Resources, It’s More Than You Think
Hello Zooheads, it’s everybody’s favorite caster, Douglas “DiRTy” Haas, here again with more tantalizing tidbits to tickle your temples. Today I thought we could talk about something I consider essential to success in any part of life, resource management. In MetaZoo there are quite a few different resources, some are obvious and some, not so much. So today I thought it would be a good time to talk about the different types of resources MetaZoo provides to us and how to best go about using them. So, sit back, grab your favorite Cryptids, a big cup of Bigfoot juice, and let’s get into this.
Cards
Probably the most identifiable resource provided to you is cards. In other articles, I’ve gone in-depth into how cards in hand and cards on board can translate into a huge advantage over your opponent. The more cards you have in hand, the more options you have and the more cards you have on board the more tempo you have. Because I’ve gone so in-depth on this particular topic in the past I won’t get into it today, but I’m sure we can all agree that cards are one of the most important and identifiable resources in the game of MetaZoo. I encourage anyone who hasn’t read my previous articles on tempo & curve and what cards you should put in your Spellbook to go back and do so. These articles provide great insight into how important it is to play aura every turn and how important it is to spend that aura. It also explains the basics of plus 1’s and minus 1’s and breaking cards down into categories. Instead of going into too much detail here and repeating information I have already gone over instead I will be diving into a couple of other resources that are equally as important.
Life Points
A lot of time people only see life points as a means to an end, a way to win the game and nothing more. You bring your opponent to zero you win and if they bring yours to zero, they win. But life points can be so much more then that. They can be used as a way to stall for the cards you need to swing the game in your favor. Allowing your opponent to hit you over and over while you wait to draw that crucial board wipe or combo card that takes momentum and puts you in the driver seat of the match. Recently a card was released, Caster Gun, that lets you pay life points in multiples of 100 to play any spell in the game without paying the aura cost. If the effect of the spell is powerful enough and firmly secures your foothold on victory, it doesn’t matter how much life you pay, as you will be able to win the game from the game state you have created.
Cards like this have existed in other games, ones that cost you a significant amount of life but put you in a winning position. It usually took people a while to catch on to their power, but once they did the cards were found in almost every deck. For example, in the game of Yu-gi-oh there was Cyberstein, a card that allowed you to pay 5000 life points and bring out a powerful monster, this monster was usually so powerful that it could win you the game, it didn’t matter that you were paying over half your life to do this as you still were the one winning the game. Solemn Judgement was another Yu-gi-oh card that saw little play when first released but eventually became so popular that it was limited in the number of copies you were allowed to play. Its effect was to pay half your life points and stop any card. This is a significant cost as well, but stopping any card, like one that stops your opponent from winning or the key piece of your opponent’s combo was worth the life point loss. Using your life points as a resource is not a new concept in TCG’s and should be something that you think about when playing any match in MetaZoo.
Time
The other resource we will be talking about today is time. Time is something that every caster should be cognizant of during a match. In a tournament the judge will call the start time of every round and from that moment the clock will start ticking down. I suggest you start a timer the moment the judge says the time for a round has started. Lucky for us, Caster Society has created an app that has a built-in timer that you can use if you go to settings. When started the timer will start counting down from 50 minutes. You have these 50 minutes to play all 2-3 games, depending on how your games turn out. This timer will help you make the best decisions possible as your match proceeds. Sometimes, based on time, it is best to concede the current game you are playing and go to the next instead of attempting to turn that game around. Why? Because if it is assured that you are going to lose that game you are going to want as much time as possible to play out your next game. Or maybe you don’t want to concede that losing game right away, instead, choosing to play it out and allow a little bit more time to drain off the clock. Especially in a scenario where you are close to the end of that 50-minute timer and you are playing an aggro deck, a deck capable of dealing a lot of damage early in the match. Remember that sometimes it is also better to let a round end in a draw then to lose the round, so if you are unsure that you can win a game 3, let the game play out, even if you think you are going to lose, if you have won game one.
This is not cheating or stalling as long as you make all of your plays during the game in a timely manner. Taking extra time to play your turn or to respond to an opponent’s action would be cheating and is strictly forbidden. But knowing when to keep playing a game and when to concede a game based on the time left available to you is a very important skill to develop. In my polling I have done within the competitive MetaZoo community I have found that a significant portion of games end up going into time and you want to be aware of this fact when playing your rounds. Another time you want to be aware of this fact is when building your sideboard or “archive”. Having cards in your archive that help you burst out damage or prevent combat, something like 4th of July, will help you win should your match go into time. I encourage you to look up tournament policies on time and how these situations function. Time is one of the most important resources you have in a match and to ignore it and pretend like it doesn’t exist would be foolish. Plan for it and you will never be caught in a situation where you could have won the round or at least forced a draw but didn’t because you weren’t paying attention to the clock.
That wraps up this week’s article and I look forward to seeing you all next time when we talk more competitive MetaZoo!!! Your friendly neighborhood caster signing off! If y’all have any suggestions or topics you would like me to cover please drop a comment or hit up my Instagram Lord__dirty . Until next time y’all, remember, the magic is real!!!
