It was a busy Regional Championship weekend across the Americas as a pair of competitions showcased the best of this advanced Modern season, qualified dozens of players for the Pro Tour—and several for the Magic World Championship—while delivering two deserving winners in Allan Ayapan and Nate Green.

Both victories also come in dominating fashion in the Modern format. Ayapan was perfect through eight Swiss rounds and a Top 8 cut with Esper Blink, while Green tore through a Los Angeles field more than 1,200 competitors strong to finish with a 15-1-2 record over the marathon weekend with Azorius Control in hand.

The pair of Regional Championships was the latest Modern event during a flurry of them. Dating back to the Magic Spotlight Series in September and the dozen Regional Championships that follow it around the world, it's the biggest stress test the Modern format has seen in quite some time. And heading into the Regional Championships in Los Angeles and Mexico City, one major storyline stood out above anything else: the rise of Mono-Green Broodscale. The potent Eldrazi deck that could combo as early as turn three or build to an Emrakul, the Promised End not terribly long after that, and in the last two months it had established itself as the deck to beat.

That sets the scene but doesn't tell the story.

Nate Green Takes Azorius Control to the US Championship

While Broodscale showed up in force in both places and performed at least solidly, it didn't win either event. In fact, both players played strategies with plenty of game into Basking Broodscale and Sowing Mycospawn, with Green's Azorius list maximized for the matchup; he played it three times in the Swiss rounds and didn't drop a single game on his way to the Top 8 and eventually—after dispatching Gabriel Nicholas, Chris Wamsley, and Henry Romero in the Top 8—the title of Regional Championship winner.

Congratulations to Nate Green, the winner of the Regional Championship for the United States at #SCGLA! He bested a field of more than 1,200 competitors with Azorius Control! https://t.co/9tHSlEwgr7

— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) October 12, 2026

With more than 1,200 players in attendance, the event in Los Angeles was one of the very largest Regional Championships of the year, and that meant that the typically diverse Modern metagame had everything to show as players vied for the 32 Pro Tour invitations available. From new Reality Fracture inclusions like Darklight Phoenix—played by several players to Day Two finishes—to Dark Matter Manipulator, the format boasted a quarter of the field playing a deck that qualified as "other" in the metagame breakdown.

But as the first day of competition played out with Sam Holcombe and John Ramsey finishing as the only 9-0 finishers, a few things became clear. First of all, while Broodscale increased its metagame share from Day One to Day Two, the true breakout was indeed Azorius Control, which doubled its representation from Saturday to Sunday. Jacob Milchman, meanwhile, was the lone Broodscale pilot to advance to the Top 8 in California. The deck leaned on its combo of Basking Broodscale and Blade of the Bloodchief, but the Eldrazi package built around that can be nigh-unbeatable in the right board state.

Not that it slowed down Nate "Toothy" Green, a well-known online player who pointed to Consult the Star Charts as his best card of the weekend. He shook off an anemic drawn match in the second round to finish Day One at 7-1-1, fighting through a pair of Control mirrors in the final two rounds that turned out to be a warmup for the finals matchup.

You can find the top 32 decklists here.

The complete Top 8 in Los Angeles:

• Nate Green (Azorius Control)
• Henry Romero (Azorius Control)
• Chris Wamsley (Domain Zoo)
• Anderson LeClair (Izzet Prowess)
• Jacob Milchman (Mono-Green Broodscale)
• Daniel Keener (Boros Energy)
• Zimo Yang (Azorius Control)
• Gabriel Nicholas (Izzet Prowess)

Joining Green at the Magic World Championship will be Henry Romero, who carved a very similar path with his own White-Blue Control deck. Romero cut down on his maindeck Solitudes to go up to the full eight copies of Orim's Chant/Silence, which along with the other lock pieces in the Azorius deck could effectively prison out many of the most popular decks in the format.

Ayapan is Perfect in Mexico City

Kaya Gregg's dominant run to a Regional Championship a few weeks ago may have been the start of a trend, as Allan Ayapan pulled off a flawless run of his own at the Mexico/Central America Regional Championship.

Ayapan dropped just three games in the Swiss rounds—and then won the entire tournament by sweeping through his Top 8 matches against Victor Manuel Morfin Ruiz (Prowess), Javier Calvo (Mono-Green Broodscale), and finally against Dagoberto Silva's Goryo's Vengeance list in the finals.

With almost 200 players in attendance, that meant that to achieve his perfect run to the title, Allan Ayapan had to sweep eight rounds of Swiss play before the Top 8.

Congratulations to the entire Top 8 in Mexico City!

• Allan Ayapan (Esper Blink)
• Dagoberto Silva (Goryo's Vengeance)
• Pedro Bustos Acevedo (Goryo's Vengeance)
• Javier Calvo (Mono-Green Broodscale)
• Luis Alberto Avila Barcenas (Izzet Prowess)
• Luis Ricardo Rodríguez (Jeskai Energy)
• Javier Legaspi (Mono-Green Broodscale)
• Victor Manuel Morfin Ruiz (Izzet Prowess)

Interestingly, the Orim's Chant Azorius Control deck that did so well in the United States was not able to place a copy into the Top 8 in Mexico; conversely, a pair of Broodscale decks did make it to the elimination rounds. But in the end the classic formula of early threats backed by hand disruption served Ayapan extremely well all the way to the title and trophy, nervous though he was.

Next up for Ayapan: a Modern Pro Tour to kick off 2027 and the hope of several more premier events to follow to go along with that Magic World Championship invitation. You can find the Top 8 decklists here and learn how to qualify for your next Regional Championship here.