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07-12-2000
 Theory behind magic: The mind tricks
What are mind tricks you ask? Well mind tricks can be many things, from a person's attitude to the way they phrased their words during the game, that gave them an advantage during the game. It has nothing to do with their decks or the way they play, they are just annoying little things that intimidate your mind and make you make mistakes.
An example scenario of a mind trick: During a game of draft against Nick Smith last night, he was going to die next turn by my fliers and I'm on 12 life points. He attacked with a 3/3 and a 2/3. I tapped one of them with my Stormscape Apprentice and was just about to block the other with my Metathran Zombie with no mana to regenerate it when he throws up his hands and mumbled something about it does not matter anyway. Seeing this I thought I could kill him next turn anyway, plus I cannot think of a card that can kill me even if I don't block so I let it through. In the end he Gitu Fire me for 10 winning the match. Nice play Nick, just don't expect any help from me if you are falling off a cliff (j/k).
There are many mind tricks that people play during matches and from what I have observed, the type of mind tricks a person uses is heavily based on their personality. Which can generally categorised into 2 groups:
The Extroverts - Refers to people who are open, out going and talkative. Some people find it more fun playing against these people because they ease the tension of being in a tournament and make the moves in the game more dramatic and interesting. (Gary Wise would be a prime example of an extroverted Magic player - Webmaster)
Their Tricks - Extroverted people are usually very confident players and will keep fighting as hard as they could until the bitter end. Some of them use a lot of trash talking to undermine your concentration and certain people get really nervous playing extroverted player because of their vibrant manner.
The Introverts - Are people who are shy and do not speak much during a game. For those who just want to play the game without too much meaningless discourses, these are their ideal type of opponent.
Their tricks - Introverts are usually very precise about their play during matches. They calculate every move in their mind before playing and stare at you in a way that you wonder what did you do wrong. A number of introverts are slow players and people who lack patience will find this most intimidating. However, being an introvert certainly does not mean that they are bad people, it's just that they like to concentrate on their games and leave the social interaction after they kicked your sorry butt. I think it lightens up their mood enough to socialise a bit.
Special thanks to the editors from MTGParadise for cleaning up this mess of an article.
The guy who didn't win a foil Elvish Champion.
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