Standard

I prepared for the tournament with Team Handshake. We had a fairly large team, which was great because it meant many of us qualified for Worlds. Having a big team also gave us plenty of manpower to explore a wide variety of archetypes.

After reading my old report, I realized that many things that were true in 2018 still hold true for both me and other players in 2024. Worlds is a tournament with a unique vibe. While we put in a lot of effort for all the Pro Tours because they mean so much to us, it feels like Worlds is a tournament that pushes people to try just a little bit harder.

This time, the actual tournament preparation started as early as summer. Convinced by Anthony, I spent a lot of time playing Bloomburrow Standard. The idea we followed was quite simple: we wanted to understand the Standard format well enough so that we would only need to make adjustments once the new cards were released.

I even went to my local game store to gain experience with paper mechanics, as cards like 《Caretaker’s Talent》 can be somewhat tricky to play at a good speed—something crucial for a long tournament.

Sure, they printed some new cards, but already knowing the key points of matchups between decks like Mono-Red, Golgari, or Mono-White Control made a big difference in how much time we needed to explore other archetypes and new decks. We were confident we already had plenty of experience with each of those archetypes.

As the Duskmourn cards were revealed, we focused on figuring out which ones would fit into existing archetypes and which ones were strong enough to inspire entirely new decks.

Fun fact: 《Doomsday Excruciator》 was part of my Hareruya Wayfinder deck!

Who would have known?

The early stages of the constructed process were more or less similar to previous ones, with a lot of online gaming.

However, the real final sprint happened at our testing house, where the magic happens. This time, I also got to play a lot of paper Magic with my teammate Adrián Iñigo even before the testing house, which helped me get more comfortable with playing physical cards.

Once we were in Las Vegas, things were still not fully defined, but some of us ended up working on a Midrange/Combo deck based around 《Doomsday Excruciator》 and 《Jace, the Perfected Mind》.

Once again, it was Anthony Lee who succeeded in sneaking a combo finish into a Midrange deck. He had been playing and experimenting with 《Doomsday Excruciator》 a few weeks before the event, and he concluded that the versions around at the time, which were mostly control decks, simply weren’t good enough, as the format forced you to be proactive. The key piece he was missing was 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》, arguably the best card in Standard.

We identified 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》 as the best card in Golgari and the reason why it was so powerful. After playing enough with the card, we realized that the combo shell was the perfect fit for it.

It was quite clear to us that Dimir would be the best deck for maximizing 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》. However, the challenge was how to make our deck functional in games where we didn’t draw it.

That’s how we ended up including cards like 《Faerie Mastermind》 and 《Preacher of the Schism》. The vampire was eventually cut on the last day for a pair of 《Caustic Bronco》, but it was in the deck for most of the process.

Having creatures in addition to the combo finish made our deck a bit less coordinated on paper, but playing against it was suddenly extremely difficult, which was quite appealing for Worlds.

That said, we still thought Golgari would be a safer deck, and we almost played it. We developed both decks in parallel, and ultimately it was Anthony and Toni Ramis who decided that the matchup against the 《Abhorrent Oculus》 decks was too unfavorable for Golgari, and therefore, we should go with the Dimir Demons deck. That decision came the day before the deadline, so it was truly close.

We split the work. Part of the team played Domain, some played Eye, and within the midrange group, Anthony was championing Golgari. I worked on the Dimir deck – mostly with Chris Larsen and his infinite patience for matchups like Demons vs Mono-White Control – so I felt quite comfortable with our deck going into the tournament.

Image Copyright: Magic: the Gathering Play

That said, once the metagame breakdown was published, it was clear that, given the distribution, we should have played Golgari.

Sometimes you choose the wrong deck, but you can still take the trophy home. I do have confidence that our version was extremely well-tuned for the tournament, but our metagame read was certainly off.

We expected Dimir Midrange to be quite uncommon, but it turned out to be the second most played deck. Our deck was also poorly positioned against Convoke, which attracted some players for the event, so our metagame read wasn’t ideal.

The best plan, of course, was dodging.

Here is our final decklist:

Dimir Demons by Javier Dominguez

A masterpiece or a mess of different plans? Who knows!

Limited

As for Limited, having more time compared to other Pro Tours meant I could do more drafts on Arena. I’m sure I drafted more for Worlds than for all three Pro Tours of the year combined, which was a good start. I made sure I had played with most of the cards and archetypes, but that’s pretty easy if you play for long enough.

Anecdotally, I opened 《Valgavoth, Terror Eater》 Pack 1 Pick 1 in my very first draft, and a few more times after that. I think I ended up playing five 《Valgavoth》 decks during the testing process. It’s funny, because it was a mythic rare in the set, but just an uncommon on my Arena account, apparently.

I really liked the Duskmourn draft format, and that made the testing process very enjoyable. Great job, play design team!

The whole testing week was incredibly fun. It’s pretty much always the case when you’re with friends, playing the game you love the most. This time, Jesse Hampton even arranged a pickleball match for us, which was a lot of fun! I had never played before, but it definitely gave us a chance to disconnect for a few hours and get some physical activity.

Day 1

Let me start by saying that Worlds was a bit of a roller coaster.

My first pod was quite stacked, as is usually the case of tournaments like this, and I had Marcio on my left, which is never good news as he is likely the best drafter in the world.

I opened 《Roaring Furnace/Steaming Sauna》, a very strong rare in my book, and ended up with a very solid Blue/Red deck that included a few rares like 《Entity Tracker》 and 《Roaring Furnace/Steaming Sauna》.

That was a very strong start, but unfortunately, I lost round 2 by discarding to hand size after mana-screwing for several turns. After that, I got quite lucky against Sam Pardee in the final round of the draft, where I had to topdeck a removal to win the game after making some questionable decisions. Going into the constructed rounds, I was hoping to dodge my bad matchups.

Then I got paired against my friend Christian Calcano from New York, who was playing Jeskai Convoke. He was even surprised that we had decided not to include any 《Malicious Eclipse》-type effects, as he realized we were essentially giving up on that matchup.

I got stomped in game 1, and after opening a decent hand in game 2 that was light on lands, I ended my first constructed match in 5 minutes after playing, if I recall correctly, exactly two spells in the whole match.

At this point in the tournament, it really felt like it was time to go out early, and I was okay with it. Playing Magic tournaments is exciting and fun, but performing poorly in a tournament you’ve prepared for weeks for is certainly tough. However, in a way, I had accepted it, as I had certainly been quite lucky throughout the whole year.

Oh, well. It turns out I was wrong, and it wasn’t going to be a 2-4 day. Cards started going my way after that, and I ended the day with a 5-2 record, which was pretty good. The cards made it so I had to keep a few 1-landers against my Mono-Red opponents. Some of them went well, some didn’t, but the game distribution was lucky enough for me to win all the matches. 2-1 matches give the same points as 2-0 matches.

Day 2

Walking into the tournament on day 2, I joked with Anthony, Adrián, and Toni about how nice it would be to start the draft with 《Valgavoth’s Onslaught》…

Yep, you guessed it right. Pack 1, pick 1, there it was, smiling at me.

Being 5-2, the draft table was obviously going to be tough, so starting like this was quite convenient. I ended up with a Bant deck splashing 《Niko, Light of Hope》 that got passed to me, and I also had the option to splash red from the sideboard for 《Charred Foyer/Warped Space》.

I had never played with 《Niko, Light of Hope》 before, but my teammates were clear in claiming it was a card I should pick and splash whenever I was either blue or white. Since I was already on Green/Blue, I went for it. They weren’t wrong—the card was truly a bomb, and I got to draw it quite often and even replay it with 《Fear of Isolation》.

This draft is where things started to feel like I was getting extremely lucky. In my first round against Pedro Perrini, we played a game 3 where his White/Red aggro deck put me down to one life…while he had only 《Mountain》 for the first 10 turns or so.

In Round 2, I found myself in a position where I had no cards in hand and then topdecked 《Moldering Gym/Weight Room》, allowing me to manifest a creature…which turned out to be an 《Oblivious Bookworm》 that immediately drew into a removal spell.

In Round 3, the finals, against Ikawa Yoshihiko, he curved out strongly…only to draw like 4 or 5 lands in a row and lose while I was topdecking 《Valgavoth’s Onslaught》.

You know, those days.

After that, I played against Ha Pham on a more traditional version of Dimir Demons in a match where I made a pretty bad punt. It involved me having 《Liliana of the Veil》 with 6 loyalty counters, and I decided not to use the [-6] Ultimate ability, which ended up punishing me severely.

There’s a good chance I would have lost the game regardless, but making a mistake that deep in a tournament like this definitely stings.

Then, things kept going my way. I beat the friendly Alex Hayne simply by drawing a bunch of annexes and finally had my win-and-in against my teammate Eli Kassis.

Eli is not only probably my worst matchup in tournaments, as he tends to beat me, but also a beast in terms of technical play. He outplayed me in our draft match at Pro Tour Amsterdam, and I was a bit scared he would do it again here. At least I had a lot of experience playing against Oculus, so I felt comfortable. But he is a scary opponent.

In reality, though, in game 1, he simply missed the second land drop after keeping a 1-lander with 《Sleight of Hand》, and that was enough for me to take the game. After soundly losing game 2, we got to game 3.

We joked during the testing process about playing 《Caustic Bronco》 and 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》 in a deck where we would rarely saddle the 《Caustic Bronco》. The answer? If you take 8, you have an 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》 in your hand! And that’s exactly what happened here.

After a close game 3, I had made the Top 8 of Worlds again. The Top 8 field was looking strong, and it even included Kai Budde, the legend.

After a very good Asian dinner, I went to sleep, and Anthony and Toni (the Tonis?) played my quarterfinal matchup. It was a rematch against Ha Pham, but they told me the good news: the matchup was favorable for our deck. After all these years, I still feel blessed to have people like them around me.

Day 3

Image Copyright: Magic: the Gathering Play

Day 3. Sunday. The day we play for the trophies.

Someone asked me if I was worried about losing in the quarterfinals again, given that I had lost in the quarterfinals in my last three Top 8 appearances. The reality is, that thought didn’t even cross my mind. Every tournament is a new event, and I don’t like to dwell on what happened in previous tournaments. In this one, we were playing for Worlds and also to become the first Kai Budde Player of the Year.

All the Sunday matches were covered, but I will also share my perspective on them.

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals simply went my way once again. The matchup was good, as my teammates had concluded, and I would say I drew above average. There were a few moments where Ha Pham could have topdecked to win a game, particularly with the scary 《Rush of Dread》, but other than that, it was a fairly smooth match.

On the other side of the tournament, there was an important match for me. Kai was playing against Seth, and the outcome would significantly impact my chances of becoming World Champion and Kai Budde Player of the Year.

I had avoided facing the Dimir Midrange deck throughout the tournament, and it would be a tough matchup if Kai won. However, if Seth won, I would have a slightly favorable matchup against him, and we would literally be playing to decide the Player of the Year.

Semifinals

My semifinal match against Seth Manfield was truly something else. Seth is easily one of the best players in the game’s history and is incredibly consistent. From what I understood, the matchup was slightly favored for me, but there was no way to know for sure.

I think there’s a certain beauty in the fact that we both brought decks unknown before the tournament and faced off in a Worlds semifinal, with very limited experience in the matchup. I had never played it before, and Seth had only encountered it once against Simon Nielsen during the Swiss rounds. Unless he had specifically tested the matchup, it was more about theorizing how things might play out than actually knowing for sure.

This match is easily one of the most intense I have ever played in my life, if not the most intense.

There’s one thing about these kinds of extremely important games: it’s how heavy and complex your inner mental battle can be. Sure, if things really go your way, it might feel easier. However, being overly optimistic can actually hurt your chances, especially if you happen to draw an unexpectedly good topdeck that you mentally fail to manage well. One way or another, it is crucial to stay focused, no matter how well or poorly things are going.

And things started off badly. Really badly.

Seth had some strong draws in game 1, and in game 2, I had a tough mulligan to 5, which left me flooded and him drawing the right cards. It really seemed, once again, like things were going to end just like that. Being down 0-2, it was going to be an uphill battle, but I’m proud of how I handled my mental game at that very moment. I felt ready to fight.

A few minutes later, luck turned my way in game 3 as Seth got mana-screwed.

Then the intensity ramped up—and it never stopped.

In game 4, Seth had the best start with 《Up the Beanstalk》 into 《Overlord of the Hauntwoods》, while my deck malfunctioned slightly. There was a critical moment where I had 5 lands and a 《Doomsday Excruciator》 in hand, and I felt that playing it would probably win the game. I hoped to draw a land…but it turned out to be a 《Restless Reef》.

We all know that feeling—the tapland draw that defines the fate of a tournament. But that wasn’t the end for me. One turn later was still good enough, as Seth drew multiple 《Duress》 but bricked on finding any of his outs to win the game. Seconds later, I was 2-2 and ready to play for the Kai Budde Player of the Year title and a spot in the Worlds finals.

These are the games I live for—win or lose. I enjoy them like nothing else. They are simply impossible to replicate and truly unforgettable experiences.

I think game 5 is certainly worth watching.

After a very tense match involving multiple copies of 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》, an 《Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal》, and a 《Breach the Multiverse》, it all came down to an epic double 《Jace, the Perfected Mind》 turn.

Time seemed to stop for a moment. I knew it was about to be over. I counted everything mentally, even considering the possibility that Seth might have sideboarded up to more than 60 cards. After thinking it through, the conclusion was clear: either I had won the match with that maneuver, or I was about to throw the game in spectacular fashion.

The double 《Jace, the Perfected Mind》 play was either the best move I could make in that situation or the worst punt of the Pro Tour in recent years. I could have kept playing conservatively, waiting for an easier finishing move, but I decided to take the risk.

And it turned out to be the right call. I had won the semifinals. Only one match remained.

Finals

It was time for the finals against Marcio.

Marcio and I have been good friends for many years, so facing each other in the finals felt truly special. We both knew that one of us was about to walk away as the world champion. For me, it felt like a win-win situation: if I won, I’d obviously be thrilled. But if he won, I would have been genuinely happy for him too, knowing how much it meant to him.

In some ways, it felt like a true finals. In other ways, it felt like one of the kitchen table games we’ve played countless times, where we still give it our all to beat each other.

The finals ended with a clean 3-0, where my deck performed perfectly while his didn’t. It was the kind of match where “he Duressed a removal, and then I drew another removal.”

Game 3 was the one that stood out as the most interesting.

We both played strategically, trying to maximize our resources. Marcio cast 《Duress》, saw a hand with 《Spell Stutter》, and chose not to take it, aiming to gain card advantage later.

In response, I decided not to tap out, preventing him from deploying threats. This likely meant I’d never get to cast the counterspell against him, but it allowed me to play around potential 《Tear Asunder》 effects he might have had.

Later, I used 《Jace, the Perfected Mind》 to bait him into using 《Restless Cottage》 to deal with it. This let me fully capitalize on the value of my 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》.

The game went long and eventually reached a point where I had plenty of spells but needed lands, while Marcio had lands but lacked spells. Once I drew enough lands, it was essentially over, though it took a few more turns to close it out.

And I was the World Champion. Again.

Image Copyright: Magic: the Gathering Play

It was a weekend full of emotions, especially in that very moment. Most victories like this feel like an explosion of joy, but this time, I also felt a bit sorry for Marcio. I’m sure he’ll get there eventually.

It meant the world to me to have so many friends from around the globe come and celebrate with me.

I’m incredibly thankful for all the support I receive—it never goes unnoticed. Magic players, friends I’ve made along the way, those who’ve been with me for years, and those I’ve only recently met…

Thank you to my teammates and the special people who helped me compete better in this tournament and others. I am who I am because of them.

Thank you all.

In the End

That said, I can’t wait for the next Magic tournament, the next Pro Tour, and the next season.

Winning Worlds is truly special, but the greatest reward is playing the game at the highest level, competing against the best players, and enjoying time with my friends.

Magic never ends, and I’m still hungry for more.

Thanks for reading!

Javier Dominguez (X / Twitch)