Why I Suck at Magic

I have been playing Magic off and on since Mirrodin block.  It is a tiring game, as losing can be very frustrating.  Victories can be equally rewarding, but if you are below .500 like me, you tend to lose the motivation to press on. 

My lack of humility is definitely another factor that makes Magic much harder.  I want the cards I like to be good, and I sometimes simply ignore those who would tell me otherwise.  Accepting the fact that some of the cards I like are terrible often comes down to losing to terrible decks repeatedly.  Trusting some of the people who are good at the game would save me a lot of time and headaches, but pride, distrust, and the need to see things for myself stand in my way.

Now for the character flaw that spawned this article:  my lack of skill at dividing my attention.  While writing the Innistrad review, I had a particular deck in mind the entire time, and that leaked into my perception of the cards and how good or bad they were.  The fated deck is of course the self-mill pseudo-dredge deck.  Every single card I mentioned in the review, I sized up against that deck.  This is a very good perspective for a scientist to take when looking at drug interactions, co-infections, immune systems, and microbial mechanisms.  Unfortunately, this approach to assessing cards is less than ideal for a Magic player.  There are cards that I should have a higher opinion of simply because they are solid, regardless of deck archetype.  There is no "best" deck in Magic, but I treated the self-mill deck as though it were the deck to beat.

On the good side of things, the good Lord has humbled me greatly over the past few years.  My ability to trust others' assessment of things is improving.  That still leaves a glaring weakness.  So, attacking my card assessment ability will involve putting my critical thinking skills into play.

Perhaps I don't give myself enough credit, but I know things need to change if they are to get any better.  My lifetime record in draft is something on the order of 10-50-5.  That should say something of the level of improvement that is called for.