A pair of Regional Championships on opposite sides of the globe came to similar, fiery conclusions last weekend. Both the United States and Chinese Taipei Regional Championships awarded invites to the Pro Tour and World Championship later this year.
Samuel Chang Takes Down the MIT Championship with Izzet Prowess
Nearly 100 players qualified for the MIT Championship, the tournament that serves as the Regional Championship for Chinese Taipei. It gave us an extremely diverse Standard field that saw six different archetypes make the Top 8 of the tournament, with the title ultimately going to Samuel Chang on Izzet Prowess. Chang took his deck to an 8-1-1 overall record, including a victory over Po Yuan Tsao's Domain Overlords in the final.
And Chang's one loss was no fluke—it came against a fellow Top 8 competitor midway through the day who was piloting an Azorius Control deck that was specifically engineered to prey on Izzet; a similar White-Blue deck would later make it to the finals of the Regional Championship in the United States.
The victory in the finals rewarded Chang an invitation to Magic World Championship 31 later this year, but he and a handful of others earned a spot at Pro Tour Edge of Eternities. Runner-up Po Yuan Tsao and 3rd-place finisher MuRu Kuo will join him there thanks to their runs with Overlords and Dimir Midrange, respectively.
This diverse Top 8 represented a field that saw less Izzet Prowess than other recent events. Chang's run through the Top 8 included an Izzet mirror match, a match against Orzhov Pixie, and Domain Overlords for the finals. Those three decks that could not be more different from each other, with Chang's opponents showcasing the variety of strategies that players must be prepared for. Now, Chang has a World Championship invite to show for it.
You can find the Top 8 decklists here.
Fang Burns Through the US Regional Championship
On the other side of the world, a field of more than 900 players in Hartford fought through two days of tough competition, with fifteen rounds leading to the Top 8. There were 32 Pro Tour invitations on the line along with seats at Magic World Championship 31. Here, several players were finding success both with and against the meta-defining Izzet Prowess. With five archetypes advancing to the Top 8, it was wide open for eventual champion, Percy Fang, to burn through all his foes with a revitalized Mono-Red Aggro deck.
Here, Izzet Prowess was as dominant as advertised, going from a 33% of the field on Day One to nearly 40% on Day Two. But at the very top of the tournament, a contingent of players who came to the tournament armed with decks they felt had good matchups against the cornerstone that was
You can find the Top 32 decklists from the event here.
Most notable was Chris Botelho, the Blue-White enthusiast who worked on Azorius Control for the Regional Championship. He delighted watchers with his undefeated run through Day One, and he would end up taking a
But the tournament belonged to Fang, a Las Vegas native who selected his deck for two simple reasons. First, it was the same archetype he used to make the finals of Arena Championship 8 earlier this year, so he felt comfortable piloting it. And second, he summarized Mono-Red's role in the current Standard metagame with two simple words: "Beats Cutter."
That's as good a reason as any to select a deck, and Fang pointed especially to the main-deck Magebane Lizards as key to his success on the weekend. Like Chang, his path through the Top 8 included a look at just about everything Standard has to throw at you: an Izzet Prowess deck, an Orzhov Demons list, and a control deck piloted by an Azorius aficionado.
None of it could stop Fang, whose win was emblematic of Mono-Red Aggro's success in a field that revolved around Izzet Prowess in the macro and
Congratulations to all of the RC players on their well-fought games and terrific accomplishment! Don't miss out on the next cycle!