Defeating over 1,200 other players, Japanese pro Tomoharu Saito came out on top when his Merfolk deck defeated Tom Martell's CounterTop deck. Grand Prix Columbus is Saito's sixteenth GP Top 8 and his fourth GP Victory. The previous three occurred at Grand Prix Kobe in 2009, Grand Prix Singapore in 2009, and Strasbourg in 2007.

Adding drama to the two day event was the late disqualification of Drew Levin. He would have been the 8th player in the tournament's Top 8, but he was disqualified after defeating Craig Wescoe in the sixteenth round. Wizards has not issued an official explanation of what happened, but our understanding by bystanders was that after defeating Wescoe, Levin announced loudly that he had won a bet with a friend on whether or not he would make the Top 8 at this event. The Top 8 was delayed for over 40 minutes as an investigation was immediately held. Again, this is not the official explanation of what the disqualification was for, we are reporting our most educated guess.

With Levin's disqualification, Brad Nelson slipped into the Top 8, nudging past Donnie Peck by 0.1 points in his tie-breakers.

Read more at Wizards.com

"1st. Merfolk - Tomoharu Saito"

• Lands (21)
• 2 Flooded Strand
• 2 Island
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Mutavault
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 2 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Underground Sea
• 4 Wasteland

• Creatures (20)
• 4 Coralhelm Commander
• 4 Cursecatcher
• 4 Lord of Atlantis
• 4 Merrow Reejerey
• 4 Silvergill Adept

• Spells (19)
• 4 Aether Vial
• 4 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 4 Standstill

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Engineered Plague
• 2 Nature's Ruin
• 1 Perish
• 3 Submerge
• 3 Tormod's Crypt
• 2 Umezawa's Jitte

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"2nd - Tom Martell"

• Lands (22)
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 2 Island
• 1 Karakas
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 3 Tropical Island
• 3 Tundra
• 2 Volcanic Island

• Creatures (6)
• 4 Tarmogoyf
• 2 Vendilion Clique

• Spells (47)
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Counterbalance
• 3 Counterspell
• 3 Firespout
• 4 Force of Will
• 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 4 Sensei's Divining Top
• 2 Spell Snare
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Blue Elemental Blast
• 1 Firespout
• 1 Grim Lavamancer
• 1 Hydroblast
• 3 Krosan Grip
• 1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
• 1 Meddling Mage
• 1 Pyroblast
• 1 Red Elemental Blast
• 2 Relic of Progenitus
• 2 Spell Pierce

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