Psychological Warfare

Last week, I went to one of my local gaming shops with hopes of playing in a Magic tournament to get the ball rolling in competitive play. However, when I arrived, there were only two other Magic players. A few more trickled in, but still not enough to have a legal tournament. Pretty crappy, I know. But instead of just leaving, I used that night to scout the competition and to launch long-term psychological warfare and scope out the Magic metagame.

In total, there were 5 magic players: Mr. Friendly, Dirty Boy, Joe Pro, Token Gaming Chick and myself. I'll detail each of them, their playing style and their cards. Needless to say, I played with almost all of them, many in multi-player games and my goal was to never let Joe Pro win.

Mr. Friendly - This guy was the first one that I met that night. He was overtly friendly, to an almost-creepy degree. But I honestly can't fault him for that. He was a nice guy. Anyway, he carried his decks around in a Kroger bag, each of them sleeved in crappy, clear sleeves. Mr. Friendly was very impressed with my sleeves because they had pictures on them. His decks were all very old - an Enchantress deck, an infinite life gaining/Serra Avatar deck, etc. Game 1 between the two of us went like this: he played some junk, I played some junk. He didn't do any damage to me because he was waiting to chain his enchant/draw/enchant combo. I cleared his board and attacked. He played a few more things. I cleared his board again and won the game. I extended the hand and said, "Good game!"

Dirty Boy - He walked up while Mr. Friendly and I were playing and asked to play the winner. OK, I can appreciate a bold move like that. Oh, Dirty Boy is so named because he was in dire need of a shower, he was dentally challenged and admitted that his cards smelled like "cat piss." Anyway, I'm sure I could've come up with a friendlier name, but "Dirty Boy" will suffice. He played the prototypical burn deck - lots of lightning bolts and goblins. On turn 3, I was at 7 life, he was at 18 and I had him exactly where I wanted. He was tapped out with zero cards in hand and I was just about to play a card that gained me 15 life. Game-set-match from there.

After defeating Dirty Boy, Mr. Friendly suggested a multi-player game. I switched decks and we began. A few turns in, I was doing OK, Dirty Boy had fielded a few goblins and then Mr. Friendly attempts an illegal play that gained him infinite life. I thought about it for a second. Hmmm...I will allow this. I thought about what would benefit me the most long-term - calling him on an illegal play and probably winning the game or just letting it go off, giving Mr. Friendly a break and the win. I chose the latter, that way it made me appear like I could be beaten. Now that they have that false sense of security about me, they wouldn't hesitate to bank on an illegal move in a tournament, at which point I would call them on it.

The three of us played another game, again switching decks, and I easily defeated the two of them, but again made it appear as if I didn't really know what I was doing. (Although a turn 3 12/10 trampling flyer is pretty hard to fake.)

Joe Pro - This is the guy that I learned the most from. He walked up during the second multi-player match and scouted us. Between games, he asked if any of us played Standard. At the time, I was shuffling up my Rogue deck. I said, "Yeah, I have some Standard decks. I think this one is." To which he replied, "Well Groundbreaker's not Standard." Yeah, no shit. I guess he didn't see me switch decks. Oh well. The next game was between Joe Pro, Mr. Friendly and myself. Joe Pro had a Standard Fairy deck. It has all the junk in it that you would expect from a Fairy deck that you can get off the Internet. (Yes, Pro = net decker). He dropped a Mutavault turn 1 and I thought, "OK, it's going to be that kind of match, eh?" As scripted, he dropped a Bitterblossom turn 2. He started churning out fairies and my rogues were slow to catch up. Mr. Friendly was playing an old blue control/freebie deck. I studied Joe Pro's play style. Yeah, he had the standard internet fairy deck, but he was also slow to play anything, holding onto his counterspells as if his life depended on them. I turned all my attention to him, drawing his eventual ire and allowed Mr. Friendly to come in for the win. Again, this was planned. I didn't mind losing, but I sure as heck didn't want Joe Pro to win. In fact, I didn't even want to beat him just yet - again with the false sense of security thing.

The next match was again between the three of us, with Mr. Friendly switching to his Enchantress deck and me switching to my Standard deck. I think Joe Pro knew that I was more than just a scrub. It was clear that we were both letting Mr. Friendly do whatever he wanted as the two of us battled it out. Turn 1, land drop for the both of us. Turn 2, the same. In fact, it was turn 6 before either of us made a move. He tapped 4 and played a Scion of Oona. OK, of course he left 2 open for his counterspell. That's what I was banking on because it would cost me 4 to play the creature I had in my hand since turn 1 and another 2 for me to counter his counter with the counterspell I also had since turn 1. And that's exactly how turn 6 played out. I was sitting on 26 life and had dealt some damage to Joe Pro, but before I could do anything proper, Mr. Friendly swooped in and finished off Joe Pro with his enchanted Ornithopter. I smiled a bit. Again Joe Pro was defeated and not by my hand. The next turn I did a decent amount of damage to Mr. Friendly and then he pumped up his fat, trampling Ornithopter and swung. I looked at the field and then at the Path to Exile in my hand. I smiled a bit, extended my hand and said, "Good game!" Joe Pro was still sitting there and I couldn't let him see all the cards in my deck, so Mr. Friendly gets the win.

Token Gamer Chick - Every gaming shop has one girl that likes to game. She was in her mid to late twenties, had red hair and announced that she was just getting back into Magic and was having to start from scratch because her ex-husband had took all her cards. She was nice and wasn't afraid to start a conversation. All the other guys seemed intimidated by Token Gamer Chick just because she had boobs. I ignored them and talked to her about the game. Sadly, I had to leave before I could play a game with her. In fact, I'm not sure if she even had any decks with her or if they were just random cards.

All in all, it was a good night. Before I went to the shop, I was actually a little scared just because it had been so long since I had played Magic competitively. Granted this wasn't a tournament, I still got to game with players that I didn't already know in a tournament-like atmosphere. I honestly believe that if I were to see Mr. Friendly, Dirty Boy or Token Gamer Chick in the shop later that I would talk with them and probably play a game with them. Joe Pro, however seemed like he wasn't exactly interested in making friends. But of course I would still be cordial with him and play a game with him if he wanted. After all, I know exactly what to expect from him next time. Mutavault, Bitterblossom, counters, Scion of Oona, Sower of Temptation, Doomblade, etc. His decklist won't change until the Lorwyn/Morningtide block rotates out. Even then it will probably be a few weeks before he gets in a tournament because he'll wait until someone at a higher level posts a winning deck on the Internet, at which point he will copy it card for card.