Gerry Thompson is a master deck builder, deck-tuner, and Pro Tour mainstay. He dominated the SCG Tour and even worked at Wizards of the Coast for a bit. He has 11 Grand Prix Top 8s with 2 wins and 1 Pro Tour Top 8.
Read More...Petr Sochurek has been playing Magic since he was 11, and started grinding PTQs and GPs at about 16. He qualified to Valencia, where he made top 16 at his first Pro Tour with Merfolk. He’s a Platinum Level Pro with 4 Grand Prix top 8, including a finals at Rimini and a win at Paris.
Read More...Simon Slutsky has 1 Grand Prix Top 8 and 1 Grand Prix win. He made day 2 at Pro Tour Sydney and is a 5 time PPTQ second place finisher. He’s a Merfolk enthusiast who goes a little deep on Modern and a Nuclear physics researcher when he’s not playing Magic.
Read More...Roope Metsa has been playing Magic since Khans of Tarkir and just qualified for his first Pro Tour by making top 8 at Grand Prix Prague 2017. Roope lives in Vantaa, Finland.
Read More...Marcio Carvalho has an impressive record of 13 Grand Prix Top 8s including 3 wins, 3 Pro Tour Top 8s, and was a finalist at the 2016 Worlds tournament.
Read More...Florian Koch has been playing Magic since 1994 and played semi-competitively until he got his first Pro Point in 2010. He then won GP Lyon later that year. Since 2010 he’s made the Top 8 of three GPs and is striving for success on the Pro Tour. Florian is from Cologne, Germany.
Read More...Eric English has cashed many Grand Prix and has 1 Grand Prix top 8 and a Pro Tour top 32, both in 2016. He’s a Silver Level Pro looking to continue the success he had last year. Eric is from Rochester, New York.
Read More...John Asbach is 25 years old and an active duty military member. He graduated from the United States Military Academy (Westpoint) Class of 2013 and is originally from Buffalo, NY. He loves theater, coffee, and hockey and is the Champion of Grand Prix San Jose 2017.
Read More...Adam Ragsdale is a former MTGO grinder and content producer turned current occasional traveller. He has 2 Grand Prix Top 8s, both in the last calendar year. Adam lives in Toronto.
Read More...Rodrigo Togores has several good finishes at many Magic events, but most notably is the Champion of Grand Prix Prague 2016.
Read More...Matt Tabak is a senior editor inside Magic R&D. He is a former level 3 judge, competed at the Pro Tour four times, and holds the record for longest tenured Magic rules manager. He’s the lead editor for Magic Duels and the upcoming Magic sets Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation. Matt lives in Seattle, WA.
Read More...Cody Napier started playing magic in 2009 and has 1 Grand Prix Top 8 (Louisville) and 1 SCG open top 8 in his record. He’s attending his first Pro Tour later this year which is only 45 minutes away from his house. He loves cube and Legacy but mostly plays Standard. Cody lives in Tennessee.
Read More...Reid Duke has an impressive record of 19 Grand Prix Top Eights with 5 wins and 2 PT Top Eights with 2 additional Top Sixteens. He’s lauded in the Magic community as a boon of positivity and a shining example of kindness. Reid is mentioned by several past guests of the show as a player they look up to. Reid lives in Sugar Loaf New York.
Read More...David Mines has 1 Grand Prix top 8 and 1 Grand Prix win under his belt, has 2 Pro Tour top 16 and is the captain of the 2016 Australian World Magic Cup team. David lives in Brisbane, Australia.
Read More...Seth Manfield is the 2015 World Champion and has 11 Grand Prix top 8’s including 5 Wins. He also has 2 Pro Tour Top 8’s as well as multiple Pro Tour top 16’s. He’s a full-time Magic player and content producer for TCGplayer.com. Part of the #mtgdad club and a current Platinum Pro. Seth lives in Maryland, USA.
Read More...Ben Hull played Magic fairly casually for about four years before qualifying for Pro Tour Kaladesh. He made top 8 at Pro Tour Kaladesh and since then, also picked up his first Grand Prix top 8 in Denver. Ben lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Read More...Daniel Cathro is a newcomer to the competitive Magic scene as he only started playing competitively with Dragons of Tarkir. He qualified for his first Pro Tour at Eldritch Moon through an RPTQ and just qualified for Pro tour Aether Revolt to make 3 Pro Tours in a row. Daniel lives in Provo, Utah.
Read More...Jacob Nagro is a competitive Magic player from Albuquerque, NM. His first Pro Tour was PT Kaladesh and he later earned his first GP Top 8 in Denver.
Read More...Bas Melis is 31 years old and won Dutch Nationals in 2010 with a 15-0 record. He finished 8th place with the Dutch team at Worlds 2010. Played in 6 consecutive Pro Tours and finished 2nd at GP Rotterdam with Brent Vos and Frank Karsten. Bas lives in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Read More...Ben Weitz is a Gold Pro Magic Player and one of the resident deck builders for East West Bowl. He has 4 Grand Prix Top 8s and is working on improving his game to get his first Pro Tour Top 8.
Read More...Manuel Succari is from Panama but is currently living in Taiwan studying Japanese. He’s played for team Panama in two World Magic Cups and made top 8 of the most recent one. When his schedule and budget allow, he enjoys attending Grand Prixs and has a personal best record of 11-4.
Read More...Rob Pisano was a finalist at Grand Prix Indianapolis and made top 8 at Grand Prix Denver. He’s a Silver level pro soon to be Gold.
Read More...Eric Severson is a Gold Level Pro and a member of Team East West Bowl who has 4 Grand Prix Top 8s to his name. Eric lives in Davis California.
Read More...Petros Tziotis is a Greek Magic: The Gathering player who in his first year of playing won Nationals 2007. This year he came back to win the World Magic Cup with his teammates Bill, Panos and Nikos. Petros lives in Athens, Greece.
Read More...Peter Vieren played continually on the Pro Tour from 2010-11, then took (sort of) a break when he started working. He got back to the Pro Tour in 2015. He has two Magic Grand Prix top 8s (Lyon ’10, Prague ’15), 1 Pro Tour top 16 (Milwaukee ’15) and is the captain of the 2016 Belgium World Magic Cup team which took second place. Peter lives in Leuven, Belgium.
Read More...Lauri Pispa has been playing Magic competitively for 2 years, which comes after a 10-year break from the game. In that time he played other games competitively and even opened a card shop one year ago named Sensei’s Divining Shop. He’s a member of the 2016 Finnish World Magic Cup team and lives in Tampere, Finland.
Read More...Ryan Cubit made it to his first Pro Tour (PT Madrid) in early 2016 where he made day 2. He’s been playing on and off since 2000 and has won states and regionals as well as other low-level tournaments. He’s a member of the 2016 Australian World Magic Cup team who loves building new decks and tweaking current ones. Ryan lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Read More...Alex Kessler is the creator of the web show Top Decking, the previous host of Mad Magic, and the creator and host of the Masters of Modern Podcast. He’s a Founding member of the website www.Collected.Company, and is the President and game and toy designer of the KessCo toy and Game company. Alex lives in Santa Monica, California.
Read More...Zachary Kiihne is a 19 year old Computer Science major at Umass Amherst. Grand Prix Providence 2016 was his first Grand Prix Top 8. Previously he had top 64ed two GPs and top 8ed the last RPTQ. This is his first time breaking through to the Pro Tour. Zachary lives in Amherst MA.
Read More...While I have learned a great many things while playing Magic, the most important takeaway is that it is completely ok to just play the best deck
Read More...Gabe Carleton-Barnes has played in 13 Pro Tours, with 12 day twos. He has 9 PTQ wins and 1 RPTQ top 4. He just got his first Grand Prix Top 8 in Vancouver 2016. His claims to fame in our Magic: The Gathering Community include founding Draft-PDX, hosting Card Talk: The World’s Greatest MTG Podcast, and Storytelling. Gabe lives in Portland, Oregon.
Read More...Brock Mosley is 22 years old and has been playing Magic for about three years. He’s a member of team The Pizza Leagues and made his first ever Grand Prix day two AND top eight at Grand Prix Houston 2016.
Read More...Cody Lingelbach is making 2016 his year as he’s already made Top 8 at 2 Standard Grand Prix’s. The first was GP Oakland in Jan. 2016 and the second was the following month in GP Houston.
Read More...Martin Dang is a Platinum Pro Level Magic player, who lives in Aarhus, Denmark with his lovely girlfriend Tina Dahl. He makes his living by playing every Pro Tour and every Grand Prix in Europe. Martin has 1 Pro Tour Top 8 where he won at Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir in Brussels 2015! He also has 2 Grand Prix top 8s – including a win at Grand Prix Liverpool in 2015, a top 8 finish in the World Magic Cup and is a proud member of Team EUreka.
Read More...Oliver Tiu has 1 Grand Prix top 8 and 1 Pro Tour top 16 on his record. He’s also won a MOCs final, and cashed both of the PTs he’s played in. He loves Magic and plays as much as he can – mostly on Magic Online. Oliver is 18 years old and is always striving to become a better player and staying open to learning more.
Read More...Mike Turian has participated in a staggering 32 Pro Tours, 5 World Championships, 6 National Championships and numerous Grand Prixs. He is the Champion of Pro Tour New York in 2000 and Grand Prix Montreal in 2002. He has a top 8 finish at Worlds Toronto in 2001 and Pro Tour Amsterdam 2004. Mike also finished in the top 4 of Pro Tour Boston in 2003 and Pro Tour San Diego in 2004. Mike has amassed 234 Pro Points over his career and currently the Digital Business Manager at Wizards of the Coast in charge of Magic Duels.
Read More...Darwin Kastle has an impressive Magic record, with 8 Pro Tour top 8s – including becoming the Champion of Pro Tour Washington DC in 1999, 6 Grand Prix top 8s – including 1 win, and a win at the 1998 Invitational it’s no wonder he was inducted into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame with the inaugural class in 2005. Darwin Kastle is Mr. Avalanche Riders himself and lives in Massachusetts.
Read More...Gabriel Nassif has a long and storied history with Magic: The Gathering. His accomplishments include 6 Grand Prix Top 8s, one of which was a win in 2009, and 9 Pro Tour Top 8s! Three (3) of those were 2nd place finishes and 2 of them were 1st place finishes! His first championship was in 2005 at Pro Tour Atlanta and the second was in 2009 at Pro Tour Kyoto. He also has 3 Worlds Top 8s for good measure.
Gabriel has been recognized as one of Magic’s greatest players and was inducted into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame in 2010. Gabriel lives in Paris, France with his wife.
Read More...Marshall Sutcliffe is a man who needs little introduction. If you’ve watched any amount of coverage for Magic: The Gathering events you’ve seen him as he does play by play commentary for Wizards of the Coast all over the world. He’s a self proclaimed draft junky and the host of Limited Resources, the number one Magic related podcast. Marshall lives in Washington state.
Read More...Jake Mondello is a 19 year old dedicated Magic player, clocking an impressive 10-14 hours a day on Magic Online. He has 2 Grand Prix top 8’s in his record, one in Cleveland and the other in Quebec City. Currently chasing Silver level – and almost there with 14 Pro points this season. Jake lives in Connecticut.
Read More...Jim Davis made 24th place at Pro Tour Prague in 2006, 8th place at Grand Prix Dallas in 2007, 33rd place at Pro Tour Honolulu in 2009, 2nd place at SCG Invitational Indianapolis in 2011, 3rd place at SCG Invitational Seattle in 2014 and is the Champion of SCG Open Indianapolis 2015 as well as the 1st place, gold trophy winner, undisputed champion of the SCG Players’ Championship 2015. Jim lives in Long Island NY.
Read More...Robert Wallerstein has played Magic for 13 years and made his first Grand Prix Top 8 in Mexico City 2016. He is mainly a drafter and bases his success on solid drafting fundamentals. He will make his first Pro Tour appearance in Madrid 2016. Robert is from Akron Ohio and has an amazing, uplifting Magic community.
Read More...Eric Freytag is the founder and CEO of PucaTrade.com. He’s been playing Magic since 1994, has 14 commander decks, and spends most of his MtG time brewing in Vintage, Legacy, and Modern.
Read More...Parker Willard recently made day two and cashed Grand Prix Pittsburgh playing Merfolk. He’s an average Joe grinder hoping to work his way to the Pro Tour. Parker lives in Michigan.
Read More...Gaby Spartz streams Magic: The Gathering on Twitch by night and by day she’s the co-founder and VP of Content at Dose, the Chicago-based media company behind Dose.com and OMGFacts.com. Gaby lives in the windy city of Chicago.
Read More...Whitney Otteson is an avid Magic: The Gathering player and game store owner from Walla Walla, Washington. She has taken recent interest in the competitive scene by making and achieving a goal to make day 2 of Grand Prix Oakland 2015. This accomplishment has motivated her to set her sights even higher.
Read More...Pierre Dagen is a 28 year old French entrepreneur who has been playing Magic: The Gathering since about 2006. His first Pro Tour was Paris 2011, and since then he has scored 3 Grand Prix Top 8s and a Pro Tour Top 8, as well as making it to the Top 4 of the World Magic Cup in 2015 as the captain of team France. Formerly a founding member of team Revolution, he is now part of team EUreka.
Read More...Woodrow Engle is a dual Magic and poker player from Seattle, WA. He broke into the upper tier of tournament play by making his first Grand Prix Top 8 at Grand Prix Oakland 2016.
Read More...Ondrej Strasky is 20 years old and is already a Platinum Pro! He was the 2015 Czech World Magic Cup captain and has 1 Grand Prix Top 8 at Grand Prix Brussels 2015, and 2 Pro Tour Top 8s at Pro Tour Honolulu and Pro Tour Brussels. Ondrej lives in the Czech Republic.
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