This article will cover a topic very dear to my heart: how to get better at magic when you don’t know how to get better.

Try your hardest to find people better than you.

Over the years working as a vendor I have been lucky enough to meet and have discussions with many players better than myself from Reid Duke and Frank Karsten to Travis Woo. I always keenly asked them how I could get better at the game when I wasn’t really sure how to. Almost all basically told me that playing magic around people who are better than I was will help you to get better a lot faster and show you things you never knew before.

People will push you to their level, so try to make sure it’s up to the highest level you can go. For most people this means making friends with the good players in your area and travelling to big higher level tournaments such as Grand Prix or cash prize tournaments like the Troll Trader open series. If attended regularly they will push your game to the next level plus they’re also super fun and a great chance to get some excellent prizes and bragging rights.

You don’t have to work hard just work smart

I have seen Travis Woo think about a deck, how it will work and its strengths and weaknesses, build it and then money finish a grand prix with barely any testing at all. This was enough proof for me that the way you think about magic can be a huge edge.

Practice gets you familiar with the deck and its matchups but if you are just practicing the same things over and over again you just learn the same things. Sometimes you have to make the wacky plays and keep the strange and risky hands to see how they play out. Don’t be afraid to try different plays or card choices, I once read that Kai Budde (one of the best magic players of all time) used to playtest every matchup 1000’s of times and literally make every play possible to him so that he knew what would happen in each scenario. Now that’s some serious dedication and we don’t have to play that many games but if the method is good enough for the greats then its good enough for me!

Write a checklist

Try to become consciously aware of the parts of your game that are dragging you down. When you write things down it brings it to your attention and keeps it in the front of your mind. Then when you play or test you can constantly look at it to make new habits and better plays.

Some examples might be:

 Plan out early turns while considering mulligans

 Constantly re-evaluate which colours are open in draft

 Quickly plan your turn before casting anything so, to make sure you tap lands correctly

Read a lot and watch coverage

There are loads of great articles and books about magic out there on whatever topics you are interested in. Reading or watching live streams opens you up to new ideas and can develop your game and is similar to actually playing with the person making the content. I have learned a lot over the years from reading and watching videos, it really does help.

Play each round one game at a time

In tournament magic it’s easy to get carried away, excited, nervous or pressured because you ‘have’ to win the next 2 rounds or can’t lose one more. This will tilt you and put you off your game. I found that not only do I have the most fun, but I also play the best when I just forget about the tournament and go to just play 6 to 9 rounds of magic.

Remember magic is a process of constantly getting better and not to get disheartened by a few bad tournaments or high expectations. If there is anything that you specifically want help with or something that helped you to get better why not share it in the comments below