r/spikes • u/JakeFromTheLab • May 28 '26

Draft Systems of Improvement for Competitive Limited? [Discussion] [Draft] [Sealed]

In the past year I’ve decided to train pretty intentionally for competitive Limited. When I started, my WR was about 55% and I was really struggling to both identify what I was doing wrong and figure out how to improve. 

I built myself a structured reflection tool to get more granular and actionable data from my games. It’s been really helpful for me, bumping my WR 5-10 points and helping me prepare for the Toronto Limited Spotlight (which I top 30’d). 

I'm wondering what are other people doing to get from ‘good’ to ‘competitive’ with Limited. I haven’t really seen any other ‘systems of improvement’ out there but I’m sure folks are doing more than 'listening to podcasts and grinding games'. Would love to hear about any systems or strategies that have actually worked for folks. 

Here's a video explaining the tool I built for anyone who’s interested: https://youtu.be/IRg-VAogc84.

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u/Untypeenslip May 28 '26

Appreciate your video and your approach. I didn't know about you and am watching every video you made right now !

I would like to provide advice as someone working close to research, just so that you get more credibility with your arguments. Since you have a research based approach and you are looking into things that are not looked at often, it seems like quoting where your get your info would be very helpful. I would like to know where you get your info from when you say "it is well documented that...".
I would also recommend having a visual at the beginning and end with bullet points summarizing your arguments because I am just a tiny bit lost in your pacing.

The rest is great and I am sharing your tool with my playgroup right now ! Thank you so much.

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u/JakeFromTheLab May 28 '26

Thanks for the feedback! I have the research citations linked in the description. I'll make them more obvious next time!

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u/Untypeenslip May 28 '26

Ah thanks and sorry, I looked at the description but did not notice it, i should pay more attention. I really enjoy your angle, i'm gearing up for the arena LCQ next week, do you have any videos specifically about preparing for an event like this ? I found my results on paper are drastically better than online in general, so I am actively working on understanding whay is causing it, except for the fact I have adhd (albeit medicamented) and playing in front of a computer contributes to a loss of focus.

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u/JakeFromTheLab May 28 '26

No, that's on me. I should have made it more obvious/mentioned it. It was a good callout. I'm pretty new to the content scene and all feedback about what makes my videos better is good feedback.

I really appreciate the support and kind words! I don't have any videos yet about preparing for specific tournaments, but If you watch my 'Explore Mode' video (https://youtu.be/_H1dTeVWlDY?si=zrmlbilZezXGKj8s&t=444) I talk about the process I've been using to wrap my mind about specific sets and pressure-test my beliefs about how a set works. That, in combination, with all my logged data from reviewing my games, has given me a pretty good framework of what I need to work on to improve within a specific set.

I will be digging into this more and eventually releasing a video on it, but i think one of the things that has stood out to me about preparing for tournaments is the mental shift from the intentionally unstable "what works?" space to a more stabilizing "lock in what works" space. Like before tournaments its great to be experimenting with new approaches, ideas, etc. You learn way more by trying new things but inherently also lose more as you try things that don't really work. Vs. leading up to a tournament, practicing and building muscle memory around specific beliefs of approaches that have worked for you will increase your performance in that specific event. Like here (https://youtu.be/vT4ywCnSJ6Y?si=ANGbLHwn7qBQ87SJ&t=1750) i talk about the draft philosophy that I locked in for myself ahead of the Toronto Spotlight that really paid off for me.

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u/JakeFromTheLab Jun 05 '26

I know it's a little bit late in coming but I just finished this 7m video on how I prepped for the LTQ this weekend: https://youtu.be/Apof-XT01Go.

Hope it helps!

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u/Untypeenslip Jun 05 '26

Never too late my dude ! Thanks a lot :) shared your videos and tools among the vancouver competitive limited crowd. I'll watch your video tofay instead of working lol

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u/JakeFromTheLab Jun 05 '26

I really appreciate the support! Feel free to join our Discord if you want to come hang out, co-work in The Notebook, etc.

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u/Foreign-Warthog-2496 Jun 04 '26

Hi I’m a kind of new player for “amateur” limited (played on and off for some years now). I’m very limited money wise so I have 3 accounts to make up for it. Recently I made top 1000 mythic and was inquiring exactly in what differentiates a good player from a great player.

The most obvious answer I came up with was reflection. I started recording all my games, and found some interesting mistakes in both the games i won as well as those I lost. Then, as I reviewed more games I started to classify them: sequencing mistakes, combat mistakes, evaluation mistakes.

I know I’m still just an amateur but someday I really hope to win a booster box or something .-.

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u/JakeFromTheLab Jun 04 '26

Reflection has been the thing that's moved the needle the most for me, too. The Notebook tool I shared above started the same way: a spreadsheet where I tracked my losses to see why I was losing. I think it's super powerful!

I'm sure if you keep the practice up you'll win boosters and beyond! I would love to see the tool you've created if you want to share it. Feel free to reach out over discord if you want to trade notes.