Pro Tour Magic Origins

Pro Tour Magic Origins
Date	31 July–2 August 2015
Location	Template:Flagicon CAN Vancouver, Canada
Attendance	391
Format	Standard and Booster draft
Prize pool	$250,000
Winner	Template:Flagicon SWE Joel Larsson
Previous Pro Tour: Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir Next Pro Tour: Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar

Pro Tour Magic Origins was the fourth Pro Tour and last event of the 2014–15 Pro Tour season. It took place from 31 July to 2 August 2015 in Vancouver, Canada. 391 players participated, and the formats were Standard and Booster draft. The event concluded with Sweden's Joel Larsson defeating the 2014–15 Player of the Year Mike Sigrist 3–2 to become the champion.

Day one

The Pro Tour started with a Magic Origins draft followed by three rounds, with notable 3–0 drafters including Raphaël Lévy, Zvi Mowshowitz, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Makihito Mihara, and Ben Rubin. In the following five rounds of Standard, two decks emerged as strong choices piloted by many top teams: Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact and Mono-Red Aggro. Notably, the Mono-Red Aggro deck didn't feature Goblin Rabblemaster, but instead focused on cheap creatures and burn spells, as well as the new Abbot of Keral Keep.

The top eight players after day one:

Rank	Player	Points	Rank	Player	Points
1	Template:Flagicon JPN Kentaro Yamamoto	24	5	Template:Flagicon USA Mike Sigrist	21
2	Template:Flagicon CAN Rich Hoaen	24	6	Template:Flagicon USA Scott Lipp	21
3	Template:Flagicon JPN Takehiro Fujimoto	21	7	Template:Flagicon FRA Timothée Simonot	21
4	Template:Flagicon USA Bryan Gottlieb	21	8	Template:Flagicon SWE Joel Larsson	21

Day two

The second day of the Pro Tour began with another Magic Origins draft. Kentaro Yamamoto, who had been the overnight leader, opened two copies of Pia and Kiran Nalaar in his draft, and with a 2–1 record kept his lead going into the last constructed rounds; joining him at 10–1 after posting a 3–0 draft record was American Bryan Gottlieb, playing in his third Pro Tour. Yamamoto safely made it to the top eight, but Gottlieb would eventually miss out, finishing the last constructed portion 1–4 to finish in 20th-place. Rich Hoaen, the overnight leader along with Yamamoto, came close to his second Pro Tour top eight, but with his 12–4 record, he missed on tiebreakers to finish ninth. Patrick Cox and Matt Sperling, who had both made it to the elimination rounds of the previous season's Core Set Pro Tour, made it again in Vancouver, finishing 3rd and 6th in the Swiss respectively, sporting 12–3–1 records.

Top 8

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	1	Kentaro Yamamoto	0
	8	Mike Sigrist	2
						8	Mike Sigrist	2
						5	Paul Jackson	0
	4	Stephen Berrios	1
	5	Paul Jackson	2
											8	Mike Sigrist	2
											7	Joel Larsson	3
	3	Patrick Cox	1
	6	Matt Sperling	2
						6	Matt Sperling	0
						7	Joel Larsson	2
	2	Stephen Neal	1
	7	Joel Larsson	2

Quarterfinals

In the first match of the top eight, Joel Larsson defeated Stephen Neal 2–1 in the Mono-Red mirror match. In the last game, Neal made a controversial decision when he decided not to block a Lightning Berserker with a Thunderbreak Regent; the commentators noted after the game that the extra damage he took from the Berserker might have been what turned the game in Larsson's favor. On the final turn of the game, needing to draw a burn spell to win, Larsson topdecked Wild Slash and won the match, and with that earned Platinum status in the Pro Players Club.

The second match was between Ultra Pro teammates Patrick Cox and Matt Sperling. After splitting the first two games, Cox had a considerable lead in game three, but a timely Pharika's Cure and multiple copies of Siege Rhino for Sperling kept him alive against Cox' Mono-Red deck, and Sperling eventually finished Cox off to win the match 2–1 and advance to the semifinals.

The third quarterfinal match was between two players who hadn't played in a Pro Tour top eight before: Stephen Berrios and Paul Jackson. Berrios had opted for the Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact deck, while Jackson was running a more traditional deck: Green-Red Devotion, featuring Dragonlord Atarka. Jackson won the match 2–1.

Kentaro Yamamoto had been the dominant player for the first two days of competition, but his Abzan Megamorph deck swiftly fell to Mike Sigrist's Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact deck; Sigrist won 2–0.

Semifinals

Joel Larsson with Mono-Red faced Matt Sperling's Abzan Control deck in the first semifinals. It was a quick affair; Sperling mulliganed to six in both games, and Larsson won the match comfortably in two games, the first taking less than two minutes.

In the second semifinal between Mike Sigrist and Australia's Paul Jackson, Sigrist would be the 2014–15 Player of the Year if he won the match. Similar to the other semifinal, it was not a close match, with Sigrist's Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact deck defeating Jackson's Green-Red Devotion 2–0, thus earning Sigrist the Player of the Year title.

Finals

The final was between Sweden's Joel Larsson and American Mike Sigrist. Interestingly, both players finished the Swiss portion of the event 12–4, needing to rely on their tiebreakers to make the top eight. This was also Larsson's second trip to a Pro Tour final, having already lost the championship match of Pro Tour Gatecrash to Tom Martell in 2013. Larsson took the early lead in the match after Sigrist stumbled on mana, but Sigrist battled back to 2–1. Larsson won the fourth game despite keeping a one-land hand, and in the fifth game, Sigrist mulliganed to three cards, and was unable to put up sufficient resistance against Larsson's Mono-Red deck. As such, Larsson won the match 3–2.

Place	Player	Deck	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Template:Flagicon SWE Joel Larsson	Mono-Red Aggro	$40,000	30	Second Pro Tour Top 8
2	Template:Flagicon USA Mike Sigrist	Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact	$20,000	26	Second Pro Tour Top 8
3	Template:Flagicon AUS Paul Jackson	Green-Red Devotion	$12,500	22
4	Template:Flagicon USA Matt Sperling	Abzan Control	$12,500	22	Second Pro Tour Top 8
5	Template:Flagicon JPN Kentaro Yamamoto	Abzan Megamorph	$10,000	18	Third Pro Tour Top 8
6	Template:Flagicon USA Stephen Neal	Mono-Red Aggro	$10,000	18
7	Template:Flagicon USA Patrick Cox	Mono-Red Aggro	$10,000	18	Third Pro Tour Top 8
8	Template:Flagicon USA Stephen Berrios	Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact	$10,000	18

Player of the Year Race

The 2014–15 Player of the Year had been given much attention during the event and prior to it. Eric Froehlich had been in the lead for most of the year, and was coming into the event three Pro Points ahead of his closest competitors, Lee Shi Tian and Sam Black. When Froehlich started the event 0–3 (though 4–4 to finish the day), and Shi Tian and Black starting out 6–2 and 7–1, respectively, Froehlich was very unlikely to retain his position in the race. However, Froehlich finished day two 7–0–1 to finish 19th, while Shi Tian and Black put up mediocre day two performances, finishing 55th and 48th. But despite Froehlich's strong finish, Mike Sigrist, while having started the tournament 13 points adrift of Froehlich, managed to overtake Froehlich's lead by placing second in the event, earning 26 Pro Points.

The final standings in the 2014–15 Player of the Year Race:

Player	Pro Points
Template:Flagicon USA Mike Sigrist	73
Template:Flagicon USA Eric Froehlich	71
Template:Flagicon HKG Lee Shi Tian	63
Template:Flagicon USA Sam Black	63
Template:Flagicon USA Brad Nelson	61

Notable performances

• Mike Flores, with his first Pro Tour appearance since Pro Tour Charleston 2006, finished 27th with an 11–5 record, qualifying him for Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar. This was Flores' best Pro Tour finish to date.
• After leaving the professional scene for a brief spell at the Wizards of the Coast R&D, Gerry Thompson finished 26th in his Pro Tour comeback.
• Six players went 6–0 in the Booster draft portion of the event: Mike Bryant, Francesco Giorgio, Bryan Gottlieb, Yuki Matsumoto, Zvi Mowshowitz, and Peter Vieren.
• Stephen Neal was undefeated in Standard during the Swiss portion of the event, finishing 9–0–1 with his Mono-Red deck. Philip Arcuni, Rich Hoaen, and Brian Kibler each went 9–1 in Standard.

External links

• Pro Tour Magic Origins Coverage
• Pro Tour Magic Origins final standings
• 24-27 point Standard decklists
• 21-23 point Standard decklists
• 18-20 point Standard decklists
• Pro Tour Magic Origins Invitation list
• Video coverage playlist