I’ve noticed that in my playgroup when someone is falling behind in Commander they usually get much, much less heat, to the point that they’re able to ramp their mana and then just win out of nowhere after everyone has depleted their resources etc., so I was wondering if one could actually fake it and if you do do you have any tips for it?
I think generally it’s hard to “fake” being behind because your board state is your board state. Unless you have something giving all your stuff flash or something, in most cases it doesn’t really matter if you have an Ulamog in hand and castable if on board you only have a vanilla 2/2 and the green player has an army of 12/12 tramplers. If you have lands in hand, for instance, you’re generally better off playing them than holding back to hope that “oh, I’m so mana screwed” gets you further later.
On the other hand, there’s also playing smart. If you know there’s a boardwipe coming you probably want to hold on to your creatures. I try not to play turn 1 sol ring, even if I draw it, because that makes all eyes turn to you and any big thing that you might drop as a result of that will be coming out when everyone else is most likely to have some kind of removal, and often when there’s nothing better to spend mana on. If a player is sitting on two untapped blue mana what are the odds that he’s sitting on a counterspell? Can you bait out the counterspell with a threat now so you’re able to do what you really want later? Or hold off casting in the hopes that it gets dropped elsewhere?
Yes, I meant what you wrote in your second paragraph! Holding back something to not pull ahead too far and get all eyes on you. The T1 Sol Ring is a great example because one of us seems to be drawing it early so much more often than the others that we do often keep removals ready for whatever is coming out lol
@TheMagicer @Basilisk
😂 I personally see a T1 Sol Ring as a challenge from the universe to try and go 1v3 and take them all out by myself. It usually ends with me dying spectacularly.
@TheMagicer I guess it depends on what you mean by “fake falling behind”.
I do conserve my resources to avoid being perceived as a threat. That’s not only proper resource logistics, it’s also saving my stuff from removal to reduce risk.
I will also argue that I am not a threat based on my board state compared to other players, or try to convince people that some plays are unnecessary.I think the difference is between lying about my luck vs being strategic in how I present my board state
Yes, I guess that’s what I meant! In my playgroup we’re all new to MTG and I’ve noticed that everyone almost always taps out all mana (unless they have a removal/counterspell in hand), me included.
I should probably start avoiding going all-in like you do, to reduce both how I’m perceived by others and the resources I commit up until the boardwipe. I guess it can be a proper strategy, thanks!
Could be a habit from games like Hearthstone where playing “on curve” is super important because you can only play stuff on your turn. In Magic, you often want to leave the impression that you could interrupt something or whatever.
MTG is our first TCG so it’s definitely not that lol we like big boards and spells, we’re actually few people so we don’t really play super competitive, make many mistakes, and games take way too long (around twice as long compared to what WoTC say about Commander games’ duration) lol
Well it sounds like yall have a good time :)
We do, would be nice to make games a bit shorter but I guess that will come with better decks and more experience with what we’re playing haha
@TheMagicer carefully conserving resources is actually a very important skill in the game.
I play a Iroas aggro deck that can be very explosive, but is bad at drawing cards.
It needs to get to 7 devotion for Iroas, but any extra creatures don’t bring much benefit while do bring a lot of risk. If I have no cards in hand and get board wiped, I’m basically done. So I always try to hold back as much as I can after 7 devotion to prepare.Im glad you’re thinking about this! A real level up.
@TheMagicer of course I have other decks that are better at drawing cards so it’s fine if they overextend because I can probably draw out of it. Definitely deck-dependent
You’re right, very deck-dependent! One of us runs a heavily upgraded Pantlaza precon that’s basically all creatures, and once they managed to win even after three board wipes even though they kept casting ALL creatures they could lol
So, yeah, I can see how overextending after you get to 7 devotion can leave you empty-handed when the wipe comes. Definitely something I’ll keep in mind in future!
Won me a tournament by pretending I flooded. Playing greven, I had 3 of my win on the spot pieces and 3 lands (mulled once down to 6). Drew 3 lands and my final piece, but vocally complained about flooding. Only player playing blue tapped out on turn 5 so I went all in an knocked him out. Rest of the table conceded as I had managed to reset my health and draw 20 cards. Greven is love.
That’s great haha very carefully managing how you look to others while actually assembling the pieces for your win is whay I was initially thinking about! But now I understand that in a casual setting I’d be better just playing, altough a bit smarter without going all-in at every turn, otherwise I’d be sitting there doing the bare minimum and watching others play. In a tournament is a great strategy, you’re literally playing to win, in a casual group like mine winning is a good result but not the only objective
