Voting shall be based upon the player’s:

Performances
Playing ability
Integrity
Sportsmanship
Contributions to the game in general.

Hall of Fame ballots went out this past week, making this the perfect time to examine each of the major candidates and talk about how I plan on voting this
year. Just to be clear, I am waiting until the last day to actually vote, as I want the maximum amount of time to hear arguments and reasoning about which
five candidates are most deserving of votes. While I certainly do not fault voters that do not use all five votes, I happen to believe strongly there are
more than five people on the ballot that deserve to be awarded the game’s highest honor and enshrined in the Magic: the Gathering Hall of Fame.

In trying to narrow down my vote to five, I started by looking at the list for any players that I considered to be slam dunks. Who were the must includes,
the absolute without question, must-votes? There are usually one or two of those a year (last year was a particularly tough year and had three).

For me, there are two slam dunks this year. The first is the name on top of everyone’s ballot (who is voting with integrity).

Luis Scott-Vargas

There are five criteria that players are to be judged on to determine if they should be given the game’s highest honor, as listed above.

Performances – Four Pro Tour Top 8s has become established as the general baseline threshold for Hall of Fame discussion. It is possible with just three
Top 8s, but those players are few and far between and require major pluses in other categories.

Luis exceeds this, with five Pro Tour Top 8s, to say nothing of being a Pro Tour Champion, a National Champion, and a Grand Prix Champion. Even setting
aside Pro Tour Top 8s, Luis has one of the all-time greatest resumes in many other departments. A 3-year peak median finish of 16.5? The Hall of Fame
Median is 33.5, making Luis’s roughly twice as good.

Playing ability – Results alone are not enough, and getting into the Hall of Fame requires a player’s peers to have great respect for the strength of their
game. Generally, players voted into the Hall of Fame were known as a top 10 player in the world during multiple years.

Luis exceeds this, being universally considered by his peers as one of the ten best players of all-time.

Integrity – For many voters, myself included, the integrity category is really a pass/fail system. You are either a person of integrity or you are not. It
is not that someone can’t redeem themselves if they have made mistakes, it’s just that they need to. Generally, this category just removes names from the
list, as the Hall of Fame is supposed to require a player being honorable and not a cheater.

Luis exceeds this, he is not only 100% completely above reproach his entire career, he has for many years influenced younger players to take the honorable
road and play with a clean game. Cheating is not acceptable among the best teams in the game these days, and Luis is one of the principle reasons.

Sportsmanship – This is a category that often gets merged with Integrity, or gets merged with contributions to the game, however it is important on its
own. A true Hall of Famer makes the game fun for himself, his opponents, and for spectators. A true Hall of Famer knows how important feature matches are
to Magic. A true Hall of Famer is fun to watch, and any match featuring them is a draw to fans everywhere.

Luis exceeds this, being one of the greatest sportsman to watch in our game’s history. His matches are among the most watched, not only because of his
legendary skill but because of his legendary charm and good humor. He radiates positive energy, and whether he is playing constructed in the Top 8 of a Pro
Tour or drafting all 7-drops, cubing, or playing Commander, watching Luis is electric. Very few players in the game’s history have been as fun to watch.

Contributions to the game – This category can be difficult to measure. After all, Americans are often more likely to value contributions made by other
Americans, and the same is true for Europeans and Japanese players for their natives. Historically, five Top 8s has led to induction for those not vetoed
on account of integrity and sportsmanship. Players with four Top 8s that pass on integrity and sportsmanship are generally then ranked by voters on some
combination of playing ability and contributions to the game (depending on what the voter values).

A player with Luis’s resume and history could have done stone zero for the community and get voted in. That he also writes articles, does commentary, and
takes so much time to help out fans would likely make him a very strong candidate even if he had 80% the resume he does.

Luis exceeds this, being one of the architects of the modern Magic scene. Six years ago, there were very few stars, very few professional Magic players,
and what that meant was nothing like what it means today. Luis Scott-Vargas helped redefine what it means to be a professional Magic player. He helped
redefine Magic content, Magic tournaments, Magic coverage, Magic teams, and what it means to be a professional Magic player. To this day, Luis works behind
the scenes to continue to find more and better ways to improve the Magic community, both the tournament scene and non-tournament scene.

There are very people in the game’s history that have contributed as much to the game as Luis has. I believe if Luis had three Pro Tour Top 8s, he would
still be a lock, he surpasses the highest bars in every category by so much.

Jon Finkel did not receive 100% of the vote.

Kai Budde did not receive 100% of the vote.

In all likelihood, Luis will join them, like Nassif, like Paulo, like Kenji. Gamers are prone to gaming, even when it undermines the integrity of something
as important as the Hall of Fame. Ever since Jon missed 100% by two votes, there have been some number of voters that seem to want to ensure that no one
ever receives 100% as some sort of twisted form of justice.

I think Luis has the best chance to be the 100% vote getter.

Luis literally blows the top off of every single category without a single possible strike in any department, and in fact extra credit across the board. If
the Magic Hall of Fame had five people in it, Luis should be one of them, and I am not convinced that he isn’t the most Hall of Fame-worthy player in the
game’s history. I hope in my heart of hearts that somehow we see the impossible happen and Luis’s ballot is the only one in the world without his name on
it.

William Jensen

William Jensen resume is quite good, but his career was cut short for poker and work opportunities, leaving his numbers merely near the top and not among
the all-time best. Then what makes him a slam dunk?

Playing ability.

William “Huey” Jensen was one of the best of all-time in his prime, and if you polled Jon Finkel, Kai Budde, Gabriel Nassif, Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa,
Brian Kibler, Kenji Tsumura, Bob Maher, Zvi Mowshowitz, and the rest of the Hall of Fame:

“Who are the ten best players of all-time?”

William Jensen would be on the list.

His career being before the time of many voters and him being out of the spotlight have hurt his vote-getting in recent years. Making things tougher, the
American vote has been extremely split for years now, with so many deserving candidates that arriving at a consensus is difficult.

Last year was the toughest year since the change of Hall of Fame rules to only include those that receive over 40% of the vote. Paulo, Kenji, and Oiso were
mortal locks, meaning most ballots only had two slots to work with.

William Jensen missed by a single vote.

At least one voter didn’t vote for Huey by mistake.

At least one voter didn’t vote for Huey because they didn’t think he’d get in last year.

At least one voter didn’t vote for Huey because they had never met him.

At least one voter didn’t vote for Huey because he hadn’t played in anything recently.

After missing by a heart-breaking single vote last year, Wizards of the Coast gave a special invite to Huey, inviting him to a single Pro Tour. You know
how many Pro Tours he prepared for, this year?

All of them.

He has been taking weeks off before every Pro Tour to help friends test for each Pro Tour, never complaining about not being invited, never whining, never
being anything other than a champion with integrity, sportsmanship, and honor.

For Grand Prix: Portland, leading into Pro Tour: Dragon’s Maze, Huey took weeks off to hang out and help with testing. Whenever we needed a drafter or a
test opponent, Huey was always ready to be the eighth or to play “The Enemy.” Whenever we had nine, he insisted on sitting. When there were an odd number
of people, he would watch and help as much as he could from the sidelines.

Ok, so he’s a great teammate, so what? After all, he is widely regarded as one of the best team drafters of all-time, so this isn’t the biggest shocker
ever.

The point is, Huey loves it. He loves Magic. Just being a part of the Magic life, it brings him so much joy, so every opportunity he has to increase the
enjoyment and experience of others in the community, he seizes it. He is also serious about making a comeback. If Huey was invited to every Pro Tour, he
really would go to them. However, he doesn’t want to be voted in to game an invite-system and he has made it clear that even when not invited, he is going
to give the game his all.

Huey missed by a single vote last year, and I can’t fathom someone that voted for Huey last year changing their vote this year. The Hall of Fame will be
better for having William Jensen in it and I strongly encourage everyone to vote for him.

A Tough Crowd

Three more votes?

There are a lot of fantastic and deserving candidates. How to differentiate between them?

After figuring out how many discretionary slots I have to work with, I did a statistical breakdown of the top candidates. I am not one of those voters that
just votes based on stats, as performances is just one of the five categories. However, the performances category is relatively easy to actually measure,
which can give us a starting point, a way to rank the candidates out the gate. Then, we can know how much someone would have to move up for things like
community contributions or down because of sportsmanship, etc.

This year’s ballot has just three players with five or more Pro Tour Top 8s. For the players with five top 8s, I think one just has to ask the question of
if they should be vetoed because of Integrity or Sportsmanship? This brings us to the prickly subject of Tomoharu Saito and Scott Johns.

Tomoharu Saito certainly has the performances and playing ability down pat. He has already received enough votes to get into the Hall of Fame, before
having it revoked after getting suspended for a second time (his first was for, interestingly enough, unsportsmanlike conduct).

Saito is a top 20 player of all-time, and a top 20 deckbuilder of all-time. He has been an active member of the Magic community and actually has a fair bit
of community contributions.

Still, I cannot vote for Saito this year.

I think there is a good chance I vote for him eventually, as anyone that loves the game as much as he does has a good chance of cleaning up their game.

Stalling is cheating.

It is literally defined as a forming of cheating and Saito was banned for it, and this is after having been banned once before for “unsportsmanlike
conduct.” That makes it really hard to give him full credit for integrity or sportsmanship.

What does it take for someone to redeem themselves? Make a full-on comeback, put up at least one good tournament result, and most importantly, go the full
year with clean play. I watched a few of Saito’s matches this year and I believe he was illegally clock-managing in a match against Eric Froehlich at Grand
Prix: Denver, in the past year.

I have mad respect for the man and I have mad love for him, but old habits die hard. There are so many deserving candidates for the Hall of Fame, someone
that strikes out in two of the categories and hasn’t made the decision internally to be better doesn’t need to top the list.

In fact, I believe that the single greatest motivator to get Saito to play a clean game is the prospect of the Hall of Fame. If he is voted in again
without cleaning up his game completely, why would he ever clean it up? He is one of the greats and I believe he would be even if he were completely clean.
I also believe that if he cleans up his game to try to earn a spot in the Hall of Fame someday, he is likely to stay clean.

Scott Johns is a tougher case, as he doesn’t have a ban looming over his head. He also has years of community contributions in the form of his work as
editor-in-chief for magicthegathering.com and other forms of Magic media, not to mention the Mindripper days before that. I do think Johns gets a little
bit of an unfair shake at least partially as a result of being from the “old school,” as accomplishments from the nineties are often diminished in the eyes
of newer voters. Additionally, he is hurt by not always being in the good graces of certain vocal players from the old days.

On balance, however, John’s resume of accomplishments is definitely “Pro Tour Top 8-centric.” When we expand our search, we see that he has just two Grand
Prix Top 8s. He did play during an era when there were far fewer Grand Prix, but even for those years, that is very few. His Pro Points are also not super
high, but this can be dismissed by pointing out how many fewer pro points were awarded in the nineties compared to today.

I think that Johns is a totally defensible candidate, I just wish he would return to the scene and play with the integrity and sportsmanship those that
have worked with him on the content-producing side have known over the past decade. It takes a great man to admit that he made some mistakes, so we should
sit up and take notice if Johns returns to the game in any capacity.

As for the remaining Hall of Fame Candidates, I narrowed the list down to just those with four Pro Tour Top 8s or those that I have seem nominated by at
least two people with votes. This made the hunt for those final three slots between the following seventeen people:

Willy Edel
Eric Froehlich
Justin Gary
Mark Herberholz
Tsuyoshi Ikeda
Mark Justice
Martin Juza
Osyp Lebedowicz
Marijn Lybaert
Makihito Mihara
Chris Pikula
Paul Rietzl
Ben Stark
Gerry Thompson
Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
Craig Wescoe
Shouta Yasooka

Before taking a look at any of the numbers, I decided to lay out a system by which I would rank the accomplishments of these players. Obviously there are
enough unique accomplishments possible that any such system is going to have inherent flaws. However, I am not planning on voting strictly on the list
created by this method. I just want to see what the system suggests before I bias it, looking to see “what I want to see.”

Obviously any system I come up with here is going to be somewhat arbitrary, but it is a starting point. As such I decided on the following formula:

There will be two categories for performances:

Pro Tour Top 8s
Everything else

Everything else consists of:

Pro Points
Median finish (50% career median, 50% 3-year peak median)
Misc Pro Tour Finishes (Top 16 counts as 4 points, Top 32 counts as 2 points, Top 64 counts as 1 point)
Grand Prix Top 8s (with wins counting as 1.5)

Some people count Pro Tours played in as a negative, since securing more accomplishments in less events suggests a higher “average.” I disagree with this
vehemently, as it gives credit to everyone that leaves the scene after their prime rather than continuing to show up and stay involved even when they don’t
have full time to dedicate to the game. If anything, I would consider this category a net positive, however for the purposes of the Hall of Fame I decided
to keep it neutral, showing that the Hall of Fame is more than just a lifetime achievement award for participation. I certainly would not fault anyone that
deciding to weight it as a positive, however.

For each of these four categories, I will rank the seventeen names listed above, awarding 33 points to the top rank in that category, then 31 to second, 29
to third, and so on. I will use two point jumps so that when there is a tie, they can split the difference (and if there is a three-way tie, all three get
points equal to the middle number). For median finish, I will take the points from each of the two categories, add them together, then rank the results
again and use that number as the median rank. After coming up with points for all four categories, I will add them up and again rank all seventeen, with
first receiving 33 points and so on.

For Pro Tour Top 8s, this is as simple as counting everyone’s top 8s, with wins counting as 1.5, then ranking them. Obviously this resulted in a lot more
ties than other categories.

Finally, I would add the points accumulated in PT Tops 8s (1-33) with the points accumulated in Non-Top 8s (1-33) and then rank all seventeen candidates on
their total, letting the chips fall where they may.

To start with, let’s take a look at the Pro Points earned by each of these seventeen candidates, using current totals (not just the end of last season
numbers):

Candidates	Pro Points	Rank Points
Yasooka	322	32
Juza	322	32
Ikeda	313	29
Stark	299	27
Mihara	281	25
Gary	252	23
Rietzl	250	21
Froehlich	239	19
Lebedowicz	226	17
Wafo-Tapa	221	15
Thompson	219	13
Edel	206	11
Herberholz	198	9
Marijn	194	7
Wescoe	170	5
Pikula	135	3
Justice	133	1

While Pro Points are a powerful measure of one’s tournament history, they are extremely biased towards players that play in a quantity of Grand Prix, as
well as being biased against players from the old days when a lot less Pro Points were given out. Mark Justice and Chris Pikula would have around 200 Pro
Points if they had received Pro Points at the rate we do today. Still, this was the system I had laid out beforehand, so I want to stay the course.

It is this category that makes it clear why Martin Juza and Shouta Yasooka are serious candidates, despite just three Pro Tour Top8s between them. That is
a lot of Pro Tour points, and for some perspective, remember, Martin has played in less than half as many Pro Tours as Ikeda(!)

There are only 22 people in the game’s history that have achieved 300 or more Pro Points.

Martin Juza, Shouta Yasooka, and Tsuyoshi Ikeda are three of them. Yuuya Watanabe is a fourth, who is not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame, but a possible
first ballot inductee. Tomoharu Saito is a fifth.

The other seventeen are all in the Hall of Fame.

Obviously, Ben Stark will be the next to pass this threshold when he shows up to the World Championships next month. Stark, Juza, Yasooka, and Ikeda all
deserve special consideration, as hitting 300 Pro Points is an accomplished achieved by less people than actually make the Hall of Fame.

Moving on, let’s take a look at median finish. For ease of reading, I have listed the rank points each player got in each category, rather than their
actual medians (which can be found here).

Candidates	3-Year Peak	Career Median	Rank Points
Justice	33	33	33
Gary	29	27	31
Froehlich	26	29	29
Lebedowicz	17	31	26
Yasooka	23	25	26
Wafo-Tapa	31	7	22
Pikula	15	23	22
Juza	26	11	19
Mihara	19	15	16
Lybaert	21	13	16
Stark	13	20	13
Herberholz	11	17	11
Rietzl	7	20	9
Ikeda	9	5	7
Edel	3	9	5
Wescoe	5	1	3
Thompson	1	3	1

I value both 3-year peak (technically, 15 Pro Tour Peak) and career median, as one is a better reflection of the player in their prime and the other a
better reflection of their average performance over their entire career (obviously). Both are important, but this is a category that biases against players
that continued to show up when they couldn’t dedicate their full-time to Magic.

That Justice is first on this list is no surprise. He was undisputed best player in the world and retired near his prime, leaving him with a very small
sample size. Years of Justice’s career took place before the PT, so his stats don’t even look as impressive as they would if 1994 and 1995 actually were
recorded. Additionally, he gets a bad rep, as a couple murky incidents near the end of his career often overshadow what was one of the most remarkable
careers in the history of the game.

As mentioned above, however, the note you leave on is generally the one people remember. Was Justice a rules-lawyer? Absolutely. Should Justice lose points
for Sportsmanship? Probably. Was Justice a savage? No.

I want to see Mark Justice in the Magic Hall of Fame. He was Jon Finkel before Jon Finkel was Jon Finkel. I do believe it’s going to take a comeback,
playing with integrity and sportsmanship, and showing that even after being gone from the game for 15 years Justice still has what it takes to be
considered one of the all-time greats.

What might be more surprising to many is to see Justin Gary and Eric Froehlich’s names come next. While many people are fixated on Pro Tour Top 8s (which
Justin and EFro are certainly not slacking in), both Gary and EFro have outrageous Median stats, both appearing in the top 4 for 3-year peak median and top
4 for career median. No one else save Mark Justice comes even close to this. If Juza, Yasooka, and Ikeda get the Pro Point vote, Efro, Justin Gary, and
Mark Justice get the consistency vote.

Up next, we have Misc Pro Tour finishes. As a reminder, each top 16 was counted as being worth 4 points, each 17-32 was counted as being worth 2 points,
and each 33-64 was counted as being worth 1 point.

Candidates	Misc PT Finishes	Rank Points
Gary	62	33
Lebedowicz	47	31
Froehlich	46	28
Ikeda	46	28
Yasooka	42	25
Stark	40	23
Justice	38	21
Wafo-Tapa	37	19
Mihara	36	17
Marijn	35	15
Rietzl	33	13
Ikeda	31	11
Pikula	29	9
Juza	27	7
Wescoe	25	5
Edel	21	3
Thompson	19	1

To begin with, Justin Gary at 62 is absolutely out of this world. That is more than double the Hall of Fame median! I wish these stats were widely
available for the 33 people currently in the Hall of Fame, because I would be shocked if there have ever been many people who can compete with Justin’s
consistency. He top 32’ed almost half of the Pro Tours he ever played in, and his career was actually longer than most Hall of Famers!

Seeing Froehlich and Ikeda’s names near the top is not a surprise, given Froehlich’s consistency and Ikeda’s longevity. The name that may have surprised
more people is Osyp Lebedowicz. Three Top 8s, including a win, is already a pretty good resume, but Osyp actually achieved consistent results throughout
his career, top 64’ing over 58% of his Pro Tours. We already noted Froehlich and Gary for their consistency, it would seem that Lebedowicz’s name should
appear there, as well.

Finally, we come to Grand Prix Top 8s. This is the Pro Tour Hall of Fame, not the Grand Prix Hall of Fame, but they do still count for something. I added
up each player’s top 8s, awarding an extra half a point for each Grand Prix win.

Candidates	Grand Prix Top8s	Rank Points
Juza	16 (4 wins)	33
Yasooka	15 (1 win)	31
Thompson	9 (2 wins)	29
Stark	9 (1 win)	27
Froehlich	9	24
Lybaert	9	24
Wafo-Tapa	7	20
Mihara	6 (2 wins)	20
Ikeda	6 (1 win)	17
Edel	5 (1 win)	15
Lebedowicz	4 (1 win)	13
Herberholz	4	10
Pikula	4	10
Gary	3 (1 win)	7
Wescoe	3	4
Lybaert	3	4
Justice	0	1

Not surprisingly, the Grand Prix Top 8s list matches up to the Pro Points list much the same way Median finish matches up with Top 16/Top 32/Top 64
finishes. Interestingly, only Eric Froehlich and Shouta Yasooka appear in the top 5 of at least three of these four categories, with Shouta actually
appearing in the top 5 of all four.

If there is a chink in Justin Gary’s armor (made of incredible stats), it is his relatively sparse Grand Prix history. Of course, players like him, Pikula,
and Justice just had far fewer opportunities, as there were nowhere near as many Grand Prix then as there are today.

I also believe that this category (and as a result, him only having 198 Pro Points, instead of 200) is the one that most hurts Herberholz. He has four Pro
Tour Top 8s, including a win, was the best player in the country for years, is a top 10 all-time deckbuilder, and was a pillar of American Magic when the
game needed it most. Why hasn’t he been voted in?

For a lot of players, they need a way to trim the list, so they start by cutting out the people with under 200 Pro Points or less than four Top 8s. I can’t
fault anyone for this approach, but I do think it is better to consider too many people than too few. You don’t want to vote in too many people, but
actually considering them doesn’t hurt and everyone’s career is different. If Herberholz had achieved all of his performances in the modern era, he would
have significantly more than 200 Pro Points and likely receive far more votes.

Additionally, Herberholz is hurt by the classic great American problem. If there were only a couple great Americans, the vote would not be so divided.
Instead, there are more than five Americans that voters would like to see get in, which divides the vote. Why does the fact they are from America matter?
Historically, looking at voting patterns, Europeans tend to vote for a lot more Europeans, Japanese players vote for a lot more Japanese players, and
Americans vote for more Americans. There is certainly bias at work, but it also suggests that often only the players from one’s region can fully appreciate
their contributions to the game.

Now, what do we get when we add these together?

Candidates	Rank Points	Cumulative Rank
Yasooka	114	33
Froehlich	100	31
Gary	94	29
Juza	91	27
Stark	90	25
Lebedowicz	87	23
Ikeda	81	21
Mihara	78	19
Wafo-Tapa	76	17
Rietzl	67	15
Justice	56	13
Pikula	44	10
Thompson	44	10
Marijn	42	7
Herberholz	41	5
Edel	34	3
Wescoe	17	1

From looking at non-PT Top 8 performances, Shouta is head and shoulders above the crowd, with Froehlich a strong second, and Gary, Juza, and Stark all
finishing near the top. Lebedowicz, Ikeda, Mihara, and Wafo-Tapa all placed well, not far behind.

Now, let’s take a look at Pro Tour Top 8s, with wins counting as 1.5.

Candidates	Pro Tour Top 8s	Rank Points
Herberholz	4 (1 win)	30
Mihara	4 (1 win)	30
Stark	4 (1 win)	30
Wafo-Tapa	4 (1 win)	30
Edel	4	22
Ikeda	4	22
Justice	4	22
Lybaert	4	22
Gary	3 (1 win)	14
Lebedowicz	3 (1 win)	14
Rietzl	3 (1 win)	14
Wescoe	3 (1 win)	14
Froehlich	3	8
Pikula	3	8
Juza	2	5
Yasooka	1 (1 win)	3
Thompson	1	1

Here, we seem a number of distinct tiers. The points awarded for each tier are pretty arbitrary, but they were what I had laid out before beginning this
research so I want to continue to go with it, rather than risk engineering it to try to say something my subconscious wants to project.

Next, I added Pro Tour Top 8 rank points with Non-Pro Tour Top 8 rank points and ranked everyone. This obviously places a huge amount of weight on Top 8s
(50%), but that is the gold standard for Pro Magic. As a reminder, this is just for measuring performance, and does not factor in the other areas evaluated
for the Hall of Fame.

Candidates	Non-Top 8 Pts	Top 8 Pts	Total Rank
Stark	25	30	1st
Mihara	19	30	2nd
Wafo-Tapa	17	30	3rd
Gary	29	14	4th (tie)
Ikeda	21	22	4th (tie)
Froehlich	31	8	6th
Lebedowicz	23	14	7th
Yasooka	33	3	8th
Herberholz	5	30	9th (tie)
Justice	13	22	9th (tie)
Juza	27	5	11th
Lybaert	7	22	12th (tie)
Rietzl	15	14	12th (tie)
Edel	3	22	14th
Pikula	10	8	15th
Wescoe	1	14	16th
Thompson	10	1	17th

All seventeen of these men have had remarkable careers, so we should remember when viewing such rankings that even being listed among such incredible
company reveals a profound respect for the strength of their games.

It is possible that the system I devised is too heavily biased towards people that Top 8 Pro Tours, or too heavily biased towards Pro Tour Champions. In
its defense, I would suggest that actually winning means a lot. Magic is an inherently top-heavy type of endeavor that favors shooting for the stars, even
if it means risking striking out. As for Pro Tour Top 8s, well that really is the metric the community has chosen as the most important statistic, for
better or for worse, and it is the most natural one, the one people think of when they aren’t trying to accomplish some agenda in the use of their
statistics.

After having spent so much time talking about the top finishers in the Non-Top 8 categories, it may seem a bit odd to end with the top 3 being driven to
the top by their four Top 8s and Pro Tour Victory. Let’s take a moment and look at the top finishers:

Ben Stark

To me, Stark is the clear third choice for this year’s ballot. Among these seventeen names, just four have four Pro Tour Top 8s and a win.

Ben Stark
Makihito Mihara
Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
Mark Herberholz

All four of those men should be in all serious analysis, in my opinion, and Stark’s resume beyond the Top 8s and win is the best of them. When it comes to
playing ability, he is easily one of the 10 best drafters of all-time (likely high on the list), and despite his protests, is actually a top notch
constructed player. If you polled the best players in the world “Who are the top 25 players of all-time?” Stark would surely appear.

When it comes to Integrity, Stark’s game is above reproach. He is not always considered the most sane man at the table and makes some pretty outlandish
claims, but his word is impeccable and his honor without blemish.

When it comes to Sportsmanship, Stark excels again. He is not as big a showman as some of his peers, but he is the total opposite of a rules lawyer. He
wants to win through pure playskill and cunning. He is a true champion.

Finally, contributions to the game, which is likely Stark’s weakest area. He has never been a super active member of the community, but he is active (which
matters) and has been a teacher and mentor to many of the game’s greats, including Luis Scott-Vargas, Josh Utter-Leyon, Paulo Vito Damo Da Rosa, and David
Ochoa.

That Stark was top 5 for Non-Top 8 accomplishments in addition to four Top 8s and a win, and did it all with a career that was 100% clean (and continues to
this day) makes Stark an easy third for me, and I believe he has good chances of making it in.

Makihito Mihara

Mihara has the second best resume among the four top 8 + a win camp, and it isn’t padded by a very long career (like Ikeda). He has never been dominate the
way some of the other players on this list have been, but he has achieved great results through clean play and is one of the ten best Japanese players in
history (which is pretty elite company).

His resume is already impressive and will only get better, as he is still active (having just Top 8’ed another Pro Tour). He has chances of making it this
year, and will most likely get in eventually. I am still not sure on voting for Mihara, but this breakdown has moved him to my shortlist.

Guillaume Wafo-Tapa

Four Pro Tour Top 8s including a win, with an excellent resume to boot. Add to this that he was the best player in the world for a period and is one of the
best deckbuilders of all-time (in my opinion, the greatest control deck builder the game has ever known). In 2010, he received 12.45% of the vote, despite
having only two Pro Tour 8s at the time! If he had been on the ballot in 2011, he would have been a lock.

So why is he not a lock, this year?

Wafo-Tapa was banned for 18 months for being a part of leaking the “God Book,” which spoiled New Phyrexia early. After it happened, he and Guillaume
Matignon turned themselves in and cooperated completely with WotC. They knew they had made a terrible mistake and there would be harsh consequences, but
they were willing to do anything they could to help alleviate the damage done to the game.

Wafo-Tapa has served his 18 month suspension and managed to qualify for Pro Tour Montreal, beginning his comeback. He has always been a player of
impeccable integrity, so how to evaluate his 18-month suspension for a non-game-play related issue is a tricky one. To me, the closest comparison is
clearly Bob Maher being banned for 6 months for being a part of a ratings scandal. While that stuff is certainly a strike against someone, it is not
necessarily a dealbreaker. People make mistakes and when they make reparations for them, that goes a long way.

Many people that get banned get bitter and lash out at the game or the community. Wafo-Tapa accepted his fate with honor and dignity, believing it to be
just despite it being punishment for foolishness, not maliciousness. He lost everything, but simply returned to PTQs and Grand Prix to start over and earn
a spot back on the Pro Tour.

Cheaters have a tendency to cheat again. People who are banned for non-cheating offenses have a tendency to be super-careful in the future and stay miles
away from anything remotely ill-advised. Wafo-Tapa has been back for eight months now and so far, every indicator has been that he is continuing to play
with honor and dignity.

Wafo-Tapa is certainly on my short list.

Justin Gary

As detailed above, Gary’s career was extremely impressive and one more Top 8 would have made him a slam dunk. Even without it, I think he is a very serious
candidate that has been a part of the great American-vote-splitting every year he has been eligible. Last year, he finished 6th in the voting, behind the
four that got in and William Jensen near entrance.

A comeback would surely cement Justin’s spot; even without it, he has chances and his candidacy has been building for the past few years. He is on my
shortlist for the remaining slots.

Chris Pikula

Why does Pikula’s name jump up the list?

Contributions to the game, of course.

It kind of bothers me just how often people fall back on the whole “He was against Cheaters” thing. Yes, he was against cheaters and he did more than most
to help fight against the rampant cheating that took place in the old days. Still, that is only one dimension of his contributions to the game.

Worse still are the people that suggest he should be voted in because he is Meddling Mage (or because Meddling Mage’s art was changed away from him). Are
you kidding? He has accomplished so much and been a part of so much good, and the best you can come up with is that the game’s highest honor should be
awarded to him as payback for the art on his Invitational card changing? Please.

I have voted for Chris Pikula numerous times because he was one of the architects of professional Magic play. He and Brian Hacker were the two role-models
that taught people like Kibler, Finkel, and myself how to interact with fans, how to make tournaments interesting, how to be the kind of player people
respected. It was because of Chris Pikula that the stars of today are people like Luis Scott-Vargas, Brian Kibler, Josh Utter-Leyton and the like. Magic
used to really reward the wrong things and the Pro Tour would not have survived if it had stayed on that path.

Chris Pikula resume was somewhat borderline back in Year 1 (where he missed by a single vote). Things have gotten tougher, as we see from the above,
where his resume is good, but not in the top ten. This makes it tougher for him to get in without a comeback. Throwing a curveball into the equation is the
rules change that, starting next year, require players to have at least 150 Pro Points to be on the ballot. Pikula, with 135, is set to fall off the ballot
next year (alongside Mark Justice) as a result of this change. This will lead to a push for him this year, but the American ballot is still so split
between a number of great candidates.

Pikula was one of the original Magic stars and the Hall of Fame isn’t complete without him. Having a wife and kids makes qualifying for the Pro Tour
challenging, but he’ll be back. He has already been actively involved in the Magic community for the past couple of years, and we will continue to see more
of him in the years to come. Should he miss this year, he will eventually scrape together the missing 15 Pro Points. That said, every year without Pikula
in the Hall of Fame, it is missing one of the original architects of professional Magic.

It’s hard to choose just two more, but Pikula is on my shortlist.

Mark Herberholz

Mark has the magic number of four Top 8s, as well as a win. He was an incredibly dominant player and helped re-spark American Magic when it was at its low
point. His resume could use just a little filling out to help unify the American ballot, but his playskill is beyond question and his deckbuilding
prowess is legendary. His contributions to the game go well beyond holding American Magic together, having written many Magic strategy articles.

I hope Mark makes a full-on comeback to the Pro Tour now that he has moved back to the United States. He was the certainly the most important player in my
making a comeback. Even without one, however, he is on my shortlist for the remaining two spots.

Shouta Yasooka

Despite just a single Pro Tour Top 8, Shouta might appear on my shortlist for a few reasons. First of all, his non-Top 8 accomplishments are just miles
above anyone else. He was even Player of the Year one year! In terms of playing ability, he is one of the all-time greats and one of the best constructed
players of all-time. In fact, the reason he doesn’t have more Top 8s is because of just how many times he has gone 9-1 in constructed and 3-3 in draft
(good for a Top 16 finish). If Pro Tours were still single-format, he would have so many more Top 8s it’s not even funny.

Literally the only thing standing in Shouta’s way is that Top 8 department, but one Top 8 is just so far below Hall of Fame standards. Shouta’s resume is
so good, however, I think he might be the first player to get in by a landslide after his second Top 8. Raph Levy got in with just two (at the time), but
community contributions factored heavily and it wasn’t a landslide.

Tsuyoshi Ikeda

A great player that has been around for a long time and always played with honor. He has never really been considered one of the absolute top players, but
he has always been good and chose to stay with the game when so many others walked away. His resume is certainly Hall of Fame-worthy, but doesn’t really
have anything to raise it above some pretty tough company. I can totally support votes for him, but I know in my heart of hearts that I am unlikely to vote
for him this year. Four Top 8s just doesn’t go as far as it used to (the median number of Top 8s in the Hall of Fame is 5, and the average is 5.1). I could
see voting for him in the future.

Eric Froehlich

If you value Pro Tour Top 8s as being worth the same as Median finish or Pro Points, instead of all four of those categories put together, EFro’s resume
shoots up to third place behind only Ben Stark and Shouta Yasooka. His consistency is incredible, his playskill extreme, and his deckbuilding abilities
world class. Take it from me, it sucks being told “One more Top 8,” but the truth is, one more Top 8 and he will skyrocket. Even without another Top 8, if
Efro has another year like his past several, he will be a top candidate in 2014. Either way, he will receive a fair number of votes this year, as he is
close.

Osyp Lebedowicz

While I knew that Osyp was a fantastic player well-respected by his peers, I did not fully appreciate how strong his resume was until this breakdown.
Having only three Pro Tour Top 8s makes it very hard for him to actually get in, as he is splitting votes with Justin Gary, Mark Herberholz, Paul Rietzl,
and Eric Froehlich, to say nothing of William Jensen and Ben Stark. Hopefully, at least two or three of those names will be out of the way next year, and
hopefully Osyp will have completed his comeback and shown the world just how strong of a player he still is.

Mark Justice

As mentioned above, I’d like to see Mark Justice in the Hall of Fame someday. He was one of the most dominant players the game has ever known. It is going
to take a comeback though, and I think it will be electric when it happens.

Martin Juza, Paul Rietzl, Marijn Lybaert, and Willy Edel

Fantastic players with strong resumes, but stuck in a quagmire of good players with strong resumes. All four of these men have resumes that would have made
them top tier candidates five years ago, but the bar has gone up tremendously. Still, for most of these guys, they aren’t exactly over the hill yet and
their resumes will continue to build. One more Top 8 would go a long way for any of them.

Craig Wescoe and Gerry Thompson

These guys are strong players and contribute a lot to the community. They would be the first to point to their articles as the reason they are brought up
for the Hall of Fame, as both have done a ton of good for the game and the community with their writing. That said, this is the Pro Tour Hall of Fame and
both of these players have more to do on the Pro Tour to cement their legacies.

My votes for the Class of 2013 Magic the Gathering Hall of Fame are going to be:

As well as two more of the following candidates:

Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
Chris Pikula
Justin Gary
Mark Herberholz
Makihito Mihara

I want to include Shouta, and believe Ikeda deserves to get in eventually, it’s just that with so many amazing players, you have to draw the line
somewhere.

I welcome feedback, discussion, thoughts, and arguments for these five players (or any of the other twelve listed above), as I have definitely not made my
mind up yet. There are a lot of legends on the ballot this year, and it is going to be very exciting to see how the voting comes out. People who have
already voted should remember that you are allowed to change your vote up until the deadline, so keeping an open mind is important.

Who would you vote for? Who would you bestow the game’s highest honor?

Patrick Chapin

“The Innovator”