So close, yet so far away.

Things started great at the 2024 Magic: The Gathering World Championship for me.

As I opened my first pack at the start of day one, I was greeted by an Overlord of the Floodpits! We had Blue as one of the best and deepest colors in the set, making a good rare in a good color an ideal start to a draft. A late Bottomless Pool // Locker Room cemented Blue as an extremely open color, and while I saw very little White beyond a Trapped in the Screen, I had passed almost zero White meaning I'd likely get the hookup in pack two.

This plan would work out, and I ended up with an exceptionally solid Blue/White deck, one of the better color combinations.

Nothing outlandish, just good curve, good card advantage, and good overall card quality topped off with two very solid rares. And it worked! I didn't drop a game in the pod, going 3-0 to put myself off to a fantastic start.

Which put us into Standard, where I played an interesting Golgari Ramp deck:

Golgari Ramp | DSK Standard | Jim Davis, 53rd Place World Championship 2024

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Harvester of Misery
• 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 3 Glissa Sunslayer
• 4 Overlord of the Hauntwoods

• Instants (11)
• 1 Outrageous Robbery
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Tear Asunder
• 3 Anoint with Affliction
• 3 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Pillage the Bog
• 3 Deadly Cover-Up
• 3 Duress

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Virtue of Persistence
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Lands (26)
• 4 Forest
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Demolition Field
• 1 Sunken Citadel
• 1 Underground Mortuary
• 2 Fountainport
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Restless Cottage

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 Ghost Vacuum
• 1 Duress
• 2 Cruelclaw's Heist
• 1 Nissa, Ascended Animist
• 1 Outrageous Robbery
• 1 Malicious Eclipse
• 2 Tear Asunder
• 2 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead
• 1 The Swarmweaver

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Of my team of ten players, five registered this deck (or extremely close to it) built by Seth Manfield, who would go on to Top 8 with it, and five registered Dimir Midrange.

I'll be playing the deck on Monday right here on CoolStuffInc.com for my video article and will go over it more in depth then, but the long and short of it is that this deck tries to marry the upsides of Domain Ramp and Golgari Midrange while shoring up the weaknesses of each.

The Up the Beanstalk engine alongside Overlord of the Hauntwoods gives the deck the ability to go big on both mana and cards, which is also excellent alongside the utility lands like Fountainport (which can sacrifice Everywhere tokens) and Restless Cottage. However, unlike Domain which can be fairly clunky and has awkward removal and expensive threats, Golgari Ramp gets to run the full suite of awesome Black removal spells and threats like Glissa Sunslayer and Sheoldred, the Apocolypse.

I'd win a very close round four against Jesse Hampton on Team Handshake's Dimir Demons list, and things were looking great!

I've done well in the last two years on the Pro Tour. I'm one of only a handful of players to play in and make day two of every event since the return of the paper Pro Tour. However, I also haven't had that big breakthrough finish yet, consistently making day two and floating around in the top 50 range. I did come in 25th at Pro Tour Outlaws of Thunder Junction, but pro Magic players are judged by their Top 8s and I still don't have one at a paper Pro Tour.

Unfortunately, I'll have to wait for another day.

Our Golgari Ramp deck was solid, if unexciting, but unfortunately I would run pretty cold with it. In eight rounds with the deck I would never cast turn two Up the Beanstalk, turn three Overlord of the Hauntwoods, and frankly Up the Beanstalk was extremely shy across almost all my games. I'd lose the last three rounds of day one to end the day at 4-3, good enough for day two, but obviously very disappointing after such a great start.

Day two's draft didn't go nearly as well, as I selected Roaring Furnace out of a pretty weak pack, got fed a Vengeful Possession, a Fear Of Burning Alive, and a Charred Foyer // Warped Space, but then got cut out of Red pretty hard. Black was the only color that was open and I ended up with a fairly mediocre deck.

I'd end up getting the last match to finish 1-2, but at this point I was out of contention for Top 8. The remaining Constructed rounds were difficult and uneventful, and I'd finish the tournament in 53rd place.

Making day two of the World Championship, hell even making it to the World Championship, is a big accomplishment, but it's hard not to want more. Still, I am qualified for the first Pro Tour of next year, so there's always another shot!

As mentioned, I'll go over the Standard deck in greater detail in Monday's video article.

So how about those predictions from last week?

Prediction One: This Will Be A Breakout Event For Enduring Curiosity

Result: Correct!

Enduring Curiosity is real good.

One of the biggest surprises of the event for was Max Rappaport's Dimir Midrange deck only playing a single copy of Enduring Curiosity, which we found to be the best card in the deck and the reason to play Dimir Midrange in the first place. This was confirmed by Kai Budde making Top 8 with the full four copies, and Kenta Harane making a virtual Top 8 (coming in 10th place on tiebreakers) with four copies as well.

I would expect this to be the norm going forward, as it is a deck defining card.

Prediction Two: Leyline Of Resonance Will Not Make Top 8

Result: Correct!

Leyline of Resonance was mostly a non-factor at the World Championship.

While the card was recently banned in Best of One Standard on MTG Arena, mostly for being obnoxious, it is a very glass cannon way to build your Red prowess deck. While Gruul Prowess was the most played deck in the tournament, only three players in the event registered Leyline of Resonance.

While former World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depraz started on a heater with Leyline of Resonance in his Gruul deck, he would ultimately fall a match short, making this prediction a winner!

Prediction Three: There Will Be At Least One Familiar Face Among The Draft 6-0s

Result: Correct!

Duskmourn is an awesome set for draft.

As we team, we did a ton of drafts, and I know I did more than usual as well because of how deep and exciting Duskmourn is. I assume this was very similar for many other players in the tournament, and with a high level of preparation the cream will usually rise to the top.

And wouldn't you know it, the only player to 6-0 the draft portion of the World Championship was none other than reigning Player of the Year Simon Nielsen.

Book it!

Prediction Four: Sanctum of All Will Bring An Unexpected Deck And Put A Player In Top 8 With It

Result: Partial Credit

Well, team Sanctum of All did bring an extremely spicy and unexpected deck to the event in Temur Otters, which nine of them played, but they didn't do particularly well in the event overall.

Temur Otters | DSK Standard | Jason Ye, 54th Place World Championship 2024

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Questing Druid
• 4 Enduring Vitality
• 4 Thundertrap Trainer
• 4 Valley Floodcaller

• Instants (11)
• 3 Bushwhack
• 4 This Town Ain't Big Enough
• 4 Torch the Tower

• Sorceries (5)
• 2 Song of Totentanz
• 3 Analyze the Pollen

• Enchantments (11)
• 1 Pawpatch Formation
• 2 Bitter Reunion
• 2 Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna
• 2 Up the Beanstalk
• 4 Stormchaser's Talent

• Lands (20)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Hedge Maze
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 Tarnation Vista
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 3 Fabled Passage
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Copperline Gorge

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Abrade
• 2 Negate
• 1 Into the Flood Maw
• 2 Pawpatch Formation
• 2 Ghost Vacuum
• 1 Volcanic Spite
• 2 Dissection Tools
• 1 Pyroclasm
• 1 Up the Beanstalk
• 1 Blue Sun's Twilight
• 1 Screaming Nemesis

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I played against Rei Zhang in the later rounds of day two and got to see this deck up close, and it is a picturesque Sanctum of All deck. Inventive and cleverly built, a little scrappy and underpowered, but very hard to play and play against.

While no member of Sanctum of All made Top 8 of the event, I'm taking partial credit for the 5th most deck in the field being a weird Sanctum of All deck.

Prediction Five: A Player From Team CFB And Friends Will Hoist The Trophy On Sunday

Result: Incorrect!

Well, we were close!

Seth Manfield crushed the event as usual, locking up his Top 8 spot as the #1 seed after only 11 rounds of play, while Kai Budde took the difficult route after a 4-3 start, winning almost every round on Saturday as well as a tense win and in to get his spot.

Unfortunately, because they were the 1st place and 8th place seed, they had to play in the first round. Seth would beat Kai, but fall to eventual champion and player of the year Javier Dominguez.

So, it goes!

Still Looking For That Big Finish

I've won a lot of things and had a lot of success in my Magic career, but a paper Pro Tour or Worlds Top 8 still eludes me. I've had a lot of close calls (5th place on tiebreakers missing Top 4 of Worlds in 2022, 8-0 Start to Pro Tour March of the Machine but fell apart day two), but all I can do is keep swinging!

The next Pro Tour is Pro Tour Aetherdrift in Chicago in Feburary, where I'll get my next chance!

As a bit of a bonus, my assistant Cassady came with me to the testing house this time around and we recorded a behind the scenes video, check it out!