It was a busy weekend in the world of tabletop Magic on February 21–22 as North America lit up with Standard action from Milwaukee in the east to Vancouver in the west. With almost 1,200 players in the United States and another 240 in Canada, it was a truly massive showcase of Magic.

The pair of tabletop Regional Championships had everything on the line. A diverse and unpredictable Standard metagame has continued to evolve since the shocking Pro Tour in Richmond at the beginning of February, and players questioned if the Pro Tour metagame that heavily featured Sunderflock would hold true this weekend. Players theorized whether Badgermole Cub would make a resurgence or Izzet Lessons was still the deck to play.

When the dust settled, Dimir Midrange took home Canada's trophy, and Izzet Lessons won the US event. Dimir Midrange also conquered Arena Championship 11, which was held that same weekend. Kaito and friends are alive and well, coming out of almost nowhere to win events in a format coheadlined by much splashier plays like Sunderflock or Doomsday Excruciator.

In the United States, Will Krueger took home the trophy, piloting Izzet Lessons from a disastrous 1-2 start all the way to a win in Wisconsin.

Congrats to Will Krueger, who won the Regional Championship for the US at SCG CON Milwaukee!

It was a packed house in Milwaukee. Almost 1,200 players turned out for the second Regional Championship of the cycle for the United States. That brought the total for US Regional Championship competitors to over 2,000 in the last month and set the stage for a very deep tournament that rewarded those most prepared for the Standard metagame and left no margin for error.

Nearly 1,200 players turned out for the second US Regional Championship of the cycle in Milwaukee.

There were dozens of Pro Tour invites on the line in Wisconsin, not to mention the highly coveted World Championship invitations that would go out to the finalists. But after three rounds that all looked very far away for Krueger, a longtime competitive player and former Magic Online Championship Series winner found himself staring down a 1-2 record and a possible early exit from the event.

But from there, Krueger locked in. After twelve rounds of impeccable play with Izzet Lessons later, he found himself in the Top 8 in the same city as his first real tournament breakthrough over a decade ago.

Having made the Top 8, Krueger's weekend could have ended there and been a remarkable success. But weeks after he barely missed the Top 8 of Magic Spotlight: The Avatar in Atlanta, Krueger was in it to win. He defeated Maxx Kominowski in the Izzet Lessons mirror match in the quarterfinals, Matthew Oomkes on Izzet Elementals in the semifinals, and finally Elijah Herr on Simic Rhythm in the finals. Both Krueger and Herr earned invitations to Magic World Championship 32 later this year.

Congrats to the Top 8: John Wager, Matthew Oomkes, Jason Reid, Tyson Roylance, Philip Silberman, Elijah Herr, Will Krueger, and Maxx Kominowski!

The Top 8 featured several blue decks. There were six different archetypes in the Top 8, with Izzet Lessons and Spellementals having two representatives. But the Regional Championship field was actually led by Mono-Green Landfall, a surprise breakout deck after Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed showed that Bant Badgermole Cub decks were not at all unbeatable.

Check out the Day 1 and Day 2 metagames from the US Regional Championship - and then tune into the broadcast at https://t.co/Da4q11cY2V! pic.twitter.com/R8axdwOZvW

— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) February 22, 2026

Izzet Lessons led the way in the tournament, but the overperformance of Mono-Green Landfall on Day One proved that it's got real staying power in the format. The combo-esque finish it could present allowed it to grind into the late-game against decks with plenty of removal. Unless it ran into Deadly Cover-Up, which can remove all of the deck's Forests, it was a force to reckon with.

But the Top 8 belonged to Krueger, who taught the rest of the field that in the right hands, Lessons is still the class of the field. Congratulations to all the Regional Championship competitors, and don't miss the next Regional Championship in your area!