The last few weeks have been extremely hectic for me. Like many magic players I’ve been celebrating Christmas and the new year. In addition I had a vacation, wedding planning, a car accident, my birthday, and getting the flu. That meant I went three whole weeks without being able to play with anyone outside of my basement. I barely even had time to read articles or keep up with spoilers.
These last couple days I’ve been trying to cram in three weeks worth of Magic news and games. By the time I walked into legacy on Tuesday at my LGS I was straight up jonesing for some Magic. I was fighting a cold and had done six hours worth of driving that day but nothing was stopping me from playing Magic that night. I learned a lot about what happens even when you take a short break from magic and want to share what I learned.
I am still learning Legacy Infect so I sleeved it up wanting to get more practice. In retrospect I probably should have chosen something I know really well, like Mudpost. While I want to spend as much time as I can learning my new deck, I think that walking back into Magic with something I wasn’t familiar with was not my brightest idea. I tried to Spell Pierce an Argothian Enchantress. Twice. In the same game. Thank god that my opponent was a friend and had a good laugh about it. I might have been tired and had a cold but that wasn’t my first mistake of the night and it certainly wasn’t my last. I managed to go 3-2 and finish seventh in spite of my misplays but I regret not easing myself back in with a deck I knew better.
I choose a bad time of year to be sick and busy. It’s spoiler season and when you work at an LGS and write for a Magic blog it tends to be an important time of year to pay attention. I’ve been letting people contact me with many of the spoilers and this is something I really wish I had handled better. I think reading the spoilers yourself and making your own assessments about cards without outside influence is a really important part of developing as a Magic player. I really like making my own decisions about a card before I discuss it with others and see what they think. I can compare and contrast our decisions and then learn from what I missed. Next spoiler season (and the rest of this one) I am taking the time to make sure I read the spoilers every morning when I wake up like I used to.
The last thing I really have been slacking on is watching coverage. Every Sunday Aaron and I used to go play Legacy and when we got home we would cuddle and watch SCG coverage (pretty romantic, I know). I haven’t been as good about keeping up on coverage since SCG stopped streaming Legacy and lately I’ve been even worse about watching coverage in general. I can genuinely say that my game isn’t as good as it once was. Watching coverage made me a better player. It helped me learn what to expect from other decks and become more familiar with them, an important part of becoming a better Magic player.
Magic, while fun, requires work if you want to stay competitive. Even just taking a few weeks off can make a big difference to your game. I’m not saying you should never take a break from Magic. Taking vacations are pretty important and you should definitely do that. What I am saying is that you should be aware of what will happen when you do need to step away for a bit and what you should do when you come back.
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH or Standard if she’s desperate.