Self confidence is vital in high-level Magic. If results have a direct effect on it, the opposite applies as well. However, excessive confidence is as much of an enemy as defeatism. How can you find the right balance so your game can improve?
The more you play, the more you invest in the game, the more automatic responses to situations you build, and the greater your self confidence grows. What can it be used for? On the first hand, self-confidence makes you play faster. The more you trust your abilities, the easier it is for you to make decisions. Self confidence also makes you play better. Between two players of an equal skill level, mental strength is what makes the difference. The ability to focus, the desire to win, and having faith in your chance to turn the tables in the worst looking games. Most of the situations in which good mental strength is required depend heavily on your level of self confidence.
In order to gain some self confidence, you must have had played Magic a lot. It is only after you’ve stored a certain degree of experience that you can actually feel your game’s improvement. Then you have to face other players. They may be friends at first, but soon you’ll be facing the tournament crowd.
When you face off against an opponent you don’t know, and then when you’re paired against players that you know are good, do not worry about losing. It won’t do any good. The following has happened to me several times, shuffling up for game 1…
Me: Good luck!
Opponent: I’ll need it…
And indeed, they were right. Not because they were necessarily bad, but because there is no opponent easier to defeat than the one that has given up on the idea of winning before the match has even started.
We’re not talking about chess here, but about a game in which the best player, facing an average opponent running his best matchup, will rarely win more than 75% of the games.
Therefore, don’t get too worried about the supposed strength of your opponent. Just try and play your game as you always do. It’s better than being affected by the fear of misplaying and being judged.
However, while missing confidence clearly is annoying, it may be even more of a handicap to believe in yourself too much. A player who tends to overestimate himself doesn’t give the same effort in concentration anymore, as he trusts his game so much that he thinks the best decisions will come to him naturally.
Furthermore, if he has too high an opinion of himself, he will have a hard time accepting defeats. He’d rather blame bad luck than question himself about his responsibilities. This kind of behavior causes one to take less pleasure in playing, but also, far too often, it makes him have an unsportsmanlike attitude toward his opponent. And what is more unpleasant than facing a disdainful and complaining opponent?
Every single player encounters the problem of self confidence at some point, whether it’s too high or too low. What truly matters is to get back in the right path, the one that helps you enjoy the game and become a better player.
Beware the Routine
There are two great things about playtesting. First, it makes your deck stronger and brings insight on the current metagame. Second, it simply makes you a better player. Or so it does in the earlier stages of testing, at least. Because at some point, lassitude pushes you to think less and less, and to replace considered actions with automatic responses. In this case, we make faster calls and, without even noticing, our level regresses. Whether we are aware of what provokes this regression or not, our ego is hurt as we realize we win fewer matches.
The most striking example is Magic: Online. The reason why many pros are very good despite almost not using the program is because the online platform doesn’t really help focus on the game. Of course, it is a great testing tool, in particular as far as draft is concerned, but when you’re chatting, visiting your Facebook homepage, and playing Magic at the same time, you can’t really expect to be at 100%. The problem is not that it makes you misplay in a few nearly worthless online games, but that it allows you become accustomed to not thinking too much. That’s why it is important, if you use MTGO to improve your game, not to do any side activities when playing so you don’t get distracted.
Of course, I’m not going to tell you to be at 100% all the time when practicing, as it is nearly impossible, but if you want to be able to make the right decisions in the games that do matter, it is still highly recommended to keep the “automatic pilot” games to a minority.
Listen to Others
When people tell you that you’re making mistakes, or that your deck could be better, pay attention to what you’re told, no matter how unpleasant and irrelevant the criticisms may seem to be. Never think that you can’t learn anything from a player because he is “worse” than you.
There are things you see better from outside the game, and it’s almost impossible to think of everything and to play a game perfectly anyway. And there’s nothing that deflates a big head like having a player we consider inferior teach us about the mistakes we’ve made.
Trust Your Deck
If you have tested enough to think you have a good deck, but still, for one reason or another (bad results, physical and/or moral fatigue) you don’t have the feeling that you could win, try at least to believe in your deck, and in the hours and hours you’ve spent preparing for the event. It will often reward you for your trust, as the efforts you make are never in vain.
Be Ambitious
The best remedy for ego problems of all kinds is, by far, ambition. When you want to get better, it encourages you to overcome your limits, and therefore not to become depressed when you’re doing badly. It also forces you to always look above you, and to focus on what it takes to catch up with the players who are better than you are. Big heads and ego problems usually spring from considering how many players are worse than us. By reversing the process and looking up to the best players, we naturally become more humble.
Humility is one of the most fundamental abilities to master in order to reach the top at Magic. It only takes attending one Pro Tour to be convinced about this, as the best players are often the more modest ones.
The “Wrong Deck” Trap
Sometimes, we get bad results but can’t understand why. We play at our average level, we pay attention in practice games, and we don’t feel like we are that unlucky. Still, no matter how much we try, we can’t manage to win. In this case, the guilty culprit is often our deck.
It’s hard to understand. The deck does seem good after all, and it seems adapted to the environment, but it just doesn’t win. Our confidence was hurt by our results, and now, if we start questioning our abilities to build good decks, it will be very hard to get our ego back to the surface level. And still, it is sometimes necessary to plumb the depths before we can reach the heights again.
The most common problem is that many players give themselves restrictions in their preparation. Some don’t want to play aggro or control. Some will always try and avoid playing the most played deck, either because they are afraid about the mirror matches or because they want to have an original deck. Some will only play their own rogue creations, and so on.
Players should remember one thing. Of course it is important to have fun when playing, and therefore to try and run your own creation. However, when it comes to having fun playing Magic, the most efficient way to do that is often to win. And if you’re not ready to show some variance in the archetypes you’re playing, some formats will just be horrible for you. If I take my personal example, I wanted to avoid playing Cascade spells in Honolulu or an aggro deck in Seattle or Barcelona. As a result, one Grand Prix Day 2 and two poor results convinced me that maybe I was too closed-minded.
Rebuilding Your Confidence
Where did I go wrong? What could be improved in my game? These are the kind of questions a Magic player will often ask to himself when he is disappointed. I’ve experienced this feeling several times since my Magic debut, and since the beginning of this season in particular, as my own self confidence has dropped a lot in the last few months. However, I won’t give up. I want to be one of the best players in the game, and even though I haven’t been close to that of late, I know it is an objective I can reach. Therefore I have to pinpoint where my problems are to regain my deteriorating self confidence. I know I have been focusing less when I’m playing, outside the “Drafting With” series. So, first step, no more MTGO plus Windows Messenger combo. When I play, I play, and when I play, I give my best and try to win. In Constructed, I don’t feel unhappy about my deck choice in Hawaii and Barcelona, but re-running Howling Mine in Seattle was a clear misread of the environment. I have to pay more attention to the decklists next time, and not discover, for instance, what is in a Swans deck a mere 24 hours before the tournament starts.
Concerning Limited, my current lack of confidence pushes me to always go with the archetypes I know the best: Esper, WG, and WU aggro. I must not fear taking more risks in the draft, and draft archetypes I am less familiar with. For instance, in today’s edition of Drafting With Olivier, I take first pick first pack Sigiled Paladin over Resounding Thunder. The pick isn’t bad, and I think both cards are actually close, but I should still have picked the removal, so I can practice new strategies that could make me a better drafter. As I draft better, I’ll have better decks, and so win more, gain more confidence, and so win even more, and then get even more confidence, and so on.
When I trust my game again, I’ll have try and do my best to maintain it at that level, because it is about as hard to get to the higher levels of confidence as it is to maintain your confidence once you’re there.
Wish me luck!