You play better. It's amazing, but the best players in the world reliably beat the not-so-good ones, even though they can suffer from bad luck just like everyone else. Check out the game above. Coming into the mid war the USSR was up like 17-5 on battlegrounds (which is a huge lead) and at one point was also up +14 VP (victory happens at +20 VP), yet by the end of the game the US wins. There's a reason why the US player is 19xx rating.

There will be games which you can't win given your luck, but I remember this tournament where the same four (!!) players reached the semifinals two tournaments in a row. That says something about how much of a role luck plays.

Maybe it's to do with how many times you roll a dice in this game. You will lose some rolls for sure, but when you roll as many times as you do, you are more likely to get some good rolls too. Or maybe it's to do with how many options you have every turn (and how many things you have to pay attention too if you're playing under time pressure). Inferior opposition will inevitably make a subpar move, and good players will capitalize.

Man, TS games 1) take too long to finish and 2) have a depressingly long checkmate time. Like, even if you are down battlegrounds and down VP, you are not strictly dead, there is always a chance that you can come back and win. Roll well several times in a row, opponent draws all their bad cards, etc., and you can in principle come back. But the odds of it happening are low, and meanwhile you still got to keep "playing to your outs". Thinking about how to maximize that ~1% chance of victory for 30 minutes is so tiring. Comparatively in Magic, in such situations, you are probably dead in at most two turns, unless you are playing against a control deck I guess ... but even then your decisions are easier and the game ends sooner.

TS might be too serious for me as a result. I might keep watching streams and games, but actually playing it is so tiring.

As I told a poker player during an 8 hour tournament (which I won!!!), you need to enjoy playing the game. It’s the most important thing. If you don’t, find something else to do. He was complaining that it’s way too many hours to potentially be left with nothing. I told him it’s important to have the mindset that the PLAYING of the game is the goal, not to win. Cuz if you enjoy playing it, then it’s not wasted time.

In TS, there are so many tactical decisions to make all the time that even if you’re behind, it’s fun to go through the game and try to win many battles even if you ultimately lose the war.

It’s why I hate playing against control in magic. It can be a long match where not only I will not likely win, but I’m not even permitted to actually play. Just brutal.

We aint gonna click that ****.

Wrong Barney IDIOT