The Importance of Playing with Purpose in MTG
Whether you realize it or not, each time you sit down and draw 7 you’re playing with some sort of purpose or intent. For most of us, our purpose - or purposes - in playing Magic are afterthoughts, but they’re always there. And they matter more than you think they do.
Maybe you want to grind the ladder to reach Mythic, playtest for an upcoming tournament or improve your Limited skills. You might be a streamer with an audience you’re trying to build, nurture and interact with. Perhaps you have a group of friends that plays EDH once a week and you’re focusing on socializing over the game you love. Or maybe you’re in the middle of a tournament, trying to make Top 8 and possibly win.
Whatever the case may be, each of us has different motivations and reasons for playing. And with how incredibly accessible MTG is, it’s so easy to fire up Arena or MTGO and start up an hours-long clickfest without actually realizing why you’re playing in the first place. The same goes for playing in-person.
Playing for the sake of simply having fun is fine - and it’s actually necessary. After all, Magic is a game that you should be enjoying, and even competitive players should make sure that they’re allotting some time to play with no purpose other than to have fun.
But if you’re a competitive player with specific goals and achievements that you’re pursuing, then you simply can’t afford to spend a single hour playing Magic without being aware of what you’re trying to accomplish during each play session. And as we’ll explore later, playing to win is not a productive purpose.
Why Purpose Matters
Understanding your purpose in playing Magic is important for a number of reasons:
Approaching Magic with a specific and meaningful purpose will guide you towards your desired result and help you make the most of your time. The last thing you want to do is spend hours playing meaningless Magic because you’re in the middle of a losing streak and trying to climb back up the ladder.
Understanding your primary purpose in playing Magic at any given moment will impact how well you actually play during those matches. If your goal is to play the very best Magic you possibly can, you will be far more likely to make sound in-game decisions.
When you understand your purpose, you’ll have greater control over how you perceive the outcomes of the matches you play. If your purpose in playing is to test decks, or to improve, then you’ll evaluate the play session based on whether or not you actually learned anything, not on how many matches you won.
Why “Playing to Win” isn’t a Productive Purpose
When we don’t focus on a specific purpose for playing, our motivation naturally defaults to our base motivation for playing any game or sport: to win. Unfortunately, simply playing to win is not a productive purpose, and it’s not something that we have complete control over. It can also diminish our enjoyment of Magic - especially when we don’t win.
Of course, we all love to win, but it’s not always the result we get from playing our best. Conversely, sometimes we win even if we don’t play our best. Maybe your opponent played worse than you or drew far worse than you did, and that was enough for you to win. These are just a couple of the reasons why winning - and losing - aren’t indicative of your development as a player.
Similarly, winning and losing aren’t indicators of whether or not you fulfilled your purpose in playing. If your reason for playing is to host a stream and interact with viewers, you can still effectively do that without actually winning games. If your reason for playing is to try out your new EDH deck with your friends and have fun executing wild lines of play, you can still do that without winning. You get the point.
You can have a number of good purposes or reasons for playing, but don’t let winning be the most important.
State Your Intent
No matter how experienced of a player you are, I highly recommend getting into the habit of stating your purpose or intent immediately when you sit down to play. You can also do it before each game. For example, at in-person tournaments I always write the letters PGM right above my life total and circle it before each game. This statement of intent serves a reminder to PLAY GOOD MAGIC, and it’s an easy way to consciously establish - or reestablish - my purpose.
If nothing else, it will serve you well to approach each game of Magic focused on playing your very best, but there are certainly other meaningful purposes you can consciously identify before playing. It’s also a good idea to be as specific as possible when stating your intent. For example:
Today I want to improve my combat skills
I am going to work on mastering the mirror match
I’m going to play with a positive attitude and avoid tilting
Today I’m going to work on testing these three decks for next week’s tournament
Making a statement of intent before you play may seem awkward, but it’s an effective way to ensure that you’re playing with a productive sense of purpose. You can write it down on some scrap paper, scribble it on a post-it note and stick it on your monitor, or simply say it out loud. Don’t make this action difficult - keep it simple, but do it every time you play.
Additionally, I also recommend restating your purpose or intent several times during your play session. Doing so can help you stay focused during an extra long session or when you find yourself getting frustrated with how the games are playing out.
What if I have multiple purposes in playing Magic?
The truth is that most of the time we all play Magic with multiple purposes. Additionally, those purposes may change over the course of the session. Maybe you’re playing to improve at the game and have fun, or maybe you’re playing so that you can become a better streamer and work on mastering a specific Limited format. No matter what your intentions are for playing Magic, try to focus on a primary purpose. Again, the more specific you can be on that purpose, the more effectively you can use your time to fulfill it.
This somewhat goes without saying, but I’ll mention it anyway. Approach everything you do in life with purpose and intent. Whether you’re spending time with your partner, walking the dog, working, exercising, you name it - identify why you’re taking that action and how you want to feel when that event has ended. If you want to go the extra mile when spending time with others, identify how you want to make others feel. But that’s a topic that might be outside of the scope of this website.
What’s your purpose?
