Kenta Harane
This past weekend marked the start of the 2020 Players Tour. The field of Players Tour Nagoya saw 192 elite players, including four Magic Pro League (MPL) members – Ken Yukuhiro, Lee Shi Tian, Shota Yasooka, and Rei Sato, as well as Rivals No Ah Ma, Alexander Hayne, Yoshihiko Ikawa, and Luis Salvatto.
The tournament went well for the MPL members, with three of the four making the elimination rounds. The Rivals, however, did not perform well – only two of the four qualifying for Day 2.
The Top 8
Despite being the first of several breakout tournaments for Dimir Inverter in Pioneer, it was Bant Spirits, piloted by Kenta Harane, that took home the trophy.
Creatures (32)
- 4 Rattlechains
- 4 Spell Queller
- 4 Selfless Spirit
- 4 Mausoleum Wanderer
- 4 Nebelgast Herald
- 4 Supreme Phantom
- 4 Empyrean Eagle
- 2 Spectral Sailor
- 2 Brazen Borrower
Lands (24)
Spells (4)
Harane entered the Top 8 as the #5 seed, which paired him against MPL member Shota Yasooka (Dimir Inverter). Harane managed to overcome Yasooka 2-1, before moving on to face the #1 seed Shintaro Ishimura in the semifinals.
In a repeat of the quarterfinals, Harane easily dispatched Ishimura (Dimir Inverter) 2-0, advancing him to the finals against Ken Yukuhiro.
True to his brand, Yukuhiro brought a brand-new deck – Sram Auras – which relied heavily on small creatures stacked with multiple Auras.
Game 1, Yukuhiro got off to a fast start featuring a Turn 1 Favored Hoplite into Ethereal Armor and Sentinal’s Eyes. Despite also playing an aggressive strategy, Harane was unable to keep up and quickly conceded.
Harane quickly bounced back in Game 2, finding his sideboarded copy of Permeating Mass, allowing him to build an insurmountable battlefield and eventually drawing the match even at one game apiece.
In Game 3, Yukuhiro jumped out to a “…commanding lead, at one point reaching totals of 31-7…” due to Lifelink on Alseid of Life’s Bounty. At the last moment, Harane found a copy of Collected Company, which in turn found Spell Queller and Deputy of Detention to help shift the game.
Ultimately, the lack of hexproof from the Auras deck proved to be the Achilles’ Heel, with Yukuhiro’s largest threat getting tapped down each turn via Nebelgast Herald, while Harane continued to build his battlefield. Eventually, numerous flying creatures proved to be too much, and Harane secured a 2-1 victory along with the first Players Tour trophy of 2020.
Read the original article from Wizards of the Coast.