What is your Scrabble Path, from Novice to Intermdiate level (not qualified to give more haha)

John Maynard Keynes (an economist) once said that "In the long run, we are all dead". Just like for scrabble, in the long run, word knowledge will tend to equalize, as the gap between novice players learn more and more words to catch up with more experienced players, and play will revolve more around board play instead.

However, what this article focuses on is scrabble study in the SHORT RUN. With limited time and limited RAM, which path will you take in achieving an intermediate level of mastery, from being a novice? (I am only qualified to comment thus far, otherwise i'm sure the experts will take me apart haha)

There are 4 paths I would like to set before you, and it is up to you to decide which suits you the most. Are you a Scrabble Warrior, Scrabble Archer, Scrabble Thief, or Scrabble Mage (adapted from Maplestory).

The Scrabble Warrior has high STRENGTH attribute (high RAM). Zyzzyva and Zarf does not daunt him. One day he will know as much as them. He studies his 7 and 8 letter anagrams in probability order as calculated by zyzzyva, in the hope that every 7 tiles he draws, he will bingo and conquer your puny 3 and 4 letter words. 1000 anagrams, 10000 anagrams, they will not stop him.

The Scrabble Archer has high AGILITY attribute (the ability to squeeze words in where you never thought possible). An archer may not know those big boy words like ETAERIO and SOTERIAL, but she has superior knowledge of 3 and 4 letter words, and the best archers even achieve 5 letter mastery to be able to score score score, at the same time closing the board before you even come close to bingo-ing, just like how an archer takes down a footman before he comes within striking range of his sword. Thinking only 's' comes after FEH, the archer shows you FEHM/NEMN and draws her tiles while you're still trying to pronounce them. BOEP, PEBA, DOEK all do pretty well at taking the triple word on top of the double letter, and allows the archer to score points smugly.

The Scrabble Thief is probably not as unlawful as you thought. He has high LUCK attribute, and while he's not stealing your bingo spots, he's FISHING for them. Instead of memorizing 7 or 8 letter bingos, he memorize word stems. The best example of a word stem is RETAIN?. Many tiles can take the place of ? and you have your bingo. Same goes for 7 letter word stems such as OTARINE?. A higher level thief would even study 5 and 6 letter word stems such as TRAIN?? and RETAIN?? to enhance his fishing skills considerably. Faced with AIINRTZ, many would falter, but the thief would know that TRIAZIN is his word immediately. Many would curse their luck with a RETAIN+A rack, as A,Q,V,X,Y,Z are the only tiles that do not give a bingo with RETAIN, but a thief would happily play NAARTJIE over the J you used to score the middle triple word with a 'JOE'.

The Scrabble Mage is the trickiest of them all. She may not know as many words as them all, but her high INTELLIGENCE attribute, as well as cunningness, allows her to hold her own. She plays scrabble like chess, toying with your mind, studying which words take an 's', and which words take other hooks instead. She sighs and plays AINE next to the last column. "What a dumb bunny", you think, playing AINES/SQUIZ for some big points across the triple word. That's when her eyebrows narrow, her lips curve into a smirk as she challenges your word off, and scores with WEXED/AINEE having wasted your turn. Seeing no more 's'es and blanks in the bag, she plays MILT, ending one column away from the right end on the top right. Seeing no threat, you simply play BAH somewhere on the bottom left. She then proceeds to play MILTZ/ZERO down, pausing just to let you challenge, while you look at the board dumbly. You'd think nothing comes before 'YET', but beware when the scrabble mage places it just below the top row. You know something is coming, but you don't know what, and you miserably consider giving away another 5 points as she plays TWP/PYET, just hitting the centre triple word.

Of course, you may choose a hybrid of the above classes. I have dabbled in each of the above before, and each has proved rewarding and successful in their own way, and I hope that those who put in effort to learn will always be rewarded.