218 players gathered in Philadelphia for the return of the Pro Tour on Friday. Sixteen rounds of the highest-level Magic later, Pro Tour Phyrexia has its Top 8.
It's been nearly three years to the day since the crowning of the last Pro Tour champion, and now we find ourselves one Top 8 playoff from seeing the next one. Roughly half of the field returned for Day Two with a 4-4 or better record on Friday, and after one more Phyrexia: All Will Be One draft and five rounds of Pioneer play, the Top 8 is set–and it's headlined by a legend of the game who proved that the time away from tabletops did nothing to stifle his mastery of the Pro Tour match.
Shota Yasooka.
The legendary Pro Tour Hall of Fame member famous for testing alone has done it again, and he did it with mastery of both Pro Tour Phyrexia formats. Shota was one of only three players to finish the draft portion of the tournament undefeated, and the two-time Pro Tour champion secured his spot in the Top 8 early by locking up his 12th win in just 13 rounds. With 11 previous Top Finishes to his name and more than half a million dollars in career earnings, the first player to secure Top 8 at Pro Tour Phyrexia was undoubtedly its most fearsome.
As Yasooka coolly watched on through the final rounds, the rest of the Top 8 battled it out at the crowded top tables. The next to punch their ticket was fellow Hall of Famer Reid Duke, who bested teammate Gabriel Nassif in an intense Izzet Creativity mirror; while Benton Madsen (the tournament's lone 8-0 player after Day One) and Takumi Matsuura followed with wins in the penultimate round to secure their spots early as well.
And @ReidDuke is now the second player to lock a spot in the #Phyrexia top 8 for his 7th career top finish. Congratulations! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/jshyNTqJY5
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) February 19, 2023
Four down, four to go. The final spots on the Sunday stage would go to those who could win in one of the most stressful moments they've ever faced: a win-and-in on the Pro Tour stage. When the dust settled on an explosive Round 16, there was at least one very familiar face left standing.
Nathan Steuer, the reigning World Champion. He overcame a Round 1 loss to power his way to his second straight Top finish, with his two losses after the first round coming only to fellow Top 8 members Yasooka and Matsuura.
The final three spots went to Chris Ferber, Derrick Davis and Nassif himself, who rebounded after the loss to Duke to secure a spot alongside his teammate in the Top 8, recording an incredible 16th Top Finish.
Now, everything comes down to the Top 8. The bracket will play out in traditional Pro Tour style – each match is a set of best-of-five games. All eight players will shuffle up at the same time Sunday morning and won't stop until only one of them remains. Check out the Pro Tour Phyrexia Top 8 profiles and decklists to see what awaits with the Sunday showdown.
The Limited Masters
On Day One, we covered the undefeated drafters who led off the Pro Tour by demonstrating their command of the Phyrexia: All Will Be One draft format. Testing Limited was the foremost concern amongst the teams that gathered in the week before the Pro Tour to draft, draft again, and draft some more. A good draft is the difference between a disastrous start to the Pro Tour and one that can set you up for tiebreakers and success throughout the weekend, to say nothing of getting the nerves out with a victory first thing in the morning.
Draft on Day Two can be a different beast. On Friday, every pod is full of extremely good competitors who won a Pro Tour Qualifier or who finished highly at a Regional Championship to qualify. Any table you sit down at is filled with some of the best players you've ever played against. On Day Two, every pod is filled with the best players anyone has ever played against. Take for example some of the players in the first pod from Saturday: Hall of Famers Shota Yasooka and Gabriel Nassif, as well as one of last year's World Championship competitors in Tristan Wylde-LaRue.
Day 2 Thread #PTPhyrexia
— Gabriel 'yellowhat' Nassif (@gabnassif) February 18, 2023
Starting at pod 1 and we're gonna be the feature draft. Sitting between David Inglis and Shota.
But three players rose above all the drafters; Yasooka was of course one of them, while Riki Kamo and Mike Belfatto shared the honors of the best Limited players of the weekend.
please @yaya3_ teach me to draft please#PTPhyrexia pic.twitter.com/DzpSENsBKc
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) February 18, 2023
Pioneer at the Pro Tour
That led us into the stretch run of the 16-round event: five Pioneer Constructed matches to determine who would move onto the Top 8. Or for players slightly behind that pace, a guaranteed invitation to the next Pro Tour. Each played out in a scenario as a pressure-cooker that separates the best from the rest.
It should come as no surprise that Duke and Nassif's squad consisting of Team CFBUltimateGuard members found success in Constructed, as they've been doing for decades. Both Hall of Famers opted to bring Izzet
Creativity was one of two combo decks that found major success at Pro Tour Phyrexia. Joining it in the Top 8 is Lotus Field combo–played by Steuer and Ferber–which creates massive amounts of mana by copying Lotus Field, then converts that into an
So is the rest of Pioneer. It wasn't all that long ago that there was concern around
It's hard to ask for much more at a Pro Tour, and the final Top 8 decks that competitors will bring to battle on Sunday break down like this:
- Izzet Creativity (Duke, Nassif)
- Lotus Field Combo (Steuer, Ferber)
- Rakdos Midrange (Yasooka)
- Selesnya Auras (Madsen)
- Mono-White Humans (Matsuura)
- Enigmatic Fires (Davis)
Now all that remains is to play the final games. The Top 8 begins with best-of-five play starting at 9 a.m. ET. with all the action live at twitch.tv/magic!
