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Rank Studies

  • These are suggested learning according to each rank, based on my experience, you can of course skip ahead to upper level topics if you want! (Just don't forget to keep practicing the fundamentals..)

C Rank​

  • Go practice clean stacking! Try and finish 40l sprints in 2.5 minutes.
    • Clean stacking basically means stacking flat! What is stacking flat? Well... just avoid making big craters!
    • Also, pay attention to what piece you just used, if you just used X, don't make an X dependency!
  • Techmino's Tetrodictionary recommend the following:
    • Finish 40l without topping out
    • Finish 40l with no hold without topping out
    • Finish 40l with Techrashes (Tetris) only
    • Finish 40l with Techrashes only without hold.
  • Stacking flat makes the next move obvious and gives more potential pieces to be used! So always stack flat.

B rank​

  • Just learn to stack cleanly and send tetrisses, you will be fine!
    • Try and learn to do a 40 line by only sending Quads.
  • Also, go learn finesse, it will make your piece placement much, much more fluid.
  • Also, have a look at spin / twist moves! There are plenty of holes you can fit your blocks in with a little bit of rotation..
    • Using the Perfect Clear Opener will teach you these, you don't have to use this in game, but it's still fun to learn spins along with it!

A rank​

  • You might start seeing some opener mains, but you will be mostly fine regardless.

  • You can start learning 6-3 stacking (and other column stacking) now if you want, you don't have to use it, it's just for getting used to it!

    • You will be converting into different column-well stack types a lot after a downstack

  • So now is a good time to practice sprints again! Try the following ruleset:

    • Finish only using quads for the following:
      • 9-0
      • 7-2
      • 6-3
      • 5-4
    • You can also go for 8-1 if you'd like. There's actually a pattern stacking method that's inherited from 5-4, see the following video:

  • Speaking of which.. it's an extremely good idea to practicing downstacking! I practice downstacking using Dig in Techmino in my free time.

    • (You can unlock Dig either by playing the game normally, or using the console command to unlock all modes.)

  • Feel free to start learning T Spins! Go for some natural ones if you'd like. The core rule of thumb is that Do not compromise your stack for a TSD, it's not always worth it

  • You can also start looking into openers! But don't look too deep into them.. lest they stare back..

S Rank and above​

  • More or less, everything else is learned starting from here! The main difference between ranks are speed and efficiency... but learning tactics is a must!
  • It is now extremely important to learn Offense and Defense.
  • You will also start seeing player specialization surfacing here: Opener mains, 4 widers, 2-widers, Perfect clearers, you will see them all here!

Offense​

  • Chances are your opponent also has some decent downstacking skill now! But, if you time your attacks correctly, you might just be able to top them out..
  • Timing 1: This means paying attention to when your opponent is vulnerable. If you send your attacks while they are low, you are giving them free ammo to send back to you, so again, if you see a TSD, it doesn't mean you have to take it!
  • Timing 2: The best time to send is..
    • When your opponent is higher: send after your opponent sends
    • When your opponent is lower: Cancel your opponent sends
    • When your opponent is lower but garbage well is hopelessly blocked: Well, just send away! What's the worst they could do? Dig down?? In this parity imbalance economy???
  • Pressuring: On the flipside, if your opponent is having trouble downstacking, then it's a fantastic time to attack!
  • Spiking: It's a good idea to learn spiking too, Caboozled_pie and KezDaBez has a great video that has a quick rundown on spiking
  • Because now you have to hold onto a T / I for spiking, now is a good time as ever to learn no-hold sprints!
    • Ruleset: No hold, you are allowed to do skims if you need to!
      • However, if your skim blocks the well after a combo, you lose!
      • Exception: Your skim leads to a combo that lets you blast into a Quad
      • Exception: You perform a TSD donation to immediately open the garbage hole.
    • This ruleset to pretend the opponent is watching your board at all times, the moment you block your hole, you are dead.
  • Know when to bail from your opener! The opener phase of the game is one of the most deadly! There's a very high chance some part of your opener takes a long time to build and it's difficult to downstack out of it. It's better to avoid that part of it if it means surviving.
    • On the flipside, if your opponent is using a kill opener, please try to defend first before downstacking! There's always a chance to fail your downstack, especially with column 2 / 9 garbage! But defending is always consistent! Try to APM up until mid game until then.
    • If your opponent is not handling your kill opener wells.. you can either take the free win, or.. ideally, you can practice mid game with them instead!
      • Remember, rank is just a number. Prioritze improvement over the funny number.

Defense​

  • There is an extremely likely chance that your opponent will start the game with (Extended) SDPC-Spin and Stickspin, you will need to learn how to handle them appropriately in order to advance the ranks!
  • Early game defense: So the first thing you want to do is survive the early game. The generic game plan is set up and TSD or Tetris as soon as possible
    • Then, wait for a bit! It's a bit awkward having to look at that TSD slot and do nothing with it, BUT, the alternative is dying, or worse, you send clean garbage and give your opponent more firepower, think carefully before sending that TSD / Tetris!
  • Mid-game defense: Most spikes are about 10 height high. So if you build below 10 blocks, you should be mostly safe, but...
    • If you are building at 7 blocks high already, it is highly advised that you make sure you have a defense response at all time. That means either making sure the well is always open, or having a T-spin slot on hand!
    • Getting caught by surprise while at high height without any response is a death sentence, always be prepared and have a response!
  • Tanking: On the flipside, if you are low on the board, it's not a bad idea to accept opponent garbage, but take note what type of garbage it is:
    • If your opponent is using a combo setup... you out of luck, combo setups will send cheese garbage and are notoriously hard to downstack!
    • If your opponent is using a spike setup... Excellent! If you accept some of their garbage, you will automatically have a pre-built well available to use!
  • Observation: Pay attention to your opponent's play style:
    • Do they use kill openers?
      • Cancel and accept garbage appropriately, try and keep your stack low, cancel, and reach the garbage hole, cancel again
    • Are they going for combos?
      • Cancel the early combos as they are cheesier, the later lines will send less cheesy garbage.
    • Are they waiting for you to do something?
      • Why are they waiting? Do they have something prepared?
      • If they are trying to survive and cancel you, you will always have more time than them as long as you are lower on the board. They are forced to move!
      • If they are trying to spike you... well, keep stacking! But as always, build cleanly.