To Play your land for the turn or not?

Playing a land for the turn is something that many people do automatically without thinking too much about it. However sometimes you have no use for the mana that turn so keeping the land in hand conceales information from your opponent. He now has to consider the unknown quantity. Now, keeping the land can punish you. Lets say you have 2 lands in hand and 4 in play. By keeping the lands in hand you cant play a topdecked 6drop next turn.

Sometimes people play their land when they shouldnt, for example if someone is in tpdeckmode with 9 land in play. They draw their 10th land and immediatly plays it even if they have no use for it. It can be correct to do that but only in specific circumstances. Otherwise its betetr to hold it to keep information from your opponent.

There is a rule  (that has some exceptions) that you can always keep 1 land in hand to bluff. The reason is that if you need the land you can just play it next turn. If you draw a land next turn you just play out one of them and you are in the same position as the turn before.

However as with all rules it has exceptions. I remember a long time ago i was playing an Avacyn restored draft and i kept 1 land in hand to bluff, the only card in my hand. My opponent then played Into the Void his next turn (It bounces 2 creatures) For my next turn  i topdecked a land and since i didnt play my land last turn I couldnt play both my creatures and i lost.

Reasons to keep a land:

To bluff

To be able to discard them to certain card (Tormenteffects, cards with activated abilities that require discard, Brainstorm

Reasons to not keep a land:

Bouncespells

Opponent may discard your land and suddenly you topdeck a card you need the mana for.

You may topdeck a carddrawspell (Hieroglyphic illumination) and draw into a a land and a spell you need all your lands for.

This is a tricky subject, but at the very least, just dont play your land every turn automatically.

Today i am going to discuss some cards that lose value once a Limited format is reaching towards its dusk and end of the format. These are cards that derive some of their value from their surprise factor and thus lose value once people are more aware of their existence.

A classic exampe is Aethertow from shadowmoor.

3 U/W (hybrid) Instant. Conspire (You may tap 2 creatures that share a color with this card. if you do, copy it)

 Put target attacking or blocking creature on top of its owners library.

At the prerelease and the first weeks of the format, this card was often a massive blowout. People didnt read the signals when their opponent left 2 creatures untapped and 4 mana. A double timewalk was the result. Once people were avare of it, they played around it by only attacking with one creature, not attacking at all, or bouncing opps creature precombat  more aggressively.

Some example from Amonkhet/Hour of Devastation.

Sandblast/Impeccable timing/ FarmMarket

These cards are still fine, but especially timing and sandblast are more telelegraphed now and you can sometimes just avoid an attack altogether or just attaxck with creatures that survive them. They were way better when your opponents always walked into them.

Aven Reedstalker:

People rarely gets their 2/2:s ambushed with this card nowadays, when their opponent is showing a blue mana and 3 generic open. if they atatck into it, they usually have a response.

The Torment cards: If you play against black, its often wise to hold some lands in your hand for the scenario when your opponent casts one of these. Also, people have now surely realized that you can sacrifice cartouches attached to the creature thats gets killed by Torment of Venom. Again, its not like these cards have suddenly become bad, just lost some of their value.

Appeal//Authority: Great card, Still, whenever i play against green/white, i usually trade creatures way more aggresively that against other color combinations because of this card. It makes it lose value. It also makes me think twice about racing against Green/White.

Conclusion: Spells that are somewhat situational lose some of their value later in a format. Creatures usually are unaffected by this.

Luck has no memory. If you roll a 5 on a dice you are as likely (1/6) to do it the next time you roll. Therefore, you would think that win streaks and loss streaks shouldnt happen in MTG. However they do in my opinion. The reason is how it affects your play. When youre winning a lot, you tend to win more and more. And the reverse is also true for losing.

It is because when you are winning you tend to make better decisions. When you are losing however, you tend to make bad decisions and also make some of gthe following:

1) Play too conservatively and scared.

2) Play too reckless and attack to aggressively.

3) Give up too early. Both conceding not yet lost games as well as mentally giving up.

How do we combat the downswings? One thing i like to do is to take a small break from playing. a week or two is usually enough. When you come back you tend to have a fresh clear mind that has been reset and now you are back to making good decisions again.

You can also be proactive and not care about losing as much. This can be easier said than done. One way is too play magic online, If you play on magic online you will lose a lot, simply because you tend to play a lot more. The  more you play, the more you will lose (and win) It like when we combat fear, we expose yourself to the things we fear, and little by little, hopefully the fear goes away.