Luis Scott-Vargas
Age: 25
Hometown: Oakland, California
Occupation: Magician
Number of Times Playing on the Pro Tour: 10+
How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Berlin? Pro Level
Number of GP/PT Top 8s: 2 Grand Prix Top 8s
Other previous Magic accomplishments: 2 U.S. Nationals Top 8s, 1 win
How did you prepare for Pro Tour- Berlin? Who did you prepare with?
Paul Cheon, Patrick Chapin, and I came to Berlin two weeks early to test with Manuel Bucher, the Ruels, and the Guillaumes.
What deck are you playing and why?
Elves, since it goldfishes turn 2.
How did your deck evolve during your testing?
We decided the Hivemaster and Essence Warden were too slow and went all-in with 4 Summoner's Pact and 3 Weird Harvest.
What deck did you think was going to be the most-played archetype in Berlin?
Zoo.
How was your deck designed to beat the most-played archetype?
Four Jitte and one Big Mike (Mycoloth) to just attrition them out.
What is the worst matchup for your deck?
Tezzeret (which I play Round 1 of Top 8).
Denis Sinner
Age: 25
Hometown: Hof
Number of Times Playing on the Pro Tour: 2
How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Berlin?
Winning a PTQ.
Number of GP/PT Top 8s: This is the first one.
Other previous Magic accomplishments: None...
How did you prepare for Pro Tour- Berlin? Who did you prepare with?
I tested with some friends.
What deck are you playing and why?
Faeries, because it wins versus Elfball.
How did your deck evolve during your testing?
It evolved a lot.
What deck did you think was going to be the most-played archetype in Berlin?
Elfball.
How was your deck designed to beat the most-played archetype?
Early disruption, good sideboard.
What is the worst matchup for your deck?
This Tezzeret thing or so.
Jan Doise
Age: 24
Hometown: Leuven, Belgium
Occupation: Process Engineer
Number of Times Playing on the Pro Tour: 15-20
How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Berlin? Pro Points
Number of GP/PT Top 8s: 3 GP, 1st Pro Tour
Other previous Magic accomplishments: Belgian National Champion 2002
How did you prepare for Pro Tour- Berlin? Who did you prepare with?
Tested 4-5 evenings and emailed a lot with all the Belgians, Frank Karsten and Zac Hill.
What deck are you playing and why?
Elves! We had it about three weeks before the Pro Tour, didn't look back and tuned it to perfection.
How did your deck evolve during your testing?
As mulliganing a lot seemed the deck's biggest problem, I took out cards that made you mulligan more (Distant Melody, Chord of Calling). Mirror Entity proved to be the best win condition.
What deck did you think was going to be the most-played archetype in Berlin?
Zoo.
How was your deck designed to beat the most-played archetype?
Essence Warden/Wirewood Hivemaster/Wirewood Symbiote are creatures that Zoo loses to if they don't kill it.
What is the worst matchup for your deck?
Decks with a lot of hate against Elves. If you really want to beat it, it's not too hard (Chalice of the Void, Darkblast, Trinisphere...)
Kenny Öberg
Age: 23
Hometown: Gothenburg
Occupation: Grinder
Number of Times Playing on the Pro Tour: About 10
How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Berlin? PTQ
Number of GP/PT Top 8s: First!
Other previous Magic accomplishments: Five time in a row PTQ Winner
How did you prepare for Pro Tour- Berlin? Who did you prepare with?
Together with other friends from Sweden. About 10 were qualified and it has been a great team!
What deck are you playing and why?
"Tezzerator"
Tezzeret wins against everything almost by himself.
How did your deck evolve during your testing?
We tried different colors, and ended up with Blue / Red splashing green for Ancient Grudge. We cut the white, which we had for Condemns. Last minute, we added Riptide Laboratory.
What deck did you think was going to be the most-played archetype in Berlin?
Zoo
How was your deck designed to beat the most-played archetype?
Ensnaring Bridge game 1, Firespouts game 2.
What is the worst matchup for your deck?
Turn 2 Combo
Tomoharu Saito
Age: 24
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
Occupation: Pro Magic Player and Card Trader
Number of Times Playing on the Pro Tour: Over 20 times
How did you qualify for Pro Tour-Berlin? Pro – LEVEL 8
Number of GP/PT Top 8s: 9 / 5, including this one
Other previous Magic accomplishments: PT Yokohama 4th, PT Charleston 1st, PT Kobe 7th, PT Atlanta 4th, and 9 GP Top 8s (1 win at Strasbourg)
How did you prepare for Pro Tour- Berlin? Who did you prepare with?
Practiced in my room's play space, with Yuuya Watanbe, Jyunya Iyanaga and other Japanese players.
What deck are you playing and why?
Elves, it's the best.
How did your deck evolve during your testing?
Little, and little.
What deck did you think was going to be the most-played archetype in Berlin?
1st Zoo, 2nd Elves, 3rd Death Cloud
What is the worst matchup for your deck?
Mirror match, I think. I should only lose to Elves in this PT.
Sebastian Thaler
Age: 21
Number of Times Playing on the Pro Tour: 13
How did you qualify for Pro Tour Berlin? Pro points
Number of GP/PT top 8s: 2 PT, 3 GP
Other previous Magic achievements: Rookie of the year 2006
How did you prepare for Pro Tour Berlin?
Who did you prepare with? Nicolay Potovin, Raul Porojan, Joel Calafel, Klaus Joens, Martin Juza
What deck are you playing and why?
Elfball – it's very cool
How did your deck evolve during testing?
The deck has lots of good matchups
What deck did you think was was going to be the most-played archetype in Berlin?
Zoo on day one, Elfball on day two.
How was your deck designed to beat the most-played archetype?
It works really good – try it and you'll see.
What is the worst matchup for your deck?
Decks with Chalice / Trinisphere and cards like Firespout / Wrath of God
Matej Zatlkaj
Age: 23
Hometown: Bratislava
Occupation: Student
Number of times played on the Pro Tour: 5
How did you qualify for Pro Tour Berlin? GP Madrid top 16
Number of GP / PT top 8s: GP Krakow top 8, this is my first PT top 8
Other previous Magic achievements: Slovak National Champion 2003
How did you prepare for Pro Tour Berlin? Who did you prepare with?
Some testing with friends who qualified, plus Martin Juza and the people around him
What deck are you playing and why?
Elves. It's just the best deck – very synergistic, consistent and fast! Martin Juza told me and I trust him.
How did your deck evolve during your testing?
The version changed only a little bit from the original version and the board got tuned.
What did you think was going to be the most-played archetype in Berlin?
Zoo for sure, and a lot of Elves
How was your deck designed to beat the most-played archetype?
It was an ok matchup, we just tried to be prepared for all the other decks
What is your worst matchup?
Any deck with a tonne of mass removal, and probably Kenny Öberg's deck
Martin Juza
Age: 21
Hometown: Pilzen, Czech Republic
Number of times played on the Pro Tour: About 12
How did you qualify for Pro Tour Berlin? PT Hollywood top 50, level 5, GP Birmingham top 16
Number of GP/PT top 8s: 1
Other previous Magic accomplishments: 10th PT Kuala Lumpur, 19th PT Hollywood, 2 times Czech National Champion
How did you prepare for Pro Tour Berlin?
Who did you prepare with? Tested with Sebastian Thaler, Nicolay Potovin, Raul Porojan, Joel Calafel and Klaus Joens. I'm pretty sure we have the best version.
What deck are you playing and why?
ELVES! Because the worst matchup is the mirror.
How did your deck evolve during testing?
We tried pretty much everything.
What deck did you think was going to be the most played archetype in Berlin?
Zoo
What is the worst matchup for your deck?
The mirror