So here we are (finally), ready to look at the latest Pro Tour of the season. I arrived a couple of days before the event, and with Seattle only three time zones ahead of Hawaii, jetlag wasn’t much of an issue. As usual at Pro Tours, Thursday was spent mostly filming the lifestyle piece, which this time around was a kind of ‘Beach House Mark II.’ The group we chose to follow was mostly Belgian, including established Pros like Jan Doise and Christophe Gregoir, Frank Karsten of the Netherlands, and Bill Stark, he of thestarkingtonpost, of course. Alongside them were a group of lesser-known players, and some of those weren’t even qualified but were determined to enjoy a holiday of a lifetime regardless.
I guess there’s a natural curiosity about my job, since plenty of people would like to have it, and I confess to having a grin to myself at this imaginary conversation:
‘So Rich, what was the worst thing about your all-expenses paid trip to the tropical island paradise to watch people play Magic?’
‘Er, I got my feet wet.’
Yes, the perils of on-location shooting ensured that — oh no — my trousers got acquainted with the Pacific Ocean. Before being bone dry about ten minutes later. I do indeed have a ridiculous job.
As regular readers will know, I have a lot of time for the players from the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands), as it seems to me they’ve managed to strike a happy balance between cut-throat competition and an awareness of how spectacular simply being alive and playing Magic is, in and of itself. The only downside from my point of view is that it takes a lot to get them excited. I mean a lot. It’s fair to say that the usually taciturn Christophe Gregoir was every bit as undisturbed by his Top 8 performance as he was before it. I suppose his pulse may have been racing at some point, but I wouldn’t want to bet on it.
As I mentioned last week, coming into the Block Constructed portion of the event there was no consensus as to what could beat the so-called Best Deck, based around Jund. As I also mentioned last week (but hey, I get literally singles of new readers every week), I find the rationale behind playing that deck to be mostly hideous.
First things first, you have to assume that five days of Magic Online Premier Events have correctly analysed the Format to the point at which you can safely call the Jund deck The Best. Whilst it’s certainly true that many of the world’s best players do play online, it’s also true that when Alara Reborn came online most of them were already at Grand Prix: Seattle-Tacoma, or were en route to Honolulu. It’s also undoubtedly true that every man, woman, and dog on Magic Online is busy trying out their own version of Block Constructed, and in those first few days plenty of people were going to be disabused as to the viability of their pet project.
Let’s assume that the Best Deck label is correct. History has taught us that the Pro Tour hates the Best Deck with a passion. When I say ‘hates,’ I don’t just mean in an abstract ‘not liking it’ way, but as a group the Pro Tour will ruthlessly analyse it, find the weaknesses, and destroy it. Nowhere was this more evident than in Pro Tour: Yokohama in 2007. However, I’m happy to acknowledge that the ‘solution’ to the Jund deck was not so apparent as the hosing possibilities of a couple of years ago. Indeed, it’s fair to say that there was a lot of fatalistic head-shaking going on as players arrived, since another facet of the Pro Tour as a whole is that it’s a broadly Control environment, because players like to give themselves the maximum chance to outplay their opponent.
That brings me to the next obvious follow-up to that. If you’ve decided that Jund is the Best Deck, and that the Pro Tour as a whole won’t have a definitive way to bomb it off the map, I would argue that there’s only twenty players in the world who could legitimately argue that it’s a good choice. When Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa played Faeries to the Top 8 of Pro Tour: Hollywood, his thinking was completely straightforward. Faeries was, in his view, the Best Deck. Crucially, he could look you, me, and anyone else in the eye and say that he would be — and this is important — one of the best players playing the Best Deck. I just don’t see how many players can pass this test, especially those playing at their first Pro Tour.
To suggest that playing Jund is a safe option (and bear in mind that these arguments come around every time there’s a Constructed format, although it is often more pronounced with a small Block Constructed format) seems to me to be bonkers. Let’s check:
You’re an underdog against anyone who has simply decided not to lose to the Best Deck, and has a sideboard packed to deal with it.
You’re an underdog against anyone who believes that everyone will play the Best Deck, and has a maindeck that just doesn’t care about other matchups, banking on a string of ‘byes’ against the Best Deck.
You’re an underdog against anyone who is playing the Best Deck but is a better player than you.
You’re an underdog against anyone who has tested more than you have and has ‘tech’ for the mirror.
You’re only 50/50 against the other guy who decided the Best Deck was a safe option.
I’m prepared to admit that there might be some reasons to play the Best Deck, and mostly they involve a tacit acknowledgement that you’re not there to win the tournament. Maybe you’re there to not make a fool of yourself. Maybe you’re there to try and get to 3-2 before the Draft, so that your Limited skills can take you to 6-0 when it really matters. Maybe you’re at Worlds, and you’re only going to play with a deck for six rounds, and you think 3-3 is going to be enough. Maybe your looked-for record involves getting 3 Pro Points, so finishing 200th is exactly good enough. Whilst these reasons may be personally valid, they pretty much all negate the whole idea of finishing first. Indeed, I’m hard-pressed to think of a player who consistently says that they’re there to win. Whilst a level of humility is becoming, I believe this ‘see what happens, best I can’ attitude of recent times is quite different from the early days of the Pro Tour, something I’ll get around to discussing one of these days.
Outside of Jund, Randy Buehler had it right once again when he observed that the ‘breakout’ deck of the tournament, the GW aggro list put to good use by a bunch of decent Japanese players and others, wasn’t really a good deck in and of itself, but was rather a deck designed to take advantage of specific deficiencies in the perceived Metagame. In short, they ran two colors, and benefitted all day from people stumbling on mana. RB was also spot on in his post-match analysis of the Block format, when he observed that almost every round was done and dusted inside the time limit, with a bare handful of matches outstanding as the clock ticked down. He put this down to a marked absence of Instants, with Cascade being the defining mechanic of the format, and a bunch of high-end sorceries like Cruel Ultimatum coupled with minimal countermagic, producing a format where people didn’t have to think too much. That said, the results were on a par with any typical Pro Tour of recent times, so it’s wrong to suggest too much luck was involved in the following (selected) results:
0 Points
Eleven players went away on the same score that they came into the event — a miserly zero — and of those Grand Prix winner Tim Landale and Japanese Pro Tsuyoshi Ikeda were the biggest casualties. Amongst the statistical weirdness came Eric Schaller and Michael Bianco, both of whom lost 1-2 in the first round, and didn’t play from then on. Outside all the unlikely scenarios, like they were disqualified, or were rushed to hospital etc, it’s hard to imagine what makes a player give up after just one round. If there were extenuating circumstances, fine. If there weren’t, shame on you both. It’s probably truer in America than anywhere else, but PTQs are tough everywhere, and some people PTQ for years on end without a sniff of an invite. Giving up after one round? Very, very poor.
3 Points
Ari Lax confirmed after Grand Prix: Seattle-Tacoma that his talkative ramblings in the quarter final against Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa were indeed an attempt to gain an edge. Lax was amongst a group of North Americans staying in the Wizards hotel, and it was clear in the bar in the evenings leading up to the event that they weren’t happy with any of the decks in the format, and Lax had only the one win to show, although that was against Gerry Thompson, which I imagine pleased him. Other casualties on this score included Ben Wienburg of the U.S. and Israel’s Niv Shmuely, who continues to work around National Service in pursuit of Pro Points.
6 Points
I had Jamie Parke down as a likely Top 8er here. No such luck. Cedric Phillips didn’t like the format, unlike the Standard that he took by storm at Pro Tour: Kyoto earlier in the year. Remi Fortier seems to have gone off the boil, and by my reckoning is now about due another decent showing, since Grand Prix: Birmingham of 2008 now seems like plenty of events ago. Both Steve Locke and Dane Young would have expected better, as would Swiss player Nico Bohny. With the real world beckoning, this may have been Willy Edel’s last appearance on Tour for a while, and he went with more of a whimper than a bang, although his regular appearances in Magic Online Premier Events suggest he’s lost none of his ability or love of the game. Antonina Da Rosa came along for the ride, but since he’s now part of The Island crowd, testing really isn’t a priority. Undoubtedly the biggest casualty though was Mark Herberholz. Craig Jones was in attendance but not playing, so a repeat final from last time was out of the question. That said, two wins out of five with Esper Aggro wasn’t the expected outcome, and a single Draft loss was enough to see him throw in the towel.
9 Points
Almost 80 players ended up with three wins, and out of Day 2. Tiago Chan had won a PTQ to give him his first chance on the big stage for a little over 18 months. Ben Lundquist and Joel Calafell, both of whom had featured prominently in the preceding Grand Prix, couldn’t continue their form here. Since becoming Rookie of the Year in 2007, Yuuya Watanabe has somewhat struggled, although all things are relative, since he was part of the Worlds 2008 squad that was bested by the US in the Worlds semis last year. Poker ace Noah Boeken bowed out at this point, as did Pro Tour: Kuala Lumpur runner-up Mario Pascoli, Pro-Tour: Hollywood runner-up Jan Ruess, and the man who died to Cruel Ultimatum in Pro Tour: Kyoto, Matteo Orsini-Jones. Amongst a host of big names, perhaps the most disappointing on this mark was Manuel Bucher. He has four Grand Prix Top 8s, including a win on home soil in Zurich, but that seems a long time ago, and a Pro Tour Top 8 seems as far away as ever. A pity.
12 Points
A full 90 players found themselves one win shy of making the cut for Day 2. For the home team, a bunch of talent went home early. These included Gerry Thompson, Hall of Famer Ben Rubin, the super-consistent Brandon Scheel being not super-consistent, Rookie of the Year contender in 2008 Tyler Mantey, Grand Prix: Philadelphia winner Gerard Fabiano (who just missed out on the extra Pro Point in 201st place), Steve Sadin, Sam Black (who I thought was a serious contender), and 2008 Pro Tour winners Jon Finkel (Kuala Lumpur) and Charles Gindy (Hollywood).
For the Japanese, Masaya Kitayama, Chikara Nakajima, and Akira Asahara (Top 8 Worlds 2008) were the main casualties. Both Luiz Guilherme de Michielli and PVDdR bit the dust for Brazil, while both Antoine and Olivier Ruel, plus Guillaume Wafo-Tapa fell for France. I confess to being concerned when I spoke with Olivier at Grand Prix: Hannover, where he was a pale shadow of the larger-than-life character that has brought so much to the game.
There’s a saying in the cruise line industry, which is ‘shipped out.’ That’s where someone gets to a mental state where it doesn’t matter how sunny it is, how much they’re being paid, what Wonders of the World they’re seeing day to day, how many gorgeous dancers they’re getting extra-curricular with — they’ve had enough. Olivier in Hannover seemed like that — utterly bereft of direction, passion, and as a result, losing much of his edge over the mere mortals that usually get dispatched with efficiency. On reflection, I wonder whether the whole Hall of Fame thing was the final piece of a puzzle for Olivier, where he’s now achieved everything he truly wants. Sure, I’m certain that he’d still love a Pro Tour victory, but like his brother Antoine (who has the trophy from Pro Tour: Los Angeles 2005), Olivier seems to be taking the game less seriously. For almost all my time covering the game, Olivier would have been one of the first names mentioned for Top 8. Not here, and with good reason.
Another who has been finding the going tough of late is Australian Aaron Nicastri. The Rookie of the Year came into Pro Tour: Kyoto in great mental shape, but seemed to take a string of losses very badly (admittedly something he hadn’t been used to in 2008). Once again he came up short, and now has just two Pro Tours to rescue what is fast becoming a year to forget. Elsewhere, Brian Kowal discovered that a draw would cost him dearly, marooning him on 13 points, and Martin Bisterfeld of Germany discovered that two draws was every bit as useless as one, finishing one point adrift of Day 2.
15 Points
That left 143 standing on the minimum 15 points or better. Four players remained on that score, including the unexpected Worlds Top 8er, Estonian National Champion Hannes Kerem, and the likeable German Raul Porojan. Astute readers should be aware that the previous sentence included ‘and the likeable German Raul Porojan’ and not ‘and The likeable German Raul Porojan,’ which would have had a wholly different connotation.
18 Points
Gabe Carleton-Barnes did well simply to be in the main event at all, since he was one of the players to emerge from the Last Chance Qualifier overnight. Although the wheels came off on Day 2, that was already Day 3 for him, so a credible performance all round. Christoph Huber was part of the Swiss Team World Champions from 2007, and was the last player with a perfect record at that event, going 11 wins on the bounce. He started off with a perfect 5-0 in Block, but virtually reversed that in Draft, going 1-5 and falling from contention.
21 Points
Shouta Yasooka seems to blow hot and cold, and the former Player of the Year is someone you probably would prefer not to meet in Round 1, but equally don’t mind facing on Day 2, when you could be playing a Nassif or an LSV. Also out here was Adam Yurchick, Canadian Jay Elarar who was in contention in Pro Tour: Hollywood last year, and Russia’s Nicolay Potovin, who I was very surprised to see falling by the wayside. To me, he’s one of the most complete players in the game, and I fully expect a Top 8 from him before the end of the year.
24 Points
The big three here to go at a break-even 24 points were Shuu Komuro and Jun’ya Iyanaga of Japan, and ‘The Tezzerator’ — Kenny Oberg of Sweden.
27 Points
Cracking the Top 100 was Owen Turtenwald. Owen was also in the Wizards hotel group, and the lack of excitement in terms of deck choice (his Naya Jund Control deck went 4-6) was tempered by a strong 5-1 Draft showing. Marooned in the mid-90’s were four players who could all have justifiably come in with Top 8 aspirations. Shuuhei Nakamura will have been mightily disappointed with 94th, and a mix-up over Visas ensured that he wouldn’t be picking up any Pro Points at the following Grand Prix in Brazil, because he wouldn’t be let in the country. Arjan van Leeuwen will probably be far more sanguine about 95th, and his big test comes later in the Summer when he attempts a hat-trick of Grand Prix victories. The reigning World Champion, Finland’s Antti Malin came in 96th, and Pro Tour: Los Angeles runner-up Billy Moreno rolled back the clock at least somewhat in reaching Day 2 after an absence from the game.
These were in good company on nine wins. Paul Cheon came out of retirement briefly. The newly-crowned Grand Prix: Seattle-Tacoma champion, Yann Massicard of France, finished here, as did former Rookie of the Year Sebastian Thaler of Germany, 2006 World Champion Makahito Mihara, and European stalwart Robert van Medevoort, who continues to find Pro Tour success eluding him, despite a great Grand Prix record. It’s also worth mentioning Brian Robinson, the Boston sports fan who came to attention with his Top 8 appearance at Pro Tour: Kyoto. As a group, Coverage reporters like to see someone do something good twice, rather than once, before we’re ready to give an unqualified thumbs-up, and although this wasn’t in the same league as Kyoto, I regard this as more evidence that that event was about more than just a lucky/good deck choice.
30 Points
25 players shared a 10-6 record. Separated by fractions in 63rd and 64th were Osyp Lebedowicz and David Williams. 2007 Pro Tour winners Chris Lachmann (San Diego) and Mike Hron (Geneva) also fell here. It came as a surprise to me that Jacob van Lunen, Lachmann’s partner in their amazing Two-Headed Giant victory, was not at the starting line. Turns out, San Diego was longer ago than I’d thought, and Jake was back to the PTQ circuit for Austin. Matt Hansen was the number one ranked Composite player for a while, but now plays only occasionally, and 10-6 was a good result off minimal practice.
Given the standards he’s come to embody, 10-6 didn’t feel like a good result for Luis Scott-Vargas. That said, such has been the expectation surrounding him in recent times that almost anything short of the Top 8 would have seemed anti-climactic. Also, before moving on, a word about Peter Ingram. Ingram dominated the early rounds of Pro Tour: Kyoto, before falling foul of the Draft portion. This time around, he held his stuff together, and 45th here is indicative to me of someone to watch later in the year.
31 Points
Four players here would grace any Top 8. Shingou Kurihara may not be travelling the world as he did in 2007, but he retains a ton of ability. David Irvine still has just one Grand Prix Top 8 to his name, from San Francisco in 2007, but continues to be one of the tougher opponents out there. Frank Karsten was his usual unflappable self, relentlessly wearing long-sleeve shirts in stupendously hot conditions. It’s possible Frank may be second all-time in the I Hate The Sun list, just ahead of me, and marginally behind vampires.
Then there’s Patrick Chapin. PC professes regularly to not be much of a Drafter, at least in comparison to his Constructed prowess, but the simple facts are that his five wins out of six in Draft here was only one point less than he managed across ten rounds of Block Constructed. I do wonder sometimes about the pressure that major writers feel under to perform at these events. Those of you who read me regularly know what you’re going to get. The truth is, hopefully I’m going to be entertaining, and informative, and sometimes funny, but nobody is actively trying to stop me achieving these goals. Every time Patrick and his ilk go into battle, every single opponent wants to prove that the latest Innovation isn’t up to snuff. That seems like an awful lot of pressure to be under, and there can be only so many times where you have to say ‘here’s why things didn’t go my way this time’ before your self-confidence starts to suffer. To be fair, this happens to Mr. C less often than most, and that Draft performance was pretty eye-catching. Worlds seems like an obvious target, looking to go one better than in 2007, when Uri Peleg denied him at the last.
33 Points
Zack Hall broke the Top 32 with his 11 wins, while Jelger Wiegersma did his usual thing of turning up and beating most people apparently without being too bothered. Other Europeans flying their respective flags as the rounds whittled down were Helmut Summersberger, a real old-school brawler from Austria, the Belgian Jan Doise continuing a decent run of form, and two Frenchmen, one a Hall of Famer (Raphael Levy) and one very much destined to be so (Gabriel Nassif). Kotatsu Saitou of Japan finished 24th, right next to Tomaharu Saitou. I suspect the former will have been more satisfied, while Tomaharu was effectively eliminated by Nassif. Gaudenis Vidugiris is having a great year, and continues to contend, while mention should be made of Taufik Indrakesuma, almost certainly the highest-placed finisher at a Pro Tour to come from Indonesia.
34 Points
Lucas Blohon is part of the growing contingent of Czechs in contention. Veerapat Sirilertvorakul was the featured artist in my Saturday Spotlight, looking at players who aren’t necessarily well-known, but have benefitted greatly from the game. 17th was his best finish ever, and continues an upward curve that might well continue in Austin. That leaves Mark Glenister, who had one of the unluckier hardluck stories at the event. Going into the final round, MG was paired so that he was effectively playing a shootout for Top 8. Then somebody spotted that certain players had already played each other, and two matches were swapped to ‘re-legalise’ them. Two minutes later, Mark watched the four tables ahead of him walk off into the sunset, all four Intentionally Drawing into the Top 8, leaving him to play for ninth against Brad Nelson. Tough, but still a great performance that ensures Austin is a go.
36 Points
12 wins and just 4 losses weren’t enough for six players to make the Top 8. Per Nystrom of Sweden, Kentarou Nonaka of Japan and Brian Boss of the USA were little-known, while Koutarou Ootsuka (Japan) and Rasmus Sibast (Denmark) have been there or thereabouts. That left the afore-mentioned Brad Nelson, who as fffreak on Magic Online had developed a huge reputation which he certainly justified here.
Losing Quarter Finalists
8th — Tom Ross
7th — Brian Kibler
6th — Zac Hill
5th — Christophe Gregoir
Ross had made the Top 8 on the back of a perfect 6-0 in Draft, so it was a surprise to see him exit early against Paul Rietzl. His Draft pods hadn’t been easy either, with wins over Zac Hill, Matt Hansen and Tomaharu Saitou amongst his highlights.
Kibler had turned up on the first day in an incredible white suit, and whilst positive visualisation is a big topic for another day, it was clear that Kibler had envisioned feeling good about himself and about his game on this day long before the event was on the radar for many. Playing Esper Aggro in Block, only Christophe Gregoir managed to beat him, and that was good enough to make Sunday, despite only a 4-2 Draft record. Whilst every Pro Tour this year has more Constructed rounds than Limited, this was still the ‘Draft’ Pro Tour, with the Top 8 featuring 40 cards. In that sense, and in that sense alone (because those of you who know me are well aware that I like both Kibler and Zac Hill), it was gratifying that both 4-2 Drafters went out in the quarters, and that it was one of the 6-0 Drafters, Kazuya Mitamura, who converted that into a 9-0 Pro Tour winning Limited run.
Speaking of Hill, he paced the tournament overnight with Kibler, and used some serious mental hard work to keep things together down the home stretch, despite a 1-2 to start the second day in Draft. Hill fell in a frustrating quarter final to Michal Hebky, a match that was regularly punctuated by deck malfunctions aplenty.
The Belgian Gregoir had only a solitary loss in Block to Zac Hill, but it was his single loss in Draft that would ultimately have more significance. That was to Kazuya Mitamura, and he would face the Japanese man in the quarter finals. Gregoir, like Hill, faced some pretty unfunny draws in his match, and was quickly outgunned by the midrange power of Mitamura. As always, he took his loss just as he takes his wins – very calmly indeed.
4th — Conley Woods
3rd — Paul Rietzl
On the face of it, Woods had the best deck at the table, not least because it included Lavalanche. There were other good cards, like boardsweeper Caldera Hellion, but there was also Lavalanche. In addition to some other spells, and some land, there was Lavalanche. Getting the picture? Having dispensed Kibler in the quarters, Woods got into prime position against Hebky in the semis, going 2-0 up without a Lavalanche in sight. But the Czech man just kept on trucking, and won the decider on the back of a hideous mana screw for Woods.
Rietzl meanwhile had done a good job of convincing himself that the deck he’d Drafted on Sunday morning could get the job done. Trouble is, when you’re that good at the game, it’s quite hard to convince yourself of things that you don’t fundamentally think are true, and watching Rietzl build his deck, I’d have put good money on him not winning. That’s not a comment on what I think of his deck (I wouldn’t presume), nor a comment on some kind of ‘objective’ truth about his deck and its quality. Rather, it’s a comment on his own thoughts on his deck. Frankly, he knew he hadn’t won the Pro Tour before the quarter finals started. That’s not to say that he could have done much in the semis against Mitamura, who swept him whilst appearing to have the answers before Rietzl had even asked the questions.
2nd — Michal Hebky
When pundits draw up their fictional lists for Top 8s, they’ll frequently put in a placeholder like ‘Some Guy,’ or ‘A Japanese Player You’ve Never Heard Of’ or ‘Random Mexican.’ For Austin, my Top 8 list is going to include ‘Some Czech guy.’ In the last couple of years, there’s been a veritable parade of them making Grand Prix Top 8s, and what used to be ‘Arnost Zidek stands alone’ is now a travelling group of players who fear nobody and expect to be at the top tables. And usually are. This time around, it was Hebky, who demonstrated the apparently national characteristic of remaining entirely unperturbed through whatever the game could throw at him, before coming back time and again for more. Whether it will be him next time I’m not sure, but this is yet another piece of evidence suggesting that the Czech Republic are possibly the strongest nation in Europe right now.
1st — Kazuya Mitamura
Much as it’s hard to acquire a reputation in France, because you’ve got two Ruels, a Wafo-Tapa and a Nassif to contend with as your group to aspire to, so it is in Japan. Mori, Saitou, Nakamura, Tsumura…this is tough company to break into. So I confess that it had somewhat passed me by until the Top 8 here that Mitamura was reaching 100 Pro Points in super-quick time. At 6-3-1, his Block Constructed record was far from exciting, but his 6-0 Draft record was. Having taken back to back Vithian Stingers his Draft fell into place, and he was rarely troubled, despite Hebky fighting back to send the final all the way. Perhaps the most surprising thing of the whole weekend came when it fell time to interview the winner. Since starting at Pro Tour: Geneva in 2007, I’ve been able to interview every winner in English without a problem, but that was clearly an issue here. As it turned out, the two and a half minutes of halting answers from Mitamura were among the most moving I’ve had the privilege to be involved with. Much as Charles Gindy was clearly struck by the very special nature of winning a Pro Tour, and just being at a Pro Tour, Mitamura tried to convey many of the same sentiments. But whereas Gindy talked eloquently for half an hour and more, Mitamura didn’t have that facility with words. When I asked how he felt, he came up with, ‘Tears… coming.’ Great stuff.
And so the Pro Tour in Paradise was done. There’s one more story I want to tell you, but right now I can’t. I’m saving it for something called ‘A Short Article About Dying.’
Until next week, as ever, thanks for reading.
R.