Lines 2 and 5: conversely, are pretty defensive plays. By grabbing Pithing Needle I’m committing to dealing with only one of the 3 threats on board (Tazri potentially casting Demonic Consultation, Boonweaver blowing up my Grim Monolith instead of Cursed Totem, and Teferi), and in doing so I’m not leaving any mana up at all to interact with what might happen.

Line 4: is just right. It’s definitely not the splashiest play I could make, but it sets me up well by increasing my access to coloured mana and doesn’t paint a target on my Grim Monolith.

If the stars align, Boonweaver casts Harmonic Sliver and Teferi’s spidey sense goes off. Because Boonweaver doesn’t choose a target until the spell resolves, it may force Teferi’s hand and bait him into countering it. This further clears the way for me on my combo turn, because I’m taking a pretty big risk by going off with no countermagic backup.

Now I know a lot of you don’t play competitive EDH, but this is the type of thought process you can put into determining the appropriate action to take on your turn:

What are my lines?

In doing something, am I precluding my ability to do something else?

Am I signalling my intentions to the rest of the table by taking (or not taking) action?

What are the biggest threats to my opponents? Can I count on them dealing with those threats so I don’t have to?

Are there any threats to my opponents that I have an interest in protecting?

Thinking about the answers to these questions helps you to make better decisions when it’s time to act.

Is it worth burning a card on this?

This question comes up essentially every time you have the opportunity to disrupt your opponent. I’m going to get into this a little more in the next article, but tutors and disruption can be your most important tools in a multiplayer game. Rather than looking for the first opportunity to cast your counterspell, you should be asking yourself “Would it really be so bad if I let this slide?”. You don’t want to be hellbent or F6ed in the late game because you burned your only disruption on a modest threat.

In the above scenario, taking line 4 and passing the turn offers me a ton of opportunities to cast an excellent disruption spell – Chain of Vapor. Going in turn order, these are the things I’m likely to see, and how I can use Chain of Vapor to interact:

This is pretty loose, because Teferi’s immediate lines to victory are pretty specific. If he has Chain Veil in hand he could pull some fast mana shenanigans like High Tide + Snapcaster Mage + High Tide + Mana Crypt to cast Teferi, untap all his islands, and cast Chain Veil for the win. I wouldn’t count on something like this unless they’ve been casting nothing but tutors all game, but every once in awhile you’ll get burned because they have it. There’s nothing wrong with that.