A friend wants to teach me Magic: The Gathering in a few days, but the catch is I want to mess with him. I want to know enough to know how to unexpectedly beat him while he thinks he is merely teaching me. I know nothing about the game beyond very basic ideas of what each color does. My friend tends to gravitate towards blue and knows the game very well in general like a walking dictionary. He said he wants me to play a black and white build of his. However, I may be able to change it up because I might be able to convince him to let me look at his cards and pick a different deck of his.My questions are:>How can I learn the game well in a short time>How can I surprise him by winning?>If I can change the color(s) of the deck, what should I change it to?>Is there any particular cards/builds/strategies that you use to beat very knowledgeable players?
>>How can I surprise him by winning?If he's in it to teach you he'll probably won't really be trying to win in the first place, and so loosing may not surprise him. And that's assuming you get to an actual match at all, instead of open hands "this is what you should do now, and now I do this to show what can happen even though that's really not a good idea" affair.>If I can change the color(s) of the deck, what should I change it to?You'd have to swap out a large percent of the cards in it.>Is there any particular cards/builds/strategies that you use to beat very knowledgeable players?A contradiction in terms really, any such easy path to victory would be amongst the first things anyone learned on the way to becoming "very knowledgeable", and so it wouldn't be a sure path to victory any more as it'd get nerfed, effective counters would be developed, or you'd have a stalemate as no one would ever do anything else.
>>97673769That isn't very frenly of you, anon. But, whatever.I'm not an MTG guy, but I know enough to tell you that without knowing his and your deck you won't be able to learn enough in time. So, first thing is to ask him if you can get the deck lists.If you can, get someone else to teach you, and play a few games using the same or similar decks with him. Don't just play your deck against his, but also play his against yours, that way you'll have an idea of what he's thinking. The other thing you can do is watch some videos of people explaining and playing with the relevant decks.Without knowing the deck lists, building decks in those colors and testing them will give you a feel for the game. Still, you can't learn without playing.
>>97673769Download Arena, play tutorial, play a few games against other kiddies and then lose to your friend IRL. No way (you)'re beating a blue tismancer.
>>97673769First off, the game is easy. The basic strategy is to attack your opponent with creatures to bring them to zero life. Their job is to prevent you from killing them, via blocking your attacks with their own creatures, using removal cards, or having better creatures and killing you first.Each color has access to specific abilities. You'll learn that blue can draw cards, white exiles cards, black destroys, red burns, green generates mana, etc. The pro way to play is to have a game plan, a concrete strategy for how you will win. Not just hoping for the best but knowing what will possibly happen.
>>97673769mtg is database mgmt, that's about it. Things you need are>card draw >damage .economy aka mana >stopping other players card draw, damage and economy Have enough card draw and economy to do the other two things. Don't get caught up in elaborate plans or combos. Kill the other guy. The best way to do this is to prevent them from being able to play their cards at all. Whenever you can trade at a ratio that is favourable to you, do that. If it takes 2 cards to remove 1, who wins? >how surprise You probably won't. A lot of it is based on memorization of card abilities and then recognizing those equivalents with new art every few months. Its just a time sink so nerds can feel good about themselves for basic memorization. >change colours of a deck Not really how it works. Learn how to play the game first. RTFM. >how beat knowledgeable players $$$ and time memorizing. Magic has been pay to win for ages.
>>97673769I am dissappointed in other anons for not even asking which format you'll be playing to begin with.So that's my first question.Other than that, getting the decklists would be ideal but might give away your intention and make your surprise victory less savory.The color alone won't be enough to gauge his strategy. What you need is the archetype and maybe possible winconditions he's going for.Perhaps he dropped something like that before? Maybe ask him what his favorite/best/most useful card is. We might be able to infer something from that.
>>97676589The format will be kitchentable (standard but with old and new decks)
>>97676589>dissappointeddisappointed
