How to Play Faster | The Command Zone 110

[@MichaelGrundler]

Thank you very much for this episode. As a relatively new (returning) Magic player - and completely new to Commander - this is exactly what I needed. But you might have missed one essential point: Know your deck. Learn beforehand what the cards do, especially the complex ones, and play through some of the common interactions and synergies. That's another thing I still have to work on.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

Know your deck is a good general rule, but when you're testing a deck, or playing it against real humans for the first time, it's a little harder to know exactly what you need and what's in it. But, you do have the right of it. I play my decks that I've had for 4 years a lot faster than the deck I made for the neat legendary creature that came out like a month ago.

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

While that is strictly true, for the most part you can intuit what will be good in what situation, and how to use it, using a few commonly occurring board states and staple cards as your model for working it out. Granted, for new players this is a moot point, as they haven't seen most of the cards that will be played in any given match, but for players who've been around the block a couple of times, this can increase their playing speed a lot.

[@bismuthmusic]

Please actually do a whole episode on planning your turn before it starts. This to me and others in my playgroup is one of the hardest things to learn.

[@Pyoromo]

When I play with my friends instead of yelling "Pass the turn" we have a figurine that acts as the turn key and we pass that around when we end the turn.

[@joshleekwai8895]

Wow - this is an excellent idea. I may try to institute this in our playgroup. Kudos!

[@YoannGosselin]

We do this too and it's great! But people in my LGS don't always remember to pass the turn marker XD

[@Gulaghar]

My group kinda does that when we play Planechase, since we only have one Planar die. Maybe it'd be a good idea to do something like that all the time. I kinda like that.

[@danielwomer]

I'm self-admittedly a slow player, so this podcast was very helpful for me. Thanks! I'll be trying out several of these tricks next game.

[@coltonkinder1424]

Perfect example of reading the card as you cast it: Soul Snared an opponent's Atraxa attack, and then had to deal with bitterness, because "I wouldn't have attacked if I knew you could do that."

[@Circadius9080]

My group started doing "Not it!" when someone goes to declare attackers step. That usually works for the first couple of turns till bigger things hit the board

[@stevewalsh7973]

That edit to go alongside with "landlandlandlandland go" +1 well done

[@courtneyyaple7675]

my group is pretty honest. we don't even typically ask. we tell "im fetching and doing this. unless you have a response, im doing this"

[@custersword7746]

You mentioned it in part 1 but didn't highlight the point Have a general plan the whole time you're playing and it can change as you play but keep it in mind Early game plays: lands, ramps, get presence summoning one or two attack, defense, or utility monster including the commander. Mid game plays: maintain or restore presence when opponent board wipes, always see if you can cast your commander and only keep it in the command zone if it is somehow your only path to win the game, board wipe or snipe cards that will kill you. If a card isn't going to kill you, don't worry about it Late game plays: get your motor running and make the game winning plays you designed to make with the deck

[@Spacebunnie777]

i sent this link to my playgroups facebook chat group, i think we could all benefit from this, as we have been averaging 2 sometimes 3 games in 6 hours lately lol

[@joshleekwai8895]

That's awesome to hear! Hopefully the episode helps you all out. Let us know how they like the show!

[@brianstephens7572]

In my group, we refer to the player as 'Slow' when we feel like a players' turn is taking to long. The unofficial title of 'Slow' gets lifted once the player plays their turn. "Go Slow." "Whose Slow now?"

[@zirezerimar3725]

when playing commander with 5 or more players, we use a "call the 1 minute timer" rule, if everyone feels that the turn is taking too long, we put a 1 minute timer and when it ends, the turn ends

[@groadytoady4292]

To speed a game up my playgroup sometimes pretends we're going to be eaten by zombies unless we complete our turns within 30 to 60 seconds. Super fast and funny commentary.

[@harrybenjamin8202]

my group incorporates the "no cell phone rule". it works fairly well we use it for d and d too.

[@JesseDaGriffin]

Came back to watch because I was told by the 300th episode I owe it to myself and my playgroup 😉

[@nickleewright]

hehe, you guys were talking about deciding who to attack. that is one thing that my wife hates to try to decide. as a result, I made for her a purphurose deck. this way all she has to do is play her creatures, play defence a little and occasionally play a blood moon or a ruination.

[@apanapane]

Great points. Also, concidering blocking on other player's turns (before their combat) so that you know how to block if they attack you.

[@Inorisso]

One thing that can speed games up, that is related to something you brought up, is to make sure everyone got their zones and boardstate clear. I don't know how many times games have stopped for way to long because someone plays a card,, to which someone goes "Oh, then I'll play this!", and the problem wasn't that someone had the possibility to have responses but rather that people are sloppy about being clear with what mana they got and which of it is untappped. The same goes with keeping the graveyard and the cards you have in play clearly separated; confusion is annoying and Will come up if someone has to realize that, oh, that wasn't actually in play, it's dead or exiled.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

I ALWAYS do my fetch lands either just as a "I"m fetching, your turn" or I'll do it on someone else's turn, specifically so I can speed things up. In fact I play most of my instant effects, even if they don't impact another player's turn (think tapping Krenko for goblins) on someone else's turn, and keep my turns quick and efficient. I think the biggest thing is what you hit on, plan your turn before you take it. You will know your board state, you will know your hand, and you can make adjustments on the fly as you see what's going on around the table as it happens. The ONLY variable you should have to think about is the card you draw for your turn, which should a quick "is playing this better than what I had planned?" if the answer is no, proceed with your previous plan.

[@Kestral287]

We try to make liberal use of shortcuts to speed things along and getting that to catch on has helped a lot; a lot of it is things that you guys have mentioned, like combining searches (or at least skipping shuffles in between) and pre-planning turns. If we know you're not going to respond to things and it's a 5-6 man game, we don't even mind you glancing at the top card of your deck ahead of time. Me knowing the top card of my deck is a Forest might be normally relevant, but when the only creature on my board is Meren and all my lands are tapped it really doesn't matter, and if it helps me go "untap, draw, land, play E-Wit, get back this, play it, sac E-Wit to High Market, return E-Wit with Meren, get back this, pass turn" faster, sure. Without that Forest on top I might not have known what other card I wanted. because I anticipated tapping the High Market to cast E-Wit in the first place. We don't always do that, but especially when one player's board state is complicated and you're not really interacting, it's easier on everybody to just get it gone. We do have problems with people saying 'pass turn' loud enough, or people just not catching it because they're distracted. Amusingly a lot of the time that I miss that, it's because I'm plotting my next turn to try not to make things take too long. The one problem that I'd like to figure out is a couple players who are tapped out or otherwise can't respond take way too long to consider responses. I understand that Force of Will, Pact of Negation, and Daze are cards, but we do have a couple players who will look over a card and sit and think when they don't even have the card. The tactical value of bluffing Force is not nearly worth it. I do love that you point out how tiny the percentage advantage/disadvantages are of some of these things. Watching people get annoyed because I slid a Forest under my Sakura-Tribe Elder in the understanding that I would sac it when needed and then got Wheel'd is not fun and just wastes time, but that actually happened one time. Also Overwatch is awesome. :D

[@cjhardlockz5234]

So that was the first time I listened all the way until the last few seconds of the video. Super glad I did. "Greetings Humans!" :P

[@coreybent4478]

As far as fetching via tutors, our playgroup typically grabs the card(s), then passes, then shuffles during other players' turns. This isn't as efficient as grabbing the tutor on another player's turn, but it assures that nobody is influenced as the board state changes.

[@samneal2603]

I think one of the main thing that speeds up play is explaining exactly what is happening in certain scenarios. I've played with so many people who talk about their gameplay so ambiguously that we have to sit for 5 minutes like "Wait. What's happening? I might have a response?" Also, having players wait for a someone to declare all their attacks before announcing blockers and then blocking in turn order really reduces confusion and speeds things along.

[@joshleekwai8895]

Oh I like the structuring of combat like that. Good idea!

[@DonovanPresents]

Another thing that takes forever is when someone copies time stretch like two or three times...

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

Not necessarily. It just means the player is taking more turns in a row. He can still play them quickly.

[@RC-go2kl]

In a commander game, this guy played a perilous vault and then tapped it right away. He saw the fuck up with his play and right away he scoops up the perilous vault and drops the another spell from his hand stating he meant to play that instead. Me and my buddy are laid back and are pretty forgiving. But that was a nope from us. He tried to explain that he didn't tap his mana for the vault so it wasn't actually in play, but we told him that the spell was announced and it landed on the field AND tapped to activate. We're nice guys, and don't like arguing, but we appreciate if you take your hard knocks like everyone else, and it'll help you be a better player.

[@Gulaghar]

My one group just about has a no take backs rule, except the rule is "everyone gets one". We're just a bit forgiving, since it's true that it's easy to forget things, but you better sharpen up after the first time.

[@maxpower2480]

So if you would get to draw a card after searching & shuffling, you can just let another player pick a random card from your deck before shuffling instead, finish your turn and then, after passing to the next player, properly randomize your deck. Saves a lot of time and doesn't create the same (dis-)advantages as your suggestions.

[@joeyflint7232]

A common thing that we do is that on the first turn, everyone just plays their lands out of order and just skip there turn when it comes to it. This is especially efficient when someone is fetching or has a play turn 1.

[@ericpitzeruse6047]

One thing that helps phase triggers for our group is announcing the steps at the start.

[@jamesus27]

We do a half scry so we can plan our next turn. We also do turn dice for the first 3 turns if someone Mulligan's.

[@MortonGoldthwait]

I always let my opponent finish tutoring before I take my turn. While searching, they could change their mind based on what cards I play.

[@custersword7746]

If my turn comes after yours and I play an instant speed tutor before your turn is over, I reserve the right to change my mind based on the knowledge I would have gained from playing it just before the end of turn. If I am playing a demonic tutor during my turn I should have spent the time before my turn deciding what to grab. 9 times out of 10 your play 2 or 3 won't change things enough that the person should end up changing the card they searched for originally

[@maxpower2480]

It really should be customary to ask the playgroup weather it's cool to pull out your phone. Not because anyone should actually forbid you to use your phone, but to foster a mindset of exception instead of norm.

[@EVO1148]

Sorry only half way through so ignore this if you address it later but what about searching for basics from the bottom of your library up and then not shuffling? This is something me and my friends do because ultimately unless those bottom maybe 3 or so cards are vital to the deck's strategy and knowing they are there impacts our outlook on the entire game, knowing them doesn't really affect the outcome of the game in any way.

[@EVO1148]

Never mind you actually addressed that like a minute and a half later XD

[@MichaelBrown-ir9kl]

I started a Commander League at LGS I work at & put a time limit on it so that we could get more than one game in a night. Just knowing there was an expected time to be done by has sped up play and groups that were going 2hrs+ are now finishing games 1hr -1hr 15mins.

[@joshleekwai8895]

I think this is a big thing. Just having the conversation with your playgroup of "Hey, let's try to play fast" will speed things up a lot. Most players never even really think about the speed of play and if no one brings it up why would they?

[@MichaelBrown-ir9kl]

Well thanks to y'all it is definitely being had. One of the members of the play group posted the link in our group chat & outside of EM pulls, that's all they've talked about this week end so thanks guys

[@MichaelBrown-ir9kl]

a surprising amount of people wanted to take away take backs after listening to the episode, both for speed of play and just to become better players

[@Nappa316]

You said that commander tournaments are not common. My local store makes it a weekly event every Sat. night. The best part is the prizes. You get points for doing things in your games you then spend the points to get prizes which range from modern master packs, original Innistrad packs, and cards that are common in commander. with includes judge promos, foils, and alternate languages.

[@ctrlthstry]

Why not play a game and put it on command zone?it will be cool

[@pariahdox7963]

^^^I love love love the commander vs series and would watch every second if they did

[@natewasylik1576]

If you did not know they now do that with Game knights

[@burcelljc_2306]

@@natewasylik1576 that comment came from 2 years ago bud. ...before game knights

[@natewasylik1576]

Telling you it is know a thing if you didn’t know

[@exsimon]

@@natewasylik1576 ... social skill aren't your forte, are they

[@ApollosFury81]

Main topic starts at 1:26

[@peterbaier9678]

Toolbox commanders like zur, zirilan, or sisay (where you basically tutor on everyone of your turns at least once) are reallyyy slow to play unless you know exactly what you're looking for before you tutor. And if you know exactly what you want before u tutor, you can tell the table while youre tutoring "I'm getting this and hitting Tom with it, then I'll play this and pass". The only time where it's not this easy is when I'm tutoring twice or the thing I'm tutoring for has a etb that effects multiple people

[@tmcdon]

Thank you for the video! Please keep making podcasts!

[@ssSHIFTt]

On the topic of taking back plays: my fellas and me agreed on taking back wonky land drops only. We like it that way.

[@CreamPower]

we have a rule: take backs = take 10 life

[@CGray-pq2zm]

That's an epic house rule, i'll have to start doing that.

[@jabberwockld4316]

Lmao today I was with a loot in my head and I shuffled my hand in the deck after playing cultivate haha I felt so dumb was funny everyone laughed

[@jasonb6860]

How to play faster in edh: do not play with or against blue.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

Trust, other colors can take long turns too ;) My buddy's mono-green elf deck takes crazy long turns as the game goes on.

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

No kidding. I have a Damia Landfall deck, and usually by turn 5 or 6, I can Draw at least half of my library and play them. It quickly turns from Magic: The Gathering to Solitaire: The Gathering at that point x)

[@anthonydelfino6171]

Damia is blue, though :P

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

Anthony Delfino True, but my Damia deck doesn't play like a typical blue deck :p

[@tinierdancer]

these really help me when im sad

[@Bucket_Boy101]

It's like when I resolve Mind's Desire, I usually just sufficiently randomise my deck and proceed to flip cards off the top. It's all still randomised.

[@AVN_Raptor]

When my playgroup and me plays, and someone takes something back, they get what we call a "cheat count" and for each cheat count they have, that's one land they don't get to untap on their untap step.

[@WilhelmScreamer]

re: 20:00 Krosan grip is in as many of my decks as possible because I hate top intensely. I will abandon all threat assesment to remove thaty card because of how much I hate it. It absolutely is every bit as awful as people say.

[@AutumnMacGregor]

earlier today I had vial smasher out and I messed up with playing a signet instead of alhamerat's archive, so I ended up losing the game because I forgot the order that I should have played my hand out, so I lost the game because the person across the table had atraxia out, so when they ended up at three life, I was pissed at myself cause playing my signet when I didn't need it in place of alhamerat's archive, ended up costing me the game

[@Crimson9578]

Nothing is more fun then watching 4 combo decks play solitar to see who wins.The game is over in less than 10 mins. I hate when people don't take their turn. I was playing against this guy and he was so salty that when I said pass turn he acted like he didn't hear me.

[@-LOTO-]

I had this one game where I was playing my Narset deck and someone drops Gaddock Teeg with his Sisay tutor, and then we all forgot about him until AFTER we had completely resolved a Time Spiral. We couldn't even take that back.

[@its_CatNap]

battletags plzzzz n for MTG, I like to joke n keep the discussion on the game of commander at that time. u can talk about movies or anything that relates to a deck or card on the table keeping the focus for everyone

[@ModernVisage]

Oh~ spread the gospel, deary

[@djskype020202]

I don't know where to send questions to so I'll post it here. I'm looking for commanders that let you sit back and allow your opponents to kill each other. ex:Edric, spymaster, or gahiji. any others you can think of?

[@joshleekwai8895]

Angus Mackenzie comes to mind.

[@djskype020202]

+Josh Lee Kwai thanks. he is a great commander. he does not do quite what I'm looking for. I may just use one of the two I posted about. thanks a ton for the reply

[@aaronvanbreugel9450]

The problem is the people i play with if i used the divining top to rearrange the top then they made it shuffle they wouldnt let me rearrange again

[@mr.arcane9485]

Turns should be on timer like in chess for tournament play.

[@DonovanPresents]

Could you maybe mention tribal synergies?

[@DonovanPresents]

Like cards that are generic tribal cards

[@epee11c]

Overwatch is the best, outside of magic of course. It's quick, it's easy to jump into, tons of ability to improve (technically endlessly), and it's super polished. Fantastic game.

[@joshleekwai8895]

Totally agree. It's pretty great.

[@lightspeedasH]

what does Pot of Greed do? XD

[@cadencemayberry2431]

What does Ancestral Recall do!?

[@NamedAfterTexas]

What does a basic swamp do?

[@Danbu1988]

It let's you draw 2 cards. But there's still the question what it does... Sorry, I know this is years old but I couldn't resist to reply. x_x

[@bertones667]

Get you decks ready beforehand

[@brookelamothe9793]

Does anyone have a way to speed up a Meren deck when you have a whole bunch of end step triggers do you just let the next player go and figure it out during their turn?

[@TNTturtle5]

Jimmy! You're revealing Eldritch Moon stuff?! Saw it on the Gatherer main page, and I was like 'Hey! I know that person!' xD

[@maximilianlopez196]

I think yall forgot the number one rule imo. Know your deck. Great players will know 90% of cards in magic, but even beginners can understand every card in their own deck. That seems like a gimmie but understanding your own deck takes time and experience.

[@GellarFieldEngineer]

Suggesting people goldfish their decks on their own time can help speed up games as well.

[@salmonking007]

Just don't play 20 tutors and/or know what you're searching for. That should cut back on most wasted time. if you're playing with an indecisive person, expect to play a multi-hour game because of them.

[@Mirphise]

Tutors are not a problem in my play group, but we have 2 indecise and inexperient players

[@benjamincaldwell6975]

Where did you guys go?

[@joshleekwai8895]

We had to take a two week break due to some travel and scheduling conflicts. We'll be back next week!

[@wayneoberg7508]

i play around 4 or 5 hour games in a 1 v 1 EDH match before, lol

[@Rediblackdragon]

what's up with the 4 am up time?

[@joshleekwai8895]

Terry was going out of town so he just hit upload overnight.

[@Rediblackdragon]

Well that explains it. Do all of them go up like that? I would've thought that you guys would just have them pre-load and then release it at a specific time. Anyways, love your stuff and thanks for the response.

[@garrettkennedy7862]

are you guys done making episodes now that Jimmy is on that show by Wotc

[@jimmy]

Nope! That's just an additional side project for me. The show will be back next Wednesday.

[@PAPP0NE]

do you mean 29 or 6?

[@nzephier]

"How do you play faster?" Play mana drop. (For newbies its same rules, but when you come into a land via draw, it goes into play untapped and you draw the next card)

[@Erebdai]

ooh this was almost 1 year ago.

[@dianvanzyl1815]

Best way to play faster is to kill the Narset player first.

[@jocksmachina7759]

Lol I play Narset. This is true. Once you get the divining tops and brainstorms going its hard to play fast. I apologize on behalf of all Narset/storm players for the long turns... But not sorry for winning after playing omniscience for free XD.

[@manuelaguilartirado8674]

No I feel bad my Mayal deck has so many rampant growths and creature tutors like Pod and Fauna shaman >:(

[@Banksy-x6z]

lol fast play in my playgroup is impossible with two oloro's that setup stack decks

[@flaviomargato5553]

You guys should record a game :p

[@NICOTHATKID]

I'm gonna have to send this to my friends. My fucking friends love to play tool boxy decks. And they spend 20 mins a turn trying to figure out what they should do. Meanwhile I play mono white. Turns take 30 secs.

[@JuQmadrid]

In our group we banned tutor because the slow too much the game, among other reasons. You just dont want to watch a player pondering every card on his deck (wich can be used in many ways such as clones or reanimator spells) on every tutor..

[@GreenGod223]

I love that this thumb nail is Qwiken

[@justinlay2092]

everybody does the math.

[@thredcomet48]

so all we need to do is play infeanet then to speed up the game then???

[@JkDubbed]

holy shit....you're a creator of rocketjump?!? Omg o.o

[@Sunrunner663]

Valve, Rockstar Games > Blizzard. Sorry. :D I don't really feel the Overwatch Hype, I played it around 5 Hours in the Beta and it already got me bored. But I kinda see why people like it. ^^

[@Adelrawas1]

Ban top and sylvan library #makescommandergoodagain

[@alexisfjora7215]

I agree that it is really good to play faster, but ignoring/"bending" the rules I can't get behind...

[@xxhellspawnedxx]

The point is to find ways to bend the rules so that it doesn't change the outcome of the game, but helps to speed it up. It's the same as with the law: What should matter the most is the spirit of the law, not the letter of it. Circumstances change, or new situations comes up for which the rules are sub-optimal. Such as, with sequencing in multiplayer games of Magic. The rules say you should shuffle between each instance of searching your library, but that is designed with the assumption that A) you will only search your library once in a turn and B) The top card of your library will always matter, which is false, if you have two or more search effects stacked back-to-back. And if that isn't appealing to you, by all means, do it the slow way, but you'll find that it makes the play experience much less fluid and exciting, especially when you're the one playing against that combo deck that runs a load of tutors, fetchlands, etc. etc.

[@custersword7746]

The rules are being followed, but the time lines are converging in a way that speeds up game play. What do you think of shuffling twice for green sun's zenith?

[@Sean-sn9ld]

Ive had no interest in Overwatch until watching this video lol

[@lymanjr100]

oh and overwatch rule 34 O.o

[@noehonegger4624]

Your profile pic

[@rowrow_]

Watching this in 2020 and hearing you guys call Blizzard the Pixar of Video Games has aged so poorly

[@Overi4096]

45:40 Looking this at November 2020... Blizzard is not the best game developer any more =( Diablo Immortal - cmon!? Hope for Diablo 4 Starcraft 2 - officially ending development Warcraft Reforged - lowest score on metacritics EVER World of Warcraft - BFA was not good, Classic is good/okay, but it's nothing new. Heroes of the Storm - ends esports support, nothing special about the game Hearthstone - well, okay Overwatch - okay, but stagnating, Overwatch 2 revealed nothing groundbreaking

[@lymanjr100]

heros of the storm........................................................................................................................................................................................................................