~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deckbuilding

Decks need focus

The reason all decks win is because they did what they were supposed to do, be it control the game with countermagic or beating down with fast or large creatures. If your purpose is unclear, then it's not likely you're going to win. Know exactly what your deck is supposed to do, and build around that concept. This also includes playing four copies of your best spells. Many times I see someone with lots of ones and twos of a card in their deck. That's not optimal because your chances of drawing those cards is minimized. You want to draw your best spells in multiples, true?

For example, a Blue/White control deck in Type 2 wins by disrupting the opponent's game with permission spells. If you start adding more creatures than needed, your purpose becomes less clear, and therefore you have less of a chance of winning.

Redundancy

The reason that Sligh is one of the most consistant decks in the Extended format is because of its redundancy factor. Redundancy is when multiple cards in your deck do pretty much the same thing (like Incinerate, Fireblast, Shock and Seal of Fire). This minimizes the possilibity of a bad opening hand.

Decks like Fires in Type 2 with eight mana creatures and such a high threat count can almost always count on a powerful opening hand. Most control decks are on the same boat, often playing many counterspells and many card-drawing spells.

Mana

Too many times have I seen newer players play eighteen to twenty lands in a deck with spells that cost a lot of mana. That simply doesn't work. Know your deck's mana curve and build your mana base accordingly.

For example, a Sligh deck in Extended will obviously play a lot less lands than, say, Forbiddian. This is because Sligh's cards cost a lot less mana on average than Forbiddian's. This also ties into the redundancy factor - less lands means more threats.

Gameplay

End of Turn

The End of Turn step is one of the most important steps in the game, yet is also one of the most underutilized with newer players. They don't understand that they should wait to do whatever they can at the end of the opponent's turn.

This allows the player to cast spells without knowing the opponent can then go ahead and cast a spell of their own. It also allows for a threatening play against the control player. Casting a large burn spell at the end of the opponent's turn presents them with a difficult choice - do they counter your spell and take their chances with whatever you play during your turn, or do they let the spell through in hopes that they can counter something during your turn. It's always best to do any instant-speed activated abilities at the end of turn, except if the abilities are needed beforehand.

Attack First

If you have a threat on the table, always attack before doing anything else, unless you're enchanting the creature or the land drop will help you in some way. The benefits to attacking before playing a land are few, but important.

The main benefit is that you can bluff your opponent into thinking that you're not drawing any lands, so they might do something they wouldn't normally do if you had more lands in play. Once you do it a few times, it becomes a habit and you'll start doing it naturally.

Assessing the Board, or Look Before you Leap

A lot of play mistakes come out of a player not paying enough attention to what's in play. Either they're lazy or have a short attention span, or they just plain forgot. Either way, it is imperative that before doing anything that will impact the board, you take a quick glance at what's in play.

It doesn't have to be a long stare, but as long as you assess what's in play and know for sure that what you're doing isn't a mistake, then go ahead and play on.

Limited (Booster Draft)

This is really what separates the experienced players from the not-so-experienced players.

Priorities

Players not so familiar with limited play don't understand that cards around early in the draft won't necessarily be around later. I see people taking late-pick cards early on, not knowing the good cards go early. This eventually leads to a suboptimal deck, and most likely failure.

If a card is capable of destroying multiple creatures, it's likely a very powerful card in draft and should be taken early (Rout). If a card has a high power/toughness for its mana cost, it's good (Lightning Angel). If a card is a cheap removal spell (be it bounce, kill or nullify) or a removal spell with a cantrip, it's good (Repulse, Exotic Curse, Shackles). If a card has a literally gamebreaking effect (like Spinal Embrace, Fires of Yavimaya or Goblin Trenches), it's good. If a card draws you cards for not an excessive amount of mana, it's good (Fact or Fiction).

Signalling

This is where a lot of drafters fall short of an amazing deck. If you play whatever colors your neighbour passing you isn't, you will obviously have a good deck, because you aren't competing for colors.

The way to make sure you aren't competing for colors with someone who has an advantage over you is to analyze the first early packs. Simply see what colors there isn't much of, and try to shift into those colors.

Of course, there's always the occasion when the color representation isn't that way because of another person, but because a pack was randomized badly. In that case, you can recover by waiting for that pack to pass and try to analyze another one.

Then there's the time when someone changes colors abruptly on you, cutting off your supply of that color. That's possibly the most annoying thing to happen to you in draft. There really isn't much you can do about it, other than to simply adapt to the new flow of cards as best you can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Using those aspects of the game will inevitably lead to your betterment as a player. It certainly worked for me.

__________________
MOTL Moderator for:

And in addition to the Limited section,

MANA
Always play a little bit higher than you normally would in constructed, Usually you will end up with 3 colors. You will need at least 40% lands to prevent land screw. I pesonnally use 17 in a 40 card deck. Ill even keep an all land hand. If you can make the first 10 land drops, All you are probably draw is threats.

__________________
if a frog had wings it wouldnt bump its arse when it hopped.- Red Foreman-That 70s Show

I want as many last caresses as is out there, ill trade for them

i also want your leeches

quote:

---

Simply see what colors there isn't much of, and try to shift into those colors.

---

Err, don't you mean shifting into those colors that there are a LOT of? I mean, your opponent isn't playing those colours if there are a lot of good cards from them? I'd also like to add a general rule to limited: Cards that give card advantage are GOOD; Pyre Zombie is good because you can easily trade it to another creature early because you will be getting it back at one point, and when you will, it will trade for something else again, again and again. Savage Gorilla can trade for two creatures when blocking, and you'll draw a card for your troubles.

Yes, card advantage is good (like Pyre Zombie and Savage Gorilla), that's considered part of the multiple removal section.

__________________
MOTL Moderator for:

Anyway, I wanted to make a comment about signaling. Let me preface it by saying don't do this all the time, it's more of a finesse thing. but anyway, here it goes: when drafting, there are often times (especially early on) where there are multiple 1st-pick caliber cards in a deck. Here, it can be important to know your opponents. If you play in FNM or Arena, or in an area with limited players, you'll notice many players form a habit of playing one color/color combo over the others (often times crippling their deck by taking poor cards early just to stay in those colors). In these situations, it is (almost) always beneficial to feed them the goodie in their color...this nets you a good tier-1 card and (again, usually) ensures you'll catch some nice early picks when he's passing to you.
That's my experience in the matter, anyway.