Every good player I know has less things to think about at the table than those who are less skilled. I’m not talking about confidence, either. They did the thinking beforehand and the tournament is where they just play it out. The lines were drilled in until they were second nature. The matchup got solved in a Discord call at 1am with people who’d already lost to it. By the time the round starts, the game might already be decided and what’s left is the part that actually needs you.

This week: a Riftbound pro on the group chat behind a 12-0, and a cEDH piece on what your brain does with the space you give it.

Let’s get into it.

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Jon Rosum lost one match at RQ Singapore — the last one. What he did between rounds is the part you can copy.

By Jon Rosum

Earlier this month I had probably one of the best tournaments of my TCG career. RQ Singapore was an absolute fever dream, playing the most represented deck in the room that was clearly broken as we have seen since it got a ban and getting 2nd place along with winning Best-Of Kennen still doesn’t feel like reality to me. That being said, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that I want to talk about to showcase why I feel like I am prepared for every RQ that I've traveled to and hopefully set you up for success at whatever event that you’re preparing to play next. 

To put it as calmly as I can, RQ Singapore was an absolutely CRAZY tournament. I went 8-0 on Day 1 and it’s very hard to feel bad about a result like that and I walk out of the convention center feeling a sense of accomplishment but very much so telling myself repeatedly that the “job is not done.” Alanzq actually sent me a message that I think stuck with me the hardest and allowed me to relax a bit that I want to share with you: 

It is so easy in spots like this to put an UNREAL amount of pressure on yourself. I remember that I went 8-0 at RQ Vegas and walked away from Day 2 with a very mid record of 9-2-2 which was good enough for a Top 64. Riftbound is incredibly hard, and all you can control is how well you play but it is important to not put insane amounts of expectations / pressure on yourself because if you do that it will only lead to you cracking. Luckily, I was able to get a great night's rest and walk in very cool and calm but also hungry for the day. If you weren’t aware, I went from 8-0 to 12-0 and locked in the first seed of Top 8 of RQ Singapore with Miracle Kennen only taking my first loss of the weekend in the Finals to Gorica’s Akali. 

Top 8 was a very interesting beast, surrounding yourself with players that you trust is very important because they are able to think about situations that you might not be considering which is very important especially in matchups that you don’t play very often. For example. In Top 8 I was matched into Fr0zen’s Fiora and although I did beat him in the swiss it was great to fully air out my plan and come to something that I was comfortable with and this is not a feat that one person can do very quickly in a matchup that is not very popular. This continued to the Semi-Finals into Master Yi and the Finals into Akali and having conversations about my “path to victory” really helps paint a picture into how I should be playing the game and what I should be looking out for in terms of sideboarding. Even though I was holding the best of this, it is much more than just a one person show and I owe a lot of my success to how incredibly smart and talented the people that I work with are. I want to break down what the team dynamic is like and talk about how you can grow as a player while being a part of a “team dynamic.” 

If you’re not familiar with me, my first team in Riftbound was Challenger TCG and then I was recently acquired by Disguised to represent them. Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals is an absolute must in TCGs. Since the meta is so diverse it is almost impossible for one person to be able to get through all that information by themselves and being able to rely on people and their opinions about how matchups are is incredibly valuable. I know that not every team will have your Collin Kaisers / Prismaticisms / Alanzqs of the world but being able to grind and scrim and talk about the game with people that you trust will level up your gameplay very quickly. 

I talk a bit about opinions but it’s very important to be scrimming as well. Theory will only ever get you so far so you want to be able to practice reps whether it be in person at your local card store or online via TCGArena / RiftAtlas so that you’re able to practice and work on your fundamentals. This is especially true at the start of a new format because picking up a new deck / archetype that you’re unfamiliar with takes a lot of time and being able to practice will take you to the next level much faster. 

For me, Riftbound is my job so I am able to devote a majority of my time in honing my skills. I scrim for 3-4 hours daily and when I’m not doing that I am thinking about Riftbound the entire time whether it be a particular matchup or just working on my deck. I know I have more time than most, but if you’re looking to take your gameplay to the next level this is what you need to consider. I’m not saying that you should quit your job and go fulltime Riftbound as awesome as that is, but if you’re able to be really smart with the time that you do have and be cognizant about what you’re doing and surround yourself with likeminded individuals you will set yourself up for success. 

I talk about all the pro’s of a team dynamic but they don’t come without their issues and I want to make sure that you’re aware of these so that you’re able to navigate these situations if they do arise. The biggest one that I’ve seen and even was a part of when I was a Magic Professional is how easy it is to enter an “Echo Chamber” and once you’re in one it’s VERY difficult to break out of. What I mean by this is that you need to be able to parse through opinions and understand when something is coming across that is somewhat hyperbolic or an opinion that doesn’t have enough substance to really be informed. This is a hard skill to learn but the biggest advice I can give you is that it is VERY important to trust your gut and your own logic and if you are able to do that you will be able to draw your own conclusions. I’m not saying that you should ignore your teammates, but it is important to be able to articulate and form your own opinions because otherwise it will be very difficult for you to be able to logically draw your own conclusions which will make it A LOT harder to grow as a player individually. 

The other mistake that I see newer competitive players making is that they allow negative emotions into their testing process. I’ve talked about this at a great length and while it is good to care about the game if you’re allowing your emotions to take control in your testing it is almost assuredly going to show up in practice. Don’t allow yourself to fall into this trap, it is good to care but you must be able to channel that energy into something productive. 

The last mistake I see people making is don’t be afraid to surround yourself with people who are better than you. For example I might consider myself peers to Alanzq and Prismaticism but they are undeniably goats of Riftbound and you can’t allow your ego to get in the way of your progress. I don’t consider myself to be at their level but I strive daily to make sure that I am working towards that goal of getting there, and if you only surround yourself with people who you think are on your level / worse it is going to be hard for you to break out of your shell and really maximize your potential as a player. I owe a lot of success to those guys along with people like Rob Stanley who I have worked on both Pyke and Kennen with. Surround yourself with smart people and you will achieve new heights in Riftbound. 

RQ LA is around the corner and I’ve been hard at work trying to build Kennen in a way that I like, it’s not nearly as broken as it was before but it certainly has legs and I will be keeping my eye out for CCS Houston to see if the metagame is any different than what I predict. I’m feeling confident going into next weekend and if there is one thing that you should take away from this piece besides trying to find a group of people to work with I would say that you MUST be confident in your decision making. 

After RQ LA it’s time for RC prep and I will be going VERY hard to make sure that I give myself the best chance possible of qualifying for Riftbound Worlds. I very much look forward to working  with the DSG squad for the RC and it’s almost time to kick it into overdrive. 

In closing, I want to thank everybody for their support from RQ Singapore and hearing all the positive comments was truly an unforgettable experience and it makes me happy to see how uplifting and supporting the Riftbound community is. We are truly blessed with how awesome the competitive scene is so don’t take that for granted.

As always,

Guide soon :)

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A cEDH pilot gets a handful of slots of working memory per turn. Here's how masters stop spending them on their own hand.

By Eisenherz

Every driver knows this feeling: You drive home after a long day of work, park your car and suddenly notice that you can’t even recall how you got there.

This moment of minor dissociation doesn’t mean that you weren’t paying attention. On the contrary: It means that most of the things you do while driving have been automated by your brain. Steering, shifting, checking the mirrors – none of these actions need your conscious attention, which means your cognitive capacity is free for other things such as what you’re going to be cooking for dinner.

This phenomenon happens to also be one of the major differences between a good cEDH pilot and a master cEDH pilot.

Our working memory allows us to hold information for a short period of time in order to fulfill tasks. However, the storage capacity of working memory is highly limited. For most people, this limit is 7 items (± 2 items), which is commonly referred to as “Miller’s Law” after the famous psychologist George A. Miller. The exact number is genetically predetermined, which therefore implies that our ability to increase the capacity of our working memory is highly limited.

For cEDH, this fact can be extremely relevant: Imagine having 12 cards in your hand, multiple mana sources available and a possible line to win the game via Underworld Breach. You know your combo, but still you have to actively calculate:

Every single one of these questions demands some of your cognitive resources, and while you are mentally going through your own lines, the game continues. That’s the moment where an advanced player can punt a safe win – not because he doesn’t know his combo, but because he’s thinking about too many things at once.

Knowing a winning line and being able to perform a winning line are not necessarily the same. A novice driver knows where the turning signal is, knows how to shift gears, knows to give a signal before merging lanes. However, they can be overwhelmed by all of these actions during heavy traffic. An experienced driver does not have to consciously think about every single step of this sequence. The same thing happens when training for cEDH:

If a line or sequence is performed correctly often enough, it becomes a stable pattern or pathway in your brain. Multiple individual items of information slowly turn into a larger chunk of information: Counting graveyard -> paying mana -> casting tutor -> exiling cards simply becomes “Breach Line”.

The individual items don’t necessarily disappear, but they are being stored and recalled more efficiently. Research about expertise describes exactly this mechanism: Experts have access to more highly structured knowledge representations, allowing them to translate complex information into larger, meaningful units.

Let’s assume you’ve fully automated your specific Breach line. You see the relevant combination of cards and immediately know: X mana -> Y cards in the graveyard -> one tutor needed -> Z mana open for interaction. Now your working memory is freed up to focus on more important tasks:

You can ask your opponents about their hand size and the used-up counterspells in their graveyards. You can check if one of them has blue mana open for a bounce spell. You can make sure that there is no hate piece in play to stop your Breach line from working. You can check if your Mox Amber is online or not, and most importantly, you are able to communicate.

While this may sound trivial, it is far from that. A player that is busy figuring out their own line often becomes quiet, stares at the cards in their hand and is busy counting cards and mana. A player whose lines are automated is able to shift their attention to actual decision-making. And that’s the immediate gain from automation: You are less focused on your own lines and hence able to focus more on the actual game that is happening.

Getting there

Unfortunately, though, automation does also have its downsides: An advanced driver can become careless when merging lanes, because he’s so used to the process of doing so. An advanced cEDH player can make the same mistake: He recognizes a known line and stops reevaluating the situation. That’s why even automated knowledge has to be checked constantly.

The highest level of skill does not emerge from stopping to think altogether. It emerges from being able to make a conscious decision on what to think about / occupy your working memory with.

Know, automate and check your lines in order to free up the cognitive capacity of your working memory, because the less cognitive capacity you need for your own game, the more you have available for the board and your opponents.

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Join us in Orlando for a landmark weekend of NARUTO Mythos competition! The action begins Friday, September 25, with a special store takeover at House Rules Gaming. On Saturday, September 26, visit Osceola Heritage Park for release flights running throughout the day as we welcome Set 2: Shinobi Shiren. Then, prepare for the weekend’s main event, the first-ever NARUTO Mythos North American Regional, taking place Sunday, September 27. Every Regional participant will receive a playmat, promo card, and six booster packs. Compete against top players and make your mark in NARUTO Mythos history the champion will claim an exclusive one-of-one Legendary Gold Card!

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