Ok so you’ve got the technical aspect of the game down and you can play your way out of the gates and to respectable finishes but you are coming up against situations where no amount of technical play can save you. And you do need some luck to win a big tournament right!……..right? This is where bluffs come in, much like playing to an out they can save you a game that you might have otherwise lost. Below are some of the more common ones I have used to help win games that I would have otherwise lost.

Before I start I want to stress however that while bluffs are flashy and look cool to everyone watching the game they will not get you as far in magic as being technically good will. So focus on being a technical wizard over a muggle master bluffer. As a note: I play a lot more limited nowadays so most of these bluffs are more tailored to squeezing that extra bit of advantage out of your limited decks (although there is definitely crossover into constructed).

Holding Extra Lands in Hand

Now this is bluffing 101, and one of the worst bluffs in magic. For those that don’t know what I’m on about, this is not playing your extra land when you have enough in play already and keep drawing more. The idea is that you bluff the opponent into thinking that you have some tricks in hand and to get them to play around them or in a way that is less detrimental to you. It’s the first ‘bluff’ everyone learns and is super easy to sniff out. If you have lots of mana in play and 2 cards in hand but aren’t doing anything for several turns despite me advancing my position I’m putting you on having lands in hand. 95% of the time I don’t bother with this one anymore and just play my extra lands unless there is a technical game reason not to.

The ‘I have a combat trick and it’s going to wreck your hopes and dreams’ Bluff

This is the one that I have used to the most effect to win games that I otherwise would have lost. It works best on an even playing field or when you are behind. When the opponent is losing badly or close to dead they have much more to lose and so often HAVE to call this bluff, plus if you are winning anyway you don’t need to bluff.

The idea of this bluff is to trick your opponent into thinking that you have cards that will punish them for making the on board technically correct play. Nobody attacks a 3/3 into a 5/5….unless they have a combat trick! This is how most people think about magic, and so if its at a point in the game where 3 damage doesn’t really matter and you have lots of cards in your hand a lot of people will just take 3. In fact if they are already ahead a huge number of people will take 3. A free 3 damage for you! Which could actually become extremely relevant a few turns down the line. This kind of reluctance to block is much more likely if their creature is very valuable to them and they think combat is your only way to kill it. This kind of bluff is also much more likely if they have seen combat tricks from you in previous games.

If you are definitely losing game 1 despite your best efforts you can attack anyway as a test to see how likely the opponent is to call these bluffs for future games. And remember some people always call these bluffs, so it doesn’t work on everyone!

The Defensive Telegraph

Back in the day people used to always make a point to leave two islands untapped for counterspell, this would make people play their worse cards first to try to bait the counterspell so that they don’t lose their best cards to it. If you don’t have a counterspell this works out well for you because they are playing less efficient or sub optimal cards and therefor granting you time and tempo when in reality you had nothing.

The same logic applies when someone saw a Blood Moon in game 2 and so fetches basic lands instead of their better non basic ones to play around it in game 3, meaning you don’t even need the blood moon in your deck for game 3 to gain some value from it!

The way I do this one is when im slightly behind or in a board stall I will try to leave the exact mana for the trick that will punish them if they try to press their advantage. In theory this holds them back for a turn or two or as long as possible for you to build up real defences. Other players actually go as far as to pretend to agonise over the play even tapping the mana and then eventually untapping it and allowing whatever action to resolve as though it was their choice. This one can seriously put even good players into the think tank.

Now this one only works on players who actually think about what you could have in hand in the first place, and only when you are closely even on the board. If you’re getting smashed most single tricks won’t change the game much so they probably won’t care about it and if they are losing then they can’t afford to play around as much that they haven’t seen. But I can definitely think of a few games I won where I was saved by an opponent playing around a card I didn’t have the whole game.

Well these are the most basic bluffs that I use, give them a go and let me know how they work out for you. Do you have any favourite bluffs or tricks? If so let me know in the comments below.