Misdirection and Deception in Magic The Gathering

February 12, 2009 | Posted by Dee

Bill Stark has another great post on his blog. He gives two examples of using misdirection to gain an advantage in MTG.

First, back in the day when Affinity was popular, many Affinity players would bring a huge bag of dice/coins to the table. He did this while playing Tooth and Nail.

Second, he says using tokens can give false signals to your opponent. The example he gave was getting some Faerie Rogue tokens ready before a Standard match. However, you’re actually playing Five Color Control.

He had another trick where he placed a burger on the table to disrupt the concentration of his hungry opponent.

Finally, he ends with this moral question.

So here’s the quandary for the boat [aka MTG cruise]: Again, it’s a fixed group of people who you will be seeing throughout the five days you’re at sea. The main event is a PTQ for Honolulu featuring the Extended format.

Do you make the effort to extensively (and publicy) test one particular deck over and over again out in the open, only to make players associate you with said deck in order to play something completely different for the PTQ?

Or do you just avoid the ruse, disregard scouting, and do your best publicly with the deck you’re planning on playing?

Does the fact the PTQ is on the very last day of play make a difference?

Source: Thestarkingtonpost


Filed Under General Strategy 

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