Version 4.1 Last updated 22/04/01
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There are many steps to insure that you have a good time at your first tournament.
For example, I was playing at a qualifier tournament for the Origins Professional Tournament. I came in 10th. Since I was not in the finals (top 8), I was out. I then proceeded to finish my set of black-bordered dual lands (4 of each) and pick up some other cool stuff. I would not have had the opportunity to do this if I had not dropped out.
Seyil Yoon wings@io.org
"Matt Henry"
There are no hard and fast guidelines that I can give you on how to
play at the tournament level, because you may not have the aptitude
for it - no offence, but I know people who've played for years and are
still no better than they were in the old casual days. OTOH, I can
give you some pointers on how to improve your play - if you have the
dedication and the skill.
Sun Tzu was full of shit, but he was right on the money with this one
when it came to Magic. This isn't literal advice; although it does
help to know the guy you're playing, his play style, his tells etc.,
what you really need to know is his *deck*.
In Limited, you need to know which cards are good and in which
commonality band. It's all about deducing what he might have from the
colours he's playing. If he's playing U/W/G in an IN-IN-PS [1] draft,
for example, he won't have any real creature removal (except possibly
a Treva's Charm), but he probably *will* have some or all of the
following: Armadillo Cloak, Glimmering Angel, Benalish Lancer,
Benalish Heralds, Llanowar Knight. Knowing what the good cards are
gives you an insight into what is in his deck and what you should be
drafting and playing in your own. With enough practice, you'll be
able to call what spell he's casting when he taps the mana for it.
(I once beat a guy with a better deck than me in this way. I
correctly called all 12 spells he cast in the first game; he was so
demoralised by this apparent display of superhuman knowledge that he
began to make numerous major play errors, and I took the next two as a
result.)
In Constructed formats, you instead look at something we call "the
metagame"; the decks that are being played. For example, the current
Tier 1 [2] Standard decks are Fires [3], Counter-Rebels [4] and to a
lesser extent Blue Skies [5]. The best deck to play is a deck which
beats all three of these [6] . When you choose your deck, you should
test it thoroughly against them beforehand and if it can't beat them -
junk it. It doesn't matter how much you like it - junk it if it won't
win.
You should know all your deck's strengths and weaknesses before
entering the event. At any given time, you should be able to look
through your graveyard, hand and cards in play and know *exactly* what
cards are left in your library - and you should be able to do the same
for your opponent also, albeit slightly less accurately unless he's
playing an unaltered Netdeck [7].
To do this requires intensive practice. I'm currently testing for my
National championships in four weeks time. The first four weeks I
spent testing a variety of decks; the last four weeks I will be
testing and tuning *only* the deck I want to go with. Over the next
four weeks, I'll probably be testing 2-4 hours a day against Fires and
Counter-Rebel - the equivalent of playing two National Championships a
week. I know I'll get bored as hell sometimes, but by the end, I'll
know my deck inside out. Every key spell to deal with in the
opponent's decks, every trick play I can make to eke that last bit of
power from my own, I will know. That's why I practice, and why you
should [8].
Is of course, timing. This rule is fairly simple: always play your
spell at the last possible moment. Don't cast Accumulated Knowledge
during your turn - cast it in your opponent's end of turn step, or in
response to his killer spell if you need to find a counterspell.
Don't Incinerate him, only to watch him drop a Skizzik next turn.
There are also times when different spells matter. For example, say
you're holding just two Counterspells and an Absorb, and have three
untapped Islands and an untapped Coastal Tower. Your opponent has six
untapped Forests and a Bird of Paradise, and four cards in hand. He
taps three Forests to cast a Chimeric Idol, and you need to counter
it. What do you do?
Say you use Absorb. He still has 4 untapped mana, which is enough to
cast a Blastoderm, a Skizzik, an Armageddon - any number of spells
that could wreck your game. If you Absorb the Idol, you gain three
life, but you could well end up losing five to fifteen life or all
your land as a result - and that will probably cost you the game.
However, if you use Counterspell, you will still have two blue mana
open to cast the second Counterspell if he has a second threat *and*
the Absorb for backup next turn. If he doesn't have a second threat,
next turn you will probably have five mana and be able to use Absorb
and Counterspell in the same turn - and if you draw into something
good in the next two turns you will probably win the game.
This is the rule I really wish I was better at keeping.
Don't worry about losing. If you're losing, to bad draws or whatever,
you're going to lose anyway. All that losing your cool will achieve
is helping you lose the next game too.
Similarly, don't get excited because you're winning. I was once in a
commanding position playing B/U control and about to win the game in
the next six turns or so. I played Yawgmoth's Agenda to establish
utter dominance on the game, but then got burned out at the end of my
turn while I couldn't cast a spell. I saw blood in the water and went
for it like a good little shark; I threw that game away because I
didn't rein in my killer instinct. And if there's one thing that
hurts your play more than getting angry when you're screwed, it's
getting angry when you lose a game you should have won.
This is kind of a corollary to Rules 2 and 3, but it's still
important. There are any number of reasons not to do anything you
don't have to; here are just a few:
None of these are prohibitions, but they all come back to Rule 2:
choose your timing carefully. If your opponent is struggling for mana
and has just ditched a Parallax Wave, *do* kill that Diamond if it's
his only white source. If he's got no cards in hand, or is playing no
mass destruction, throw out those three creatures if they'll kill him
next turn.
This rule also has a connection with Rule 1: every time you cast a
spell, you're telling your opponent that it's in your deck. You're
giving him more information on your threats and defences, and thus
helping him play around them. When I played my Vineyard Green deck in
Extended, I would always play a second Spike Soldier before the first
Stampeding Wildebeest if I had a Soldier already in play, even though
Wildebeest/Soldier is a lethal combination [9].
Not to blow my own trumpet, but I'm one of the most solid players
currently frequenting this group. The reason for this is that I know
the rules extremely well; in addition to playing, I'm a Level II judge
who could go Level III if I wanted to. Knowing the rules gives me a
big edge, in that I can play around the game better than most other
players. Oft-times, someone will try something against me that
*sounds* legal but in fact isn't, and their strategy is hurt by not
having known this. Likewise, I can sometimes do things within the
rules that other people think are not legal and so hadn't considered.
So, learn the rules well. It can only help, believe me.
You don't have many cards yet, having only played for 6 months - hell,
I bet your card collection is still in four digits [10].
Don't. If you don't use proxies where necessary, you will never learn
how to be a good deckbuilder. It doesn't matter if you only have 1
Urza's Rage; if you want to play four, proxy up three and put them in.
Until you're actually going to play in a tournament, no half-decent
player is going to complain if you have proxy cards in your deck (so
long as they're clearly labelled and can't be distinguished from the
rest your deck).
Some players proxy up cards by writing the name of the card on a basic
land or trash common, but I don't like doing that and I wouldn't
recommend it to someone without a huge number of spare cards. My
preferred method is to use the smallest size Post-It note, which is
coincidentally about the size of the picture on a Magic card, stuck to
a card of similar casting cost. You can use the same note for 2-4
different cards, depending on which way up you stick it, they only
cost UKP1.10 for 3 pads of 100, and when not using them you can stick
them back together again. The only real drawback to this method is
that you need to sleeve your deck - but card sleeves are a serious
investment that you won't regret, not if you plan to play in
tournaments anyway.
(For cards which I often need to use in three or four decks at a time,
like Rishadan Ports, I scan my originals, print them out at 90% size
and gum them to a basic land. This method is a little extreme for
most cards, however.)
I think that's about all the advice I can give you for now. Read it,
learn it, and when you win your first Pro Tour, I want 10%.
[1] Invasion-Invasion-Planeshift; that is, two booster packs of
Invasion and one of Planeshift. This is common shorthand for draft
formats.
[2] There are three Tiers of decks: Tier 1 decks are expected to win
tournaments regularly and so are played a lot, Tier 2 decks may place
well and occasionally win, but they don't beat all the Tier 1 decks,
and Tier 3 decks are junk.
[3] A red/green aggression deck using mana acceleration to drop Fires
of Yavimaya ASAP before beating down with big evil creatures.
[4] As the name suggests, it uses the Mercadian Masques Block
Rebel-hunters (creatures which can search out other Rebels from your
library and put them directly into play), backed up with
counterspells.
[5] A mono-blue deck (that is, no other colours but blue) using cheap
flying creatures backed up with counterspells.
[6] Although you can settle for a deck that beats Fires and
Counter-Rebels because Skies loses hideously to Fires, and thus you
won't be facing many Skies decks if you can win your early rounds.
[7] A Net deck is a deck which some pro player or another has
published on one of the Magic strategy websites, or which WotC have
released as part of their event coverage. They're very good, usually,
better than what you could build - but they have the downside of being
freely available, and so people will have prepared for them.
[8] Not that you need to practice this excessively for anything less
than a National/Regional Championship or a Pro Tour, of course;
getting in an evening's play or two a week suffices for PTQs and the
like, and FNM is its own practice.
[9] I won't detail the cards here, but suffice to say it gives me a
5/5 blocker and a trampling attacker that starts at 5/4 and grows by
+1/+1 or more each turn, all for 4-8 mana a turn with no drawback.
[10] Not entirely a joke; many players have 10,000 cards or more.
I've given several thousand away over the years myself. I know of a
guy called Chris O'Leary who has what he calls "The Box Of Tricks" - a
large indexed box containing four copies of every Magic card ever to
be legal in Type 1 play. That's about 15,000 cards, if you're
curious.
matthenry@.comMarmot? Weird addy.
--
Benjamin Seck bseck@WR.COM.AU Have you ever wondered why some tournament decks get going, despite
the apparent slowness of the deck? How does a Willowgeddon compete in an
environment of Necro and other faster decks? A group of friends of mine
have discussed this idea, and I have decided to write about it. It all
comes down to a phenomenon we call flashpoint. The flashpoint of a deck is the magical number of mana that a deck
requires to suddenly get rolling. The lower the flashpoint, the quicker
the deck. A "rolling" flashpoint is the number of mana required
for the deck to consistently win. For example, the traditional pre-hymnstrip
restriction necro has a flashpoint of two. At this two mana points we have
knights and orders, basically the meat of a necro deck. On the other hand
we have a willowgeddon, but it has a flashpoint of 4, where ernhams, armageddon,
wraths of god occur. the lower the flashpoint of a deck, the more consistent
it becomes. This is why sometimes a necrodeck will steamroll a willowgeddon,
with sheer speed. But, a deck does not just contain one type of flashpoint. There is
a second level of flashpoint, which I will call the "disruption"
flashpoint. It is at this point that deck, does not necessarily get going,
but at least attempts to disrupt the opponents strategy. It is by the "disruption"
flahpoint that we may account for the apparent disparity between the "rolling"
flashpoints of different decks. For necro, it is still two with the Hymns
to Tourach. But we now see for willowgeddon it is 1-2 with StPs, disenchants,
elvish archers and spectral bears. One may wonder why I classify elves
and bears under disruption. Well when you do see a willowgeddon really
work, do the early elves and bears actually kill? Usually not, they merely
provide early blockers, so that the ernhams and later elves and bears can
finish the job, usually after an armageddon of some sort. The "rolling"
flashpoint of willowgeddon is deceiving, as it contains mana elves and
birds that lower the unusually high flashpoint of the deck. To make an
efficient deck the "disruptive" flashpoint of the deck must be
at least equal or less than the faster decks of the general field. Then why does willowgeddon lose to necro? Willowgeddon does, after
all, have a comparable "disruptive" flashpoint to necro's "rolling"
flashpoint. This is because that necro, with its prot white creatures effectively
makes Willowgeddon' "disruptive" flashpoint 4, as only things
such as Wraths of God and Serrated Arrows can effectively deal with Knights
and Orders consistently (we do not take into account Balance due to its
restricted nature). This is why Necro does lose somewhat to a g/r Ehnham-Burn'em
Deck, with the various bolts, an E-B deck has an effective disruptive flashpoint
of 1-2 against most decks (since there are few early creatures that are
either prot red or have toughness greater than 3). So what does this concept of flashpoints give us for Magic strategy?
Consider most of the tournament winning decks, and you'll come to the conclusion
that the most consistent decks have both a "disruption" and "rolling"
flashpoint of two or less. Necro-weenie, White-weenie, Stasis, even the
Prison to an extent. It is this fact that make Land Destruction not a consistently
viable strategy in type two (especially without strips), as it is a turn
behind most decks in terms of flashpoints. Deck design has even been moving
towards lowering this flashpoint further with the inclusion of Contagion
and Force of Will. It is these cards that in the new era of deck design
(post hymnstrip), will push flashpoint to one and below. Force of Will
allows Stasis a level of consistency that it could never have achieved
without it. Since it effectively cannot actively disrupt an opponents strategy
until the stasis lock is achieved, many decks would roll over Turbostasis,
but with FoW, right from the start the option to counter makes it a formidable
threat. When designing a deck, look for cards with a low casting cost with
some sort of disruptive ability. You will start looking at certain cards
in a different way, such as Ankh of Mishra. It provides an environment
where just playing (as you need to put down land) costs damage. It effectively
lowers the starting life totals by 4-8, and so if one can build a deck
with this reduction in life totals in mind, it can prove to be quite formidable.
It is important to keep the idea of lashpoints in mind, as it can usually
tell you how effective you deck is even before playtesting. With the idea of flashpoint in mind, it is also easy to see why Strip
and Hymn were restricted. Strip Mine was restricted because it allowed
colorless disruption at no cost. It effectively made many decks "disruptive"
flashpoints a heap lower, and often made powerful strategies degenerate
(such as LD with a vise in hand). Hymn's "disruptive" power is
contained within its potential disruption. Some people say it balancing
factor was its luck, but its degeneracy was its luck. If one was to draw
two lands in early game, it is powerful. If one was to draw two creatures
in mid-game it is powerful. If one was to draw direct damage endgame, it
is powerful. The simple power to disrupt at any stage of the game "potentially",
was enough to make it a problem. Please feel free to write concerning the issues I have raised. Benjamin Seck
What's a tournament player got that I don't?
Originally posted by David Chapman
> I've been playing MtG for about 6 months at the "fun" level, and I'd like to go
> to the tournament level. I was wondering what the most important differences
> between fun and tournament play are, sort of seven habits of highly effective
> players.
> Remove the rodent from my address to reply.
These things are not the beliefs of madmen
but the beliefs of sane men and women trying
desperately, not to preserve the status quo,
but just to find the fucking thing.
Playing Technique
This is from a article posted by Robert I. Eachus, on the 1st of May 1996
Flashpoint: a take on Magic deck design
Len Blado <BLADOLE@HSDVAX.HSD.UTC.COM>
Anonymous person writes: > There was a whole lot more tactics and fun in playing that good old > counterburn deck back when IceAge hit the market. Now the whole idea of > counterdecks has degenerated into 'whoever has the most counters will win' > deck. After Alliances has left the T2 environment, I believe/hope players > are going to think of their counters as a valuable resource instead of a way > of winning at the cost of the fun and creativity of deck construction and > playing.
Ah... the good ole days... :) Hate to say it, but permission vs. permission has *always* been 'whoever has the most counters will win'- between players of equal skill that is. The fun in permission is (1) most everyone is a bad permission player, so you can simply outplay them... something you can't do with standard burn decks very easily and (2) making sure that you always 'have the most counters'.
Since this *is* a strategy forum, though, as long as we're on the subject, some personal 'rules' of permission:
1. Know everything. The reason the best players in Magic tend to play blue a lot has much less to do with the fact that there some sort of bias out there than with the fact that in *order* to play blue successfully you've got to have an encyclopediac knowledge of rules and strategy. Not only do you have to know your own options, but you've got to accurate guess your opponent's options and be prepared to deal with them. In addition, you've got to be able to instantly assess an opponent's deck- in one deck, it may be essential to counter that Jayemdae Tome; in another, it would be pointless. A good friend of mine often wows the newbies by going to tournaments and, after 3-4 turns, rattling off every card in their deck (usually missing by 5-6 cards). Needless to say, he's pretty good at playing permission.
2. Be aware of what countermagic is for. The next time I see a Turbostasis player counter an Ernham Djinn, I reserve the right to strangle them. Countermagic plays many roles in many decks, but the most common use is for protecting permanents, *not* denying your opponent vital resources. Counterpost and Turbostasis are both examples of this school of countermagic use. In each, your primary interest is to protect the key permanents of your deck- that's why such decks are so comparitively light on countermagic. In Turbostasis, for example, all I need to do is have more countermagic than you have Disenchants, and I'm usually ok. A Hammer/Permission deck, on the other hand, tends to use Countermagic for 'disruption'- meaning that you could care less if your Wildfire Emissary gets Terror'd, so long as you keep countering the Tombstone Stairwells. This doesn't mean that countermagic is 'locked in'- it just means that you should always be aware of *why* you put it in the deck in the first place.
3. Don't get involved in countermagic wars unless you really need to. Most players assume that, since they have a counterspell in their hand, they should automatically aim it at any counterspell that comes in range. Don't fall into this trap. It is almost *never* in your interest to 'counter a counterspell'- it runs you out mana on your turn (usually), giving your opponent free rein. It also unnecessarily drains you of countermagic that (most likely) you'll need later. While there are times when you'll want to ensure that a spell gets through (or doesn't get through), make sure to 'pick your fights'. And if you pick a fight, be sure to *win* it.
4. Watch the mana. The single most important element in playing with countermagic (especially against another countermagic deck) is to play the mana game correctly. I've seen people take booster draft decks against tuned Type II decks and wreck them in countermagic wars, simply because they paid attention to the mana situation and their opponent ignored it. Every now and then you'll have to battle your opponent for control of some vital point- make sure when you do, you have the mana advantage. Without it, you're dead. With it, you're virtually guaranteed to win. Even *if* you lose, it will be most likely because of spells like Arcane Denial and Force of Will, which will come back to haunt your opponent later.
5. Don't get sucked into the 'must counter' trap. A large number of players are under the impression that some set of spells exist that a countermagic deck *must* counter, or suffer some heinous fate. This belief leads to bad permission players- the kind that you say "I cast Tsunami", and the counterspell is already on the table. There is no such thing as a 'must counter' spell- in fact a large number of these probably won't hurt your deck much at all if you stop to think about it. Countermagic decks have a variety of other spells in them for a *reason*. You're not packing Disenchant just in case you don't have a Force of Will in your opening hand, after all. And those Thawing Glaciers and Cities of Brass, while useful on their own, probably make a very nice answer to that Tsunami. The entire point of playing permission is versatility- if a single card hoses your deck, your permission deck probably isn't so hot.
6. Don't play by the 'rules'. Basically, whenever a situation comes up where you *might* have the opportunity to use countermagic, sit back and think about the options- never blindly follow some set of 'rules' for countermagic use. Each situation is totally unique, and depends on a lot of factors that most folks simply don't pay attention to- no set of general rules can possibly cover it. Little things like using the wrong land, a creature being tapped or not, or how many cards someone has in hand can have major effects on the game when countermagic comes into play. Note that you should *always* think about these things whenever *any* spell is cast- even if you don't have any countermagic in your hand.
Len Blado
Have you ever wondered where those great 'new' decks come from? Or those 'killer' cards or combos? They can't just pop out of thin air, right? Well, here's where they come from: strict analysis and testing of certain cards. Many cards are killer on their own. For many of them, their uses are obvious, and even the basest player can pick up on them. Cards like Demonic Tutor, Black Vice, and Regrowth fall into this category. But there is another category of great cards, those that aren't apparently obvious as amazingly powerful cards. They have to be tried and retried until they are discovered, and include such cards as Juzam Djinn, arguably the most powerful creature in the game, who was scorned when first released because of the upkeep of losing one life, as well as Necropotence, which for months was labeled one of the worst cards in Ice Age because, again, of loss of life only to turn into a pivotal card in a deck that would dominate type II tournaments until Ice Age was rotated out.
Len Blado <BLADOLE@HSDVAX.HSD.UTC.COM> writes: > > I'm afraid you've fallen into the abyss of revisionist history >here. While certainly folks who were not terribly good players (like, >say, the editors of Duelist and Inquest) scoffed at cards like the >Juzam and Necropotence, a fair number of players immediately saw the >potential in them. The *real* reason people weren't using them in >tournament decks is that they did not function well in the environment >they initially arrived in- Necrodecks function poorly in a 4-vase/no >fast mana environment, and Juzams function poorly in an environment >where >black is overall fairly weak (which pretty well describes black with >only UL/AN cards). > > You'll notice that as soon as these environmental restrictions >were lifted, the cards took off- Juzams became popular once Legends >arrived (boosting Black's power), Necropotence did well once people >no longer could throw 4 Vises in every deck. In effect, what occurred >is that many good players *knew* these were great cards- they were >just waiting for the environment to be appropriate for their play. >
This is a very good point, and something that deserves to be in this article. Many cards may have a drawback that is only a drawback in the current environment (such as a sacrifice of a land in a Land- Destruction heavy environment, or loss of life in a Direct-Damage environment). And while an environment may make one card more harsh, it may make another more smooth. As Len said, many good players can spot the abusable cards, even if they aren't necessarily abusable at the moment. It takes a good player to see it, work with it, and wait until it can be used to it's fullest. Thanks, Len.
So you're asking, what's my point? Well, someone had to figure out that these cards were good. Very good. And that person had an edge that not everyone has. I'm going to tell you how to get some of that edge. Basically, you need to know three things: Why do I want to do this, How do I spot these cards, and How do I use them. So, why should you care, why do you want to use these overlooked cards? You say you're happy using the same old cards you've always used, and the same old decks. Well, then be happy and play. But for those who say that tournaments are boring, that they are dominated by a few decks that all look the same, well this could be your cure. You can find a card that has been overlooked by many and make your own, new, creative, and possibly winning deck around it. For myself, that's what this game is all about. For others, they would prefer to play, at least in serious competition, with tried and true cards. Now on to the most important, how do you spot the overlooked and powerful cards? Well, there are a few signs to look for:
-It breaks the rules: something that allows you do something that the rule book does not allow is very often a powerful card. the rule books are there for a reason, and breaking them is a special privilege. Fastbond was a card that was ripe for abuse, but the real spark didn't come along until Storm Cauldron was released (which, in and of itself, minority breaks rules).
-It has a unique ability: Often if a card has a one-of-a-kind ability, that means the ability is useful. As well as sometimes being powerful, these are often the most fun cards to use. The Soldevi Digger has the ability to repeatedly replace cards from your graveyard to your library. WHile it's hard to use effectively, when it is used effectively it works wonders. Stormbind, as well, had a relatively unique ability, and turned into one of the most powerful cards in Ice Age.
-The card has a nasty drawback: this is often the best indicator of a powerful card. After all, those drawbacks are put there for a reason, right? Some more common drawbacks are Upkeeps, sacrifices of lands or creatures (Keeper of Tresserhorn, Polar Kraken, Zuran orb), loss of life (Necropotence, Juzam Djinn), or aiding your opponent with cards, permanents, or life (Phelldagriff, Soldevi Sentry, Sibilant Spirit, Varchild's War-Riders). The fact that you have to hurt yourself to bring a card out usually means long-term value, especially if the way you hurt yourself is short term.
Arthur Kimes <artki@ANNEX.COM> writes: > > You made a lot of references to cards which are undercosted > but had a drawback. I've been looking at a group of cards which > are usually considered to be OVERcosted and have an advantage. > This advantage is usually not thought to be worth very much. > That being the case, many of the cards that have this advantage > aren't used in tourney decks. But maybe this advantage is worth > more than it looks... > I'm speaking of those creatures which don't have summoning > sickness. Not the "staples" like Ball Lightning and Yavimaya > Ants but the ones that aren't used like Ambush Party, Balduvian > War Makers and Talruum Minotaur. Ambush Party and BWM have > a 5 mana casting cost. Steep price for a 3/x creature with > first strike or rampage:1. The Minotaur is a 3/3 for 4 mana > with no special abilities (other than no-summoning-sickness). > 3/3's for 4 mana without killer special abilities are rarely > seen outside of sealed deck. So how much is > no-summoning-sickness worth? Based on my recent experiences, it > may be worth a lot! > Those "worthless" Ambush Party's and War Makers wreak havoc! >You get into the habit of assuming that if the opponent has no > creatures in play it's safe for you to attack. When ALL of your > attacking creatures don't have summoning sickness you have to play > differently. In fact, you have to build you deck differently to deal > with it. And who builds decks specifically to combat > no-summoning-sickness creatures? > Overcosted and Underused. No summoning sickness critters > are worth a look! >
What Arthur says also goes along with having a unique ability. While not unique (anymore), creatures that can attack the first turn they are in play are rare, and generally fall in with 3 colors: Red, Black and Green. They are a perfect example of a card that may seem overcosted, but have an ability that is good enough to be worth it.
-the card is generally undercosted: this goes along with the previously mentioned because drawbacks equate to lower casting costs, and is easiest to spot in creatures. Just compare the card to others of similar ability, for example the Erhnam Djinn. As a 4/5 for G3 mana with a mediocre drawback, it's comparable to Durkwood Boars, G4 for a 4/4 with no drawback, Ironroot Treefolk, GG3 for 3/5 with no drawback, and Jungle Wurm, GG3 for 5/5 with a minor drawback. Obviously, we can see that at 4 mana, no matter what color, this card is undercosted. Going along with this is sometimes multiple colors in the casting cost. many spells use 2 or 3 colors and make the casting cost lower for the reason that it's harder to use those specific colors in your deck and get them out at the right time.
-Most people don't use it: One of the worst arguments I've heard against using certain cards is that they aren't popular. This is just silly; while many times the pack mentality is useful, if someone can't give you a better reason that they dislike a card or that the card 'sucks', you might want to take a look at it.
So, you've got your great undercosted card with a huge drawback. Now, how to use it. Generally, what you have to do is look at the advantages and disadvantages of the card. These are what you base the deck around. Use cards that make up for the disadvantage; if it's loss of life, put in some life gainers (for Necropotence, which paid life to draw cards, Ivory Tower was perfect, as it gave life for excess cards), if the disadvantage is a sacrifice of creatures, make the deck rely more heavily on smaller, lower casting cost creatures. Watch out, though, if you are devoting too much deck space to supporting your card, you will probably find it counter productive. Now, look at the advantages and capitalize on them. If it's a big creature you've got, make it bigger or find ways to get it through to your opponent. If you've got library manipulation, try to remove select cards from the library that either you don't want your opponent to have (in the case of manipulating your opponent's library) or that you don't need (in the case of manipulating your own library). This is where your deck needs to shine; you're putting the card in because it has a great ability, now capitalize on it.
So, now you have your deck with your new killer card. Test it out. As with any deck, this is most important. What does the card do? Do the support cards you put in work? (I remember hearing many people using Library of Leng with Necropotence... since you draw the cards into your hand at the end of the turn, the RV forward Libraries basically meant you couldn't ever draw again...) If something is wrong, go through the editing stages of the deck, but always watch your key power card and see how it works. You might have it pegged wrong, or perfectly right, maybe it just doesn't work the way you thought, or has an unexpected twist that lets you win all the time. But, sometimes, it just won't work no matter what, and you have to know when to give up :).
So, go grab your commons box, and look over those worthless cards again. maybe you'll see something like Spatial Binding that breaks the rules. Or maybe you'll find Balduvian Hordes which depletes your resources. Or perhaps Force Spike which is undercosted compared to other counters. Whatever it is, try it out, and you just might find it's not -that- worthless after all.
Bennett Campbell apparatus@juno.com --- hcschc@cnsibm.albany.edu