How hard could it be?

Consider the following;

• There are upwards of 22,000 unique Magic cards, all with their own distinct names and rules text
• Over 1000 distinct card collections (sets and subsets) have been released over Magic’s 33 year history
• About 500 new unique cards are released annually

Here's a few real-world comparisons;

• There are more unique cards than recognized cities and towns worldwide
• Knowing every Magic card is comparable to having a full adult working vocabulary
• If you learned the names of every mammal and reptile species on Earth, you'd still know fewer species than there are unique Magic cards

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel...

Using language as an example, we can pull general comprehension benchmarks and compare that to Magic cards. A typical native English speaker knows upwards of 25,000 words, but interestingly, foreign speakers learning a new language (or card game) can take years to learn only 2,000-3,000 words.¹

But don't fret - in a study covering 12 billion words from online newspapers and magazines, it was found that 85% comprehension required only 2,000 known words, with 95% comprehension requiring about 4,000 words.² Context clues and intuition can span the gaps between unknown cards, and similar to language, become a path to furthering your vocabulary.

Local vernacular, the words used most commonly in your community, can be compared to the deck lists at your EDH night. You only need a subset of cards for 85%+ comprehension, and that subset shrinks considerably when limited to the card pool you play against.

So you've got a goal - learn the most used cards in your ecosystem as efficiently as possible. Now let's dive into some science based memorization methods.

Recalling Cards and Rules

Your ability to pull a piece of information from long term memory into your working memory improves every time you do it.³ There's a distinction here from studying, this is not general learning. It's drilling your ability to retrieve information from your brain.

Flash cards are the simplest example for training retrieval. Students in a history class will read "Sailed the Ocean Blue", and retrieve "1792". It's quite similar to the mental process every time someone plays a new card. The name of the card triggers a retrieval process in your head - supplying you with the data you have associated with the card.

You'll see a great example of this skill in "Guess the Card, Win the Card" videos.

Those who excel have already retrieved the relevant information from their brain dozens of times. That combined with the mental ability to "chunk" cards into card type, color, and effect based categories can narrow 22,000 options down to just one card.

Information Chunking

Chunking is a form of mental data compression - think of it as a ZIP file for your brain. Memes are the internet's prime example, and single image instantly communicates a known tone and theme. Another every day example is acronyms, you see "ATM" and your brain "un-chunks" that into "Automated Teller Machine" - if you know the acronym that is!

You can train information chunking by actively making connections and finding patterns within Magic cards. There are the straightforward chunks to be made from card types, colors, or cost. You can dive a step further into emotional or annecdotal relations or some completely different relation system that works for your brain.

GeoGuesser's are pros at this - here's a video of rainbolt explaining some of his tricks;

A direct example would be memorizing a card like Forced Fruition. Instead of memorizing;

Forced Fruition, Whenever an opponent plays a spell, that player draws seven cards.

But you should "chunk" that data and just memorize this;

plays spell, draw seven cards

Applying this methodology over time will give you the ability to recall Forced Fruition, and other cards when you're trying to find "draw seven cards" abilities for your control deck.

Our search tool can function in the same way, and I personally use it to improve my information chunking ability. Here's a way to find all "draw seven cards" abilities .

Pattern Recognition

Patterns are everywhere, and humans love finding them. A great analog for pattern recognition training comes from chess. Competitive chess players will use training tools that directly enforce patterns - openings, checkmates, and countless others. This process grants understanding, practical experience, and visual recognition and works to improve your overall pattern recognition.

For Magic, that means understanding combos and archetypes, playing as many decks as possible, and correlating visual input from cards by studying as much as you can.

There are a lot of ways to train pattern recognition in Magic, from looking over randominzed opening hands to recognize the good and the bad, to recognizing card combos from their individual pieces. What you'll want to do is find a pattern, and then try to see as many examples of that pattern as possible.

Channel Fireball Combo

In this combo, a player could generate {G}{G}{G} with Black Lotus to cast Channel, then cast Fireball with up to 19 colorless mana provided by Channel. The important thing to note here is the pattern that's been unveiled - bulk mana sources work great with X cost cards.

Recognizing patterns like this can greatly improve your play. In this example, if you see a bulk mana source, you could start to think of patterns like the channel fireball combo. The mental model becomes, "I see bulk mana generation, what X cost card makes the most sense given their deck?". The more patterns you know, the more often this effect will occur.

Long-Term Retention

Magic is a game that rewards loyalty like no other. Staying consistent over long periods will provide a constant stream of pattern recognition, information chunking, and retrieval - a great input for improving memory. The benefit of recognition and familiarity can not be understated, but there's more to be said about building long-term memories effectively.

Dopamine

If you enjoy Magic, you'll likely experience surges of dopamine winning games, top decking, or playing combos. Activities that release dopamine increase your brain's ability to form new neural connections.

[Dopamine] is important for excitement, movement, mood, and the execution of activities that require immediate decisions, learning through reward, and the fundamental role of this last aspect for the survival of the species. [Dopamine], therefore, influences learning and motivation, and its levels continuously signal how optimal a given situation is for obtaining a reward.

In a roundabout way, you could say that playing Magic in a bad mood is sub-optimal. Scientific evidence leads me to the idea that having fun is a cornerstone of effective learning in Magic.

Spaced Learning

Studies show that spaced learning techniques can be used to great effect - sharply decreasing the amount of time needed to commit new information to your long term memory.

[...] periods of highly compressed instruction, and spaces were created through 10 min distractor activities. Spaced Learning in this form was used as the only means of instruction for a national curriculum Biology course, and led to very rapid LTM (Long Term Memory) encoding as measured by the high-stakes test for the course.

Remarkably, experimental subjects acquired long-term memories of complex material as required by England’s national curriculum in one hour, apparently adjusting easily to Spaced Learning’s very intense learning and exceptional speed of delivery of the Biology courses.

This can be applied to Magic using tools for the Pomodoro Technique. A simple set of interval timers to define working and non-working periods, similar to the spaced learning mentioned above.

For example, the review of my whole Biology unit was completed in about 12 min. The nervous system, diet deficiencies, hormones and the menstrual cycle, drugs, and defence from pathogens all whiz by on slides shown at the dizzying rate of 7–8 per min. During the 10-min breaks we get physical, rather than mental, activities like basketball dribbling and teamwork games.

An equivalent input in terms of Magic: The Gathering would look like;

• 10-15 minute card review sessions (7-8 cards per minute)
• 10 minutes physical activity
• Repeat

You could attempt to learn 80 cards per session or 240 cards per hour. At a reasonable duration of an hour per day, that's only 3 months to cover every card. Is someone out there committed enough to try it?

Maximizing Your Mental Card Pool

Memory can be split into three funcitonal parts, encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding would encompass your pattern recognition and information chunking, with your retrieval performance being a direct result of the processes used to store the information in your brain. A number of environmental and emotional factors can help, or harm your ability to retain long-term memories. Choose the strategies that work best for you, and good luck!

Sources

1. BBC | How many words do you need to speak a language?
2. ResearchGate | Lexical Profile of Newspapers Revisited: A Corpus-Based Analysis
3. ScienceDirect | Effects of retrieval practice on retention and application of complex educational concepts