Kai Budde
Encyclopedia
Kai Budde is a professional Magic: The Gathering
player, who holds the records for earnings, Pro Tour
victories and lifetime Pro Points. His performances earned him the nicknames "The (German) Juggernaut" and "King of the Grand Prix". Kai left the game in late 2004 to focus on his studies, and his appearances in tournaments are less frequent than in earlier years.
He has won five individual Pro Tour titles (no other player has won more than three), and two Team Pro Tour titles (alongside fellow Germans Marco Blume
and Dirk Baberowski
). Budde also won the 1999 Magic World Championship
in Tokyo
. His cash winnings in six years of premier Magic: The Gathering tournaments are well over $300,000. He has also been awarded four Player of the Year titles: 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003.
Budde also won the 2001 Magic Invitational tournament in Cape Town
. His prize was the rare opportunity to design an actual card; the result was Voidmage Prodigy. In 2007, Kai Budde was inducted into the Pro-Tour Hall of Fame
.
he quickly became acquainted with more experienced players from the city such as later Pro Tour winner Frank Adler. His rise to professional play coincided with that of Dirk Baberowski
, another Magic player who had moved to Cologne. Being at a comparable level of playing both worked together to qualify for the Pro Tour. Budde succeeded on his second attempt, thus qualifying for the 1997 Pro Tour New York. As he had not yet turned eighteen Kai chose to attend the Junior Division of the tournament, eventually finishing among the best 32. As the Junior Pro Tour was discontinued afterwards Budde was automatically qualified for the following Pro Tour in Mainz
.
Kai finished 52nd in Mainz and for a while struggled to qualify for another Pro Tour but eventually managed to qualify for the 1998 Pro Tour Chicago. Fellow player and now friend Baberowksi had finally managed to qualify for the Pro Tour, too. While Kai finished 19th Baberowski won the whole tournament. After a second place at Grand Prix Birmingham Budde added three Grand Prix titles within six months. The third one in Amsterdam even came by defeating Baberowski in the finals. With these finishes Budde had racked up enough Pro Points to be in contention for the Pro Player of the Year title in the final event of the 1998–99 season
. Having not made a Pro Tour Top 8 appearance yet the leader in the Pro Player of the Year race did not consider him to be a threat, though. When Budde advanced to the final of the 1999 World Championship in Tokyo
he had already secured the Pro Player of the year race. He added the World Champion title by defeating Mark Le Pine in one of the quickest Pro Tour finals ever.
After adding an 11th place finish at the next Pro Tour in London the rest of the 1999–2000 season
turned out to be disappointing. He was not able to make it beyond the first round in any of the newly introduced Masters
events nor did he finish better than Top 64 at any of the succeeding Pro Tours.
and Tommi Hovi
. Winning Pro Tour Barcelona in the same season, Kai managed to surpass Finkel and Hovi to become the first player to win three Pro Tours. In the semi-final at Barcelona Budde had even asked if he could concede to his friend Patrick Mello to make him eligible for the next Masters, but the officials had refused. Finally a 44th place finish at the World Championship in Toronto sufficed to make Kai the first double Pro Player of the Year.
The 2001–02
season started very well for Kai Budde with consecutive wins at Grand Prix London and Pro Tour New York. For the Team Pro Tour New York Kai had chosen his friends Dirk Baberowski and Marco Blume
, despite being able to play with virtually anybody he would have liked. Dirk had retired from the game for some time, but Kai managed to convince him to come along for the Pro Tour. Team "Phoenix Foundation" as they called themselves went on to become the most successful team in the Pro Tour history. Pro Tour New York is also the origin of the saying "Kai doesn't lose on Sunday". Several Pro Players had answered something to that extent when asked who their favorite amongst the final four teams was. Less than two months later Kai added another Pro Tour title, this time in New Orleans. He is still the only player in the game to have won back to back Pro Tours. In between, Budde had also won the Invitational which gave him the chance to create a Magic card of his own design. The card eventually became .
Throughout the season a few more Grand Prix titles followed and eventually he managed another Top 8 appearance at Pro Tour Nice, this time losing in the quarter-final to Bram Snepvangers. Before the final event of the season, the World Championship in Sydney, Kai was already locked in to succeed himself as Pro Tour Player of the Year. Only a week after Nice, Budde won the German Nationals, securing another title he had not won before and thus making the national team. While he finished 44th individually at the World Championship, Kai led the German team with Felix Schneiders, a fellow player from his Cologne days, and Mark Ziegner to the team title.
Phoenix Foundation won the first Pro Tour of the 2002–03 season
, giving Kai an early lead in the Pro Player of the Year race. Also this set the three Phoenix Foundation members in the top three spots in lifetime Pro Tour wins until Jon Finkel
overtook Blume with his victory in Kuala Lumpur five years later. After a few mediocre finishes through mid-season Kai won his seventh Pro Tour in Chicago, beating some of the most accomplished players such as Jon Finkel, William Jensen, and Nicolai Herzog
along the way. Despite making no further Top 8 appearances in the season Kai was able to take his fourth Pro Player of the Year title with a comfortable lead.
Phoenix Foundation managed to open with another top 4 appearance, but lost in the semi-final to the eventual winners. Kai managed to make a few more Top 8 appearance at Grand Prixs, among those a victory at the then biggest Magic tournament ever at Madrid, but his performances declined notably. He managed an undefeated first day at Pro Tour Philadelphia in the following season, but was quickly eliminated from the event afterwards. Budde has since been considered to be retired from Pro Play although he has occasionally shown up for a Pro Tour. Eventually he was inducted into the Hall of Fame
at the 2007 World Championship in New York
. Over the next six years he played several Pro Tours without much success. However, in 2010
Budde made his tenth Pro Tour top 8 in Amsterdam
and in 2011
he made his fifteenth Grand Prix top 8 in Paris
.
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
player, who holds the records for earnings, Pro Tour
Pro Tour (Magic: The Gathering)
The Pro Tour is the highest form of competitive play for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. It consists of a series of payout tournaments held throughout the world, each requiring an invitation to participate. Every PT awards a total of $230,000 in cash prizes, with $40,000 going to...
victories and lifetime Pro Points. His performances earned him the nicknames "The (German) Juggernaut" and "King of the Grand Prix". Kai left the game in late 2004 to focus on his studies, and his appearances in tournaments are less frequent than in earlier years.
He has won five individual Pro Tour titles (no other player has won more than three), and two Team Pro Tour titles (alongside fellow Germans Marco Blume
Marco Blume
Marco Blume is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players. He has won two Pro Tours and one Masters as a member of team Phoenix Foundation, his teammates being Kai Budde and Dirk Baberowski. He also won a German national championship individually in 1999.- Top 8...
and Dirk Baberowski
Dirk Baberowski
Dirk Baberowski is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players. He has won three Pro Tours, tying him in second place with Jon Finkel. Two of those victories were won at team Pro Tours with his teammates of Phoenix Foundation, Kai Budde and Marco Blume.In 2008, Barberowski...
). Budde also won the 1999 Magic World Championship
Magic: The Gathering World Championship
The Magic: The Gathering World Championships have been held annually since 1994. It is the most important tournament in the game of Magic: The Gathering, offering to the winner a cash prize of $45,000. Originally open to all competitors, Worlds is now an invitation-only event and the last Pro Tour...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. His cash winnings in six years of premier Magic: The Gathering tournaments are well over $300,000. He has also been awarded four Player of the Year titles: 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003.
Budde also won the 2001 Magic Invitational tournament in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. His prize was the rare opportunity to design an actual card; the result was Voidmage Prodigy. In 2007, Kai Budde was inducted into the Pro-Tour Hall of Fame
Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame
The Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame was started in 2005 to honor the most successful Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour players. The first inductions came on the tenth anniversary of the first Pro Tour event, and new Hall of Famers will be determined annually...
.
Early years
Budde started playing Magic in 1994 when he learned about the game from fellow gamers. As a player from CologneCologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
he quickly became acquainted with more experienced players from the city such as later Pro Tour winner Frank Adler. His rise to professional play coincided with that of Dirk Baberowski
Dirk Baberowski
Dirk Baberowski is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players. He has won three Pro Tours, tying him in second place with Jon Finkel. Two of those victories were won at team Pro Tours with his teammates of Phoenix Foundation, Kai Budde and Marco Blume.In 2008, Barberowski...
, another Magic player who had moved to Cologne. Being at a comparable level of playing both worked together to qualify for the Pro Tour. Budde succeeded on his second attempt, thus qualifying for the 1997 Pro Tour New York. As he had not yet turned eighteen Kai chose to attend the Junior Division of the tournament, eventually finishing among the best 32. As the Junior Pro Tour was discontinued afterwards Budde was automatically qualified for the following Pro Tour in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
.
Kai finished 52nd in Mainz and for a while struggled to qualify for another Pro Tour but eventually managed to qualify for the 1998 Pro Tour Chicago. Fellow player and now friend Baberowksi had finally managed to qualify for the Pro Tour, too. While Kai finished 19th Baberowski won the whole tournament. After a second place at Grand Prix Birmingham Budde added three Grand Prix titles within six months. The third one in Amsterdam even came by defeating Baberowski in the finals. With these finishes Budde had racked up enough Pro Points to be in contention for the Pro Player of the Year title in the final event of the 1998–99 season
Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 1998–99
The 1998–99 Pro Tour season was the fourth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 5 September 1998 with Grand Prix Boston and ended on 8 August 1999 with the conclusion of 1999 World Championship in Tokyo. The season consisted of fourteen Grand Prix, and five Pro Tours, located in...
. Having not made a Pro Tour Top 8 appearance yet the leader in the Pro Player of the Year race did not consider him to be a threat, though. When Budde advanced to the final of the 1999 World Championship in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
he had already secured the Pro Player of the year race. He added the World Champion title by defeating Mark Le Pine in one of the quickest Pro Tour finals ever.
After adding an 11th place finish at the next Pro Tour in London the rest of the 1999–2000 season
Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 1999–2000
The 1999–2000 Pro Tour season was the fifth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 3 September 1999 with Pro Tour Boston and ended on 6 August 2000 with the conclusion of 2000 World Championship in Brussels. The season consisted of twenty Grand Prixs, and six Pro Tours, located in...
turned out to be disappointing. He was not able to make it beyond the first round in any of the newly introduced Masters
Master Series (Magic: The Gathering)
The Masters Series or simply Masters were single-elimination Magic: The Gathering tournaments open to the most accomplished players only. These tournaments awarded cash prizes upon entrance and were held at several Pro Tours each season. The first predecessor to the Masters Series, named Team...
events nor did he finish better than Top 64 at any of the succeeding Pro Tours.
Five Pro Tour titles in two years
It took Kai until November 2000 to make another final eight appearance. A third place at Grand Prix Florence was followed by his second Pro Tour win. The 2000 Pro Tour Chicago title made him the third player to win more than one Pro Tour, the other two being Jon FinkelJon Finkel
Jon Finkel is an American Magic: The Gathering and poker player. In the year 2000, he became the world champion of Magic, as well as being on the team that became the team world champion.-Career:...
and Tommi Hovi
Tommi Hovi
Tommi Hovi is a former professional Magic: The Gathering player from Finland. He was inducted into the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame in the inaugural class in 2005...
. Winning Pro Tour Barcelona in the same season, Kai managed to surpass Finkel and Hovi to become the first player to win three Pro Tours. In the semi-final at Barcelona Budde had even asked if he could concede to his friend Patrick Mello to make him eligible for the next Masters, but the officials had refused. Finally a 44th place finish at the World Championship in Toronto sufficed to make Kai the first double Pro Player of the Year.
The 2001–02
Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 2001–02
The 2001–02 Pro Tour season was the seventh season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. On 18 August 2001 the season began with parallel Grand Prixs in Kobe and Denver. It ended on 18 August 2002 with the conclusion of the 2002 World Championship in Sydney. The season consisted of 33 Grand Prixs...
season started very well for Kai Budde with consecutive wins at Grand Prix London and Pro Tour New York. For the Team Pro Tour New York Kai had chosen his friends Dirk Baberowski and Marco Blume
Marco Blume
Marco Blume is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players. He has won two Pro Tours and one Masters as a member of team Phoenix Foundation, his teammates being Kai Budde and Dirk Baberowski. He also won a German national championship individually in 1999.- Top 8...
, despite being able to play with virtually anybody he would have liked. Dirk had retired from the game for some time, but Kai managed to convince him to come along for the Pro Tour. Team "Phoenix Foundation" as they called themselves went on to become the most successful team in the Pro Tour history. Pro Tour New York is also the origin of the saying "Kai doesn't lose on Sunday". Several Pro Players had answered something to that extent when asked who their favorite amongst the final four teams was. Less than two months later Kai added another Pro Tour title, this time in New Orleans. He is still the only player in the game to have won back to back Pro Tours. In between, Budde had also won the Invitational which gave him the chance to create a Magic card of his own design. The card eventually became .
Throughout the season a few more Grand Prix titles followed and eventually he managed another Top 8 appearance at Pro Tour Nice, this time losing in the quarter-final to Bram Snepvangers. Before the final event of the season, the World Championship in Sydney, Kai was already locked in to succeed himself as Pro Tour Player of the Year. Only a week after Nice, Budde won the German Nationals, securing another title he had not won before and thus making the national team. While he finished 44th individually at the World Championship, Kai led the German team with Felix Schneiders, a fellow player from his Cologne days, and Mark Ziegner to the team title.
Phoenix Foundation won the first Pro Tour of the 2002–03 season
Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 2002–03
-Final standings:-Pro Player of the year standings:-Grand Prixs – Hamburg, Utsonomiya, Copenhagen, Philadelphia:GP Hamburg # Simon Hockwin# Arndt Meier# Jens Krause# Patrick Plößer# Nico Wendt# Piotr Sienko# Dennis Schmitz...
, giving Kai an early lead in the Pro Player of the Year race. Also this set the three Phoenix Foundation members in the top three spots in lifetime Pro Tour wins until Jon Finkel
Jon Finkel
Jon Finkel is an American Magic: The Gathering and poker player. In the year 2000, he became the world champion of Magic, as well as being on the team that became the team world champion.-Career:...
overtook Blume with his victory in Kuala Lumpur five years later. After a few mediocre finishes through mid-season Kai won his seventh Pro Tour in Chicago, beating some of the most accomplished players such as Jon Finkel, William Jensen, and Nicolai Herzog
Nicolai Herzog
Nicolai Herzog is a professional Magic: The Gathering player from Oslo, Norway. His greatest achievement was winning two consecutive Limited Pro Tours in 2004. Both featured draft formats in the Mirrodin-block...
along the way. Despite making no further Top 8 appearances in the season Kai was able to take his fourth Pro Player of the Year title with a comfortable lead.
Decline
In 2003–04Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 2003–04
The 2003–04 Pro Tour season was the ninth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. On 23 August 2003 the season began with parallel Grand Prixs in Yokohama and London. It ended on 5 September 2004 with the conclusion of the 2004 World Championship in San Francisco...
Phoenix Foundation managed to open with another top 4 appearance, but lost in the semi-final to the eventual winners. Kai managed to make a few more Top 8 appearance at Grand Prixs, among those a victory at the then biggest Magic tournament ever at Madrid, but his performances declined notably. He managed an undefeated first day at Pro Tour Philadelphia in the following season, but was quickly eliminated from the event afterwards. Budde has since been considered to be retired from Pro Play although he has occasionally shown up for a Pro Tour. Eventually he was inducted into the Hall of Fame
Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame
The Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame was started in 2005 to honor the most successful Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour players. The first inductions came on the tenth anniversary of the first Pro Tour event, and new Hall of Famers will be determined annually...
at the 2007 World Championship in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Over the next six years he played several Pro Tours without much success. However, in 2010
Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 2010
The 2010 Pro Tour season was the fifteenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 13 February 2010 with Grand Prix Oakland, and ended on 12 December 2010 with the conclusion of the 2010 World Championship in Chiba, Japan. The season consisted of eighteen Grand Prixs, and four Pro...
Budde made his tenth Pro Tour top 8 in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and in 2011
Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 2011
The 2011 Pro Tour season was the sixteenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 22 January 2011 with Grand Prix Atlanta, and ended on 20 November 2011 with the conclusion of the 2011 World Championship in San Francisco...
he made his fifteenth Grand Prix top 8 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Top 8 appearances
Other accomplishments
- Pro Player of the Year 1998–99
- Pro Player of the Year 2000–01
- Pro Player of the Year 2001–02
- Pro Player of the Year 2002–03
- Magic Hall of FameMagic: The Gathering Hall of FameThe Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Fame was started in 2005 to honor the most successful Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour players. The first inductions came on the tenth anniversary of the first Pro Tour event, and new Hall of Famers will be determined annually...
class of 2007 vote leader
Decks
Budde won three events where he had to play Constructed in the final eight, the 1999 World Championship, Pro Tour Chicago 2000, and Pro Tour New Orleans 2001. He won these events with the following decks:| 1999 World Championship Standard | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck: | Sideboard: | |
4 Cursed Scroll 4 Fire Diamond 4 Grim Monolith 3 Masticore 1 Karn, Silver Golem 2 Mishra's Helix 4 Temporal Aperture 4 Thran Dynamo 4 Voltaic Key 2 Worn Powerstone 4 Covetous Dragon 4 Wildfire |
3 Ancient Tomb 4 City of Traitors 13 Mountain |
2 Boil 3 Earthquake 2 Rack and Ruin 2 Shattering Pulse 4 Spellshock 1 Mishra's Helix 1 Phyrexian Processor |
| 2001 Pro Tour New Orleans—Extended | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck: | Sideboard: | |
4 Accumulated Knowledge 2 Brainstorm 1 Capsize 4 Counterspell 4 Donate 3 Fire // Ice 4 Force of Will 4 Illusions of Grandeur 1 Impulse 3 Intuition 4 Merchant Scroll 4 Sapphire Medallion |
14 Island 4 Shivan Reef 4 Volcanic Island |
1 Hibernation 2 Hydroblast 3 Morphling 4 Pyroblast 3 Pyroclasm 2 Stroke of Genius |
| 2000 Pro Tour Chicago—Standard | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck: | Sideboard: | |
4 Chimeric Idol 2 Defiant Falcon 2 Defiant Vanguard 4 Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero 3 Longbow Archer 4 Parallax Wave 4 Ramosian Sergeant 2 Ramosian Sky Marshal 1 Rebel Informer 3 Steadfast Guard 1 Thermal Glider 4 Wax // Wane |
4 Brushland 2 Dust Bowl 16 Plains 4 Rishadan Port |
4 Armageddon 1 Defiant Vanguard 1 Lightbringer 3 Mageta the Lion 3 Seal of Cleansing 3 Wrath of God |