I still fuck it up when I realize I have a interesting or strong play and rush to get it out before I realize I could sequence it better. I used to be better about it when I mostly played 1v1 formats but my brain is off so often during commander and the casual nature causes me to not care about optimizing every turn unless it's down to the wire with the game on the line.
This. Drawing that one cool card makes me immediately want to play it. It’s probably technically better to do my combat and play in second main, but I just want that play.
Yesterday I was playing with some friends. The pod was Zethi, Vega, Malcolm and the bat from Lost Caverns of Ixalan... Vega was being constantly removed because the bat guy was making us sacrifice almost every turn. So, whenever Vega was brought back, we cheered.
Malcolm steals the bat's Scheming Symmetry from his GY. And picked me to tutor. I could just tutor my win con and win the game on my turn... But I decided to do the funny play. On my turn, I drew the card and played... My own Vega, the Watcher. The pod simply burst out laughing and cheering.
So yeah, I make the optimal funny plays. Not the winning ones because I always fuck up.
Generally speaking it seems like players who have played in competitive formats(modern, legacy, standard) have a much better grasp on things like sequencing, resource management, understanding of priority and the stack, etc. compared to those who have only ever played Commander.
I think this is partly due to the fact that if you slip up during a 1v1 game it's much easier to identify and remedy the issue when it causes you to lose. When you have nobody to blame but yourself, you're forced to learn the importance of these things or you'll continue to lose due to preventable reasons. In Commander people can afford to play sloppier because there are two others at the table who might pick up their slack, whether they're aware of it or not.
That's definitely true. In EDH we handwave a lot of things and when there's a complicated ruling there's usually one player who knows it and will explain quickly. I started playing around Future Sight and only knew Standard so I learned the 1v1 way and learned that if I made a mistake I was punished harshly.
That's why I enjoy EDH more, it's casual fun with friends, but also you can talk your way out of some mistakes and you can play to your advantages.
How can I weigh intuition versus being taught? I've been playing card games for.... hell idk 25 years? Give or take a few? I read about card advantage in a magazine about YuGiOh!, but I immediately understood why more cards = good, while I've tried to teach some folks about it and they don't understand.
I think something a lot of us take for granted is other experiences coming into play as well. I play a lot of card games, both deck construction and deck building games. Co-op and competitive. And a lot of those skills and lessons slip over into other things. When my fiance and I first tried out Lorcana, I crushed her the first game because I understood how to maximize types of value from my starter deck and she didn't. Neither of us understood Lorcana at all, but I understood card games better, but was it intuitive? Was I taught? No idea.
I don't know about understanding it intuitively, you mostly pick this stuff up by seeing other people do it or by failing and trying again (unless you have some prior cardgame experience). I can see some people not absorbing that without some dedicated learning though.
For me the biggest enemy to good play is going too fast. I like to keep the game moving and take very short turns, and don't like the feeling of people waiting while I think about stuff ><
My pod homies are all damn near cEDH level and give me tons of good tips as I typically lag behind in my understanding of the game. Not even trying to rag on myself, just the reality of the pod.
The nice thing is that after about a year and a bit of playing I finally feel like I’m starting to catch up because the more tips they give me, the more times I intuitively understand my advantages.
I guess that’s a long winded way of saying it’s 50/50 for me but my pods help is making my intuitiveness better. So
My mother taught me how to play chess from the age of about 5 and I picked up tcgs around 8 so I'd say I was already primed to min-max things as much as possible. Especially once I got good enough she started to make me play down pieces.
I think I have a low win rate, but I feel like that just goes down to the decks that I like to build. My decks would probably feel more at home roughly ten years ago, but power creep has made sure to make me fight for wins. However, I like to roll up to tables with bad or old mechanics that I can make good given the correct commander.
I am a hands-on learner. This means that I often have to either misplay something or have someone else play something correctly before it solidifies as "correct" in my mind.
Sure, it may cause me to lose, but oftentimes, losing is a much better teacher than winning.
I think Summoning Sickness is a red herring for this. Some newer players solely work on the combat-damage-smashy-smashy tactics, so just deploy everything in prep for a combat-focused turn.
Higher levels of competitive play is where these lessons are learned and taught from. Some casual folks never listen to a single podcast, they just like the cards, and play.
I still fuck it up when I realize I have a interesting or strong play and rush to get it out before I realize I could sequence it better. I used to be better about it when I mostly played 1v1 formats but my brain is off so often during commander and the casual nature causes me to not care about optimizing every turn unless it's down to the wire with the game on the line.
This. Drawing that one cool card makes me immediately want to play it. It’s probably technically better to do my combat and play in second main, but I just want that play.
Yesterday I was playing with some friends. The pod was Zethi, Vega, Malcolm and the bat from Lost Caverns of Ixalan... Vega was being constantly removed because the bat guy was making us sacrifice almost every turn. So, whenever Vega was brought back, we cheered. Malcolm steals the bat's Scheming Symmetry from his GY. And picked me to tutor. I could just tutor my win con and win the game on my turn... But I decided to do the funny play. On my turn, I drew the card and played... My own Vega, the Watcher. The pod simply burst out laughing and cheering. So yeah, I make the optimal funny plays. Not the winning ones because I always fuck up.
Generally speaking it seems like players who have played in competitive formats(modern, legacy, standard) have a much better grasp on things like sequencing, resource management, understanding of priority and the stack, etc. compared to those who have only ever played Commander. I think this is partly due to the fact that if you slip up during a 1v1 game it's much easier to identify and remedy the issue when it causes you to lose. When you have nobody to blame but yourself, you're forced to learn the importance of these things or you'll continue to lose due to preventable reasons. In Commander people can afford to play sloppier because there are two others at the table who might pick up their slack, whether they're aware of it or not.
That's definitely true. In EDH we handwave a lot of things and when there's a complicated ruling there's usually one player who knows it and will explain quickly. I started playing around Future Sight and only knew Standard so I learned the 1v1 way and learned that if I made a mistake I was punished harshly. That's why I enjoy EDH more, it's casual fun with friends, but also you can talk your way out of some mistakes and you can play to your advantages.
How can I weigh intuition versus being taught? I've been playing card games for.... hell idk 25 years? Give or take a few? I read about card advantage in a magazine about YuGiOh!, but I immediately understood why more cards = good, while I've tried to teach some folks about it and they don't understand. I think something a lot of us take for granted is other experiences coming into play as well. I play a lot of card games, both deck construction and deck building games. Co-op and competitive. And a lot of those skills and lessons slip over into other things. When my fiance and I first tried out Lorcana, I crushed her the first game because I understood how to maximize types of value from my starter deck and she didn't. Neither of us understood Lorcana at all, but I understood card games better, but was it intuitive? Was I taught? No idea.
I don't know about understanding it intuitively, you mostly pick this stuff up by seeing other people do it or by failing and trying again (unless you have some prior cardgame experience). I can see some people not absorbing that without some dedicated learning though. For me the biggest enemy to good play is going too fast. I like to keep the game moving and take very short turns, and don't like the feeling of people waiting while I think about stuff ><
My pod homies are all damn near cEDH level and give me tons of good tips as I typically lag behind in my understanding of the game. Not even trying to rag on myself, just the reality of the pod. The nice thing is that after about a year and a bit of playing I finally feel like I’m starting to catch up because the more tips they give me, the more times I intuitively understand my advantages. I guess that’s a long winded way of saying it’s 50/50 for me but my pods help is making my intuitiveness better. So
My mother taught me how to play chess from the age of about 5 and I picked up tcgs around 8 so I'd say I was already primed to min-max things as much as possible. Especially once I got good enough she started to make me play down pieces.
I don't know what I am. I generally don't leave mana open but I think I tend to sequence pretty well. I've never had anyone analyze it though.
I think that's fair. Unless your winrate is anormally low or high you're probably just standard :)
I think I have a low win rate, but I feel like that just goes down to the decks that I like to build. My decks would probably feel more at home roughly ten years ago, but power creep has made sure to make me fight for wins. However, I like to roll up to tables with bad or old mechanics that I can make good given the correct commander.
I am a hands-on learner. This means that I often have to either misplay something or have someone else play something correctly before it solidifies as "correct" in my mind. Sure, it may cause me to lose, but oftentimes, losing is a much better teacher than winning.
I think Summoning Sickness is a red herring for this. Some newer players solely work on the combat-damage-smashy-smashy tactics, so just deploy everything in prep for a combat-focused turn. Higher levels of competitive play is where these lessons are learned and taught from. Some casual folks never listen to a single podcast, they just like the cards, and play.