by Cameron Veigel
There are many elements within Magic that are your resources, to use as efficiently as possible to ensure victory. This article will discuss these resources and perhaps help some people realise there are more efficient ways to be using them.I got the idea for this article after playing the best draft game of my life recently online. The game went right down to the wire. Less than 5 cards per deck, 6 life per player, and 2 minutes each on the clock. These are your resources. Learn to use them right and you will smash anyone who doesn’t.
Resource #1 – Mana
Mana is a very important aspect of Magic. It keeps the power level of cards and decks in check, and enables for a far less self-destructive game than say, Yugioh, where with the right draws, ridiculously large creatures can win the game almost instantly from the very beginning of the game. Decks that consist of cards with only high casting cost won’t do anything in the early game, but in theory should be more powerful and able to drastically affect the game once they hit the board.
This is not to say that cheap cards are ineffective; for a very long time, one and two mana threats (usually with power equal to or greater than their converted mana cost) have been the clock that the slower, control decks must be able to deal with when running through a gauntlet. No matter how powerful your late-game spells are, if you can’t race a creature like savannah lions effectively, you should probably alter your deck with some cheaper cards.
So what produces mana? Some artifacts and creatures do, but the most reliable sources are your lands. Again, the important limiting factor is one land per turn, so in an ideal world, the spells get exponentially more powerful turn after turn, as more land hits play. When you look at your opening hand, the first thing that most people look at is whether they have a combination of both land and spells. You can’t win without being able to cast anything, and on the reverse side, need to do something with your resources to proactively affect the game in order to win.
The number of lands you want is highly deck dependant, as aggressive decks can keep two land hands and cast many spells reliably, whereas control decks generally need 3-4, and should play more in their deck as a result for more reliable starts. Keeping a five land hand with a creature and a burn spell in Boros is most often going to be incorrect, as is a two land hand with a control deck where you can cast one spell. Your draws in either situation have to be quite specific in order to keep up your pressure/keep you in the game. It is important to understand factors like this when considering how your resources should help you.
Another important note is to tap your worst lands first, to enable you more options afterward, regardless of whether you have them or not. If I have Sacred Foundry and Stomping ground plus a forest and plains, tapping both the duals for Lightning helix at the end of my opponent’s turn is incorrect. Even if my hand is merely land, my opponent has solid information, knowing that I won’t respond with a burn spell here to blow him out. Tapping Temple Garden to play Llanowar Elf with a forest in play is just as bad. It’s not always about the options you have, but also the options you can represent. Games have been lost often on incorrect mana taps, leaving players unable to push through their relevant spell after a decoy.
Mana is a pretty straightforward concept to get the basics of, but many players are yet to master it, failing to align with factors I have outlined here.
Resource #2 – Creatures
This is a much more important factor in limited than in constructed, where creatures are simply the most efficient means of dealing damage. It is important to use your creatures wisely, not ramming them into bigger creatures, hoping your opponent won’t block as you have a trick. I would rarely ever make a play like this, and if I did, I would only do it against a very good player. Players who can see the tricks you represent are less likely to block than ones who see a 2/2 and a 3/3 and realise theirs is bigger.
While the more creatures you have will more often than not decrease the number of turns your opponent has to stop you, you must respect the creatures you have. Against a slow white or black deck, they have very good four mana sorceries, capable of destroying all of your creatures at once. As such, playing a creature every turn is not always the best strategy. If you are Wrathed with one card in hand to their six, unless their life total is very low, you have probably lost the game. It is often important to hold back a reserve force, a second wave, in case the front-runners are taken out of action. If you are unlikely to win without a few creatures in play, putting yourself in a position where that is possible is unwise. There are, of course, exceptions. If you know the contents of your opponent’s hand, have no other way to win or have put a VERY good read on your opponent, then it might be arguable that throwing all your guys out is the best play. Don’t ever do it because they say they don’t have the Wrath.
On the flipside, control decks generally have very few threats, as they don’t need to draw them reliably. They intend for the game to go long or they won’t win anyway, so drawing a win condition eventually is fine. The creature will usually be big or have very powerful abilities able to make it fight with whatever is left at this point on the other side of the board. These creatures are far less expendable, and must be run out when the way is clear or if you have some way to protect them unless there is no alternative. Paying six mana for a threat only to have it Shriekmawed is a complete waste of a turn and applies unnecessary pressure to you. To maintain the strength of this resource, it is best to wait until you know the time is right and present your game winning threat once winning is no longer an option for your opponent, or as mentioned, if you can protect it (with a counterspell, for example).
Resource #3 – The Hand (and to a degree, deck)
There is not a lot to say about this one. Obviously, your spells come from this zone, so your array of options is also tied to it. The first two resources rely on you making correct decisions with this one. For example, playing a three-mana removal spell on your third turn rather than the two-mana one, to enable you to play both that and a Tarmogoyf turn four. Also, playing a plains turn one so that you can play Knight of the Holy Nimbus turn two, rather than having to wait a turn because you weren’t thinking about the contents of your deck.
Card advantage is a pretty important factor in magic. In essence, card advantage refers to any exchange that puts you ‘up on cards’. For example, if you use one spell to kill two creatures, you have for all intents and purposes gained a card on your opponent. If you block and use a pump spell to trade your small creature for a larger creature, you are down a card. Using your hand effectively requires that you take advantage of all situations that present possible card advantage, and also not blowing your cards on irrelevant situations. You might Shock a Raging Goblin turn one, but then they play Master Decoy. A more acceptable way of managing your hand would be taking out this more disruptive creature. Just because you can cast a spell does not mean that you should. I have taken many hits while holding removal (generally a limited concept, but does often, or should, happen in constructed) to see if a better target is played post combat. If one is not, I will probably kill the creature with that spell EOT anyway, but I would gladly trade 2 life for the knowledge that I am not wasting a precious commodity.
Resource #4 – The Graveyard
I have a love for decks that use their graveyard as a resource, but they are quite difficult to explain in brief. What this will then refer to is things players miss time and time again (generally in limited). The Eidolons from Ravnica were a prime example of this, but cards with Flashback are also major culprits. Forgetting spells and triggered abilities that are played from your graveyard is a terrible waste of what are sometimes free effects. Passing the turn without a 4 drop, with a call of the herd sitting beside your library is quite bad. When something goes into your Graveyard that you will be able to use, take note of it. A mental note is usually enough, but make sure that you actually acknowledge it, to ensure that you will remember to use it when the time is right. Have you ever lost to a 3/3 flyer in limited, and then realised Strangling Soot had been in your Graveyard all game? I’m sure someone can answer yes to that.
Resource #5 – The Life Total
This is the one I really wanted to talk about, and is the one that is most often misused by players. I believe that how a person manages their life total directly relates to how good they are at magic. Inexperienced players are much more willing to trade (or heaven forbid, chump block) earlier in the game. Chump blocking early is awful. If you begin the game in chump block mode without an extremely good reason, you will be left with no option but to continue along that path, generally resulting in an inability to apply pressure and therefore, a loss.
Now, don’t get me wrong, a matchup can have a lot to do with whether you want to be going one for one from the beginning. If you know your late-game is better than your opponent’s, or if their deck is vastly more aggressive, than swapping 2/2s on the second turn can be a legitimate choice. Even if the aggro deck has a trick, I will often trade my guy for that card and no other creature, rather than being behind and still having a trick ready for when I do block.
Basically, you have 20 life points for a reason. Knowing when you can still play aggressively, even though behind on life or the board, will result in many match wins. Often, this is the only way you can play into your outs, as opposed to finally drawing that burn spell and realising if you had just attacked two turns ago rather than chump blocking you would have won the game.
This is the hardest of these resources to come to full grips with, but it is the one that will reward your play most once you do. Knowing that you can milk your life total a little more than you would have in the past leads to several nifty door prizes:
- It affects your decisions in a more relevant way. The options you are considering will be narrowed further down to the ones that will result in you winning, not both these and the ones that ‘stop you losing’.
- It enables you to use your cards on optimal targets, rather than getting trigger happy and shooting on sight.
- It lets you play to your outs, and lets you realise what those outs are, as you ask ‘if I start attacking now, what can I draw to win before I lose?’
- Ways to trick your opponent into believing they are in a better position than it might seem, having them attack you rather than your planeswalker, when the abilities it provides will sufficiently maintain your health over the course of the next few turns.
- It puts you in the driver’s seat, rather then being back from the game, throwing card after card into the Graveyard. It makes you far more aware of how each of your cards will best affect the game, and may even make some players back off a bit, as you start attacking into their superior army.
I’m sure there are several more benefits that I am missing, but I’m sure you get the idea. Hopefully, by now, your mind is ticking over the things I left out, and you are realising other ways that proper resource management in this area will help you.
Here is an example of a game with very effective use of resource management that I played back in Champions-Ravnica standard. It is kind of an old example, but a lot of my actions reflect what I have said here.
My deck was a Green-Blue splash red graft deck, and my opponent was Gruul. The matchup was not very good for me, but good play could see me through. I lost the roll, a bad start.
My opponent – lets call him Gimly, as that’s what I remember him as – led with a Mountain and Scorched Rusalka. I shot back with Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers and a Bird. Gimly bashed me to 19 and dropped Dryad Sophisticate. This is how it begins… My turn led to two Llanowar elves and a tapped Breeding Pool, leaving me defenceless against the landwalking Dryad. As expected, Gimly served with both creatures, and I decided to trade an Elf for the Rusalka and he declined to ping me, laying another land, 2/3 Kird Ape and Tin-Street Hooligan post combat. He was at 2 cards now to my 4, but 6 power to my 1. Fortunately, I had 17 life to work with. I dropped an Island and tapped all my mana sources for Meloku, passing with no mana up. Gimly didn’t hesitate to drop his fourth land and serve up a Giant Solifuge, which he sent in alongside the unblockable Dryad, putting me right down to 11. Things suddenly looked a lot worse, however it is important to note that I didn’t block here. Solifuge is a powerful threat against my deck, but Meloku also is quite strong against his. Seeing as my life was not dwindling it was worth taking a big hit to leave my important threat around after the dust settled. As Gimly had only one card left in hand, this was unlikely to bite me too hard.
I tapped Island, Okina and Bird for a Wood Elves, fetching a basic forest, then passing. Gimly drew and swung with the same team as last turn, though this time I surprised him by tapping my forest and breeding pool to make two illusions, returning both my non-basics to hand. Sometimes the best management of resources is to know when to sacrifice them, and this is exactly what I did. My surviving Llanowar Elf blocked the Dryad, and Wood Elf teamed up with an Illusion to deal with the Solifuge and prevent some damage to me. I went to 9 and Gimly dropped Scab Clan Mauler, powered to 3/3 and for some reason, laid a forest, the last card in his hand. Seems like knowing there is no follow up is pretty relevant to me.
I replayed Okina and bashed with Meloku, putting him to 18. He tried a Solifuge off the top, but fortunately I had the Remand. Gimly served with his 3/3 and 2/3 anyway, and I swept up my Forest and Okina to make two more Illusion tokens, triple blocking the Mauler and taking 2. I was on seven, but had 7 cards (albeit much of it land I had bounced) to one, of which I knew the identity. I played Karplusan forest on my turn and dropped Trygon Predator, a pretty relevant body against Kird Ape. Knowing I was facing a Solifuge attack, I thought little before shipping the turn back. Putting myself back on mana was fine for a while, but I couldn’t rely on that strategy to win with my 2 power flyer. Imagine if you could chump block with your lands…Didn’t I already explain that that was a bad strategy to do without good reason?
Gimly showed why he liked his deck, ripping Burning Tree Shaman and playing it. Pretty good against ol’ Meloku. He had no good attacks, so passed, and it was quickly his turn again with me laying Okina. Clearly, Gimly dropped his Solifuge, which resolved this time, and sent in the team. I tapped three and Charred the BTS, dropping to 5 (scary, but I had been paying close attention all game to how low I could go without being at risk, as his draw had been entirely creature dependant), made an Illusion and it blocked the Solifuge with Predator’s help (I didn’t have enough mana to activate Okina here). The Ape bounced. He had no other action and sent it back to me.
I tapped three for Plaxcaster Frogling and bashed for two in the air. Gimly 16, me at 5 against a Red deck. Seemed bad, but he still only had one card. Creatures were irrelevant, so he would have to get lucky to burn me out. All Gimly could reply with was a Tin-Street Hooligan, and I merely repeated my actions, smashing for another 2 damage and dropping another land. 14-5. Gimly dropped a tapped Stomping Ground; I hit him for two again and played Breeding Pool. 12-5. He ripped Skarrg and sent in the Hooligan, which traded with my Frogling. Then he played a forest randomly (the last card he had) and passed. I did maths. I Charred him (8-3) and made two tokens eot, bashed for 4 (4-3), dropped a land and Charred him again. 0-1.
I had managed to win the game with 1 life (basically the ultimate use of this resource, the closest you can be without actually losing), a healthy hand, a limited pool of land and what was arguably the optimal creature base. Gimly’s faults were basically the reverse of my resource management method. He played out his hand, failing to represent options or threats to my life, was eager to trade his creatures on the attack, and took my ‘low’ life total as meaning more than it truly did, believing that with continued pressure he would eventually triumph. To be fair, against Meloku that was often the only strategy (or Char, but only without Okina), as it was simply a ridiculous card when back up by plenty of mana. The way he played allowed me full use of my life as a resource (as there was little to fear), and full use of my cards to finish him before he got a lethal demonfire topdeck. I ended up winning the match, which is generally hard to do because the first game is a throwaway.
Hopefully this example provides some insight into what I was saying. It was a lot better to watch, as it was more evident then how I was manipulating my resources (and how he was sub-optimally using his), but surely the example is still good enough to reference my beliefs on the aspect of resources in magic. They are simply something that a lot of people take for granted, but only by really paying attention to them and how they influence the game will you understand the hidden secrets they can provide to improving your game. If you don’t agree, that’s fine too. These are merely my thoughts on simple ways the game can teach you to be great. And believe me, they will teach you. Magic players understand how each of these five elements work, so paying attention to them will lead to healthy abuse of them. Think about your mana before you tap it. Do you have another play this turn? Could you have another play this turn? Remember each player’s relevant graveyard cards. Treat your creatures well, but not like family. Use cards when they are needed, not when you feel like it (don’t Rune Snag when they can pay 2 simply because the card is a bomb. Accept that it resolves and save it to ‘snag’ some other spell). And finally, pay attention to both player’s life totals and react accordingly. 10 life is not low. In some matchups, 2 life is not low. Realise what life total you should be getting scared at, and play to stay above that number, not above numbers higher than that number to be excessively safe. You may not even realise how many wins you are stealing from yourself purely because you are getting scared too easy.
That’s more than enough from me, see you guys next time, when I come up with some other fantastic idea and try to pass myself off as someone really intelligent, when ultimately I’m just quoting what everyone else has probably said at some point or another.
Cameron Veigel
Premier life manager
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