"Monstrous Rage; is that just game?"

That was the call by the commentary crew when Adam Weiss cast the spell of the tournament for the final time. It was a game-three Monstrous Rage on Monastery Swiftspear that sealed Weiss victory over Chris Baron in the final match, and it was a fitting ending to a United States Regional Championship dominated by Weiss and his Gruul Prowess deck.

Weiss' win capped off the Dreamhack Magic Showdown in Dallas, where more than 1,200 competitors braved some turbulent weather to compete for their share of the prize pool as well as the coveted invitations to the Pro Tour and Magic World Championship 30. The tournament played out over 14 swiss rounds and a Top 8 over two days, with Weiss going 15-2 in matches over the course of the Regional Championship.

Congratulations to Adam Weiss, winner of the United States Regional Championship at Dreamhack!

While the top 64 finishers qualified for Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 at MagicCon: Amsterdam later this month as well as the next Regional Championship, the top two finishers qualified directly for the World Championship. Joining Weiss in Las Vegas later this year will be Chris Barone, whose Boros Convoke deck gave Weiss all he could handle in an intense all-aggro finals. A former SCG Invitational champion, Barone was is no stranger to high-stakes Magic and will now have a chance in the biggest tournament of all.

Congratulations to finalists Adam Weiss and Chris Barone, both of whom qualified for Magic World Championship 30!

Slickshot Show-Off is the latest addition to the nearly Mono-red deck that led Weiss to the finals. Along with the previously mentioned Monstrous Rage, the deck was now capable of responding instantly even after complete board wipes, giving the aggro deck an angle that Azorius Control–the most popular archetype in the field–struggled to contain. Similarly, Barone's Boros Convoke brew could simply go faster and wider than the slower decks could handle; Barone credited Gleeful Demolition for his deck's best starts, and that certainly proved to be the case as it led to some highlight-reel moments en route to the finals.

Congratulations to the Top 8

The Top 64 qualified for the next account event, but the Top 8 still had something left to play for: World Championship invitations. The Top 8 featured five different archetypes, from the ultra-fast aggro decks to the late-game oriented Azorius Control and Gruul Ramp decks. There was also Five-Color Legends, an updated take on the Pro Tour Thunder Junction deck, making the Top 8 in the hands of none other than Jason Ye, making another Top 8 after doing the same at the Pro Tour in Seattle.

The full Top 8:

• Adam Weiss (Gruul Prowess)
• Chris Barone (Boros Convoke)
• Newton Cheng (Boros Convoke)
• Kyle Moran (Azorius Control)
• London Glenn (Boros Convoke)
• Jason Ye (Five-Color Legends)
• Charles Eiler (Azorius Control)
• Jack Doucet (Gruul Ramp)

Congratulations to the Top 8

You can find all the Top 8 decklists here.

A Time to Attack Standard

With Standard at its largest ever thanks to the new rotation schedule, a format where any archetype is viable has emerged. To wit, a format that once seemed doomed to be dominated by Domain Ramp has instead gone back and forth as players change strategies week-to-week. In Dallas, it was Azorius Control that had its turn as the most popular deck in the room, with 14% of players opting for The Wandering Emperor and Three Steps Ahead.

Two players went on to make the Top 8 with Azorius, but it was three copies of Boros Convoke that headlined the Top 8, with Barone advancing all the way to the finals with Gleeful Demolition. Lurking just outside the Top 8 was Five-Color Slogurk, the Overslime in the hands of Adam "yoman5" Hernandez, as well as a handful of the more traditional Aftermath Analyst ramp lists.

The gathering of so many high-level Magic players demonstrated the level of excellence in display at the Regional Championship level, and with Dallas in the books the qualified players now look toward Amsterdam and Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3.

Find out more about how you can qualify for the Regional Championship and the Pro Tour by visiting here and finding out more from your regional organizer!