Gerard Fabiano
11/3/2005
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Let me start off by saying if you are looking for a deck list in this article I apologize, because there won't be one. My fellow writers took care of that last week with a great array of decks for your local Champs events. What I am going to discuss is something on a different level. Now I want everyone to think about something. Think about what would be different about you if you never touch a Magic card. I sometimes think about it and I realized that I wouldn't have any of the skills I learned through the game of Magic. Skills such as how to read people, how to take calculated risks, how to strategize a specific format, or the most important one of all, how to get four beds in a hotel room with only two beds in it. Your basic plan for this is to take the mattress off both beds and put them on the floor, so that you now have two mattresses and two box springs which most of the time are just as comfortable. However, beyond this, most importantly we have learned the art of bluffing. If you haven't learned it yet this article will be a start. I will show you some of the greatest bluffs I have ever seen so that you might be able to learn from them.

“Bluff Masta, Bluff Fasta, Bluff Bluff Bluff” was the song we sung to Gabriel Nassif on the train in London after the Pro Tour had ended. You see Nassif won round five of the PT in a game where if he didn't take this calculated risk, or bluff, he would have no shot at winning.

What happened was that his opponent tapped out and played a turn five Kumano, Master Yamabushi and still had four cards in his hand. Nassif had down only an Okiba-Gang Shinobi. Nassif untapped, drew his card, and attacked with his Shinobi. His opponent thought for a second, took a look at Nassif's five untapped lands and took three damage, pitching two lands from his hand. Nassif's hand was just Moss Kami, Feral Deceiver, and two lands. Nassif didn't have any way to kill the Kumano and if his opponent blocked Nassif would have basically lost the game on the spot.

Nassif wound up winning that game all because of the risk he took that his opponent wouldn't block. Nassif knew that once the Kumano hit the table he was in trouble, because he had used the only removal spell that he had drafted (Kagemaro's Clutch) on his opponent's Elder Pine of Jukai earlier in the game, so Nassif decided that his only chance of winning was to gamble on the chance his opponent would be fearing Inner Calm or such. He put himself in his opponent's shoes and thought that if he had the Kumano he wouldn't want to lose it to a growth spell either. Nassif is one of the best players in the world so why would he attack? He knows that a 3/2 dies to a 4/4 in the game of Magic, but he thought on a different level and won the match because of it.

Bluffing is all about the risk/reward ratios of both you and your opponents. What are you giving up versus what you can gain. For example, attacking with a 2/2 into a really good 3/3 or 4/4 in draft, often you have to think about what your opponent is risking. Which is why many of the best bluffs are for what appear to be small gains. Sometimes you bluff in two damage, but sometimes you risk tons for only a moderate gain so the person has to assume you have something.

Now you also have to think about the following. We'll use a little example for this one. Your opponent has down a Humble Budoka and you have a Sakura-Tribe Scout. You do not want to attack with your Tribe Scout. That's obvious you can say. “Why would I attack my 1/1 into his 2/2?” Well, I gave reason above, but in this case even if your opponent thinks you might a giant growth spell, his Humble Budoka isn't as valuable to him as your growth spell and the mana it will cost you to cast. Therefore, before you bluff you have to make sure what you are representing is worth less than what your opponent is giving up.

One of the greatest bluff masters of all time in the history of Magic is Jon Finkel. This is the type of bluff where if these two guys were on a basketball court Kai's shoe laces would be tied together with him standing there in nothing but his tighty whites, and his pants would somehow be around Marco's ankles….scary site. The first individual Pro Tour I played in was New Orleans 2001, where I got to watch Jon Finkel play verse Kai Budde. Finkel was running a red-white-blue deck nicknamed "Star Spangled Slaughter" and Kai was playing Donate. Midway through game 2 Kai tried to Stroke of Genius for five, Finkel countered, then Kai countered back, then it happened, Finkel showed everyone why Finkel was Finkel, but only Finkel knew what was going.

He had three mana left over, while Kai had two. Finkel's untapped lands were two Islands and a Volcanic Island. Finkel “fingered” (I barely noticed it and I was watching this game so closely I felt like I was physically on the Volcanic Island surrounded by hot lava) his Volcanic Island for about a tenth of a second. Something that 99.9% of the people would do if they had a Pyroblast in their hand. Finkel then immediately played another counterspell with his two Islands, leaving just his Volcanic open for his Pyroblast. Kai now had the following options.

Option 1 was to give up on the counter war, this is the worst option for Kai because his hand contained a counter spell and a Pyroblast.

Option 2 was showing the world why he is Kai Budde. I knew that Finkel had erred when he fingered his Volcanic Island, because Kai was too good and I knew he would know Finkel is holding a Pyroblast. Kai would now Pyrolblast Finkel's counter and win the counter war, and most likely the game, Kai's hand was Pyroblast, Hydroblast, and Mana Leak. Since Kai knew Finkel had a Pyroblast he wanted to use his own Pyroblast so that Finkel couldn't counter back.

Man! Kai is good…but Jon Finkel was a whole lot better. Finkel just made the best bluff I have ever seen and showed this to everyone by tapping his Volcanic Island and Hydroblasting Kai's Pyroblast. The way Finkel bluffed was just amazing, I mean even if Finkel was showing me the Hydroblast I would still be thinking he had the Pyroblast with the way he “touched” the dual land during the counter war. The way he did it he wasn't trying to let Kai see him do this, but the way he did it he knew Kai would. Let's just put it this way. Jon could have won an Oscar.

Now this is what most of us are trying to become, masters of the game we love, but how? Are we born this way or will we learn it through experience? To be honest I am not sure if some are born with the natural talent, but I know for sure that you can learn from experience and others. Remember it is more important to know WHY someone who is really good chose this deck, rather than just knowing what deck he chose. Winning or losing is second to learning.

At Worlds this past year in San Francisco I went out to eat with a bunch of players and Bill Stead joined us. He was having a rough weekend as his record was something like 1-9-2, but Bill wouldn't let that keep him down. As we were eating we started telling stories and such. Then he brought up this question “How many of you guys look at your opponents graveyard just to look at it?” I didn't think much of it as some said yes and some no. Then I realized I did it before and I am sure others did it against me as well. So make sure that you are not one who does this, if you are asking to see your opponent graveyard, make sure when you're doing this you're taking mental notes. Such as how many counters are used, how many could he be playing, how many lands are in his graveyard and then look to see how many are in play on his side. This small bit of advice I still use and remember with me today and when I play I make sure I am looking at my opponent's graveyard for a reason and not just for the art work.

Your Lands are Spells and Your Spells are Lands

Now remember. When you draw your card for your turn almost always shuffle it into your hand. I say almost always because my good friend Jon Sonne thinks it's best to devastate your opponent if you just draw a really good card to try to get your opponent on Tilt . I remember back at Pro Tour Boston with my team Slay-Pillage-Gerard, I would run this play sometimes. I would have 1 morph in my hand and on turn three I would tap three lands then take a land card from my hand and start putting it towards the table face down, then stop and say “ hmm I play this instead” and take the land card back and place down a morph. This would now put the thought into my opponents mind that I have another morph in my hand, when I really didn't. Little bluffs like this will always keep your opponent's guessing and off guard.

Making your opponent think that he lost is better than making him think you won. Ah, back to Jon Finkel, this story takes place back around the 1999-2000 PT season. Jon played verses Tom Van de Logt in the draft portion at Worlds. Finkel had just a pinger in play, along with a few other creatures on the ground. Tom had his own army of creatures and a Wandering Eye. Wandering Eye is a 1/3 flyer that forces both players to play with their hand revealed. Tom was low on life and it was his turn. He drew his card for the turn, and with the card he just drew and what was in play he had the win on board. So, what's the problem then? Well, he didn't see it. Finkel sure did, but he kept his cool. Tom passed the turn and Finkel pinged him again bringing him to two life. He now needed to survive one more turn. Jon said go and when Tom drew his card for the turn Jon yelled “YES!” and high fived an onlooker. Tom scooped up his cards and Jon won the match. Bluff masta? Or buffoonery from Tom? Either way Jon was able to think on the fly and get creative to help Tom scoop up his cards.

Now I can go on and tell you the time I didn't play a turn one Top verses my best buddy Antonino, but that's not necessary. I just wanted to point out there are no set guidelines for Magic and playing with your gut feeling is a must in combination with everything else. However, I will leave you with a few more bluff masta stories.

At PT Nice Benedikt Klauser had a blue/black draft deck verses a black/blue draft deck. This was Odyssey Block Limited. His opponent played a turn one Mental Note and a turn two Rotting Giant, then he drew his card and called the judge over and asked if he could talk to the judge in private. Klauser didn't have any question for the judge, he knew that Stupefying Touch doesn't stop the Rotting Giant, so he just told the judge that he liked his shirt. Then he walked back with a smile on his face and played the Touch on the Giant. Touch doesn't stop Giant. He knew that but he had this little acting bit planned out and it worked, as the Giant never attacked him for the whole game. Now if he just played the Touch his opponent would have called the judge over and said “Hey judge, can I still attack?” The judge would have told him yes and Klauser would have lost the game to the Giant.

Chad Ellis was playing the Mono-Blue Draw-Go match up. His opening hand contained seven islands. He knew how the match was going to play out and knew that mana was very important in this match up. For the first four turns both players just played land, then on Chad's turn five he didn't play a land. Since every card he had drawn so far was a land he was open to any spell his opponent plays. So, by him missing a land drop his opponent got the impression that Chad's hand was filled with counters and didn't cast anything. Chad eventually drew spells and won a game that he would have lost if he didn't make the move he did.

Or the time Olle Rade had eight cards in his hand and discarded a counterspell, keeping seven lands. His opponent then scooped and said “Man! Your hand must be insane!”

Remember to think outside the box, never concede until you have lost, and good luck at your upcoming tournaments and .

Oh yeah, and remember to bluff, or maybe not…bluff masta!!!!!!!
Gerard Fabiano