My Pro Tour Hall Of Fame Ballot

Just like every year since the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame began, I’m honored with being a member of the Selection Committee. This year’s ballot is one of the most difficult ever. There are no slam dunks and only two of what I consider powerful candidates—although there are five which I consider strong enough to vote for.

I’ve also reevaluated my selection process a bit. The problem with the statistical breakdown is that we have radically different numbers from different eras and I’m not sure attempting to normalize them helps. In the modern age, there are simply too many Pro Points available (especially at GPs) to use point thresholds like we once did.

There was a time when 300 points would have pushed someone over the limit. Unlike baseball, however, Magic players don’t have such a finite career. They’re eligible for the ballot while they’re still playing. Jon Finkel has put up Hall of Fame numbers considering his career after he was elected to the Hall. Point totals for some players will keep on rising and demonstrate a sustained high quality of play—but to me, this is the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Extended Very Goodness.

Percentages, of course, don’t tell a complete story (unless they’re high and the sampling is large, like with perhaps Paolo Vitor Damo da Rosa). You don’t want to hold it against a player for playing in 60 Pro Tours but having “only” three Top 8s. When we get into players with longer careers, some combination of their best consecutive three years and their total median finish are probably better bellwethers of whether or not they actually compare to the great than just raw numbers.

As I said last year, my first criterion is still results, but for the future, I’m going to be a little squishier than I’ve been in the past. I’ll still have a general idea that a candidate needs around 30 Pro Tour appearances and at least three Top 8s (but exceptions can certainly exist, like last year with Shouta Yasooka). I’m going to let the numbers winnow down the list, and then I’m going to ask the question, “Does this person belong next to the greats?”

Of course, I wouldn’t demand a Finkel or Kai career out of every candidate, but at the same time, I want that player to be truly someone special (Magically-speaking). Despite liking and respecting many of the candidates, I would rather the Hall of Fame be more selective rather than more inclusive. Everyone’s mileage is likely to vary, which is why we vote.

Speaking of voting, each Selection Committee member is allowed to vote however they like. I’ve heard ridiculous claims like “If you didn’t (or did) vote for Player X, you should have your vote taken away.” That’s nonsense. The whole idea is that committee members are chosen from Magic Pro Tour insiders, people who know and understand the process and what goes into being a great player—which each of us define differently.

Yes, a committee member casting random votes over a sustained period should definitely come under review, but the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame is a system—and gamers are going to game. If, for example, someone decided to not cast their vote for a shoe-in candidate (PV or LSV, for example) so that they could throw a shout-out vote to someone, I have no issue with it. Personally, I believe in voting for the Y number of people I want to see in the Hall. I have, a few times, cast the aforementioned shout-out vote, but I’ve cut the marginal candidate, not the undeniably deserving one.

My Ballot

My first vote goes to Yuuya Watanabe. The guy is simply an absolute master. I’ll point to him beating the seemingly-invincible Shouta Yasooka in the finals of the 2012 Magic Players Championship in Seattle as one of his crowning moments. Three Pro Tour Top 8s, Top 64s 56% of the time, four World Championships, and 23 Grand Prix Top 8s (to include two wins). To me, he’s the strongest (non-shady; more on that later) candidate in the field. I snap-called a vote for him as soon as I saw the ballot.

My second vote goes to Owen Turtenwald. While his Pro Tour resume may seem a little more marginal than some others, there was (more perhaps still is) a streak of years when his peers considered him the most dangerous player in the world. A number of Pros, led by Paul Rietzl, have championed Owen as the prime example of the idea of “fear factor,” meaning the person you don’t want to be paired against. This is exactly the kind of intangible which I’m looking for in a candidate. Three Top 8s and Top 32s in 45% of his Pro Tours and a place in three World Championships (second only to Yuuya’s four) are already enough of a resume to consider him. When great players would rather avoid sitting down across from him, he’s gone over the top.

Vote number three goes to Osyp Lebedowicz. I stared at his numbers compared to his contemporary Mark Herberholz, who has gained a good deal of (justified) support on this year’s ballot, and Osyp comes up on top in everything save Top 8s, which Heezy wins 4 to 3. Both have wins and both would be great players to have kicking around the Pro Tour again. In head-to-head resumes and contributions to the game, Osyp deserves the higher pick. Don’t forget that he was also a top-flight writer about Magic, and one of the most accessible Pro Players ever.

Fortunately for Mark, he still gets one of my votes. Last year, I thought that he was just outside the five, and losing a close comparison to Osyp made him worth reconsidering this year. Two things push him over the top. First is that he was one of the great deckbuilders of all time. Second is the same kind of fear factor I mention about Owen that other top Pros had for him. When you consider the intangibles, especially since, just like Osyp, he’s a person I’d really love to see on the Pro Tour again—they both would give it a kind of charisma I think it’s currently lacking—Heezy is an appropriate choice.

My fifth vote goes, for the fourth year in a row, to Justin Gary. I can’t really say much more than I’ve said the last three years. Justin’s resume is up there with the other candidates I’ve voted for, especially the ridiculous percentage of Top 32s. One could argue that he benefitted from being associated with the first great Magic team ever, Your Move Games, whose other members (Darwin Kastle, Dave Humpherys, Rob Doughtery) are already enshrined, but that association might also be a detriment (“sure, he’s good, but he’s no Darwin“). As I mentioned last time, I think his candidacy has suffered because he stopped playing near his peak and went on to other things.

Honorable Mentions

Tsuyoshi Ikeda: It looks like Ikeda is going to be in my “forever in sixth place” slot. At a certain point, I have to think that unless he bumps up his numbers (like with perhaps another Top 8), he’ll always be a footnote due to his occasional exceptional performance sprinkled with lots of uninspiring ones.

Marijn Lybaert: Unless he comes back, I think he’ll continually be on the Honorable Mention list. Those four Pro Tour Top 8s are compelling, but the remainder of his performances lack the punch of the other candidates. I’m crossing my fingers for that comeback, because he’s a stand-up guy as well as being the best Belgian player ever.

Ivan Floch: Quietly creeping up the numbers list and making Top 64 in more than half of his Pro Tours, Ivan needs just a few more big hits to be a serious contender.

Craig Wescoe: Wescoe’s hot streak has cooled somewhat. He’s still one of the top players today, but like Marijn, his non-Top 8s aren’t quite up to snuff. If he continues playing at his current level, we’ll probably be having a different conversation down the road.

Martin Juza: Martin is a great player. Two PT Top 8s and four GP wins is nothing to sneeze at. Great and Hall of Fame-worthy are two different things. To be the latter, one must be among the greatest, and I’m not ready to put him there yet.

Tom Martell: I’m still rooting for Tom to pad his numbers, because he’s certainly among the great players of the last five or so years.

Andrew Cuneo: One of the great Magic minds around, Andrew Top 64’d nearly 60% of his PTs. That’s worth something.

Chris Pikula: Dude should already be in the Hall of Fame and is not eligible due to the shift in points requirements. As mentioned, the number of available points has changed dramatically over the years. Maybe Chris is an argument for a Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame Veterans Committee, just like in baseball.

David Williams: It’s not like he needs more press, and I don’t advocate putting him into the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame due to his other celebrity, but he’s my friend and sometimes when you have a platform, you say hey to your friends. If you’re not aware, he’s currently (well, at least in TV land; I’m pretty sure the episodes are all taped by now) competing on MasterChef.

Gerard Fabiano and Antonio De Rosa: It wouldn’t be my Hall of Fame ballot if I didn’t give a shout out to my two favorite knuckleheads of all time.

The No Votes

There are players who simply can’t ever have my vote. I’m not going to throw all of them under the bus here (although I’m happy to discuss it privately), but I am going to mention Saito, since there seems to be some kind of collective amnesia regarding his history.

I realize that I’m known as a bit of a hard-liner, but I’m willing to forgive someone once. We all made mistakes in our youth. I suspect if held up to hard scrutiny, every one of us would suffer; we’ve certainly all done things we’re not proud of. It’s the repeated mistake nearly ten years after the first which I can’t let go.

And mistake isn’t really the right word, since it was willful behavior.

There wasn’t an error in judgment, it was an intentional disregard for and abuse of the rules. Today, he might be reformed and a good person. For all I know, he might spend the rest of his life making up for his sins. I don’t care if he funds an orphanage in a third world country. I have nothing personally against him. I hope that maybe one day I can put him onto my list of Favorite Philanthropists or Finest Human Beings; still, he’s not getting into the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame on my ballot.

Non-Players in the Pro Tour Hall of Fame

You can jump back to last year’s ballot to get my complete thoughts on the matter. The short version, and an argument which I’ve made for a few years now, is that it’s the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame, not the Magic Pro Player Hall of Fame. There are non-players whose influence on the Pro Tour has made it what it is. They deserve recognition.

Last Week’s Comments

Jesse King says:

“Any chance you will be posting updated full lists of your decks? Some of these are 3+ years old and it would be great to get the fully updated list.”

We’re working on it. My deck lists are a bit of an unusual situation in that they’re Eternal, but always changing. One of the reasons I do the Decks Without Comment feature is to get updated lists onto the site; marrying those lists to existing ones is a little trickier, but we have our crack tech staff working on it as we speak.

Chuck Neves reports on having already played one of the top new cards from Eldritch Moon:

Dropped Mind’s Dilation last night while playing with my Sleepy Dragon Lady. Was funny watching the others decide whether they wanted to cast anything or not. It’s definitely sticking around.

Yeah, it’s always been fun with Lurking Predators to watch opponents strategize on whether or not a particular spell is worth casting. Imagine the fun of having both Lurking Predators and Mind’s Dilation on the battlefield at the same time!

Brandon Dauer laments:

“RIP Sylvan Primordial. I miss you, sweet prince. Come back to me.”

I hate to break it to you, Brandon, but flights of angels have already sung him to his rest. Don’t hold your breath on them singing him back.

This Week’s Deck Without Comment is the version of Karn, Beatdown Golem which I designed in late 2014 and just recently got around to updating and putting together:

Karn, Beatdown Golem

Sheldon Menery

Test deck on 10-09-2014

Commander

Creatures (17)

Planeswalkers (2)

Lands (38)

Check out our awesome Deck List Database for the last versions of all my decks:

ADUN’S TOOLBOX;
ANIMAR’S SWARM;
AURELIA GOES TO WAR;
CHILDREN of a LESSER GOD;
DEMONS OF KAALIA;
EREBOS and the HALLS OF THE DEAD;
GLISSA, GLISSA;
HELIOD, GOD OF ENCHANTMENTS;
DREAMING OF INTET;
FORGE OF PURPHOROS;
KARN, BEATDOWN GOLEM;
HALLOWEEN WITH KARADOR;
KARRTHUS, WHO RAINS FIRE FROM THE SKY;
KRESH INTO THE RED ZONE;
LAVINIA BLINKS;
LAZAV, SHAPESHIFTING MASTERMIND;
ZOMBIES OF TRESSERHORN;
MELEK’S MOLTEN MIND GRIND;
MERIEKE’S ESPER CONTROL;
THE MILL-MEOPLASM;
MIMEOPLASM DO-OVER;
NATH of the VALUE LEAF;
NYLEA OF THE WOODLAND REALM;
OBZEDAT, GHOST KILLER;
PURPLE HIPPOS and MARO SORCERERS;
ZEGANA and a DICE BAG;
RAKDOS, LORD of VAMPIRES;
RITH’S TOKENS;
YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF;
RURIC THAR AND HIS BEASTLY FIGHT CLUB;
THASSA, GOD OF MERFOLK;
THE ALTAR of THRAXIMUNDAR;
TROSTANI and HER ANGELS;
THE THREAT OF YASOVA;
RUHAN DO-OVER;
KARADOR DO-OVER;
KARRTHUS DO-OVER

If you’d like to follow the adventures of my Monday Night RPG group (in a campaign that’s been alive since 1987 and is just now getting started with a new mini-series called Who Mourns for Adonis? which will set up the saga called The Lost Cities of Nevinor), ask for an invitation to the Facebook group “Sheldon Menery’s Monday Night Gamers.”