nothing wrong with that as a filler card
Goblins are the cutest
Well, the goblin has two problems:
1) Limited players wish they could have gotten something better and every time they draw him, they are remebered of that.
2) Constructed players DO have something better.
In conclusion: One does not like him much and the other doesn't care for him at all. Poor goblin. Should have put more effort into it; gone to goblin school and become a piledriver instead.
Sometimes you just need a cheap meat shield
I dont even play the game and I understand the value of the card better than him
@@An_Ian Eh... The thing is, there are much better options for a 2-cost card. I think the only situations in which it would be a good idea to add such a card to your deck are if you are relatively new to the game and lack better options, or if you are playing a draft game...
@@An_Ian I guess the point he is making is that there are cards that cost 2 and are objectively better. For draft though, it's a different story.
If you want to do that land in hand bluff in arena, make sure you're in full control mode. Other wise the opponent will know that you don't have an instant spell in your hand.
Please continue this series, this has taught me way more than friday night games ever have.
Me: Watching this video.
Me looking at my brother: You piece of shi-.
Always thought about starting to play magic,
You guys finally got me into the game,
really interresting, completely different than other card games
This has been a great series, guys. It has reinvigorated my love of Magic! So thank you guys so much. Also, I'm gonna miss the little bits with real Zoe in the end
this was a really enjoyable series! would love to see some more side stuff on different tcgs in the future, too, because which ones you learn first definitely have an effect on the way you play and read cards.
I love these videos, keep up the great work!
Ok, every thursday at 5 PM... but what time zone?
The notes say EST, which is a bit confusing since we are currently running Daylight (EDT) time here in the US. Not sure if they mean 5PM EDT or if the are anti-DT and refusing to acknowledge it. Either way, next week it should be easy enough to figure it out by just monitoring twitch.
Oh come on Matt, You think we wouldn't bring snacks for Zoey if we could?
This has been a great series guys. Literally never even looked at magic and you've totally broken down that fear of buying a starter deck and having to trawl through written instructions
This is the reason I love playing Magic! If you really think about the decisions you make and understand what it tells your opponent, you can really improve your game immensely.
I love this series! I can't wait for the next one!
If been playing magic for about 3/4 years now and this trick is so glorious coz when your opponent looks at your hand and its full of land
Especially if they burned a hand-hate card (Thought Erasure, Duress, etc) to get that look, only to realize it got them very little value.
@@Bluecho4 they are still in a better position compared to you having actual cards
@@Cronos804 For now. And they just wasted one of their hand-hate cards on a hand that has no value, depriving them of hand-hate for later when you DO have good cards.
@@Bluecho4 Watching them being forced to thought erasure Nullhide Ferox is funnier.
What a fun miniseries. This was great, and I feel like you could apply this psychological advice to any card game.
Talk about your draft BREAD
Bombs
Removal
Evasion
Answers
Duds
Less is more in draft when following that!
A couple extra tips:
- Against randos IRL, deliberate on sure decisions, and try to make up your mind a bit faster when you’re not certain. They don’t know you, and throwing off their assessment can give you openings you wouldn’t otherwise get.
- In limited formats, concede if it becomes clear you can’t turn the game around but the cards you have in hand would be great for the next game. Holding back that information of what you own can make all the difference. Technically you can do this in constructed as well, but the skeletons of all the most successful decks are pretty well known, so unless you think your rogue jank can go the distance those games are usually worth seeing through to the end.
This series got me into magic. Kinda obssed with the game now. Thanks.
Thanks for these, never got into magic. But I want to now, it seems great!
I sorta fell in love with the blue/black Ravnica Dimir set because of this.
Particularly when I used Thief Of Sanity.
Lazav EDH is my go-to deck for having fun. No one knows what will happen next. Especially since the deck is built around stealing and combining the best cards and strategies of my opponents at the table. Last game I had it in it wound up dropping twelve creatures on the board in one turn which were all stolen from opponent's graveyards using Sepulchre Primordial. (There was a Dack's Duplicant which came in as another Sepulchre Primordial and was followed by a Clone also copying the Primordial.) Game before that I ended the game by casting Diluvian targeting an Enter the Infinite and a pair of Windfalls.
Thank you for all 5 videos.
I just started playing magic because of these videos
Thanks for that man
I started playing arena because of thus series and I just won my first pvp game today, thanks for showing me a new cool thing for me
Remember the snacks for Zoe.
With my Azorious deck in EDH, leaving two islands untapped is pretty much a must.
I have managed more than once to bluff having a Counterspell when I actually held a couple of lands and card-draw spells.
Never actually thought about keeping lands in hand. Very interesting. *tents fingers menacingly*
Something I love to do is, when playing against trigger-happy blue players, is I tap out all of my possible mana and play the weakest card I can for my turn. I often see them snap out a counter spell, then pull back saying they didn't mean to. Nope, sorry bro you just countered my 2 cmc crap spell. Now, I still am floating 7 or 8 mana so let me show you the errors of your ways.
This is actually a really important thing to keep in mind when playing any card game really and actually reminds me of a story from way back in the yesteryear of Innistrad block.
I had a friend who would play magic against me everyday, win or loss he was always willing to throwdown. Well on this day he has me dead to rights, my combos were broken by counter spells and discard, my aces were destroyed and removed from play, and all of my cards meant to reset either of those were gone, and to top things off he'd amassed a large army of monsters just waiting to rip me to shreds. But then i noticed how he was looking at the board. Despite his overwhelming advantage he was double checking his hand and lands constantly even counting what mana he had which made me realize that he had a counterspell in hand and had had it for at least a turn or two. He hadn't realized that my deck had run out of steam and was preparing to take out whatever nasty creature would be coming down the pipe next. So i bluffed as hard as i could and played as if i was setting up for a huge play, weakened his army a little, and...went straight into combat. It worked. My bluff had stopped him from using his counterspell, which let me weaken his army just enough that over the course of two turns i was able to break it and grasp victory from the jaws of certain defeat.
Loved the series and I hope one day I shall get more magic cards
For me, a person who never played Magic before and mainly played Yu-Gi-Oh, this is series is really fun to watch.
Cat's don't cheat, they just play creatively.
As an experienced player, a thing I think I would like if I was starting out is a bonus episode about building and playing more than one color decks. This is an area I've seen some newer players struggle with. Both how to build and play into the strengths of the color combination, but also suggestions on making a manabase that works well for it.
Thank you for the series though, it is a helpful tool to point new players at to give them a decent start and understanding of the core of the game. :)
I need more of those Zoe clips at the end. it's not easy to find a cat who is so talkative like that. I love my cats, but my old man, is pretty quiet.
Heck yes, more Magic psychology please!!
I'll always say this: as a self-professed control mage, playing an aggro deck is always an overwhelming joy because I always know what my control opponents have in hand, and how to play around or through those counterspells.
You can also put the land down *after* you attack, if you want to lay it out that turn. Don't need to do everything before the attack phase. (Same with deciding which creature to play, since they won't be able to attack that turn anyway. After-attack phase is quite useful.)
This was a great series
Btw my cat was watching also
Zoe is not cheating. She is playing "creatively". And creativity should always be rewarded.
My favourite experience in all of magic has come as a result of meta psychology
E.g. winning a game back in RTR Block by holding up gguu for plasm capture whilst my on board tricks could use the mana as well.
But genuinely laughed for minutes after in a game my friends opponent went to attack for lethal, stopped, and went "no, there is only one thing you could have in hand" passed the turn and lost to a top deck, because the only thing was not the land he was holding up at all... He won because the opponent thought he had something, not actually having it
Nice job, Extra Credits! :D
This applies to so many board and card games. Plays for D&D in some ways too.
Me: just train yourself to bluff and have a poker face. And have a poker face that intimidates your opponents. Bam boom.
Oh the Land keeping trick I'll use that now
Once upon a time, I had one dwarf token on the board. He had 2 dancing swords on him. My enemy played pacifism to make him useless. But what I dun did was play all of my buffs on my that dwarf to make my opponent think I was planning on removing pacifism, which I was not. Instead I got him to kill my dwarf before I “freed” him, causing my dancing swords to become creatures who were able to attack and win the game. Good times
As land costs nothing to play, and can be tapped immediately after being played. You should keep them on your hand until you need it, or need to bluff that you have a certain spell, or need to remove cards from your hand to not be overly full. - Keeping land you don't need right now, on your hand, will hide information from your opponent. And considering what is said in this video, that lands are just played immediately often. Then you will really bluff your opponents, as they will think that it's just a land the least.
Goblin Assailant: "Am I a joke to you?"
Yes
You leave that Gob-Bear alone. They've done nothing to you. You're just mean.
Yess I’m ready
It's also important to remember when to use these psychological tricks. If your opponent gets used to you bluffing on lands then they're less likely to fall for it later in the game when it might matter more. If you show you're willing to play out lands and go heckbent earlier then later in the game when it's down to the wire and you're holding up lots of mana with a semi-decent board state, they may be less likely to call your bluff because they already think you would have played a land if you had it. Remember, general rules can be broken to great effect if you know how to do it right.
I can't get enough of Zoey! She's so cuuuuteeeeee!!!
Real zoey is nice at the end, but cartoon zoey throughout the video is too much for me.
trick for black. if you plan on sacrifcing a creature and it dosent matter when you do it (instant) or can be done after safely. attack and then burn it if you can at the end step. Depends on context. And sacrificing ennemy units is a very devious move if you have the cards
Episode 5 alternative title: Guess who plays blue?
A while back, I went to a local Dark Ascension tournament (pre Avacyn Restored) with a slightly modded theme deck. I had a few win-strategies in mind, but one was revealed on my first game. It was "attack with Doomed Traveller every turn and just dump all my boosts on it (to include Spirit Mantle.) I went 6-0 until the final game, losing both matches to a $3k prismatic deck (that took advantage of the overlap in seasons & sets)
I still love that white weenie- "Human Superiority" deck
Had time between rounds to play a game for fun, and show someone what an Oblivion Ring/ Fiend Hunter Loop is&does (it's a spoil-strat that eats up the match-time and force a draw, as your turn never ends)
I really really love your cat!
5 pm of which Timezone? Here in Germany it's already past 10 and there is still no Stream XD
I'm kinda hoping Zoey actually plays the game, cause that would be awesome.
Thank you foe teaching me
Keeping a the land into your hand is more often than not the best move, but it's a very common one that most oppenents will expect. That's why I often play it on the first main phase when the situation is low stakes; that way you pass for a noob and it makes for a far better bluff during the endgame...
Love ur content ❤️❤️
Holding land in hand is also great if your deck contains looting(draw+discard) effects. It can also bait discard spells some of which can't even hit land. Note that it is possible, rarely, for it to be a mistake though in high drawpower decks where you are liable to draw a multidraw spell. For example if you topdeck a draw 2 spell then get a land and another spell you are effectively -1 mana for casting the second spell.
Suicidal attacks are a more high risk version of your example. Change your scenario to a 2/2 attacking into the opponents 2/3. You just gotta have a combat trick right? Leaving yourself open is a good way to bait attacks or bluff that your baiting attacks, particularly with lethal on the board. Remember to visibly count open mana, request lifetotals, and check your opponent's handcount to make things very convincing or suggest your train of thought. If you have anything that lets you and only you look at the top card of your deck or face down exiles/morph cards those are also good for instilling doubt.
Zoey winked at the camera in that live shot. She knows something.
Remember these are heuristics. They’re “80/20” rules. For example, the leaving the last land in your hand heuristic works as long as you have no card draw spells in your deck. If you do, sometimes you want to play the land anyways. This way you can draw a card draw spell which draws another land and a spell that you can only afford because you played the new land you drew and the land you had the previous turn.
Tip for Drafting: Before you start, read the whole card. I know it sounds redundant, but I can't tell you how many games I've won, and lost, based on an opponent thinking they know what a card did at a glance, instead of taking a second to really read it.
Also, remember you get to keep the cards you draft, so draft cards you want to play. Yeah, every bad card you draft is keeps a good card out of your deck, but you're not gonna be a crazy pro mythic player right away anyhow, so get things that interest you. Pick a crazy rare demom over Murder; Grab the triple color rare over the utility common. Have fun; you'll learn to get good as you go.
Cool I might play magic in the future
My favorite thing while playing is what I call "habit theater."
For example, playing blue and asking to see everything they play then suddenly not doing that after playing my first counter spell later will lead them to think that I don't have that second one in my hand. Alternatively I can keep asking to see everything dispite having no card that can counter. All colors are capable of this kind of mind game.
0:16 I personally find it obnoxious when you force mindblowing with that sound...but I'll admit I laughed when you continued it after explaining XD
Nice video!
If your playing against someone face to face try and learn your tell. A tell is basically some small action you take when things are going your way like for example my leg starts to shake. If you can make it happen manually then occasionally start doing your tell for no reason to make any more observant opponents think you have the advantage when you might not
Very cool!
My favorite two psychological tricks:
Draw Card, End Turn. Works with basically any deck that has already shown it has more than one type of instant (Card name). Especially if you were aggressive before, and ended up with an unfavorable board state. Works about 80% of the time
Tell the truth. Especially if you already pulled of a trick earlier to take out something big on their side. All you have to do then, now that you tricked them once and got them over-cautious, is play SUPER obviously for 1 turn. Have Settle the Wreckage? Leave mana open, attack with everything and leave no blockers, while your opponent has lethal next turn. This one only works on specific players (aka not Mythic tank or even Gold tbh) but I’ve won multiple times by making people think I’m lying and playing right into the trap they saw coming.
My friend is definitely the over cautious type. I had one 2/2 creature out and a hand full of lands. Even though he had more creatures than me, he never blocked and hardly attacked because he saw my full hand with several untapped lands and was too worried about what I could of had.
Real Zoey at the end is almost the best part.
When playing magic against the younger kids at my high school I can psych them out by just staying calm, especially when things aren't going my way. It makes them think I have a plan and it makes them play around that.
Must say good episode , liked it as an former Magic player and good thing is you can show this also to Force of will newcomers , cause is kinda same structure^^.
Ah Man :( I really wish this series was longer :(
So sure. I started playing MTG:Arena this week and it's fun, but it is so apparent what a pay-to-win skinner box it is that it's incredible.
*Delicious earliness ensues*
I really enjoy people dorking out what they passionate about
While the "hold the land" is almost always true, there are exceptions - for example, if you have A LOT of draw in your deck, you might draw a card that lets you draw, say, 2-3 more. If you ger a land and a spell from that draw, you now have 2 lands and can only play one of them, which might make the difference between being able to play the spell or not
never thought about that way
If anyone wants to continue their Magic studies further, I highly recommend checking out Limited Resources. It's mainly focused on Limited play, but it's a great resource for getting better at the game and the hosts are awesome ( LSV is one of the best players ever and is hilarious and Marshall is a heavenly-voiced caster that isn't too shabby himself).