Fantasy Pro Tour Picks Sideboard Staff RANDY BUEHLER Jon Finkel - 79 Finkel is quietly having quite a good season. It's easy to forget how good he is since he doesn't attend Grand Prix, but if you look at his last 7 individual events, his results are remarkable: he's the reigning US National champion, the reigning World champion, he made Top 8 in Chicago, Top 4 in L.A., and finished 2nd at the Chicago Masters Series. His other two tournaments during the last ten months were a first round exit from the New York Masters and he failed to make Day 2 in Tokyo. His deck choice in Tokyo was perfectly reasonable (Go-Mar was one of only 3 deck types that had a higher percentage of the Top 32 than of the initial field - the other two were red-green and "The Solution"), but he caught some bad luck. Finkel uses up a big chunk of your bankroll, but I think he's worth it. (By the way, if you don't want Finkel, I highly recommend "Finkel-killer" Kamiel Cornelissen. Tokyo was his worst Pro Tour ever and he still finished 29th. It was his fourth individual PT and round 13 was the first time he ever played a match where he wasn't in Top 8 contention! He's worth 66.) Kurt Hahn - 3 The "Fat Man" is more known for creating the increasingly popular format known as 5-color, but make no mistake about it, he can flat out play. I watched him in Boston, where he made Top 8 and qualified for his first Pro Tour and he was doing a lot more than just drafting well and making the right plays. He was able to figure out what cards were in his opponents' hands just by watching their eyes and seeing which of their lands they kept looking down at! He unnerved Matt Vienneau by spending most of a game talking about a Death Bomb that he deduced was in matt's and even though he had no real way to know it was there. That kind of raw talent doesn't come along very often and Hahn has the perfect personality to take advantage of his talent. Since proving in Boston that he can compete at the top level, he's also been invited to practice at the top level in Madison, Wisconsin with Player of the Year Bob Maher a host of other familiar names. Look out Pro Tour. Svend Geertsen - 11 Svend showed up in L.A. after taking a year off to spend some of his PT winnings traveling around the world. Halfway through the tournament, he was in first place and one of the last two undefeated players. He failed to make the Top 8, but that performance shows that he's still go game and is a bargain at 11 points. Jean-Louis D'hondt - 5 Jean-Louis was playing for the Top 8 in the last round of PT London and accumulated enough PT Points to make the gravy train for a few tour stops that season. I think he's worth more than 5 points. Christer Ljones - 1 Christer put up some nice GP finishes a few years ago, including a win against this author at GP Vienna. I think he's worth more than 1 point. Gabriele Pisicchio - 0 After serving out his DCI suspension, the GP Mainz Top 8 competitor is back on Tour. I have no idea what shape his game is in, but I spent all my money on Finkel so I'll use up a spot betting that not everyone will remember who he is and shuffle his deck thoroughly. Shawn Regnier - 0 Speaking of not knowing what shape someone's game is in! Hammer hasn't been on Tour for a year now, but he's still a Pro Tour champion with back-to-back Top 8's on his resume that for a few months was thought to be the best Magic player in the world. Matt Place - 0 I'll round out my team with yet another PT winner who has drifted away from the Tour but still seems like a good buy at 0 points. ELAINE CHASE Team Mostly Canadians Canada has been doing phenomenally well in the Grand Prix circuit this season. With Matt Vienneau (1st Detroit, 1st Dallas, 4th Boston) and Ryan Fuller (1st Moscow, 1st Prague, 4th Kyoto, 5th Porto) both racking up titles, who can question the Maple leaf's power? Unfortunately, Fuller's price tag of 56 PT points put him out of range for the final team composition. Keeping Fuller company in the "Yep he's Canadian and he's good but costs too darn much" club is Gary Wise (53 points). On the "I'm not allowed to play but I'd win if I could" Canadian rooster are the best Canadian players of all time, Jeff and Mike Donais (listed in alphabetical order so I don't have to listen to either of them complain on how I rank them). Matthew Vienneau: 27 The inspiration for this team, Matt has shown that he knows Invasion Block limited. He'll be trying to prove he isn't type cast as a Grand Prix player and can make it to the top of the Pro Tour as well. The next four guys have been staples on the Canadian tournament scene for a long time. While they haven't scored any big wins recently, they have the skills and the determination to bring home the bacon. (As an aside, I'm told by my sources that in Canada, they actually refer to "Canadian bacon" as "ham." Who would have thought?) Gabriel Tsang: 23 Gary Krakower: 17 Terry Tsang: 11 Terry Lau: 3 John Chinnock: 0 OK, so technically Happy John isn't Canadian. But with a name like Chinnock, he gets to be part of the team. And at zero points, this old timer is a steal. We'll just have to see if he remembers how to play. Olle Rade: 9 Another old timer, Olle has popped back onto the Pro Tour scene. Nowhere near Canada, he deserves a place on any team with his bargain price of 9 points. Michelle Bush: 10 The last non-Canadian on the rooster. Part of team Your Move Games, Michelle's game gets consistently better. She's been playing for a long time and has been making a slow but steady climb up the Magic tournament success ladder. One of these days she's going to break into a PT Top 8, and when she does, she'll be on my fantasy team. Good things are worth the wait.