FIRST THINGS FIRST:
How to win before playing
What will follow is a series of tips and advice for preparing to play your best, long before you sit down to play. Some of it will be from personal experience, trial and error, as well as personal opinion. Most of it comes from common sense, other writers (primarily about MTG), and SCIENCE! Nothing is exclusively mental or physical, improvement in one will aid the other.
Physical Preparation
How you feel physically has more effect on your mental performance than you might think.
We start out with a point that seems like absolute common sense, however, I have seen so many players that suffer from drinking soda, energy drinks, and coffee without any water as well. Yes, these other beverages do hydrate you to a limited point, but caffeine (which I will go into more detail about later) is a diuretic, meaning it is going to cause you to export more water than you would normally. This does not in and of itself cause dehydration, but can contribute. So it is necessary to drink plenty of water, in addition to those other things. Before a tournament I usually consume about 32 oz, then another 32 oz during. And since almost all of us will be playing from home, you won't even have to lug it around.
Eat!
More common sense, but my point here is to eat a REAL meal before you play. I'm not saying it needs to be health food, but it should be balanced enough to provide the calories your body needs to operate at maximum efficiency. Snacks are fine, we all love our junk food, but they can't be the only thing we consume. I imagine the tendency of most players will be to just keep snacking during marathon play, but I would encourage you to stop, have something real, then return to play. Your body will thank you for it.
Be Caffeinated!
While caffeine does have the effect mentioned above, it's not all bad, on the contrary it's incredibly helpful to us as players. I could go into the scientific details, but I will spare you those. To put it simply, caffeine has been proven by multiple studies to increase cognitive performance. Think better = play better. Reasonable doses of caffeine increase reaction time in pattern recognition (read as, I am now better at recognizing lines of play, and the most effective reactions). Plus its effects on alertness are always helpful.
Zoltog out for a stroll
Be Active!
It is my recommendation that you never sit down to play if you have not already had some form of physical activity that day. It does't have to be intense or lengthy, even a simple walk around the block will do wonders. It's going to help you to be alert and effective.
Check out this study for a more in depth view www.agi.harvard.edu/events/2011Conference/download.php?id=71
Don't Get Too Comfortable. Pretty sure this kid just misplayed....
This is the point that is not the most fun to follow. I for one am looking forward to playing hex laying down on the couch with a tablet. But the reality is, I will play worse in a completely relaxed state than I will otherwise. So, it's probably best if we leave the lazy play for dungeon grinds and the like, lest our competitive play suffers.
Mental Preparation
I believe that there is a certain amount of talent associated with playing TCGs, but I also know that proper preparation and training are vastly more important, whether you are naturally inclined or not. Most of what this blog will be about directly correlates to mental preparation. Strategy articles, card breakdowns, and deck lists all help to form a better understanding of the complex interactions that must be understood in order to play successfully.
- Use the resources available to you.
- Hex strategy blogs/videos (funktionfails, HexHunterMokog, HexTCGpro.com to name a few)
- Books about cognition, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnemen is a good place to start
- The Hex TCG forum deck lists and strategy section
- All of the other players that compose the awesome Hex community
- Expectations are Everything
- Don't expect to win, expect to play well.
- Expect that your opponent is not only just as knowledgeable as you, but more so.
- Expect to have fun, coming at it any other way robs you of satisfaction.
Metagame knowledge, playtesting, and practice drafts are vitally important! So important that they will be covered in-depth, on their own.
What I hope you got from this is a better understanding of how to improve your performance as a player outside of playing the game itself. This is my first time doing something of this sort, so I would love to hear what you guys think. Also, what tips and tricks have been helpful for you? Let me know in the comments.
