Fantasy PT Tokyo Picks Sideboard Staff OMEED DARIANI For my team, I'm taking a risk. I believe that a Japanese player will win Pro Tour - Tokyo, for several reasons. 1. Magic in Japan is maturing rapidly. Most Japanese players feel that, because of the language barrier between English and Japanese, it has taken them a lot longer to develop than other area (Europe, for example, started playing just a little while before Japan, and Europe's best players are amazing). Japan is ready to bust out - Satoshi Nakamura and Kenichi Fujita proved that at Pro Tour-Los Angeles, as both were very close to the Top 8. 2. Home court advantage. In some countries, this isn't a real motivation, but I believe that the Japanese players will be intensely motivated to win this tournament, meaning that they will have spent more time preparing than usual. 3. Japan is ahead of the curve. Traditionally, Japan's best players bring strange, almost crazy decks to tournaments and finish respectably with them. Japanese players were playing a monoblue Donate deck long before Trix showed up. Combined with the extra prep time, this could be a tremendous advantage - as Japan is more willing to work on breaking strange cards than the rest of the world. 4. The APAC metagame. With most Pro Tours held in North America and Europe, APAC players tend to skip out, despite being qualified (Yoshikazu Ishii, despite competing in the Magic Invitational, has never been to a Pro Tour!). The effect of this is heightened at Constructed Pro Tours, as APAC players are forced to play out of their metagames (since their opponents are almost uniformly non-APAC players). Imagine preparing for a format where most of your opponents are playing one deck then traveling somewhere where everyone is playing another! Lots of the fine tuning of your deck would be off, because it wasn't configured for the proper metagame. This time, the North Americans and Europeans are going to be the ones playing catchup, as less of their metagame will be represented. 5. Time to put up! With the newly opened Sideboard Japan, Japanese players will be looking to win - or they're losses may be read by the entire country... LIVE! Here are my picks: Satoshi Nakamura 37 Masayuki Higashino 24 Kenichi Fujita 10 Katsuhiro Mori 10 Toshiki Tsukamoto 6 Yoichi Nakamura 1 Nakamura Kazuhiro 1 Hiroto Wantabe 0 Total: 92 points I'm taking a risk on players like Hiroto, when I could easily afford a stronger pick like Olle Rade, because I'm going for the gold. Either this team will make a brutal showing, or it will lose badly. It seems like there are enough reasons to go this route. Satoshi, Masayuki, Kenichi, Katsuhiro and Toshiki are all proven champions - any of them could take home the championship. As much as I want Tsuyoshi Fujita on my team, as well, I can't afford him. It was either Fujita or Satoshi, and I wasn't about to drop my favorite Magic player, even for an incredible competitor like Fujita! Other hot Japanese picks: Tsuyoshi Fujita Tadayoshi Komiya Tsuyoshi Ikeda Kazuya Hirabayashi And keep your eye on Lawrence Creech! He's been doing very well, lately and is leading the Rookie of the Year race, currently. ELAINE CHASE Here's my official list - Home Team Advantage Satoshi Nakamura 37 Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz 33 Kenichi Fujita 10 Katsuhiro Mori 10 Thomas Guevin 7 Olle Rade 3 Docter Wong 0 Jason Zila 0 RANDY BUEHLER A of the old time greats of the game have been making comebacks in recent months, lured both by the extra money (especially the Masters Series) and just a sheer over of the game. The jury is still out on the Fantasy Pro Tour strategy of buying these players early in their comebacks when their cheap. Terry Borer didn't pay off in Chicago and Jason Zila didn't even show up, but Sven Geertsen put together a series Top 8 run on The Boat in LA. If you like this strategy (and I do) you have a couple of options for Tokyo, including 3 former PT Champs who cost 3 points or less: Matt Place 0 Olle Rade 3 Terry Borer 3 Patrick Chapin 9 Svend Geertsen 13 I doubt Borer will compete so I don't recommend him, but Place and Rade have each hit the grand Prix circuit and each seem serious about their comebacks. Chapin has been testing extensively with his long-time playtest partner Eric Taylor and is always a threat to win money when he's prepared. I think the secret to winning in Constructed is preparation. Unlike Limited, which emphasizes raw talent and ability to improvise, I think Constructed tournaments are all about playtesting. (Of course, raw play skill also helps in Constructed and playtesting comes in handy in Limited. They are both fine ways to play Magic, each of which requires a well rounded game while at the same time emphasizing a different (equally worthy) set of skills.) Anyway, there are a number of "tech centers" in the Magic world right now which have achieved the critical mass of quality Magic players that's necessary to figure out Invasion Block Constructed. Keep an eye on all the member of these teams that go to Tokyo. And look for Fantasy bargains amongst the cheaper members of these teams - you know they're going to have good decks, after all. One of the best playtest teams in history was assembled a few months ago Team Godzilla is hoping to take down Tokyo. Zvi Mowshowitz ad Scott Johns formed the backbone of Mogg Squad (the first international/web-based team) for over a year and Mogg Squad always seemed to have someone in the Top 8. When Ben Ronaldson and Kai Budde got together to form the European Alliance, Mogg Squad finally had a worthy rival. Representatives from these two teams met in the finals of the last block constructed Pro Tour when Sigurd Eskeland (of Mogg Squad) beat Warren Marsh (of the European Alliance)3-1 for the title. Now the braintrusts of these two team have merged. Look out Tokyo! Don't be surprised if effervescent Englishman Oliver Schneider (at 4 points) talks his English buddies into giving him one of their decks and even the top members of this team might be worth spending big points on: Ben Ronaldson 25 Zvi Mowshowitz 37 Warren Marsh 42 Kai Budde 62 The Rath block constructed Pro Tour was dominated by two other teams which are still together: Your Move Games and The Jumble. Don't be surprised to see those teams represented in the Top 8 either. One other factor worth keeping in mind when analyzing this Pro Tour is that it's the second Japanese Pro Tour ever and the first one format Tour stop in the country's history. (Worlds '99 was in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, and used 3 different formats.) Magic has come a long way in Japan as evidenced by Satoshi Nakamura's 11th place finish on The Boat in the most recent Pro Tour. If Kenichi Fujita had won his last round (against Nakamura, as it turned out) he would have been tied for the Top 8 (though he would have finished 9th due to weak tiebreakers). I think Pro Tour Tokyo is where Japan is finally going to break through and put up its first ever Top 8. Never underestimate the motivation of a hometown Pro Tour. Think about it: Peer Kroger made the Top 8 in Mainz, Frederico Data made the Top 8 in Rome, and Tom van de Logt "Top 8ed" at Worlds last summer. Nakamura is not just the most visible Japanese player, he's also got game. Katsuhiro Mori is an up and coming youngster who keeps putting up outstanding Grand Prix finishes and would have represented Asia in the last Invitational if only he could have gotten out of school commitments. Toshiki Tsukamoto is not just the first Japanese star, he's also the grandfather of Japanese Magic and runs the store where most of the top Tokyo-area players gather. Toshiki Tsukamoto 6 Katsuhiro Mori 10 Satoshi Nakamura 37 So after all those preliminaries, here's my team: Danny Mandel 11 He's the new young stud on Team Your Move Games and made his PT debut with a Top 16 in LA 6 weeks ago. Shawn Keller 15 Keller, the Jumble-member who was the runner-up at PT New York '99, would have a lot more points if he was concentrating on Magic instead of spending his time being a senior at Stanford. I expect him to be very prepared for Tokyo. Ben Ronaldson 25 Zvi Mowshowitz 37 I think these are the gravy trainers most worth spending big points on. Matt Place 0 Olle Rade 3 It was no fluke that these two won Pro Tours back in the day. Rade was actually the first player ever with 5 Top 8's and Place has a World Team Championship to his credit too. Patrick Chapin 9 Kazuhiro Nakamura 0 Well, if I'm predicting a Japanese player in the Top 8 I guess I should put one of my fantasy team. I think Mori and Tsukamoto are good buys but I'm out of points so I'm taking this guy and hoping his name is charmed. MONTY ASHLEY I'm starting with the player who's finished second at the last two Pro Tours: Kamiel Cornelissen. He costs sixty points, but with high finishes at both Constructed and Limited PTs, I think he's shown that he's worth it. And now, having spent most of my points already, I have to be more conservative with what I have left. Ken'ichi Fujita, ten points. He was one of the first people to win two Grand Prix, and that has to count for something. Murray "The Mauler" Evans, nine points. Magic needs more nicknames like this. Royce Chai, eight points. He's one of the best players in Singapore. And I feel bad that I once listed him as being from Hong Kong in an event report, so I'm picking him mostly as an apology. Seth Burn at six points. He's got theories, and he's got opinions to spare. He wants to show that he knows what he's talking about. Craig Jones, four points. I firmly believe that all the press coverage he does for the European Grand Prix circuit translates into knowing how to play Magic. Okay, I admit it, I selected him mostly because I recognize his name. Go Craig! Olle Rade, three points. He's not dead, you know. Geddes Cooper, zero points. Geddes Cooper has every element of the Magic Superstar except for the success.