| Season: | 1998–99 Pro Tour season |
| Ppoty: | Kai Budde |
| Roty: | Dirk Baberowski |
| Wc: | Kai Budde |
| Pts: | 5 |
| Gps: | 14 |
| Start: | 5 September 1998 |
| End: | 8 August 1999 |
| Prevseason: | 1997–98 |
| Nextseason: | 1999–00 |
The 1998–99 Pro Tour season was the fourth season of the . 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 Chicago, Rome, Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. At the end of the season Kai Budde from Germany was awarded the Pro Player of the year title.
Jon Finkel Randy Buehler Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz Zvi Mowshowitz Darwin Kastle Mike Bregoli Dave Beury Ben Farkas Brian Hacker Randy Buehler
Jean-Louis D'Hondt
Laurent Pagorek Alexis DumayAs in the previous season a rookie won the inaugural Pro Tour. In the finals Dirk Baberowski defeated Casey McCarrel. Jon Finkel also had another final eight showing, his third in a row.[1]
Prize pool: $151,635
Players: 324[2]
Format: Tempest Booster Draft (Tempest-Stronghold-Exodus)[3] [4]
Head Judge: Charlie Catino[5]
Pro Tour Chicago also had Top 8 loser's bracket, that had matches held as best of three instead of five. The first round paired the quarter-finals losers against each other. Finkel defeated Coene 2–1 and Fuller defeated Cedercrantz 2–0. In the second and final round the winners of the first round were paired against the losers of the Top 8 semi-finals. Fung defeated Finkel 2–1 and Klauser defeated Fuller 2–1.[6]
| Place | Player | Prize | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dirk Baberowski | $25,000 | Pro Tour debut | |
| 2 | Casey McCarrel | $15,000 | 2nd Final day | |
| 3 |  Jeff Fung | $10,000 | ||
| 4 |  Benedikt Klauser | $8,000 | 1st Austrian in a Top 8 | |
| 5 | Jon Finkel | $6,500 | 4th Final day | |
| 6 | Ryan Fuller | $5,500 | ||
| 7 |  Martin Cedercrantz | $4,800 | ||
| 8 | Dominique Coene | $4,300 |
Gary Krakower Darwin Kastle Heath Kennel Richard Van Cleave Jeremy Baca Tony Tsai Sid Rao Jonathan Pechon Darwin Kastle
Arho Toikka Andreas Jonsson Jean-Louis D'HondtTommi Hovi won Pro Tour Rome, thus becoming the first player to win two Pro Tours. Reportedly Hovi was particularly happy to win another Pro Tour, because he won his first due to a disqualification, and thus felt it was not a proper victory. Olle Råde became the first player to have five Top 8 appearances.[1]
Prize pool: $151,635
Players: 266[7]
Format: Extended
Head Judge: Carl Crook[5]
The first round of the loser's bracket paired the quarter-finals losers against each other. Le Pine defeated Lauer 2–0 and Gary defeated Konstanczer 2–1. In the second and final round of the loser's bracket the winners of the first round were paired against the losers of the Top 8 semi-finals. Dato defeated Gary 2–1 and Le Pine defeated Råde 2–1.[8]
| Place | Player | Prize | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tommi Hovi | $25,000 | 3rd Final day, First player to win two Pro Tours | |
| 2 | Nicolas Labarre | $15,000 | ||
| 3 | Mark Le Pine | $10,000 | 2nd Final day | |
| 4 |  Federico Dato | $8,000 | ||
| 5 | Olle Råde | $6,500 | 5th Final day | |
| 6 | Justin Gary | $5,500 | ||
| 7 | Erik Lauer | $4,800 | ||
| 8 | André Konstanczer | $4,300 |
Toshiki Tsukamoto Itaru Ishida Richard Van Cleave Mark Schick John Yoo Alan Comer Mike Craig Shawn Keller Hashim Bello Shawn Roush Yoshikazu Ishii Hiroshi Watanabe Masami Ibamoto Tsuyoshi Fujita Tadayoshi Komiya Hirobumi Nakamura Hideaki Amano Eisaku Sueyoshi Alex Shvartsman
Roc Herms Raphaël Lévy
Matt Henstra Laurent LaclavieSteven O'Mahoney-Schwartz won Pro Tour Los Angeles defeating his friend and fellow New Yorker Jon Finkel in the final.[1]
Prize pool: $151,635
Players: 337
Format: Urza's Saga Rochester Draft (Urza's Saga)
Head Judge: Charlie Catino[5]
| Place | Player | Prize | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz | $25,000 | 2nd Final day | |
| 2 | Jon Finkel | $15,000 | 5th Final day | |
| 3 | Worth Wollpert | $10,000 | ||
| 4 | Terry Lau | $8,000 | ||
| 5 | Lucien Bui | $6,500 | ||
| 6 | Patrick Chapin | $5,500 | 2nd Final day | |
| 7 | Svend Geertsen | $4,800 | 3rd Final day | |
| 8 | Mike Long | $4,300 | 3rd Final day |
Christian Gregorich Jon Finkel Erik Lauer Randy Buehler
Jakub Slemr Mikko Lintamo
Christer Ljones Bjørn Ove Leknes Skogneth Seppo Toikka Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz Jonathan Brown Mark Gordon Chris Pikula Bob Maher, Jr. Scott Seville Jon Finkel Lan D. Ho Randy Buehler Vincent Johnson Kenichi Fujita Iwao Takemasa Tobey Tamber Itaru Ishida
Chi Fai Ng Kai Cheog Tang Alex Shvartsman
Miller TsaiIn the finals of Pro Tour New York Casey McCarrel defeated Shawn Keller,[1] both playing nearly identical decks, which was designed by Ben Rubin, Lan D. Ho, and Terry Tsang, who also made the Top 8 with the deck. The concept of their decks was to quickly generate huge amounts of mana to play big spells. Rob Dougherty and David Humpherys played nearly identical decks, designed by YMG.[9]
Prize pool: $151,635
Players: 308[10]
Format: Urza's Saga Block Constructed (Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy)
Head Judge: Dan Gray[5]
| Place | Player | Prize | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Casey McCarrel | $25,000 | 3rd Final day | |
| 2 | Shawn Keller | $15,000 | ||
| 3 | Zvi Mowshowitz | $10,000 | ||
| 4 | Dave Humpherys | $8,000 | ||
| 5 | Rob Dougherty | $6,500 | ||
| 6 | Christian Lührs | $5,500 | ||
| 7 | Nicolas Labarre | $4,800 | 2nd Final day | |
| 8 | Terry Tsang | $4,300 |
Guido Pacifici Vincent Gieling Ben Farkas Chris Pikula Noah Weil Zvi Mowshowitz Mike Turian Scott McCord Mark Le Pine Dennis BentleyKai Budde won the 1999 World Championship, defeating Mark Le Pine in the finals. The match went into the books as the shortest individual Pro Tour final ever, taking about 20 minutes. The title allowed Budde to take the Pro Player of the year title as well.[1]
The United States defeated Germany in the team finals to win the national team title.[1]
Prize pool: $250,000[11]
Players: 208
Individual formats: Urza's Saga Rochester Draft (Urza's Saga-Urza's Legacy-Urza's Destiny), Standard, Extended
Team formats: Team Sealed (Urza's Saga-Urza's Legacy-Urza's Destiny) – Swiss; Standard – Finals
Head Judge: Charlie Catino[5]
| Place | Player | Prize | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kai Budde | $34,000 | ||
| 2 | Mark Le Pine | $22,000 | 3rd Final day | |
| 3 | Raffaele Lo Moro | $16,000 | ||
| 4 | Matt Linde | $13,000 | ||
| 5 | Jakub Slemr | $11,000 | 3rd Final day | |
| 6 | Jamie Parke | $9,500 | ||
| 7 | Gary Wise | $8,250 | ||
| 8 | Nicolai Herzog | $7,250 |
United States (Kyle Rose, John Hunka, Zvi Mowshowitz, Charles Kornblith) Norway (Nicolai Herzog, Sturla Bingen, Bjorn Joumsen, Marius Johnsen) Sweden (Jimmy Oman, Richard Soderberg, Ken Asp, Kristian Hellman)[12]After the World Championship Kai Budde was awarded the Pro Player of the year title.[13]
| Rank | Player | Pro Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kai Budde | 75 | |
| 2 | Jon Finkel | 65 | |
| 3 | Casey McCarrel | 63 | |
| 4 | Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz | 57 | |
| 5 | Mark Le Pine | 52 |