Gabriel Nassif
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Gabriel Nassif playing Magic |
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| Born | 8 November 1983 |
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| Residence | Paris, France |
| Nationality |  French |
| Winnings | $192,090 (as of 04/04/06) |
| Pro Tour Top 8 Finishes | 8 |
| Grand Prix Top 8 Finishes | 4 |
| Lifetime Pro Points | 309 |
Gabriel Nassif (born 8 November 1983) is a French professional card player. He is known for his continuous success on the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour and was the 2004 Pro Tour Player of the Year. He also enjoys playing poker, having moderate success at the World Series of Poker in recent years.
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[edit] Biography
Gabriel Nassif first caught public attention at Magic Block Constructed Grand Prix: London, 2001 where he reached the finals with his aggressive White/Blue/Red deck, and lost to German "Juggernaut" Kai Budde. This was only the first of many successes Nassif would have in Constructed. At that time he was already wearing his trademark yellow hat he would be later nicknamed after.
Only one week later did Nassif make Top 4 at Pro Tour: New York 2001 with teammates Nicolas Olivieri and Amiel Tenenbaum, in what was only his second Pro Tour. He again lost in the finals to Kai Budde's team Phoenix Foundation.
After a relatively quiet one year and a half, Nassif returned to success with an impressive string of high finishes, including fifth place at Pro Tour: Venice 2003, second place at 2003 Yokohama Masters, ninth place at the 2003 World Championships, second place at Pro Tour: New Orleans 2003, second place at Pro Tour: Kobe 2004, seventh place at the 2004 World Championships and Pro Tour: Atlanta 2005 champion with teammates Gabriel Tsang and David Rood as team Nova.
With three Pro Tour Top Eights in the 2003-2004 season including two runner-up finishes, Nassif earned the 2004 Player of the Year award. He has been dubbed by many as the best Constructed player in Magic. Indeed, he has often met success with home-made designs. Tooth and Nail, a deck directly derived from Nassif's TwelvePost deck he piloted to the finals at the 2004 Pro Tour Kobe, was the best performing deck in Standard until Mirrodin rotated out of the format in 2005. He showed his gaming prowess again when he made the Top 8 of the 2006 World Championships piloting a blue/white MartyrTron deck that supposedly 'broke the format' and managed a semifinal exit when he was defeated by Makahito Mihara's Dragonstorm combo deck.
Ironically, Nassif made Top 8 of the 2007 World Championships with a mono-red Dragonstorm deck designed by him and American teammate Patrick Chapin, where he again made a semifinal exit while playing against Patrick Chapin in the mono-red Dragonstorm mirror.
[edit] Other Achievements
Gabriel Nassif has made the finals of the 2004 French National Championship, and finished 12th at Pro Tour: Los Angeles 2005. He also has been invited three times to the Magic Invitational.
[edit] Statistics
- Pro Tour Top 8s: 8 (3rd after Jon Finkel, Kai Budde, and tied with Darwin Kastle)
- Grand Prix Top8s: 3
- Lifetime Pro Points: 269 (11th)
- Lifetime Winnings : $192,090 (5th after Kai Budde, Jon Finkel, Olivier Ruel and Antoine Ruel)
[edit] Distinctions
- Nassif was the first player to win the Player of the Year race without a Pro Tour victory that season. (Kenji Tsumura of Japan repeated that feat in the 2005 season)
- Nassif has lost more Pro Tour Finals than any other player.
- Nassif defeated Nikolai Herzog to become Player of the Year, despite the fact that Herzog had won two Pro Tours that year.
