So I have been playing Magic off and on since I was 7 and I am just recently starting to get good. I win FNMs consistently but still feel like I can improve. I was wondering if the MTGS community has any tips for me to hone my skills.
Practice as much as you can (this goes without saying.), read as much as you can (MTGS has a ton of handy info), and find a stable group/team to play test with.
Wherever possible, play against players much better than you.
Recognise when you are actually playing someone like that and ask them questions.
Learn the deck you play. Not just really well, but to the brink of obsession.
Brush up on your manual dexterity, constantly flicking the cards in your hand is an important part of the game.
Know the meta. If everyone at your store plays agro, then there is no point in playing anti-control cards.
Play against players much better than you. I can't stress how important that is, unless you're putting in inordinate amounts of time studying every aspect of the game, you're only going to be as good as the people you play with.
Whenever you make a mistake, acknowledge it in some way. White it down, call yourself am idiot, talk too your opponent about it, whatever. The important thing is to acknowledged fault and learn from it. This is what separates the bad players who lose to 'luck', and the good players who see exactly why they lost.
Wow, some really great advice in this thread from what I'd like to think are some really good players based on their responses.
I'll only add this from my personal experience as an average player at best.
I have found that you really DO need to practice a lot. The less I play, the rustier I get. You need to know your deck inside and out and every possible matchup against it and be able to play it in your sleep. This will cut down on the number of errors you make during the course of a game. If you can do that, then the only thing you'll have going against you is the luck factor.
No, you can't escape that. You're going to have bad draws, mana screw/flood. It happens to everybody. But you don't want to add to that by making stupid mistakes.
But that's just the basics. You also need to be able to get to the point where you are always making the optimal play based on percentages. This is where I have the most trouble because I don't have the patience (in most cases) to look at the field position, look at my hand, take into consideration the deck I'm playing against as well as the deck I'm playing and calculate what my best course of action is. Once in a while, I'll do this. But on the whole, especially if it's been a long night, I'll just say "screw it" and make any play just to get the game over with.
This game can get extremely complicated if you really think about it. I have had games where I had to think to myself, "If he top decks a Boros Charm (I'm at 4 life) I lose, and therefore I have to try to kill him now leaving myself open to a Lightning Mauler hasting with the one creature he'll have left if he blocks with all but that one creature to stay alive."
I've found, over the years, that most games are pretty one sided depending on the matchup. Those are the ones that you really can't do much about one way or another. But odds are, over the course of the day, they're going to even out. It's the matches that are toss ups where you have to make sure that your skill can take you through them, Otherwise, one mistake can cost you. That's why I end up having so many 2-2 and 1-3 nights, because of stupid mistakes.
In short, to get really good at this game, you need to be serious about it. You're not going to win consistently by just playing casually once in a while.
One thing that has not been mentioned is sitting behind a top end player that will talk with you and answer questions. See if you see the same plays they are seeing and using. If they are not playing a sanctioned match, or after the match is over, ask them why they chose the path they did. Explain to them what you saw and let them school you on why their way was correct. (some times there are multiple plays, some equal, others better the some, and what is done is a personal choice from experiences they have had.)
Other then that, read and play players better then you.
Crushing your FNM's regularly? Make it a priority to start attending as many larger events as possible. PTQ, SCG, GPT, etc...if you really want to get better the level of competition you face at these bigger events is what you need.
Same thing goes for deck choice. Maybe you can reliably crush local drafts if you just take a decent aggro deck with a curve. Well now it is time to force yourself to mix it up and draft stuff you wouldn't normally. FNM's can be used the same way. Instead of going 4-0 for the fourth week in a row with your Jund deck, play something you aren't familiar with. Yeah, maybe you will only go 2-2, but now when you run into that UWR flash deck next week at the PTQ you will have a better feel for what your opponent is trying to do and likely to have in hand given his play patterns.
Shuffle your deck constantly. In 20 years of playing magic, this is the best advice i can offer. Learn to shuffle consistently.
I watch incredibly skilled builders/players lose because they cant shuffle well. More than any other factor this one thing has led to the death of more planewalkers than anything. Bad shuffle = bad games.
awesome thread, really. with awesome advices, thank you all.
The point of "playing who's better than you" is really important: i have recently changed playtesting group with more experienced and skilled players, and I begin to see improvements in my game approach.
as i am also a player who wants to improve,i would like more information over the "Watch streams and videos" advice, if possible.
As for limited and/or constructed (which are very different), can someone be so kind to give us some "starting point" articles/streams to begin with? something that can open our way of thinking.
Starcitygames.com and Channelfireball.com both have tons of great content, provided by some of the game's best players. I can't recall a particular artivle to point you to, but I suspect you could get that info from one of the sites in question. Or just search their archives.
Shuffle your deck constantly. In 20 years of playing magic, this is the best advice i can offer. Learn to shuffle consistently.
I watch incredibly skilled builders/players lose because they cant shuffle well. More than any other factor this one thing has led to the death of more planewalkers than anything. Bad shuffle = bad games.
This is so true. I think myself a fairly decent player who with the right amount of draw-luck can take down GPTs or PTQs. However, it wasn't until recently that I realized just how much shuffling matters. I've just recently started riffle shuffling around seven times. I notice a much more even distribution of lands and spells for the most part, but of course, the no/one landers still pop up time to time. I might throw a pile shuffle in there, if not just for superstition, but I couldn't agree more about shuffling properly.
Remember that just because a play or a strategy won you a game, doesn't mean it was the right decision. Sometimes bad decisions still work out. Look to where you made mistakes even in matches or tournaments which you won.
Also try to divorce the emotional feeling about a play that leads to you losing from the intellectual evaluation of that play. Did you make the best play and lose because of it? Don't be afraid to make that play again in the same situation, even if you lose again. Just like the above point, try to evaluate the quality of a decision from what information was available when you made the decision, not what the eventual outcome was.
Do play people who are better than you and do learn what you can from them. But don't be afraid to experiment away from what they are doing and learn from your own experiences - and, yes, your own mistakes.
Shuffle well and never be too lazy to do so. It's important.
Know your deck and the rules well enough to use them. Look for unusual plays but don't do the cool unusual thing just when the opportunity arises - do it when it's the best available play.
Focus on the game and making the right decisions. Angle-shooting, bluffing, and gamesmanship all have a place, but if they're taking attention away from actual important strategic playmaking decisions, then they're not worth your time.
Rest often, drink water more than you think you need to, and eat reasonably and healthily when you can.
And when in doubt, call a judge
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I used to play a lot of magic. I used to never lose my beloved control mirrors and won FNM almost every week, I traveled a bit and went to local events and would do fairly well, then I took a break for 6 months.
Everything had changed, the format was completely different, Return to Ravnica came out. I couldn't win a control mirror to save my life, you had to play they differently and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Sphinx's Revelation (and more) had changed the name of the game.
So to get to the point, I found somebody who I knew was much better than me, I handed him my deck, and I asked him to play against another player I knew was great. I watched the control mirror intently, in my mind thinking of the play I would make personally and then seeing what plays they made. I learned a lot.
I forgot to mention it but watching pros play on Twitch.tv is very helpful as well. They usually discuss their thought process and interact with their audience a decent bit which really helps when your learning about a deck. Being able to watch and ask questions is a huge leg up on just watching (like YouTube)
You guys are great. So im gonna start on those articles and I am already putting together Esper control. In the past I have only used aggro decks. Thanks for all this advice guys!
More important than playing against good players is playing alongside of them. Get a friend or two who are at least as good as you to come over to play some MTGO. Sit together, and anytime there is any play that isn't strikingly obvious, discuss it with everyone. Figure out all lines of play, and how the game will play out with each line. Even when discussing things that are pretty straightforward, you'll probably learn some interesting new points of view.
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I'll only add this from my personal experience as an average player at best.
I have found that you really DO need to practice a lot. The less I play, the rustier I get. You need to know your deck inside and out and every possible matchup against it and be able to play it in your sleep. This will cut down on the number of errors you make during the course of a game. If you can do that, then the only thing you'll have going against you is the luck factor.
No, you can't escape that. You're going to have bad draws, mana screw/flood. It happens to everybody. But you don't want to add to that by making stupid mistakes.
But that's just the basics. You also need to be able to get to the point where you are always making the optimal play based on percentages. This is where I have the most trouble because I don't have the patience (in most cases) to look at the field position, look at my hand, take into consideration the deck I'm playing against as well as the deck I'm playing and calculate what my best course of action is. Once in a while, I'll do this. But on the whole, especially if it's been a long night, I'll just say "screw it" and make any play just to get the game over with.
This game can get extremely complicated if you really think about it. I have had games where I had to think to myself, "If he top decks a Boros Charm (I'm at 4 life) I lose, and therefore I have to try to kill him now leaving myself open to a Lightning Mauler hasting with the one creature he'll have left if he blocks with all but that one creature to stay alive."
I've found, over the years, that most games are pretty one sided depending on the matchup. Those are the ones that you really can't do much about one way or another. But odds are, over the course of the day, they're going to even out. It's the matches that are toss ups where you have to make sure that your skill can take you through them, Otherwise, one mistake can cost you. That's why I end up having so many 2-2 and 1-3 nights, because of stupid mistakes.
In short, to get really good at this game, you need to be serious about it. You're not going to win consistently by just playing casually once in a while.
At least that's been my experience.
One thing that has not been mentioned is sitting behind a top end player that will talk with you and answer questions. See if you see the same plays they are seeing and using. If they are not playing a sanctioned match, or after the match is over, ask them why they chose the path they did. Explain to them what you saw and let them school you on why their way was correct. (some times there are multiple plays, some equal, others better the some, and what is done is a personal choice from experiences they have had.)
Other then that, read and play players better then you.
Crushing your FNM's regularly? Make it a priority to start attending as many larger events as possible. PTQ, SCG, GPT, etc...if you really want to get better the level of competition you face at these bigger events is what you need.
Same thing goes for deck choice. Maybe you can reliably crush local drafts if you just take a decent aggro deck with a curve. Well now it is time to force yourself to mix it up and draft stuff you wouldn't normally. FNM's can be used the same way. Instead of going 4-0 for the fourth week in a row with your Jund deck, play something you aren't familiar with. Yeah, maybe you will only go 2-2, but now when you run into that UWR flash deck next week at the PTQ you will have a better feel for what your opponent is trying to do and likely to have in hand given his play patterns.
I watch incredibly skilled builders/players lose because they cant shuffle well. More than any other factor this one thing has led to the death of more planewalkers than anything. Bad shuffle = bad games.
Grammar is the difference between knowing your ****, and knowing you're ****.
Starcitygames.com and Channelfireball.com both have tons of great content, provided by some of the game's best players. I can't recall a particular artivle to point you to, but I suspect you could get that info from one of the sites in question. Or just search their archives.
This is so true. I think myself a fairly decent player who with the right amount of draw-luck can take down GPTs or PTQs. However, it wasn't until recently that I realized just how much shuffling matters. I've just recently started riffle shuffling around seven times. I notice a much more even distribution of lands and spells for the most part, but of course, the no/one landers still pop up time to time. I might throw a pile shuffle in there, if not just for superstition, but I couldn't agree more about shuffling properly.
Remember that just because a play or a strategy won you a game, doesn't mean it was the right decision. Sometimes bad decisions still work out. Look to where you made mistakes even in matches or tournaments which you won.
Also try to divorce the emotional feeling about a play that leads to you losing from the intellectual evaluation of that play. Did you make the best play and lose because of it? Don't be afraid to make that play again in the same situation, even if you lose again. Just like the above point, try to evaluate the quality of a decision from what information was available when you made the decision, not what the eventual outcome was.
Do play people who are better than you and do learn what you can from them. But don't be afraid to experiment away from what they are doing and learn from your own experiences - and, yes, your own mistakes.
Shuffle well and never be too lazy to do so. It's important.
Know your deck and the rules well enough to use them. Look for unusual plays but don't do the cool unusual thing just when the opportunity arises - do it when it's the best available play.
Focus on the game and making the right decisions. Angle-shooting, bluffing, and gamesmanship all have a place, but if they're taking attention away from actual important strategic playmaking decisions, then they're not worth your time.
Rest often, drink water more than you think you need to, and eat reasonably and healthily when you can.
And when in doubt, call a judge
I run a Tumblr for Magic-related statistics, graphs, and quizzes. Come check it out!
Everything had changed, the format was completely different, Return to Ravnica came out. I couldn't win a control mirror to save my life, you had to play they differently and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Sphinx's Revelation (and more) had changed the name of the game.
So to get to the point, I found somebody who I knew was much better than me, I handed him my deck, and I asked him to play against another player I knew was great. I watched the control mirror intently, in my mind thinking of the play I would make personally and then seeing what plays they made. I learned a lot.
Standard: UB control.
XXXX
Modern
URTwinRU R.I.P.
EDH
WUGRoon of the Hidden RealmWUG
Signature and Avatar by Inkfox Aesthetics
You can find me on MTGO. My username is gereffi.