The Mental Mana Podcast

After an extended break, we're back! This episode, I sit down with Magic Pro League member and current World Champion Javier Dominguez to talk about his Magic life story, his heart-breaking loss at the World Championships in 2017, and how he developed the mindset to bounce back from that experience to move forward. Javier's story is one every player can learn from, so sit back and enjoy!

While it's definitely important to be competitive and have that fire to succeed, it's equally as important that you never forget why you play this game in the first place - Because it's fun. Pro Tour Top 8 competitor and Wizards R&D member Melissa DeTora joins me this week to talk about the importance of having fun at the highest level.

Too often, Magic players are too self-critical with themselves, and this acts as a fence that keeps them from progressing forward. Self-Compassion, the act of treating yourself compassionately in moments of failure, is extremely important. Craig Wescoe joins the podcast today to talk about the importance of self-compassion and how you can become a more self-compassionate player.

Pro Tour winner and Hall-of-Famer Gabriel Nassif joins the cast in this episode to talk about one of the greatest mental barriers to progressing in Magic - The dreaded TILT. We talk about where it comes from, why it happens, and the best way to handle it. Gabriel also opens up about his own struggles with Tilt in the past and his devotion to trying to be better, even today.

The episode I have been waiting to do has finally happened! Ben Stark has, in my opinion, one of the best mindsets in Magic. His overall approach towards the game is fantastic, and in this episode, he talks about how he mentally approaches Magic, his favorite tournament ever, and what motivates him to play at the highest level. You're gonna enjoy this one!

We're back! And, we're back with an awesome guest! Emma Handy of Star City Games and the SCG Circuit joins us to talk about her experiences with bad variance and how we can mentally cope with bad variance to improve the quality of your mental game. Enjoy!

With Lance feeling a little under the weather, I'm flying solo with this one. In this episode, I talk about the importance of preventing mental and physical burnout and provide strategies for how you can keep yourself feeling fresh throughout a long tournament. Thanks for listening, and enjoy!

In this episode, Lance and myself sit down with former World Champion, Pro Tour competitor, and one of the games best players currently playing - Brain Braun-Duin - talk about one of the most important aspects of the mental game of Magic: How to cope with losing and bad results. Thanks for listening, and enjoy!

Welcome back for episode #2 everyone! In this episode, we have an extremely special guest - A World Champion, a Pro Tour winner, and current #2 ranked player in the world Seth Manfield! Today's conversation is centered around the topic of managing expectations for tournament play and the importance of understanding and regulating your expectations so that they don't derail your ability to perform in competition.

I apologize for the audio being a little wonky on this episode, as we're still trying to figure out how this whole podcast thing works. It will improve as we go, and thanks so much for sticking it out with us!

Hey there! Welcome to the very first episode of the Mental Mana Podcast where myself and my co-host, Lance Austin, discuss the importance of the mental side of the game of Magic and the five key priorities for getting into, and staying in, a peak performance mindset when you go to play in competitive tournaments. Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you enjoy it!