
Deck tech
10 Focus Tips to improve your Magic games
11/30/21 0 comments
This article explains how focus work, and brings ten useful tips to improve it and, as a consequence, have better results upgrade in your Magic matchups!
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What is Focus?
Reward System
. In very basic lines, the brain uses past experiences and future simulations to decide if something will bring benefits or not, so when it receives a “yes”, that answer comes in the form of an important neurotransmitter for focus, calledDopamine
.
no
to everything else in the world, outside or inside your mind, other than what you are doing or thinking. This article will provide some ways to train your focus and will be divided into two parts in addition to this introduction. In the first one, I'll point out solutions that you can now apply to your Magic games or anything else you're going to do that requires quality. On the latter, I'll bring angular habits that will bring better chemistry to your brain, providing more resources for you to focus on matches and don't forget to always bolt the Birds before your opponent uses that mana, and you lose the entire match due to a single slide.Ad
6 Tips to increase the focus on matchups
1. Auto-dialogue
Dialogue is the first and most accessible resource for focus, and almost a minimum requirement to apply all the hints in this text.Self-dialogue
is nothing more than the ability to verbalize in your mind logical issues and problems with choices that will happen in the middle of your matchup. Some people find it easier than others to verbalize conversations inside their minds, and if you have difficulty starting to “talk” inside your head, try starting with a normal voice in your room.
2. Goldfishing
Goldfishing is that game where I shuffle my deck and pretend to be playing an invisible opponent. I create situations where he has answers for my deck, and I try to simulate a game focusing more on the interaction of the cards in my deck with each other. This is especially effective for combo decks that need very in-depth knowledge from the player of which hands to keep and which not to keep, for example.
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3. Knowledge of basic rules
I had promised myself that I wouldn't say something any good Magic player should know. But this tip turned out to be much more necessary than I thought. In my experience, most store players or non-competitive players don't have clearly in their minds the orders of steps and phases of a Magic turn. That said, it seems almost obvious that better knowledge of the rules will give you more naturality when deciding the time and what to do in your matches. A practical example of this is the Spellstutter Sprite card.
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4. Breath control
This tip is where we started to get into actions that directly influenced your focus during the match. Breath control is something that is good not only to do during a game, but also to get into the habit of meditation. By focusing on the breath and observing it, we train our brain to focus on anything. But turning to a match, there are times when our thinking can become chaotic and our minds can start to wander. It could be that someone dropped something heavy and made a noise next to you, or someone keeps telling you about the latest episode of Game of Thrones on the next table... Whatever makes you snap out of your concentration, you can settle down just by controlling your breathing and using yourself dialogue to focus back on the match. In general, taking a deep breath and closing your eyes for a few seconds is effective in cutting out all the noise your mind makes. Exercise this, and over time you'll need fewer seconds to get back into that tense game.5. Rituals and reminders
Rituals and mental reminders are ways to make the gaming experience less confined to the mind and make play and decisions multisensory. And what do I mean by multisensory? That's what you're thinking, in multiple senses. When, for example, we say something out loud, not only are we using the vocal channel, but we are also hearing it using the ear canal. In Magic: The Gathering, we have some features that we can use besides speech. Rituals are established whenever you don't want to forget something, like the trigger of an ability or the open mana in the opponent's pass that can be used, for example, for a Think Twice.

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6. Disconnect to recharge
Finally, among the practical tips you can apply today in your store, we have disconnection. The disconnect comes from our brain's need to recharge its motivation system every period of time. Research within neuroscience claims that the average time a person can stay focused varies between 50 minutes and 1 hour and a half. After this period, we feel the need to rest, as our brain temporarily loses the ability to focus attention on that particular category of activity. What do we do when this happens? That's what you're thinking! Although it seems counter-intuitive, between one match and another, it is necessary not to think about Magic. "But how so? I've finished a match, so will I have to think about anything other than Magic until the next match?”
Habits to improve your brain chemistry

1. Enjoy the Sunshine
Many people consider themselves to be nocturnal and end up exchanging day for night in search of more comfort or productivity. The big problem with this is that studies indicate that our eyes have receptors that capture sunlight and regulate our sleep cycle. When we change the day for the night, we spend less time awake in contact with the sun's rays, which brings, in the long run, a drastic decrease in our capacity of motivation and focus. The tip is to wake up as early as possible and enjoy the sunlight, stay in a bright environment and sleep as close to the sunset as possible.Ad
2. Eating small amounts of good quality food
This tip is simple, but not so well applied in society. Eating small amounts and foods of good nutritional quality will improve your body's health and, consequently, your brain's health (even because the brain is part of the body, right?). The tip is to eat well, but not too much. Eating well is also about choosing lighter foods at night and stronger foods in the morning. You'll also notice that by eating better quality food, your mood will also improve. The key to good focus is a balanced combination of high mood and moderate stress, just to the point of keeping us on our toes. Good nutrition will help you get there.3. Physical activities
I don't intend to go into too much of this topic. Physical activities are paramount, but what everyone complains about is that they are painful and cost time in our day. The tip is to use the time when you need to sunbathe early in the day to go for a light walk or ride a bike. Anything much longer than 20 minutes a day will be enough to greatly improve your living quality. Over time, you will notice that your mental clarity and focus will improve and, if you want, you can even increase this time to seek even more quality in your life. Physical activity is an important part of the focus, when we move our body we reduce pain and discomfort that may arise with sedentary lifestyle, and all these symptoms take the focus and consequently reduce your ability to make decisions.4. Sleep well
To be blunt, sleeping less than 7 hours a night is not healthy for anyone. Of course, I consider that there are people who work too hard and end up feeling the need to sleep less to have more time to do their daily activities. This is not effective, as when you get less sleep than necessary, your irritability and intolerance to boring activities increases. Neurological studies indicate that when sleeping 6 hours a night for a week, patients had an income similar to people who just spent a whole night without sleep. In other words, little sleep affects all your cognitions, especially the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for our logical decisions. So, the tip is to sleep at least 7 hours a night, if possible adjusting the time so that, when you wake up, you have a natural awakening, without alarms. Some studies also indicate that a mid-afternoon nap can help you recharge your focus energies. In general terms, I would advise it to be a 20/25 minute nap, as this will get you into a sleep phase that will already help you to wake up in the mood and will have recharged all your focus energies without compromising your night's sleep. There is also 90 minutes sleep that can be applied so that a very deep recovery helps you to regain focus as if you just woke up in the morning.Ad
Conclusion

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