Boring but Practical/Tabletop Games

Board Games

 * In Chess, most people will try to learn the flashy openings and glitzy combo attacks, but the tactics of piece exchange should come in second place to the logistic considerations of controlling board space. It sounds boring, but it pays to know when to crack open the defense of a turtling player or to suffocate an aggressive attacker with a locked pawn center.
 * In Go, there are dozens of standard sequences called joseki, i.e. "best move". Playing them out according to the standard may seem boring to a junior player, but the reason they became standard in the first place is that they provide both sides with usable structures and "fair share" of the area where it is played.

Card Games

 * In Card Games, simple and resource-cheap cards often reign supreme, with efficiency being more important than raw power.
 * In Magic: The Gathering, some of the best cards in the game have completely generic effects, but for cheap.
 * Sadly, the cards linked above are also banned from most tournament formats, possibly for exactly that same reason.
 * In the beginning, Magic tournaments were often dominated by big, flashy spells, things like dragons, angels, and demons. Then one player got the idea of using small, crappy creatures that most players ignored for a fast beatdown, with the idea being that a big, flashy spell is no good if the other guy is too dead to cast it. A few nearly one-sided tournaments later, the "weenie" archetype that we (Magic players) all know and love was born.
 * Cards don't get much simpler than Lightning Bolt, yet it's so good that it wasn't printed in a tournament legal set for 14 years. It only returned due to Power Creep, Power Seep, which is remarkably small considering the games enduring nature.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh!!'s metagame is faced with a similar situation. Finally summoned your almighty Dragon Master Knight? Or maybe Elemental Hero Divine Neos? Too bad, they're just as vulnerable to traps like Mirror Force as Kuriboh is. Unless you're summoning something that is immune or can shut down traps, it's usually much better to go with something simple, like Cyber Dragon, whose effect is simply: "Summon for free if you don't have any monsters out and your opponent does".
 * For example, the most effective tactics on one point of the game, is manage your card advantage, and abuse advantageous monster like the Disc Commander, Monarch and LADD. A very boringeyt highly effective strategy
 * This has changed to a degree since the introduction of Synchro Monsters. Shooting Star Dragon for instance, is possible but difficult to summon, but amazing when you do. Same goes for Red Nova Dragon. Also, Synchros have higher ATK than the stars of previous metas, so managing to summon that Dragon Master Knight might actually do you a tiny scrap of good.
 * Nowadays, there's a notable amount of deck that strategy revolve around summoning big flashy monster every single turn effectively. The game have gone so far that something that seems Awesome but Practical before become Boring but Practical

Miniatures Games

 * The armies of Warhammer 40000 offer loads of appealing units to select, be they super soldiers encased in powered armor that can punch holes in tanks and survive being stepped on by mecha, battlesuits unleashing volleys of plasma fire while darting in and out of cover, tanks the size of bunkers that can annihilate entire squads in a single shot, genetically-engineered warbeasts that spit fire and toss around enemy armor like toys, speed-crazed alien brutes on crude motorcycles loaded with guns, teleporting shock troops firing monofilament threads, and so forth. But at the end of the battle none of these units will matter unless you have some humble Troops choices, the rank-and-file of your army, to hold mission objectives.
 * However, the above-mentioned speed-crazed alien brutes can take motorcycles as troops choices simply by taking a cheap special character.
 * For that matter, the common Guardsman's lasrifle, so weak that it's nicknamed "flashlight", but reliable, low maintenance and has as much as 60 shots from a powerpack that can be recharged anywhere (even from sunlight). It's not a great weapon, but thousands of them can bring down an army of 'nids.
 * The bog-standard model of the Leman Russ Main Battle Tank, both in-'verse and on the tabletop. It lacks the flash of the more specialised models of the same chassis, and the sheer power of super-heavies like the Baneblade, but they're cheap, plentiful and can perform well (if not excel) in almost any role.
 * Indeed, for most armies in any of the Games Workshop big games (Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, and Lord of the Rings), it's generally a good idea to cross off the most expensive units in their force from attempts to build serious armies. The reason is fairly simple; any extremely powerful unit is going to take up a lot of the points an army gets, leaving the rest of the army weaker. It'll get blasted by canonballs, a hero killer, or tanks because it is such a big investment on your part, leaving your force crippled. Even if your opponent doesn't have a powerful answer to kill that behemoth, he maybe can tie it up so it doesn't damage anything important while the rest his army crushes your force. For example, one solution to facing a dragon in Lot R is to feed it a mook every turn; sure, the mook is pretty much doomed, but the dragon is likely impotent to do anything else and cost so many points the rest of your army can sweep the enemy with little trouble. Likewise, if a new player insists on a huge squad of assault terminators you can't kill, skating around them will mean that incredibly expensive unit does too little damage to justify its massive cost. Boring but practical wins cutthroat games.
 * BattleTech has two examples that stand out.
 * First, there's the medium laser - modest range and damage, but lightweight, compact, heat-efficient and can fire all day long without running out of ammo, which makes it a great weapon for light 'Mechs that can't carry much in the way of weapons tonnage anyway and a great backup weapon for the big guns on heavier designs. It's just perhaps the most ubiquitous 'Mech weapon out there, period.
 * And second, one of the most basic items of the 'modern' era: the double heat sink. It's perfectly boring—all it does is funnel heat (one of the main limiting factors on how many weapons you can safely use in one turn) out of your 'Mech or other eligible unit at twice the rate of the plain old single heat sink for the same one-ton weight. However, because using DHSs on a design also doubles the base heat dissipation capacity it gets for free with its fusion engine before explicitly installing extra sinks and because the game was not originally balanced with this in mind, this item arguably ends up edging right into Game Breaker territory; single heat sinks certainly have generally fallen out of favor as a consequence except on units that explicitly cannot use doubles, or for background flavor reasons.

Tabletop Roleplaying Games
"#69: There is more to wizardry than magic missile. Even if I can do 200 damage automatic with no save."
 * Healers/Clerics in almost any pencil-and-paper roleplaying game. Fiery doom or big swords are a lot cooler, but you try getting anywhere in a dungeon without a dedicated healer in your group.
 * Among the mage spells in Dungeons and Dragons, "Magic Missile" is one of the first and most basic ones you have access to. Although the damage is deals is sub-par, it always hits. It ignores both damage and elemental resistances, ignores incorporeality and does not allow a saving throw to reduce or negate its effect. The only things that can stop Magic Missile are spell resistance/immunity (not common at low-mid levels), a specific spell (Shield) or a specific consumable item (Brooch of Shielding). But Wait! There's More! As you level up, it not just scales damage with your level, but does this via extra simultaneous attacks, allowing to target multiple foes at once. And as a 1st level spell, you'll always have plenty of spell slots available for it, and later it becomes prime material for metamagic feats. The utility of this spell is so high that Mr. Welch mentions this spell by name.


 * Up to and including AD&D 2 low-level wizards had very few spell slots, and thus rarely had anything showy in 1-level slots. An attack spell, even unerring magic missile, is but one attack with low damage. Feather Fall, Light, Spider Climb or Phantasmal Force all give advantages that can save the party. In 2e with certain sourcebooks it's often Cantrip spell: on 1 level it allows to spam minor effects - either utility (firefinger, tie/untie) or tricking the enemies (conjured Banana Peels, mild distractions, dusting the tracks) - for a hour. If one expects fighting, it's either Shield or Sleep.
 * For a 3rd Edition wizard, many of the most powerful spells are not flashy direct-damage spells like fireball or lightning bolt, but spells that weaken the enemy, like ray of enfeeblement or web, which can turn a potentially deadly fight into a cakewalk.
 * And for all the melee classes, Power Attack is probably the feat of choice and is a core book feat can be taken right off the bat for most melee builds. Take a few advanced feats to go with it (Leap Attack, Shock Trooper) and throw in a good solid martial weapon and it can become a Game Breaker. Beam emitter is simply too powerful for the task.
 * The 3rd Edition cleric lacks the finesse of the rogue, the combat prowess of the fighter, or the impressive offensive magic light show of the wizard. Furthermore, it is expected to fill the thankless, inglorious task of healing and supporting the party.
 * Keeping your allies alive so they can finish the fight is the epitome of Boring but Practical. The fighter may be thrilled when his Critical Hit downs the dragon, but if it weren't for the cleric healing him, the dragon would have mulched him by the second round. This has been the cleric's job since the class was first created, with 4th Edition changing it a bit.
 * With 3rd edition clerics, wizards, and druids, much of their usefulness stems from the variety of useful utilitarian spells, from endure elements, water breathing, and plane shift, to oddities like rope trick, which gives a party a safe place to rest.
 * This was the case in earlier editions as well. Many of the spells available to such classes were entirely practical, useful for dealing with quite mundane problems. Every spell mentioned above was in the Core Rulebook of earlier editions as well.
 * The most important magic items in 3.5 are the ones that increases your stats. They take precedence over anything else that uses the same slot. Also, items that does cool or unusual things are often priced too high to be useful by the time you can get them.
 * If you're buying magical items, which is certainly not the favoured method.
 * In 4th Edition, all classes have "at-will" powers (magic missile being one), which are all examples of this trope—they can be used as many times as desired, where the flashier, more powerful abilities can only be used occasionally. As such, boosting the power of these abilities is a boring but practical way to make your character stronger.
 * Also in 4th Ed, magic missile is one of the few wizard powers that count as a ranged basic attack, meaning it gets bonuses from a lot of equipment AND can be used for extra attacks granted by certain leader classes.
 * In Forgotten Realms, where alchemy is practiced (gnomes, drow and innovative human civilizations like Lantan or Ravens Bluff), alchemists make things like smokepowder and fancy poisons including ever-useful Knockout Gas. But mostly, Realmslore at every opportunity points out the common products with vast market: dyes, inks, perfumes, decorative alloys...
 * In Exalted the most cost effective charms are the excellencies, they either add dice, add successes or allow you to re-roll. No flashy attack flurries, no golden beams of magic light.
 * Oh, it gets even better. Whereas the first few excellencies cost motes (Mana) on a per-use basis, several Exalt types have an excellency which allows them to commit motes and then use the earlier excellencies at reduced cost (or no cost at all) for the rest of the scene. End result? Basic multi-action attack flurries boosted by free excellencies are one of the most efficient means of dealing damage in the game.
 * Perfect Defenses. They're cheep, only serve to negate one attack, but they're pretty much needed to survive attacks being enhanced by other Boring but Practical charms.
 * A lot of the stuff in Traveller is like this. Three thousand years in the future and they are 'still'' fighting with rifles. Most commerce is carried, not on Cool Starship s but on great big hulking Megacorperate abominations that fly unadventurously on scheduled routes. The Imperium is ruled, not by a mysterious Ancient Conspiracy but by a caste of the decendants of successful industrialists and soldiers. And so on.
 * In Mage: The Ascension, the core rulebook highlights how every single tradition has developed a simple "heal my injuries" technique. Some magi blast foes with arcane bolts, some call forth ancient spirits, some invent sapient computers, but everybody finds some way to close their wounds quickly.