Shouta Yasooka

Shouta Yasooka (八十岡 翔太) is a Japanese Magic: The Gathering player. He is best known for his success in the 2006 Pro Tour season, when he won Pro Tour Charleston with Tomohiro Kaji and Tomoharu Saitou,[7] as well as the Player of the Year title.[8][9] In 2015, Yasooka was elected into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame.[10]

Shouta Yasooka
八十岡 翔太
Born (1984-08-10) 10 August 1984[1]
ResidenceShinjuku, Japan
NationalityJapanJapanese
Pro Tour debut2001 Pro Tour Barcelona[2]
Winnings$391,615[3]
Pro Tour wins (Top 8)2 (12)[4]
Grand Prix wins (Top 8)1 (21)[5]
Lifetime Pro Points600[6]
Planeswalker Level48 (Archmage)

When the Magic Online Player of the Year award was introduced in 2009, Yasooka with his account "yaya3" became the first player to win this honour.[11] He also won the 2009 Magic Online Champion – Sealed title.[12]

Yasooka is currently the lead card designer for the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

Career

Yasooka's Pro Tour career began in 2001 at Pro Tour Barcelona. It would be three years until he played his second Pro Tour in 2004 in Kobe. The following season, he put up two more unimpressive Pro Tour finishes in Nagoya, and Atlanta, before finishing in the top sixteen at that year's World Championship.[13] This finish qualified him for Pro Tour Honolulu, and served as a catalyst for a spectacular run the following season.

After another solid finish in Honolulu, Yasooka first came into the spotlight at Grand Prix Hamamatsu. Along with Akira Asahara and Masaya Kitayama, he finished in second at the team event.[14] To follow up on this finish, Yasooka made the top eight individually at the next premier event held in Asia, Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur. Just a week later, Yasooka put up the best finish of his Pro Tour career at Pro Tour Charleston with Tomoharu Saitou, and Tomohiro Kaji. Despite losing his finals match to Willy Edel, Yasooka's team, Kajiharu80, still won the event.[7] At this event, his teammates accurately predicted that he would win the Player of the Year title that season. The latter half of the season took Yasooka all over the world. He added three more Grand Prix top eights to his resume, in Sydney, Toulouse, and New Jersey, before the end of the season. Going into the World Championship, Yasooka had the lead in the Player of the Year race, and despite earning only the minimum two Pro Points there, no one was able to pass him. As a result, Yasooka became the 2006 Player of the Year with a total of 60 Pro Points.[8][9] Yasooka became the second of five Japanese players to win the Player of the Year title in a row, preceded by Kenji Tsumura and followed by Tomoharu Saito, Shuhei Nakamura and Yuuya Watanabe.[8] This has been referred to as the 'golden age' of Magic in Japan.[1]

Since then, Yasooka has continued to play on the Pro Tour, but without the same degree of success of the 2006 season. He top-eighted three more Grand Prix, Strasbourg, Montreal, and Kitakyushu, in the 2007 season, and Grand Prix Manila in 2008, but did not return to the top eight of a Pro Tour until 2015.

In 2009, Yasooka would be invited to play in the first Magic Online World Championship as a result of becoming Magic Online Player of the Year. The event took place at the same time as the 2009 World Championship. Yasooka would reach the finals of the tournament but ultimately lost to Anssi Myllymäki.[15]

In 2010, Yasooka made the Top 8 of two Grand Prix and the Japanese National Championship. Yasooka's 35 Pro points placed him in 21st place in the 2010 Pro Tour Player of the Year standings.

In 2011, made the Top 8 of three Grand Prix events and the Japanese National Championship. Yasooka gained 52 Pro points through the season, placing him in joint seventh place in the 2011 Pro Tour Player of the Year standings, alongside Yuuya Watanabe and Josh Utter-Leyton.[16]

At the end of the 2012 season, Yasooka had amassed 53 Pro Points, which was enough to secure himself a place in the first ever Magic Players Championship.[17] Yasooka's 53 pro points placed him seventh in the overall Pro Players Club standings for the second season in a row.[18]

Shouta Yasooka won his second pro tour in the Pro Tour season 2016-17, Pro Tour Kaladesh in Honolulu using Grixis control.[19]

Achievements

Top 8 appearances
 Season   Event type   Location   Format   Date   Rank 
2006 Grand Prix Hamamatsu Team Constructed 8–9 April 2006 2
2006 Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur Sealed and Booster Draft 3–4 June 2006 6
2006 Pro Tour Charleston, South Carolina Team Constructed 16–18 June 2006 1
2006 Grand Prix Toulouse Sealed and Booster Draft 24–25 June 2006 7
2006 Grand Prix Sydney Sealed and Booster Draft 7–8 October 2006 7
2006 Grand Prix New Jersey Sealed and Booster Draft 11–12 November 2006 8
2007 Grand Prix Strasbourg Block Constructed 19–20 May 2007 3
2007 Grand Prix Montreal Block Constructed 23–24 June 2007 8
2007 Invitational Essen Special 18–21 October 2007 8
2007 Grand Prix Kitakyushu Sealed and Booster Draft 10–11 November 2007 2
2008 Grand Prix Manila Block Constructed 30–31 August 2008 2
2010 Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur Standard 13–14 March 2010 5
2010 Grand Prix Sendai Standard 5–6 June 2010 3
2010 Nationals Kyoto Standard and Booster Draft 2–4 July 2010 5
2011 Grand Prix Kobe Extended 23–24 April 2011 1
2011 Grand Prix Singapore Standard 4–5 June 2011 5
2011 Nationals Osaka Special 15–17 July 2011 6
2011 Grand Prix Brisbane Standard 15–16 October 2011 8
2012–13 Grand Prix Boston-Worcester Sealed and Booster Draft 25–26 August 2012 8
2012–13 Players Championship Indianapolis Special 29–31 August 2012 2
2013–14 Grand Prix Kyoto Team Limited 23–24 November 2013 4
2013–14 Grand Prix Shizuoka Standard 21–22 December 2013 4
2013–14 Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur Limited 25–26 January 2014 6
2014–15 Pro Tour Brussels Standard and Booster Draft 9–12 April 2015 2
2014–15 Grand Prix Kyoto Legacy 18–19 April 2015 7
2015–16 Pro Tour Madrid Standard and Booster Draft 22–24 April 2016 4
2016–17 Grand Prix Rimini Standard 13–14 August 2016 6
2016–17 Worlds Seattle Special 1–4 September 2016 4
2016–17 Pro Tour Hawaii Standard and Booster Draft 14–16 October 2016 1
2016–17 Nationals Shizuoka Standard and Booster Draft 9–10 September 2017 2
2017–18 World Magic Cup Nice National team 1–3 December 2017 1

Last updated: 16 October 2016
Source: Wizards.com

Other accomplishments

Reputation

Shouta Yasooka is widely regarded as being a talented deck-builder.[1][20] He is known to favor blue-based control decks, and decks designed by him are sometimes referred to as 'Yaso-Control' or 'Yaso-Con' decks.[1] Yasooka is also known for his fast and technical play style, an aspect of his game that is considered particularly impressive given his preference for control decks requiring much decision-making. In January 2012, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa named Yasooka as the main player he would most like to add to Team ChannelFireball.[21] Paulo stated "...he always comes up with the craziest deck ideas and they all seem very bad, but he always does well and is insanely good, so I would like to see how he thinks".[21]

In an episode of Magic TV aired in 2012, Luis Scott-Vargas listed Yasooka eighth in the Top 8 players he least wants to play against in tournament play.[22] He explained that he believed that Yasooka is one of the most underrated players in professional Magic, and could make it into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame if it were not for his lack of Pro Tour Top 8s. He was eventually elected into the Hall of Fame at the end of 2015 season, during which he had posted his second Pro Tour top 8 appearance, at Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir in Brussels.[10]

References
  1. Nakamura, Shuhei (29 September 2011). "Feature Article – Shouta Yasooka – English". ChannelFireball.com. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  2. Price, Nate (12 April 2014). "NAGOYA TOP PLAYERS". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  3. "Top 200 All-Time Money Leaders". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 2016-08-28.
  4. "Lifetime Pro Tour Top 8s". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2016-04-16. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  5. "Lifetime Grand Prix Top 8s". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  6. "Planeswalker Points (requires login)". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  7. "Kajiharu80 puts the Char in Charleston!". Wizards of the Coast. 2006-06-18. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
  8. "2006 Player of the Year Race". Wizards of the Coast. 2006-12-13. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
  9. Terbuyken, Hanno. "Feature: Shouta Yasooka, Player of the Year". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on April 23, 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  10. "Introducing the 2015 Class of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame". Wizards of the Coast. 31 July 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  11. David-Marshall, Brian (6 November 2009). "Counting the Days". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on November 9, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  12. "2009 Magic Online Player of the Year Standings". Wizards of the Coast. 2009. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  13. "Worlds 2005: Japan's Crowning Achievement". Wizards of the Coast. 2005-12-04. Archived from the original on October 9, 2008. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
  14. "Tanii Monogatari Rule Hamamatsu!". Wizards of the Coast. 2006-04-09. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
  15. Price, Nate (22 November 2009). "Magic Online Finals: Yaya? Nono!". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on November 25, 2009. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
  16. "2011 Pro Tour Player of the Year Standings". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on April 10, 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  17. "2012 Magic Players Championship Competitors". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  18. "2012 Pro Players Club Standings". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  19. "Pro Tour Kaladesh".
  20. Hagon, Rich (11 February 2012). "Video Deck Tech: Tezzeret with Shouta Yasooka". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  21. Vitor Damo da Rosa, Paulo (4 January 2012). "PV's Playhouse – Team ChannelFireball". ChannelFireball.com. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  22. "Magic TV Top 8 of the Week: Players LSV Doesn't Want to Face When Playing for Top 8". ChannelFireball.com. 15 December 2011. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
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