PTDKA

[Thomas David Baker]

Well, that was a pretty amazing Top 8. And Wizards' coverage has been pretty sweet throughout. The Finkel-Kibler semi-final was unreal. It actually made me think Standard was good for approximately the first time ever.

Also very glad to see Dan Royde making Day 2 and this page after an 0-2 start.

[Raymond Wat]

Dan R not just made day 2 after 0-2 start, but ended best finishing GB! Must be those draws...he he

[Ben Titmarsh]

Sweet aside from Rich Hagon in the commentary box.  His commentary is typically "thanks everyone for listening", "send me tweets", "Kibler just played Primeval Titan", "Magic is great".. Where is the strategy discussion?  The man offers very little insight into what the players may be thinking and why.  Let's get LSV or Conley in the commentary box, or just someone who has something to say thats worth listening to!

[Thomas David Baker]

It is sad that they so often don't follow the play due to issues with cameras, card familiarity and plain concentration.  They mean well, though, and it was the first time they had so much coverage.

Matteo Orsini-Jones has a fairly critical article up on blackborder where he makes good points:

http://www.blackborder.com/q/node/14153

It's worth reading in case you didn't see the super jedi mind trick Samuele Estratti pulled off from a losing position in the Swiss:

7hr 35mins into this - http://www.twitch.tv/magicprotour/b/308155546

(as he says you will want to start a little bit earlier than that to understand what is going on.)

Awesomely ballsy play, sadly completely missed by the commentators.

[Dan Barrett]

That was ABSOLUTELY SICK.

[Thomas David Baker]

Yeah, it's crazy sick.  Against Tom Martell.  At 6-0 in a Pro Tour.

I love how he puts his hand down face up at the end of the game :)

[Ben Titmarsh]

Wow!  You have to be thinking on another level to pull that one off.  It's the fact that he knows that his opponent is watching carefully and will interpret his actions to mean he has a second Moment while simulataneously making it look like he's fucked up, all in a moment of no apparent consideration.  He must've done that before.

[Daniel Royde]

Comments from the other side:
Closed Pro Tours have some issues (card availability etc) but aside from those it makes the event much more pleasant to be at.

It was hard to notice the extra coverage- except for Richard's one feature match, we weren't in it at all.  It just meant that Rich and BDM weren't wondering around the floor all day :( (It's nice to chat to them sometimes)

The commentary has been bad since they stopped having Pros/Randy Behuler (?) in the booth.

 

[Dan Barrett]

Yea, I heard you got infinite free drafts, and much better giveaways?

[Daniel Royde]

The giveaways weren't really very good- I have a magic I Phone cover... I don't know if it's limited edition, but I suspect not.

Drafts on Saturday and Sunday was nice. I had a feeling that they were going to do that.
Obviously it was nice- you just turned up with 7 others and got a draft set.
On the other hand, it meant that people were in too much of a hurry to get drafts started with anyone who was standing around, rather than  drafting with the people you actually wanted to. 

Other complaints :) were that the PT was too big- 450 is too many. At least they're fixing that for next time.

[Peter Dun]

I thought the coverage wasn't too bad on playskill actually, in the semi finals of finkel vs kibler I was actually very very upset when I saw finkel's last draw in game 5, as I knew he was going to flashback souls and not block (so lose to the galvanic blasts), in order to play around titan. I didn't even realise his actual misplay (flash in snapcaster to block, targetting mana leak) until the commentary pointed it out.

[Peter Dun]

that is a really insane play... especially funny when Tom tells him how bad he is...

what t2 deck did you play dan?

[Thomas David Baker]

He played WW - you can see him on the "good Standard decks" page on Wizards!

And it was a nuts play.  I can't tell if the little quiver in his hand is because he is nervous to see if he gets away with it or faked and part of the show!