"The Mets had an awful start to the season."

That's not the response you expect when you ask a player about their Regional Championship goals. But last weekend's United States Regional Championship was no ordinary event, and Cory Lack is no ordinary champion.

"The first day of the event really set the tone. I got in on Thursday and made sure I had time to watch Game 3 of the Mets-Brewers Wild Card Series," Lack explained. "The Mets had the awful start but have been on a magical run since, culminating in Pete Alonso hitting the first winner-takes-all, go-ahead home run in MLB postseason history after a month of being derided as 'unclutch.' I told myself that my goal was to make Top 64 and qualify for the Pro Tour again, an equivalent to making the playoffs after starting the season with such low expectations.

"It's a ham-fisted metaphor, but I have a hammy fist. And it happened! Let's go Mets!"

Who am I to argue with that? If there's any competition more unpredictable than Magic, it might just be baseball. It's a wild game, one where humans should not physically be able to predict the path of a fastball going 100 miles per hour in time to hit it.

But whoever said that hitting a fastball was the most difficult feat a human could accomplish has never tried to dig out from a double-Cranial Plating start.

Baseball Bat 51184

While Lack's favorite team is most famous for it being considered a miracle any time they're actually good (I joke, mostly), Lack's Magic performance is no miracle. He first qualified for a Pro Tour back in 2014, when he catapulted onto the scene with a finals appearance in the MOCS. He parlayed that into a Top 75 finish at Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx. It was an auspicious start to what Lack hoped would be a prolific Magic career.

Life, as it often does, had other plans.

"I wanted to pursue more competitive opportunities after that, but I wasn't quite healthy enough at the time to take advantage of the momentum," Lack recalled. "I'm hoping that winning the Regional Championship gives me a second chance ... or perhaps just a delayed continuation of the first."

Piloting a Pioneer deck of his own design at a Regional Championship is a perfect glimpse into Lack's career. His proudest Magic accomplishments include both designing and winning with rogue decks, with Burn at the Stake being an old favorite. Lack also wrote a comic that Mark Rosewater keeps posted in his office. The highs of Magic don't come just on the battlefield.

Lack's run to the Regional Championship title is anything but a miracle. For starters, he's been working on his innovative new deck for quite some time: Rakdos Cauldron, featuring Agatha's Soul Cauldron, Marvin, Murderous Mimic, and, most famously, Tree of Perdition. He's been at it ever since he won his qualifier with the first build of his deck.

"It was more graveyard focused and used cards like Stitcher's Supplier and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger. People were confused but impressed. Most matches had opponents essentially asking, 'Can I read every card in your deck?'" Lack recalled. "My local game store is Excelsior Comics and Games in Maynard, Massachusetts, and it's a fantastic place that focuses on being a safe, inclusive spot for all players. The Magic environment is great, too, and there's a good mix of players with Pro Tour experience and players who are new and excited to learn in that environment, fostering an attitude of 'heck yeah' when it comes to creative competitive ideas.

We started with over 1,800 #MTG Regional Championship competitors at #SCGDC, and after an epic weekend of Magic, we've crowned a champion! 🏆Congratulations to Cory Lack (Rakdos Cauldron)!!!!!🏆 🎉

A big thank you to all participants, fans, judges, and everyone who made this… pic.twitter.com/SybHkYd3qf

— Star City Games (@StarCityGames) October 7, 2024

"From there, Logan Hesch put the deck together online, and I started doing well in June's Magic Online Challenges, which brought a lot of new attention to the deck. Rachel Feingersh, a rising star in the Cube scene, along with others, picked up the deck and endorsed it. From there, Discord communities started developing, and soon enough we were getting a steady drip of people eager to contribute."

That's the birth of a Regional Championship–winning deck right there, and as Frank Karsten detailed this week, the Tree deck is the real deal.

2 Marvin, Murderous Mimic 4 Voldaren Thrillseeker 4 Tree of Perdition 4 Bloodtithe Harvester 4 Fear of Missing Out 4 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker 4 Thoughtseize 4 Fatal Push 1 Torch the Tower 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 4 Blood Crypt 4 Blightstep Pathway 2 Mutavault 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire 2 Swamp 1 Mountain 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance 1 Hive of the Eye Tyrant 1 Fountainport 2 Raucous Theater 2 Duress 3 Ob Nixilis, the Adversary 1 Jegantha, the Wellspring 2 Hazoret the Fervent 2 Duress 1 Go for the Throat 3 Chandra's Defeat 1 Torch the Tower 1 Bitter Triumph 1 Withering Torment Jegantha, the Wellspring

"The deck was fantastic. There were a few minor points of contention amongst those of us who had been playing the deck for a while, but I ultimately found myself very happy with where I settled," said Lack. "Something I was happiest with about it was the ability to play both offense and defense. Magic is in a spot right now where proactive strategies trump reactive strategies, but decks that are exclusively proactive are extremely reliant on being on the play as opposed to the draw."

Designing a format-defining deck is one thing. Learning how to pilot it against a hugely diverse field over fifteen rounds of increasing pressure and decreasing mental sharpness? That's another, and that's where Lack's dedication came in.

"I joked with friends after Day 1 that it felt like a nine-round Magic Online league. I didn't face a single Azorius Control or Izzet Phoenix deck, but I did run into Izzet Wizards, Golgari Crimes, Azorius Spirits, and Greasefang," he recounted. "There are people who say that Magic Online leagues aren't useful for testing because of the preponderance of rogue decks, but I think that's a little silly. The more decks you play against, the more muscles you develop for it. Day 2 felt like the Magic Online Showcases. I played against nothing but the decks expected to take up the top tables, all piloted by very skilled players. I had made the Top 8 of a Pioneer Super Qualifier online the week prior, and it felt similar to that. It's nice how each day of the tournament reflected a different aspect of my online testing."

The final piece of the puzzle? Confidence. Maybe those Mets, fearless in the ninth inning, were onto something. As Lack put it, neither he nor his team were expected to be here, so why not go ahead and win while you're at it?

In a final nod to baseball lore—albeit the wrong New York team—Lack called his shot ahead of time.

pic.twitter.com/rNN1L1r1Ax

— Cory, Lord Fancy-Paws (@jupiterbrando) August 26, 2024

Now Lack is headed back to the Pro Tour—and to the World Championship beyond that—by following a ten-year path that could belong to no one else.

"It was a long, long weekend, and I'm still figuring out what it means for me. I certainly have more tournaments to go to next year, and the fire is definitely back," he explained. "But I'm also very passionate about so many other aspects of Magic, with card design and doing commentary being two of the big ones. I'm hoping that this will get my name out there and lead to more opportunities to learn about other areas of Magic and maybe even try my hand at them!"

The Road to Magic World Championship 30

We've been following a path of our own here on Magic.gg as Frank and I have spent the past 28 weeks looking back at each of the previous World Championships that have brought us here. I'm a firm believer that one of Magic's most important traits as a game is its rich history. Not only is making it to the 30th World Championship difficult enough, but we are also lucky to have a detailed coverage of each of those special events, even if some of our research sent us scouring through old magazines and blurry footage.

We're almost there: Magic World Championship 30 is taking place two weeks from now, October 25–27, at MagicCon: Las Vegas. The event will be a showcase of the best players in the world over the past year, including the reigning Player of the Year on an unprecedented Top 8 streak, Simon Nielsen.

But even Nielsen will be chasing Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, who is heading back to Las Vegas as the defending World Champion. He earned that title when he defeated Japan's Kazune Kosaka in the finals of Magic World Championship XXIX. It was redemption for the latest French Magic legend after Depraz lost to Yuta Takahashi in the finals of the World Championship two years prior.

Depraz handled the victory with his trademark calm demeanor, but there was no question that Depraz's sixth career Top Finish was the most meaningful, especially after multiple losses in previous finals. The victory cemented Depraz as one of the absolute best of this era, and he followed up his World Championship victory with another Top 8 at Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor earlier this year.

Only one player has ever won two individual World Championships, that being Shahar Shenhar with back-to-back wins in 2013 and 2014. But Depraz heads to Vegas as a master of his craft at the top of his game. In two short weeks, everyone will be looking to catch the defending champion.