There are a lot of highlights that might come to mind when you think of Javier Dominguez. Maybe it's when he placed 2nd at the 2017 World Championship. Maybe you think of the next year, where he came back and won the World Championship. Or maybe you think of one of his seven Pro Tour Top 8s! Or maybe you think of the other time he won the World Championship.
But if those accomplishments disappeared tomorrow, his time on the Pro Tour was over, and he never played Worlds again, Javier would still be playing Magic.
"I actually love Magic, the game itself. Even if I quit playing tournaments, I like to play. Commander, Cube, Draft, Old School, Premodern, Block Constructed, Standard, Old Standard. Whatever you throw at me, I just love playing Magic. Even if I quit tournaments, I would probably just be seen playing locally in random formats of choice and local leagues."
That isn't to say that competitive Magic doesn't have its own special siren call after 20 years of competitive events.
"I'm sure you've heard this before, but Pro Tours are kind of magical. They have this different vibe where everyone knows the tournament is unique, where if you win a tournament, you become part of the history of the game. You're playing against the best players in the world, and they're trying their best because it's the Pro Tour."
Over twenty years ago, Javier began the Magic journey that would lead him to the Pro Tour and two World Championship titles. At the time, it was a game that wasn't quite like any other he had played.
"I started playing Magic with my cousin during a family reunion. He brought some cards and I instantly liked it. So that's how I got into the game, and after some time, we actually started going to stores together."
The first thing that drew him to the game was the endless combinations of cards and the way they made every single game of Magic different. That, along with the game's art, struck him from the very first time he played. By the time he went to his first Prerelease, he knew the game and the Gathering were something special.
"I honestly remember feeling like, 'Wow, this is different than everything else,' after that tournament—it was a Prerelease, and back in the day, Prereleases were large, maybe 200 players. I was like, 'Wow, this is great. This was like the best day ever.' After that, I definitely wanted to play more and more.
"There was a group of players in Barcelona back around the early 2000s, so I would walk into a game store and would make friends very fast. The biggest influence in the beginning was my cousin. We were both clueless, so we made each other better, but we barely knew how to play. For the first two years, we just split our cards by colors, like I would have the blue and white cards, and he'd have the red and green cards. That's the level we were at."
That spirit of playing with what was on hand propelled Javier to his first tournament experience.
"In my first Constructed tournament, I had just borrowed four Wrath of Gods and four Serra Angels, so I had to build a deck around that. My first deck was a control deck. It took months before I could play any other deck, so I was a control kid, and my first big win was at my first PTQ, which came two years later with Blue-White Control during Onslaught Block Constructed."
That first PTQ win came amid the early days of Magic Online, which proved to be a powerful tool for a young player eager to improve.
"That first PTQ win I remember clearly just testing with a friend, a former Spanish National Champion. We met each other in stores and were like, 'Let's just test on the internet for afternoons and afternoons,' and that's not how Magic used to be played back in the day. Magic on the internet was just starting. People didn't test that much online. When I got to the PTQ, it was the beginning of the Block Constructed format. A lot of players were playing their first games of Block Constructed. I had played countless hours of the format already. You can imagine the edge you get from that. I was 15 or 16 years old, and I had all this free time and the tools to test online while my opponents were not using that."
That first PTQ win then launched Javier into a Magic journey that would span at least two decades, even though his first Pro Tour ended on Day One.
"I was aware what the Pro Tour was, but I was not aware how much I would like it. Going to my first Pro Tour changed my life forever. I think I went 2-5 or 2-6. My first round was against Raphael Levy, I remember that. It was not exactly the most beautiful Constructed environment, but it didn't matter. I loved it. For me, this whole high-level competition was something not comparable to the other tournaments I had played before.
"Once I was out, I had to decide between playing the PTQ or exploring the city. Even though it was my first time in the US, it wasn't close. I thought, 'Well, my goal in Magic is to go and play another of these PTs.' They're just awesome. And I still love the PT. I'm excited for the next one. They're a bit like Christmas to me."
Less than ten years later, one of the first defining moments of Javier's Magic journey changed his life forever. He came in 2nd at the World Championship in 2017, then returned the next year and won. But for Javier, the goal of improving his already stellar 2nd-place finish wasn't his focus. He was just happy to be playing in an amazing tournament.
"I didn't come to Worlds in 2018 trying to improve. For me, the Worlds I won was the same as any other. It's a unique tournament, it's special, and it could easily be the last Worlds of my life. It could be my last opportunity to play a Worlds tournament, which is like the coolest tournament, and I was just trying to do my best, enjoy my best, and that's it."
That's not to say that he's never been nervous, but the accomplishment of making it as far as qualifying guides him through the nerves.
"I'm not going to say I have never been affected by these things. For example, the first time I made Top 8 of a Grand Prix, I remember being very nervous about the win-and-in. I was definitely nervous the first time I made the Top 4 of Worlds. But for me, going into the second one, I was like, 'I'm here again, and this is like a dream, so I've already won.'"
And though Javier loves playing the game and doesn't put too much weight on individual results, playing in the Pro Tour still occupies a special place in the landscape of his Magic life.
🎉🎉Congratulations to #MTGWorlds Champion Javier Dominguez!🎉🎉 pic.twitter.com/2oMxbdoYwU
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) October 27, 2024
"It is the best players trying their best, which is a very different thing from the best players by itself. It's not the same because we might play against each other in a random queue draft in MTG Arena, and maybe I'm playing while watching TV and eating a bowl of popcorn. That could be happening. At the Pro Tour, everyone's trying their best. There's something special about the competition where the best try their best. It's sort of like a fight, in a way, and I get this spark from competing. For me, it's not really about winning the tournaments but enjoying this fight.
"I'm going to win some and lose some. I don't care. I love it. I just really love those kinds of matches. It's the thing that brings me back again, and again, and again: just being able to play these games and to fight these fights. To be as good as they are, you have to lose a lot, and that's totally okay. At the PT in Chicago last year, I lost a win-and-in, and it hurt in the moment. If I played better, I might have made the Top 8, but playing that match is already a win to me."
With the most recent World Champion title to his name, Javier has his ticket to all the Pro Tour-level events of the coming year. While he's qualified, he's looking forward to upcoming events with joyful anticipation rather than pressure to perform. Maintaining those invitations to the Pro Tour and returning to play are part of his plans for the future.
"We have this new team, which is something I am very excited about. A lot of my friends are on this team. As always, when there's a new team, you don't really know how it's going to work. What I'm looking forward to right now from the team and Pro Tour Aetherdrift is enjoying it. It's kind of fun when you go to the PT, go 0-5, and say, 'I went 0-5, but this was a great week.' I'm looking forward to that. I'm pretty sure we'll have a good deck, and we'll try our best, but results are results. I might win the next PT, I might 0-5. I'm okay with both. I just want to enjoy the ride."