Pro Tour Nagoya

Both players mulliganed for the fourth game, but when Elie Pichon accidentally placed seven cards facedown on the table instead of six, his opponent pointed out his mistake and stopped him from drawing the additional card. The penalty for doing so would have been severe—Pichon would have ended up at five cards—and it was a great show of sportsmanship from Pat Cox, especially given that he was in a do-or-die situation.

It all started about a year prior to the release of Worldwake. Carrie's roommate at the time had purchased a new game for his Xbox, and she was fascinated by it. "I liked the puzzles and all the decks," Carrie explained, referring to her first encounter with Duels of the Planeswalkers. When her next roommate brought the game home, she was hooked. [...]

"My friend asked me if I wanted to go to something called the 'Worldwake Prerelease.' At the time I didn't know what that meant, or even that there was a card game and that cards came out in expansions." Carrie went directly from the digital world to the Prerelease and managed a respectable 2-2.

"He had to explain everything," Carrie added, describing her first time playing in a tournament after discussing it with her friend, "but I enjoyed it a lot and went to the Launch Party a week later. I've been hooked ever since!" [...]

After the Worldwake Prerelease, my friends and I began playing at our local shop. We'd draft each week, and I found myself unable to wait for each tournament! Then a friend suggested we try something called 'Extended' for a 'Pro Tour Qualifier.'" [...]

Captivated by the Tempered Steel decks of the era, she decided to build her own version. Unfortunately, she didn't have any Thoughtseizes, so she shaved the deck down to just the most important blue and white cards, cutting black entirely and simply hoped for the best.

"My goal was to win two matches that weekend!" she explains, looking back on the tournament. "I won, and I couldn't believe it. I had always wanted to go to Japan, but I didn't even know until midway through the event that the winner would get to go to Nagoya! That was exciting to find out." [...]

I asked Carrie what her goals were for the Pro Tour itself.

"I wanted to win two matches," she explained, "but now I'm 4-1-1 and feeling confident about my ability to win one more to Day 2."

"I keep having people asking me for advice now, which is weird. I'm still perfectly capable of sucking!"