mtg pro tour philadelphia top 8

Player Wins 8-0 on First Day of Pro Tour With Off Meta Deck

Ben Macready

MTG organized play has returned in dramatic style this weekend at Pro Tour: Phyrexia. Pro Tour: Phyrexia is running from 17/02/2023-19/02/2023, as a part of MagicCon: Philadelphia. After the first day of the tournament, only one competitor emerged with a perfect 8-0 win record. Benton Madsen, a player from Manhatten who has been playing the game since 2012. Madsen states that he qualified for entry for Pro Tour: Phyrexia through an MTG Arena event which he completed on his phone. In the first event, a Phyrexia: All Will Be One Draft, he built a White/Blue artifacts deck and went 3-0.

Madsen  claimed in an interview  after the match: “I was not very experienced with my deck or in the draft format, when it came to draft I picked a friend’s brain last night over dinner.”

Madsen then went 5-0 in the second event, a Pioneer tournament where he piloted an  off-meta  aura-focused deck.

“Selesnya Auras”

In an interview  prior to his final match of the day, Madsen stated: “I expected roughly 0-8, maybe like a 2-6 “. He was pleased with his performance, modestly stating: “I’m happy to be here, I’ve no idea how it happened.”

Community Reactions

The MTG community have been hugely supportive of Maden’s results. With the Pro Tour returning Madsen’s story is being looked upon as an example of why organized play matters, and how it can provide previously unknown players with a chance to win big and become a part of Magic’s history.

On Reddit,  Shinra_Temp  wrote: “This is the dream the PT has always been trying to sell just with Arena added alongside your local LGS as the starting point. Glad to see it.”

ChestersJensen  responded: “That’s very incredible stuff and exciting to see someone new burst into the scene like that. This sort of thing is the whole fun of the Pro Tour and now it’s back!”

These sentiments were echoed by  F0me  who wrote: “This is why competitive play is so great. It gives you something to aspire to. Commander is a great pastime with friends and beer, but organized play is where dreams are made.”

On the second day of Pro Tour: Phyrexia, Madsen’s undefeated win strike came to an end and he suffered three losses. Enduring these defeats, Madsen performed well enough to earn a place in the top eight and advance to the finals. Madsen ultimately finished Pro Tour: Phyrexia in second place, losing to Reid Duke’s Izzet Creativity deck in a dramatic final bout.

Read more:  Never Before Seen MTG Con Exclusive Card Announced This Month!

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Stories from MTG Pro Tour Philadelphia

Pro Tour Philadelphia was full of its ups and downs, and plenty of wacky hijinks as well! Follow a few of the stories with Jakub Toth!

By Jakub Toth | @Flashjack711 | Published 6/16/2023 | 10 min read

Hello everyone, I'm currently back in Prague and I can still feel the excitement of the first paper Pro Tour in a while. I had an absolute blast and was very fortunate to test for the event with Team CFB. We found a nice deck mainly thanks to Mike Sigrist and it was good enough to put two of our people into Top 8 with Reid Duke eventually winning it all. These are my small stories from Philadelphia; judge for yourself if we enjoyed all the luck or not.

An Airbnb for Pros

Soon after joining the team, I found out that my teammates are much better in Magic than in getting Airbnbs, and I somehow ended up being the one in charge of booking and paying for the whole thing. You might be thinking that getting accommodations for 12 people is super easy, but you would be mistaken. To complicate the matter further, Siggy announced that he has to have his own bed, own bathroom, own kitchen and personal chef at the site, otherwise he's not going. Luckily, after hours of searching, I found two perfect Airbnbs right next to each other, and we ended up having 15 beds for 11 people, or as they say in the world of macroeconomics, BePe ratio of 1.36. 

Compare that to the Zoomer team (Handshake) who barely had BePe ratio 0.8., it's easy to see that we were no longer young kids trying to save a dollar here and there by sleeping on the couch, but rather a group of skilled veterans who like their comfort. At some point, Martin literally got lost in our apartment complex and had trouble finding the way to his own bed. That's how (unnecessarily) huge our place was.

The Anti-Ratchet Bomb Tech

During testing of Creativity, we were a bit worried about a random Ratchet Bomb somebody might have in their sideboard, as it felt impossible to win through it. Luckily, one day I walked into our living room and Siggy immediately started explaining to me that they figured it out, and all you need is Mutavault and flipped Fable to just combo through it, as neither of these gets destroyed by Bomb for zero.

Fast forward to my first constructed match of the tournament, where Gavin "Alphafrog" Thompson slammed the Ratchet Bomb against me, which he sideboarded in with his Mono-Green deck. I remembered what Siggy said and just casually comboed off on turn 5 as the Fable just flipped.

Jace, the Money Sculptor

On the last day of our Airbnb stay, Martin started a three minute monologue about how it would be nice if Wizards found a way to cover at least some travel costs for the players, like for example printing a nice cool card that everyone would get that would be a very limited print run and that players could either keep or sell to the vendors and that it should be a good card so there's a big demand for it, and that he really doesn't understand why they won't do that. Luis was nice enough to hear out the whole story before informing him that is exactly what they did for this and future Pro Tours.

Raising Hell

Eli told us a story about how he used Capricious Hellraiser to bring back his Koth, Fire of Resistance as the dragon says noncreature, nonland cards can be recast. Oh boy, there is some wild stuff happening at 0-2 draft tables at the PT.

How Long Can You Miss a Trigger?

With live Magic comes back everyone's favorite feature, missed triggers! I posted a clip from the PT that I disliked quite a bit and it looks like there's a huge variety of opinions circulating in the public, even among the judges. 

https://twitter.com/Flashjack711/status/1627964833495646209

I guess I have just one more thing to add to this. Inspired by Thoralf Severins of the Magic universe, I invite all my future opponents to play polite common sense Magic with me. If you play against me, attack with a Fable token, write down new life total, play another creature and let me draw a card for my turn, and then you say "Oh and I made a Treasure token," my answer is going to be "yeah sure" - my decision tree has not been affected at all. If you wait until I cast a blue spell and then try to use nonexistent Treasure to play Mystical Dispute, that's when I say no. Quite intuitive, right? If you decide to go for Trigger's Gambit Declined and your answer to my "You take two and I make a Treasure token" is "Lmao wrong order dude no Treasure for you", then after a judge call I will respect your decision and follow you to play the most predatory game I can muster and accept the fact that you prefer minor short term advantages over our future polite interactions.

I'm aware that this will cost me some money, but every action is a vote on how you want the world to look like, and I just want to play normal Magic.

Reid Never Misses

Round 6 I played against the one and only Reid Duke. We played a 75-card mirror in a feature match. After winning Game 1 due to Reid being stuck on five lands the whole game, we played a super tight Game 2. I resolved Hullbreaker Horror but I was dying to a lot of random tokens and Mutavaults while not having life and spells to spare.

We got to a situation where I had to decide if I wanted to risk dying to Spikefield Hazard or Indomitable Creativity and any spell when Reid had one card in hand with one final draw step incoming. I chose to play around Hazard and aggressively defended my life total, but I think it might have been wrong and felt like a player of Reid's caliber really might have been sandbagging Creativity to the last moment. Reid drew his card, played Creativity and a spell and clutched the game and later the match.

A day later and I told him that it was quite impressive that he kept the Creativity in his hand for that long and that I really like the play. To that he replied, "Oh, I just drew that, I was super dead otherwise." #ShouldntHaveAsked

Some Questionable Sideboarding

I finished the day with a loss against Lukas Honnay which should have been a draw if I didn't sideboard in the most ridiculous fashion I could. It was late in the eighth round, I slept like three hours for this day and played a matchup that wasn't in my sideboard guide (Omnath) with only eight minutes left on the clock (first game took forever, he had Slaughter Games but no way to quickly close out the game), so you could say my sideboarding got a little bit wild.

Normally I would like to board into the Hullbreaker Horror deck against him, but I had no time for that so I wanted to keep in combo. But I also felt like one Leyline Binding will just break the combo and I still wanted to have win condition, so I did something crazy that I saw in Eli's notes as a possibility against Mono-Green - I boarded in one Horror and kept the combo in. Logic was that games go a bit longer and I will be able to Creativity for three, at which point I will win with Horror even after he exiles my Worm. Shockingly, this logic was anything but bulletproof, and obviously the game got to a point where I had to Creativity for two, hit Horror with Xenagos and got completely destroyed in a game where I would just win on the spot if I kept the combo in.

Jakub's Toxic Draw

I was playing for 3-0 in the second draft (had 7-3 at that point) and I had the best draw one can have in Limited and managed to kill my opponent with poison on turn five through two blockers. I played Jawbone Duelist and equipped it with a Prosthetic Injector, and attacked with it three times. Every connect gives them four poison counters, so I just cleared the way for it twice and that was the game.

Real Life Death and Taxes

I went to buy a new deckbox in the MagicCon arena and had this amazing "USA only" conversation:

"Hey, how much for this deck box, I can't see a price tag anywhere." "Let me see… so that would be 23 dollars." "Okay great, I'll take it." "Awesome, so that will be 24 dollars and 86 cents!"

Good Guy Tristan

Round 14 I'm sitting at a 9-4 score and get paired against Tristan Wylde-LaRue. Deck lists are open on MTGMelee, but I like to propose to my opponent to just swap real decks and go through them. As Tristan goes through my deck, he asks if I have just three Make Disappear, one Spell Pierce and one Disdainful Stroke in the main deck for countering. I tell him that I don't play the Stroke main-deck, at which point he takes it out of my deck and puts it in my sideboard as I forgot to de-sideboard it from my previous match, telling me he's also scared of forgetting to de-sideboard. Trigger sharks probably can't believe he did that rather than trying to fish for game loss in Game 1, so big shoutout to him for being an extra nice opponent.

Can You Find the Win?

Round 15 I find myself playing against Lotus once again, but this time I don't have the nuts against flood as I had against Tristan, but I'm rather struggling with lands against my opponent's awesome draw. I lost Game 1 and in Game 2, I mulligan to five. However, my draw is pretty good and we actually have a game on our hands, although I'm falling behind quite a bit and I get combo'd out in the end. However, after I lost the game, I just kept thinking about it and there actually was a way to win this. Try for yourself if you can find the line:

It's my opponent's main phase, he has three tapped lands including two Lotus Fields, one blue and three black mana floating. He has Sphinx of the Final Word and Omniscience in play, and has already cast one Approach of the Second Sun. He puts Behold the Beyond on the stack, against which I played Narset's Reversal, which is resolving now.

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Magic: The Gathering TCG Deck - Pioneer Izzet Creativity by Reid Duke by

'Pioneer Izzet Creativity by Reid Duke' - constructed deck list and prices for the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game from TCGplayer Infinite!

Created By:

Freeform (Casual)

Market Price: $355.44

Trample When Worldspine Wurm dies, create three 5/5 green Wurm creature tokens with trample. When Worldspine Wurm is put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle it into its owner's library.

Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.) Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Spikefield Hazard deals 1 damage to any target. If a permanent dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead. // Spikefield Cave enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {R}.

({T}: Add {U} or {R}.) As Steam Vents enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you don't, it enters the battlefield tapped.

Flash This spell can't be countered. Whenever you cast a spell, choose up to one — • Return target spell you don't control to its owner's hand. • Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand.

{T}: Add {R}. Channel — {3}{R}, Discard Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance: Create two 1/1 colorless Spirit creature tokens. They gain haste until end of turn. This ability costs {1} less to activate for each legendary creature you control.

{T}: Add {C}. {T}: Add {U} or {R}. Shivan Reef deals 1 damage to you.

This spell costs {2} less to cast if it targets a blue spell. Counter target spell unless its controller pays {3}.

({T}: Add {R}.)

Choose target spell or permanent that's red or green. Its owner puts it on the top or bottom of their library.

Investigate. If this spell was cast from a graveyard, investigate twice instead. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.") Flashback {3}{U}

Casualty 1 (As you cast this spell, you may sacrifice a creature with power 1 or greater. When you do, copy this spell and you may choose a new target for the copy.) Counter target spell unless its controller pays {2}.

Counter target spell with mana value 4 or greater.

Counter target noncreature spell.

Destroy X target artifacts and/or creatures. For each permanent destroyed this way, its controller reveals cards from the top of their library until an artifact or creature card is revealed and exiles that card. Those players put the exiled cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle.

{T}: Add {U}. // {T}: Add {R}.

If you control two or more other lands, Hall of Storm Giants enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {U}. {5}{U}: Until end of turn, Hall of Storm Giants becomes a 7/7 blue Giant creature with ward {3}. It's still a land. (Whenever it becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays {3}.)

(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.) I — Create a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman creature token with "Whenever this creature attacks, create a Treasure token." II — You may discard up to two cards. If you do, draw that many cards. III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.

Indestructible As long as your devotion to red and green is less than seven, Xenagos isn't a creature. At the beginning of combat on your turn, another target creature you control gains haste and gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that creature's power.

Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {2}.

{T}: Add {C}. {1}: Mutavault becomes a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. It's still a land.

{T}: Add {U}. Channel — {3}{U}, Discard Otawara, Soaring City: Return target artifact, creature, enchantment, or planeswalker to its owner's hand. This ability costs {1} less to activate for each legendary creature you control.

Put any number of cards from your hand on the bottom of your library, then draw that many cards plus one. // Valakut Stoneforge enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {R}.

Fiery Impulse deals 2 damage to target creature. Spell mastery — If there are two or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard, Fiery Impulse deals 3 damage instead.

Copy target instant or sorcery spell, then return it to its owner's hand. You may choose new targets for the copy.

Spirebluff Canal enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands. {T}: Add {U} or {R}.

Fire Prophecy deals 3 damage to target creature. You may put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library. If you do, draw a card.

This spell can't be countered. Rending Volley deals 4 damage to target white or blue creature.

Look at the top four cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create an X/X blue Shark creature token with flying, where X is that spell's mana value. Cycling {X}{1}{U} ({X}{1}{U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.) When you cycle Shark Typhoon, create an X/X blue Shark creature token with flying.

Stormcarved Coast enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or more other lands. {T}: Add {U} or {R}.

As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card. Draw two cards and create two Treasure tokens. (They're artifacts with "{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.")

Luck, Steak, Victory

We wrapped up the Pro Tour with a one hour walk through the city where we got completely lost instead of getting to the hotel in five minutes, and a phenomenal celebratory dinner of LSV, who just turned 40, where I was suddenly surrounded by people who I have watched and admired for the last 15 years. This Pro Tour was one to be remembered for a long time, and I found myself with a rekindled excitement for Magic.

Super excited for Minneapolis, hope to see you all there.

Pro Tour Thunder Junction Viewers Guide

"Varmints."

Officially word number twelve on my all-time "not likely to fit into a Pro Tour preview article" list. Hold still "periwinkle," "vellicate," and both "English" and "winner"—your time will come. Meanwhile, oh, yes, there're varmints out here on Thunder Junction, and they have nothing to do with VAR (soccer) nor, in fact, mints (small breath-freshening consumables). So, saddle up partner, because yeehaw , the Pro Tour is here!

Boy that felt good to get that out of my system. This Pro Tour Thunder Junction preview can proceed with no further references to Magic 's very own Western plane.

What Is the Pro Tour and Who Is Playing?

The Pro Tour is the culmination of many paths—all competitive—to one of Magic 's most prestigious tournaments, with $500,000 in prize money (plus a trophy) up for grabs with invitations and points to qualify for the annual Magic World Championship.

Over 200 competitors—from Regional Championship events, 2023 season performances, top finishers at previous Pro Tours, MTG Arena , Magic Online Premier Play, and more—have invitations to play in Pro Tour Thunder Junction. The invitation list is available online (and subject to change).

What's Really at Stake?

With the opening-season salvo of MagicCon: Chicago's Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor in the rearview mirror and both MagicCon: Amsterdam ( Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 ) and Magic World Championship 30 at MagicCon: Las Vegas ahead, it's time for our Pro Tour regulars and newcomers to do their thing on the doorstep of Wizards of the Coast. Players have visited Seattle, the stunning Pacific Northwest standout, to compete in Magic since the 1995 World Championship—nearly 30 years later, it remains an iconic location as "the home" of the game.

The formats and tournament structures have changed over the years, but the current model delivers drama, surprises, and a rigorously fair examination of skill. It begins with Draft, starring the lead actor in all this with the newest release: Outlaws of Thunder Junction . Players grouped randomly into tables (or pods) of eight will draft three Play Boosters before facing opponents exclusively from their own pods over three rounds. Lose the first two rounds, and you'll find yourself playing the other unfortunate soul with a 0-2 record. Beat your first two opponents, and you'll get to "play for the pod" against the other undefeated player.

That pattern of playing against opponents with the same match record as you holds true throughout the tournament. With just over 210 players expected at the starting line in Seattle, Friday morning's Draft action will see approximately twenty-eight 3-0 records.

Attention then turns to our Constructed format for the weekend: Standard. It's no secret that Wizards of the Coast puts a lot of time and effort into making Standard a destination format that has broad appeal and awesome in-store events .

The Pro Tour is an important stop on that journey because Standard is the format for five full rounds of action on Friday (Rounds 4–8), five more on Saturday (Rounds 12–16), and the whole of the Top 8 playoff Sunday. Want to win the whole thing? Better know Standard inside and out.

Between those two blocks of Standard action comes draft number two on Saturday morning. To take part in that, players need at least a 4-4 record on Friday. With everyone in the first pod likely to have either 0 or 1 loss coming into Saturday, that puts all of them in great shape to make a run for the Top 8, which is just what it sounds like: only the Top 8 at the end of Round 16 on Saturday get to come back for Day Three action.

Twelve match wins (36 match points) is the magic Magic number in Pro Tour play; reach that threshold before the final round, and you're guaranteed a Top 8 spot. Eleven wins will be enough for some players to get over the line, but it's twelve that has the cast-iron guarantee attached to it.

For the Top 8, you still play the exact same deck that you played on Friday and Saturday, but now it's a single-elimination bracket. Matches are best three out of five, and sideboarding begins after game two. By Sunday evening, we'll have another Pro Tour Champion to add to the record books.

I'm always excited to see who emerges, and the game always gives us great stories. But this, the second Pro Tour of the season, has a bunch of incredible storylines that I can't wait to see play out:

• Outlaws of Thunder Junction —I love that Magic constantly reinvents itself. Do I wish we'd had 30 years of train heists and sunset posse showdowns? I do not. But the resonant set is going to see fantastic Friday and Saturday mornings. (I wonder if anywhere in Seattle sells Stetsons?)
• Team Handshake—Last season there was Team Handshake, and there was "everybody else." Team Handshake was broadly untouchable. Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor told us a different story.
• Team CFB (ChannelFireball Ultimate Guard)—Because I promised, I can't say "there's a new sheriff in town." Maybe I can get away with "there's an old sheriff in town"? That's probably closer to the truth, anyway. CFB came roaring back to prominence in Chicago, and there's no reason to suppose that was a freak result. Expect much more from the Big Two teams.
• Seth Manfield—Leading the CFB charge was Chicago Champion Seth Manfield. A former World Champion, his victory was all the sweeter as he acknowledged that he wasn't sure if the winner's circle had passed him by. Being a great player, being part of a great team, and putting the work in sure can pay off.
• Dominating Standard—But the way CFB did that in Chicago was to have the breakout deck in Pioneer. Can they find the winning combination in Standard? And can they do so while Team Handshake and the rest do not find the answer? That's a tough gig.
• Simon Nielsen—And this is the big one. In a game built on records, Simon delivers consistency that might never be matched. Nielsen has reached Top 8 in the last four major events. Four Top 8s is a good yardstick for a Hall of Fame career. Nielsen's accrued that in twelve months. Can he possibly extend this ludicrous run to a fifth Sunday appearance?

Let's make sure you find out.

How Can I Follow the Event?

Pro Tour Thunder Junction will be streamed all three days of the event, April 26–28, at twitch.tv/magic . Catch players, fans, and social coverage across the weekend at @PlayMTG with the hashtag #PTThunder .

On Friday and Saturday—April 26 and 27—broadcast begins at 2 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CET // 3 a.m. JST 4/27–28) with three rounds of Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft followed by five rounds of Standard Constructed.

On Sunday, April 28 for the Top 8 playoff, broadcast begins at 1 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CEST // 2 a.m. JST 4/29) with all four quarterfinal matches, followed by semifinals matches then the finals of Pro Tour Thunder Junction.

While competitors begin their Friday and Saturday at 9 a.m. PT on-site, broadcast begins later in the day at 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET) with a featured drafter to follow into their Round 1 gameplay. As we continue the Pro Tour broadcast we'll catch up to the tournament, showing a full feature match from every round and reducing downtime until we're pacing live gameplay on a short delay.

The Sunday Top 8 playoff broadcast begins at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) showing a full quarterfinal match and then as many games from other quarterfinal matches as possible, moving on to a full semifinal match (and as much of the remaining semifinals match) then the complete finals.

When Will Pro Tour Thunder Junction Decklists Be Published?

Standard Constructed decklists for the tournament will be published on the Pro Tour Thunder Junction event page on Friday, April 26 at the beginning of Round 4 gameplay, approximately at 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT).

All Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft decklists will not be published.

You can watch coverage for Pro Tour Thunder Junction each day here at Magic.gg and at twitch.tv/magic .

Who Are the Casters?

• Maria Bartholdi : Host
• Cedric Phillips : Expert
• Riley Knight : Play-by-Play
• Eilidh Lonie : Reporter
• Corey Baumeister : Expert
• Marshall Sutcliffe : Play-by-Play
• Mani Davoudi : Expert

Can I Co-Stream the Event?

Following Twitch's Content Sharing Guidelines , you can co-stream the Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor broadcast from twitch.tv/magic using OBS or XSplit. This allows anyone on Twitch to cover the event in their voice and with their community. To be clear, co-streamed content is not endorsed by Wizards, and we expect anyone who participates in co-streaming to follow Wizards' Fan Content Policy .

What Do Players Win?

Competitors that finish with 30 or more match points at Pro Tour Thunder Junction earn invitation to Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 taking place MagicCon: Amsterdam in June 2024.

All players compete for their share of $500,000 in prizes, with the Pro Tour Champion winning $50,000. All competitors will receive at least $1,000 regardless of the final placing.

* Assumes 209 Players

How Can I Play in a Pro Tour?

Beginning with Regional Championship Qualifiers at your local game store , you can start on your path to the Pro Tour today. Earn your invitation to your Regional Championship at a qualifier event, then battle through the best from across your region in a Regional Championship to clinch your Pro Tour invitation!

Regional Championship Qualifier participants in qualifiers taking place now through July 21, 2024 can earn their invitation to Regional Championships feeding the first Pro Tour of the 2025 season and receive a promotional Springleaf Drum card.

Top finishers in qualifiers can also earn a Goblin Guide promo card, with those earning invitations to the Regional Championship snagging it as a traditional foil version.

Your local WPN game store has the opportunity run these events, and they may be hosting one near you: check with your local store for more details on the what, the when, and the where.

To learn more about Regional Championship events for your location please visit your location's tournament organizer:

• USA – StarCityGames.com
• Canada – Face to Face Games
• Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) – tournamentcenter
• Australia/New Zealand – Good Games
• China – Kadou
• Japan/Korea – Big Magic
• Southeast Asia – Oracle Events
• Chinese Taipei – Game Square
• Brazil – City Class Games
• Mexico/Central America/Caribbean – Necrotower
• South America – Magicsur

How to watch MTG Pro Tour Phyrexia Philadelphia

Gather to watch the first tabletop Magic tournament since 2020.

The first tabletop Magic: The Gathering tournament since 2020 returns through the Phyrexia Pro Tour in Philadelphia, showcasing almost 250 of the best players from around the globe.

Tabletop MTG tournaments were put on hold in 2020, with the Magic World Championship XXVI being the last tabletop tournament to get played before the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. A major rework was applied to tabletop organized play and competitive digital tournaments heading into the 2022-2023 Magic season with the first Pro Tour tabletop tournament taking place in Philadelphia at the Phyrexia Magic Con. 

Broadcast for the MTG Pro Tour in Philidelphia

The Pro Tour Philidelphia runs from Feb. 17 to 19, with a broadcast taking place during all three days of competition through Twitch . Days one and two kick off at 10am CT, and day three starts at 8am CT. 

Casting the tournament are Maria Bartholdi, Paul Cheon, Cedric Phillips, Eilidh Lonie, Marshall Sutcliffe, Mani DaVoudi, and Corey Baumeister. 

How did MTG players qualify for the Phyrexia Pro Tour?

Outlined in the new organized play rules, MTG players have a variety of paths that can lead to an invite at one of three Pro Tours taking place during the 2022-2023 season.

• The top four players from the  MTG  World Championship XXVIII earned invites to all three Pro Tour tournaments during the 2022-2023 season.
• Players who finished 9-6 or better at the  SNC  Championship in May 2022
• Top finishers at Regional Championships.
• Earning seven wins during day two of an MTG Arena Qualifier Weekend
• Magic Online Regional Championships and the top eight from the MTGO Champions Showcase
• A total of 64 bonus invites for Regional Championships during the 2022-2023 season to start the system.
• Each  Magic  Hall of Fame member gains one invite per season.

What are the MTG formats at Pro Tour Phyrexia?

The best Magic players from around the globe will gather in Philidelphia for the first Pro Tour of the 2022-2023 season. Players will compete in two formats: Draft and Pioneer Constructed. Any player who reaches a total of 12 match wins during the first two days automatically advances to the top-eight playoff bracket on day three.

Draft rounds will take place on days one and two, featuring the new MTG set, Phyrexia: All Will Be One . A total of three rounds of ONE Limited Draft will get played each of the first two days, followed by Pioneer Constructed. Only Pioneer Constructed will get played during the top-eight playoff bracket. 

Day one will feature rounds one to eight while day two showcases the final Swiss rounds of nine to 16. Day three gameplay is solely Pioneer Constructed in a best three out of five games for each round of the playoff bracket. 

Players who finish with a record of 12-4 or better at the Pro Tour Philidelphia earn a direct invite to the 2022-2023 Magic World Championship. Match points also matter as the top 32 players with the highest adjusted match points from the season will also earn invites to Worlds. 

Pro Tour Phyrexia

View as Slideshow | Expand Decks

Format: Pioneer Date: 2023-02-17 Source: magic.gg

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