Magic World Championship 30 Top 8 Players and Decks

October 27, 2024

Corbin Hosler and Adam Styborski

What started with 113 players on Day One ended on Day Two with the Top 8 competitors at Magic World Championship 30!

Kai Budde

One longtime Pro Tour regular described themselves getting chills as they watched Kai Budde walk up to the feature match for his Top 8 win-and-in. And that really does sum it up: two and half decades after he won the 1999 World Championship, Budde is back. His career spans Top Finishes across four different decades, and his legendary accolades as "the German Juggernaut" are why the Player of the Year trophy is named for him. "Kai doesn't lose on Sundays" is a maxim we may see once again.

4 Deep-Cavern Bat 4 Enduring Curiosity 5 Swamp 4 Spyglass Siren 4 Faerie Mastermind 4 Restless Reef 3 Cut Down 4 Underground River 2 Phantom Interference 4 Go for the Throat 4 Gloomlake Verge 2 Fountainport 1 Anoint with Affliction 4 Darkslick Shores 2 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares 3 Unstoppable Slasher 2 Three Steps Ahead 1 Ertai Resurrected 2 Island 1 Tishana's Tidebinder

2 Tishana's Tidebinder 1 Cut Down 1 Disdainful Stroke 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 2 Duress 1 Gix's Command 2 Ghost Vacuum 1 Blot Out 2 Negate 1 Anoint with Affliction

Márcio Carvalho

When will Márcio Carvalho win a World Championship? One of the strongest players from the Grand Prix era, he's earned multiple Top Finishes that include two separate World Championship finalist finishes. While he earned a reputation as one of the best Limited minds in the game, his past season of Pro Tour play has Constructed as the format he's found the most success in. Is this finally the year—the World Championship—Carvalho finishes first?

3 Anoint with Affliction 4 Archfiend of the Dross 4 Blooming Marsh 4 Caustic Bronco 3 Cut Down 1 Dreams of Steel and Oil 3 Duress 3 Forest 2 Fountainport 2 Glissa Sunslayer 4 Go for the Throat 4 Llanowar Wastes 4 Mosswood Dreadknight 4 Restless Cottage 1 Sentinel of the Nameless City 7 Swamp 2 Tranquil Frillback 2 Underground Mortuary 3 Unholy Annex

2 Choking Miasma 1 Dreams of Steel and Oil 1 Duress 2 Ghost Vacuum 1 Gix's Command 1 Harvester of Misery 2 Liliana of the Veil 2 Nissa, Ascended Animist 2 Tear Asunder 1 Tranquil Frillback

Javier Domínguez

Javier Domínguez knows a thing or two about finding success at the World Championship: he won the entire thing in 2018. And he's now in his third World Championship Top 8. Domínguez has been a joyful mainstay at the top of the tour for a decade, and now he has yet another Top Finish to his name after an absurd run of sustained success over the last year. His Dimir Demons deck was one of the successful blue-black brews in Las Vegas, and he'll look now to use it to become Magic's second two-time World Champion.

4 Unholy Annex 8 Swamp 3 Darkslick Shores 4 Underground River 4 Gloomlake Verge 4 Restless Reef 2 Shoot the Sheriff 4 Faerie Mastermind 1 Undercity Sewers 4 Archfiend of the Dross 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind 2 Caustic Bronco 2 Spell Stutter 4 Go for the Throat 4 Duress 2 Fountainport 2 Doomsday Excruciator 3 Anoint with Affliction 1 Cut Down

2 Negate 2 Dreams of Steel and Oil 1 Jace, the Perfected Mind 1 Anoint with Affliction 1 Withering Torment 1 Ghost Vacuum 1 Deadly Cover-Up 1 Outrageous Robbery 1 Gix's Command 2 Cut Down 2 Liliana of the Veil

Yoshihiko Ikawa

The Pro Tour Thunder Junction winner is riding higher than ever after an incredible comeback season. The longtime Japanese stalwart entered 2024 with a goal: get back to the Pro Tour. He's done a lot more than that, winning a Regional Championship to reignite his Pro Tour spark and then making the absolute most of his opportunity by winning that Pro Tour. Now he's added a fourth career Top Finish, and it comes with a chance to win a second trophy in one of the most successful "comeback seasons" in Magic history.

4 Heartfire Hero 4 Monastery Swiftspear 4 Emberheart Challenger 4 Manifold Mouse 2 Questing Druid 4 Slickshot Show-Off 2 Might of the Meek 4 Monstrous Rage 4 Shock 2 Snakeskin Veil 2 Torch the Tower 3 Innkeeper's Talent 1 Scorching Shot 4 Copperline Gorge 4 Karplusan Forest 4 Mountain 2 Restless Ridgeline 2 Rockface Village 4 Thornspire Verge

1 Questing Druid // Seek the Beast 1 Torch the Tower 3 Obliterating Bolt 4 Pawpatch Formation 2 Scorching Shot 4 Urabrask's Forge

Seth Manfield

It isn't Seth Manfield's first time in the Top 8 of a World Championship. He made it all the way in 2015 to emerge as winner and added more Pro Tour wins (Ixalan and Murders at Karlov Manor) and Top 8 appearances as part of his Hall of Fame career. With a win earlier this season, and still in the race for 2024 Player of the Year, Manfield is on a march to victory as one of the game's greats.

4 Up the Beanstalk 4 Restless Cottage 2 Virtue of Persistence 1 Outrageous Robbery 2 Tear Asunder 2 Cut Down 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 4 Overlord of the Hauntwoods 3 Duress 3 Go for the Throat 3 Anoint with Affliction 3 Glissa Sunslayer 1 Gix's Command 2 Deadly Cover-Up 1 Harvester of Misery 2 Underground Mortuary 4 Blooming Marsh 2 Demolition Field 4 Swamp 4 Forest 2 Fountainport 3 Llanowar Wastes 1 Pillage the Bog 1 Sunken Citadel

1 Nissa, Ascended Animist 2 Cut Down 1 Ghost Vacuum 1 Deep-Cavern Bat 1 Duress 1 Cruelclaw's Heist 1 Outrageous Robbery 1 The End 1 Tear Asunder 2 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead 1 Tranquil Frillback 1 Breach the Multiverse 1 Blot Out

Ha Pham

Regional Championships aren't just the path to the Pro Tour, but for winners it's also a shot to play among the game's greatest at the World Championship. Ha Pham won his Regional Championship, Canada's Face to Face Tour, to qualify for Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor where he fell in a Day One 1-5 finish. But winning that RC offered Pham a second shot, and pairing Mono-Red Aggro to speed blitz opponents with a strong result in Duskmourn: House of Horror Draft put him in contention to claim a title many players spend years chasing.

9 Swamp 3 Cut Down 2 Go for the Throat 1 Shore Up 3 Anoint with Affliction 2 Archfiend of the Dross 4 Bloodletter of Aclazotz 4 Deep-Cavern Bat 3 Underground River 4 Faerie Mastermind 3 Duress 4 Unholy Annex 4 Unstoppable Slasher 4 Darkslick Shores 4 Gloomlake Verge 4 Undercity Sewers 1 Rush of Dread 1 Escape Tunnel

1 Dreams of Steel and Oil 2 Malicious Eclipse 2 Negate 2 Ghost Vacuum 2 Into the Flood Maw 1 Duress 1 Cut Down 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 2 Liliana of the Veil

Max Rappaport

After taking a break from competitive Magic, Max Rappaport qualified for the Pro Tour—and Magic World Championship 30—with a stellar finalist finish at the 2023 Magic Online Champions Showcase Season 3. While his Pro Tour wasn't successful, his performance at the World Championship more than makes up for it, bringing Dimir Midrange and a strong draft game to stand among the game's greats.

4 Deep-Cavern Bat 5 Swamp 3 Island 2 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor 3 Underground River 4 Restless Reef 4 Faerie Mastermind 2 Phantom Interference 4 Spyglass Siren 3 Cut Down 1 Enduring Curiosity 2 Ertai Resurrected 2 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares 3 Go for the Throat 4 Darkslick Shores 2 Mirrex 4 Gloomlake Verge 3 Preacher of the Schism 2 Three Steps Ahead 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 1 Bitter Triumph

1 Cut Down 1 Disdainful Stroke 2 Malicious Eclipse 2 Withering Torment 2 Ghost Vacuum 2 Anoint with Affliction 1 Gix's Command 1 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead 2 Tishana's Tidebinder 1 Negate

Quinn Tonole

Quinn Tonole ran the most middle-of-the-road season. Making it to Day Two of all three Pro Tours, Tonolo ended each with a record of 8-8. That consistent performance, notching 50% win rates in Limited and Constructed formats for the season, earned enough adjusted match points for a World Championship invitation. This time, however, Tonole was decidedly not average, advancing to the Top 8 with ten wins earned after Round 12. Going 4-2 across Draft with a perfect Standard record off Mono-Red Aggro, Tonole's poised to notch Magic's most prestigious title.

17 Mountain 4 Shock 4 Monastery Swiftspear 4 Screaming Nemesis 3 Witchstalker Frenzy 4 Manifold Mouse 4 Monstrous Rage 4 Rockface Village 4 Lightning Strike 4 Emberheart Challenger 4 Heartfire Hero 4 Hired Claw

4 Torch the Tower 1 Obliterating Bolt 1 Witchstalker Frenzy 3 Lithomantic Barrage 4 Urabrask's Forge 2 Twisted Fealty