Pro Tour Dragon's Maze

Pro Tour Dragon's Maze was the last Pro Tour of the 2012–13 season. The event had 388 competitors, and took place on 17–19 May 2013 in San Diego, California, United States. The formats were Block Constructed and Return to Ravnica block Booster draft, and was the first constructed premier event where Dragon's Maze was legal. The final day featured two players in their fourth Pro Tour top eight: Josh Utter-Leyton and Makihito Mihara, but it would be White Aggro specialist Craig Wescoe who earned his first Pro Tour trophy in his third Sunday appearance; he defeated Arizona native Dusty Ochoa in the final.
==Day one==
As with the previous Pro Tour, the event started with a Booster draft (Return to Ravnica block). The featured player was Luis Scott-Vargas, who drafted Red-Green-Blue to a 1–2 record. Players who got off to a better start included Bob Maher, Jr., Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Darwin Kastle, reigning World Champion Yuuya Watanabe, and Tomoharu Saito, playing in his first Pro Tour since his suspension in 2010; these players all started 3–0. Return to Ravnica Block Constructed featured a variety of decks, but the most popular by far was Esper Control, with over 27% of players opting for the <c>Sphinx's Revelation</c> deck. Other decks included Bant Control, Selesnya Aggro, Junk Midrange, and a host of other midrange decks. One deck that garnered considerable attention was the <c>Maze's End</c> deck, predominantly piloted by Swedish players. At the end of the day, one perfect record remained; this belonged to level 2 judge Rob Castellon, who was playing a four-color midrange deck with <c>Sire of Insanity</c> and <c>Deadbridge Chant</c>.
The top eight players after day one:
Rank	Player 	Points	Rank	Player 	Points
1 	Rob Castellon 	24 	5 	Dustin Faeder 	21
2 	Mark Eilers 	22 	6 	Makihito Mihara	21
3 	Egor Khodasevich	21 	7 	Uri Peleg 	21
4 	Simon Bertiou 	21 	8 	Orrin Swift 	21
==Day two==
Rob Castellon continued his undefeated run in the second draft, standing atop the field with an 11–0 record after winning pod 1. The featured player for the second draft was Hall of Famer Bob Maher, Jr., who was sitting on 6–1–1. His four-color deck did not yield much success; he ended up going 0–3 in the draft, and ultimately missed out on a money finish in the event. Famous players who did find success included Craig Wescoe, Gabriel Nassif, Patrick Chapin, and Player of the Year hopeful Josh Utter-Leyton. Nassif came close to his tenth Pro Tour top eight, but faced against Makihito Mihara in round 14, he made a mistake by not keeping mana up for <c>Plasm Capture</c>, and failed to advance; instead, it would be Mihara who would make it to his fourth Sunday appearance after defeating Brian Kibler in the next round. Josh Utter-Leyton would clinch the Player of the Year title by making the top eight of the tournament, and faced by a win-and-in situation against David Sharfman in round 15, he did not fail. Another player making a return to the Sunday stage was Matej Zatlkaj, who finished second at PT Berlin 2008, but had not played on the Pro Tour for a couple of years; he got the win in the penultimate round against Rob Castellon to make it in. Finally, three players couldn't make it to the final eight, but had significant matches in the last round nonetheless: Luis Scott-Vargas, Ari Lax, and Reid Duke. Scott-Vargas and Lax faced each other in a match for top 16 where the winner would hit Platinum in the Pro Players Club; meanwhile, Duke played Denniz Rachid in a match where he would qualify for the 2013 World Championship with a win, and fail to make Platinum with a loss. In the end, Scott-Vargas and Duke won their matches, finishing 11th and 9th, respectively.
==Top 8==
Place	Player 	Deck 	Prize 	Pro Points	Comment
1 	Craig Wescoe 	Green-White Aggro 	$40,000	30 	Third Pro Tour Top 8
2 	Dusty Ochoa 	Esper Control 	$20,000	24 	
3 	Makihito Mihara 	Esper Control 	$12,500	22 	Fourth Pro Tour Top 8
4 	Josh Utter-Leyton	Boros Aggro 	$12,500	22 	Fourth Pro Tour Top 8
5 	Rob Castellon 	4-Color Midrange 	$10,000	20 	Pro Tour debut
6 	Andrew Shrout 	WUR Control 	$10,000	20 	Pro Tour debut
7 	Matej Zatlkaj 	Esper Control 	$10,000	20 	Second Pro Tour Top 8
8 	Andrejs Prost 	White-Blue Control	$10,000	20 	Second Pro Tour Top 8
==Trivia==
*2007 World Champion Uri Peleg participated in his first Pro Tour since 2008, and finished 23rd.
*This was Tomoharu Saito's first Pro Tour appearance since his suspension from the game in 2010. Saito finished 38th.
*Sean Plott ("Day9"), known as a professional StarCraft player and host of Spellslingers, received a special invitation to Pro Tour Dragon's Maze. He finished 369th.
*The best Block Constructed record was 8–1–1. Fiver players shared this score: Makihito Mihara, Andrew Shrout, Oliver Polak-Rottmann, Jonas Köstler, and Sethsilp Chanpleng.
*Seven players went undefeated in booster draft: Craig Wescoe, Rob Castellon, Matej Zatlkaj, Dusty Ochoa, Christian Fehr, Hao-Shan Huang, and Melissa DeTora.
*Notable players who made their debut at Pro Tour Dragon's Maze includes Nathan Holiday and Yuuki Ichikawa.
==External links==
*Pro Tour Dragon's Maze Coverage
*Pro Tour Dragon's Maze final standings
*Top 8 Block Constructed decklists
*Video coverage playlist
==References==
P089