Once the club duffer challenged the local golf pro to a match, with a $100 bet on the side."But," said the duffer,"since you're obviously much better then I, to even it a bit you have to spot me two 'gotchas.'"

The golf pro didn't know what a"gotcha" was, but he went along with it.

And off they went. Coming back to the 19th hole, the rest of the club members were amazed to see the golf pro paying the duffer $100.

"What happened?" asked one of the members.

"Well,"said the pro."l was teeing up for the first hole, and as l brought the club down, the jerk stuck his hand between my legs and grabbed my balls while yelling"Gotcha!"

Have you ever tried to play 18 holes of golf waiting for the second 'gotcha?'"

I always find it amazing the sheer number of places that you can find inspiration for your Magic game. This here is a great joke, but the underlying meaning is one of the most important lessons you can learn when playing Magic.

Well, I suppose to start off, I should probably say that I am not your average, run of the mill, friendly Magic player. I give respect where it is deserved, and I'll more often than not be seen at the pub having a beer with all of my opponents, but this is a sport. If you think that it isn't a sport, then you're reading the wrong article, and you should focus on the casual side of Magic.

One of the fundamentals of sport is to play hard and play fair. At the top levels it is expected of you to do everything you can that is within the rules of the game to win. Professional football players have all of the trash talk, all of the nasty attitude, all of the fire you could ever put into someone's belly when they are playing, and they are truly heroes. After the game, the same Defensive Tackle that drilled the Quarterback for four sacks, screaming in his face every time he rubs some more dirt into the QB's jersey, 150 kilos of pure muscle driving a mere 85 kilos farther and farther into the ground with all the malice and all the anger in the world, walks over, shakes his hand and pats him on the back, both of them all smiles. I suppose I'm kinda that same defensive tackle when it comes to Magic.

Magic, like any sport, is played hard and on many more levels than just playing the cards correctly, and you need to do everything you can to get your opponents to make the wrong decisions.

I'm going to lead with some examples and then explain the theory behind them. I feel that the points are better explained this way, and you will gain a better understanding of the thought processes that go on in both players heads.

In the sixth round of Pro Tour: Venice, my first PT, I was paired against another player who was also playing his first PT. We are both 3-2 at this point, making this an elimination match. As we sit down, I'm pretty nervous, my stomach was turning and I'm pretty sure I was sweating quite a lot, but this didn't change my attitude at the table.

I sat down calmly and started talking to my opponent, trying as hard as I could to not show any adverse emotion. As we got talking, I found out he was playing his first Pro Tour, so I asked him:

"Are you nervous?"

"A little," he replied, shakily.

All of a sudden, the stomach turning went away, I went from a bit shaky to calm and collected and I replied"Yeah, you should be, this is probably the most important game of Magic you have played in your life"

He was visibly shaken at this, and consequently his game was affected, he played overcautiously in the first game, and kept a hand that he shouldn't have in the second.

The play example I'll use from this is form the first game. He had Exalted Angel face down on the third turn and swings on the fourth, while I reply with Ravenous Baloth. The turn after he swings, whilst in my turn, I attack and play another Baloth. Now, he will win this race, all things equal, and all he needs to do is chill out and he'll win the game, but instead he attacks, and casts Starstorm for four, killing my Baloths (I gain eight in the process).

My only out in this game is to play Akroma or Akroma's Vengeance, so I untap and cast the Vengeance. So instead of losing my Baloths in the process, leaving him with Starstorm, the Angel I cast on the following turn goes all the way.

His nervousness caused him to make an over-conservative play, losing his only out to my angels other than Astral Slide and his own Vengeance. He needed to view the situation from an attacking point, rather than a defensive one, and I'm almost certain he would have won that game.

Was my comment inappropriate? Of course not. He didn't exactly have to tell me he was nervous, he could have responded with"nah, not really, why do you ask?" and put himself on the front foot in the psychological battle. I opened myself up to a lot of trash talk in reply if he had chosen to do so, but instead in his nervous state I pushed him further into the hole, provoking him to some cautious play at inappropriate times, and won the game because of it.

It's like at the opening point of the game, I reached between his legs and started yelling"Gotcha!"

At the time I cast the Vengeance, I made sure that I had a tone in my voice telling him that he had made a horrible play, and that he was going to be punished for it by losing this game. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. If your opponent makes a mistake, you need to let them know that you have noticed it, you know how bad it was, and you will punish the error with all your malice. A lot of the time, you will notice that their game is drastically altered, and they will begin to over-think their plays, making sure they do everything correct in a procedural manner, and it will scare them off making big, complicated plays, as they feel they will do something wrong and, more importantly, that you will notice, and you will make the correct play to punish them appropriately.

At New Zealand Nationals last year, in the seventh round, I was playing against a Madness player. It was his third turn, and I had an Anurid Brushhopper in play, he had a Wild Mongrel. He then turned his Mongrel sideways and says:

"Discard Wonder, attack for three."

I reply with,"sure, I take three."

He says,"No, before damage I'll discard my Arrogant Wurm and cast it, you take four."

I tell him that I think I only take three damage, as he had specified that he was"attacking for three" and since I had no play (I was tapped out) and no block (he had Wonder), I was passing in the declare attackers phase anyway, and his insinuation that he was attacking for three meant that he did not have any effects in the declare blockers step. I explained this to a judge who said that my interpretation, while being one interpretation of events, was not the ruling that he would give, since the intention was clear that he wanted to attack and pump twice with his madness outlets, and that I would take four damage. Whilst I didn't agree with the ruling, I made no fuss over it, I thanked the judge for his ruling and went on playing the game.

My opponent however, was visibly rattled throughout this entire exchange. He saw that not only was I not afraid to call a judge and have something ruled against me, (in fact this is the exact reason that you do call a judge, to clarify a difference in opinion, but some people still get stressed out when a competent judge rules against them), but that I would be listening to every little thing he said, and if he got the order of things wrong (for example,"sure, I take four and then save my Mongrel," too late man), I would pounce on the opportunity to punish him for the error.

Later in the match, it was now 1-1 and my opponent was under a lot of pressure. He was stabilizing the game with Equilibrium but he was not in complete control yet. So he activated his Merfolk Looter and drew two cards.

Game loss.

He was at the point that he was unable to focus correctly on playing the game, and when he activated his Looter he was staring at the Careful Study in his hand. Somehow, his chain of thought got put out of place, due to his inability at the time to focus on more than one thing.

It was like I was standing behind him when he was teeing off on the second hole, and he couldn't stop thinking about the possibility that I would just all of a sudden dive for his crotch. [Why does that remind me of high school? - Knut]

It was the last round of Worlds '03, and I was playing Goblins WK2 against Tinker. Once again, my opponent was very stressed out, I don't know if he had ever played for much money before (if I recall it was like a $1000 US match or something), and he forgot to pay the upkeep on his Masticore. I mean, this is pretty horrible in the goblins matchup, as that guy will single-handedly win you the game a lot of the time, and I made him aware that he had made this error and that I was going to punish him for it. Later on in the match, he did it again, and once again it cost him. He was so concerned about what he was going to do next turn, that he completely forgot about his upkeep and Pillaged his own Masticore, along with handing me the win in a couple of turns.

By stressing out your opponent, you are dragging his attention away from where it should be (on his game), and forcing him to think too hard about the correct procedure. When they have to start thinking about playing the game again, the procedure goes right out the window, because it just takes too much effort to think that hard about so many variables, whilst still maintaining your composure.

My advice to you? Don't put yourself into a situation where you are so stressed that you can't make complex decisions in a game. Find your happy place, find your bubble, and don't let anyone get inside it when your playing, because when you do, you are going to lose every time.

On the flipside, you always have to find your opponent's weak point in their bubble, break through it, and start breaking windows, tagging up the walls, and playing loud, obnoxious music. I know I find it hard to think when someone's in my space, and I'm already aware of the mind games.

One last thing. This is not a method that you should employ at Friday night Magic, a local store tournament, a pre-release or any other event where the goal of the tournament it solely to have fun, not to win. This is the sort of game you should be playing at PTQ's, Grand Prix, and Pro Tours, not at the local card store on a Tuesday night. If you start throwing this stuff around there, you need to get a life and learn to teach players who are worse than you to play the game, not make them feel like they are two inches tall.

So get your game on next time, and remember, it's pretty hard to play anything when you constantly waiting for the second Gotcha!

Till next time,

Richard Grace