I had the honor of competing at Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3. Playing this level of tournament is something I’ve been dreaming about since I watched RIW’s own Patrick Chapin win Pro Tour Journey into Nyx a decade ago.
I’ve come so close so many times, losing three PTQ finals matches before finally getting my breakthrough at RC Dallas. One of those losses came in the penultimate round of RC Atlanta 2022, after which I said to a friend: “I really hoped it would be worth all of the struggle and heartbreak” Now that I’ve been there, I can say with certainty that it was one of the best weekends of my life!
I went in with zero expectation for my record. My goals for my first PT were to prepare well and learn as much as I could to set myself up for success at the next one, and to play well. I didn’t expect to achieve the 10-6 record necessary to requalify for the Tour, but I’m thrilled I did.
Once back home, I reached out to Derrick Davis to see about working together. He hooked me up with Team Temple of Malady (a group I didn’t know well coming in but enjoyed working with immensely). We shared a house in the Dutch countryside and spent every second we could on testing and preparing for the tournament.
My plan was to play the best version of Nadu I could build.
We tested a lot against Jeskai Control, Tron, and Ruby Storm. When it became clear that Nadu could be tuned to beat all of them, I locked in. We settled on a black splash for maindeck Orcish Bowmasters and sideboard Thoughtseize, Fatal Push and Grist in the sideboard.
We tested the Jeskai match up extensively but struggled to find a great way to play against Wrath of the Skies.
The One Ring allows Bant Nadu to grind out Jeskai; but there weren’t enough matchups where we wanted The One Ring to justify it. The team discovered boarding into a Flash plan with 3-4 copies of Endurance and 4 Orcish Bowmasters allowed us control the pace of the game in a beneficial way and well-timed Thoughtseizes could force our combo through and protect against sweepers.
My team had a well-constructed plan for Jeskai. Whereas other versions relied on Urza’s Saga (which is weak to Wrath of the Skies), our plan rewarded me with a 2-0 record v Jeskai. I played an identical 75 to Charles Eiler, who I spoke to for the first time when he beat me in Round 9 at RC Dallas. Charles is an excellent teammate, he’s smart, works hard, and much of the team’s success with Bant Nadu is owed to his insightful contributions.
The cost of the Black splash was most noticeable in Nadu Mirror-Matches. “No Splash” Bant was able to play Urza’s Saga to double-up access to Shuko.
In the mirror, quickly assembling the Combo is the most important thing and interacting with the opponent’s Combo is second. Most removal spells target, so trying to remove Nadu once it’s already deployed can be a losing prospect.
An example from the Pro Tour of when trying to interact with an opposing Nadu felt very secondary…
I cast Volatile Stormdrake targeting my opponent’s Nadu.
My opponent reveals a Chord of Calling to the Nadu Trigger and still in response casts Chord to find Outrider en-Kor.
The opponent won the game with my Volatile Stormdrake’s trigger still on the stack!
There are two cards that, had we found them, may have flipped our decision to run the Black splash.
Malevolent Rumble digs for combo pieces and generates mana with Chord of Calling.
Run Afoul cleanly removes Nadu without targeting it. These finds by other teams seemed to perform well in the tournament.
And then it was time to draft….
Limited preparation is one area the team could have done better: we did a solid number of Drafts, but I wish we had spent more time talking about our decisions and strategy after each pod.
I drafted 5 or 6 times at the testing house and in all of those efforts combined I only won a single match. I was struggling mentally as we traveled to the city on Thursday and was unsure of what I was doing wrong or how to fix it.
On Thursday, we held a team Limited meeting and hearing other people’s opinions and comparing them to my own made me realize I was drafting poorly for two reasons.
- I was mis-evaluating some cards by not thinking of them in the bigger picture of the decks they went into.
- I was getting married to my early picks and not putting enough effort into reading the table to learn what archetypes were open to my seat.
Before I went to bed on Thursday, I did an online draft prioritizing staying open. My first 3 picks were based in Green and White, but I pivoted to a Blue/Black deck after I wheeled 3 copies of Sneaky Snacker (the signpost common) later in the draft.
I decided that for Draft 1 on Friday, I was going to focus on taking the best card out of the first four picks, no matter what color or archetype they were and from there I would determine what was open before moving in.
The morning of the event, I was excited and feeling great. I liked my Modern deck, and felt like I would be able to hold my own in Limited, even if I wasn’t expecting a great result there. I walked 15 minutes to get to the site, and was amazed by how many people were riding bikes. I’m an avid cyclist (the trails are one of my favorite parts of living in Chicago), but even in college I had never seen so many people travel without a car.
I got to the site and ate as much of a muffin as I could (I’m never very hungry in the mornings), explored the players lounge, and then sat down to draft.
My first pick in the draft was unimpressive: I tanked for a while on whether to select Signature Slam or Wither and Bloom. I eventually decided that while Wither and Bloom was slightly stronger on rate, I was happier to start with a green card than a black one.
I was immediately rewarded by seeing a Horrific Assault as the best card pick 2, so I settled into green quickly.
The player to my right was drafting a RW aggressive deck, so I didn’t fully commit to White early. I speculated on some black cards and went into pack 2 with a couple of directions open.
After selecting an Aerie Auxiliary early in pack 2, I had the decision with my third pick to select either a solid White card or Faithful Watchdog.
I shipped Watchdog, and told myself that if it came back, then I would fully commit to GW. Watchdog is one of the best commons for a GW modified deck, but it’s an archetype that doesn’t support multiple drafters at a table the same way as Eldrazi or Energy. I hoped to be the only GW drafter. Luckily, I had found the open lane and wheeled not just the one Watchdog but two others in pack 3!
In pack 3, I was rewarded for being green by opening Six. This is what my final deck looked like:
I won Round 1 by curving out and having my well-statted creatures match up favorably against my opponent’s RW aggressive deck. I was lucky enough to draw Witch Enchanter to destroy my opponent’s Molten Gatekeeper on turn 4, a tempo swing that’s hard to recover from.
In round 2, I had some mana troubles. Game 2, I had 3 lands, but wasn’t able to deploy Aerie Auxiliaries or ‘double spell.’
I had Eladamri, Korvecdal and two other creatures in play, and thought that my opponent’s Drownyard Lurker would buy him enough time to draw out of his own mana issues. After Drownyard Lurker came down, I realized that I could use Eladamri to cheat in Territory Culler, which was big enough for Horrific Assault to kill the Lurker. This ended up being good enough to win when my opponent untapped and still couldn’t find an Island.
In round 3, I had some unfortunate mana problems that kept me from getting the 3-0. I was disappointed, but I definitely got lucky to even be in the finals of my first ever PT draft, so I did my best to stay focused on my play.
I played three Nadu mirrors on day 1 (1-2), and beat Burn and Jeskai Control. The downside of the black splash showed in both mirror losses. I lost the die roll and my opponent won game 1 on turn 3 (usually with the help of Urza’s Saga). The added consistency of opposing Sagas made it challenging to win faster than the more focused plan.
I was thrilled to finish with a positive record in both formats and be 5-3 overnight. My friends Will, Theo, and Brian also made Day 2, so we really enjoyed ourselves at dinner (along with Eli, who was 6-1-1 in the Grand Prix). After dinner, I called my friend Piper to tell her about the day and go over draft strategy, and I tried my best to get a good night’s sleep.
In Draft #2, my strategy was the same: take the best cards early, and settle into a lane once I had more information from the players to my right.
I navigated this draft well, but I also got quite a bit of luck.
I started with a Shadow of the Second Sun and fully committed to blue when I wheeled two Serum Visionaries (one of the best blue commons) near the end of pack 1.
I started pack 2 with a Dismember, and gradually settled into black as the pack went along. I was hesitant to do this, as I had passed LSV (to my left) several strong black cards early on in the draft. However, I got good cards specific to UB:
I picked up two Mindless Conscriptions and wheeled the only Sneaky Snacker in the draft.
At the start of pack 3, I saw the most beautiful sight I could imagine!
One of the top cards in the set, and one of the only cards you’re excited to take pack-1-pick-1 over Writhing Chrysalis. And it was in a color I was already in! Around pick 4, I was passed an Amphibious Downpour, another strong rare in my colors. I couldn’t have imagined this draft going better and went into Round 9 feeling great.
I played against a Jeskai Energy deck that I felt I was more powerful than, but could clearly produce aggressive starts. After I stabilized the board, my opponent used a Skoa, Embermage to put me from 11 life to 7 rather than remove a creature. I spent the rest of the game trying to win without exposing myself to further direct damage. The climax came when I was able to use Crabomination to steal Satya, Aetherflux Genius, which gave me a second copy of Crabomination! This exiled his last card in hand and I used his Skoa to clear another blocker. I went on to win this match, 2-0.
In round 10, I played against Chris Larsen, who Top 8’d Pro Tour Chicago earlier this year. He had a solid Eldrazi deck, but thankfully my start in game 1 was excellent. The combination of Mindless Conscription and Horrid Shadowspinner let me make a 6/6 Orc Army on turn 4, and Dismember let me kill his 5-drop for just one mana. I won this game, and thankfully won game 2 after he stumbled on mana.
7-3 at my first Pro Tour, and in my second draft finals of the weekend. This time, I would have to play for the trophy against LSV, who was 5-0 in limited on the weekend and hadn’t lost a draft match at the Pro Tour this entire year.
Luis had a solid RB artifact deck, highlighted by multiple copies of Marionette Apprentice. In game 1, he curved out and won quickly after I didn’t make a play until turn 3. I was very proud of how I played game 2. It was very drawn-out, and I spent most of it ahead on board after stemming his early aggression. I wanted to turn the corner, but it was difficult to do while playing around Marionette Apprentice and Infernal Captor.
We went back and forth for a while, and on the final turn of the game, he was at 5 life to my 4. LSV had a Marionette Apprentice, two Eldrazi Spawn tokens, a 1/1 Servo, and a Germ equipped with Cranial Ram. I had no idea how to win.
If I attacked, he could block everything and drain me out with the Apprentice. I was pretty sure I had no removal spells left in my deck (down to just 4 cards), but I knew I needed to pray that if I didn’t have one, he’d make a mistake….
I attacked with Sneaky Snacker, Scurrilous Sentry, Horrid Shadowspinner, and one more creature on the ground. My two looters drew me down to a single card in my library, and I peeled the miracle Kami of Jealous Thirst.
I hadn’t seen it in my first two matches, and forgot that it could deal the final points of damage that I needed. Luis tanked for a while on blockers, going back and forth before eventually blocking with all four tokens. He put a Spawn on the Shadowspinner, and another Spawn and a Germ on my Sentry (which had Menace). I said I was ready to go to damage, and he sacrificed the Spawn that was blocking my lifelinker and started to announce that all four creatures are going to die, draining my last four points of life. I stopped him, and let him know that once we were in damage I wanted to assign all of Scurrilous Sentry’s damage to the Spawn he didn’t sacrifice so that the Germ wouldn’t die, and then I’d survive at exactly 1 life. I then played my Kami, drained LSV, and killed him in his upkeep. I had to stand up and take a breather after that one, and I ended up winning a game 3 that was closer than it should have been after he missed his 3rd land drop for a turn!
At this point, I’m on top of the world. I had no expectations for the draft and would have predicted approximately a single win in each pod. To finish 5-1 in Limited at my first PT and beat LSV in the finals felt amazing.
Constructed, on the other hand, quickly brought me back to Earth. I lost another Nadu mirror to reigning World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depraz and then found myself playing against Tron at 8-4.
As time was called in the round, I was deterministically comboing in game 3. I had practiced the physical mechanics of the combo a lot, but this was the first opponent who’d made me play it out, and I became flustered.
I was planning to win with Cephalid Coliseum, but I wanted to Thoughtseize his three cards in hand so that he couldn’t draw into anything to disrupt me. I shuffled Thoughtseizes and all my untapped lands back into my deck with a hardcast Endurance, bestowed a Springheart Nantuko onto the Endurance, and started to loop again.
However, I forgot that it’s very important to not wait until you have a completely empty library before making another copy of Endurance. I went through all my cards, I forgot that Thoughtseize could have been on the bottom, and because I was comboing at sorcery speed with Shuko, I had no more landfall triggers on the stack and no way to generate them. I took some time to double check, but I was dead, and it was my fault. I was devastated.
I quickly lost yet another Nadu mirror to fall to 8-6. I was in a really bad headspace, until both Theo and Will talked to me and helped me to refocus on what was important.
In round 15, I beat Jeskai Control. I mulliganed to 5 in game 1, but drew enough Chord of Callings that I was eventually able to get a Nadu and a Sylvan Safekeeper in play.
I knew that if I let my opponent untap, I probably wouldn’t have another window, so I sacrificed all of my lands to generate Nadu triggers, and I found Shuko on the very last one. In game 2, I mulliganed again and my Thoughtseize revealed a Counterspell, a Solitude, and The One Ring. I took the Counterspell, hoping that he would tap out for Ring on turn 4 and give me a window to combo. He did, I combo’d, and he wasn’t able to find the white card to pitch to Solitude. I moved to 9-6, needing to get one last win to re-qualify for the next Pro Tour.
In round 16, I was paired against Charis Kikidis (also known as Mogged on Magic Online). We chatted for a few minutes: he noticed my NRG Series boogieboard, and I told him we had been in the same Top 8 of their first tournament of the year. We talked about that and a Vintage challenge a few months back where he beat me in the finals. As I shuffled my deck, I asked if he needed the win. He said he was already qualified for the next few tournaments, and so I asked if he would be willing to concede. He thought for a minute and then graciously shook my hand to put me to 10-6. It’s possible that I would have gotten lucky in a sixth Nadu mirror, but I’m glad I didn’t have to find out.
The rest of the night, there was a lot to celebrate. Theo and Derrick also finished 10-6, which keeps both of them on the train well into next year. My team’s captain, Daniel Goetschel, finished 11-4-1, which was good enough for him to sneak in at 8th place. Unfortunately, with the high highs there also have to come some low lows. Will and Brian unfortunately fell just short of the records they needed to requalify. And before the Top 8 announcement, everyone in the area was asked to gather in the feature match area for Billy Jensen’s special announcement. I didn’t know what was happening with Kai, and so until a few minutes before Billy spoke, I thought it was good news. I never met Kai, but hearing that he had cancer and all the great stories about him made me cry. As I told friends and family about the weekend, the only way I could think of to describe his greatness was as “the Michael Jordan of Magic.” I’m grateful to him for his contributions to the Pro Tour, and sending all my best to him, his family and his friends as they navigate what comes next.
Thinking back, the experience of my first Pro Tour was everything I hoped it would be. Magic is the most fun when played against the greats, and I had the honor to battle with a Pro Tour champion, a MOCS champion in Stefan Schutz, and the reigning world champion. I also feel very lucky that I got to play in the tournament with some of my friends.
Coming in, I expected to play well but not perfectly. Even with the punt in round 13, I think this was my best-played tournament to date. I’m going to try and incorporate this mindset of prioritizing process and learning over match results at all my tournaments moving forward, and would recommend this to anybody playing at any level. It’s not easy, but it is important!
Even though I played well, I walked away from the weekend realizing how much there is to know. After he lost in the finals of Pro Tour Chicago, I heard Simon Nielsen say that he “wants to get good at this”. If the PT runner-up (and now, the champ!) feels like he’s got a lot to learn, then I definitely do too!
I capped the weekend off by sleeping in, money-drafting with Derrick and Charles Eiler against LSV, Matt Costa, and Ben Seck on Sunday (happy to say we were lucky enough to get the W), and biking in and around Amsterdam on Monday before heading home. This was by far the most fun tournament I’ve ever played, as there’s truly no better feeling in Magic than competing with great players. I’m excited that I get to do it all again next year, but in the meantime I’m looking forward to a little bit less Magic in my day-to-day and focusing on work, my health, and my relationships. Thanks for reading! Until next time.
