FNM Basics and Starter guide

Now throughout the article i will be explaining the various mechanics from friday night magic and the formats that come along with it, now there are 2 formats this event usually, standard and draft i will be going over both of these variants and the necessities needed to learn how to play as well as the various mechanics to expect for them, so let's go.


Standard - This is as it suggests this is a bring your own deck format, which pits itself against other popular decks in the current type 2 metagame, most of it being jund as of this article decklists here Jund Discard Jund Aggro and of course Magic Online Championship Series Jund as you can plainly see there is usually several different variants of a popular deck, with decks such as zvi moshowitz's Mythic and of course other deck types such as Red Deck Wins and Super Friends which are famous from most of the current pro tours, expect to see lots of players plioting these decks to some serious conditions come standard of these events, but the format of course is best 2 out of 3 and there is usually 4-5 rounds depending on time constraints as obviously stated before, the winner usually gets the FNM card offered for that month, whatever it may be as the month's FNM card changes from time to time, so keep checking for the latest news on FNM foils, the final thing about these sorta events, there is no judge usually at these since they may be sanctioned but the judge doesn't always need to be there to make it official as it's up to the store owner how he/she does things, that about covers it for the standard portion of this article, so my best suggestion is just keep playing and one of these days you may end up on a winning tear.


Draft - Now since you may be thinking, wait vergil isn't this sealed draft, wrong, this is how the pros draft, pick one card from one pack, pass it around the table till all that pack of cards is gone, then repeat the process for another 2 packs, which sounds simple right, not really, depending on the format, which has switched over to the newest core set M11, there are lots of things to consider when competing, firstly you need to figure out your strategy based off your first card, say you end up with a pack full of good commons and uncommons and a suck rare, consider your options and such quickly for example


Say if your drafting M11 and you end up with a pack of let's say Mana Leak, Jace's Inguenity, Greater Basilisk, Arc Runner, Assassinate, Berserkers of Blood Ridge, Brindle Boar, Blinding Mage, Celestial Purge, Acidic Slime, Child of Night, Combust and Conundrum Sphinx as your rare chances are your gonna draft the rare, wrong, don't always rare draft unless it suits you or helps you in the long run, as a lot of these cards are good, let's see from this pack you'd be able to draft 5 cards more then likely, springing into lots of decks for example. Let's say you draft Mana Leak ok, that leads you into Blue/Black, Blue/White and of course Blue/Green even if some are enemy colours, however this will usually affect how you draft, remember to always draft in the same manner, not always rare drafting unless you get say a mythic that does something extreme, which is like ultra rare, or helps your strategy.


Usually the person sitting besides you always usually goes one variant or the other, depending on what he/she drafts which is more common then usual, say you need like 3 key cards, you get 2 of them and the third one is in your opponent's grasp or the other drafter's grasp, are you screwed no, just adapt and keep playing which will lead to a win almost 80% of the time, which means you have a better shot at the prizes at stake which are usually FNM foils as well, plus store credit for some stores, usually there is always 4 rounds to this variant with of course best 2 out of 3 played, to determine who faces who for the next round, which sometimes varies but depending on the situation you may end up facing a exact mirror match or something your deck hates, don't get discouraged, just keep playing and have fun.


Anyhoo that's about it for this article, remember FNM's are about fun and having a laugh with your friends, not to get discouraged or anything, just keep playing and you'll get good in no time, so till next time, this is vergil signing off.