Feature: The Top 4 Team Profiles

Raaala Pumba

Seat A: Celso Zampere Jr.

Age: 20

Hometown: Sao Caetano Do Sul, Brazil

Occupation: Student

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 3

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PTQ

Number of PT/GP Top 8s?GP Minneapolis Top 8

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: Top 8 Nationals

What was your individual record on Day 1? 4-3 Day 2? 6-1

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
The same as the other Brazilian guys.

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Simic Sky Swallower

Seat B:: Willy Edel

Age: 27

Hometown: Rio De Janeiro

Occupation: Credit Analyst

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 4

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PTQ

Number of PT/GP Top 8s? 0

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: 3 Times Nats Top 8

What was your individual record on Day 1? 4-3 Day 2? 4-3

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
We playtest with the Argentineans and Chileans. We also played lots on the Magic Online beta.

How did you decide who should play which decks?
I got the leftovers and we had to build the Zoo deck since I refused to play Boros (the third deck our playtest group chose).

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Bathe in Light

Seat C:: Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa

Age:18

Hometown: Porto Allegre

Occupation: Physics Student

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 6

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PTQ

Number of PT/GP Top 8s? 1

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: Top 32 Prague and Hawaii

What was your individual record on Day 1? 6-1 Day 2? 6-1

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
I played on Apprentice with friends who were also qualified, and we had a Latin mailing list. Diego Ostrovich built the deck I am playing, I built the BUG, and a friend nicknamed Sandler introduced us to Zoo and Willy modified it.

How did you decide who should play which decks?
I've been playing with BW for a long time, while Celso likes control, so Willy got the leftovers

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Orzhov Pontiff

Kajiharu80

Seat A: Tomohiro Kaji

Age: 22

Hometown: Saitama-ken

Occupation: Student

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 15

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PT Points

Number of PT/GP Top 8s?3 GP / 3 PT

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: X-0 in Type 2 at 2005 Japanese Nats and at Worlds

What was your individual record on Day 1? 2-5 Day 2? 3-4 I am so lucky!

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
My deck all teammates worked on. The other decks were built by Saito and Yasooka.

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Bound/Determined

Seat B:: Shota Yasooka

Age: 21

Hometown: Kanagawa

Occupation: Pro Magic Player

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 6

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? Pro Levels

Number of PT/GP Top 8s?1 GP

What was your individual record on Day 1? 4-3 Day 2? 6-1

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
I built my deck.

How did you decide who should play which decks?
Yasooka and Saito picked the decks they liked and Kaji selected from the rest of the card pool.

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Debtors' Knell

Seat C:: Tomoharu Saito

Age: 22

Hometown: Tokyo-to

Occupation: Card Pro

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 13

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PT Levels

Number of PT/GP Top 8s?4 GP, 2 PT

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: I also made 2 Ninja decks

What was your individual record on Day 1? 6-1 Day 2? 6-1

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks? I practiced with a lot of people, but then one week before the event, Yasooka and I playtested together exclusively and designed the decks because Kaji was so busy with school.

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Dark Confidant, Giant Solifuge

D-25

Seat A: Chikura Nakajima

Age: 30

Hometown: Kanagawa

Occupation: Semi Pachinko Slot Professional

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 8 or 9

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PTQ

Number of PT/GP Top 8s?1 GP

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: Lord of Magic Top 8

What was your individual record on Day 1? 3-4 Day 2? 6-1

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
Teammates

What is the MVP card of your deck? Helldozer

Seat B:: Ryuichi Arita

Age: 29

Hometown: Chiba

Occupation: Game Creator

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 12

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PTQ

Number of PT/GP Top 8s?GP = 0, PT = 4

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: Lord of Magic Finalist

What was your individual record on Day 1? 3-4 Day 2? 5-2

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
With Mr. Mitamura. Mr. Hanaoka, a Legendary Japanese player

Seat C:: Kazuya Mitamura

Age: 26

Hometown: Chiba

Occupation: Student

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 2

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PTQ

Number of PT/GP Top 8s? 0/0

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: Lord of Magic Champ

What was your individual record on Day 1? 6-1 Day 2? 4-3

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Angel

Big Timing With Big Oots

Seat A: Chris McDaniel

Age: 19

Hometown: Richmond, VA

Occupation: Student

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 8

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? Pro Player Club

Number of PT/GP Top 8s? 1GP, 2nd PT

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: 4th PT LA 2005, 4th GP Madison

What was your individual record on Day 1? 4-3 Day 2? 3-2-2

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
A few days on MODO, cramming the night before. The Biggest Oots built our decks.

How did you decide who should play which decks?
Gadiel for control is obvious. Pelcak loves him some burn, so I got the clunky deck.

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Pelcak and Gadiel just kept winning. My deck wasn't really great.

Seat B:: Gadiel Szleifer

Age: 17

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Occupation: Student

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 13

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? 11 combined Pro Levels

Number of PT/GP Top 8s? 3 PT, 2 GP

What was your individual record on Day 1? 5-2 Day 2? Embarrassing

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
I played four times the night before against Chris, that was it. We got the decks from Rasmus Sibast, but more importantly, I had a good vibe about this event.

How did you decide who should play which decks?
John was going to be our aggro deck no matter what because he always plays it. Me and Chris were both control.

Seat C:: John Pelcak

Age: 20

Hometown: Eden Prairie, MN

Occupation: Student

Number of times playing on the Pro Tour: 10?

How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Charleston? PT Levels

Number of PT/GP Top 8s?2 Team GPs

Other Previous Magic Accomplishments: Couple GP Top 16s, 2 GP Top 8s. :B

What was your individual record on Day 1? 5-2 Day 2? 4-3

How did you prepare for the event? Who built your decks?
Tested a bit on Magic Online, got help from Gerry Thompson.

How did you decide who should play which decks?
I don't play control.

What is the MVP card of your deck?
Boros Garrison