Reid Duke

Reid Duke
Demographics
Nickname	reiderrabbit
Born	September 8, 1989
Residence	Sugar Loaf, New York, USA
Nationality
Professional Career
Pro Tour debut	Pro Tour Amsterdam 2010
Winnings	$178,575
Top Finishes	1 (0 wins)
GP top 8s	18 (4 wins)
Median Pro Tour Finish	63
PTs Played	22
Lifetime Pro Points	285

Reid Duke is an American professional player from Sugar Loaf, New York. He won the Magic Online Championship in 2011. His best finishes include a fifth place at Pro Tour Journey into Nyx, a runner-up finish at the 2013 World Championships, and wins at Grand Prix Nashville 2012, Grand Prix Miami 2013, Grand Prix Portland 2014, and Grand Prix Oakland 2016. He also was a columnist for Magicthegathering.com, writing the article series "Level One". These were also released as an e-book.

Professional play

Reid Duke started playing in 1995, at age five, with his brother Ian Duke, who is now a member of the Magic R&D at Wizards of the Coast. For a time, he was primarily a Magic Online player, but made the transition to in-person competitive play. He qualified for Pro Tour Amsterdam 2010 via rating, and won a Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS) event to qualify for the 2010 Magic Online World Championship, where he finished 5th, as well as the 2010 Magic: The Gathering World Championships in Chiba, Japan. Although his finishes in his first Pro Tours were unspectacular, he has not missed a Pro Tour since Amsterdam 2010.

Duke first experienced success at paper Magic in 2011, when he reached the top eight of two Grand Prix events: Grand Prix Providence, where he finished fourth, and Grand Prix Montreal, where he finished fifth. He also won another MOCS event to requalify him for the Magic Online Championship, this year held in San Francisco concurrently with the 2011 World Championships. Duke ended up winning the event, defeating Florian Pils in the final. This qualified him for the inaugural Players Championship event (later renamed the Magic World Championship). At Pro Tour Dark Ascension in Honolulu, Duke finished in the money at a Pro Tour for the first time, placing 38th. From here, he would go on to finish in the money in eight consecutive Pro Tours. He also won his first Grand Prix when he defeated Todd Anderson in the final of Grand Prix Nashville. He has since 2012 been a part of the team now known as The Pantheon, alongside players such as Jon Finkel, Kai Budde, and Gabriel Nassif.

The 2012 Magic Players Championship did not go well for Duke; he finished the event with a 2–10 record, taking last place. Following this failure, Duke made it his mission to redeem himself by qualifying for next year's event and putting up a better performance, even going so far as to write down the mistakes he made in the tournament. Thanks to three Grand Prix top eight finishes, in Charleston, San Antonio and Quebec City, as well as stellar performance on the Pro Tour, he succeeded in requalifying for the World Championship when he finished 9th at Pro Tour Dragon's Maze in San Diego. He finished the 2012–13 season on 52 Pro Points, which was also sufficient for Platinum membership in the Pro Players Club.

Duke started the 2013–14 season well, winning his second Grand Prix, at GP Miami. Duke went on to dominate the swiss rounds of the 2013 World Championship, finishing in first place before the knockout rounds. Duke faced Josh Utter-Leyton in the semifinals, defeating him 3–2. He was considered a substantial favorite against his final opponent, Shahar Shenhar, and did indeed take a 2–0 lead in the best-of-five match, but Shenhar came all the way back to beat Duke 3–2 in an upset. Duke thus took second place in the event. He put up three more Grand Prix top eight finishes during the season, in Detroit, Barcelona and Philadelphia, before finally posting a top eight performance at a Pro Tour. At Pro Tour Journey into Nyx in Atlanta, Duke finished fifth, losing in the quarterfinals to Yuuki Ichikawa. At this point, he was in position to win the 2013–14 Player of the Year title, but ultimately this was won by Jérémy Dezani. He was also overtaken by teammate Owen Turtenwald for captainship of the United States national team at the 2014 World Magic Cup when the latter made the top eight of the final event of the season, Pro Tour Magic 2015.

The 2014–15 season started well for Duke, with him and his Peach Garden Oath teammates Owen Turtenwald and William Jensen winning the very first Grand Prix of the season, Grand Prix Portland. At the 2014 World Championships, however, Duke posted a modest 14th place finish, and his Pro Tour results throughout the season were average. He managed to reach two Grand Prix top eights, in Singapore and Montreal, towards the end of the season to retain Platinum status, but he did not qualify for the 2015 World Championships. In February 2015, Duke almost won a MOCS event for the third time, but lost in the final.

Accomplishments

Season	Event type	Location	Format	Date	Rank
2011	Grand Prix	Providence	Legacy	28–29 May 2011	3
2011	Grand Prix	Montreal	Limited	17–18 September 2011	5
2011	Magic Online Championship	San Francisco	Special	17–20 November 2011	1
2012	Grand Prix	Nashville	Limited	17–18 March 2012	1
2012–13	Grand Prix	Charleston	Standard	17–18 November 2012	5
2012–13	Grand Prix	San Antonio	Standard	24–25 November 2012	4
2012–13	Grand Prix	Quebec City	Standard	22–23 February 2013	4
2013–14	Grand Prix	Miami	Standard	29–30 June 2013	1
2013–14	Worlds	Amsterdam	Special	31 July–4 August 2013	2
2013–14	Grand Prix	Detroit	Modern	14–15 September 2013	2
2013–14	Grand Prix	Barcelona	Team Limited	1–2 March 2014	3
2013–14	Grand Prix	Philadelphia	Limited	12–13 April 2014	2
2013–14	Pro Tour	Atlanta	Block Constructed and Booster Draft	16–18 May 2014	5
2014–15	Grand Prix	Portland	Team Limited	9–10 August 2014	1
2014–15	Grand Prix	Singapore	Modern	27–28 June 2015	4
2014–15	Grand Prix	Montreal	Limited	4–5 July 2015	6
2015–16	Grand Prix	Detroit	Team Limited	15–16 August 2015	3
2015–16	Grand Prix	Quebec City	Standard	24–25 October 2015	5
2015–16	Grand Prix	Oakland	Standard	9–10 January 2016	1
2015–16	Grand Prix	Washington, D.C.	Team Limited	12–13 March 2016	3
2015–16	Grand Prix	Barcelona	Limited	16–17 April 2016	7

→ Source: Wizards.com

Pro Tour Results

List of the Pro Tour results and winnings of Reid Duke

Season	Pro Tour	Format	Finish	Winnings
2010	Amsterdam	Extended and Booster Draft	405
2010	Worlds (Chiba)	Special	203
2011	Paris	Standard and Booster Draft	237
2011	Nagoya	Block Constructed and Booster Draft	238
2011	Philadelphia	Modern and Booster Draft	212
2011	Worlds (San Francisco)	Special	119
2012	Dark Ascension in Honolulu	Standard and Booster Draft	38	$1,500
2012	Avacyn Restored in Barcelona	Block Constructed and Booster Draft	53	$1,000
2012–13	Return to Ravnica in Seattle	Modern and Booster Draft	48	$1,500
2012–13	Gatecrash in Montreal	Standard and Booster Draft	65	$1,000
2012–13	Dragon's Maze in San Diego	Block Constructed and Booster Draft	9	$5,000
2013–14	Theros in Dublin	Standard and Booster Draft	34	$1,500
2013–14	Born of the Gods in Valencia	Modern and Booster Draft	42	$1,500
2013–14	Journey into Nyx in Atlanta	Block Constructed and Booster Draft	5	$10,000
2013–14	Magic 2015 in Portland	Standard and Booster Draft	251
2014–15	Khans of Tarkir in Honolulu	Standard and Booster Draft	56	$1,000
2014–15	Fate Reforged in Washington, D.C.	Modern and Booster Draft	60	$1,000
2014–15	Dragons of Tarkir in Brussels	Standard and Booster Draft	181
2014–15	Magic Origins in Vancouver	Standard and Booster Draft	125
2015–16	Battle for Zendikar in Milwaukee	Standard and Booster Draft	19	$2,500
2015–16	Oath of the Gatewatch in Atlanta	Modern and Booster Draft	36	$1,500
2015–16	Shadows over Innistrad in Madrid	Standard and Booster Draft	127

→ Source: Wizards.com