Foils/Betas/Signatures, etc… all or nothing at all

[thejinhong]

Foils/Betas/Foreign Cards/Signatures, etc… all or nothing at all


I played in two Type 1 Tournaments this past weekend in Los Angeles (Burbank sanctioned, Lancaster non-sanctioned).   After any tournament, I try to reflect on what I’ve learned.  
I know that for some players, they own all Beta and many multiple copies of Foils.  However, I think that for most Type 1 players,  they have a collection more similar to mine: some randomn Beta/Alpha uncommons, commons, a few cool rares (likewise with the Foils and Foreign cards) and mostly Unlimited & Revised.      
Much discussion on TMD regards the optimization of decks to their maximum potential, therefore here’s my theory on what I’ve learned(forgive me if this has been fairly obvious to everyone else).  


‘The components of a TOURNAMENT deck(each individual card) should be rather “bland” and forgetable.  If not, then every card should be as “flashy” as possible.  Sometimes the fact that you had several cards that weren’t exactly the same will give your opponent a slight advantage regarding knowledge of your deck.’



By “flashy” I am refering to cards such as Foils/Foreign Cards/Signatures/Alpha/Betas.  Now for many cards such as Dark Ritual, it really doesn’t matter whether all of them in your deck are the same or each one different, since there’s going to be 4 of these in there anyways.  But cards like Misdirection, dual lands, basic lands; these cards must be completely standardized in your deck.  

My Error before the games even began:
I was running GAT with 2 Misdirections maindeck: one foil, the other was not.  I had 4 Underground Seas: 2 French Black Border, 1 Italian Black Border, 1 English revised white border.   These were just a few of the card discrepancies in my deck.  
In Game 2 of one of my matches, my opponent noted that the Foil Misdirection(in the out of game pile due to Force) was really nice.  They mentioned that they’d probably have to worry about at least one more because the one I used against him Game 1 was non-foil.  And then it hit me.  I slapped the deck togethor without even thinking that the diversity of certain key cards might make a difference at all.  

The fact that he was estimating the number of certain cards did not make a difference in the end because I won that match.  But the fact remains that it COULD have made a difference.                    

I would like to hear other people’s opinions.  In addition I would like to know if anyone has ever exploited to their advantage the non-standardization of cards in an opponent’s deck.

[JACO]

If you are playing someone good (i.e. someone who makes mental notes throughout the match and is constantly calculating), it certainly DOES matter if your cards are the same or if they are different, especially in the case of cards that aren't automatically 4-ofs (i.e. Misdirection). For things like dual lands it matters a little less, because you're generally running 3-4 of each, but if your opponent sees 2 FBB ones and only one Unlimited one, they might think you only have 3 total in the deck (which may or may not be the case), which might lead to the way they play (i.e. what they Wasteland, etc.).

One of the reasons that the pros who play Type 2 and Extended make their decks as 'bland' as possible is because of this. Another reason is that for very high REL (4 and/or 5) tournaments, the use of foils is discouraged by the DCI and judges (due to the fact that they sometimes slightly bend, and an advantage could possibly be had). Certain sleeves (like Dragon Shields) mask the foils very well, and you can't really tell at all what is a bent card or not, because they all appear to be slightly curved usually. But other sleeves (cheap ass Japanese brands) are often very thin and if you know what to look for, you can sometimes see a more 'bent' card.

Unless you're going to really pimp out your deck, or have easy access to pimp cards, it's not worth it. Just stick with all black-border and that's cool enough. As an example, DON'T play 2 foil Counterspells and 2 non-foil ones; wait until you get all 4 foiled out before you play with them, and stick with the basic ones in the interim.

[Piggy]

This also matters with duress.  For instance, they see your hand of foil delta, island, morphling after you discard.  If you then untap, draw your card and play an asian delta, they know that you still have no counters in hand.  Though this is a little more obvious than guessing the amounts of cards in your deck, it is something that warrants consideration.

[Akuma]

I would always use the 'same' cards in a deck. If you are using Counterspell, use 4 of the same kind, otherwise you risk the opponent being able to make educated guesses about what you have. Of course, all of that does not matter when your stupid Dryads come out turn one and I don't draw any lands with the initials M and S at all

[thejinhong]

@Gio,
Those were some really bad hands that you got against me.  I didn't even see a Workshop in both games.  When the TNT player plays a forest, go, forest, go, mountain, go, for 4 turns in a row, things are looking mighty bad for TNT.  Against you, I was lucky with the early Dryad.  Mostly, against everyone else, I got my Dryads kinda late.

One more comment regarding the standardization/non-standardization of decks:
I think that it's best to mix and diversify the cards in a deck that have the exact same ability but different names/creature types.   If I was running 2 Oktabi's in my sideboard, I'd change one to Viridian Shaman just to protect against Cabal therapies, Meddling Mages.

[Moxlotus]

Either run all of the same type (my friend stole my foil Arena Islands so all of them in his deck would be the same) or make sure if your opponent has seen one type of land (say an APAC) and you draw another (say a EURO) make sure to play the one he has seen.

As for some foil cards and some not, some are not that bad. If you are playing sligh and only have 2 Foil Pups, I don't think your opponent will be wondering how many Pups you have.  But for cards that don't always necessarily come in 4s, then play the same kind.

[Petko]

JACO is pretty much on the ball; it is something quite important that is usually overlooked when building decks.

However, I do not have this problem as I am a total Nazi when it comes to pimping up decks; every card has to be in the same language and either Foil or Beta, with the exception of cards like Mana Drain or Force of Will, for example. I refuse to play with the so called 'unpimp' cards, especially WB!

[?ISuck@MTG?]

Hehe, counting cards is like my specialty. I always look for something like your Misdirection thing, because I'm budget style, and I need all the help I get. Not to mention I keep a running count of cards in each deck in my head, possibilities of them drawing a certain cards after I Duress, after they shuffle, e.t.c.

[snotball007]

I prefer to have either all foil or no foil if I am playing with more than one of the same card. But usually I get the cheapest cards possible.

Like with mahamoti djinn, one of mine is beatdown and I wouldnt trade it for the world.

As for the thing about mentally taking notes. That is just something that you should learn after playing magic for awhile. Like duress, I always memorize what they have in their hand. And when being duressed, I always try and play the cards that they have seen already. The info strategy is killer.

Of course with 10 land stompy this is an irrelevant argument.........mainly because they will see pretty much everything during land grants.

[doomhed]

well, i run as  much pimitude as possible, sometimes with the hope that they confuse pimped cards. I was playing long.dec before the restrictions with 3 duress, one wb. a large % of my cards were foils and foriegns. I had an opponant scoop a game assuming the 4th card in my hand was the "chinese" duress he saw before and was sure i had. pimping led to his confusion. all my duresses were english. also, somtimes foriegn cards throw someone off when they are scanning your g/y for cards they dont got to worry about.

Pimpage all the way!

[Cpkrug]

this is an interesting point that i didnt even think of before.  But like many have already said, 4 force of wills are a given, but be careful on cards like impulse or misdirection.

[Charlie]

In practice it's not very possible. Chinese cards and English cards are often mixed up here and you may find someone selling only one language of that card, or even 2-of-this, 2-of-that even if you're buying a playset. And for the basic lands (T2), it takes a lot of time to get 20 copies of the same land  

[DEA]

ah?
i haven't seen anyone keep track of basic land yet
also, where are you from? it shouldn't be difficult to get all the cards in the same language
i refuse to buy fbb cards because i can't read them

[Allanon]

I prefer to mix it up, because it tends to confuse the opposition.  I was playing my version of Trix, it was Forbidden Crypt + Donate + Tormod's Crypt, but playing with 4 Misdirection, 3 foil.  

Well I had used the three foil, and was sitting on the non-foil one in my hand (I got extremely lucky topdecking) My opponent decides to cast the last thing is her hand, a Fireblast, well I go ahead and pop the Misdirection.  This story helped me learn that having that non-foil one helped me win due to her thinking that I was only playing three because if I was running a 4th it would have been foil.  

When I build decks now I tend to "mix it up"

[DEA]

that made surprisingly little sense
does it really matter if the misD in your hand which she has never seen is foil or not, when she has no idea if you're running 3 or 4?