From April 26-28, 2o19,Magic: The Gatheringplayers met from around the world to participate in the Mythic Championship II in London, where $500,000 and tons of Modern andWar of the SparkBooster Draft cardswere on the line. During this tournament, one of the most prominentMagic: The GatheringPros, Yuuya Watanabe, was disqualified for marking cards.
For those not in the know, Watanabe is Japan’s most prominentMagic: The Gatheringplayer and has several accolades under his belt including being named Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year (the latter on multiple occasions). He was also voted into the Hall of Fame with little resistance, but now it seems there could be a serious investigation underway for his acts during this tournament.
Watanabe was running a modern TRON deck which focuses on control and pumping out large amounts of mana quickly. By getting a Mine, Power Plant, and Tower land card into play quickly, it is possible to have 7 mana on turn 3, typically leading to a quick victory. These are theMagic: The Gatheringcards that Watanabe marked, so he could get them into play as quick as possible.
This marking was discovered during a deck check in round 15 where his land cards were marked in a unique way even from each other, but this marking was not found on any other card in his deck or sideboard. Because the chances of this being accidental are slim-to-none, theMagic: The Gatheringjudges disqualified Watanabe. Wizards of the Coast has also issued a statement that this infraction will be investigated.
As it stands, little is known about Watanabe’s motives behind this cheating or if this was a one-time thing or not. Consideringthe insane value of someMTGcardsand the prize money behind the tournament, the temptation is easy enough to see, but regardless, this does not seem likely to shine a good light on Watanabe in the long run.
Magic: The Gatheringcan be played by assembling a deck of cards for physical play, or digitally inMagic: The Gathering Arenaon PC.
