Any tips/info for a MWS newb?

cactuschef · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

I'm pretty familiar with MTG itself, but fairly new at using MWS.

- where can I find info about different deck formats. T1 (afaik) is any/all cards (minus the joke blocks) with the usual restrictions (4 of, 1 of restricted cards, etc), but I'm not too familiar with T1.5, T2, extended, and T4), also, are T1 and vintage the same thing?

- what are some important abbreviations to know when looking for games? so far i've learned that BR = brasil, and kp = keep. what does 1800+ mean for example

- when someone hosts a game and says 'use phases', how strictly do they mean? I'm familiar with all the various phases, but most of the time when i play IRL (or casual on MWS), we generally ignore the phases that we aren't going to use (i.e. I untap (nothing is going to happen in upkeep so I don't declare it), draw, play a land and a creature first main, pass turn (skipping the rest of the phases). what about when they say "serious"? generally I just want to avoid annoying poeple.

any other general tips for starting MWS are appreciated

Spyx · Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 821

go here for all your format/restriction needs:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=judge/resources/banned

Laplie · League Staff Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 539

formats: http://www.magic-league.com/guide/formats.php

t1 = vintage, t1.5 = legacy, t2 = standard, 1.x = extended

--when looking for games "league" means for rating "casual" means not for rating. "1800+" means only if your m-l rating in that category in 1800 or more. "serious" means different things for different people. But it usually means only playing competitive decks.

--as for phases, it just means to actually change phases when you do things. Going into the main phase before you play sorceries, drawing in the draw phase, attacking in the combat phase. Usually people don't go to phases that they don't plan on doing something in... like skipping to the end step after attacking..

As for MWS tips, I suggest you go through the walkthrough in the guide section. It has a lot of handy shortcuts (like double clicking on the untap phase icon to untap all permanents and simultaneously go to upkeep, and something similar for the draw step icon)

as for avoiding annoying people, there are a lot of annoying people on M-L, the longer you're around the more you will know which people to avoid.

cactuschef · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

thanks for the info.

btw, when i said 'avoid annoying people' i meant 'avoid being an annoyance to people (with my nubness)' Laughing