Last weekend, over 130 of the best Magic players from across South America met in Santiago, Chile for the South America Magic Series Regional Championship. Four invites to Pro Tour: March of the Machine were on the line, as well as a seat at the World Championship. After eight rounds of Standard play followed by the Top 8, Francisco Benitez emerged victorious. Congratulations to Francisco Benitez, South America’s Regional Champion!

Congratulations to champion Francisco Benitez!

Benitez piloted Domain Control to his Regional Championship win, upending the established Standard metagame and keep popular choices like Grixis Midrange and Mono-White Midrange from claiming another Regional Championship trophy. Benitez defeated Luis Gutiérrez, who was on Mono-White Midrange, in the finals. While Mono-White Midrange emerged victorious in both Beijing and Ottawa last weekend, in Santiago it was Benitez who took home the trophy and an invite to the World Championship.

Luis Gutiérrez and Francisco Benitez play in the finals

Luis Gutiérrez plays in the finals

THE TOP 8 & THE PRO TOUR

Congratulations to the Top 8 of the South America Magic Series Regional Championship!

Congratulations to Sebastían Toledo, Luis Allende, Marco Gaete, Diego Celis, Cristian Oyaneder, Luis Gutiérrez, Guillermo Sulimovich, and Francisco Benitez

These players piloted six different archetypes in the Top 8. In addition to Benitez’s surprising Domain Control deck that he used to take down the tournament, there was a Boros Midrange deck – very similar to Mono-White, but splashing red for format favorite Fable of the Mirror-Breaker – that defied the last few weeks of Standard metagame. Selesnya Toxic and Mono-White Midrange both appeared twice in the Top 8, and Esper Legends and Rakdos Midrange rounded out the Top 8 field. Grixis Midrange was notably absent.

With four Pro Tour invites on the line, it was a tense quarterfinals. Congratulations to the Top 4 players at the South America Magic Series Regional Championship, who earned invites to the Pro Tour! You can see the decklists they used to secure their seat below:

THE METAGAME

Grixis Midrange once again topped the Standard metagame at this weekend’s Regional Championship, but the deck has lost a lot of ground to other midrange contenders. Most notably, Rakdos Midrange was the next most popular deck this past weekend. It has a lot of the same tools as Grixis Midrange, but is more resilient against builds of Mono-White Midrange that include lots of copies of Field of Ruin and Demolition Field.

Azorius Soldiers continues to climb the metagame ranks, and is another choice for players who prefer to be aggressive but who aren’t interested in Mono-Red or Selesnya builds.

It was a great weekend full of terrific and hard-fought matches in Santiago, and we can’t wait to see how these players fare at the Pro Tour in May! Congratulations again to Francisco Benitez, and to South America on another great Regional Championship.

Find out more about how you can qualify for the Regional Championship and the Pro Tour by visiting here and finding out more from your regional organizer!