What do you remember more: the wins or the losses?

It's the kind of question that can define player's histories, whether it's in MTG, MLB, or any other competitive venture; the price of success is often failure. It's vanishingly rare to see a sports triumph that isn't preceded by a sports tragedy. Forgive me for another sports analogy, but the Pro Tour is a little like basketball: no one wins at the highest levels right away (with a few exceptions). Michael Jordan had to get beaten by the Pistons, LeBron had to get schooled at the hands of the Spurs, and Javier Dominguez had to lose in the finals of the Magic World Championship before winning it once—let alone twice. Whether you chalk it up to the heat of the moment, the nerves, the basketball gods, or the heart of the cards, this stubborn fact remains.

That it's a shared suffering makes the sting no less severe; shots at your big win—whether that's the finals of the World Championship or the finals of your local Regional Championship Qualifier—don't come often, and bad beats along the way are inevitable. All you can do is take the hit, learn what you can, and take that knowledge to your next tournament.

That's what Federico Giardini did after a series of near misses left his Pro Tour dream beyond his fingertips. The Buenos Aires native is now a veteran of the Regional Championship circuit, but it's been a long road. Having jumped into the competitive scene in 2019 shortly before the competitive landscape drastically changed, Giardini is used to navigating a changing Magic landscape.

And he's found success doing so. Giardini has qualified for every Regional Championship since the circuit started several years ago and has gone on deep Day Two runs multiple times. Playing in every Regional Championship takes a level of dedication that few can reach, and it's especially impressive considering Giardini's relatively recent introduction to competitive Magic.

But for all his consistency, the big one eluded Giardini, and did so in increasingly infuriating ways. He nabbed a 9th-place finish at a Regional Championship, missing out on the Top 8 playoff. He eventually landed a Top 4 finish, but at a Regional Championship cycle where only the finalists earned Pro Tour invitations. A series of unfortunate developments that left Giardini recognized as not just one the region's best, but one of the region's best-kept secrets.

The wait is over. Now, Giardini has the win of his lifetime to add to his memories.

Congratulations to Federico Giardini, who triumphed at South America's Regional Championship with Eldrazi Ramp. See you at the Pro Tour and the World Championship! 🏆 https://t.co/TGBzkb8TPP

— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) March 16, 2025

The South America Magic Series serves as the Regional Championship for South America, and two weeks ago, more than 100 qualified competitors traveled to this Modern event in Santiago for the opportunity to play the game and see the world. It was there, in a Modern format where many suspected Underworld Breach would reign supreme, that Giardini excised his past Regional Championship demons.

And he did it in style, going undefeated after what could have been a devastating Round 1 loss on his way to a 9-1-1 overall match record with Eldrazi Ramp, earning him a Regional Championship victory, Pro Tour invitation, and a surprise Magic World Championship 31 invite.

"This will be my first Pro Tour! Even though I'm really happy, I don't think it has really set in; it's hard to imagine that I'm going to be playing at the World Championship," Giardini admitted in the days following his flawless win over Marcelo Lopez Lagos's Temur Breach and turned his Pro Tour dreams into Pro Tour reality. "I've been caught with busy back-to-back weeks since the tournament, but I've already started looking at plane tickets for Vegas, so it's starting to feel real."

It should, because Giardini's run is as real as it gets. I remember the first Pro Tour Qualifier I was the runner-up in. I got two boxes of Worldwake, and my opponent got a blue envelope for the Pro Tour. It was, in many ways, devastating, but not many things are as motivating as that kind of loss. Every near miss that paved Giardini's path to the Pro Tour was building toward this moment, and he can pinpoint exactly when things came together.

"I had a lucky moment that was my turning point during Round 7. I was playing in Game 3 against Amulet Titan, a bad matchup, and my opponent played Summoner's Pact and Cultivator Colossus after I had removed his Primeval Titans with Stone Brain; he had plenty of cards in play and a full hand while I was dead on board with just eight mana available and a lone Emrakul in hand," Giardini recalled. "I needed to hit one of the two remaining Eldrazi Temples in my deck or cast Malevolent Rumble to reveal three cards that weren't instants, sorceries, or lands, since those were in my graveyard already. The Rumble revealed two Kolaghan's Commands, a Talisman of Impulse, and an Emrakul, letting me to cast the Emrakul in my hand exactly with the six card types in my graveyard. I would have been out of Top 8 contention if I lost that one."

Giardini put himself in position to enjoy that moment thanks to months of testing and refining his play ahead of the event. He tested with a team of a dozen players from Argentina both online and in person, and he was on top of the format's latest developments up until the last moments before decklist submission.

"I was torn between playing Breach and Eldrazi right up until the last moment before flying to Santiago. In the end, I chose the deck I had tested the most and liked more, even though the numbers suggested Breach might have been the better choice," Giardini explained. "Even though Eldrazi hasn't put up the strongest win percentage numbers lately, I still think it's very strong and needs to be respected: notice that almost no one cuts their Consign to Memories or Molten Rains from their sideboard. I also kind of expected Boros and Orzhov Blink to be popular in the South America metagame, and I had good results in testing against those coupled with a reasonable plan against Breach. I did end up going undefeated against the four Boros and two Orzhov opponents I faced, so the deck responded accordingly."

Giardini traveled to the Regional Championship with the same goal that he's always had: qualify for the Pro Tour. Now, after not just surviving but thriving from several near misses, he's made good on that goal and added what he described as the "cherry on top" in the World Championship invite later this year.

"This really means a lot to me. Magic is a big part of my life, and I love the competitive side of Magic," Giardini reflected. "Ever since I started playing competitively in 2019, qualifying for the Pro Tour has been the major goal of mine, and I'm really happy I'm going to play at that level."

Won the South American RC!!!

After losing in top 4 exactly one year ago, I managed to go all the way and got the 🏆 with Eldrazi Ramp.
From 0-1 to Pro Tour and Worlds.

Super happy right now 😊

Las Vegas✈️ pic.twitter.com/VtGGhX0E24

— Federico Giardini (@fedegiar) March 17, 2025