This past weekend, the Regional Championship excitement continued with events across the globe, qualifying players for the upcoming Pro Tour at MagicCon: Las Vegas and Magic World Championship 31. Read more about each of these events and their champions below!

And remember, you can be part of the next cycle of Regional Championships by participating in a qualifying event near you! Explore upcoming events through the Store & Event Locator, or visit your regional organizer's website for more details.

Husisian Goes Over the Top with Titan to Win in Portland

By Corbin Hosler

A truly massive field of more than 1,000 players gathered in Portland, Oregon last weekend for the Regional Championship for the United States. After a marathon weekend of Modern Constructed, one of the format's recently unbanned cards took the title. But it wasn't the one that anyone predicted.

The card is Green Sun's Zenith, the deck is the Modern classic Amulet Titan, and the new Regional Champion from the United States is Peter Husisian, who dropped just a single match through eighteen rounds of Magic at the Regional Championship at SCG CON in Portland. Every match in the Top 8 went the full three games for Husisian, but utilizing the consistency of Green Sun's Zenith, he was able to pair Amulet of Vigor with Gruul Turfs and Primeval Titans when he most needed to; Husisian survived the Top 8 gauntlet and emerged as a Regional Champion and now a qualified for player for the Pro Tour and the Magic World Championship later this year.

Not a bad west-coast trip for the Virginia native.

"Good vibes" is how Husisian described Amulet Titan. He's played the deck in Modern for the last two years and was happy to pick up Green Sun's Zenith to keep up in a powerful metagame that also saw Eldrazi Ramp and Boros Energy fueled by Modern Horizons 3 find Top 8 success, as well as the Underworld Breach combo that recently picked up Mox Opal.

1 Aftermath Analyst 4 Amulet of Vigor 4 Arboreal Grazer 3 Boseiju, Who Endures 3 Crumbling Vestige 1 Dryad Arbor 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove 1 Echoing Deeps 1 Expedition Map 3 Forest 3 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Gruul Turf 1 Hanweir Battlements 2 Lotus Field 3 Malevolent Rumble 1 Mirrorpool 1 Otawara, Soaring City 4 Primeval Titan 2 Scapeshift 1 Shifting Woodland 3 Simic Growth Chamber 4 Spelunking 3 Summoner's Pact 1 Tolaria West 4 Urza's Saga 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle 1 Vesuva 1 Bojuka Bog 2 Collector Ouphe 3 Dismember 2 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove 1 Endurance 2 Force of Vigor 1 Grist, the Hunger Tide 1 Keen-Eyed Curator 2 Vampires' Vengeance

Brech decks were the dominant force in the finals, and Jackson Knorr piloted the deck with the best Day Two conversion rate all the way to the finals. Knorr was one of three Breach players to break into the Top 8, with Eldrazi Ramp being the other deck to place multiple copies into the elimination rounds.

The complete Top 8 was as follows:

• Peter Husisian (Amulet Titan)
• Jackson Knorr (Grinding Breach)
• Damian Del Nero (Eldrazi Ramp)
• Gabriel Nicholas (Boros Energy)
• Enzo Birk (Grinding Breach)
• Alan Hubbard (Eldrazi Ramp)
• Joel Doolittle (Orzhov Blink)
• Pieter Tubergen (Grinding Breach)

There were more than 1,000 players who selected the deck they thought could win them the Regional Championship, and when the dust settled the exact same number of players brought Underworld Breach as brought Energy lists, with both coming in just under 20% of the metagame.

With Eldrazi Ramp taking up 15% of the wins, more than half the metagame belonged to those three macro-archetypes, though there was tons of variations to be foundwithin those categories. Orzhov Blink was a big winner at last month's Regional Championships, and it had another strong weekend in Portland. Abhorrent Oculus decks and classic Amulet Titan builds took up 5% of the total Modern metagame in one of the largest tests of the format after the momentous unbannings late last year.

The Regional Championship brought together the best in the region, and the Top 8 featured a number of new and a few familiar faces–and they'll all now look forward to the Pro Tour, along with the rest of the competitors who qualified.

You can find all Pro Tour qualifier's decklists here.

In the end, it was Titan that ruled them all, and a worthy champion crowned. Congrats again to Peter Husisian, the latest Regional Championship for the United States!

I WON RC PORTLAND WITH AMULET! https://t.co/VE4idX5pi9

I played (mostly) very well, got EXTREMELY lucky. Started getting sloppy in the top 8 — was just so tired. Happy to leave with a PT and worlds invite along with $20,000. @fireshoes

— Peter Husisian (@peter_husisian) February 10, 2025

Noah Ma is the Japan & Korea Regional Champion

By Riley Knight

The Japanese city of Chiba was host to the Champion's Cup Final this weekend, which saw 243 players gather to play for Pro Tour invitations, seats at the World Championship, and their share of tens of thousands of dollars in prize money. The format was Modern Constructed, and while there were a great many skilled players and powerful decks involved in the event, it was a metagame powerhouse that triumphed. Noah Ma travelled across from Korea and took down the tournament with Boros Energy!

Ma had to overcome Masataka Hori in the finals, who was playing another one of the weekend's dominant decks: Orzhov Blink. This list looks to be a real contender, posting a solid conversion rate from Day One to Day Two, but it wasn't enough to beat Boros Energy in the finals, with Ma taking down Hori across three games.

The Top 8 represented a wide array of decks. Despite Boros Energy being very strongly represented by the field at large, eventual champion Ma was the only Top 8 competitor on this strategy. Two players, runner-up Hori as well as Kenta Masukado, made it with Orzhov Blink and two more—Riku Kumagai and Charles Namchaisiri— earned Pro Tour invites with Grinding Breach. The final three slots were rounded by Hiroki Kageyama's Tameshi Belcher, Ryuji Mimido's Eldrazi Ramp, and a beautiful Jeskai Control list in the hands of Ryo Ito, featuring the full four copies of Snapcaster Mage. You love to see it.

Boros Energy didn't just win the weekend, it was also the most-played deck across the tournament. A whopping 20% of the field chose to play it, with Grinding Breach being the second-most popular list. It was interesting to see so many players turn up with Eldrazi Ramp only to miss out on Day Two. Of the 28 players running Eldrazi, only three made it to Day Two, with only one (Ryuji Mimido) making the Top 8. Also of note were Esper Oculus and the aforementioned Orzhov Blink decks, both of which seemed very well-positioned based on their day two conversion rates.

Chiba played host not just to the Champion's Cup Final, but to a larger gathering of the regional Magic community, bringing out other tournaments both large and small, cosplayers, artists, and all sorts of other fun. These events are always great to attend, so if you think you've got what it takes to play in a regional championship like this, why not give it a try by finding the next qualifier near you?