Eat, Play, Love – A Pro Tour Story

Saturday February 17th

My journey to Chicago for the first Pro Tour of 2024 starts by taking an Uber to the airport. The driver and I greet each other as I put my bags in the back of the car, after which the rest of the ride proceeds in the traditional Finnish way: in complete silence.

The slogan of the competitive play circuit used to be “Play the Game, See the World”. I must admit that over the years that idea has lost some of its glory and glamor for me. No offense to Chicago, but if I was choosing a holiday destination in February, the city would not exactly be at the top of my list. Hopefully one day we’ll get another tournament in Hawaii.

However, there is one thing that I’m very excited about, and that is getting to see my friends! Over the years my teammates have turned into some of my best friends, but as they live in different countries I only get to see them a few times a year at the tournaments. As I’ve become older I’ve started to appreciate their company even more than before. “Play the Game, See Your Friends!” is where it’s at nowadays.

《Spoils of Adventure》 – Illustrated by Zezhou Chen

The first one of them I meet already at Reykjavik airport, as it turns out that Simon Nielsen and I have the same connecting flight to Chicago. It’s a long flight so it’s nice to have some company, and the plane is only half-booked so we manage to snag a row of seats just for ourselves.

After our flight lands in Chicago late in the evening, we quickly find out why it’s called the windy city. Even though the temperature is a bit warmer than it was back home in Finland, the frigid breeze makes it feel equally cold if not more so. After grabbing some burgers for dinner, Simon and I make our way to the team Airbnb, where most of the others are already hanging out and playing. I have no energy left to play games, but I give the rest of the squad hugs, fist bumps, handshakes and high fives before falling asleep.

Sunday to Wednesday noon

Thanks to jet lag my eyes open up a little after 4 am and I start grinding Pioneer leagues on my laptop while waiting for the others to wake up. The Sunday sun rises between the skyscrapers, reveals a gorgeous vista of downtown Chicago and forces me to take back my words from earlier. While it’s not Hawaii, it definitely beats the view from my bedroom at home.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been heavily focusing on an innovative version of the 《Enigmatic Incarnation》 deck, cutting 《Fires of Invention》 for counterspells. I even thought that for once I might have locked in my deck choice a month in advance!

However, the most recent results from online tournaments put a serious dent in that plan. The worst matchup (Lotus) is on the rise thanks to getting 《Archdruid’s Charm》 from the new set, and the best matchup (Rakdos Midrange) is trending down. The Charm is particularly bad news for the Incarnation deck, which relies heavily on its namesake card.

The combined effect of these two factors makes me want to switch decks. I’ve been averse to playing the Lotus deck in the past due to its intimidating level of difficulty, but by now I’ve practiced enough with it that I think I can pilot it competently, although not perfectly. Karl Sarap and Tristan Wylde-LaRue say that the deck is broken and everyone who can play it should do so, but I’m not sure if I agree.

It’s definitely a good deck and a bunch of us are seriously considering playing it, but the 《Archdruid’s Charm》 did not fix some of the fundamental issues of the deck, like being unable to interact with literally anything in game 1 or simply not functioning at all in an unreasonably high percentage of the games.

Nathan Steuer
Image Copyright: Magic: the Gathering Play

After everyone is awake and we start playing paper Magic, Nathan Steuer is watching some of my Lotus games. I get horribly unlucky in a couple of them and Nate jokingly says “Bro, the deck just didn’t choose you” and “This would never happen to me”. While I know that I caught some extreme variance in those games, I can’t help but feel like the deck has too many ways in which it can get unlucky.

In the meanwhile, Karl and Eli Kassis have set their minds on playing Amalia, Jesse Hampton is switching decks every day, and Anthony Lee and Isaac Bullwinkle have returned to tuning their backup deck, Phoenix. Anthony is trying out the main deck 《Ashiok, Dream Render》, which sounds like he’s bending over backwards to beat his own teammates who are on Lotus and Amalia. C’mon mate, that’s ridiculous!

A bit later I notice a Discord post from team captain David Inglis, who is not yet at the house. He says that he tested the Lotus Field vs Azorius Control matchup with someone he found at his local game store and had a hard time winning any games. We decide to play more of the matchup with Stefan Schütz and Nathan, and regardless of who plays which side Azorius keeps winning more than losing.

Previously the matchup had been advertised as a reason to play the Lotus deck, but that does not seem to be the case anymore. The Lotus deck’s surge in popularity has also led to a significant increase in hate cards for it, and after scouring the lists from online tournaments it’s evident that all the current Azorius lists are well stocked with 《Damping Sphere》, 《Narset’s Reversal》, 《Archon of Emeria》 and more.

The shift from 《Yorion, Sky Nomad》 builds to the more streamlined 60-card versions of Azorius also makes a difference, as the smaller ones find their effective hate cards more often, and the companion never really matters in the matchup anyway.

At some point, I noticed that Javier Dominguez had been missing for a while, and it turned out that he had been converted by Anthony and Isaac into the Phoenix camp. Nathan is also getting cold feet about the Lotus deck, and as an experienced Phoenix pilot, he decides to join them as well.

David’s wavering faith, on the other hand, leads him back to his backup deck, Heroic. When those three jump off the Lotus boat, staying on the deck holds little appeal for me and for the second time in a short time, I feel forced to switch decks.

I decide to give Amalia another shot, as it’s a deck that I’ve played quite a lot with earlier and thus can comfortably switch to it even on short notice. Karl and Eli say we should test more against Rakdos Midrange, so I start playing the matchup with Simon, who is also interested in Amalia. I ask how I should be sideboarding, and Karl and Eli respond separately with entirely different instructions.

The pre-board games seem pretty good thanks to 《Return to the Ranks》, but in the post-board ones I get buried in an avalanche of 《Go Blank》 and 《Path of Peril》 regardless of whose plan I try. After sideboarding Rakdos has so much interaction that it’s very hard to kill them by comboing quickly, and the grindy plan is no longer effective once they have graveyard hate to nullify 《Return to the Ranks》. 《Go Blank》 just tells you to Go Home.

The matchup seems bad enough that I don’t want to continue. Karl picks up the reins and tries to show me how it’s done, but the results continue to be equally disheartening. He lets out a resigned sigh. Soon after that, I hear Simon talking about Heroic on a Discord call with David. A gnawing sense of desperation and panic is building up inside of me.

Javier is feeling the opposite. He’s hyped about the new Phoenix list, and as he walks me through the logic of playing the main deck 《Ashiok, Dream Render》, they start to sound a lot less ridiculous.

They give you a significant edge in the mirror matches, help against your worst matchup (Lotus), accidentally hose some other decks, and kind of just work well with your own deck. Even in the matchups where the graveyard hate aspect and the passive ability aren’t good, it’s still a totally fine card, as the deck is very much interested in filling its own graveyard.

I’m starting to be convinced that our Phoenix list is a really good choice, but there is just one huge problem with it. It’s the only popular deck in the format I haven’t played at all.

Izzet Phoenix by Matthew Hoey – NRG Series $10,000 Showdown Chicagoland 2024/02/18(Before PT)

The thing is, Phoenix always seemed like the least breakable deck to me. It was well explored and there were very few flex slots, so during the testing process I thought it was unlikely that we could make any significant progress on it compared to the stock lists. And while there was nothing really wrong with the stock lists, it just never seemed likely that it could be the best choice for the tournament.

Also, the decks that I had been practicing the most with, Incarnation and Lotus, were crushing Phoenix. It’s hard to perceive a deck as “the best deck” if you never really have trouble beating it. I thought that other PT competitors could also beat Phoenix if they wanted to and that they likely would want to, as it was clearly going to be the #1 most-played deck.

Finally, we had multiple extremely proficient Phoenix players on the team, so it never made much sense for me to actively work on that deck at any point, and before the last couple of days of the process, none of them had seemed optimistic about its prospects.

I pick up the deck for some practice matches to try to get a feel for whether I can learn to play it well enough in whatever little time is left. A glimmer of hope comes when we play the Azorius matchup, as it reminds me of playing Dredge against Azorius Control in Modern, something that I have tons of experience in.

For example, casting a 《Fiery Impulse》 on your 《Arclight Phoenix》 in response to a 《March of Otherworldly Light》 is oddly similar to casting a 《Darkblast》 on 《Bloodghast》 in response to 《Path to Exile》.

You can also set up a 《Conflagrate》-esque combo finish with 《Temporal Trespass》 and have to be cautious of running out of cards in your deck, sometimes slowing down a bit in order to preserve your library. Not to mention that the 《Ashiok, Dream Render》 are just three mana versions of 《Shriekhorn》. Overall, the play patterns are surprisingly similar.

In the evening we have a meeting to go over the list and the sideboard plans for each matchup. Unlike the Amalia guys, the Phoenix experts have very similar approaches to most matchups, and they have no trouble coalescing around plans that make sense to everyone. This gives me some comfort and faith in the list. The next day is already the day that the decklists are due though. Time is running out and I’ll have to make the deck choice based on very limited information.

I wake up early again and play a league on Magic Online. The Phoenix deck seems to play a very normal kind of Magic, as opposed to something like, say, Lotus Field, which would be impossible to pick up in the same time frame. Most of the time the deck is just drawing cards, killing creatures and playing some random creatures as win conditions, nothing I haven’t done before. I submit the Phoenix list to MTG Melee, knowing that there are still a couple of hours left to submit another deck or update the list if needed. The vibes are cautiously optimistic.

The good vibes don’t last very long though. When the others wake up we continue working on the Azorius Control matchup, and it seems decidedly worse than it used to be. Having only a single copy of both 《Temporal Trespass》 and 《Spell Pierce》 leaves us vulnerable to 60-card Azorius lists with the main deck 《Hallowed Moonlight》 and 《Farewell》. While the 《Ashiok, Dream Render》 are good in other matchups, they certainly have a tangible opportunity cost here.

After those games the deck submission deadline is only a few minutes away and the Azorius matchup is making me worried yet again. I open up Magic Online and look at my trusty Incarnation deck, adding a third 《Rest in Peace》 to the sideboard as the last card, tempted to switch back to it.

I try to fill an Excel sheet to estimate each deck’s win rate against the expected metagame, but I find the exercise futile as I don’t really have enough information for the calculations to be meaningfully accurate. Like, I know our list is clearly favored in the mirror matches, but how much? I have no clue.

With two minutes left, I copy the 《Enigmatic Incarnation》 deck to my clipboard, open up the player controller page on Melee, press the Edit button on my decklist, and listen to my teammates debating around me.

One minute left. I paste the Incarnation decklist to the decklist editor and stare at the Submit button, unsure whether I should press it or not. I don’t think I’ve ever been as stressed and anxious about deck selection for a tournament, and the seconds pass agonizingly slowly as I ponder my options. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The clock hits 12:00. I never pressed the Submit button, and now it’s too late to do so. The Phoenix list is locked in, and I have a day and a half left to learn how to play it.

Alea iacta est.

Izzet Phoenix by Matti Kuisma – Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor

Wednesday noon to Thursday

We go out to eat lunch and the break is a much-needed reset button. The sun is shining, the food is good, the day is beautiful, and the banter between Javier and Nathan brings a smile to my face.

When we get back I start jamming games immediately, this time against Tristan on Lotus, and I get utterly destroyed despite the 《Ashiok, Dream Render》.

I thought they were supposed to make the matchup palatable, but the Phoenix deck still has a slow clock and our list has very few counterspells, so even in the games where I draw the planeswalker Tristan has all the time in the world to chain 《Pore Over the Pages》 to find an answer for it and then go off. If the matchup is this bad anyway, I feel like I might as well have just played Incarnation deck instead, and I am starting to regret my deck choice already.

I feel comfortable with the draft format, so I skip the in-house paper drafts and limited meetings to get in as many games with Phoenix as I can in as many matchups as possible. But Pioneer is a wide format so it’s impossible to play all of them in the time available, and there are other duties to attend to as well.

In the afternoon we go to the player party at the site and check in for the tournament. We say our hellos to friends from other teams at the lounge, watch Simon’s Player of the Year trophy ceremony, and then head out for dinner.

Congratulations again to the 2023 Player of the Year Simon Nielsen!

Hear his speech from the award ceremony on Thursday 🥹 pic.twitter.com/Hgc0cKoPEh
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) February 24, 2024

We ended up eating at a Thai restaurant, and while I usually enjoy spicy food, I deliberately ordered a non-spicy dish this time as a safety precaution. The dish that I receive, while very delicious, is certainly not non-spicy though. I don’t think it’s gonna be an issue so I don’t make a big deal out of it, but I am a bit annoyed at the false advertising on the menu. When the waitress comes to ask if everything is good, I stay true to my Finnish roots and nod politely without saying anything about the matter.

The rest of the evening I try to soak in as much information as I can by talking to Stefan, Anthony and Simon. I think I have a decent picture of all of the common matchups, but the amount of information to internalize is overwhelming, and I can’t help but feel like it would’ve been more prudent to play the deck that I know the best, even if it was a bit worse from an objective standpoint.

I worry about the experience disparity that I’m going to have in all of my matchups with the Phoenix deck, especially because it’s the most popular deck in the format. Regardless of what decks my opponents will be playing, they will have practiced the matchup a lot, while I will only have a small handful of games under my belt, if any.

Oh well, what’s done is done. At least I have a good list with good sideboard plans prepared by the best teammates one could possibly hope for. All I can do at this point is go to bed on time and sleep well.

Friday – Day One

Finally, it’s time for the tournament!

I grab some coffee to wake up and by the time I’m ready to go, everybody else has already left except for Simon. I order an Uber to the site and ask if he wants to join. Simon declines the offer, saying that he really wants to take one of the nearby rent-a-bikes. I ask if he’s sure about this, but he seems confident and determined, and there’s plenty of time still left, so I say okay and go by myself, leaving him to finish his breakfast.

Draft Round

Image Copyright: @PlayMTG

The tournament hall is packed with excited, nervous and hopeful Magic players, a mix of grizzled veterans, occasional visitors and bright-eyed first-timers. The seatings for the first draft pods are released, and the players scurry to their places.

Stefan is two seats to my right and I curse my luck. We sometimes joke about Stefan being the worst person to have drafting on your right, as he is notorious for a drafting style that he likes to call “open and flexible”. In practice, it usually means that he just picks all the best cards in the packs for a long time without committing to any colors, which leads to the signals being all muddled up and his downstream neighbors not getting any good cards.

The judges check the pods and notice that one player is still missing. The head judge’s voice starts blaring from the loudspeakers and calls for… Simon Nielsen.

No, Simon! Not like this!

I see Chris Larsen on the phone trying to get a hold of Simon and talking to the judges to get them to delay the start of the tournament. After a couple more announcements, the judges seem ready to give up on Simon and start the draft without him, but then he finally turns up in the nick of time and runs through the hall to his pod. Whew.

Then the draft starts and I open up a 《Pyrotechnic Performer》. Always nice to start things off with a good rare. However, what’s less nice is that the Thai food from last night is making its presence felt. My stomach has acted a bit weird the whole morning and as the draft goes on I feel increasingly uncomfortable the whole time.

In the draft, I’m solidly in red as I open up a second copy of the 《Pyrotechnic Performer》 and get passed a 《Lamplight Phoenix》, but the other colors all seem very dry. Green is probably my second color, and then with the green fixers, I can hopefully splash a pair of 《Unyielding Gatekeeper》 and a 《Warleader’s Call》. The stomach issues make it very hard to focus though, and I’m unable to keep track of all the picks I’ve made and thus don’t have a clear vision of what I should be prioritizing with the remaining ones.

Once the last pick is made I immediately ask a judge if I can go to the restroom. He asks if I could wait 5 minutes, but I reply that I would strongly prefer to go right now. After I return from the restroom to the deckbuilding area I feel a lot better physically, but start feeling worse and worse mentally as I go through the cards I’ve picked. Why on earth did I think I was in green?

I don’t have a lot of green cards, and the ones I have aren’t even very good! I let out another “Oh well”, which is quickly becoming my motto for this trip. I do what I can with the cards that I have and submit a red-white deck, but it’s not quite as good as the bevy of rares would suggest.

The rocky start continues as I get paired with Stefan in the first round. I lose the first game to 《Aurelia’s Vindicator》, but curve out well in the second to even up the score. Then in game 3, I keep a 2-lander with a 《Demand Answers》 on the draw and never find a third land drop.

In the next match, my opponent is Daniel Goetschel, an underrated Canadian genius, and in the deciding game, he starts off with a 《Cryptic Coat》. Fortunately, I have a 《Gearbane Orangutan》 to destroy it. After that the game stalls out until I go for a big attack with a 《Warleader’s Call》 in play, and we exchange a lot of creatures.

I have an unflipped 《Unyielding Gatekeeper》 and wonder if I should use it on his last remaining disguised creature. It seems like a bit of a waste, so I just pass the turn instead. Unfortunately, the morph turns out to be a 《Vengeful Creeper》, which Daniel uses to destroy my 《Warleader’s Call》. All of a sudden my creatures are too small to matter and they get trampled over by Daniel’s bigger ones.

While the 0-2 start is not what I was hoping for, at least I drew the right half of my deck in the last round to salvage a 1-2 out of the draft. Then it’s time to see if the two days of practicing Phoenix were enough!

Pioneer Round

Azorius Control by Guillaume Wafo-Tapa – Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor

In the first Constructed round I’m paired against Guillaume Wafo-Tapa on Azorius Control. As I scroll through his decklist, I breath a sigh of relief as he doesn’t have any 《Hallowed Moonlight》 in his list. Staying true to his brand, the control master has maxed out on card draw with a full set of Deduce, and thus didn’t have room for the 《Hallowed Moonlight》.

My hands are a bit shaky as I’m not yet used to operating the Phoenix deck on paper and I feel like Bambi on ice. However, the deck serves me with good draws and eventually some of my threats stick in both games and that’s enough to win.

As the tournament progresses I get a little bit more comfortable with the deck with every passing round. I lose a mirror match to Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, as his 《Ledger Shredder》 sticks and makes me unable to deploy my 《Ashiok, Dream Render》 profitably. I can’t help but wonder if there was a better way to navigate the match, but as we analyze the situation afterwards with Javier he assures me that my plays were fine.

In the last round of the day, I’m proud of finding an effective sideboard plan on the fly. As I look at my opponent’s Jeskai Creativity list I notice a pair of 《Deafening Silence》 and wonder if he’s bringing them in or not. I get an answer to my question quickly as he casts one in game 2, but I have the 《Spell Pierce》 to counter it so it doesn’t stop me from executing my game plan. Then for game 3 I change my sideboarding and take out most of my 《Arclight Phoenix》 and both of the 《Galvanic Iteration》, deciding to ignore the 《Deafening Silence》 entirely.

He has the enchantment again in game 3, but with the adjusted plan I’m able to dance circles around it, casting a creature and a cantrip on my own turn, and then another spell on his. It’s almost like the 《Deafening Silence》 hurts him more than it hurts me!

Eventually, my alternative threats are enough to take the match home, and I end the day at 5-3, going 4-1 with the Phoenix deck. By now the fears I had at the start of the day have mostly dissipated and I feel a strong sense of relief. Still alive!

Most of the rest of the team is doing well too. Jesse sits at the top of the standings with a perfect 8-0 record as his birthday gift, with Simon trailing close behind at 7-1.

At dinner, I order a platterful of sushi and a roll on top, and then a roll or two more after that because I’m still hungry after the long day. It’s astonishing how many calories one burns during Magic tournaments. As the adrenaline finally fades away, exhaustion kicks in and I go straight to bed without passing go.

Saturday – Day Two

Draft Round

Day 2 is a lot more fun and a lot less stressful than day 1. My draft starts off with a 《Case of the Locked Hothouse》 and an 《Outrageous Robbery》, giving me a clear signal to go for a green-black-based control deck. I have more fixing than I need so I could easily splash almost any bombs that I see, but the packs are quite dry and I don’t really have much to splash for.

The good news is that neither do my opponents. The power level of the pod is a lot lower than yesterday’s, and I don’t need to play against 《Aurelia’s Vindicator》 and 《Cryptic Coat》. The games go fairly smoothly and I lose the finals of the draft to end up with a 2-1 result.

All the pressure has been lifted off my shoulders and I can focus on playing and having fun. Hakuna matata. At 7-4, the odds of making the top 8 are already vanishingly small, and it’s unlikely that the tournament would have a disastrous end either.

Pioneer Round

In the first Constructed round of the day, I’m paired against Magic Online grinder Mogged, sometimes known by his alternative name Charalampos Kikidis. When I wish him good luck in his native language, Greek, there’s a small confused pause while his brain processes what just happened, and then a smile.

I’m a lot less friendly in the games though, as I’m the first one to copy a 《Temporal Trespass》 in game 1 and 《Consider》 an 《Arclight Phoenix》 into the graveyard on the same turn. That’s enough to win the race.

In game 2 we both have a couple of 《Ledger Shredder》 in play but he is missing land drops and I’m not. I’m careful not to give him any 《Ledger Shredder》 at first so he would continue to be stuck on mana until I finally deem that it’s time to go for it and start rapid-firing spells to churn through my deck. I have a huge lead in development and the game ends soon after.

It’s funny that the main reason to play this deck was that the 《Ashiok, Dream Render》 would give an edge in the mirror, and then in practice both my match against Depraz and the one against Mogged were largely decided by one player having an advantage with 《Ledger Shredder》, and the 《Ashiok, Dream Render》 didn’t matter at all.

After that, I won a match against Cain Rianhard, got unlucky to lose against Logan Nettles, and then got lucky to win against Matt Sperling. I don’t know if it’s just hubris or not, but in the second to last round, I already feel like I’m playing the Phoenix deck at an expert level.

I’m fully focused and in the zone, knowing which lines to take, how to sequence my spells, and what I need to do to give myself the best chance to win. It all just clicks and makes sense and works out like I think it would, despite six out of nine opponents playing decks I haven’t practiced against. The dreadful anxiety of the deck submission day feels like a distant memory. What was I so afraid of?

Going into the last round I have no chance for the top 8, so I take an intentional draw to secure a top 32 and a foil copy of the Wrenn and Six promo. After all the worrying I ended up with a 10-5-1 record, which has almost become a tradition at this point. Since the return of live Pro Tours, my worst result has been a 10-6 and my best one an 11-5. I may not have any top 8s, but at least I’m consistent!

Image Copyright: Magic: the Gathering Play

After taking the draw I go to watch my teammates. Simon wins his match and makes the top 8 as usual. I can’t even keep track of how many top 8s in a row this is for him but I hear someone saying that this is a record-breaking historical streak, and that sounds about right. Jesse and Chris get paired against each other in a win-and-in, and Chris ends up on top. Javier snags his 12th-match win only to end up in 9th place on tiebreakers. We exchange high fives and hugs with the team and congratulate Simon and Chris for making the top 8.

After going 7-2 (and a draw) with Phoenix it’s hard not to feel like it was a good choice for the tournament. But was it really a smart choice, or did I just get lucky? It’s often hard to tell the difference. How do you separate which part is thanks to luck and which part is due to the skill of putting yourself in positions where you’re likely to get lucky?

And in the end, I don’t know how much the deck choice even mattered. Our team averaged roughly 70% win rates with each of the three different decks that we ended up playing in Pioneer. Were all three decks broken? I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that at least Heroic wasn’t, and the 70% for that deck was simply due to whatever deal Simon has made with the devil.

Sunday – Top 8

On Sunday I enjoy a slow morning and head over to the site after lunch. The Uber driver this time is not a Finn and we end up having a fun talk about the food culture of Chicago, and he gives me tips on where to get his favorite Italian Beef sandwiches. Conversations with Uber drivers can be risky gambles – sometimes you get tips for good restaurants, sometimes you get a 15-minute monologue of religious or political propaganda, and sometimes you just get really awkward conversations.

For example, in Vegas on our trip to Worlds, I tried to ask the driver if there were any hidden gems in the city. You know, some cool spots that wouldn’t be crowded by other tourists. She was really confused, and her confusion made me confused. I tried asking again, enunciating my words as clearly as I could. Still confused. I tried again with different words. Still confused.

I googled “hidden gem meaning” to make sure I’m not crazy and that it’s an actual expression. Then I messaged Austin Bursavich on Discord to check if that expression is for some reason not used in the States at all.

After a while, it turned out that she thought I was asking for hidden gyms, not gems. What?! Who asks for…

Nevermind.

So yeah, that’s the risk of trying to talk with Uber drivers. No such issues in Finland.

Anyway, when I walk into the tournament hall both Simon and Chris have already dispatched their quarterfinals opponents and are eagerly waiting to battle each other in the semifinals. Talk about a treat for the Danish fans at home!

Their best-of-5 match becomes a bizarre best-of-7 showdown, as Simon uses his tricky spells to turn Chris’s Amalia combo into an inescapable loop, forcing a draw in two of the games. Another record set by Simon. This peculiar interaction was one of the reasons that got him interested in the Heroic deck in the first place, and as expected he is the one to pull through and advance to the finals. However, his run ends there as he ends up facing one of his worst matchups: Seth Manfield. Wait, I mean Rakdos Vampires.

Once the tournament is over it’s time to celebrate our successes with a decadent feast at a Chinese restaurant. I pick my seat at the table to be on Stefan’s right, so I can get revenge for the draft on day 1 by picking the best foods from the rotating centerpiece right from under his nose. The food is delicious, the mood is cheerful, the mojitos are cold and I’m surrounded by some of the funniest and smartest people I know, and Nathan.

This, as far as I am concerned, is the best part of the trip. Life is good.

Some of us head towards a karaoke bar, but I return with the rest back to the house. After returning borrowed cards to the people whose flights leave early in the morning I go to Stefan’s room to chat. Then Jesse joins us, then Karl, then Javier, then Eli Loveman, then Chris, and all of a sudden we are seven people in a tiny bedroom sharing stories of friends and enemies until the lights go out.

The Way Back

The vibes on Monday morning are the complete opposite of the night before. As we clean up the team house and pack our bags there’s very little talk. The few words spoken are spoken quietly and indifferently. The previous week was an immensely intense experience and the morning after feels bland and dull in comparison. It’s like eating oatmeal at home after a week of fine dining at restaurants – healthy, maybe, but remarkably less… everything.

Most of us go directly to the airport to catch our flights, while Stefan, Tristan and I go for lunch at the Italian Beef place recommended by the Uber driver from earlier. We also try to check out the famous metallic bean of Chicago, but it’s walled off from visitors due to maintenance.

My flight doesn’t leave until Tuesday, so we go to my hotel room to hang out for a bit, but Stefan and Tristan just fall asleep immediately on the extra bed.

In the meanwhile, I google up things to do in Chicago with my extra day in the city, but it’s like scrolling through Netflix searching for something to watch when you’re not really in the mood for anything and don’t really know what you want, and just end up watching a bunch of trailers and reviews before giving up.

《Talisman of Hierarchy》 – Illustrated by Lindsey Look

Javier joins us around the time when Stefan and Tristan are leaving for the airport. He asks me to give him a chess lesson so he can impress a girl back in Spain, and I tell him about some basic principles by using Magic terms.

We play a practice game where I have the opportunity for a classic Greek gift sacrifice, and I go for it without calculating because it looks fun. My brain is still fried from all the Magic so I just make the first reasonable moves that come to mind without thinking much. Javier tries to tell me that’s how he plays Magic, but somehow I don’t fully believe him.

After Javier’s king gets checkmated, we go to the most American place we can find for his last meal in the States and talk about life and dreams, loves lost and found, and the long-term risks of not taking short-term ones. The price of success, and the effect of trophies on one’s happiness. Whether aiming higher is really worth it in the end. Now that the short-term pressures of the tournament are over there’s time to think and talk about broader, long-term questions.

《Life Goes On》 – Illustrated by Daarken

Those questions linger in my mind long after Javier goes to catch his flight. While making a top 8 at a live Pro Tour would be great, and winning one even more so, I don’t think I really care if I ever get to do those things. All I want is to keep playing the game I love with people I like, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to do it for this long. Thanks to the good results here and in Barcelona, I have also locked up invites for the PTs in Seattle and Amsterdam, so at the very least I get to keep doing this for two more tournaments.

There’s little certainty in professional Magic nowadays, so all we can do is try our best and enjoy it while the luck lasts. For example, Nathan’s blazing hot streak ended last year after his back-to-back trophies, and despite being one of the absolute best players in the world he is currently one bad result away from falling off the train.

Last year in Minneapolis I was sitting in the 1-4 bracket facing elimination for three rounds in a row. It’s dizzying to think that a single unfortunate draw step in those rounds is all it would’ve taken for my own streak to end. But instead of getting eliminated, I ended up having a great season and qualifying for Worlds through the leaderboard. So much hinges on such little things.

When I finally return home, closing the door behind me feels like closing the door of the closet that leads to Narnia. I feel like I’ve been in a different world, one with exciting adventures, bright lights and loud sounds. Now it’s all quiet and gray.

The next day at work my boss asks me “How was the trip?”

I don’t know how to answer.

Thanks for reading,

Matti Kuisma (X)