[Article] Numerous Above Average Plays

[ErkBek]

Due to the recent fall out of MTGChicago I think this will be my last article. Without a doubt this was my favorite article to write though and I think players of all levels might just learn something from it.

http://www.magiceternal.com/vintage/aboveaverageplays.html

"Whenever I'm at a tournament I see people miss certain plays all the time and it's not because they're bad or because they had a lapse in concentration, it's because they didn't know you could do "that." In this article I'd like to share some of those plays that might just leave you saying "You can do that?""

[zeus-online]

Kinda liked this article, although i knew most of the plays.

/Zeus

[rkmancer]

Good article. .I always love to use Sensei in my Staxless Stax deck since it has good trick with Welder, Ravager or Shrapnel Blast. .
I'll be more excited if this article tell me more info about Bazaar of Bagdad and trick to use it for advantage. .

[Ged]

Any tips on playing ponder and/or brainstorm? Which card should be usually played first?

And thanks for the article.

[LordHomerCat]

A nice article for those who aren't that familiar with all the little vintage tricks.  I esp. liked the mana vault section, as I have definitely won games due to both of those tricks.

Ponder - Brainstorm depends on what you need.  If you need lands, I would play ponder first, since that lets you see up to 8 new cards by your second turn, versus like 6 with BS into Ponder.  Plus, if you ponder into a fetch, you can BS-Fetch turn 2 and such.

I hope you keep writing articles Eric (even tho MTGChicago seems to have fallen apart), you have some great ideas and make some neat decks, and its a nice contrast to Steve's articles to get a different perspective on the metagame.

[Webster]

Any tips on playing ponder and/or brainstorm? Which card should be usually played first?

And thanks for the article.

There are a few points to consider when answering this:

1. If you're looking for a specific card (or card type such as a land) and only ponder and brainstorm are cards used to manipulate your deck, then ponder is what should be played first. The reasoning behind this is because you see more cards when ponder is played before brainstorm. Playing ponder first looks at card 1, 2, 3, and shuffles to draw card 4 if card 1-3 is not what you are looking for. Additionally, brainstorm can be played after that to draw cards 5, 6, and 7. Playing brainstorm first is as follows: brainstorm draws cards 1, 2, 3 putting back card A and B. Play ponder looks at cards A, B, 4, and shuffling to draw card 5 if card 4 was not what you are looking for. Card A and B are still on top of your deck at this point which is probably undesirable.

2. A fetchland is in hand or play already. In this scenerio, the main factor to consider is this: "Is my hand good enough for what my deck needs to do?" If your hand is good already, then brainstorm will most likely not have a dramatic effect on improving your hand quality. In that case, playing ponder first would probably be the better play since you have a lot of options you can take with having a fetchland. Playing ponder, you look at card 1, 2, and 3, and drawing card 4 if card 1-3 was not good. Additionally, If there are two cards in cards 1-3 that you want, you can draw card 1, then either brainstorm drawing cards 2, 3, and 4, putting back card A and B _OR_ wait until next turn and draw card 2 naturally, break your fetchland to shuffle, and then brainstorm drawing cards X, Y, and Z.


There have been cases when I've had 2 brainstorms in my opening 7, but only one land. I brainstorm looking for a land but I don't find one which dramatically lowers the potential for the next brainstorm since I already know one of the cards I'm going to draw. Furthermore, I'd be more likely to use a vampiric tutor (if it were in hand) to search out a land and clear up the top of my deck in this case (which is not getting the full value of the tutor in a vaccuum). If one of those two brainstorm had been ponder, I would play ponder first and not have to worry about drawing dead cards with brainstorm next turn if I didn't find a land in cards 1-3 since the deck was shuffled.

[ErkBek]

Kinda liked this article, although i knew most of the plays.

/Zeus

Key word there "most." That's kind of the point of the article, even good players don't know a lot of those tricks. I'd say 80% of people don't know the Mana Vault vs. Tangle Wire play. I just figured it out myself a couple of months ago after losing countless Mana Vaults to Vroman's Tangle Wires over the years.

I'll be more excited if this article tell me more info about Bazaar of Bagdad and trick to use it for advantage. .

Such as?

Any tips on playing ponder and/or brainstorm? Which card should be usually played first?

Great question, I'll do my best to answer it. There's a few things you've got to weigh out when making this choice. Typically if you're wanting to just see the most cards you play Ponder then Brainstorm since you can potentially see up to 7 cards for UU. Here's what I base my decision on:

-If you're digging for second land, you should almost always play Ponder first so you can see the most cards and hit that second land drop.

-If you don't have cards you want to Brainstorm away, typically you'd play the Ponder and hold back on the Brainstorm. If you have cards you want to shuffle away, I'd probably cast the Brainstorm first, then if I have a shuffle effect I'd use it and cast the Ponder to dig for more gas. At worst you cast the Brainstorm then and use Ponder as a shuffle effect that still cantrips a random card and shuffled away the junk.

-The last thing you've got to watch out for is playing around duress. If you've got a business spell in your hand that you need to resolve (but don't want to play it yet) you have to think about if you want to play around Duress or not. Typically, you can retrace their plays to have a good idea of whether or not the opponent has a Duress or not in hand at that point. The other thing you've got to think about here is if you've got something like Yawgmoth's Will do you is playing Ponder, then BS to see the most amount of cards going to be a win more or are you going to need to see a lot of cards for your Yawg Will to be lethal.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Harlequin]

I could probably write a book of these with Tyrant Oath, but I'll stick to my top 3:

Bronze - E-Truth switch
Echoing truth doesn't resolve if it has no target.  So durring my upkeep after the 2nd oath has resolved, I have 2 Tyrants in play.  My opponent cast Etruth, and I respond with any playable spell bouncing the targeted Tyrant.  This leaves me with 1 tyrant in play. 

Silver - Krosan, the great Un-tutor!
Many combo players fail to see the power of Krosan Reclaimation, and often over look it.  Krosan can provide a crippling shuffle effect after Vamp, Mystical, Goblin Recruiter, or Lim Dul's Vault.  It seems so obvious, but I've done this probably 3-4 times in the past few months, and my opponents ususally admit to not seeing it coming.

Gold - Double Oath off one orchard.
Every oath player has encountered the game where you resolve an early oath but can't find orchard.  You end up in a creature stalemate for several turns.  If you draw another oath of druids you should play it!  Here is why:  Suppose you have 2 oath of druids in play, when you top-deck your orchard.  At the end of your opponents turn you give them a creature.  When it goes to your turn you can now oath twice!  Both oaths trigger because the creature count is 0-1.  After the first oath resolves, you get priority again.  The creature count is no 1-1 so if you pass priority the other oath will fail the creature check... however your orchard is now untapped!  So you can tap it in response to the 2nd trigger and make the creature count 2-1.  Now you can resolve the 2nd oath.

[arj]

Excellent article, the mana vault trick was new to me. 

[dawgie]

Same here. I didn't know that you can do that trick with Mana Vault when Tangle Wire is in play. 

[Sextiger]

One thing that I forgot on my return to magic was being able to Stifle Chalice of the Void triggers, its so simple but I guess it can be pretty easy to miss.

[Smmenen]

Eric: sorry to hear about mtgchicago.

 I hope you continue to write. 

[oneofchaos]

I still like the oh shit your wasting my tundra, hold on.  Float UU, brainstorm, daze it bouncing wasteland target, pay 1 mana for brainstorm, and voila, you dodged a waste. 

[nataz]

Too bad the whole MTGChicago seems not to be working out. I'll echo steve in saying I hope you keep writing, if at least for zherbus' site.

[ErkBek]

Too bad the whole MTGChicago seems not to be working out. I'll echo steve in saying I hope you keep writing, if at least for zherbus' site.

We'll see. I might randomly write more articles for Z's site, but I wouldn't expect more than 2 or 3 a year, if any at all. I didn't realize how monotonous writing a weekly piece about Magic can get, especially Vintage (though it didn't feel like a weekly piece because of how the site was managed). I think the monotony and frustration was partly cause by the fact that I'd write an article, submit it, then has it sit for 7-10 days, when I wanted feedback now. I felt like I was working for the site, but they weren't working with me at all. Either way, the experience makes me respect SCG's writing staff (especially Steve and Evan Erwin!) for their hard work.

Unless I get another writing gig for a different site, I'll probably go back to the normal posting status here.

[vroman]

I still like the oh shit your wasting my tundra, hold on.  Float UU, brainstorm, daze it bouncing wasteland target, pay 1 mana for brainstorm, and voila, you dodged a waste. 

never seen that. you havnt profited any card advantage. you traded your daze for the tundra, and paid 1 more for brainstorm. if your already bstorming and digging 3 deep, then isnt the counterspell worth more than the mana?

[Rock Lee]

I still like the oh shit your wasting my tundra, hold on.  Float UU, brainstorm, daze it bouncing wasteland target, pay 1 mana for brainstorm, and voila, you dodged a waste. 

never seen that. you havnt profited any card advantage. you traded your daze for the tundra, and paid 1 more for brainstorm. if your already bstorming and digging 3 deep, then isnt the counterspell worth more than the mana?

The correct move is: play Gush instead of Daze. *nod nod*

[meadbert]

Paying u to trade Daze for land would be the same as Stifling the Wasteland.  That happens all the time.  That is an interesting line of play that would not have occurred to me.

[Shock Wave]

Paying u to trade Daze for land would be the same as Stifling the Wasteland.  That happens all the time.  That is an interesting line of play that would not have occurred to me.

In the example provided by oneofchaos, the "trade" is not exactly (U + Daze) for (Wasteland). The tradeoff is more like: (U1 for Brainstorm + Daze - tempo lost by returning your land to your hand) for (Wasteland). You've essentially retained tempo parity, which is much different than casting Stifle on a Wasteland, whereby you gain tempo.

I'm not sure how you've concluded that returning a land with Daze is the same is casting Stifle on a Wasteland. The Stifle play is much stronger, seeing as how it doesn't set you back a land drop.

[vroman]

also the stifle play does not require you having brainstorm. and if your in the middle of digging 3 deep, your odds of seeing more mana are high, so the value of your onboard tundra goes down.

[EVG]

Hey Eric, very well written article there, it showed me a couple of tricks that I had never considered such as the Vault trick, I just assumed that it triggered with the rest of the upkeep abilities. I feel that the article is much better suited for newer vintage players, because by the time one has a few tournaments under their belts, these kind of plays seem to become almost second nature. The whole Wasteland evasion set of tricks (Gush, Daze etc.) as listed above would also bee a good addition to your list should you write a follow-up piece in the future or something.

All in all it was a great, insightful article and I am sorry to hear that you wont be writing much more, and I hope that you have a change of heart if it is not too late.

[hauntedechos]

@ Eric:  I didn't know a few of thoes tricks, thanks for the insight.  In concerns with not writing articles; that would be horrible.  I too appreciate Mr. Menendian's writings, even though I opt to wait untill they come off SCG preimium list.  Having your articles readily available once they are posted is fantastic.  I've written a couple articles as well and understand what you are talking about in terms of monotony, so I opt to write one a month.  Many consider you to be somewhat of an authority on Storm Combo building and tweaking, and it would be a shame to lose the frequent input you've been giving.

[oneofchaos]

I just gave an example of a play that is tech.  Notice that U/W fish is kinda off the radar and yes gush is way better at doing that.  However at tournaments when your playing shop and can't afford to lose a land..and don't have a stifle you have to do what you have to do.

[nineisnoone]

I didn't know about the EE play. I think that definitely merits EE being given more consideration since it'll handle Dryad/Tog/Fish plus Spheres.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

Interesting article, I had forgotten the Mana Vault upkeep-trigger interaction with Tangle Wire. I second that it'd be really sad if you stopped writing, I really enjoyed your articles!

You didn't mention the most insane thing you can do with MisD in the MisD mirror, btw (though it has to be incredibly rare to have the chance).  Let's imagine your opponent plays Ancestral and you respond with yours. Naturally he tries to Misdirect it. You have an active MisD yourself. What do you do?

The answer is to Misdirect his MisD to HIS Ancestral and as a result you will be drawing all six cards! That is because Misdirection forces you to change the target of the spell it targets (At least it does if the judge I asked about it last tournament was right). Quite sick!