The face of the first girl to Top Eight at a Magic ProTour. (Photo from the Magic Facebook.)
The Gatecrash ProTour was this weekend in Montreal. Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch much because I had to work. But thanks to my buddies at my LGS I heard about this pretty cool girl, Melissa DeTora.
After the first day of the ProTour she was the only person with an 8-0 record. And the second day she made Magic history by being the first girl to make the Top Eight at a ProTour. On the final day she lost to the eventual champion in the quarterfinals. But being knocked out by the champ and making history is not too shabby. It’s actually really, really cool, especially to me.
Now, I am not going to pretend to know anything about Magic at the super competitive level, but I do know that I’m excited for Melissa. I don’t really have any plans to attempt to “go pro” at Magic, but it’s still inspiring. Because sometimes the hardest thing I face at FNM is the gender gap, I mean let’s face it, it is a bit intimidating to be one of the only girls there. I’m more comfortable than I was before, but I still have moments when I look up and realize that everyone is watching me BECAUSE I’m a girl.
Melissa doing her thing.
So I can’t even imagine how Melissa felt over the past weekend. And now probably every semi-serious Magic player knows her name, girls especially. She proved that we can do it; I mean, there’s no reason we couldn’t before, but it’s nice to have the proof. And I’m hoping it means that more girls will keep playing. (Or start playing!)
Oh and she writes, too! When I googled her, several articles she’s written for Magic sites popped up. I mean, could this girl be more awesome? Seriously. She’s written about how to draft Gatecrash, how to win a ProTour Qualifier, the updated trigger policy and more! (And yes, I read all of them while trying to write this post.) So even if not all magic girls view Melissa as their hero (which they should), I definitely do. Writing about and playing Magic all the time? Sounds like my kind of girl!
Here’s to hoping that the trend of awesome Magic girls continues.
All for now,
Bale
P.S.: For those curious, here’s a link to the top 8 decks. Melissa’s is towards the bottom. It’s pretty awesome! 😉
The Nerdmaid Writes 