Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir

Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir
Date	10–12 October 2014
Location	Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Attendance	357
Format	Standard and Booster draft
Prize pool	$250,000
Winner	Ari Lax
Previous Pro Tour: Magic 2015 Next Pro Tour: Fate Reforged

Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir was the first Pro Tour of the 2014–15 season. The event had 357 competitors, and took place on 10–12 October 2014 in Hololulu, Hawaii. It featured Standard and Booster draft, and was the first constructed premier event where the new Khans of Tarkir was legal. The Pro Tour was won by American Ari Lax, who defeated Canada's Shaun McLaren, already a Pro Tour champion in 2014, in the final.

The 2014 Class of the Hall of Fame was inducted at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir.

Day one

The Pro Tour opened with the 2014 Class of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Three players were inducted: Makihito Mihara, Paul Rietzl, and Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, though Wafo-Tapa could not make it to the Pro Tour, and was not present. This marked the first time a player did not attend their Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The event itself started with a triple Khans of Tarkir draft. Notable players who started their campaign 3–0 included Yuuya Watanabe, William Jensen, Jon Finkel, Paul Rietzl, and reigning Pro Tour champion Ivan Floch. Five rounds of Standard followed; the most significant decks by a wide margin were Jeskai Tempo and Abzan Midrange, at 21.6% and 16.8% of the field, respectively. Other popular decks included a four-color combo deck built around Jeskai Ascendancy, played by a number of top players, including Luis Scott-Vargas and Lee Shi Tian; a number of pros also opted for a blue-black control deck featuring Pearl Lake Ancient as the win condition. This deck was played by several members of Team Pantheon, including Owen Turtenwald and William Jensen; a slightly different version was also played by Ivan Floch and Stanislav Cifka. The undefeated players after the first day of competition were Yuuya Watanabe, playing Jeskai, and Mike Sigrist, who was playing a more aggressive version of the Abzan deck; this deck featured such cards as Rakshasa Deathdealer and Anafenza, the Foremost, eschewing more traditional options like Elspeth, Sun's Champion in favor of having a beatdown deck.

Rank	Player	Points	Rank	Player	Points
1	Yuuya Watanabe	24	5	Ondřej Stráský	21
2	Mike Sigrist	24	6	Ari Lax	21
3	Toni Portolan	21	7	Shahar Shenhar	21
4	Park Jun Young	21	8	Omar Beldon	21

Day two

After another triple Khans of Tarkir-draft, three players stood atop the field: Mike Sigrist, Ondřej Stráský, and Ari Lax. Japanese top pro Yuuya Watanabe had a difficult day, going 2–4 in the first six rounds. In the last round, he got paired against 2013–14 Player of the Year runner-up Owen Turtenwald, who was at 12–3 coming into the round and only an intentional draw away from his third top eight, but got paired down. Watanabe won the match, and made the top eight by virtue of having the best tiebreakers. Turtenwald, meanwhile, finished 11th. Another tiebreaker winner was Hong Kong's Lee Shi Tian, who on 12–4 edged out Gregory Orange to take the last top eight slot. Another player who made it to the knockout stage was Ivan Floch, who was looking to defend his title as the current Pro Tour champion, a feat that hadn't been accomplished since Kai Budde won back-to-back Pro Tours in 2001.

Top 8

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	1	Shaun McLaren	2
	8	Lee Shi Tian	0
						1	Shaun McLaren	2
						4	Mike Sigrist	1
	4	Mike Sigrist	2
	5	Ivan Floch	0
											1	Shaun McLaren	1
											2	Ari Lax	3
	3	Thiago Saporito	2
	6	Ondřej Stráský	1
						3	Thiago Saporito	1
						2	Ari Lax	2
	2	Ari Lax	2
	7	Yuuya Watanabe	0

Although considered one of the top players in the game, Yuuya Watanabe lost in straight sets to Ari Lax in the quarterfinals. Lax, while playing in his first Pro Tour top eight, was an esteemed player, and regarded as one of the best players without a Pro Tour top eight until that point. Two newcomers to the Sunday stage met in the second quarterfinal, with Brazil's Thiago Saporito defeating Czech player Ondřej Stráský 2–1. Ivan Floch's hopes of winning back-to-back Pro Tours were quashed by longtime player Mike Sigrist, who won 2–0 in decisive fashion. Another player with a Pro Tour win in 2014 was Shaun McLaren. McLaren, a relatively unknown player at the time of his Pro Tour win, established himself as a top Pro Tour player by finishing first after the Swiss rounds, and managed to defeat Lee Shi Tian, playing in his third Pro Tour top eight. McLaren's Jeskai Tempo deck prevailed over Shi Tian's Ascendancy combo deck 2–1.

Ari Lax and Thiago Saporito dueled in the Abzan Midrange mirror-match in the first semifinal. In a long and close three-game match, Lax finally pulled ahead when he topdecked an Elspeth, Sun's Champion when both players were out of cards, and won the match 2–1 to advance to the final. In the other semifinal, Shaun McLaren kept his hopes of becoming a repeat Pro Tour champion alive by defeating Mike Sigrist's Abzan Aggro deck 2–1. The final match of the tournament between Ari Lax and Shaun McLaren ended 3–1 in favor of Lax; a few of the games were decided by timely Siege Rhinos. As such, Ari Lax was crowned as the champion of Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir.

Place	Player	Deck	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Ari Lax	Abzan Midrange	$40,000	30
2	Shaun McLaren	Jeskai Tempo	$20,000	26	Second Pro Tour Top 8
3	Mike Sigrist	Abzan Aggro	$12,500	22
4	Thiago Saporito	Abzan Midrange	$12,500	22
5	Ivan Floch	Blue-Black Control	$10,000	18	Second Pro Tour Top 8
6	Ondřej Stráský	Jeskai Tempo	$10,000	18
7	Yuuya Watanabe	Jeskai Tempo	$10,000	18	Third Pro Tour Top 8
8	Lee Shi Tian	Jeskai Ascendancy	$10,000	18	Third Pro Tour Top 8

Player of the Year Race

As the first Pro Tour of the season, Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir had a significant impact on the Player of the Year race. The top four were all top four finishers at the Pro Tour, with the fifth player, Owen Turtenwald, taking up the last spot on the list thanks to his 11th-place finish plus a Grand Prix win early in the season.

Player	Pro Points
Ari Lax	34
Shaun McLaren	29
Thiago Saporito	25
Mike Sigrist	22
Owen Turtenwald	21

Notable performances

• Six players went undefeated (6–0) in draft: Shaun McLaren, Thiago Saporito, Spencer Garnier, Stanislav Cifka, Joel Calafell, and Charles League.
• The player with the best Standard record in the Swiss rounds of the event was Hall of Famer Ben Stark, who went 8–1–1 with his Jeskai Tempo deck. Stark finished 15th in the event overall.

External links

• Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir coverage
• Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir final standings
• Top Standard decklists: A-N
• To Standard decklists: O-Z
• Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir invitation list
• Video coverage playlist