Any tips for performing chain patterns without messing up?

I've been playing the Puyo Puyo games for a very long time, recently I've been trying to get better at it. I tried following the guides on the Puyo Nexus wiki, and I tried to perform the stair chain, and there were a few occasions where I've succeeded, but most of the time, I feel like I'm just given the wrong Puyo and I take it as a sign I'm going to mess up. Although, sometimes, I try stairs, although I could only do a small amount of stairs successfully. So, any tips?