Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor
| Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | February 23-25, 2024 | |||
| Location |
 Chicago, Illinois, United States | |||
| Attendance | 258 | |||
| Format | Pioneer and Booster draft | |||
| Prize pool | $500,000 | |||
| Winner | Seth Manfield | |||
| ||||
Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor was the first Pro Tour of the 2022–23 season. It took place on February 23-25 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Pioneer
With one year between each large-scale event, each format would change significantly, with Pioneer being no exception. Mono-Green Devotion would completely vanish with the ban of Karn, the Great Creator, giving aggro decks a new lease, as 3-mana 4/4s were not as prevalent, as well as perennial contender Arclight Phoenix returning once more, this time as the top registered deck. For new decks, Amalia Benavides Aguirre created a new combo deck with Wildgrowth Walker, while Vein Ripper made for a surprise addition in a Vampire typal deck powered by Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord that Team ChannelFireball brought in. Finally, cross-format favorite Rakdos Midrange fell to third after No More Lies powered up Azorius control decks.
Day One
Featured drafters: Jean-Emmanuel Depraz Depraz drafted a three-color Temur drafter that suffered a bad record, only pulling a win in the third round. Derrick Davis took the feature pod with a Boros deck. ChannelFireball made great strides in the Constructed portion, with nearly all pilots passing through and the highest popular win rate. Jesse Hampton, with two Top 8s a decade ago, was the overnight leader with Phoenix. Phoenix and Amalia decks were successful, but only minorly, as only one- or two-pilot decks had a better record.[1]
The top eight players after day one:
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jesse Hampton
|
24 |
| 2 |  Adrián Iñigo Tastet
|
21 |
| 3 |  Matthew Guides
|
21 |
| 4 |  Jose Hilario
|
21 |
| 5 | Adam Edelson
|
21 |
| 6 | Heathe Butler | 21 |
| 7 |  Simon Nielsen
|
21 |
| 8 | Jason Ye
|
21 |
Day Two
Featured drafters: Jesse Hampton
Overnight leader Jesse Hampton took a stumble with a 1-2 result, with Adam Edelson posting a perfect draft record for a total of 10-1. Other 6-0 drafters included Luis Scott-Vargas, Tyler Hatchel, James Larsen-Scott, and Márcio Carvalho. Sam Pardee was the first to reach twelve wins in round 14, followed by Edelson defeating Simon Nielsen, Alex Friedrichsen defeating Miguel da Cruz Simões, and Jean-Emmanuel Depraz defeating Jason Ye in Round 15, giving Depraz a consecutive Top Finish. In the final round and for the final four spaces, Seth Manfield defeats Adrian Tastet, Mingyang Chen defeats LSV, Nielsen defeats Ye (for four consecutive), and Christoffer Larsen defeats Hampton, with Javier Dominguez at ninth from tiebreaks.[2] However, at 36 points, Dominguez would still qualify for Worlds, the first player to do so from 9th under the new system.
Top 8
An unprecedented situation occurred in the semifinals of the Pro Tour. The Amalia combo has exactly one stopping point when the Wildgrowth Walker is destroyed at the exact time the 20th power is achieved. If neither of these conditions are achieved, the game draws as there is no way to stop the triggers. Most of the time these are irrelevant cases as it requires a pump spell on an opposing Amalia or an indestructible Walker but incidentally Nielsen's Heroic deck has both, and also notably little other interaction that would work. As such, Nielsen and Larsen indeed played seven games in their first to three wins, with their first game, in fact, being a draw.[3]
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
| 1 | Sam Pardee | 0 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Mingyang Chen | 3 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Mingyang Chen | 1 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Seth Manfield | 3 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Jean-Emmanuel Depraz | 1 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Seth Manfield | 3 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Seth Manfield | 3 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Simon Nielsen | 1 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Adam Edelson | 1 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Simon Nielsen | 3 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Simon Nielsen | 3 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Christoffer Larsen | 2 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Alex Friedrichsen | 1 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Christoffer Larsen | 3 | |||||||||||
Finals
Vein Ripper was the breakout star, despite being "merely" a large six-mana flier. With eleven players, the deck posted a 60% win rate. Even then, top-registered deck Phoenix was only slightly behind at 57%. With an extra maindeck Duress, Manfield's build was better suited in challenging the spell-based decks of Lotus, Phoenix and ultimately Heroic. In the finale, Manfield defeated Nielsen 3-1: the streamlined Heroic deck suffered against the multi-axis assault that the Vampires presented, with cheap interaction, must-kill smaller threats, and the huge top-end of Vein Ripper.[4]
Results
| Place | Player | Deck | Prize | Pro Points | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seth Manfield
|
Rakdos Vampires | $50,000 | 27 | Eleventh Top Finish |
| 2 | Simon Nielsen
|
Boros Heroic | $20,000 | 23 | Fourth consecutive, fifth total Top Finish |
| 3 | Christoffer Larsen
|
Amalia Combo | $15,000 | 20 | Third Top Finish |
| 4 |  Mingyang Chen
|
Lotus Field | $15,000 | 20 | |
| 5 | Sam Pardee
|
Rakdos Vampires | $10,000 | 18 | Sixth Top Finish |
| 6 | Alex Friedrichsen
|
Lotus Field | $10,000 | 18 | |
| 7 | Adam Edelson
|
Izzet Phoenix | $5,000 | 18 | |
| 8 |  Jean-Emmanuel Depraz
|
Izzet Phoenix | $5,000 | 18 | Seventh Top Finish |
References
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (February 24, 2024). "Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor, Day One Highlights". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (February 24, 2024). "Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor, Day Two Highlights". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (February 25, 2024). "Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor, Top 8 Players and Decks". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (February 26, 2024). "The Finals of Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor". Magic.gg.