Magic World Championship XXVIII is just two days away from kicking off the battle to crown the next World Champion. 32 players from all over the world will compete across three days of Draft, Standard, and Explorer play—bright lights and all the pressure come with picking a deck to battle against the best.
It's the pinnacle of peaks, among the most significant accomplishments any Magic player—any athlete, really—can claim: the world title. People spend their entire careers chasing just the opportunity, and the field is one of the most competitive in years. It's full of Pro Tour winners, Hall of Famers and a host of Magic's brightest stars. Thousands of hours of preparation have gone into this weekend, and it's going to change someone's life. For many, it's the biggest event of their life.
But with a long enough career it's still just one tournament.
No matter what happens, Mike Sigrist has already won the battle to be there—to be back. After the struggles of recent seasons, that's what matters most to this World Championship competitor. Plus his young children aren't going to care how well their dad sideboarded, after all.
That's the perspective that comes with more than 20 years of competiton for Magic success at the highest levels for Sigrist, a true veteran of professional Magic and the 2014–15 Player of the Year.
"I want to play well and I want to draft well, but more than anything I'll be happy to see everyone I haven't seen in three years," he explained. "I'm playing as much as I can of course—my teammates would attest to that—but I don't care about my own results as much as I do the process and the experience. I haven't been to a convention or anything like this in the last three years. I don't want to take myself too seriously, and I want to enjoy it for what it is."
In a world where the pressure to get an edge on the competition, it's common for sleepless nights navigating Standard sideboard cards until the very moment decklists are due. But Sigrist has the confidence—the certainty—that comes with the life he's lived inside and outside of Magic.
"Winning would be great, but it doesn't feel like the old days," he admitted. "I feel less pressure. I feel fortunate that I was able to qualify. Winning would be great—the title of world champion is something you can't ever compete with—but I'll be happy even if I get dead last. It's going to be great to be back."
Within the lines of 75 cards (or 40; Sigrist is a Limited enthusiast), the east coast native has been in the limelight since his breakthrough win at Grand Prix Washington D.C. (in Draft, natch). His first Pro Tour Top 8 came soon after at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir in Honolulu, and clinching his place among the elite that had been 15 years in the making after his first Pro Tour in 1999.
He went on to add another Grand Prix win in 2015, and his season run culminated in a come-from-behind chase for the Player of the Year title at the last event of season: a finals appearance at Pro Tour Magic Origins in earned him the narrowest of edges over Hall of Famer Eric Froehlich.
Sigrist followed Magic across the globe. He continued as a competitive player and prolific content creator in the years that followed as he continued to string together Top 8 finishes.
Then it all came crashing to a halt along with the rest of the world in 2020. When the dust settled on both his professional and personal life, the globetrotter found himself at home as his wife took on the role of frequent flyer: a traveling nurse during a global pandemic, and he managed health challenges along with everything else. It was a trying period that gave Sigrist, but a chance to reevaluate his terms with the game.
"I consider myself a professional until I stop, but I've been way more casual in my relationship with Magic," he explained. "I still enjoy Magic Online and MTG Arena, but I'm not traveling to tournaments with my friends every weekend; it really changed how I approach things at the same time the competitive landscape changed. I still love playing all the Pro Tours, but a few years ago I would have been heartbroken to miss a tournament. Now that the landscape looks a little different, not everyone plays every tournament. I had made my peace with that."
But as anyone (or at least anyone named Ondřej Stráský) knows, retirement plans rarely work out.
The final Championship of this season could have been Sigrist's last. Despite changes and the return of the Pro Tour on the horizon he didn't give up. "I wanted to give it my all," he said. "I played a ton over weeks before the tournament and understood the formats a lot better. It happened to pay off."
That's a characteristic understatement.
A Top 4 finish at the New Capenna Championship paid off in perhaps the biggest way possible, not just accomplishing Sigrist's aspirational goal of qualifying for the first Pro Tour of 2023 but also sending him to the World Championship.
That's the backdrop for Sigrist's return, not just to the World Championship stage for his fourth time competing in a small-field event but to any stage outside his hometown. He's taking the opportunities as they come and enjoying the ride.
"I'm practicing a ton right now, trying to get a handle on the formats," he explained. "I'm working with Jakub Tóth, Jim Davis, Eli Kassis in the field, with a bunch of helpers including Ivan Floch doing a lot of Constructed work and Jake Mondello doing a lot of Limited."
It may not quite be a full return to the Pro Tours of old, but that's a deep roster of players with former Grand Prix and Pro Tour winners to boot.
"The World Championship is definitely a weird tournament to prepare for; everyone's resources are lower and your testing teams are a lot smaller than they would be at a larger Pro Tour," he explained. "When you're making decisions about what to play in the moments before you submit your deck, it's a lot easier to make that call when you have ten of the best players in the world agreeing and you're all on the same page. It's a lot harder when there's only one or two other people making that decision."
As with all the World Championship competitors, Sigrist is paying special attention to Limited and is excited for its return to pro play. Dominaria United Draft will set the table on Day One, and the players who best master the format will have a head start on the rest of the field as play moves to Constructed.
And don't let Sigrist's ease fool you: he's still one of the game's best and is keeping his testing teammates busy dissecting the tournament with all the usual ferocity. After all, he made his peace with missing tournaments then immediately qualified for the World Championship. Whatever finish awaits him, the stage is set for Sigrist to pull off the same kind of incredible run he pulled off seven years ago to win Player of the Year.
And he's got at least one believer among his teammates.
"I've never heard anyone have a bad thing to say about Siggy. He's almost always on, upbeat, and a great friend to have around," Kassis shared. "Then you throw in his phenomenal talent at the game. I'm very fortunate and the wisdom and insight he provides has helped me temper my wild enthusiasm for going way off the deep end on funky tactics. There's no doubt he belongs in the Hall of Fame."
There's certainly a case to be made—a Player of the Year title and three Top Finishes stack up well historically. With the return of the gathering there's no greater case to be made for a tabletop veteran to become a World Championship.
Watch Magic World Championship XXVIII, beginning at 9 a.m. PT October 28 live at twitch.tv/magic!