Jon Finkel

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Jon Finkel (May 18, 1978—) is an American Magic: The Gathering player, currently ranked second all time in Pro Tour earnings, with $291,896 won in DCI sanctioned tournaments. He has won numerous Pro Tour tournaments and was the 2000 World Champion. Affectionately known as "Jonny Magic", he has been considered a poster boy for Magic: the Gathering since his rise in the late 1990's. Many consider him to be the best player the game has ever seen, although that title has recently been challenged by Kai Budde of Germany, who has surpassed Finkel's marks for lifetime earnings and Pro Tour titles.

Finkel was inducted into the first class of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame after receiving 67 out of 69 possible votes. In regards to Finkel's nomination for this position, Mark Rosewater, head of the design department of Magic: the Gathering Research and Development stated, "[Jon] is the most naturally gifted player the game has ever seen. His accomplishments are rivaled by only one other man (Kai Budde, Germany)."

After winning the 2000 Magic Invitational, Finkel had the privilege of designing a card for the game. The card he designed was Shadowmage Infiltrator (originally named "Shadowmage of Leknif", "leknif" being "Finkel" spelled backwards), which appeared in the Odyssey set and later in Time Spiral. Finkel originally submitted a different card: a variant of the popular card Wrath of God appropriately named "Wrath of Leknif", but it was deemed too powerful by Wizards of the Coast Research & Development. Jon offered to increase the card's casting cost, thereby weakening it, but the R&D staff chose to reject the design altogether.

In recent years, Finkel, like fellow Magic players David Williams and Noah Boeken, has been playing in high-level poker tournaments. Finkel has not been as successful as the aforementioned players Williams and Boeken.

Jon has been involved with Tenacious Games in the development of their game The Spoils as an advisor since 2002. In 2006, he also became an investor in the company.

Jon is the subject of the book Jonny Magic and the Cardshark Kids by David Kushner, published by Random House in August, 2005.

After a two year hiatus from competitive play, Jon Finkel returned to play Magic at Pro Tour: Prague on May 5, 2006, finishing 301st out of 414 entrants. [1]. He, along with former teammates Dan and Steve O'Mahoney-Schwartz, participated in Pro Tour Charleston on June 18. Their team, Antarctica, finished 141st out of 175 teams. [2]

[edit] References

Kushner, David (2005). Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids : how a gang of geeks beat the odds and stormed Las Vegas. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6407-4.