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The Week That Was: Deck Building with a Friend

April 11, 2025
Corbin Hosler

"I can do this all day."

Remember that old idiom that gets reused in everything from sports interviews to Captain America movies? It's one of the most iconic ways to describe someone's dedication. After a hard day's work at basketball practice, the star uses their downtime to put up a few thousand more shots. First one in, last one out. Javier Dominguez wins the World Championship, and within 48 hours, he's back to playing MTG Arena because he's in it for the games, not the results.

It's a trait shared by many of Magic's top competitors. After a long, exhausting day of high-level Magic competition, they say they can't wait to do it all over again.

For Steven Li, that opportunity came. And not in the way, I think most of our competitors mean it when they say they could do this all day. Because for Li—1 of 50 competitors in Arena Championship 8 two weeks ago—one of the biggest days of his Magic career wasn't just playing Magic all day but all night as well.

Arena Championship events are the highest level of competition offered on MTG Arena, equivalent to Pro Tours in both prizes and competitive prowess. Arena Championship 8 featured Hall of Famers and Pro Tour Top 8 mainstays. They are also, of course, fully remote—which means that start times can quickly get wonky across time zones. And they are offered in addition to tabletop events, meaning Pro Tour qualification-hungry players can chase multiple paths … with some creative scheduling.

That was the predicament Li found himself in during the runup to the Arena Championship, balancing high-level Regional Championship play with high-level Arena play, giving himself as many opportunities as possible to accomplish a goal he's been chasing for months now: qualify for the Pro Tour.

"Over the past year I've been grinding both online and paper events, focusing on improving my gameplay and staying updated on the metagames," the 21-year-old Beijing native recalled. "I qualified for the Arena Championship through two days of amazing Magic: The Gathering Foundations pods, but my Regional Championship was on the same day as competitive MTG Arena events, which meant I had to play MTG Arena hours after midnight, after playing paper Magic for eight hours during the day."

Like I said: that's dedication. And in the end, it all paid off for Li, who finished in the Top 4 and is one of a few handfuls of Arena Championship competitors who are now headed to the Pro Tour. Along with the Magic Spotlight Series events added to the calendar this year—including Magic Spotlight: Dragons in Denver this month—the schedule can start to fill up quickly for those finding success on both sides of the circuit.

That now includes Li, who considers the run a validation of the work he's put in this year.

"This result definitely boosts my confidence, and I'll be focusing on more high-level tournaments now. Making the Top 8 is a huge milestone: it proves I can compete at a higher level," Li explained in the days after his semifinals run. "My goal for the rest of 2025 is to keep improving and aim for that next Pro Tour invite."

The grind never stops. But for Li, it won't be a lonely one. Because there's one other major development to come out of Arena Championship 8.

"For this event, I worked with my friend Beenew Yu, who also made the Top 4 of the event," Li said. "He's one of the most talented players I have ever seen, and he helped me refine the deck and test the matchups. The finish wouldn't have been possible without him."

It's common for players to credit their teammates for their success; it's much less common for those players to do so while advancing to the Top 4 of the biggest tournament of their lives—with the exact same 75 cards.

4 Emberheart Challenger 4 Heartfire Hero 4 Manifold Mouse 4 Screaming Nemesis 4 Sunspine Lynx 2 Bonecrusher Giant 2 Hired Claw 4 Burst Lightning 4 Monstrous Rage 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan 16 Mountain 4 Mutavault 2 Ramunap Ruins 2 Rockface Village 4 Redcap Melee 3 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker 2 Bonecrusher Giant 2 Torch the Tower 2 Witchstalker Frenzy 1 Lithomantic Barrage 1 Scorching Shot

It was a well-deserved, storybook ending for Yu and Li. But like many good stories, it almost never happened.

"We were planning on playing Izzet Phoenix, as that was the only deck I had played in the format. I didn't change my mind until just 24 hours before the deadline when Beenew pointed out that Mono-Red Aggro had the best performance in recent events," Li admitted. "We tested the deck and quickly realized it was truly busted. I mean, how could I refuse a deck with literally no bad matchups?

"I played Mono-Red, and its performance was beyond my expectations. Eight of the nine Mono-Red players got to Day Two, and the non-mirror win rate of the deck on Day Two was … 100%. You've got to be kidding me. I played six mirror matches and won five of them. Mirror, mirror, mirror. Swing, swing, swing."

Well, Li kept on swinging—right to his first Top 8, earning an invite to the next tabletop Pro Tour. The performance of Mono-Red Aggro in Explorer was the biggest takeaway from the event, but it was not the only one. And while it may not be surprising to see a deck of burn spells do well against Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber decks, there was one Top 8 competitor and longtime Pro Tour player who punched their ticket back with an old favorite.

"I didn't have the time to prepare a new deck for the event, so I took the work we did at the last Pioneer Regional Championship on Izzet Phoenix and figured it was still a good deck," recalled former Grand Prix winner Boussaud Eliott. "I reviewed the sideboard plan with Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, who helped me to be 100% accurate before the event.

"Izzet Phoenix is still very effective with Treasure Cruise and Artist's Talent, and it's not easy to counter. I played a version of the deck that is less combo-ish—no extra-turn effects—but found that to be more stable overall. The deck is pretty strong, and you can prepare it for a specific matchup if you expect it and make it very good for that tournament. My matches against Rakdos were all close, but I managed to win most of them, and my matches against Mono-Red were … hot. To be honest, I didn't expect that much Mono-Red going in, and I still was almost able to win my quarterfinals match against it."

4 Arclight Phoenix 4 Picklock Prankster 1 Brazen Borrower 4 Sleight of Hand 4 Treasure Cruise 4 Consider 4 Opt 3 Fiery Impulse 2 Into the Flood Maw 2 Lightning Axe 2 Spell Pierce 2 Torch the Tower 4 Artist's Talent 1 Proft's Eidetic Memory 4 Island 4 Riverglide Pathway 4 Spirebluff Canal 4 Steam Vents 1 Otawara, Soaring City 1 Shivan Reef 1 Stormcarved Coast 3 Third Path Iconoclast 2 Annul 2 Mystical Dispute 2 Negate 1 Abrade 1 Anger of the Gods 1 Beacon Bolt 1 Brazen Borrower 1 Brotherhood's End 1 Proft's Eidetic Memory

The Top 8 appearance is the biggest in years for Eliott, who catapults himself to another Pro Tour and hopes to use the Arena Championship as a springboard to his goal of qualifying for the World Championship.

"I'm happy to still be on the train as a Magic player, and this was the biggest monetary win in my career," the 35-year-old Toulouse native explained. "I'm very happy with the result, and I feel like it's good for my friends, family, and community who believed in me for it to finally happen. I can thank everyone who followed me and believed in me. I would like to qualify for the World Championship, so I'll be attending all major events that I can to get there."

Like I said, the grind never stops. And for these talented Magic players, that's just the way they like it.

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