Raiding the Reliquary: Who's the Beatdown?

A Precious Artifact

I first read Who’s The Beatdown over a decade ago. Even then, when I read it, it was over a decade old. Despite being written over 25 years ago, it’s still pointed to as the article to read for aspiring competitive Magic players.

Who’s the Beatdown was written in 1999 by Mike Flores. If you’d like to read it yourself, I wouldn’t discourage you (it’s a great read), but it isn’t necessary right now, as I will be summarizing the article and applying it to Flesh and Blood.

In Who’s the Beatdown, Mike explains one of his Magic theories. He says in every game that isn’t a true mirror, one deck has to play the role of ‘the beatdown.’ Their goal is to kill the opponent quickly and efficiently. The other deck takes on the role of the ‘control’ deck. Their goal is to stop the beatdown player from defeating them by removing their threats and eventually take over the game through powerful late game plays. Mike gives several (Magic specific) examples of games that are lost by players not correctly assigning these roles, and has a very memorable line near the end: