Smash Up Teaching Power #2: Deck Management

[@dustinburlet7249]

Fantastic video as always I am becoming increasingly persuaded that these tips and tricks need to be in an published guide There's seriously good stuff here ;-)

[@JuddBrown]

All great strategies. I love Deck management! Yeah knowing when to shuffle is crucial. When there is a card that says to search your deck and/or discard pile if I want a shuffle I search my deck even if I know it is in my discard pile to force a shuffle which I see as legal since the card says you can do both. Yes, choosing when to allow a deck reshuffle is important to keep track of. I know you set that is a topic for a different time but players do really have to keep track of knowing how many cards are in their deck to do recursion. Lion King and Zombies it is important to try and stall the deck reshuffle as much as you can because mufasa and Zombies. I really like these videos and I think they are great to teach deeper strategy to new players. Other concepts I tend to teach people: don't play a card just to play a card...its alright to pass on minion, action, or both. Be aware what your opponent has for main type of Cards. In importance order: specials, destruction, and movement.

[@eugenetswong]

I agree about how important it is to teach this to new players. I didn't realize that there was so much strategy. I love this. This game feels like a gift to rules lawyers. What benefit is there to passing on minion, action, or both?

[@JuddBrown]

As Jim talks about in the next videos it is to prevent power creep. You can save your hand to explode on a turn and not allow your opponent to use your power on their turn. Also, you have up to 10 cards you can keep in your hand so not playing a card will allow you more choices in the future. Yes, the game is very deceptively strategic. It may look like a game that doesn't have more depth. But, after playing a few times you see it is like chess predicting turns in advance with a bit of unknown with what your opponent has in their hand even if you know what is in their deck.

[@eugenetswong]

"When there is a card that says to search your deck and/or discard pile if I want a shuffle I search my deck even if I know it is in my discard pile to force a shuffle which I see as legal since the card says you can do both." I only understood this upon rereading it now. I think that you're right. I love clever hacks. I think that Time Travelers also don't want reshuffling. It would be impossible to avoid it completely, but if it could be avoided then it would pay off.

[@eugenetswong]

He mentioned "engine" in 1 or more videos. What is that? It sounds like a strategy that consistently produces what it was designed for.

[@JuddBrown]

An engine is where you have a card or a group of cards out that is usually a talent and you can perform it over and over again each turn. You want the cards to stay in play as long as possible to get as much value as you can. Usually King minions are the ones with talents that are engines. You will hear in some videos Jim refer to the "JuddBrown paradox". This is the case where a king minion is one you want to use as an engine but it is hard to keep out because they are usually 5 power and contribute to power creep on a base and make it harder to keep out. So the pardox is the ones you want to keep out as an engine are also the worse for power creep because they are usually your highest powered minion.

[@theTRUTHgroup]

These are some great strategy points. Thanks for the video. :)

[@eugenetswong]

This should be video #1.

[@IFoundExcalipoor]

Having played with several experienced MTG players, I've gotten into the habit of explaining up front that you reshuffle your discard pile into your deck because they're so used to losing when you can no longer draw cards.