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Pro Tour March of the Machine
Date May 5–7, 2023
Location {USA} Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Attendance 252
Format Standard and Booster draft
Prize pool $500,000
Winner {USA} Nathan Steuer
Previous Pro Tour:
Pro Tour Phyrexia
Next Pro Tour:
Pro Tour Lord of the Rings

Pro Tour March of the Machine was the second Pro Tour of the 2022–23 season. It took place on May 5-7 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Pro Tour March of the Machine was the second event labeled a Pro Tour after the label was discontinued in 2018. Some commentators would go in to call this Pro Tour in coverage "Pro Tour Handshake", after the team that would dominate, due to their excellent read of the meta, deck choice, and top-shelf team members making up four players of the eventual top 8.

Standard[ | ]

Players and Wizards of the Coast recognized that the standard format was not healthy before the Pro Tour, so much so, that new bans were instated afterward, partially based on the dominance of Rakdos Midrange in the meta. In addition to the high costs, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Reckoner Bankbuster, Invoke Despair and Chandra, Hope's Beacon were efficient to the point of unsurmountable. At the Pro Tour, different flavors of this basic shell dominated the meta from Rakdos Reanimator, Rakdos Breach, Grixis Midrange, Grixis Reanimator, and Orzhov Midrange. The reanimator decks used Etali, Primal Conqueror and Atraxa, Grand Unifier as top-end targets, both coming from the eponymous March of the Machine set. Breach decks substituted reanimator spells with Breach the Multiverse.

The other notable deck choices were the aggressive Esper Legends, Domain Control, Five-Color Ramp, Mono-White Midrange, and Jeskai Control.

Day One[ | ]

Featured drafters: Reid Duke

Popular content creator Jim Davis would become the lone undefeated player of the day after defeating Brazilian newcomer Pedro Perrini. Despite Jim Davis's success, it did seem that Channel Fireball misread their matchups, and were weaker than Rakdos Midrange across the board. Additionally, Esper Legends also seemed poorly set up in the meta. Remarkably, four of the seven players on 7-1 were from Team Handshake, with their brew of Rakdos Midrange.

The top eight players after day one:

Rank Player Points
1 {USA} Jim Davis 24
2 {BRA} Pedro Perrini 21
3 {ESP} Javier Dominguez 21
4 {GRC} Charalampos Kikidis 21
5 {DNK} Simon Nielsen 21
6 {DEU} Fabian Klein 21
7 {EST} Karl Sarap 21
8 {USA} Nathan Steuer 21

Day Two[ | ]

Featured drafters: Nathan Steuer

Day Two was Team Handshake's day. In quick succession, Javier Dominguez, Karl Sarap, Simon Nielsen, and Nathan Steuer would earn the requisite 36 points to lock up the top 8. Dominguez defeated Steuer early in the day to lock up his slot, shortly after Steuer and Sarap took a controversial intentional draw instead of playing in round 11. Eventually, this draw proved irrelevant, but commentators thought it was disadvantageous to both their chances: Steuer needed to win his last match to qualify.

Reid Duke and Yuuki Ichikawa would lose win-and-in games in the final round to David Olsen and streamer Cain Rianhard. Willy Edel would reach 34 points, landing in the top 16, in addition to Pedro Perrini. Jim Davis, possibly on account of catching COVID-19, would go an abysmal 1-7 on day two from his stellar 8-0, to barely requalify for Pro Tour Lord of the Rings. Notable 6-0 drafters included Luis Scott-Vargas, who finished 10-6, and Shota Yasooka, who finished 9-7.

Top 8[ | ]

Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
                         
1  Javier Dominguez 1  
8  David Olsen 3  
  8  David Olsen 1  
  4  Nathan Steuer 3  
4  Nathan Steuer 3
5  Yiwen Chen 1  
    4  Nathan Steuer 3
  2  Cain Rianhard 0
3  Simon Nielsen 2  
6  Autumn Burchett 3  
  6  Autumn Burchett 2
  7  Cain Rianhard 3  
2  Karl Sarap 2
7  Cain Rianhard 3  

Despite the top four seeds entirely occupied by Team Handshake, only one member, Steuer, progressed past the quarter-finals, defeating Yiwen Chen. He would then fall to David Olsen, equipped with a Five-Color Ramp deck, finally meeting Cain Rianhard in the finals.

Cain Rianhard, a popular Twitch streamer, was in their first Pro Tour, and themselves was showing their pure ability. Against Mythic Championship Cleveland 2019 winner Autumn Burchett, Rianhard slogged through five excellent games.

In the finals, Nathan Steuer's skill at the game was abundantly clear; in the gritty match between Midrange and Reanimator, most of the edges were gained by playing around threats in the opponent's deck and making judgments on near-uniform probabilities. This would be Steuer's third finish in a row: after Top 8-ing Pro Tour Phyrexia and winning 2022 World Championship. This level of domination drew many comparisons to Luis Scott-Vargas's run in 2016 and Kai Budde. Notably, winning was Steuer's fourth invitation to the 2023 World Championship, after qualifying in the aforementioned events and a MOCS showcase.


Place Player Prize Pro Points Decks Comments
1 {USA} Nathan Steuer $50,000 40 Rakdos Midrange Back-to-Back-to-Back Top Finishes
2 Cain Rianhard $30,000 39 Rakdos Reanimator First Pro Tour
3 {GBR} Autumn Burchett $15,000 39 Orzhov Midrange
4 {CAN} David Olsen $15,000 39 Orzhov Midrange
5 {ESP} Javier Dominguez $10,000 45 Rakdos Midrange Second Pro Tour Top 8
6 {EST} Karl Sarap $10,000 43 Rakdos Midrange
7 {DNK} Simon Nielsen $10,000 42 Rakdos Midrange
8 {CHN} Yiwen Chen $10,000 39 Azorius Soldiers Seventh Pro Tour Top 8
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