Yoshihiko Ikawa won Pro Tour Thunder Junction in Seattle, Washington with Domain Ramp on Sunday.
Creatures (12)
Lands (26)
Spells (22)
Ikawa, in his third Sunday playoff (his others being a runner-up finish at Mythic Championship 1 and a Top 8 finish at Pro Tour San Diego in 2010), was joined by two fellow Japanese players and teammates, Yuta Takahashi and Takumi Matsuura, in the Top 8 bracket to decide the champion. Ikawa entered the single-elimination playoff as the No. 1 seed after going 7-0 in Standard and 5-1 in Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft.
Ikawa faced elimination early after falling down 0-2 to Sean Goddard, on Temur Analyst, in the quarterfinals, but he fought back and clawed out tight wins all three sideboarded games. Takahashi and Matsuura also won their quarterfinal matches, leading to Takahashi coming out ahead in the team-kill semifinal. Ikawa, on the top half of the bracket, swept Arne Huschenbeth, on Esper Midrange, to make the finals.
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (28)
Spells (28)
Takahashi, on Azorius Control, looked to add a Pro Tour trophy to his World Champion title from 2021 while Ikawa aimed to avoid another second-place finish on the Sunday stage. The teammates split the first two pre-sideboarded games, but Ikawa’s deck improved significantly more after sideboarding, ditching Sunfalls and Depopulates for Negates and Chrome Host Seedsharks. Ikawa leveraged uncounterable threats, thanks to Cavern of Souls, and demanding Takahashi to answer too many varying threats to claim the next two games to clinch the tournament and take home the Pro Tour trophy.
The Top 8 featured six different decks, with Esper Midrange and Four-Color Legends being the only decks with multiple pilots on Sunday. Esper Midrange was the most-played deck, taking up more than 30 percent of the field. Esper Midrange is full of incredible cards and is customizable to suit whatever the players wants to target. It was no surprise to see one of the most successful decks in Standard over the past couple of years put up large numbers.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Slogurk, the Overslime
- 2 Ertai Resurrected
- 2 Titania, Voice of Gaea
- 4 Rona, Herald of Invasion
- 2 The Goose Mother
- 4 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
- 1 Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier
- 3 Honest Rutstein
Lands (29)
Spells (9)
Boros Convoke and Temur Analyst were the next most popular decks, dividing the next 20 percent of the field between the two. Four-Color Legends and Azorius Control were some of the breakout decks of the tournament with both decks knocking on the door of an almost 60 percent win rate. Golgari Midrange also put up a 58 percent win rate, but was only played by five players in the tournament.
View the Top 16 decklists from Pro Tour Thunder Junction. For all decklists check out the official coverage from WotC.
