Explore

Explore card art

There are many reasons to play games in general and Magic in particular. The aspect I'll focus on today is the joy of exploration.

One key element of any game's long-term enjoyment is replayability.  Games should be easy to learn but difficult to master, and each contest should have some degree of variety (or potential for it) to both require mastery and keep things interesting. If every game of chess went the same way, with the same pieces being moved to the same squares in the same order, what challenge (or fun) would that be? Replayability matters; players want to be in a familiar environment (knowing the rules, turn order, etc.), but have a new or fresh experience each time.

There are different ways Magic accomplishes replayability: deck customization, set rotation (if you're playing standard), library randomization (shuffling the cards before you begin a game), and card pool, our focus for today.

Magic has produced thousands of cards, and it's much harder than you'd think to tally the exact number.  Do you count only unique cards, or reprints too?  Do you count only standard expansions, or special 'one-off' sets?  What about the silver-bordered cards, produced only for casual play?  How about cards that have different names but are functionally identical?  This is another topic for another time; sufficient for today's purposes is that the latest estimates claim there are about 20,000 unique Magic cards.  Think about that. 

The card pool in Magic is so large that you can spend months and hundreds of games playing with cards from just one expansion and still never explore the entire set. And that's amazing.

Exploration is a joy in life. This world is much bigger than we'll ever know. You can spend your life traveling and not see every country, let alone state, city, or village. You can read 100 books per year for decades, and you'll have read just .002% of the 130 million books written (in English). And in Magic, no matter how much you play, you can still come across cards you've owned for years and "see" them for the first time- register their abilities and value. There's so much here to explore.

If you don't know how to explore this game, play in a draft some time. That forces you to choose cards you wouldn't normally (in a constructed environment), and see the cards from a different angle. And play a lot of different opponents, too- you'll encounter new cards and ways to use them than you ever dreamed possible. In this COVID time, it's easy to focus on restrictions and isolation, both of which may be with us in some degree for years. But in Magic, you can play digitally and explore to your heart's content. You'll never stop finding new things.

Board State

It's not over till it's over. -Yogi Berra

Though Yogi's technically correct, in Magic, it's often possible to predict the game's outcome well in advance through examining "board state."

Board state is the state of the game in progress; it uses the following inputs from each player:

1. life total,
2. the nature and number of permanents on the battlefield,
3. the nature and number of cards in the graveyard,
4. the number of cards in hand,
5. the nature of cards in hand,
6. the type of deck (aggro, control, etc.)
7. the possible card options

The first four are known to all players (number three doesn't always matter- it depends on the deck, and whether or not it wants cards in the graveyard). Number five is partially known- each player knows their own hand but no other.  Number six is partially known at first- each player knows their own deck but no other- but is progressively revealed to all as cards are played and the game progresses.  Number seven is based on the format you play and the color(s) involved in the game- this one tells opponents what cards you might have.

Though each input is easily defined, determining board state involves a good deal of experience and judgment; it's impossible to develop a formula that a new player could apply.  Yet, seasoned players can tell at a glance how things are going- and, generally, who will win.  Let's look at some examples.  All are taken from games I played against the AI in Magic Arena.

In this first example, I have more life and permanents.  My opponent has more cards. I'm playing an aggro deck, which is likely apparent to my opponent at this point.  The unknown (to me) is the cards my opponent holds.  But the possible card options based on color (looks like mono-white, based on his lands in play) and format (this is standard) tells me that I will almost definitely win.  White has some spells that can neutralize my permanents, but only one card that would tilt the balance: Planar Cleansing, which requires six lands (he has four).

A look at the board state one turn later confirms that my victory is at hand.  He still has too few lands for a Planar Cleansing, and no other card could minimize my attack enough.  I will win (and I do).

This first example was straightforward- most people would peg me as likely victor.  But if I let my opponent get out six lands, and if they had a Planar Cleansing, the board state would flip immediately- I'd have nothing left, with too few cards in hand to do anything useful.  Had my opponent played that card, I'd have conceded immediately, knowing my prospect at victory was gone.

A second example.  Here, my opponent has more life, creatures, and cards in hand, but I have more overall permanents (including lands and enchantments), and I have a few cards in hand that may tilt things my way.  And I'm not sweating things, because I have a mill deck- my goal is not to reduce his life to 0, but to put his library (the face-down pile, upper right) into his graveyard.

A turn later, the life totals are even more in my opponent's favor, but note how diminished his library is.  I have some blockers, three enchantments to accelerate the milling effect, and more cards in hand (and some of them are quite nice).  The board state, all factors included, is in my favor.

On my turn, I play enough cards, and my victory is assured- his library is gone.  The next time he has to draw a card, he loses.

In a third example, my opponent has a slight edge in life, and permanents are about equal.  But I hold the edge- look how many cards are in my hand. 

A few turns later, things are still in my favor- with no cards left, my opponent is fully exposed.  If I had a way to 'wipe the board' (destroy all creatures), he'd be in a bad way.  Alas, I do!  A Time Wipe will take care of his creatures.

I play Time Wipe, and though we're both near 20 life, the game is likely mine.  If I were in his shoes, I'd concede.

One final example. Here, my opponent has more life and permanents.  But I still hold the edge- look at my cards in hand.  I can take control of one of his creatures with Connive/Concoct, and I have two of those.  So I'll take control of one this turn, and if I survive, repeat the process next turn.  It will be close, and will come down to the card(s) he will draw next turn.

Board state may be obvious from the above examples. The big takeaways:

- life total is important, but not the only factor. 

- the number/nature of cards in hand matter greatly, especially later in the game

- the type of deck is a big deal, too. 

The only way to develop a feel for board state is to play. A lot. In time, you'll start to predict how things will go- even early in the match- based on your experience. Though, wrapping up with Yogi's thoughts, you never know for certain. So conceding may make sense at times, but if there's even a small chance, I recommend staying in the game. Those improbable victories can be quite satisfying.

Many Paths to Victory

The way to win in Magic is to make all the other players lose.  The most common way to do that is to reduce their life to 0, but there are other ways- and it adds yet more variety to an already diverse experience.  Abbreviated from the official rules,

• 104.3. There are several ways to lose the game. 
• 104.3a A player can concede the game at any time. 
• 104.3b If a player’s life total is 0 or less. 
• 104.3c If a player is required to draw more cards than are left in their library.
• 104.3d If a player has ten or more poison counters. 
• 104.3e An effect may state that a player loses the game. 

Conceding is often the best way forward when the board state [more on this next time] shows that victory is impossible. The 0 life total is the most common. Let's look at the others.

A player is required to draw more cards than are left in their library.
This is called 'milling,' taking its name from the millstone card from years ago:

Mill decks win by putting your opponent's library into the graveyard.  There are a number of ways to do this, generally in blue:

A player has ten or more poison counters.
Some expansions have creatures and effects that give a player poison counters.  The infect keyword achieved this in addition to other spells. The most recent set featuring this concept was the Scars of Mirrodin block in 2004.  Some examples:

An effect may state that a player loses the game.
This means that an opponent has a permanent on the battlefield that presents an alternate loss condition (or remove the standard loss condition).  A number of cards have been produced to this effect over the years; note that some make you lose the game, if you can't finish off your opponent that turn:

Of course, there are a number of cards that present an alternate win condition, too.  Examples:

And finally, there are cards that enable you to stay in the game, even with 0 life, 10 poison counters, and more:

While the standard remains dropping your opponent to 0 life, be aware of these other options.  And try them out!  They can be really fun.

Home Brews and Net Decks

Overwhelmed Apprentice card art

Building a Magic deck is great fun- and easily overwhelming.  My decks page describes how to build a deck.  If you build a deck in this way without consulting others (websites, people, or references of any kind), it's called a "home brew."  Of course, there are tons of websites listing Magic decks, and nothing's to stop you from finding one that someone else has made and using that (assuming you have the cards); this technique is called using a "net deck."  Which leads us to a quote which summarizes today's topic:

If you aren't at least 25% brew, you've got no heart. But if you aren't at least 25% netdeck, you've got no brain.
-Patrick Chapin

Patrick's point is well-taken: most decks will be a combination of home brew (what you come up with yourself) and net deck (what you learn from others).  And that's a good thing.  

Part of the joy in Magic is creation- crafting a deck from the individual cards to make something effective.  So any deck you make should have a 'home brew' element- some customization that you've done on your own, either through personal insights or much trial and error.  At the same time, "in many counselors there is wisdom"- so searching for decks similar to what you're trying to accomplish isn't cheating by any stretch. Such investigations can give you insights you'd have missed otherwise, help you discover cards you didn't previously recognize, and improve your game tremendously.

My strategy:

- choose my approach (using mechanics, cards, themes, or whatever else, as discussed on the decks page)

- choose my format

- search through the cards available in that format relevant to my approach (so look at all blue cards in Standard if I want a mono-blue deck, for example)

- build as much of the deck as I can without assistance

- play a few games on Arena

- make adjustments based on personal observation

- play a few more games on Arena

- ask friends and/or the Internet for help (knowing the Magic 'deck-naming nomenclature' is very helpful here)
- make adjustments based on their recommendations

- keep playing games and making further adjustments

Fires of Invention card art

There are a ton of sites out there that present decks if you want ideas; below are a few.  Note that in many cases, you have options to view the most popular decks from each format.  Some sites also allow you to create an account and post your decks for review and comment (I do this on DeckStats)- that's a nice way to get feedback.

MTGGoldfish

MTGDecks

MTGTop8

Aetherhub

MTGArena.pro

DeckStats

TappedOut

EDHRec (gives card recommendations for commander decks)

Discovering something yourself through a customized creation is a wonderful feeling; learning from others is a wise path. Much of both goes into success, in Magic and in life.

The Meta

The metagame (or 'meta') is the game about the game, or the game that describes the game (much like metadata is the data about the data). It operates outside of the game itself, and relies on both personal observation and relevant article/podcast consumption to perfect. Today's article looks at the meta of Magic.

In Magic, the meta means learning "what types of decks are people playing?" And this, at its core, means "what types of decks are currently winning in official events like tournaments?"  The meta is a subset of all possible options; if there are 100 deck options, but only 5 deck types are consistently successful, the meta is those 5 deck types.  Anyone can still consider the other 95 deck options, and may have some success doing so, but the likely winner will be a person playing with one of those 5 deck types.  Of course, this is a simplification: in Magic, deck construction rules mean there are almost limitless deck options- but at any given moment, only a handful will likely win.

It's important for Magic to have a healthy meta (which means a lot of viable deck options).  With so many possibilities, if only one or two deck types are winning, it reduces strategic choice (and with it, variety and interest). Games are about meaningful decisions- if one path is clearly better, it reduces the point of the game. (Magic's creator, Richard Garfield, does a good job explaining this in his book Characteristics of Games.)  When the meta is at its weakest, there are only two deck types: the successful one and the 'anti' deck- the deck constructed deliberately to target the successful one. If you ever hear a player say "standard is a mess right now," they generally mean the meta is unhealthy, and most [successful] players are using only one or two deck types.

In a rotating format like standard, the meta changes every time:

• a set is released,
• there's a rotation (with older sets rotating out of the format), or
• a card is banned or restricted 

We want a new set to change the meta- it means cards from the new set are seeing play in viable decks. Similarly, we want set rotation to change the meta- it means older cards were still enjoying play but can no longer, so players have to find new ways to make a deck successful. If the meta ever gets 'out of hand'- if one deck or card starts becoming too powerful- Wizards has an option: ban it. And they do so as needed.  In fact, they did so just two weeks after the date of this initial post!  See the announcement here, and you'll note comments about the meta.

Ikoria is the latest Magic set, released a few weeks ago (digitally). Note the below statistics from the "post-Ikoria metagame." This means since Ikoria was released, the following deck types saw significant play (see this post if you don't understand deck names):

image from here

"Off-meta" means anything not covered already, so you'd expect that to be the highest. Overall, I think this is a pretty good spread- the Rakdos Sacrifice decks are seeing the most play, but there are a lot of other options seeing tournament play.  Here's another site that lists popularity of decks in similar fashion; there are countless others.

When the meta is unhealthy, it's not fun. Currently, I'm annoyed by the number of decks featuring companions (a new card ability debuting with Ikoria). I hope they ban some (all?) of them, because they're quite hard to beat, and I don't enjoy playing them myself, so I'm stuck limiting myself and (likely) losing quite a bit.  I love exploring Magic's lesser-used decks at any given moment, but they're lesser-used for a reason. Whenever I'm 'forced' to play a certain deck if I want to have any hope of winning, the fun is gone.

If you want to understand the meta, play a lot of games- you'll see patterns in the deck types people are playing, and learn quickly if a handful are above the others.

Tokens and Emblems

As Magic is a card game, it stands to reason that everything on the battlefield is, in fact, a card.  But there are two objects that aren't- tokens and emblems- and these are the subject of today's post.  From the official rules:

• 111.1. Some effects put tokens onto the battlefield. A token is a marker used to represent any permanent that isn’t represented by a card. 
• 114.1. Some effects put emblems into the command zone. An emblem is a marker used to represent an object that has one or more abilities, but no other characteristics. 

Many effects create tokens or emblems. Players may use anything they wish to represent tokens or emblems: coins, pieces of paper, miniatures, etc. In recent years, Wizards started making cards for both, and include them randomly in booster packs (as a sixteenth card). Examples of cards that create tokens and token cards:

To date, only planeswalkers can create emblems (often as their 'big' ability); some examples of emblem cards:

Though the token/emblem cards aren't mandatory, they're certainly nice (visually and functionally), especially in helping keep things clear. If you play Magic Arena, they use these.

Important rules to remember about tokens and emblems (quotes from the official rules):

• Tokens/emblems are not considered cards (even if you're using cards to represent them).
• Tokens are placed on the battlefield; emblems in the command zone.
• The spell or ability that creates the token defines its characteristics.  This may include color, name, creature type/subtype, power/toughness, and more. But tokens have no mana cost.
• Three tokens are common in certain expansions and are predefined; the player is expected to know the token's characteristics when created.  They are:
• Treasure token: "a colorless Treasure artifact token with “{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”"
• Food token: "a colorless Food artifact token with “{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”"
• Gold token: "a colorless Gold artifact token with “Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”"
• Tokens are permanents and therefore are "subject to anything that affects permanents in general or that affects the token’s card type or subtype."
• "A token that's in a zone other than the battlefield ceases to exist."  So let's say you have a creature token. If your opponent destroys that token through a destroy spell, your token creature vanishes (no going to the graveyard); if they play a 'return to hand' spell, it likewise vanishes (no going into your hand). 
• The ability that creates an emblem defines its characteristics, but (unlike tokens) it will have no name, color, etc.
• An emblem is not a permanent.  To date, nothing can affect or remove an emblem once created.

Tokens and emblems aren't difficult when you get the hang of it, but understand the nuances- especially the reality of tokens 'vanishing' when they leave the battlefield.