@ Zer0 I believe what he’s referring to is how you can get a “Donald trump “ planeswalker and such off of the internet that look like actual mtg cards.
I agree with the taksies backsies, but not several turns. I'm all about changing stuff if nothing else has happened yet or changing something because you misunderstood how a card works. However, if you roll back to far then it gets confusing. I think another good rule is to bring up mistakes when they happen and allow the person to change it and do the right thing. It doesn't help if you tell someone what they did wrong 5 turns later.
I have watched a lot of MtG RU-vidrs lately, and it is obvious that the the people who hate the Professor, such as The Quartering and Purp and Desolater, are people who rarely talk about actually playing the game. Their videos are always just drama and b.s. and who got hit in the head. Those creators talk about all the bad things that happened to them, and never talk about helpful ways to improve your play. The Professor and, to a lesser extent Rudy, give good advice within entertaining videos. The other guys are just haters with garbage content. Thanks for caring about us, Professor, and please keep up the good work.
Multiplayer EDH is too casual to actually allow a player to get better at Magic. Most people play that weird "Magic" format and I understand the appeal (I play Mizzix and Xenagos myself) but if you want to improve, get to 1v1 EDH or other 1v1 formats because you will improve much faster and at skills you can use in many formats. Politics is really just goof, not playing Magic. It's for relaxing after a hard tournament but people get so serious about it, it makes me kinda sad actually. What do you think about that? Do you know players who think they're good at Magic when they actually know a third of a tenth of a degenerate format ? I do.
Idk, I find politics to be a real skill. It's just a skill that obviously isn't very applicable in a 1v1 setting. Commander can teach you a lot, but it may not make you a great 1v1 player. I agree with much of your statement, but towards the end you start to sound pretty bitter. I think there's plenty of casual EDH players that are pretty decent and win often that just don't care to play in tournaments. Tournaments can be exhausting and many can't afford, get time off for, or find a babysitter for them. Commander being the main format most of my friends play, it's my only option unless I want to hang out with randoms at my LGS. Personally, I've gotten much better at Magic by playing Commander, it's taught me tons about many of the game's powerful cards and archetypes. It taught me more about priority and the stack, and how I can interact with things my opponents are doing. You can learn in any format if you make an effort to.
ฺHow to start a successful play group? by demanding everyone in the group to NEVER USE ANY CARD MORE EXPENSIVE THAN $5. All the fetch land are ban to the group. All reserve list are ban to the group as well. Everyone MUST participated in all pauper tournament when it's available. who cares if the price exploded due to "demand." because we are all economist here.
Those are some great rules if the goal of the group is to play Magic casually. I think what the professor was focusing on here was how to structure a group to explore the competitive meta and prepare for large competitive events. In those scenarios, you don't want to limit yourself by card price, but maybe want to proxy in cards before deciding whether to buy them for a deck
All my playgroup does is just play dumb commanders and dumb cards. I personally spent $25 on a pact of negation so I can use it to auto lose the game by not paying the tax. We try to find the most creative ways to lose the game but we also have some competitive decks.
I HAD THE RED LANTERN PRIZE AT THE TOURNAMENT BUT SOME JOKER PACT OF NEGATIONED MY DRAW SPELL ON TURN ONE!!!!!!!!!! It was funny that I ranked above a person with an infamy rating of 36 with my infamy rating of 2 (Sol ring and Thran dynamo)
I think that this is one of the best Tolarian Tutors yet. I'm sad to hear that the series (or at least season) is ending, but I look forward to seeing your future content. Have a nice day!
This is exactly how I've played all social games from table tops to consoles. It's even something I outline in my social gaming guilds/clans (mmos). Definately recommending this lesson to as many of my gaming groups as I can. Thank you for providing consistantly excellent content.
These videos are SO GOOD! Very useful for someone who has played casually for quite a while, and now wants to improve elements of play and deck design. Very impressive. I did not see a season two.. Dare I hope?
The professor has an incredible ability to lend real confidence to all his videos, and this is no exception. It's without doubt he knows he's stuff, but it's clear that these polished videos must have taken hours of research and preparation.
Number 5 is huge. Especially if you're playing against the player that wants to rewind gameplay, you want to play against an archetype at it optimum. Only then can you figure out how to play against a deck archetype properly. Some of my old playtest groups always wanted to simulate the pressure of a live event, so they encouraged keeping mistakes in and therefore didn't want moves taken back. While I get that, I think it's better for everyone involved if the best plays possible are made at the cost of preparing for the higher REL environments. There's other ways to train for high-pressure environments individually; group time should really be devoted to gameplay.
I disagree the first thing, about trying to solve a non rotating format, actually I think is the best thing to do cuz people got so used to the meta and just want to polish the already existing decks(save rare exceptions) and I believe that has a room to improve those formats cuz they have just such a huge pool.
Another good advice: Create specific situations you want to test, e.g. how does my Grixis Death's Shadow deck on a mulligan to five do against Ad Nauseam on full seven post board? Sometimes we sit together and only discuss sideboard plans for specific matchups, and there is a lot to learn about different opinions on cards.
Guess I will never improve, since I have nobody to play with, cuz in my country MTG isn't really that popular, especially where I live. Great video though!
I’m in the same boat, people that do play are in clicks and don’t let newcomers in their circle. I’m still looking for a playgroup that wants to play for fun and get together showing off jank ideas or whatever.
Nice opening, gray hair is different, makes sense. Just remember you can manipulate mechanics like playing sleight of hand, then grenzo, dungeon warden with a 1 boost and if goblin chainwhirler is at the bottom of the deck, no need for 3 red on that turn after. Miracles with brainstorm helps too. Also know 0 power means no deathtouch/first/double strike and 0 toughness kills the indestructible (without damage, such as the form of -1/-1 counters). I also recommend not doing a mulligan if you are mana flooded and have draw power like chart a course. Same is true if you can afford the mana screw, like with brainstorm and a 1 mana hand though it's a gamble.
I do, however, have a big question for the Professor, and I've been pondering it for awhile, now; of everyone I know (at least in my area), I'm literally just about the best in the game. I'm working on helping a friend get back into the game, but I can't use my personal-favorite deck when i play with him, because it's just too powerful (meaning it's beyond even being flat-out "broken", to the point of being borderline-banned). But I'm also trying to expand upon my own skill in it, even more. And really, there are only about two or three people around me, and I'm about the only one with a substantial collection. So my question, at its base, is Should I just "downgrade" the deck level i use for each person I'm helping? Or should I just use half a dozen different decks, altogether?
Hi Professor! I'm loving your work. I'm a returning player... a LONG LONG returning player (last core/expansion i played was Sixth/Invasion block) . I found out the meta changed PLENTY and a hell of a new ammount of ways of playing Magic were here. Thanks to your videos i'm catching up with everything and now i'm getting ready to put a deck together and hit FNM. Still, i'm missing Urza's saga and Tempest... but i'll have to learn to live without them! Once again, i can't stress enough how much i appreciate the time and dedication you put in this videos. And you deserve all the praise that is probably coming your way. Thanks for the guides (and also the worth/not buy section, here in Argentina, Magic cards are REALLY expensive, so avoiding wasting money is essential)
Great video Professor. Thanks! However, I have heard an alternate line of thinking on that take backs issue. Some people feel if you allow take-backs it makes you a weaker and lazier player. Putting your mind in a habit of knowing take-backs are allowed can cause you to not learn from mistakes. this might be a great topic for a deeper dive on the psychology of this issue. What do you think?
Thank you for making this video prof! My friend won’t try to learn from some of our matchups even though they lose a lot. Hopefully they’ll listen to you more than me
Hey Professor i bet you’ve heard the news by now about the Guilds of Ravnica masterpiece boxes. If you do a booster box game or even buy 1 box I’d be very disappointed with you.
Not a bad video. The only thing I can argue is that you can't continue to get better solo. It may be the general rule but not the definite one. I am mostly self taught and the only reason I don't go pro is literally the $$ issue :-) That said, it would be nice to have a group doing something like this for multiple reasons.
It would help to play more than one game of matchups often. I see players lose a matchup they favored in then say “this deck sucks in this matchup” without realizing the opponent hit perfect draws or they got hardcore flooded
Thanks for this Prof. So one thing for us older people, what are some strategies for finding peers for groups? My LGS has a lot of people all way out of my league.
I've been away from magic since 4th edition, gave all my cards away long ago and now I've recently become interested again. Mostly thanks to his channel. I can't play in person so I have high hopes with Arena to have some fun. There are many things that bother me about how magic has changed but the magic of the cards is still there and this channel is helping me along. thanks.
I think the biggest issue is that its not some mindless list you can watch , maybe you should do a list video and see how people react, but be smart and do it as like 10 magic lore icons and see how well it goes compared to something you put alot of effort into, but thats just a thought
I hit LIKE but only half liked this because my MtG experience is that most people are too focused on beating others down than really playing, experiencing, enjoying the game. How about a video on HOW TO DEAL WITH JERK PLAYERS? Like the ones who somehow, mysteriously, defying-logical score-keeping math WINNING over and over and over by using infinites and the LGS seems lethargic and generally not interested in really paying attention to rules and score keeping at Commander League events? Ugh...
Hey Prof. Could you make an updated inner sleeves review video. I have recently returned to casual MGT and found your channel. Really love it! I got supper lucky with some booster packs that a friend, when going through my cards, told me to instantly at least sleeve but needed to double sleeve 3 of my cards. My local game store only had Ultra-pro soft sleeves which were too loose to double sleeve so I ordered some ultimate guard precise fit sleeves online. These were awful! As much as I could force the cards in they bent the cards a lot (glad I tested with cheap cards first) they would have made a deck of cards sleeved with them un-playable. I will be returning them. I have now seen the KMC perfect fits on the site I used and will be buying them instead but want others to be aware of the current condition of the Ultimate Guard Precise Fit sleeves. Many thanks for the wonderful work you do.
Hey prof, what do you think about changing cards in your deck while playtesting? Like how often should you make tweaks and mess around with the numbers of each card, etc..?
No, is DBZ and other shonen anime have taught me anything it's that you can do training to improve, all on your own, and get better without any outside help or influence. Also that training makes you stronger just by doing it regardless of any training partner and their experience. Training with someone who's far, far, far less experienced than you is just as useful as training on your own or someone who's your peer. Anime wouldn't lie to me.
