Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa recently asked the greatest Magic player of all time, Kai Budde, “Do you think it is possible to be a successful pro while also living a “normal life” (work, school, fun), or is the necessary dedication and all the traveling too much?” His response was sage: “With a normal job with actual 8-to-5 office hours, I don't see it. There's just too much traveling involved. Maybe if you do absolutely nothing else and burn your vacation for all events and your boss is an understanding guy, you could pull it off. But that sounds way too stressful to me.”

Welcome to my life.

“Are you ready to experience nonstop Magic with thousands of players? Grab your cards and make plans to attend Magic Weekend”

“A while ago, we shifted our focus from running tournaments to deliver events that feel like festivals instead, and we started with Grand Prix and Pro Tour.

The idea behind this shift is driven by our overarching goal to deliver great and memorable experiences to Magic fans. At the end of the day, only one player will win a given Pro Tour or a given Grand Prix, and there’s not much we (Wizards of the Coast) can do (nor should!) to impact the performance of a player. However, there is a lot we can do to influence the quality of their experience and make sure they have the time of their life, regardless of the way they perform in the tournament.

Additionally, these events are a great opportunity for attendees to share their passion with other fans and socialize, and this is as aspect of the game we want to develop more and more at high-level events.

The name “Magic Weekend” was an attempt to communicate this to players, by emphasizing the social aspect of the event as opposed to focus solely on the tournament.”

“[Magic Weekend] sounded pretty cool, though it was going to be a busy weekend. As a competitor, I liked the "backup" plan of playing the GP if the PT didn't go well, and having the GP be the same Limited format meant no additional prep was needed. As a commentator, it sounds like a very long weekend.”

“Brad Nelson and Guillaume Matignon will battle at Magic Weekend Paris in a best-of-seven match featuring Constructed and Limited formats for the honor of joining such luminaries as Kai Budde, Jon Finkel, Gabriel Nassif, and Kenji Tsumura as the Pro Tour Player of the Year.”

“Throughout all my time either doing text coverage or Feature Match commentary I was pulling for a Player of the Year showdown. We had come close a couple of times as the Player of the Year race wound down and it was really a dream scenario for someone who loves Magic. It was highly elusive bonus Magic played at the very highest level of the game. When everything fell into place for Guillaume to end the previous Pro Tour season in a tie with Brad I was over the moon with excitement about it. I still have my Inkwell Looter tee-shirt and my Justin Treadway stickers to commemorate it.”

“Valakut has been the deck to beat or one of the decks to beat for quite some time. After gaining Green Sun's Zenith and Slagstorm, it was sure to continue to be the most popular strategy, but I didn't actually think that the likely new additions would make it that much better against the new generation of decks. Rather, I thought the new additions would initially make it better against old decks and worse against new decks until clever Valakut players figured out how to tune their lists to beat the new decks (such as using Lightning Bolt and Acidic Slime instead of garbage like Thrun and Koth out of their boards).”

“Brian Kibler showed off five cards that were going to take his Caw Go list, last seen at the World Championships in Chiba, from strong metagame deck to the format-defining deck for this chapter of Standard. With a grin wider than normal—if that is at all possible—Kibler fanned a playset of Stoneforge Mystics and one Sword of Feast and Famine. That was the first time we heard about anyone playing the card, but it would become a common tandem of cards on the top tables through the weekend.”

“Clearly, WotC has been pushing a Standard environment dominated by three things:

• Planeswalkers (Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Tezzeret, Gideon Jura, Koth of the Hammer)
• Giant Monsters (Titans, Wurmcoil Engine, Baneslayer Angel)
• Cheap Creatures (Steppe Lynx, Stoneforge Mystic, Squadron Hawk, Goblin Guide)

This is in sharp contrast to the Standard I grew up with, which was dominated by:

• Instants (Fact or Fiction, Counterspell, Urza's Rage)
• Midrange Creatures (Psychatog, Flametongue Kavu, Mystic Enforcer)

Nowadays, you better figure out which of the three things you're all about and then do it really well. Since I think C has a huge edge over B and A, that's where I want to be. The ChannelFireball guys (as exemplified by Ben Stark's deck), found a way to combine C and A, without diluting either. Although not “fast” in the traditional sense of providing a dangerous clock, the ability to Mystic for a Sword and stick it on an evasion creature allowed them to provide an imminent threat and then protect/ride it to victory. Decks like Elves, which relied on creatures such as Elvish Archdruid or Ezuri, Renegade Leader, were slaughtered in Paris by people going either faster or bigger. Being stuck in the middle is a recipe for disaster.”

"There were so many great players when I was younger. The Your Move Games guys like Darwin Kastle, Rob Dougherty, Dave Humphrys, Justin Gary, Chad Ellis, to name a few. There was a guy Danny Mandel, who had a short Pro Tour stint, and Chris Manning was another who had a huge influence. These were the big names in my area when I was starting to get competitive, and things wouldn't have been the same without them. The thing about playing back then was that when a little kid qualified for a Pro Tour, YMG took you in no matter what. If you won a PTQ at the store, you got to work with and test with YMG. So when I won my first PTQ, they gave me the deck, basically, and let me test with them. I got to see how they prepared for things as a team. I don't know if I could pick out a mentor, or anything, but simply the fact that I had all of this around me helped mold things. If I'd been born anywhere other than Boston, I don't think I would have become a good Magic player.

I give complete credit to my network. They have made me what I am today.”

“Hmm. What to do, what to do? Nassif suggested that Boros, a longtime favorite of mine, might be well-positioned in the current metagame. I fired up his laptop and noticed that Boros with main-decked Hero of Oxid Ridge had nearly won the SCG event in Indianapolis. I was sold. Imagine my embarrassment then when I was forced to turn to my friends to borrow Steppe Lynxes. Someone quipped that it was the Magic equivalent of Roger Federer forgetting to bring a racket. More like John McEnroe, I thought.

For my part, I had never done less real preparation for the Constructed portion of an event. I was slightly embarrassed, but had come to grips with my fate. I planned this year to be my retirement tour, a series of disappointing but predictable finishes culminating in finally gracefully stepping away from the pro scene in San Francisco. But in Paris, as in Amsterdam, the tournament had other ideas for me. Matt and I headed back to the Hotel de Banvlle for the proverbial "final touches." As I lay in bed, my mind was racing.

Was this the beginning of the end of my Magic career? I miss my girlfriend. I think I want a 26th land. I forgot toothpaste. Why is Matt cuddling with me?

I was on the teetering edge of insanity. I woke up, tried to remember what went in a good Boros sideboard, and wrote out the following decklist.

“I definitely felt that I was on my way out of the game. I'd had basically no success at the Grand Prix level since I came back, and it seemed like even on the PTs I was a middling pro at best. Going into Amsterdam, I would have been one of the last people you predicted would go on a little run.”

“Caw-Blade is a fundamentally solid strategy that will continue to perform well despite being aimed for. It's resilient full of good cards and has two of the three best cards in the format in it (Jace and Stoneforge Mystic but not Primeval Titan).”

“This was the first event where we really prioritized meeting early (in San Diego, actually, before flying to Paris), and the first event where I feel that we really crushed it. Our deck and our results were absurd, and we felt very rewarded for the work we put in. This tournament really solidified us AS a team, and made us realize that we should treat ourselves as such. I don't have anything I would have done differently; things went about as well as they could have.”

“‘As soon as I heard them call my name for a feature match, I knew it couldn't be good,’ Luis Scott-Vargas said as he moped into the arena, but he brightened as he saw his opponent for the round. ‘If I had to battle somebody, at least it's someone I like,’ he announced, as he reached to shake Paul Rietzl's hand. Only one of them could make the Top 8, and both of them knew it.”

“Meanwhile there was still the matter of a 2,200-person Grand Prix to be settled. While most of the other players in the Top 8 of the Pro Tour chose to take a day off from Magic, Paul Rietzl—facing what he deemed to be an unwinnable matchup in the quarterfinals decided to play and see if he could not get some sort of hedge against his looming ouster in the round of eight.”

“When Paul Rietzl came to Paris, he came to game. Game he did. On Thursday, he played 8 rounds at the Pro Tour, going 6–1–1. On Friday, he secured his Top 8 position, going 6–2. Knowing that he was in the Top 8, he could have had a little rest on Saturday, in preparation for a hectic Top 8. Instead he enrolled in the GP, where after his three byes, he posted a 6–1 record.”

“Saturday morning rolled around, and it was Grand Prix time! Of course, I had no intention of actually playing, but Scott Larabee made it clear that in order to collect my Level 7 appearance fee, I would actually have to register and build a Sealed deck, at which point I'd be listed as finishing in the event. My plan was to concede to the first friend I was paired against and drop from the event to test my quarterfinals matchup with Patrick (Chapin). I never even sleeved my deck.”

“Having played his way into the Pro Tour Top 8 on Friday, Rietzl carried right on and tore it up in the Grand Prix on Saturday, finishing with a 9–1 record, just behind Kai Budde in the blue portion of the Grand Prix. That gave him a dilemma for the next morning as he had to be in two places at once.

Fortunately, Rietzl had a solution. Having play-tested his Pro Tour quarterfinal matchup against Chapin’s deck, he had branded it ‘unwinnable’ anyway. Given that he predicted a swift Pro Tour demise, Rietzl would draft for the Grand Prix then race away to the Pro Tour feature match area where Pat Chapin had promised, “I’ll try to beat you quickly”. It was a win-win situation for Rietzl—if he won the quarterfinal, then he would drop from the Grand Prix, but if he lost, he could come back and would be 9–2 and still able to play for a place in the Top 8.”

“As you may know by now, that never happened. I went 9–1 with a fairly busted B/G infect deck topped off with a Massacre Wurm and was faced with the very real prospect of having two premier events in a single day. Many people came up to me and asked me what in the heck I was doing.

“Playing Magic,” I replied. “What am I supposed to be doing?”

“As we arrived at the site, Kai again expressed bewilderment at my presence in the GP, but I explained that since my matchup with Patrick was so poor, it made sense to give myself a backup plan.”

“We identified this possibility as a risk and had adjusted the tournament structure accordingly—the Grand Prix ran on Saturday and Sunday as traditionally, but the Pro Tour took a day off on Saturday to avoid the conflict with the Grand Prix. Additionally, we started the Top 8 of the Pro Tour later than usual on Sunday (midday from what I recall) to further mitigate this potential conflict.”

“While quarterfinal opponent Paul Rietzl spent the lion's share of his Saturday Grand Prixing, I relaxed a bit did some railbirding, went shopping with my good friend Liz (Nassif's GF), and tested my matchup against Paul. It looked good but not great as careful and informed play on his part brought the matchup much closer to 60% than what it looked like in Swiss. Rietzl had tested the matchup as well and knew that it was a rough one for him (though he believed it closer to 67%). His plan was to play out our match take a loss in the GP then go back to that event and try to win that one. Easy game I guess.”

“So, we were prepared to this eventuality. When it turned out that Paul Rietzl would be in that position, we slowed down some of the rounds to let him the chance to finish playing in the GP round before going back to the PT and vice versa.”

“Sunday started earlier for Paul Rietzl than the other players in the Top 8 as he had an 8:00 A.M. date with a Draft table for day two of the GP. His plan was top draft, register his deck, take a Round 1 loss, lose to Patrick Chapin, and then resume his Grand Prix.”

“I opened a Phyrexian Crusader and forced a mediocre infect deck, quickly registering and handing in a decklist to a judge while, “PAUL RIETZL, Please report to the Pro Tour Feature Match area,” blasted over the public address system. I sprinted across the hall where the Innovator awaited and set to sleeving up my deck. Simultaneously, some lucky soul moved to 10–1 in the Grand Prix, handily defeating my empty chair.”

“A funny thing happened on the way to the Feature Match arena, though, and Rietzl swept past Chapin in three games through a combination of solid draws and excellent reads. He managed to get it done just in time, too, as pairings for Round 2 of the Grand Prix went up moments after swinging in for the win.”

“There was not much I could do Game 1, as my draw just didn't match up well to his, and he played very tight. Game 2, I was easily beating him and ended up again in a situation where I was so far ahead that I didn't see how I could lose. Rietzl, on the other hand, is a champion and looked for how to give himself the 1% chance to actually get out of the game. He needed to draw very well for several turns for me to make a few minor mistakes and for me to draw terribly, but he found the line, and I made enough mistakes while drawing poorly enough for him to turn the tables.”

“Patrick and I both agree that it's a shame this match wasn't taped in full, as Game 2 was one of the best single games of Magic we have ever played. I had to dance a careful ballet, moving around various pieces of equipment and judiciously using fetch lands to continue to pressure his life total and wear down Tumble Magnets while avoiding dying to his Wurmcoil Engine and Creeping Tar Pit. All this while protecting my important creatures from sweepers and deducing what he held in his hand by cataloguing what cards Sword of Body and Mind had removed from his library.

In the third game, a combination of a physical read and a short, innocuous question Patrick asked me convinced me that the coast was clear to commit a Plated Geopede to the board. Sure enough, he was without a red sweeper, and just like that I advanced to the semifinals.”

“I literally left my creatures and lands strewn on the table as I dashed back across the hall, where pairings were being posted for Round 12 of the Grand Prix. With a few hours before the Semis of the Pro Tour, I saw no reason yet to drop, even if I would eventually have to take another match loss. I split the next two rounds of Grand Prix Paris to move to 10–3 and readied for another Draft.”

Willoughby:

“This led to what might be the most ridiculous Sunday of play that has ever occurred at the Pro Tour. Rietzl was at the venue at 8:00 A.M., to draft in the GP. He built his deck and then scurried to the Pro Tour area to play his quarterfinals. In his quick 3–0 against Patrick Chapin, he did take a match loss in the Grand Prix. With the first Draft deck, he then went 1–1 and drafted a second time. He notched up one more win before he came to the semifinals.”

“To be honest, it was completely insane to see him playing nonstop and constantly switching gear between the Pro Tour and the Grand Prix. As far as I’m concerned, I build a whole new level of respect for Paul since there are not so many players who would be able to display such a mental dexterity.”

“I was kind of amazed that it happened. There is usually a level of cautiousness of the part of the Wizards event staff to err on the side of caution—and rightfully so—and this could have easily become a No Fun League moment. Instead, they let the excitement of the moment drive things forward, and it became another remarkable part of a remarkable weekend of Magic.”

“As Game 2 was getting underway, I got some good news. Rather than taking a match loss for failing to show up to the Grand Prix, they were bringing the Grand Prix to me! I quickly won another match with my beast of a R/G deck to take my GP record to 12–3 and returned to defeat Vincent (Lemoine).

After the semis ended, they again brought my GP match into the PT feature match area. This time, I'd have to face Marijn Lybaert.

I had time to run quickly to the bathroom and receive a few good luck wishes along the way before loading up my iPod and pacing around the feature match area, waiting for my chance at history.”

“Th[en], he played with a Grand Prix match between games, then yet another Grand Prix match after he had won the semis. To cap it all off, there was the Pro Tour final against Ben Stark.”

“Because of Caw-Blade, I feel that this was one of the more memorable PTs, as the deck led to the first Standard bannings in years.”

“Rietzl was on the play in this one. As tends to be his custom, he took his time about mulligan decisions, and he ultimately chose to send his seven back. The six didn't look too sharp either. It was a perturbed Rietzl who looked at his five-card hand, nodded, and kept.

Rietzl was still on just two lands, though, while Stark was up to 4. He had little in the way of offence, unable to break through the stream of 1/1 fliers from Stark. Rietzl started casting hawks of his own, but behind on land, he could not mount much of an offence. Stark showed a Day of Judgment, further slowing the pace of the game.

Each player knew that the longer the game went on, the more Stark was favored, but Rietzl didn't seem to have the tools to force anything through. Rietzl looked to the crowd standing near the feature match arena and saw a crowd of Ben's friends.

"That is a very bad sign," he remarked.

Jace started fatesealing, and Paul knew it was over. He didn't need to wait to see what he drew when the card stayed on top. Ben cast another Baneslayer Angel, and Rietzl extended his hand.

Ben Stark defeats Paul Rietzl 3–1 to become the Pro Tour Paris Champion! “I've been dreaming about this since I was fourteen," said Ben, suddenly struck by what he had achieved.

"Congratulations," Paul replied. "You deserve it.””

“In total in all this time, ignoring byes and his match loss for being busy with a Pro Tour match, Paul posted a record of 24–6–1 on the weekend. That is a 77% win percentage on 31 rounds of play in four days. When I spoke to him after receiving his trophy, he seemed tired, a little bemused, but happy. The loss in the finals still stung a little, but he was still chipper about filling in forms to handle the money he would receive for finishing 24th in the Grand Prix.”

“It was a cool weekend. Between the team doing well, BenS winning the PT, myself, Owen (Turtenwald), and Efro (Eric Froehlich) barely missing Top 8, and Paul Rietzl attempting to double-queue the PT and GP, there was a lot going on. I just wish Paul could have played the GP without getting a match loss, as him Top 8ing both events would have been incredible”

“Flying home, I'll be happy. I came to play and I don't think anyone has played more Magic than me this weekend."

“The Standard metagame is stagnant and unhealthy at the moment, and has been for months. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is appearing in winning deck lists an alarming percentage of the time, with Stoneforge Mystic appearing almost as often. For reference, 88% of the decks in Day 2 of Grand Prix Singapore contained multiple copies of Jace, and almost 70% of the Day 2 decks contained Stoneforge Mystic. The numbers from Pro Tour Qualifiers and independent large events like the StarCityGames.com Open Series look very similar.

We haven't seen cards dominate the field like this, possibly ever. Even in the heyday of Affinity (the last deck to require such drastic measures in Standard), we weren't seeing anything like this level of homogeneity. When you realize that both cards, besides being dominant in Standard, are top tier in Constructed formats of all sizes up to and including Legacy (and even Vintage for Jace), it becomes harder and harder to argue that the cards are anything but flat-out too powerful.”

“My first takeaway was that experimenting is the best way to learn!

On paper, combining a Grand Prix and a Pro Tour seemed to be like the best thing ever; we were thinking that each event would become better because of the proximity of the other one.

Instead, it’s quite the opposite that happened. Both events ended up competing, not only logistically, and also from a narrative standpoint.

It created some confusion, and players did not know anymore what to pay attention to!

As an example, I remember my excitement when I realized that Kai Budde was in the Top 8 of the Grand Prix. However, there was so much happening on site that it was completely lost and most people on site were not even aware of this performance.

I also had the opportunity to discuss with a number of players participating in the Grand Prix (it helps that French is my native language!), and it turned out that the fact there was a Pro Tour at the same time was not adding (at all!) to their excitement. They were there for participating in Grand Prix, period.

And overall, the event was truly overwhelming because of the number of moving parts and sheer amount of concurrent activities. I felt that the overall quality of the event suffered from the overabundance of events.”

“Having played the event, I found that the GP part wasn't as notable as I thought. It took some attention away from the PT, while also being less important than a normal GP because of the PT overshadowing it. I don't think I'd repeat this experiment, and it hasn't been repeated since.”

“It was really a turning point; I realized that trying to do too much is often detrimental to the quality of execution of every component. Better to run separately a Grand Prix and a Pro Tour and have perfect execution for each.

This realization triggered the decision to stop running side events at Pro Tour (focus became our motto) and find alternative ways to deliver a great experience for the attendees.

It also encouraged us to continue innovating and take some calculated risks—ultimately, Modern Masters Weekend was made possible because of Magic Weekend. We will keep going in this direction, refine our programs, and experiment, as a way to offer a better and better experience to Magic players!”

“There wasn't one specific thing that made me kind of rededicate myself. Actually, there were probably four major factors. The first was the formation of the Pantheon (this was before sponsorship by SCG or CFB or anyone). Feeling like I'd actually have a shot to be prepared for the tournaments made it a lot easier to get onto their airplanes and leave home. The second was being Platinum in the Pro Players Club. Even for some tournaments, I may not have been my best; I felt compelled to attend by the equity of platinum. The third was the set Innistrad. Like many people, Innistrad reinvigorated my love for Magic, specifically drafting. Finally, with three PT Top 8s at the time, the possibility of one day being inducted into the Pro Tour Hall of Fame did enter my mind. It seemed like a longshot, but it's a lot easier to keep plugging along and try to spike another tournament than it is to quit for a few years and try to come back again.”

“I got to see some important moments at a recent Grand Prix Minneapolis involving Paul that I think speak highly of his character and sportsmanship, both of which occurred on Day 2.

I saw Paul go to time in one of his matches against a player I didn’t recognize. Paul had a completely dominating board presence, and his Courser of Kruphix revealed even more answers on top of his library. His opponent had no cards in hand and effectively no chance of winning.

Paul calmly and politely explained the situation, something along the lines of: “I’m just going to put my hand on the table here so you can take a look at it. A draw’s no good for either of us, and I think you’d agree both that I played at a reasonable pace all match and that I’d clearly win this match if it went to its natural conclusion. Would you be willing to concede?”

The opponent declined (and please understand I’m not trying to get into the ethics of the situation here).

Paul didn’t push him. Paul didn’t get upset. Paul simply said, ‘OK.’ They filled out the match slip, and Paul wished his opponent good luck in the later rounds.

Two rounds later, Paul again went to time, only this time, the situation was reversed. Paul was the one up against the ropes, and it was clear that, if the match played out with more time, he would not win.

Clearly, a professional player is looking for all the points, and all the highest finishes he can get. And especially after what just happened two rounds earlier, Paul could’ve easily been tilted by his opponent’s lack of concession and used it to (try to) justify not conceding here as well. But Paul didn’t do any of those things.

Paul conceded.

It’s rare to get to see someone on both sides of the situation so closely together, and was a relief to see Paul behave incredibly sporting both times.”

“I think of the quote from the last The Matrix movie. There are levels of survival I am willing to accept. I work hard to keep my priorities straight. My family is first, my job is second, and my hobbies are dead last. I've figured out at this point what I want from Magic—friends and competition. I'm not interested in acclaim or feeling clever or anything like that. I want to give myself a chance to win a World Championship before I hang it up. That said, to fit Magic into my life, I make sure the time I DO spend on Magic is used preparing myself for tournaments. That means lots of format-relevant practice and (sadly) very little Cube. As long as I'm Platinum, I will still find a way to attend all the Pro Tours. But I'm very particular about the Grand Prix I attend—no connecting flights, nothing over three hours away, nothing that will cause me to miss work. I'm past the part of my life where I can go to everything and take redeye flights. And I never attend a tournament that can't contribute to my goal of winning Worlds.

How highly the deeply enfranchised (read: old) players prioritize Magic is really the only obstacle to their continued success. Certainly if children or a career cause people to completely forgo preparation—sure, those players will fade away. But Magic has a built-in mechanism to mitigate the deleterious effect of aging. Namely, it significantly rewards experience. Pattern recognition goes a long way.

It was a wild weekend for me. I showed up the day before the event, copied a decklist from an SCG Open. I'd never drafted the new set. But man was I relaxed. I had absolutely no pressure because I had no expectations. So I never thought big picture. It was just shuffle, make a good mulligan decision, play my Steppe Lynx, curve out perfectly, mana screw this guy, open a perfect Sealed deck, etc.”

“The Pro Tour and the Grand Prix just blended together. You know how sometimes you are drafting with your friends and all of a sudden it's 2:00 A.M., 4:00 A.M., wait, is that the sun? That was my four days in Paris—just a whirlwind. I'm lucky that experience happened to me when I was 25 and before I was elected to the Hall of Fame. I didn't have time to get bogged down in the history of what was happening. I was too busy having a blast. I guess, on some level, that's always been my approach to Magic. Stay loose, try my best, let it go at the end of the day and go grab a beer.”