Pinoy Planeswalker Profile #2

It is Tuesday and that brings this new edition of Pinoy Planeswalker Profiles - a weekly feature on local M:TG personalities. Last week, we looked at a Filipino who played big in the US and saw how Magic could be embraced as a full, compensating and fulfilling life-path. Our spotlight turns towards a more familiar face - this time lets take at look at one of the leading personalities of the format that permanently pulled me back into MTG from a long haitus: EDH.

Enter: Commander Kevin

Kevin Gonzales, of the south, started with Magic during Ice Age. After years of competitive participation in the game, he is now, admittedly, is fully engrossed with EDH. We sent several questions via messaging to Kevin and here are his replies.

Tell about your history playing Magic: the Gathering. Note milestones and unforgettables.

Qualified for my first Nationals, if I'm not mistaken, in 2004, and qualified for it every year that I have been active in the standard scene ever since.

"I never had a big break until Team Ruthless dominated Nationals 2011 where we had three members in the Top 8, me included. We didn't take home the title of National Champion, but it was a strong showing nonetheless. As consolation, it was the same fate of Team Channel Fireball in Worlds that year as well when Junya Iyanaga took home the World Title. I know, I'm just making excuses."

What makes you play the game?

"It's more because of the community rather than the game. I have a lot of friends who play, some whom I have grown up with. I rarely play competitive anymore but I frequent tournament venues and events just to hang out. I'm always updated with the meta however as I read a lot, LIKE A LOT. Be it Standard, Legacy or Limited."

What formats do you play?

"I started out as a Standard player in my heyday and had to learn the nuances of Limited when I eventually had to. Now I 'play' Legacy even though I don't participate in any tourneys due to work constraints, or just plain laziness.

Kevin poses with Richmond Tan (Left)
and Jan Ang (Middle) at the 2011 Worlds

I've started an obsession for MULTIPLAYER EDH for a few years now, and amusingly enough is my most 'mastered' format even though it is not generally competitive."

How would you describe your playing style?

I started out as a control player by heart and gradually adopted a liking to combo. For years I have never bothered to learn the intricacies of combat even though I have been participating in high level local events for quite some time already. I've developed into a Spike mentality eventually as I continued to play and that made my game versatile.

What is important in deck building?

Fundamentals, experience, hard work and lots of humility. If you don't know what you are doing be prepared to face the consequences. You need the fundamentals and experience to know what’s good, hard work in research and practice, and humility to improve on your shortcomings and to not be over confident by your results.

We then shift focus towards what Mr. Gonzales has to say about the Commander format.

What does "fun" in EDH mean to you?

Fun greatly depends on my mood. Nowadays you can play EDH almost anywhere people play Magic. However, I sincerely don't enjoy playing with random strangers. I'm a very competitive person and it spills over to EDH as well. I understand that to a lot of people EDH as a casual format - where combos are generally frowned upon, and winning isn't everything.

I personally maintain seven or so EDH decks as well. I contribute into designing the decks of my friends in our private playgroup. The decks are extremely powerful and competitive, and run like 60 card decks in consistency. I do believe our decks are pretty much ahead of the curve and this could pose problems when playing with people you don't know and doesn't expect wins as early as turn 1 or 2, and having absurd board states by turn 4.

My personal playgroup is comprised of Ateneo Alumni and friends, and playing with people you get along with no matter how ungentlemanly you conduct yourselves in EDH is fun for me. It's still not really all about winning, but about the big plays; we just do it a whole lot earlier and more consistently than others.

If I need an EDH fix on off days, I usually bring non-combo decks or dumbed down versions of them to public metas, but it isn't quite fulfilling.

In conjunction, which generals do you consider fun to utilize?

"I believe that settling on a strategy first before picking your general is better. Most of my decks originated from that ground up mentality instead of Pick-a-General top-down approach.

I wanted to build a Stax deck in EDH, and found Nin, The Pain Artist as a perfect general as it supplements your resources by drawing you additional cards, while providing the red color for mass destruction and blue for niche obscure cards such as Land Equilibrium and Mana Vortex plus artifact support.

I was messing around with the idea of having a dedicated comboless mono blue control deck as well and found Thada as the general of choice. The problem with control decks in EDH is that they are not built to withstand an onslaught of threats coming from multiple sources while establishing a clock, but Thada provides some insane tempo by boosting your mana absurdly to be able to drop game breaking threats such as Eldrazi monsters, limiting your need to be always on top of things.

Looking at a general and seeing what you can do with it is very limiting, as mostly people have already done what you did. You could find guides on certain generals in the net lending itself to the same old strategies. By determining what you want to do first makes you more creative, though the downside is that hopefully there is a general worthy enough of the strategy you have in mind."

What advice do you have for new EDH players who have yet to define the format for themselves?

"Don't let taboo and what other people tell you influence what you want to do in EDH. Think of your deck as your pet, and as a pet let it be what defines you as a player. EDH maybe casual but that shouldn’t stop you from trying out strategies that some people would frown upon.

If you are part of a private playgroup and they are imposing several limitations on the rules such as additional banlists aside from what is already set by the RC (not that I support the decisions of Sheldon Menery and his goons) explain to them that there is such a thing called power creeping, and things will indeed become broken at some point; it's inevitable. Play standard legal sets for EDH instead.

If people are limiting particular strategies, like instant win combos or mass land destruction, let them adapt. It's their bad deck building, and lack of fundamentals which are at fault- there's no reason for you to take the blame for them being incapable of what they want to do. Let them play solitaire instead. And I assure you, it might not feel like combo but that obnoxious super ramp deck with all of those end game spells will take over most of your games, while you durdle around with your mono white soldiers deck.

But then if you honestly enjoy only durdling around, by no means be my guest."


Thanks for reading in unto this weeks edition of the weekly P3. Catch the next feature next week, same day. Again, If you think you or one of your friends should be one of our featured Pinoy planeswalkers, or if you have any related comments, do not hesitate to use the comments box below or shoot me an email via boomdizon@yahoo.com. Use the same email to communicate any other related inquiries.

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