May 17

Written by:
5/17/2011 2:16 PM 

Before I get into my little blog post, I guess I'll introduce myself.  My name is Kris Spisak, but I go by the nickname Speez.  I live in Pittsburgh where I hang out with a great little playgroup of people who not only love WoW TCG but just love all matters of gaming in general.  Though I never made a huge impact in higher level tournaments I did recently top 8 at the Azshara realm champs with a Sepirion the Poised deathrattle rush deck.  And yes you read that right, deathrattle rush.  :)

Anyways, I've been noticing something newer or less experience players seem to fall into.  They lose control of the game they are playing.  What I mean by that is that either get overwhelmed or get intimidated by their opponents.  In doing so they make play mistakes or even forget effects of their own cards.  I am hoping to give some tips or advice to help take back control of the game.

The first point comes before you even start playing.  Make sure you know what all your cards do.  I see people who make the mistake of either net decking or getting a deck from a buddy and not even knowing all the interactions in the deck.  It's never a good idea to go in a big tournament playing an unfamiliar deck.  Not even knowing the strengths and weakness of your own deck will lead you into rough situations which will cause you to lose control of the game.  Play a deck you are comfortable with.  It may not be the "best" deck but it is the best deck for you.

Never let your opponent boss you around.  If the person your playing across is being impatient or acting kinda rude, like repeating ask you to play faster for example, don't let it get to you.  Play the game how you want to play and don't let your opponent dictate how you play the game.  If they are playing very fast and that's not your style don't feel like you have to keep up.  Of course with regards to speed of play don't be a jerk and slow play, but just play at the speed that you want to.  Also don't let you opponents chatter get advantage of you.  There's a guy I know who will play a card and say something like "I know you have an interrupt in your hand so just use it."  It's just another example of him trying to control the game.  Let stuff like that go and just play the game how you want to.

My favorite new saying is "Play the card for what it does, not what you wanted it to do."  What I mean is you play a card to do a certain job, but remember all it's uses.  Saw someone play a (King Varian Wrynn) to clear his opponent's board of allies.  But then he let the opposing hero attack him with a weapon and take damage, but King power lowered his hero's attack to zero.  You see he played King with the purpose to kill the allies, but then forgot in the heat of the moment it effects heroes too.  I guess this really boils down to always check game state.  Even if you are pretty sure what a card does just read it again anyways, you might stumbles upon something you didn't realize.

And lastly, don't go on tilt.  If you don't know what tilt means, it's when you get blindsided by something you didn't see coming and you let that one moment negatively affect the rest of you game. Might be you mulligan into a hand of all five cost and higher cards, your opponent played some card you never heard of but you just lose to, or maybe you just lost the 11th dice roll for first in a row.  Just know that bad beats happen to everyone, but those who can brush it off and make the best of it are the ones who will controlling the game.

Well, it seems like I have reach the limit.  Until next time.