MAX MCVETY ON QUALIFYING FOR THE PRO TOUR
Qualifying for the Pro Tour is one of the most coveted accomplishments in all of Magic: the Gathering and this week I talked with Max McVety about his recent Top 4 finish at the San Diego RC and qualification for the upcoming MTG Pro Tour!
BD: Good preparation is a staple of great Magic tournament performance so let’s start there. Max, what can you tell me about your preparation for last week’s RC?
MM: “I worked with a small team of friends called ‘Team System Magic.’ AKA Midwest Alliance Members included other qualified players, Andrew Elenbogen, Matt Sikink-Johnson, Harrison Fang, Max Magnison & Tim Hatch. We were joined at the end of our testing by Sam Black and Stephen Neil. Overall, it was a fantastic testing experience and I owe a lot of my success to the work we all put into the event.”
You played a different deck than much of your team ended up selecting. You ended up on GW Toxic.
What can you tell me about what led to that choice? I’ve gamed with you for many PTs over the years and know you’re no stranger to an audible, is there a good story to go along with your deck selection this time around?
“Yeah. I actually audibled from R/B to GW Toxic two days before the event! Earlier in our testing we identified that Esper and R/B were our top decks but one thing I noticed as our testing went on was that sideboard plans started to overlook GW Toxic as a legitimate choice. As maindeck builds started to become a little more warped around winning Esper and Rakdos mirrors, our stock lists started to become a little bit softer to “all-in” beatdown decks like GW. I didn’t love playing the Rakdos deck and identified that maybe other teams would arrive at the same conclusion as us and look past GW Toxic as a legitimate threat in the metagame.”
So, in a sense you played the ‘metagame’ and brought a dark horse to the race! Or, should I say, a GW Horse!?
“Yes! Another aspect of my testing, since I audibled so late, was to play a ton of games at the event site the Friday before the tournament to test out some changes to the GW Toxic deck. I played so many matches that day it felt like a mini tournament.
That’s some Old School testing right there! You’re making me miss my PT days.
“It very much felt like old school tournament testing. I was certainly glad to get in testing against RB the day before because it proved to be a tough matchup for GW Toxic, but I got a lot better at playing against it that day.
One thing I learned is that the real appeal of GW Toxic is that the deck is good vs. Esper (the known best deck in the format) especially if the Esper player doesn’t know how aggressive they have to be in the matchup. I played the match up twice on day one and came away with two wins. They have a hard time dealing with Skrelv and racing such a low creature curve with their more expensive threats.
When I decided to audible from Rakdos to GW Toxic I actually tweeted out looking to trade decklists with other GW players. I’ll show you my list if you show me yours, DM for DM. I don’t value secrecy in testing and test to be a player who likes to work with other players to gain more knowledge. I shared my list and got to see some other tuned up RC lists and that was also a big help with getting my final 75 ready and assembled. So thanks to the players who DM’d me.”
I know you have a ton of experience playing various styles of different MTG tournament decks over the years; what previous deck would you say that you drew upon the most when tuning and playing your GW Toxic list?
I’m kind of shocked to hear you say that since both decks win via poisoning the opponent!
“I’ve played a ton of infect but GW Toxic feels less like a combo deck and more like a White Weenie deck because you can’t boost Toxic with combat tricks. I’d say the deck I drew upon the most was Legion’s Landing White Weenie deck. It all comes down to racing and mana efficiency of threats that are hard to deal with on curve.”
It had to be exciting audibling decks and then making a deep run in a big event like an RC. What can you tell me about your tournament experience?
“I switched up how I thought about the event. The last RC I played, I was a little bit stressed and so I mentally prepared for this event like I was playing a Grand Prix. I have a ton of Grand Prix experiences over the years to draw upon and I focused on trying to do the little things to play my best event.
Viewing the event like a Grand Prix was calming for me. I managed to get a great sleep the night before despite a late audible to GW. Once I got through the first three rounds with a winning record I really found my groove and settled into playing my style of Magic with a deck I felt really comfortable with. I did face a lot of opponents who didn’t seem to have as much experience playing against my deck as I did theirs which helped a lot.
I went 8-1 on Day One. I played against Rakdos 5 times (4-1), Esper twice (2-0), Mono White once (1-0), and Grixis once (1-0). So, the meta really did play out the way we imagined in our Midwest Alliance Testing and I got rewarded for playing a Rogue Deck leaning on my testing experience against the predicted field.
Day two was pretty quick for me as I started out 3-0 and was able to double draw into top 8, much less grueling than the 9 rounds on day 1. My eyes were then set on the world championship invite given for a top 2 finish. I unfortunately got paired vs my friend Abe Corrigan in top 8, I played very poorly against him due to nerves but I still managed to win since the esper matchup is favorable. Then I got very easily smoked in the top 4 and my world championship dreams were dead. I was sad for an hour or so since I came so close, but then I was all smiles.
The event was also a lot of fun because I got some feature matches and my whole family was watching them from home! They have no idea what’s going on in Magic but I could feel how excited they were for me.
How does it feel to be qualified for the PT again!?
“It feels great! This will be my 16th Pro Tour which is a much higher number than I ever expected for myself. I’m turning 30 this year and as I get older I’m starting to get more responsibilities in life, so I’m definitely going to try to make quality time to test with my teammates and give Magic my all this year, since who knows what next year will be like for me!”
Max has always been one of my favorite players to root for because he’s such a nice guy in real life and I would like to thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with me about his event, preparation, and future in MTG.
