Nathan Steuer won Magic World Championship XXVIII on Sunday, overcoming a field of 32 of the best players on the planet to take home $100,000.
Steuer made the Top 4 cut on tiebreakers after a wild ride of starting the event as one of two players to go 7-1 on Day 1 to losing his final match of the Swiss to Eli Kassis to fall to 9-5. He joined Kassis, Jakub Toth and Karp Sarap for Day 3 on Sunday, where he started out with another loss to Kassis to fall to the lower bracket.
Of the four players remaining, Steuer was the only one not on Esper Midrange in Standard. His Grixis Midrange deck leveraged the power of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Invoke Despair, cards his opponents wouldn’t have access to. The two-time MOCS winner made his way through the lower bracket with wins over Sarap and Toth to face Kassis in the title match.
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (26)
Spells (22)
The title match required a player to win two best-of-three matches to take home the trophy, $100,000 and title of World Champion. Kassis took the first match, but Steuer rallied back, forcing a deciding third match. Like the previous two matches, the third match went to Game 3. With Steuer on the play, Kassis took a mulligan to six and never found a fourth land while Steuer rode a transformed Reflection of the Mirror-Breaker through the mid game. Two copies of Invoke Despair sealed the deal and Steuer overcame losing three matches to Kassis over the weekend to win the whole event.
See the Top 4 decklists from Magic World Championship XXVIII here. Final standings can be found here.