MTG Pro Tutor - Insights, Tips & Advice from Magic: The Gathering Pros

Rich Hoaen is known for his skill in Limited formats and has one Pro Tour top 8, four Pro Tour 16s, three Grand Prix wins and five other Grand Prix top 8s!! He was also the runner up in the last ever Magic Invitational. Evaluation Tips Become intimately familiar with the combat tricks and their casting cost. This is essential for success in Limited play. Limited Tips Drafting: Figure out what colors the players to your right are NOT in or figure out what color is open at the table. These two methods are the basics of figuring out what colors you should play. Team Building Don't be a jerk and find players that are better than you. Improvement Get a commons box and learn card interactions. Magic Resource Cockatrice (free tool) Connect With Rich @rhoaen Like What You Hear? If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review. Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content. I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

Rich Hoaen is known for his skill in Limited formats and has one Pro Tour top 8, four Pro Tour 16s, three Grand Prix wins and five other Grand Prix top 8s!! He was also the runner up in the last ever Magic Invitational. First Set Weatherlight Favorite Set Odyssey block Favorite Card Battlefield Medic Early Challenge Coming to grips that he wasn't as good as he thought. It took a better player pointing out his misplays for Rich to realize he had much to learn. Level Up Moment Cheating is totally unacceptable and Rich learned early how abhorring it is when a team confessed to having cheated in a tournament they won. Proudest Magic Moment Winning Grand Prix Montreal (2011) Best Format Limited Current Standard Deck Rich only plays when he has to but is currently on a mono red build. Biggest Mistake Players Make Blaming games on luck. At lower levels players do this all the time, and it's wrong. Connect With Rich @rhoaen Like What You Hear? If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review. Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content. I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

Dan Jordan has 3 Pro Tour top 16s, 4 Grand Prix top 8s, and 4 Star City Games Open wins under his belt. He has also top 75'd another Pro Tour and has cashed in numerous other Grand Prix. Evaluation Tips Dan admits to being a terrible card evaluator but still thinks about cards as they are released and their possible impact on Standard. Limited Tips Sealed: Identify a deck plan and build around that. Draft: Be very mindful of your mana curve. Team Building Find A team. Ideally you'll want a team with Pro players but if you can't find one then just get on A team that play tests regularly. Play Testing Take good notes and don't waste play testing time. Be mindful of "inbred" play testing. Improvement Invest in Standard and stick with your deck as you improve and move up to bigger tournaments. Magic Resource The Elephant Method (you just have to read it for yourself) Connect With Dan @DanJordanMTG Like What You Hear? If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review. Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content. I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

Dan Jordan has 3 Pro Tour top 16s, 4 Grand Prix top 8s, and 4 Star City Games Open wins under his belt. He has also top 75'd another Pro Tour and has cashed in numerous other Grand Prix. First Set Urza's Destiny Apacolypse was his first booster pack. Favorite Set Ravnica: City of Guilds Dan loved the complexity and depth of the set. Favorite Card Dark Confidant What makes Magic fun for you? The life long friends you make and get to travel the world with is the best part about the game. Early Challenge Due to an early success, Dan struggled with understanding that you're not going to win every tournament. You have to put in effort and stay on top of your game. Level Up Moment Watching the best players in the world and asking "why are they the best?" "What are they doing that I'm not doing?" Proudest Magic Moment Placing in GP New Jersey. Best Format Legacy; casting Brainstorm is so much fun. Biggest Mistake Players Make Not practicing enough. Get on Magic Online and play and play and play. Play with people who are better than you. Connect With Dan @DanJordanMTG Like What You Hear? If you like the show, head on over to iTunes and leave an honest Rating & Review. Let me know what you like and what I can do better so I can make the show the best it can be and continue bringing you valuable content. I read every single one and look forward to your feedback.

Evaluation Tips Compare new cards to old, similar cards. That's why constantly playing Limited is important. Limited Tips Don't force a deck around pet cards that you like. Be willing to switch colors and ditch your first few picks if another strategy presents itself. Play Testing There is no substitute for practice. Use proxies or an online client to get reps in with a deck before you decide to invest in it. Check out: Magic: The Gathering Proxy Generator - Input the cards you need and the site will generate card images the perfect size to print, cut out and sleeve up. Cockatrice - An online client to build decks and play against yourself to test things out. Improvement Organize your board in a consistent way that makes sense to you. ie Creatures by power in descending order. Find something that works for you and be consistent. Magic Resource Puca Trade Send and receive cards from everywhere! We also talked about how to tell if a card is fake. Interview Links LSV set reviews on Channel Fireball Limited Resources The Magic Show Connect With A.E. Marling @AEMarling A.E. Marling on Facebook

A.E. Marling has won a Modern Star City Games invitational qualifier and has been one game away from the Pro Tour TWICE. He writes the incredibly popular and gratefully useful Foolproof Magic series for GatheringMagic. He is also a cosplayer, a Level 20 flavor judge, and a fantasy author. Mr. Foolproof Magic Himself A.E. shared some amazing tips all throughout the episode and I'd be remiss if I didn't try to catch them here for you. Consume Magic event coverage. Watch what the pros are doing and learn from their successes as well as mistakes. Play your land "in isolation" to create a visual queue that you've played a land this turn. That way you won't accidentally play two lands in a turn. Organize your board in an easy-to-track way. Bottom line: Develop a system that works for you and use the Foolproof Magic articles as a spring board into systematic. The Foolproof Magic suite: Foolproof Magic Foolproof Magic 2 Foolproof Magic 3 First Set Revised Favorite Set Innistrad Favorite Card Arcbound Ravager What makes Magic fun for you? The imagery and imagination are so fascinating while the mental sport is captivating. Early Challenge Feeling like he deserved to win and then tilting when he didn't was A.E.'s biggest struggle. One mistake cost him a tournament when he was young and this drove him away for a time. A.E. eventually realized that losing because you made a mistake is one of the beauties of Magic: The Gathering. Level Up Moment Realizing that your decisions matter and Magic is a game that when you make a mistake you lose. That's awesome because it shows that every choice is important. Best Format Sealed / Draft and Modern Biggest Mistake Players Make Tilting and not understand why it happens or how to control/curb it. We had a great discussion about stoicism and it's application to Magic. Connect With A.E. Marling @AEMarling

Shaun shares lessons learned from Grand Prix Las Vegas 2015 so you will be better prepared for your next big event. This episode is especially useful if you've never been to a Grand Prix or other premiere Magic: The Gathering event. Preparing for Big Events 1. Go! If it's within a 4 hour drive you should go. 2. See which artists are going to be there and prep your cards 3. Go with a friend to double up on card signing 4. Prepare What’s the format? Review the set by looking at spoilers, reading articles, listening to podcasts (like Limted Resources) and watching event coverage. Play test your deck a TON. There is no substitute for playing. 5. Arrive early Get into town the day before the event starts. Crash at a friend's house, stay at a local hotel or find a place on Air BnB. Go with a group of friends to reduce travel costs or take your family on a mini vacation and stay an extra day to reconnect with them and explore the city after your event. 6. Bring spending money (make sure it's cash) You may want cards signed, singles, swag or to get into side events, all of which require some extrah moola. 7. Sleep Get a good night's sleep the day before your event. You will want to be well rested so your mind is sharp. 8. Take food Eat a good breakfast in the morning and take water, snacks and a meal with you. You'll be busy all day and will want some fuel to keep your biology balanced. This will help keep your mind on Magic and off your stomach. 9. Play all the rounds You’re there to play, so stay and play. You will learn so much just by playing all the rounds. 10. Call a judge Don't be afraid to call the judge to ask questiosn or to point out something that happened. They are there to help. My big take-away was to call a judge on a slow playing opponent. I should have and didn't so I received a draw. 11. HAVE FUN!

Randy Buehler has 8 Grand Prix top 8’s, including a win and 5 Pro Tour top 16’s, including a win! His professional Magic career was cut short when he took a position at Wizards of the Coast, eventually becoming director of Magic R&D and then Vice-President of Digital Games. He has since moved on from Wizards but has never missed a Pro Tour as he is the voice of the Pro Tour webcast. Randy is a class of 2007 member of the Magic Hall of Fame. Limited Tips Understand what is critical mass. You can get more synergy in draft than in sealed. Through practice you can identify how many synergistic cards you'll actually need to make the strategy work. If you don't have that mass than just play what is good. Look at your rares and try to build around them. Don't lose track of what you're actually doing by spending a bunch of brain power on trying to remember EVERY thing you've passed. Don't force colors in draft. Open your first pack and just look at the cards, pick the best card, remember the ones you almost picked and look to the next pack. Shoot for two colors with a good curve. For mana, start with 17 lands and count the pips of your cards and match your lands with the ratio of pips. Double mana symbol cards are very intensive in Limited. Avoid splashing them. Preparing for Big Events Be familiar with the results of previous events before yours. How does your deck hold up against the decks that did well? Play Testing When you are play testing your brew make sure you always run it against a gauntlet deck. Running your brew against a buddy's brew is not good play testing. Team Building Find people you get along with and have similar goals. However, if you don't have a team you can embrace Magic: The Gathering Online and play whenever you want. Improvement If you have a limited budget find players with similar card access as you so you don't get constantly crushed. Find where you are good (try Magic Online) and focus on that format to build your collection. Magic Resource MTG Gold Fish Connect With Randy @rbuehler

Randy Buehler has 8 Grand Prix top 8’s, including a win and 5 Pro Tour top 16’s, including a win! His professional Magic career was cut short when he took a position at Wizards of the Coast, eventually becoming director of Magic R&D and then Vice-President of Digital Games. He has since moved on from Wizards but has never missed a Pro Tour as he is the voice of the Pro Tour webcast. Randy is a class of 2007 member of the Magic Hall of Fame. First Set Homelands Favorite Set Invasion - First set Randy worked on at Wizards R&D Ravnica - First set done with processes and people that Randy put in place and hired. It was awesome seeing a set come together by people he brought on board. Favorite Card Necropotence What makes Magic fun for you? The competitive aspect of the game keeps Randy engaged. The small puzzles, the overall strategy the challenge of facing off with an opponent is so addicting to those who seek to prove they are the best at something. Early Challenge Your circle of players is a huge factor of how good you are. Finding players that are better than you is the BEST way to improve. Best Format Vintage - It's really the only format he can play on a semi competitive level because he can't play at premier events. (His wife currently works for Wizards of the Coast so he can't play at events because he's the immediate family member of a Wizards employee.) Current Standard Deck Randy plays "all the decks" so he can be familiar with lines of play for coverage. He's excited to look into Turbo Fog and Rally the Ancestors deck. Biggest Mistake Players Make Obsessing about luck. Instead of turning the focus outward and saying you lost because of bad luck you should turn the focus inward and say "what did I do wrong?" "How could I have played better?" Connect With Randy @rbuehler

Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa has 9 PT top 8s, 17 GP top 8s, and is a 2-time National Champion. He's the youngest Hall of Famer in the history of Magic: The Gathering! Evaluation Tips First: Compare cards to something that is familiar to you. Can you compare a new card to a similar card you've played in a different, past format?Second: With completely new cards think of what shell would best fit the card. Go through and look at every card that interacts with the new cards. Limited Tips Determine if the set is a fast format. If it is look for more 2 drops and other cheap cards. In Sealed, identify what's good and play that. At a pre-release your goal should be to feel the set out and learn about the set. Play things you normally wouldn't to test them out. When drafting, don't try to remember everything you pass. Remember the general color, cards that you almost picked, and cards that are good against you. Beginner Tip: When drafting, focus on building a deck instead of picking good cards. Don't worry so much about signals and what's you're passing, just focus on building a good deck with a good curve. Team Building Find people with the same goal as you and that you get a long with. Play Testing There is no substitute for playing with like-minded people of similar or better skill levels than. The best way to get better is to compete. Go to those Grand Prix' near you and you will learn a ton. Limited Budget Improvement Build a standard deck and stick with it the whole season to save money. Build a cube or repack booster packs after a draft to practice Limited play on a limited budget. Magic Resource Paulo's weekly articles on Channel Fireball are great for all players. Interview Links Channel Fireball Connect With Paulo @PVDDR

Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa has 9 PT top 8s, 17 GP top 8s, and is a 2-time National Champion. He's the youngest Hall of Famer in the history of Magic: The Gathering! First Set 4th Edition Homelands Favorite Set Paulo likes formats better than individual sets. He reflects on whether a format had a deck he liked. Some that stand out to him are: Lorowyn Innistrad Kamigawa Favorite Card Vendilion Clique What makes Magic fun for you? The people. Making friends all over the world and being able to see them on a regular basis is tons of fun. Early Challenge Being stranded in London the day of the terrorist attacks taught Paulo that people are more willing to help than you think. Level Up Moment Forming team Channel Fireball. Surrounding yourself and playing with people who are better than you is the best way to level up. Proudest Magic Moment Making first GP top 8 in Charleston 2006. (Unified Ravnica Block Constructed) Winning PT San Juan 2010. (Draft / Block Constructed) Hall of Fame 2012. (Seattle) Best Format Legacy. People who play Legacy often don't play other formats. Paulo feels his experience across the board gives him an edge in Legacy. Best PT format is Standard. Paulo is not emotionally attached to decks. He can objectively build, test and abandon decks. Current Standard Deck Esper Dragons. But might move off that with the release of Origins. Biggest Mistake Players Make Not thinking of the big picture. Do not look at a game as a series of turns. Look at the game as a whole that happens to have turns in it. What is your plan? What is your opponent's plan? How do you want to win? How does he want to win? Consider those overall questions and determine how it impacts your plays. Connect With Paulo Twitter: @PVDDR

Limited Tips You have the smallest card pool and the least amount of control in Sealed, that's what makes it a challenge to master. You only see 6 packs worth of product. In Booster draft you see several hundred cards and get to pick colors and combinations. Find people who are better than you and discuss Sealed strategies. Be open to criticism. Drafting: Know which uncommons and commons could be signals before you sit down so you only have to take note of 3-5 cards in each pack. Team Building Pro Tour teams are very calculated and essential but at lower levels it's hard to crack the meta game because there are SO many participants. Play Testing Look for the crux of each match instead of just recording win/loss ratios for each match up. Improvement Walk around your game store after a FNM or draft, people leave product all the time that you can snatch up and re-pack. Build a realistic, limited cube so you can practice drafting over and over again without spending a bunch of money. Magic Resource TCG Player - More beginner friendly content Channel Fireball - Higher level content aimed at Pro Tours Interview Links MTG Potpourri Podcast - Conley's very own podcast Connect with Conley Twitter - @Conley81

First Set 8th Edition Mirrodin was his first booster pack Favorite Set Rise of the Eldrazi Shards of Alara block Favorite Card Wee Dragonauts What makes Magic fun for you? Magic is a creative outlet. Building decks and exploring Limited keeps Conley hooked. Early Challenge Being a "pet deck" building. Taking random cards and build a deck around it. Level Up Moment Being in a flow state at Worlds 2011 Proudest Magic Moment Winning Grand Prix Orlando Best Format Modern = favoriteStandard = best Current Standard Deck Testing Bant Fog for his column // Mono black aggro Biggest Mistake Players Make Most people play too fast without thinking through their entire turn in their head before taking an action. Have a plan.

Andrew Brown is a dedicated control player who loves sleeving islands and punishing forests. He won GP Denver 2015 and is on the map for up coming Pro Tours. He manages Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica CA where Magic is his life. Evaluation Tips Wait until the entire set has been spoiled. Otherwise you might waste energy evaluating a card and thinking it's good only to find that when another card is spoiled it makes the first one terrible. Limited Tips Get advice from those who are better than you on pick orders, mana bases and every other aspect you want to improve. Team Building Teams are essential. Show the drive to improve and ask the good players in your store to play with them as they prepare for big events. Play Testing Discussion with fellow players leading into test matches and followed by more discussion helps everyone identify weak and strong areas. Improvement Magic takes a significant amount of time and isn't cheap. Those who want to perform at the highest levels will make it work. Magic Resource Identify people who are better than you and constantly talk about Magic with them.

Andrew Brown is a dedicated control player who loves sleeving islands and punishing forests. He won GP Denver 2015 and is on the map for up coming Pro Tours. He manages Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica CA where Magic is his life. First Set Champions of Kamigawa Favorite Set Rise of the Eldrazi Favorite Card Jorubai Murklurker What makes Magic fun for you? It's not just a hobby. It's a career and a way of life. Early Challenge Beat the guy who ran the events at his local game store when Andrew first started. Level Up Moment Realizing that tier 1 decks are tier 1 for a reason. Piloting a good deck instead of making up your own allows you to capture all the effort put into the deck by others. Proudest Magic Moment Winning GP Denver 2015 Best Format Limited - Draft Current Standard Deck Blue Black control Biggest Mistake Players Make Big mistake at big tournaments: Some players focus on the bad beat stories and generate negativity; this does nothing for you. BE POSITIVE! Small mistakes at small tournaments: People focus on the money aspect of Magic at the local store too much. When you show up to play at an FNM focus on playing.

Jon Finkel's prolific talents and sterling resume earned him the nickname "Jonny Magic" long ago. After a substantial hiatus, Jon Finkel returned to the Pro Tour and immediately demonstrated why he's widely considered the greatest player of all time by winning PT Kuala Lampur in 2008 and Top 8'ing PT Avacyn Restored and PT Dark Ascension in 2012. Evaluation Tips Rather than opening up the spoiler every week to see what's new, Jon gets the best grasp on a new set simple by drafting it. Limited Tips In Sealed you'll get powerful bombs that you really want to play but your deck will be less stream lined than in draft.If there are two good black cards don't take a slightly worse red card because you "don't want to fight for black". Just pick the best card. Team Building Having a team is critical to improving. Find the best players you can but make sure you get along with them personally because you'll be spending a lot of time with them. Improvement Take advantage of draft simulators. Rebuild packs with friends so you can draft. Beg, borrow and use proxies if you're on a budget and need to test deck ideas.Be critical of your plays so you can improve Interview Links MTG Salvation Spoilers Connect with Jon Twitter: @Jonnymagic00

Jon Finkel's prolific talents and sterling resume earned him the nickname "Jonny Magic" long ago. After a substantial hiatus, Jon Finkel returned to the Pro Tour and immediately demonstrated why he's widely considered the greatest player of all time by winning PT Kuala Lampur in 2008 and Top 8'ing PT Avacyn Restored and PT Dark Ascension in 2012. First Set Antiquities (1994) Favorite Set Innistrad (2011) - "Was the pinnacle of Limted set design." Favorite Card Desperate Ravings What makes Magic fun for you? The depth of the game and the ability to add on to the basic framework through the expansions is what keeps Jon engaged. Early Challenge Not running enough lands in control decks and not playing 60 card decks. Level Up Moment Realizing that playing other decks outside your comfort zone can lead to growth and improvement as a player, not to mention better results. Proudest Magic Moment Making first Pro Tour Top 8 at Chicago in 1997 Best Format Draft Biggest Mistake Players Make Not being open to playing the best deck. Not playing Magic with the intention to improve. You need to be conscious of what you play and how you play so you can improve. Connect with Jon Finkel Twitter: @Jonnymagic00

Patrick Chapin, "The Innovator," is a Hall of Famer, Pro Tour Champion, and 5-time PT Top 8 competitor. Author of Next Level Magic and Next Level Deckbuilding, his articles can be found on StarCityGames.com and podcast at TopLevelPodcast.com. Evaluation Tips Look at every card and ask: "Why was this card printed? Who is it for? HOW can I use this card?" Limited Tips Sealed is often slower but more powerful (compared to draft) because you have six booster packs instead of three. This leads to bomb centric decks. Focus on the key cards you passed, not every card in the pack. Team Building Use message groups and in person meetings to collaborate with your team. You will only improve to the level of the best player in your group. Bring your group up and/or find more talent if you're the best in your group. Play Testing Constant communication with teammate as well as taking the two weeks before a Pro Tour off to play test with the team has been a working formula for Patrick. Improvement Identify what you want to improve first: your collection, win ratio, deck building skills, etc... and focus just on that Magic Resource Next Level Magic Next Level Deck Building Connect with Patrick Twitter: @thepchapin Interview Links www.starcitygames.com www.toplevelmagic.com

Patrick Chapin, "The Innovator," is a Hall of Famer, Pro Tour Champion, and 5-time PT Top 8 competitor. Author of Next Level Magic and Next Level Deckbuilding, his articles can be found on StarCityGames.com and podcast at TopLevelPodcast.com. First Set The Dark Favorite Set Innistrad (Best designed) / Khans of Tarkir block Favorite Card Jace, the Mind Sculptor What makes Magic fun for you? First and foremost the people. The constant iteration. Early Challenge Trying to convince people that he was actually good. Level Up Moment Realizing that trying to convince people that he was actually good was not as useful as focusing on humbly improving himself. Proudest Magic Moment Inducted into the Hall of Fame.Winning Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx. Best Format Standard Current Standard Deck Biggest Mistake Players Make Focusing their energy on convincing people they are good instead of focusing on finding the truth about how they play. Look for mistakes in every match. Connect with Patrick Twitter: @thepchapin Free Resources! www.nextlevelmagic.com www.starcitygames.com www.toplevelpodcast.com

Welcome to the MTG Pro Tutor podcast! I'm Shaun Penrod and I am excited to share this journey with you. Here's what you'll get out of the podcast. Each week two of Magic: The Gathering's best players will be highlighted. The episodes are released on Tuesday and Friday, so be sure to subscribe to the show so you don't ever miss one. I ask similar questions to each guest so you can get different perspectives on the same topic. I also look for things that are unique about each guest and dive in on those a little more. We'll talk about their history with the game as well as actionable tips you can use the next time you sit down to play. Learn from the mistakes and successes of our community's most notable players and enjoy the stories they have to share. Visit www.mtgprotutor.com/shownotes for links to all the episodes. Cheers!