Brad Nelson’s push for the StarCityGames Players’ Championship the last three months of 2014 was a task like no other. The run would consist of playing an
event nearly every weekend for more than three months straight, taking him from Richmond, VA to Seattle, WA. For the 2010 Player of the Year, whose early
Magic career is detailed in a book aptly titled “Grinder,” that says quite a bit.
Coming off a 30th-place finish at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir and a Top 8 at Grand Prix Los Angeles in early October, Nelson set his sights on locking up an
invite to the Players’ Championship. A runner-up finish in the Atlanta Legacy Open and two Top 32s in the New Jersey Standard and Legacy Open in September
set the stage for his end-of-the-year run. Sitting at 17th place on the Season Four leaderboard with 105 points heading into the Milwaukee Open, Nelson was
five spots out and 12 points shy of earning an at-large berth to the Players’ Championship, though the finals numbers were in flux, dependent on how the
players vying for the final slots would fare and how many points they would earn.
Four Opens and a Super IQ later, Nelson was already locked for his spot before the Season Four Invitational in Seattle. He ended the year on 164 Open
points, meaning in less than two months he racked up 59 points over his run, including three Open Top 8s, three Open Top 32s, and a Super IQ win. His point
jump was more than double that of any player’s point increase in the stretch of time leading into the Players’ Championship.
“I’ve had some decent results over the past couple years, but I can specifically notice there was a significant level-up in my game during my run to the
Players’ Championship,” Nelson said. “It was the most Magic I’ve ever played in a long period of time without breaks and I put in a ton of work,
internalizing the game as a job, and without a break, my game improved so much and is just so crisp. It’s phenomenal how much better I am than I was just
three months ago.”
All of the work over those couple of months was to qualify for the 16-person, $50,000 tournament in Roanoke. A multi-format tournament with a small field
would be an ideal opportunity for the metagame specialist, often labeled best Standard player in the world. Nelson knew he’d be perfect for the Players’
Championship and already had plans of preparing for the event with Gerry Thompson, Todd Anderson, and Tom Ross way before he was even qualified.
Nelson returned from the Seattle Invitational the Monday before the Players’ Championship and began his preparation. He scoured through data, taking notes
to predict what the players would bring to the table in each format. He discussed the assumed metagame with longtime friends, Willy Edel and Josh
Utter-Leyton, who were both coming off playing at the World Championship, through a group forum. Edel and Utter-Leyton helped Nelson finalize his thoughts
on the metagame and assured him of his decisions.
With all the data and predicted field established, Nelson went forward on picking his decks for the event. For Legacy, Nelson stuck with Sneak and Show, a
deck that he had results with and knew would strike fear in his opponents. Nelson zoned in on Sultai Charm as a great card for the event and led him to
constructing his build of Sultai Reanimator for Standard. From there, it was time to test. Nelson played his build against Thompson online in all the Whip
of Erebos matchups, learning as much as they could about the keys to the matchups as well as ironing out sideboard plans – not only figuring out his plan,
but how to know what the opponent would sideboard as well. With the Whip matchups solved, Nelson played with Anderson face-to-face for all the other
matchups, including a six-hour session against W/U Heroic, where they forced themselves to figure out the matchup.
“Todd was fully committed to helping me and played all the non-Whip decks and we just grinded game after game after game,” Nelson said. “Even once I
thought a matchup was good, like with W/U Heroic, Todd said ‘No, I was drawing like crap, we got to play more games.’ So we did and we made sure we got it
right.”
After all the preparation, the Players’ Championship was upon him and Nelson didn’t disappoint. He swept his pool in Stage 1, beating Tom Ross, Chris
VanMeter, and Steve Mann in Standard, to advance to Day 2, which led with Stage 3, another round of pool play, this time in Legacy. Nelson went 2-1 in the
pool, beating Brian Braun-Duin and Joe Lossett, but falling to Gerard Fabiano. This set up his Top 4 win-and-in match against his friend, Ross. Nelson
quickly dispatched Ross, with Sneak and Show stopping Infect, 2-0 and put Nelson in the Top 4 with Reid Duke, Fabiano, and Braun-Duin.
Brad Nelson makes a play in the finals of the Players’ Championship.
All the players had decklists and perfect information on Day 2, letting Nelson confirm his speculation, proving that he was spot-on with his predictions.
Looking at all the data, Nelson only failed to predict three players’ archetypes and would stick with his deck choices if he had to play the event again.
“Overall, there was a ton of work that got done in a short amount of time,” Thompson said. “It was crunch time, and I think we did a pretty good job of
making sure Brad was prepared and felt confident. It wasn’t necessarily about finding the perfect decks, but the perfect decks for Brad, for the Players’
Championship structure, and for doing well against the range of decks we expect people to play. Going into the Top 4 we’d be talking about sideboarding
plans, but I could tell things had gotten even tenser. He really wanted to focus. It was one of those times where I felt we probably needed to keep talking
strategy to make sure we got it right, but I knew it was better for him to just take a breather.”
Nelson talked with Thompson and Anderson on the phone waiting for his semifinal matchup against Duke to begin. When it was time for the match, Nelson knew
if he won, he would face Fabiano in the finals, and both matches would be against similar Sultai Reanimator decks. Nelson edged Duke 3-2 in the semis and
defeated Fabiano 3-0 in the finals to win the Players’ Championship and the $20,000 that came with it. For Nelson, the months of work, and more
importantly, the days leading up to the event all paid off, including the specific sideboard plans for the Sultai Reanimator mirror.
“Matchups with Doomwake Giant and Hornet Queen are very interesting, because you don’t want Queen if they have Doomwake, but you don’t want Doomwake if
they don’t have Queen in theirs. So it is a dance of a lot of risk versus reward, because if you have Doomwake it is pretty bad if you don’t have anything
to kill with it,” Nelson said. “But if you don’t have it and they kept in Queen, you can easily lose to it. When you’re playing for 20k, you take a risk.
We decided on the mentality for Duke and Fabiano, and weren’t wrong, I took very good risks in sideboarding against them, and from the cards I saw from
them I was always right, as I never saw a Queen when I didn’t have Doomwake, and never saw Doomwake when I had Queen in.”
The Players’ Championship win for Nelson meant more to him than just the $20,000 that came with the massive trophy. It was the first big tournament win
since defeating Huey Jensen in the finals of the Season Three Invitational of 2013 in Indianapolis, where he piloted Sneak and Show in the elimination
rounds. Despite winning that Invitational and earning his likeness (immortalized on a Goat token), Nelson still feels that win comes with an asterisk. He
still claims his ceiling in the event was a Top 8 as he wasn’t comfortable with his Legacy deck at the time, and he insists luck had more to do with his
win than most will admit.
Before the Indianapolis Invitational, Nelson’s previous big win was Grand Prix Washington DC in 2010. Between the Invitational win and the Players’
Championship victory, Nelson had a string of near-misses, including a runner-up finish at Grand Prix Cincinnati in 2014 to his second-place finish at the
Portland Standard Open in December. The three months of work finally culminated in a trophy and the result was euphoria.
“To spend three months with one goal in mind and to accomplish it, all those feelings of being a bridesmaid and getting finalist trophies passed and the
new feeling was indescribable. I had a huge stress on my shoulders and suddenly it was gone,” Nelson said. “I remember driving away from the Players’
Championship to go to Todd’s party, and I remember there was something unique about the drive. It felt weird because I was so into Magic mode, but there
was no stress, it was gone. That is what you get for winning a tournament, you know you are the last one standing, it’s like a drug, and is the reason we
all keep playing.”
On top of relieving all the stress, accomplishing his goal, and capturing the first Players’ Championship, the win had another matter of importance to
Nelson. While accepting his trophy, Nelson mentioned that he promised his grandmother the trophy before the event and made sure to give her a shoutout
during the winner’s interview. Winning the event right before traveling home for Christmas meant he’d get to take the trophy home the day after to deliver
it in person. The trophy would go right next to the Invitational trophy, another piece of hardware he promised his grandmother.
Nelson’s grandmother has been his biggest fan for as long as he can remember. On top of watching all of his matches, she even monitors other tournaments
when something could affect him. When Nelson was in the running for Player of the Year in 2010, his grandmother was the first person to tell him that one
of his main competitors, Tomoharu Saito, was suspended by the DCI – information she learned by watching a Magic stream her grandson wasn’t playing in.
Nelson said he enjoys giving his grandmother someone to root for and something to talk about with her friends at morning coffee.
“When I work really hard and do well, if I win, it is for her. It feels really good, knowing she’s there rooting for me,” Nelson said. “Even though I am
the one experiencing it, I know she is getting more out of it than I am. The moment a tournament is over my mom calls and says, ‘You won this much money!’
My dad says, ‘That’s so great and awesome!’ But she’ll be like, ‘You kicked all their asses!’ She knows what it is about and what I want to do and that I
want to win and she wants it too, and that’s what I love about her. She loves the competition.”
Nelson and his grandmother pose with the Players’ Championship trophy.
Going forward, Nelson is back from his holiday break and spent last weekend winning a Super IQ with a Sultai Reanimator list, similar to what he ran at the
Players’ Championship. He returned a favor to Anderson, by helping him with a deck for a PTQ, while spectating all of his matches and giving him advice
between rounds. While Anderson lost in the finals of the PTQ, Nelson felt he had a breakthrough with his friend, seeing a fire relit, while enjoying
filling the role his friends aided him with just a few weeks ago.
Nelson will be back on the road this weekend, hitting his first Open Series of the year in Philadelphia, where he will experience the new two-day
tournament structure. His run for the Players’ Championship supplied him with enough points to keep him in the Top 16 of the Open Series leaderboard,
granting him two byes this weekend for the Legacy main event. To go along with the improved Open Series, which Nelson has said will draw him to more and
more events, he also has his eye on Pro Tour Fate Reforged in early February. Nelson will be working with Team Revolution once again, but will be joined by
Anderson and Braun-Duin this time.
Nelson doesn’t have any specific goals in mind for this year, but with his game on the upswing and his confidence back where it was in 2010, he is ready
for whatever comes at him. After dealing with the highs and lows of his career, he has the perspective and experience to continue improving.
“After every tournament everything starts new. I can win the Players’ Championship, but that isn’t going to help me in my next tournament. I can’t assume
anything. Just because you won last week doesn’t mean you’re going to win this week,” Nelson said. “In my career I’ve been the next big thing, but also the
laughing stock. I’ve lived in my own shadow, been the best at a certain thing, the worst at a certain thing, and been every person people talk about. But
it’s given me a ton of perspective on a lot of things. As long as I am playing good Magic, staying humble, not assuming my past accomplishments will create
future ones – there is no interest plan with Magic – I feel like I have the experience to know how to approach the next week, and each week after that.”