One Friday night in late August 2025, after putting together my first Sorcery deck, I stopped by my local game store (LGS), The Portland Game Store, hoping to catch some casual games. Alas, it was the one week in the last six months when no other Sorcery players were around for the weekly casual meetup. However, the Friday Night Magic crowd was trying to kick off a draft and were at an odd number, so I got talked into joining and drafting spaceships (I quit Magic: The Gathering 5+ years ago, but love to draft in any card game).
The event was fun, but the highlight was talking Sorcery up to everyone I played, and I’m happy to say one of those opponents (who kicked my butt at FNM) was Bobby “Ringslay.” A couple of weeks later, Bobby was cracking Sorcery packs at Friday casual play and quickly became an active and skilled player in our local Sorcery scene.
Bobby and I talked at length in the months to come about Sorcery strategy, from limited play to deck building to tactics on the board, often noting to each other the major realizations that took our skills to the next level.
We enjoyed discussing Sorcery so much we decided to copy Zac and Phil and launch our own Sorcery Strategy podcast on YouTube. We decided to focus on strategy content for players who had mastered the basics and were ready to move beyond the introductory level.
Thus, “Sorcery 102 - Beyond the Ordinary” was born. Our first episode, now on YouTube, covers our top 10 tips for new players who want to improve their game. Many of these tips may be “obvious”, but still worth calling out even as self-reminders of things most players may already know.
1. Why Draw a Site vs. a Spell?
In Sorcery, the biggest indicator of advantage is the board state (rectangles in play), but the second biggest is spells in hand. Taking a spell for the turn should always be the default decision. A common mistake for new players is drawing a site at the start of their turn without a clear plan, thinking they just want more mana overall or want to build to a big minion multiple turns down the line.
Even if you have something big you want to play later, taking a spell for a turn gives you a chance to draw more cards you can play at lower mana levels and build more gradually into the bigger cards. Taking a site for turn isn’t always wrong, but because your avatar (with a couple notable exceptions) can always tap to draw a site, you lose half a card per turn that you chose to draw a site instead of a spell (since every other turn doing the tap to draw a site, tap to play a site cycle, you get two cards on your turn instead of one).
When is it right to draw a site for turn? When doing so enables a very specific play that solves a problem, or if you know your deck needs to rush to a certain mana level to really “turn on.” For instance, many decks hit their stride at mana. If your deck is like that, taking a site for turn in an early turn (often turn 2 or 3) can be good to get options on site placement early and set up your game plan.
The mistake I make all the time is taking a site for turn to play a card that is good but doesn’t actually answer a threat. For instance, I want to play my Lilith faster, so I take a site for turn on turn 4 and turn 5. I get Lilith out 2 turns earlier than I usually would, but my opponent has removal (which they usually will have early). Now I have lost 3 spells to their removal (my Lilith plus the two spells I didn’t draw) and given them a better target for their removal.
2. Your Avatar Can Block! (and other blocking tricks)
This is especially important in Limited formats where you may have hit enough mana to play the cards in your deck, and rather than tapping for a site, you can leave your avatar untapped and able to protect your important minions. A skeleton with Gift of the Serpent can kill your Lord of Lies, but your untapped avatar can stop that play.
Many times, I’ve forgotten this tip and had my plans foiled because my opponent’s avatar was untapped. In this video, we also covered a few additional points on blocking and how blocking is simultaneous, unlike attacking, which happens one unit at a time. When you block with your Avatar, you can protect a minion from damage or allow a minion to “trade-up.”
For instance, they attack your 2-power minion with their 3-power minion; you block with your avatar and choose to keep the 2-power minion in combat, so now your 2-power minions have effectively killed a 3-power minion (though your opponent could choose to do all 3 damage to the avatar and let your minion live as well, but that is unlikely if they started out by trying to attack the 2-power minion).
The final point on this is the example of you having two 2-power minions and your opponent having a single 3-power minion. If you want to kill that 3-power by attacking, you will have to attack with each 2-power separately, resulting in each taking 3 damage and you losing both minions. If you wait and double-block, your opponent will have to split the 3 damage between the two minions, so only one will die.
3. Can I Win The Race?
Knowing when you are within range of a win makes a huge difference, and how you approach the board then differs greatly from the build-up and middle-game phases. Generally, in Sorcery, you are always trying to get the better board state. But there comes a moment where you can set up your win and may want to weaken your board state to get in the damage.
Ringslay mentioned in their discussion of this topic that they often make the mistake of not dooring someone when they can and choosing instead to keep the better board state. I often see that I am two turns from a win, so I'll make a blowout attack if it looks impossible or unlikely that my opponent can door me next turn, taking attacks or making moves that, if I didn’t see the win in range, would be bad plays.
Learning to identify when the game becomes a race to death’s door rather than a battle over board state is a subtle skill with some serious room for backfires.
4. Nothing Sticks
A habit I had to break early was thinking anything I played would be around on my next turn. The average Sorcery game, in both limited and constructed, consists of back-and-forth removal of each other’s threats. This means cards that get value when played are key, and approaching your board with a “removal bait” mindset can be important.
If I have two cards in hand that I can play while I’m still in the first 7-ish turns of the game, I often play the slightly worse card first, hoping it draws out removal and lets my better card stick. This tip also emphasizes the importance of maintaining this mantra by prioritizing removing opponents' pieces.
Letting your opponent build a strong board state, even if you are also building a strong state, is often a big mistake. Board state is everything, and the player who can keep more board presence throughout the game usually wins - so prioritize clearing your opponent's pieces and keeping yours around.
5. Don’t Stack Your Minions
This one is short, but important. There is way less removal that kills one thing at multiple sites than multiple things at one site. Spreading your minions out also gives you better coverage for blocking and more avenues for attacks. Most important is not stacking minions, and second is not lining minions up or putting them in two-by-two blocks. Which brings us to number 5 on the list…..
6. Five Mana Mass Removal: Know It, Expect It, BE PREPARED!
Atlantean Fate, Poison Nova, Earthquake, and Whirling Blades are the poster children. These four cards, each costing mana, are the most common blow-out mechanic cards to look out for. Pay attention to how you have positioned your units when your opponent can hit 5 mana on their next turn.
Generally, familiarizing yourself with all the mass removal options is essential to getting stronger at Sorcery, and positioning your units based on what mass removal is in your opponent's deck will help you immensely. A one-for-many trade in Sorcery often signals the ultimate winner of a game, so setting yourself up to do it and avoiding letting your opponent do it is key.
We made a list of mass removal to think about. Beyond the big four, I think the other key ones to be expected in the current meta are Call of the Sea 
, Rolling Boulder , Snowball , Lava Flow 
, Firebreathing , Major Explosion , and Craterize 
.
7. What’s Under Your Feet
The previous point about Mass Removal is one of many reasons to keep paying attention to sites! These powerful cards hiding beneath our spells and avatars define so many aspects of Sorcery. Sites with abilities are important to notice and account for as you place your minions (things like River Rapids, Wuthering Heights, or Thin Ice hiding in plain sight, and the high-likelihood genesis effect sites like Deserts in and Silent HIlls/Babbling Brook in .
Knowing what your opponent can remove can also inform where to place your minions: stay on water against -heavy decks, and on land against -heavy decks. Even aiming to be on top of Ordinary rarity sites can be super important to dodge the infamous Atlantean Fate.
The Atlas is half the size of the spellbook. Decks that get their essential mechanics from the sites rather than the spells can be twice as reliable as decks built around combos which depend entirely on spells.
This tip made number 4 because it is important to remind yourself every turn to look at the sites in play while planning your moves (and consider the likely sites to enter on your opponent's turn). I have lost many games simply by missing an obvious play that is possible entirely with the pieces on the board because I didn’t account for a site’s effect.
8. Order of Operations
Order of operations is a complex topic since many different orders are right in different scenarios. Sometimes you should tap for a site before you play any spells to see what your next site will be. Other times, you want to leave your avatar untapped while you play spells so you can reposition your avatar to cast a spell based on your opponent's response (or even just to make it look like you might).
The other big thing with order of operations is not getting swept away by executing your plan for the turn. This can make you miss opportunities that open up as you execute your turn. For instance, you might cast Gift of the Serpent on a minion, planning to use that minion to attack and kill something.
Often I will play the gift and attack before I look at the card I drew, but maybe that card I’m going to draw is a Grapple Shot, and I could now kill without trading. Fully resolving each action and evaluating the resulting state pays off. Sorcery is a “one action at a time” game, and not declaring all your attacks at once will open up play lines and possibilities.
I see people all the time say I attack with these three minions here. But the order of operations is to attack with each one at a time, and doing so may open opportunities or even just help you notice an option you didn’t see before.
9. Know the Decks
Being familiar with your own deck may sound obvious, but it's important to know exactly what is in it and what plays might be possible. Practicing consistently with one deck reveals playlines and helps you notice key missing pieces to tweak your build.
Deep familiarity with what is in your decks will help you play the odds of what you might draw and set up possible plays. “Know the Decks” also means getting familiar with the archetypes out there. The best way to do this is just to play lots of games and compare decks.
I notice, as I’m losing to the best players, that even as they close in on the win, I hear them muttering about what cards they expect might be in my deck and hand and approaching the kill move, trying to minimize my outs based on their awareness of what my deck likely contains. That deep familiarity with what cards will be in a deck based on the Avatar, the elements, and the other cards played thus far separates good strategic play from truly top-tier tactics.
10. Be Chill and Kind!
It may sound trite, but the number one tip for taking your Sorcery skills to the next level is to be kind and friendly as you play. The game itself is incredible, with amazing strategic depth, but the welcoming, kind community is what keeps it growing steadily.
Even more, players' willingness to share advice and discuss strategy in a way that encourages everyone involved helps raise the collective play level. As Bobby and I play games together, we explore alternate lines, talk through our thoughts, and share different lines we considered after the game ends.
If you can engage your fellow sorcerers with chill, kind vibes, you'll learn more from each game than just what you thought of while playing. If we keep this community chill, kind, and welcoming, we not only have more fun, but our level of play is strengthened by that atmosphere of collaboration and encouragement.
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Featured image: Adept Illusionist by Jeff Easley
