Pro Tour Journey into Nyx
| Pro Tour Journey into Nyx | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 16–18 May 2014 | |||
| Location |
 Atlanta, Georgia, United States | |||
| Attendance | 349 | |||
| Format | Block Constructed and Booster draft | |||
| Prize pool | $250,000 | |||
| Winner |
Patrick Chapin | |||
| ||||
Pro Tour Journey into Nyx was the third Pro Tour of the 2013–14 season. The event had 349 competitors, and took place on 16–18 May 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. The formats were Block Constructed and Theros block Booster draft, and was the first constructed premier event where Journey into Nyx was legal. American Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin, previously without a premier event win, took down the event by defeating South Korea's Nam Sung-wook in the final.
As Block Constructed was abolished as a premier event format after the 2013–14 season, Pro Tour Journey into Nyx was the last Block constructed Pro Tour to date.
Day one
The Pro Tour began with a Theros block Booster draft. Famous players who started the event with a perfect 3–0 start included Rob Dougherty, Darwin Kastle, Patrick Chapin, and reigning Player of the Year Josh Utter-Leyton. Five rounds of Block Constructed followed, in which a few popular archetypes emerged. The two arguably most significant teams, Team Pantheon and ChannelFireball, both arrived at a similar-looking black-blue-green ("BUG") Control deck featuring Prognostic Sphinx. Other popular decks included Junk Constellation, centered around Eidolon of Blossoms; a Naya-colored midrange deck playing white primarily for Elspeth, Sun's Champion; Mono-Black Aggro; and various Heroic decks, mainly red-white or white-blue.[1] At the end of the day, however, Patrick Chapin stood atop the standings, piloting a Junk-colored midrange deck. Josh Utter-Leyton was also undefeated playing ChannelFireball's BUG Control. Meanwhile, Italy's Andrea Mengucci garnered attention for his seven rounds in the "King of the Hill"-seat in the feature match area. The defending Pro Tour champion always receives a round 1 feature match at the King of the Hill-table; the winner of this feature match retains their seat in the feature match area. After beating reigning Pro Tour champion Shaun McLaren, the relatively unknown Mengucci held the seat until he was defeated by Chapin in round 8.
The top eight players after day one:
| Rank | Player | Points | Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Chapin
|
24 | 5 | Darwin Kastle
|
21 |
| 2 | Josh Utter-Leyton
|
24 | 6 |  Andrea Mengucci
|
21 |
| 3 |  Joel Larsson
|
21 | 7 | Reid Duke
|
21 |
| 4 | Todd Anderson
|
21 | 8 |  Ricardo Sanchez Garrido
|
21 |
Day two
Andrea Mengucci managed to reclaim the King of the Hill-seat in the second draft with a 3–0 performance, placing him in a first place tie, with Patrick Chapin, who went 2–1, going into the final rounds of constructed. These saw Reid Duke reaching his first Pro Tour top eight by defeating Guillaume Wafo-Tapa in round 15. Wafo-Tapa came close to a sixth Pro Tour final day, but lost the last three rounds to finish 11–5. The last of these was to Jamie Parke, who in his return to the Pro Tour made the rare accomplishment to have a Pro Tour top eight in three different decades. In a similar situation was Chapin, who kept winning, and held the first seed going into Sunday. Josh Utter-Leyton, like Chapin, picked up his fifth Pro Tour top eight; he defeated Joel Larsson in the final round of Swiss to advance to the final day of competition. Also in the top eight was Pro Tour Return to Ravnica champion Stanislav Cifka, piloting the only aggro deck in the elimination rounds; Andrea Mengucci; popular Japanese streamer Yuuki Ichikawa; and Nam Sung-wook, the first Korean player to make it to a Pro Tour top eight.
Top 8
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
| 1 | Patrick Chapin | 2 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Jamie Parke | 1 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Patrick Chapin | 2 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Josh Utter-Leyton | 0 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Josh Utter-Leyton | 2 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Stanislav Cifka | 1 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Patrick Chapin | 3 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Nam Sung-Wook | 1 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Andrea Mengucci | 1 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Nam Sung-Wook | 2 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Nam Sung-Wook | 2 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Yuuki Ichikawa | 0 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Reid Duke | 0 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Yuuki Ichikawa | 2 | |||||||||||
The top eight was the story of how Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin earned his first Pro Tour victory. Throughout the tournament, Chapin had maintained that he regarded it primarily as a qualifier event for the World Championship, and that his goal was to win the Pro Tour in order to then become the World Champion. His Junk-colored midrange deck had provided him with a comfortable first place seed going into the top eight, and his success continued in the elimination rounds. Against Josh Utter-Leyton, he got fortunate by drawing consecutive lands after keeping a one-lander, and in the final against Korean Nam Sung-wook, he would not be denied, winning the match 3–1.
| Place | Player | Deck | Prize | Pro Points | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Chapin
|
Junk Midrange | $40,000 | 30 | Fifth Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 2 |  Nam Sung-wook
|
BUG Constellation | $20,000 | 24 | First South Korean in a Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 3 | Josh Utter-Leyton
|
BUG Control | $12,500 | 22 | Fifth Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 4 |  Yuuki Ichikawa
|
Naya Midrange | $12,500 | 22 | |
| 5 | Reid Duke
|
BUG Control | $10,000 | 20 | |
| 6 | Andrea Mengucci
|
Naya Midrange | $10,000 | 20 | |
| 7 |  Stanislav Cifka
|
Red-White Heroic | $10,000 | 20 | Second Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 8 | Jamie Parke
|
BUG Control | $10,000 | 20 | Third Pro Tour Top 8 |
External links
- Pro Tour Journey into Nyx Coverage
- Pro Tour Journey into Nyx final standings
- Top Block Constructed decklists
- Pro Tour Journey into Nyx Invitation list
- Video coverage playlist
References
- ↑ Nate Price (2014-05-17). "DAY 2 THEROS BLOCK CONSTRUCTED METAGAME BREAKDOWN". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved on 2016-02-04.