The most common (yet subtle, yet disastrous) mistake I see in tournament Magic is the misassignment of who is the beatdown deck and who is the control deck in a similar deck vs. similar deck matchup. The player who misassigns himself is inevitably the loser.
The Beatdown
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You see, in similar deck vs. similar deck matchups, unless the decks are really symmetrical (i.e. the true Mirror match), one deck has to play the role of beatdown, and the other deck has to play the role of control. This can be a very serious dilemma, if, say, both are playing aggressive decks.
1. Who has more damage? Usually he has to be the beatdown deck.
2. Who has more removal? Usually he has to be the control deck.
3. Who has more permission and card drawing? Almost always he has to be the control deck.
If you are the beatdown deck, you have to kill your opponent faster than he can kill you. If you are the control deck, you have to weather the early beatdown and get into a position where you can gain card advantage.
For an example of correctly determining who is the beatdown deck and who is the control deck, look at the Sligh vs. Sligh match between Price and Pacifico at the top 8 of the 1998 U.S. Nationals. Although on the surface, the two players seem to be playing very similar decks, there are major design differences:
Understanding these concepts is extremely important because it influences how players should approach a given matchup. Decks that play the role of the beatdown are generally incentivized to make proactive plays, be mana efficient, and take necessary risks. On the contrary, decks that play the role of the control are generally incentivized to be reactive, take passes, make their opponents play into them, and be as risk-averse as possible.
For example, let us consider the Thresh Nasus versus Draven Ezreal matchup. Thresh Nasus often starts out as the beatdown, forcing Draven Ezreal to play as the control and stabilize against strong early-game plays of Baccai Reaper, Cursed Keeper + Ravenous Butcher, Blighted Caretaker, and Merciless Hunter. Tools like Mystic Shot, Thermogenic Beam, Culling Strike, and Statikk Shock allow Draven Ezreal to do this somewhat well.
As a result, Thresh Nasus now assumes the role of the control by attempting to stabilize against this aggression, digging for combo pieces with Spirit Leech and reactive Glimpse Beyonds, looking for an opportunity to safely launch a Nasus at the opposing Nexus. Meanwhile, the Draven Ezreal assumes the role of the beatdown as it is trying to kill the Thresh Nasus player before it reaches this state of inevitability.
In order to reduce the likelihood of Player A topdecking their way into a win, Player B is incentivized to kill Player A as quickly as possible. Thus, Player B is now the beatdown, while Player A is the control and is attempting to reduce the amount of damage they take in order to see more topdecks. The roles have shifted once again.
Parents need to know that Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown is a 2011 movie in which four young men from different walks of life decide to compete in an MMA "beatdown." It's not a direct sequel to the 2008 Never Back Down. It should surprise no one that there's constant MMA-style violence: punching and kicking, boxing and wrestling, blood and broken bones. There's also brief female nudity (breasts), and a sex scene in which all private parts are strategically covered by long hair or camera angles. When it's discovered that the father of one of the fighters came out of the closet as gay and left his family because of it, jokes and references to homosexual stereotypes and anal sex are made at the fighter's expense, shown to be an easy way to get him riled up, and while there seems to be some acceptance toward the end of his father, there's a general intolerance on display throughout the movie. There's constant profanity, including regular uses of "f--k" and its variations. A severely drunk man outside a strip club attacks the owner, dancers, and clientele with a broken bottle. Overall, this is a low-budget movie best enjoyed by fans of MMA.
What's up guys? Happy Tuesday, and happy St. Patrick's day (tomorrow, anyway). In celebration of that, we have a tremendous pod for you all to dig in on, the second episode in our "Beatdown Big Boards" series, with today's focus being the tight ends in the 2021 NFL Draft. We get into the top guy on the board who everyone already knows about, plus some of the vertical threats and utility options that will more realistically be there for the Ravens to target. We'll of course be deciding on who the top four options for Baltimore are, and shooting them out to you guys via Twitter (@PodcastBeatdown) and IG (baltimore_beatdown). We hope you all enjoy, and we'll talk to you again soon.
The boys are back for this fine Wednesday to give you guys the NFL combine recap (with a Ravens perspective) that you're looking for. They do so largely by fielding your questions from social media - user submissions to @PodcastBeatdown on Twitter and @baltimore_beatdown are the anchor of the ship for today's episode as the boys have an hours' worth of questions to answer from there, so strap in and enjoy. They relate largely to last week's combine as mentioned, but other questions enter the fray as well (in relation to free agency, offseason approach etc... even the Coronavirus gets a mention). Hopefully we got to your questions in this one, but if not feel free to keep hitting us up and we'll be sure to try and get your question read for you. We hope you guys enjoy, and we'll see you next time!
Spencer is out sick, so Jake has the pleasure of being joined by great friend of the pod, Vasilis Lericos (@vasilisbeatdown), for this Tuesday edition of the Baltimore Beatdown Podcast! Vas is a huge proponent of strong salary cap management and is very passionate about roster construction, so he jumps on the pod to discuss what the Ravens offseason is currently looking like from his perspective a few weeks out. The guys break it down position by position, and discuss ideal free agency and trade targets, as well as potential draft pairings that could help this team out in 2020 and beyond. The discussion also includes some talk on possible extensions for players such as Ronnie Stanley and Marlon Humphrey, and much, much more. We hope you guys are having a good start to your week after what was a tough/strange weekend in sports, and that the pod provides something even somewhat beneficial to those who are struggling to make sense of all that's happened. #MambaForever, and we'll talk to you guys later on this week.
The boys are back in the studio to give you a quick recap of the preseason week 2 matchup between the Ravens and the Green Bay Packers. They touch on some highlight plays, some players who stood out to them, some great local broadcast action, and much, much more. If you like today's show, be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a five star rating with a review. Also be sure to follow the boys on Twitter @Jakelouque and @ravens4dummies and follow the podcast's main account @PodcastBeatdown (and the blog @Bmorebeatdown).
The guys are back in the studio, and it's training camp week. That means one thing: A full, hour long episode entirely dedicated to training camp talk. Well, almost entirely - there's a quick mailbag segment at the top, but after that they dive right in to take a look ahead at the next month of football slowly making it's way back onto our TVs. They break down the top storylines, positional battles, and more, plus offer up one big thought as we head into this glorious time. If you like this podcast, be sure to follow the Twitter page @PodcastBeatdown and also keep visiting the website Baltimorebeatdown.com - Please also be sure to rate, subscribe, and leave a review with thoughts on how we can improve. Outtro: =TxINksuELmM 2ff7e9595c
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