Does Experience in the Game Automatically Translate to Knowledge and Skill?
General forum
Posted on Dec. 24, 2025, 3:02 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have been playing Magic: the Gathering since the release of Eighth Edition in 2003, so I would like to believe that I am fairly skilled and knowledgeable regarding this game, but I have no problem admitting that I do not know everything that there is to know about this game, and that there are players who are more skilled than I am in playing it. There is always more to learn and new skills to develop, but, at the same time, I occasionally wonder if I have reached the level of skill that I should have, for all of my years of experience, since I do not win games as frequently as I believe that I should and I still occasionally experience difficulty with understanding certain concepts or strategies in the game, so perhaps I need to take a new approach to this game, so that I can be more receptive to new ideas and play with greater skill.
What does everyone else say, about this subject? Does experience with the game automatically translate into skill, or does skill require more than simply years of playing the game? I certainly am interested to hear what everyone else has to say, on this subject.
Crow_Umbra says... #3
Yeah, I think that placements in sanctioned tournaments would be a more objective measure of skill compared to general time played. I think those kind of accomplishments are more indicative of things like card evaluation via meta adjustments, and playing skill for decision making.
December 24, 2025 7:11 p.m.
I would usually assume if people play more they'll get better at things in the game, but I think Magic (especially Commander) is a lot like driving, in that if you're not TRYING to improve (as an active process, with goals and all that) you not only won't improve much, you might even get worse at some stuff as you get more confident and stop watching as closely. As people have mentioned, competitive play is usually how people 'get better' at games, playing casually tends to limit potential to roughly what you're playing against.
Ultimately I wouldn't take it personally if you're not as good at the game as you'd like to be, many of the variables that dictate an individual's progress aren't really in their control. For example, if your work schedule is brutal it's not just hard to find time to play, it's probably impossible to spend hours learning about Magic minutia, if you aren't a fast learner it's very hard to improve at the same rate as faster learners (note most people who play a game this hard tend to be smarter than average, be careful comparing your progress to others who could be more naturally gifted in this field, it's not helpful, I had a really hard time with that when I was younger), if you have a limited monetary budget it can make it much harder to improve as you can't spend money on new cards, and finally if you don't have helpful opponents it'll be hard for you to understand everything that's happening, confused people rarely play optimally.
IMHO if you feel like you'd like to improve more perhaps you could look at cEDH? Most cEDH players are happier than Casuals to help you out, especially if it'll cost them games to do it, and most of them are more tolerant of proxying cards, so it can end up cheaper to play, especially over time. Another option is to try online play, playing digitally in my experience is a VERY good way to learn SOME aspects of the game very well; MTGO afaik doesn't do take backs, so if you blunder it'll cost you, sometimes a whole game you've sunk considerable time and effort into. Doing this a few times is usually enough to 'get better' and stop making that specific mistake.
December 24, 2025 8:38 p.m.
wallisface says... #5
I agree with what Icbrgr and Crow_Umbra said. People playing commander and other casual kitchen-table games usually learn at a much slower pace compared to those playing competitive events - after all, the stronger the competition the more pressure there is to adapt and learn, plus your much-more likely facing off against actually skilled opponents. Casual formats like edh are pretty bad for fostering bad habits (particularly card evaluation & mana curves imo). Multiplayer formats in general teach you more about politicking than playing the game.
If you want to get more skilled at playing the game, I think the best way is to regularly play a mid-to-high-powered cube. Mistakes and misplays become obvious really quickly, both in deck building and how you play turns.
December 25, 2025 3:46 p.m.
I'm in agreement with the sentiments above. The years playing MtG doesn't necessarily correlate in equal measure with growth in skill.
That's not to say that playing for a long time doesn't bring improvement though. The longer you play the more cards, combos, and game actions you'll have seen. That's all learning experience that you can pull from to help you find ways to win a game.
Competitive play pushes you to learn game play and deck building concepts in a much more thorough manner than casual play does though. You need every edge you can get to win in a competitive environment. You'll learn more about concepts like:
- How to better evaluate which cards are the strongest and most efficient options for your deck.
- How to get the most out of every card slot in your deck.
- How to improvise and stretch the most benefit out of the cards in your hand.
- How to arrange your plays to improve your tempo.
- Which strategies are stronger than others.
- How to read your opponent's plays to anticipate what their next play might be or what cards might be in their hand.
- Weird rule interactions and how to research the meta.
Casual play lets you skate by without needing to learn things quite as quickly or thoroughly. When people are just playing with random stuff that they want to test out there isn't as much drive to find the most efficient way to do things. People are more focused on what they find fun.
An issue with commander being one of the main entry point for casual play these days is that the politicking and multiplayer nature of the format can cause new players to miss honing some of the skills noted above. Playing politics gives you a way to buy time or redirect threats in a manner that isn't available in the 1v1 games of other constructed formats. The transition from Commander to 1v1 is a larger learning curve than the other way around.
December 25, 2025 10:35 p.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #7
I would like to reinforce what everyone is saying here by paraphrasing how Bruce Lee once said how he would rather practice one kick 10,000 times than 10,000 kicks once. While he's right to about the 10,000 kicks, if all you practice is the one kick, all it will take is an opponent's one well timed dive or grabbing of the leg to open you up to a strike to the tender spot. A better, but not perfect approach is to practice ten different punches,ten different kicks and five grappling techniques 400 times each.
I'll add on to that by saying how you can have years of experience and skill and it won't stop you from overthinking an issue to the point a newb shows you up. And neither will mean anything if you don't maintain the basics and develop an outside the box approach.
December 26, 2025 7:15 a.m.
Yes, but only to a certain degree.
Certainly, playing a sport such as basketball, soccer, hockey, etc. will make you better at that sport, but it is only with specific, focused, training that you can really exceptionally improve.
Magic the Gathering, or really any game, is the same. Yes, simply playing will help you improve, but this improvement will be limited, and potentially slow, without focused "training." For MTG this is going to be reading articles about the game, optimization, strategy, etc.
December 26, 2025 11:39 a.m.
Last_Laugh says... #9
Yes, but only at the level and format(s) you choose to play. A casual kitchen table player gains experience and knowledge but it only translates to further kitchen table games at the same skill level. The same is true for Modern, EDH, cEDH, Pauper, etc.
December 26, 2025 2:39 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #10
I really like DreadKhan’s driving comparison. I don’t think you can shortcut past time/experience to get to skill… but spending more time isn’t in and of itself going to just make you better. If you want to continue to improve, watch to see if you can catch yourself phoning it in during other players’ turns. Focus on possibilities, what your responses would be to them, boil those responses down to figure out the math behind them, then further refine that math [deep breath] WITH the intention of using it against whatever actually comes to be when the thing that comes to be ISN’T one of the things you had considered. That pure math is the invisible currents used by the master sailors who navigate the impossible shores of magic the gathering.
December 26, 2025 8:49 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #11
I thank everyone very much for their feedback, and, since several users have mentioned this, I prefer to play casually over competitively, since my natural style tends to be more casual than competitive, so I know that I would not do well against competitive players.
December 28, 2025 6:39 p.m.
@DemonDragonJ I don't think that you need to sell yourself short like that. It's not like more competitive players are super-machine players or anything, I've seen them mess up plenty of times. They are often playing stronger decks then what people tend to casually play at the kitchen table but on an even playing field you could probably score wins.
Icbrgr says... #2
I would say that time doesn't exactly equate to experience nor does experience translate to skill.
You can play at your kitchen table on and off since alpha with a casual playgroup and probably get out played consistently by people who only have a few months but regularly play in a competitive circuit following the meta in any given format.
December 24, 2025 5:58 p.m.