This is a mistake a lot of new players make, but I’ve seen a lot of players that want to be Pros make it too. Do you make this mistake? Do you make it more than you care to admit?
Do You Make This HUGE Mistake with Magic the Gathering?
I’m sure you are a good player. You are probably a better player than me. But I’ve seen people that want to be in the Pros make this mistake. I’m the Rhino. Join me on our adventure through Magic the Gathering. Welcome Young Mage, I’m the Rhino.
I bet you are wondering what this huge mistake could possibly be. First let’s talk about all the parts of a turn when playing. Magic the Gathering is a turn based game. There are a lot of turn based games. Turns are used to make the game more fair for people of different abilities.
Each player starts their turn by untapping their cards. This includes lands, creatures, enchantments… whatever. This is to show that the card is available to use. You should tap your cards a full 90 degrees. It’s annoying when players don’t do this, but this isn’t the mistake I want to talk about. It’s just really annoying.
The next part is the Upkeep step. This only applies to cards that use the term Upkeep. It will say something like “At the beginning of your upkeep…” This is something that is used a lot, so you need to pay attention to all the cards that use upkeep.
Then finally you go to your draw step. You get to draw your card. Most of the time these three steps take like three seconds. We get so use to doing this over an over.
So we want to do it very quick because we are eager to get to what we call the First Main Phase. This is were you get to play land, cast creatures and spells. You know the fun stuff so we can start attacking!
Onto Combat! The combat phase is broken up into five steps. First is Beginning of combat. Nothing exciting happens here most of the time. Then the current player declares their attackers. They tap them unless they have vigilance. They have to show you who’s attacking. A lot of the time I move all of my attackers forward. And don’t forget to tap them a full 90 degrees. Then the opponent declares their blockers and most importantly, what blocks what.
Once all the blockers are declared the combat damage is resolved. You start by resolving any “first strike” damage… first. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Then you resolve any regular combat damage. The end of the combat is where you remove everything that was destroyed.
Now that the end of combat is done, you get a Second Main Phase. Once again you cast your creatures and other spells. The fun stuff! You get to surprise your opponent with that huge creature or strange enchantment.
Then you end your second main phase. A lot of people think that this is the end of their turn. There is actually an “End Step” that a lot of new players don’t realize is there. The end step is when you officially pass the turn to your opponent. A lot of times there are surprises that good players do during the end step. So watch out for it. Those are the steps to a turn.
Now for the Huge problem…
Ready???
Not fully doing your step and not giving your opponent a chance to respond.
Why is this a problem?
Let’s say you assign a blocker and immediately try to resolve damage, you just told your opponent that you only wanted to block a single creature. In a tournament, if you do that, you just gave up your chance to block other creatures. This is a common problem among new players. But it’s also a big problem among impatient players. I’ve had people that thought that they were a better player than me try to rush the game.
You lose when you don’t pay attention to all of the steps. I think that this is the number one biggest mistake in Magic. It’s something that we all can forget. It’s a huge mistake. Keeping it in mind, will help you become a better player.
Tell me what you think in the comments below.
Do you make this mistake often?
Do you make it more often than you care to admit?
I have more videos coming out soon.
And until then, Rhino Out.
