An unseasonably chilly Melbourne, Australia played host to the ANZ Super Series Final last weekend, which saw 213 players come together from across the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand region to test their skill in playing Modern. Pro Tour invitations were on the line - not to mention a much-coveted seat at next year's World Championship - and after running the gauntlet of Swiss rounds, the player who made it all the way through the Top 8 to win the entire tournament was James Drake, playing Ruby Storm!
Drake went undefeated in the Swiss, dropping just one single game before making it to the Top 8 - and then, in the championship match against runner-up Christopher Tong, Drake pulled off a stunning turn-two victory to claim the trophy. Modern is generally a reasonably open format that can reward mastery of specific archetypes, and Drake demonstrated just how effective it can be to approach the format from an unexpected angle - his Ruby Storm deck felt untouchable across the entire weekend.
The Top 8 was a bit of a cross-section of the current Modern format. Izzet decks have been performing strongly in recent times, as evidenced by the three blue-red decks in the Top 8 (two Prowess, one Affinity). Similarly, Boros Energy has been a format mainstay since the release of Modern Horizons 2, and two copies made it into the Top 8; rounding things out were the most popular deck of the weekend, Esper Goryo's Vengeance, as well as Golgari Broodscale and the ultimately victorious Ruby Storm.
There was a relatively even spread of the format's most commonly-played lists, between Esper Goryo's Vengeance, Amulet Titan, Izzet Prowess, and Jeskai Blink. Three copies of Jeskai Blink were in the Top 16, just falling short of a Top 8 headline, but Amulet Titan had a much quieter weekend, with a top finish of 20th. Outside of the top decks, there was Modern's usual diversity, with tried-and-tested strategies like Domain Zoo and Eldrazi Tron facing off against off-the-wall archetypes like Dimir Mill or Gruul Hollow One
[insert photo: ANZ Metagame 2025-05, caption: The metagame from the ANZ Super Series Final]
The ANZ Super Series Final wasn't the only event of the weekend, however - there were all sorts of side events on offer, with thousands of dollars in prizemoney and a range of other fantastic to be won and claimed. With local artists, formats of all kinds, and a ton of people to meet and play Magic with, Regional Championship events are a terrific way to play the game we all love. If you want to get involved and try your hand at an event like this, check to see where the next qualifier near you is taking place!
