HareruyaPros Shuhei Nakamura reaches a mind-blowing milestone as he surpasses 100,000 lifetime PWP !!

Shuhei Nakamura, stands at the pinnacle of Magic as a Hall of Famer, and competitive Magic player who has played since the early days. He’s seen and played throughout all the expansions of Magic.

We here at Hareruya would like to congratulate Shuhei Nakamura on his huge achievement.

Find out how he came to play Magic, how fun the game can be, his globetrotting habit and how he joined “that” team.The interview is quite long so let’s get right to it !

— : First of, congratulations on surpassing an insane 100,000 PWP !

Shuuhei Nakamura : Thank you, I’m still a bit surprised I actually managed this feat.

— : I kind of expected it but you are quite the down to earth type of person.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Thank you, I’m still a bit surprised I actually managed this feat.

— : I kind of expected it but you are quite the down to earth type of person.

Shuuhei Nakamura : I actually didn’t know I surpassed 100,000 points until I got a call from Tomoharu Saito. The call went something like this “I wanna congratulate you! Let’s do an interview” “What kind of?” “Surpassing 100,000 Points commemoration” “Sure I guess ?”.

— : I… I see, so you randomly stumbled upon the fact you had already achieved the feat ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I wasn’t really paying much attention to it, but it’s quite a lot isn’t it ? To be fair though I get something like at least 400 points on average for all the GP’s I go to as well.

— : Really ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I make Day 2 nearly every time so it just keeps growing at a brisk pace, probably quite similar to Tomoharu Saito.

— : I see. Speaking of, 50,000 Points (lvl50) is a goal for a lot of players, do you remember when you surpassed that threshold ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : When they started the system I had actually already surpassed 50,000 points.

— : Wait… really ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : If I remember correctly I think I started at somewhere around 70,000 points. Everyone was talking about PWP like “What will they be used for?” “Once you reach a certain threshold do you get rewards?”. I personally hope they’ll implement some kind of reward system for PWP.

I don’t think just collecting points is any fun. As a side-note if you just keep going to lots of GP’s every year this amount of points is achievable by anyone who keeps at it long enough really.

— : Back when you were in your Globetrotting prime, you actually attended GP’s every weekend right ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, just like what Tomoharu Saito did last Pro Season.

Last 2016 Season, BBD and Saito, both two run a close race at Grandprix Master.

— : So playing in a Grand Prix and then heading towards the next every week ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah except, that was really only possible because of that eras Grand Prix system with how easy it was to access.

— : It differed from how the system looks now ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes. Say there were 4 consecutive weeks of American Grand Prix, they would have them run something like first one on the west coast, followed by 2 in Central then last one on the east coast.

— : So by blazing the Grand Prix trail, you managed to go all over the US. That’s quite impressive.

Shuuhei Nakamura : It was great. During that time the formats would also vary wildly between GP’s. Unlike now say there was 2 GP’s on the same weekend they would generally be different formats so you could pick your favorite.

— : During that time did you aim to mostly participate in Limited format GP’s ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, with the result being that I managed to acquire a substantial amount of PWP. It’s not every day you get to be celebrated, so let me elaborate on my path up to this point.

— : Please do !

— : Could you tell us about how you first came to play Magic ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I first got to know about magic back in Junior High, back before Windows 95 had even been released, I desperately wanted a computer and was reading through some computer magazines. In one of them was an advertisement for Magic: The Gathering, which would be the first time I saw or heard of Magic, this was back around when 4th edition was about to be released.

— : So back before Magic really caught on in Japan.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Whether it was information or the product itself, they were both in scarce supply. I thought it seemed like a fun game and I started looking for stores that sold it, but I couldn’t find any. Back then I lived in Osaka after some time I managed to find a retailer for Magic and got into it little by little. However I was only in Junior High and I had trouble grasping the rules.

— : Was Magic a game to play with friends for you ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Definitely. That changed when I was in High School though, once lessons were over or we had self-study I would play Magic to kill time, and carry it with me at all times. I was also gifted with good friends who were equally passionate about Magic to start playing with.

— : So you found good opponents to do battle with then.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Definitely, except I did feel a little bad about getting everyone hooked on Magic in the middle of exam times.

— : Those friends, did they actually pass their exams ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I did involve quite a few people, but I do think overall they were fine at least they weren’t complaining. Quite the nostalgia filled memory.

Shuuhei Nakamura : During those days it was hard to come across proper information in Japanese, so a lot of rules and interactions were quite mistaken. So Counterspells were able to counter permanents in play.

— : Was this rule change on purpose ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : No, not at all. However back then there was only 2 ways to learn the rules for us, you either you bought a starter and read the rules insert or you read articles from a Magic magazine.

— : Ah, I remember that really tiny and fairly basic rulebook.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah it was quite hard to understand the rules based on that one. It said something along the lines of allowing a counterspell to be cast even after an opponent’s spell has resolved. We took that to mean that it could target permanents.

— : Ah, the good old days of interrupt and the pre-cursor to the stack.

Shuuhei Nakamura : There wasn’t a stack back then so the arguments we were having was if you could do anything in response to mana sources. Rules are still quite intricate but they are at least a lot easier than back then.

— : What decks or cards throughout the ages have baffled you?

Shuuhei Nakamura : hmm… As far as cards go I’ll go with Necropotence. It wasn’t that that I couldn’t understand the rules but instead “why is this card good ?”.

— : Certainly, “No draw step? This seems bad”.

Shuuhei Nakamura : It definitely feels like a unplayable card. Triple black makes it very hard to cast, for newer players they always tend to lean towards higher CMC cards, so even if you drew a bunch you would draw 5-6 cmc cards. Back then discarding also meant the cards would be exiled so you couldn’t utilize it for reanimator.

— : I see, any decks that you felt was weird ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I think I would have to say the USG Tolarian Blue deck.

— : A deck made famous during “Combo Winter”.

Shuuhei Nakamura : It was so strong it had to be banned. Afterwards people managed to revive the deck while utilizing 《Serra's Sanctum》. Followed by the 《Memory Jar》 combo deck, if you didn’t pay attention you were dead turn 1 or at latest by turn 4. Combo Winter was truly a bad time for magic.

— : So when 《Tolarian Academy》 got banned, did you start playing the 《Dream Halls》 deck ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I tried it, but if it gets countered the deck is so weak so I don’t remember playing it that much.

— : Speaking of, how old were you during Combo Winter ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I believe I was still in High School. Magic was just starting to get popular back then. A fairly big store had opened maybe 20 or 30 minutes away by bicycle. So I went there a lot and they had several really strong players, including Fujita Osamu whom I first met there.

— : Back during those days you spent most of your allowance on Magic cards ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, I didn’t use that much money, practicing with friends then participating in tournaments trading any winnings for cards I needed. In that sense maybe nothing has really changed since back then.

— : Sounds like the moment you went from a casual to a competitive player ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I don’t think there was that big a shift, I played that way for 1 or 2 years got used to tournament play and I started thinking about playing in the big official tournaments, eventually participating in GP Kyoto. It was the second ever GP in Japan, I was in the second year of High school playing my first ever Limited tournament. As you would expect, I got beaten quite badly.

— : You make it sound like It’s obvious but to all of us Shuhei having ever been bad at Limited is hard to imagine.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Well yeah, but I was like “what’s Limited ?” at that point (Laughs). I felt that the competitive Magic community was filled with nothing but monster level players. I started practicing for Limited, and playing in more and more big tournaments.

— : So you started playing competitively at this point.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Kind of, except I think I was trying to play competitively straight out of the gate. I always play to win. I hate losing, and thanks to the standings of tournaments I always felt like I could aim higher. Just by being me I naturally gravitated towards being a competitive tournament player.

— : So in your second year of High School is when you started playing in big tournaments and started on the path to becoming a pro ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : No, when I finished High School I actually considered giving up Magic entirely.

— : Huh ? Even though you had finally started playing in the big leagues ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : For me when I finished High School I aimed to qualify for the Japanese Nationals, go to Grand Prix etc. but when I didn’t make it I felt like quitting, especially considering I still had university entrance exams to think about so I thought to myself at that point “So this is where I stop playing Magic I guess”.

— : Except you kept playing.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, I kept playing.

— : Well… Let me just say it again, congratulations on reaching 100,000 PWP !

Shuuhei Nakamura : Thank you.

— : Carrying on, you started focusing on your university entrance exams.

Shuuhei Nakamura : No, I actually managed to qualify for the Japanese Nationals in December right before my entrance exams.

— : So you went all-in on playing Magic.

Shuuhei Nakamura : All-in. Right after I qualified for the Japanese Nationals I also qualified for “The Finals” but I did fail my entrance exams instead. To make sure I got in next year, I started studying at a cram school in Osaka. However at that time Shibata Muneo opened a store called “Adept” in Osaka.

— : I’ve heard that name before it was also the name of a deck called “Adept Green”(Mono-Green 《Argothian Enchantress》 Deck) if I’m not mistaken.

Shuuhei Nakamura : You’re right. I started playing there and eventually talked a lot with a lot of top players like Masashiro Kuroda & Tuyoshi Fujita around that time it also got easier to get your hands on information, especially with the imminent rise of the internet.

— : Revolution ? During that time it should have been right at the start of the internet era, so how did availability of information change the magic scene ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I actually started using the internet very early. To be precise, I was using not the internet per say but a service called Magic:dojo. Basically having quick access to a very large text only forum was revolutionary.

— : For someone like Shuhei who always wanted a computer it might seem like the perfect thing, but weren’t most people still without a computer back then ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Very few people had computers then. However I think some people had some way of accessing the information. And it would just keep on improving and getting more use. I immediately used the internet to get information regarding Magic, but what I actually ended up mostly using was overseas online stores.

— : So straight from the start there were online stores ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, except there was really no security whatsoever on most sites, so now when I think about it it’s quite amazing I utilized it. Speaking of, I still remember buying my first 《Tundra》 online.

— : How much was it ? If you don’t mind me asking.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Around 20 dollars. That was a lot of money for me back then. When I think about the 《Tundra》 I tell myself “why didn’t you get 《Black Lotus》 instead !”.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Internet still wasn’t all that widespread, and most online stores priced cards on local prices & more of a gut feeling that the card would be good than any real supply & demand metric. People also traded back then, but I never had any interest whatsoever to participate and just looked up decklists and bought my cards. I also started using a Japanese site called “Magic Doctor” at that time.

— : Old-school magic fans are always incredibly nostalgic when hearing or reminiscing about that site.

Shuuhei Nakamura : By playing at “Adept” I was also able to learn a lot by discussing Magic with the great players there, but a very important point was that we found out where on the web to look for the successful decklists. This was basically the advent of “netdecking” playing a copy or slightly edited version of an already successful deck.

— : What was your main source of information before then ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Definitely magazines. As to the reason why it was because they always featured decklists. Afterwards internet users steadily increased and more decklsits & information started to be released unto the internet until it became the main source of information.

— : So it basically got to the point where we are now ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I would still say there was a lot less information back then than currently. But prior to that the magazines that would be released 3 months after tournaments were the greatest source of information, so it signaled a major change in how people got their information.

— : Interesting, so you took full advantage of the available information and started putting up great results!

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, I got second place at GP Kobe 2001 so during that time. However compared to the current state of of Magic there was very few GP’s and since I played so much Magic as a university Student I didn’t have time for a part-time job, so I had very little money.

— : So that means you didn’t have much opportunity to go abroad yet ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes. Around that time however is when I got my big break, thanks to my Grand Prix results I was invited to play in the Japanese Nationals & “The Finals”.

— : So you stopped having to go through the grueling process to qualify !

Shuuhei Nakamura : It was definitely a big deal. It was the impetus that allowed for me to give my all when playing Magic. I also got the opportunity to play in the invitational APAC tournament where the top 150 players in Asia got to compete. Fun fact, I only knew about APAC thanks to the APAC lands. This also ended up being what compelled me to compete abroad so I also went to Malaysia.

— : The moment you truly experienced the world for the first time.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Definitely. It would however take a while longer before I got go on greater expeditions to places I’ve never been.

— : The costs associated with travelling all over were still too big ?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes. It was the same for the Pro Tour. Even if you Top8’d a Japanese GP and got the coveted invite, at that time you didn’t get travel expenses paid so many times it was simply not possible to go.

— : Quite unfortunate.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, so basically you got a GP Top8 then lost at the Pro Tour rinse and repeat, was a loop a lot of Japanese pro players was stuck in back then. It really is incredibly hard to get a Pro Tour invite from playing at the Pro Tour.

— : Would you say it was harder to put up results then rather than now?

Shuuhei Nakamura : It was definitely hard. All the more reason why the Japanese Nationals and “The Finals” tournaments in Japan were bigger draws for most players. The expenses associated with the Pro Tour were simply too big and I had to give it up to some extent. Instead I focused all the more on the Grand Prix scene in Asia.

— : Finally getting to the globetrotting part!

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, however Europe was still a little bit to expensive for me, but I kept going to lots of Grand Prix. Of course there were also PTQ’s, but if I was gonna go to the Pro Tour, it would be easier to win at the Grand Prix. After won a Grand Prix I was thinking go to Pro Tour or not.

— : All the while studying at University must’ve been quite tough?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Very tough. For a while I had to focus fully on University and it shows if you look back at my 2004 record, where I could barely attend any GP’s at all.

— : my condolences, but you did great afterwards again!

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, but I did qualify for PT Columbus 2004 where I could manage second place.

— : Living the Magic dream.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Definitely, I also managed to Top4 Japanese Nationals in 2004 so I had finally secured stable invites to the Pro Tour. And this is where I first thought I would try and see the world.

— : So this was yet another turning point in your Magic career?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes. I thought about getting a proper job, but I instead decided to go all-in on playing Magic. And if my memory doesn’t fail me this is where Me, Tomoharu Saito, Shota Yasooka & Kenji Tsumura decided to go on a travel like they did in “Journey to the West”. Feel free to guess who is which character.

— : Quite the legendary party.

Shuuhei Nakamura : The biggest reason for making this journey was my will to continue on as a Platinum pro, and we talked about it a lot and came to the conclusion that the only way to realistically maintain it was to go to a LOT of Grand Prix. I believe I actually started the journey together with Masashi Oiso and Katsuhiro Mori.

— : Oh, so the journey didn’t actually begin with the previously mentioned 4?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah. “Let’s go on a journey together!” is not how it started, instead we met while traveling for GP’s and eventually ended up spending most of our time together.

— : Back then you were pretty much living abroad right?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Actually, while I went to a lot of non-Japanese Grand Prix I spent more time in Japan. It was hard to get internet access when traveling and there also weren’t any smartphones, so it was quite difficult to always be traveling. And another issue was that how we were pretty much all in the red from traveling so much, that I was the only one thinking about extend my stay past the end of GP’s.

— : So you always traveled back and forth between Japan and the rest of the world?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, I felt like spending so much money on trips was quite the waste. This is one of the reasons I decided to live abroad instead.

— : Could you tell us why you still decided to live in America as a total of about 10 month?

Shuuhei Nakamura : There was plenty of reasons including 2 big ones. First being the fact I was back to traveling alone, because no other players could play in all the foreign GP’s. Second was not having to buy so many flight tickets so I thought to myself “why not try living here for a while?” and stayed for 2 months.

— : You no longer felt it necessary to go back to Japan?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, because of how easy it was chaining Grand Prix together week after week in America during those 2 months. I also figured I would be able to see most of America simply by going to the Grand Prix, where I usually just decided where to sleep etc. after I got to the Grand prix venue.

— : Truly a traveler.

Shuuhei Nakamura : A fairly uncool traveler without any real mystique to him. Around this time I also felt like I wanted to go to Italy and see the remnants of Rome, as I wasn’t about to return to Japan any time soon anyway.

— : Quite the way of life. But wasn’t getting used to and living in America a bit difficult?

Shuuhei Nakamura : If it weren’t for the fact I had a very dependable helping hand in America it would probably have been quite tough.

— : A helping hand? Perhaps… could it be the legend himself?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, the other reason why I was able to live in America. Meeting Luis Scott-Vargas and joining Team Channel Fireball.

— : I do think belonging to a team is a big change, how come you decided to join the team?

Shuuhei Nakamura : To start with I had absolutely no confidence in my constructed skills, so I aimed to learn all I could from great deckbuilders. By joining Channel Fireball I was hoping to grow as a player and hopefully be of help to the team as well.

— : So you actually approached them yourself asking to join?

Shuuhei Nakamura : No it actually came about a bit more randomly. I got the opportunity to interview LSV as part of the Japanese coverage, at the end of the interview I jokingly asked “can’t you let me join team Channel Fireball?” and it got a good reaction with LSV saying “Sure, how about you join our practice sessions before the next Pro Tour?” “Oh sweet, I’ll go!”

— : Wow……easy.

Shuuhei Nakamura : So we kept in touch through facebook and I got to join them before the Pro Tour from then on.

— : And then you joined the “the worlds strongest team”.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Even if you say that, back then the team had just gotten started, and players still didn’t have quite the insane records they have now. This is especially true if you consider what I mentioned before how the 2006 season had almost no American pro players putting up results, so it was kind off near the “slump” years of professional American Magic.

— : I had no idea there was a season like that.

Shuuhei Nakamura : If you compare it to the current community it’s really hard to imagine. LSV & Co. were basically a group of players whom I only knew as “Hey it’s that strong player I faced before” back then.

— : So their skills even made them stand out back then?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, but if you take LSV as an example he wasn’t winning as much as he is now and he was instead famous for being a Magic writer. Then he took down Pro Tour Berlin 2008 followed by GP Atlanta 2008, second place at Pro Tour Kyoto 2009 got people think “Hold on, this guy is absolutely insane!” This is where I think Channel Fireball got known as having the best player in the world on the team, rather than the team itself being the best.

— : So this is where you joined huh. Before then you had only ever traveled and practiced with a few players, was it a big change?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, thanks to this opportunity I also made a lot of new American friends. At that point I felt like I stopped being there on a trip and more like I actually lived abroad. Considering this interview came about because of PWP, I might as well mention that I believe it was just about then that Magic started the Planeswalkerpoints system.

— : So Planeswalkerpoints got introduced just as you started living abroad for real, interesting.

Shuuhei Nakamura : It wasn’t intentional, and it was just as I started the much spoken about “He’s only in Japan 60 days a year!” period of my life, which was exactly 5 years before I got into the Hall of Fame.

— : Compared to then I have the impression you spend a lot more time in Japan recently.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Pretty much a resident of Japan again. The reason was that I fell down to Silver level at the end of a season because I was missing 2 points for gold level. I don’t get free flights anymore and I lost Platinum, I was thinking maybe now is a good time to retire.

— : Ahh, the Shuhei Nakamura rule you told us about when you joined Hareruya Pros.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, but then I somehow won at GP Dallas Forth Worth 2015 and got an invite & a flight ticket to PT: BFZ. I really wanted to be there for when Shota Yasooka’s got introduced into the Hall of Fame, so I figured “I’ll go enjoy one last PT!” type of thing.

— : Wow.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Then I failed to make day 2 at PT: BFZ and thought “Guess it really is over”. But then I got contacted by Martin Juza who had been traveling the world for GP’s and said “I’m playing GP Kobe 2015, see you there!” so since I was helping set him up with a place to stay I figured I might as well play myself. And I accidently got myself into another Top 8.

—: wow…Top8 again.

Shuuhei Nakamura : That’s really it. Then I got Participation right of a Pro Tour Oath of Gatewatch.I said “I was going to Pro Tour OGW,See you again”to LSV and I tried practicing. After that I got another Top 8 in this PT.I was thinking that I could be Platinum again??

— : Still live for another PT… Try for Platinum?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I tried, but I couldn’t quite grasp the coveted Platinum. Yet again I was thinking about what to do and if I should retire, that’s where Tomoharu Saito contacted me and I joined the Hareruya Pros, and here I am doing an interview because I reached 100,000 PWP.

— : … Thank you?

Shuuhei Nakamura : No I’m the one who should say thank you. I suppose everytime I think about retiring someone or something will always drag me right back in.

— : One final tournament… And then just like when you were a university student and you qualified for “The Finals”, you just end up continuing to play?

Shuuhei Nakamura : Exactly like that, it would seem I’m destined to play Magic.

— : Magic definitely has a way of always someway roping you back in.

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever completely quit Magic. How I play and interact with it may eventually change I think I keep wondering how my interactions with it may change, but just go back to my regular ways eventually.

— : Aim for the top with 100,000 PWP! Doubt most people will get there, but I do think there is a lot of newer players w nting to travel the world and compete at magic, have you got anything to say to those players?

Shuuhei Nakamura : I’m not going to trick you, quit before it’s too late! I’m half joking and half serious, unlike when I was doing it nowadays it has truly gotten a lot harder to accomplish. I was definitely lucky being able to play magic and travel the world, if you tried to do the same thing right now… I wouldn’t recommend it.

— : All things considered, maybe that was a way to play Magic that was only fit for Shuhei Nakamura.

Shuuhei Nakamura : It was definitely quite the luxurious way to play Magic. The fact huge Magic events are held all across the world remains unchanged. There’s more than one way to enjoy Magic for sure. Delaying your flight back a little bit to see some cool places, or just making new friends and going for dinner is also a lot of fun.

— : I see. So while playing all of the GP’s might be some trouble, extending a trip or going to a few consecutive GP’s is still a viable option

Shuuhei Nakamura : Yes, I would still recommend aiming for the Pro Tour. It’s a great goal for a Magic player & to achieve it I recommend not just playing local GP’s but try and go to a few close-by ones as well. And the best part is once you have the invite, generally you’ll find lots of compatriots to travel with!

— : Aim for the Pro Tour, and you’ll naturally go to GP’s abroad and get to see the world?

Shuuhei Nakamura : So long as you wish to play Magic in many different places, you’ll eventually find yourself traveling all over & just maybe, you’ll find your own path to Magic and the world.

When I tried asking Shuhei about what he’s going to do next or what his goals are now I could only get vague answers. So then I tried asking what location he’s heading to next and he just had this big grin on his face.

Shuuhei Nakamura : I wonder, it could honestly be anywhere!

Maybe next week, Plansewalker Shuhei Nakamura with a Hareruya Pros Shirt, He will be playing Magic somewhere in the World and winning a new PWP.