After thousands of messages, votes, and discussions for and against, it was decided to hold a tournament where each community could choose how to send their four representatives to compete in both individual and team events.
Rarely does such an idea resonate so profoundly within the Magic: The Gathering ("MTG") community that all regions are eager to participate, unified in harmony—a rarity in event organization where everyone usually has a different opinion.
It was decided there would be 52 participants from 13 communities (4 representatives from each), playing 6 round-robin followed by the Top 7 cut (later we will talk about this topic), with prizes for:
the Top 8 (yes, 8, despite the earlier mention of 7)
The winning team, based on individual results of each community’s participants.
The entry fee was set at an affordable €20 to finance these prizes and provide store credit as rewards because the stores need live too.
2. About the organization
A lot of people contributed here: communities, stores, people who helped wherever they could, and individuals who donated items. However, most of the credit goes to the amazing Nacho Barrachina.
I’d like to hope or assume that he received some help, but typically, the rest of us did bits and pieces from the comfort of our screens while Nacho was out there organizing, asking, calling, and arranging everything—amidst criticism for using AI for playmats or posters —I’m sure most people preferred AI-generated playmats at €20 over handmade ones by a recluse in the Pyrenees costing €50—.
Thank you, Nacho! Thanks to your selfless effort, 48 players had a fantastic Saturday at January 11. THANK YOU. I hope the artists can forgive you for using AI.
Also, thanks to the Karn's Academy stream team, who worked tirelessly for over 10 hours, likely for little to no pay. While this time I participated in the tournament and got recorded matches as memories, as a general rule, I enjoy watching these streams as a viewer—especially when familiar faces appear. Thanks, Sierra and Lukas; you’re the best.
Get to the point: This year has been fantastic for Premodern overall and my performance in particular. The format has grown almost everywhere. In Spain specifically, there are currently 15 or 16 active communities across the country.
About my personal record, this year I’ve played more than ever: over 400 tournament matches, not counting practice games, with an incredibly high win rate.
In the city where I live, Toledo, there’s no Premodern, nor much MTG in general. Since I was already competing in the Hispanoesfera Webcam Tournament, I thought I’d try to qualify there without overburdening myself. I played a different deck in each edition, and since the tournament grants places to the best four players, after nine tournaments, I narrowly secured 2nd place, just behind the great “Spanish champion” Aníbal Carbonero.
The 3rd and 4th places went to Albertolor and Chisu, completing our team. Honestly, I believe we had the strongest team. Competing at a national or international level usually involves facing more high-level players than at a local level—just a matter of statistics. In the case of the Hispanoesfera Webcam Tournament, qualification was purely based on merit.
Like a major football team (e.g., Real Madrid — [editor’s note: Pablo barely knows football teams and I opted for a well-known example]), I hit a slump at the last minute. Disheartening incidents during MTG games, Christmas (not my favorite time of year), and a generous gift from my parents —the flu— left me unmotivated and unprepared with only a week to go.
I think that serious tournaments require serious preparation, and my lack of readiness didn’t exactly help my morale.
Five days before the event, I decided to buckle down. My recent results with Replenish hadn’t been great, and Terrageddon wasn’t performing well either. My remaining choices were SurviRock (recently 3-3 in an online league) or Mono U Stiflenought, —in my honest opinion— arguably the best deck in the format. Despite not being my favorite, the latter seemed the best option, and I thought my pimped deck might earn a medal for aesthetics.
I settled on Mono U Stiflenought:
