Scott Johns
9/18/2002
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In the previous articles of this series (The Information War and Behavioral Clues) we laid the groundwork by learning just how important knowing even some of the opponent's cards can be, as well as developing an awareness of an opponent's behavioral clues. In this article I'll be putting it all together by taking the final step in this process - covering in more specific detail the kinds of things you can watch for, the valuable information to be gained, and why it all matters in the first place. Along the way we'll take a look at lying, acting, body language, bluffing, and how to convert all of it into that crucial informational edge.

The World's a Stage

One of the most important skills in Magic has nothing at all to do with "strategy". That skill is actually projecting the attitude or emotion that we think we are projecting. The problem is that pretending we have a Giant Growth when we're actually holding a forest is a form of lying, which, in turn, is a form of acting. And you know what?

Acting is hard!

You know what's worse?

Most people don't realize just how badly they suck at acting!

The result is that, in my opinion, there are an awful lot of people out there screwing up otherwise good play by acting. It's not really their fault, and most surely don't even recognize the problem in the first place, but I can definitely tell you that, after religious playtesting, catching bad actors was almost surely the #2 reason I enjoyed as much success as I did on the Pro Tour.

The reason people have so much trouble comes from a paradox that lies at the heart of acting: For most non-acting-professionals like us, to truly be believable, one must not be self-aware of one's acting. Once you start thinking about what you're doing and how you look doing it, you lose all sense of naturalness to your actions. And yet, the very act of acting makes us self-aware. That may not sound like a big deal, but trust me when I say it makes all the difference in the world.

Rule #1: People who are acting tend to become self-aware

In practice, I've found that the most useful way to actually apply this comes from the tendency of most self-aware people to act in a predictably different way from when they are non-self-aware. Using a recent draft as an example, I was in a very late game with an opponent, and we were both well into "top deck mode". Each turn that he didn't play a land he said "go" in a fairly predictable manner, and this lasted a number of turns. Then, just as I was starting to hope that I could launch an alpha-strike, he drew his card, thought a moment, looked a bit disappointed, and said "go" while giving me a small "your turn" gesture with his hand. At this point, alarm bells starting going off.

Rule #2: People who are self-aware tend to behave in a slightly different manner

Everything about my opponent's manner had just changed, but it wasn't a shift of emotion or attitude. Instead, it was a change in the way he was presenting himself to me. The changes were small, but noticeable if you were watching for them and knew what they implied. The hand gesture was something he'd never done in either of the previous games. The slightly disappointed look had only come up a couple times before, but on its own wasn't quite enough to be too important. Together with the other slight behavioral changes however, it seemed likely that my opponent was now self-aware. Why does that matter?

Rule #3: People who are self-aware tend to be acting. People who are acting tend to be lying.

Aha! Now we're getting somewhere! The simple truth is, very few people ever bother to "act" when they're already telling the truth, and thus, rarely come across as self-aware to the careful observer. Therefore, when you catch someone becoming self-aware, odds are very good that they are lying. And if you know that they're probably lying, all you have to do is figure out what they're lying about, and suddenly you've gained another crucial edge in information. In the case above, my opponent made a (admittedly small) point of acting disappointed, but armed with my knowledge that he was likely lying, the assumption became that he had actually drawn something useful.

But it doesn't stop there, and this is the other point - once you gain information, do everything you can to capitalize on it! In this case, I knew that he hadn't drawn a land, and also not a creature since, given his position, he would almost surely have played it. The only cards left in this particular deck were various combat tricks, most of which were damage-prevention based.

The result? I attacked with just a couple fliers rather than the full alpha strike I was originally about to launch. Rather than try and win it all in one (dangerous) brawl, I instead put just enough pressure on him that he still had to use his trick to defend himself. I ended up losing my best flier, but it was the best way to get rid of that troublesome combat trick, and the gained knowledge allowed me to do it on my own terms. I was able to win more comfortably a few turns later, due in large part to the information I had gained from my unknowing opponent.

Catching Them "In the Act"

So the focus becomes catching those moments of self-awareness. This is, of course, a highly subjective subject, but that's all the more reason that practice makes perfect. In particular, the goal should be such careful observation of your opponent that you'll catch those windows of opportunity when they get self-conscious. Like nearly everything else in this series, it's actually a code. Their behavior means something, you just have to figure it out.

Also like code-breaking, fortunately, is the fact that you only have to start by trying to figure out small parts of the code. In this case, what I try to do is watch for those situations where I think my opponent may be acting self-conscious, do my best to remember what his actions were like, and then do everything I can to find out whether he was actually bluffing or not. As I mentioned in an earlier article, this can often be something as simple as just asking them between duels. Let's say you thought he might have drawn a good spell on turn 7, which may have turned out to be the Counterspell he played against you on turn 10. In such a situation, I'd likely ask something like the following while sideboarding for game 2: "That seemed pretty lucky getting that Counterspell on turn 10... was it a topdeck?"

Opponent: "Nah, I drew it a few turns earlier."

Again, like code-breaking, the key is to find some manageable amount of information that you can crack, and then use that to find out even more. In the above example, you now have confirmation that you were able to spot when your opponent drew a key card. By keeping track of where he kept that card in his hand or any of the other techniques we've covered so far, you might also have gotten the confirmation in many other ways as well. And once you do have that confirmation, you're that much more likely to be able to apply it to future reactions and mannerisms from your opponent. The more you get to know your opponent's behavior, the easier it will get to learn when he's not quite acting right. Fifty minutes is a lot of time to gain information like this!

Along that line by the way, you'll almost never see me concede a game if there's another game with that opponent following, unless time is an issue. The reason is that, even in a completely "lost" situation, there is often plenty of information about the opponent to be gained! Look at it this way - if you were willing to just give up anyway, you clearly have nothing to lose. This can be incredibly liberating, and allows you to take all kinds of wacky risks just to see how your opponent reacts to them. Put him through his paces, observe how he handles everything, and take advantage of the fact that you have nothing to lose!

This has helped me on a number of occasions, and a couple times I've ended up actually winning these "unwinnable" games, solely because the craziness I starting embarking on either confused my opponent or just made it that much easier for them to blow the game somehow. Even if you lose, you hopefully gain not only additional information on how your opponent handles various situations, but also the added benefit that your own play is probably completley baffling! "Why on earth did he attack with everything? Surely he knew he would lose?" When it comes to stuff like this, respect no one, and grab every potentially informative opportunity available. There are many, many situations like this that occur in a typical Magic duel, whether it's bluffing combat tricks, potential counter-magic, or practically anything else for that matter. And next time you try something crazy against this opponent, he may not realize that this time it's for real...

Body Language

Another potentially lucrative area of observation falls under body language. This can get even more subjective than other topics we've covered in this series, so rather than go too much into depth, I'll instead give you a quick look at the things I tend to watch for. I've already repeated this to death, but just remember that the key to improving at these things is by doing your best to apply these skills, see what works and why, and then build from there. It takes effort, but it's a hell of a lot easier than most playtesting regimens, and will definitely get easier with time and familiarity.

Respect no one, and grab every potentially informative opportunity available...

The main thing I watch for in terms of body language is the overall manner in which they hold themselves in their chair. Are they upright and alert? Slouched? Bored looking? Or maybe excited? Once I have a handle on this, I try to see if there are any patterns. Some players will sit a lot farther forward in their chair when anticipation gets to them, and many won't even realize it. Regardless, typically a pattern exists, and patterns are the point of all this.

If you can associate specific behaviors and mannerisms with specific attitudes or moods, you become that much more likely to gain an informational edge regarding actual cards in hand. Was this guy despondent when you smashed him in the final turns of game 1, slumped all the way back into his chair, shoulders slouched, head hanging a little? If so, how come here in game 2 it looks like he's on the ropes again, and yet he's still looking completely alert this time around? Without getting into specifics, it's more than likely that he's not in as bad a shape as you may have thought - or least, that's what he thinks. Regardless, this alone may give you some very important clues as to the possible contents of his hand.

Other common things I watch for are how they hold their shoulders, whether they bounce their knees or heels (and how much), if their hands shake, and how quickly or slowly they draw their cards off of the deck in both good and bad game positions. Match any of these to a pattern and suddenly you've got your own Glasses of Urza. I've had many games where opponents telegraphed the condition of their hand, and in a game of inches like Magic, that can make all the difference all on its own.

The Setup

One important thing that needs to be addressed here is backfires. Once you start actually using this kind of information to influence your strategic decisions, you become (in theory) more vulnerable to someone actually setting you up to be taken advantage of. In practice however, I've found that this seems to happen only very rarely, and mostly only to players who were too obvious in their observations in the first place. Once you have enough practice, it shouldn't be too difficult to keep your observation discrete. Even with the threat of this kind of thing backfiring, I can't possibly imagine this happenings often enough to counteract all of the gains you'll pick up against most other players. While I'm pretty sure that at least a couple other Pros have used this observation to set me up, I'm damned near positive that I've gained far more than I've lost.

Along those lines, if and when you do get the hang of this, for God's sake don't tell people! The whole point here is discretion, and the minute your opponent realizes what you're doing, your job will get far more difficult. There's actually a very good reason for this - If your opponent is concerned that you're trying to read their actions, guess what?

They become self-aware!

A fairly well-known example of this happened at GP Boston about a season and a half ago. Kurt Hahn (of 5-color fame) was having a great run at this Limited event, and reportedly wowed several opponents (along with Randy Buehler, who reported on the phenomena) by naming the cards they had drawn, based on their reactions. The buzz went through the whole event in short order, and eventually even got reported on the Sideboard by Randy. If Kurt wasn't all that serious about being a serious competitor, all the power to him. Magic is a great game, and he has more fun than most players I've run into. Personally though, as a player who's in it for the sheer joy of competition, I can't imagine letting people know that I've got that kind of advantage over them. Why give it away?! For those of you trying to make it to the tour and compete seriously, just remember that a good magician never gives away his tricks. If they don't know you've got an advantage, they're not very likely to be able to do anything about it.

- Scott Johns