First off, I want to congratulate Canada’s own David Caplan (or “Cappy” as he is affectionately known) for his tremendous 4th place finish at Worlds this year. We need to celebrate the fact that more Canadian players are showing up to compete at higher level play and applaud them when they make a run like David did. Again, congratulations Cappy!

I just finished reading an article about Steve Jobs, and it seems to be a universal thing that this guy was a total jerk! No, I mean he was a real douche-wad at times! Stories are now coming to light about how he would berate his employees by calling into question their dedication to the company, disputing their reputation directly, or in some cases, even challenging their dedication to their families’ well-being by producing “sub-par” work. In my real life job (working in sales), that last statement is pretty close to “If you had no income because I fired your sorry butt for producing such crappy work, how would you support your wife and kids?”, and sends a pretty strong message when delivered at the end of the month when quotas are due.

But if you think about it, Steve Jobs is also known as a visionary to a lot of people, and is thought of as one of the most iconic business figures of all time. Did he get there by surrounding himself with “yes” men, or by being a “yes” man himself? If someone walked into his office with a design or an idea that was only half developed, did he extend a congratulatory hand and exclaim loudly “That’s GREAT! Let’s get that off to R&D immediately! We got ourselves a WINNER!”? This is purely speculative, but I’ll put it to the masses that not a lot of people actually heard Steve Jobs say “Good job!” on much, and most likely his positive feedback peaked with something along the lines of “This is only about 60% of what I wanted to see in this design. Where is the other 40%? And where is the extra 10% that puts this above my expectations?” To most of us, this makes Steve Jobs a jerk, and while the answer to this behavior, in the majority, is justified as, “He was a jerk, but he was a rich jerk!” and leaving it at that, you have to look a bit deeper than that to actually learn a few things in life, and also, in Magic: The Gathering.

*eye roll from the new reader

“JSP, how are you comparing Steve Jobs’ work ethic to playing Magic: The Gathering? Is this REALLY what you are writing about this week?”

Well, think about it. In your playtest group, or at your FNM, do you have a guy that seems to find fault in absolutely every deck that’s been built, homebrew or not? When you lose a match at 1-2, on turn 3 of time being called, and you are fuming because you lost because of a misplay or a mistake you made, does this jackwagon stroll by and spout off 5 things you did wrong and point out 10 things you could have done a lot earlier to finish the match with a victory instead? Once you get past the seething rage and the urge to slam your fist into their face for…a very long time…in the end, are they correct in their assessment?

The ability to receive criticism (constructive or not) is not exactly high up on some Magic players skillset though, nor is the delivery of that criticism for that matter. Many times “That is a TERRIBLE play. You are a BAD player and you should feel BAD!” could probably have been delivered in a better way so as to promote a positive feedback experience rather than sounding like a scolding parent to a misbehaving child. Questioning someone’s use of a [card]Go for the Throat[/card] over a [card]Doom Blade[/card] usually provokes a defensive posture right away from the player, and in some cases, an immediate knee jerk reaction to actually ARGUE the point, and not engage in active conversation about the choice to play card A over card B. In many cases, it simply becomes a case of who can be louder.

Luckily, I have a PLETHORA of players around me that LOVE giving this feedback (even when I don’t really want it!). In order for me to become a better Magic player I have to be willing to not only accept this feedback, but be able to understand that it is educational and not a slight against my personal play style. It’s important to note, however, that a few things can get in the way of this, and you need to be able to recognize what those things are.

Pride – A few weeks ago, I managed to jot down some ideas on Greed, and how it can affect your play before and during your game. Greed has an older brother, called Pride, which usually steps in after the game is over, and likes to take over your brain when going over your plays and your mouth when discussing those plays with your peers. How many times has a discussion occurred after the fact that has seemed like just a simple argument over how you played? Do you find yourself saying things like “My opponent got lucky.” or “I had no other choice,” as an answer to why you lost? Are you sure that isn’t pride not allowing you to examine with an open mind more closely what you did, or in some cases, DIDN’T do?

Complacency –This is probably the most dangerous, and could unknowingly be the most rampant problem with the majority of players. They are so resigned to the fact that they are JUST a casual player. Anyways, they just don’t need to understand what happened, so when someone steps in to try and help them out, they simply shrug their shoulders, agree they made a misplay or built their deck wrong, and move on. They have no need to store the information or feedback for their next match, and as a consequence, just won’t learn anything. Ultimately, they will usually just write off the feedback as coming from “Some guy who tried to tell ME how to play Magic! What an ass!”

Expertise – This is actually a reversal of roles. In some cases, a veteran will make a mistake, and someone either much newer to the game or even to the store will point out what the correct line of play should have been, but the “expert” simply laughs off the advice as wrong, pats the “noob” player on the head, and sends them on their way with a “How cute! The casual FNM player tried to correct my build/line of play.” In my 2.5 quasi-semi-attempted-competitive years of playing this game, I’ve seen this happen a few times, and in one case, I’ve even done it, poking fun at the player who used a card in his Standard deck that was clearly “wrong”, only to be shown by players more skilled than I am that it was actually correct, and explained to me why it was so. Who was the jerk there?

New Player – 1
JSP’s Ego – 0

Emotion – This one is the easiest to see. You play against players whose emotions are so apparent, especially when they are losing, that any attempt to talk about the plays that were made after the match just ends up with comments like “You were so dead! I had you! You were incredibly lucky on that last draw!” If you actually noticed a misplay on their part and try to point it out to them, they are just so vexed that they lost that telling them about it would do about as much good as trying to take down a charging rhino with a newly-sharpened pencil.

In the end, it’s really not about if the person you are getting advice or feedback from is “being a jerk” or not, and all about how you perceive the information you are getting. This isn’t to say that your peers can be right all the time, but in some cases, their criticism or lines of thinking are generally better because as a general rule, people who are watching something from a different perspective will always see something that you do not in the heat of the moment.

One of the greatest (arguably THE greatest) boxers of all time, Muhammad Ali, fought 60+ official bouts, but he didn’t do it alone by any stretch of the imagination. The guy was flawless in his form and execution, and exuded confidence from the first moment someone stuck a microphone in his face and asked for an interview. Every time he spoke, you knew he was going to win not just because he was an incredible athlete, but also because his confidence was so tremendously high that you believed nothing short of an act of God could stop him when he stepped in that ring. If you watch him in any of his fights, he looked like he was in total control and could never make a mistake, but in between rounds, when he was back in his corner, his trainers and trusted advisors were probably not telling him “You look great! It’s smooth sailing! It’s a lock!” In fact, I’ll wager there was some “jerk” in those statements. “You’re not fast enough! You have to think on your feet and make better decisions! Right now you’re fighting like crap! Stop messing around and put this guy away NOW!” Ali never allowed these seemingly harsh statements to affect him negatively, rather he would use them to improve immediately, and as a result, he won. A LOT!

Here’s your chance to be a jerk. This is a Legacy U/B Snapcaster list that I’m trying to make work. I think there’s something missing from it, but I can’t figure it out. Put your “Jerk” hat on, and see what you can (constructively) contribute to this.

[Deck title=Snapstalker]
[Land]
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Mutavault
2 Riptide Laboratory
1 Watery Grave
2 Island
2 Swamp
[/Land]
[Creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Tombstalker
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Spellstutter Sprite
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Spell Snare
4 Force of Will
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Dismember
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Liliana of the Veil
[/Spells]
[/Deck]

So next time you have someone at an FNM that seems to be being a “jerk” and is telling you how to play this silly game we all love, try not to dismiss their message as incessant babbling, and try to get at least one valuable piece of feedback from their wisdom. It just might make the difference between winning after time has been called or ending the match at 1-1-1 against your next opponent.

See you at the tables!