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Name Jan André Godfried Ghislain De Coster :D (I know I know)

Age:  24

Occupation: finishing my studies/looking for job as a civil engineer

Hometown: Halle city baby!

Number of pro tours:  2

Top8’s in GP/PT:  1/0

Pro Points: 6 this year, 14 lifetime

Jan De Coster is mostly a limited player who plays in the Halle-BXL-Leuven region. He in fact very lazy (almost as lazy as Peter Vieren) and can’t drive a car although he is a traffic engineer. He makes fun of everybody and doesn’t mind being made fun of. It’s all in good spirit though :D Jan made Top8 at GP Paris, the biggest limited event ever so far

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Hi, When did u start playing the game? I think I was about 11-12 year old, in the final year of the lower school. I basically saw some classmates having these cards I wanted to be part of the new rage so I went to the Christiaensens and bought me a starter fourth edition I think. We had absolutely no idea how the game worked(we were 12 years old ffs) and basically just told each other that our card was always stronger ^^. This was around the time weatherlight came out.

Your first tournament memories?  A local tournament in Mishra’s Playground in Halle. I know I had to borrow like 50 cards for a mono red aggro deck.

Your first homebrew deck? Probably a starter with some cards of a booster pack thrown in, don’t remember it anymore.

Your best deck ever in a tournament? The lorwyn block deck I won the ptq at nationals with in 2008.
It was a UGbrw merfolk deck :D basically merfolk splashing sygg ,nameless inversion, doran, chameleon colossus and cloudthresher… It was a crazy deck :D

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Your all-time favourite card? Balance, the whole concept of the card revolves around being balanced while in fact it’s one of the most broken cards in history :D

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Style of play: Aggro/control/combo/agro-control/whatever I guess I naturally more drawn to aggro deck, since most limited decks behave more like aggro decks. I like to play combo and control deck, but apparently I’m just not good enough with those :D

What do you like the most in the game in itself?  Both the social aspect of getting to know new people, and having a drink with them after a draft or so, but also winning :D Nothing feels better than winning I guess…

What do you like the least about the game? Constructed? :D

Where can we play with you?

In Halle :  Mishra’s Playground, http://users.telenet.be/mishra/    It’s a bit outdated, but the contact info is still there. It’s a small shop in Halle   with a very good atmosphere 

In Leuven : Café 33 on de ouw markt, or “den amedéé” , a bar in the muntstraat

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

Belgium – Jan Doise and Mark Dictus, good players who are playing at a high level for very long, who are very friendly guys and who can cook quite well (bonus!)

Europe – I guess Kai Budde, never met him but what he achieved is just amazing

World – Saito, Nakamura and Kenji. Being the best in the world in a very classy way…respect!

Player you are afraid of playing in Belgium/Europe/World? Mark Dictus, because he says he hates me…

Your worst experience (tournament, event)?  PT Berlin : having the best deck in the room and still not being able to win almost any match .. very depressing

Which aspect is more important to you while playing Magic? Intuition/hard thinking/preparation? I think intuition. I play a lot of limited, which makes most of what I do intuition. I guess you can call it preparation but it’s so much fun I don’t count it as preparation. Constructed testing is preparation (and way to boring).

Is Magic a big part of your life or just a hobby? A big part of my life. A lot of my friends I know through magic and since I am/was a student I had more than enough time to play it :D

What do you think of Modo? Did you play it a lot? Modo is very good if you want to get better, especially in the beginning. It gives you a very good technical knowledge of how the game works. I should probably use it to learn to play constructed but hey…lazy you know. I did play it a lot, just for drafts. Nowadays I use it a bit less.

Are you a bad loser? Can you get really angry after a loss/bad play? I used to be a bad loser. But magic actually cured me of that. Now I just go silent when I lose, and want to be left alone for a minute. If I make a bad play, I’m just a bit disappointed with myself.

How do you prepare yourself for big competitions? Who do you test with? Do you often test? For limited I test quite a lot, mostly in leuven with the guys from there (jan doise, peter vieren, tom pashuyzen, etc) For constructed I try to test a bit, but it’s more difficult to find people and the motivation.

Your favourite format? Why? DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT…it’s the best/most fun to play magic always everywhere

Your best topdeck? I never keep track of topdecks, they are just not that relevant. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t and it works the same for both players.

Your worst “badbeat”? I never keep track of topdecks, they are just not that relevant. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t and it works the same for both players. Also a lot of the time a “badbeat” isn’t really a bad beat, there is always something you could’ve done different which would have helped.

What do you like the most in competitive play? Actually the people that you get to know from all over the place. Almost everywhere I go in Belgium I can be pretty sure I know someone.

Your best trip abroad? PT Kyoto baby! BEST TRIP EVER  (right mark? )

How did u prepare for Nats this year? I drafted a bunch both irl in leuven and online. I also tested one week constructed in Leuven.

What was your result? 8-4 for a 13th place Who did you test with? Peter Vieren, Jan Doise, Kristof Vanholsbeeck, tom pashuyzen, cliff vandamme

What did you play, why? Elementals, it was such a fun deck to play with, unfortunatly also way to difficult it seemd in retrospect.

Result in constructed/limited? limited 6-0, constructed 2-4 /sigh

Draft strategy? If possible, go esper, try to stay 2 colors with a splash of a third one

Any good story during Nats 2009? Results? constructed/limited. I hate constructed. Lost the last round of day 2 playing against Branco because I’m just that bad. Branco was really unlucky with his mulligans and I still managed to fuck it up so he could win 
I got so drunk Saturday night that I smashed my head really hard on the stones of the ouw markt in Leuven :D Shooters are very dangerous :D my chest kept hurting me for 3 weeks…

What was your feeling when you reached top8 at GP Paris along with Pierre Rensonnet? I was ecstatic…I wasn’t really thinking about making top 8 I just kept playing my matches. It was only after I won my last match that I started to think that I could make top 8
And when I heard I was 8th I just went nuts

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http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gppar08/welcome-fr  

Were u particularly lucky? What was your draft strategy? I wasn’t that lucky (I think, it’s difficult that remember such stuff afterwards) go black red (it was actually a bad strategy, see the top 8 for an example ) or go bant because nobody wanted to touch that.

What was your first pro Tour? Results? PT Berlin, 3-5 on day 1

Happy with this first experience in the Pro Tour? I was happy just being on the PT, obviously I couldn’t be happy with the result in the tournament though. Partying with Friend on the other hand was the highlight!

Tell us about GP Brighton. Did you test a lot in M10? I did a few draft (not that many for my standards 10-15 or so) and build a few sealed pools at home with booster I had lying around.

Tell us about your pool in sealed. The rares were not spectacular except a master of the wild hunt. I built a GWr deck that was solid Cudgel troll, master, 2 blinding mages and splash for fireball/lightning bolt.

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Any draft strategy during day2? try to force blue, open bombs

Were you particularly lucky during the GP? I had a bit of luck on day one but nothing spectacular.

This was the best GP abroad for Belgians. Comments? Euhmm we were there with a lot of very good players, and it was a small GP?

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http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpbri09/welcome

What are your expectations in life? Just be happy, and do make it too difficult for myself

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Somewhere still with Silvy, still playing magic

Your favourite meal? sushi and paella

Your favourite book? I read a lot, so I don’t really know. Lord of the rings maybe…

Other interests in life? Hobbies? Sport?

sport?not nearly enough

Hobbies : drinking with buddies, dancing with my girlfriend (dànsen alle staalen!)

Belgian players are usually....pretty good, and pretty friendly, not pretty though :/ (except mark dictus)

Walloon players are usually.... aahhh a classic. Obviously lazy , they are Walloon :D

Flemish players are usually… clearly superior than Walloon players…:p

Any nice website or band you like? I like linkin park (let the flaming begin!), queen, and the dire straits. Elvis is cool too! (basically a lot of groups)

Anything you would like to say about you to finish this article?  If everybody would just stop making so much drama, the world would be better off (how’s that for a wise lesson! :D

Anything you want to say to someone? Mark, zeit ge nog altijd boos op mij? :D

Thank you Jan!