Podcasts about pro tour honolulu

Star City Games' Cedric Phillips and Patrick Sullivan are back for their deep dive on Magic's 37th expansion — Guildpact! The duo share their thoughts on Bloodthirst, Replicate, and Haunt as mechanics, try to make sense of the Nephilim and Rusalka cycles, and chronicle Ced's absurd experience at Pro Tour Honolulu 2006.

Pro Tour Honolulu is over and I bet the pros are out there enjoying the beaches and the waves of Hawaii. We are left here to analyse the results and breakdown the entire weekend so you can surf with the pros too. Follow us on all our social media channels!YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Twitch Music by Bensound You can find more episodes and articles on our website, PowerNinePodcast.com.

Oliver Tiu has 1 Grand Prix top 8 and 1 Pro Tour top 16 on his record. He’s also won a MOCs final, and cashed both of the PTs he’s played in. He loves Magic and plays as much as he can - mostly on Magic Online. Oliver is 18 years old and is always striving to become a better player and staying open to learning more. Click to Tweet: I got a ton of value from Oliver Tiu when he shared his story on #MTGProTutor today! Click here: http://bit.ly/mtgprotutor-ep78 First Set  Time Spiral Favorite Set  Innistrad Favorite Card Jace, the Mind Sculptor What makes Magic: The Gathering fun for you? Oliver finds it difficult to pinpoint a specific aspect of Magic that has him hooked. He loves how no two Magic matches are the same, and when he plays he is on full competitive burn aiming to win. Early Challenge While he feels he always had a good grasp on Constructed, Limited was challenging for him to dive into. Oliver improved mostly through playing Magic Online, since the wealth of great players helped him learn quickly from his mistakes. He also watches streamers, like NumotTheNummy, which helps him see other player’s choices and thought processes. Talking to other players about the format is good help, but he has realized that while talking about rares is fun, it is usually more fruitful to have conversations about commons. Level Up Moment Oliver found his Magic skills vastly improved when he qualified for his first Pro Tour after making Top 8 at Grand Prix Providence. He found a deck that was played in a Japanese Grand Prix that was an excellent match up for the Abzan deck, which was the most popular deck in the format at the time. He refined the deck by playtesting and analyzing which cards over performed or underperformed; his philosophy on playtesting is not to necessarily focus on winning, but finding out what cards in his deck are doing what they should, and which ones aren’t. Heaviest Magic Moment A few years ago Oliver felt as though he couldn’t win anything. He was losing multiple PTQs and tournaments, and decided to take a break. This helped him shake off some of his frustration with the game, and gave him the space and perspective to learn from his old mistakes. He learned that while he was playing a lot of Magic, he wasn’t actually learning from his matches. Proudest Magic Moment For Oliver, making top 16 at his last Pro Tour stands as his crowning achievement in competitive Magic at this point in his career. He played against Sam Pardee, and managed to beat him due to a weak hand in their third match. Oliver made Silver level pro, which has qualified him for the next 3 Pro Tours: Pro Tour Madrid, Pro Tour Sydney, and then Pro Tour Honolulu. Best Format Standard What Should A New Standard Player Focus On? Oliver's advice for a new Standard player is to adapt to the metagame. If you want to perform well at tournaments your deck needs to be able to adapt to the most popular decks being played. Keeping an eye on Magic Online is a good way to see what's being played leading up to any major tournament, and Oliver generally tweaks his decks as opposed to outright brewing them. Biggest Mistake Players Make Before Oliver took a break from Magic he was blaming all his losses on luck. This is one of the biggest pitfalls he finds players, including himself, trapped in. He was unable to see that he was making mistakes in his play or deck building. In terms of actionable advice, Oliver found that ignoring the luck aspect all together helped him focus on the things he could control such as his play style, sideboard and deck building. Sealed & Draft Tips Sealed : Oliver separates his cards by color and which cards are unplayable. It takes a while to know what’s unplayable, but it can come from experience playing previous formats and what types of cards worked well in them. Watching other players helps give you an idea of what is playable and what isn’t as well. It’s important to know what type of deck you are trying to build as well. In Control Decks it is generally less important to have two drops, but you will still want defensive creatures to play early on, however in Aggro decks you will want a lot of two drops. Draft : Focusing on learning what cards are good and what cards aren’t are what Oliver finds a new player should focus on. He sees many new Drafters put un-impactful cards in their decks. While there are other things you could focus on, like pinpointing when you should change colors and how to balance removal spells in your deck, for a brand new drafter the first step is card evaluation. How to Effectively Prepare for a Big Event In preparing for larger events, Oliver identifies which decks are popular and then meets up with a bunch of friends to assign decks and playtest. They will stop and identify what is working best, what sideboard cards are functioning well, and investing time to understand the metagame. He prepared with a team for the last Pro Tour, but he found that it wasn’t as helpful as it should have been. While they played a lot of games, he felt the team's effectiveness was hindered since they didn’t take time to reflect and discuss their matches. What's in Your Tournament Bag Dice Notepad Pen Deck Playmat (if you think the tables will be dirty) Final Wisdom While it may be tempting to go beat up on new players, Oliver understands the best way to improve is to learn from better players. Ask them if there were any obvious mistakes you made in the match after the fact, and don’t be afraid to ask them for advice and their thoughts about your game. Magic Resource MTGGoldfish MTGO WikiPrice Sam Pardee MTG Pro Tutor episode Kenji "Numot the Nummy" Egashira MTG Pro Tutor episode Connect With Oliver Tiu Twitter: @TiuChainz 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. (Here's a 1.5 minute tutorial on how to leave a review if you don't already know. THANK YOU!) Sponsors

Jim Davis made 24th place at Pro Tour Prague in 2006, 8th place at Grand Prix Dallas in 2007, 33rd place at Pro Tour Honolulu in 2009, 2nd place at SCG Invitational Indianapolis in 2011, 3rd place at SCG Invitational Seattle in 2014 and is the Champion of SCG Open Indianapolis 2015 as well as the 1st place, gold trophy winner, undisputed champion of the SCG Players’ Championship 2015. Jim lives in Long Island NY. Click to Tweet: I got a ton of value from Jim Davis when he shared his story on #MTGProTutor today! Click here: http://bit.ly/mtgprotutor-ep72 First Set  7th Edition Favorite Set Onslaught Favorite Card Fact or Fiction What makes Magic: The Gathering fun for you? Jim is drawn to the competitive aspects of Magic where he can analyze player’s mental states and the psychology behind playing. He finds that Magic is a great competitive game due its complexity and challenge, and the way it balances skill, excitement and chance. Early Challenge Jim didn’t see value in adopting other’s strategies and decks when he first started playing. Popular decks were out of the question for him, and he found that it was damaging because good decks are good for a reason. There are lessons to be learned from those decks because players have studied and practiced for years in order to craft them. He now finds it beneficial to play established decks so he can understand how they operate. Falling into the mindset of “I’m only this kind of player” is detrimental to evolving your style and philosophy as a Magic player. How to Maintain a Positive Attitude Shaping his attitude is a skill Jim has refined over the years. In reading The Mental Game of Poker, he was able to break down every aspect of who he was emotionally as a player. Maintaining a Big-Picture mindset when it comes to tournaments helps keep him away from tilt, but it’s a process that starts long before any single event. Jim understands he has days where he is going to crush matches, and some where he is going to fall short. He focuses on trying to give himself the best chance to win while keeping a positive attitude, even if the results of his match don’t reflect his effort. Heaviest Magic Moment In the 2014 Players’ Championship Jim started off poorly and was placed in an elimination match. He won the first game, but in the second match he attacked prematurely and winded up getting his creature killed. He lost that round and the next one, which placed him out of the tournament. It was difficult for him to have prepared all year long and then lose, on camera, in front of so many people. He re-watched that match before the next year’s Championship to remind himself to keep a positive outlook and a level head. Proudest Magic Moment Coming off his third round loss at the Players’ Championship, Jim practiced for an entire year to come back to the tournament in 2015 and win. He found the experience of taking that heavy loss and translating it into a tournament win was an incredibly surreal moment, one that was difficult to take in all at once. He was humbled even more so by the opponents he beat, Brad Nelson and Todd Anderson, who invited him to an after party and even toasted to his victory. Best Format Legacy What Would You Tell a New Legacy Player? Jim finds that watching coverage, like live-streams can expose you to a lot of decks and how the function in the format. Since there is commentary on the streams players can understand what is happening more easily, and it acts as a crash course for the format by giving a bird’s eye view of the matches. How to Effectively Prepare for a Big Event 2015 Players’ Championship: Jim went to every tournament he could attend and ended up qualifying for the event early in the year. He found it difficult to practice because the Players’ Championship switched to a 3 format event: Legacy, Modern, and Standard. He focused on Standard the most since it was the Day 2 format, and his girlfriend kindly culled data from 6 months’ worth of tournaments so he could see what everyone had been playing that year. Biggest Mistake Players Make Latching onto a one-sentence reason for why a player lost is a common mistake Jim sees being made. It keeps players from analyzing the dozens of other decisions they made in a match, some of which certainly contributed to their loss. He recognizes that it can be difficult to tease out all that information on your own, which is why he finds getting feedback from others so valuable. Focus on what you can control. What's in Your Tournament Bag Card Binder Stack of Cards: for last minute deck changes Final Wisdom Jim has noticed that players like to complain, which affects one of the most important aspects of Magic: Attitude. He challenges you to go to a tournament, and not say anything negative about something that was outside of your control. See how it feels. Magic Resource My Top 8 Cards: Jim Davis Twitch: @JimDavisMTG Legacy Weapon Connect With Jim Davis Twitter: @JimDavisMTG 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.   (Here's a 1.5 minute tutorial on how to leave a review if you don't already know. THANK YOU!) Sponsors

Ondrej Strasky is 20 years old and is already a Platinum Pro! He was the 2015 Czech World Magic Cup captain and has 1 Grand Prix Top 8 at Grand Prix Brussels 2015, and 2 Pro Tour Top 8s at Pro Tour Honolulu and Pro Tour Brussels. Ondrej lives in the Czech Republic. Click to Tweet: I got a ton of value from Ondrej Strasky when he shared his story on #MTGProTutor today! Click here: http://bit.ly/mtgprotutor-ep64 First Set  Time Spiral Favorite Set Khans of Tarkir Favorite Card Daze Local Magic Scene: Czech Republic Prague is the only city where Ondrej can play Magic a lot in the Czech Republic, which is about a 2 hour bus ride away for him. Because of this he mainly plays Magic Online. What Makes Magic: The Gathering Fun For You? While Ondrej tries not to place too much focus on winning or losing, playing in tournaments and the competitive aspect is what keeps him playing Magic. Since there is no one in his town that plays he doesn’t get to play much casual Magic. Early Challenge The hurdle that tripped Ondrej up the most starting out was his play speed. He played too fast and missed critical card interactions because he didn’t pause to think them through. An additional 5 seconds helps Ondrej avoid stupid blunders. While addressing the way you play is a hard thing to do, the best way to improve is to just take a little extra time. Level Up Moment Ondrej grew the most in 2015 after landing in the Top 8 at his first Pro Tour. At the start of the year he moved in with 3 of the best Czech players and he wholly surrounded himself with Magic. They all streamed Magic, talked Magic, and of course played as much as they could, and Ondrej credits their skill with helping push him to the next level. Proudest Magic Moment Ondrej’s proudest moment came when he finished 9th in a London Grand Prix. He was super prepared and an article in Star City Games by Brian Braun-Duin helped him find an amazing deck. While he didn’t take down the whole tournament, Ondrej is proud of how prepared he was and feels like he played the best out of everyone there. How Much Magic Do You Play? If a tournament is on the horizon Ondrej wakes up and plays Magic until he passes out, and he might squeeze in a bite to eat somewhere in between. During the holidays he slacks off a bit, but now he’s busy learning archetypes and trying out decks. Best Format He plays best in Standard, but he loves how fun Legacy is even though it’s not his best format. How to Choose a Standard Deck Since the meta game shifts quickly in Standard, Ondrej tries to stay on top by playing Magic Online and seeing how others shift decks from week to week. In regards to setting up a sideboard, Ondrej tries to build it with his main deck in mind as a 75 card deck so he can pick the best positioned 60 to roll with. Biggest Mistake Players Make Ondrej thinks players shouldn’t blame luck for their losses, but they shouldn’t beat themselves up when there wasn’t much they could do in a match to win. Handling loss better can help a player see what they did wrong and learn from their mistakes. Sealed & Draft Tips Sealed: Ondrej doesn’t go to pre-releases too often, but he usually looks for cards that pop out to him instantly. Draft: Ondrej finds the best three archetypes and tries to draft them. He talks to other people who drafted and find what cards are most important to each one. How to Effectively Prepare for a Big Event Ondrej thinks you can prepare mostly by yourself for a Grand Prix, but definitely not a Pro Tour. He has a team of 15 and sometimes thinks that’s not even enough. They will look at what decks are being played after the first Star City Open. Then they start playing and will ask Frank Karsten about deck matchups and post results in forums to help figure out what decks were best. What's in Your Tournament Bag Pen Deck Deck box for Limited portion Water Bottle: Ondrej says he stays insanely hydrated throughout a tournament. How Can a New Magic Player Break In? A new player can start by building a Pauper deck and playing Magic Online, as decks super cheap. Improvement Suggestions Ondrej reads articles written by Brad Nelson and looks at decklist postings from recent tournaments. He thinks reading solid content and playing as much as possible is the best way to improve. Final Wisdom If you enjoy Magic play it a lot, and the best thing you can do is buy a lot of packs, watch coverage, and spread the word of how great a game Magic is. Magic Resource Brian Braun-Duin Brad Nelson Frank Karsten Craig Wescoe Connect With Ondrej Strasky Twitter: @OndrejStrasky Facebook: Ondrej Strasky 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. Sponsors

Lee Shi Tian has 5 Grand Prix Top 8s and is the Champion of Grand Prix Birmingham (2008) he has also made the Top 8 at 4 Pro Tours. He lives in, and joins us from, the tallest city in the world, Hong Kong, China. Click to Tweet: I got a ton of value from Lee Shi Tian when he shared his story on MTG Pro Tutor today! Click here: http://bit.ly/mtgprotutor-ep38 First Set Odessey Favorite Set Shards of Alara Favorite Card Vendilion Clique What makes Magic: The Gathering fun for you? Shi Tian love that there are lots of interaction and synergy between cards and that the games is refreshed every time a set comes out. He also enjoys the people reading part of Magic too. Looking for tells when playing against an opponent is fun for him. Early Challenge Being a Professional gamer is not highly regarded in Hong Kong so Shi Tian was constantly asked "When are you going to get a real job?" from those around him. Until he made Platinum it was a constant challenge standing up to the pressures. Level Up Moment After Shi Tian's first Pro Tour Top 8 Wizards unbanned Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle which allowed Shi Tian to play the Scapeshift deck. Shi Tian also joined with Taiwanese player Kuo Tzu-Ching, who was on the winning team of first ever World Magic Cup, to form the team MTG Mint Card.  This period of his career was full of growth and level ups for him. Proudest Magic Moment Top 8 at Pro Tour Honolulu. The Pro Tour was during a tumultuous time for Hong Kong and Lee Shi Tian was proud to bring attention to the issues his countrymen were facing. Best Format Draft & Modern How to Choose a Standard Deck Players at Grand Prix are much more diverse so Shi Tian plays the safest deck. The one with the best results. For Pro Tours he tries to surprise the field because the format is relatively undiscovered by that point. Biggest Mistake Players Make Limited: You should know your game plan and always track the game tempo. Know your role for the match up. Are you the aggro player or the player with inevitability? Card Evaluation Tips Review the spoiler several times and identify supported archetypes. Sealed & Draft Tips Evasion is Shi Tian's secret.  Get lots of cards with flying. Draft: Remember the 3 best cards in the pack. Do that with every pack to get a feel of what color people are in. To "read the draft" you should identify the best commons in each color. You see commons more and it's easier to pick up on what is open if you track the commons. Always draft a good curve. Team Building Teams are great because when you're going solo you don't have time to play every deck. Team mates help round out your knowledge. How to Effectively Play Test Know your meta game. What's going on locally and how can you beat it. As you scale up change your side board accordingly. Improvement Suggestions Watch videos online to pick up on the latest strategies. Read articles. Magic Resource MTG Mint Card Star City Games Channel Fireball Connect With Shi Tian Twitter: @leearson 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.