The way that you teach someone how to play Magic can make a difference in how well they learn. We’ve looked at how to get them started, and how The Stack works. This article will look at different teaching styles and learning styles that were developed by people who get paid to do that sort of thing, and how those relate to learning Magic. This isn’t a manual, but it’s an additional tool that can help you bring someone into the game more easily. Plus, we’ll look at what the resources of Magic are.

We’ll briefly look at four styles of teaching, and nine styles of learning. Don’t worry—there won’t be any tests. These are just the basics.

MZ denotes Michael_Zeora speaking and WR denotes Casual_Violence speaking.

Teaching Styles

There are four basic styles of teaching. These can overlap or be used together depending on the individual style of the teacher.

Formal Instructor
This approach is probably the least effective for teaching Magic. The formal instructor is the center of the lessons, and set apart from the students. There is no relationship between instructor and student, and it doesn’t matter if the students interact.

Because Magic is a game of interaction with other people, setting yourself apart from (and above) other people creates an unfriendly environment. It’s just not fun. The other methods are much better, because your padawan needs to have some kind of interaction with the instructor and the game.

Magic isn't college; neither should your teaching style in that respect.

Demonstrator or Personal Model
This style of teaching involves the instructor showing the student what’s going on, and demonstrating the ideas. After the instructor demonstrates the ideas, the instructor helps the students apply the lessons. This style encourages a direct relationship with the student.

When this style of teaching is used for Magic, the instructor shows the padawan how to play the game, either in a duel against another player or in a solo game, where only one side of the game is played. Then, the instructor walks the student through a game, helping with the basics and answering questions.

MZ: I use this practice when bringing a new player (who hasn't played in his life) into the inner-workings of magic. First I set down a card of each card type (Creature, Enchantment, Artifact, Land, Instant, Sorcery) and I go over what makes each card different and the basic ideas of the power of Instant speed over sorcery speed, and all that over the new “Split Second” speed. I then allow them to get into a couple of games at my side (with another friend who plays as the opponent (who will play with only the knowledge of what’s on the table and not what I’m discussing and he or she’ll add their two cents, when I make a misstep (which is good).

Facilitator
The Facilitator style of teaching is focused on the students. The instructor coordinates activities for the students, and leaves the students to work through problems with other students to reach a result. This approach relies on a group effort from the students.

WR: This teaching style is useful for padawans who have already grasped the basics, and are trying to learn the more complicated aspects of the game. This style is usually used in groups where newer players are working with experienced players to learn the more advanced mechanics and
interactions.

MZ: I did a lot of this when I was teaching most of my playgroup but now I'm more a Delegator, and without further intrusion...

Delegator
This approach to teaching relies heavily on the students to work together to puzzle out solutions to complicated problems. The instructor assigns a task, and then steps back to take the role of consultant to the students as they work out solutions.

This style is often used in more experienced groups where the resident guru of the group steps in only when players run into an interaction or ruling that they aren’t sure of. This also works for newer players who have the basics down, and just need help with the interactions that they don’t understand. The teacher can take a slightly more active role, and help the padawan make play decisions or figure out the more complicated rules and interactions.

MZ: This is my Current role in my playgroup when one of the other two gurus aren't in the building. Such as Stack work, like showing when Swift Silence would be best played. Other random occurrences like this and within the new Time Spiral block will happen all too often in any playgroup.

WR: Another example happened to me recently. In a multi-player chaos game, my padawan took my advice with Brain Freeze, and waited for a large counterspell war. At the end of the turn , he dropped the Freeze and milled 27 cards from my library with it. Lucky me. He’s a fast learner.

Learning Styles

The first three are individual learning styles that relate to what a student does to learn. The last six are more general styles of learning.

Visual
Visual learners learn by seeing the material. In Magic, the pictures and text boxes will help visual learners understand the cards. Taking notes, especially with drawings or colors, will give them visual cues to learn the basics of the game.

MZ: This is nice if you’re the type of person who can see it, remember it, and put it into memory, retrieve it and use it critically. Usually Visual learners, in my experience tend to have an artistic side to them in the visual art world.

Auditory
Auditory learners pick up material by hearing it. They learn best if the subject is explained, and they can repeat what they’re told. In Magic, they will understand the game more easily if they talk themselves through each step (saying, “Untap, upkeep, draw; first main phase, combat phase, second main phase; end of turn and discard”). If they can explain what they understand to someone else, it will help them learn and retain the information better.

MZ: To me, this is the hardest, but is the easiest for the human brain to remember when it's actually listening. Musicians who can play by ear have tons of this in their ability rosters. Hey, look, a D&D reference!

Kinesthetic
Kinesthetic learners need to move and act to learn. They won’t be able to sit through long explanations without getting their hands on the cards. They’ll often move or fidget while thinking or taking in the information. They will learn most effectively by playing.

MZ: Now, unlike the other two above, this one is more muscle memory than anything, but the brain gives a final interpretation, not too dissimilar to learning how to play pinball and such.

WR: “Muscle memory” is a good way to put that. These types of learners are the ones who need to do something to get the idea set. I lean toward this style, and so I tend to over-shuffle my decks while I’m getting new information from the group guru.

Individual
The individual learner will use previous experience to relate what is being taught to what is already known.

MZ: This is my learning style. It's easier for me to remember when I can relate to something I already know; I believe that all people have and use this more than any other style in life while learning.

Group
This learner will work best in a group to find solutions or learn something new. They will use the group’s resources to learn.

MZ: This is nice way of learning if you like to listen to people and gain knowledge through them, but if you’re not a people person, with the exception of one-on-one, then group may not be for you.

WR: This one is tricky when teaching Magic, since there aren’t many times when there are more than one or two newer players. But, if your padawan is a group-style learner, they might find it easier to learn in a multi-player situation, instead of one-on-one. They might take pieces of information from everyone.

Oral Expressive
This style of learning uses questions to learn new ideas, and talks through the ideas that they’ve learned to understand how things work.

MZ: Talking things out can be very helpful, I commonly use this when explaining how the Stack works and how, where, and when a spell is played to get the best effect. Part of magic is not only knowing what spell to play but when to play it for the best effect.

Written Expressive
This style relies on writing down what they’ve learned to understand it, in the same way that oral expressive learners talk it out.

MZ: This is also helpful, but Oral Expressive is just a step or two quicker and quickness is preferred so player can get back to a game.

WR: Early on, notes or cheatsheets can help. Once the basic information has been assimilated, it shouldn’t take much for the learner to pick up the mechanics from the cards themselves.

Sequential
The sequential learner needs to be able to relate what is being taught to a timeline, or some other ordered structure. They will use priorities and flow charts to visualize and break down the concepts into the order of events.

MZ: Like I said before, Oral Expressive and Sequential help to explain the best moves to make given the knowledge at hand.

Global
These are the “big picture” learners, who look at the material as a whole, then work through the details. They want to see what the end result could be, and how to apply what they’ve learned to things outside of the small focus of it. In Magic, they will want to find ways to apply the information to everyday things.

WR: Each person will find the teaching style that works best for them. I tend to teach newer players with mechanically easy Green decks, and play a couple of games with both hands revealed. I’ll walk the beginner through each step of the game, giving the information in small chunks. After the new player has the basics of tapping mana and playing spells, then I’ll go through an actual game. When the new player is comfortable with the different parts of play, they’re ready for a more advanced deck. Choosing what kind of deck for the padawan to play can be tricky.

MZ: I don't know, I've taught Aggro and Beatdown followed by Control and Lockdown and finished with Mill and Alt-Win. [Love the reference to MDV Deck Type Categories!  ~Streetz] I'll discuss this issue further when then we come to how to teach magic from the Guru's Perspective.

Playing Styles

So, we’ve covered learning styles and teaching styles. There’s one more that’s relevant to teaching Magic: play styles. There are several styles of play in Magic. Most of these can be placed into an overall archetype, although each player will use the style in his or her own way.

Each player uses different strategies, and has their own style of play. These can be broken down into archetypes, and a bunch of technical stuff can be applied, including game theory and psychology. But that’s not what this is about. This is about finding the right way to teach a new player, and to find the style that suits them in the beginning.

WR: When I first started, I was using Black almost exclusively. Mainly because that was what everyone else that I knew played.

MZ: As did I-- good ol' Dauthi Slayer back in Tempest who I nicknamed "Frank" ahh... I never did like the Slayer—it was always used against me. Shadow is a much crueler mechanic than Fear.

WR: But there was something about that color that drew me to it like a moth to a flame. I don’t know about moth to flame, how about mold to bread? I was more of a twisted child and black just felt right at the time. Darkness. Insanity. Evasion and sneaky beats (i.e. "Frank"). It’s still my color of choice, but I don’t play it as often because most of the people in my groups use it a lot, and I’m trying to diversify.

I’m a beatdown player. Control frustrates me when I’m playing against it, so I shy away from playing the White-Blue archetype. I don’t like playing against it, so why should I play it against other people? I’m nice like that. I’d much rather hit people with creatures that they can’t do anything about. Destroy their creatures. Burn their hopes and roast their creatures with Carbonize. Red was the first color I branched into. The creatures aren’t that great (other than haste), but Red has what Black lacks. Large amounts of direct damage. Removal is nice, but the option of barbequing either a creature or a player makes me happy ... Mons' Goblin Roast anyone?. Green has acceleration, and big beatsticks, but it never really got my attention. Until Kamigawa and the Spirit-Arcane interactions where I then when very Samurai White. I’ve built White and Blue decks that work, but they go back to my roots in Black. They’re centered on evasive creatures, rather than control. Ah, no tap effects like Minister of Impediments.

MZ: Go WR-- he has ethics, but like the US government, I don't. I went more of a Blue direction, counterspells and all that jazz, really fun when your opponent’s finisher is in the grave... good times... It’s actually fun seeing an opponent squirm in their seat battling themselves with "Should I just scoop? or no?" I'm a mean person so sue me.

WR: Even though I’m considered the second-biggest threat (and one of the better players, but not in the top three) when I show up to cards, one player keeps telling me that I’m a bad player. Because I don’t use a style that he understands. I’m beatdown, but it’s more finesse than aggro. I might take a few more turns than necessary to win in casual play, and sometimes that gives my opponent enough time to get answers, but I win duels about half the time, and in multi-player chaos matches, I’m usually close to the top (unless I’m taken out with a fourth-turn kill). I’m not a great player by a long shot. But I know how to build decks that fit my style. The biggest threat (and the best player) is the Control player for two reasons: First, he knows how to build decks well. It’s almost innate. He looks at a card, and knows if it’s usable, and where it can be used. Utility cards are often the only ones in his decks, creatures with good abilities, spells that work around whatever his opponents have. Second, he knows how to use the rules to his advantage. He’s an encyclopedia of Magic, and he uses that knowledge in every game. No matter what colors or block he’s playing, he can lock down the board in a few turns. He should be on the Pro Tour, but he’s not. He just wants to have fun playing the game.

The next in line started out in Big Green, then Black. In the last few years, he’s been focusing more attention on White-Blue Control. His other-colored decks often have a Control aspect to them, no matter what the initial archetype is. He builds decks that fit his style, but use aspects of other styles that he’s trying to learn to play, understand, and beat.

MZ: WR and myself are similar but have taken a little different in the way, and where we win in playstyle. I'm an aggro player by heart and a Jack-of-all-trades by experience. I started as a good ol' Black exclusive player but went very, very Blue about it. How? What did you do in Black that was Blue? It was the Torment era, Black was a part of everything in that set, so I went blue, to deal with color hosing, But I played every color early to find where I feel good at and then I found to my surprise I'm a very Green person. How I built my first Green deck has echoed into my current incarnation of its more experienced form. While playing with my Green deck, I played Torment and when back to Blue-Black featuring one of the best cards undisputed in the game of MTG, Dr. Teeth. I then took a reprieve from the game and bounced back in when Ravnica hit. Dimir really brought the worst out of me and Circu. It's currently one of my most threatening decks, mangling with weak creatures to disassemble any deck that has come against it. Red and I are friendly but it's not my preference, with the exception of Goblins. I love those little green guys. White is a fun in aggro and beatdown style. My best friend, who I taught, now uses a GW Wake deck to his best; it's a very mean deck. I liked White thanks to Angels, but besides that I'm not a big fan of white. Blue is fun, it has its playful quarks and it breams with abuse-able cards, counter-magic, and one of the most solid evasion abilities constructed: Flying. I won't proclaim that I'm the best player in my group, I'd rather say that I'm in the top five.

ANYWAYS! That was a nice little chat on who the heck we are, so I’m going to take the grunt work from here and hand WR the whip and be the taskmaster. Let’s dip our toes into the color pool and get our feet wet and we’ll really dive into playstyles and colors in the next article.

Colorless
This is notably the color of Artifacts (in the old style Brown, new style light-grey) it carries no symbol, but is paid though any color of mana, meaning you can have artifacts in a deck without messing with a color base. Colorless costs are noted with a simple grey circle and a number in it. Colorless is a lack of the personality that other colors have. Artifacts don’t have ambition or greed, they’re cold tools for another to get what they wish (with the exception in Mirrodin).

White
White has a lot going on. Unlike Colorless, it has a personality and things that it’s known for. Protection, Prevention, Life gain, and Angels, White tends to be the symbol of faith and hope. You’ll see a lot of Humans, Soldiers, Knights, Angels, and the occasional Sliver pop up in white for creatures. White is Lord Master of Mass Destruction. In casual there is nothing more devastating than a rightly timed Wrath of God. Although White is really well known for either Weenie Beatdown or Defensive deck styles, I’ve seen a couple of sneaker styles that white deals in.

White protects its resources with redirection, buff, evasion (flying and protection), tapping, life gain, and removal. It increases its resources through life gain and limited card draw. White tends to be more efficient than the other colors, so it doesn’t need to increase its resources, as much as protect them. It attacks resources with removal and redirection. Its most powerful resource are defensive spells.

Blue
Blue is the essence of Knowledge, Flight, and the unending sea. Blue tends to do several things off of the knowledge aspect, like looking in places where it shouldn’t, gaining a lot of knowledge through drawing cards, and tapping down potential threats, then there’s counter-magic! Flight is another of Blue’s aspects by hosting a good amount of Flying creatures in the past, and one of the first colors to give creatures flight (or Jump). The power of the water is where blue can get really big and mean, but it all comes at a price. Blue’s big mean creatures tend to have a drawback of harsh powers, like Leviathan’s sacrifice of three islands, or Sea Serpent’s need for the opponent to have an Island. Also this color is one of the most common (if not THE MOST) landwalk abilities, Islandwalk. My only question for blue is, “Is the Blue Man Group really Blue or Red?”

Blue protects its resources with counter magic, bounce, tapping, and evasion (unblockable creatures and flying). It increases its resources through efficient card draw. It attacks resources with counter magic, bounce, and mill. The most powerful resource that Blue has is its library. It has the capacity to stack the library and draw cards.

Black
Oh Jeez, it’s our color. Black is the evil if White is the good. Black does have several things for it as well, like Control elements, Evasive creatures, Life Drain, Sacrifice, and Vampires and Zombies. Where White is, Black tends not to be. Black and White do have some common ground, like Mass Destruction; white does it all at once, where Black does it constantly but only little at a time. Black is complicated, where White, tends to be simple (“SMACK FACE! MUST SMASH FACE”)

Black protects its resources with buff, removal (graveyard, library, hand, and spot removal), and evasion (flying, fear, and regeneration). It increases its resources through resource theft, graveyard recursion, and sacrifice. It attacks resources with debuff, sacrifice, discard, and destruction (creature and land). Its most powerful resource is its graveyard. Not just recursion, but the ability to remove cards from the graveyard to hurt its opponents (such as Organ Grinder’s ability).

Red
Red is a very umm… undirected. Yeah, that’s a good word for it. Red has the beloved Goblin Tribe going for it as one of their many iconic tribes. The other master of red tribal is Dragons. Red doesn’t have a huge repository of things to do in Magic. Red does have direct damage, unpreventable damage, and Destruction, lots and lots of destruction. Red has an occasional Creature control and it’s reputation for misdirection is growing quite well.

Red protects its resources with burn and first strike. It increases its resources with short-term acceleration and creature production (Firecat Blitz). It attacks resources with burn and destruction (artifact and land). Its most powerful resource are the cards in hand.

Green
Green is a wholly different color altogether. Green is the holder of the strongest and toughest creatures (Autochthon Wurm and Krosan Cloudscraper). Green also tends to have lots of high costing creatures, but also has mana acceleration in getting lands, finding more mana, and has lots of helpful Elves, and these aren’t your Christmas Elves, these are might and noble beings of nature. Green tends to be good for all styles, but excels in beatdown and defensive styles.

Green protects its resources with buff, life gain, and evasion (regeneration, untargetability). It increases its resources with long-term acceleration and creature generation. It attacks resources with buff and destruction (artifact and enchantment). Green’s most powerful resource are its permanents. Which is a reason that Wrath of God makes a nasty mess for green decks

What are the resources?

Hand
In Magic, the cards that you have in your hand can be a powerful tool for keeping your opponent off-balance. Many newer players don’t realize that it can be used just like a hand of poker (or other card game that relies on luck and strategy). I’ve seen too many newer players tap out their mana with cards in hand. Each color has threats that could keep the opponent from dropping the big cards before they can protect them. Newer players need to be reminded that it isn’t what is in the hand that’s threatening; it’s what could be in the hand. This makes card draw and discard remarkably powerful tools.

MZ: AH! Perfect Example – I’m playing a mono-green aggro (my personal favorite of all my decks) and my opponent is taking his turn. He’ll look at my all my permanents (I tend to gather mana from every resource in this deck), he’ll see that I have one land (forest) untapped, and then have to decide whether or not to attack this turn. I’m just holding my hand, flipping though the cards. He eyes me. I’m calm cool and collected when I say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” So, he thinks I’m bluffing, and he attacks. I tap the forest. He cringes. I play Fog. Next time I do the same thing. Now that he knows that if I have one land untapped, I have a reason for it, and he won’t attack me until he sees all my mana tapped out. He’ll go for an attack in order to get my life total in check, but he’s looking to bait out my last Fog so he’ll no longer have worries about it and can attack without thought. He’s in position to do a killing swing, but he sees my land untapped (all of them this time) and decides to hold off another turn and just swings with a fatty (Akroma of all things) and I block it with a Kamahl-pumped-Giant Mantis. This time I didn’t have a fog… I end up winning the game by getting all my combo pieces together and he’s without his Wing Shards.

WR: Keeping cards in hand and mana untapped are very important concepts, simply because it can buy you that precious extra turn or two that gets you the win condition. Newer players don’t always see the power of bluff. (Some of us older players who habitually use as many resources as possible each turn have to learn that as well.)

Library
The Library is the warehouse of knowledge. It should have everything a player needs to win, or at least keep their opponent from winning. Arguably, as long as there are cards in the library, a win is possible. I’ve seen games (and played in a few) where one player’s library has been milled down to one or two cards. The card that was left was the card that won the game. (MZ: Was it called Anti-Battle of Wits, or was it Phage the Untouchable and Dauthi Embrace?) (Funny enough, he was playing Green. Unchecked Growth on the Green Shinen. Sometimes, it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.)

The Library as a resource is linked to deckbuilding and the player’s collection. It has been my experience that a good collection doesn’t mean that a player will build great decks, and a small collection can be used effectively to build solid decks. Most of the decks I’ve played casually are nothing but commons and uncommons. (MZ: commonly called a lite deck) Some are better than others, but that is because of the interactions between the cards. (Which will be touched on later.)

Graveyard
The Graveyard is an overlooked resource. But dead cards can fuel Threshold, recursion (such as Raise Dead or Reclaim) can pull those cards back to be used again, and Buyback and Flashback (old mechanics returning in Time Spiral) make the Graveyard dangerous. It’s also one of the most effected resources right behind life total and field position.

Life Total
Life Total is probably the resource that is most guarded by newer players. Most newer players see the Life Total as the only thing that’s really important. It’s common for them to attack an opponent’s Life Total instead of creatures or other permanents, and look for ways to protect their own to the point of being imprisoned by their own walls. While it is important, it’s not necessary to hold onto every point. Look at cards like Necropotence, where Life Total is traded for card advantage. In my observations, it takes newer players more time to let go of the idea that they need to stay at 20 life (or more) than for them to understand how to exploit other aspects of the game.

Permanents
Permanents are anything that doesn’t go away as soon as you cast it. Assuming it doesn’t get countered or quickly removed.

Lands
The base of a good deck lies in a good mana base, most of the time (a good 95%) is all about the lands in the deck. How many basic and non-basic lands are being used. When in-game, this is the more important resource, and one of the most hurtful to see get destroyed.

Enchantments
These come in three flavors, World, Aura, and the generic kind. The generic kind comes and sits in play and does some neat effect, this is the same with World enchantments too but they have special rules behind them. Aura is different to the point of range, Auras only effect one thing at a time within the rules text will tell you what Aura goes where with the words Enchant (enchant creature, permanent, land, and so on).

Artifacts
Artifacts and enchantments aren’t too different; the main differences are color, and the fact artifacts are normally lack thereof, and Artifacts tap where enchantments don’t. Artifacts come in three types that intermingle with each other, generic, Creature, and Equipment. Generic, like enchantments, come into play and have a neat effect or have an ability or two. Artifact Creatures are creatures that don’t have a color, but they are treated like any other creature. Equipment are like Auras, except Equipment comes into play like a regular artifact but have an Equip Cost that puts it on a creature. When that creature dies, the Equipment acts like a regular artifact again.

Creatures
Creatures will seem like the important card type to new players. They do have a level of importance, as they are normally your first line of defensive and offensive. Creatures have several things that other cards don’t; creatures have a wide type range (seen in the unofficial Mistform Ultimus watch), creatures have power (how much they deal) and toughness (how much they can take in one turn before they die). Some creatures also have static abilities like Flying, First Strike, or Trample, and a lot of creatures have other specific abilities.

Sacrifice is something that, in general, doesn’t seem right to new players unless a ‘no-duh’ effect comes from it. It’s represents the loss of a resource, even if something better is gained, such as sacking a Ruksalka to make a Faith/’s Fetters fizzle. But the sacrifice of a creature now, for a powerful swing now, isn’t what some new players need to see. They’ll do it, but they know they lost a potential blocker this turn. Timing the sacrifice is a difficult idea for newer players to really understand.

Legendary Permanents
In all of the permanent types we’ve just mentioned, some cards might be Legendary. These cards have special rules about them, such as you cannot have two of these in play at the same time, regardless of who controls them. If this happens the game gets rid of both of them (triggering any “put into graveyard from play” activated effects).

Spells
These are things that happen and go away quickly, but still they can be countered.

Sorceries
Sorceries are cards that you can play only during a main phase. They have an effect, and go to graveyard once they’ve resolved (normally). Sorceries are only played on your turn when the Stack is empty. They can be countered, and they happen at a slower speed than instants.

Instants
Instants are far more versatile then their counterpart, sorceries. Instants can be played at any time, anywhere, as long as you have the mana for them. These are faster than sorceries, and tend to be very powerful tools. But don’t overlook sorceries.

Knowledge and Experience
This is possibly the most important resource available to a player, and it is one that newer players do not have. Above a solid collection and access to the best cards, knowledge of the cards and the game, and experience playing the game make the difference between a good player and a ranked pro. This resource is the key to utilizing the other resources to the greatest benefit.

For years, I played casual Magic at kitchen tables and in coffee shops under the pre-Sixth Edition rules. A few higher-level players came through the regular play group, and we learned the newer rules. We traded for better rares and uncommons, and stepped up our game a notch. But it wasn’t until Kamigawa block that I had the opportunity to play regularly with some of the best players in the area. I built a mono-Green Spirit-Arcane lite deck that proved to be a real threat to some of the best decks I’ve seen. It also showed those players the potential of overlooked cards (which they still use when playing Green). There are things you can learn from any player. A newer player might see potential in cards that are often ignored, or they’ll find an interaction that you might not have thought about.

Without knowing the rules, and how to use the resources to their potential, a player is very limited. Until a player reaches the highest level that they want to play at, even among casual groups, there are things to learn. But every player, even the newer players, will see something in the game that might be overlooked by someone else. When teaching Magic, whether your padawan has never played or they’re moving toward the next level of play, you will find yourself learning from the learner. The game constantly evolves, and players need to keep moving with the game if they want to grow. Some people are happy playing at a very laid-back casual level, where questions about the Stack never come up. There’s nothing wrong with that. Those of us who want to improve and grow are helped by teaching the game. The newer players will see things that we might not think about.

How a newer player is taught is just as important as what they are taught. Your teaching style or method should be adjusted to your padawan’s learning style to help them get the most out of what you have to offer. There are some that are more conducive to teaching Magic than others. Instead of finding a method that works through trial-and-error, the styles at the beginning of this should help you get an idea of the best approach for you and your padawan. Once they have a grasp of the game, their playstyle will begin to emerge. There are styles of play that fit well with some colors, while other colors clash with a playstyle. If your padawan can understand what the colors do, what their resources are, and how the colors use those resources, they will find a color or color combination that works for them as they learn the more advanced aspects of the game. The more interesting the game is to them, the more they will play. When the game stops being fun, or if they can’t find something to relate to with the game (strategy, competition, art, flavor text, or something else), they won’t be playing for long. When they have the tools to play, and the understanding of how to use them, the chances of them coming back day after day (or week after week) will increase greatly.

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

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Delusions of Mediocrity: Getting Stuffy in Here.
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