If you're reading this, then this sentence applies to you: You don't playtest enough. How do I know this? Simple. No one does. Why doesn't anyone? The same reason no one is perfect. "Enough" is, by definition, adequate. However, what most players consider "adequate" has become, in truth, horribly inadequate. Ergo, you don't playtest enough.

Let's begin by defining the ideal situation and then I will work backwards and analyze where players fall short.

In an ideal world, you would play against a variety of opponents with no foreknowledge of their decks and under time constraints which mirror tournament play. Your decks would be properly shuffled and prepared, presented to an opponent for the best out of three. You would play it just as seriously as you would against a tournament opponent and keep notes on issues with the deck while doing so.

Where reality breaks in:

These days, a fair amount of play testing takes place on MODO. These games may be competitive in the 8 man tournaments but you still aren't guaranteed the proper playtesting. As a non-Pro player, you MUST playtest the deck more and more. Once you've settled on a deck to play it now becomes an issue of finding as many matchups as possible and hammering them to look for weaknesses.

It's like buying a car. Sure you can go to the lot, you've got an idea of what you're looking for, and after a test drive for a while you decide you were right: this is the car for you. But then you might buy it, get home and the transmission falls out after you hit 70 miles an hour. Oops. Guess you should have taken it on the interstate to try that out before buying it.

Theory is a great tool and much of today's competitive Magic is built on it, but as a non Pro player, it becomes extremely important that you also seek real experience with these decks. Good players can play good decks, but what happens when one good player meets another one of equal skill, the one with more experience wins.

"If you're not practicing every day, somewhere someone is, and when they meet you they will beat you."

A great teacher I had was also the basketball coach and he had gone on to build a very impressive winning record before retiring. During our class though he would constantly drill this phrase into us: "If you're not practicing every day, somewhere someone is, and when they meet you they will beat you."

I know Lee and I hammer playtesting a lot, but for casual players to make it to be competitive players or even pro players, this is by far the biggest step up and will really help you reach your next level. It is also something you can directly affect. The theory sometimes hard to grasp and playtesting is a direct action which you can do to get better. There is no if ands or buts, with enough playing and testing decks, you WILL GET BETTER.

Let me shift gears and explain that in my mind there are five levels of "Spike."

First there is "Noob" for obvious reasons this is the person who just began competitive play, brought their casual deck to a tournament and lost horribly. The step to reach the next tier is to get past losing and actively researching better decks to play, perhaps through their own design or online.

The second level is for the people who have gotten their decks online, bought or borrowed the cards to build their deck. They've learned to proxy cards and use them to test decks so that they have a better idea of what they want to play, but they only play so far as to decide if they like the deck or not. Maybe they play a few more games to test it for draws. TGhen they build their sideboard based on theory largely or on the other similar decklists rather than for their specific deck.

The third tier is much more competitive, they travel longer distances to play in tournaments, they play on MODO, they play in the store. They've got the fire in their heart that they're going to get on the Pro Tour. They playtest a lot, they're usually part of a team or group trying to break through and win a PTQ. If they do win it though they make it to the Pro Tour and then scrub out.

The fourth level is where I see the vast majority of Pro Players. These are the people who are either active on the Pro Tour or have been and retain the habits and connections. They've now reached the level where they need to finish in the top X to get money, they have their teams and groups that build and playtest. They're always looking for the next thing. A lot of them write articles for other sites (writing articles doesn't automatically qualify you for this level.)

The fifth group is composed of the players like Pat Chapin, Kenji Tsumura, Raphael Levy, etc... who continue to make money finishes. They may be true professional magic players who live off of the Magic income they make. While Magic is still fun, it is a job and one where if they don't use the right deck they might have a lean month or two before they can make more tournament money.

If you're reading this, you're most likely in the first, second or third tier. And of those it's most likely you're in the first or second tier. These are the people ManaNation is really aimed at. We're trying to help you guys move up in levels. But we can't do it for you. We put out the episodes, the articles and the forum as tools to help you grow in your abilities. Tell us how you're doing. Where do you fall on the chart?

So how much playtesting do you do? How much should you do? I would say that if you're level one or two, you should playtest as much as possible. Fifty, a hundred games, those are the players who go on to win tournaments and progress to the next level. If you're three, you most likely already do. Four and five, it's a moot point, you do.

See you next week,

--Trick