Check out who is Marijn Lybaert

Discuss this profile in the forum

Name: Marijn Lybaert

Age: 24 (passport) 21 (mentally) 19 (physically)

Occupation: student

Hometown: Welle (yes, Wilson Wellens is my neighbour!)

Number of pro tours: +- 15

Top8’s in GP/PT: T8 PT Hollywood, T8 PT Geneva, T8 GP Toulouse

Pro Points: 103

Marijn Lybaert is a successful Belgian Pro who posts significant good results these last years. He made top8 in Pro Tour Hollywood and top8 in PT Geneva and so on.. Amazingly enough, he never made the quarters at Belgian Nationals but I am sure he will add this line to his impressive resume.

Hi Marijn, When did u start playing the game? When Tempest came out

Old people like me remember you as a little annoying, pesky kid who was shouting, jumping around all the time before. Comments? Are you old?

How did you start MTG? What did you like the most in the game? I got some boosters from my aunt. Few months later I was battling every week at a local shop. I like every aspect of the game. Hanging out with friends, the matches, deckbuilding, testing, drafting, … I just love Magic (and Kelly).

For you, fun < competitive play or the other way around? Both.

Your first tournament memories? My first tournament was in Oilsjt and I was playing a mono U control deck. Dirk Verbeken won the whole thing with his stupid Stasis deck. I had a lot of time to observe him as he was always going into time. I learned a lot from watching his games. He even learned me how to shuffle the Stasis to the top of his deck!

Your first homebrew deck? I steal most of the decks I play.

Your best deck ever in a tournament? A RG Land Destruction deck with Eladamri’s Vineyard which I stole from Jan Doise! I played it in my first Nationals Qualifier. I was 2-0 and playing against some strange artifact deck. In game 1 I had destroyed all his land and was killing him with some Avalanche Riders. I was kinda short on mana though so I played my Eladamri’s Vineyard to have two extra mana on the next turn. My opponent killed me, without ever playing a land. Using the two mana I had given him with the Vineyard. Great times.

Your all-time favourite card? Tradewind Rider. During my first big tournament my complete binder got stolen (including 4 freshly traded Tradewind Riders). The Tradewind Riders had some nice little art drawn on them. I’m still looking for them. If you were the one stealing my Tradewind Riders, plz step up and contact me on the forum.

Style of play: Aggro/control/combo/agro-control/whatever . Whateverrrrrrrrrr :-)

What do you like the most in the game in itself? Attacking with 2/2s.

What do you like the least about the game? Blocking with 2/2s.

What was the trigger which made you evolve from a good to a high-ranked world player? I started to believe I could do it and that really helped! It’s so important to have faith. I kept saying to myself: I CAN DO THIS! I think that’s the trigger which made me evolve from a good to a high-ranked world player.

Did you prepare a lot to reach that level of play? Yeah. Practice is really important.

How do you manage “fame” thanks to the game? What is different (or not) while you play in big tournaments? Haha. Only two people asked me for an autograph until now. Guess I’m not that famous!

Do you have a network of friends around the world to discuss strategy/decks? Before a PT I always check with people like Zac Hill and Paulo Vitor if they got something for me. Not that they always give me their best deck but we mostly talk about the format in general and what we are expecting.

What makes you still playing the game? Money? friends? Friends and the fact that I just love to play the game.

Player you respect the most in Belgium/Europe/World ?

Belgium (Walloon/flemish/brussels) : Geoffrey Siron and Kristof van Holsbeek.

Europe : Guillaume Wafo-Tacos

World : Zac Hill and The Chief (Mitamura).

Player you are afraid of playing in Belgium/Europe/World? Myself.

Which aspect is more important to you while playing Magic? Intuition/hard thinking/preparation? A combination.

Is Magic a big part of your life or just a hobby? It’s a pretty big part of my live. 4 PT’s, about 10 GP’s and all the testing (+ team building) takes up a lot of my free time.

What are your goals regarding the game? Win a Pro Tour and win Nationals. Maybe? Plzzzzz?

What do you think of Modo? Did you play it a lot? At the moment I kinda hate it cause there are so much bugs but I still play quite a bit of Modo yes.

Are you a bad loser? Can you get really angry after a loss/bad play? Depends. At Magic on Thursday (our local draft) and Pre Releases I get really mad when I lose to a bad player. At Pro Tours there are no bad players though so I never get really angry there. I DO hate myself when I fuck up real hard though but I usually get over it by the end of the round.

How do you prepare yourself for big competitions? Who do you test with? Do you often test? JanD, Xof, Pascal, modo. If I got the time I like to test quite a bit.

Your favourite format? Why? M10 sealed deck of course!

Your best topdeck? Don’t remember. Although getting paired against Merfolk (probably my best matchup) in round 15 of PT Hollywood was quite lucky. Especially cause my opponent was from the Czech Republic!

Your worst “badbeat”? My matchup in the quarters of PT Hollywood. RG Mana Ramp vs. Reveillark

The most epic match in a big competition? Last round at PT Geneva. I had to play Ervin Tormos. I was in with a draw but he wasn’t sure. There were like 50 people watching (although it was not a feature match) and we split the first two games. The third game my hand is really bad and I’ll have to mulligan. When we both have to mulligan game three he decides to offer a draw. I accept in a blink and we both make top 8 after that.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Events.aspx?x=mtgevent/ptgen07/qf3 

What do you like the most in competitive play? The two times I played for Top 8 were so tense I almost sweat myself. I think playing with so much at stake is what I like the most.

Your best trip abroad? PT Valencia one year ago. Me and Fried got there one week earlier to test with Zac Hill and Bill Stark. We had a wonderful time and brewed one of the worst decks ever (but me and Zac still managed to day 2 with it cause no one knew about the deck (Rock and Nail)).

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Events.aspx?x=mtgevent/ptval07/day2decktech

You never won Nationals nor reached top8 (twice 9th I think) and each time, I saw you really disappointed. Is Winning Nationals a goal in itself for you? Obviously it is. But I’m sure I’ll get there one day.

Your experience at Worlds for the first time? When was it? Two years ago I think. I needed T16 I believe to make level infinite but only managed to T32. I was pretty disappointed as it put me on 29 points that season which kinda sucked.

Who is the “new Belgian rising star”? Can Belgium put other players to the train? There is no Belgian rising star. Everyone but me, Xof and JanD sucks. The Vieren brother will never win a tournament again and they’ll quit Magic in about 2 years because they got tired of losing.

What are your expectations in life? 2 children (names: Pascal and Peter), a beautiful house with a swimming pool and a big garden (obviously designed by myself), 2 dogs (names: Regina and Spektor) and a great job at the yard!

Your favourite meal? WAP (worst, appelmoes, patatten)

Other interests in life? Hobbies? Sport? Tennis, Agricola, Kelly, Travian :-(

Walloon players are usually cheaters. Except for Swap, he’s cool and hot.

Flemish players are usually the best.

Any nice website or band you like? Team William obv. Ow, and Regina Spektor is hot too.

Anything you would like to say to finish this article? Mor ik heb geen problemen Pol(ype)!

Thank you Marijn!