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The Week That Was: Igniting a Path to the Pro Tour

April 10, 2026
Corbin Hosler

"Ignite Memories for five."

That was Patrick Chapin's famous line in one of the most memorable World Championship matches in Magic history. He was playing in the semifinals of the 2007 championship tilt against Gabriel Nassif in a battle of two future Pro Tour Hall of Famers, and he had no idea he was able to participate in one of the most remarkable moments ever on the Pro Tour.

Five random selections later, and Nassif was left alive at just 1 life, winning one of the most improbable matches caught on camera—remember, this was a game in which he also mulliganed down to four cards. The resulting drama created the kind of touchpoint that the Pro Tour has created over the years, from another Nassif highlight—the called-shot Cruel Ultimatum—to Luis Scott-Vargas's Settle the Wreckage bluff, some Magic: The Gathering plays have transcended the battlefield and become a part of a community's shared history. Magic has changed many times in many ways in the past 33 years, but the dream of qualifying for the Pro Tour and creating a moment like Chapin-Nassif has remained constant—and it's still reverberating today.

A sixteen-year-old Samuel Maher watched that match back in 2007.

"These two guys were at the literal top of the game, pulling absolute nonsense, riling up the crowd, and laughing their heads off," Maher recalled. "I knew I had to get there."

Fast forward almost 20 years and a lot of life later, and Maher's boyhood dream has become a reality: with last month's Top 8 appearance at the ANZ Super Series—the Regional Championship for Australia and New Zealand—he's on his way to the Pro Tour in Amsterdam later this summer.

And he has hopes planned for when he gets there.

"I mostly just want to beat Gabe Nassif and tell him it's his fault that I'm there," he half-joked. "I only started seriously grinding in the last few years, and I've managed to achieve something I've dreamt of since before my Pro Tour format was even conceived."

Maher's path there ignited nineteen years ago with a match of Magic that demonstrated just how narrow the margins are at that level of play. And his own path to the Pro Tour mirrored that experience—in fact, it's a path that at times Maher wondered would ever lead to the Pro Tour at all.

"Late 2024 into 2025 was my year of "so close." There were three separate Regional Championships where I was one win short of the Pro Tour invite, which only goes to the Top 8 in Australia, and I lost two win-and-ins," he revealed. "People told me that with consistency I would get there, and that it was just a matter of time."

That's a common refrain, and while the idea that it's just a matter of time is intended as a compliment to a player's skill level, it can sound hollow to those on the stinging end of defeat.

"I never quite believed that—that felt a bit too much like thinking I was 'owed' a win or a Top Finish, which is not the way to approach Magic," Maher explained. "So, I just had to keep putting in the hard work to improve. I finished 2025 by making the Top 8 of Australia's first-ever multi-format 10K (Limited and Standard), and then I made the Top 8 of the RC in Sydney in March and finally got that Pro Tour invite.

"You know that feeling when you've been underwater for slightly too long and get that first gulp of air? That. It's a big gulp of air after years underwater."

But what does "putting the hard work in to improve" mean, in practice?

"Magic strategy is so vast, and trying to get better at everything all at once is pretty overwhelming," Maher elaborated. "So, I just identified one thing at a time to work on."

In a degree of Magic boomerism I didn't realize possible, one thing I've lamented in recent years is that in some ways it's more difficult than it used to be to learn the fundamentals of competitive Magic gameplay. There are three decades of high-level Magic theory out there that may be timeless but also, as Maher put it, hugely vast. Months or years of building a strong foundation of Magic theory can be lost in translation when there's new Standard tech to grind on a never-ending ladder climb. Things move faster than ever in the Magic world, and while keeping up once you're there is one thing for seasoned veterans, other players looking for their own Pro Tour breaks in 2026 are building their own roadmap for getting there.

With that in mind, Maher didn't settle for platitudes. He wanted specifics.

"Starting with the first Regional Championship in 2022, I started a new system for myself: after every Regional Championship, I would write down one important lesson from that event and its preparation and hence have one thing to work on leading into the next event," he explained. "It was ten Regional Championships and ten lessons before I got there, so maybe I'm not the fastest learner."

But Maher did get there—and after a Regional Championship run where it finally all came together, the journey that Maher has openly shared the ups and downs of on his YouTube channel Draft Punks turned out to be a path to the Pro Tour. And there were ups and downs, and nerves and win-and-ins, along the way—and a save from a friend.

All in a Regional Championship weekend that was as unpredictable as the Standard metagame that it featured.

"My comfort zone is locking in a deck pretty early then mastering it to an unreasonable degree. But with how fast the meta was changing this time, I couldn't do that," Maher explained. "I spent time with something like sixteen different decks; it was nuts. I ended up on Prowess about two weeks out. I went in feeling pretty good, and especially pleased with my sideboard plans, but most matchups were still only 55% at best, so I didn't feel like I was going to crush it or anything.

"But I did! I went undefeated through the Swiss, only dropping two games all day. I lost my quarterfinal the next day, but it was an unreal 1-hour, 20-minute grind versus eventual winner Simon Linabury, so I wouldn't have it any other way."

"My best story came in the middle of Day One. I struggle a lot with nerves under pressure, and it can really cripple my game when it matters most. When I got to 5-0, I started to get really agitated and unable to think clearly," Maher recalled. "My teammate Nick Talbot, who will be playing his third Pro Tour next month in Las Vegas, came over and asked what I needed. I said, 'Conversation about anything that is not this tournament,' and he gave me exactly that for the 25 minutes remaining that round and brought me right back to earth.

"He probably saved my tournament."

6 Island 1 Willowrush Verge 3 Eddymurk Crab 4 Opt 3 Elusive Otter 4 Stormchaser's Talent 4 Burst Lightning 4 Boomerang Basics 3 Secret Identity 2 Multiversal Passage 2 Into the Flood Maw 4 Stock Up 4 Riverpyre Verge 4 Steam Vents 4 Spirebluff Canal 4 Sleight of Hand 4 Slickshot Show-Off 1 Disdainful Stroke 1 Get Out 2 Sear 3 Spell Pierce 3 Ral, Crackling Wit 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Spell Snare 2 Fire Magic

Maher identified almost a dozen distinct changes to the Standard metagame since the advent of Badgermole Cub five months ago, and his Top 8 deck choice of Temur Prowess was right on time for a metagame that refuses to stagnate.

"This Standard has been the fastest-changing I have ever experienced, and it remains wide open for deck choice and innovation every weekend," he said. "I would not have gotten there without my team and almost felt guilty that I was the only one to get a Top Finish when I was but one cog among many. Having the team was especially valuable in this Standard meta that was churning and changing so quickly with so many viable decks to test."

First, we head to MagicCon: Las Vegas for Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven in a few weeks. Then later this year comes the Pro Tour in Amsterdam and Maher's chance to make his own mark on the Pro Tour—and maybe even the kind of moment that drew him to Magic all those years ago.

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