Line-Up Theory
My father spent thirty years as a painter and a carpenter, and he's always taught me that "There's a right tool for every job."
An expert at what he does, I believe he could've painted the Sistine Chapel's ceiling with a Swiffer Wet-Jet Mop, but such a thing would never happen with my dad. Instead, he had painstakingly built up an enormous collection of paint brushes, ranging from giant rollers for walls and ceilings; to medium-sized brushes for doors; and tiny, pin-point brushes for corners and fine details.
If ever I'd get lazy in helping my father paint and fail to find the right brush when I changed from one task to the next, he'd immediately pause the project and insist that nothing more be done unless it was going to be done right.
In Magic, Line-Up Theory teaches us how to use the right tool for the right job. As a child, full of impatience and false confidence, I found my father's paintbrush system annoying and unnecessary. Today, I'm incredibly thankful for the values it instilled in me.
You see, if I made a mistake while painting it might mean an extra trip to Lowes for a new brush or some more paint. In Magic, you get one chance and there's no turning back. If I waste my
Patience
Line-up theory is used to inform your long-term planning. Sometimes, in a lightning-fast game against a red aggro deck, you just do whatever you can to survive in the moment. However, the longer games drag out, the more important it becomes to answer each of your opponent's threats in the best possible way, and in doing so to be prepared for what your opponent is likely to throw at you later.
Often, this means being patient. It means not going for the quick win, or it means taking a bit of damage from your opponent's creature. It's going to be tempting to use
Deck Versus Deck
In the most extreme and pure form of line-up theory, you consider your whole deck against your opponent's whole deck. Here's an example from Standard that I encountered very recently. Consider the following two decks.
These are both control decks, but the UB (blue-black) deck is more dedicated to the control game plan, opting for extra counterspells where the Sultai (black-green-blue) deck has
My teammate, Jelger Wiegersma, explained why he felt so confident playing UB Control against Sultai in Game 1. "I think the key is to almost never fight their card drawing. They usually have about six threats and I have about twenty answers. They just deck themselves." (To "deck yourself" means to run out of cards and lose the game.)
Jelger's strategy for the matchup is the most extreme form of line-up theory. He looked at both decklists and saw through the distractions to the factor at the very core of the matchup—that the Sultai deck only had a small handful of cards that could actually win the game! If he could save his
This use of line-up theory ties in closely with inevitability. The matchup between UB Control and Sultai typically goes long. If it goes long enough, and the UB Control player employs line-up theory, he or she will always win, because the Sultai player simply doesn't have enough cards in his or her deck to overcome the UB player's answers!
But what if the UB player doesn't employ line-up theory? Imagine ten-year-old Reid going straight from using the wrong paintbrush to playing a control mirror in Magic. Maybe the Sultai player misses a couple of land drops in the early game, so Reid decides to
This example illustrates the importance of line-up theory and how much you might be missing if you ignore it. Because of the contents of both decks, and the Sultai player's slow start, it should've been all but a foregone conclusion that the UB player would win. Little-kid Reid made reasonable decisions at every point in the game. All of the spells that he countered seemed relatively important, and he didn't make any obvious blunders. However, because he failed to look at the big picture, he opened a door for something to go wrong, and it cost him the game.
Hand Versus Hand
UB Control is the most controlling deck in Standard and has inevitability in nearly every matchup. It's a perfect deck for employing whole deck vs. whole deck line-up theory. However, an understanding of line-up theory can also be helpful for playing against UB Control as well. Let's take a look at things from the perspective of the Sultai player.
The Sultai player has a challenge on his or her hands. The UB player has inevitability, and simply by looking at the two decklists next to one another, it seems clear that the UB deck "should" win. It should win, that is, unless the Sultai player is able to make something special happen.
The Sultai player can still benefit from a good understanding of the whole deck vs. whole deck line-up. He or she should watch to see whether or not the opponent is employing a strategy based on line-up theory. Against ten-year-old Reid, it might have been clear very quickly that he wasn't being careful enough with his permission spells and wasn't playing for the long game. There might be a way to exploit such an opponent and turn the tides in your favor.
Once a number of permission spells are gone—either wasted on frivolous spells or milled with a couple lucky activations of
But the Sultai player doesn't exactly want to count on this, since it depends on either a fluke of the draw or on the opponent making a mistake. Let's say you're playing Sultai and you get paired against Jelger Wiegersma, who is playing UB Control and who you know (from reading this article) has a good understanding of the whole deck vs. whole deck line-up. How can you try to earn a win?
I recommend employing hand vs. hand line-up theory. In doing so, you're neither playing for the ultra-long-term, nor are you rushing things. Instead, you're considering the resources that each player has immediately available and trying to find an advantage by lining them up properly.
You're on the draw. On your second turn, you each have two lands in play and you cast
Your hand:
Your opponent's hand:
Let's use this
If you think your opponent might tap out to play his or her Ashiok on turn three, you could take
You're not guaranteed to win this game, but this is the line of play that lines up the cards in your hand against the cards in your opponent's hand as well as possible. It gives you the best chance of winning a game in an otherwise unfavorable matchup.
Imagine you're playing Abzan against a red-white deck and your opponent casts
The answer will depend on the details of the situation. Do you think your opponent has
Line-up Theory in Limited
In Constructed, you should basically always be thinking in terms of hand vs. hand line-up theory. Whole deck vs. whole deck line-up theory is still tremendously helpful, but is only applicable to relatively extreme matchups.
Both are very important in Limited. In Limited, there's also the extra challenge that you often know very little about the contents of your opponent's deck. You don't always know which player has inevitability, or what "must-answer" cards your opponent might have access to. That said, Limited games frequently go long (especially in Sealed Deck). When a game is shaping up to go long, being patient and employing line-up theory can greatly improve your chances.
There was an old saying from the early days of Limited Magic that you should, "only use a removal spell on a creature that's going to kill you." Today, Limited games are a little faster and tempo is a little bit of a bigger concern than it used to be. I don't recommend taking this saying as gospel. However, there's most certainly a good lesson to be taken from this extreme approach to the game.
Remember the example of the
- Johnny is on the play, but doesn't play a creature on turn one or two.
- Jenny plays
Smoke Teller on turn two. - Johnny casts
Bathe in Dragonfire on the Smoke Teller. - Jenny plays
Jeskai Windscout . - Johnny plays
Salt Road Patrol , but eventually loses to Jenny's flying creatures.
What went wrong in that story? Well, it seemed that Johnny wasn't employing line-up theory.
In Sealed Deck, you should typically expect your opponent to have one or more bomb rares in his or her deck. Although you don't exactly know what it will be, you should maximize your chance of being prepared for it when the time comes.
In other words, there might be other ways to beat your opponent's
In Game 1, you should use your best judgment, but err on the side of patience and preparedness. For Game 2, after seeing a card like Atarka, you might begin to employ whole deck vs. whole deck line-up theory and say, "I'm saving my
As my father said, "There's a right tool for every job." Beating a card like