Time to pick up the pace this week, as we bring the Player of the Year Race up to date, including the sensational victory in Kobe just a couple of days ago. But when we left our intrepid band of travellers, we had reached the first Pro Tour of the year, in Kyoto, Japan.
Pro Tour: Kyoto
I’ve already talked extensively about this event, but want to add a few comments here. First, the mixed Format was broadly well received, but there were enough quirks to suggest that this may be a work in progress. Wizards, in the form of Tournament Manager Scott Larabee, are always looking at results, and indeed run simulations of events with various participants, byes, drops, percentage of draws, and so on, in order to arrive at the ideal balance between getting the best players into the Top 8 (in simple terms by playing the most number of matches as possible) and practicality (the venue has to close sometime, there are only so many hours in the day, fatigue on both players and judges etc).
For the Top 8 itself, it bears comparison with any typical Super Sunday lineup. At only one round fewer, Pro Tour: Valencia had at-the-time suspicion around it that another couple of rounds would have produced a far classier Top 8, and by extension, champion. Remi Fortier has since amply demonstrated his class, Giulio Barra showed that his deck was a standout, and let’s not forget that Top 8 included the reigning Player of the Year Shuuhei Nakamura, edged out by Andre Mueller, no slouch. In Kyoto, Luis Scott-Vargas was joined by Gabriel Nassif and Jan Ruess as the big three, and on reflection I think Ruess is one of the big untold stories of that tournament, largely due to the fact that he’s so quiet. Kyoto was two Top 8s in five for the German, who lost nothing in defeat to Yamamoto in the boat brew mirror.
The system was designed so that anyone putting together a perfect run of the second day could make Sunday. Cedric Phillips lay in 43rd overnight. Masayasu Tanahashi was back in 77th. Martin Juza was down in 80th, but still managed the same points as the 5th placed finisher. And then we have Adam Koska. One of the things I admire most in players is the ability to ignore the scoreboard and get their heads down, especially when they’re staring down the barrel. Koska began Saturday action in 120th. A win to start the day took him to 88th. Then it was 61st and 45th, and a 3-0 Draft had given him a chance. Win, 33rd, win, 21st, win 11th, win…9th. On one level, heartbreaking, but one thing I’ve noticed about many of the players from the Czech Republic and surrounding region (I’m thinking of Matej Zatlkaj for example) is an imperturbability that to my mind is rooted in a cultural philosophy of forbearance. To be fair, a fiery blend of geography, history, religion, and politics can do that.
I’d also like to talk a bit about what ‘the story’ of the event was. It’s fair to say that as a Coverage group we were eager to follow the progress of LSV, and to those who felt we were overzealous in this regard, I’d remind them that during the course of the Swiss, he compiled the second part (continuing from Worlds 2008) of the longest consecutive winning streak in Pro Tour history. Although it’s hard to put into words, I’m going to have a go at conveying something else. I’ve seen plenty of good players being good, and a bunch of great players being great. Pro Tour: Kuala Lumpur apart, I didn’t have the privilege of watching either Jon Finkel or Kai Budde cutting a swathe through the Pro Tour. Since I’m not best qualified to judge, I’m not going to ask you to accept just from me that something extraordinary was going on. Instead, I’ll mention again that the Feature Match area was simply packed by past Pro Tour winners, Top 8ers, members of R&D… the great and the good were out in force to watch and marvel. This doesn’t mean that LSV is suddenly the best in history, or that he will automatically go on to win the Race this year. It does mean that the plaudits were thoroughly justified. Losing the 5th game of the Final on the back of a serious deck malfunction doesn’t change that, any more than Gabriel Nassif would have been irrelevant had he not topdecked the Cruel Ultimatum to oust Matteo Orsini-Jones. Much more on Nassif coming up…
Grand Prix: Chicago
At the end of a nine round first day that featured a gigantic 1228 players, three players compiled perfect records — Gaudenis Vidugiris, Andy Probasco, and Trent Jones. Also undefeated with 5 wins and a draw was Adam Yurchick, someone I constantly expect to see at the top tables. LSV started out 5-1, as did Gerry Thompson, Mike Jacob and Jamie Parke. On 22 Points were Gabriel Nassif, Pro Tour: San Diego champion Chris Lachmann, Brazil’s Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, and Pro Tour: Honolulu champ Mark Herberholz. You used to look at standings at the end of day one, and assume that there were plenty of intentional draws in the last round, but with the profoundly good decision to let all X-2 competitors through, this aspect of horse trading has largely been banished. Owen Turtenwald, Eternal Format maestro Tommy Kolowith, Carlos Romao, Richard Feldman, Josh Utter-Leyton, Gerard Fabiano, Goblin entertainer Jim Davis (his out-of-left field Goblin deck destroyed the Swiss a couple of years back) and Brett Blackman were all in on 21 points, while Ben Lundquist (19), Tomoharu Saitou (19) and Jacob van Lunen (18) were among those with Sunday free. Also missing out were Charles Gindy, Manuel Bucher and David Irvine (all on 15 points), Adrian Sullivan and Steve Sadin (12 points) and Martin Juza, who couldn’t muster a win.
By the end of the Swiss, PVDDR and Yurchick had ended in the 50s, good enough for a solitary Pro Point, still possibly critical come Levelling time. Gerry Thompson followed up his 65th place with 33rd here, which by my reckoning means he will probably finish 17th, 9th, 5th, 3rd, and 2nd, before winning Worlds. I believe this is a run Mr.T would find acceptable. Of the three perfect records, only Andy Probasco made the Top 8. Gaudenis Vidugiris finished 30th, while poor old Trent Jones slumped to 1-5, and took 65th, ending up with nothing. Runner-up from Worlds Jamie Parke made the Top 16, with LSV in 10th and Jim Davis just running out of steam in 9th.
The Top 8 played out like this. Playing Black discard (with Tarmogoyf, because why wouldn’t you?), Brian Kowal lost out to James Mink’s Dragon Stompy deck, but in unfortunate circumstances. In the decider, with the match in the bag, Kowal contrived to miss a Dark Confidant trigger, and that was for the third time in the tournament. Penalties accumulated, and at the most inopportune of times, a game loss gifted Mink the match. As we’ll see, this was the first of successive Top 8s where a match was decided by a rules violation. Mink used his ‘bonus life’ to face Gabriel Nassif in the Semi-Final, who had dispatched David Caplan’s Threshold deck with little fanfare. Nassif finally ended Mink’s participation in the event, and now stood one win away from back to back titles.
In the other half of the bracket, the other near mono-black deck, piloted by Paul Rietzl, defeated Brian Six 2-0, while Ad Nauseam Tendrils for Tommy Kolowith couldn’t handle the control of Probasco with Counterbalance/Top. Probasco made it to the final by taking the decider against Rietzl, and that meant a Counter/Top mirror to decide the outcome. That’s the kind of matchup that often leads to raised eyebrows and heavy sighs, as game can go — how shall we say it? – a bit long. However, Nassif was unstoppable, taking two straight games to take the title.
So, deep breath. Many of you want to know why I didn’t list the multi-talented Nassif in my Six Contenders for Player of the Year. Simple.
He doesn’t care.
Just so we’re clear, of course he enjoys winning, and he enjoys meeting friends from around the world, around the world. What he doesn’t necessarily enjoy is playing. Someone like LSV or Gerry T would play Magic continuously until the cows came home, the venue closed, Britain declared war on America, or ideally all three. Gab isn’t like that. Gab is so comprehensively not like that. Chicago was a case of going back to the U.S. where he spends much of his time, and a ‘well, why not?’ with a shrug. Most Grand Prix don’t just happen to be in the right place at the right time, and require an element of planning, and an active decision to pursue Points, cash, or glory. Nassif has had his share (or more than his share indeed) of all three of these, and therefore has no need to prove anything to anyone, least of all himself. Although it’s possible to accuse me of being wise after the event (because in the events that are coming later in this article someone is going to seriously reduce the lead of LSV and Nassif), I’m on record as saying that I don’t believe you win the POY by accident. An individual performance can be about having the right deck on the right day, and making the most of one opportunity. I just don’t believe Nassif will be at enough events to take the title, although winning another Pro Tour, something of which he’s demonstrably capable, could make a mockery of this.
Grand Prix: Hannover
Although we will never to what extent attendance for this European event was affected by the last-minute absence of prize money, owing to a catalogue of administrative misfortune which was deftly handled by all on site, both players and staff, there were still more than enough players to leave us with the customary two ‘sides’ to the tournament, a practice near-universal on the European circuit, but yet to be adopted in North America. With attendances there rising, it seems only a matter of time before logistics necessitate the split.
On the first day, the Tezzerator himself, Sweden’s Kenny Oberg, dominated, accumulating a perfect record. Taking the opportunity afforded by Spring Break in the US to travel first to Europe for this event, and then onward to Singapore was American Gaudenis Vidugiris, travelling with fellow adventurers Sam Black (reigning Team World Champion) and Brain Kowal, who was on a rich run of form himself. Vidugiris sat at 24 points overnight, three ahead of Kowal, and he was joined on the one-defeat mark by Shuuhei Nakamura and Raphael Levy. Two points further back sat Florian Pils representing the home team, Tomaharu Saitou, Belgium’s Christophe Gregoir and PVDDR, whose name I am getting tired of typing! Safely through on 21 points were Robert van Medevoort, Manuel Bucher, Martin Juza, Italian Champion William Cavaglieri, World Champion Antti Malin and the French trio of Remi Fortier and both Ruel brothers.
Black missed out on Day 2, as did Sebastian Thaler, Raul Porojan and Grand Prix winner Mateusz Kopec, who I saw as a major contender for the title with Extended the Format. Guillaume Wafo-Tapa continued his unexciting start to the campaign, and there was no joy either for Joel Calafell, Nico Bohny or Marijn Lybaert (15), Jan Ruess, Rasmus Sibast and Max Bracht on his return to competitive play (12) or Denis Sinner, who was the biggest name to not register a win.
At the end of the Swiss, Robert van Medevoort had sneaked into the Pro Points in 63rd, with PVDDR (40th), Gregoir (45th), Olivier Ruel (46th) and Klaus Joens (47th) also taking home a single Point from the weekend. Continuing his good form from Kyoto, Matteo Orsini-Jones was inside the Top 32, a space he occupied with Florian Pils (20th), Tomaharu Saitou (21st) and Hall of Famer Levy (26th). Yet again Juza finished near the top of the pile in 12th, right next to William Cavaglieri with his innovative tokens deck, and Shuuhei Nakamura, who made the Top 10, but sadly not the Top 8. It seems odd to talk of disaster as befalling someone who has comfortably made the Top 8 by dominating the Swiss, but there’s no doubt that the big meltdown was suffered by Kenny Oberg. The Swede had made serene progress through the early part of Day Two, and as Top 8 loomed with his place secure, he could afford the luxury of deciding whether to play the last rounds or not. In the event, he attempted to evict potential opponents from the forthcoming Top 8, and from 12-0 (effectively 9-0), Oberg ran loss-loss-ID-loss.
His conqueror in the Quarters, Karim Bauer, went on to face local player Lino Burgold, who had taken Elves to victory over Czech first-timer Ondra Posolda’s Naya Zoo deck. Bauer’s Loam deck couldn’t beat the Elves in the opener, and there wasn’t a second game, as Bauer committed the fatal error of insufficiently randomizing his deck for the second. For the second GP running a Top 8 competitor had been eliminated without the suggestion of cheating, but with the clear breaking of the rules. That left Burgold to await a final opponent.
I’ll be honest and say I’ve been a big fan of Elves since Berlin, and the versatility and resilience that Belgian National Champion Pascal Vieren showcased en route to the Top 8 was testament to him and the deck both. Unfortunately, he was given minimal opportunity to advance by a seriously pumped-up opponent, Czech Lukas Kraft. The killer card here was Darkblast, which got Dredged again. And again. And again. It was frankly something of a horror show, though Vieren never gave up to his credit. In the semis, Kraft took on Gaudenis Vidugiris, who must have been enjoying his vacation to this point. He had eventually bested Austrian Helmut Summersberger in the control mirror, and edged out Kraft. No such luck in the final, however, as Burgold gave him barely a whisper whilst compiling an apparently-effortless 2-0 win. Not to take anything away from him, since there’s every chance he would have beaten Bauer, but the semi-final Game Loss left a sour note on this Top 8, despite it being handled in excellent style by the judges concerned, who remained calm in the face of vociferous protests from friends of Bauer. Game Losses are designed to not necessarily equate with Match Losses or tournament elimination, but Kowal and Bauer, as players of integrity, paid a high price for the continued integrity of the game.
Grand Prix: Singapore
At 370 players, Singapore continued its role as one of the best venues to go in search of Pro Points. With only 8 Rounds on Day One, a comparative rarity these days, three Byes for Pros meant only a negative 2-3 record or worse would exclude them from Day Two action. Five of the overnight Top 8 made it to the real thing. Wind Pang finished down in 34th, and Kan Wai Hoong ended 36th. The big casualty though was Martin Juza. He was busy yet again demonstrating his consistency and all around better-than-youness when he found himself on the wrong end of a disqualification when at 8-1. It’s impossible to tell how many Points that will have cost Juza, but even conservative estimates would have put him in the 3-4 Points range in the Top 16. Despite the small field, plenty of big names didn’t get past the first hurdle. Gaudenis Vidugiris couldn’t repeat his heroics from a week earlier, and finished 81st. Kazuya Mitamura was 99th, four ahead of ex-World Champion Makahito Mihara. Ex-Player of the Year Shouta Yasooka came 104th, and current Rookie of the Year Aaron Nicastri continued to find the early part of the season tough going in 112th. Few can have been more disappointed than Olivier Ruel, finishing 153rd. At Hannover he had looked, sounded, and played thoroughly out of sorts, and if you’ll pardon the pun whilst making a serious point, he appeared utterly Disenchanted with a game he has been a major part of.
Shuuhei Nakamura culled another lone point on Day Two, finishing 51st, and Manuel Bucher also had to settle for that in 38th. While Zac Hill came 30th, this was exactly 14 places behind his target, which would have qualified him for Pro Tour: Honolulu. Thankfully, this particular tale has a happy ending, not only for Zac, but for fans of the PT, since he won a PTQ at the tail end of the season. Immensely didactic, and all the more entertaining for that, the PT is a better place with Zac Hill in it. Yuuya Watanabe (18th), Jun’ya Iyanaga (19th) and Tsuyoshi Ikeda (25th) ended a couple of rounds shy of Top 8, while PVDDR managed yet another Top 16 in his bulging collection, and Koutarou Ootsuka finished in the unfortunate 8th spot.
Despite the small field, it was a Top 8 of high quality. Running NextNextNext(etc) Level Blue, Masaya Kitayama defeated one of two Tezzerator players in the Top 8, Tzu Ching Kuo. Next (etc) also won the second match, with Chin Heng Tan taking out the lone TEPS player, Yong Han Choo. Sam Black had made up for his Hannover disappointment by making the Top 8 here, and he faced a huge match against 2007 Player of the Year Tomaharu Saitou. Faeries for Black got one game, but Naya Zoo for Saitou took two, and sent him to the Semis, where he met Raven’s Crime/Loam, piloted by Yuuta Takahashi. Lian Chen, the second Tezzerator Quarter-Finalist had also found his participation ended, and it was starting to look as if the Tezzerator was a deck that could annihilate the Swiss, as it now had four times, but couldn’t buy a win when it really counted.
Kitayama advanced 2-1 over the local man Chin Heng Tan, while the other Semi was a heavyweight clash between Saitou and Takahashi. Saitou’s Naya Zoo deck wasn’t one to run over opponents, but it was one to get the job done when it mattered. 2-1 over Takahashi saw him to the Final, and 2-1 again left him the Champion. With 10 Points in the bag, the non-appearance of LSV or Nassif, plus the untimely DQ for Juza, made this a bumper weekend for Saitou in his quest to reclaim the coveted title.
Grand Prix: Kobe
That brings us almost up to date, but there’s just time to sneak in the news from Grand Prix: Kobe, where another 10 Points has just been accumulated by… Tomaharu Saitou. Once again the leaders in the Race were absent. No LSV, no Nassif, no Juza, no Bucher, no Ruel, no Wafo-Tapa, and 10 whopping Points for Saitou. More on this as the Race hots up, with next stop Grand Prix: Barcelona in May, and then the triple-header of Grand Prix: Seattle, Pro Tour: Honolulu, and Grand Prix: Sao Paulo.
Time next to turn our attention away from the Pro scene, and I’ll be spending next week playing, thinking, talking, and writing about, Alara Reborn, a set I’m especially partial to, since I got to write some of the flavor text and card names, which was an amazing and humbling experience.
Until then, as ever, thanks for reading…
R.