Last weekend, Sydney saw 154 of the best players from around Australia and New Zealand come together to test their skill and compete for 12 Pro Tour invites, as well as a seat at the next World Championship. When the dust settled on the competition at the ANZ Super Series, it was the seasoned Pro Tour veteran Anthony Lee who rose above all other competitors with his Rakdos Midrange deck!
Rakdos was a very popular deck in Sydney this weekend, also propelling David Mines - who has led Australia to two WMC Top 8s in the past - into the final, where he ultimately fell to Lee. While both secured their spot at the Pro Tour with a top 12 finish, Lee also earned an invitation to the World Championship with his victory.
Lee will be a familiar face to many, as a member of world-class testing teams alongside the likes of Javier Dominguez and Marcio Carvalho. There are few players as experienced and well-equipped to represent Australia on Magic’s biggest stage at the World Championship!
Rakdos was the deck of the weekend, with four different players on the midrange deck in the Top 8. Mono-Green also put two players into the Top 8, with Mono-Blue Spirits and Lotus Field Combo rounding out the rest of the top decks.
The top 12 players from the ANZ Super Series will be representing the Australia-New Zealand region at the first Pro Tour next year, taking place at MagicCon: Philadelphia in February. We can’t wait to see them all in Philly!
Pioneer continued to evolve this weekend, as players adapted to the results from the big Regional Championships in North America, Europe, and Brazil the weekend before. Rakdos and Mono-Green were quite comfortably the most popular decks, with Izzet Phoenix and Abzan Greasefang not managing to break through the Swiss and into the Top 8.
More than anything else, however, it was the energy in Sydney that made the tournament so special. Players from across the region seeing one another for the first time in years, united once again in a love of competitive Magic, resulted in an incredible, positive atmosphere at the ANZ Super Series - the next Regional Championship looks to be as exciting as ever. If you’d like to be part of the next event, find a qualifier near you and we’ll see you there!
