Bryan’s Brews – Overcoming Brewer’s Plateau
Welcome back to another Bryan’s Brews. Today, I wanted to talk about my struggles as of late. I think this is something everyone who plays Magic can empathize with. I have had several weeks of trying new decks, playing every week, and having little motivation to keep playing. Let’s dive in and talk about what has been happening recently and discuss what I plan on doing to change it!
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who has read my articles, helped me build my brews, and supported me over the past few months in my return to MTG. I want you to know that I appreciate every single one of you.
Now, let’s talk about my LUL woes. I have been stuck in a rut lately when it comes to brewing. I have a mental block going on. I have several half finished ideas either written down or stuck in my head and I can’t seem to get the motivation to finish them.
There are a few reasons for this. The main reason is that my last few brews have been…. Let’s just say less than stellar. I have shown up to our weekly event, after spending lots of time on a brew, and find that I either lack the capability of piloting the deck correctly or the deck was nowhere good enough to play in the format (sometimes it’s hard to tell between these).
This is very disappointing and really wears on me. I can’t seem to catch a break. Some of the decks have been really close to winning a match or turning a corner but then I seem to lose. It’s really frustrating for me mentally.
But, as all players do, I picked myself up and continued moving forward. Maybe little tweaks here and there may help or maybe a complete overhaul is needed. Perhaps the deck just isn’t good enough. Maybe I just played poorly or got outplayed. So, which is it?
It’s tough to keep motivation when everything I do is seemingly tanking. I leave our local event with either a single win or no wins at all. Very demoralizing.
Well, I think this is a very important thing for me as a brewer to understand. Just because my brews aren’t working, doesn’t mean I need to stop brewing. What it simply means is that I need to take a break from brewing for a little bit.
This will help me reconfigure my thoughts on the format and how it changes from week to week. It will help me clarify what my shortcomings have been with my brews and help me adjust future decks to the format.
The second part of my LUL is something I believe every player has gone through or will go through… Financial problems.
Magic isn’t exactly cheap. When you want to play in eternal formats, you have to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to do so. If you want to play standard, the format rotates and new cards need to be purchased every few months just to stay relevant.
My financial responsibilities to myself are important. Especially pre and post holidays. Friends and family deserve presents and donations need to be made for those less fortunate.
These problems are not exclusive to me. Every player runs into this issue. Some players play the same deck for months or even years because they can’t afford to build a new deck. They may also love the deck they’ve built but some part of it is usually financially motivated.
Brewing new decks every week or every month becomes very exhausting on my budget. So, when the time comes to brew a new deck and I don’t have the new cards to do it, I either have to wait until I can afford to purchase them or I have to ask players if they have the cards to lend me.
This is a very exhausting ordeal to ask around and see if anyone has cards to lend you and then remembering who lent you what cards and making sure everything has been returned to those players.
This is just another cog in the brewing machine. Everything comes at a cost. Either financially or mentally.
The last thing I want to cover about this is, to me, the most important part. Life gets in the way of Magic sometimes. This isn’t a problem. In fact, I’d go as far as to say, this is good.
Life happens and sometimes throws a wrench into all of our plans. That’s ok. Magic is a hobby to me. It isn’t a profession. It’s not my source of income. It’s an outlet for me to see people I don’t normally see every day, an activity to work my brain a little bit, and a form of expression for some of us.
Recently, life has gotten in my way of playing Magic. There was a weekly event recently where I told everyone that I couldn’t make it because something came up and it prevented me from going.
I felt bad for saying that instead of just telling everyone the truth because I didn’t think they would’ve understood. Truth is, nothing came up. I was getting ready to leave. I got my clothes changed, decks packed, let the dogs out, and started to get their food and thought to myself “What are you doing? Why are you even going? You don’t have the desire to play tonight.”
At that moment, I put all of my cards down, sent out a text to a couple of friends and laid in bed watching TV the rest of the night. I simply didn’t have the desire to play Magic that night and that’s ok. I simply didn’t want to subject myself to playing games of Magic if I knew my heart wasn’t into it.
Life happens. I have been halfway mentally in Magic and halfway mentally in one of my other passions. Watching sports. One of my teams was doing very well this year and it has taken my attention, or at least parts of it. When I can’t focus at least 85-90% of my attention on something, I feel like I am doing that thing a disservice. Sometimes it’s just best to walk away from it for the time being.
So what am I going to do to fix this?
Well, I don’t know that it needs to be “fixed”. I think what needs to happen is that I need a “fresh start”. And what better time of year than….. The beginning of a new year.
This year, I plan to make good on my word about mentally preparing myself for hobbies, activities, and life.
Yes, I will keep brewing. Yes, I will keep doing other things that make me happy. Yes, I will try to give a better mental effort when it comes to all of these things. And most importantly, No, I will not stop brewing because I haven’t gotten the results I wanted!
I think having motivation to do the things we want is very important but when the motivation isn’t there, we need to understand the reason why it isn’t there.
Financially, I will try to be a little more responsible this year and budget myself fairly. I believe budgeting for a hobby is very important so you don’t overspend on the things you enjoy and then can’t afford bills.
I know plenty of players who’ve budgeted themselves for MTG every paycheck. I find this to be a smart decision and will try to develop my own budget for this new year. Allocating only the resources I have allotted for my hobby.
New sets help with brewing and finding new cards to brew around. We just need to make sure we are doing it responsibly. It always feels like with those new cards that we “need them now” but sometimes, it’s better to wait for the initial price spike to die down before jumping into that new brew.
Thank you for sticking with me through this and cheers to a new year!
