pro tour mtg decklists

Pro Tour Thunder Junction Standard Metagame Breakdown

The decklists are in, the data is ready, and the second Pro Tour of 2024 begins tomorrow! At Pro Tour Thunder Junction , taking place April 26–28 in Seattle, 207 of the world's best Magic: The Gathering players will compete for $500,000 in prizes, several Magic World Championship invites, and a prestigious trophy. Standard now features more than 3,300 legal cards, so the competitors had to tackle the challenge of navigating some of the highest power levels we've ever seen in this format.

The field includes top players from Regional Championships, online qualifiers, and preceding Pro Tours, as well as Magic Hall of Famers and reigning World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. The formats are Outlaws of Thunder Junction Booster Draft in the morning of Friday and Saturday, followed by Standard for five rounds afterward each of those days. Standard is also the Top 8 format on Sunday.

To follow all the action, catch the stream at twitch.tv/magic , which begins at 11 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday and Saturday and at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday. Take a look at the viewer's guide for more information.

Standard Metagame Breakdown

Standard is a 60-card format that rotates every fall. Currently, it allows expansion sets from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt forward. Standard is often dominated by midrange decks, and it's no different this time around. Yet the newly added cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction have shaken things up. The metagame at the Pro Tour breaks down as follows.

The metagame features a lot of Esper Midrange, but it looks quite diverse beyond that. There are dozens of different archetypes, including aggro, midrange, control, ramp, combo, and plenty of spice. All Standard Constructed decklists for the tournament will be published on the Pro Tour Thunder Junction event page on Friday April 26 at the beginning of Round 4 gameplay, approximately at 2 p.m. PT.

The most-played nonland cards across all main decks and sideboards were Go for the Throat , Cut Down , and Deep-Cavern Bat . These staples remain the pillars of the format, and they can be found in a variety of decks, most notably the black midrange strategies. Creatures that die easily to Go for the Throat , such as Sheoldred, the Apocalypse , are seeing comparatively little play.

Although the metagame bears many similarities to the one right before the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction , which I covered in last week's Standard primer , the introduction of hundreds of new cards has shaken things up. Let's take a closer look at four of the most important takeaways, developments, and surprises from Pro Tour Thunder Junction.

The Dominance of Esper Midrange

Over the past few months, black midrange strategies had typically formed 30–40% of the Standard metagame, but it was never clear what the best color combination was. Dimir Midrange was the most prominent right before the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction , leveraging its smooth mana base, low curve, and efficient countermagic, but the new set has changed things. After the introduction of Outlaws of Thunder Junction , Esper Midrange decisively took back the crown.

With Concealed Courtyard to improve its mana base, as well as Rest in Peace and Pest Control to swing the previously difficult matchups against Temur Analyst and Boros Convoke after sideboard, it has become worthwhile to run white. Many Pro Tour competitors arrived at the same conclusion: Esper was now superior to Dimir. Indeed, nearly one-third of the field registered Esper Midrange, with Concealed Courtyard as an undisputed addition and Pest Control as a near-universal sideboard inclusion. There is some variations across the builds—for example, Esper Midrange players are split on whether or not to use cards like Wedding Announcement , Deep-Cavern Bat , or Duelist of the Mind —but everyone uses Raffine, Scheming Seer , arguably the best three-drop in the format.

The Resurgence of Four-Color Legends

Over the past few months, Four-Color Legends had been a fringe player in Standard, typically claiming 1–2% of the metagame. Combining elements of midrange, combo, and ramp, the deck excelled at fueling mana from Relic of Legends into Slogurk, the Overslime loops. Slogurk grows whenever you discard a land to Rona, Herald of Invasion , discard a land to Inti, Seneschal of the Sun , or channel Otawara, Soaring City or Takenuma, Abandoned Mire . As it's so easy to bounce and reply, you can channel multiple lands every turn for value.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction offered a substantial boost to the deck in the form of Honest Rutstein . It shaves a mana off your key creatures, provides resiliency against spot removal, and even enables new infinite combos. If you control Relic of Legends and Rona, Herald of Invasion , then two copies of Honest Rutstein can be looped indefinitely. Tap Rona and Rutstein to untap Relic of Legends , cast Rutstein, lose one to the legend rule, return it, and repeat. This allows you to win the game with Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier . Less common ways to exploit this loop include Tinybones Joins Up ; Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim ; Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines ; or Annie Joins Up . For homogeneity, any base blue-black-red-green deck with a single white card is still labeled as Four-Color Legends at the Pro Tour.

The Disappearance of Bant Toxic

While most of the attention will go to the decks on top of the metagame, it's also important to recognize what is not there: Bant Toxic. Over the past months, the archetype had fluctuated around 4-8% of the metagame, preying on the slow nature of Domain Ramp while sidestepping the life gain lands from Temur Analyst with its poison counters. At the Pro Tour, however, zero players registered Venerated Rotpriest or Skrelv's Hive .

The deck did not gain anything of note from the latest set, while its favorable matchups had dwindled and sweeper effects were ticking up. As a result, no one will be poisoned out of the game at Pro Tour Thunder Junction, barring a stray Mirrex .

A Plethora of Novel Strategies

Between the main Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) set and The Big Score (BIG) bonus sheet, the latest set was one of the biggest Standard releases ever, introducing an abundance of new build-arounds. I will highlight the most exciting options in tommorow's article on the spiciest decklist from the Pro Tour, but one thing is for sure: the Standard rounds on the West Coast are going to be wild.

Some players may use Insatiable Avarice to put Shadow of Mortality on top of their library, allowing Caustic Bronco to hit the opponent for 15. Others aim to combine Bloodletter of Aclazotz with Rush of Dread , forcing the opponent to lose all of their life points. Meanwhile, a few tables over, a Slickshot Show-Off brew might face off against a dedicated Simulacrum Synthesizer deck. And perhaps in the feature match area, an Aftermath Analyst player might sacrifice dozens of lands to Pitiless Carnage , only to be defeated by their opponent's combination of Kellan, the Kid plus Djeru and Hazoret . Sure, the Standard metagame at the Pro Tour features a lot of Esper Midrange, but it also showcases a wide diversity of innovative competitive decks.

Most-Played Cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Despite the high bar set by the existing Standard card pool, Outlaws of Thunder Junction had a considerable impact on the format. The following table breaks down all new-to-Standard cards among Pro Tour decklists. There's a lot.

The most-played new cards are Concealed Courtyard , Pest Control , Rest in Peace , Duelist of the Mind , all of which I had already mentioned while talking about the dominance of Esper Midrange. Duelist of the Mind is an exciting one because it's Nathan Steuer's card for winning the 2022 World Championship. It's easy to enable in a deck full of interactive, crime-committing cards, and its power-scaling ability synergizes particularly well with Raffine, Scheming Seer . Beyond these additions to Esper Midrange, various other cards for disparate archetypes stand out as well.

The enemy-color fast lands make a huge difference for the early-game mana consistency of aggro decks. Previously, it could be difficult for Boros Convoke to cast Novice Inspector and Voldaren Epicure consistently on turn one. With Inspiring Vantage , the deck's mana consistency increases by a few percentage points, leading to fewer mulligans and bringing it even closer to its Pioneer counterpart. Several Boros Convoke players also included Nurturing Pixie , which can produce value by returning Knight-Errant of Eos or Case of the Gateway Express .

Blue players gained several new tools as well. For control players, Three Steps Ahead is reminiscent of Cryptic Command due to its flexibility and potential for card advantage. It's arguably the best Cancel variant ever, and it has enabled an uptick in Azorius Control. Meanwhile, Bonny Pall, Clearcutter has been a popular choice for Temur Analyst players as a secondary game plan that dodges graveyard hate after sideboard.

For red aggro players, Slickshot Show-Off has been one of the most exciting cards from the new set. It provides a fast clock, can be plotted to dodge removal and sweepers, and flies over most blockers. It's easy to fill your deck with a large number of noncreature spells to trigger it consistently. Twelve players (5.8% of the field) included at least one copy of Slickshot Show-Off : 7 Mono-Red Aggro, 2 Gruul Aggro, 2 Temur Prowess, and 1 Boros Aggro. Many of them also included Demonic Ruckus , which can boost Slickshot Show-Off or sometimes even target an opposing creature to draw a card after burning it.

Black decks also gained several new tools. Shoot the Sheriff is not as popular as Go for the Throat because new outlaws like Honest Rutstein ; Tinybones, the Pickpocket ; or Forsaken Miner cannot be targeted. At the same time, it does deal with the Incubator token from Sunfall , so various players have embraced a mix of the two removal spells. Forsaken Miner , in the meantime, has enabled a new wave of Rakdos Aggro decks that can come out of the gates quickly and commit crimes to press their advantage.

The Road to Magic World Championship 30

At Pro Tour Thunder Junction, all competitors who clinch 36 match points and/or reach the Top 8 will receive an invitation to Magic World Championship 30 —the crown jewel of organized play in 2024. As we count down the weeks leading up to that tournament in late October, each week I'm taking a look at a great deck from a past Magic World Championship. After reviewing the World Championships from 1994 , 1995 , 1996 , 1997 , and 1998 in preceding weeks, let's go back in time to 1999.

At the 1999 Magic World Championship, which took place in Tokyo on August 26–28 of that year, 208 players from 32 countries competed across Rochester Draft, Standard, and Extended. In the Standard Top 8 playoffs on Sunday, Kai Budde from Germany emerged victorious in what would be the first of his seven career Pro Tour victories.

In the finals, Budde defeated Mark Le Pine 3-0 in about 20 minutes, the fastest World Championship finals in history. "The games in the finals were not close," Budde recalled. "I just had Voltaic Key / Grim Monolith / Thran Dynamo pretty much every game. He'd play a Fireslinger , and I'd play a Covetous Dragon ."

Budde's deck contained more than 30 artifacts, which he used to generate huge amounts of mana and speed up the game. This allowed him to quickly deploy big creatures like Masticore or Covetous Dragon , which could live through Wildfire . A well-timed Wildfire could leave the opponent with zero permanents, locking them out of the game, while you could retain several mana rocks and a creature to finish them off. Enormous amounts of mana could also be sunk into Mishra's Helix or Temporal Aperture , allowing you to dominate the game. This archetype was 8% of the Standard metagame at 1999 World Championship, and Budde piloted it masterfully.

There is quite a contrast between 2024 Standard and 1999 Standard. This year, the format has been in a good spot, with aggro, midrange, control, ramp, and combo all being viable as macro-strategies. Four cards are banned (Meathook Massacre , Fable of the Mirror-Breaker , Invoke Despair , and Reckoner Bankbuster ) but the card designs from the past three years have largely been balanced, fair, and interactive.

By contrast, Standard in 1999 was not in a good spot. During the 98–99 "combo winter," which is when I started playing competitive Magic , everyone was using the overpowered cards from Urza block to go infinite or combo off. Urza block was one of the most broken of all time, as all of its free mana and incredible card draw led to busted decks. You could rip through your library, produce absurd amounts of mana in a single turn, and assemble degenerate combos as early as turn one.

The "combo winter" resulted in errata of free spells and an incredible number of Standard bans: Tolarian Academy , Windfall , Dream Halls , Earthcraft , Fluctuator , Lotus Petal , Recurring Nightmare , Time Spiral , Memory Jar , and Mind Over Matter . Nowadays, many of these cards are banned even in Legacy, so just imagine the Standard where they were all legal! The running joke was that shuffling was the early game, mulligans were the mid-game, and turn one was the late game.

By the time of the 1999 World Championship, these bans had restored the format to a more balanced state, and Magic R&D had learned valuable lessons for future card design. Yet despite these bans, Grim Monolith , Voltaic Key , Thran Dynamo , Ancient Tomb , and City of Traitors remained legal, so a turn-two Covetous Dragon or turn-three Wildfire was a common curve-out at the time. Dark Ritual , Yawgmoth's Will , and Vampiric Tutor were all Standard-legal as well at the time. Nowadays, the Standard format is much fairer, and ramping ahead requires far more deck construction effort.

Yet as Budde's victory shows, fast mana always has the potential to be broken. In today's Standard, Aftermath Analyst decks and Relic of Legends decks are built around the same principle. If you have access to far more mana than your opponent, then it's easy to overpower them. Esper Midrange players may have discard and countermagic as interaction, but it's still difficult to beat an opponent who has twice as much mana as you. To see which cards will come out on top at Pro Tour Thunder Junction and who will qualify for World Championship 30, don't miss the live action at twitch.tv/magic , starting this Friday, April 26!

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Meet the Pro Tour Top Eight

• February 19, 2023

The Sunday Hopefuls

This weekend 218 players descended on Philadelphia to see if they had what it took to reign supreme. Now, only eight remain; eight players left to battle it out leaving one final player remaining. Featuring multiple Hall of Famers and several new faces to the Magic Pro Tour scene, the player base for this Top 8 is as diverse as the Pioneer decks they brought with them. Let’s take a quick look at these Sunday hopefuls.

#1 Shota Yasooka

Adding a fifth Pro Tour Top 8 to his already extensive list of accomplishments, the Hall of Fame Pro from Japan is hosting turn this run into his third Pro Tour win. Piloting an unconventional build of Rakdos, Shota became the first player to punch their ticket after racking up his 12th match win in Round 13.

Shota’s build of Rakdos features three copies of Mutavault, and a mainboard copy of Duress. While we don’t know if this break from convention will be enough to secure the trophy at the end of the day, it was enough to leave him the last Rakdos Midrange player standing despite being the most played deck at the event.

Planeswalkers (2)

Creatures (15), instants (5), sorceries (7), artifacts (1), enchantments (4), 60 cards $681.48, 15 cards $29.43, #2 benton madsen.

From Magic Arena and thoughts of an 0-8 finish to Day One Points Leader, Benton Madsen’s Cinderella tale is one for the storybooks. Breaking from the more popular decks in the field by playing an updated take of Michael Letsch Selesnya Aura’s deck from the US Regional Championships, Madsen quickly became an overnight sensation. Magic fans will be eagerly tuning in Sunday to see if he can go all the way.

Creatures (17)

Enchantments (24), 60 cards $326.4, 15 cards $57.33, #3 takuumi matsuura.

Like Shota, Takuumi Matsuura earned his seat at the Pro Tour from Japan’s Regional Championship. However, unlike Shota, Takuumi came to this event looking to make a name for himself in his first Pro Tour appearance. Takuumi’s updated Mono-White Humans deck featuring Skrelv and Ossification is poised to fight through the rest of the competition and bring this foray to an exciting conclusion.

Creatures (34)

60 cards $187.84, 15 cards $83.15, #4 reid duke.

“Good Guy” Reid Duke makes his fifth Pro Tour Top 8 appearance with the hopes of converting it in his first solo Pro Tour win. Reid has put on a clinic piloting this weekend’s breakout deck, Izzet Creativity. Can this grizzled young Hall of Famer take this previously fringe played deck to the winner’s circle?

Creatures (2)

Instants (25), sorceries (4), enchantments (5), 60 cards $353.16, 15 cards $55.69, #5 nathan steuer.

The reigning Magic World Champion wasn’t one to approach this event laying down, and enters Top 8 ahead of the rest of his Team Handshake teammates who put on a dominant performance this weekend with multiple places in the Top 16. Steuer brings to bear the explosively powerful Lotus Field combo deck. Forgoing the usual control killer Thought Distortion , Team Handshake decided to switch things up for the Pro Tour by packing Dragon Lord Dramoka as their big uncounterable spell.

Creatures (10)

Instants (4), sorceries (23), enchantments (1), 60 cards $310.46, 15 cards $94.83, #6 chris ferber.

Another Regional Championships top finisher, Chris Ferber joins Nathan Steuer as the second Lotus player in the Top 8. Ferber’s build does differ slightly from Steuer’s by including a small selection of cards like Fae of Wishes and Baral, Chief of Compiance in the mainboard, and then still playing Thought distortion in the sideboard.  

Creatures (12)

Sorceries (21), 60 cards $307.74, 15 cards $91.01, #7 gabriel nassif.

Yellowhat joins fellow teammate and Hall of Famer Reid Duke in the Top 8 and also in playing Izzet Creativity. As the most decorated player in this Top 8 he’s sure to be many viewer’s odds on favorite, but we’ll see if Nassif can hold off claimants to the throne both old and new when the dust settles. Win or lose, take solid in knowing he has Twitch Chat’s best interest at heads.

15 Cards $55.83

#8 derrick davis.

The final player to lock their seat in Top 8 is Derrick Davis. Piloting Engimatic Incarnation, Derrick was well prepared to take on a meta where the #1 deck in the field was Rakdos Midrange. While he might has the matchup edge against Shota, can Enigmatic keep up against a Top 8 where one half of the deck count is combo decks?

Creatures (16)

Enchantments (32), 80 cards $687.92, 15 cards $34.75.

Editor-In-Chief

Having started playing Magic shortly before the release of Return to Ravnica, Ruckman’s Magic lifespan covers the breadth of the Pioneer format. Despite not being a stranger to the Top 8 tables of the old IQ and PTQ systems, most of his competitive experience comes from the other side of the event space, where he served more than five years as a level-two judge, only hanging up the black shirt for good at the beginning of 2022. Currently, you can find him making Pioneer content for Crew3 on your favorite podcasting platform or on Twitch/YouTube.

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Pro Tour Collector Set

• VisualEditor
• View history

The best Pro Tour decks of 1996 , eight in total, were released all together in a Pro Tour Collector Set . Only 20,000 of these sets were produced.

• 1 Description
• 2.1 Michael Loconto, Champion
• 2.2 Eric Tam, Quarterfinalist
• 2.3 Bertrand Lestree, Finalist
• 2.4 Shawn "Hammer" Regnier, Quarterfinalist
• 2.5 Leon Lindback, Semifinalist
• 2.6 George Baxter, Quarterfinalist
• 2.7 Preston Poulter, Semifinalist
• 2.8 Mark Justice, Quarterfinalist

Description [ | ]

The set originally retailed for $125 US and became available in May 1996. They were the first of a series of high-profile preconstructed decks for experienced players. Carefully chosen, they are imitations of the eight most successful deck archetypes present at the 1996 Pro Tour in New York. To avoid printing legal top-rated tournament-level cards, all cards were made illegal for tournament play by printing them with a non-standard backside. Additionally, the cards feature a golden border and have a gold signature of the deck's creator. The back of the cards feature the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour logo and are labeled "Inaugural Tournament New York City February 1996."

Part of each deck is a bio card which provides some background of each player and a decklist card that lists the content of each deck. Additionally, blank cards were added to raise the number of cards per deck to 90.

This Pro Tour used an interesting deck construction format, a variation of the Standard or "Type II" format. In addition to the usual restrictions for Standard decks, each deck was required to contain at least five cards from each of the legal expansions. Meeting this requirement without lowering the efficiency of the decks gave the deck-builders an interesting challenge.

These cards were written under Fifth Edition rules.

• Deck I - Michael Loconto (champion)
• Deck II - Eric Tam (quarter-finalist)
• Deck III - Bertrand Lestree (runner-up)
• Deck IV - Shawn "Hammer" Regnier (quarter-finalist)
• Deck V - Leon Lindback (semi-finalist)
• Deck VI - George Baxter (quarter-finalist)
• Deck VII - Preston Poulter (semi-finalist)
• Deck VIII - Mark Justice (quarter-finalist)

These cards are not legal in any DCI -sanctioned tournaments.

1996 Decklists [ | ]

Michael loconto, champion [ | ].

“Loconto, a 26-year-old social worker from Grafton, Massachusetts, played a blue-white Millstone deck that generally defeated his opponents by running them out of cards. One innovative concept was his addition of Hallowed Ground, which he used to protect himself against Armageddon, to activate his Land Tax, and to save his Mishra's Factories from destruction.”

• decklist.org

4 Adarkar Wastes

4 Mishra's Factory

1 Ruins of Trokair

1 Strip Mine

2 Svyelunite Temple

1 Wizard's School

Artifacts (11)

1 Feldon's Cane

2 Fountain of Youth

2 Icy Manipulator

1 Ivory Tower

1 Jayemdae Tome

3 Millstone

1 Zuran Orb

Creatures (2)

2 Blinking Spirit

Other Spells (25)

4 Disenchant

2 Hallowed Ground

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Wrath of God

2 Control Magic

4 Counterspell

1 Deflection

Sideboard (15)

2 Aeolipile

1 Jester's Cap

2 Serrated Arrows

2 Circle of Protection: Red

1 Divine Offering

1 Control Magic

2 Hydroblast

2 Sea Sprite

2 Steal Artifact

Eric Tam, Quarterfinalist [ | ]

“Tam, an 18-year-old student from Ontario, Canada, played a red-green-white deck with large and unvulnerable creatures, plus a variety of red and white spells for creature suppression. He created a mid-game lock with the only blue card in his deck, Zur's Weirding.”

4 Brushland

2 City of Brass

4 Karplusan Forest

2 Mishra's Factory

Artifacts (8)

3 Fellwar Stone

3 Icy Manipulator

Creatures (11)

1 Blinking Spirit

1 Serra Angel

1 Autumn Willow

3 Birds of Paradise

4 Erhnam Djinn

Other Spells (21)

2 Stormbind

1 Icatian Town

3 Swords to Plowshares

2 Wrath of God

1 Zur's Weirding

1 Earthquake

2 Incinerate

1 Lightning Bolt

1 Apocalypse Chime

1 Disrupting Scepter

2 Nevinyrral's Disk

1 Ring of Renewal

1 Serrated Arrows

1 Circle of Protection: Red

1 Energy Storm

1 Reverse Damage

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 An-Zerrin Ruins

1 Dwarven Catapult

Bertrand Lestree, Finalist [ | ]

“Lestrée, a 25-year-old business development strategist from Pantin, France, played the most popular deck type at the tournament, a green-white Armageddon/Erhnam Djinn deck with strong mass destruction capabilities. Lestrée's most interesting playing quirk was his constant use of extra life (mostly from Ivory Tower and Zuran Orb) to draw extra cards with his Sylvan Library.”

1 Havenwood Battleground

4 Strip Mine

Artifacts (6)

2 Fellwar Stone

Creatures (14)

2 Order of Leitbur

2 Fyndhorn Elves

2 Llanowar Elves

2 Spectral Bears

Other Spells (18)

3 Armageddon

2 Sylvan Library

1 Black Vise

2 Abbey Gargoyles

2 Divine Offering

2 Circle of Protection: Green

1 Order of Leitbur

1 Wrath of God

2 Whirling Dervish

Shawn "Hammer" Regnier, Quarterfinalist [ | ]

“Regnier, a 27-year-old comic bookstore owner from Manchester, New Hampshire, played a blue-white Millstone deck with very heavy permission (including 12 counterspells). A former professional arm wrestler, "Hammer" had a very relaxed, conversational style which he used to unnerve his opponents.”

1 City of Brass

3 Mishra's Factory

4 Svyelunite Temple

Other Spells (29)

4 Power Sink

4 Spell Blast

1 Fountain of Youth

1 Abbey Gargoyles

1 Arenson's Aura

2 Circle of Protection: Black

2 Memory Lapse

1 Sea Sprite

Leon Lindback, Semifinalist [ | ]

“Lindbäck, a 20-year-old electrical engineering student from Stockholm, Sweden, played an all-black speed/discard deck. Most noticeable in his deck were four Necropotences which Lindbäck would play early to continually fill up his hand.”

2 Ebon Stronghold

Artifacts (7)

1 Jalum Tome

Creature (11)

4 Hypnotic Specter

3 Knight of Stromgald

4 Order of the Ebon Hand

Other Spells (19)

1 Dance of the Dead

1 Dark Banishing

4 Dark Ritual

4 Drain Life

4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Necropotence

1 Soul Burn

1 Safe Haven

1 Meekstone

1 Ashes to Ashes

1 Stromgald Cabal

George Baxter, Quarterfinalist [ | ]

“Baxter, a 23-year-old author (of several Magic strategy books) from Dallas, Texas, played an almost all-black speed/burn deck. Baxter included enough red mana to support direct damage and just enough green mana to play with four Erhnam Djinns.”

3 City of Brass

3 Karplusan Forest

1 Lava Tubes

2 Sulfurous Springs

Artifacts (3)

2 Barbed Sextant

Creatures (19)

1 Ihsan's Shade

4 Knight of Stromgald

2 Sengir Vampire

Other Spells (15)

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Dark Banishing

2 Ihsan's Shade

3 Red Elemental Blast

2 Tranquility

Preston Poulter, Semifinalist [ | ]

“Poulter, a 22-year-old chemistry graduate student from Irvine, California, played a variation of the tournament's prevalent green-white decks. With only nine creatures in his deck, Poulter used Aelopiles and Hurricanes for creature suppression and direct damage.”

2 Havenwood Battleground

2 Strip Mine

1 Nevinyrral's Disk

Creatures (10)

2 Autumn Willow

3 Elvish Archers

1 Spectral Bears

Other Spells (17)

2 Armageddon

3 Disenchant

2 Hurricane

1 Sylvan Library

1 Fellwar Stone

1 Armageddon

1 Disenchant

2 Reverse Damage

2 Essence Filter

Mark Justice, Quarterfinalist [ | ]

“Justice, a 25-year-old card shop owner from West Walley City, Utah, played a red/artifact control deck with a touch of white for Balance and Swords to Plowshares. The creatureless deck used Winter Orbs to lock down the opponent until the direct damage could finish them off.”

4 Dwarven Ruins

Artifacts (20)

1 Elkin Bottle

4 Howling Mine

4 Icy Manipulator

3 Winter Orb

3 Serrated Arrows

2 Eron the Relentless

3 Pyroblast

See also [ | ]

• World Championship Decks
• www.magiclibrarities.net
• Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks
• Holiday Release
• Fallout Commander Decks
• Assassin's Creed
• Final Fantasy
• 1 Modern Horizons 3/Commander decks
• 2 Modern Horizons 3
• 3 Bloomburrow

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MTG Pro Tour drama teaches important lesson: Never trust your opponent

Drama over conceding matches at Regional Championship Montreal for a Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour 2023-2024 season invite has ended, but no rules have been changed. 

Draws and concessions have been in the MTG hot seat before at high-level tournament play, especially when a seed invite is on the line. The Pro Tour helped remove some of the controversy by allowing players who hit 12 match wins an automatic advancement to the top eight playoffs. But Regional Championship organizers, like the recent RC in Montreal, are allowed to have their own rules in place. This led to a verbal agreement between MTG players Brian Bonnell and Eduardo Sajgalik, in which one would concede if their final match of the time went to time, allowing the player with the stronger board state to advance and earn a Pro Tour invite . 

The match hit time and was unable to end without either a concession or a draw. But Sajgalik didn’t concede, as was agreed upon, even though Bonnell had a stronger board advantage through his Domain Ramp deck. This earned Sajgalik a 13th-place finish with both players missing out on the Pro Tour invite. The Magic community was quick to blast Sajgalik for poor sportsmanship, resulting in a public apology from the veteran player. The apology wasn’t received well by the Magic community until Bonnell decided it was time “to put this whole thing to bed and move on with our lives.” 

“I just wanted to clear the air about the events at the Canadian RC this past weekend” Bonnell said. “Sajgalik [@walaoumpa] reached out to me yesterday to offer his sincerest apologies. I accepted his apology and I sincerely wish him the best moving forward.”

Matches like Bonnel and Sajgalik had at RC Montreal aren’t common but they do happen. The only way to prevent controversy from drawn matches at the end of a tournament is to change the overall rules, creating uniform results at both RC and Pro Tour tournaments. It’s also advisable to not trust your opponent and always play to your best ability.  

The next Pro Tour tournament of the MTG 2023-2024 season will run from June 28 to 30 at MagicCon Amsterdam.