One man who has made a great start to Pro Tour Philadelphia is the veteran American Antonino De Rosa, and he has emerged from the first Modern portion of the Pro Tour with a perfect 5-0 record. Quick with the grin and the self-effacement, De Rosa considers himself a lucky man to be where he is.
“In my first round I sat down, played a land, played another couple of land and a Kitchen Finks”, he recounted to me, “and then I looked around… on the table to my left a player had just played Blazing Shoal on a Glistener Elf for a turn two kill. To my right was Emrakul, the Aeons Torn – in play on turn two thanks to Goryo’s Vengeance. I looked at my little Kitchen Finks and wondered what I was supposed to do against decks like that?”
But he's 5-0, so what gives?
“I’ve been really lucky, I’ve beaten five different decks – Splinter Twin, Twelvepost, Poison Combo, Zoo, and Jund. Aside from Affinity I’ve basically beaten the format. But that’s what The Rock does, and if you draw the right cards you can beat anything. So yeah – I’m lucky to be on 5-0. People think I’m good, but really I’m just lucky!”
Not secretly good, I ask? Antonino just laughs…
“No – secretly I’m bad! But being lucky means you can’t tell…”
Antonino De Rosa and his Kitchen Finks are on 5-0 heading into the draft, flying the flag for humble creature cards and the attack step in a Modern format with some crazy combo kills.
