The best players from across Australia and New Zealand gathered in the city of Sydney last weekend, to take part in the ANZ Super Series Final - a Regional Championship which offered not just invitations to the Pro Tour, but a highly-coveted slot at next year's World Championship. More than 220 people took part in the tournament, all bringing their favourite Pioneer decks, but when the dust settled there was one player who emerged triumphant: James Moore, playing Jund Creativity!

Congratulations to James Moore!

Moore brought a very... creative list to the tournament: a deck that seeks to sneak Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Titan of Industry, or the brand-new Valgavoth, Terror Eater into play with the use of tokens and Indomitable Creativity. He picked up only one single loss on his way to winning the entire tournament, and closed things out with a 2-1 victory over Luke Mulcahy in the championship match. With this win, Moore has secured an invitation to next year's World Championship!

Runner-up Mulcahy congratulates the winner Moore.

Aside from Moore's Jund list, the Top 8 was dominated by various Rakdos strategies, most notably a very aggressive mice-based deck that makes use of cheap new cards from Bloomburrow. Rakdos strategies have only gotten better in recent months, with Bloomburrow's mice and Duskmourn's demons joining old favourites like Thoughtseize and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Speaking of old favourites, Izzet Phoenix made an appearance - but the spiciest of the lot was a Sultai Acererak Combo deck, in the hands of Kieran Tierney.

Players in the ANZ Super Series Final Top 8

The ANZ Super Series Final bracket

While Izzet Phoenix was the best-represented deck in terms of numbers, Rakdos decks of various kinds were very popular throughout the weekend. Some chose to adopt the new demons package, supported by Unholy Annex, while some went for the more traditional midrange builds we've seen in Pioneer before. Selesnya Company largely failed to convert, while quite a number of decks from the "other" category managed to make deep runs into the tournament, some - like Acererak Combo - even finding their way into the Top 8.

The metagame from the Champions Cup Final

The weekend in Sydney wasn't just about the main event, however. A huge Australian 7-Point Highlander event was held on Friday, and a $5k Pioneer tournament was held on Sunday for those who didn't make the Top 8. There were Foundations prereleases, chaos drafts, giveaways, and all sorts of other stuff that made the whole event a terrific amount of fun. If you want to head along to a Regional Championship like this, and compete with the best players in your region, have a look to see where the next qualifier near you is taking place, and start your journey towards the Pro Tour!

Old friends face off against each other as the Top 8 begins.

Players pooled their prize tickets to take home a giant Quintorius Kand.

Players in the Sunday $5k received a bonus Magic-themed bucket hat as part of the ANZ Summer of Magic program.