Pro Tour Born of the Gods

Pro Tour Born of the Gods was the second Pro Tour of the 2013–14 season. The event had 393 competitors, and took place on 21–23 February 2014 in Valencia, Spain. The formats were Modern and Theros-Theros-Born of the Gods Booster draft, and was the first constructed premier event where Born of the Gods was legal. The event was won by the relatively unknown and lone wolf of the Pro Tour, Shaun McLaren, who defeated Jacob Wilson in the final to become the champion.

The event marked the first time not all top eight matches were best-of-five; instead, starting with this event, the quarterfinals and the semifinals were best-of-three, with each match taking place separately, allowing for full video coverage of each match.

Format
The Pro Tour was preceded by a major banned/restricted list update where Deathrite Shaman was banned, while Bitterblossom and Wild Nacatl were unbanned. The departure of Deathrite Shaman from the format was anticipated to result in a sharp decline in Jund decks, which had previously been the format's top deck. The impact of the unbans was less clear; neither were clear role-players in already-existing top archetypes, but it was speculated that they would each spawn new archetypes built around them.

Day one
A Theros-Theros-Born of the Gods Booster draft started the event. Famous players to start 3–0 included Olle Råde, Kai Budde, Brian Kibler, and Ben Stark. In Modern, the top decks were Zoo, featuring the newly unbanned Wild Nacatl; Splinter Twin of various shapes; Melira Pod; and different iterations of WUR Control. Although no copies of the deck would ultimately reach the top eight, Zoo was by far the most represented deck both on day one and on day two of competition. However, after the first eight rounds of Swiss, Michael Hetrick, wielding Living End, was the lone 8–0 player.

The top eight players after day one:

Day two
Overnight leader Michael Hetrick stumbled out of the gates in the second Theros-Theros-Born of the Gods Booster draft of the Pro Tour, going 1–2. Instead, it was Shaun McLaren who took the position on top going into the final Constructed portion of the event, after finishing his undefeated run in Limited by 3–0'ing pod 1. Hot on his heels was Hong Kong's Lee Shi Tian, who went 2–1. Dutch old school player Arjan van Leeuwen looked to make his first Pro Tour top eight appearance with a mono-black deck based around The Rack, but he lost the last three rounds and finished 54th. Modern aficionados Sam Pardee and Josh McClain had win-and-ins in the penultimate round, but neither managed to convert.

Top 8
In a relatively inexperienced top eight where only one player had past Sunday experience, Canadian Shaun McLaren parlayed his first place seed coming into the day by winning three close matches and taking the title. In the final against Jacob Wilson, it was expected that Wilson had the edge; Wilson's Melira Pod deck was judged to have a good matchup against McLaren's WUR Control, and Wilson had defeated McLaren in the Swiss portion of the event. But in the end, McLaren won the all-Canadian final 3–2.

Trivia

 * Six players posted perfect 6–0 records in Booster Draft: Shaun McLaren, Gaudenis Vidugiris, Nico Bohny, Mathias Wosner, Iris Schwarz, and Katsuhiro Mori.
 * Finland's Anssi Alkio, playing Blue-Red Splinter Twin, had the best Modern record in the Swiss portion of the event: 9–0–1.
 * Mattia Fornacini went 9–1 in Modern with Domain Zoo, but his 1–5 Draft record prevented a Sunday appearance.
 * Notable players making their debut at Pro Tour Born of the Gods: World Magic Cup champion Martin Müller; later US national team member Andrew Baeckstrom; and Jared Boettcher, who would go on to win the 2013–14 Rookie of the Year race, but lost it when he got suspended for cheating.
 * Pro Tour Geneva 2007 champion Mike Hron made his first Pro Tour appearance since Pro Tour Honolulu 2009. He finished 180th.
 * Former pro player Trey Van Cleave returned to the Pro Tour after being absent since Pro Tour New Orleans 2001. At 3–5, he failed to make it to day two of competition.