MTG Pro Tutor - Insights, Tips & Advice from Magic: The Gathering Pros

Latest Episodes:

19: Don't Be a Jerk! Tips on Solid Team Building by Rich Hoaen Aug 19, 2015

Show notes

Rich Hoaen is known for his skill in Limited formats and has one Pro Tour top 8, four Pro Tour 16s, three Grand Prix wins and five other Grand Prix top 8s!! He was also the runner up in the last ever Magic Invitational.

Evaluation Tips

Become intimately familiar with the combat tricks and their casting cost. This is essential for success in Limited play.

Limited Tips

Drafting: Figure out what colors the players to your right are NOT in or figure out what color is open at the table. These two methods are the basics of figuring out what colors you should play.

Team Building

Don't be a jerk and find players that are better than you.

Improvement

Get a commons box and learn card interactions.

Magic Resource

Cockatrice (free tool)

Connect With Rich

@rhoaen

Like What You Hear?

If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review.

Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content.

I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

18: Rich Hoaen Ended a Friendship Because Cheating is Totally Unacceptable! Aug 18, 2015

Show notes

First Set

Weatherlight

Favorite Set

Odyssey block

Favorite Card

Battlefield Medic

Early Challenge

Coming to grips that he wasn't as good as he thought. It took a better player pointing out his misplays for Rich to realize he had much to learn.

Level Up Moment

Cheating is totally unacceptable and Rich learned early how abhorring it is when a team confessed to having cheated in a tournament they won.

Proudest Magic Moment

Winning Grand Prix Montreal (2011)

Best Format

Limited

Current Standard Deck

Rich only plays when he has to but is currently on a mono red build.

Biggest Mistake Players Make

Blaming games on luck. At lower levels players do this all the time, and it's wrong.

Connect With Rich

@rhoaen

Like What You Hear?

If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review.

Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content.

I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

17: Why Dan Jordan Thinks Inbred Testing is Bad Aug 12, 2015

Show notes

Dan Jordan has 3 Pro Tour top 16s, 4 Grand Prix top 8s, and 4 Star City Games Open wins under his belt. He has also top 75'd another Pro Tour and has cashed in numerous other Grand Prix. Evaluation Tips

Dan admits to being a terrible card evaluator but still thinks about cards as they are released and their possible impact on Standard.

Limited Tips

Sealed: Identify a deck plan and build around that.

Draft: Be very mindful of your mana curve.

Team Building

Find A team. Ideally you'll want a team with Pro players but if you can't find one then just get on A team that play tests regularly.

Play Testing

Take good notes and don't waste play testing time. Be mindful of "inbred" play testing.

Improvement

Invest in Standard and stick with your deck as you improve and move up to bigger tournaments.

Magic Resource

The Elephant Method (you just have to read it for yourself)

Connect With Dan

@DanJordanMTG

Like What You Hear?

If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review.

Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content.

I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

16: Dan Jordan says You're Not Going to Win Every Match ... and You'll Get Better Because of it Aug 11, 2015

Show notes

Dan Jordan has 3 Pro Tour top 16s, 4 Grand Prix top 8s, and 4 Star City Games Open wins under his belt. He has also top 75'd another Pro Tour and has cashed in numerous other Grand Prix.

First Set

Urza's Destiny

Apacolypse was his first booster pack.

Favorite Set

Ravnica: City of Guilds

Dan loved the complexity and depth of the set.

Favorite Card

Dark Confidant

What makes Magic fun for you?

The life long friends you make and get to travel the world with is the best part about the game.

Early Challenge

Due to an early success, Dan struggled with understanding that you're not going to win every tournament. You have to put in effort and stay on top of your game.

Level Up Moment

Watching the best players in the world and asking "why are they the best?" "What are they doing that I'm not doing?"

Proudest Magic Moment

Placing in GP New Jersey.

Best Format

Legacy; casting Brainstorm is so much fun.

Biggest Mistake Players Make

Not practicing enough. Get on Magic Online and play and play and play. Play with people who are better than you.

Connect With Dan

@DanJordanMTG

Like What You Hear?

If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review.

Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content.

I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

15: How to Tell if a Card is Fake and other Resources with A.E. Marling Aug 05, 2015

Show notes

Evaluation Tips

Compare new cards to old, similar cards. That's why constantly playing Limited is important.

Limited Tips

Don't force a deck around pet cards that you like. Be willing to switch colors and ditch your first few picks if another strategy presents itself.

Play Testing

There is no substitute for practice. Use proxies or an online client to get reps in with a deck before you decide to invest in it.

Check out:

Magic: The Gathering Proxy Generator - Input the cards you need and the site will generate card images the perfect size to print, cut out and sleeve up.

Cockatrice - An online client to build decks and play against yourself to test things out.

Improvement

Organize your board in a consistent way that makes sense to you. ie Creatures by power in descending order. Find something that works for you and be consistent.

Magic Resource

Puca Trade

Send and receive cards from everywhere! We also talked about how to tell if a card is fake.

Interview Links

LSV set reviews on Channel Fireball

Limited Resources

The Magic Show

Connect With A.E. Marling

@AEMarling

A.E. Marling on Facebook

14: Foolproof Magic with A.E. Marling Aug 04, 2015

Show notes

A.E. Marling has won a Modern Star City Games invitational qualifier and has been one game away from the Pro Tour TWICE. He writes the incredibly popular and gratefully useful Foolproof Magic series for GatheringMagic. He is also a cosplayer, a Level 20 flavor judge, and a fantasy author.

Mr. Foolproof Magic Himself

A.E. shared some amazing tips all throughout the episode and I'd be remiss if I didn't try to catch them here for you.

Consume Magic event coverage. Watch what the pros are doing and learn from their successes as well as mistakes.

Play your land "in isolation" to create a visual queue that you've played a land this turn. That way you won't accidentally play two lands in a turn.

Organize your board in an easy-to-track way.

Bottom line: Develop a system that works for you and use the Foolproof Magic articles as a spring board into systematic.

The Foolproof Magic suite:

Foolproof Magic

Foolproof Magic 2

Foolproof Magic 3

First Set

Revised

Favorite Set

Innistrad

Favorite Card

Arcbound Ravager

What makes Magic fun for you?

The imagery and imagination are so fascinating while the mental sport is captivating.

Early Challenge

Feeling like he deserved to win and then tilting when he didn't was A.E.'s biggest struggle. One mistake cost him a tournament when he was young and this drove him away for a time. A.E. eventually realized that losing because you made a mistake is one of the beauties of Magic: The Gathering.

Level Up Moment

Realizing that your decisions matter and Magic is a game that when you make a mistake you lose. That's awesome because it shows that every choice is important.

Best Format

Sealed / Draft and Modern

Biggest Mistake Players Make

Tilting and not understand why it happens or how to control/curb it. We had a great discussion about stoicism and it's application to Magic.

Connect With A.E. Marling

@AEMarling

13: Grand Prix Las Vegas 2015 Lessons Learned with Shaun Penrod Jul 28, 2015

Show notes

Shaun shares lessons learned from Grand Prix Las Vegas 2015 so you will be better prepared for your next big event. This episode is especially useful if you've never been to a Grand Prix or other premiere Magic: The Gathering event.

Preparing for Big Events

1. Go!

If it's within a 4 hour drive you should go.

2. See which artists are going to be there and prep your cards

3. Go with a friend to double up on card signing

4. Prepare

What’s the format?

Review the set by looking at spoilers, reading articles, listening to podcasts (like Limted Resources) and watching event coverage.

Play test your deck a TON. There is no substitute for playing.

5. Arrive early

Get into town the day before the event starts.

Crash at a friend's house, stay at a local hotel or find a place on Air BnB.

Go with a group of friends to reduce travel costs or take your family on a mini vacation and stay an extra day to reconnect with them and explore the city after your event.

6. Bring spending money (make sure it's cash)

You may want cards signed, singles, swag or to get into side events, all of which require some extrah moola.

7. Sleep

Get a good night's sleep the day before your event. You will want to be well rested so your mind is sharp.

8. Take food

Eat a good breakfast in the morning and take water, snacks and a meal with you. You'll be busy all day and will want some fuel to keep your biology balanced. This will help keep your mind on Magic and off your stomach.

9. Play all the rounds

You’re there to play, so stay and play. You will learn so much just by playing all the rounds.

10. Call a judge

Don't be afraid to call the judge to ask questiosn or to point out something that happened. They are there to help. My big take-away was to call a judge on a slow playing opponent. I should have and didn't so I received a draw.

11. HAVE FUN!

12: Run Your Deck Through the Gauntlet with Randy Buehler Jul 22, 2015

Show notes

Randy Buehler has 8 Grand Prix top 8’s, including a win and 5 Pro Tour top 16’s, including a win! His professional Magic career was cut short when he took a position at Wizards of the Coast, eventually becoming director of Magic R&D and then Vice-President of Digital Games. He has since moved on from Wizards but has never missed a Pro Tour as he is the voice of the Pro Tour webcast. Randy is a class of 2007 member of the Magic Hall of Fame.

Limited Tips

Understand what is critical mass. You can get more synergy in draft than in sealed. Through practice you can identify how many synergistic cards you'll actually need to make the strategy work. If you don't have that mass than just play what is good. Look at your rares and try to build around them.

Don't lose track of what you're actually doing by spending a bunch of brain power on trying to remember EVERY thing you've passed.

Don't force colors in draft. Open your first pack and just look at the cards, pick the best card, remember the ones you almost picked and look to the next pack.

Shoot for two colors with a good curve.

For mana, start with 17 lands and count the pips of your cards and match your lands with the ratio of pips.

Double mana symbol cards are very intensive in Limited. Avoid splashing them.

Preparing for Big Events

Be familiar with the results of previous events before yours. How does your deck hold up against the decks that did well?

Play Testing

When you are play testing your brew make sure you always run it against a gauntlet deck. Running your brew against a buddy's brew is not good play testing.

Team Building

Find people you get along with and have similar goals. However, if you don't have a team you can embrace Magic: The Gathering Online and play whenever you want.

Improvement

If you have a limited budget find players with similar card access as you so you don't get constantly crushed. Find where you are good (try Magic Online) and focus on that format to build your collection.

Magic Resource

MTG Gold Fish

Connect With Randy

@rbuehler

11: Randy Buehler Inside Wizards of the Coast R&D Jul 21, 2015

Show notes

First Set

Homelands

Favorite Set

Invasion - First set Randy worked on at Wizards R&D

Ravnica - First set done with processes and people that Randy put in place and hired. It was awesome seeing a set come together by people he brought on board.

Favorite Card

Necropotence

What makes Magic fun for you?

The competitive aspect of the game keeps Randy engaged. The small puzzles, the overall strategy the challenge of facing off with an opponent is so addicting to those who seek to prove they are the best at something.

Early Challenge

Your circle of players is a huge factor of how good you are. Finding players that are better than you is the BEST way to improve.

Best Format

Vintage - It's really the only format he can play on a semi competitive level because he can't play at premier events. (His wife currently works for Wizards of the Coast so he can't play at events because he's the immediate family member of a Wizards employee.)

Current Standard Deck

Randy plays "all the decks" so he can be familiar with lines of play for coverage. He's excited to look into Turbo Fog and Rally the Ancestors deck.

Biggest Mistake Players Make

Obsessing about luck. Instead of turning the focus outward and saying you lost because of bad luck you should turn the focus inward and say "what did I do wrong?" "How could I have played better?"

Connect With Randy

@rbuehler

10: Drafting Tips for Beginners from Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Jul 15, 2015

Show notes

Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa has 9 PT top 8s, 17 GP top 8s, and is a 2-time National Champion. He's the youngest Hall of Famer in the history of Magic: The Gathering! Evaluation Tips

First: Compare cards to something that is familiar to you. Can you compare a new card to a similar card you've played in a different, past format?Second: With completely new cards think of what shell would best fit the card.

Go through and look at every card that interacts with the new cards.

Limited Tips

Determine if the set is a fast format. If it is look for more 2 drops and other cheap cards. In Sealed, identify what's good and play that. At a pre-release your goal should be to feel the set out and learn about the set. Play things you normally wouldn't to test them out.

When drafting, don't try to remember everything you pass. Remember the general color, cards that you almost picked, and cards that are good against you.

Beginner Tip: When drafting, focus on building a deck instead of picking good cards. Don't worry so much about signals and what's you're passing, just focus on building a good deck with a good curve.

Team Building

Find people with the same goal as you and that you get a long with.

Play Testing

There is no substitute for playing with like-minded people of similar or better skill levels than. The best way to get better is to compete. Go to those Grand Prix' near you and you will learn a ton.

Limited Budget Improvement

Build a standard deck and stick with it the whole season to save money.

Build a cube or repack booster packs after a draft to practice Limited play on a limited budget.

Magic Resource

Paulo's weekly articles on Channel Fireball are great for all players.

Interview Links

Channel Fireball

Connect With Paulo

@PVDDR