10 Mistakes Every New Magic: The Gathering Player Makes

Okay, I'm annoyed by this.

10 Mistakes Every New Magic: The Gathering Player Makes

  1. Always read the text on your cards
    • Should be: "Not reading the cards."
  2. Declare your moves clearly to your opponent(s)
    • Should be: "Not declaring moves to their opponents."

And so on. The title suggests that we're going to read a list of mistakes that players make, but we actually read the things that they should be doing. The title could alternatively be, "Ten tips for new Magic: the Gathering players." But right now, they don't match, and it doesn't make sense.

Further, there are really just nine tips, with the author repeating, "Read your cards" three times.

You want a tenth tip to make this a good list? "Don't cast spells before you have to."

It's your first main phase and you have four untapped Forests and three untapped Islands on the board with Evolving Wilds, Glimmer of Genius, and Thriving Rhino in your hand. Wind Drake on the board, and your opponent has no blockers. What do you do?

If you're a new player, you might play your Evolving Wilds, crack it to get a Mountain, then cast Glimmer of Genius, Thriving Rhino and then move to combat.

That would be a mistake. You want to go into combat with open mana so your opponent hesitates to do anything that's going to screw with you. The right answer is almost always to move to combat, attack, move to second main phase, cast the Rhino, play the Evolving Wilds, and pass the turn. Then crack the Evolving Wilds on opponent's end step and follow up by playing Glimmer of Genius. Never play the cards sooner than you have to.

/r/magicTCG Thread Link - manaleak.com