Top 10 Reasons Why Pro Tour: Honolulu was the Best Pro Tour Ever

10.  The most dominant colors were White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green.

9.  The Top 8 consisted of two straight aggro decks, two aggro/disruption decks, a combo deck, a straight control deck, and two anti-control control decks.  As opposed to Affinity and Tooth and Nail.

8.  An American won, and there were no Japanese in the Top 8.  After Worlds, it was looking bad for America in constructed, but I guess it’s just home turf advantage.

7.  Moldervine Cloak will finally get the true respect it deserves.

6.  A deck packing Thief of Hope, Pillory of the Sleepless, and Strands of Undeath actually placed 22nd.

5.  There were twenty different deck archetypes that were played by at least five people, and that’s accouting for massive variations in build.  Metagame this, punk.

4.  The Ruel Brothers made Top 8 together for the first time.  Let’s hear it for Antoine and Olivier.  Also, Ruud made his first ever PT Top 8.

3.  The whole shebang was won with a Gruul deck sending giant, multiply-enchanted men into the red zone. 

2.  Craig Jones’s amazing Topdeck in the semifinals - you have to watch the video to appreciate this one.

1.  People actually played One With Nothing.

Post links to the video’s and commentary that you speak of…

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PT Honolulu Blog

Yeah I’m gonna have to get the bittorrent videos and watch them. The topdeck was pretty nuts.

Matt - very well said. Really the format is very healthy. Big kudos to the Ravnica block (and a bit to CHK block ) designers.

I hope it’s true that every snowflake is unique, because I never want to see one like this again.

the commentary leading up to the topdeck was amazing

“okay, he either chars the Hand of Cruelty of Chars the dome”
“He’s gotta hit the Dome and go into topdeck a second burn spell mode”
“You Char to the face and knock the top of your deck. He’s gotta get three damage.”
“Char you”
“Okay now he’s at 3. I like the play! The crowd is into it!”
“COME ON DECK!”
“WHAT IS ON TOP OF THE DECK?”

“OH ITS LIGHTNING HELIX! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! CRAIG JONES IS THROUGH TO THE FINALS”

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8

And you can hear Oli saying, “Just flip it.  Flip it onto the table.” And then the way he slumps back in his chair afterwards.

It occurred to me that it would really have sucked for Craig if he hadn’t had a painless white and red source on the board.  But I think he had a Sacred Foundry and a Stomping Grounds for the mana.

11) Billy Moreno got 11th and is one of the nicest guys ever to play the game that I have met.

"Some have said there is no subtlety to destruction. You know what? They’re dead.” -Jaya Ballard, task mage

Phylar - 08 March 2006 04:30 PM

Matt - very well said. Really the format is very healthy. Big kudos to the Ravnica block (and a bit to CHK block ) designers.

CHK block was horrible and I hated it.

I hated it on many levels. 1) drafting it was retarded as many cards were unplayable in any deck, 2) Some spells became arcane that should never have been arcane due to the comboliciousness of it all, 3) The dragons were actually better for being legendary, 4) So many of the rares were unplayable and overall bad (see Vassal’s Duty), 5) Umezawa’s Jitte (or Umezawa’s special fork), 6) Many of the cycles of cards that were supposed to be good (other than the dragons) were actually horrible, and most of the dragons paled in comparison to Kokusho and Yosei. 7) In draft, most successful decks were either ALL Samurai, ALL spirit, ALL snake, or Half Rat/Half Ninja...\

Oh yeah, and Epic spells were retarded.

“If you could cast ONE spell for the REST OF YOUR LIFE, what would IT BE?” lame.

I can’t wait till Kamigawa block leaves for good.

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8

Don’t forget that Kamigawa brought us everyone’s favorite common - Sakura Tribe Elder!  Who would have thought an old snake would be worth so much? 
I also happen to love the flavor text on the two “Hands”
Hand of Honor ?The sword is just a tool. It is the samurai?s hand that brings it to life.?
Hand of Cruelty ?The sword is just a tool. It is the samurai?s hand that delivers death.?
It was certainly a step up from the world of Mirrodin, and some of the art was great. I know there were problems with it, but it wasn’t a total failure either.  It will be interesting when it leaves Type 2 in six months or so.

Yeah - I was being sarcastic. as for #4, yeah, there were just too many jank rares. Rav block seems alot better - getting a random pack you can get a decent card. gd I got Vassal’s duty way too much. I got maybe 1-2 cards twice from packs in CHK and one of them was vassal’s duty. I’ll resist ranting about my bad luck though.

I hope it’s true that every snowflake is unique, because I never want to see one like this again.

There was some nice art in CHK.  I think the theme/idea was good, it just did not come out great.

advocatus diaboli
Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni

Alkorahil - 14 March 2006 11:47 PM

There was some nice art in CHK.  I think the theme/idea was good, it just did not come out great.

Yeah, I agree with that one.  I love the flavor, but too many of the Spiritcrafters are way too weak. 

I’m sort of the opposite with Ravnica.  I absolutely hate the flavor of the world (though I like the Guild concept), but I really like the mechanics and cards.

i like the mechanics a lot, although i think they left replicate unexplored and maximized the effeciency of transmute, but yes… overall the mechanics rock. the artwork rocks… but i have no storyline here and i need to have some favorites and hold some grudges. i can’t wait for the last 3 guilds.

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8

I forgot to add something here.  In addition to Thief of Hope being a good key card in a new deck archetype, I really like the fact that there is a deck that is not named after either a key card, colors, achetype, or guild (it’s called “Ghost Dad” for those wondering).  Zoo is the only other deck around right now that is like that, too.

I miss the days of deck names like Stompy, Draw-Go, Trix, Full-English Breakfast, and Fish.  These days it’s been a lot more generic.

What about Jelly Donut?

Or its new compainion, Roasted marshmallow?

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8

Tell me more, Matt, tell me more…

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Current Decks:
UG Aggro
Mono-Green Turbo-Allosaurus!
Mono-Red BURN

RGD Draft: 25-7-2
RGD Sealed: ***Censored***

Which Matt? Myself or good ol’ PF?

as far as the Marshmallow goes… we’ll just say its an interesting looking deck. It’s over 100 cards (anywhere from 104-110 by the time its finished). It’s still in testing, and it’ll be unveiled at FNM this coming week.

*edit* you could say it looks a lot like the Jelly Donut, if that gives you a hint.

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8