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Lab Report 26: I Went Back to Chess to Get Better at Magic

 

Lab Report 26: I Went Back to Chess to Get Better at Magic

I’m not here to tell you chess is cooler than Magic—because it’s not. It doesn’t have dragons, doesn’t have combo turns, and it sure as hell doesn’t have Tibalt. But I am here to tell you that it might be one of the best tools for leveling up your game.

See, about two months ago, I had to face a hard truth:
I was playing sloppy.

Not every game. Not in some explosive, embarrassing way. But in the quiet, insidious way that creeps in when you think, “Ah, this one doesn’t really matter.”
And that's where it starts. You start playing whatever card you draw off the top just because you can. You make the same obvious play you always do without thinking one turn ahead. You stop asking yourself, “What’s my opponent holding?” or “What happens if they remove this?” You get lazy.

I was in that rut.

So I went back to something that doesn't let you coast: chess.

🎯 Why Chess?

Because chess punishes bad habits instantly. There’s no topdecking your way out of a blunder. If you stop thinking ahead in chess, you lose material. You get checkmated. The board teaches you immediately that your play was wrong.

That kind of structure was exactly what I needed.

I’ve never been great at chess. At my peak, I climbed to a 1200 rating (which is basically “decent at your local coffee shop”). Now? Some days I struggle to beat a 1000-rated bot. But it’s not about winning—it’s about discipline. It’s about rewiring the brain to plan instead of react.

And that absolutely carries over to Magic.

♜ Where Magic and Chess Overlap

  • Both reward pattern recognition.
    You’ve seen that curve-out before. You know that combo is coming. In both games, spotting the line before it fully forms is how you gain advantage.

  • Both punish tunnel vision.
    In Magic, you can’t only focus on your board—what’s in their hand matters too. Just like in chess, if you don’t think about the counterplay, you’ll walk straight into disaster.

  • Tempo and value exist in both.
    Trading a bishop for a rook? That’s a 1-for-1—but with upside. In Magic, sacking a token to deny a trigger or spending a cheap removal spell on a huge bomb—same principle.

  • Position matters.
    In Magic, “board state” is your position. And just like in chess, sometimes the right play isn’t the most aggressive—it’s the one that improves your position over time.

  • And most of all: every move teaches you.
    You don’t get better by only winning. You get better by noticing why you didn’t win.

🧠 Magic Is Dynamic, but Discipline Is Universal

The rigid rules of chess can train you to play Magic more deliberately. You think twice before overextending. You learn to bait out removal. You respect sequencing more. You stop asking “Can I play this?” and start asking, “Should I play this?”

And just like that, your deck starts performing better—not because it changed, but because you did.

So if you find yourself stuck in the habit of “just jamming cards,” I recommend a few quiet evenings of chess. Let the black-and-white pieces remind you what it means to earn your wins again.

You don’t have to be good at chess.

You just have to be better at thinking ahead.

Stay sharp out there.

— madsaxxon, Tibalt’s Apprentice

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