As someone with an exceptionally below average short-term memory, the permission to take notes during a match of Magic is a blessing. Save the drug use jokes, people, I have a doctor's note! For those with very sharp short term memories, you'll need this less than the more forgetful among us. I could look at an opponent's hand mid-game and in 2 turns have forgotten everything I saw. It's that bad. But, since we're allowed notes, we might as well start using them.

I'll Remember, I Promise!

No, you won't. You'll neglect some minor detail about the board state and get blown out because you forgot. Even if it doesn't happen all the time, it happens enough that it's worth fixing. The first thing you must do when starting to take notes is to do so unerringly. Write down everything. It will take practice to get a system that works. You have to keep your note taking very fast paced and efficient, or you'll get slow play warnings and go to time. I suggest developing some form of shorthand.

The more your deck manipulates its library, your opponent's library, or sees the opponent's hand, the more notes you'll need to take. I recently played a deck with Memoricide, Sadistic Sacrament, Duress and Inquisition of Kozilek in the 75. I had to write down almost everything I saw. I wrote down future Memoricide targets, hand contents, a quick scan of the deck for other "beware" cards, and so forth. I'd slowly cross the cards I saw off the relevant lists.

The trick to getting this all done in 50 minutes is, as I suggested, short-hand. It takes longer to write "Sovereigns of Lost Alara" than it does to write SOVS. Abbreviations, nicknames like "Bob", or any other mnemonic devices will do. I often just do the first 2 letters or so of each word if it's 2 words or less, or just the initials of longer words if there's no convenient nickname like "Sovs" or "Bob".

Using notes lets you settle disputes in your favor more often and gives you an easy way to remember delayed triggers. Maintaining the game state is your responsibility as well as your opponent's, so noting these things will cut down on unnecessary penalization. When it comes to life totals, you should follow a pretty strict format. 2 columns on the paper, clearly marked for each player. No crossing out, just skip to the next line. Use shorthand to indicate where the damage came from. It's much easier to decode "BoP +11" than to remember that an Exalted Birds of Paradise with an Eldrazi Conscription hit you. After the tournament, when you want to dissect your performance or write a tournament report, you'll find this provides a great framework for reconstructing the matches.

It's also much easier to keep the relevant info of the game on paper instead of in your head. If you are doing complex combat math, write the P/T of all the creatures on the pad. This is especially relevant against Elf decks, or others that stack tons of global pump effects. I had to do this earlier today, since he had almost nothing but Elf Lords in play. I lost that game, regardless. When it comes to disputes, notes beat memory every single time.

Forgetting whether you've made a land drop is the worst, and unfortunately this happens. Why not write T1, T2, etc on your pad and just mark if each player makes a land drop? You'll keep everyone honest and prevent sloppy play. I also love to use notes to remind myself to play around cards. I'll often write something like "SAVE Doom Blade FOR BANESLAYER" on my pad after drawing my hand for game 1. The reminder helps you more than you think it will.

Sideboard Notes

It's a crime that most people don't use these. Sideboard notes take almost all of the guesswork out of your testing and playing. How? Well your testing needs to be thorough enough to generate notes. You don't know what to board in against Valakut if you haven't played 20+ games against it! If you do, you're probably just guessing and not testing your assumptions. This will guide your testing, and your notes will clearly show your progress. As you get further along, you'll start realizing some subtleties of the sideboard. You'll find key one-ofs that fill out your maindeck and beat important matchups.

Since you can't look at your sideboard notes mid-game, it is helpful to write reminders in them for certain matchups. Notes like "You're always the beat down in this matchup, don't fall into the trap of trying to play Control" can really make sure your head is in the right place. A tournament is not the place to get a big ego about having

a good memory. Use every tool available to win the game.

Your sideboard notes should be organized by matchup, with the most relevant ones higher on the list. You should have detailed Ins and Outs, and specific notes about when to make each substitute and why. Think of this like calling the right play and using the right players in NFL football. If you're trying to win a control matchup, you

should probably remember to board out your removal in most cases. The specific notes will be relevant to your situation, but in the heat of the moment, especially in the latter rounds of an event, the brain can play tricks on you.

You Use The Marker

Some of this sounds kind of bush-league or like training wheels, when in fact it's about compensating for a handicap of sorts. No one's memory is perfect, and you'll get more out of this if your memory's very bad than if it's great. Regardless, if you're not winning all your games of Magic, every little percentage point counts.

During Time Spiral block, a player playing in a very high-pressure match with big money implications cast a Pact of some sort. Pacts require you to pay mana on your next turn or you lose the game. Not something you'd like to overlook in your zeal to draw your card for the turn. The player casting the Pact immediately picked up a small die or something and placed it on top of his library, ostensibly to prevent him from drawing a card before he paid for his pact. Rather than drawing the card, he has to remember why the marker is on top of his deck. He then remembers to pay his Pact's delayed trigger.

A spectator commented to another pro player that only an amateur player would have to use the marker, and that he should just man up and remember. The pro, Zvi Mowshowitz I believe, remarked that, when you're playing for $40,000, you use the marker. There are no style points for playing good Magic. Either your actions win you the game or they don't.

What's Important To You

Even if you don't go all T-2 on it, and record every piece of data in the game, you should at a bare minimum never keep life totals or poison counters on anything other than paper. I've seen way too many games tossed into chaos because some clumsy oaf like me bumped into the dice my amateur opponent was using to keep life

totals. I don't do it intentionally (except to teach my local customers a lesson, sorry guys!) Keep. Notes. It's super easy to do, and it's foolproof.

You should at least keep life totals, and I also consider it mandatory to write down any private knowledge you come about. If they have an Oracle of Mul Daya, or you have a Goblin Guide, and you are seeing info about their draw, write it down. It'll help you recall what they have in their hand, which is valuable information throughout the course of the game.

Though they seem trivial and irrelevant at times, notes can really help you take your game to the next level . Reducing your brain's burden by "outsourcing" your concerns to a piece of paper will best let you focus on the strategic moment at hand, rather than on remembering details when you don't need to. In other words, just take some freaking notes already! The DCI allows us to do so, and we might as well make good use of the privilege.