Shaping Up Your Strategy

I come from a Magic: The Gathering background and when I was starting out, I voraciously read websites. Eventually, I left the game for a variety of reasons but peers within my play group went on to Pro Tours in Japan and other places. Hell, a friend even moved onto winning the Pro Tour. Competition, as in learning to make the best play in the moment, was early in my roots. In fact, that's how I define the competitive spirit, learning to make the best play, not any other method.

Here are six articles that shaped my crusade into learning how to play Magic better. The thing is, they're deep strategy, so they're probably applicable in any sort of social interaction game. I'll link to each article but I hope my discussion is what you find helpful in stepping up your game.

"Who is the Beatdown?" by Mike Flores
This article is considered the penultimate metagame defining article that introduced the concept of metagame to a whole generation of Magic players and beyond. The idea is one player is on the offense, they must make the other player lose while the other is on defense, if they do not lose then they will eventually win. The tricky part is when you have two similar strategies.  If you're both running a "Glass Cannon" strategy, then someone is more fragile than the other, they're the attacking player. That's the question you should ask when you look at your army and then theirs - do I need to survive them or put them in the ground?

With that in mind, a lot of decisions become easy. It sets a paradigm that if your opponent is unprepared for, then they will lose. If incorrectly defined, you could be the one on the losing end. For example, if you're facing Team Ninja or any of the "How to Win a Bloodbath (part 1) (part 2)" lists, you are not the Beatdown. Survive the assault and you win.  If you bring any of those lists, you must make your opponent lose before they recover from the assault.

"The Danger of Cool Things" by Chad Ellis
This is a simple warning that overconfident players forget everywhere: when you formulate a plan, do not get distracted by something shiny. Sure, you can completely surround Solomon Grundy and put him out, or you can deny and acquire all the objectives. If you acknowledge that you're going to throw the game for something funny and/or cool, then understand that is what you're doing. Don't be surprised when you make such a choice.

"Stuck in the Middle with Bruce" by John Friggin' Rizzo
John F. Rizzo was half a comedian due to the tragedy of him trying to win. He named his inner loser Bruce. That inner voice is what made him do bad plays and bad decisions. It was based off of the name of someone he knew that just had the desire to lose at anything and everything. So, are you throwing that game doing a cool thing or is that Bruce whispering in your ear? Are you unprepared because you were busy or listening to your inner Bruce? Is Bruce the one who makes you skip over your opponent's lists and then are blindsided by what is obvious?

If you're at a large gaming convention, as Rizzo put it, "you can hear a sea of Bruces". They blame their lack of luck or their opponent's excessive luckiness instead of taking ownership of the string of small, bad choices that led to disaster.

Don't listen to Bruce.

"Flipping the Board and the Psychic Goldfish" by Steve Giles
This gave me instructions on how to learn to read game states as well as opponents, the latter of which I discovered I am terrible at, so I compensated in other ways.

Flipping the Board came from studying Chess, where they would switch from their side at any moment. You're playing Black? Well, not anymore. This is easier to pull off with a tabletop game. At the end of each turn, switch sides and see the game from their perspective. It's really educational. As for learning Sure, tabletop games have less bluffing than card games, but the "Psychic Goldfish" is about watching your opponent play a match against an invisible helpless opponent, a goldfish, and you learn their tells. They think about bring a particular model to bear? Maybe they've got a tell, which you can note and perhaps bring across many games.

"Is This Your Card?" by TheFerrett
I cannot tell the tale well enough and would encourage you to read this article over any others, but it involves TheFerrett "getting some strange" with a card game. The point he makes is that he is a crappy magician and out of the many attempts at pulling off a bad card trick, it works once.

Do not let your choices be based off of anecdotal evidence. Sure, XYZ might have been great this one time but when you want to make the best move in the moment, then you go with empirical evidence.  If there is a strategy, tactic or model that many people are saying are bad but you insist it is good, you may be listening to Bruce. Pay attention to what decisions you make and change them if they're not getting the results you want.

As for the last article... I can't find it which is a shame. It is probably the most influential for myself in dealing with the helplessness that is dice rolling. It is probably buried in the StarCityGames' archives somewhere.

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Sometimes when your back is to a wall, your only way out is if a particular result occurs. The best thing to do at times is begin to shape your next few moves as if that result will occur. If this event does not come to pass, you were already going to lose and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. However, sometimes Lady Luck smiles on you, and a blowout reversal occurs that places you back right into the game. When you can't win the game, maneuver to see if Lady Luck can.

Both Infinity and Batman use Critical mechanics. Sometimes that's your only way out so let those Crits Kill People.