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The Week That Was: Paulot Cooks Up a Cauldron Victory in Liverpool

November 07, 2025
Corbin Hosler

Heading into Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man last weekend in Liverpool, the 580 players who would face off in Standard knew a few things in advance.

For starters, there were some high stakes: a $50,000 prize pool and Pro Tour invitations for the Top 8 finishers, along with special promo cards. In addition to those rewards, this event came with one of the most-stunning trophies to grace a Magic tournament: an Infinity Gauntlet winner's trophy with a very fancy gemstone inside. For the rest of the winner's Magic journey, there will be no doubt which event this trophy came from.

Then there was what was known about the Standard format. This Magic Spotlight Series event had the distinction of being one of the last major events before an upcoming banned and restricted announcement on November 10. Competitors knew this could be the last run for some number of cards at the highest levels of play. Leading up to Liverpool, the top cards and decks were no secret. The Vivi Ornitier and Agatha's Soul Cauldron combo deck continued to be as good as advertised, despite a field aiming to defeat it from the opening moment of deck building. Some prognosticators have gone so far as to say that Vivi Cauldron is not just the best Standard deck of its era, but of any Standard era. After another dominant weekend, it's hard to argue against that. While there were some surprise highlights—Selesnya Landfall was technically the best-performing Standard list on Day One with a 72% win rate—the weekend belonged to Vivi Cauldron, like many weekends before it.

It came as no surprise that the Top 8 was headlined by Vivi Cauldron and that it went on to win the tournament. This was the premier opportunity for anyone in Europe to demonstrate their mastery of a deck that not only rewards advance planning and tight play but (at least some of the time) created some very intricate, back-and-forth battles in the mirror. It's not everyone's cup of Magic tea, but it's certainly an experience that would bring out the best Vivi Cauldron pilots to compete.

In the end, despite everything going more or less as expected, there was one key wrinkle to the story. In retrospect, it's a fitting conclusion. The winner of Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man, Alexey Paulot, was indeed a master of Agatha's Soul Cauldron shenanigans—because he's been playing Agatha's Soul Cauldron since it was printed.

1 Jace, the Perfected Mind 3 Wrenn and Realmbreaker 1 Realm-Scorcher Hellkite 4 Kami of Whispered Hopes 4 Fallaji Archaeologist 3 Teachings of the Kirin 4 Rona, Herald of Invasion 4 Sleep-Cursed Faerie 2 Unnatural Restoration 1 Brave the Wilds 4 Seed of Hope 4 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 3 Witness Protection 1 Restless Vinestalk 4 Forest 2 Otawara, Soaring City 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 2 Argoth, Sanctum of Nature 3 Island 4 Dreamroot Cascade 4 Yavimaya Coast 1 Wrenn and Realmbreaker 4 Titania, Voice of Gaea 1 Slogurk, the Overslime 2 Outland Liberator 2 Malevolent Hermit 1 Animist's Might 1 Negate 1 Spell Pierce 2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping

That's a highly successful Agatha's Soul Cauldron deck right there—and even casual Standard knowers will note that this list doesn't have any copies of Vivi Ornitier in it. That's because it's a highly successful Agatha's Soul Cauldron deck from Magic World Championship XXIX, where Paulot would finish in 9th place (on tiebreakers) and come up just short of playing of the World Championship title that was eventually won by Jean-Emmanuel Depraz in a victory over Kazune Kosaka. And if you think this year's Soul Cauldron deck does some tricky things, don't even get started on the rabbit hole of Kami of Whispered Hopes, Sleep-Cursed Faerie, and Agatha's Soul Cauldron. Paulot mixed it up in the Cauldron long before Vivi Ornitier and Proft's Eidetic Memory got involved.

Agatha's Soul Cauldron

That 9th-place finish is one of the crowning achievements of Paulot's competitive Magic journey so far, along with a finals appearance at Arena Championship 2 in 2023. The World Championship run cemented to Paulot that he had what it took to compete at the highest levels, and he entered 2024 with high hopes to take the next step. Unfortunately, it never quite came.

"After qualifying for Worlds, I had high hopes of becoming a pro player. Finishing 9th at Worlds strengthened that dream, but unfortunately, I couldn't qualify again afterward," the 26-year-old explained. "I tried hard to requalify, had some deep runs in Arena Qualifiers, cashed a few Arena Opens, and was one win away from earning a Pro Tour invitation at Regional Championship Naples in 2024. After that, I decided to take a break from Magic because things just weren't clicking."

The rollercoaster experience—from the brink of playing for the World Championship title to trying and narrowly missing out on getting back on the Pro Tour—led to Paulot taking a small step back from the competitive Magic grind, a move that he says helped him to refocus after experiencing such high highs and frustrating lows.

"During that time, I found a stable job, and after a ten-month break, a friend invited me to a tournament," he recalled. "I was in a better place financially and mentally, so I decided to take the game more casually, playing for fun but still trying to stay competitive. This year, I've mostly been enjoying traveling to tournaments with friends and playing different formats, from Standard to French Duel Commander.

"I'd like to give a shoutout to my local Magic community in Geneva; without them, I probably wouldn't be playing Magic at all. Also, to the francophone Discord 'La Forge,' where amazing players like Jean-Emmanuel Depraz and Thierry Ramboa help smaller players qualify for Pro Tours."

The renewed fire coincided perfectly with the most recent Standard season, and ever since the deck first began making the rounds after Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa debuted it at Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™ over the summer, Paulot has had his eye on it. As a convoluted combo deck, it was right up his alley.

"It's probably the most broken deck in years," he explained bluntly. "I almost always play highly synergistic, intricate combo decks and like to put my own twist on them. For example, I'd never registered Mono-Red for a tournament; I just wouldn't enjoy it or have the motivation to practice. But I've played a lot of Vivi Ornitier since the post-Pro Tour ban announcement, and I usually play a lot of Standard on MTG Arena, especially when there's a cool deck to build or test."

Things lined up perfectly for Paulot to head to Liverpool for the Spotlight, which highlighted another one of the crucial benefits to the series: there's no need to qualify beforehand. No convention entry fee, and no PTQ, RCQ, LCQ, PPTQ (or any other Q acronym I've missed) qualifier needed. Simply show up as a Cauldron connoisseur and leave with a Pro Tour invite.

That was Paulot's ultimate goal when he made the trip from his hometown of Ornex, France, and things went even better than he could have imagined.

"I started the tournament strong with a 4-0 record but got tired from poor sleep, made some misplays, and finished with a disappointing 6-3 record, but still enough for Day Two. I had almost given up, but my travel companions cheered me up. I went to bed early, ready to battle the next day. I had to 6-0, which was hard but not impossible," he explained. "I played well, got a bit lucky, my opponents got unlucky, and I reached my goal: making Top 8. The Pro Tour qualification that had escaped me for two years was finally here. Making the Top 8 felt like a bonus at that point."

And what a bonus it was, as highlighted by a semifinals match in which Paulot mulliganed to four and thought it was over. But he knew he had to play it out for the camera, and as he put it, the cards aligned and he topdecked Quantum Riddler and just the right counterspells to upset Michael Simonetti from that position and advance to the finals, where he went on to best Maciej Barwik in one last Izzet Cauldron mirror.

7 Island 4 Opt 3 Stormchaser's Talent 3 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 1 Abrade 4 Torch the Tower 4 Vivi Ornitier 3 Winternight Stories 3 Into the Flood Maw 3 Mountain 3 Multiversal Passage 2 Duelist of the Mind 4 Fear of Missing Out 4 Riverpyre Verge 4 Spirebluff Canal 4 Proft's Eidetic Memory 4 Quantum Riddler 1 Fresh Start 2 Get Out 1 Duelist of the Mind 2 Spell Pierce 1 Obliterating Bolt 2 Unable to Scream 2 Annul 1 Abrade 1 Pyroclasm 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Ral, Crackling Wit

"After that, I knew I was destined to win—it was too good of a story. I won a tough Game 3 and moved on to the finals. I was in a great mindset to win and I did!" Paulot reflected. "This win means a lot to me; finally, I'm on the Pro Tour! But I don't think I'll go full pro; it's just too unstable with the current structure. I'll try to balance life and Magic so I can still be the best player I can be without investing ten hours a day. In the long term, I'd love to stay a consistent Pro Tour participant for a few years—and maybe one day, work for Wizards of the Coast!"

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