The Week That Was: Bringing the Enjoyable to a Format

Four codecs in about 4 fortnights. That’s lots of Fs in a single sentence, and I’ll throw in another to explain Alex Kans’s present aggressive Magic run: enjoyable.

“The Arena Championship was Historic, the Regional Championship in Washington, DC, was Standard, I’m testing for a new Limited format at the Pro Tour in Amsterdam, and I’m testing Modern for that Pro Tour,” the Maryland native defined. “It’s a lot of Magic.”

That it’s—and that is simply good for Kans. The 24-year-old picked up the sport a decade in the past in highschool and, after discovering Paul Cheon’s and Luis Scott-Vargas’s movies on ChannelFireball, determined that he would make it to the Pro Tour. But an otherworldly prodigy he was not, and after a while leveling up, he doubted whether or not he may ever make it in any respect.

“I took a break for a while, but some friends in college introduced me to cEDH. I got into that, and the competitive itch came back—I played in a Duskmourn: House of Horror Pro Tour Qualifier in Vegas and got a Pro Tour invite. I’ve been there since Pro Tour Aetherdrift,” Kans recounted. “I haven’t had a major finish there, but I’m going into my sixth Pro Tour in Amsterdam, testing again with Team The Boulder Merlion.”

His doubts, evidently, had been misplaced. And the final month of Magic has taken Kans from one other title on the Pro Tour to a breakout star due to unimaginable runs at two very completely different tournaments.

Alex Kans was already a Pro Tour common, however with back-to-back Top 8 runs at Arena Championship 12 and the United States Regional Championship, he is now on his option to the World Championship.

The first was Arena Championship 12 final month. As Kans talked about, the format of selection for opponents was Historic, an MTG Arena-only format with a group of die-hard gamers however much less main occasions for opponents to research forward of the occasion. Suddenly, gamers comfy with knowledge instruments discovered themselves with little to no knowledge to mixture as they examined for an occasion that is the net equal of a Pro Tour and awards World Championship invitations.

Or, as Kans put it, they bought to have lots of enjoyable.

“It was almost like a purer form of Magic, no netdecking possible,” Kans recalled. “I play MTG Arena a lot for fun, and I thought the Historic gameplay was good. We were going into random Discords, looking for any lists that seemed good. I was looped in with a testing group, and they kept playing this black-white deck. I felt like it would never win, but they promised it was great. Then Phoenix was the breakout deck from the Qualifier Weekend, and that threw a wrench into everyone’s perception of the metagame.”

It did, and with good purpose. Izzet Phoenix ended up because the second most performed deck within the area of over 100 gamers. But Kans would not be discovered on the favored and acquainted archetype. Instead, he opted to proceed a development that has helped him discover success on his option to the Pro Tour and on the Pro Tour stage: going his personal method on deck choice.

That’s what he did at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, when his group put collectively the breakout Izzet Spellementals deck that took the format by storm and has gone on to develop into a key cog within the Standard metagame wheel. And that is what he did on the Arena Championship when he could not fairly put his finger on what felt off in regards to the Ketramose, the New Dawn listing he was testing within the days main as much as the occasion.

“I couldn’t explain it well to my teammates, but I just hated the vibes on the Ketramose and Relic of Progenitus package,” he defined. “It felt a little clunky, a little ‘A plus B,’ with complicated sideboarding, too. That package just did not spark joy.”

Kans went to the drafting board within the last days earlier than what would transform the largest event of his life.

2 Swamp
4 Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd
2 Witch Enchanter
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Prismatic Vista
4 Thoughtseize
4 Juggernaut Peddler
4 Dedicated Dollmaker
4 Fragment Reality
1 Momentum Breaker
2 Boggart Trawler
4 Porcine Portent
2 Plains
2 Hopeless Nightmare
2 Nurturing Pixie
3 Naktamun Shines Again
4 Godless Shrine
4 Brightclimb Pathway
4 Overlord of the Balemurk


4 Deafening Silence
1 Dismember
1 Parallax Wave
3 Rest in Peace
2 Containment Priest
4 Clarion Conqueror

“I wasn’t getting good vibes on those cards, so I swapped them out to make my curve more aggressive with Nurturing Pixie and Naktamun Shines Again,” Kans mentioned. “I’m super happy with how my deck turned out. It had a very cohesive gameplan, and I could side out anything I wanted and not be restricted. I couldn’t necessarily explain it, but I went off vibes and it paid off. I qualified for the World Championship, which is surreal.”

The solely factor Kans’s fittingly historic run on the Arena Championship did not ship to him was the trophy. (Satoshi Nakayama gained the occasion with Golgari Yawgmoth.) But it instilled Kans with confidence, simply in time for the Regional Championship within the United States. And now, with no strain on his end in Washington, DC, Kans went again to his roots, and began testing Standard decks.

“Back at the Pro Tour, I had a green-white deck in the back of my mind that could work at the Pro Tour, and I kept trying to play “Green-White Timmys,” as my teammates called it. But we were really excited about Spellementals for the Pro Tour and the matchup into that was bad, so I shelved it.”

But after watching Matt Nass make it to the Top 8 of the Pro Tour with a green-white tackle Landfall that made some daring adjustments, Kans was able to take an opportunity of his personal.

“I started working on the deck after the Arena Championship,” Kans recalled. “Then I got into a server with the Team Scrapheap guys, and they came up with a very good list. The core of the list I brought to DC was refined by Scrapheap, and the inclusion of Brightglass Gearhulk and Shardmage’s Rescue was a huge part of the deck. Plus, Practiced Offense is making an impact. Ouroboroid takes two or three turns to mature into a game-winning threat, and Practiced Offense does that right away.”

3 Surrak, Elusive Hunter
4 Starting Town
2 Keen-Eyed Curator
4 Temple Garden
5 Forest
2 Seam Rip
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Badgermole Cub
3 Gene Pollinator
4 Practiced Offense
4 Brightglass Gearhulk
1 Shardmage’s Rescue
1 Multiversal Passage
4 Hushwood Verge
3 Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker
2 Meltstrider’s Resolve
3 Abandoned Air Temple
4 Pawpatch Recruit
2 Plains
1 Nurturing Pixie


2 Erode
4 Sheltered by Ghosts
1 Rest in Peace
1 Goldvein Hydra
3 Restoration Magic
2 Balustrade Wurm
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Zack Fair

No strain, in fact. He got here to the occasion with a deck design endorsed by one of many prime groups within the nation and hoped to attempt to break one other format. That angle is precisely what brings Kans to the desk.

“I finished Day One with a 9-0 record, and I had people ask if I was going to drop and play in the Limited Championship Qualifier since I was already qualified for the World Championship,” he defined. “I mentioned ‘No method. I would like a trophy.’

“I wasn’t around for Vivi Cauldron, but every time people have said Standard is stale, I’ve been playing a less-popular deck. I was playing Boros Monument at Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™. People don’t take the time to really dive in. There’s no way Magic is fully explored, and this past year has really opened my eyes to that. Nothing is remotely solved.”

The trophy eluded Kans once more, however the second main Top 8 in a row is nonetheless the precise form of breakthrough that Kans and people who check with him often have been holding out for. Achieving constant Pro Tour Top Finishes implies that somebody is greater than proficient sufficient to belong there. At that time, success can come all the way down to exterior components like group preparation. Since becoming a member of up with The Boulder Merlion, that is an space Kans feels he is extra ready for than ever earlier than—and he is already waiting for the following main occasion the place he may maintain this rambunctious run going.

“I’m heading to the Team Limited event in Las Vegas at the end of the month (Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes), and I’m playing with Huaxing Bai and Andy Garcia-Romo. I’m very excited for the event,” he mentioned. “My goals have shifted from when I first started on the Pro Tour. I’m gunning for one of those Top Finishes there, and my goal is to win. There’s no reason I can’t do it at this point.”

Kans and tons of of different Magic gamers are finalizing their plans for Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes, the place they will compete for money prizes, promo playing cards, and invites to the Pro Tour. But past that, the aggressive Magic world is fervently getting ready for Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes, which kicks off at MagicCon: Amsterdam on July 17. And who is aware of? If his pension for wild deck constructing pays off, we might even see Kans hoist the trophy.