My claim to fame is that I once met someone who played against the legendary Brian Weissman. I was told that Brian played most meticulously: His lands were regularly spaced and tapped by 90 degrees for mana. Cards were placed carefully on the table, and when appropriate, put into the clearly identified graveyard and "removed from game" piles. His game looked exceptionally neat and tidy.

I contrast this with a recent player I saw. Lands, placed at various random angles, overlapped with creatures. Creature enchantments wandered freely around the board. Life totals and fading counters were both kept by cards that flowed towards the library and graveyard. Spells were slammed onto the table, making creatures (and even lands) jump with fright. The whole scene was a mess. It came as little surprise when this player made mistakes about his available mana, his life totals, fading counters, etc., and eventually lost the game after a heated argument with a judge.

As a result of this and other experience, I believe that the physical organisation of your cards affects the quality of your play. Having invested a few pints of beer to improve this aspect of my play, the following ideas emerged from the alcoholic haze:

Echo And Other Upkeep Costs
Put enough tapped lands underneath the permanent with echo/upkeep to be able to pay the upkeep cost. This is a visual reminder that the cost must be paid. However, don't forget that sometimes it's better to pay this cost with different mana. Alternately, put a counter on the library to remind yourself to pay costs before drawing a card. This is a more general reminder and can be helpful with cards like Masticore that don't have mana upkeep costs.

Fading and Parallax Cards
Rant #1:
Some people feel uncomfortable playing with a potential maximum of only sixty cards on the table. They insist on adding extra cards at every possible moment as fading counters, life markers, tokens and on occasions as beer mats and burger holders, etc. Please help to stamp out this sad, confused practise. Whenever you see someone using a junk card as a counter or token, please tear that card to pieces. Not only does this assist evolution in Dominia, but you also get real tokens to play with.

Having established that you will be using real counters for fading, there is the question of how to treat the cards removed from the game with Parallax Tide/Wave/Nexus. You could just turn the cards over where they are - however, if you have many Tides and Waves in play at the same time it's important to know which tide removed which land, and so on. A far better solution is to put each card removed from the game under the parallax card concerned. This has the additional advantage of helping everyone remember what cards were removed.

Phasing, Poison And Enchantments That Become Creatures
For both of those Extended players who read this article, you should treat phasing by simply turning the card over. Poison can be handled using counters. Enchantments that become creatures can have their status shown by placing a counter on them. I think of the counter as being an M&M. When the M&M is on its side, it looks like a letter E for enchantment.

Rant #2
Do not use real sweets. Initial trials with sweets proved disastrous, leaving the author bloated or starved, depending on his topdecking ability. Changing deck design to ensure adequate sugar intake proved a Tier 2 strategy, although the experience showed that chocolate has an unusual affinity for rare and good uncommon cards.

Enchantments And Artifacts
Normally enchantments of creatures or permanents get put under the permanent they enchant. It seems reasonable to use this practice for artifacts that change permanents for longer periods than "until end of turn," e.g. Flowstone Armour, if you leave it on a creature rather than killing something.

Also, don't forget that when an enchanted creature attacks, only the creature is tapped, NOT the enchantment. This can be an important distinction when spells like Tangle Wire are frequently played.

When enchanting other players' creatures, as with Shackles, it is very easy to forget your cards at the end of the game. Of course, try not to forget, but you can also put your cards into a colour of sleeves that few other people use. (When will someone produce ferret grey?) That way your card is likely to be very visible in your opponent's deck.

Tokens
Whenever your game generates tokens, you should have something to act as tokens. Unglued cards, plastic dinosaurs and credit cards have all been used. When you have a sheetload of tokens, dice help to count those that are tapped and those that are not.

Standard Layout
On ESPN2, players use a mat with standard positions marked for graveyard, library etc. so that the cameras and commentators can more easily follow the game. While I am not suggesting this level of dedication for everyone, it is helpful to lay your cards in a standard way so that you can quickly find all relevant permanents, spells in the graveyard etc. Here's the layout that I use:

First, place the library to one side, out of the way. Place the graveyard next to it, ideally as an overlapping line of cards with all the spells visible to keep track of what you have played.

Putting creatures furthest from you and closest to your opponent makes declaring attackers and blockers just a little bit easier. Land can be kept in one area, and artifacts and global enchantments in another. The "removed from play" pile is as far away from the game as reasonably possible whilst still keeping the cards safe.

Summary
I hope that you find the ideas above to be useful and that the following suggestions improve your play:

• Keep your cards neat
  
• Use a standard layout for your game
  
• Have counters, dice, paper and pens available when you play
  

Who knows? Maybe you'll become the next Brian Weissman.

Good luck

Garfield Dean.