The 2024 Pro Tour season kicked off in Chicago for the first Pro Tour of the year. The highest level of competitive play took center stage as players crossed the skybridge into MagicCon: Chicago and got to watch the best in the world play at Magic’s highest levels.
Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor didn’t disappoint. Through six rounds of draft and 10 of Pioneer, Magic was put through its paces by the best in the world, and the rest of us were treated to a show that included a number of first-time Pro Tour qualifiers breaking through for deep runs, several of the game’s greatest regaling us with member matches of masterful Magic on camera, and an impressive Top 8 that includes a win at the Strixhaven Championship.
Pardee was the first Sunday qualifier to punch his ticket following a blistering 12-2 start, and he was soon joined by the rest of the Top 8, each of whom took their own unique road to the Pro Tour and now their shot at a Pro Tour trophy. Pardee’s run was fueled by the best deck choice of the weekend – more on that later.
Teams spent weeks on their Limited preparation before coming to Chicago and a few more furious days of drafting leading up to the Pro Tour’s Friday start; nothing beats eight-person pod play when you need to prepare to draft once morest the game’s best.
It’s hard to overstate how important Draft is to Pro Tour success, both for spiking individual events and for building up enough points to qualify for future events. Murders at Karlov Manor Draft may represent less than half the rounds, but its effect on tiebreakers as the start of each day looms large in a tournament with so few potential chances to gain an advantage. Every one of your opponents is a highly decorated Magic player before you even face them, and sometimes you sit down to this set of opponents for your first three rounds.
Willy Edel, Christian Calcano, Shuhei Nakamura – Hall of Fame. Pro Tour titles. Incredible numbers of Top Finishes. Welcome to the Pro Tour.
What was the lucky player to stare down that gauntlet? Well, here’s the twist that makes the Pro Tour: that player was Alex Hayne, who himself won Pro Tour Avacyn Restored as part of his storied Magic career – and his opponents were rightfully just as nervous (and Hayne would go on to play well into Day Two following going 1-2 in that draft).
There were only five players who went undefeated in the six Draft rounds: Adam Edelson, James Larsen-Scott, Tyler Hatchel, Luis Scott-Vargas, Marcio Cárvalho.
It comes as no surprise that almost all of those players were battling late on Saturday with their Top 8 hopes alive – and Edelson would go on to convert it into a Sunday stage appearance.
“I’m over the moon right now, and I love talking regarding Limited,” Edelson gushed following clinching a Top 8 berth. “Stay aggressive, that was the theme and everyone knew that coming in. The aggressive decks have the advantage, and having strong two-drops is huge.”
A Limited enthusiast who would have been grinding Murders draft regardless of whether or not it might leak to a Top 8 at the Pro Tour – he ranks up to Mythic almost every month on MTG Arena – Edelson knew exactly what he was looking for when he sat down for his first Pro Tour draft on Friday.
“The strategy that was successful for me was finding the right multicolor pair. If you can do that, you can get the signpost uncommons in your color pair pretty late,” he explained. “In my draft today, I got three Gleaming Geardrake. In general, I think you want to play a two-color deck in every combination but green, and you want your green decks to be three colors to increase your card quality and removal.”
Before Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor most players agreed that the Pioneer format was mostly known, unless some team totally broke the format and shocked us all, we largely knew what decks to expect.
Well one team broke it, or at the very least built the best deck for the weekend. Rakdos Midrange is always a popular choice, but it was a different kind of Rakdos build that posted one of the best performances of the weekend.
Now, analyzing the implications of the ideas presented, we can see a few trends emerging in the Magic community. First, Limited play continues to be a crucial factor in Pro Tour success. As evidenced by Willy Edel’s comments, staying aggressive and having strong two-drops can give players a significant advantage. This highlights the importance of deck choice and strategic planning in the Limited format.
Additionally, the success of the Rakdos Midrange deck at Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor suggests that there may be potential future trends in deck construction. Players are constantly looking for new ways to optimize their deck choices and find unique builds that can catch their opponents off guard. This might lead to a shift in the meta and the emergence of new dominant deck archetypes.
Overall, the Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor showcased the high level of skill and competition within the Magic community. It provided exciting matches, surprising deck choices, and demonstrated the importance of both Limited play and innovative deck construction. As the Pro Tour season progresses, it will be interesting to see how these trends evolve and what new strategies and decks emerge as the dominant forces in competitive Magic.
