While it was not the result I wanted, I kept playing. The next year, I won states and almost made top cut of Nationals and barely missed my invite for Worlds. Now, this would mean your season was over today, but in 2011, things were different. The day before the World Championship, they would hold a last-change qualifier where if you survived a single-elimination event, you would get to play in the World Championship the next day. I got to the final match where if I won, I would make it. I can still remember setting up against my opponent and I knew that I was about to lose and all the wins that came before it was not going to matter. To this day I can still remember what the judges said “congratulations all competitors, this year we are ending the last-chance qualifier one round earlier, you are all playing in Worlds. I might have been the happiest I have been in my life.

I was not aware of this at the time, but my understanding for why they gave extra invites that year was that Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami.1 This caused Japan’s National Championship to be cancelled and cause there to be less invites than expected. The tragedy created a chain-reaction that has impacted my life in a way that I am unsure how to think about. While I did poorly at the World Championship, getting the chance to compete in it lit a fire in me. The 2011-2012 season I won another States, but I ended up winning the National Championship and coming up 1 game short of winning the World Championship. I can still remember to this day the pressure of playing my top 8 match at Nationals where the winner got a paid trip to Worlds, and the other just got an invite, which basically meant I had to win to go. This hot streak propelled me forward with a burning desire to compete at the best I could at Pokemon.

Ever since 2011, I have attended every single Worlds, except for this upcoming one. I will not be attending the 2026 Pokemon Trading Card Game World Championship. This was not an easy decision to make. Originally, I planned on attending the event, but I changed my mind. Worlds this year is unfortunately on the worst weekend possible for me, the weekend after my first week of classes in law school. Originally, I thought that I could make it work and only have to miss one class, but after seeing the amount of work I have to do, I can not afford to take 3 days off and then another 3 days to get back to normal. After attending every Worlds since 2011, I am heartbroken that I have to make this decision, but it is the right one. 2025 will not be my last Worlds as I expect it to only be a one-year hiatus. This is not how I wanted my season to end, but it is ok. Until next time, Ian out.

Even when I have been having motivation struggles with competing, there have been a few things that have always helped me stay motivated. Getting to meet so many people through the two decades I have been a competitor keeps me addicted. There have been so many cool people that I would have never interacted with if it were not for card games. Along with this, the support that I have been given by the Pokémon community has always helped me stay focused on the goal. Even though I can sometimes be awkward when meeting new people, the support that I get at tournaments and online gives me the positivity needed to keep competing. Getting to see the smiles on the kids I have worked with through coaching or when they come up to take a photo with me makes me want to keep competing. I have been needing a little bit of a break from being in the spotlight, but these things have helped me through the lows.

A strangely relieving aspect of this change is being able to step out of the spotlight. Ever since my 2024 Pokémon World Champion run, a massive spotlight has been on me. The reason I started to compete in Magic: The Gathering was to take a break from the spotlight and be able to be just a face in the crowd. This did not work as at my first magic event in years, a Regional Championship in Washington D.C., I made top 8. This led to my magical first two Pro Tours, where I made top 8 at both. Both the pressure to succeed and the spotlight came right over to Magic. I tried my absolute best to attempt to keep up this run, but it came with a price of self-caused burnout due to trying to compete in both Pokémon and Magic at the top level. This disdain has now gone away, but it has also come with the removal of the spotlight, something that I mentally needed. I have now been able to enjoy the journey with Magic and play just for fun and for myself. Being able to compete later this year in my second Magic World Championship is one of my proudest accomplishments. I am unsure how much I will continue having the game be a large part of my life, but I hope that it sticks around for at least a few more years.

In a few weeks, I will be a full-time law student and a part-time competitor. I honestly have no clue how much I will be able to attend events, but I know that I will try my best to attend as many as I can. I want to thank all of my friends who helped me in my Pokémon journey, and I want to give a special thanks to Theo Jung for being the first person to add me to a testing team, and Anthony Lee for giving me the chance to work with people I grew up looking up to. Hopefully, I will be able to keep writing here as I want to help keep alive the art of competitive card game articles. Everyone attending the Pokémon World Championship, I will see it as even though it is during my first week of classes, I can not miss that event. Until next time, Ian out.

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Ian’s Conspiracy

A Tough Decision

Hello everyone, I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what my relationship with card games is going to look like going forward, and I figured that writing about it would be helpful for others who are also attempting to juggle similar things. I am starting law school later this year, and this has caused me to have to think through the t…

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5 months ago · 5 likes · Ian Robb

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Pokémon: 18

3 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104

3 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 25

3 Meowth ex POR 62

2 Latias ex SSP 76

2 Raging Bolt ex TEF 123

1 Chien-Pao SSP 56

1 Passimian SSP 111

1 Lillie’s Clefairy ex JTG 56

1 Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 64

1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 27

4 Crispin SCR 133

2 Boss’s Orders MEG 114

2 Cyrano SSP 170

1 Ciphermaniac’s Cod…

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4 Abra MEG 54

4 Kadabra MEG 55

3 Alakazam MEG 56

3 Dunsparce JTG 120

3 Dudunsparce TEF 129

1 Fan Rotom SCR 118

1 Shaymin DRI 10

1 Lillie’s Clefairy ex JTG 56

1 Psyduck ASC 39

1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 32

3 Hilda WHT 84

3 Boss’s Orders MEG 114

3 Dawn PFL 87

1 Lana’s Aid TWM 155

1 Team Rocket’s Petrel ASC 207

4 Poké Pad POR 81

4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 1…

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If you are interested in this, the link is below

https://metafy.gg/guides/view/your-guide-to-prepare-for-the-perfect-orde-gvDbG4v3Mcg

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My Expectations for Magic Going Forward

One of the cons of the Magic: The Gathering competitive circuit is that if you are off the Pro Tour, it is difficult to get back on due to how few events there are that qualify you for it. Currently, I have one more Pro Tour invite, which is for the next one in May. The reality of the situation is that if I have a poor performance, it will force me into retirement. This is something that I do my best to not have happen, as I am very motivated to play my second Magic: The Gathering World Championship later this year, and that involves doing well the rest of the Pro Tour season. The reason why I am motivated to play in Worlds later this year is that I plan on taking a break from Magic starting in January of next year. Balancing two card games has come with a lot of sacrifice that I can no longer afford while in law school.

This decision is one I am not looking forward to having to lock in later this year, but until then, I will be working hard towards my dream of winning a Pro Tour and meeting as many people along the way. I hope that next season, I will not have to cut down on the number of tournaments I attend for Pokémon, as I have already cut down compared to how many I used to attend.

I hope that people find my thought process interesting or even helpful for making their own decisions. Until next time, Ian out.

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Learning From The Best

Due to my entire competitive card game career only being in Pokémon, a game without a draft format, I knew early on that I would need to make this a major focus of mine. My approach to improvement is to watch as many feature drafts as possible from previous Pro Tour or higher-level events. While this might seem strange, as what cards you prioritize will change based on the set, the drafting patterns are still the same. An example of two drafts that stick out is Ben Stark at Pro Tour Gatecrash1 and Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica2. Getting to watch one of the greatest drafters of all time evaluate cards and see how he prioritizes cards is a useful tool when trying to learn. This is something that I still do to this day, as I watch draft videos from Pro Tours of various players, and recently Vintage Cube drafts, mainly from Luis-Scott Vargas, due to Vintage Cube being about drafting around card combos. I highly recommend that if you struggle with drafting, watch the best, as it will always be one of the best ways to learn anything difficult.

Play Play Play and Play

One thing that can never be replicated is the repetition of a craft. For me, this mainly came in the form of drafting. I have burnt lots of gems on MTG Arena to be able to play endless drafts to both improve my skill and to get the repetition necessary to make the decisions seamless when sitting down at a Pro Tour draft. I do think that you can reach a point where you can get diminishing returns, but when one of the best players of all time, Javier Domínguez, talks about how much he is drafting in preparation for the World Championship last year, when he had to draft Spider-Man, one of the worst draft formats in recent memory, you have no excuses.

Understanding Draft Matchups

This is a topic that I think is a little underdiscussed, but one crucial detail of my improvement for draft was being around people who discussed this topic. I have seen my confidence in draft matchups correlate with my draft records. In most draft formats, each archetype will have cards that are necessary to find so that you can deal with certain threats your opponents are likely to have. I remember clearly at Pro Tour Final Fantasy, during Team Flexslot’s limited meeting, Mark Jacobson discussing how, when drafting White, you needed to prioritize flyers in white like Dragoon Lance to handle the Green Black decks that clog the ground. These discussions are good to have as they will help everyone think through them, and at least for me, I struggle with visualizing draft matchups.

These are the main things that I focused on when preparing for Pro Tour Aetherdrift and have been doing now. At Pro Tour Aetherdrift, I was able to end up with a 4-2 draft record, something that I am proud of. For constructed, I have struggled with figuring out ways to improve. I have found that I am significantly better at decks that force you to win through gaining a mana advantage when you draw your average hand, but I am weaker with combo decks. This is something that I am working on for the next Pro Tour, but I unfortunately do not have much advice to give.

I hope that you enjoyed this article, as it is a little different than what I usually write about. This will likely be my last Magic-related article for a little bit, but getting to share what I have learned is quite fun. Until next time, Ian out.