Jon Finkel

Jon Finkel is a famous American Magic: The Gathering player. He has won numerous Pro Tour tournaments, and was the 2000 World Champion. He is affectionately known as "Jonny Magic" by many, and has been the poster boy for the Magic: the Gathering game for a long time. Many consider him to be the best player the game has ever seen. That title has been challenged by Kai Budde of Germany who surpassed him for lifetime earnings and Pro Tour titles, although this is partially due to Finkel taking a break from high level play from 2004-2008.

Finkel was inducted into Magic: The Gathering's Pro Tour Hall of Fame after receiving 67 out of 69 possible votes. In regards to his nomination for this position, Mark Rosewater, head of the design department of Magic: the Gathering R&D stated, "He is the most naturally gifted player the game has ever seen. His accomplishments are rivaled by only one other man (Kai Budde, Germany)."

Finkel has won over $290,000 playing the game. Later in his career, he faced some criticisms, allegedly just showing up at Pro Tours to meet up with old friends.

Many recognize that one of Finkel's greatest strengths in the game is his ability to play with little preparation. Some have touted that Finkel's only preparation for an event was during the car ride there, as opposed to other professionals spending weeks preparing.

Finkel, after winning the 2000 Magic Invitational, had the privilege of designing a card for the game. The card he designed was Shadowmage Infiltrator (originally named "Spellcreep Wizard" and nicknamed Finkel), which appears in the Odyssey set. Finkel originally submitted a card, "Wrath of Leknif" (Leknif being his name spelt backwards as an homage to Nevinyrral's Disk) , that was deemed too powerful by the Wizards R&D Staff.

In recent years, Finkel, like fellow Magic player David Williams, has been playing in high-level poker tournaments.

In 2005, Finkel was inducted into the inaugural class of the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame. This has prompted a small comeback to the game, including the beginning of regular statistically-tracked drafting at Finkel's New York apartment with other past and present big name players and several Pro Tour appearances.

On February 17th, 2008 Finkel returned to his former dominance, only dropping one match as he won Pro Tour Kuala Lumpur.

Jon is the subject of the book Jonny Magic and the Cardshark Kids by David Kushner, published by Random House in August, 2005.