Welcome back! We had a week off last week, and it was a nice opportunity to breathe and take in all the Magic we've seen this year. From Reid Duke finally winning a Pro Tour title to Nathan Steuer's historic run of excellence (that is still ongoing), the return of the Pro Tour has been incredible to watch unfold, and the latest round of Regional Championships has cemented how engaging the path to the PT can be – and anyone reading this could be next.
That's been one of the most refreshing parts of the Regional Championship cycle after years of smaller, invite-only tournaments. The Grand Prix circuit of old is oft-referenced, and honestly, that's what the Regional Championships I've attended so far have felt like. It's a gathering of most of the region's best players, but also those who wandered to a qualifier at their local game store and qualified for the big tournament, all with a chance to beat those big-name players.
I had a conversation with a friend recently that opened my eyes to something that Regional Championships share with large-scale tournaments that came before them. Other than high stakes events like the Pro Tour, it's the best place in all of Magic to for the player leveling up their game to play against Magic all-stars in a meaningful match.. Speaking of, the $75,000 Limited Open at MagicCon: Barcelona is another opportunity to play high-level Magic at one of the largest events of the year.
I think back to Dreamhack Dallas earlier this year (which hosted the U.S. Regional Championship), which I was fortunate enough to attend in person and where we saw the epitome of this. Look at the top tables in the last round of the tournament, and you'll find a list of regular Pro Tour players and tournament grinders who are known quantities on the North American circuit. Logan Nettles, Evart Moughon (AspiringSpike), Jesse Hampton, Todd Anderson, Corey Burkhart, Sol Malka, Max McVety, Abe Corrigan, Andrejs Prost ... I could go on. That may not be a list of players with huge numbers of Pro Tour Top 8s between them, but they're all extremely formidable players with a long history of competitive play and content creation, and matching up against a player of that caliber in the last round of the Regional Championship you qualified for from your LGS is a huge stepping stone for many players' path to the Pro Tour.
Take for example Eliot Raff, a longtime judge who had actually already accomplished his Pro Tour dream in his own way: being accepted onto the judge staff. But he enjoyed the Pioneer format, played in a qualifier convenient to him, and before he knew it, he was playing high-stakes Magic under the cameras against some of the most accomplished players in the country – and he made it all the way to the Top 8 and qualified for the Pro Tour. You'll find no better reason to withdraw a judge application for the Pro Tour, that's for sure.
Longtime judge Elliot Raff (@raff_sputin) is playing this weekend and is 5-0 at the US Regional Championship at @DreamHackMagic! pic.twitter.com/EbyQdFb0cs
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) June 3, 2023
"Anyone can win" is what I wrote after that weekend, for good reason. To wit, Dreamhack Dallas was won by Bradley Schlesinger, a Milwaukee native taking a lot of those steps to the Pro Tour all in short order. He made Day Two at the last Regional Championship in San Diego, then finished in the Top 32 of the Secret Lair Showdown at MagicCon: Minneapolis. Now, he's heading to the Pro Tour in Spain.
I wanted to follow up on that storyline as we moved through the Regional Championship season, and the result has been more of the same: anyone can win, if they know their deck and its matchups inside and out. Now at the conclusion of a dozen Regional Championship events, the results are in. Not only did these events generate a ton of data on the Pioneer format – which you can learn more about in Frank's Metagame Mentor column! – but they also continued to give us first-time winners, new Pro Tour qualifiers, and a new generation of players maturing through the tabletop system. I've always said that the Pro Tour is less about cards and more about the people involved – and it's special to watch the Pro Tour of the future build itself week-to-week in front of our eyes.
All of which brings me back to the Regional Championship cycle we just completed. We've seen plenty of big names grace the Top 8 of these tournaments that qualify players for both the Pro Tour and the World Championship – former Player of the Year Luis Salvatto met Pro Tour champion Matias Leveratto in the quarterfinals in Chile last weekend – but this cycle in particular has been a steady stream of newcomers to the trophy shots.
A dozen events, five continents, and a whirlwind of high-level Pioneer gameplay later, we've wrapped the qualifying schedule and the field for Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings is set. And with the South American and Brazil Regional Championships providing the final qualifiers for the Pro Tour, this Regional Championship cycle went out like it came in: with up-and-coming players maximizing their Pioneer deck choice to best a stacked field.
A Cat, an Oven and a lot of Wins
If you've followed competitive Magic for the last few years, you're familiar with the dreaded Cat-Oven combo. The formidable duo is joined by Rakdos's best hits available in Pioneer (
It was a very effective strategy last weekend.
ICYMI: SAMS Pioneer RC winner @RuloMTG took down the tournament with Rakdos Sacrifice, starring Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger! Decklists and tournament report ➡️ https://t.co/JirtlYamln pic.twitter.com/i2lOFdSfYC
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) July 12, 2023
Meanwhile in Brazil, Marcelo Rodrigues Cavalcante emerged victorious from City Class Games Showdown Pioneer RC, also with Rakdos Sacrifice! Your tournament report here ➡️ https://t.co/CPX97LoNfw pic.twitter.com/L6S2cPejoW
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) July 12, 2023
How effective? Seriously, go read Frank's article for the numbers. They speak for themselves, and here's another way to put it: it won Brazil in the hands of Marcelo Rodrigues Cavalcante and was the deck of choice of both finalists in Santiago, where Martin Dominguez defeated longtime friend Matias Leveratto in the finals.
These lists can grind out a long game against anything else in Pioneer including Azorius Control, and it was that grinding style that drew Cavalcante to the deck.
"It has a good matchup against the most prevalent deck Rakdos Midrange," he explained. "
Like Cavalvante, Dominguez has worked on playing Sacrifice across many formats since the printing of Cat-Oven combo. Effectively mastering the many moving parts of the deck in tabletop is an accomplishment in itself.
"I've liked Sacrifice since it was in Standard," Dominguez said. "I tested a lot on Magic Online to prepare, but I'm very comfortable with that type of deck with lots of game objects, tokens, triggers and cheap spells. I also like having a good matchup against both creature decks and against decks that want to go to the late game; covering a wide part of the metagame is very important in a format like Pioneer."
The Buenos Aires native strung together several Pro Tour appearances before 2020, and with the return of the Pro Tour he was eager to get back. But with limited slots available at the Regional Championship and two misses in his first two attempts, Dominguez knew the stakes were high for his trip to Chile.
Unfortunately for him, things didn't do great once he arrived. A warmup tournament with his deck before the Regional Championship ended in an ignominious 0-2 drop. Even worse, the bad run continued into the main event.
"I started the event 0-1, and I had no margin to lose or tie another round," Dominguez explained. "But I was able to win six rounds in a row make the Top 8. There, in the quarterfinal match for the Pro Tour slot, I got paired against Izzet Creativity, the deck that beat me in Round 1. I lost game 1, and at one point in game 2 my side was just a
"Getting to the finals against my friend Matias was amazing," Dominguez said." I don't think anyone has played more matches with Sacrifice than him, so I was a bit nervous – plus he had the advantage of
PRO TOUR AND WORLDS BABEEEE IM BACK!!!!
— Martin Dominguez (@RuloMTG) July 3, 2023
Won South America Regional Championship with BR Sacrifice. Super sick weekend, 0-1 into taking down the whole thing was nuts!
Finally after fighting so much it can be said again! #PlayTheGameSeeTheWorld pic.twitter.com/E87RUcjylg
Looking Ahead
With that, we turn the page on the Regional Championship cycle. Next up is Pro Tour Lord of the Rings on July 28-30, and that means the coming weeks will see an influx of Magic teams from across the world to Barcelona for some intense preparation.
There's a lot to look forward to. Drafting The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ will have begun to settle in, and teams will get in plenty of drafts to find out if Green really is unplayable after all, or if it might actually be a secret weapon if no one else is looking to draft.
And, of course, it's the return of Modern to the Pro Tour. The last time we saw the format in action at the Pro Tour was, well, Barcelona. It was 2019 when Thoralf Severin won the entire thing with Mono-Green Tron. This time around, all the focus is on The One Ring and how the field can adjust to combat the powerful new artifact. Add in some fascinating player storylines (Steuer can't really Top 8 another one this year, can he?), and we have an event with something for everyone.