There were a ton of amazing things to talk about regarding the Pro Tour, I don't even know where to start!
How about the cool new feature added by Wizards on facebook: the fantasy pro tour. This feature was advertised very heavily a few weeks ago on basically every platform WotC had to reach people. I was a little confused as to how it worked, and as such my roster kind of sucked:
Planeswalker: Garruk Relentless (90 points)
Large Creature: Havengul Lich (3 points)
Medium Creature: Dungrove Elder (36 points)
Small Creature: Delver of Secrets (324 points)
Instant: Mana Leak (316 points)
Sorcery: Timely Reinforcements (130 points)
Enchantment: Intangible Virtue (16 points)
Artifact: Ratchet Bomb (214 points)
Non-basic Land: Evolving Wilds (52 points)
Tiebreaker: PV
Total: 1181 points
Compare this to the best score possible:
Planeswalker: Garruk, Primal Hunter (120 points)
Large Creature: Primeval Titan (138 points)
Medium Creature: Geist of Saint Traft (309 points)
Small Creature: Snapcaster Mage (354 points)
Instant: Mana Leak (316 points)
Sorcery: Ponder (224 points)
Enchantment: Oblivion Ring (162 points)
Artifact: Sword of War and Peace (258 points)
Non-basic Land: Seachrome Coast (350 points)
Tiebreaker: Brian Kibler
Total Score: 2231 points
A grand total of 11 people in the world got the exact perfect roster (though no one had Kibler in their tie breakers). Obviously I had some serious flops (Havengul Lich *cough cough*), and that was because for some reason I was in the vegas mindset where there underdog winning is worth more than the obvious answer. That being said, I think the future pro tours should be much easier to harvest points (gamers - we're always digging for ways to get more points, no matter the competition). This was all well and good, even despite the argument I had with my LGS owner about how the popularity of magic cased this to be created and not vice versa, but this was hardly the tip of the iceberg!
Pro Tour Dark Ascension also had something that's not exactly new, but is still awesome, which was live streaming all weekend. SCG has been doing this for a while now, and WotC has been streaming the top 8 for years, but now we have 3 days of straight magic coverage of all the best players in the world! This would be awesome if it weren't for how much I can't stand Rich Hagon. It's not his voice - British people tend to have a very cool sounding voice - but it's just that he either is or pretends to be one of the dumbest people when it comes to magic strategy. He never offers any insight on anything, and over explains basic cards and interactions like "Snapcaster Mage can allow him to cast a mana leak from his graveyard" WOW! You don't say??!!??!!
As Matteo Orsini Jones explained on Blackborder.com which updates less often than I do despite having at least 6 more writers, having constant streaming coverage is cool and all, but we really need to get a useful player in the booth and better camera angles.This is absolutely a good thing to have the streaming, but SCG has already made leaps and bounds for great coverage, so the path has already been forged for WotC to follow.
Even though there was a lot to be desired in the coverage, the games made up for that, along with the insane top 8 we had! To no one's surprise, we had 3 ChanelFireball team members make the top 8 despite LSV saying it was one of the worst decks the team has ever brought to the event. Personally I disagree, though I think this comes from Luis being bitter about going 1-x for 429th place! The fireball deck, by the way, was GR wolf run playing 4x Huntmaster of the Fells, although Lucas Blohan branched off and played a Pod deck (although it also ran 4x Huntmaster).
Brian Kibler's semi-finals vs Finkel was simply incredible (spoiler: triple galvanic blast with metalcraft is kinda good), and while the finals weren't long or dramatic, it was still great to see a hall of famer play against a future hall of famer (PV becomes eligible next year).
Overall, Pro Tour Dark Ascension was epic, and I am very excited to see what happens with Pro Tour Avacyn Restored! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!
Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack
ThingsILack on mtgo
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