Playing the Mental Game

03/27/2024

I would say that, relative to most people, my single biggest strength in Magic is my mental game.

And when I say mental game, I don't mean bluffing, or playing mind games with my opponent. Instead, I'm referring to things like not getting tilted, dealing with variance fairly well, and being able to consistently perform at or near my full mental capacity even through long events.

So, coming off of PT Chicago, and as I'm preparing for PT Seattle, I figured I'd take a bit of time to examine why mental game is so important, and how I stay on top of mine.

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Part 0: Why Do You Play?

As with many things in life, an important first step in having good mental game in Magic is to recognize what exactly your goals are.

For most Magic players, the main reason why they play Magic is, well, to have fun! Winning can be part of that certainly, as many (especially those with a competitive mindset) find winning games fun, but it doesn't have to be. And there are of course many other reasons to play Magic, many of which might overlap in various ways.

So why do you play Magic? To relax? For the community? To socialize? To challenge yourself? For the prestige of competition? As a hobby? As a job?

Keeping your goals in mind can really help avoid shooting yourself in the foot and having an uncessarily bad time. For example: if you play Magic primarily for the community, you can try focusing on that as a way of avoiding excessive tilt and salt when you lose or get unlucky in a game.

Now, this article in general will be heavily focused on a competitive mindset, as that's generally what I focus on, and the audience I'm writing for. But even in this context, it's important to keep in mind why you compete.

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Part 1: Variance, and Irrationality

One of the biggest sources of mental strain in Magic is dealing with the fact that the fact that variance is a huge part of the game.

The problem is that humans are naturally quite bad at intuitively grasping probability and variance. We're quite prone to all sorts of errors in judgement around probability. Here's just a few (very much not exhaustive) examples of various common misconceptions and misjudgements:

Notably, not only do these all cause errors in judgement that can make you worse at the strategic part of the game, these can also all lead to very unproductive ways of thinking, including salt and tilt.

If you invest in the belief of being due for some good luck, you may get demoralized if it doesn't come. If you think that 10% chances never happen, then you're going to get caught off-balance quite a bit when faced with situations in which they do occur. If you only focus on moments that stick in your memory, whether good or bad, you'll never learn from the average.

Ideally, it would be nice to be able to approach Magic perfectly rationally - no salt, no tilt, no fallacies or biases. But fighting against your brain's shortcuts and instincts is quite hard!

I can't claim to have a one-size-fits-all solution here - everyone's brain works differently. But I can give a useful framework that I've found helpful in the past.

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Part 2: Recognizing Control

As there's so much variance permeating everything in Magic, I find it very useful to focus on and hold onto things that I can control, and let go of everything that I can't.

What can I control? Well, I can control my gameplay. I can control my individual draft picks and my deck choice. I can control how much time I spend on the game, and how I choose to play it.

What can't I control?

My opponents. The Swiss pairings. The order of my deck. The packs I open and get passed.

Whenever anything happens, whether good or bad, I think to myself: to what extent was that in my control? If I could have affected it, then maybe I should consider what I could've done differently; if I had no control over it, then there's not too much to be done.

A great example of this is my recent performance at PT MKM, where I placed 14th, missing three win-and-ins for top 8.

There's many different ways I could approach this. I could be disappointed in the missed opportunity - imagine top 8'ing, imagine winning the PT, imagine what could've been! I could also be elated at how much I did accomplish, especially at my first PT, and proud of staking my ground as a competitive player.

And certainly I feel both of those emotions! But what I choose to focus on is what I have control over. Yes, there were worlds with slightly different opponents or draws or dierolls or whatever where I made top 8 - but there's also plenty of worlds where I didn't even make day 2! And yes, I did pretty well, but I still have far to go in improving.

So, looking back, the things I focus on the most are my gameplay and my testing process - those I have complete control over. I wrote a whole article dissecting the former, and I've certainly thinking a lot about testing process going into OTJ PT prep. These are things I can affect, things that I can improve, things that I can actually work on to further my competitive goals.

Variance and Vibes

Still, it can be tricky to completely separate what you control from what you don't - especially when it comes to the strategic depths of Magic. Because the sample sizes are so small, it's hard to tell what decisions you make actually pay off or punish you, and what is actually just variance. It's hard to separate the signal from the noise.

So, I'm also a huge fan of not getting too caught up in trying to find the "objective truth", and instead knowing when to rely on vibes. And this too is an instance of realizing the scope of my influence - I can't possibly actually know for certain what the correct answer is. So, it's better to admit that and go with a "good enough" answer and accept that I might be wrong, than to delude myself with confidence.

Controlling Your Environment

A sometimes-overlooked element that you can leverage to set yourself up for success is simply your general health and environment. To put it another way: take care of yourself!

Magic takes a lot of mental energy, especially if you want to play well. So if you want to do well, it's extremely important that you know how to set yourself up to have that energy. This is especially important in tournaments, which are often quite long and draining, and can really tax you mentally if you're not prepared.

What works best will, of course, depend on the person. I personally have very good mental stamina, and don't tend to need much more than regular meals, water, and bathroom breaks in-between rounds. But I still make a point to have a plan for those, and generally consciously take a second to consider if I need anything while I'm between rounds.

So figure out what best helps you play your best! Whether it be pre-prepared snacks, headphones for if you might get over-stimulated by the sound in a convention hall, or a friend for moral support. And this isn't just for events at conventions - maybe you can improve the environment in which you play Magic at home too!

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Conclusion

This article took... quite a long time to write. Somewhat thematically, during the week I was supposed to write it I was experiencing a bit of depression and Magic burnout.

So, I decided to just delay the article until I felt better about writing it. I know myself enough to know that forcing myself to write while I was a bit burnt out already was an excellent way to start down the path of never writing articles again.

And honestly, that's a decent parallel of what I've talked about in this article: I knew myself and recognized that I valued my mental health more than I valued getting every single article out on time; and I knew I had control over my writing schedule.

Hopefully, the end result of that was an overall better article, and better articles going forwards as well!