G
Gizmo
Guest
From Ura`s article on the front page:
"9. Do not waste time on nonessentials.
Ever met the player who insists on playing with only black backed sleeves or must have their life dice at a certain location on the table? How about the one who has to wear his "lucky" jersey to every tournament, the one he got from some NFL football player 4 years ago and still hasn’t washed. These are the kinds of players who often worry so much about everything around the game and their environment they are to distracted to play properly and will make errors due to it. By eliminating your own nonessentials you have more energy and thought to use on your game so that you make fewer errors and become that much more difficult to beat."
Im not sure I agree with this, in fact Id say that I hold the opposite to be true. Well maybe not about the Jersey. Actually, no, even about the Jersey.
Always uses black sleeves. Not so important. I choose sleeves largely based on aesthetics, some decks look nice in blue sleeves, some decks look nice in red sleeves. I`m not sure it really makes much difference. What IS sure is that any decision I am making about the sleeves I use that is being taken hours or weeks before the tournament is hardly going to affect the attention I pay to the game itself.
Life dice at a certain point on the table? I think this is actually something that is definately going to positively affect your play. If you are a tidy player, keep your permanents well ordered, your life in the same place, your library in the same place, your graveyard nicely laid out so you can see what you have played. Keep your lands nice and neatly stacked so you can see easily what is and is not available. All this serves to keep you from being distracted by having to move out of your game face and go looking for your life dice, or your mana is sprawled everywhere.
If you watch pro players 99% of them keep a pristinely tidy ship and those that dont are doing it deliberately to attempt to confuse the opponent. An ordered board is made by an ordered mind, and an ordered mind is good at magic.
The jersey. This is moving into psychology, but a good analogy is that apparently people remember better if they use smells as triggers. If you play magic a certain way, wearing your 'magic shirt', or with your little play 'tics' that you have during a gazillion hours of playtesting, then when you come to the tournament wearing that shirt, those tics, all help to focus your mind on the fact that you are now playing Magic. Partly superstition, partly psychology, but if you want to wear the shirt then wear the shirt - the more of your home you take to the tournament with you the more relaxed you will be and the more you will focus on the match.
This is the big one though. Card art. It matter. Honestly. You can seriously lose games because of card art.
1) ALL YOUR BASIC LANDS MUST BE THE SAME ARTWORK. This is the #1 thing, because if you play various land arts you are giving your opponent information he need not have. If your opponent casts Duress and looks at your hand he can remember what art of land you had, and if you draw another land and play that instead you are telling him you still hold a land. If your opponent sees you lay 5 plains of different art over the course of a long game, and then you immediately play 2 more plains of different art in the second game then you are telling him you have at least 7 plains in your deck, when he previously could only be sure about 5 of them.
2) SPELLS/ART. I think there are two ways of looking at this. The pro perspective is the exact same as it is for the land. If your cards are all different art you risk telling him how many are in your deck, whereas using the same art gives him no additional information.
The secondary input is psychological. In combo decks I religiously use art that is the same as what that does is it helps me 'learn' hands and situations much more rapidly. I can draw a hand, recognise instantly the cards there and am put in mind of all the times I have had the exact same hand in playtesting, and so I can remember what to do better.
BUT
Thats not necessarily good. The play that was good then could be bad now. Many pros in fact use proxies during playtesting as much as possible because this means they never become familiar with a situation and so are more likely to sit and consider the options. If you play with lots of different art in your deck then every hand looks different and every situation needs evaluating anew.
God. The minutiae of magic strategy. What a load of cobblers.
"9. Do not waste time on nonessentials.
Ever met the player who insists on playing with only black backed sleeves or must have their life dice at a certain location on the table? How about the one who has to wear his "lucky" jersey to every tournament, the one he got from some NFL football player 4 years ago and still hasn’t washed. These are the kinds of players who often worry so much about everything around the game and their environment they are to distracted to play properly and will make errors due to it. By eliminating your own nonessentials you have more energy and thought to use on your game so that you make fewer errors and become that much more difficult to beat."
Im not sure I agree with this, in fact Id say that I hold the opposite to be true. Well maybe not about the Jersey. Actually, no, even about the Jersey.
Always uses black sleeves. Not so important. I choose sleeves largely based on aesthetics, some decks look nice in blue sleeves, some decks look nice in red sleeves. I`m not sure it really makes much difference. What IS sure is that any decision I am making about the sleeves I use that is being taken hours or weeks before the tournament is hardly going to affect the attention I pay to the game itself.
Life dice at a certain point on the table? I think this is actually something that is definately going to positively affect your play. If you are a tidy player, keep your permanents well ordered, your life in the same place, your library in the same place, your graveyard nicely laid out so you can see what you have played. Keep your lands nice and neatly stacked so you can see easily what is and is not available. All this serves to keep you from being distracted by having to move out of your game face and go looking for your life dice, or your mana is sprawled everywhere.
If you watch pro players 99% of them keep a pristinely tidy ship and those that dont are doing it deliberately to attempt to confuse the opponent. An ordered board is made by an ordered mind, and an ordered mind is good at magic.
The jersey. This is moving into psychology, but a good analogy is that apparently people remember better if they use smells as triggers. If you play magic a certain way, wearing your 'magic shirt', or with your little play 'tics' that you have during a gazillion hours of playtesting, then when you come to the tournament wearing that shirt, those tics, all help to focus your mind on the fact that you are now playing Magic. Partly superstition, partly psychology, but if you want to wear the shirt then wear the shirt - the more of your home you take to the tournament with you the more relaxed you will be and the more you will focus on the match.
This is the big one though. Card art. It matter. Honestly. You can seriously lose games because of card art.
1) ALL YOUR BASIC LANDS MUST BE THE SAME ARTWORK. This is the #1 thing, because if you play various land arts you are giving your opponent information he need not have. If your opponent casts Duress and looks at your hand he can remember what art of land you had, and if you draw another land and play that instead you are telling him you still hold a land. If your opponent sees you lay 5 plains of different art over the course of a long game, and then you immediately play 2 more plains of different art in the second game then you are telling him you have at least 7 plains in your deck, when he previously could only be sure about 5 of them.
2) SPELLS/ART. I think there are two ways of looking at this. The pro perspective is the exact same as it is for the land. If your cards are all different art you risk telling him how many are in your deck, whereas using the same art gives him no additional information.
The secondary input is psychological. In combo decks I religiously use art that is the same as what that does is it helps me 'learn' hands and situations much more rapidly. I can draw a hand, recognise instantly the cards there and am put in mind of all the times I have had the exact same hand in playtesting, and so I can remember what to do better.
BUT
Thats not necessarily good. The play that was good then could be bad now. Many pros in fact use proxies during playtesting as much as possible because this means they never become familiar with a situation and so are more likely to sit and consider the options. If you play with lots of different art in your deck then every hand looks different and every situation needs evaluating anew.
God. The minutiae of magic strategy. What a load of cobblers.