Life Lessons from Magic The Gathering: Arena
Growing up, I had always been fascinated with Magic The Gathering, but I have also found it intimidating.
I’d pass by hobby shops where competitions would take place. Dozens of people, mostly men, would sit on foldable chairs with various colored cards in their hands. It always looked so serious and so complicated. It never felt like it was a space for me.
In 1993, Dr. Richard Garfield launched the first Magic core set at the Origins Game Fair in Dallas. Decades later, it’s a game that has evolved to be highly technical, strategic, and expensive. Like many other card games, the original Paper Magic required a lot of investment to start.
One had to purchase several booster packs before you could even think about building a competition deck. A mint condition Alpha Black Lotus, which was part of the original 1993 Alpha set, was even sold at a 2019 auction for $166,100.
In 2002, Wizards of the Coast released MTG Online. Since then, it has grown exponentially and has introduced thousands of new players to the world of Magic without ever having to hold a physical card. The caveat was that it was $9.99 for a Magic Online account, and most booster packs come at $3.99. It was a price that I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay when I was still overwhelmed just by looking at the rules.
MTG Arena is the recent Free to Play reincarnation from the MTG franchise that launched in 2018. With the introduction of free core decks, interactive tutorials, wild cards, and beginner-friendly competition formats, MTG Arena had finally convinced me to play Magic.
Here are a few life lessons I’ve learned while playing MTG Arena:
Being aggressive is not always a bad thing
In most situations, aggression is considered a nasty trait that everyone avoids. Many people, especially young women, have aggression routinely bred out of them.
Without a measured use of aggression, we can feel powerless and let other people or situations take control of our lives. We let the illusion of peace and control keep us from standing up for ourselves and getting what we deserve.
Aggression is a form of internal wisdom. Like all types of emotions, it’s there for a reason. Don’t be ashamed of it.
Healthy aggression doesn’t need to look aggressive, but it does need to command boundaries. With a combination of power and clarity, aggression helps people defend themselves against those seeking to take advantage of them.
“Agro” or aggressive decks are built on small, quick, and persistent movements — a recipe that can change a person’s life in and outside of the game.
Patience without strategy is a slow death
They say patience is a virtue, but there’s nothing virtuous about waiting to die. While it’s easy to glorify patience, fortune favors not only the brave but also the prepared.
We are all told similar things. Practice restraint. Be patient. Wait for our time. But waiting without knowing why can sometimes be a fate worse than death. MTGA teaches players that it’s not the length of time given, but what you do with the time that matters.
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. “
JOHN LENNON
Life is as long and as meaningful as the experiences we put into it. Not being mindful of how limited our time really is, practically guarantees our loss. Your life doesn’t start when you want to it, it’s happening right now.
The days are slow, but the years are fast. Not being intentional with the time you’ve been given is the best way to waste it. If you don’t decide what you want to do with your life, someone else will decide for you.
There is power in a positive ego
The ranking system, which pits equally strong players against each other, is a humbling experience. When you feel like you’re invincible, the game reminds you that there always bigger fish in the sea.
I’ve always believed that if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. Being constantly matched against people who are at the same, if not higher level than you will help your wins at a good ratio with your losses. Losing, while frustrating, is one way of building a healthy ego.
A positive ego means having a firm, healthy, and strong sense of self, even in the face of adversity.
People like to talk about ego as if it’s a dirty word, but it’s a necessary element to being a whole person. Great players don’t shy away from the challenge. They refine their decks and go at it again. Great people know that part of being a secure person is knowing how to rest in between life’s hits.
A positive ego means having a firm, healthy, and strong sense of self, even in the face of adversity. Nurturing it will root a sense of stability even after a loss or when the world around you is falling apart. You’re never going to win 100% of the time; you might as well treat failures as part of the process of winning.
Rich people have advantages, but that doesn’t mean they always win
Privilege exists in every form of reality, even the virtual ones. Being able to buy in-game items with real money means some people may not need to grind to afford booster packs, avatars, and sleeves.
However, it’s important to remember that your deck having a dozen rare cards doesn’t always guarantee victory. Just because someone can afford to get a dozen packs, doesn’t mean they’re instantly going to become the best players.
Starting from the bottom means your journey is a three part novel, instead of a short story.
Much of life is in the luck of the draw. Sometimes, people just really get a head start. Rich people have a lot of opportunities, have more connections, and generally have the world working in their favor.
The world is filled with stories of inequalities, but it’s also filled with many stories of overcoming them. How far you go is entirely up to you. The process may take longer for some than others, but it doesn’t mean you’ll never build something remarkable.
Taking shortcuts makes things less satisfying
With the rise of the internet, so have the templates that you can follow to get a polished looking deck. With enough wildcards or budget for booster packs, you can make a competition-ready deck without any thought.
While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing — especially for newcomers who don’t know yet how to mix the right ratio of creatures, enchantments, and mana — simply copying and pasting is not always the most satisfying way to do it.
There’s a thrill to crafting a version of your ideal deck through observation, logic, and personal preference. Constantly switching in and out until you know why every card in your deck is there.
Yes, it may take more time and effort, but it gives you a better insight into what actually makes your deck work. Slowly building your ideal deck means being very observant of your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
Quitting is sometimes for winners
Coming from an MMORPG background, I’ve always believed that the polite thing to do is to stick to PvP matched until the end. When I first started playing Arena, I had no idea that conceding a match is a normal part of the MTG gameplay.
A match always starts with 7 cards in your hand. If it’s a bad hand, players are given the option to Mulligan. Most of the time, if you’ve had to do it twice, you already know you’re at a clear disadvantage, even if a single card hasn’t been played.
The best players know the difference between a challenge and a time sink.
When you know your own deck well enough, you also know exactly what cards you can’t counter. Sometimes, you come across infinite loop card combos. If your goal is to complete several quests and you don’t have much time to play, then it’s better to just cut your losses and move on to the next match.
In life, we’ll have thousands of opportunities in front of us. But if you’re betting on a fish to race a monkey up a tree, you’ll just be setting yourself up for disappointment. Sometimes, you have to let a fish be a fish and throw it back into the ocean.
You’ll know what battles are worth fighting and which ones are better off staying away from.
There is more than one way to win
In MTG, there are two distinct ways to win a match. Either you get your opponent’s life to 0 or get rid of all the cards in their library. However, outside each match, every player will also have a different set of goals — Cast x number of white or black spells, play x number of lands or creatures, or even win x games.
There are also wins that are not defined by the game, it’s also refining a new deck, distracting yourself from a tough day at work, or even just spending time with friends.
We all have different versions of lives that we are proud of. It doesn’t matter how many times you lose, when you win the ways that matter to you.
In life, it’s easy to fall into the trap of being living another person’s version of success. We’re all sold the same idea that fame and fortune are the only ways to define a meaningful life.
As time passes, we realize that much of that is a lie. Fulfillment is relative. The sooner you know what victory looks like you for, the sooner you can find a way to get there.
Conclusion
While many people will argue that it’s not as complicated as Paper Magic and MTGO, MTG Arena holds a special place in my heart. It helped introduce me to the game and made me less fearful about competing. Not to mention, it helped me get used to the mechanics, cards, and game formats before encouraging me to spend any money.
Admittedly, I’m still not one of those hardcore gamers that play every day. But every weekend, my partner and I have an MTG Arena date night. We discuss how we‘re’ going to refine our decks over a meal. We spend a couple of hours competing in draft competitions for dessert. Then finally, we grab a bottle of wine and laugh about our highlights.
In between matches, we have built and closed businesses. We have met and lost friends. We have had life punch us in the face and then laugh. In life, we have lost and won in so many ways.
Life, like MTGA, is one big game. There are many ways to go about it. Sometimes, it’s about strategy, other times it’s about luck. Winning is never guaranteed, but we might as well enjoy it.
