Berlin Bound
bdm | October 29, 2008 | 8:09 pmI am about an hour away from wheels up and off to Pro Tour Berlin. I am enjoying a quick glass of wine in the lounge and looking forward to a comfy business class flight before diving right into my weekly column, doing video segments, and culminating in the Top 8 commentary with Randy on Sunday.
It should be a whirlwind weekend of Magic: The Gathering and exciting Extended technology. Looking forward to seeing not only what the rotation of many Extended staples — and the banning of Sensei’s Divining Top — has wrought on the format but what the new cards from Shards of Alara add to the mix.
I am going to try and provide a peek behind the scenes of the Pro Tour this weekend. Go behind the curtain of the coverage team; peer over the shoulder of R&D members during late might drafts to see what their favorite strategies are; and give you a look at some of your favorite players (Top8Magicians and otherwise) and how they are approaching this new format.
That is fantastic news! Really a great thing. If anyone is to take on this endeavor of more in-depth coverage of magical fun it should defs be you bdm.
I’m really excited for this Pro Tour. Everyone is going to show us their “A” game and seeing everyone in their Sunday best is another plus. Seeing what the PChapin cooked up, Gavin Verhey making his PT debut and life after Sensei’s Divining Top will make an awesome weekend. As for the T8, I’m going to be so bold as to say that I think Andre Coimbra will make another PT T8. He has had good constructed finishes in the past (with a 25th in Hollywood) and even though he hasn’t been making it to the GP’s, I think he can put up a T8. Also, Andre Muller’s prowess in extended last season is not something to overlook. He broke the format (If not for Fortier’s ability to draw his 2-ofs) and played amazingly. Shuhei Nakamura’s gaudy 16 point lead over Oliver is something that he could close out with a good finish at this PT. He gets a big enough lead (Say another T8) and he may cause the first POY race in a few years to not be a nail-biter. So, this is my PT top 8 prediction for Berlin:
Andre Coimbra
Andre Muller
Oliver Ruel
Gerry Thompson (is this guy on fire, or what?)
Mark Herberholz
Someone playing a Tsuyoshi Fujita deck
2 No-names
Good luck with the jet-lag BDM!