Going Pro

Many moons ago when I was a college student full of piss and vinegar, I had all kinds of time on my hands. Every weekend, my friends and I played Magic on Saturday nights and entered the tournaments on Sunday mornings. I was good too, because I was smart. I studied the cards, knew how they went together, saw things that other people overlooked - a real stickler for the more unintuitive aspects of the game. I knew that good decks always had a Plan B and that really good decks had a Plan C.

How good was I? Well, I was in the top 100 in Alabama at one time. Not a great accomplishment by any standards, but I often received invites to be in bigger tournaments. I actually went to the Regionals one year. It was fun. I often thought about the Pro Tour. I'll never forget how I felt when my friends and I watched Jon Finkel utterly destroy his opponent using his Tinker deck. This is back when the Pro Tour actually aired on ESPN. The twinkle that Finkel got in his eyes as he tapped his Metalworker and flopped down an entire hand full of artifacts really inspired me. I built my own Tinker deck shortly after that and occasionally play it still, though it has been modified many times throughout the years. It's still one of my strongest decks and every time I play it, I think about Finkel. But more importantly, I think about the Pro Tour.

After college, I moved to Georgia and practically dropped off the face of the earth. Sure Georgia has Magic, and actually plenty of tournaments. I just took a while to get established and then started playing more and more home games - where it doesn't matter if your deck is standard, extended, legal, illegal or even proxy and absolutly zero DCI points are awarded.

So where do I stand now? I'm not a kid any more. But is this game really just a kid's game? Absolutely not. I've been listening to podcasts covering the Pro Tour and these guys are around my age. I listen to the decks that they build and the plays they make. These guys are pros and I'm sitting here thinking one thing - I can beat them...or at least hang with them. Pro players stand a chance at making a lot of money, about $45,000 to the winner. Hell, the legendary Shadowmage Infiltrator himself, Jon Finkel, won a total of $291,869.00 in his career on the Pro Tour...and he's only the number 2 all-time money winner.

What makes me think I have a shot? Well, a couple of things. A few weeks ago, I was looking through my cards, just from the Alara block. I got that old feeling, seeing how some cards go together, thinking of exactly how I could exploit the rules. I put together a deck that seemed to be just right. Even as I was building it, I kept thinking about how much it reminded me of my Tinker deck because of the way it flowed, and then all the feelings of wanting to play in the Pro Tour came back. I took the deck to a home game and played it against my friends. It worked so well. It was complete. It was efficient. Every card had a purpose and they all worked perfectly together. My friends were impressed. I've played several more games with this deck, winning almost every one of them. And this is not just a Standard deck, but a Block deck and it was wiping up the floor with Extended BS decks!

Do I want to do this for the money? No, I have a good job. The prestige? That's nice, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I honestly and with all sincerity just want to do this to prove to myself that I can - prove that I'm still relevant in the world of CCGs and perhaps it is an attempt to both recapture my youth and to explore the options that I didn't back then. Exactly why didn't I go for it back then anyway? Well, I was scared and I was lazy. I was in college on a schoolastic scholarship and I didn't want to lose that. I just didn't think that I could balance competition at a higher level with all the educational and social aspects that go along with pursuing a college degree.

So what now? In all honesty, there's a very good chance that I'll just fade back into obscurity and continue to play home games, having fun with my friends. There's nothing wrong with that. I love my friends and I love just relaxing in casual play, but I wouldn't exactly be pursuing my dream. However, if my years of playing D&D has taught me anything, there's always a chance at success...and always a 5% chance at a critical success! It is my hope that I can get involved in a few local tournaments, get back on the DCI's radar, slowly working my way up the circuit and who knows - one day get that magical blue envelope, an invite to the Pro Tour.