After winning a drama-filled Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour event in Amsterdam, you’d think champion Simon Nielsen might want a short break to revel in his victory. Instead, he celebrated by rushing straight to play Commander with a few strangers.
With his trophy in-hand and fresh off his historic mirror match win over America’s Sam Pardee, the Danish player hit the MagicCon Amsterdam tables and played out a game of Commander with three others, with details of the match posted by participant u/thomash01 on the MTG subreddit today. Nielsen swapped out of Bant and into Abzan with Kathril, Aspect Warper as his commander.
According to Thomash01, their match was interrupted by the closure of MagicCon, which wrapped up on June 30. “We didn’t get to finish because the con started closing and basically kicked us out,” he said. Surely Nielsen’s MTG Pro Tour trophy—which was on the table—warranted the four players another 10 minutes or so to try and wrap things up.
We may not know the result of this all-important Commander match, but Nielsen has walked away from the Dutch capital a champion following his victory this weekend in an event packed with plenty of copies of Nadu, a grueling run to the trophy, and even a touch of controversy with a high-profile player disqualified for cheating.
“I feel like the narrative worked out so perfectly. This deck was crazy stupid, I’m glad I got to play it before it’ll be gone, do not invest!” he joked after the win. Nielsen also took time to thank his team and fellow competitors. “My biggest strength as a player is that I’m like a sponge that absorbs information, but I need to have that good information. These guys are just so helpful and incredible to be around and learn from.”
Given Nielsen skipped out on immediate celebrations and jumped straight over to the Commander tables for a casual match before wrapping up goes to show there’s so much more than just pride, glory, and a title in MTG for Nielsen.
