You’d think after years of playing card games competitively that the story would always be the same. Sure, there are days when you’d win in casual play, but in reality, there will always be bigger fish out there. Fish that aren’t just in the open ocean, mind you, but literal leviathans that scour the globe, proving why they’re mythical creatures and you’re just chum.
The pursuit of glory is paved with empty wallets and crushed expectations but sometimes, things don’t turn out the way you expect. This tournament was one of those days that made me think, “WOW, I’m good after all!”
You can skip all the backstory if you want, just go straight for the deck or the battleground!
You were competitive?
I’m what you’d call a casual, but there were instances in the past when I’d actually be considered competitive. Back then, I’d grind tournaments, watch pros test out their “brews” or pet decks, and had that desire to go out of the country just to compete. I enjoyed bringing my hot mess to tournaments and looking back, yeah, I think I could’ve just played a top-tier competitive deck instead of some random pile I had a fondness for—no matter how bad it was (OG Grixis Control with Snap Cryptic Snap or Snap Bolt Snap was the best!). “Play the game, see the world,” as they’d say, but reality got the better of me, and I realized I had a ceiling I could never break.
Fast forward a few years and a couple of things changed. Magic got expensive—to the point where booster packs were now being sold at around USD 6 and beyond, up from USD 3. And now, apparently, multiverses and IPs aplenty were abound. This didn’t happen overnight, though. Like with all casual hobbies during the pandemic, the increase was subtle, with expenses being lighter due to care packages and ayudas.
Going into one of the biggest tournaments I’ve played in almost half a decade, I brought my pet deck—a combination of pieces from all my previous decks over the years.
The Deck
With what I had from Death’s Shadow, Zoo, and an unhealthy obsession with foils back when foiling actually meant something, my deck heading into the tournament was Domain Zoo. It was an archetype filled with lots of efficient damage dealers, protection, and different means of closing out games. Funnily enough, this was the deck I had never actually played—I’d always opt to go for fun during testing—but it was the best “complete” deck I had at the moment.
If I were to visualize it, imagine siccing monkeys at people—but the monkeys had rabies, and the rabies could travel without contact and deal emotional damage too. Fun.
As for why it wasn’t truly complete: I couldn’t justify spending PHP 300 each for four copies of a PHP 100 card meant to fight one specific deck. For more context, there was a deck called Temur Breach, which was strong in its own right, but a recently unbanned card brought it to new heights. That same card got banned the following morning, and honestly, it deserved it—so good riddance, Breach.
The Battleground
All this talk about the deck, yet we haven’t even talked about the tournament itself. Held last March 30 at the Crystal Pavilion of Okada, the tournament I joined was part of Day 2 of the activities for ToyCon Summer Prelude. Here’s the thing—it wasn’t just one event stretched over two days; it was an actual battleground!
Mad Events, together with prominent voices in the tabletop gaming scene like Mana Underground and Whimsy Game Café, didn’t just organize tournaments for one game. It was almost every prominent game with a competitive scene, with Magic: The Gathering being just one of many pastimes celebrated. I didn’t even know games like Warhammer had a competitive scene—and the gacha game Cookie Run had a card game too! It was a great weekend to be a competitive nerd. I’d love to talk about the other tournaments, but just being aware of the variety—and that it wasn’t limited by age, gender, or nationality—showed how good of a spot we’re in right now.
If you’re curious about all the events under the Battleground banner, here they are (some with participant headcounts):
- Magic: The Gathering – Duel Trios (22 players), Modern 75K (73 players), DFT Store Championships, CEDH Tourney, Legacy Side Tournament (24 players)
- Beyblade – Okada Cup (137 players)
- Cookie Run – 50K Tournament (128 players and free entrance)
- Warhammer 40K & Age of Sigmar – HAMMERFEST (Tourney, Demos, Painting Contest)
- A Song of Ice and Fire – Road to Nationals
- Grand Archive – Regional Tourney
- Board Game – Unmatched Tourney
- Tamiya – 10K GP B-MAX Race
Tournament Proper
The tournament I took part in was the modern 75k held on the second day of Toycon Summer Prelude. If I’m recalling correctly, I preregistered for this a month before and, within that time period, I had to do my research and see what I could play, what I might go against, and prepare accordingly. I settled with Domain Zoo being my deck of choice, and the meta looked balanced with nothing out of the ordinary. This is what I’d like to say until literally a week or two later, Temur Breach—the de facto best deck—established itself, and all my deck preparation went moot.
You see, if I considered my deck as good, Temur Breach was amazing. Speed, consistency, power, and explosiveness—it had it all. Normally, if a deck is so good that it had a positive win rate across the board, the normal reaction would be to prepare preemptively and adjust your own deck if you couldn’t play it. Let’s just say I couldn’t prepare my deck, and I expected this piece to be about how I scrubbed out and went shopping at Toycon, but life finds a way.
I woke up at 7 AM because tournaments are long, travel is needed, and you wouldn’t want to compete on an empty stomach. Also, the stereotype of tabletop gamers not taking baths is real, and I didn’t want to be lumped into it—so of course, morning rituals are needed. Seriously though, imagine playing an important turn in a tournament only to need to call the judge to take a poop break. All that momentum is gone.
I arrived at the venue an hour early just to settle down. You need to know where you’d be playing and where the restrooms are, after all. Now this is an important detail for later, but each round in an MTG tournament lasts around 45 minutes with some leeway in between, so it’s normally shut at around an hour each. I had breakfast at 8 AM and pooped, so that’s taken into account.
Following tournament announcements, with it being at 7 rounds and a cut to Top 8 (so around 3 hours if I lost early). To reach Top 8, you’d need a record of X-0-2 in terms of wins, losses, and draws. Lose twice and you’re out, but you can still hit Top 8 with an X-1-1 record. The dust had finally settled, and our first opponent was waiting for us with something both of us weren’t expecting.
Round 1 Wish Titan 1-0 (WLW)
I played against a Primeval Titan deck with a wish package. I haven’t played against this type of deck in years and didn’t know it still existed, but I did know my opponent from back then when I was active (Hi Yogi!).
Game 1 had my menagerie of animals deal with the game quickly since it takes a while for it to set up, while game 2 had me grasping at straws with my petting zoo completely out of luck, with all the animals being sick and not even coming through.
Game 3 was a trip though because, while I was one turn away from being offed, our Phlage (one of the more recent purchases for the deck) quickly closed the game. I countered one spell early on to make sure a Scapeshift and Valakut wouldn’t get us, but in hindsight, while I want to pretend I knew what I was doing, it was lucky that I used it.
Round 2 Amulet Titan 2-0 (WLW)
Sitting across me was another person who I might know from being in the same group chat (Hi Billy!), and with him was ANOTHER Primeval Titan deck—but not in the same vein. He was on Amulet Titan, one of the best and fastest decks in the format. If the first titan deck was slow, this was blisteringly fast.
Game 1 was one of those games where there just wasn’t any setup, and I just nickel-and-dimed my way to a win, while game 2 was a solitaire match in his favor.
Game 3 was a fun little match with both our sides struggling to maintain a board presence, with him slamming amulet upon amulet and me whittling him little by little. My monkey died early on, which would’ve snowballed the game, but that grind is what makes the game so exhilarating. I got lucky leading to my win, but a match like this, where every top deck counts, was just on a whole different level.
Round 3 UW Control 3-.0 (WW)
Remember earlier I mentioned that I was running an “unoptimized” version of my deck? Oddly enough, this was one of those cases where running the subpar version of the deck would pay off heavily.
I faced off against a friendly guy named Marvin from Dubai who dropped an island during his shuffle. Alarms were ringing in my head because I had one deck in my radar that ran islands. Boy, was I off though, since I forgot that deck didn’t run lands to begin with—and it was actually Blue White Control, a favored matchup where my Bowmasters shined and Doorkeeper would’ve been a dead card.
Resources were exhausted on his end with me deploying threat after threat. All the lightning and fire in the world was on our side as the sky opened up and the clouds dissipated, with me having this realization that I’m actually on a hot streak and I’d even play at the first table (the lower your table number moving forward, the higher your rank).
Round 4 Domain Zoo (with Nacatls) 3-1 WLL
Both undefeated, I actually had the mirror match against a local from my Local Game Store or LGS, Wynford. He was on the same deck as me and was a prominent pilot of the deck too! And to say the first game made me feel like a main character is sugarcoating it.
This was a disgusting start that was the only highlight I’d get, but the next two games were a masterclass in his favor, showing how even if the deck’s the same, while luck is always a factor, skills and deck mastery are just something else. Personally, even though I lost this round, the last two games were nail-biters, with any mistake costing the game—and boy was it fun to have a chat afterwards!
Round 5 UB Frog 4 -1 WLW
I was stricken with the realization that I just needed to win a round or two and I’d make it to the top 8 for a chance to fight for over 75 thousand in cash. But here’s the other thing: I hadn’t eaten since 8 AM and it was already 3 PM. The hunger and fatigue were getting to me, and the decision-making would suffer.
My opponent was Johan, a new friend from the day, and he was on a deck that makes you want to play first or get drowned out in advantage. Luckily (or unluckily in his case), nothing much really happened with him drawing blanks. The same happened in game 2, but I drew blanks. Variance is a thing.
The 3rd game was an actual chess match where planning in advance to position yourself for a win was key—and luckily, all the decisions made left us in a stalemate. If I kept attacking, my creatures would die and I’d subsequently lose, but if he attacks, I could swing in for the win. I went for the hail Mary play hoping he wouldn’t defend himself—and he didn’t. My second Bowmaster just gave us the reach we needed.
This was another instance of subpar deckbuilding being the key because having the “optimized” version of the deck definitely wouldn’t help in that situation—and on to the next round we go.
Round 6 BR Hollow One 5-1 WLW
I have no picture of this because the delulu was setting in. I asked my opponent if we could take a draw so we could go get lunch, but sadly he wanted to go for the win, so I had no option but to play.
In game 1, I kept a decent hand but only if I drew a second land. I was in Okada, and luck was on my side—so why not? He played a Burning Inquiry where we both drew and discarded cards randomly. The gamble worked, and I won that game off of that Burning Inquiry.
Game 2 was a total wash on my part, with me not knowing what cards do because of a timely Phoenix strike in the air, but game 3 was a total blur. All I remember was slamming one creature and riding it to victory, clearing some setbacks along the way.
The final round was upon us, and if I got lucky, my opponent would want to take that draw and bring us both to the Top 8.
Round 7 Friendship 5-1-1
My final opponent was a regular in my LGS, Jester, and he didn’t know I used my real name in registration and not Doby. We had a handshake and had some snacks, and I finally got that breather. I finally got my snack too—a hotdog. Truly the convention food for all ages. (Tender Juicy, please sponsor me.)
Lessons from the Battlefield
We made it to Top 8 and everyone was exhausted. We decided to split the pot, which I was more than happy with. I even got to go shopping at ToyCon afterward, which honestly made my day.
Competitive gaming is a rollercoaster of preparation, execution, setbacks, and camaraderie. Sportsmanship plays a huge role in building community. But when it comes down to it, card games are unpredictable—your opponent, your draw, even your prep—it all varies. Do it enough times and outcomes blur into stats.
Honestly, how it turned out was beyond my expectations. I even teched for the top deck. Turns out, our Zoo deck had that dog in it—though ironically, no actual dogs. I was expecting to write a completely different article. But hey, that’s variance for you.
I can’t wait for the next big tournament. Who knows, maybe it’ll go the opposite of this one. But whatever happens, if you decide to go competitive, don’t forget the most important thing: Have fun.
