Welcome to the Pro Tour Amonkhet Team Series preview countdown. If you haven’t caught up yet, make sure you check out the previous articles and then come back here and learn about the next four teams hoping to make a big splash in Nashville!
#24 Hotsauce Games
With members like Raymond Perez, Jr, Gregory Orange, and (former Hipsters writer) Gabe Carleton-Barnes, Hotsauce Games looked like a solid dark horse pick going into the Pro Tour Team Series. But GCB missed getting a Silver invite to PT Amonkhet by one Pro Point (so brutal) and will be joined on the sideline by Stephen Neal. With only 22 points from PT Aether revolt, missing two players will deal a significant blow to Hotsauce’s chances of keeping up with the teams stacked with Hall of Famers.
#23 Fire Squad
The Fire Squad did not have the fire showing they were hoping for at PT Aether Revolt and are sitting in the bottom third of the table with 22 points. The team has a collective 7 GP Top 8s and even a PT Top 8 from Ben Hull, but even with a solid record of high level finishes, Fire Squad definitely underperformed at PT Aether Revolt. They’ll be missing one of their less decorated players, David Shiels, at PT Amonkhet, but missing even one player when you’re this far behind the leaders could spell doom for the Fire Squad.
#22 MTG Bent Card
MTG Bent Card is definitely in the running for my favorite team name PT Team Series but it they aren’t currently in the running for the PT Team Series title. With heavy hitters like Andrea Mengucci, Christian Calcano, and Corey Baumeister, MTG Bent Card has the tools to make a run to the top third of the table by the end of the season, but they’ll be playing a man down (Anthony Lee) at PT Amonkhet.
#21 Massdrop West
It’s hard to believe that a team with two recent Pro Tour winners (PT Oath of the Gatewatch winner Jiachen Tao and PT Khans of Tarkir winner Air Lax) would only manage 23 points from PT Aether Revolt, but Massdrop West finds itself in the bottom third of the standings going into PT Amonkhet. It’ll take some valiant performances from Massdrop West to move up the rankings after PT Amonkhet, but they have three players with at least one PT Top 8 and, importantly, they’ll be playing with a full squad.
David McCoy contributed to this article.