[Free Article] Avoid Missing Your Mistakes!

[Marske]

Read the article here

Editor's Blurb:

I’m writing this article because I often hear friends saying they lost games even though they didn’t make any mistakes. I always find this hard to believe, but I honestly have to admit that I sometimes also make this assumption. I have the habit of always rethinking about games I have lost because I hate losing and I'd like to prevent this from happening as much as possible.

In this article I'll explain some games I played where it seemed that I didn't make any mistakes and that I lost the game because of some bad luck, a topdeck from my opponent, my opponent’s deck was "better" and so on. After a closer look, however, I found out that I could actually have won many of those games.

You can discuss the article and give feedback to the author here or in this thread.

[honestabe]

Very nice article

[LotusHead]

I too enjoyed the article.

Sometimes (like in limited), the mistake I make is RTFC.

[bb-g]

Very nice article

Thank you!

I hope this article motivates all of you (who didn't do it allready) to rethink about games.

[bb-g]

Sometimes (like in limited), the mistake I make is RTFC.

I think this is our mind that tricks us in thinking cards are better than they actually are.
I find myself having the same problem also from time to time.

[Matt]

I threw away an unloseable game in a draft match last week. I attacked with a 3/3, he didn't block, I pumped with Vines of Vastwood for the win...and then looked over and saw he was on 8 life, not 7. Tapping that mana left me unable to drop a Sphinx of Jwar Isle that would have been 100% unanswerable if I had simply put him at 5 instead of 1. Passing the turn with no blockers let him swarm me for the win.

And what's more, that game loss cost me the match; if I had simply read the life totals, I would have taken it 2-0 instead of losing it 1-2. I felt really bad, I hadn't made a mistake like that in over a year.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I played Standard for the first time since Sneak Attack was legal Friday night.  A friend lent me Jund.  Anyways, I attacked into Great Sable Stag with a Putrid Leech not once, but twice.  I completely forget about protection since it just doesn't come up in Draft or Vintage.

[MirariKnight]

I played in a format that was similar to cube, 15 rare packs drafted. I had out a Dominus of Fealty (one of the best cards in the format) and a bunch of random dudes. I didn't realize that Dominus says "permanent," not "creature," so of course I stole his random dude to attack and lose, instead of stealing his ELDRAZI MONUMENT and swinging for the win with a million flyers.