2014 World Magic Cup

The 2014 World Magic Cup, the third World Magic Cup, was held on 5–7 December 2014 in Nice, France. It featured 72 different national teams, with Colombia and Paraguay making their WMC debut. It was won by Denmark, captained by Martin Müller, who won against Greece in the final with an iconic <c>Duneblast</c>, dubbed "the Daneblast".
==Format and schedule==
The 2014 World Magic Cup featured two formats: Khans of Tarkir Team Sealed and Team Unified Standard. Team Sealed is a variation of Sealed deck where the team shares a pool of twelve Booster packs, which is used to build three 40-card decks. Team Unified Standard differs from regular Standard in that all three team decks must not include more than four copies of any given card (other than basic lands). In both formats, teams played against opposing national teams, with the winning team being the first to win two matches (each match being best-of-three-games).
Day 1 - Friday, 5 December
* 3 rounds of Khans of Tarkir Team Sealed
* 4 rounds of Team Unified Standard
Day 1 was seven rounds of Swiss play, with the top 32 teams at the end of the day advancing to Day 2 of competition.
Day 2 - Saturday, 6 December
* 3 rounds of Khans of Tarkir Team Sealed
* 3 rounds of Team Unified Standard
On Day 2, teams were divided, according to their standing within the event (seeding), into eight groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Khans of Tarkir Team Sealed. The top two teams in each group advanced; if two or more teams were tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced. The teams were then divided again, according to their standing within the event, into four groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Team Unified Standard. The top two teams in each group advanced to Day 3 of competition; if two or more teams are tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced.
Day 3 - Sunday, 7 December
* Quarterfinals, semifinals and final, featuring Team Unified Standard
The top eight teams then competed in a seeded (based on total number of points from Day 1 and Day 2), single-elimination bracket.
==Day 1==
With 72 teams in the field, 40 of them were eliminated after the first day. Surprising casualties included Japan, headed by two-time Player of the Year Yuuya Watanabe; although they made it to a 4–3 record, they ended up just outside of the top 32 due to poor tiebreakers. Sharing this fate was Germany, captained by Pro Tour Born of the Gods top eight competitor Patrick Dickmann. Another team many had anticipated to do well was Switzerland, led by Nico Bohny, and also containing experienced players Andreas Ganz and Samuel Marti. Canada was a team with two Pro Tour champions, Shaun McLaren and Alexander Hayne, but they only picked up a single win on the day. On top of the standings after day one was Malaysia; their captain being Raymond Tan, and they also had Joe Soh on the team, brother of Terry Soh.
The top eight teams after day one:
Rank	Country 	Points
1 	Malaysia 	19
2 	Slovak Republic	16
3 	Netherlands 	16
4 	Israel 	16
5 	Sweden 	16
6 	Argentina 	16
7 	Uruguay 	16
8 	Serbia 	16
==Day 2==
===First round of pool play===
The first three rounds on Day 2, featuring Khans of Tarkir Team Sealed, eliminated the top ranking team after Day 1, Malaysia, despite having been three points ahead of the field.
{| class="wikitable" width=300p	 	 	
Rank	Country 	Points	Seed
1 	Hong Kong	6 	16
2 	Greece 	6 	32
3 	Malaysia 	3 	1
4 	Thailand 	3 	17
{| class="wikitable" width=300p	 	 	
Rank	Country	Points	Seed
1 	England	6 	12
2 	Hungary	6 	21
3 	Sweden 	3 	5
4 	Norway 	3 	28
===Second round of pool play===
In the second round of pool play, the top four seeded teams were all eliminated, posting a combined record of 0–12 in the final three matches.
{| class="wikitable" width=300p	 	 	
Rank	Country 	Points	Seed
1 	England 	9 	8
2 	Brazil 	6 	9
3 	Slovenia	3 	16
4 	Uruguay 	0 	1
==Day 3==
Place	Country 	Player 	Prize 	Pro Points	Place	Country 	Player 	Prize 	Pro Points
1 	Denmark 	Martin Müller 	$12,000	8 	5 	South Korea	Nam Sung-wook 	$2,000	5
1 	Denmark 	Simon Nielsen 	$12,000	8 	5 	South Korea	Oh Joon-hyun 	$2,000	5
1 	Denmark 	Thomas Enevoldsen 	$12,000	8 	5 	South Korea	Cho Jeong-woo 	$2,000	5
1 	Denmark 	Lars Birch 	$12,000	8 	5 	South Korea	Kim Sang-eun 	$2,000	5
2 	Greece 	Marios Angelopoulos	$6,500 	7 	6 	Serbia 	Aleksa Telarov 	$2,000	5
2 	Greece 	Bill Chronopoulos 	$6,500 	7 	6 	Serbia 	Miodrag Kitanovic	$2,000	5
2 	Greece 	Panagiotis Savvidis	$6,500 	7 	6 	Serbia 	Boris Bajgo 	$2,000	5
2 	Greece 	Socrates Rozakeas 	$6,500 	7 	6 	Serbia 	Milos Stajic 	$2,000	5
3 	England 	Fabrizio Anteri 	$4,000 	6 	7 	Slovakia 	Ivan Floch 	$2,000	5
3 	England 	David Inglis 	$4,000 	6 	7 	Slovakia 	Jan Tomcani 	$2,000	5
3 	England 	Francesco Giorgio 	$4,000 	6 	7 	Slovakia 	Michal Guldan 	$2,000	5
3 	England 	Riccardo Reale 	$4,000 	6 	7 	Slovakia 	Matej Zatlkaj 	$2,000	5
4 	United States	Owen Turtenwald 	$4,000 	6 	8 	Brazil 	Willy Edel 	$2,000	5
4 	United States	Isaac Sears 	$4,000 	6 	8 	Brazil 	Gabriel Fehr 	$2,000	5
4 	United States	Andrew Baeckstrom 	$4,000 	6 	8 	Brazil 	Thiago Saporito 	$2,000	5
4 	United States	Neal Oliver 	$4,000 	6 	8 	Brazil 	Matheus Rosseto 	$2,000	5
==External links==
*2014 World Magic Cup coverage
*2014 World Magic Cup final standings
*Top 16 Team Unified Standard decklists
*2014 World Magic Cup invitation list
*Video coverage playlist
==References==
Category:World Magic Cups
Category:2014