August 7, 2020
rubric – noun : a statement of purpose or function
I didn’t finish my next article (i.e. rambling rant) on optimization. It’ll hopefully arrive next week. Today you get…this.
Play Magic long enough and you learn (and sometimes willfully ignore) the ingrained mantras (jargon?) about how to properly play the game that get handed down from the past. Some advice is spouted by friends, some you read about in strategy articles or draft guides, and some you learn on your own.
A few I’ve picked up (and/or let go) in my time with the game:
- Never leave an opponent at 1
- Packs are for drafting
- Don’t counter the card draw, counter what they draw
- Always mulligan a 1-lander
- Cast new creatures after combat
- Bolt the bird
As sensible as they may come to sound when repeated often, all are flawed if followed blindly. The mantra I want to sound off on today is:
- Use instant-speed removal as an instant, not a sorcery
It’s actually rather sensible advice. A typical scenario:
Your opponent plays a creature you want to kill. You untap and draw an instant-speed kill spell. Instead of just firing it off on your turn, you hold up the necessary mana and pass the turn. Then, when your opponent tries to enchant that creature, or pump it in combat, or otherwise get added value with it, you cast your kill spell and ruin their fun, sometimes netting a 2-for-1 card advantage bonus.
So…sensible.
Except when it’s not.
Like so many Magic mantras, this one is conditional. As they might say in a business meeting you’re leading, “read the room.”
My opponent was tapped out with a Tenth District Legionnaire in play. In the right deck (pretty much any deck that chooses to use this card) it can get out of hand and become mightily difficult to deal with. I wanted it dead. It was just turn 2, but I knew what possibly awaited me.
On my turn I drew Scorching Dragonfire – a perfect answer. With no other real play I pass the turn with my 2 lands untapped and the burn spell primed.
The Legionnaire starts its sprint for my face, and I suspect a pump spell. I pass to blockers. And right on cue, out comes a Defiant Strike that will turn the soldier into a 4/3, give the opponent a scry, and draw them a card. I zortch it with Dragonfire. Played to perfection, as I’d learned to do through years of mistakes and eventual mental reinforcement about how to time kill spells: use instant-speed removal at instant speed, not as a sorcery on your own stinkin’ turn.
So…yeah…
My opponent responds with Light of Hope. The Legionnaire is now a 4/4 when my 3-damage burn spell resolves, and a 6/5 when the Strike lands. I am now at 12 life, with nothing in my hand that can handle a 5/5, and I quickly lose the game.
The deck I’m facing is a Boros deck built to pump and protect its creatures. When the opponent is tapped out and you have the kill on a Legionnaire, or a Feather, or an Aurelia, or a Krenko – you play it right then, right there. You don’t give them the opportunity to untap and use Gods Willing, or Fight as One, or Infuriate to protect their win conditions from your removal.
I let the rubric dictate how I played, instead of the actual game-state staring right at me, and it likely cost me the game.
So naturally, the VERY NEXT GAME, I didn’t use a Scorching Dragonfire on my opponent’s Spellgorger Weird while they were tapped out. I held it use at instant speed on their turn…and it got countered.
Guess which creature grew too large for my burn to handle, and flattened my life total?
Big oofs.
Bad hobbits die hard.
Casual Magicking 