As a new player in the game, I ask myself this: How do I compete with all the players that have been playing Magic for much longer than I have? For a decade, even? These players all have so many years of experience behind them, that playing Magic is like drinking and eating for them. They know all the cards, all the rules, and also have mastered the technical details of in-game play. Some of them are even expert deck builders.

There are two ways to gain know-how in Magic.

1. You can practice by playing games and gain experience.
2. You can do a lot of reading up and piece together things using theoretical knowledge.

I think a lot of both are necessary in order to play catch-up to all the pros in Magic. But I also feel people put too much emphasis on experience and playing online. Sometimes, studying the literature is absolutely necessary to gain an edge, but people either don't think it's worth their time or they read articles without really reading the article. They don't know what to ignore and what to absorb.

A lot of young upstarts have started lucrative careers playing on MTGO, hours and hours of it per day. I think this kind of work and dedication is critical in learning how to play the game that is Magic (at least, if you want to play well enough to qualify for the Pro Tour). With time spend this way, you can figure out a lot of things on your own. You develop confidence this way, in yourself and your skills. Because MTGO is largely a self-taught, experience-earning machine. And winning a lot on MTGO tells you you are doing something right.

On the other hand, having a large level of confidence just because you can win on MTGO can be misguided. Experience alone teaches you as much.

So I advocate the following: learn how to learn. That is, learn how to look at a piece of writing and suddenly gain a month's worth of experience by just glancing at a piece of text. For the most part, it's easy – just read the text and process it. But the better you are, the more you'll get out of each read; and the less you'll actually HAVE to read. You can skim. It's just like college all over again!

When reading deck techs and tournament reports, don't just skip to the decklist and the sideboarding plans! Especially if the deck is new to you. Even if the deck is a variation on something familiar, it's a good idea to not just skip straight to the list/sideboard. Most likely, whoever is writing the article knows way more than you about the deck he or she is writing about – so it's important to pick up on the shortcuts that writer is sharing with you. The writer probably has actual playtesting experience to back up the deck, and you can "cheat" by just figuring out what the writer is telling you. It's playtesting through a proxy.

It all comes down to being open-minded and not dismissive

It all comes down to being open-minded and not dismissive of other ideas and people. It's a personal development thing, as well as just good advice anyone can follow. Writers have been spouting this kind of advice for ages, but again and again I encounter people that are quick to dismiss, quick to judge. These are people that can certainly win at the local level, or online, or people that are actively PTQing. Sometimes they are people that lose more than win, even. But I am not terribly concerned about the people that aren't trying to make it to PTQs and qualify, since they can play Magic any way they want. For people that want to win, there is a journey. The journey is both personal and professional. And the "secret goal" is realizing that, not only do you want to win games or a tournament, you want and need to mold yourself to become the player that is capable of doing so.

The trick is of course knowing what to dismiss and what to consider. Because, sometimes, other people ARE wrong. People spout all kinds of nonsense. Your friends will spout all kinds of nonsense. Your mentors will spout all kinds of nonsense. So will your opponents. How do you not waste your time taking in all the advice random people give you?

An easy shortcut is to read only the best writers. They're established, they have success to back them up, they have more resources. Find them and read their articles, and you know you're probably getting something out of it no matter what. But eventually, you want to get enough of a handle on Magic theory, Magic metagaming, and deckbuilding – that you can simply judge for yourself. You want to get to the stage where you know your own judgments aren't stemming from a sense of superiority or a sense of over-confidence.

Then do the work. Analyze the articles, read the literature available, and watch video replays. Always use a scientific mindset – start with a set of hypotheses and a system. And then do the testing to back it up or the testing to reliably prove it wrong. When reading other articles or watching videos, you can start looking at them as though you were looking at new data from other folk. You can take the information they are giving you and recalibrate your own sense of Magic or refine your definitions and hypotheses. Then repeat with more testing.

When encountering inconsistencies within or between articles, you should try resolving them. Your interest should peak every time you encounter good players with disagreements because resolving those issues is often the key to figuring out the truth behind a format. In Magic, there is always a right and a wrong answer. That doesn't mean there is always a best deck, a best card, or a best synergy. But there is always: the right way to build a deck, the right way to sideboard, the right way to draft, and the right play to make at a point in a game.

A lot of things you are going to gain from just reading articles and listening to your better players is worth months of training. Old players and writers have put so much more work into this game over the years, that there is no way you could piece together Magic theory and basics by yourself, starting from the first principles. So, I recommend cheating and just reading the best works out there and taking them seriously, as you would college textbooks. Always be analytical and always ask good questions.

Cheers! And may your true Magic journey start here and now.