by Alexander Hayne
Today, Alexander Hayne finally publishes his first MTG article on Mana Deprived! He is usually responsible for reviewing the articles people submit to Mana D, but starting this week, he wishes to contribute more on the writing side of things. In his first article, he discusses how one should go about improving their MTG game.
Hello Minions (is it OK if I call you Minions?).This is my first article for Manadeprived, though I have been part of the team for awhile. Personally I prefer to pull the strings as the dark shadow in the background, letting KYT get all the fame (that he undoubtedly deserves), while I try to be more of a Cheney to his Bush(though clearly more malicious and less powerful), trying to keep the quality of our material here high. But today I have decided to write an article for you guys inspired by a friend of mine, lets call him “Darth J.”; Darth J. was thinking of quitting magic because he found it too difficult to improve, which got me thinking:
How do you improve at magic?
This is one of the biggest questions, and one that is difficult to answer. First, let me tell you that there is no quick fix. You cannot read a few articles, or even a book(notwithstanding how awesome Patrick Chapin’s book was), and suddenly be a master. It takes hard work, introspection, time, and patience. As one who has not yet reached the level of eminence that the Magic community holds for characters like PV, lsv, Budde and Finkel (I’m not even close), I can’t tell you exactly what to do to become a superstar.
I can only draw from my own experience, that of people I know, and extrapolate. First, think back to when you first learnt the game. I bet you thought you understood it all. Creatures fight, you have mana and different types of spells, yada yada yada. In short, you understood the overlying rules of the game without understanding any of the underlying strategy. Like a chess player who knows how to move all the pieces, but will still be stunned by that relatively simple checkmate in 4. Only after time do you begin to understand the strategic and tactical elements of the game. How to use your Lightning Bolt in response to your opponent’s Lightning Bolt when you were both at 3 life (at least if you started after 6th edition rules*).
Mistakes: everyone makes them. Even the legendary. Eliminating your errors means maximizing your chances for winning while minimizing those of your opponent. Even if that mistake of missing 1 damage with your turn 1 Noble hierarch when you had no other plays didn’t matter, I’d like to think that in an parallel universe somewhere**, your opponent won that game at 1 life. In chess, they say the game is won by the player to make the second to last mistake. Perfection is unattainable, but like Sisyphus***, we must keep trying to reach the unreachable.
I find that my progress has been marked by periods of plenty and periods of draught. In the periods of plenty, I felt like I was an amazing player, significantly better than everyone else I encountered, and that I was playing flawless magic. During these periods I would have success at whatever level I was playing at, be it the kitchen table, FNM, or PTQs. In the periods of drought, I felt I couldn’t do anything right. I kept losing, and often without knowing why. I was playing the same as I had during the periods of plenty, and I continued to watch friends of mine, who, egotistically, I considered inferior players, have greater success than me. I have found that the periods of drought are where I improved much more as a player. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and it follows that failure is the reason to strive for greater success. Otherwise we, as humans, try to keep the status quo.
I learnt to play Magic from a friend of mine in college. I felt that I was improving rapidly and drastically, and that I was on the same level as those who had taught me how to play, who themselves has been playing for many years. Then, in a casual game, I attempted to Putrefy a Myr Matrix. Go ahead and read those 2 cards if you don’t know what they do. Did you laugh? Because that’s what my friends did. They also didn’t let me take it back. I realized then, that I was still careless, and made many plays on autopilot. I decided I was going to focus more on playing better Magic, rather than purely enjoying the fun side of the game(not to say that the two are mutually exclusive: they most certainly are not).
Knowing the rules, all the rules, is very useful in competitive magic. How does the stack work? How do layers work? Knowing these things is really important to making correct plays. For instance, if you have a Diminish in your hand, and are being attacked by a Tarmogoyf, with your own Tarmogoyf in play (instant, land, sorcery in the graveyard), what is the play? A player not up to date or without proper knowledge of the rules might Diminish the opposing ‘Goyf, and lose the game because of that error. Reading cards is also important. I know a few Judges who have t-shirts which read RTFC. If you don’t know what that stands for, it ends in “ing card” and starts with “read the”. Pro players like Saito, and American team member Conrad Kolos do this all the time. It is better to look like an idiot for 2 seconds by reading Jace, the Mindsculptor to see it exiles the library, than to BE an idiot and board in Emrakul to stop yourself from getting “Jace milled.”
Ultimately though, there is more to improving than simply knowing how cards work, and work together. You need to be able to make decisions from a wide array of options within a fairly limited time frame. Sometimes your tournament life is at stake in a single 45 second decision. The only way to be able to make decisions that are often extremely complicated this quickly is by a)calculating ahead of time so that you will already have thought about your decision, spread out over multiple actions, thereby giving you lots of total thinking time, and b) by having experienced similar situations/decisions before.
Practice is the best way to learn these things. Unfortunately, I find that most practice with just your friends is not the proper environment to learn the high pressure situations that you will often encounter. Thats right kiddo, time to break open that piggy-bank and play some tournaments! These tournaments don’t have to be PTQs or GPs, but do have to have something on the line to help you play at your best. I imagine that the vast majority of you reading this have already played in a few tournaments, and some of you are probably FNM kingpins at your local store. Well done! Give yourself a pat on the back. Feels good, doesn’t it? As Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Congratulations, you have completed the second step on your thousand mile journey.
If everyone is way below your level where you play, how are you to improve? Jon Finkel is famous for saying that everyone in Magic has something to teach you, but it is still much more valuable to play with those players whose skills surpass yours. By observing how they play, and how decisions they make in a given game differ from yours, you can attempt to use logic to determine why they would make that play instead of the one you thought of. I have an article in the works on the thought process during a game of Magic, but that is for another time. The key thing is to learn from differences between the decisions you make and the values you give to different resources compared to other players.
I also recommend you try to do something that Albert Einstein didn’t do until the age of four; talk. Talking to other players whose opinions you respect about the game that you both love is not only a great learning experience, but you can often help others increase their understanding too. A symbiotic relationship of this sort with a group of players is one of the best ways you can improve.
I hope you enjoyed the article, and I look forward to getting someone to read me your comments. If you enjoyed this article, I’ll try to break out of my straightjacket sooner next time.
-Insayne Hayne
*Prior to 6th edition rules, players only lost from having 0 or less life at the end of PHASE, so the previous situation would be a draw.
**I believe in parallel universes, and Giant Spaghetti Monsters. Deal with it. To learn more, learn how to use this site -> www.google.com
***Some greek guy. Also appears in Red Bull ads. Red Bull gives you wings! Well, actually, Red Bull helps to restore wakefullness while experiencing fatigue or drowsiness. Please consult your doctor.
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.