The biggest Magic event to ever take place began with a look back at the first big Magic event that ever took place.
The first Pro Tour. New York City, 1996. The event that started it all.
You never know what you're going to see at MagicCon. You could discover a powerful new piece of tech from the Pro Tour, play a game against your favorite content creators, or nail a hole-in-one at the Magic-themed miniature golf course that sits next to the Cat Lair, where attendees took a break from the din of the convention to play with a litter of kittens. You don't know if a roar from the other side of the room means that Christoffer Larsen won his final match or that the finals of the cosplay competition just wrapped.
The point is, you never know what's coming next at MagicCon, and attendees on Thursday were treated to a very special story from Magic history: a panel consisting of five of the game's most important stakeholders and living witnesses to history, all of whom were present in one capacity or another at that very first Pro Tour, famously won by Michael Loconto, his famous Millstone deck, and (as he put it) one very fortunate
Three hundred feet and 30 years away, the game's best gathered to honor what Loconto started all those years ago. The Standard format, enhanced by Secrets of Strixhaven, featured a number of decks with radically different strategies, from Omniscience combo decks, to a host of aggro decks, to the can't-get-rid-of-it Izzet Prowess that lapped the field with its metagame share.
But every team not playing Izzet Prowess felt they had a plan, and eight rounds of play on Friday across Secrets of Strixhaven Booster Draft and Standard would sort things out. When the dust finally settled on Day One for the 325 qualified players, it was Nathan Steuer who led the way and will set the pace for the field as over 200 players return for Day Two, prepared to take their shot at making the Top 8.
Viewers in Vegas and at home were treated to eight exciting rounds of Magic gameplay that showcased not just the deep gameplay of Secrets of Strixhaven Limited but a number of compelling storylines among the 300-plus competitors. And when the curtain fell on the first day of competition, it was a World Champion who had the top of the standings all to himself.
A World Champion Returns
Nathan Steuer is back. Before Simon Nielsen's run over the last two years of incredible, consecutive Top Finishes, the wunderkind Nathan Steuer did the same during what made up the best two-year stretch of Magic we've ever seen. Steuer strung up five Top Finishes between 2021 and 2023, casually racking up a career's worth of Top 8 appearances in under two years. But what's perhaps even more impressive than those Top 8 appearances are his titles. Steuer earned four trophies during those two years, including a victory at Magic World Championship XXVIII and another at Pro Tour March of the Machine. It was the kind of stretch that could only be matched by the likes of the German Juggernaut himself, Kai Budde, during his legendary run from 1990 to the 2000s.
Steuer took a well-earned break from the Pro Tour after that, but he's back in Las Vegas and—once again—is looking like the force of nature that took the Magic world by storm when live play returned post-pandemic.
Steuer finished the day in a familiar position, leading the entire field. His 8-0 record came with a final-round flurry as he outlasted Rui Zhang in the final match of 7-0 players. While there’s still eight rounds to go ahead of the Top 8, one thing is clear: Steuer is, once again, a force to be reckoned with.
Revealing the Secrets of Strixhaven
All five schools of Strixhaven (the five two-color combinations featured in the set) posted 3–0 finishes in the Draft rounds, and it will come as no surprise that the pilots of those decks represented some of the best in the game right now. Those pilots included reigning champ Christoffer Larsen and Magic stalwarts like Yuuki Ichikawa, David Inglis, and the two-time World Champion Javier Dominguez.
But what will come as a surprise is the way some of the undefeated players got there. Enter Quinn Tonole, the Mono-Red mastermind who, this time around, put his unique skillset to work in a different format. The result was a team Cosmos Heavy Play special that helped Steuer to a perfect draft as he ran up his record.
Monstrous Rage [7KPeTxHBExney1Ov7p6lvq]
Longtime Pro Tour viewers will remember fondly
5-0 so far at PT Strixhaven! The team cooked up a sick GW landfall deck, and I 3-0d draft with the @GeneralQuinniac special of bulk up +2 monstrous rage (will post later) pic.twitter.com/i3n8qzM5l6
— Nathan Steuer (@Nathansteuer1) May 1, 2026
"You play a red-white deck, but you're not the graveyard-focused Lorehold deck. You're a very aggressive red-white aggro deck.
Leave it to one of the game's preeminent Mono-Red masters to figure out how to cast
While two-color decks dominated the bulk of the field, there were also players who got more aggressive than that. Rui Zhang, who finished 7-1, played a full four-color mashup to take advantage of the strongest multicolor cards they opened on the way to a 3-0 finish.
Players will return for another class of Secrets of Strixhaven tomorrow, as we kick off Day Two with one more draft before moving to Standard for the home stretch.
Standard Standouts from Strixhaven
As Frank Karsten highlighted before the tournament, a large number of the decks in the room utilized at least one new card from Secrets of Strixhaven. The result was a field that largely conformed to expectations—Izzet Prowess led the pack—but also one that showcased a handful of team-built decks that squads felt stood a chance at disrupting the metagame.
In practice, not every would-be upset was made equal. The Team Sanctum of All deck based around
As for Izzet Prowess, the top dog? It finished with a flat 50% win rate for the day, with Izzet Lessons and Spellementals putting up similar results. Meanwhile, the just-keeps-coming Landfall archetype just quietly rolled along, posting win rates well above 50% and especially an impressive performance for the Selesnya Landfall list that Steuer and others were playing.
Looking Ahead
And with that, Steuer finds himself in a familiar position back atop the field. He will enter Saturday with the inside track to his first Top Finish in years—which would continue a very strong return run after he recently qualified for the 2027 Limited Championship—as we move back to Secrets of Strixhaven Draft in the morning.
Lurking just behind Steuer are eleven players with one loss or less. That includes defending Pro Tour champion Larsen at 7-1 (with Selesnya Landfall) as well as Matt Nass, Jack Potter, and Anthony Lee, the captain of Team Cosmos Heavy Play. The field of just over 200 players who qualified for Day Two will return for eight more rounds tomorrow to finalize our Sunday stage!
Coverage begins at 10 a.m. PT on twitch.tv/Magic and the Play MTG YouTube channel!