Top 25 Rankings: November 14, 2013

It's time for our weekly look at the Magic Top 25 Pro Rankings, and this time the focus was on the European Grand Prix in Valencia, where Theros Limited was the format battleground. Three of the Top 25 were in attendance—World Champion Shahar Shenhar of Israel; Hall of Famer Raphaël Lévy; and Martin Juza, looking for his nineteenth Grand Prix Top 8.

Of the three, Lévy had by far the best performance, with a real rollercoaster ride through the weekend. Following a Round 8 loss to Piero Lombardi of Italy, Lévy had to win his final round just to make it into Day Two. Once there, he could leave Sealed behind and focus on Theros Draft. Like with any top-tier pro, letting Lévy into Day Two, even on the minimum 7–2 record, makes him a danger all the way, and he relentlessly marched his way up the standings with win after win, his 5–0 record leaving him a win-and-in for the Top 8...

...and that's where the run ended. In heartbreaking fashion, it was a Lightning Strike from Aleksejs Laizans that took the Latvian into the Top 8, and for the fourth time in his career, Lévy was left in 9th place.

With Shenhar and Juza failing to make Day Two, what impact has Valencia had on our overall Top 25? Shenhar remains at No. 4, just over a point behind his World Championship finals opponent Reid Duke. There's a gap to the Japanese pair of Shuhei Nakamura and Yuuya Watanabe, and Lévy's reward for coming oh so close is to nudge further into the Top 20, ahead of Pro Tour Amsterdam champion Paul Rietzl.

Next up is the capital idea of a Legacy Grand Prix in Washington DC, where we can expect many of the stars to come out to play. Join us next week for another look inside the Magic Top 25 Pro Rankings.

Past rankings

Week of:

Updated November 7, 2013

Rank	Name	Points	Change		Previous
1	Ben Stark	71.81			1
2	Josh Utter-Leyton	70.99			2
3	Reid Duke	69.08			3
4	Shahar Shenhar	67.72			4
5	Shuhei Nakamura	64.36		+1	6
5	Yuuya Watanabe	64.36			5
7	Willy Edel	62.08			7
8	Stanislav Cifka	57.72			8
9	Tom Martell	55.63			9
10	Samuel Black	55.27			10
11	Jeremy Dezani	54.18			11
12	Makihito Mihara	52.54			12
13	Eric Froehlich	52.36			13
14	Martin Juza	52.08			14
15	David Ochoa	49.08			15
16	Brian Kibler	46.36			16
17	Paul Rietzl	42.63			17
18	Raphael Levy	41.90			18
19	David Sharfman	40.90			19
20	Craig Wescoe	40.63			20
21	Luis Scott-Vargas	39.90			21
22	Owen Turtenwald	39.54			22
23	Jon Stern	38.54			23
24	Shi Tian Lee	37.99			24
25	Christian Calcano	37.63			25

Updated November 14, 2013

Rank	Name	Points	Change		Previous
1	Ben Stark	71.28			1
2	Josh Utter-Leyton	70.32			2
3	Reid Duke	68.63			3
4	Shahar Shenhar	67.26			4
5	Shuhei Nakamura	63.89			5
6	Yuuya Watanabe	63.79			6
7	Willy Edel	61.63			7
8	Stanislav Cifka	57.26			8
9	Tom Martell	55.04			9
10	Samuel Black	54.96			10
11	Jeremy Dezani	53.94			11
12	Makihito Mihara	52.12			12
13	Eric Froehlich	51.79			13
14	Martin Juza	51.63			14
15	David Ochoa	48.63			15
16	Brian Kibler	45.89			16
17	Raphael Levy	44.59		+1	18
18	Paul Rietzl	42.34		-1	17
19	David Sharfman	40.59			19
20	Craig Wescoe	40.24			20
21	Luis Scott-Vargas	39.49			21
22	Owen Turtenwald	39.12			22
23	Jon Stern	38.22			23
24	Shi Tian Lee	37.61			24
25	Christian Calcano	37.34			25

Rankings Formula:

Ranking Points = [Player's Current Season Pro Points] + [Player's Previous Season Pro Points × (1 – % of this year's available Pro Points awarded)]

Example: If 25% of the total possible points for 2013–14 have been awarded, Player X's points for the purposes of this ranking are (current season points)+(last season points × .75).

• Who's the Best? Magic's New Top 25 Rankings