In the interest of getting to know the players who have been joining us in the MTGA Zone Championship series tournaments – and introducing them to our readers – we’re asking some of the players on our leaderboard to sit down for an interview.
We’re pleased to announce that our first participant is Arya Karamchandani, also known as hogpog_98. Arya is a tournament-level Magic player as well as content creator. You can find her live on Twitch over at twitch.tv/hogpog_98 and also on Twitter @hogpog_98.
Arya is also a strategy writer over at ChannelFireball.com – you can check out her articles over on her author profile. She has been on the DotGG Events leaderboard since the second week of Season 1, and currently sits at 11th place.
I had the pleasure of chatting with hogpog_98 about her experiences playing tournaments on MTG Arena, and her thoughts on the current metagame in Historic and Alchemy. Let’s see what she had to say!
P: Paul, MTGA Zone writer A: Arya Karamchandani
P: First off, thanks for taking the time for this interview. I thought I’d start off by asking you about your experience playing tournaments on Arena. As somebody who has done quite a bit of coverage on MTG Melee tournaments, I’ve seen your username come up in Top 8 results all the time. How long have you been playing competitive events on Arena?
A: Around the last year.
P: Cool, and was that your first foray into competitive Magic, or have you played paper or other tournaments in the past?
A: I played a little in terms of competitive tournaments earlier, but had mostly not been super engaged in competitive play until the VML last year.
The Venus and Mercury League (VML) is a tournament series open to Magic players of marginalized genders. The champions are offered an invitation to one of Magic’s official Set Championships. You can read more about it on the organization’s official website: https://vmlmtg.com/
P: As someone who has mostly engaged with the competitive scene through Arena, do you think the client offers a decent platform for competitive tournaments?
A: Yeah, definitely. Would you like a brief summary of my tournament history over the last year?
P: Sure, sounds good!
A: I got involved with competitive Magic when I took part in and won season 4 of the VML last year. Since then I’ve been playing semi-professionally, qualifying for all three of the Set Championships last year as well as the two championships that have been scheduled this year. Beyond that, I stream regularly, write weekly strategy articles for CFB Pro, and founded Sanctum of All, a Championship testing team open invite to any competing players of marginalized gender.
P: As somebody who seems to have gotten their foot in the door regarding both competitive play and content creation using MTG Arena, do you have any general tips for some of our readers who may be looking to get into the scene?
A: Just playing regularly, as well as constantly trying to improve is a big part of it. I also wrote a piece specifically on optimizing qualifying on a championship, if that’s what you were asking about:
P: Got it. Since the announcement that the Magic Pro League and Rivals League won’t be continuing after the 2021-22 season last year, the future of organized play has been somewhat up in the air. Assuming there continues to be some kind of Pro-level offering for players, is that something you’re interested in pursuing?
A: Yes, very much so.
P: Nice, and whatever form competitive play takes in the future, I imagine playing and performing well in the Set Championships would be a big part of that.
P: Now I’d like to shift the questions a bit more to strategy and the various formats on Arena. Our events in the MTGA Zone Championship thus far have been based in Historic and Alchemy, so let’s keep the focus there for today.
Alchemy has been a bit of a controversial format among the community since it’s release – what is your opinion about the format as a whole? Do you like the idea of MTG Arena taking a more Hearthstone-style direction with its digital-only formats?
A: It feels pretty inaccessible, is my main issue with it. I’d imagine a lot of players have difficulty with wildcards, particularly since nerfs don’t lead to players getting wildcards back. The other big issue is the timeline of changes [and Wizards’] understanding of the format.
For example, Lier getting nerfed at a time when the Werewolves decks were dominant indicated a lack of understanding or staying up to date with the metagame shifting and evolving. That said, if these are issues that can be overcome, it can be a dynamic format in a way magic has previously struggled with – without worries of it getting solved or stale.
P: I think that stance is in line with how many other members of the community, myself included, feel about Alchemy. It’s a great idea on the surface, but it certainly hasn’t been without issue regarding its implementation.
P: So Gruul Werewolves is definitely a strong deck in the format; since the recent balancing changes took effect, are there any other archetypes that have stood out to you as being particularly strong or well-positioned? Or is Werewolves the real winner here?
A: Red/black has seemed reasonable as well, but it’s mostly just Werewolves that has seemed really strong.
P: Ah yeah, I’m partial to blue/white control myself, but I consider Izzet Mill to be an unwinnable matchup for the most part.
As we pivot to talking about Historic a bit, some players have been concerned about the impact that nerfing cards in Alchemy has had on the format – especially Luminarch Aspirant and also Inquisitor Captain. Do you think that having the two formats tied in terms of balancing changes is having a negative impact on Arena’s “eternal” format?
A: Not really? Since they’re doing balances for Historic alone (such as Teferi, Time Raveler) the format is going to be affected by rebalances anyway. Where that comes from doesn’t make a huge difference.
P: Yeah, that makes sense. I was browsing your MTG Melee profile a bit in preparation for this interview, and I noticed you’ve been entering all kinds of different decks into the Historic events that you’ve been playing over the last few months. I heard you speak on stream a bit about Golgari Food being the deck to beat in the format – based on your experiences, what do you think are currently the best decks in the tournament scene?
A: I’d say Food, Phoenix, and UW control decks are the pillars of the format, with the first two being the more defining/better decks. There’s a smattering of other good decks as well, such as Niv, Enchantress, Auras, and Heliod Company that may be good week-to-week.
P: Yeah, Phoenix has been at the top of the format on and off since basically the beginning. What do you think about the matchup between Phoenix and Food decks?
A: Food is heavily favored if built and piloted well. Food just has a better long game, threats Phoenix struggles to answer, and answers that line up well with Phoenix’s threats.
P: Well, we’re getting towards the end of what I had planned, just a couple more questions for you for fun. Do you have any favorite or pet decks in Historic?
P: One last question before we go: as I’m sure you’re aware, spoilers just wrapped up for Neon Dynasty. Is there anything that’s really stood out to you as potential powerhouses, or just cards you’re excited to play with?
