Pillow Talk MtG 13: Setting Goals in Magic

Welcome to Pillow Talk, the official competitive Magic the Gathering podcast of Team Pillow Fort! This week, Jonathan and Austin discuss staying excited, being good community members, and setting goals for the game we all love. Thank you as always for listening!

Team Pillow Fort's Twitter: https://x.com/TPillowFortMTG 

Game Knight TN: https://gameknighttn.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to Pillow Talk, the official podcast of Team PillowFort MTG. I am your host, Jonathan Johnson, aka Tanuki JJ.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

And with me as always, Austin Walker.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Austin, we've got a little bit of a different topic today. I know we get into the nitty-gritty of testing and formats. As of right now, it's pre-release weekend, so a lot of people are out having fun, enjoying the new cards, but we wanted to talk about leveling up in magic and not just leveling up, but goal setting and sort of figuring out how you're going to engage with the game. There's a lot of different ways to do it. Um any thoughts on the topic before we kind of jump into some questions and things, or or maybe a little bit about you know your thoughts on the topic or journey?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yeah, I think that one of the most important things is just to remember that like everybody has a different journey uh with their goals and where they want to be in magic. And and those are all okay. Like it's it's okay, you know, if if you're the type of person that wants to enjoy the game by competing at the highest levels and you know, competing in the regional championships or competing in the Pro Tour or whatever it is, or if if you're the type of person that wants to just play casually, that wants to, you know, play Commander on the weekends or play your casual FM drafts, uh, any of these things are fine. It's just about recognizing where you want to be with the game and how you want to engage with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

You know, I I think that there's there's a lot to it. So I would love to start off with something, and I know we've talked about this as a team, we've talked about this as part of our culture. When you get to a point where you've become a part of the community that maybe isn't the most pleasant, we've all seen this person. Either the FM grinder who just can't seem to win their FM and they lose to the same person, or the guy at the RCQs that just can't seem to break through and get the win, or maybe it's the person who's a competitive grinder that you know does win RCQs but just salt off every time that they they aren't the best in the room. You can take something which is, I think, a healthy competitive endeavor and turn it toxic pretty quickly. And I can certainly think of a number of examples, even people I like who just kind of suck the fun out of it. Austin, how do you approach people like that? If if if I'm in that situation, I'm becoming that guy. You're one of my good friends. How do you approach me to kind of take that level back? And how do you approach yourself in order to approach the game in a healthier way?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So if you're approaching somebody else, I think it's really important to have that rapport. Uh, you and I are good friends, and so I feel like I could have that conversation with you sometime after the moment has passed. You know, I'm not gonna do it in the moment, I'm not gonna do it even on the car ride home. Uh, it's probably gonna be a couple days later or whatever, and and I'll just encourage you to kind of reflect back on how that interaction went and you know, let you know that like you represent the the community as a whole, and and it's important to make sure that that you are representing well. We want to be good fosters of the community, we want to help grow the community. Um if if we're talking about like checking yourself, it's it's definitely it's definitely difficult in the moment to to recognize when you're being that type of you know toxic person or or bringing the the mood down. Um but I I've definitely had some moments where I've had to like reflect on a situation that maybe I I didn't handle the best. Um and and really ask myself, like, did did I did I represent myself well? Did I represent the community well? Um, you know, if I was on the other end of that, uh how would I have felt about that interaction, you know? Um and and there are times that I've had to apologize to to other players before, e even if even if I I wasn't really sure, like, yeah, maybe, maybe I I wasn't super rude or maybe I wasn't toxic or or whatever, but um you know, you still you still want to just make sure that the other person doesn't get that bad negative feeling and and step away from the interaction um just like feeling down about it, you you know.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, I I think the way that I've done this in the past, and I've again I've certain we've all been guilty of it at some point or another, is you know, if you had the rapport and I see you having this moment, I'm gonna be like, hey, Austin, again, not in the moment. Sometimes you gotta let them calm down a little bit. Sometimes you just need to have a friend. And I I do remember one moment, actually, you and I at DC a while back, and you weren't being salty by any means, but it was clear that it was a very frustrating weekend for you. And we just went out and had lunch and talked about just everything but you know how frustrated we were about magic. And sometimes you just need to be a friend to the person, and that's just a tough moment for them, and you can help them out there. Other times you might, you know, call them out and say, Austin, it was kind of tough to be your friend in that moment, and I don't think that you were treating your opponent fairly. I mean, we do have to recognize at the end of the day, if you're in a competitive tournament, whether the person across from you is a better player than you or a worse player than you is really not that relevant. You're both playing a game and you're both playing that game to win. So if your opponent, either through luck or through skill or through your bad luck or whatever you want to call it, gets the better of you, you came for the same reason. And if you had won, you would feel differently. But you're both trying to do the same thing. And I think coming at it from more of that human level of regardless of your goal, regardless of where you are, you're both two humans trying to enjoy a game in a competitive way and that you're trying to win. So if your opponent wins, even if you're upset, the best way that I have found to handle it is when I'm frustrated. Make sure that your opponent doesn't lose their experience and their joy because you're being a jerk. So the best thing you can do if you're frustrated is you don't want to talk all that much, is just say, hey, thank you for the games.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah, it's okay to take a step outside and and vent to a buddy and and all that. Like we're we're all gonna be upset from time to time about games and and that's fine. Right. But you know, it's just about making sure that your opponent doesn't kind of feel that negative weight, uh, you know, go go go be salty somewhere else, away from the table, you know. I also want to note what you said too about your opponent just being another human who is there for the same reason that you are. And sometimes you're going to feel like they're a worse player than you, or maybe you feel that they're a better player than you, and that can sometimes dictate how you treat them through the match, but it it really shouldn't. Um you know, i it's it's easy to get caught up in in the mindset of like, oh well, you know, if if my opponent is uh a worse player than me, then I can kind of just like go on autopilot. Um, and then that's when you start to play sloppy, and it just creates this compounding issue where you know you you're you're not taking the game as seriously because you think that this is just going to be a free game, um, and then you make stupid mistakes, and you know, that leads to more tilt when you inevitably lose a game that you probably should have won just because you were being careless and didn't really care about what your opponent was doing, you just thought that you deserve the game. But Austin, I'm the best.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Um, you know, there there are those moments where sometimes you actually lose because they made a horrible decision, yep, and you got maximum punished. So think think about I mean, uh how many times have you seen this where someone boards in surgical extraction in in modern, and there's really no reason. They do it against burn and they upkeep surgical extraction your lava spike, and your your hand happens to be, or they do it in your draw step, uh, if they're smart. But again, we're making bad plays. We do an upkeep, and you've you've got you've got three lava spikes in your hand, and they just completely stripped everything that you had, and you lose the game because they brought in a card that really had no business being in the deck. Well, tough cookies, they got you. Uh, you know, so uh the the way that I've found best to handle this for myself, and I I think we'll talk about sort of playing online here in a minute, too. But in person, you you have to understand that it's hard to control your emotions. It can be almost impossible at times to not at least wear it a little bit in your body language. And it's okay if your opponent sees that you're you're disappointed, but just make sure that you don't steal their joy from it. The best thing I can do is say, thank you for the games, you know, pack up your stuff, good luck in the rest of your rounds. You you say that and you be uh a gentleman or gentle person about it and just move on with your life. But I I think when we're talking about goals, when we're talking about you know where we're at in station, I think every magic player, and this is the soapbox team pillow for it preaching, we just need to be a good community first. And anytime we're talking about competitive goals, competitive endeavors, where you want to be in magic, I think we absolutely have to start there, which is if you have to train yourself to have a scripted line to say to your opponents when you're mad that makes it so you're not toxic, then do it. If you sound like a robot, you're better to be a scripted robot than to be a jerk and ruin the fun for everybody else. So one thing I've noticed too, some of it's format dependent. And I think that we could learn a lot. Uh some of you who who know me know that I love to play Legacy, I like to play vintage. And if you go to a tournament and you're playing Legacy or Vintage and it's your first time, people tell me constantly, wow, all of the players are so pleasant and just happy to be there because there's a different vibe where a lot of times uh, you know, old guys like me who are playing these formats are playing it for nostalgia. They're playing it for fun. We play it because we like the power level of the cards or just some of our favorite cards ever. And it it can be a more pleasant experience. And I think coming in with the mindset of just, hey, I I'm coming here to have a good time and to play something I enjoy, regardless of the results, you know, this is something I do for fun. Now it is hard when there are goals attached to it. We'll we'll talk about that, you know, wanting to qualify for the Pro Tour, wanting to qualify for a regional championship or for worlds or to day two, whatever those goals might be, um, I think it's important to sort of check that. So we can learn a lot from the people who show up and say, I'm here to have a good time and be a great opponent. I I can think of lots of people that I could give a shout out. And uh, one of my friends in the legacy community who I don't think I've ever met somebody who doesn't love the guy, Roland Chang, most pleasant person you'll ever sit down across from. And, you know, that that's the kind of example that we need in the community, and I'd love to see more of that in the competitive space.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, it's funny that you say that. Uh I don't disagree by any means, uh, but uh I will say that I was playing my first vintage tournament last summer uh in Oklahoma, and I was playing the uh countervine deck that I borrowed from you, and I had an opponent who uh I I think it was like maybe my first or second match, and sat across a table from them, and we were just talking about our experience with magic, and I was saying, yeah, this is my first vintage tournament. And he was saying, Oh yeah, well, you know, vintage players are just happy to be here, they're just happy for an excuse to play, so you know, don't don't don't worry about it. Everybody here is pretty chill, you're gonna have you know a good time and and all of that. And then I just proceeded to do the stupid turn one, make a million power and attack, and my opponent was very upset. Uh so they were not, in fact, having a good time.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

The bizarre decks are very annoying, but yeah, and then some jerk came up to you in the middle of your game and saying, please don't snap my bizarre bag dads on the table when you're putting them down. Uh yeah, there there is some of that. Uh there there are some decks people will find annoying or whatever, and dying on turn one where you get vintage is is the thing. It happens. Oh, good times. So one one thing that uh I I know that this is actually really hard for me sometimes, and this is when I'm playing online. There's nobody there to hold me accountable. You're sitting there grinding your face, and I can think of one in particular. This was testing for DC a little while back, uh, the same tournament that we were talking about a little bit ago. Uh I I hate Pioneer. I've never enjoyed the format. I am totally fine with the fact that people love it. It was just something for me that I I never enjoyed it. I didn't like the swinginess of it, I didn't like the the lack of um interaction in in some degrees, not that it wasn't interactive, but there was it was very snowball y, so there were some real matchup swings. And when you're sitting there trying to test something out and you get thought-sized into double thoughtsies, into uh you know mind rot, it's just you start to rage and that blood boils inside of you. How do we go and with our testing, right? Because this is where I think some people go wrong and they could be toxic when they get to the the paper testing or the paper matches because they spend so much time online, they get super frustrated with particular strategies and they get that short fuse. How do you take the grind of testing online and make it a pleasant experience? Austin, teach me because uh I I am not the best with this.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

So the first thing uh that I would recommend is there's this little button at the top of your screen. It's on the right hand side, right next to the little chat box, the little X. You're gonna want to click that as soon as you get into a game. Uh you want to just get rid of that altogether.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Well, how am I gonna know if Magic Devil 666 looked up my number of 5-0 trophies so he can tell me that I'm a luck sack and my top deck was too good?

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Uh I think that's just gonna be a hidden problem. Uh yeah, don't don't make their problems your problem. Um no, I I think that in general the chat is just a really toxic thing, and you know, you can you can try to use it appropriately and you can try to use it correctly, um, but at the end of the day, it really doesn't add a whole lot of value, and I think it just end up ends up causing more harm than than help. Um and so, you know, I've I've tried to have conversations with opponents uh in in the chat afterward, but it's really just not super productive. Um, you know, even even if you're meaning well and and you have good intentions, uh, I think it's just a good idea to just go ahead and shut the chat off, you know, uh, because inevitably there are going to be those games where you um you know you're you're having a good match or whatever and and you end up coming out ahead, and then your opponent will, you know, start typing furiously in chat, and and it kind of like just takes the focus away from the match that you're playing and it puts it onto like, oh, this is what I should have said, or you know, I should have I should have responded with this or whatever it is, you know, and and then even going forward into other games, like you you're just more focused on what should have been said or what was said or whatever in the chat, and and you're not focused on the actual games of magic. Um so so yeah, all that to say, definitely just shut the chat off.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

You know, it's funny, I I have less of a time getting really frustrated playing on Magic Online than I do on Arena. So I I have disabled emotes because nothing ticks me off than the person who thought seizes me, and then it's like good game, you know, right right at the beginning of it. Yeah and then just proceeds to absolutely kick my teeth in. Uh so I I I find that when it's anonymous like that, people can be just absolutely heinous. So um I have disabled emotes on on arena, so I just won't see it, won't engage with it. Uh on Magic Online, I almost find it humorous personally. So, first of all, I I like to see who says good luck have fun at the beginning, so I know that they're playing a combo deck. That's very helpful for me. And uh, you know, after I realize they're on combo, if they salt off, I I actually do find it entertaining. So uh, but I could I could see where it's the same thing because I am not the same level head on arena. For whatever reason, that one just ticks me off the emotes, the early good games. I'm like, all right, guys, just you're an idiot. Um so I I've completely disabled those. I have not turned off the magic online chat. So circle back to this, Austin. If you ever see me salting off about some Moto League or something I'm playing, and then ask me, like, hey, did you listen to the advice I gave you on the podcast and turn off your your chat? Probably not, you know, as I have 16 paragraphs of you know fighting with somebody on the internet.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Um I will say that the the second component is to make sure that you're not playing when you're frustrated. Uh it's really easy to get in the mindset of like, I I ended on a loss, but I really want to end on a win, and so I'm just gonna play one more match and and try to get that win, try to prove to myself and all these strangers on the internet that I'm not as bad at magic as I look right now, or whatever it might be, you know. But uh I I think that that's a really dangerous place to be. Um you kind of train your brain to associate being frustrated with playing magic, and then when you get into an actual tournament, then you all of a sudden you you're you're just uh reliving those associations, right? And so so you are still associating like those negative thoughts and that negative energy with the game that you're playing. Um I think that it's it's a just a really good idea to whenever you're getting frustrated playing Magic Online or Arena or whatever it is, um, to just take a break, find another game or something uh to play in the meantime and and just kind of chill for a little bit. Uh I I have a I have a few games that I go to that are just like my quick cooldown games that you know don't really require a whole lot of mental effort or or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah, it's it's sort of a a hard thing to to get out of because there's so many spaces where the opposite is is preached. So as someone who's played a lot of basketball, uh my daughter plays basketball, travel ball, you know, there's this this uh saying, right? You end on a make. So if you're putting up shots and you're you're practicing, we'll get a shooting machine and rent it my uh we'll we'll go shoot a bunch of threes. And if you miss a couple in a row, you're towards the end of your workout, you say, All right, next make, end on a make. As soon as you make it, you're done. It is a huge mistake to do that in magic because as soon as you say, I'm gonna end on a win, you know, if you're on the arena ladder match, you're gonna lose four or five in a row, and then you'll finally get that win, but you'll be like two ranks lower, and you're gonna feel worse than if you just turned the stupid game off and walked away from it. Yep. Um so yeah, ending on a make, probably smart in basketball, give you those those good, you know, feels uh not so good when you're you're grinding magic. Sometimes you just gotta say, hey, you know what, that was a tough league, I'm gonna log off for a minute, or that was a tough loss, I'm gonna go do something else, uh touch grass.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah. The the game that I've been going to recently is uh Hearthstone Battlegrounds. Uh it's it's very low pressure, it's something that I enjoy, uh, but if I lose, I don't really get too worked up about it, you know. Um and so so yeah, i uh having having those types of things to to go to quickly um are are really really good ideas. I know that for some people that's like Fortnite, like those, you know, first person shooters or whatever, or might be another card game that you just aren't really super competitive with. Um, you know, something that that you can access kind of quickly and and get a couple of games in, whatever, just something to clear your head, you know. Um it it it it really does help just kind of reset your mental focus. And then once once you're done, then you know go back to your games, whatever, uh after you've kind of like got a little bit m in a better headspace, then you know go back, keep playing your games of magic, keep you know, grinding your leagues or or getting that testing in or whatever it is, but just make sure that whenever you're doing that, you're doing it from a good headspace and not from frustration.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

I I would say be careful what you choose for that game to be. Um I am one of those people that is competitive in almost everything that I do, so I do have a hard time following this. For a while though, I I got a release playing Call of Duty of all things, but uh you know that that game could be really hard to be uh not so toxic on. So that's where you you turn off the COD chat, y'all. Turn it off. Yeah, I I bet you didn't turn off the chat, did you? No, I didn't. Uh and I was probably doing a lot of the talking. Um but yeah, I I think finding a positive release or something you can do. Uh go go do you know, go walk outside, go walk your dog, your dog would love it. Uh you know, just find find some kind of release. And I think that's a great, great advice and a good idea. Just having some other thing that you do that if if magic is the only thing that you do, it's going to become so all-encompassing that it becomes difficult to separate sort of your well-being and your sense of self-worth from from your results. And I think that's where a lot of that toxicity can come from. So make it a competitive endeavor. Understand that you're playing against humans, and realize that when you're on the internet, that anonymity makes it easier to treat people like they aren't humans. So turn the stinking chat off or ignore it if people are gonna try to, you know, troll you or whatever. You have to know yourself and if that's something that's gonna bother you or or sort of get you down. And just know when to go do something else. And I think all of those things will one make you a better, happier person, but two, are gonna hopefully bring you into a better headspace when you you do get to the point where you're heading into the RC and trying to play for something that matters a little bit more. So we took a lot of time on this that I think is really important. Just understanding that, you know, it is the gathering after all, even if we're playing competitively, you really do need to approach it from the standpoint that this is a game that you love, it's a game that somebody else's love uh loves as well. The best players in the world do not have a hundred percent win rates. So you're gonna lose some portion of the time, and you're gonna lose to players worse than you, you're gonna lose to the ones better than you. Thank you for the games. Good luck in your night. Round, so move on with your life. Okay, gamers, if you're into tabletop gaming and you're anywhere near middle Tennessee, you need to check out Game Night in Columbia.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

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SPEAKER_01 22:31

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SPEAKER_00 22:38

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SPEAKER_01 22:44

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SPEAKER_00 22:50

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SPEAKER_01 22:56

Alright, so let's move on. We we've talked about sort of getting to the point where we're going to approach things from a healthy standpoint, not be toxic. How do we go about setting goals? Now, there's lots of frameworks for this. I I know that the smart goal concept where something is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound is I think a great framework to sort of try to set goals for yourself. But Austin, how do you go about knowing what is a reasonable goal for you to be setting, you know, in the near term as a magic player?

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be different for each person, but one thing that I like to do is just make sure that I have a series of goals that are kind of leading to a progression. Uh so for example, um, you know, I for as long as I can remember, certainly as long as I've been playing competitive magic, uh, it's been my goal to play in the Pro Tour. Um, but you know, when I played my first RCQ, uh I I had I had that goal kind of in the back of my head, but my goal for that first RCQ wasn't to qualify for the Pro Tour off of that, right? So, you know, my my goal for the first RCQ season that I played in was I really just want to qualify for an RC, you know, and and I still have that goal of qualifying for the Pro Tour in the back of my head, but you know, I I wanna I want to make sure that I'm topping as many uh or top aiding as many RCQs as I can that first season with the goal of trying to just make that first RC. Uh and then, you know, took me a couple seasons, but I I got my first RC under my belt, and I thought, okay, well, now I've done this, I know what the expectation is, I I'm going to really focus on trying to day two. Um and again, it took me a couple RCs to to achieve that goal, uh, but eventually I did it, you know, and and um then uh my my next goal of of top 32ing became a lot more uh a lot more feasible and and a a lot more uh more focused in in my in my views. And so so you know you you set these series of goals and and for you, you know, if this is your first RCQ season that you're playing, or or maybe you've been playing for a couple but you haven't qualified for your first RC, you know, you you want to keep those those big goals of qualifying for the Pro Tour, qualifying for Worlds, whatever it is, you want to keep those in your sights, but but really focus on on the the other goals that lead up to that, you know, like make sure that that you are focusing on qualifying for your your first RC, or maybe you've already played in a few RCs and and your goal is just to do better than you did the one before. Um But you have have a series of goals that are kind of like I said leading to some type of progression. Um and then you you will start to find out what's reasonable. Um and so so just naturally by by playing you know you you're going to understand like okay, I I think that you know this is something that is going to be within my reach. Maybe, maybe I didn't day two this first RC, but you know, I had some really close matches, and so I think that this is something that I can eventually do. So that's that's gonna be my next really achievable goal for me.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

So how do you how do you go about taking something that was a goal that maybe at one point was aspirational, and it becomes more of an expectation? So I'll give an example. I think most people who know me know that I do not enjoy playing RCQs. Uh, I find them to be a little bit of a chore and they're cumbersome. At one point I found them pretty great uh because we didn't have competitive magic for a while, and all of a sudden we had an event that mattered that was playing towards something. But once you get to the point where you're qualifying every season, whenever you're trying, you're getting the invites, it's not something that is all that special anymore. Sometimes you can lose sight of that. So how do you take something like a day two of an RC and at one point that was a great goal, something you were happy for, but then you lose your joy a little bit because it's no longer aspirational, it's an expectation. And when you don't hit that goal, you know, sometimes that's where you can kind of spiral back into the stuff we talked about at the beginning. So so how do you how do you balance that?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Yeah, so I think here the biggest thing is just make sure that you celebrate the small wins, you know. Um even if you've qualified for a million RCs, uh if if you if you get another RCQ win, then you know don't don't take it for granted. You know, appreciate the effort that you that it took you to get to that point and and appreciate the achievement that you have. Call a buddy, talk about your wins, um, you know, talk about how your matches played out, talk about something that you learned that day, something like that. Um, you know, or or if if day two in an RC is something that you've just done a bunch before, um and and it kind of takes the joy out of it, um, then then again, just just take a moment once you get your next day too, to just appreciate it, or or even even a step back, you know, qualifying for an RC. Um, you know, if if making day two really isn't a big deal for you anymore, then still like still like talk to a friend or or or you know kind of work through verbally what it took you to get there and and to achieve that goal. Um I I think I think that if you really start to appreciate the steps that it took you to get to where you are and not taking for granted uh those achievements, it'll it'll go a long way.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

I I think that something we can lose sight of too is that occasionally I will see people who will set a goal that's you know, frankly, just kind of not realistic based on their track record. You can certainly get lucky. I mean I literally have known people who have qualified for the Pro Tour that basically never test online, hardly test at all, except for among some friends, and then went in with minimal reps and then just like happen to just run hotter than the sun. That that does happen, but you have to understand that's like lightning striking twice. Um when you're when you're trying to prepare for it, I think introspection is something that's very difficult for most people to do because introspection requires you to take accountability for what you contribute to it. And I can look back at some results and some you know events that I didn't do well at or some RCs I didn't do well at, and I can look and say, yeah, that's 100% my fault. I might have played a lot, but I jumped around decks. I knowingly didn't play the deck that was the obvious best thing to be doing, so I was trying to find another way to angle it, you know, for whatever reason I justified to myself, and you know, for whatever reason those preparation points fail. Or maybe you're the player that you're not qualifying for the RC every season and you win, you know, one a year or two a year, and you're you're trying to get in and get those invites, but it's difficult for you. I think you have to be realistic with yourself that if you're struggling to 3-2 your RC and you know, top eights are rare and occasionally you can spike a win, you know, by all means set a goal to qualify for the Pro Tour when you go to the RC, but try to set some incremental steps to do a little bit better than you did last time, but make sure that you're changing your preparation in ways that are going to work toward that goal. And I think that's something that a lot of people lose sight of. I can set a goal to bench press 350 pounds, but if right now I can barely put up a plate, that's not a very realistic goal for me to achieve in the next six months. So you you have to understand that you're gonna incrementally add to that. So if that's your goal and you're not playing Magic Online, that's something you need to be picking up. You need to make a commitment to yourself, like, okay, I'm gonna play, I'm gonna start off, I'm gonna play at least one league a week, and I'm gonna try to work through this or I'm gonna test with my friends. And setting realistic goals and taking accountability for the things that you did control and why you didn't do well. I mean, I could think of sometimes where I played uh the Is It Cutter deck that I played in the challenge recently. I played that in Indianapolis, and I had the most comical run of crazy matchups. I played this enchantment prison deck where somebody had four main deck high noons and they had main deck stony silence when I was playing this artifact combo deck. So, you know, and you united battlefront to you know, basically collected company for this stuff. I I don't think I could win a game if I played a hundred of them against that deck, unless they mold to three. So when you play that in round three, and then you know, you you play against these weird things where you just get absolutely pasted. I mean, sometimes that's just gonna happen. But I can take accountability first, like, okay, so I have this enchantment removal, but it happens to not work under Stony Silence because it's a haywire bite. Like, okay, well, you got me. Um so that stuff will happen, but those are outliers. And there are other times where I could look and say, you know, RC Portland in in 25. I played Eldrazian, I played three different mirror matches. Yes, I lost the Diral, but I went one and two, and there were probably some instances where I could have adjusted my deck building to be more prepared for a popular deck. I could have uh Mulligan differently, I could have sideboarded differently. Did I have a good strategy coming into it? Being able to look back critically without beating yourself up and say, okay, maybe this would not have won me that match, but it would have given me a better chance. Because if you can go back and try to find that in everything that you're doing, those small incremental advantages, even in the bad matchups, are what's going to help you get lucky and capitalize when that luck comes. Because to get 11 wins, 12 wins in a regional championship, there you're there is some point where you're going to have to get a little bit lucky. But you know, the as they say, the harder I work, the luckier I get. And I think that's really true why so many players who grind like crazy are quote luckier than others is because they put themselves in the position to be able to capitalize on it. They know the outs that they're playing to. So setting realistic goals for yourself, taking accountability for the stuff that you can control, and then trying to make incremental steps to just be a little bit better than you were yesterday. I mean, I know I referenced the basketball stuff, but lastly, Kobe Bryant talked about this. He said, You're just trying to be a little bit better every day. Just be a little better than yesterday, and a little better than the day. And then if you do that over six months, a year, five years, six years, you're gonna be so much better. But it just starts with just get a little better every day.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, I think getting those small little percentage points here and there i is a bigger deal than what people will give it credit for. Um, you know, you take a look at uh a big event, you know, 15 rounds or whatever, and even if you just have like, you know, a couple percentage points that that you're trying to squeeze out of each of your matches, you know, just by doing uh a little bit better each time, making those little minor micro decisions that end up um you know being the difference between a win and a loss, you know, over the course of a long day like that or a long weekend like that, you know, those really start to add up. I mean, I think back to like, you know, some of my 5-4s that I had at RC's when I was first starting to go to them. And it's like, okay, well, sure, you know, five four is not a qualifying record, um, but was there was there anything that I could have done, you know, to maybe give myself an extra couple percentage points here or there? Could I could I have turned one just one of those games into a win, you know? Because I mean the difference between 5-4 and day two could really just be a single game, you know. If if you can get just one of those games to kind of flip over in your favor, then all of a sudden that goal that I had of making day two at an RC could have come to fruition a lot earlier, you know. But but just trying to find those extra little percentage points where where you can and trying to find when they matter, uh, I I I think is really important. Um and and that just comes with practice, you know, getting in the reps and and all of that. Uh, but but definitely just trying to look for those those things. Um, you know, it's it's easy to say, well, you know, what's one percentage point gonna do for me? But like I said, it it could be the difference between not making day two and making day two of a big event like that.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

A hundred percent. Yeah, it's it's just setting yourself up to take advantage of the good things when they come. I mean, you you're you're going to have those instances where you mulligan really heavily and you don't draw what you need and you just get kind of run over. But you know, these tournaments when you're looking at 15 rounds, you can have one of those, and it's okay. You know, don't don't let that get into your head. Try to be incrementally better, understand like there have definitely been times where I'm like, oh, I think this seven's kind of mid, and then you go to a no-land six, no land five. Okay, now I'm on four. This stinks. Um, you know what though? That's really results-based thinking. You have to look back and say, was this a disciplined mulligan? Was this a seven that I had a chance of winning with? Or was a reasonable six going to be better? And you just have to accept it. And I think that the the ability to accept the results because you made the right decision for the right reasons is far more important than what the result was to begin with. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yeah, absolutely. I can think of times when I've been watching VOD reviews and um, you know, had thoughts about, okay, well, this should be a mulligan or this shouldn't be a mulligan or or whatever it is. Uh, but it's really easy to justify after the fact by saying, like, well, you know, yeah, maybe, maybe this uh should have been a mulligan, but I really wanted to keep it because it had three lands and four spells, and it's like, well, are those three lands and four spells going to get you closer to a win, or or is there a better six? And you know, you you might see that person mulligan and they say, Oh, well, this doesn't have any lands, so you know, this is why I wanted to keep the seven, but it's like you didn't know that you weren't gonna have any lands in the six, and so you know, it's just it's one of those situations where like you can justify things in hindsight because of information that you didn't have in the moment, um, and and that's a really dangerous place to be.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in in the business world, one of the things that I've said as a manager and a leader when I'm talking to my you know, my team and and we're working towards something, uh my saying has always been you do the right things for the right reasons all the time, and everything else is going to work out. So being disciplined, uh understanding sort of where you're coming from. I had a another saying that was it was just um you know, talking about you you always put the client first, always hustle, no excuses. So don't don't let yourself make excuses for your own decisions or bad behavior. Accountability is one of the number one things that you can do in order to start to achieve your goals and have a more realistic chance. So the first thing you have to do is understand what you can control. You make the right decisions for disciplined reasons, and you take accountability for the decisions that you made that that weren't correct because you can't change those behaviors if you just try to justify that they were right all the time. And we all know someone in life, in our workplace or wherever, that they never take accountability for anything, and somehow that their life just never ends up being what they want it to be, and nothing ever goes well for them, and they're always the victim. Just get over yourself. And this is not just magic advice, but this is life advice. Just take accountability for your own actions, your own behavior, and you may not be as talented as the next guy, you may not be as smart as the next guy, but if you just take accountability for yourself, you're gonna be the best version of you. And the best version of you very well could be a lot better than other people who are more talented because you took the effort and the work and and became the best version of yourself that you can be. And I I think there's a lot to that. So shifting gears a little bit, I think the the last topic that I kind of wanted to talk about was you know who you surround yourself with. Uh, you know, there's a well-known saying that you you take you're the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. You know, if if you are your goal is to be a millionaire and you hang out with a bunch of millionaires, you're probably gonna end up there. Or if your goal is to be really fit and in shape and you hang out with a bunch of people who are in shape and fit, you're probably gonna be fit. And then the opposite is true, right? If your goal is to lose weight and be healthy, and everybody you hang out with, you know, meets up daily for a half a dozen donuts, it's gonna be more difficult. So obviously, I think that there's some extremism to that, to where I think it's good and healthy to have people in your life that maybe have different goals that balance you out. But when you're you're looking to achieve a goal, how do you go about surrounding yourself with the kinds of people that are gonna help you achieve that? And then the opposite, Austin, how do you know when maybe somebody's actually counterproductive to those goals and might be someone that you shouldn't be spending that much time with?

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Yeah, I think the most important thing is just recognizing the people that are trying to improve the culture of of the game in general and and trying to improve the community. Um I I I know of people that aren't necessarily bad people themselves, but they kind of surround themselves with people who are known, you know, I guess toxic members of the community, and it it kind of it kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth when you're hanging out with that person. Like, you know, I I don't dislike you, but I I don't really care for the people that you hang out with, so I kind of keep my distance a little bit. Um, and you really don't want to get stuck in that situation. So I think that that it's really important just to make sure that you're surrounding yourself with people who are positive members of the community, um, and and that in turn will help you be a positive member of the community as well. Uh but as as far as like improving at the game and all of that, I think that it's important also to just make sure that you are always uh trying to seek out players who are better than you. Uh you don't get better at the game by playing against people who are worse than you uh oftentimes. And so I think that it's really important just to make sure that you are trying to find those players in the community who are really good. Try to build a good rapport with them as long as they're positive members of the community.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

You know, one of the things that I think is really important, I don't want to add too much to what you already said, because I I agree with it all, is you do have to have people in your life that you're willing to hear from and you're willing to allow them to challenge you and speak into that, you know, goal of yours. So it can't necessarily it's not necessarily going to be everybody, right? Because if you've just got a million people picking at you all the time, that can be kind of hard. But if you've got friends that that you have a lot of mutual respect for, somebody has to be invited to criticize you. And not in like a mean way or a toxic way, but if you don't have anybody in your life that can challenge you and say, you know, hey Jonathan, like I don't think that that was the right player. I I think that I would have looked at this mulligan a little bit differently. Maybe they're wrong, but that dialogue, and it's what Elijah talked about when we interviewed him, sometimes forcing yourself to justify and explain your decisions can can help you understand better what you're doing. So I think with the people that you surround yourself with, whether that's a team or whether it's you know people you test with locally, you have to have some number of people, and you probably need to make it audibly known to them and just vocalize it and say, hey, Austin, I'm inviting you. If you see me doing something that doesn't make sense, challenge me on it. Make me uh make me explain why I did it. Because if I'm wrong, I need to know. And you know, there's points where that can be a little, I guess, frustrating, right? Um, I think of uh recent when we were in the Discord, I was playing the challenge and I was in a match to where I know I wasn't taking optimal lines, but my clock was so low because it was just a super grindy matchup against the Simic Ritual deck. I knew that if I took time to discuss it with you know anyone that I was just going to lose to the clock. So, you know, sometimes you have to understand those points and you make a decision, the first reasonable one that comes to your mind, it may not be optimal, but go back and look at the videos. Let people critique you. Let them, you know, say, hey, I would have sideboarded differently. Listen to those opinions. Even if you think that they're wrong, sometimes their their line of thinking might help you come to a different conclusion, even if it's an area that's not exactly the same. So invite people to criticize you and you know, find people that'll do it in a loving way, but not tiptoe around the issues. That's really important.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Yeah. And we've talked a lot on the podcast about VOD reviews and and how we like to set those up where we'll take a match that one person has played on Magic Online, and we'll just have a bunch of people that will uh kind of critique the plays and and all of that. Uh, we just did that recently with Michael, who was on the podcast a couple weeks ago, and we were uh just going through one of his matches. He was playing a blue black Demir uh frog style deck that you know he's very comfortable. Comfortable with that style, that play style he's very good with. And so, you know, I remember us like looking at the plays, and there were some times where we'd say, like, hey, you know, I think that this play would have been better if you would have done this differently. Um, and you know, all three, four, five of us, however many, would agree that like, yeah, this was the the way to go. And sometimes he would say, Yep, uh, you're absolutely right, I I see that now. And other times he would be like, Nope, this is why I didn't do that, and he would play out the next, you know, three turns or or whatever it was, um, and and we'd kind of understand he'd justify, you know, this is this is how I expected this game to play out, and exactly what he said would would, you know, happen in front of us, and and that was really enlightening for uh not just him hearing about the the plays that he could have changed, but also enlightening for us because we got to see how he was planning through his turns and how he was planning through the course of the game, and um, you know, we we get to see all of those things happen.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Absolutely, and you know, there there are playstyle differences too, and that this will come up sometimes. It's somebody who's a specialist with a deck. You and I have talked about this too, particularly with like tempo decks, that sometimes you you will play in a way that's not to lose, and then I'm playing more aggressively. And there are points where my way is correct and points where your way is correct, and it's being able to balance out and learn sort of where your role is, you know, the the traditional who's the beatdown. But the big piece is that that whole exchange with the team would not have been valuable if Michael shut it off and wasn't willing to hear, you know, what's going on, to share his opinions on why he did something, or to just be humble and accept, oh yeah, actually I didn't see that line and you're correct. And that's really the key to having people that are going to help make you better is you have to be receptive to feedback, you have to be humble, they have to be receptive to feedback, they have to be humble, but not so humble that when you really believe that you're right, that you're willing to justify it and explain why.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Yeah, and and making sure that you have like actual data to back up what you're saying and what you're doing is super important. You know, we don't want to get in these situations where we are arguing from a place of feels uh because that doesn't really work. You know, you you you've got to actually have something to back it up rather than just like I feel like this is the play to make.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

But I feel like you're making me sad by criticizing my play, Austin. Yeah, I don't care. Get some data back it up. So if we're if we wrap a bow on this, I mean, to kind of put it into perspective, when we're talking about leveling up, when we're talking about setting goals, the first thing that you you have to understand is that regardless of what your goal is, you need to be a good member of the magic community. You you need to understand that you're dealing with other human beings who have a similar goal to win the match that you're playing. So don't be toxic, don't be a jerk. The second piece we talked about is being realistic, measuring sort of those next level up moments, just getting a little bit better each day, a little bit better each event, understanding that with a game that does involve variance and luck at times, you're not always going to win. But the harder you work, the luckier you're gonna get. And the third piece we talked about was setting yourself up with people that you trust and that you're inviting to give you criticism, that you have enough humility to take accountability for your own actions, to be able to learn from those situations, but also to be able to stand and have a real discussion when you think that you're right. Does that cover it, Austin?

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Yeah, and and just remember that you know your goals can change over the course of your magic career. Uh you might be an RCQ grinder now, uh, and in six months you might decide that you don't really want to do that anymore. You don't really care about qualifying for the Pro Tour, you're really just about, you know, playing to have fun. Uh one of my good friends, Cameron, uh, he is somebody who was going to all the RCQs with me. He had been to, you know, some of the RCs as well, um, and and was a really competitive player, and he just decided that he was wanting to engage more with the game in uh the the popper space and the cube space, and that's just kind of what his goals were. So if if that's you and you know you're not enjoying you if you're not enjoying the game where you're at, then it's okay to change your goals and and decide that you want to do something different.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

A hundred percent. Yeah, if your goal in the chasing of your goal is making you miserable, dude, do something else. Uh, you know, if if if you're just hating the RC grind, hating this stuff, and now we all have moments where we get a little burnout, we could take a step back for a few weeks. But yeah, I absolutely okay to change those goals. Uh, you know, it it's it's your life. You get to live it once. Just you know, do do the what do what makes you happy, and if it's not making you happy, yeah, change the goals and find a way to enjoy it. All right. So we didn't talk about formats or decks per se, but it's still closing time. You've got to take a deck home, Austin. Let's pick one for modern. I don't know. Do you do you want to share your thoughts on standard? You got a PT coming up, or you're gonna hide the secret sauce, or or what how do you want to approach that one?

SPEAKER_00 49:25

No, I think I've got some ideas for uh a place that I would choose that might not be what I would play for the PT, but would still be a very good choice for standard. Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

So I will let you say that, and I don't want to share too much, so I'm gonna say just modern for me, but go ahead and give your your decks who you're taking home. It's Pillow Talk.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

Yeah, so uh for standard, I think that kind of the the boogeyman right now is Is it prowess? I think that deck is really good. It's a playstyle that I enjoy. Uh it got some new tools in flow state and you know, maybe some sideboard options or some other good is it cards. Uh so yeah, blue red prowess, I think, is a really sweet spot to be. Um definitely something that I would consider. Uh again, might not play it for the Pro Tour, but I might. We'll see. As far as modern goes, I really haven't been following it too closely. I've just been so focused on standard. Um, but there's a Grixis uh Unearth deck that has like Oculus and Casey Jones and uh Frog and some of those cards that has looked really sweet that I would love to just jam. If if I'm just playing some modern for fun, uh nothing too super serious, uh yeah, I'd I'd definitely be down for a deck like that.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Yeah, I think for me, uh for for modern, the format that I'm picking, I I'm still gonna play the Emery Cutter deck. I think that the deck is reasonably well positioned into a lot of the meta. It's somewhat customizable in terms of the strength of your sideboard. I do like my matchups into some of the more popular decks. Um, you do need, I think, some extra sideboard attention for Boris Energy specifically, but I feel pretty strong into the the Jess Guy Blink decks and some of the others. So in general, I think that deck is quite strong. Um, the other deck that I would would look towards, and you know, Reed was talking about this in our our team recently, that Titan has been getting great results. So if that's a deck that you're comfortable with, it's super reasonable right now. Uh, if if you're looking at learning a deck, we have RCQ season, but we've got months to the uh to the actual RCs that they're gonna be attached to. I think if that's a deck that has ever interested you, then you should probably take the time to learn it. But for me, Mox Opal Enjoyer, love Urs of Saga, uh, I am probably going to be uh tapping my emery to bring some nonsense back from the graveyard. Well, thank you for coming to our build.