Top 25 Rankings: April 17, 2014

Welcome to our latest look at the Magic Top 25 Pro Rankings, and another double-header weekend of Grand Prix action. In Japan, Nagoya was the venue, while Philadelphia hosted North American action, with both cities featuring Theros/Born of the Gods Limited. Nagoya saw two of the three biggest movers on the weekend. Hong Kong's Lee Shi Tian has an excellent track record, most recently when making the Top 8 of Pro Tour Born of the Gods in Valencia. In Nagoya, he had to settle for 3 additional Pro Points, thanks to a 13th-place finish. Even so, in a tightly packed group in the rankings, those points were enough to take him past Josh Utter-Leyton, Alexander Hayne, Jacob Wilson, Stanislav Cifka, and Willy Edel, up five places to No. 10.

The other climber to come out of Nagoya was Kentaro Yamamoto, another player who has a Pro Tour Top 8 to his name this season, in this case from Pro Tour Theros back in Dublin, last year. In Nagoya, his efforts were good enough for 32nd place, and that's a good place to be, since it nets a 2nd Pro Point for being inside the Top 32. His ranking shifts upwards by three to No. 22.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, David Ochoa also rose three spots, climbing from No. 24 up to No. 21, bypassing Chris Fennell, Raphaël Lévy, and Martin Juza. Although he was the biggest mover in terms of points, he wasn't the most successful, since both William Jensen and No. 2 Reid Duke both added another Grand Prix Top 8 to their career highlight reels. Nonetheless, with the five Grand Prix Cap Rule in operation—points are only awarded for the best five GP finishes across the season—Jensen's quarterfinal exit didn't gain him any points, while Duke edged closer to the No. 1 ranked Jérémy Dezani.

Now we enter a quiet few weeks on the Pro scene, with the focus squarely on Journey Into Nyx. Join us next week for more on the Magic Top 25 Pro Rankings.

Updated April 17, 2014

Rank	Name	Points	Change		Previous
1	Jeremy Dezani	69.49			1
2	Reid Duke	62.50			2
3	Owen Turtenwald	57.54			3
4	Ben Stark	54.66			4
5	Samuel Black	52.41			5
6	Shahar Shenhar	50.74			6
7	Tom Martell	50.11			7
8	Yuuya Watanabe	49.63			8
9	Shuhei Nakamura	47.98			9
10	Shi Tian Lee	46.58		+5	15
11	Josh Utter-Leyton	46.51		-1	10
12	Alexander Hayne	45.93		-1	11
13	Jacob Wilson	44.93			13
14	Stanislav Cifka	44.74		-2	12
15	Willy Edel	44.50		-1	14
16	Josh Mcclain	43.64			16
17	Makihito Mihara	42.54			17
18	Paul Rietzl	41.17			18
19	Shaun Mclaren	40.72			19
20	Eric Froehlich	39.63			20
21	David Ochoa	39.50		+3	24
22	Kentaro Yamamoto	39.20		+3	25
23	Chris Fennell	38.21		-2	21
24	Raphael Levy	37.65		-1	23
25	Martin Juza	37.50		-3	22

Dropped from rankings: William Jensen