Bracing the Pillars

Magic is hands-down the most complex game that an individual can pick up when played at its highest level. The intricacies of a million rules that we have all come to take for granted, the unique Magic lingo we all speak fluently, the element of hidden information, and the fact that you must craft your “game piece” before ever playing all fuse together with a mass of other things to forge a complicated but beautiful end product. Those factors form more than a big enough hurdle to jump in order to play competitive Magic, but there are even more factors that determine exactly where we get to in this game, or really any competitive venture: passion, opportunity, preparation, and execution.

Every competitive player will come to question at least one of those four pillars at some point during their career, sometimes even succumbing to them, only to pick up the game at a later time. These are the factors that dictate just what you are able to do with Magic, as well as ultimately contributing to the results you put up. Some of these things will seem, or even actually be, out of your control at times, which makes them tougher to manage. Still, one cannot do more than he is capable of even if that is only informing yourself of the matter.

Passion

Every Magic player has heard of this, most likely in its more common slang, “Having the Fire.” This is an attribute that cannot be trained, or constructed, but rather needs to appear somewhat naturally within an individual. That said, there are methods to keep this from fading out so quickly which is usually all that is needed, as the very fact that you are reading these words implies that you currently have, or have had, the fire at some point.

Passion comes from having a true love for the game. People who focus too much on the financial side of Magic etc. often tend to burn out much faster than people who enjoy playing the game first and foremost. While there is some money to be had in Magic, there is not nearly enough to entertain someone who has no passion to actually play the game. This comes in opposition to something like Poker, where money can be a focal point due to the larger and more frequent nature upon which it is won. Essentially, all this is just to say: play for the right reasons, and enjoy the benefits that playing brings, but do not develop a dependency on anything other than then game at its core.

So long as you are able to appreciate what Magic has given you, everything else will fall into place. Once you begin to feel entitled to prize, or fame, or anything else, it becomes very easy to lose the fire because it is lost when one of those things does not present itself. In other words, if Magic has become about the money, then the tournament where that money is not won, a part of your drive is taken from you. Suffer a few bad tournaments in a row and the fire can be extinguished entirely. If however, you continue to make Magic about the guaranteed things, like friends, travel, good conversation, and good competition, the fire should burn much longer because you are going to experience these things at most, if not every, tournament you attend. Focus on what matters and enjoy yourself; there are not many people who get to do this on a regular basis.

Opportunity

This is not the amount of time you spend testing or preparing, but rather the amount of time and resources available to do so. Looking at a sports analogy, whereas preparation is the amount of time spent in practice or honing your skills, opportunity is akin to your age. A 23 year old NBA star may not do anything to prepare himself for a game, but he has a ton of potential to improve and time with which to do it in. Much like age in fact, opportunity is an area where we have very little pull but may still take some steps to improve in the area.

Every player has a life outside of Magic, and it is in these lives where the opportunity in Magic is shaped. If you have a family and full time job, the actual time you can allot for playtesting will probably be pretty small. This is something entirely out of your hands but a huge factor in your results none the less. Financial restrictions are another form of opportunity hinderance, but one that is obviously easier to remedy. Developing a group that can aid in finding cards only requires a little social interaction and bartering. Thus, when we talk about opportunity restrictions, we generally think of free time only.

The key to manipulating opportunity is not in creating more time at the expense of other commitments in your life, but rather to simply be aware of opportunity constraints. If you are willing to acknowledge that you may not have the same luxury of free time that certain players do, you are better able to maximize the value of the time you do have. Deck building for example, is a very time consuming part of Magic. If you are aware that you will not have the time needed to fully explore a format, it is probably better to focus on your technical game and allow friends or vocal writers to do the deck building part for you. This may hurt you in the passion department, assuming deck building is your greatest passion, but compromises have to be made. It is better to acknowledge weaknesses (even those not under your control) and work around them, than to dismiss them and suffer as a result. Patching problems with opportunity comes from a willingness to admit to its restrictions. Work with what you have and maximize its value.

Preparation

Once you have established exactly how much opportunity you have, it is now time to put the time, money, and resources to use. Preparation consists of every Magic-related venture you do leading up to some goal or tournament. Reading articles, deck building, playtesting; these are all different directions or at least components of preparation. Understanding exactly how much opportunity you have available becomes so crucial because it dictates the density of your preparation. If you plan on spending a 3 week time period testing 10 hours a day, you are able to entertain more off the wall ideas or test in a little looser of a manner.

That said, preparation is also the area where a player has the most control over his or her own fate. Plenty of factors can keep passion, opportunity, or even execution from firing off smoothly, but in preparation a player has complete control over the various inputs and thus outputs that result. Time management is crucial here, as empty hours are just that. A player must be aware of the progress (or lack thereof) being made during his preparation time and avoid those same mistakes in the future. Designing a winning routine will take some trial and error but the finished product should be nearly priceless.

An important factor that goes into preparation is not just how much you partake in, but also the people who you prepare with. As much as it sucks to admit it, there is bound to be someone in your test group who is dead weight. It is your responsibility to address this issue and either see a change in that person’s attitude and work ethic, or dismiss him or her from the group entirely. Assuming your goal is to win, you must be willing to take every possible advantage you can achieve during preparation and capitalize on it.

Understand the format or formats involved. Know the intricacies of your deck and sideboard. Develop bluffing and reading skills. Work on confidence levels and clock management. There are literally endless amounts of things to be working on during preparation time and yet most are glossed over. Ten game sets against three of the popular decks in a format is not very valuable preparation. Granted, if opportunity has restricted your preparation to just those 30 games, you should capitalize on them, but preferably you are able to do more with less. Ten games of playtesting may not even be as valuable as a 2 hour discussion with the deck’s designer on every niche play that could come up with the deck. Assess your options and plan accordingly as the only way to detail proper preparation comes with the results of the tournament. This does not boil down to a simple record or place finish, but rather small things like whether you felt comfortable with your mulligan decisions; or whether your sideboarding was quick and natural. It is in these small areas where proper preparation shines. You cannot assume your opponent’s have engaged in worse or less preparation than you, so do everything in your power to make that a reality rather than assumption.

Execution

This is basically the culmination of the three other pillars. Everything that your passion and opportunity has led up to, and a chance to put all of that preparation into practice. Still, perfect execution does not automatically lead to wins, although it certainly helps more so than not. You are only able to work with the tools that you are given, meaning perfect execution can be entirely different despite many of the same factors. Things like mulligans and deck matchups means that there are things outside of your control that you must adapt to or suffer the consequences. Some of these areas could have been shored up during preparation, such as having a good sideboard plan etc. but now that the big show is here, you must simply do the best with what you have in front of you.

Many players will turn to blaming execution as the cause of their losses, when in reality, it was a lack of preparation that did them in. Of course players are going to make mistakes, and flawless execution over a long tournament is literally impossible, but much of the blame is placed on execution due to its proximity to the results. Players who are willing to admit mistakes begin to backtrack from the end result, almost retracing their footsteps, and the first area where they can conceivably find a mistake will generally be during the execution phase. At this discovery, players will stop and acknowledge those mistakes, but fail to continue backwards in order to examine more mistakes. In reality, most of the mistakes made are going to be during the preparation phase, which is something players should keep in mind when looking to improve their games.

That said, the mistakes made during execution are plentiful and important to correct none the less. Poor execution may lead to a sense of failure, which can in turn lower the passion one has for the game, officially looping the cycle. More often however, it will be poor results that attack the passion. It is important to differentiate results from execution for that very reason. While execution obviously greatly contributes to the results you ultimately put up, it is but one of four major factors to do so. Your results may be suffering due to a false sense of opportunity that you need to adjust for, or a lack of passion, or improper preparation. Whatever the case may be, the key is to understand that there is more going into your results than you probably realize. How the cards may fall will impact you, but it generally steals more of the attention than it should.

Restoring a Cycle

The biggest factor in repairing one’s game is to be fully informed of all of the components that go into it. With this knowledge, a player may more readily fix the issue rather than look to the obvious area of execution at all times. Think of a plumber looking to fix a broken toilet. If the plumber were to only ever inspect the item closest to the results, in this case, the toilet, it is entirely likely that small patches will fix the problem temporarily, but the broken pipe one-hundred feet away never gets the attention it deserves. Because of this, the same problems tend to reoccur over and over again despite the plumber “fixing” the problem. If however, the entire pipe were to be examined, it is much more likely that a long term fix can be established. This partially explains why players who take extended breaks from the game come back rejuvenated. They have unknowingly attended to problems with their passion or opportunity and now can go on to winning again.

There is no magical method to stay at 100% in all of these areas at all times. Rather, a constant reassessment and methodical inspection of the cycle must be engrained into a player’s routine. This will not protect them from every attack that the pillars may suffer from, but will provide them with more vigilant repair if and when an attack does happen. There are so many factors that go into the success or failure of a player that it is important to not be burdened by them. Labeling the four most encompassing ones will help to make maintenance that much smoother and efficient.

Just as Magic is a complex machine with endless working parts, the body of work one presents as an admission request to play the game is equally complex. Admitting this fact, while informing yourself of the details, is the biggest step one can make to begin working on it. Take every step you can to stay Passionate about the game. Understand and address Opportunity restrictions you may have. Fully Prepare yourself for each and every tournament you enter. And work on your technical Execution during game play. Most importantly though, do not take any one of these areas for granted as your results will suffer for what amounts to unknown reasons. Thanks for reading!

Conley Woods