Editor's Note: The original article incorrectly stated the Pro Tour invitation awarded to winner Mihn Nguyen. This has been corrected.

Last weekend over 1300 of the best Magic players from across the United States gathered in Denver for the DreamHack U.S. Regional Championship, making it the largest Regional Championship yet! Thirty-two invitations to Pro Tour Thunder Junction Seattle, USA, two invitations to the World Championship at MagicCon Vegas, and the title of U.S. Regional Champion were all on the line. After fourteen rounds of Modern followed by a Top 8 playoff, Minh Nguyen claimed the title and the trophy piloting Temur Rhinos.

Congratulations to Minh Nguyen, winner of the U.S. Regional Championship!

Nguyen's journey to the winner's circle began when he won a Regional Championship Qualifier at Java Game Haus in Jacksonville, Florida, where Nguyen is from. Nguyen chose Temur Rhinos for the weekend because "I tested a lot with it and decided it was the best deck for me. I felt comfortable with the play patterns, the sideboarding, and Tishana's Tidebinder is too good not to play."

Tishana's Tidebinder was Nguyen's best card of the weekend, proving itself useful in every matchup. In Nguyen's words, "it has game versus every deck."

Nguyen defeated Aiden Lamson on Living End in the finals.

Aiden Lamson plays in the finals.

Lamson chose Living End because "I thought Rhinos would turn out in force." While the choice served him well throughout the weekend, earning him an invitation to both the Pro Tour and the World Championship, Nguyen and Temur Rhinos managed to vanquish him in the finals.

Congratulations to the Top 8

Congratulations to Andrew Vorel, Aiden Lamson, Minh Nguyen, Mack Endress, Jacob Koshak, Alessandro Smith, Chandler Cox, and Devon Straub

At the end of fourteen Swiss rounds of Modern, eight players advanced to the Top 8. In addition to finalists Nguyen and Lamson, they included Devon Straub, Alessandro Smith, and Chandler Cox on Golgari Yawgmoth, Mack Endress on Domain Rhinos, Jacob Koshak on Four-Color Omnath, and Andrew Vorel on Five-Color Creativity. Congratulations to the Top 8 on making the Pro Tour!

The Top 8 decks were an interesting cross-section of the metagame, with Golgari Yawgmoth, the second most popular deck of the weekend, representing the largest share of the Top 8 at three copies. Both Temur and Domain Rhinos were represented, fitting as they climb the ranks of Modern's most popular decks. The rest of the Top 8 was rounded out with players' personal favorites, also fitting in a format that rewards being well-versed in your preferred strategy.

You can see the decklists of the Top 32 players here.

Modern continues to evolve after the December 4th bans of Fury and Up the Beanstalk. Rakdos Evoke, once the most popular metagame choice, fell to fourth, with only 6% of the field on the deck. Temur Rhinos continues its stampede through the format, with Golgari Yawgmoth being the second most popular choice in the U.S. last weekend.

Rhinos' ascendance has also created a resurgence for perennially popular combo decks like Amulet Titan and Living End, which were third and fifth in the metagame. On Day 2, Living End surpassed both Amulet Titan and Rakdos Evoke to become the third most represented deck in the field.

As the Modern metagame continues to evolve, one of the questions that might persist is whether Temur or Domain is the best build of Rhinos. While Nguyen took down the event with a Temur build, Domain Rhinos had a better match win percentage during the weekend, 63.2% to Temur's 48.4%. There are still half a dozen Regional Championships before Pro Tour Thunder Junction, and with the impact that Modern Horizons II had on Modern, it's still a mystery what may happen in Amsterdam.

Congratulations again to this weekend's players on a great tournament of terrific and hard-fought matches and excellent competition. Catch the next DreamHack U.S. Regional Championship during the next Regional Championship cycle!

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!