Gerry Thompson Comes Out On Top at Pro Tour Amonkhet

Posted on May 14, 2017

Going into Pro Tour Amonkhet there was one question on many people’s mind: Would the ban work? The emergency ban of Felidar Guardian was designed to increase deck diversity, but in the weeks after the new format hit the scene Mardu Vehicles remained at or near the top of the standings. Would the same hold true in Nashville?

The answer, thankfully, was no. While Mardu Vehicles showed up the deck did not succeed at its former level. Instead the field on Day Two was full of Aetherworks Marvel decks and both Mono-Black and Black-White Zombies. Even though Emrakul, the Promised End was sitting next to Felidar Guardian on the Banned bench these Marvel decks replaced one titan with another and would wheel Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger into play. The Zombie decks had no one large threat but instead relied on cards like Cryptbreaker to generate cards and Liliana's Mastery and Lord of the Accursed to increase the power of their shambling horde.

The Top 8 was full of these decks and star power - fully half of the Top 8 featured Blue-Red-Green Marvel Decks and were piloted by the likes of Pro Tour Hall of Famers Eric Froehlich and Yuuya Wantanabe, World Magic Cup Champion Martin Mueller, and newcomer Mark Tobiasch. Gerry Thompson and Christian Calcano brought Mono-Black Zombies into the fray while Chris Fennell brought the White-Black version. Rounding out the elimination bracket was Ken Yukuhiro - a teammate of Wantanabe - with Black-Green Energy. Each match of the Quarterfinals featured one Marvel player.

Wantanabe dispatched Fennell in three games before doing the same to Mueller in the Semifinals. Mueller earned his trip to the Top 4 by defeated Calcano in three games despite the Zombie pilot resolving two copies of Lost Legacy in the third game. On the other half of the bracket Yukuhiro took out Froehlich in three quick games while Thompson took out the first Marvel deck, defeating Tobiasch in four. Thompson needed four games to take out Yukuhiro and set up showdown with the Hall of Famer and two time Player of the Year Wantanabe.

The finals were a brief affair with Thompson winning the first two games in short order. The first game with access to sideboards saw Wantanabe remove Thompson’s only two lands with Ulamog and set up a fourth game in the match. Gerry has no such mana woes in the fourth game and amassed a horde of undead while Yuuya was unable to find his eldritch being to save the day.

Congratulations Gerry Thompson, your Pro Tour Amonkhet Champion!