DeathJester's Dojo
Are you a good M.I.M.E.? Part 3
Bryan Camareno a.k.a. DeathJester
03.10.05

Hello again everyone! Today I bring to you the final installment of my M.I.M.E series. It’s taken quite while to conclude this series of articles, I’ve done extensive amounts of research, made observations, and gathered tons of info for all of you readers. This article will outline for you the final stages of development for a player; the Advanced levels and Mastery. However, this article will different from my earlier articles.

Once a player has reached the Advanced levels of development, the 4 concepts of Mentality, Impulse, Mindset, and Efficiency are all at their maximum potential. This means that once you become an advanced player, you’re no longer Cocky and Arrogant; you are just Confident and Humble. You do not have any of your Beginner’s impulses since your game-play will always vary. Your Mindset will be ever-changing to suit your situation in the game and your strategies are near flawless and you will only fail if you make a mistake. And, your Efficiency will skyrocket; your plays and strategies are crippling to your opponent when executed correctly.

The Advanced Levels are all about removing any “Limiters” we have on ourselves. For those of you who’ve anticipated the completion of this series and for those of you are just reading my work for the first time, I strongly encourage you to read this article. I’m about to give you so much useful information that you’ll become a better player just by reading this installment of my M.I.M.E. articles. Now…without any further delay, let’s get down to business.

M.I.M.E. Type: Advanced

Level 1

At this level, you must remove your first “Limiter” to your success; fear of failure. The Level 1 player must learn to cope with defeat and not get too frustrated with failure. When a player realizes he/she has reached the Advanced levels, they indirectly fear failure by telling themselves that they are so good, in fact, that they won’t ever lose to someone less experienced than they are. We have all thought like this so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. This is natural after all; victory gives us validation and failure gives us misery.

As a Level 1 Advanced player it is your responsibility to realize that losing isn’t an affirmation of your skills as a player or an attack on your self-confidence; you just lost is all. In reality, you cannot win ALL the time. That’s impossible to attain and it’s foolish to believe that. I’ve learned this the hard way. Most of us are so attached to our social dramas, situations, and pressures that we believe we must win all of the time so that everyone in your inner circle can approve of us. Isn’t that pathetic? Believe it or not, that’s the cold truth.

From the publisher Malcolm Forbes “Failure is success if you learn from it.” This advice is golden for anyone hoping to achieve Mastery in this game, or in anything for that matter. You can never hope to succeed if you do not know how to fail. The fear of failure causes you to adapt a limiting perspective and therefore locks you into an infinite loop of negative thoughts in your subconscious mind.

The problem with most players is that we seek the instant gratification of victory. Ask anyone you know; why do we play in tournaments? To win…Wanting instant gratification means that any result other than success results in a negative experience. By looking beyond instant gratification and instead towards learning a new set of skills to attain Mastery of the situation in general lets you see the value of failure. As the old saying goes “You’ve got to learn how to crawl before you can walk.”  

Level 2

The next “Limiter” you must remove is; your subconscious negative thoughts. As I referred to at Level 1, most of us get into a negative train of thought in which we think we cannot achieve victory when we want to. Even when you lose your fear of failure, failure will still frustrate you in the most extreme of ways. This frustration in derived from the mother of all failures; the top-deck. From personal experience, I can tell you that it was absolutely perplexing why a player of my skill level could lose to “lucky top-decks” and “my opponent’s God Hands.” This was my exact thinking folks; a little self centered? Yes…because we all are in some way or another at some point in our lives. We all have some kind of excuse for why we lose don’t we?

“Luck” will frustrate you the most out of anything, 10 times out of 10. When your game-play is near flawless, the last thing we like to see is failure due to something we cannot control. As humans, we feel insecure if we cannot control what is happening to us in a particular situation. The concept of “Luck” is in no way a mystical force that’s out to get you, nor is it something that you can harness for your own benefit.

By reading multiple viewpoints and numerous theories on “Luck”, I’ve concluded that you make your own “luck” in life. If you have an open mind and are positive about your life, situation, etc, then “lady luck” will smile upon you. The more negative your subconscious thoughts become the less “luck” you will have, and the more frustrated you will be when things don’t go your way. At this level, your primary goal is to attain conscious control over your subconscious. You have to learn to listen to your inner negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. You must believe in your own success and abilities before you can hope to achieve anything. Then and only then will you progress to Level 3 and gain the success you dream of.

Level 3

At Level 1 and 2, you’ve learned to cope with defeat, and learned conscious control over your own subconscious mind. At this Level you will have to learn how to have absolute concentration on one particular task. This is your final “Limiter”; lack of focus. Why is this so important you ask? Allow me to explain. 90% of all people do not know how to focus their attention and energy on one single thought or situation nor do most people know how to think of NO thing.

This may sound relatively simple, but it’s easier said than done. The problem is that our brains are so powerful and so fast that millions of thoughts pass through our minds so quickly that we try to subconsciously focus on all of them at the same time. This leads to cluttering of thoughts, inability to concentrate, distractions, laziness, mistakes, absent mindedness, and lack of interest.

Learning to devote the entirety of your conscious and subconscious minds to the task at hand can not only reduce your probability of mistakes to near 0%, but you will be relatively unaffected by your opponent’s Mind Games. Having complete focus increases your conscious awareness of your situation and surroundings. This is an important skill to master especially when under large amounts of pressure in higher-level tournaments or stressful situations. Meditation and emphasis on relaxing activities will help immensely since they pave the way to “clarity of mind.”

The next skill required for Mastery is learning to manipulate your opponent’s mind and control of his/her situation to further your advantage; which I commonly refer to as Mind Games. Ohh…the Mind Games; there a number ways you can control your opponent. The most basic technique is to bluff with face-down cards that are not necessarily threatening to your opponent, but you want him/her to think that they are.

You can also blurt out possible cards you may have in your hand and field for example: “I have BLS in my hand you might want to be careful” or “Watch out for my face-down S/Ts, I’ll catch you with them.” The key to Mind Games is making your opponent second guess himself/herself into thinking that you might have that BLS, convincing them that you don’t when you really do, or even make them think that you’re lying, but actually telling the truth to get them to think that you are lying…get it?

I can’t tell you all of the tricks I’ve seen nor can I tell you the ones I use. You need to practice and develop your own tricks to deceive your opponents. Everyone has their own tricks and mannerisms that they will use in attempts to catch you off guard. The only information I can utter is that you need to watch out for them and that Mind Games can single handedly win the game for you or your opponent. Any player can win with the most terrible draw in existence if he/she makes the opponent think he/she has the greatest hand in the world.

If you watch players who have achieved Mastery, and you are aware of Mind Games, you will see that how they use their cards is no different from the way you use them. The real battle is taking place in their minds where they are attempting to “fake-out” each other and force the other into a bad position by the mere flipping of a card or a summon. The possibilities of Mind Games are endless and you will continue to improve upon them at Mastery. I can type for days about the details of Mind Games but all those details are useless if you don’t actually try to use them.

Learning Mind Games, tricks, new plays, subtle mannerisms, etc. are all useless without any practical application. You have to go out there and try them for you to have any success in your game. I can’t teach you everything and I can’t show you how to build your deck; as I’ve always been told “Experience is the best teacher.” Knowledge from your own experience will bring confidence in your abilities and your success.

Mastery

Finally, once you’ve removed every self-limiter you have, you can then progress to Mastery of your craft. When you’ve achieved Mastery, you’ll find that you don’t even have to know what you’re going to do, but you make it happen no matter how things turn out. Mastery requires energy, focus, and determination. Just because you’re a Master now doesn’t mean you are unbeatable, you’re rollin’ with the Big Boys. As a Master of this game, you show that you are proficient in Deck-Building, In-Game situations, and Mind Games. You can constantly improve these three skill sets and learn new theories, ideas, and techniques.

Mastery is mostly about control over your own thoughts, strategies, and emotions. Games against and between Masters are battles of quick-thinking and focus. The majority of the battle takes place in the mind where each card will do the most damage. As you progress from the Beginner levels to Mastery, you will slowly realize the reality of the game. The fact of the matter is that this game is almost entirely psychological in nature. It’s a game based on strategy and “luck.”

All of the basic skills you need to succeed in this game are given to you when you FIRST BEGIN THIS GAME. This is the essence of the M.I.M.E. theory. The skills you learn in your journey to Mastery are added to your basic skills and then become the basics as you move on. This outline of player development maps out the progress of an individual on the road to Mastery of this game. This outline also maps out the development of the player as a person. The psychological concepts as well as the social aspects I’ve discussed all relate to real life. As you begin to climb up the M.I.M.E. ladder, you will find yourself maturing as a person and not just progressing as a player. Control over your thoughts and your subconscious limitations require maturity and experience.

To sustain Mastery you must practice, focus, and enjoy the game as much as you did when you were trying to progress to this level of player development. If you become complacent you will downgrade to the lower levels. The journey just begins at Mastery and there is always a way you can improve; the World Champions know this.

Final Word

Most of your success will happen when you delay your need to succeed quickly in exchange for taking the time to practice and experience possible failures to learn the skills you need. You must always remember that succeeding in this game and climbing the ladder to Mastery is a process and there are NO shortcuts. Everyone progresses at a different rate. As long as you work your way up from where you are you can succeed.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing I can tell you is that if improving your game just isn’t important enough to you, then that alone will prevent you from succeeding in this game. Like all things in life, including achieving Mastery in anything, it requires time, effort, and the risk of failure. You have to figure out what’s important enough to you to decide if it’s worth putting any time into it. If you can’t do that, then you’ve lost before you’ve even started.

That’s it for this week everyone, until next time; remember to practice, focus on your game, and most importantly…have fun!

You can email me at deathjester86@yahoo.com with suggestions, comments, or anything you want to say.