The last Pro Tour of the season before World Championship 31 was the only Pro Tour of the year to feature Modern. As lights turned on for the finals between Michael DeBenedetto-Plummer and Francisco Sánchez, Pro Tour Edge of Eternities had more than lived up to the hype.

A stacked field of 300 players qualified for the tournament, and the famed wide-open Modern metagame was back and on full display. Neither of the two most popular decks in the room—Esper Goryo's and Tameshi Belcher—turned in dominating performances, and the Top 8 was filled with seven unique archetypes.

But after a marathon of a Top 8 that saw every single match in the quarterfinals and semifinals go to the maximum five games, only two players remained. Despite Charbelcher's struggles as an archetype, no one had prepared a better list or sideboard plan than Michael DeBenedetto-Plummer, and the Team Serious Player Only member had held off all other challengers so far, amassing a 9-1 Swiss record with the deck and defeating Noé Offman's Neoform and Mikko Airaeksinen's Belcher in the mirror.

But now he was running up against Francisco Sánchez, who cruised through the first two days with an innovative Day's Undoing Control deck and that outlasted Mason Buonadonna's Amulet Titan and Makoto Horiuchi's Esper Blink in the Top 8.

It was a combo deck against a control deck—a classic Magic matchup, and one with extraordinary stakes: the title of Pro Tour Edge of Eternities Champion and the chance to etch the winner's name into the history books alongside a very select group of Modern Pro Tour winners.

The first game put that dance on full display. DeBenedetto-Plummer meticulously worked his way through his spells and Sánchez's interaction. Despite his maneuvering, DeBenedetto-Plummer's suspended Lotus Bloom couldn't resolve through Orim's Chant, and his Tameshi ran into Counterspell.

But Whir of Invention resolved, netting DeBenedetto-Plummer putting a Lotus Bloom into play. A second Lotus Bloom followed when Sánchez had to use his own mana to refill his hand with Consult the Star Charts. Now, with all the mana he needed available, DeBenedetto-Plummer needed only to find a way to force through a Belcher.

The second game saw Sánchez go for his own "combo" by imprinting Orim's Chant underneath Isochron Scepter. It's an old-school Legacy combo that has found its way into Modern after Orim's Chant was printed in Modern Horizons 3, and it's a near-undefeatable lock for any sorcery speed strategy. But DeBenedetto-Plummer avoided that fate with a timely Counterspell, which let him resolve his own Lotus Bloom. Seeking to maximize on this opportunity, DeBenedetto-Plummer decided to go for it: he put Goblin Charbelcher on the stack.

But Sánchez had a Force of Negation to save the game. He followed that up with Narset, Parter of Veils and activated it. But this time, Narset completely whiffed. That left him without an answer to yet another Goblin Charbelcher hit the stack the next turn, and just like that the first two games of the finals went to DeBenedetto-Plummer.

Now came the post-sideboard games, where Sánchez would desperately need help after the redundancy of DeBenedetto-Plummer's combo deck was too much for his main deck to handle.

Resolving Teferi, Time Raveler was a good start, but thanks to his own sideboard choices, DeBenedetto-Plummer now had a planeswalker of his own: Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar.

This did indeed look different from the first two games, and the game followed the same sideboarding pattern that DeBenedetto-Plummer had utilized all weekend. He boarded down on Belcher pieces and went up on midrange value. Over the weekend, plenty of Belcher games were won by attacking with 1/4 and 2/3 creatures.

It looked like this might need to be one of them after Sánchez put both Narset and Teferi into play. Immediately, DeBenedetto-Plummer went into the tank and tried to find a way out before the lock became inescapable. On the other side of a long and complex turn, he ended up losing a lot of mana and passing back with Teferi, Tameshi, and Lotus Bloom on the battlefield, but no way to win.

That gave Sánchez access to his mana again, and he used it to keep interacting. The game went on and on. Eventually, DeBenedetto-Plummer made everyone watching read every single "land" card in the deck by casting their seldomly used front sides.

Case in point: Suppression Ray. Casting it was the key that unlocked the ultimate ability of Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar, and the ultimate ability of Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar was the key to the match. It drew DeBenedetto-Plummer an absurd sixteen cards. A few turns later, when he finally put another Goblin Charbelcher on the stack, he had more than enough counterspells to protect his deck's namesake.

Sánchez paid the cost on one Flusterstorm, but he had nothing left for the second copy. Instead, he extended his hand and congratulated DeBenedetto-Plummer on winning Pro Tour Edge of Eternities!

🌠 Congratulations to Michael DeBenedetto-Plummer, winner of Pro Tour Edge of Eternities! 🌠 pic.twitter.com/yI8NalQ3nK

— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) September 28, 2025