Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor

Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor was the first Pro Tour of the 2023–24 season. It took place on February 23-25 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. 
==Pioneer==
With one year between each large-scale event, each format would change significantly, with Pioneer being no exception. Mono-Green Devotion would completely vanish with the ban of <c>Karn, the Great Creator</c>, giving aggro decks a new lease, as 3-mana 4/4s were not as prevalent, as well as perennial contender <c>Arclight Phoenix</c> returning once more, this time as the top registered deck. For new decks, <c>Amalia Benavides Aguirre</c> created a new combo deck with <c>Wildgrowth Walker</c>, while <c>Vein Ripper</c> made for a surprise addition in a Vampire typal deck powered by <c>Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord</c> that Team ChannelFireball brought in. Finally, cross-format favorite Rakdos Midrange fell to third after <c>No More Lies</c> powered up Azorius control decks.
==Day One==
Featured drafters: Jean-Emmanuel Depraz
Depraz drafted a three-color Temur drafter that suffered a bad record, only pulling a win in the third round. Derrick Davis took the feature pod with a Boros deck. ChannelFireball made great strides in the Constructed portion, with nearly all pilots passing through and the highest popular win rate. Jesse Hampton, with two Top 8s a decade ago, was the overnight leader with Phoenix. Phoenix and Amalia decks were successful, but only minorly, as only one- or two-pilot decks had a better record.
The top eight players after day one:
Rank	Player 	Points
1 	Jesse Hampton 	24
2 	Adrián Iñigo Tastet	21
3 	Matthew Guides 	21
4 	Jose Hilario 	21
5 	Adam Edelson 	21
6 	Heathe Butler 	21
7 	Simon Nielsen 	21
8 	Jason Ye 	21
==Day Two==
Featured drafters: Jesse Hampton
Overnight leader Jesse Hampton took a stumble with a 1-2 result, with Adam Edelson posting a perfect draft record for a total of 10-1. Other 6-0 drafters included Luis Scott-Vargas, Tyler Hatchel, James Larsen-Scott, and Márcio Carvalho. Sam Pardee was the first to reach twelve wins in round 14, followed by Edelson defeating Simon Nielsen, Alex Friedrichsen defeating Miguel da Cruz Simões, and Jean-Emmanuel Depraz defeating Jason Ye in Round 15, giving Depraz a consecutive Top Finish. In the final round and for the final four spaces, Seth Manfield defeats Adrian Tastet, Mingyang Chen defeats LSV, Nielsen defeats Ye (for four consecutive), and Christoffer Larsen defeats Hampton, with Javier Dominguez at ninth from tiebreaks. However, at 36 points, Dominguez would still qualify for Worlds, the first player to do so from 9th under the new system.
==Top 8==
An unprecedented situation occurred in the semifinals of the Pro Tour. The Amalia combo has exactly one stopping point when the <c>Wildgrowth Walker</c> is destroyed at the exact time the 20th power is achieved. If neither of these conditions are achieved, the game draws as there is no way to stop the triggers. Most of the time these are irrelevant cases as it requires a pump spell on an opposing Amalia or an indestructible Walker but incidentally Nielsen's Heroic deck has both, and also notably little other interaction that would work. As such, Nielsen and Larsen indeed played seven games in their first to three wins, with their first game, in fact, being a draw.
==Finals==
<c>Vein Ripper</c> was the breakout star, despite being "merely" a large six-mana flier. With eleven players, the deck posted a 60% win rate. Even then, top-registered deck Phoenix was only slightly behind at 57%. With an extra maindeck <c>Duress</c>, Manfield's build was better suited in challenging the spell-based decks of Lotus, Phoenix and ultimately Heroic. In the finale, Manfield defeated Nielsen 3-1: the streamlined Heroic deck suffered against the multi-axis assault that the Vampires presented, with cheap interaction, must-kill smaller threats, and the huge top-end of <c>Vein Ripper</c>.
==Results==
Place	Player 	Deck 	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1 	Seth Manfield 	Rakdos Vampires	$ 	27 	Eleventh Top Finish
2 	Simon Nielsen 	Boros Heroic 	$ 	23 	Fourth consecutive, fifth total Top Finish
3 	Christoffer Larsen 	Amalia Combo 	$ 	20 	Third Top Finish
4 	Mingyang Chen 	Lotus Field 	$ 	20 	
5 	Sam Pardee 	Rakdos Vampires	$ 	18 	Sixth Top Finish
6 	Alex Friedrichsen 	Lotus Field 	$ 	18 	
7 	Adam Edelson 	Izzet Phoenix 	$ 	18 	
8 	Jean-Emmanuel Depraz	Izzet Phoenix 	$ 	18 	Seventh Top Finish
==References==
P137