I have known friends and teammates that are grinding points on Magic Arena especially these past months as they have enough time to do so because of the pandemic. They are also participating in premium Arena events such as the Red Bull Untapped Qualifiers and has been doing well in the rank finishes also.

I decided to tap with one of the them which is also a card pool buddy and which has been handling our Standard decks in the past months.

Here is a short interview with one the current best players here in Iloilo City under the MTGA username Province Gamer, Ace Ashley Baron.

Name: Ace Baron
Yrs playing Magic: 20

Latest Major Finish in an event (tabletop or online)?
Online: MTGA Open where I finished with 6 wins garnering 1000$ and most recent would be winning an invite only event by Gamerhub with a 300$ prize money.

Upcoming Event to Join in? (How did you qualified in this event if may ara prerequisite events)

My upcoming events would be FTHS League Qualifiers “Had to qualify through Preliminaries” , Red Bull Qualifiers 3, and SCG Open

How are your preparations on this event?
Its tough. The Standard Meta changes week after week,maybe even everyday? And without major coverage of most events, I would have to rely on streams, MTGO Leagues, and tournament results on MTGmelee.
It really boils down a day or two from the events in term of preparation as breakout decks are sure to watch out for.

What’s your two-deck lineup? If you had to give a short summary of why you chose those two decks, what would be the major reasons why?
Bant Ramp because I had the most success with it post Fires/Agent bans and up until now.I also consider it to be the best deck in the format right now.
Temur Reclamation because its also very good and can be busted most of the time. Some may argue its better than Bant Ramp, but I’m more comfortable with Bant Ramp and I feel like I could make less errors with it compared to temur rec.

What is the best card in the deck that will probably be the cause of your wins in most matches?
Definitely Teferi, Time Raveler.

Any bad matchups and how to handle them?
I feel like any Aggro deck is a bad matchup if I dont get the opening hand i need.

Bonus question: What is your personal favorite card in M21?
Personal favorite would be Grim Tutor. That card really needed the reprint.

Here below is one of the matches that he played in one of the tournaments of Final Turn Hobby shop Online League to rank the players in the points and with prizes at stake at the end of the month season.