There’s a couple of new rules to get into the Pro Tour Hall of Fame. First, you need to have at least two “sunday appearances” and secondly, you need at least 60% of the vote. So, who would not have gotten in with these rules?
Interestingly enough, the actual best archetype was blue-white midrangish deck, with a lot of variation, but none of those made the top 8. However, not my favorite style of deck. Neither were many of the other visible decks. However, I did find a few I liked.
Here’s a hint: Not all of the decks in the Top 8 are the best ones. Often the players 6-0 their drafts and then scramble their way into the top 8 with a mediocre deck backed by a great player and some luck. Remember Jon Finkel’s result in Pro Tour SOI? No one else managed to do anything with that deck. Remember the Monoblack Devotion from a few years back? At the end of its run, it was having around 40% win percentage, but since so many people played it, someone always did well with it and it always seemed to be on the top. So, maybe you shouldn’t go with the “big” deck.
First of all, I’m not qualified to play, but as my business partner (of Sensei’s Divining Shop fame) and friend, Lauri, is, I decided to join him in testing. It doesn’t hurt that I live in Finland and the testing is going to happen in Spain… Also, I’m currently enjoying my sabbatical (in other words unemployed, with pretty good savings), so why not?
Wow, I expected red, but not this much of it. I like how [scryfall]Abbot of Keral Keep[/scryfall] really had a good outing. Its not [scryfall]Snapcaster Mage[/scryfall], but the fact that its in the same conversation should be a pretty good hint that you should be playing this card.
Gladly, I bought mine when they didn’t have any value…
Anyhow, here’s some other decks I liked. I’m going to keep away from the top 8 decks. Everyone has seen those and there’s some depth in there…
I should note that I don’t really play Modern. I do every once in a while, usually to horrible results (2-6 in a PTQ on Saturday, for example). I don’t, therefore, know all the ins and outs of the format. I don’t this matters, however.
A couple of weeks back, WotC decided they’d run all the Pro Tours as Standard + latest Draft format. Based on response from the people who watch the streams, WotC recanted their decision and made the first Pro Tour of next year Modern. I guess their hand was somewhat forced, but its not that simple.
Not necessarily the best, but a bunch of decks I found the most fascinating at the tournament.