If you want to get to the top levels of the game, you are going to either need a playgroup of skilled players that you can test with around fifteen to twenty hours per week, or have a well stocked Magic Online account. It's not surprising that many people find the latter to be a much easier solution than playing in real life, even if it is costly to do both. Other than networking and lending/borrowing cards both online and in person, I don't have a good solution to making this cheap. Unfortunately, high level Magic can be a very costly hobby. If you really want to grind out a season, play in every PTQ and qualify, there is a good chance you will have spent close to the cost of a plane ticket to Europe by the time everything is said and done. Certainly you can often sell cards to recoup a lot of the cost, but there is going to be a large investment of time and money. This is just something you are going to have to come to terms with if you want to reach the next level.

Unless you are in one of several very strong in-person pockets of Magic players in the world, you just won't be able to find the same level of competition in your every day play. Magic Online is a wonderful tool for getting better, but it isn't the end-all-be-all. It takes a while to get used to the interface, but once you do you will probably find that you are playing much better Magic using virtual cards than real cards. A lot of players will find that they have some success online, and decide to move to playing higher-level events in person, only to see their level of play drop significantly.

I have a theory on that.

You know how when you are watching a game of Magic your friend is playing, you see every play, every angle, and generally feel like you would have played the game much better? That's because it isn't your game. You have nothing on the line, so your emotions aren't as wrapped up in the game, and you can make solid decisions based on statistics. You aren't matching your wits against another person, just an avatar named Urzaztr0n420. If you lose a tournament, you aren't facing a multi-hour drive home. It is much harder to make the decisions you need to make to win at Magic when the weight of the match (and possibly the tournament) are hanging over your own shoulders. Magic Online just isn't the same experience as playing with cards in your hand, and you are far more removed from the action. Your mind interprets this closer to watching somebody else play, and you directing the action.

That isn't to say at all that Magic Online is useless - far from it. I've been playing Magic at the PTQ level since around 1996, and the quality of the average player is leagues above what it was back then. I wasn't very good back then, but I still managed to Top 8 around half of my limited PTQs by simply playing 40 cards with 17 lands and some semblance of a curve. Some of this increase in skill can be attributed to the huge influx of strategy sites on the internet, but I think the majority is from Magic Online. Especially for limited, it used to be very hard to really figure out how to play a set. If you were lucky enough to get six friends together and draft it a dozen times over a few months, you would have a good deal of bias on the format based on each individual person's preferences. With Magic Online you can get a few dozen drafts completed in a week and see a wide variety of different draft strategies in action. Strategies and decks spread almost instantaneously, and you can practice on your own time, nearly 24/7/365.

Getting into Magic Online can be expensive, but it really is the best way to improve your higher-level thinking. As I said earlier, you lose a lot of the busy work and emotional investment in your games, and you can focus on the strategy of the game and not the mechanics. It's much easier to figure out 'who the beatdown is,' how much to commit to the board, and how to take the game from its current state to one where you will win. Also, since most players do play better on Magic Online than in real life (especially in PEs, dailys, and 8-4 drafts), you are building skills at a higher level and faster rate than playing in person.

The problem for many players, though, is the transition. Even if you have learned all of this high-level thinking when playing online, you need to implement it in person. What Magic Online doesn't teach you is how to think when you have physical cards in your hand. All of a sudden, you are trying to figure out how to win the game from a very awkward position, and you have to worry about people standing behind you, ambiguities on who has priority and wording on plays. There is also that pressure I talked about earlier. Even if you lose in the late rounds of a MODO PTQ, you are still generally in your home or familiar environment and can unwind by watching some TV or taking a nap. If you need food, you have a kitchen within a few hundred feet, or a pizza delivery man a call away. You can even take a quick bathroom break in the middle of a match.

If you want to succeed at physical events, you have to play in physical events. There is no good way around it, unfortunately. There is a lot more to winning a Magic event than just the Magic. This is why you hear a lot of people making suggestions about getting enough sleep, keeping hydrated, and eating during tournaments. When you neglect these simple things, you put yourself at a severe disadvantage in the later rounds.

Whether you realize it or not, you experience a lot of mental strain during a Magic event. If you were playing a double-header in Baseball, you would know not to overexert yourself in the first inning. You would know that you should give your body a rest when you can, to keep yourself hydrated and nourished. You'd know that because you understand how physical exertion works. A lot of people want to act like mental exertion doesn't exist, or that they can overpower it by sheer force of will. Well, I will tell you from experience that you can't. You might get an adrenaline rush in a late round match that has you feeling like you can take on the world, but your brain can only take so much during a day. And what's worse, you often don't get the same cues that you would from your body when you are running on empty. If you are having problems running the bases, you will know that. You often will think that your brain is running at 100%, when you are making little mistakes left and right.

Most players tend to be a little rusty their first few games of the day, then hit a stride. Eventually, you will begin to show symptoms of mental strain, and your play will begin to degrade. A lot of the reason you see the more seasoned player taking down the 'win-and-in' matches is because they have experience dealing with the stresses of the situation. They have, consciously or not, developed tricks for keeping their minds as fresh as possible. They try and keep the game fun to further reduce their strain while playing. They know other people and can laugh between rounds to give their mind a rest. They deal better with their losses and try not to let the nagging "Could've, would've, should've's" keep their brain running on overdrive, until their battery goes dead around round 7.

It is important to understand that mental fatigue does exist, and to look for the signs and deal with them. If you need to play a bit slower to have the same effectiveness in the later rounds, do so. Don't get a penalty for slow play, but also don't rush yourself or let your opponent rush you. Take the time that you need to play as well as you can. Meditate, listen to music, or find a solution that works for you.

Playing Magic Online will make you better at Magic. Playing in paper Magic tournaments will make you better at tournaments. Even if you are not in a position to win it at all times, you can learn a lot just by putting in the long hours of play. I could write a book on the subject, but it wouldn't necessarily help you out. Every person's brain is different, and you need to learn how yours works and how to handle the stress and exhaustion of a long tournament. You can learn a lot about Magic by playing online, but it can't teach you how to win ten rounds in a foreign environment. Only real life experience can get you there.