#014 - Jonathan Alexander on Grinding Station, tournament success, and bromance (Part 2)

Jonathan Alexander is a Legacy-format specialist, and a good friend. What started as an innocent discussion about Magic turned into an epic podcast of sorts. Probably the most fun I’ve had so far recording for this show. At one point we asked each other, 2 hours in, if we wanted to stop or keep going. The answer was an encouraging KEEP GOING. And so we did. There are 3 parts to this talk, that’s how crazy it was. Unfortunately (fortunately?), our hour-long discussion on hip-hop didn’t make the final cut. Jonathan and I probably need to create our own podcast show at some point. Jonathan’s web site: https://theweeklywars.wordpress.com/ Time stamps — Part 2: [02:32] Grinding Station origins [04:35] The perfect storm (of a metagame) [09:23] Putting it to the test with 200+ players [12:36] The natural Tendrils revelation [14:38] Card evaluation tendencies [16:31] “That was only because it was the card I wanted.” [20:04] The complexity in the game // learning through observation [21:42] Thoughts on Team America [24:39] Having a point of view [26:06] Why Jonathan didn’t play Storm in Prague [28:59] Shout out to Rodrigo Togores, GP Prague winner [30:08] Best high-level tournament finishes [32:02] Prague preparations and changing decks [34:15] “With Canadian, you’re not playing the matchup lottery that hard.” [36:35] Minimizing variance / Why Miracles is so good [38:48] Deck selection and having the right goals [40:37] “The hard part about Magic is getting X, Y, AND Z right.” [42:31] The joy of blind Cabal Therapy [45:41] Pascal Wagner, the fastest Storm pilot ever [47:38] “Can you tell me about your relationship with Kai Sawatari?” [52:46] The bromance triangle in Seattle / a debt of gratitude [54:35] No regrets [55:35] Going back to Storm [56:59] Playing Magic Online for the first time / dabbling in the Standard format [1:00:11] Goals