The spring Pro Tour is Standard this year, this subforum's format of choice. The Pro Tour will be taking place this weekend in Brussels, Belgium and will be featuring the new set -- Dragons of Tarkir.
Coverage will begin Friday, April 10th, at 3 a.m. ET. The first 3 rounds will be Dragons/Fate booster draft. The next 5 rounds will be Standard.
Players with 12 or more match points will advance to the next day.
Coverage will begin Saturday, April 11th, at 3 a.m. ET. The first 3 rounds will be Dragons/Fate booster draft. The next 5 rounds will be Standard.
There will be a cut to the Top 8 after day 2.
Coverage will begin Sunday, April 12th, at 3 a.m. ET. The Top 8 will be the Standard format.
Discussion of Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir can occur below.
Please do not discuss:
-- other formats like draft; we have a cool forum for that discussion
-- decks not relating to the tournament
-- Your opinion of Belgium's regional politics
(!!!!!) Questions such as, "when does coverage start again," will be marked as spam because they would indicate that you either couldn't be bothered to read this post, couldn't be bothered to convert time zones, or couldn't be bothered to understand that sometimes tournaments don't flow like coverage of baseball or football/soccer. In tournaments, sometimes there is lull in coverage because no games are occurring. These breaks aren't scheduled and are a natural flow of the tournament.
I'm rooting for a Fabiano Top 8 as well, guy has just been on too much of a hot streak lately. Seriously a beast. Hope Ichikawa does well also.
I think moreso than players though I'm just interested in seeing what decks come out on top. Expecting quite a bit of GR Aggro/Monsters/Dragons/whathaveyou. But if people predict it being popular I could see some other good decks doing really well.
The nice thing about this pro tour is that, since it is the last one before the Hall of Fame ballot gets sent out, it basically decides the Hall of Fame. If no one with a reasonable shot of getting into the Hall makes top 8, the Hall of Fame inductees for this year will most likely be Eric Froehlich, Willy Edel, and Justin Gary, but if Martin Juza or Marjin Lyabert make top 8, they will probably be voted in in addition to or instead of Justin.
I'm hoping for the Pantheon boys to show up with some sort of revolutionary midrange deck. Probably using Sidisi, Undead Vizier. I'm thinking Sultai with control elements but avoiding enchantments in the main deck. I think blue is where you need to be when playing control elements because counterspells are just so good late and I've already spoken in other threads about my disdain for white in control right now. Splashing an entire color for Narset Transcendent which gives you a poor mana base just isn't worth it. I think Crux of Fate in dragon mode is still a nice way to knock out Thunderbreak Regent because it doesn't target and you still get to wipe the board of those nasty GW Nykthos decks.
Predicted top 8.
Brad Nelson
Paul Rietzl
Reid Duke
Shaun McLaren
Patrick Dickmann
Owen Turtenwald
Ben Stark
Yuuya Watanabe
BBD 9th
While not directly related to the Pro Tour, I have a standard PPTQ sunday and I'm very interested to see how much my local houston meta game changes over night between the start of the Pro Tour and my local PPTQ. Feel like people are going to try and hurry and build the top 8 decks to play.
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I'm usually typing quickly at work or on my phone so I appolize from the crummy grammar
I don't really care about the players themselves, horrible as that sounds. Sure there are guys that I really like, so I'm always pleased to see them doing well, but I don't follow particular pros and support them no matter what (unlike athletes or teams in actual sports). I enjoy watching good decks appear and watching good games of Magic. In fact, it's very easy for me to want a pro that I actually like lose if they're on a deck I despise (I like Sam Black, but I was desperate for him not to Top8 at PT FRF with Bloom).
I used to think like that too, but I personally am intrigued by the Hall of Fame, and want the people who could possibly make it into the Hall this or next year to make top 8 to help with that. There still are some players who I personally will root for (Patrick Dickmann for caring about Modern even when it wasn't fully respected by the pros, Gerard Fabiano for being an innovative brewer, Justin Cohen for having a cool personal story, and Paul Cheon for just being awesome), but for the most part I just want more people to get that last finish that they need to get people to vote for them.
SAID, there aren't really any decks I despise in Standard. Even the control decks are interactive and entertaining to watch. It only gets boring when you get really awful and grindy mirrors (GW Devotion mirror, Sultai Whip mirror) etc. Even those decks are fine when facing non-mirrors.
I personally enjoy the GW Devotion mirror when I need to take a break from watching to get something to eat and then can come back to see 400 point life totals on both sides.
Soulflayer /chromaticore ... ! That is unexpected. So many player tried to make it work. Now people will be sad to have ditched those perilous vault... not many other sweeper that exile to deal with a hexproof indestructible threat in standard...
Also, 4-colors abzhan. That sounds greedy. I suppose the pro don't expect aggro to work out to punish them.
The judges here are shockingly poor. Chapin hadn't picked up his hand so it's obvious which card was the one he'd put in. Is that the norm for European judges? Awful stuff. I love how Ancona is desperately trying to get Chapin the gameloss too because he knows he's otherwise lost. Great sportsmanship.
the correct ruling is a game loss as he failed to reveal and touched his hand, but there was no intent for abuse so I'm kinda torn. We know what card he drew cause it was on camera but judges can't take that into consideration as they have to treat all matches the same including non-recorded matches.
Wow, a guy being rules-lawyered out of a win is exactly the kind of advertising Wizards wants for their premiere promotional tournaments!
No, someone who drew an extra card (with or without intent) is being handed a game-loss because he's being held to the same rules as everyone else. How close or far someone is "to a win" should have absolutely no bearing on the ruling. I stand by the judge's decision personally.
The judges here are shockingly poor. Chapin hadn't picked up his hand so it's obvious which card was the one he'd put in. Is that the norm for European judges? Awful stuff. I love how Ancona is desperately trying to get Chapin the gameloss too because he knows he's otherwise lost. Great sportsmanship.
Its a definition question, where does Magic define a card beeing drawn? answer is when it touches the other cards in his hand. He had a window to reveal it, however he failed to do so, and per definition he drew the card without reveal. The judges ruled this after the book and did so correct, If they had ruled differently after chaplins plead then you could have said they where shockingly poor.
No, someone who drew an extra card (with or without intent) is being handed a game-loss because he's being held to the same rules as everyone else.
Exactly. And even though everyone knows it was the Tasigur he found, he's being punished because it's the letter of the law. Thus, he's being rules-lawyered. It's pretty much the definition.
I mean, yeh, it seems it's the right call by the black and white text of the comprehensive rules. By common sense it's beyond stupid.
Isn't the fact that everyone knows which card it is, cards weren't shuffled, relevant?
Not really, since the definition of a card going into the hand is the card touching the other cards in your hand, regardless of if you're holding them or they're face down on the table. Sucks when it happens, since it takes away from good games, but it is the correct ruling.
No, someone who drew an extra card (with or without intent) is being handed a game-loss because he's being held to the same rules as everyone else.
Exactly. And even though everyone knows it was the Tasigur he found, he's being punished because it's the letter of the law. Thus, he's being rules-lawyered. It's pretty much the definition.
I mean, yeh, it seems it's the right call by the black and white text of the comprehensive rules. By common sense it's beyond stupid.
So in your mind anyone holding someone to the rules of a game is a rules-lawyer? Are you suggesting that all rules should be treated as guidelines that only need to be followed insofar as they're deemed necessary by you and your personal thresholds? This isn't an FNM. This is a PT. Chapin is being held to the rules of the game. How he's being "rules-lawyered out" is beyond me. He made an illegal action that earns a game loss and he received one. How is that against the spirit of the ruling? Isn't that EXACTLY the spirit of the ruling?
Info for the event is here.
Coverage for the event is here.
Coverage will begin Friday, April 10th, at 3 a.m. ET. The first 3 rounds will be Dragons/Fate booster draft. The next 5 rounds will be Standard.
Players with 12 or more match points will advance to the next day.
Coverage will begin Saturday, April 11th, at 3 a.m. ET. The first 3 rounds will be Dragons/Fate booster draft. The next 5 rounds will be Standard.
There will be a cut to the Top 8 after day 2.
Coverage will begin Sunday, April 12th, at 3 a.m. ET. The Top 8 will be the Standard format.
Discussion of Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir can occur below.
Please do not discuss:
-- other formats like draft; we have a cool forum for that discussion
-- decks not relating to the tournament
-- Your opinion of Belgium's regional politics
(!!!!!) Questions such as, "when does coverage start again," will be marked as spam because they would indicate that you either couldn't be bothered to read this post, couldn't be bothered to convert time zones, or couldn't be bothered to understand that sometimes tournaments don't flow like coverage of baseball or football/soccer. In tournaments, sometimes there is lull in coverage because no games are occurring. These breaks aren't scheduled and are a natural flow of the tournament.
Thanks!
--Lugger
1. Paul Cheon
2. Gerard Fabiano
3/4. Andrew Cuneo
3/4. Shahar Shenhar
5/8. Justin Cohen
5/8. Sam Black
5/8. Marjin Lyabert
5/8. Martin Juza
While this probably won't happen, it would be sweet if it did.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I think moreso than players though I'm just interested in seeing what decks come out on top. Expecting quite a bit of GR Aggro/Monsters/Dragons/whathaveyou. But if people predict it being popular I could see some other good decks doing really well.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Goblin Rabblemaster might just be dead but can't be too sure just yet.
When Dromoka's Command can fight it off when it's only a 2/2 and it dies to other things such as Wild Slash, Bile Blight, Lightning Strike, Ultimate Price with Valorous Stance and Abzan Charm able to knock it off after it pumps it really just might not be where you want to be.
I'm hoping for the Pantheon boys to show up with some sort of revolutionary midrange deck. Probably using Sidisi, Undead Vizier. I'm thinking Sultai with control elements but avoiding enchantments in the main deck. I think blue is where you need to be when playing control elements because counterspells are just so good late and I've already spoken in other threads about my disdain for white in control right now. Splashing an entire color for Narset Transcendent which gives you a poor mana base just isn't worth it. I think Crux of Fate in dragon mode is still a nice way to knock out Thunderbreak Regent because it doesn't target and you still get to wipe the board of those nasty GW Nykthos decks.
Predicted top 8.
Brad Nelson
Paul Rietzl
Reid Duke
Shaun McLaren
Patrick Dickmann
Owen Turtenwald
Ben Stark
Yuuya Watanabe
BBD 9th
If Fabiano isn't playing, then I want the top 8 to be
Paul Cheon
Patrick Dickmann
Martin Juza
Marjin Lyabert
Justin Cohen
Sam Black
Andrew Cuneo
Shahar Shenhar
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I'm usually typing quickly at work or on my phone so I appolize from the crummy grammar
I used to think like that too, but I personally am intrigued by the Hall of Fame, and want the people who could possibly make it into the Hall this or next year to make top 8 to help with that. There still are some players who I personally will root for (Patrick Dickmann for caring about Modern even when it wasn't fully respected by the pros, Gerard Fabiano for being an innovative brewer, Justin Cohen for having a cool personal story, and Paul Cheon for just being awesome), but for the most part I just want more people to get that last finish that they need to get people to vote for them.
I personally enjoy the GW Devotion mirror when I need to take a break from watching to get something to eat and then can come back to see 400 point life totals on both sides.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Also, 4-colors abzhan. That sounds greedy. I suppose the pro don't expect aggro to work out to punish them.
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
it touched his hand, it's a game loss
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
No, someone who drew an extra card (with or without intent) is being handed a game-loss because he's being held to the same rules as everyone else. How close or far someone is "to a win" should have absolutely no bearing on the ruling. I stand by the judge's decision personally.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Standard
W.I.P.
EDH
WNorn Tokens
per definition, irrelevant.
being consistent as a judge is more important.
Id that!
Trade with me, h:Alters and EdhFoils:)
Cards I have altered
Not really, since the definition of a card going into the hand is the card touching the other cards in your hand, regardless of if you're holding them or they're face down on the table. Sucks when it happens, since it takes away from good games, but it is the correct ruling.
So in your mind anyone holding someone to the rules of a game is a rules-lawyer? Are you suggesting that all rules should be treated as guidelines that only need to be followed insofar as they're deemed necessary by you and your personal thresholds? This isn't an FNM. This is a PT. Chapin is being held to the rules of the game. How he's being "rules-lawyered out" is beyond me. He made an illegal action that earns a game loss and he received one. How is that against the spirit of the ruling? Isn't that EXACTLY the spirit of the ruling?
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor