Beyond the Norm: From Arena Grinder to Game Day Champion

This weekend is our store’s Game Day Store Championship Ravnica Allegiance Weekend Standard Tournament. I know that people don’t usually consider tournament reports from Game Days of interest because they’re “not competitive enough” or “only had six players,” but mine is certainly the exception! This Game Day, I faced fierce competition from not six, but nine players, our store’s personal best!

Deck Selection

Leading up to the Store Championship, I had a brand new tool to take advantage of: Magic Arena. I played tons and tons of Ranked Constructed to get ready for my big Standard tournament. My weapon of choice? Nexus of Fate. It allowed me to leverage one of my greatest skills as a human: eating Cheetos while hitting the same buttons over and over again. In fact, I only ever allow myself to indulge in the delicacy of XXtra Flamin’ Hot Cheetos while I loop Nexus. I know some people think you should include a way to kill your opponent in your Nexus deck, but that always confused me: when they concede, their head explodes, and alive people don’t have exploded heads. And all the while, as they become more and more enraged, I become more and more engorged off XXtra Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Every moment they don’t concede is another moment that I get to stuff my face with this patently American delicacy. I’ll never forget the one time I played against Arena user “Shahar” and looped Nexus for around two hours before someone from WOTC banned me. I’m so glad they did. They might not realize it, but they saved my life that day; I was definitely more cheese than person by that point.

Anyways, imagine my chagrin when I heard from a friend on Thursday, right after planning a romantic Valentine’s date night for me and my Nexus, that Nexus of Fate was banned. I was so heartbroken, I couldn’t even read the article. But it was too late for me to learn another deck; I was locked into taking turns. But not with Nexus – with Timestream Navigator.

The Tournament

Every profile I read of successful people always involves them “winning the morning.” I’m no exception; I woke up at 11am, grabbed a strawberry-frosted donut (see Mom? I do have fruit in my diet!), and headed to the nearest game store for the event.

Round 1

I got paired against another player who, like me, hadn’t really played in paper before. I greeted my fellow Arena grinder and, as you would expect from two hardened Gold 2 pros, we had a game filled with exciting moments. My opponent missed lethal twice, I forgot my Wilderness Reclamation triggers multiple times, and we both complained about the lack of animations. Eventually, I won the game against his WB Vampires deck by using Timestream Navigator and Rhythm of the Wild to loop the pirate and take infinite turns. I only got to pop in one or two XXtra Flamin’ Hot Cheetos before my opponent scooped them up.

Round 2

In my next round, I played against some scrub who didn’t even play Arena. Apparently, he preferred to play on an old abandoned Go Fish software that was repurposed to play Magic called “Empty Geo” or something. He took it super seriously though; the guy was playing a bunch of good rares. I saw Hydroid Krasis, Jadelight Ranger, and even Carnage Tyrant! He must’ve done lots of drafts to get four copies of each!

Anyways, I had a pretty easy time dismantling his slow, do-nothing deck. He conceded when I assembled Teferi + Reclamation + Azcanta. Though disappointed I didn’t get to show him my clever replacement for Nexus of Fate, I extended my hand when I won.

My opponent looked confused.

“I’ll be on the play,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I won.”

“You won the first game,” he said slowly, still confused. “But we have to play one or two post-board games now.”

“What?” I asked. “Posterboard games? What are those?”

A judge came over and explained to me that apparently, we’re supposed to play best two out of three! And not only that, but my opponent got to switch out cards from his deck with cards that were better against me.

For some reason though, my opponent played terribly in the second game! He cast Unmoored Ego and named Nexus of Fate. I laughed out loud and let him search my deck for the banned card. Let this be a lesson: it pays to stay up-to-date on all the most recent developments in competitive Magic. Otherwise, you might look like an idiot!

A Duress later revealed a hand filled with Timestream Navigators, and from there, my opponent was out of resources and it was easy for me to win the game! Thus winning the… set of two games? Very strange.

Round 3

My opponent asked if I wanted to draw, and I told them that I actually wasn’t much of an artist, but we could try after our set of two or three games. My opponent explained that a draw meant a tie, and we would both be locked for Top 8. I accepted happily; paper Magic has some cool cheats that you could never get away with on Arena!

Quarterfinals

I was the top seed going into the Top 8, and I got to play the mirror! I was shocked that another player had figured out the sick Timestream Navigator tech. Imagine my surprise when, on Turn 4, he untapped with Reclamation and cast Nexus of Fate! I immediately called over a judge (another superpower of paper Magic) and demanded that my opponent be banned as hard as Nexus of Fate.

The judge then informed me that Nexus of Fate actually wasn’t banned in paper Magic! Frustrated by this development, I poked an insect that was crawling across the table. Instead of running faster and spitting out some purple smoke, it stopped moving, spat out some brownish fluid, and died.

Wow. Paper was a lot worse than Arena.

But incredibly, Posterboard was where I got my edge! While I certainly didn’t have any cards to bring in, my opponent sided in lots more countermagic. On the play, I slammed a T3 Rhythm of the Wild, and then went off a few turns later with my Timestream Navigator! My opponent had to read Timestream Navigator several times, and showed me a handful of Negates and Frilled Mystics at the end of the game.

Since we had both won a game, we had to go to Game 3! My opponent mulliganed to five cards and never did anything. I laughed as I defeated him. Paper was a lot worse than Arena.

Semifinals

My opponent, playing Monored, thought they had an advantage. But little did they know that on Arena, the queues are nothing but monored. As such, my mainboard Revitalizes, Gifts of Paradise, and Azor, the Lawbringers kept me firmly ahead! After I cast Sanguine Sacrament for 10 in Game 1, my opponent asked how many of those I was playing.

“Four,” I replied. “It’s great against the metagame, which is all just red decks.”

My opponent stared at me blankly, then conceded. He must’ve been an Arena player! I decided not to tell him about the fact that there were supposed to be three games, and moved onto the finals!

Finals

My finals opponent was also on Monored, but he shut off my lifegain early with a Rampaging Ferocidon. I was surprised that no one else was playing that card, as it seems really good against Monored’s bad matchups!

Then, the judge watching our match took my opponent aside. They spoke for a while in hushed voices before my opponent slumped his shoulders and exited the venue. The judge informed me that while Nexus of Fate was not banned, a 3/3 Menace with some trinket text was.

With my Finals opponent disqualified, I was left standing as Game Day Champion! Let this be a lesson to everyone: being a Gold 2 Arena Pro like me is more than enough preparation to take down the most competitive of tournaments!

 Ryan Normandin is a grinder from Boston who has lost at the Pro Tour, in GP & SCG Top 8's, and to 7-year-olds at FNM. Despite being described as "not funny" by his best friend and "the worst Magic player ever" by Twitch chat, he cheerfully decided to blend his lack of talents together to write funny articles about Magic.