Pro Tour Hour Of Devastation

Over the past weekend you may have been lucky enough to catch Pro Tour Hour Of Devastation in Kyoto. It gave us a look at the early version of the upcoming meta-game with Ramunap Red taking up almost 25% of the field on day one, with the card of choice over the weekend being Abrade with close to 300 out of the 463 players choosing to play it in their 75. Ramunap Red was followed by a some old favourites including Zombies with just over 10%, Black Green Constrictor with just under 10% and Mardu Vehicles around 7% but none could come close to the new boy in the room with almost a 15% gap. There were a couple of newer decks coming through, Blue White God-Pharaohs Gift and Red Green Ramp, with a small amount of people playing them on day one, both of which managed to convert at least 55% of their day one players to day two, coming in behind the top converting deck Black Red Aggro with 85%, Black Green Constrictor with 77% and the most played deck of the weekend, Ramunap Red with a conversion of 73%, 84 of the 115 players making it to day two.

A new meta-game, as interesting as it is, isn't what everyone was there to see however as the Player Of The Year race was really heating up. At the start of PT Hour Of Devastation, Marcio Carvalho was sitting atop of the PotY standings, but he had to be careful as any one of the eleven players behind him could steal that top spot providing Carvalho didn't make the top 8, and when that list consists of the likes of Brad Nelson, Shoota Yasooka, Martin Juza and many others more than capable at making a top 8, he must have been looking over his shoulder the entire time. 

There was a couple more races that were worth keeping an eye on happening at the Pro Tour, including Rookie Of The Year which at the start of the weekend was headed up by Ben Hull but in a similar situation having nine other players hot on his tail after that title. 

The relatively new Draft and Standard Master races were also heating up, with the Draft Master looking like it could go to a handful of people including Travis Woo, Martin Juza and Owen Turtenwald with a couple of outsiders like Christian Calcano, Timothy Wu and Rookie Of The Year hopeful Makis Matsoukas. 

The Standard Master again was looking like it would only be taken by a smattering of players; Steve Hatto, Shaun McLaren and Yuuya Watanabe to name a few. 

Martin Juza not only managed to secure the Draft Master race, edging out Makis Matsoukas taking it right to the wire, but was also elected into the Hall Of Fame on the Friday which is a massive accolade.

One of the best stories of the weekend though was Christian Calcano. He did miss out on Draft Master, but with a 12-4 finish it did secure him Platinum Pro and a spot in the World Championships along with Javier Dominguez. Calcano is a fantastic player and one that deserves the finish he had in Kyoto this past weekend, you could not hope to find a nicer, more hard working player that is willing to keep grinding and pushing himself to get to the pinnacle of the game, and with the run he has had this season he deserves much acknowledgement and congratulations.

After 16 rounds of Draft and Standard played, many players falling by the wayside and a lot of the races all tied up, it came down to 8 players; Sam Black on Ramunap Red, Paulo Vitor Damo De Rosa on Ramunap Red, Shintaro Kurata on Black Red Aggro, Felix Leong on Ramunap Red, Seth Manfield on Ramunap Red, Sam Pardee on Black Green Constrictor, Yusuke Sasabe on Mono Black Zombies, Wing Chun Yen on, you guessed it, Ramunap Red. It came down to a final between Paulo Vitor Damo De Rose and Sam Pardee, Ramunap Red vs Black Green Constrictor, and it went all the way with PVDDR taking the first two but Pardee coming back to equalise. As both of these aggressive decks battled it out, eventually PVDDR managed to take it in the final game with an aggressive start and an Eternalised Khenra Eternal taking him over the top. 

Congrats to Paulo for his twelfth Pro Tour top 8, his second Pro Tour win, Player Of The Year and his Worlds place. He's just a player that seems to get better and better as time goes on and I'm sure he'll keep doing great things. 

This has been my look at Pro Tour Hour Of Devastation, if you're interested in taking a deeper look into the Pro Circuit check out https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/pro-tour-magic-event-types-events. Until then however, keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.