More than 150 of the most accomplished competitors from across Southeast Asia gathered in Singapore last weekend to compete in the MTG SEA Championship, which served as the Regional Championship after months of qualifying. On the line was not just the title of Regional Champion, but a set of Pro Tour invites and a coveted spot at the Magic World Championship later this year.

Championship Finals of Cycle 3 in Singapore! 8 Rounds Swiss with playoffs in Pioneer format, who will be the next SEA Regional Champion? @wizards_magic
#MagicTheGathering #mtgseachampionships pic.twitter.com/5qOdoZKtuh

— MTG SEA Championships (@MTGSEAchamps) June 3, 2023

Eight rounds of play yielded a diverse Top 8 that ended with Weng Heng Soh taking down the title with Mono-Green Devotion!

Congratulations to Weng Heng Soh, winner of Southeast Asia’s Regional Championship!

It was a dominant run all weekend for Soh, who piloted the classic Mono-Green Devotion Pioneer deck that leans on the powerful Karn, the Great Creator while ramping with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and low-cost green mana creatures. He didn’t lose a match through, drawing into the Top 8 and then cruising to victory casting Polukranos Reborn in his Sunday matches. The new addition Invasion of Ixalan also made an appearance in in Soh’s list.

With three Grand Prix Top 8 appearances to his name, Soh was plenty comfortable on the Sunday stage, and he demonstrated it by defeating three very different decks throughout his Top 8 run. It started with a win over the Pioneer classic Rakdos Midrange and continued with a 2-0 win over Justin Chin’s Keruga Fires, culminating in a three-game victory over Kelvin Hoon’s Mono-White Humans in the Regional Championship final.

The Pro Tour awaited the Top 8 competitors, and now the finals would award the title of Regional Champion.

TOP 8 PLAYERS QUALIFIED FOR THE PRO TOUR

Congrats to the Regional Championship Top 8! Justin Chin, Ian Mark Gutierrez, Richmond Tan, Weng Heng Soh, Rudi Asinas, Kelvin Hoon, Frederick Fong and Mark Lawrence Tubola!

The Top 8 competitors earned invites to Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings, to be held at MagicCon: Barcelona on July 28–30. The Top 8 featured a mix of old-school and new in decklist selection, with Fong’s Four-Color Elementals and Justin Chin’s Enigmatic Fires providing the spice, while Tan and Tubola qualified for the Pro Tour with the classic Rakdos deck, and Soh’s Mono-Green Devotion showcased the power of the format’s bedrock deck.

You can find all the Top 8 decklists here.

The Pioneer Metagame

Nothing can stop Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, at least in terms of popularity—Rakdos Midrange was the choice of nearly 30% of the field, while Mono-White Humans and Abzan Greasefang were next at just 9%. But for all its dominance of decklist submission, Rakdos didn’t live up to the billing once play began.

Of the 46 players who registered Rakdos—nearly one in every three players—only Richmond Tan and Mark Lawrence Tubalo converted that to a Top 8 finish. And with the help of eventual champion Soh, both Rakdos players fell in the quarterfinals in a symbolic victory for everyone who brought a deck to take down the format’s top dog. Plus, there was spice: Frederick Fong’s Four-Color Elementals deck in the Top 8 was a testament to that.

Once again, the Southeast Asia Regional Championship showcased the best talent in the area, and the high level of play across 11 rounds proved once again that the qualifiers from the event will be a force to be reckoned with at the Pro Tour and the World Championship after that.

There were 156 competitors qualified for the Regional Championship.

Congrats again to Weng Heng Soh, who didn’t drop a match all weekend piloting Mono-Green Devotion!