One of the largest Regional Championships took place in Washington DC last week, with nearly 2,000 players traveling to SCG CON to play in this massive event. With fifteen rounds of Pioneer that led to a Top 8 stacked with some of the best talent in the country, a diverse set of decks and decisions brought us to Connor Mackenzie and Cory Lack playing for the title.

There have been months of Regional Championship Qualifiers that set up this massive field. We watched them battle it out over two days for a shot at the Pro Tour, as well as invitations to Magic World Championship 31 for the two finalists. While there were 64 Pro Tour invitations available, that was a tall task in the face of such a large tournament. The pair of World Championship invitations were even more elusive. But, when Mackenzie and Lack met in the finals after a marathon weekend, those invites were theirs. All that remained was to crown the Regional Champion.

After 15 rounds and a Top 8 playoff, Connor Mackenzie and Cory Lack met in the finals of the U.S. Regional Championship at SCGCON!

It was Rakdos deck against Rakdos deck in the finals of this rejuvenated Pioneer format, albeit with two very different approaches. In the end, Tree of Perdition won it all as Lack stamped his name into the history books by beating Mackenzie in a 16-2 overall match record with a breakout deck of his own design.

Congratulations to Cory Lack, the winner of the United States' Regional Championship!

Lack has emerged as leader in following the banning of Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Amalia Benavides Aguirre in Pioneer. Lack's centerpiece was Tree of Perdition, a long-forgotten card that's been supercharged following Wilds of Eldraine's Agatha's Soul Cauldron. He qualified for the Regional Championship at Excelsior Comics and Games in Maynard, Massachusetts, with his initial brew of the deck, refining it from there until he won the Regional Championship and punched his ticket to the World Championship.

"The deck was fantastic," said Lack. "I was happiest with its ability to play both offense and defense. Magic is in a spot right now where proactive strategies trump reactive strategies, but decks that are exclusively proactive are extremely reliant on being on the play as opposed to the draw."

Lack's opponent in the finals, Connor Mackenzie, is also headed to the Pro Tour and Magic World Championship 31. For him, it's an opportunity to eliminate what could have been a huge what-if in his Magic career. He was forced to call in sick for Day Two of Pro Tour Phyrexia, his first and only Pro Tour appearance before now. This qualification is another shot for him to show his skill at Magic's high-level events.

Cory Lack and Connor Mackenzie were both piloting Rakdos decks in the finals.

Congratulations to the Top 8

It was a marathon of a Regional Championship as more than 1,800 players traveled to Washington DC to compete in over fifteen rounds across two days, followed by a Top 8 series of finals. Those final competitors were a collection of new and old tournament players, but all of them shared a common trait: they'd been working very hard to get ahead of the shifting Pioneer metagame.

• Cory Lack
• Connor Mackenzie
• Paul Yeem
• Eric Gray
• Ian Robb
• Zevin Faust
• Omri Goldenberg
• Patrick Wu

The Top 8's decks reflected the diversity of this field, with seven different decks advancing to the elimination rounds (Izzet Phoenix was the lone deck to double up). In fact, the top eleven finishers saw nine unique decks, with Rakdos Transmogrify being the other repeat.

A huge Regional Championship field means a plethora of Pro Tour invites. There were 64 of them available, to be exact, plus two World Championship seats awarded to the finalists. It was one of the largest single sources of invites for aspiring Pro Tour hopefuls, and many Pro Tour dreams were made.

You can find all the decklists here.

The Rise and Fall of Azorius Control

A lot of the talk heading into the weekend was about the presumed dominance of the classic white-blue control deck. Featuring Teferi, Hero of Dominaria as a finisher and plenty of planeswalker protection in the form of board wipes and counterspells, players wondered if the field was about to be overtaken by a wave of control players. When the metagame breakdown came in, it looked like that might be the case.

It turns out that was an unfounded fear. While Azorius players did okay, with Patrick Wu making the Top 8 with a Lotus Field variant of the deck, it put only three players in the Top 25.

Duskmourn made an impact as well, with Marvin, Murderous Mimic making an appearance in Lack's winning list alongside four copies of Fear of Missing Out. Additionally, Overlord of the Hauntwoods was featured prominently in Yeem's 3rd-place Enigmatic Incarnation list.

The Regional Championship was a showcase of the best talent in the region, and many players who made deep runs in DC will be back for the next Regional Championship cycle, vying for another shot to qualify for the Pro Tour!

Find out more about how you can qualify for the Regional Championship and the Pro Tour here!