Have you ever had that “one up” moment in Magic where you know you’ve gotten better as a player? Do you wonder how good of a player you really are? Do you want to find out?

I am always asking these questions to myself. I am always after that “one up” moment when I know I’ve gotten better as a player. It’s like a high that I keep chasing, but as you get better you find it starts to become rarer to achieve it. Although how do you rate yourself as a player?

Everyone thinks you have to win a Grand Prix or a Pro Tour to be considered a high level player. This is simply not true. There is a certain amount of luck involved in the game and even people who are considered the best players in the world don’t win them that commonly. This is because of the variance of the game. There are many different strategies that are better against some decks which are weak to others. You will find that a lot of the time the winners of a big tournament had a good series of match ups to get their record there.

I believe there are a set of achievements which can tell you the answer to how strong of a player you really are. Please be advised: these levels are not for highly competitive players, but for players to examine how strong of a player they really are.

Level 1 – Winning an FNM

Now this seems like a really tall order for obtaining level 1, but a player can be lent a powerful deck and still luck out into winning a FNM event at a local game store. Also, many game stores support a casual environment, so spiking a casual FNM tournament has to be considered.

Level 2 – Identifying Why a Deck is Built

This next step is being able to take a look at a deck and have the ability to understand it’s strategy and how it fits in the meta. This is very difficult to do and can take quite a long time to gain this skill.

Level 3 – Identifying How a Deck is Built

The next level follows closely on to the end of level 2. Being able to identify why the specific cards in a deck are chosen and how they in turn fit into the deck’s strategy and how they fit into the meta.

Lever 4 – Understanding What your Life Really Is

A thing that many players still struggle understanding is that your life is a resource. Just because your getting lower in health, it doesn’t mean your losing. The same can be said about having a higher life total than your opponent means you are winning. To truly understand this, ask yourself a question: “How much life do I need to win a game?”. It may seem like a trick question to inexperienced players but it’s simple. What is the lowest life total you require to stay in the game? One. After Understanding this, players will then start understanding they don’t have to block to spare their life unless its critical and will use cards which cost them life to use as another resource.

Level 5 – Understanding the Difference Between a Good and a Bad Card

Understanding the difference between cards is difficult and requires a lot of knowledge on the different formats of Magic. To properly examine a card, there is a method called the Ceiling vs Floor method.

The ceiling of a card is identifying the best situation the card can be found in. The Floor is examining the worst situation for the card. Bad cards usually have a great ceiling but have a horrible floor, meaning they aren’t useful unless a unique situation occurs. Good cards have a great floor and usually have a good ceiling as you want a card that works most of the time in most situations. This is what makes a card good.

Level 6 – Teach Another Player up to Level 5

We are currently at the halfway point through our level up chart. The next step requires you to help another player reach level 5. Levels 1 through to 5 can be taught, but levels 7 through to 10 can only be learnt through a lot of experience. If you can help another player reach level 5, you have proven you have the ability to progress onto the next level.

Level 7 – Identify a Deck Within the First Turn

Identifying a deck within the first turn is very difficult. Even the most experienced Magic players can identify a deck wrong. It requires extensive knowledge of the Magic format you are playing as well as how those decks are built and their first turn plays. If you can identify your opponents’ decks by the end of their first turn, you are ready for the next level.

Level 8 – With All this Knowledge, can Understand the Meaning of a Loss

By this stage you are most likely winning a lot of matches of Magic. You may notice that you may still be having losses and you may be getting frustrated that you aren’t progressing. The thing is, if you take a loss the right way, you actually will progress with your skill level. Take note, even the most experienced and well known players still lose. They don’t win every game. Being able to see where you went wrong in a game, or why you were unfavoured helps teach you how to improve your playstyle. There is also certain amount of luck which is required in Magic. You will also start to understand other decks and how they interact. This is where you will start noticing that you are ready for the next level.

Level 9 – Understanding All Decks

This is where there is a large peek in the leveling up curve. This requires you to understand how each deck’s playstyle and reason for being played in the format you are focusing on. If you see a deck that is doing well in the metagame but still think it is a bad deck, you do not understand how the deck works and are no where near to completing this level. A lot of professional Magic players are stuck at this level. LSV, a well known professional Magic player, does not think Merfolk is a good deck in Modern, yet time and time again it has won many tournaments as well as being known as one of the most powerful blue decks in all of Modern.

Level 10 – Ability to Use All the Colours of Magic Properly

Now I don’t mean you have to use all the colours of Magic equally, just that you can use each mechanic related to each colour according to the colour pie properly and efficiently. This is very difficult to do as every player in Magic has a different playstyle. It is so difficult to achieve, some players might not be able to reach this level. So do not feel bad if you cannot complete this level.

So these are the steps I have found over the years to help level up in Magic. Did I miss something? Have a different view on which order the levels should be reached? Or do you have your own level up list? Share your thoughts in the comments below.