Accountability
If you truly want to get better at Legends of Norrath, the first step is admitting to yourself that you can get better. While there is certainly an element of luck involved with any card game, over time the best players will always migrate towards the top tables at the end of the day. Not the luckiest ones.
The numbers don't lie. So far in there have been 4 monthly championship qualifiers. Five people have made the top 16 in 3 of the 4 and another 11 have made Top 16 at least twice. All four qualifier winners have returned to the Sunday stage at least one other time. Over the course of multiple 8 round tournaments, the greater skill level of those players has shown through in their results.
There are things in a card game that are simply out of your control. You can mulligan into a bad hand or your opponent can draw all 4 of his Disables against your questing deck, or he can just get the perfect draw with 3 Depravities and kill you. These are things that are out of your control.
Even given all the things that are out of your control, most games you lose are your own fault. The most obvious difference between good players and mediocre ones is what they say after a loss. Mediocre players tend to blame their own bad luck or their opponent's good luck. Good players on the other hand ask themselves what went wrong. Did they make a misplay? Should they have built their deck slightly differently? Was their metagame read off? Sometimes, the answer is luck. But it shouldn't be your default reason for all your losses.
It can be very difficult for people to look at a situation that didn't turn out how they wanted it to or how they hoped it would and say, "That's my fault. I did this wrong, and I should have done this instead." It's human nature to look for external sources of our failures instead of looking at ourselves and finding out what we could have done that would have changed the outcome to the one we wanted to see instead of the one we got.
You have to accept responsibility for your own losses. Once you do this you're well on your way to becoming a better player. Another thing you've got to do is raise your expectations of yourself. When someone like Leafweir or Fatchoy starts a match, they EXPECT to win that game. It's not because they're conceited or arrogant, it's that they're used to winning. Once you can play in a qualifier or choose your own loot tournament and truly expect to win every match, you'll know you've hit the big time.
You also have to eliminate all excuses from your mindset. Many players have a habit of seeing an opponent with a high rating and think they have no chance. Or perhaps they have a bad matchup against a certain deck. Once they realize their opponent is playing that deck, they make it ok in their own minds to lose. After all, it's a bad matchup or their opponent is a gold shield. They weren't supposed to win so it's ok to lose. To get better, you can't give yourself those excuses to lose.
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