What a year it's been.

The 29th Magic: the Gathering World Championship happened last weekend, bringing together a little over a hundred of the best players in the game to sunny Las Vegas at MagicCon to compete for the coveted title of World Champion.

Oh, and I was there too!

While I was unfortunately unable to improve on last year's fifth-place finish, I still was able to rally and walk away with a decent finish as well as a cool $9,000 in prize money, not a bad bow to put on a solid (if unexciting) return to Pro play for this semi-retired, washed-up old pro turned content creator! This brings my season count to:

• 46th place at Pro Tour Phrexia
• 58th place at Pro Tour March of the Machine
• 49th place at Pro Tour Lord of the Rings
• 40th place at The 2023 World Championship

While consistency is nice, Magic is a game that rewards high highs and low lows, and I would loved to have traded one of these results for dead last to upgrade one of them to a Top 8, but still all in all it was a nice season.

The 2023 World Championship

While Worlds last year was a small-field 32-person event, this year saw the event grow to over 100 players to include all of the Regional Championship winners and finalists, making the event feel more like a Pro Tour than a small field event.

I once again worked with Team CFB & Friends to prepare, getting in to Las Vegas on the Saturday before Worlds for a week of preparation with the game's best:

• Reid Duke
• Seth Mansfield
• Gab Nassif
• Jakob Toth
• Eli Kassis
• Brent Vos
• Jim Davis
• Sam Pardee
• Thoralf Severin
• Ondrej Strasky

We quickly identified Mono-White Aggro and Domain Ramp as two of the best decks, and this is what most of the team ended up playing in the event. On the way we (mostly Sam Pardee and Eli Kassis) tried out a number of awesome looking Agatha's Soul Cauldron decks based around Voldaren Thrillseeker, which were awesome but just not consistent enough to consider for the event. Reid of course was very interested in Golgari Midrange with Blossoming Tortoise, but we ultimately found the deck to be a little too underpowered compared to the other options.

Six players on the team, Sam Pardee, Brent Vos, Jakob Toth, Thoralf Severin, Ondrej Strasky, and myself, would register this exact 75 for Mono-White Aggro:

Mono-White Aggro | Standard | Jim Davis, 2023 Magic World Championship

• Creatures (30)
• 2 Extraction Specialist
• 4 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 2 Anointed Peacekeeper
• 4 Coppercoat Vanguard
• 4 Spellbook Vendor
• 1 Intrepid Adversary
• 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 4 Recruitment Officer
• 4 Hopeful Initiate
• 1 Skrelv, Defector Mite

• Spells (6)
• 2 Virtue of Loyalty
• 4 Ossification

• Lands (24)
• 18 Plains
• 4 Mishra's Foundry
• 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 The Wandering Emperor
• 3 Lay Down Arms
• 3 Destroy Evil
• 4 Wedding Announcement
• 3 Invasion of Gobakhan

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There's really not too much to say. The deck is powerful, consistent, and most importantly for Worlds wasn't really on many radars.

This was key, because there are a bunch of devastating sideboard cards against white in this format like Glistening Deluge and Lithomantic Barrage, but we (correctly) expected to see very little of them. As such, we mostly had a good event as a team with the deck, with both Sam and I leading the way by going 6-2 in the constructed rounds.

Our Hall of Fame squad of Reid Duke, Gabriel Nassif, and Seth Manfield all took a different route, playing the Domain Ramp deck we figured would be one of the most played decks in the field.

Domain Ramp | Standard | Reid Duke

• Spells (35)
• 4 Topiary Stomper
• 4 Archangel of Wrath
• 4 Leyline Binding
• 4 Herd Migration
• 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 4 Sunfall
• 4 Invasion of Zendikar
• 2 Up the Beanstalk
• 2 Courier's Briefcase
• 3 Virtue of Persistence
• 1 Go for the Throat

• Lands (25)
• 4 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 Island
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 4 Jetmir's Garden
• 4 Spara's Headquarters
• 4 Ziatora's Proving Ground
• 2 Mirrex

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Duress
• 3 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Negate
• 1 Destroy Evil
• 1 Elspeth's Smite
• 2 Knockout Blow
• 1 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 1 Up the Beanstalk
• 2 Anoint with Affliction

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I was close between both decks right up until submission, as I think both were great choices for the event, but ultimately ended up just playing White Aggro.

And then there was Eli Kassis, who went off the deep end with an Up The Beanstalk deck that Brent Vos built and they worked on together, with Brent abandoning ship at the 11th hour.

Beans | Standard | Eli Kassis

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 4 Chrome Host Seedshark

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 The Wandering Emperor

• Spells (24)
• 4 Herd Migration
• 2 Virtue of Persistence
• 3 Sunfall
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 1 March of Otherworldly Light
• 1 Cut Down
• 1 Elspeth's Smite
• 1 The Celestus
• 4 Leyline Binding
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Lands (27)
• 4 Raffine's Tower
• 1 Brushland
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Island
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 2 Plains
• 1 Forest
• 4 Spara's Headquarters
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Jetmir's Garden
• 4 Ziatora's Proving Ground
• 3 Swamp

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 1 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Glissa Sunslayer
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 1 Drag to the Bottom
• 1 Duress
• 1 The End
• 1 Knockout Blow
• 1 Destroy Evil
• 1 Parasitic Grasp
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Negate
• 1 Temporary Lockdown

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Eli is one of the best players on the team and was the runner up at Worlds last year, but while this deck was sweet I think it was a poor choice to play it for the event when the team had two much more solid decks available. As Eli went 6-0 in limited but only 3-4-1 in Constructed and didn't make Top 8, it's hard to argue with, although there are a lot of good things happening here.

Personally, I would have a difficult day at the draft tables, going 1-2 in the first draft with an excellent Rakdos Deck when things didn't go my way, and going 0-3 in the second draft with a mediocre base-green deck. I go over the decks and all my thoughts on the drafts on my Youtube channel.

Day one I rallied back with a 4-0 in Constructed to finish 5-2 and in good shape for day two, but day two I stumbled a little more after the draft but won the last two to finish up an even 7-7 in the event, good enough for 40th place.

There's only so much room in this article to go over everything, but I do a full recap on my YouTube channel going over the travel, preparation, event, and more here:

I'm very thankful to be playing Pro Magic again, and while I'm not sure when the ride is going to end, I am qualified for the first two Pro Tours of next year thanks to my consistent finishes this year, so we ain't done yet!

But what about last week's predictions?

My Worlds 2023 Prediction Results

As always, I made my five predictions for Worlds as I do for every Pro Level event, and I did pretty good this time around!

Prediction One: At Least Six Decks Will Be 5% Or More Of The Metagame - Correct!

Standard is looking as healthy as ever, and while we as a team were surprised by the number of Esper Midrange decks in the field, there overall was a great variety among the top decks as well as about a half a dozen surprise breakout decks in the event like Bant Control, Simic Cauldron, Rakdos Anvil, Azorius Soldiers, Rakdos Reanimator, and more.

There were fears about the rotation-less Standard being an issue, but we've got quite the format on our hands!

Prediction Two: There Will Be Zero Copies Of Dimir Faeries In Top 8 - Correct!

Notably absent on the above metagame breakdown is Dimir Faeries, which was the darling of preview season but a deck we quickly identified as having major fundamental issues. Hall of Famer Shota Yasooka had a very interesting take on the archetype, splashing green for only a playset of Restless Cottage and a single Boseiju, Who Endures, but the deck was almost non-existent and finished quite poorly.

Hype isn't results, and that's why you play the games!

Prediction Three: Somebody Will Break Agatha's Soul Cauldron - Correct!

While I'm sad it wasn't us, there were a few different versions of Agatha's Soul Cauldron in the field.

While we were trying to use it in conjunction with Voldaren Thrillseeker, there were two similar combo decks in the field playing the powerful artifact with the same idea; use the ability on Sleep-Cursed Faerie in conjunction with a mana creature to make infinite mana. Both the Mono Blue version as well as the Simic version put up decent results, making them both decks to watch.

Prediction Four: There Will Be At Least Six Copies Of Up the Beanstalk In Top Eight - Correct!

Seven, to be precise!

While Willy Edel surprisingly had zero copies of the powerful enchantment in his Domain Ramp 75, Reid Duke played two main and one in the sideboard, while noted Azorius Control legend Greg Orange stepped outside of Blue and White to include four copies of Up The Beanstalk to go alongside his Leyline Bindings.

All and all a successful showing for the card, showing it's not just for eternal formats!

Prediction Five: The Finals Will Include At Least One Player From Team CFB & Friends Or Team Handshake - Partial Credit!

Well... almost!

We had Reid Duke as our representative from Team CFB & Friends in Top 8, although he would unfortunately fall in the quarterfinals. On the other side of things, both Simon Nielsen and Anthony Lee from Team Handshake would make the Top 4, but both would fall on their respective sides of the bracket to eventual finalist Kazune Kosaka and eventual winner Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. Considering that a member of Team CFB & Friends or Team Handshake came in 3-5th overall, I'm taking partial credit on this one.

The finish would also lock up Player of the Year honors for Simon Nielsen, after an amazing season where he also made top 8 of two Pro Tours. He also rallied from losing to me in round one and taking another loss in round two to not lose another match on his way to Top 8, which is a very impressive recovery.

Looking Forward to Sunny Chicago In February!

For now, the Magic Pro Tour takes a break.

While there will be various Regional Championships over the winter, as well as an MTG Arena Championship and other smaller events, the Pro Tour itself won't return until February of next year.

Truthfully, I'm thankful for the break! I've had a wonderful time playing Pro Magic again, but content is my job #1, and this gives me some time to get back to work!