Last weekend saw the first Pro Tour of the 2010 season and the first chance to see what the world’s top Magic players made of post Worldwake standard. I’ll come on to the tech in a minute but the story of the weekend was Luis Scott-Vargas and his almost perfect record. LSV went 16-0 through the Swiss portion of the tournament which comprised 10 rounds of standard and 6 rounds of draft. In the top 8 LSV won his quarterfinal at canter dispatching Jereon Kanis and his mono red deck 3-0. Luis and Simon Gortzen playing Jund split the first 2 games of their Semi-final match. Gortzen won game 3 after a Lightning Bolt took out a Noble Hierarch Luis was not able to find a white mana source. Staring elimination in the eyes LSV had to mulligan to 5 cards and with Gortzen seeming to find all the removal he needed Luis’ dream of the perfect tournament ended in a storm of Lightning Bolts and Deathmarks. It was still an incredible performance by LSV and it was only fitting the first man to beat him that weekend, German Simon Gortzen, went on the win the tournament beating Kyle Bogemmes in a Jund mirror final.

Luis, along with his colleagues from the Channel Fireball crew, played the Tom Ross designed breakout deck of the tournament which the called Boss Naya. The deck plays a lot like the traditional Naya Lightsaber build but adds Worldwake’s Stoneforge Mystic to tutor for Basilisk Collar and Behemoth Sledge. The deck can board in Cunning Sparkmage who when equipped with the Basilisk Collar can shoot down just about any opposing creature.

The most played deck unsurprisingly was still Jund which with the addition of new manland Raging Ravine represented 3 of the top 8 decks. Vampires sporting Kalastria Highborn and America Control were popular as expected but an unexpected archetype claimed second place in the popularity stakes. White Weenie is back folks! Led by Kor Firewalker and Stoneforge Mystic the little white guys are experiencing resurgence. Craig Wescoe had the most success with the deck getting to the semi-final.

The award for deck with the most new toys goes to the ever innovative Patrick Chapin who ran a Blue White control deck running 30 Worldwake cards. New poster boy of magic Jace the Mind Sculptor leads the way and is backed up in the card advantage plan by the clever interaction between Halimar Depths and Treasure Hunt. The deck looks to protect itself and Jace the Mind Sculptor until it can build up enough counters to activate Jace the Mind Sculptor ‘s ultimate ability and then run the opponent out of cards.

Many Magic players look to the Pros for inspiration so expect the metagame to shift as players adopt the latest tech from San Diego. Jund is still the deck to beat but cards such as Great Sable Stag and Kor Firewalker can make life difficult. Decks with access to Goblin Ruinblaster can also make life difficult for Jund and its fragile mana base.

I would expect the new Boss Naya list to show in decent numbers as well. The white weenie deck might not get the level of play it probably deserves as a lot of players struggle get hold of Elspeth Knight Errant and with some traders asking £50 for a copy of Jace the Mind Sculptor I suspect a lot of control players might stick with the original Jace Beleren.

If you want to try being a bit rogue for an upcoming tournament I think a Red Green deck could do well but that’s another article…….

Until next time may you dream of a perfect pro tour.