Ok so I'm a bit tired of preaching in generalized statements. So this time I'm going to be a bit more specific.

You're in your FIRST Pro Tour Qualifier for Austin and you're sitting across from a person your first round that doesn't look at you nor do they acknowledge you. They, in fact, don't even say hello. You roll your die and you win the die roll, you opt to go first and the opponent just grumbles. You're playing your favorite deck, you lay your land and pass your turn. Opponent plays an ISLAND! At this point, no matter what you're playing, you should have an idea of the possibilities. Faeries, Reveillark?

Let's change that a bit, what if your opponent plays a Forest. Do you have any idea what deck they may be playing?

Unlike chess or checkers, Magic is NOT played on a linear field. ALL of the possible outcomes are NOT within the battlefield, just a precursor to M10 rules, If you don't have any idea what could be next, you're probably going to lose. With this general statement, I'm saying that victory is based on your collection of facts and the execution of play afterwards. Let's say the opponent laid an island and your 2nd turn has you faced with laying an island or a vivid land. Your hand has Broken Ambition and random 3 drop. Now, on this play, I'm foreshadowing the right play and that is to set up for a Broken Ambition for 1. Now if you're opponent laid a forest, you might not concern yourself with what might be a turn 2 creature or spell and lay the vivid land for the efficient turn 3 play.

Remember, Magic is the sum of plays to which parity is completely on your side for the inevitable victory. Very few decks have a knockout play, and normally those are combo decks and very few of them exist in the current Standard environment. So you must lay like you're working towards something, not just tapping and casting. Anticipating your opponent is a skill that is necessary for successful combat, not just magic but in virtually all aspects of life.

New scenario, your opponent is playing Jund/Cascade and you're playing with Tokens. He has one card in hand, you have four (Plains, Cave of Koilos, Path to Exile and Kitchen Finks) and 4 lands in play. With nothing on either side but lands, the obvious play is the Finks. My question to you is, do you play the land? While the typical token deck does play the HUGE 5cc Cloudgoat Ranger, the Jund deck can play (and does) Blightning. Now this is an example of a NO-Wrong scenario. Play 1 - lay the land, leaving you with 2 cards in hand and possible loss of active card if said Blightning is cast or Play 2 - don't lay the land and have 2 lands you can discard while keeping an action card in hand if needed. My Co-Host Patrick has a quote from the great Jon Finkel: "If you have a good play and a better play, then the good play is actually bad." This motto is very much a FACT indeed true no matter what point of the game you're in.

Let's go a bit further, say your opponent has already played a Blightning earlier and you have 5 lands in play and 1 land in hand. I would bet that 90% of players would lay the land and say,"If my opponent is going to make me discard it anyway, why not play it." The reason why you would NOT is to pull another Blightning out of their hand! Especially early, in the game, you've got your necessary land base. At this point, you're living off of the top of your deck and you do NOT want to lose valuable cards. Even if you lose the useless land, it means the opponent has one less Blightning to ruin your day with. Then when you ARE holding something of importance you're all the better.

This is how my mind works:

In Alara Block Constructed, I had an opening hand of Savage Land, Savage Land, Mountain, Rupture Spire, Blightning, Ajani Vengeant, Broodmate Dragon. Even before my opponent makes a play, I'm thinking T1 Savage Land, T2 Rupture Spire, T3 Mountain + Blightning, T4 Savageland, T5 Ajani, chocolate pudding. Now this is an example of how it works for ME. I anticipate, play and think of french fries. If the opponent does something to lead me to believe I should play differently, I do that. If I feel they're cut on lands, I might work for a quicker Ajani (T4) to keep a land tapped, THEN I think of fried chicken. My opponent played a t2 Tidehollow Sculler, taking my Blightning. I changed my plan to T3 Savage Land, T4 Mountain + Ajani = Kill Sculler. If you have a plan, it helps you move your game along. This also informed me, that he was playing Robots. So I tried to hold my removal for Master of Etherium and Ethersworn Canonist. Remember, it's the plan and not the absolute MUST.

If you don't get my message at this point, you'll need to message me directly through the forums. I'll send you a response that will included a punch in your grill!

Anywhoo, I'm a bit hungry. So I'm going to end this now and grab some Taco Bell. If this helps or if you want to hear more, let me know.

Thanks!