Managing information is one of the keys to winning games of Magic. Games are won when information (or a lackthereof) is used correctly. The examples are endless. Knowing when your opponent has, or might have, a combat trick is the best example, but something as simple as just knowing every single activated ability on a board can prove challenging in the heat of the moment. In athletics, one builds structures and rules to follow so that, in the heat of the contest, it is instinctive instead of conscious. Anyone who's hoping to play a high level of Magic needs to be able to manage their info conscientiously. The truth is, if you just play a ton of Magic, you'll develop these structures over time. Let's face it; we're not all Brad Nelson, whose success is a factor of natural talent and a ton of hard work. For those of us who have things to do besides play Magic, there's got to be some sort of hack we can apply to accelerate the process.

I read a lot of books and blogs about business, productivity and efficiency. I enjoy a beautiful and considerately-designed system. A tight workflow is heaven to me, and considering I'm a diagnosed ADHD Combined Type "patient", I need all the help I can get in managing my focus. To some people, a level of focus comes naturally and they don't need much help. I've noticed I'm far from the only one who needs a little help in this area.

What is Workflow, anyway? I started using the word because I thought it made me sound responsible and smart, so I figured I had better look up a definition. Here's one that I rather liked, courtesy of http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/

"The management of steps in a business processes. A workflow specifies what tasks need to be done, in what order (sometimes linearly, sometimes in parallel), and who has permission to perform each task. Most tasks are performed by humans but they can also be automated processes."

Not that I know anything about software engineering, but the Engineer-y thinking is exactly what I'm going for. There's a joke around Purdue University (a great Engineering school) about how everything in life is an engineer's challenge in disguise. I'm not one to disagree. Were you to ask me to write a definition, I'd probably go with the following:

"A proper workflow is achieved by enacting the most efficient way of organizing tools, data and goals. A proper workflow is achieved when a goal is reached through the use of as few overall resources as possible"

Bad workflow can be as simple as taking a round-about route of travel that takes longer than necessary. After all, time and fuel are resources and a more direct route achieves the same goal (arrival at destination) with fewer resources. I could write an entire article on optimizing life's workflow, but let's stick to Magic for now or else I'll start lecturing about the importance of a trash can's size, shape and location in your home or office. No one cares and I know it.

One of the most important concepts of managing workflow is the idea that you should only access information when you need it. I like the concept of a "low information diet", a phrase I'm shamelessly stealing from Tim Ferriss. In a game where there are tons of relevant pieces of information, accessing the info you need only when you need it can assure that your focus - a finite resource - stays pinpointed on what is relevant in the moment. Didn't some guy once say "focus only on what matters"? Whatever. The most common question is "how do I know what matters"? The answer to that is "everything", but the order in which you process "everything" is important.

I'm going to be an ambitious little bastard and try to tell you exactly how to think. You can obviously modify the order of things to suit your thought processes, and there's no way this is the "best" order, but it's a structure and a place to begin the discussion. By executing the same thought process every single turn, you reinforce the habit constantly while being sure you are thorough in your evaluations of game states. I suggest using a printed list with some sort of graphic breakdown to aid in the process of memorization. Use colors, shapes, images, whatever it takes, but the extra connections your brain will be forces to make ensure retention. Most of us use shortcuts in our play, but for this exercise, we'll probably have to "turn them off" for a bit. No worries, once you're a ninja master at your workflow, you can start bending the rules a bit.

The goal of a game of Magic is to "win the game". Most decks have a single way of doing so. They'll either get you with life loss, poison counters or decking. Whatever the means, there is an action or series of similar actions that will cause you to achieve your desired victory condition. Let's use "win" as shorthand for "deal 20" or "poison 10" or "unable to draw". Each turn should begin, then, with the reminder that your goal is to Win The Game. Why are we actively reminding ourselves to win the game? Because too often, our goals are wrong. Win the tournament. Win the match. Make the bombastic play. Impress that girl (good luck with that one, chief). The goal is to win, and only to win. Thus, begin every turn with some sort of affirmation that reminds you that your goal is to win this game of Magic. This will take approximately 5 seconds. Something as simple as "I am playing this game in order to win and every action I take must help me win the game" can keep your head pointed the right direction. Many people do similar things when they awake every morning to create a sense of mindfulness in their life. Start each turn by reminding yourself why you're playing this turn. Heck, thank your diety of choice that you were allowed to untap this turn and that you have another draw step in which to topdeck the nuts. Not to get all Eastern on you or anything, but think of this as menta yoga for Magic players.

1. Before You Untap: Statement of Intent To Win - "your verbiage here!" Untap all applicable permanents.Now that you remembered to win this game, the next step is to figure out how you're going to win. Remember, "win" is shorthand for "deal 20" or whatever your victory condition is. It's time to ask yourself how you intend to do that this turn. We are assuming that you know your deck in whole and can snap-identify every card you are playing with and against. If you're not instantly familiar with 95% of the cards in Standard by glancing at the art briefly, stop reading and go memorize the spoilers. This process will eat up a lot of time if you must read every card.

   So you've started your turn by untapping everything and you've reminded yourself to focus on the objective at hand - winning the game. It's now your priority at the beginning of your upkeep. Before you reach for that top card of your library, you should scan the board for all activated and static abilities. You are looking for things like Anthem effects that will change your combat math, pingers (which have a myriad of effects on the board), emblems like an Elspeth ultimate, and so forth. This is the best way to stop losing to onboard tricks and other public information. Feel free to use notes* to keep track of ongoing effects. Just having a section of your note paper dedicated to modifiers like this can help a disorganized thinker to be more accurate. This is also the time you will scan for Upkeep triggers and delayed triggers. You did put a marker on top of your library when you cast that Pact, right? Every single time you create an ongoing or delayed Upkeep or Draw trigger, place a marker on your deck. After you do your "scan", resolve all triggers and subsequent effects. Now that you have an idea of what forces are effecting this game, you're ready to draw that card.

2. Beginning of Upkeep - Scan for static and activated abilities effecting the board and all upkeep and draw triggers and resolve them. Draw your card for the turn and resolve any draw triggers.With your card for the turn in-hand, it's time to consider our lines of play. The passage of a turn and the drawing of a card is a big enough change in a game that I suggest you re-evaluate your lines of play. If you follow my advice on notes, which I expound upon at the end of the article, you will have some notes indicating your lines of play from last turn. Evaluate those like you're reading last week's newspaper. Consider the information, but base your decisions on new data. Once you remind yourself what the plan was last turn, it's time to figure out what this turn will look like.

   Start by looking at your creatures or whatever your relevant permanents are. If you're a combo deck that needs 7 mana to go off, start by looking at your mana producing permanents. Let's just assume you're a basic Beaters and Burn type of deck for this example. Look at your creatures. Aren't they awesome? They're ready to fight. For each creature, take a look at how it interacts with the opponent's creatures. Look at each creature on your opponents board and ask "what kills this in combat? What does this kill in combat?" Unless the board is very complicated, then you should be able to assess this quickly, in about 15 seconds or thereabouts. When the board is complicated, I encourage the use of detailed notes*. You should have a basic idea of how combat will go down as soon as you start your turn, since in most circumstances, that's where the most decisions end up being made. A bad attack or block can break a game in a single turn. For this reason, I encourage you to stop and consider the old Michael J Flores question, "Who's the Beatdown?" For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, go learn your history! This question is a way of determining your role in the current game. While it often changes from turn to turn, especially in the early phase of a game, understanding your role as Aggressor or Defender is crucial. For clarification, read Mike's historic article. The best time to consider this role is just after figuring out what the turn's combat looks like. Figure out if you're racing, trying to take advantage of a weak defense, or trying to avoid dying due to your own weak defense.

3. Precombat Main - Assess board position as it relates to your goal.

   1. Your Creatures - Which die in combat? Which do not?
   2. Their Creatures - Which die in combat? Which do not?
   3. Role Assignment - Who's the Beatdown? What are life totals at? Ask what your opponent could do to stop you from winning, or beat you. This is when you realize that they're playing Bolts and you're at 3, etc.

   Once you have this information in hand, read them for tricks. The first step is to look at the mana they have up. They have R up? Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Blast are likely possibilities. UU up? We all know what that means. Rather than pretending you're heads-up at the WSOP and trying to get a sick read, just briefly consider the popular and the niche instants in the format. There is no shortcut to this. Just like Scrabble players have to memorize the 101 different 2-letter words, you should memorize all the instants in the set(s) you're playing with, or at least the most common ones. Figure out the implications of these tricks. This is super-easy in Limited, yet few players take the time to memorize the tricks! It's really nice to know when a format has no instant speed effects to grant Trample, First Strike, etc. I love to write down every instant my opponent plays and its mana cost. That way, I can quickly see what their available mana is most likely to produce. Of course, you must decide if they have the trick, but that's a subject for another day as well.

4. Precombat Main - Read for Tricks - Consult notes on previous tricks, available mana, and common tricks in format. Determine likelihood of them having said trick.At this point, you should have a good idea how this turn could go down. The last thing to do is to look at your hand in the context of the board. Notice how we've avoided actually looking at our hand so far. That's because we need to access information only when we need it. It's rare that we use our cards in hand before the precombat main phase, and we can always just place a marker on our deck if we need to "stop" ourselves to cast an instant on the upkeep. Most spells are to be played post-combat, to ensure maximum leverage of available information on your end and a lack thereof on your opponent's. Scan your hand for cards that must be played pre-combat, then play all applicable spells.
5. Precombat Main - Scan Hand for Precombat Spells - identify, cast and resolve all spells that should be played before combat (sorcery speed pump spells, etc).At this point, you are ready to make the attacks that you calculated in step 3. Consider if any of your spells changed the board (removing a blocker, pumping a creature, etc), then make the correct attacks. It is up to you to figure out if you want to run a Grizzly Bears (with Giant Growth in the hole) into a Giant Spider and a potential counterspell. The goal is simply to identify the steps, not teach strategy.
6. Combat - Follow Phases. Speak each step of combat to ensure accuracy. "Attackers? Blockers? Damage?" Is usually sufficient, but you can be as pedantic as you care to.Once combat has resolved, repeat Step 5 for postcombat spells, then end your turn. Resolve all your postcombat spells, announce the end of your main phase (a simple "end step?" is usually fine). Do another sweep similar to the one you do during step 2 except this time looking for End of Turn effects, things like Necropotence which modify your discard and trigger during your end step, and so forth. You can clearly see that the turn basically reverses direction after combat. You re-evaluate the postcombat situation, consider what spells you want to cast and why, what their reactions could be (their tricks), and then make a strategic decision to follow a given line of play (while taking judicious notes). The turn structure then regresses until the turn is over. This process will put you in the right state of mind to analyze your opponent's turn.

Notes on Notes

How "meta". Here's what the DCI Universal Tournament Rules (aka the Floor Rules) says about Notes:

Basically, just don't take extra time because you're taking notes. The volume of the notes doesn't matter. You could write a novel during a match if you had the inclination and wrote fast enough. The floor rules don't care, as long as you're not slowplaying. Take notes voraciously. Write down everything, even just to keep your brain focused and thinking. Ever make a play and realize that your previous line of play relied on you making the exact opposite play? No more of that. Find a method that works for you for card notation. I suggest writing the full name the first time and then defining a 3 letter abbreviation for it thereafter so your notes are well defined and easy to read on the fly, as well as quick to take.

1. Before You Untap: Statement of Intent To Win - "your verbiage here!" Untap all applicable permanents.
2. Beginning of Upkeep: Scan for static and activated abilities effecting the board and all upkeep and draw triggers and resolve them. Draw your card for the turn and resolve any draw triggers.
3. Precombat Main: Assess board position as it relates to your goal.

   1. Your Creatures - Which die in combat? Which do not?
   2. Their Creatures - Which die in combat? Which do not?
   3. Role Assignment - Who's the Beatdown? What are life totals at? Ask what your opponent could do to stop you from winning, or beat you. This is when you realize that they're playing Bolts and you're at 3, etc.

4. Precombat Main: Read for Tricks. Consult notes on previous tricks, available mana, and common tricks in format. Determine likelihood of them having said trick.
5. Precombat Main: Scan Hand for Precombat Spells. Identify, cast and resolve all spells that should be played before combat (sorcery speed pump spells, etc).
6. Combat: Follow Phases. Speak each step of combat to ensure accuracy. "Attacks? Blockers? Damage?" Is usually sufficient, but you can be as pedantic as you care to be.
7. Reverse the order of steps, taking proper modifications to account for the change in context.

There it is - a basic and rudimentary structure for how to think about a turn of Magic: The Gathering. This is a concept with a lot of potential detail, so clearly the above structure is just a rough draft. The epistemology of Magic hasn't been discussed much by writers, so all the work I'm doing on this front is mostly either theory or testing a hypothesis. My hope is that, by studying the way that people think, act, buy and organize, we can find effective and teachable habits that help raise the overall skill level of Magic players. If you enjoy these "lifehacker"-esque articles, please let me know in a comment so I know to continue producing them. Thanks, as always, for reading this week!