Editor’s Note: Talen Lee is taking a self-requested break from Magic writing for a while… don’t worry, he’ll be back when Lorwyn hits the shelves. In the meantime, we have the inestimable Rich Hagon, bringing us the lowdown on the runners and riders in this year’s Player of the Year race. Welcome back, Rich!
Wow, it’s been a while. No fewer than five top level events have been and gone since last we met. The European Grand Prix circuit took us to Stockholm and Strasbourg, in North America we had Columbus and Montreal, and then, proving that two heads are sometimes better than one, Pro Tour: San Diego rounded this part of the season off with a bang. So let’s get to it, with more tales from the tour, and see how the Player of the Year race is shaping up.
Grand Prix: Stockholm — Sealed Day 1, Booster Draft Day 2.
When I first started covering the European Grand Prix circuit, it seemed as if every single event had this pattern. Hundreds of Sealed pools got opened, the Pros tested against each other for four hours or so, rumors circulated of the mythical decks that were playing all their rares plus every piece of removal in the format, that kind of thing. Then, shortly before dawn, Day 1 ended with assorted people on 6-2 missing out on the cut to Day 2. Three hours sleep later, the Top 64 turned up at silly o’clock on Sunday morning, drafted, played three rounds, drafted, played three rounds, and then just when you thought the Magic was done for the weekend, they go and get the Top 8 to draft and play another three rounds. Then somebody won, and everybody went home.
From a coverage viewpoint, of course Sealed is interesting, because it allows us to make the cards the star of the show, since across the day there are any number of “highlight” plays that demonstrate the strength and diversity of Magic. Plus, there’s usually a little bit of humor floating around, because sooner or later somebody somewhere comprehensively fails the Darwin test and proceeds to lose in a fashion R & D may well not have foreseen (although having been battered at Draft by most of them, I suspect they probably did). Another plus on Day 1 is, if we’re lucky, we can find that “unbeatable” deck, piloted by (ideally) a local 12 year old at his first ever tournament. However, Day 2 is a much tougher proposition. With new drafts occurring every three rounds, and each round knocking more people out of overall contention, it’s hard to build audience interest in the decks that people are playing. Frank Karsten famously played 942 (approximately) Disciple of Tevesh Szat plus a Thrumming Stone at a GP last year, but even something that foolishly entertaining quickly fades into the background.
So, to be honest, we at moxradio were pretty excited to see such a varied programme of events on the calendar for 2007. Standard, multiple sets-worth of Block Constructed, 2HG, Extended, Legacy in North America… and some Sealed thrown in for good measure. Stockholm therefore, far from being “yet another” Sealed event, was a chance for Limited players to get some much-needed Pro Points, and also gave us the full Time Spiral / Planar Chaos / Future Sight block in all its Limited glory.
I mentioned a moment ago the fabled 12 year old with the unbeatable deck. In Stockholm, he may not have been twelve (more like 17/18 if memory serves) but he certainly looked the part. A local guy? Check. Zero byes? Check. Playing every rare in the Western hemisphere? Check. Absolutely destroying people all day, starting with random no-byes and working his way through a swathe of bigger names as the Pros entered the fray? Check. His name? Samuel Korsell, and I have to tell you that watching this Amateur status player’s rise to the Top 8 was incredibly entertaining, for one very important reason — you could see what it meant to him. Korsell spent much of Day 2 desperately trying to keep everything together, as his draft opponents got loftier and starrier. By the time of his last round match in the Feature Match area against Dutchie Bas Postema, Korsell could barely keep his hands straight and functioning, such was the adrenaline pumping round his system. His face upon losing that last round was a picture of deflation, and the cheer that raised the roof when he was named inside the Top 8 despite the loss was one of the loudest I have yet witnessed at a Magic event. Korsell was living the dream, and loving every second of it.
Having slightly less fun than Korsell was Canadian Rich Hoaen, who had made the trans-Atlantic trip on the basis that this was the only Limited gig in town, and that Pro Points were high on his shopping list. Hoaen, as many of you will recall, had a barnstorming back end of 2006, resulting in Level 5 status for this year. With a disappointing start to the year at Pro Tour: Geneva, where a 59th placed finish was a good 51 places worse than hoped for, Hoaen has been playing catch-up ever since, and not always successfully, despite (for example) pairing with Kenji Tsumura at Grand Prix: Amsterdam. Like much of this season, here Hoaen was constantly on the edge of things, without ever being in a position to say “win and in.” In the final round of the Swiss, he faced another Pro who has had a tricky time through ’07, Portugal’s Tiago Chan, and both knew that the winner would likely miss out. Even with a win then, it looked as if Chan would not realise his ambition of a GP Top 8 here. In the event, Hoaen took the match, but the numbers didn’t lie, and Hoaen had to be content with 3 Pro Points. On the plus side, at least his Pro status (Level 3 or higher) is locked in for 2008.
Excitable. Now that’s a word you wouldn’t often associate with a Top 8 of a serious event. But for interest and color and, as I say, excitability, this was one of the best Sunday showdowns I’ve seen. Oliver Oks had lived in Japan for some time, and clearly knew how to play. The self-deprecating Australian was moving to “no fixed address” after the GP, and just thought he might as well come to Stockholm as anywhere else on the planet, seeing as there was a spot of MTG to be had. As someone who has successfully penetrated the Japanese Magic scene (StarCityGames.com’s own Eli Kaplan being the other that springs to mind) it was interesting to hear Oks’s take on what makes the Japanese so good. Although it was hard to find specifics, the more I talk to people with a window into that world, it does seem that there is a willingness in Japan to regard gaming as some kind of serious pursuit, and it’s possible that the huge success of chess as a spectator/TV sport there contributes to that. However he came by his extensive knowledge, Oks was absolutely ready to play in the Top 8, and his semi-final defeat came by an unlikely combination of cards.
Two Germans made the Top 8. I had first come across Klaus Joens in the Top 8 at Malmo, and although I wasn’t covering his semi-final against Nico Bohny, the consensus was that he hadn’t exactly covered himself in glory, at least from a sportsmanship standpoint. Now Klaus is a guy whose looks count against him. This is a man with long, jet black hair, fearsome eyebrows, an intense stare, a didactic manner, and a monochromatic dress sense that is 100% Matrix, 0% Gap. So it’s with great pleasure, and a slightly shameful amount of surprise, that I can tell you he’s a great guy — at least away from the tables. Across the cardboard chasm he is a truly awkward opponent, definitely in the category of those who are quite happy to make you psychologically uncomfortable during a match (Amiel Tenenbaum and Max Bracht would be two more in this category). Here he found himself up against Kenji Tsumura in the quarters, and a math error saw him “lose” the game on more than zero life, which, to be fair, is probably something to get a little heated about, if you’re that way inclined.
Andre Mueller was frequently on the end of this sentence during 2006, “If you think so-and-so’s entertaining to watch, you should try following…” and as he made his run towards the Top 8 I could see their point. If the laws of matter/anti-matter balance apply to Magic, then Mueller is the balance for the existence of Guillaume Wafo-Tapa. Already a physically noticeable presence, Mueller is a big personality who absolutely dominates every table he sits at. Big grins, big frowns, big gestures, big comments, big laugh — and a big game. Generally people fail to live up to the hype, but Mueller didn’t disappoint, he really is worth watching, just like everyone told me. Winning with grace and style, Mueller also showed that he appreciates the humor when he’s on the receiving end. Playing a Feature Match against Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa of Brazil, he triumphantly ripped a Teferi’s Moat to put the brakes on the Brazilian’s White Weenie trio of beaters, and then enjoyed the misery as Cloudchaser Kestrel put his Timeshifted enchantment in the bin, along with his match hopes. When they eventually hold a Magic Invitational just for The Entertainers, Mueller will definitely be there, talking and laughing. A lot.
Kenji Tsumura lost in the semi-final. He’s Japanese, and quite good. You may have heard of him. 5 Pro Points. Thanks. Mission accomplished.
Norway doesn’t often get much of a mention, so Thomas Refsdal, your country is proud of you. Possibly. And it’s hard to get your name into print if you’re Dutch and not a big name Pro. So Bas Postema, your country is proud of you too. Possibly.
And that leaves the winner, Russian Nicolay Potovin. His semi-final match against Oks was a terrific game, featuring desperate Russian defence against a veritable mountain of Icatian Crier Citizen tokens that saw Oks with almost every Pro Player card in existence on his side of the board. It looked as if the Australian had fortune on his side, but the Russian stole it with Fortune Thief, and clung on for the win. Understandably, some of the adrenaline that had coursed round Korsell had struck the Russian. Interestingly, these days there seems to be relatively little nationalism in Magic. The Pros are friends with each other across international borders, and apart from some fairly half-hearted chants of “U.S.A.” when Mike Hron won in Geneva, winners are pretty much never “draped in the flag.” For Potovin however, it was clear that he was playing for more than just himself and his support network of fellow Russian players. He was playing for the Motherland. It was a privilege to be at the table when he finally put paid to Mueller, as (and I’m about to use the word “literally” in an entirely inappropriate fashion here) Potovin and the Russian contingent literally exploded. (Told you it was inappropriate.) Whilst I’m sure Wizards are happy regardless of who the winner is, I’m sure there was some quiet satisfaction within Organized Play that their perseverance with the game in a difficult marketplace, including taking a bold decision to remove the language barrier and print expansions in Cyrillic, was at last paying off. Economics still play a massive part in the lack of Russians at high-level events, but Potovin saw that there was more to his win than just himself. Ervin Tormos, your country needs you… but which one?!?
All in all, Stockholm was a great GP with a great winner. Next.
Grand Prix: Columbus. Legacy.
I don’t propose to say a great deal about Columbus, not least because I wasn’t there. Anyone who’s been online in the last ever knows that Flash Hulk was the big card story of the weekend. That it caused a severe warping of the metagame is beyond doubt. As someone who hasn’t played the format before, apart from a few plane journey goldfishes with a Goblin deck, the thing that surprised me was just how many players came away from Columbus saying that Flash shouldn’t be banned. In many ways, the Magic community seems to me to be an extremely volatile, reactionary group, with “it’s broken,” “it’s retarded,” “they’ve really screwed this one up,” and “what were they thinking?” heard much more often than “hmm, an interesting decision. It clearly represents a format-defining shift in the metagame that we would do well to test for prior to the event. In addition, we must determine the proper configuration in order to best utilise this tool at our disposal.” No, often the Magic community doesn’t want to bother with a fair trial and wants to get straight to the lynching. So, as I say, to find plenty of Legacy players wistfully saying that they hoped Flash could have survived just another few months in the environment to see exactly how bad Summoner’s Pact was going to make things intrigued me. Perhaps Legacy players as a group are less hot-headed? More long-term in their view? More “seen it all before”…?
As for the results, Steve Sadin did the business for top8magic once again, a laid-back guy who seriously wants to win. Gadiel Szleifer, he of “Taking Back Sunday” fame, succeeded in making the Top 8, enhancing his reputation. I’m going to argue (deep breath) that his actions against Willy Edel in Round 7 actively brought the game into disrepute. I’ll try to divide the next sections into Facts (undisputed truths), Accusations/Suggestions (things that have been announced as true, but not proven as true) and Opinions (what somebody thinks.)
Fact — Szleifer and Edel have played multiple times before.
Accusation — Szleifer says Edel cheated multiple times, in multiple ways.
Fact — Edel was not disqualified in Charleston.
Fact — when confronted with accusations of cheating, Edel pointed to his considerable record in recent times, and Szleifer’s absence from high-level events, leading to….
Implication — Szleifer is just bitter.
Opinion — the opinion of those who believe Edel to be a cheat is that he is a systematic defrauder of the system. He will, it is believed, always put tapped lands into play untapped, fail to pay 2 life, not take damage off cards like City of Brass, draw extra cards, manipulate libraries and generally cheat in any way possible at all times. At its crudest, he’s breathing, so he’s cheating.
Opinion — if you’re a cheat, and someone calls you a cheat, you don’t like it.
Opinion- if you’re not a cheat, and someone calls you a cheat, you don’t like it.
Fact — Szleifer and Edel really don’t like each other.
Fact — when playing Edel in Columbus, Szleifer asked a judge to shuffle his (Szleifer’s) deck, rather than Edel.
Fact — when asked whether he had reason to make this request, Szleifer repeated his previously voiced allegations concerning Edel’s trustworthiness i.e. zero.
Fact — Given the history between the two, that match would have been watched extremely carefully by multiple judges for possible infractions.
Opinion — in my view, it is entirely likely that “plain-clothes” judges would also have been used to watch the match. Again, in my view, this makes the likelihood of anyone being able to cheat successfully in such a match at, or near, zero.
Fact — the six-month ban given to Katsuhiro Mori for repeated “poor operations” (this is just the kind of umbrella category that things like failing to take life loss off pain lands comes under) suggests that the DCI is actively looking for this kind of thing, and that Edel is currently on a very short leash.
Fact — I have spoken regularly with Edel, and like him. This may color my judgement.
Fact — I have never had the opportunity to chat with Szleifer, so have no more to go on than most of you in his regard.
Opinion — screaming from the proverbial rooftops that someone is a cheat isn’t good for the tournament, isn’t good for Willy Edel, isn’t good for Magic, and isn’t good for Gadiel Szleifer either.
Opinion — If you’re concerned about your opponent cheating, why not visit a judge — or even better the Head Judge — and ask for vigilance before the round starts? This private conversation would have the desired result i.e. your opponent won’t get to cheat or will cheat and be caught, thus utterly vindicating your stance.
Opinion — publicly asking a judge to shuffle your cards in order to publicly restate past accusations smacks of a desire for (delete as applicable) vengeance, revenge, vindication, and most crucially in my view public humiliation of Edel. Whatever the facts, that attempt to publicly humiliate someone is despicable.
Fact — I always look for the best in people, and assume it too.
Fact — this is a reasonable representation of the word “gullible.”
Fact — that’s 600 or so words on whether two people who are good at the game are decent human beings.
Opinion — that’s grim.
Fact — so I’m stopping.
Meanwhile, back at the tournament, other names to note were former U.S. champ Craig Krempels (10th), Vintage heavyweight Stephen Menendian (21st), Adrian Sullivan sneaking into the Top 32, John Sonne picking up three Pro Points for 15th, and current U.S. Champion Paul Cheon, who seems certain to win something very big very soon. 14th here, 2nd in Montreal, 51st in San Diego, together he’s amassed 32 points, putting him in 7th overall in the Player of the Year race, and with a very decent shot at Level 5, or even higher.
Oh, and one final mention has to go to the one European who thought Columbus for Legacy was a better bet than Strasbourg for Block Constructed. Sadly, it was Air Miles and not much else for Craig “the Professor” Jones. On we go then, to Strasbourg…
Grand Prix: Strasbourg. Time Spiral Block Constructed.
The first thing to say about Strasbourg is that it was big. Not the city you understand, the tournament. 1146 players meant nine rounds on Day 1, the tournament divided into two halves before being rejoined at the start of Day 2 with 128 players still standing. The timing of the event was strange from two perspectives. First, those hungry for Pro Points had to choose between here and Columbus. Constructed fans also knew they would miss out on either Legacy or Block. And then there was the fact that the weekend straddled the arrival of Future Sight. Technically, Future Sight was legal for Block on Day 2, so those who played in side events on the Sunday could add in the third expansion. But with decklists remaining locked throughout the tournament, the 128 attempting to grind their way through to the Top 8 were still just with Time Spiral and Planar Chaos. What this meant to the metagame was this: It was very hard to play White Weenie, just as it had been in Yokohama a few weeks earlier. Mono-Red was popular, as was the Red/Green “mana ramp” decks with massive bomb-like creatures, i.e. Spectral Force and Bogardan Hellkite. Many of the top players had simply shrugged and decided that a minimal variation on Herberholz/Wafo-Tapa was the best deck, although a good number had gone down a Mono-Blue route, often including the combo of Vesuvan Shapeshifter and Brine Elemental.
I must confess there’s something exciting about seeing Japanese players at the European GPs, and I’ve been trying to put my finger on why this should be. I think there are a number of factors at work. First, they are visually distinctive when standing together, a group of half a dozen Japanese in a room of 1000+ Europeans. There is a feeling of a team about them, a clan, and that apparent togetherness starts to build an aura of mystique around them for many players who have rarely played against anyone outside their home turf. Second, of course, is the language barrier. Whilst in Strasbourg there was a huge amount of French spoken, the official language of Magic is English, and it’s very rare at a GP that I’ll ask to interview someone and find that their English isn’t up to it. But there are certainly some Japanese who fall into that category, and as a result it’s hard to personalize them to a wider audience. Again, they get drawn back into a group, “The Japanese.” Plus, the linguistic barrier is very much a two-way affair. There are plenty of European players who have a smattering of French or German for example, but very few who speak Japanese. And the third factor is this — they are the hired guns of the event. Anybody who travels halfway around the world for a Magic tournament has to be pretty serious about what they do. So, just by their presence, they announce a determination to succeed and a self-belief in their abilities to do just that. And finally, well, that’s the easy one. They win a lot, and are currently generally regarded as the strongest nation on the planet. Who wouldn’t want to get to 3-0 with no byes and get the opportunity to play the reigning Player of the Year, or a multiple PT winner, or a Kenji Tsumura? Make no mistake, this band of brothers are great news for Magic in general, and the Euro GPs in particular. Long may they keep coming.
Two of them made the Top 8 in Strasbourg, but were destined to face each other in the semis. Shouta Yasooka is the current Player of the Year, clinging on in the home straight despite an unsatisfactory performance at Worlds in Paris. Tomoharu Saitou is perhaps best known for his mannerism of slapping himself about the face during matches to maintain alertness and optimal play. Those of you who download the coverage from the GPs will know that we recorded the famous “Saitou Slap” with the man himself, and the Top 8 commentaries accurately reflect the full violence of the self-abuse he doles out. What is certain is that while it might lead to severe facial bruising for some, it definitely works for him. All you really need to know about the Top 8 is that Saitou played Mountain-suspend Greater Gargadon in all six of his six duels on turn 1. Even the top Amateur on the weekend, German Raul Porojan, who felt he had the best matchup possible for the final, couldn’t contend with Saitou’s combination of aggression, technical expertise, and occasional last-ditch topdecking. As a Level 6 mage, there’s only one place higher for Saitou to aspire to, and that’s the Player of the Year. Since his 46 points already this year guarantee him Level 6 once again for 2008, we can expect to see him up at the top tables yet again come Valencia in the Autumn.
And the last footnote on Strasbourg? Congratulations to Klaus Joens of Germany, who made his second consecutive Top 8. Good job.
Grand Prix: Montreal. Time Spiral Block Constructed.
When you look at the addition of Future Sight to the Block Constructed metagame, you can headline it with two cards. On the aggro side, there’s Tarmogoyf, and for the Control players, Korlash, Heir to Blackblade. Tarmogoyf is part of a quartet of pieces of circumstantial evidence that seem to me to be indicative of a new aesthetic within Wizards R & D. Specifically, there seems to be a more playful/jokey/sexy/humorous attitude, which permeates the game at multiple levels. The four cases:
Flash (the card, not the mechanic). The notion of being able to win the game during the very first upkeep is incredibly sexy Magic, and the look on the opponent’s face when it happens is very funny. Perhaps a few years ago Wizards would have been very po-faced about this, and said that Magic wasn’t designed to be a game that’s over before one player even gets started. This time around, they shared the funny side with everyone else, and then said that enough was enough.
Steamflogger Boss — I understand that this isn’t a joke that a lot of people found amusing, but it was a joke. Perhaps if it had been at uncommon, more people would have seen the funny side. Nonetheless, the fact that it was there at all suggests that playing fast and loose is more acceptable.
What’s the fastest win in Magic using only multiple copies of a single card? Well, of course you need a Forest to kick things off, but as most people know the answer is forest Virulent Sliver, turn 2, Virulent Sliver numbers 2 and 3, attack with the first one for 3 poison counters, then untap and attack on turn 3 with all three, 3 poison counters each = 12 = Good Game. This is the sort of story players love to swap. Again, it’s an incredibly sexy/funny way to win a game of Magic. But it’s also the kind of win that very few could have believed was any part of “serious” Magic, whatever that might mean, until San Diego proved otherwise.
Tarmogoyf. Let’s print this card: 1G 1/2. It’s poor. Try this one : 1G. 2/3. It’s decent, especially in Sealed. Comfortably better than something like a Glory Seeker. Or, to give it a color relationship, an easier to cast Elvish Warrior. Neat. How about this one? : 1G 3/4. Sorry, what’s the drawback to my 3/4 for two mana? Pardon? There isn’t one?!? And obviously 4/5s and 5/6s for two mana are comprehensively off modern-day charts. So what do R & D do? Two things. First, they tell you it’s a 0/1 for 1G, which is, strangely, rubbish. And then they really throw you off the scent by printing a class of permanent that doesn’t exist. Unlucky, Tarmogoyf can’t ever be an 8/9 for 1G, hahaha. Reading this now, with the benefit of seeing just how fabulous Tarmogoyf actually is, you’re probably grinning smugly away to yourself, amazed that anyone could be taken in by this transparent ruse. But the fact is that in the first few days and indeed weeks after Future Sight hit the shelves, you could find any number of people willing to trade away their “useless rare.”
The moral of all this? R & D has a sense of humor, but it’s often a sense of humor with a mission behind it. Next time, when a friend tells you all about the stunt they’ve pulled in Lorwyn, why not take a moment to look past the joke — you could end up winning a Pro Tour.
You can make a case that having two Grand Prix tournaments on the same day is foolishness, especially if amongst the aims of said tournament is to attract star names to the event. The Japanese were in Strasbourg, the Brazilians in Columbus. Why couldn’t they all have been in France one week, and America the next? The answer is complicated, dull, and I won’t go into it here. However, whoever came up with the scheduling for Grand Prix: Montreal deserves some kind of medal. With it taking place just one week before the Pro Tour on the same continent in San Diego, a whole bunch of people decided a ten-day Magic-athon was in order. In Columbus, Owen Tutenwald, Max Tietze, Paul Nicolo, and Michael Belfatto made up half of the Top 8. Another three Amateurs made it to the top table in Strasbourg. In Montreal, the highest placed Amateur finisher was fifteenth. (Congratulations Josh Murphy). There was only one more Amateur in the top thirty-two. And it’s not as if the fourteen above Murphy were people who had only played on a handful of Pro Tours with limited success. Here they are:
| 1 | Zampere Junior, Celso | $3,000 | 8 |
| 2 | Cheon, Paul A | $2,000 | 6 |
| 3 | Wafo-tapa, Guillaume | $1,400 | 5 |
| 4 | Tsumura, Kenji | $1,300 | 5 |
| 5 | Schwartz, Gabriel P | $900 | 4 |
| 6 | Ootsuka, Koutarou | $900 | 4 |
| 7 | Imperiale, Jason | $900 | 4 |
| 8 | Yasooka, Shouta | $900 | 4 |
| 9 | De Rosa, Antonino | $500 | 3 |
| 10 | Lebedowicz, Osyp I | $500 | 3 |
| 11 | Coimbra, André | $500 | 3 |
| 12 | Ruel, Olivier | $500 | 3 |
| 13 | Scott-Vargas, Luis D | $500 | 3 |
| 14 | Lundquist, Benjamin R | $500 | 3 |
This is an outstanding collection of Magical talent, featuring seven North Americans battling seven from around the globe. Now that’s exactly what the Grand Prix circuit should be about. Celso Zampere is probably only the third best known Brazilian right now, or 4th if you include ex-World Champ Carlos Romao. We’ve already mentioned Cheon’s outstanding consistency. Wafo-Tapa surprised pretty much everyone by bringing Wild Pair Slivers to the event, and his third place here helped to underline the justification for his inclusion in this year’s Invitational at Essen in October.
Kenji Tsumura lost in the semi-final. He’s Japanese, and quite good. You may have heard of him. 5 Pro Points. Thanks. Mission accomplished.
Olivier Ruel managed 12th here, and lies in 8th place overall in the Player of the Year race, although a 16 point gap to the top seems like a lot at this stage. Still, it’s only the difference between a losing quarter-final and winning the whole thing in Valencia, so all is far from lost. Osyp Lebedowicz showed that as long as he didn’t need a passport he was happy to play and beat people, and although Shouta Yasooka seems unlikely to defend his crown, another Top 8 helps him towards at least Level 4 for next year. Herberholz, Nassif, Warmenhoven, Karsten, Canali, da Rosa, and Sonne were just some of the names in the Top 32, at a tournament that boasted one of the strongest Grand Prix fields of all time. Hats off to Mr Wizards, and please can we have a Grand Prix like this the week before a PT again next year?
Pro Tour: San Diego. Two-Headed Giant Time Spiral Booster Draft.
First off, well done Aaron Forsythe. Blimey, complimenting Wizards again? Anyone would think I worked for them occasionally. Oh wait, I do. Still, credit where credit’s due. Having been privileged to get some clue of what was going on behind the scenes with the 2HG format over many months, I can confirm that a huge amount of thought and effort went into making San Diego as good as possible for the players at the event. I added that last bit because Forsythe was very open in saying that having the PT as a 2HG format wasn’t designed to accommodate the Pros, but rather had a wider strategic goal to accomplish. And let’s be fair — 2HG is a fantastically entertaining way to get to know the game. You can chat with your best friend, if they can spot your mistakes in time you don’t get punished for them, if you lose you can share the blame, and if you win you can enjoy the victory. As a teacher, I would make everyone learn Magic 2HG. It’s great. However, Forsythe frankly acknowledged that some Pros were disgruntled at what they saw as an “Amateur” format. Amateur in this context generally means “luck-based,” by the way. Now Forsythe could have brought out a very bland company line, along the lines of:
“We were delighted by San Diego. Everyone had a great time, and wasn’t it fantastic to see such a brutal and swift end to proceedings? We’re so pleased we were able to showcase 2HG to the world with Time Spiral block, and it’s certain that 2HG will be a fixture of the PT for years to come.”
That’s what he could have said. Whilst not quoting his actual words, this is the gist of what he actually did say:
“We were pleased by San Diego. A lot of the kinks in the 2HG system were ironed out over the previous months, and thanks to a lot of hard work everything went pretty smoothly. In a perfect world, having the Storm mechanic in Time Spiral Block meant that we had an awkward mechanic in our first 2HG PT. Given the choice we would have preferred it to debut in, say, Ravnica block, or Lorwyn. We’re not intending to see Storm again any time soon, or even any time not soon. Although the Slivers semi-final was fantastic fun, chances are we’ll look quite hard at making the final rounds best 2 out of 3, and if that means a long couple of rounds, well, maybe too much is better than too little. We understand that some Pros didn’t like the format, and we probably won’t run it every single year. However, the Pro Tour doesn’t just exist to make Pros rich or have fun, and given that we’re trying to boost the appeal of 2HG around the world, we have a 2HG PT pencilled in at this stage for 2008.”
Now that’s somebody who understands what’s going on in the wider world of Magic.
I don’t propose to offer you much more about the sliver strategy that worked so magnificently for winners Chris Lachmann and Jacob van Lunen. The combination of pick orders, pricing, metagaming, call it what you will, the fact is they didn’t just win this PT – they utterly destroyed the opposition, time after time after time. If Eugene Harvey and John Fiorillo had made it past Fiorillo’s manascrew in the semis, you can just about make a case for Harvey’s Black/Red deck being able to neuter enough of the sliver strategy to give them a chance, especially if he had been able to make the most out of the Rough half of Rough/Tumble. But that is very much in the land of “what if?” and one of the most striking features of the Lachmann/van Lunen gameplan is that the window for “what if?” was ridiculously narrow. If you had an answer, you better have it in your opening hand, or it was game over boys.
The idea of two unknowns taking down the Pro Tour at their first attempt is one with obvious appeal to many Magic players, since it gives hope to us all. However, as is often the case, the reality behind that headline is less encouraging to new players. Like so many players who apparently burst onto the scene from “nowhere,” Lachmann and van Lunen had been around the New Jersey Magic scene for a while, and were well acquainted with all the regional Pros. Perhaps their biggest advantage was that Lachmann had for a time been the number two ranked Limited player on MTGO. That’s number two in the world. His partner van Lunen had a significant background in poker, and talked at length about the body language of their opponents through the weekend, a relatively untapped strategic resource. So to look at their victory as triumphant underdogs is somewhat misreading the situation.
As for implications for the Player of the Year, Tomoharu Saitou must have been delighted to make another Top 10 finish. He must also be aware of exactly what he needs to do to take the crown away from Kenji Tsumura, who gained a point over his countryman and adversary by finishing 5th with teammate Yuuta Hirosawa. Kenji went on a breathtaking run over the last rounds of the Swiss, but the numbers gave him just too much to do, missing out on tiebreaks by a comfortable margin, unsurprising given that Lachmann and van Lunen had started out 6-0 on Day 1. Elsewhere, Shingou Kurihara continued his outstanding season by amassing another 8 points, which along with Kenji was the largest put together by any of the contenders. He’s now up to 5th in the standings, and although it’s reasonable to expect a more experienced name to finish top of the pile, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find him a Level 6 mage next season. The French pair of Guillaume Wafo-Tapa and Raphael Levy had miserable weekends by comparison. Teamed up with Pierre Canali, Wafo-Tapa seemed to be part of an ideal combination that I for one expected to go deep into the tournament. They never recovered from an awful start, and took away just the minimum 2 Points, as did Levy, who finally settled on Wilfried Ranque as a partner. Levy now lies 10 points behind Tsumura at the head of affairs, and will probably need either a third GP win of the year, or a first PT victory, to regain the initiative before Worlds.
So here’s how things stand going into Nationals season:
These 54, assuming they attend both Valencia and Worlds, have guaranteed Level 3 status for next year. So particular congratulations to Robert van Medevoort, Matthias Kunzler, Robert Jurkovic, Christophe Gregoir, Fried Meulders, Kentarou Yamamoto, Steven Wolansky, Yuuya Watanabe and Jim Herold, all of whom have successfully made the leap from Level 2 to being “on the train” next year.
As for the main prize, we’re barely into the second half of the calendar year (albeit with three out of the five PTs behind us) and both Tsumura and Saitou are guaranteed Level 6 status for 2008. That’s a fabulous achievement, and to fly in the face of that seems foolish. However, if you want to look beyond the obvious two, or four if you include the two Frenchmen, I will offer you three names to keep an eye on over the coming months:
Shingou Kurihara — this guy knows he’s having a great run, and also knows how to enjoy it. Since he’s likely to be in contention for the Top 8 at both Valencia and Worlds, you only need to see maybe three or four matches go his way over the coming months to see him absolutely battling it out come the final Sunday.
Paul Cheon — I’ve talked before about how impressive this guy is to talk to, and he knows how to walk the walk as well. With U.S. Nationals coming up in ten days time, it’s hard to think of many people who would have a better chance than him. A similar chance, sure, but better? Really very, very few. As for Player of the Year, I guess it depends on whether he comes 33rd, 13th, or 3rd in Valencia. I’d be seriously surprised if he came outside that top 32. This is the Mr Consistent on the Pro Tour right now.
Frank Karsten — I know, I know. You’re looking at the list and thinking that you can’t even find Frank on there. Oh wait, there he is, in 15th place. Bear with me. Frank has no Top 8s this year. Frank is very good at Constructed. Valencia is Constructed. Par for the course has Frank somewhere in the Top 16 or so, just like Yokohama. So suppose that he doesn’t timeout this time, and makes Top 8. Anyone can win from there. We’ll just add the 25 points for winning Valencia. He’s already made one Worlds final, so a four day event won’t be a problem. Ask Frank, and he’ll truthfully tell you that he has no chance for Player of the Year. But ask him if he has a chance of winning Valencia, you may get a slightly different answer. Of course, a huge amount has to go right for all this to occur. But, apart from anything else, you certainly get value for money when watching the Fanatic going about his business.
Plus, what I’ve said there can’t be true, because everyone knows that we’ve got the biggest Pro Player Blog in history coming our way, as Craig Jones becomes champion in Valencia. Fact. Or maybe that’s just Opinion…
As ever,
Thanks for reading.
R.