Soccer is a game that I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old. I became a competitive player for a traveling club in 6th grade, and played up through my first year of college. In that time, I learned a lot about controlling my body, my mind, and the ball both on and off the pitch. Pre-game warm-ups, quarter and semi-final games, and penalty kicks were easily managed by the beginning of high school as I’d spent a lot of time practicing and preparing for these difficult situations. I played “out of my mind” because I as able to take my doubts and fears and remove them from the way I play.
In all honesty, Magic is not something that I should get worked up about. It’s printed cardboard cards with pretty pictures used in imaginary duels with other players with delusions of grandeur. For some reason though, when I play against someone I know to be good or is running a deck I’m ill suited to be playing against (normally control), my hands shake and I become flushed. I make bad plays, I don’t see the damage on the board as well as I should, and I lose to players that I should easily beat.
My challenge has become, “How do I play Magic like I played soccer? How do I get out of my own head?”
Settling into a rhythm is something that I think a lot of players in Magic are unable to do well. This includes getting into a rhythm of play with your deck and your play over all. I frequently am building and dismantling decks to try and find something new and exciting. This prevents me from getting to know the decks I play and have a hard time getting into a rhythm of play.
The easy answer to this problem is to play more Magic. The more I play, the better I become at playing different strategies of the game. When I started, playing Control was never an option for me. I didn’t want to play the game like that. So, until recently, I’ve shut myself off from playing Control type decks, favoring Aggro or Combo. As I learn to play new ways, more cards are open to me and my familiarity with the game increases.
This summer, with my job scheduling me the hours that they have, I often times must race over from work to try and make the first round so that I don’t start the first round with a game loss. This puts me out of my element and I don’t really stabilize mentally until the 3rd or 4th round, and by then I’m out of contention for the Top 8.
What this means for me is that I have to find new ways to make the routine I have of getting focused a much shorter process on days where I can’t take my time to be sufficiently prepared. If you find yourself rushing over to your local game shop on Friday nights, here are a few tips to making sure that you aren’t rushed anymore than you have to:
Get your deck up to FNM quality on Tuesday night
This may feel like over preparation, but believe me: the nights where I go in with a deck I’ve prepared a few days in advance almost always does better than the deck I slap together the night before. Locking in your 75 cards early in the week allows you clear your mind and not have it overwhelmed with questions about your deck at the last minute.
Play test your weak matchups and your strong matches equally.
When you play decks you know you aren’t well suited for, it can be hard coming from a disadvantaged position. By playing the decks you are going to have trouble with, you learn the tricks and strategies that your opponents using that deck or deck type will be using against you. No longer will you be surprised by cards your opponents play because you will have seen the play multiple times before. Learning to play around the pit falls will carry you a win against decks you are expected to lose.
Nothing gives you the confidence you need like beating decks like you know should. Testing against your best matchups is a good way to boost your confidence in-between or after testing against your weaknesses. Losing is never fun, so mix up your “shouldn’t win’s” with “gimmie games” to keep a level head.
My last suggestion is that you try and roll yourself into play gradually. When I arrive at my local game shop, there’s nothing I want to do more than to shuffle up and play some Magic as quickly as possible. Spend sometime away from other players if you can and get yourself there gradually. My Tuesday night schedule goes something like this:
Show up 40-45 minutes early
Few players are there so early and this will give you plenty of time to get comfortable with your surroundings and prepare for the games you will be playing.
Once players arrive, play casual games with non-tournament decks
You might be there for some solid Type 2 Magic competition, but playing outside the format or with something that is for fun only helps to put you in the mood for Magic. Try to play something different than what you are playing that evening. My favorite is to play EDH. It is immensely fun to play in single and multiplayer and it allows you to play in a completely for-fun environment.
Pre-game your deck
3. This means that you shuffle, sleeve, double check the sideboard, and make any simple tweeks to the deck that you need to. This is not for major changes. If a couple people show up and are talking about their great new mill decks they are running that night, you are more than welcome to adjust the sideboard to meet the change in your meta-game. However, changing your main deck cards or the deck you are running will throw off your game plan and put you at a disadvantage over players with stable deck strategies.
Above all, remember that you should be playing Magic for the love of the game. When the game feels more like a job than something you do for fun, you might need to take a break from the game. Soccer became a job to me, so I quit playing competitively. On occasions when I lace up my boots to play again, I have so much fun at getting to play once more. No matter what the activity, sometimes you just have to know when to take a break.
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