Lessons Learned

I've previously blogged about Magic: Arena, the free* online PC version of the Magic. It's a great platform to introduce the game, to play without physically amassing huge collections, for fully experiencing standard, and for participating in all sorts of limited and constructed events in the comfort of your own home (especially important during a pandemic).  It's also taught me an awful lot; today I look at 7 things I've learned to improve my Magic skills through playing Arena.

1. The importance of bluffing
• Untapped lands and unplayed cards in your hand are a weapon. Consider this scenario:
• It's late in the game; your hand is empty. On your turn, you draw . . . ugh, a land. Or all your held cards are irrelevant to the situation.  What should you do? 
• There are times when you don't want to play a card because it would reveal to your opponent your (lack of) options. Similarly, there may be times you want to hold back a card to keep some untapped lands. Your opponent may hold back if they think you have a spell to counter their plans . . . but if you lay your options on the table (literally), you make life much easier for your opponent. Learn to hold back. Don't play unneeded cards. Keep untapped lands in reserve. Keep your opponent on their toes.
2. The importance of the second main phase
• The basic phase structure of a Magic turn is begin, main phase, combat, second main phase, end.  On both main phases, you can play one land card (total) and creatures, enchantments, sorceries, artifacts, and planeswalkers.
• Generally, it's wise to play your land on the first main phase (see point one on bluffing- having untapped lands is powerful). But all those other cards? Do it after combat. Because if your opponent plays a spell that (for example) wipes the board during the combat phase, you have that second main phase to recover.
3. The importance of removal
• If you have no removal cards in your deck, you will almost definitely lose.
4. The power of instants and 'flash'
• This ties into removal and bluffing. Keeping lands untapped, and then playing cards on your opponent's turn, can give you the opportunity to see your opponent's strategy, then execute your own on her turn, and follow it up on your turn. It can be a powerful 1-2 punch. But, of course, the only cards you can play on your opponent's turn are instants and cards with 'flash.' I'll do a post on 'instant speed' later and its importance.
5. Tempo matters (card advantage)
• You need a way to win fast (like an aggro deck) or find some way to gain card advantage- which means having a hand of cards late in the game when your opponent won't. Almost all colors have ways to draw cards; use those to your advantage. I can't tell you how many times I've had my opponent down to 1 or 2 life, only to concede because I have no cards (and thus, no options) left.
6. Each deck type has key cards
• If you play Arena consistently, you will see a wide variety of competitive decks- but each will feature key cards of a given color or related to a general deck type (aggro, control, midrange, tribal, etc.). You'll learn the general deck types and what to expect of them ("oh, he's playing a red aggro deck. I bet shock is in there."), and any time you can predict your opponent's cards, you have an advantage.
• It also helps you as you build your own decks- observing which cards see frequent play helps you plan your own approach.
• Related to this, you'll often see very similar decks. It makes sense; players hone in on the most successful decks in a given type or color, and others copy them. But make it your own; make sure there's at least a little home brew in there.
7. Reading Board State
• I cover the concept here; learning to read the board is a necessary skill. And it helps knowing when to concede; no sense prolonging the inevitable.

There are other things I've learned that aren't true of the game in general, but personal preferences:

• I don't like planeswalkers. I think they're often overpowered. So War of the Spark was a big downer for me.
• I like creature-heavy midrange decks with lots of card draw. It's fun to see an array of creatures on the battlefield and how they interact.
• I find control decks annoying. Even when I use them. Knowing an opponent is just sitting there on tons of counterspells is boring and annoying.
• I love or hate sets based on how they affect the metagame. Any set that tilts towards aggro or midrange decks is a winner in my book.

Playing Arena has made me a much better player- I highly recommend it as a training platform.

*there are optional in-game purchases