Jake Mondello is a 19 year old dedicated Magic player, clocking an impressive 10-14 hours a day on Magic Online. He has 2 Grand Prix top 8's in his record, one in Cleveland and the other in Quebec City. Currently chasing Silver level - and almost there with 14 Pro points this season. Jake lives in Connecticut.
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Kamigawa
Innistrad
Brainstorm
Identifying which aspects of a Magic match were due to variance instead of his own mistakes was a difficulty Jake experienced early on in his career.
He felt unlucky and found it hard to determine what, if anything, he was doing wrong in matches. After a while Jake began to closely analyze his games and realize small mistakes he made, which helped define what elements of the game were out of his control.
After losing a PTQ he asked Mike Sigrist, who he had met at another tournament, to help go over his pick order and practice Drafting.
Over the course of a week they Drafted as much as they could along with Devon O’Donnell. When something interesting took place they would pause and discuss whatever aspect had cropped up, then proceed with their games.
Limited
One of the heaviest losses Jake has experienced came at Grand Prix Miami.
He wanted to take a shot at qualifying for the Pro Tour, but ended up losing against Seth Manfield playing for Day 2. Jake says he punted, giving up an advantage he had that led to him losing the game. He attributes his mistake to “playing scared.”
While a difficult loss, this helped Jake learn to play to win instead of playing not to lose.
Jake points to his first Top 8 at Grand Prix Cleveland as his proudest moment, but it comes tinged with a touch of disappointment.
He managed to take second place at the tournament, losing to Bill Tsang for First place. This was another match where Jake attributes his loss to playing scared, but it helped solidify his mindset of coming to tournaments to enjoy himself and have a good time with his friends. Dominating every tournament he goes to is an unrealistic point of view to maintain, and Jake has worked to keep that mindset in check.
Complaining about luck is a big mistake in Jake’s playbook.
He finds that the art of complaining distracts players from what they need to do in order to win the game. Once someone has allocated mental energy to complaining they have taken the first step towards giving up. Sometimes your opponent will draw everything they need in the perfect order, but sometimes you will too.
Don’t let one match define how you feel about your entire Magic career.
Drafting can be higher risk when it comes to pumping real money into Magic Online.
If you are starting off low, Jake recommends playing a constructed format like Pauper to build up a collection first. The daily events and 8 man single elimination matches are some of the highest value. Having a friend that plays online can make it easier to procure good cards early on, as you can trade whole decks back and forth until you build up a proper collection.
Magic has helped Jake develop a drive which enables him to go out into the world and strive to achieve his goals. As a recovering agoraphobic, Jake found that Magic was instrumental in being able to travel and live his life to the fullest.
Pen & Paper
Deck
Deck Box
Player Cards for Tokens
Jake urges players to learn from every Magic experience they have, and to make sure they enjoy themselves while doing it.
Twitter: @JakeMondello
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Jim Davis made 24th place at Pro Tour Prague in 2006, 8th place at Grand Prix Dallas in 2007, 33rd place at Pro Tour Honolulu in 2009, 2nd place at SCG Invitational Indianapolis in 2011, 3rd place at SCG Invitational Seattle in 2014 and is the Champion of SCG Open Indianapolis 2015 as well as the 1st place, gold trophy winner, undisputed champion of the SCG Players’ Championship 2015. Jim lives in Long Island NY.
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7th Edition
Onslaught
Fact or Fiction
Jim is drawn to the competitive aspects of Magic where he can analyze player’s mental states and the psychology behind playing. He finds that Magic is a great competitive game due its complexity and challenge, and the way it balances skill, excitement and chance.
Jim didn’t see value in adopting other’s strategies and decks when he first started playing.
Popular decks were out of the question for him, and he found that it was damaging because good decks are good for a reason. There are lessons to be learned from those decks because players have studied and practiced for years in order to craft them. He now finds it beneficial to play established decks so he can understand how they operate.
Falling into the mindset of “I’m only this kind of player” is detrimental to evolving your style and philosophy as a Magic player.
Shaping his attitude is a skill Jim has refined over the years. In reading The Mental Game of Poker, he was able to break down every aspect of who he was emotionally as a player.
Maintaining a Big-Picture mindset when it comes to tournaments helps keep him away from tilt, but it’s a process that starts long before any single event. Jim understands he has days where he is going to crush matches, and some where he is going to fall short. He focuses on trying to give himself the best chance to win while keeping a positive attitude, even if the results of his match don’t reflect his effort.
In the 2014 Players’ Championship Jim started off poorly and was placed in an elimination match. He won the first game, but in the second match he attacked prematurely and winded up getting his creature killed. He lost that round and the next one, which placed him out of the tournament.
It was difficult for him to have prepared all year long and then lose, on camera, in front of so many people. He re-watched that match before the next year’s Championship to remind himself to keep a positive outlook and a level head.
Coming off his third round loss at the Players’ Championship, Jim practiced for an entire year to come back to the tournament in 2015 and win. He found the experience of taking that heavy loss and translating it into a tournament win was an incredibly surreal moment, one that was difficult to take in all at once.
He was humbled even more so by the opponents he beat, Brad Nelson and Todd Anderson, who invited him to an after party and even toasted to his victory.
Legacy
Jim finds that watching coverage, like live-streams can expose you to a lot of decks and how the function in the format. Since there is commentary on the streams players can understand what is happening more easily, and it acts as a crash course for the format by giving a bird’s eye view of the matches.
2015 Players’ Championship: Jim went to every tournament he could attend and ended up qualifying for the event early in the year. He found it difficult to practice because the Players’ Championship switched to a 3 format event: Legacy, Modern, and Standard.
He focused on Standard the most since it was the Day 2 format, and his girlfriend kindly culled data from 6 months’ worth of tournaments so he could see what everyone had been playing that year.
Latching onto a one-sentence reason for why a player lost is a common mistake Jim sees being made. It keeps players from analyzing the dozens of other decisions they made in a match, some of which certainly contributed to their loss. He recognizes that it can be difficult to tease out all that information on your own, which is why he finds getting feedback from others so valuable.
Focus on what you can control.
Card Binder
Stack of Cards: for last minute deck changes
Jim has noticed that players like to complain, which affects one of the most important aspects of Magic: Attitude. He challenges you to go to a tournament, and not say anything negative about something that was outside of your control. See how it feels.
Twitch: @JimDavisMTG
Twitter: @JimDavisMTG
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Robert Wallerstein has played Magic for 13 years and made his first Grand Prix Top 8 in Mexico City 2016. He is mainly a drafter and bases his success on solid drafting fundamentals. He will make his first Pro Tour appearance in Madrid 2016. Robert is from Akron Ohio and has an amazing, uplifting Magic community.
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Odyssey
Darksteel
Woolly Thoctar
Robert enjoys how he can play Magic with his friends without having to resort to drinking for entertainment. But most of all he loves drafting and taking on the challenge of sitting down with 7 people while trying his best to beat them.
For Robert, it’s all about drafting the best he can and reading his opponent’s signals while trying not to give his own away.
The fundamental rules of Magic tripped Robert up at first.
He never had a rule book that showed him the steps of a turn and how to play. Small rules can make for deep plays that go over new player’s heads.
Robert also stuck to big creatures when he first started, which made it easy for tempo spells to take him down. Playing with friends proficient in these spells helped show him how to balance his deck and move on from his full on beat down decks.
During Innistrad block Robert attended a GP in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, which is an amazing venue for an event: think of a city housed in the pterodactyl cage from Jurassic Park 3.
Being unemployed at the time let him play a lot of Magic leading up to the event, and he managed to Day 2 for the first time. At the end of the GP he managed to rank higher than Jon Finkel, who was in his first Draft Pod, which helped Robert realize he could step up and progress in the competitive scene.
While many players point to a personal achievement as their proudest moment, Robert instead points to the amazing Magic community he is a part of.
One of his long time Magic friends sadly took the community by surprise when he committed suicide years back. Robert’s community held several great memorial events which helped donate money to their friend’s family. For Robert, the feeling of helping and maintaining this tight knit community has been the best feeling to come out of Magic for him, even more so than making Top 8 at GP Mexico.
One year when Robert went to Gen Con, he left his backpack in the care of his friend and it ended up getting stolen.
He lost entire collections of cards and it was incredibly hurtful; those decks and collections were a reflection of him. He thought about quitting Magic then and there, but his friends and community helped keep him in the game by lending him cards they knew he was fond of.
Robert emphasizes that, while it may be awkward, you should really find out who out of your friends can be trusted to look after 5 thousand dollars worth of cards. He also recommends not bringing your entire collection to an event.
Robert finds that many players find it hard to slow down and focus on their plays and outs.
While you don’t want to be annoying by slowing down to a crawl, taking a few extra moments to consider your outs and how your cards can be played is tremendously beneficial. Robert sees players plateauing when it comes to thinking outside the box. Many players will play a card exactly how it’s meant to be played, but they don’t take the time to consider what other lines of play a card can open for them.
Sealed: Looking at your best cards and knowing what your best colors are some of Robert’s guidelines for Sealed. He finds that removal spells are key in most limited formats, as you are undoubtedly going to have to deal with sizable threats.
Draft: For Robert, success in Drafting comes down to card evaluation. Doing research to know what creatures are in a specific format and what spells you need to kill them are crucial. You need to be mindful of what cards you pass on as well, as that sends signals to everyone else as to what color you are playing to and what your weaknesses are.
For A New Draft Player: Robert's basic outline for a deck consists of 15 creatures, 8 non creatures spells and 17 lands. Know how many creatures and removal spells you have, because that will determine what you pick when it comes your time to draw.
Pen
Paper
Sleeved Basic Lands
Robert finds that playing against more skilled players is a surefire way to hone your own skills.
While better players can be hard to find, Robert knows that most skilled players are more than happy to talk at events so long as they aren't wallowing through the aftermath of a bad beat.
Robert urges players to have fun with the game, and if you aren't having fun, then playing might not be worth it.
Facebook: Robert Wallerstein
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Eric Freytag is the founder and CEO of PucaTrade.com. He’s been playing Magic since 1994, has 14 commander decks, and spends most of his MtG time brewing in Vintage, Legacy, and Modern.
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Mirage
Battle for Zendikar
Crucible of Worlds
Eric believes Magic is the best game in the world thanks to its perfect blend of strategy, technique, deck building, and creativity. The community Magic has fostered is incredible, and he thinks this is because the game has so many facets and ways to play. Magic’s social scene and sitting down with friends to play the game in person is one of the most important aspects of the game for Eric.
Deck building was a hurdle Eric had to overcome in his early days playing magic. Evaluating cards and making cuts causes a ripple effect through the rest of the 75 cards, and it took practice building lots of decks for him to understand that. Eric spent time identifying each card he liked, and then found cards relevant to his deck’s concept that were good to draw at any stage of the game. Looking for cards that stack is important for him, since you don’t want two of the same card if one of them will be useless if both are drawn.
Eric maintains a detailed spreadsheet of his cards where he organizes them based on their role and type. Next comes making columns for cards that pair well with each other and what type of situations they do well in. At some point making cuts becomes necessary, and you will have to get rid of some pet cards if they aren’t good in most situations. Be honest with yourself about if a card is going to synergize well with the deck concept you are working towards. Getting too attached to cards at this stage in a brew is something Eric finds dangerous. He looks at each card to see how many others it can combo well with, and loves when he finds ways for cards to come together and turn a disability in a match into an ability.
Most of Eric’s personal growth in magic came from managing tilt. While he doesn’t feel incredibly competitive, he is emotionally invested in all his time spent trying to master the game with skill and creativity. If the deck he brewed doesn’t perform well, or he doesn’t pilot it right, he can definitely be thrown off balance. The feeling of personal failure is common to a lot of players when they play poorly. Eric sees managing tilt as not only an aspect of growing as a Magic player, but as improving as person. The best time Eric has had playing Magic is when he is having fun, even if he is not performing at his best.
Eric believes you can start right now, reading this sentence. Take a moment to acknowledge that at some point in the future you are going to mess up. You are going to fail at some aspect of Magic. Period. You might fail because of luck, because of bad drops, or because you played the wrong card. It happens to everyone, even the pros. You can mentally prepare for that moment now, and accept that the cards won’t be in your favor and that you’re going to make a mistake.
Commander
Eric finds tilt to be a major issue players face, and it’s an issue the player can directly control. A player can manage their reactions to what happens in a match. When players get dragged down by something that went wrong in the game they often stop paying attention. By controlling your reactions and staying engaged in the game your chances of pulling through to the end go up, even if it’s just a small amount.
Eric found that Magic actually helped him with other activities. While he was a video editor he felt the same sense of creativity he got from building a Magic deck. Skills like knowing what cards to cut from his deck helped him take out unnecessary shots from the videos he was editing. Understanding his deck concepts worked in a similar way, letting Eric grasp what the overall vibe and aesthetic of his videos should be.
Eric created PucaTrade based on how his playgroup traded cards and interacted with one another. The way they traded was personal and focused on giving rather than nickel and diming each other to death. This helped him realize that lots of players get trapped in their own way of playing Magic, where they don’t see the full spectrum of people who love the game. There are around 50-100 ways to play Magic, and Eric believes uniting that community through cards is one of the greatest things in the world.
First and foremost, never damage or destroy a card to determine if it is fake. The best and easiest test to determine if you have a fake is to shine a LED flashlight through the back of the card. About 40% of the light should shine through the card. 95% of fake cards fail this test and will block all of the light. PucaTrade has a guide with steps you can follow if you feel you don’t have an authentic card, and if you still are questioning your trade you can mail it to PucaTrade and they will test it for you!
Playing with other people’s decks is something Eric doesn’t see enough players doing. When you play with someone’s deck that has been meticulously crafted and thought about for hours on end, you get to look through a window into their mind. Seeing what cards they value and prioritize gives you an incredible glimpse into how they play Magic.
PucaTrade - sign up with a free account to start trading and receiving
Twitter: @PucaTrade
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Parker Willard recently made day two and cashed Grand Prix Pittsburgh playing Merfolk. He’s an average Joe grinder hoping to work his way to the Pro Tour. Parker lives in Michigan.
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Return to Ravnica
Return to Ravnica
Snapcaster Mage
While there isn't an abundance of competitive players directly where Parker lives, a short drive to Detroit offers a healthy Magic atmosphere.
After a series of concussions from wrestling in high school, and a car accident, Parker found that Magic easily filled the competitive gap in his life left by the sport.
Not only that, but Magic aided tremendously in his recovery process. The mental workout of playing kept his brain engaged and got him back up to speed in school.
Parker attributes this success to the multitude of mental tasks Magic makes a player take on all at once. Doing combat math, trying to figure out what's in his opponent's hand, remembering what cards are in their deck, and evaluating the board state are all aspects that helped in his recovery.
Parker finds it important to double check your calculations. Did you misread your opponent’s creature? Did you check to see if your opponent has lands open? Sometimes he will simply do the math itself over again to make sure he did it correctly the first time.
Card evaluation was a skill that impeded Parker when he first started. He didn’t know what any cards did, so he was easily blown out by simple combat tricks and removal spells.
Understanding what made one creature good in comparison to another was something he learned to do by playing Limited. This helped him understand not only what cards did in gameplay, but which ones were good relative to others.
Parker’s greatest period of growth came by taking a break from Magic. He found himself grinding in the game, playing every opportunity he could, thinking that’s what he needed to do to get better.
During his break he realized that he had been getting a lot of practice, but not competitive practice. When he came back to the game after 3 months he started playing Magic Online and attending one competitive Magic event a week. He found that attending the one competitive event helped him more than an entire week of casual magic.
Making Day 2 at Grand Prix Pittsburgh stands out to Parker as it was a hard won victory.
He had to overcome an opponent that played mental games with him over several rounds to try and put Parker on tilt going into his final round. Parker managed to work through the frustration and use his opponent's slow roll tactic against him during his last round, which let him push through to Day 2.
Parker can't single out a single moment, but points to a streak of losses which lead to him taking a 3 month break. After two months of getting crushed at every event he attended he finally decided he needed to take a break, something he had to do with Poker as well.
Parker admits that it can be hard to get feedback from online matches. One way he was able to get valuable feedback was by streaming on Twitch. People in the stream's chat always called out his missteps and whether or not he was making a good play.
Modern
Not remembering information that's given is a common error Parker finds players making. He will write down cards if his opponent has to show their hand, this way he doesn't have to exert mental energy remembering or risk the chance of forgetting. If his opponent takes a long pause or gives pause at a card Parker plays he will make note of that as well.
Parker finds that if a deck isn't performing as it should he has to analyze the pillars of the format he's playing in. By looking at the main decks used in the format he can start to see if his deck is being exposed by any of them.
Listening to podcasts and reading articles often hints at what decks make for bad matchups in any given format as well.
Grand Prix Pittsburgh: Parker played between 1-2 tournaments a day on Magic Online leading up to the Grand Prix. He also made sure to attend a competitive Modern event every Saturday for several weeks before the tournament, familiarizing himself with the deck he would use at the Grand Prix.
Main tournament deck
A deck for side events
Binder if you like to trade
Snacks
Parker believes the key to improving in Magic is getting better practice. Don't be afraid to move beyond Friday Night Magic and seek out Grand Prix trials and more competitive events.
Twitter: @thewhiteweenie
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Gaby Spartz streams Magic: The Gathering on Twitch by night and by day she’s the co-founder and VP of Content at Dose, the Chicago-based media company behind Dose.com and OMGFacts.com. Gaby lives in the windy city of Chicago.
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M12
Khans of Tarkir
Ambush Viper
The constant push to learn and improve is a major draw for Gaby. Similar to how she took an entrepreneurial plunge with Dose, Gaby knows Magic’s learning curve is incredibly steep.
She likes the fact that no one ever stops learning Magic and that there’s something to take away from every match played.
When Gaby started drafting it was difficult for her to understand what her deck was trying to do. By picking up cards here and there her deck had no cohesion or game plan.
Not being able to tell the difference between defensive and offensive cards was a hurdle she had to overcome. Listening to podcasts and getting input from better players helped Gaby understand the nuances of her own deck and come up with a strategy for the games she played.
A crucial component to Gaby’s Magic progression was sticking to linear decks when first getting into a format.
Having a deck with a game plan that’s repetitive and the same from game to game helped her hone specific skills and familiarize herself with the deck. This made it easier for her to think about her deck outside of matches without the pressure of having to make decisions in the moment.
She thought about her deck in relation to others in order to construct a better sideboard. By writing down her sideboard plan and going over it with more advanced players she was able to Top 8 her second PTQ while still being a fairly new player.
Winning the Standard Super League is a moment that sticks out for Gaby.
She went in simply trying to not place last. She understood that the other players had more experience than her, so she wanted to overcompensate by picking an unconventional deck to play.
She chose a high variance deck (Goblins with Obelisk of Urd) and was able to go undefeated through the group stage which got her a bye into the playoffs.
Moment 1: For a while Gaby couldn’t draft to save her life. She found herself trying to draft decks that didn’t make sense, and ended up losing so much that she felt incredibly demoralized. When playing stopped being fun for her she ended up taking a break from Limited.
Moment 2: While playing a team sealed event Gaby beat her male opponent, who after the match expressed that he couldn’t believe he had lost to a girl.
Her opponent couldn’t seem to grasp that she had beat him because she had played better, prepared better, and exercised her Magic skill set more precisely.
Having skill attributed to gender is something that Gaby is working hard to fade from the competitive Magic scene, and will allow all who love the game to be evenly recognized for their accomplishments.
Playing Constructed helps you see not only what your deck is trying to do, but what it’s trying to do in relation to your opponent’s deck.
Understanding your sideboard is critical for this. A player needs to be able to figure out how to thwart their opponent’s plan to take control of the game, or see that there’s nothing they can do against their opponent’s card and act accordingly.
Focusing too much on the results of a match is a pitfall Gaby finds a lot of players in. If a player makes 5 mistakes in a game and wins they have a tendency to overlook what went wrong.
There are other times when a player might play perfectly, but still lose. Dwelling excessively on these results can stagnate progression.
Gaby believes if you’re not trying to learn from your wins and losses then you’re not going to be happy in Magic. Finding take-aways from both your wins, and losses, is how to improve as a player. Managing losses by not beating yourself up over them is crucial for this.
Remember, you shouldn’t let one match loss beat you twice.
Playing with better players is something Gaby can't emphasize enough.
When you play with better players it can blow your mind to see how they play and understand why they make the decisions they do. More advanced players can help walk you through all the possible scenarios and outcomes for any given situation you may encounter while playing.
6 Things You Can Do To Get More Women Into Magic
Twitter: @GabySpartz
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Whitney Otteson is an avid Magic: The Gathering player and game store owner from Walla Walla, Washington. She has taken recent interest in the competitive scene by making and achieving a goal to make day 2 of Grand Prix Oakland 2015. This accomplishment has motivated her to set her sights even higher.
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Innistrad
Innistrad
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Whitney is competitive when it comes to games and the level of critical thinking required to play Magic is a major draw for her. When she works hard at Magic she feels like she has accomplished a great goal, and it inspires her to push her skill further.
When Whitney first started playing she found herself wrapped up in the board’s current state. Looking ahead to future turns was a skill that took time for her to develop.
She talked to players that were better than her about her deck and sideboard, then studied the choices they made when they played. When she realized that they were playing with future turns in mind she made the mental shift to incorporate that practice into her own play style.
Winning two local Radcon tournaments for two consecutive years helped Whitney believe she could progress beyond just playing Friday Night Magic.
She went to GP Seattle with the mindset to just have fun with Legacy, but she entered some Standard side events and did really well. These three moments helped her decide to buckle down and reassess how serious she was going to take her progression.
The month of hardcore preparation that went into her making Day 2 at GP Oakland stands out as Whitney's proudest moment.
GP Oakland: Whitney completely immersed herself in magic a whole month before the tournament. She got a Magic Online account and played at least one League every night, basically playing 5 rounds of Magic a day.
She watched Magic streams, read articles and deck lists, and talked to players that were better than her to help her analyze what she needed to do.
Whitney wanted to set a goal that was attainable for her; she didn't want to set the bar for her so high that she was constantly disappointed. This led her to setting a goal that was realistic, but would be a real challenge to obtain.
For GP Oakland, Whitney played around with several decks and landed on an Abzan deck. She thought about what decks would be at the tournament and then worked, especially on her sideboard, to alter her deck in a way that it could exploit other decks at the tournament.
A common mistake Whitney sees players making is the way they view their sideboards.
She has a written a sideboard guide to help her make decisions in heated match ups instead of just making choices on the fly. Putting a lot of weight into your sideboard, and viewing your deck as a whole 75 instead of 60 and 15 is something she believes helps strengthen how you play your deck.
Sealed: Read through primers online and apply that information when you're looking at the set. Learning how to take advice from better players and apply it in the moment can be key.
Draft: Being able to recognize when a card is good is something that takes putting in a lot of reps, talking to other players at your store, and trying to learn how to read other's signals.
Gum
Granola & Crackers
Pen & Paper
Whitney finds that she learns the most from match ups she loses.
Taking a loss makes her sit down and talk out what she could have done differently with her opponent.
She has friends that will sit next to her in matches and help point out the mistakes she makes mid-game, which helps her think out decisions in the heat of play.
Have fun!
Whitney knows it’s easy to get wrapped up in Magic’s serious aspects, but at the end of the day you should leave a tournament feeling like you had a great time and a great experience.
Facebook: Whitney Otteson
Twitter: @whitneyriffic
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Pierre Dagen is a 28 year old French entrepreneur who has been playing Magic: The Gathering since about 2006. His first Pro Tour was Paris 2011, and since then he has scored 3 Grand Prix Top 8s and a Pro Tour Top 8, as well as making it to the Top 4 of the World Magic Cup in 2015 as the captain of team France. Formerly a founding member of team Revolution, he is now part of team EUreka.
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Kamigawa
With about 90% of French pro players living in Paris the scene is very competitive.
Gifts Ungiven
While Pierre likes chess and sees the similarities to Magic, he felt that chess could be a bit mechanical. The complexity, strategy, and need to enter your opponent’s head are major draws that keep him playing Magic. Pierre notes how Magic has allowed him to travel a lot more than he usually would, which has allowed him to meet a ton of great people.
Pierre had trouble building his decks early on. He tried to do this on his own without consulting friends or any other players. At some point Pierre says he humbled himself, and asked for help and feedback from other teams.
Pierre attributes a major level up in his game to the first time he joined a team. This allowed him to playtest twice a week in sets of 10-20 matches with teammates that were better than him. The team helped his Magic mindset evolve from just wanting to have fun, to playing each turn as if he was solving a puzzle and finding a solution to the match.
This came for Pierre at the World Magic Cup in Barcelona where Team France made it to the Top 4. Pierre only knew one player on his team, and had just met the other two. This led them to think that they wouldn’t do that great, but they were all surprised at how well they were able to perform together.
Pro Tour Montreal: Pierre was invited for coming close to qualifying. He entered the tournament stressed out, believing he needed to prove himself worthy of being there. His bad memories of the tournament stem from him not believing he was a good player and losing a lot. He forgot that his first goal should have been to have fun, so after he lost his last match all he wanted to do was go back to France.
Over the course of Pierre’s Magic career he learned that he can have a lazy approach to playing. When he first started, he would go into matches just to have fun and ride out games instead of trying his hardest. He thought that you needed to be a genius to be great at Magic. But when others asked him for advice he found that if thought about it hard enough he could usually figure out a solution to their problem. This led to him trying his hardest on every turn and let him see that anyone can be really good at Magic if they put the effort in.
Sealed
Pierre sees a good number of players that are overly optimistic about their deck. They only think of the good things that will happen with their cards, and don’t consider the situations where everything falls apart on the next turn, or 3-4 turns out. Player should always be thinking about how the match will go wrong in order to prepare for when things go right.
Draft: Pierre thinks it’s important to remember that you need a bit of everything in your deck. It needs to be coherent while not focusing on one specific area that might end up sinking your deck.
Sealed: One of the keys to sealed is balancing power and consistency. Deciding if you are leaning towards one end of that spectrum or the other should be a constant thought.
Have a deck that you like and play it a lot—don’t try to come up with one the day before a tournament. Remember, there’s no surefire way to prepare against every player’s deck. Playing one deck, playing it a lot, and playing it against lots of other decks is a good way to get comfortable with tournament play.
Pens
Pad
Snacks
Water
Deck
Pierre’s play tests usually consist of two deck groups: a group of decks everyone on the team likes to play, and a group of decks that are known to be at a specific event. They will play matches with all combinations from both deck groups, compare results, and revamp their decks.
Pierre wants to hammer home that a Magic player shouldn’t be lazy. You should treat Magic in such a way that every turn is a puzzle, and it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, but you should always be trying to solve the succession of puzzles to the best of your ability.
Twitter: @ElPruno_Dagen
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