Another theory/strategy article for you mostly because I can write these at work. This week’s article is about what to do when you screw up, lose, and start to tilt. Losing is a very big part of magic, especially at the beginning. I think that losing in the correct way is what separates the pros from the scrubs. Ok this may all sound strange but you need to lose. It’s a very important learning process and from this you can grow and become a better player to the point where you will have to deal with this a lot less often, but still you will lose. So get used to it-lose, lose some more and don’t care (easier said than done). Of course I don’t mean actively try to lose but when you do lose, gain something out of it.
When I write these articles and I’m looking for ideas I think about what I see other people do wrong and what I myself do wrong. This is the same with magic-you need to be able to identify where your opponent has gone wrong in order to capitalise and take the game down. But more importantly you need to know why you lost because with out why there is no learning. When I say you need to know why I don’t mean “Oh I got mana screwed, played perfectly, and there was nothing I could do”. If you are one of these players who blame their losses on mana screw or flood or being unlucky, stop it because you are a scrub. If you can’t figure out the real reason that you lost I’m about to tell you. You screwed up, you played wrong or kept a loose hand or didn’t sideboard correctly, chose the wrong deck for the tournament or maybe you just played your lands wrong. Whatever the mistake that was made you made it and it cost you the match. It sucks. But never fear, don’t let it suck-learn, grow, and adapt.
I remember when I was younger I would get so worked up from a loss that I would be close to tears and this really affects your game play. Losing the wrong way, making excuses, and blaming everything else just breeds more losing. But what is the right way? How can there be a correct way to lose?
THE RIGHT WAY
It took me a long time to get to where I am today in regards to losing and it was mostly by using this method. Ok here we go.
Step1 Take a deep breath and let it go – You just lost. It sucks. Take a breath, realise that it doesn’t matter and you’ll be ok. At the end of the day magic is just a card game and there’s no use getting yourself worked up about it. (This doesn’t mean completely forget about it or don’t care at all; just try to stay calm and collected throughout an entire tournament, then you have to be able to focus on the task at hand).
Step 2 Realise where you went wrong, make a mental note and don’t do it again – This works best in my opinion when after a match you stay seated at your table and replay the game through your head slowly and figure out why. Ask yourself questions, was that hand a loose keep? Did I play my lands wrong? Could I have won if I was attacking from a different angle? Was my list sub-par? Did I sideboard poorly? The more questions you ask yourself the better a player you will become.
Step 3 Talk with your peers about your mistake – I know when you lose because you screwed up it sucks to talk it over and rub it in, but this is very important especially when you first learn this process. After you’re in a mind set where you blame other things it is sometimes difficult to be open minded enough to see where you went wrong. Another trick to help you with this is to take notes when you could have made a certain play but you went with another one and maybe you’re not sure if it was completely correct.
Step 4 Let it go – now I mean actually let it go, forget it, walk outside if you need to, listen to music, have something prepared when you come to a tournament because it’s very likely you will need it I call this a tilt preventer. Often when you use a tilt preventer it’s because you’re already on tilt from a loss and need to pull yourself out of the situation.
These are my four steps to losing correctly learn them and use them if you want I guarantee you will notice a difference.
Tilting
Tilting is an interesting subject. For any of you who don’t know, ‘Tilting’ is a poker term for how a bad loss affects a person’s game play when they let it get to them. Not tilting is a hard lesson to learn and it may take years to get completely. The most common way people tilt in magic is when the game is really going your way and then your opponent gets quite lucky and pulls it out of a bad situation or when a player realising they just screwed up and they get annoyed with themselves and they play much worse. The best way to avoid tilting is not to care about the past, in magic when I screw up I choose to not care about the mistake I made but just to ensure I don’t make it again. What’s done is done; I think an appropriate saying would be “There’s no use crying over spilt cardboard”. Getting upset about a game or mistake doesn’t change anything so instead don’t care and win the game and certainly don’t be thinking of it in a following round.
Another thing is never be afraid. When I go to a Brisbane PTQ or even just FNM I sit down against my first round opponent and they say something like “Oh man I can’t believe I have to play you first round”. Who cares who you play? Smash them with no fear. A player is a player. There’s no need to be scared of a good player you will just beat yourself. Magic is a mentally taxing game and if you’re attacking yourself about bad plays or how good your opponent is you won’t be as focused as they will. I think I really like the idea of magic being a mental battle between players this is why I like to unsettle my opponents by talking and talking and talking. Sometimes I just won’t shut up even when I’m playing the best in the room. But this is how I don’t tilt that bad. I have too much to think about to worry about tilting. I mean I’m actively trying to tilt/read them at the same time thinking through every play I make methodically. It’s about being able to control your emotions more than anything else and if not have a few tricks that you know will mellow you out.
Any way guys that’s all for today I’m gonna try and have a draft videos up this week too but I kind of still have to figure out the software.
Aaron Nicoll
