Last weekend, over 160 of the best Magic players from across Brazil met in São Paulo for the City Class Games Showdown, Brazil’s Regional Championship. Eight invites to Pro Tour: Lord of the Rings, happening later this month in Barcelona, were on the line, as well as a seat at the World Championship. After eight rounds of Pioneer play followed by the Top 8, Marcelo Rodrigues Cavalcante emerged victorious. Congratulations to Marcelo Rodrigues Cavalcante, Brazil’s Regional Champion!
Cavalcante piloted Rakdos Sacrifice to his Regional Championship win, defeating Matheus Ponciano, on Lotus Field Combo, in the finals.
The match went to a full three games, and while both players qualified for the Pro Tour, it was Cavalcante who took home the trophy and an invite to the World Championship.
THE TOP 8 & THE PRO TOUR
Congratulations to the Top 8 of the City Class Games Showdown, who earned invites to Pro Tour: Lord of the Rings. Five different Pioneer archetypes were represented in the Top 8. That included two copies of Rakdos Sacrifice, which was also the deck that Martin Domingues piloted to win the South America Regional Championship in Santiago, Chile this same weekend.
The most popular deck of the weekend, Rakdos Midrange, put a single copy into the Top 8, while Mono-Green Devotion, the second most popular choice, appeared a stunning three times. That makes it one of the most successful weekends for Mono-Green Devotion since the start of the Regional Championships last fall.
Adriano Melo, the winner of the last City Class Games Showdown in March, managed a back-to-back Regional Championship Top 8. He followed up last cycle’s win by making it all the way to the semifinals this weekend, where he ultimately fell to Ponciano, though not before securing himself another invite to the Pro Tour.
Click here to see the decklists the Top 8 players used to secure their seat at the Pro Tour.
THE METAGAME
Rakdos Midrange continues to be a popular choice in the current Pioneer metagame, though the larger portion of “Other” decks – almost a quarter of the field – reflects the Pioneer’s current metagame flexibility. Mono-Green Devotion and Azorius Control were also more popular in Brazil than elsewhere this cycle, while Rakdos Sacrifice was less popular. Ten players on Abzan Greasefang also made that deck a much more popular choice than it has been.
It was overall a standout weekend for Rakdos Sacrifice, which was the winning deck in both Brazil and South America’s Regional Championships. Mono-Green Devotion remains a solid and popular choice, while Enigmatic Fires and Lotus Field decks have shown that there are combo decks that have what it takes to beat the field in Pioneer.
It was a great weekend full of terrific and hard-fought matches in São Paulo, and we can’t wait to see how these players fare at the Pro Tour in Barcelona later this month! Congratulations again to Marcelo Rodrigues Cavalcante, and to Brazil 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!