Pro Tour Gatecrash was the second Pro Tour of the 2012–13 season. The event had 329 competitors, and took place on 15–17 February 2013 in Montreal, Canada. The formats were Standard and GatecrashBooster draft, and was the first constructed premier event where Gatecrash was legal. The event was significant for being the first Pro Tour to feature a female player in the final eight; long-time professional player Melissa DeTora finished sixth after having led the tournament for most of the way. But it was her quarterfinal opponent, Tom Martell, who went on to claim his first Pro Tour trophy, defeating Joel Larsson in the final.
There was a minor format shift that started with this Pro Tour: The Booster draft on the first day of competition would take place at the beginning of the day rather than at the end.
For the first time since mixed-format Pro Tours were introduced in 2009, the event began with a Booster draft; this event featured triple Gatecrash draft. Coverage followed Ben Stark, who started out drafting Orzhov, but changed mid-pack one to draft Simic instead. He finished the first draft with a 2–1 record. Players who achieved a 3–0 start included Paul Rietzl, Eric Froehlich, Melissa DeTora, and reigning Pro Tour champion Stanislav Cifka. In the Standard portion of the event, the most popular archetype was WUR Control/Tempo variants,[1] featuring the new Gatecrash card Boros Reckoner; some players even opted for an infinite life combo involving Reckoner, Azorius Charm, and Boros Charm. Narrowly behind WUR was Esper Control, frequently with Nephalia Drownyard as its win condition; and in third was Jund, sporting cards such as Liliana of the Veil and Huntmaster of the Fells. The only perfect 8–0 record overnight belonged to Melissa DeTora, who had joined the primarily French testing team "Revolution"; she was running a Bant-colored Control deck splashing for Kessig Wolf Run. This was the first time a female player had posted an undefeated day one record at a Pro Tour.
Melissa DeTora was featured on coverage for the second GatecrashBooster draft; she drafted Orzhov to a 2–1 record, meaning she was in joint lead with Ben Stark and Gerry Thompson coming into the final five Standard rounds. DeTora beat Thompson in round 12 to be only one match away from a top eight berth, but lost the next two matches, needing to win round 15 against David Shiels to advance. In a very long and close match, DeTora eventually came out ahead, securing a Sunday appearance, the first time a female player did so. The first player who clinched top eight slots, however, were Ben Stark and Owen Turtenwald, at 12–2 with two rounds to go. Stark had already won a Pro Tour, and another top eight would solidify his bid for Hall of Fame membership later that year, while former Player of the Year Turtenwald was considered one of the best players in the game without a Pro Tour top eight finish.[2] Gerry Thompson was in a similar situation, having played on the Pro Tour since 2002 without ever quite making a big splash, but he also got his first top eight after defeating Gianluca Spanu in round 15 to advance.
Montreal, Canada
Tom Martell
Felipe Tapia Becerra
Timothée Simonot
Isaac Egan
Paul Renie
Don van Ravenzwaaij
Joel Larsson
