Interview with Pablo Suárez, Spanish Premodern National Champion

Greetings, everyone! This week I am happier than ever since I finally get the chance to talk about Premodern. It's a relatively fresh format, created only a couple of years ago, and is getting a lot of attention, especially here in my native Spain. A good friend of mine recently won the Spanish Premodern Nationals so invited him to share his experience about the format and the tournament itself. Let's welcome Pablo Suárez!

Background

Rone: Thanks for your time, Pablo. Let's kick things off with some personal info. Who are you and what do you do for a living?

Pablo: My name is Pablo Suárez, I am a 26-year-old guy born in Asturias (Spain), although I live in Valencia. Currently, I am working as a physical therapist in a hospital. I have been playing Magic for more than ten years, and while I enjoy all formats, the ones I play the most are Premodern, Legacy, and Old School.

Rone: What are your main hobbies when you are not playing cards?

Pablo: I love traveling and discovering other cultures or visiting natural places where I lose myself in.

Rone: Back to Magic, which are your previous accomplishments in tabletop tournaments?

Pablo: My best competitive achievement so far was a Top 8 at Modern Impact Returns (an annual tournament held in the north of Spain with almost 300 players) playing Elves, my absolute favorite strategy. Ultimately, my passion for this tribe ended up earning me the nickname of "Pablo of Llanowar."

Getting into Premodern

Rone: Let's talk about Premodern. Tell us about the format in general.

Premodern is a format built by the community, not supported by Wizards. It covers sets between Fourth Edition and Scourge (both included), which is basically the gap between Old School and Modern. The format's main appeal is playing formerly powerful cards that became obsolete as the power creep increased due to Magic's constant evolution. , , , , or , to name a few, have no place left in other formats, but Premodern offers them a second chance to shine.

Rone: Among all Premodern decks, which ones do you enjoy the most?

My favorite strategy is none other than Elves!—again, not just for Premodern but every Magic format viable. Actually I own one deck for each format, from Legacy to Modern.

It all started about six years ago, when I first piloted Modern Elves for a good run. It gave me consistent results, and I enjoyed the play patterns and overall the unique style the strategy offers. Later, I tried the Legacy version and it was love at first sight. Since then Elves has become the deck I have played the most, either the shell taking more of a control role or the one that is more combo oriented.

Recently, Premodern caught my eye when some friends lent me a deck to try and I got instantly attracted to it. That was the moment I thought about assembling my own Elves version. Although I dug for some previous lists, none of them convinced me, so I brewed my first draft featuring , , and —later replaced by . Once the green enchantment made its appearance, the strategy evolved into a more refined toolbox shell, able to tutor for silver bullets. A red splash also grants the recursion and the ability to give haste to all your Elves by discarding into the graveyard.

My actual list is super fun to play while having the chance to beat any deck in the format. Midrange and control strategies are favorable matchups, whereas combo, Sligh, and Goblins are the bad ones.

Tournament Report, Swiss Rounds

Rone: Tell us about the tournament. When did it take place and what were your pairings during the Swiss portion?

The Spanish Premodern community is very close, with a lot of camaraderie. We try to make every tournament a fun encounter, aside from the game itself. The tournament was held by a local game store in Madrid (Metropolis Center) over the course of two days in October this year. On Saturday, we played seven Swiss rounds, and then, Sunday was reserved for the Top 8. A total of 74 players from different parts of the country gathered to enjoy a festive and "feel good" environment. I obviously choose my Survival Elves.

There were three rounds in the morning and four in the afternoon. The pairings went like this …

Round One: Monoblue Control. 2-0.

Overall, this is a favorable matchup, since the deck does not have fast answers to Elves, and the ones they usually play like or are easy to play around. Post-sideboard I added every artifact removal possible to deal with the board sweepers and . Meanwhile, is perfect to constrain their mana, and finally comes in as a recursive way to rebuy creatures.

Round Two: Landstill. 2-1.

It is both an even and difficult matchup, where becomes the key card to victory. You basically try to play baits until they are tapped out, so you can resolve the eight-mana sorcery to win on the spot. The sideboard delivers with Winter Orb and Genesis again, while some number of beat .

Round Three: Goblins. 1-2.

This is undoubtedly one of the toughest matchups for Elves. During the first game, my opponent ran faster than me, and in the second, between and , they completely sweept my board.

Round Four: Deadguy Ale. 2-0.

We played this match right after the lunch break, so I don't remember it as well since we ate a lot. Nevertheless it is an even matchup; game one you are favored, but after sideboarding you need to play around cards like and . In the end, I managed to win the match. Sideboard-wise Winter Orb comes in to stop the early game, as well as Naturalize to blow up the scary Plagues, and is a great technology to tutor up with Survival, since it only counts as a Human Druid and doesn't die to Engineered Plague.

Round Five: Sligh. 2-0.

Rone: Also called Burn, Sligh was the old nickname for the monored aggro strategy (named after Paul Sligh, who played it at a Pro Tour Qualifier in 1996).

I was able to occupy him long enough with my s to set up my board position and win in the late game. In games two and three, and are the MVP to gain life, cutting Biorhythm since it's expensive and can be counterproductive. My favorite trick is casting Wellwisher with in play and in the graveyard, granting me two activations and playing around opposing removal.

Round Six: Landstill. 2-1.

Probably the most interesting game of the whole weekend and the most difficult to win. My opponent was a high-level player and he made it very hard to the very end. The key was to hit him little by little without committing too much to the board to play around .

Round Seven: Enchantress. 2-0.

Despite the 5-1 record during the Swiss rounds, my opponent was forced to play to get into the Top 8, therefore I couldn't offer him an intentional draw. During the match, I was very lucky game one since my rival assembled the / lock, but I proceeded to draw my singleton copy of to blow up the enchantment and swing for the win.

Game two was a whole different story, as he kept a one-land hand plus to try to find the second, but it took a few turns until he found it, and then it was too late. Regarding sideboarding, all enchantment removal comes in, plus to deal with 's Pegasus tokens, one of their main win conditions.

Tournament Report, Top 8

Rone: Onto the Top 8, what was your position and how did the games develop on Sunday?

Winning the last round granted me first place after the Swiss rounds, so I got to choose to start during the whole Top 8, which is an enormous advantage, especially when piloting a fast deck like mine. During the playoffs, we had open lists, meaning everyone knew what their opponent was playing at all times.

Quarterfinals: Goblins. 2-1.

Rone: Another successful monocolored strategy in the format showcases another beloved tribe from history. In this shell you can play some forgotten Goblins like for a kamikaze attack, while sacrifices itself to destroy artifacts, and finally you get the full playset of , the nightmare for every mana dork in Premodern.

This pairing gave me the chance to avenge my beloved Elves after the defeat during the Swiss rounds, and I did! My opponent proceeded to beat me easily in the first game with a turn one protected by removal for my blockers. Luckily for me, I managed to win the next two games in a row, thanks to , which became the match's MVP. Deployed early in both games, it gave me enough time to establish a solid board presence to fight his horde of Goblins.

For the sideboarded games, my plan is tutor up Sharpshooter plus Anger to clear up his board, while also adding to protect my army against his own Sharpshooter. Genesis comes in in case the game goes long, and I always remove Biorhythm since it's an awkward topdeck on an empty board.

Semifinals: UWG Threshold. 2-0.

Rone: Before the era, the cheapest threats available to tempo strategies for a long period in Magic's history were creatures with threshold. , , and are the main threats for this strategy, alongside 's Elephant tokens.

This was without any doubt the easiest matchup throughout the whole weekend. The deck only packs four copies of as spot removal against my green team, allowing me to develop my board until I can make a lethal attack. The sideboard plan is pretty straight-forward: for some extra life, , and . always goes out since there is no to play around.

Finals: Full English Breakfast. 2-0.

Rone: This combo deck uses the interaction of and to set up a deadly 12/12 with trample as early as turn two, while also having access to Survival of the Fittest plus a creature toolbox. Indeed, the main combo consists of using 's and 's to generate a lethal number of +1/+1 counters.

This was a very interesting matchup, with very high-level play. I started by winning the first game relatively easily, whereas the second became harder due to from the sideboard. In the end, I was able to outrace him and win the tournament. For this matchup, every enchantment/artifact removal is needed, either to destroy Survival, which is key to setting up the combo and to kill Dreadnoughts as well.

You can watch the tournament's Top 8, with Spanish commentators though; hope you enjoy it!

Rone: A great run; congratulations for winning the tournament, Pablo! Before we say goodbye, please briefly tell us about the prize pool and what the future has in store for you now that you are the Premodern national champion.

Tournament prizes were very well distributed, since half of the proceeds was raffled off among the players. As for me, I was given an economic prize of €220, the Spanish Premodern Champion trophy, a patch from the Madrid Premodern community, and finally a super cool coaster with a picture on it.

Regarding the future, I will continue to play every Saturday with my colleagues from the Valencian Premodern Techno League (Technoliga Valenciana de Premodern), where we have a great time playing Magic while enjoying food and beers. Indeed, I look forward to more Premodern tournaments, both nationally and internationally, since the format is lots of fun and growing in numbers.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all the people from Valencia's Techno League for all the support and testing in preparation for the nationals, as well as the Spanish Premodern communities, since together we have organized an incredible tournament with an amazing vibe.

Rone: Thank you so much for your time, Pablo. Hope to have you back here some time soon!

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