Everyone knows the biggest success stories. The most famous stories are of players—nay, prodigies—who burst onto the Magic scene as teenagers and found their way to the Pro Tour through a large qualifier or online event. These are the reiderrabbits of the Magic Online world who become the Reid Dukes of the Pro Tour, succeeding at every level of competition they encounter. They don't come along often, but when they do, we don't forget them.
But not everyone can be Nathan Steuer. Most of an average Pro Tour field—like Pro Tour Aetherdrift coming up next week at MagicCon: Chicago—is made up of players who don't measure their wins in Top Finishes but in matches won. Specifically, the number of matches needed to automatically qualify for the next Pro Tour.
Unless you're Simon Nielsen, it's a statistical truth that you'll end far more tournaments outside of the Top 8 rather than inside of it. Winning enough rounds to qualify for the next Pro Tour is a tangible goal that powers much of the tournament beyond the very top tables. You don't need to have the best Pro Tour of your life, you just have to make sure it's not the last Pro Tour of your life.
"That's every tournament: you play to find out if you get to play the next one. That's all you're hoping for," was how Pro Tour Phyrexia finalist Benton Madsen summed it up. "At the Regional Championships or Pro Tour, it's cool if you make a lot of money. But people really start celebrating when they get to play in the next one."
That's the reality of the Pro Tour for most participants, and it's why every match, draw, and decision is magnified. The stakes mean so much to participants who have poured thousands of hours into making it there. And those stakes feel greater than the $500,000 prize pool on the line (though it's very, very nice).
"I played my fair share of pre-pandemic Pro Tours and a World Magic Cup, but it took me something like five tries at the Regional Championship level to finally requalify for the Pro Tour. That stretch of time where I couldn't requalify made me feel like I had become really rusty," James Wilks reflected. "When I finally did, my Pro Tour appearances unfortunately did not go well; I failed to make Day Two at every Pro Tour event, including Worlds. I worked hard, it did not pay off, and it definitely dampened my spirits.
"I really tried to reevaluate my approach to the game at the time and balance my work ethic with my enjoyment of the game; I felt like I needed to loosen up a little to avoid burning out."
Burnout has ended more Pro Tour careers than three decades of Burn decks. For players like Wilks who pour so much into qualifying for the Pro Tour, having your first or second Pro Tour not go so well can set you back at the base of that mountain.
"The hardest part of my Magic journey has been my lack of success at the Pro Tour. It really is difficult putting time and effort into something and falling short—even more so when flying halfway around the world to do so," Wilks admitted. "Despite missing Day Two at Worlds, that event was still one of the big highs for me last year, and I'd love to try to reach that again with the lessons I've learned over the past year."
That's where the true secret to staying on the Pro Tour comes in: learning, adapting, staring up at that mountain again and truly believing that the race hasn't restarted; it's simply finished its first lap, and now you know the course.
That's what Wilks did. He went from trying a handful of times to qualify for the Pro Tour to having already won qualifications to the next handful of Pro Tours.
"Last year was big for me. I won the Modern Regional Championship in Melbourne, qualified for the Pro Tour and the World Championship, and chained two additional Pro Tour invites from Regional Championships afterward.
"I've qualified for Pro Tour Aetherdrift in Chicago, so I feel like I'm off to a good start for 2025. Playing in the first Pro Tour of the season is hugely advantageous for trying to reach Worlds through Adjusted Match Points later in the year. With that in mind, my immediate goal is to try and keep my chain of Pro Tour qualifications rolling—through the PT or RC levels—but I really do want to perform better at the Pro Tour and put up a good finish in Chicago."
To that end, Wilks and the rest of Team Bus Stop are headed to Chicago with those lessons in mind.
"Preparing for a Regional Championship and a Pro Tour are totally different; together, our team has had a lot of success at the Regional Championship level, and we believe our testing process is much better at tackling established metagames rather than the unknowns of the Pro Tour-level metagame. As a result, there's been a very intentional shift in our mindset regarding how we approach the Pro Tour. Beyond being willing to explore new decks in Constructed and reevaluating our Limited preparation, we're also working with a wider network of players. I'm really hoping this helps add some new perspectives, challenges our biases, and shakes up our testing process for Pro Tour-level events. Hopefully, we can figure it out for this Pro Tour!"
On the other side of the world, a pair of Regional Championship end bosses like Wilks are also preparing for Chicago with the hope that their regional success translates into the international level this time around.
"My goal is to play for the whole season, but I am fully aware that the path is rough and that it starts in Chicago," said Williams Araujo, who's one of several players with seemingly reserved seats at Brazil's Regional Championships but is looking for a Pro Tour breakthrough. "Last year was an exceptional year in my career since I managed to play the whole season—the three Pro Tours plus the World Championship—and I got the invites for all those events via Regional Championships. Without doubt, playing in the World Championship was a unique experience that I hope will happen again."
Never missing at the Regional Championship is perhaps the most pressure-packed way to stay on the Pro Tour train, but the 38-year-old is proving there's more than one way to scale that mountain—Araujo is fresh off a Nielsen-esque series of Top 8 finishes at the Regional Championship level.
"This year is starting on all cylinders; I made Top 8 at the RC and have invites for Chicago and Vegas. I've always been passionate about the game and Magic has been a central part of my life since 1996, and it has been a dream to play all these events over these two seasons," Araujo said. "The sole fact that I'm there, playing with my friends and alongside my idols, already makes me happy."
One of those friends is Jonathan Lobo Melamed, who has had some of the same highs as Araujo—Melamed won a Regional Championship and made the finals of a second last year—while also taking a slightly more conventional path to staying on the Pro Tour. He remains locked in on that same goal heading to Pro Tour Aetherdrift.
"Last year, I qualified for the Pro Tours in Amsterdam, Vegas, and Chicago. In Amsterdam, I finished with a frustrating 9-7 record after an 8-2 start. But it was the high point of the year, when I joined Team Worldly Counsel and helped friends achieve their goals by preaching the word of Nadu," he recalled. "The low point was missing Day Two at the World Championship. I felt the pressure of playing the big league against the best, which was something I've always strived for.
"I finished 11th at the Brazilian Regional Championship, falling a bit short of requalifying. So that's my primary goal for Chicago, I need to perform well there."
For Melamed, the key to the steady Regional Championship performances that have set him for what could be another monster year of Magic echoes what Wilks said about burnout: you either find the fire in the process or you flame out before the destination.
"During the pandemic, without the competitive circuit, I was losing my drive to play," explained Melamed. "I had to take a step back and remind myself the joy it brings me to play. I got into Pauper and Commander and had a lot of fun with those, too. So nowadays, I keep that sentiment alive: I've got to be having fun while I'm playing. Otherwise, something is wrong."
That's not just a mantra; it's a practice. Melamed has found long-term success not in hopping from "best deck" to best deck but in finding decks and play styles he enjoys and mastering them. One of his favorites was Four-Color Legends from Standard last year, and he piloted it to a Regional Championship victory. As Patrick Sullivan put it, it's important to like looking at the cards in your hand.
Speaking of quotable moments, few Pro Tour competitors can pack more soundbites into post-draft interviews than Madsen. He burst onto the scene at Pro Tour Phyrexia in 2023, where he made a true underdog run, qualifying for the Pro Tour playing MTG Arena on his phone and then finishing as the last remaining undefeated player on the way to the Top 8, advancing all the way to finals (losing to Reid Duke).
Since then, Madsen has been balancing more than just Magic responsibilities: he's in his first year of law school. Despite the immense challenges, he spent 2024 on and off but mostly on the Pro Tour, including a whirlwind 24 hours at Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 where he exhausted his last invite but then the next day requalified via PTQ. He heads to Chicago with his Pro Tour future similarly hanging in the balance.
"I'd be thrilled just to stay on the train, if I can string together a qualification from this Pro Tour to the next one," he said. "To be honest, I've already played more Pro Tours than realistically I thought I'd ever get to; I thought I had stopped playing after 2019 and one Mythic Championship, but instead, I've gotten to play a half-dozen Pro Tours. If I can string together qualifications and get to do the testing houses—that's the best part either way—then my Magic needs are fulfilled. That and doing well in my 1L year, that would make things a home run."
The most important tournament is always the next one, and for these players and more than a hundred of their peers, that tournament is Pro Tour Aetherdrift, which kicks off with live coverage Friday, February 21. We'll see you in Chicago!