The final Pro Tour of the season before the World Championship rolled on into Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia, with a Top 8 featuring Modern Constructed like it's rarely been seen before. As the dust settles on Pro Tour Edge of Eternities, a once-again wide-open Modern format, and our Top 8 competitors, only one of the 300 competitors who qualified for the Pro Tour will hoist the trophy and become the eleventh Modern Pro Tour winner in Magic's history.

The seven different decks in the Top 8 showcased Modern's famed deck diversity. After a brief Nadu/The One Ring detour, this weekend's overall Modern metagame defied expectations, with the only deck that put two players into the Top 8—the reborn Goblin Charbelcher combo—performing much worse than expected. Collectively, the players were piloting so many different decks that the "Other" category ended up having one of the strongest win rates of any cohort.

The Top 8 competitors at Pro Tour Edge of Eternities came back on the final day with their World Championship invites already secured, but the ultimate prize was still up for grabs:the title of Pro Tour Champion.

The Quarterfinals

With seven different archetypes of a variety of different speeds in the Top 8, the four quarterfinal matches kicked off a whirlwind that showcased some of what Modern has to offer. It all started with the two most popular decks of the tournament: Jonny Guttman on Esper Goryo's Vengeance and Mikko Airaksinen on Goblin Charbelcher.

In their testing process, Airaksinen's squad (Team Vents) considered the Esper Goryo's to be a "bye." However, the team didn't feel that strongly after a weekend of playing against Goryo's players who were prepared with a gameplan against Goblin Charbelcher

The pair traded the first two games in quick fashion as each demonstrated their combo. Guttman got Atraxa, Grand Unifier into the graveyard, reanimated it, then blinked it. For Airaksinen, he simply had to find a way to get Goblin Charbelcher into play and activate it.

After the first two games, Airaksinen slammed a sideboard star, Tezzeret the Seeker, in the third game, forcing a Mystical Dispute from Guttman. That allowed Guttman to resolve Teferi, Time Raveler, which he followed up with a Force of Negation for Belcher. But the threats kept coming. After Guttman whiffed for a few turns, the game went to Airaksinen.

But Game 4 went back the other way, and in dramatic fashion. After both players went low on cards, it was anyone's game should their deck deliver. And it was Guttman's deck who perfectly delivered with an Atraxa, Grand Unifier off the top. It came just in time, because Airaksinen's draw for his turn was a Goblin Charbelcher that he would have been able to activate on the turn after he cast it.

That sent things into the first of many Game 5s for the day, and it started with Airaksinen slamming another sideboard star: Harbinger of the Seas. That immediately put Guttman under immense pressure. By the time he had finally worked his way out with Solitude for the Harbinger and a counter for the Belcher a few turns later, Guttman's defenses were fully down.

And down came Tezzeret the Seeker. The old-school planeswalker did what it has been doing since it showed up in 2008's Shards of Alara: it searched for an artifact from Airaksinen's library. That, of course, was Goblin Charbelcher. When Guttman couldn't find an answer, Airaksinen went for the kill and took the first match win of the quarterfinals.

A quick look over the rest of Top 8 showed that the other matches were just as close—every match went to five games as players scrapped and fought for every inch deep into the sideboard games. DeBenedetto-Plummer and Offman, playing two of the fastest combo decks in the format: Tameshi Charbelcher and Simic Neoform. This match was all about big moments, and in the deciding game it was DeBenedetto-Plummer who had the biggest moment of all.

After accruing value over several turns with his sideboard copy of Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, DeBenedetto-Plummer won a huge counterspell war with a pair of Flusterstorms. When the stack cleared, he still had one card left in his hand. That card, of course, was Goblin Charbelcher, and a single activation earned DeBenedetto-Plummer a spot in the semifinals.

Then we were onto the fifth and final game of the match between Horiuchi and Schabel. The Esper Blink versus Izzet Prowess matchup featured a ton of interaction, and players traded the previous games back and forth on that axis. In the fifth, it was a land-light opening hand for Schabel that made up for its lack of mana with pure aggression.

But Horiuchi's steady stream of removal didn't stop. Schabel was forced into using his spells defensively, and by the time he had run through all the original cards in his hand, Horiuchi was still at a healthy 15 life, with a resolved Subtlety providing a clock. While Izzet Prowess is famously explosive, it can't easily refill its hand especially if the initial burst is stymied.

And in this case, it fully was. Horiuchi too was out of cards and was facing down a 1-power Monastery Swiftspear and a pair of leftover lands; Schabel's Lava Darts were spent. Unable to muster any additional pressure, Schabel could only look on as Hiriuchi officially turned the corner and took down the match.

With that, we were onto the last quarterfinal match, where Buonadonna's Amulet Titan clashed against the Azorius Control deck that Francisco Sánchez had run to an 8-1-1 record in the Swiss rounds. The Amulet Titan player was deep into their deck, trying to fight through the lock pieces that the Azorius player had set up.

But when his Urza's Saga token was bounced, the jig was up. Buonadonna found himself fully locked under Sánchez's late-game "combo" of Teferi, Time Raveler; Narset, Parter of Veils; and Geier Reach Sanitarium. Maybe that's not exactly how he drew it up, but a win is a win, and Sánchez was on his way to the next round.

The Semifinals

The first semifinal match was a Belcher mirror, with DeBenedetto-Plummer and Airaksinen engaging in all-blue, no-Islands warfare. With so many counterspells available to both players, the Charbelcher mirror match was a bundle of tension where either side could end the game as soon as the other's shields came down—perhaps even in response to the other Charbelcher player going for the kill. It was a lot to consider for two players that were already fried from a marathon of five-game quarterfinal matches.

The first game played out as expected. Both players traded a few setup spells, and then Airaksinen forced through the combo as soon as possible. That put him up a quick game and put DeBenedetto-Plummer on the play for the second game.

DeBenedetto-Plummer led Game 2 with a pair of suspended Lotus Blooms, setting up for an explosion of mana on turns four and five. Seeing the impending storm, Airaksinen went digging with Fallaji Archaeologist to try and set up the kill. He followed with a Thundertrap Trainer followed, and with a freshly drawn Tameshi in hand, the critical turn came …

And showed that sometimes all the setup in the world isn't enough. Airaksinen couldn't find enough interaction. On the following turn, DeBenedetto-Plummer evened the match and put both players at a game win each.

The post-sideboard games were billed as much more interactive and exciting; Charbelcher players often boarded down on their combo for the post-board games, and DeBenedetto-Plummer showed that off when he cast Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student. Both players quickly filled their boards with setup creatures. All of that setup led to Airaksinen having one more piece of key countermagic than DeBenedetto-Plummer. With that, he took the game on the play and put himself just a win away from the finals.

Not to be outdone, DeBenedetto-Plummer returned the favor when the play returned to him in the next game. After four swingy games, the semifinal mirror match would all come down to a single game.

Game 5 went the longest as both players had the two-drops they needed to set up their hands. But a fast combo didn't come for either player. Instead, they circled each other while looking for their opportunity. Airaksinen, though, had Hope of Ghirapur, which would be a key piece in making sure his own combo could resolve.

That put the pressure on DeBenedetto-Plummer to take a proactive route. With a hand full of permission spells and a Whir of Invention, that's exactly what did. An end-step Whir set up the mana DeBenedetto-Plummer would need. When he put things to the test with his own Goblin Charbelcher—to his surprise and immense relief—it resolved, and DeBenedetto-Plummer was able to finally crack a wide smile.

With that, one finalist was set, with one to go. The second semifinal match was Azorius Control against Esper Blink, with decks piloted by Sánchez and Horiuchi respectively. The two split the first pre-sideboard games. With both lists fully tuned for the other, the audience settled in for a Best-of-Three showdown between two of the tournament's most discerning players. They eschewed the combo-heavy field to play archetypes that resembled "fair" Magic in 2025.

Clarion Conqueror was the star of the fourth game. Deploying it against Sánchez's planeswalker, Horiuchi's flying hatebear completely took over the game. Without finding any removal to take out the tricky flyer, Sánchez fell three points at a time until Horiuchi evened things out. And like every match in the Top 8 before it, this went into a fifth and deciding game.

That game once again featured Clarion Conqueror staring down a pair of planeswalkers, although this time at least Sánchez had managed to activate Narset, Parter of Veils once. Conqueror was followed by the ultra-versatile Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, and it looked like Horiuchi had found the line to bring down the control deck.

But the line could not hold. The Conqueror was exiled and Teferi bounced Phelia. Using the window of time he created, Sánchez cast a kicked Consult the Star Charts to dig deep into his deck. That brought him more countermagic and removal, and he cleared the board once again. Now, Sánchez had the upper hand. He used that to deploy Narset, Parter of Veils, ensuring that only Horiuchi would run out of cards. When Day's Undoing hit the stack, Horiuchi offered a handshake to congratulate Sánchez on his victory.

With that the finals were set: Francisco Sánchez's Azorius Control against Michael DeBenedetto-Plummer's Tameshi Charblecher Combo.