Pascal Maynard

Last updated
Pascal Maynard
Pascal Maynard in The Mythic Store (cropped).jpg
NicknamePMayne [1]
Born1993 [2]
Saint-Georges, Quebec, Canada [3]
Residence Quebec City [4]
Pro Tour debut2007
Winnings$101,650 [5]
Pro Tour wins (Top 8)0 (2) [6]
Grand Prix wins (Top 8)2 (13) [6]

Pascal Maynard is a Canadian Magic: The Gathering player and game store owner.

Contents

Maynard began playing Magic as a child, won local junior tournaments, then joined the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour as part of the Canadian National Team while a teenager. Over the next ten years he competed in Magic tournaments at a high level, making multiple final rounds, and winning two. At one tournament, he caused controversy when he drafted a foil Tarmogoyf, an expensive card that he could not play in his deck at the time, with the goal of reselling it for profit; he ended up selling it partly for charity.

In 2020, Maynard opened a Quebec City game store to replace the one he had played, then worked at, as a teen and young adult.

Early life

Maynard was born in 1993 and comes from Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, Quebec. [2] [3] He grew up speaking French, with weak English. [1]

Maynard was introduced to Magic: The Gathering at the age of 10. [7] He remembers watching MTG Pro Tour Los Angeles 2005 at the age of 11 and a half, and deciding to make emulating the French winner Antoine Ruel his life goal. [1] After playing with his friends, Maynard moved on to improve his skills at his local games store, which he would later work for as a young adult. [1] He won his first two Junior Super Series tournaments (for ages 15 and under, ending in 2007), [8] gaining him scholarship money, free magic cards for each year, and interaction with big city Montreal players who made both his Magic: The Gathering and English language skills better. [1]

Competitive Magic: The Gathering

Maynard played in his first MTG Grand Prix, in 2007 in Montreal, not making the finals, but ending 7-2. [1] In 2010, he made the Canadian National Team going to the MTG World Championship, then over the next five years made the finals in seven Grand Prix (winning Grand Prix Mexico City, on February 1, 2015) [9] and was invited to 13 Pro Tours. [7]

#Goyfgate

On May 31, 2015, Maynard was playing in the final draft of MTG Grand Prix Las Vegas, the largest Magic tournament of all time, with almost 8000 participants. [10] [7] He had made it to the Top 8 players, and his play was being filmed and commented on, live. In the second pack of the draft, he opened a foil-covered Tarmogoyf, a rare and powerful green card, that did not fit the red-white strategy he had picked from the first pack. It was, however, estimated to be worth $300 on the secondary market, [11] possibly even over $1000 given where it was opened. [7] [12] A Burst Lightning, a red card, would have fit his strategy, however as a common card, its secondary market price was estimated at 11 cents. Maynard had less than a minute to choose. He showed the Burst Lightning to the camera, acknowledging the correct choice for his deck, then chose the Tarmogoyf. [12] He did not use it in his deck, and though he won his first match, ended up losing in the semifinals. [7]

The next day, the Magic community was vocally divided over his decision, in the controversy called "#Goyfgate". [7] [13] [11] Some fans supported Maynard's choice, given the costs of competitive play, [11] but professional players including William Jensen, Owen Turtenwald, and Reid Duke stated on social media that they had lost all respect for, or were disgusted by, Maynard. [7] [12] [14] Maynard himself posted on Facebook that, after having the time to think it over, he agreed with the pros, if not the aggressiveness of their words. He wrote that he played "mostly to maintain the ability to travel, eat, pay rent and not have to work a regular job", [15] and that the Tarmogoyf money would mean the chance to go to more Grand Prix, forgetting that a slightly better deck would possibly mean going to the Magic: The Gathering World Championship or achieving higher competitive player rank. Jensen, Turtenwald, and Duke apologized for their language the next day. [7] [14]

Maynard put the card up on the auction website eBay, giving its history, and stating half the proceeds would go to the Gamers Helping Gamers charity. Sources reported bids over $19,000, [14] or it selling for $14,900. [7] [13] However Maynard said that those were fake bids on eBay that he could not remove; he took down that auction and made a silent auction on Facebook and Twitter, where the card sold for $2000, of which he gave 75% to the charity. [16]

After #Goyfgate

Maynard continued in competitive Magic: The Gathering, winning his next Grand Prix in Buenos Aires on June 28, 2015. [17] He came in 7th at MTG Pro Tour Gatewatch in Atlanta in February 2016, [18] [19] and was a finalist at MTG Pro Tour Ixalan in Albuquerque in November 2017, coming in second to Seth Manfield. [3] By that time, he had 13 Grand Prix Top 8s, with two wins. [20] [6]

In January 2019, in response to the decline in Quebec game shops hosting card tournaments, Maynard co-founded an esports sports league called Arena Super Cup, allowing people to compete from their homes using Magic: The Gathering Arena . It drew 300 participants during its first six months. [21]

Game store

Maynard honed his early Magic: The Gathering skills as a pre-teen at Le Donjon, or the Librairie Donjon, a Saint-Roch, Quebec City games store where he would later work for several years as a teenager and young adult. [1] [22] The store was a center for Quebec City gaming activity for 27 years before it closed in 2016; it was housed in the basement of the Gabrielle Roy library, and was closed when the city wanted to expand the library. [23] It was the last store of its kind in the city center. [24]

To serve the gaming community and recreate this place of his childhood, [22] in October 2020, Maynard founded La Boutique Mythique, or The Mythic Store, as a Saint-Roch card game store specializing in Magic: The Gathering, and partnering with Le Bastion, an adjacent miniature wargaming shop, with a shared space for playing the games. [25] Maynard had met the owner of the Bastion when both played at Le Donjon together. [22] At the time the store opened, the COVID-19 pandemic restricted face to face gaming, so the store offered online tournaments as "The Mythic Society". [22] [26] By 2023, the store was holding daily in person gaming events, and even expanded into a neighboring warehouse, quadrupling its storage space. [24] [27]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Maynard, Pascal (7 January 2011). "My Path to the Pro Tour Circuit and Worlds *37th* Place". MAGIC F2F.
  2. 1 2 Maynard, Pascal. "Pascal Maynard : Contact and basic info". Facebook . Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Carrier, Amélie (26 November 2017). "Jeux de stratégie : un Georgien d'origine finaliste au Pro Tour Ixalan" [Strategy games: Georgien native finalist at Pro Tour Ixalan]. EnBeauce (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  4. ↑ Maynard, Pascal. "Pascal Maynard". Facebook . Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  5. ↑ "Top 200 All-Time Money Leaders". Wizards of the Coast. 31 August 2023. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 Hosler, Corbin (November 5, 2017). "Finals: (11) Seth Manfield vs. Pascal Maynard". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 29 January 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2024. Also available as Hosler, Corbin (November 5, 2017). "Finals: (11) Seth Manfield vs. Pascal Maynard". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on February 14, 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mitchell, Ferguson (11 June 2015). "How losing a tournament made this Magic card worth $15K". Dot Esports . Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  8. ↑ "Scholarship Series Launches in 2007". Wizards of the Coast. 1 November 2006. Archived from the original on 19 February 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  9. ↑ "Maynard takes Mexico City". CoolStuffInc. February 2, 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  10. ↑ Greenwald, David (3 June 2015). "Inside the World's Biggest 'Magic: The Gathering' Tournament". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 Stein, Rich (8 June 2015). "What We Learned—Goyfgate". Hipsters of the Coast. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  12. 1 2 3 Maynard, Pascal (4 June 2015). "#GoyfGate". Channel Fireball . Archived from the original on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  13. 1 2 Tach, Dave (10 June 2015). "Controversial Magic: The Gathering card sells for $14,900 on eBay, half goes to charity". Polygon . Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  14. 1 2 3 Ray, Jeremy (3 June 2015). "How A Magic Card Ended Up On eBay For $19,100 (And Counting)". Kotaku Australia . Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  15. ↑ Maynard, Pascal (1 June 2015). "Now that I've taken the time to read just..." Facebook. Archived from the original on 8 October 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2024. Also archived as "Pascal Maynard's Response to Criticism for Raredrafting". Imgur. 1 June 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  16. ↑ Buteau, Jim (7 January 2021). "How much did the legendary foil Tarmagoyf ACTUALLY sell for - Let's chat with Pascal Maynard". Behind the Alias. YouTube . Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  17. ↑ Gutierrez, Carlos (June 28, 2015). "Maynard bests Buenos Aires". CoolStuffInc. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  18. ↑ "PRO TOUR OATH OF THE GATEWATCH : FINAL STANDINGS". Wizards of the Coast. February 7, 2016. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  19. ↑ Lepore, Frank (11 February 2016). "I Will Take The Oath (To Top 8 My First Pro Tour)". Star City Games. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  20. ↑ "Grand Prix Lifetime Top 8s By Player". MAGIC: THE GATHERING | ESPORT. Wizards of the Coast. July 14, 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  21. ↑ Carrier, Amélie (7 August 2019). "Le Georgien Pascal Maynard cofonde une ligue de sport électronique" [Georgien Pascal Maynard co-founds esports league]. L’Éclaireur Progrès (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Demers, Véronique (17 December 2020). "Un nouvel univers magique pour les jeux dans Saint-Roch | ÉCONOMIE" [A new magical universe for games in Saint-Roch]. Monsaintroch (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  23. ↑ Provencher, Normand (31 August 2016). "La clé du Donjon de Saint-Roch jetée aux oubliettes" [The key to Le Donjon of Saint-Roch is thrown into the oubliettes]. Le Soleil (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  24. 1 2 Lévêque, Estelle (20 September 2023). "La Boutique Mythique et Le Bastion réunissent les joueurs" [The Mythic Store and The Bastion bring players together]. Le Carrefour de Québec (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  25. ↑ Plante, Raphaëlle (20 November 2020). "Boutique de jeux deux en un dans Saint-Roch" [Two-in-one games store in Saint-Roch]. Le Soleil (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  26. ↑ "The Mythic Society MTG vs COVID-19 #1 Top 8 Standard Decklists • MTG Arena Zone". MTG Arena Zone. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  27. ↑ Lévêque, Estelle (21 September 2023). "La Boutique Mythique s'agrandit" [The Mythic Store Expands]. Le Carrefour de Québec (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2024.
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