Brian Kibler Wins Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Austin
Boston Magic the Gathering Examiner
In a field of 418 competitors from over fifty different countries, Brian Kibler from Carlsbad, California made it to the top with his Extended Zoo deck to take home the title as the Champion of Pro Tour Austin. He also received a nice trophy and a check for $40,000. For coverage of the event, go here.
Brian Kibler's PT Winning deck!
Lands:
4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Treetop Village
Creatures:
3 Baneslayer Angel
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl
Other Spells:
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Punishing Fire
___________________
Sideboard
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Blood Moon
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Meddling Mag
Brian Kibler's deck featured an innovating combo between Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire (recently printed in Zendikar). Becuase there were no other decks running this combination of cards it caught Brian's opponents by surprise. The synergy between these two cards is amazing and gave so much card advatage that it overrun Brian Kibler's opponents throughout the weekend.
Unlike other Zoo decks, Brian dropped the Kird Apes in favor of running three Baneslayer Angel - A card that has proven itself in recent standard top eight decklists.
In addition to the main event, some 1,500 players participated in side events open to the public. Wizards of the Coast R&D played against Magic: the Gathering players on Duels of the Planeswalkers on the Xbox Live Arcade.
According to an email I received from Wizards of the Coast:
"The top eight players to round out the Pro Tour-Austin tournament, included:
1. Brian Kibler from Carlsbad, California
2. Tsuyoshi Ikeda from Fukuoka-shi, Japan
3. Naoki Shimizu from Tokyo, Japan
4. Hunter Burton from Burleson, Texas
5. Evangelos Papatsarouchas from Athens, Greece
6. Yuuya Watanabe from Kanagawa-ken, Japan
7. Martin Juza from Plzen, Czech Republic
8. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa from Porto Alegre, Brazil
Pro Tour-Austin was a three-day tournament with a prize purse of $230,000. In addition to the main competition, Magic fans of all ages and skill levels enjoyed the extensive public event schedule and the opportunities to meet with members of the Magic art, R&D and novel teams."
Published by David Leavitt
David has been playing video games since he jumped on his first Koopa at the age of five. He is a Featured Writer on Examiner.com and enjoys writing on a variety of topics from advice to reviews of consumer... View profile
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3 Comments
Post a CommentIts amazing to me that card games have tournaments!
L. Vincent - While there have been a couple new abilities added with each set, is is those new abilities that keep the game ever changing rather than staying stale. Newer sets will focus on one or two new abilities and all cards with that ability will have reminder text on it with how it works. In the many years that have passed since Mirage came out and Phasing was introduced, the game has actually gotten easier to understand and play, despite there being many more abilities.
I played M:TG for so many years with a large group of friends. We all stopped playing once the rules expanded into phasing and subinstants. It just stopped being fun with the constant addition of new rules.