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Magic World Championship 30 Top 8 Highlights

October 28, 2024
Corbin Hosler

"I got chills watching Kai Budde walk to the feature match table."

That's how we started the Top 8 here at Magic World Championship 30. The Sunday stage, the German Juggernaut, and perhaps the most impressive resume ever assembled by the elite eight who advanced to the final day of the World Championship. By the end of play on Sunday, we would also have our new World Champion.

It would be one of these eight players, who persevered through two days of intense competition of Duskmourn: House of Horror Draft and Standard Constructed, who would ultimately raise the truly massive trophy.

It started with the game's first GOAT, and possibly its latest: Kai Budde versus Seth Manfield. Each had won a World Championship title previously (Budde in 1999; Manfield in 2015), as well as multiple Pro Tours. The first quarterfinal match of the day would bring the two together in one of the most highly anticipated matches to hit the Pro Tour in a very long time.


There was also the Player of the Year race to sort out. Seth Manfield and Javier Domínguez were the two Top Finishers who had a chance to earn the season-long title, and how they played on the final day of that season would determine who won the Kai Budde Player of the Year Trophy.

Manfield had the edge heading in, which meant that Domínguez needed to go further in the Top 8 than the Hall of Famer, and since they were on the same side of the bracket, there was a possibility that a semifinal showdown between the two would decide it all.

The Road to the Finals

Budde began the Top 8 action with a Deep-Cavern Bat, a staple of the various black-based decks that made an impact at Magic World Championship 30. Manfield flashed his hand chock-full of removal, card draw, and resilient threats, and we were off and running in the first quarterfinal match.

Though "running" may be a bit strong. Midrange versus Ramp? That's not a recipe for a short game.

And it wasn't. Nothing is when Up the Beanstalk gets going—and Manfield eventually had three of them going in the first game after early trades of resources and creatures. Given enough time it would prove an insurmountable amount of card advantage.

So Budde started racing. With a flashed-in Enduring Curiosity and then a Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, the beatdown began. As Manfield fell to 5 life but removed the Curiosity, things were looking good for him to find the time to rebound.

But Budde had another World Champion on his side.

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Yuta Takahashi won the World Championship in 2021, and now his champions' card was helping several players, including Budde, roll through this year's World Championship. With Takahashi and later an Unstoppable Slasher on his board, Budde got on the board first.

It wasn't quick nor was it easy, but it was a win. And it looked like Budde might be on his way to a quick second one as well when he deployed Unstoppable Slasher on the third turn. But buoyed by an Overlord of the Hauntwoods and Everywhere land token, Manfield did in fact stop the Slasher, resolving Glissa Sunslayer and immediately locking down combat.

That opened the door for Manfield, and Budde couldn't close it. As his deck failed to deliver him the critical removal needed, things got worse as Manfield found Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Thus began the dreaded parade of "I'll draw and gain 2 life, you'll draw and lose 2 life." In short order, Manfield's life total ballooned up to 26 while Budde's deflated down to 9. When no answer came off the top, Manfield evened the series at one game apiece and sent the pair into the sideboard.

On the other side of the bracket, meanwhile, Quinn Tonole and his classic Mono-Red Aggro deck jammed full of four-ofs was jumping out to an early lead over Max Rappaport, while Márcio Carvalho and Yoshihiko Ikawa were trading games and Ha Pham jumped out to a lead over Javier Domínguez in the Dimir Demons mirror.

But all eyes were on the showdown of World Champions, where they were locked deep in a game where after nearly ten turns all that remained on the battlefield was a lone Spyglass Siren, and both players looked to the top of their deck for help. And while neither found exactly what they needed there, Manfield had what he ultimately needed patiently hanging out amid his lands—sideboard all-star Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal made the difference, transforming back into a creature to close out the game.

Could Manfield finish it off? He kept a hand that had Virtue of Persistence to stabilize early and provide a long-term plan, if he could withstand the kind of pressure that Budde had applied to steal the first game. Unfortunately for Budde, there simply wasn't pressure to be found on the top of his deck as Manfield worked his way toward the late game where Locthwain Scorn would take over.

When an attempted Spyglass Siren arrived to take advantage of the now-enchantment Enduring Curiosity, it was promptly stonewalled by Manfield's Deep-Cavern Bat. With his own card draw stymied, Budde could only watch as Manfield resolved the Scorn and began to add creatures to his board over the next several turns. From there, it was academic—and Manfield became the first player to punch his ticket to the semifinals.

While Manfield did his winning late in the games, on the other side of the bracket, Tonole was earning his wins as quickly as possible: his Mono-Red Aggro deck, reminiscent of World Championship Sligh lists three decades ago, boat-raced Rappaport's Dimir Midrange deck in three successive games that would have made Goblins of the Flarg proud.

Meanwhile, Carvalho and Ikawa were now locked up at two games apiece, and it all came down to a thrilling fifth game for the pair. Ikawa played out his creatures and slowly sapped Carvalho's life total while looking for a big turn to slam the door on the back of his Manifold Mouse. But it never came—Carvalho's pair of Mosswood Dreadknights made sure that the board was covered and the cards kept coming.

Last up was the other Player of the Year candidate. With Manfield having already won, the Player of the Year ball was back in Domínguez's court with the 2018 World Champion behind a game on the scoreboard.

Then the comeback began, and once again, Faerie Mastermind featured heavily as Domínguez used a pair of them to fly a formation around Archfiend of the Dross for the win to even up the match. That would be the pattern that repeated through the next two games, as Pham's own Demons deck struggled against the parade of Faerie-fueled card draw; the Mastermind held down the skies in the deciding game until the biggest Demon of all manifested: Doomsday Excruciator.

With that, Domínguez matched Manfield. Their Player of the Year race would come down to a single final match. But first, the other semifinal between Tonole and Carvalho to advance one of them to the finals. For Tonole, the dream run was still going—the New York native qualified for the World Championship by accomplishing what he described as the "trifecta" of 8-8 finishes across three Pro Tours this year, which gave him enough points to qualify for the World Championship.

Now he found himself one match away from the finals. Carvalho, on the other hand, was looking to make a third trip to the World Championship finals in the last decade, an unheard-of achievement in itself even though he came up just short in his previous appearances. Could a third finals run be in the cards?

It was. Tonole's hyper-aggressive Mono-Red Aggro deck did exactly what it was built to do: come out the gates lightning-fast. Unfortunately for Tonole, Golgari Midrange has been built to beat aggressive red decks for as long as players have been casting Lightning Bolt, and in three straight games he showed exactly why, and how.

With that, one finalist was set: Carvalho would take his third shot at the title. But who would be his opponent, and who would win the Player of the Year title? An epic match between Manfield and Domínguez gave us the answer.

It was all Manfield in the pre-sideboarded games. As it had for him all weekend, Up the Beanstalk cycled on the second turn and began to accumulate pure card advantage from there, combining particularly well with Overlord of the Hauntwoods. He leaned on the strength of his main deck to take the first two games and put himself just one win away from a return to the World Championship finals.

But Domínguez wouldn't go down quietly. In fact, he wouldn't go down at all. He turned to his removal-filled sideboard and went to work. He took the third game off the back of Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber making an unanswered Demon, and then the fourth thanks to a very quick Doomsday Excruciator.

Suddenly, Manfield's lead was gone. It would all come down to a final game. And like their entire match, that game delivered. The players traded resources back and forth early, with neither able to build a huge advantage around their card-draw engines (Up the Beanstalk and Unholy Annex), and eventually things got so bogged down that Manfield even resolved Breach the Multiverse, en route to a board that included Liliana of the Veil, Aclazotz, and several Restless Cottage. A few attack steps could end the game.

The only problem with that? You need cards in your library to make it to an attack step. And that's exactly what Jace, the Perfected Mind prevents. Domínguez saved his planeswalkers until the perfect moment, ultimately milling Manfield out in a picture-perfect photo finish to the 2024 race for the Kai Budde Player of the Year Trophy.

It took as long as it possibly could, but the Player of the Year race was finally over: Domínguez reigning at the top. But there was still the matter of the World Championship—and now Domínguez was ready to face Carvalho in the finals for his chance to win that, too.

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