Shouta Yasooka

(also spelled Shota) 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, as well as the Player of the Year title. In 2015, Yasooka was elected into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame. He also won the 2009 Magic Online Champion – Sealed title.

Yasooka is currently the lead designer for the Hobby Japan developed trading card games Final Fantasy and WIXOSS.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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. Yasooka's 53 pro points placed him seventh in the overall Pro Players Club standings for the second season in a row.

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

Achievements

Top 8 appearances

Other accomplishments

Pro Tour Player of the Year 2006 Magic Online Player of the Year 2009 2009 Magic Online Champion – Sealed Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame class of 2015

Reputation Shouta Yasooka is widely regarded as being a talented deck-builder. 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. 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". 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.