Kill Him Part 2: Tips on being "That Guy"

Now for all of those who aren't "That Guy" or don't want to be "That Guy" please stop right here.  This article isn't for you it will corrupt your soul and make you do terrible, terrible things to your friends.  You are probably better suited to reading Part 1, Kill Him: Tips on NOT being "That Guy"
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Are we good?  Alrighty then lets get started.  If you're "That Guy" or want to be "That Guy," you know that this inevitably happens:

You: 

Everyone Else:

So what do you want your response to be?  This:

In this article, I'd like to do exactly that by going over ways you can go about crafting the perfect deck to carry you to victory.

Research, Research, Research

I'm going to start right off the bat by saying that creating the perfect deck is going to take a LOT of work.  Looking at countless lists and researching endless card interactions.  And of course this takes time.  The most profitable area of research is usually going to be looking up decks with the same or similar archetype.  The best places to find lists is deckbuilding sites and primers. Good deckbuilding sites include tappedout.net (A personal favorite), mtgvault.com and deckstats.net and a popular forum (with primers) is mtgsalvation.com.

Playing Your Pet

And if research hasn't taken enough time already, there's testing to be done.  This includes both alone and against others.  The initial first step in testing is to test the flow of your deck.  In essence, making sure that your deck doesn't defeat itself, because if it does then it certainly can't defeat other players.  This means making sure you have things like: the right colors at the right times, the right amount of mana, etc.  From my experience, aggro and combo decks are the easiest to test as they require the least amount of interaction with the opponent.  Control on the other hand is all about interactions and knowing whether or not you'll have the right responses for the right situations is difficult to replicate alone.

That said there are several different ways to play test your deck alone (Keep in mind these were created with 60 card decks in mind):
Goldfish: Take your imaginary opponent from full life to 0 as quickly as possible with no interaction on their part.  This method works best testing aggro and combo decks and terribly with control ones.
Turtle: Opponent starts off with an Ivory Tower and 6 Circles of Protection.  When you draw a land, the turtle gets a land in play.  The turtle doesn't play card from its hand but starts with a hand of 7 cards and draws one per turn.
Snake: Opponent starts with two Black Vise cards in play.  This is meant to ensure that you empty your hand fast enough.  This is especially punishing against control decks who want to maintain a full hand at all times.
Parakeets: Opponent starts off with a Dredge Skeleton and a Phantom Monster.  The Phantom Monster attacks when not futile to do so.  The Dredge Skeleton attacks when you have no creatures or it can't block.  It blocks your biggest threat and regenerates.
Rabbits: Opponent gets additional Dredge Skeleton once per turn and attacks with all but enough to block your creatures.  Other variants use 0/1 regenerating flyers, 1/1 flyers, or 1/1 Thallids.  This test is meant to test vs swarm/token decks.  Other variants include:

• Rats: Opponent gets a Plague Rat each turn, attacks with half rounded down, blocks most effectively, when you attack with flying creatures half the untapped rats, rounded up gain flying until end of turn.  This is meant to be a particularly hard test.
• Angel: Opponent does nothing in the first 4 turns and then gets a free 4/4 Serra Angel with flying and vigilance every turn.  Attacks when able to deal damage or kill a creature and blocks when possible.  Meant to replicate decks that take a little while to get off the ground.
• Dog: Opponent's deck consists of basic lands (in equal numbers).  Each is mean to simulate an action.

For a full description of the the pets see: Playing Your Pet

It's about the Consistency

Consistency is the key to any good deck.  Now how you go about achieving that consistency is up to you and your play-style.  Whether it be through card draw, filtering, tutors or simply having functional reprints of cards in your deck, regular access to your cards is essential to success.  While card draw, filtering, and tutors is less important to aggro/mid-range consistency is not less so.  

It's about Efficiency

Often when making an (EDH) deck, I start out with a huge mishmash of cards, removal, ramp, two-three piece combos etc.  And as usually, I'm over by a fair margin of cards.  Where do I start cutting cards?  Off the top of course.  Those high mana cost cards are fun and feel great when you resolve them but often times they're a dead card in hand as you find your opening hand completely uncastable.  Now, this is not to say that decks can't be built around resolving high cost cards.  Animar, Soul of Elements decks can have an average CMC (converted mana cost) as high as 4 or 5.  It's merely a consideration that should be taken when choosing cards to go into a deck.

We're playing Rock-Paper-Scissors

As many of you are aware there is a sort of "Rock Paper Scissors" in Magic between aggro, control and combo.  What does this mean?  In a multiplayer game, it means that sometimes you have to straddle two horses.  For instance being a control deck means you could add in a combo kill.  This way, as a control deck you can combo kill the aggro player and control the combo player.

Understand Your Meta

Whether it be through a sideboard (for 60) or just your general build, a very important part of building your deck is tuning it to the particular meta.  For an EDH control meta you might want to add a Defense Grid or in an aggro meta perhaps a Crawlspace or Silent Arbiter would be appropriate.  If your meta includes burn start running life gain hosers in your sideboard.  A properly sideboard can mean the difference between winning and losing a match.

This is why it is also important to understand your match ups.  Every deck has a weakness whether it be your commander getting denied or that Tron player who comes on Modern nights.  Identifying your weaknesses can help you find ways to shore up those matches and identify threats to your path to victory.

Keep in mind that you don't go too far in your meta tweeking though.  It can be easy to get tunnel vision and focus heavily on beating your meta that you start including cards that you could only get away with in that meta.  This leads to a narrow deck that wins spectacularly in a highly specific meta but falls flat against everything else.  This is why it is often good to diversify your metas so as to not get tunnel vision.

Understand when you're the "aggro" and when you're the "control"

In this section I'm going to use "aggro" and "control" in the loosest possible terms.  When I say "aggro" here I mean of two players who theoretically kills faster (Whether that be through a combo, damage or other win cons).  In some instances it's very clear.  Someone is playing blue + counters and someone else isn't.   Sometimes it's not, it might be a mirror match and it's that much harder to figure out who's deck is faster.  Other times it's aggro vs combo or aggro vs aggro in which case it's just a race.

Now you're probably thinking: Why does it matter who's the aggro and who's the control?  To put it simply, because it dictates the decisions you make in the game and because correctly determining who's who can mean the difference between winning and losing.

As an analogy to incorrectly determining who's who, imagine a burn player (or any other heavy aggro strategy) playing conservatively, trading cards one for one, eliminating his or her opponent's creatures and holding his creatures back to block favorably.  This seems wrong on just about every level doesn't it?  Why is this?  That's because burn is THE aggro.  It's always the "aggro" in pretty much every match up.  As such players play this way, trading card advantage for damage, (almost) always presenting the faster clock.  Doing it any other way is a good way to lose you games.  This brings us to why it's important to figure out who's the "aggro" and who's the "control" in your game.  Because if you turn out to be the "aggro" and you play conservatively trading card for card, preserving your life total, drawing out the game, then you're playing into your opponent's hands.

For example, about midway through the development of my Ghave Deck I started adding in control pieces (primarily removal) and trimmed some of the control pieces (primarily high CMC ones).  With that came my attempts at playing the "control" version of my Ghave deck, at times even casting control cards instead of combo pieces.  This resulted in a dip in performance that I didn't understand.  It was only until later I realized my mistake in always trying to control and then combo instead of just comboing off when I should.

Now, this is not to say that even if you are the "aggro" that you automatically need to go full-throttle.  For instance I was playing against Niv-Mizzet with a Drana deck (playing mono-black control/voltron).  Now granted I was the aggro and I needed to play the threats but I didn't rush.  I ground out the game, gaining card advantage and mana until I could play more threats than could be countered.

For further reading, see Who's The Beatdown?, the article that inspired this section.

Never Give Up!  Never Surrender!

There's a saying in Magic, "The only life point that matters is the last life point."  This means that even if things look bleak you need to keep at it, always looking for an opportunity to turn the game around.  Some of it's luck and some of it's skill, sifting through all the different lines of play that are available to you.  I've been on both sides of a top deck.  Top decking a Horde-Smelter Dragon against an artifact deck or beating my opponent's face in with Lingering Souls tokens only to die to a top decked Siege Rhino.

Kill Him: Tips on NOT being "That Guy"

The Response

Note: My original article was slated to be "Chasing Windmills: The Pitfalls of Mill"  However, as I was unable to find the article outlinging the math behind mill nor found a satisfactory replacement, I've indefinitely backburnered it for a later time.

A frequently told story of mine is my transition from a competitive blue smurf heavy meta to my current less competitive/aggro meta(s).  With this transition the "That Guy" label was quickly passed to me in one of my playgroups.  This was because what were "average/on par" decks in my old meta were "overpowered" and "broken" in my new playgroup.  Now, going from a lower (competitive) level of play to a higher one is relatively simple.  Going from a higher level of play to a lower one is much harder.  In this article I'd like to share what I learned from this transition and the various methods I've employed as well as methods of others to force myself to build less competitive decks.

Try to Delay or Withold Certain Plays

While this method is probably the easiest to implement and requiring little effort, it is for me one of the hardest.  One that I expect others may have similar trouble with.  This is because going from a highly competitive meta where the most optimum plays are expected and desired, the habit of playing out your hand to its fullest potential is overwhelming and instead you are forced to withhold and pull your punches.  This only feels bad when you do it but it feels worse when you lose because you know you could've done better, your potential unfullfilled.  If you're able to do this then I give you props and wish you the best of luck as this would make the transition a whole lot easier.  For those of you like me, don't worry there's more.

Play "Control" decks

Another reletively easy method is to play more controlish decks whereby you have the option to act more like the rattlesnake deck removing threats that would end the game or direct threats to yourself.  For this method I also generally advise removal over counterspells as there is a sort of mental difference between being able to play your threat and having it removed and having it never hit the board at all.  By playing a "control" deck you are not only avoiding being "That Guy" but you are also extending the game and thus extending the enjoyment your peers are getting out of the game.  After all if you end the game after a long drawn out conflict in which your opponents were able to play their threats and come "close" to winning then having the game end quickly before they've made any major plays.  Keep in mind, by control I don't mean completely locking down the board like many true control decks do.  I'm talking about stopping obvious game ending threats and gaining good will through it.  In other words, play politics.

Start Borrowing Decks

This method is the next best thing and is also very easy to do as most players will have multiple decks on hand and will often be happy to lend you a deck.  This way you will play with decks that are already tuned to the meta and can play your best without overpowering the group.  One thing to keep in mind is to ask the themes/goals of the deck as some decks will not be for you or may be much durdlier then you expect.  You don't want to build up resentment forcing yourself to play decks that you have no desire to play.

Build Another Deck

Now for the harder part, building a deck that fits your meta.  This may not be within the perview of everyone as this requires money.  However if you plan on spending a lot of time playing in your new meta then this will probably be the most satisfactory answer as the deck will be yours and only yours, the choices all be yours.  There are several different ways to limit the power of your deck that I plan on outlining.

Create a "Sideboard"

Rather than creating an entirely new deck you can alternatively create a "sideboard" of cards that will replace some of the more powerful and competitive cards and synergies in your deck.  This way you can play what is essentially a necked down version of a deck or general you already like.  This also means that necking down your deck won't cost as much money because you won't have to start from scratch and can use existing cards in your deck.

Stick to a Budget

By sticking to a budget you can create a deck that is similar in budget to your peers this makes it more likely that your decks will match up in power level.  Keep in mind that this might not necessarily be the case, you might be a better deck builder coming from a more competitive environment or your play/build style might be more efficent having played in an efficient atmosphere.  You can inquire as to the price of the decks your peers have or make a rough estimate.  There are two (not mutually exclusive) ways to go about making a on budget deck.

$X or less Decks

This is the simplest form.  This deck does not go over X dollars.  This can easily be tracked by sites like tappedout.net (My favored site), deckstats.net, etc.  Many decks that people would consider "budget" are those withing multiples of $25: $25, $50, $100, $150, $200 but this varies from person to person.

$X or less Cards

The other way to go about this is to make sure the cards that you play with are below X dollars.  This way you are forced to avoid certain powerful "unfair" staples like Iona, Shield of Emeria, Sorin Markov or the like.  Generally playing cards that are under $5, $10, or $15 dollars are the most common limits you can place on yourself.

Why not Both?

Both of these restrictions can be placed on your deck so you are futher limited in the power level of the cards that you play.

Play Pauper/Peasant

A final restriction is to create a pauper or peaseant deck to play with.  A "Pauper" deck is a deck where all the cards in the deck are restricted to commons.  Because increasing rarity often means increasing power, creating a deck made up solely of commons is likely to signifigantly restrict the power of your deck.  A "Peasant" deck is a deck where all the cards in the deck are either common or uncommon and in some cases a certain number of cards being allowed at the "uncommon" level.  Seeing as your peers are likely to be playing "rares" and "mythic rares" a "Peasant" deck may be the desireable level of play you want to build at.

Stick to a Theme

Sometimes even restricting yourself to a budget may not be enough.  This is where building around a theme can be helpful.

Tribal

This is probably the most common type of theme that is employed as tribal decks are often fun due to their synergy and interactions that come from a well supported tribe.  A word of caution though is building around the common tribes can actually lead to some pretty competitive decks.  Tribes like Goblins, Elves, Soldiers, Vampires, Wizards, Merfolk etc often have a signifigant amount of support (not including the tribal support cards that are also available).  Thus if you want to lower the competitive level of your deck it might be advisable to avoid these tribes or at the very least be aware of the temptation to put together highly supported/synergistic deck of these kinds of tribes.  

Other Themes

There are various other themes that can be built around, some more or less competitive than others.  Such themes could be built around a mechanism like Graft/Evolve, Dash, Outlast, or a plethora of other mechanisms.  Often times if you truely stick to the theme it will help mellow out your deck.

Be Patient

Above and beyond, be patient.  You can sometimes up the level of play by pointing out optimum plays and suggesting replacement cards.  Like for instance if your opponents cast their creatures before attacking or remove a permanent when another permanent (or player) threatens to end the game etc.  By politely (keyword here) pointing out better plays and suggesting better replacements for cards (in their decks) you will make it more likely for your peers to listen to you.  After all everyone wants to be a better player and make their decks better, to improve themselves.  Make sure you explain why these plays are optimum and why these cards could be included in their deck (assuming you respect their theme/preferences)

Have Fun!

I hope this article was helpful and I hope you have a merry time playing in your meta.

Next Up

For my next article, I'd like to write "Kill Him Part 2: Tips on being "That Guy"

Thanks for reading,

Sincerely, MTW

Getting in the Game: Thinking EDH

Those of you new to the format will quickly realize that EDH is a completely different animal from your average 60 card Magic game.  EDH is a game where 5+ mana spells are acceptable and common place.  Where things don't often get interesting until at least turn 4 or 5.  And a format that is often multiplayer rather than 1v1.  Learning how to play EDH is almost akin to learning Magic all over again.  Thinking in terms of EDH is alien compared to 60 card Magic.

EDH is very much about thinking bigger.  Cards that are amazing in 60 like Tarmogoyf and Delver of Secrets simply don't cut it in EDH.  Worse yet are cards like Heroes' Reunion, Trained Caracal, Gudul Lurker.  Cards that while technically mana efficient and playable in 60 card decks, are essentially unplayable in EDH.  To finish off players, beatsticks need to be a minimum of 5 or 6 power plus.  Even then it only is the equivalent of a 3 power creature in normal 60.  Scaling that up, this means that creatures need to have 8, 10, 12 or more power to properly deal damage like the 4, 5 and 6 power creatures that end games in 60 card decks.

Looking on MagicCards.Info there are currently only 29 creatures with 10 or more power.  On top of this many come with significant drawbacks like being flip cards of smaller creatures, entering smaller than their true power based on certain conditions, or requiring sacrifices/card disadvantage for them to enter play.  This is because most Magic cards are not built for EDH and those that are still must contend with being played in the eternal formats (Legacy and Vintage).  Because of this, vanilla creatures (creatures with no rules text like Grizzly Bears) are almost always a no-no in EDH.  Let's compare shall we?

On the left we have Krosan Cloudscraper, one of the Grave Titan what would widely be considered an EDH staple.  Now why is this?

few creatures whose power actually scales into EDH terms.  At its most basic level Krosan Cloudscraper is a 13/13 vanilla creature.  On the right we have

There are several reasons for this, efficiency, board presence, and value immediately come to mind.  Grave Titan costs 6 mana and brings 10 power to the board, a 1.66 power to cmc ratio, split into 3 bodies.  Krosan Cloudscraper bring 13 power to the table, a 1.3 power to cmc ratio) on a single body.  Now, Grave Titan gives an immediate board presence.  It not only provides 3 blockers but it itself has deathtouch.  Granted deathtouch on a 6/6 creature usually isn't necessary but EDH is a game of ridiculousness and creatures boosted to 20/20 aren't unheard of.  Furthermore, Grave Titan should it be destroyed or exiled (A common possibility in EDH) it still leaves behind 4 power in the form of 2/2 Zombies.  To add to this Grave Titan also has the potential to grow out of control.  While Krosan Cloudscraper will stay essentially the same Grave Titan will produce 4 additional power a turn if left unanswered.

That's not fair you might say.  Krosan Cloudscraper can be given unblockable or trample (through Aqueous Form, Rogue's Passage, or Rancor for example).  While this is true, let's make another comparison:

Now since in EDH you likely won't be hard casting it (creatures like this are usually cheated in) the +1 mana won't be important.  What will be important is the fact that it has trample, which makes it a huge threat.  Finally, if it dies essentially just splits into three creatures, totaling the same power.  Since, Worldspine Wurm naturally has trample, giving it more relevant abilities like Hexproof/Shroud to keep it from being exiled can be prioritized.

Finally as impressive as Worldspine Wurm is, it likely isn't going to be played that often, and when it does it will be used for very specific decks/strategies.  That's because despite the fact that it is the equivalent to your game ending 7/7, it simply costs too much and only decks that regularly cheat cards into play can afford to run it.

Think Rock Paper Scissors

For most of Magic there is a little rock paper scissors of aggro beating control, control beating combo and combo beating aggro.  This rule generally applies to EDH as well however there's usually a bit more blurring of roles.  This is because EDH is primarily played as a multiplayer format.  Thus, if you're lets say a control player, you're not only playing against the "aggro" player (more in a second) but also the combo player.  Thus, in order to compete with both you have to blur the lines.  As a control player you add in a combo kill.  This way you can control the combo player and combo out against the "aggro" player.

Alright, now why have I been quotation marking the word aggro?  That's because there aren't many true "aggro" decks in EDH.  The it's very nature it is multiplayer and everyone is at 40 life thus having a deck that just turns sideways isn't very efficient (Additional reasoning for this under "Think Wipes").  Because of this most "aggro" decks are really more midrange decks that control the board a bit before dropping an efficient beater and protecting it.  The closest to aggro a EDH deck can get to is what is called "voltron" whereby you buff up a single creature (often your general because of the 21 commander damage) and swing out with it.

Think Wipes

EDH is a game where most decks run at least 1 or 2 boardwipes.  Why is this?  This is primarily because boardwipes are usually the most efficient form of removal in a multiplayer format.  One for one removal (Spot removal) like Go for the Throat or Krosan Grip for example while good are not exactly efficient in terms of card advantage in a multiplayer game.  This is because Player 1 loses a card, you lose a card and the two other players (2 & 3) with you, don't lose anything.  This is opposed to you playing a wrath effect like Austere Command where you can have few creatures on the board and your opponents many.  Thus, you are positive on cards while they are not.

Now, this does not mean that spot removal doesn't have it's place.  Spot removal (especially instant speed) can allow you to stop combos or individual problem pieces.  Another application for spot removal is if you have a large board presence.  In this case a boardwipe is likely not advantageous to you and thus spot removal is more useful.  Spot removal can also be used politically, such as removing/stopping a game winning combo and earning a little breathing room from your peers (who you just saved).

Finally, boardwipes are a primary reason that true aggro does particularly exist in EDH.  Because players start of at 40 life and there are often multiple players, you need a large, threat heavy, board presence to quickly finish off players.  A large threat heavy board presence is threatening, and there are three or more players who are threatened.  That means three chances to draw answers and three people targeting you.  With boardwipes, only one of them needs to draw one.  Even if your opponents aren't playing boardwipes that still means three people drawing cards, digging for answers for your every one threat that your draw.  In short, time is not on your side, even more so then when you're playing 1v1 60.

This was a hard lesson I learned when I first started playing EDH.  My first meta was a blue smurf boardwipe heavy meta.  Me, being the newbie that I was decided to play a token heavy, turn sideways and attack deck.  I figured that tokens weren't cards and so it didn't matter if I lost them, not considering the cards that it cost to make them or the loss in tempo.  Needless to say I didn't do very well.  It took a while but I finally got it and dismantled the deck.

Think Time

Finally, think about time.  One of the pros and cons of EDH is time.  Many games will go on for 30 minutes to an hour minimum and often are anywhere from 1-3 hours on average depending on your meta.  Furthermore, control players can add an extra hour to the game alone.  So always make sure you set aside the time because you're going to be in for a blast!

Inspiration

I'd like to thank Nikolaus Steven Bonnay for linking "Lessons from EDH" which served as the inspiration for this article.  In someways this article mirrors it, but is shorter and more geared to beginners.  "Lessons from EDH' was certainly an interesting read and although I might differ slightly on some of the author's points, I enjoyed reading it.

Stay Tuned!

My next article planned is centered around analyzing Mill and some of the problems associated with it in "Chasing Windmills: The Pitfalls of Mill" Kill Him: Tips on NOT being "That Guy"

Thanks for reading,

Sincerely, MTW

Team Casual: The "Fun" Police

This is a debate that I see coming up frequently in discussions online.  This debate primarily comes up in EDH circles but this really applies to any playgroup out there.  And the debate is people's definitions of "fun."

It usually starts with someone who says something like "This format isn't about [insert thing here] it's about having fun!"  Because of the size of the groups that I'm in this debate quickly develops into a particularly long thread with many people weighing in.  Sadly this means many weigh in without reading the full thread (which should be done before jumping in), leading to identical points being discussed multiple times.  Once this occurs it becomes a vicious circle of tl;dnr => Make point made 385x previously in the thread => More people tl;dnr and so on.  Now with that out of the way, my opinion on the matter.

The Point

First, you can learn a lot by stepping out of your shoes and into someone else's (This is where I believe most of the dispute comes from).  We are a numerous and varied species and thus there comes a great many things that we find entertaining.  For those of you reading this, Magic: The Gathering is likely one of the little joys you find in life.  For others (or perhaps you as well) it's the things on 4chan and well let's not get into that...

Thus in our little subdivision of "entertainment" we have our own divisions of "fun."  Some prefer battlecruiser metas where everything is a Cold War until someone hits the big red button and nukes start flying.  Others want the most durdle meta imaginable where Vorthos run rampant, flavor is everything and 8 piece combos are the norm.  Finally there are those who want decks to be polished to a mirror finish.  Not a card slot is wasted, each carefully selected to be impactful and useful.  Where winning is the goal and beating each other's faces in is accepted and encouraged (Some metas even play without a banlist period).

And there you have it.  Try to remember that your definition of fun isn't the only one out there and what may not be acceptable in your meta may be actively encouraged and promoted in another.  Step in someone else's shoes and you may find that you can have fun in every one of those metas (as I have).  Barring monoblue metas because nobody likes those.........Just kidding.  To each their own!

Addendum: While this is my bias, I believe another part of the problem is some people don't run removal in their decks and when they lose to a combo they get upset because they couldn't do anything about it.  Every deck needs a small bit of removal because there are many decks out there that do a great many things and you have to be able to stop them from time to time.

Disclaimer: I'd like to add that I am by no means encouraging you to play contrary to your meta.  It is usually best get a feel for your playgroup and make some concessions (or you might find yourself quickly out of a playgroup).  If you can't make concessions then it is probably best to find another playgroup should the first not be receptive to making their own concessions. 

And that's my 2 cents (Or 4 considering how this is probably longer than most of the posts I'll put this in)

About Me

I started playing EDH in a very very blue meta.  This meant that everyone ran 3-4+ boardwipes, several counter spells and the works.  Out of 5 players, 4 of them were likely playing blue.  And I was the 5th person, not...  To add to this it generally a cutthroat meta, you sink or swim, and I was chucked in the deep end wanting to play token swarm (Yes, in a boardwipe heavy meta).  My thought was tokens aren't cards so wiping them wouldn't mean anything.  Needless to say I didn't fare very well.  I'd maybe kill one person at the most (if that) after building up a board-state and then get wiped out.  This is what led me to the dark side, my favorite EDH strategy: The infinite combo.

Since then I've moved to a different playgroup (Two actually).  One significantly more aggro (Primarily because of a aggro/combo Krenko deck) and the other decidedly more casual.  And lo and behold, I've had FUN in each of them.  Granted the transition was a little difficult.  Going from control to aggro isn't easy and going from cutthroat to casual isn't either but each has their own little pluses and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

Stay Tuned!

This article was quickly drafted in the middle of another article, the one I was working on next: "Getting in the Game: Thinking EDH" which is actually the 2nd article I've been working on as I backburnered the 1st.

Thanks for reading,

Sincerely, MTW

Last night's EDH craziness

Just a little pic of last night's EDH game.  Thromok, the Insatiable at 784/784.  6 Stormtide Leviathans from Rite of Replication.  Progenitor Mimic with 4 +1/+1 counters on it copying Mycoloth (Turned into 4 Mycoloth copies releasing 25 tokens a turn).  Welcome to EDH.

Thanks for reading,

Sincerely, MTW

The Magic of Searching (Part 2): A Gatherer and MagicCards.Info Walkthrough

Walking Archive, Wizards of the Coast, Heather Hudson

Welcome to Part 2 of "The Magic of Searching" where I help you build skills that will help you find the cards that you're searching for.  Part 1 introduced how to cherry pick cards of keywords to use in your search.  In this article I plan on breaking down the Advanced sections of Gatherer and MagicCards.Info (MCI), explaining their uses and functions to further narrow down your parameters.  TCGPlayer was purposely left out as I found that it required exact wording for its searches making it essentially unusable as a search engine and therefore not recommended as a card search site.  As a price guide and card purchase site it has been good in my experience.

Disclaimer: This post leans a bit more heavily towards MCI for two reasons. One, I have used MCI more extensively and know the ins and outs better.  Two, I personally believe it is a better search engine than Gatherer (Again personal opinion)

MagicCards.Info

MagicCards.Info or MCI for short, is in my opinion one of the better, if not the best search engine for Magic cards.  It has extreme versatility, a clean template, and the ability to edit search parameters on the fly, especially if you know the syntax, which I will get you started on later.

The Basics

In addition to your search parameters there are several auxiliary things you can do to aid your search.  On MCI the first module you come across is the "Options" module which I almost always set to sort by converted mana cost (CMC).  This ensures that I get cards with the lowest cost for the effect(s) that I want.  Next are the "Name" "Rules Text" and "Types" modules.  These are fairly straightforward with "Name" searching for names, "Rules Text" searching Oracle text and types searching for types (Both card types like Artifact, Creature, etc and more specific types like "Treefolk" "Vampire" and "Elf")

Colors, Mana Cost, and Color Identities

"Colors" "Mana Cost" and "Color Identity" may look straightforward but in reality have subtler uses as well as some potential pitfalls.  The "Colors" module for example is simple and straightforward but can easily cut large swaths of potential cards from your results.

The first thing to notice is that "!Exclude Unselected" in the "Colors" module is selected by default.  This often means by not unchecking this box you will exclude: 1) Artifacts and other colorless cards 2) Lands (Also technically colorless) 3) Multicolor cards and hybrid cards.  Make sure to select or unselect this option respectively and/or include the options that you want to find in your search results.  For example selecting "White" and "Exclude Unselected" when searching for cards in a mono-white deck would eliminate cards like Rhys the Redeemed, Judge's Familiar, Boros Recruit etc. that all have the possibility of being played in a mono-white deck.

Furthermore, "!Exclude Unselected" can interact with the "Require Multicolored" options in interesting ways.  For instance, keeping "!Exclude Unselected" checked while including "Require Mulicolored" with UBW selected will find only cards that have all three of the Esper colors in their mana costs.  On the other hand, unselecting "!Exclude Unselected" will open up a slew of other options that contain at least one of the colors selected but can contain other colors like Abrupt Decay.

The "Mana Cost" module is a less used but still useful tool that will help you search for specific mana costs.  For example entering "BBB" into it will find cards that cost exactly three black mana.  This can be useful for finding good black devotion cards or more efficient cards for your mono colored deck.  Finally, the "Mana Cost" module plays a crucial role in finding both X cost spells as well as hybrid mana symbols that will be discussed below.

Power, Toughness, CMC, and Loyalty

These are really self explanatory, power and toughness modules can be used to find creatures for Alesha, Doran, or to trigger Ferocious.  The "Converted Mana Cost" (CMC) module is something you are sure to use often, capping mana costs to keep your curve efficient, or looking for Transmute targets.  The "Loyalty" module is something I don't often use but  you can use it to search up planeswalkers only with specific abilities etc.

Rarity and Format

Again, self explanatory.  "Rarity" can be used to limit your search to pauper cards or perhaps a cube draft.  "Format" will limit your search to cards that are only legal in their respective formats.  (Note: I've noticed that MCI lags a bit with Metal Worker still being listed as banned in Commander although it was unbanned around 5 months ago and Treasure Cruise still listed as "legal" in Modern although the ban announcement and implementation came into effect 21 and 17 days ago respectively (as of 2/9/2015).  Furthermore, it does not include the Duel Commander (1v1 or French) banlist at all).  Because of this I don't recommend using this module as it will often be outdated and the banlists can be looked up easily.

Is:
The "Is" module is one that, I admit I only rediscovered in the process of writing this article.  I looked at it before in the early days, and not understanding the terminology or significance, wrote it off as useless and hadn't gone back to it since.  Therein lies the tragedy.  I mean look at the sheer versatility of this module (On the left) that doesn't come as a "one of" but two of.  Because of this I just had to put it into a section by itself.

Special Types: This is one of the most useful categories.  It can limit your searches to either permanents or non-permanents.  Spells or non-spells (Non-spells essentially being lands).  You can search for split cards, flip cards, vanilla creatures (no rules text), and most important of all "Costs split mana" which means hybrid mana in this case (More to come on that).
Card Face/Border: This category is the "aesthetics" category, allowing you to search for "old" border and "new" border cards, future sight card frames, cards with black, white, and silver (Un-cards) borders and foils.  Essentially every possible option to pimp out your decks.
Cagegories: This module is another rather useful one enabling you to search exclusively for or eliminate the "Un-cards"  Find promo, reserved list, reprinted, and time-shifted cards.
Banned/Restricted: This is largely to find cards that are banned in multiple formats (Keep in mind that the banlist for MCI lags behind the official ban lists).

Card Text and Flavor Text:

"Card Text" refers to the wordings that were originally printed on the card.  This option searches almost the entire card including the name, type, and rules text.  Flavor text should be pretty obvious, searching the flavor text for the words you choose.

Edition and Type:













Finally there is the "Edition" and "Type" modules.  The "Edition" module is an effective tool you can you to search for cards in specific sets or blocks as well as another way to search for standard cards (In case the sets are not updated correctly).  The "Type" module is a very useful tool, one that I use often.  The "Type" module allows you to search for artifacts, creatures, enchantment, instants, lands, planeswalkers, and sorcieries.  Furthermore, it breaks down these categories into all the available types of cards.  For instance, selecting "Artifact - Equipment" would produce only equipment for your results.  Use "Shift" to select blocks of neighboring sets and "Control (Ctrl)" for multiple individual selections.

Now that we've covered the basics there a few more specific things that I'd like to cover.  Using the MCI syntax and wordings, searching for X spells, and hybrid mana.

Syntax

Some syntax you should be aware of when using MCI includes:

Quotations: Quotation marks around groups of words will include only cards with this exact phrase.  For instance, searching for "from a graveyard" in the Rules Text slot, will include only cards with the words "from a graveyard" in that order.

Minus Sign: Adding a minus sign in front of single words will exclude cards with those words from the results.  For example, including "-graveyard -hand" will exclude cards with "graveyard" and "hand" in them from your search.  This can be used for mass exclusion of undesired mechanics found in your initial search.  If for example you are searching for cards that copy spells (like Increasing Vengeance) you might want to include "-Cipher -Conspire" in your search in order to exclude all cards with those keywords.
Quotations and Or: Entering ["graveyard" or "hand"] as well as [graveyard or hand]into the rules text will give you cards that have "graveyard" and/or "hand" in their rules text.

X Marks the Spot

To find X cost spells you need to use the "Mana Cost" module.  For example Banefire and other red X cost spells can be found by inputting "X" into the module, specifying greater than or equal to (>=), and finally for the "Colors" module, check the color(s) you want to find (Depending on your goal, don't forget "Exclude Unselected" ).

Why are hybrids always stronger?

Hybrid mana is often hard to search for.  MCI enables you to search for cards with hybrid mana in several different ways.  The easiest way is to go down to the "Is:" module and select "Costs split mana"  Now you can go back up to "Colors" and select which colors you want to include.  If you're searching just for split mana costs that can be paid with blue remember to uncheck the "Exclude Unselected" check box.
A second method is to enter a hybrid mana symbol into the "Mana Cost" module (with ">=") to find all the cards that cost that particular hybrid mana.  For example "{W/U}" will find each card that can be paid with white or blue mana costs.
A third method is to search the "Card Text" or "Rules Text" using the hybrid mana symbols to search the card text/rules text for hybrid mana symbols.

Below I've included the notation for hybrid mana to help in the future.

•  = {W/U} White or Blue
•  = {U/B} Blue or Black
•  = {B/R} Black or Red
•  = {R/G} Red or Green
•  = {G/W} Green or White
•  = {W/B} White or Black
•  = {U/R} Blue or Red
•  = {B/G} Black or Green
•  = {R/W} Red or White
•  = {G/U} Green or Blue
•  = {2/W} 2 Colorless or White
•  = {2/U} 2 Colorless or Blue
•  = {2/B} 2 Colorless or Black
•  = {2/R} 2 Colorless or Red
•  = {2/G} 2 Colorless or Green

Gatherer

Gatherer is the official search engine of Wizards of the Coast and is generally the favored search engine for many.  Gatherer sports an easier way to exclude words with a drop down menu.  It also separates words out with the "Add" keys included with every parameter and includes a drop down of all possible options.

The Basics of Gatherer

Name, Rules Text, and Expansion are self-explanatory.  Gatherer has the plus of allowing you to use the "not" and "or" functions easily.  Remember to add the parameters to the search criteria to include them.

Format, Colors, Types, and Subtypes are also self-explanatory.  For colors there is an additional drop down where you can limit the results to selected colors, multicolored, and more significantly a "Playable with only these colors" restriction that restricts your results to cards that are playable only to the colors that you choose.  This can be quite useful for hybrid cards and other multicolor cards in Standard, Modern, Legacy and Vintage formats when trying to stick to certain colors.
Keep in mind "Types" refers only to major types like "artifact" "creature" etc. while the "Subtypes" module is the one used for subtypes like "Vampire" and "Equipment" The additional drop down for Subtypes includes an "Exclude Unselected Terms" option.

Converted Mana Cost (CMC), Power, Toughness, and Flavor Text: All modules that are again self-explanatory.  Gatherer provides allows for greater than or equal to options in the drop downs as well as the usual "and/or/not" options.

Mark: Refers to the watermark of the various Guilds and Clans.  Only cards with these watermarks will be displayed in your results.  Additionally there is the option to exclude certain watermarks.

Artist: Is the artist who created the artwork for the card.

User Comment, User Name, and Community Rating all are indicative of the comments and ratings given by users who use Gatherer.  However, keep in mind that currently the comments sections are locked on all Gatherer card pages and thus new and additional comments for recent sets have no comments at all. (From what I hear this was due to an update to Gatherer that broke them)

Mana Cost: This is similar to the Magiccards.Info module.  It doesn't use a greater or less than symbol and instead opts for an approximate symbol which will search for cards that include those mana costs.  This is an additional way to search for hybrid mana costs by using the syntax above.  It should be noted that Gatherer does not search for exact mana costs when searching in the "Mana Cost" bar like MagicCards.Info does so there is less need to be specific here.

Block: Rather than set, this module will search through cards in specific blocks and find cards only in those blocks.

Rarity: This module will allow you to search for commons, uncommons etc for things like pauper.  Additionally there are "Promo" and "Bonus" options which allows you to find promo/alternate art cards and "Bonus" cards (Which seems to apply to Magic Online things like Vintage Masters).

Hand Modifier/Life Modifier: This refers to an official game mode/format called Vanguard where Vanguard cards have special effects as well as modify your hand and life totals.

X Spells in Gatherer

Searching up X spells in Gatherer is essentially the same as in MCI.  XG will find you all the cards with XG as their mana cost, while adding the approximate symbol to the syntax will find you all cards with X and G in their mana costs.

Hybrid Spells in Gatherer

Unfortunately, in Gatherer searching for hybrid mana is a bit more complicated.  Currently the only way I know how to search for hybrid mana is to use this "m/\(R\/G\)/" syntax in the "Mana Cost" module.  In this instance I am searching for red/green mana symbols in the mana costs of cards.  For hybrid mana symbols in the cards themselves (like activated ability costs etc.) type "R/G" into the "Rules Text" module for red/green hybrid mana symbols.  When searching for other hybrid mana symbols, use the above chart when ordering your colors.  For example, m/\(B\/G\)/ and B/G for black/green hybrid mana symbols will yield results but m/\(G\/B\)/ and G/B will not.  It should be noted that Gatherer does not search for exact mana costs when searching in the "Mana Cost" bar like MagicCards.Info does so there is less need to be specific here.

Pros and Cons (MCI vs Gatherer)

MagicCards.Info

Pros:
Cleaner Template/Layout
Displays Low/Mid/High prices from TCGPlayer (with links)
Allows easy switching between sets and printings
Allows easy switching between languages.
"Is:" module allows for vast possibilities.

Cons:
Must know/use syntax to subtract out results
Must "keep/go back to" the original search page or know syntax to subtract out search terms.
Relies partially on volunteers/users etc.

Gatherer:

Pros:
Not/Or Functions Built in (Easier to exclude terms)
Drop down of possible search terms
Comments/Rating (Indefinitely Disabled)
Is updated first (being WotC's search engine)

Cons:
Doesn't fully display syntax (Tap symbols "{Q}" etc)
Harder to find Hybrid mana symbols
More complex advanced syntax (Personal Opinion)
Longer Load Time

Thanks for reading,
Sincerely, MTW

Acknowledgements

This article was made possible by: (Alphabetically)
Chris "CJ" LaJeunesse
David Connor
Nikolaus Steven Bonnay
Spencer Alexander
Stephen Jones
Those of you at MTG COMMANDER for your feedback, input, and votes.