Dies to Removal

This isn't about changing my luck. It's about finding strategies for coping with bad luck, accepting it and moving on. I don't know how to play tight and not be emotionally invested / angry when I just lose to bad luck. I'm looking for advice on that. I remember Zem telling me "glory is fleeting, focus on improving over time" and I've tried to take that to heart. However, I feel I have plateaued and my bad luck / inability to accept it and not tilt are holding me back.

Taking a break after a rage inducing loss is one of the best things you can do. Go outside and get some fresh air and try to forget the last game. Don't talk to your friends about how shitty your luck is, because that will only make you tilt harder. You can't play your best if you're stressed out and angry, and you have to remind yourself that when you feel the tilt starting to creep in. You're going to end up on the wrong side of variance from time to time, and it happens to everyone. You have to come to terms with it or you'll never stop tilting.

"don't fucking tilt you neckbeard fuck."

And no, I'm not playing burn.

This isn't about changing my luck. It's about finding strategies for coping with bad luck, accepting it and moving on. I don't know how to play tight and not be emotionally invested / angry when I just lose to bad luck. I'm looking for advice on that. I remember Zem telling me "glory is fleeting, focus on improving over time" and I've tried to take that to heart. However, I feel I have plateaued and my bad luck / inability to accept it and not tilt are holding me back.

Taking a break after a rage inducing loss is one of the best things you can do. Go outside and get some fresh air and try to forget the last game. Don't talk to your friends about how shitty your luck is, because that will only make you tilt harder. You can't play your best if you're stressed out and angry, and you have to remind yourself that when you feel the tilt starting to creep in. You're going to end up on the wrong side of variance from time to time, and it happens to everyone. You have to come to terms with it or you'll never stop tilting.

Or your could realize that it's not at all due to variance. Your losses are precisely that: yours. They are nothing but a result of your failure to make the best choices. Accept each loss as the lesson it's supposed to be and move on.

Blaming your failures on luck or variance gives you an invisible boogeyman to be angry at because "variance fucked me and there's nothing I could do about it." Of course you're going to tilt with an attitude like that. That's not helpful at all and it's not even true. Putting the blame in the right place (your choices) makes it impossible to tilt because it puts the control back in your hands. Choose a better archetype. Build a tighter deck. Metagame better. Shuffle more thoroughly. Mulligan correctly. Then all the play decisions that come after that. Then sideboard better.

There's always something you could have done better. Each loss is a lesson in what you can be doing better. Find that thing and correct it. Then the loss becomes an achievement. The loss is a good thing. The loss makes you stronger.

And tilting goes away.

Unless the lesson was "don't fucking tilt you neckbeard fuck."

That's not too far from burn

Hey Dechs, played any Tiny Leaders yet?

I really don't understand why people keep saying that variance doesn't exist in magic. It's not true that all losses are your fault and you could always have done better decisions. Sometimes you lose because your deck just implodes .
The real challenge is accepting variance and understanding that you can't do anything about it because you are playing a card game. Of course, a lot of people always whine because they got unlucky, but in fact most of the times (not ALWAYS), you made some mistakes and you need to focus on them rather than on your mulliganing to four if you want to improve as a player.

Dechs, just to play devil's advocate ( ), what about true variance losses such as drawing numerous lands in a row or multiple mulligans due to no land?

Hell, even poker has variance. All card games do. That's what makes it so different than something like chess, a game based entirely on skill and no luck.

Variance let's you gamble.

If variance wasn't part of the game, then you'd always see the same pros in the top 8 of every open tournament, instead of seeing them frequently lose to no name local players.

You can't look at #1 as winning, #2 - #8 as "doing okay," and #9 - #500 as " scrubbing out."

Further, I haven't said variance isn't part of the game.

I'm saying it's not why you lost.

Alright, what about MTGO? That takes shuffling out of the equation.

Alright, what about MTGO? That takes shuffling out of the equation.

This assumes that MTGO employs a proper RNG and shuffling algorithm.