Pro Tour testing teams are a long-standing tradition, and their shapes range from structured and goal-oriented assemblages of like-minded competitors to squishy amalgamations of friends, friends of friends, and players from the same area.
The shape of each team is defined by the people who created it. As a new season begins, many of the players on their way to the opening Pro Tour of the year have become part of one of the sixteen teams formed for Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed. Some competitors return to established teams, some have shuffled around, and others embark on the team testing journey alongside new teammates.
Team TCGplayer
Team TCGplayer is captained by Reid Duke, and team members include Matt Sperling, Edgar Magalhaes, Gabriel Nassif, Jim Davis, Luna Eason, Ma Noah, Matt Costa, Matt Nass, Matthew Wright, Nam Dang, Paul Rietzl, Sam Pardee, Seth Manfield, Tariq Patel, and Theodore Jung. That's a total of four Hall of Fame players, the reigning World Champion, a recent Pro Tour champion, and players with a staggering number of Top Finishes .
Reid spoke about his team's composition, saying, "Team TCGplayer includes a wide range of players, from old-time Hall of Fame members to relative newcomers, full-time professionals, and folks who only come out to play every once in a while. Our mission is to support all of our members and help them flourish, no matter their individual goals and circumstances."
Their specific goals for 2026 are to have a representative in the Top 8 of every major event, and qualify as many players for World Championship 32 as possible. Their ambitious goal is to get ten of their sixteen players to the World Championship.
The strengths their team hopes to maintain and develop include their skillful deck selection, ability to predict the metagame, and helping each other cultivate strong gameplay skills like sideboard strategies, mulligan decisions, execution, and attention to detail, or as Duke said, "Expect and support the best in each other.
"We strive to be a step ahead of the competition instead of a step behind."
In terms what skills they're honing in the coming season, the team will focus on drafting.
"We continue to hone our process for Booster Draft preparation. Every set presents a unique new challenge. We have a limited amount of time to learn as much as possible, then synthesize and share that information with the team. It's hard, and we certainly haven't perfected it yet!"
Team Moriyama Japan
Team Moriyama Japan is captained by Shuhei Nakamura and Masahide Moriyama. The team's roster includes Atsuki Kihara, Ken Yukuhiro, Kenta Harane, Kenta Masukado, Makoto Horiuchi, Takeshi Ozawa, Takumi Matsuura, Tomoaki Ogasawara, Toru Inoue, Yoshihiko Ikawa, Yuta Yokokawa, and Yuuki Ichikawa. Their team roster is impressive, with multiple players boasting two or more premier play Top 8 appearances, and includes 2025 Player of the Year, Ken Yukuhiro.
In a familiar refrain across the Pro Tour teams, their goal is "ensuring as many teammates as possible can continue competing on the Pro Tour," according to Nakamura.
The team's camaraderie is both one of their biggest strengths but also something they've struggled with as their ranks have grown.
"However, we've grown slightly larger, and I feel the communication overhead is gradually increasing as a result," Nakamura said.
Team Cosmos Heavy Play
Team Cosmos Heavy Play is captained by Anthony Lee and includes Aidan Mirabelli, Alejandro Mora, Christoffer Larsen, Daniel Toledo, David Gonzalez, David Rood, Ian Robb, Jack Potter, Javier Dominguez, Liam Kane, Luis Salvatto, Sean Goddard, Sergio Garcia, Thierry Ramboa, and Victor Hawkins. Two-time World Champion Dominguez is one of the standout names, as is Robb, who put up two Pro Tour Top 8 finishes last season, but their entire roster is stacked with players who have proven their ability to put up consistent results across long competitive careers.
"We just want to do the best we can while having fun!" Lee said of the team's goals. "Honestly, we've tried both extremes: trying very hard to win but treating it like work and goofing around without much worry about winning. Neither was right, but we're looking to hit a balance, and emphasizing that balance is critical to us now."
As they head into the coming season, they're lasering in on their ability to see the potential in the as-yet undiscovered.
"We have an outstanding ability to tune certain kinds of decks and identify potential in new ideas while challenging old ones. Our most successful event was Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™, where we developed not only a stronger build of the Omniscience combo deck (with which we quietly had excellent results) but also the Vivi Cauldron midrange-combo hybrid which went on to become a dominant force in Standard. (This was not as subtle a success; I'd say people noticed that one.)
"We also do very well in identifying potential not only in decks but in people. I selected players who are new to the Pro Tour circuit who I believe will be very strong in future, and I recruited them accordingly. It surprised many people that I chose these players to join alongside multiple World Champions. But it's worked out spectacularly, and they've not only been great teammates but have continued to qualify for Pro Tours. I hope to keep up these two core strengths going forward!"
Like Team TCGplayer, Team Cosmos Heavy Play is turning their attention to Limited in the coming year.
"We need to focus much more on having a cohesive Limited strategy, which has served Worldly Counsel so well; we want to avoid taking risks in Constructed that do not account for the unknown, which is where we went wrong last year; we are selecting players with an emphasis on future potential and building on it."
Team Sanctum of All
Team Sanctum of All is captained by Jason Ye and Ryan Condon, and the team's members include Chris Botelho, Connor Mackenzie, Gabriel Clark, Haven Gilbert-Avila, Heathe Butler, Jay Toraty, Jennifer Wang, Mason Buonadonna, Nate Green, Reese Pfenning, Rei Zhang, Ryan Bellamy, Tom White, Valerie Jade, and Toni Portolan.
Team Sanctum of All had a breakout year in 2024, with numerous Top 8 appearances across the season, including two by Jason Ye. In 2025 the team had one. Heading into 2026, they have their sights set on increasing that number again while maintaining their dedication to the team's founding ideas.
"Sanctum's Pro Tour team main goal is always to provide a welcoming home for players of marginalized genders at the Pro Tour level. But in terms of tournament goals, I'd really like to see us put up a few more Top 8s this year," said Condon. "Last year we had a ton of very solid performances and one Top 8 (Toni Portolan at Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY), but I think we 'undershot' our Top 8 representation and will be looking to change that. It doesn't matter who makes it, it's a group effort and I'd love it if we put someone through at every Pro Tour, and hopefully someone can win one!"
Sanctum's preparation highlights collaboration, and as the team moves through the season, they're focusing in on ways to make sure every player feels able to speak up.
"Sanctum's strength has—completely seriously—always been our diversity, said Ryan Condon. "That's not a meaningless slogan, it's a legitimately huge competitive edge. We have a very wide variety of thinkers and players on the team every time, people who approach high-level Magic in really unique ways, and our goal is to create a culture where each individual can absorb some of what makes everyone else great at the game. This year I want to make sure we keep that culture going, because I think that's how you create great players in the long term.
"Our biggest challenge has always been that we are integrating brand-new team members every tournament. Usually more than half of the team is playing in their first large tournament with Sanctum. That means that we have to do a lot of work to maintain such a collaborative approach where everyone feels like they can and should speak their mind. The thing most of our newer players struggle with is impostor syndrome. We've been working really hard at figuring out how to get through to newer members that they should be just as vocal as the more experienced players if they want to get the most out of the testing process and not just sit back and listen. I hope that this year we can better figure out how to approach that problem."
Team Baguette Sirop d'Érable
Team Baguette Sirop d'Érable is captained by two-time World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, and the team's roster includes Alexander MacIsaac, Alexey Paulot, Cyprien Tron, Ha Pham, Julien Henry, Max Dore, Patrick Chapin, Remi Roudier, and Thomas Mechin.
"We're not an established team, [we're] more of an experiment really because an (almost) all French-speaking team of more than eight people is something that hasn't been done since Pro Tour Phyrexia in early 2023!" Depraz said. "Since there weren't enough Frenchies that I knew, I reached out to three Canadian players, and a rogue Patrick Chapin joined us last minute despite not speaking the language. Most of us didn't know everyone beforehand—we're mostly bonded by language—but I'm pleased to say we all got along pretty well."
In Depraz's eyes, the group's two main strengths are being well-organized and having the competitive "fire."
"You can always do better in that area," he said of the team's organization, "but Julien Henry and I in particular have had a lot of Pro Tour experience in various teams to build upon. We have a tight schedule, daily calls with the few people who can't attend the testing house, Patrick has been driving back and forth to collect people in the snowstorm. Given some rough conditions, I'm very happy with how we are managing things."
As for their competitive drive, Depraz said that "most of us are new-ish or coming back [to Magic] after a break and therefore very fresh and eager to prove ourselves. I don't necessarily expect a lot of requalifications from this team. In fact, [the team] might very well not exist or look entirely different for the next Pro Tour, but I do believe most of us have a much better chance of performing by being here than they would have on their own or in a less-cohesive team, and that's all you can ask for."
Team Scrapheap
Team Scrapheap is captained by Joseph Puglisi Clark, and the team includes Andrei Klepatch, Benny Zeoli, Collins Mullens, Dylan Nollen, Gabriel Maxson, Ivan Espinosa, Jesse Hampton, Jesse Piland, Michael Simonetti, Mitchell Tamblyn, Oscar Christensen, Philip Mahr, Quinn Tonole, Simon Greer, Vinnie Fino, Yimin Zhi, and Zevin Faust.
"Our goal is to simply keep everyone together!" Clark said. "That means doing well and keeping our members qualified, which is a tall task in its own right. We've been fortunate to have some Pro Tour and World Championship Top 8 appearances in the last year to help out with that."
Like other returning teams, their focus is on maintaining their Constructed strengths while honing their approach to Limited.
"Historically we have been Constructed specialists, 'breaking' multiple formats like Modern and Standard, and building unique decks that give us a big edge," Clark said. "We've taken a much different approach to Limited preparation and recruited some of the finest Limited minds in the game to help us shore up that facet. Jesse Hampton, an old-school Limited master, is leading our Limited prep, and Andrei Klepatch brings a data-driven angle to find edges no one else has."
Team Worldly Counsel Heavy Play
Team Worldly Counsel Heavy Play is captained by Zen Miyaji-Thorne, and its roster includes Alex Rohan, Arch Dota, Benton Madsen, Charalampos Kikidis, Connor Taylor, Derrick Davis, Eduardo Sajgalik, Ferran Relat, Guillermo Sulimovich, Lorenzo Terlizzi, Marc Peral, Marco Del Pivo, Mark Stanton, Masaya Hoshino, Mateo Ferreira, and Noé Offman.
"Last season we built a very consistent core group that kept requalifying across events," Miyaji-Thorne said. "We ended last year with twelve players qualified for the World Championship, and we have seventeen players qualified for this Pro Tour. We want to keep that baseline of consistency while pushing harder for top finishes, like we saw late last year when Noé and Derrick reached Top 8 at a Pro Tour and at the World Championship, respectively."
Unlike other teams, their strength is in Limited, and they're trying to improve their Constructed approach.
"Our main goal is to keep the consistency we have built over the past few years while converting more of our appearances into deep runs," Miyaji-Thorne said. "Another major focus point for us is to improve in Constructed, as while we are the best Limited team in the world, we are definitely lagging behind other teams in 60-card formats.
"We are making a major change to how we prepare for Constructed. Our Limited process has been very structured for years under Eduardo Sajgalik, and it has served us well. Starting with this Pro Tour, we are applying that same structured approach to Constructed testing, too. We are using clearer hypotheses, tighter iterative loops, and more defined ownership of testing tracks. That effort is being led by Alex Rohan and Mateo Ferreira."
Team Rampant Growth Heavy Play
Team Rampant Growth Heavy Play is captained by Adam Edelson. The team includes Abe Schnake, Bassel Nasri, Ben Stark, Daniel Goetschel, Dawson Courson, Devon Straub, Etai Kurtzman, Joshua Willis, Lucas Duchow, Max Rappaport, Michael Plummer, and Justin Schabel.
"Our primary goal is to have consistent high-level performances across the Pro Tour season, with players advancing to Sunday at every major event and converting strong finishes into wins and Worlds qualifications," said Edelson. "Alongside results, we're focused on maintaining a growth mindset and learning continuously from each event.
"Last season, our biggest strengths were collaborative testing, deep format knowledge, and trust among teammates. We aim to maintain open discussions, shared deck iteration, and rigorous matchup and sideboard work, all while encouraging players to challenge assumptions and learn from both wins and losses. We've moved toward a more democratic structure. Instead of formal roles, we prioritize open idea exchange where the best arguments carry weight, regardless of seniority. We're also emphasizing earlier iteration and intentional post-event review to maximize growth throughout the season."
This is just a sample of the teams that are hard at work preparing for Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed. Whether they're brought together by shared language, geography, commitment to process, longtime bonds, friendship, competitive drive, or any mix of these, these teams are hoping that, by combining the strengths of their members, they can improve their finishes and continue to appear at the Pro Tour for seasons to come.