By Jeremy Dezani

Welcome to “Player Focus”!

“Player Focus” is a short interview with one of the greatest MTG players in the world. The goal is to present the player and his MTG profile to Japanese and international communities. “Player Focus” will feature a different player each time.

For the first Player Focus, we asked Craig Wescoe(@Brimaz4Life) to answer some of our questions.

Craig is a famous American player who has found success at the Pro Tour and Grand Prix for a long time. He is now eligible for the Hall of Fame.

Interview

First Name: Craig
Last Name: Wescoe
Age: 34
Nationality: USA
Sponsor: magic.tcgplayer.com
Current / lifetime ProPoints: 354
Pro Level 2017/2018: Gold

Occupation / Hobbies outside MTG:

I maintain a blog (swords2plowshares.com)

When did you start MTG? Which set? How did you discover the game?

Ice Age. My brother saw some people playing at school and we learned together.

What famous player influenced you the most to become a professional player?

Image Copyright: Channel Fireball

Ben Stark. We grew up playing PTQs together as teenagers and getting destroyed at Pro Tours. Then I quit for a few years to pursue academia. Meanwhile he went pro and put together a Hall of Fame career. Then I returned to Magic and have been pro for almost ten straight years now.

Previous Achievements:

PT TOP 8: 3 (1 win)

GP TOP 8: 11 (1 win)

Others: Wrote nearly 400 Magic articles totalling over one million combined words.

If you have one, who is your favorite Japanese Player and why:

Image Copyright: Wizards of the Coast

Shota Yasooka. He is lightning fast and so precise with his plays. His mind works about ten times faster than mine. It’s incredible to watch him play!

Favorite MTG Format and why:

Team events because you get to play with your friends.

Favorite limited archetype in the current draft format and why:

Blue/White control because you have good card draw, removal, and ways to win the game.

Favorite MTG Deck:

Modern: Hatebears
Standard: Mono White Weenie
Legacy: Death and Taxes

Do you prefer to play aggressive, control, midrange or combo deck? Why?

Aggressive because it punishes your opponent for slower draws and can win games even when it’s not the best metagame call. If you pick wrong with control decks, you sometimes have no chance.

What is your favorite deck to play at the moment? Any format;

This is Lampalot’s current list of Legacy Death and Taxes:

Thomas Enevoldsen and Hareruya’s Michael Bonde (@Lampalot) are my Legacy gurus. All three of us love to play the same deck in Legacy.

I only play the format once or twice a year whereas they play it quite a bit. So I rely on them for updates to the list. I originally designed a primitive version of the deck about ten years ago and it has since had many improvements and iterations.

The thing I love most about non-rotating formats is that you can just play the same deck for years and years with minimal adjustments. It’s so much different than Standard where your whole collection becomes obsolete every two years.

I like attacking, and I like the flexibility and utility of white creatures. So this deck is perfect for my play style and what I love to do playing Magic. I can’t wait to play with my all-time favorite card (《Swords to Plowshares》) at the Pro Tour for the first time in the Legacy portion of the Team Pro Tour in Minneapolis next year! It will be a time to always remember.

What is your First Pick, First Pack in this booster and why?

Definite 《Sand Strangler》. I think it’s one of the best Uncommons in the set and better than any common and most of the rares. I prioritize deserts higher than most people, so having to pick them even higher to support this card is not a problem for me.

It’s basically 《Flametongue Kavu》 and there are ways to reuse its ability such as 《Unsummon》 or 《Gravedigger》 to get even more value. I think all five colors are good in this limited format and just about any color combination can work. So when I open a booster pack, I’m generally looking to just take the most powerful card and try to build around it unless another color pair is being way under drafted and it makes more sense to abandon my first pick and move into the open colors.

You are known as a White player. Why do you like this color so much and why are you using it in every constructed format?

It started out accidentally. I didn’t like that all the lands entered tapped in Wolrdwake Standard, so I played a mono color deck at the Pro Tour.

Nobody else knew how good 《Stoneforge Mystic》 was yet, so I made my first Pro Tour Top 8 in San Diego 2010 with a Mono White 《Stoneforge Mystic》 deck. The following year everyone was playing Mono Blue Illusions, so I build a mostly Mono White Weenie deck with 《Gideon's Lawkeeper》 to tap and target the illusions and 《Geist of Saint Traft》.

Image Copyright: Wizards of the Coast

I ended up going undefeated with my deck and making the top 8 with it. So afterwards people started calling me the White Weenie guy. Then when I won Pro Tour Dragon’s Maze with an aggressive green/white creature deck, there was basically no looking back. So I embraced the title and accepted that my role is to attack with small white creatures.

I didn’t choose the white weenie life; the white weenie life chose me!