I'm trying to get better at keeping a friendly stack, where I can place pieces w/o creating any garbage. I'm a scrubby player, my avg game is like 450 in TAP masters mode, my PB is 602. I've been practicing for 2 days with only slight improvement. Here's how I'm playing currently: -Play as slow and deliberately as I can for as long as possible -Planning is essentially trying to make sure that I can always accommodate any piece that might appear by looking at the pattern of the stack -Always try to tetris as much as possible, skim only when necessary If you have insight about what I should be thinking about or any specific tips, I'd love to hear them.
Small piece of advice : If you think you'll have holes, make them go to the sides as much as possible. A hole in the center is the worst, whereas a hole in the sides disappears very easily with a few doubles or triples.
It definitely helps to know how the TGM randomizer works. In short, it isn't very likely that you get the same piece as one of the last four it dealt. Consequently, a good rule of thumb is: Try to not place a piece in a way that you need the same piece again (that goes double for I pieces). Example. In this situation you now require either a J or an I, but it's not likely a J will come within the next four pieces. It may not matter much in that scenario, because there are still lots of options, but as soon as you're forced to play in the top few rows, you can't afford to depend on a single piece anymore. And of course depending on certain pieces and not getting them can cause holes. If you want more information on the randomizer, check out the wiki page. A good way of learning how to stack (besides just playing a lot) is to watch videos of better players trying to guess their next move. If their move differs from the one you had in mind, try to figure out what benefits their placement could have. Often you'll find yourself learning a certain wallkick you didn't know existed or a better solution to a certain pattern. I also highly recommend this thread in which colour_thief provides commentary on his first Death Gm. Lastly, I'd encourage you to post replays or videos on the forum and I (or someone else) would be happy to give you some pointers on your stacking.
http://www.ryanheise.com/tetris/tetris_stacking.html is also handy -- it gives some simple tips about what makes "friendly" surfaces.
Oh yea it's probably a good idea to post replays. That tetris stacking link is pretty neat, is it really better to rotate the T blocks like that? I can see it providing spots in the short term but it seems like it could make things more bumpy later. I think I heard that thing about leaving holes on the side before. I'll have to try to keep that in mind more. But yea, I'll see about recording a replay, that seems like it could be really helpful.
If placing the T "perfectly" doesn't leave places for S/Z, then you probably want to leave one side of it up. See these slides.
