After fourteen rounds of play over two days at Magic World Championship 31, it all came down to the familiar Sunday stage, the place where every one of the previous Magic World Championships winners etched their name into the history books. But while the stage may be familiar to longtime Magic viewers, the World Championship trophy itself was wholly new—and impressive.

That beauty—along with the $100,000 that went to the 1st-place finisher out of the $1,000,000 prize pool—awaited the player who could win the three most important rounds of their Magic journey.

The Player of the Year

But there was one title that wasn't on the line in the Top 8: Ken Yukuhiro earned the 2025 Player of the Year title with his run in Washington, and no one could overtake the Heartfire hero. The champion of Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™ was feeling full of spirit and gratitude as he reflected on his incredible accomplishment.

"I know several Japanese players who have won Player of the Year, so it's been awesome to watch their feats up close. Now it's my turn, and I'm very happy to join them and win this prestigious award," he explained. "I've always dreamed of this, and this was one of my goals coming here this week. I may never reach this again, and I'm grateful to win."

He was also grateful to the teammates who have helped him on his journey, from Team MSD and Moriyama Japan.

"Originally, I played most of my career solo, but in the last year I've started working with teams," said Yukuhiro. "With Team MSD and Moriyama, I've gotten to work with great players who helped me keep up motivation and supported me. They've taken my game to another level. I could not make it here alone."

The Quarterfinals

With Player of the Year locked, it was time for the Top 8, where we jumped into Yukuhiro facing off against Seth Manfield. The match brought the ideal start for Manfield, who was looking to become the third two-time Magic World Champion in history. A great start toward that goal was his duo of deck-defining cost-reducers: Gran-Gran and Artist's Talent. Stormchaser's Talent followed, and while Manfield filled out his board, Yukuhiro could only look on as his Reanimator deck sent him spell after spell, but no lands to cast them. In a flash, the first game of the Top 8 was complete, and Seth's quest for a second World Champion title was going strong.

If the first game of the quarterfinals showed off the explosive power of Manfield's deck, the second showed off its power to grind. After players traded early resources Manfield was able to resolve not one but two Monument to Endurance. It was one of the key additions to the Team TCGplayer's dominant Izzet Lessons list, and we saw exactly why in this game. Both players traded resources, yes, but Manfield was also able to trade up on card quality whenever he wanted—or take advantage of the Monument's other uses.

Manfield kept accumulating value, but Yukuhiro wasn't going away. Multiple copies of Overlord of the Balemurk helped his hand stay full, and he did his best to grind out Manfield's Monuments. But once a third hit the table and Manfield at a healthy 18 life, the writing was on the wall. It took two diametrically different games, but Manfield was now up 2-0 in what was considered a bad matchup coming in.

Next up were the sideboarded games, where it was thought that Manfield would be looking to make up ground. Instead he found himself just a win away from punching his ticket to the semifinals, and when he opened the third game with Gran-Gran and Artist's Talent again, it was off to the races. Manfield snowballed that advantage and, despite several interactive spells from Yukuhiro to try and claw back, it simply wasn't enough in the face of the card advantage and selection offered by Manfield's Lessons deck. Slowly, but inexorably, Seth Manfield slid into the semifinals, ending the run of the Player of the Year.

That sent us from our main back into the other quarterfinal matches, where we hopped into former World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depraz's matchup against Derrick Davis, the last remaining undefeated player of this tournament before running into a losing streak on Day Two that had him playing for his seat in the Top 8 in the day's final round. Now his Izzet Lessons deck would square off against Depraz's Izzet Looting list. Not quite a mirror, but the two decks played a number of the same cards.

We joined the action in the third game, with players notching at one win apiece. And when we joined we were treated to dueling one-drops from Magic: The Gathering®—Avatar: The Last Airbender™: the mother of memes, Gran-Gran, and the lesser-known Tiger-Seal, which was a reliable attacker in the Looting deck. And in the first post-sideboard game, the Seal joined Fear of Missing Out to push Davis down to 11 life. But at that point Davis fought back to clear the board, and entered the mid-to-late game with his life total in the double digits and his opponent's board cleared out creatures.

So, we settled in for what would be an epicly long Game 3, with players sifting through their decks and attempting to remove any creature that entered play. But as that dynamic played out, it was Depraz who drew a steadier mix of threats. Between Tiger-Seal, Fear of Missing Out, and eventually Duelist of the Mind, the last of which bore the likeness of Nathan Steuer. In a big turn that saw his Duelist grow multiple times, he was able to push through just enough damage to take command of the match.

But Davis wasn't done. Back on the play, he took advantage of a very fast start to overcome two copies of Duelist of the Mind, putting Depraz on the back foot enough that he picked up his cards, ushering the pair to a fifth and final game.

That game would turn into an Otter-fest, as both players leaned on Stormchaser's Talent and got into very tricky combat steps, until Depraz was at 7 life and Davis at 8. But when Depraz tried to catch up by casting a Quantum Riddler for five mana, tapping out to do so, Davis knew he had it. He flashed Depraz the pair of removal spells he was holding to go along with the leftover Otters he still had. Just like that, Davis was into the semifinals.

Rounding out the quarterfinals, we turned to Australian Shaun Henry as he was well on his way to a victory over Arne Huschenbeth in the Temur Otters mirror. This explosive archetype led to a volatile mirror. In three straight games, Henry was able to assemble an overwhelming board, especially with the help of Ghost Vacuum online to prevent any graveyard plays from the Pro Tour champion. With Huschenbeth on the backfoot, Henry closed things out and left us with just one quarterfinal match left to complete.

That would be between Sam Pardee, the first qualifier for the Top 8 after an undefeated run with Izzet Lessons, and the Japanese pro Akira Shibata on his own build of Lessons, who was looking to win the fourth game and end the match in his favor. When we joined the action, we were treated to a terrifying sight from Shibata's board: Monument to Endurance, Stormchaser's Talent, and a pair of leveled-up Artist's Talents.

The Japanese Magic master held on despite Pardee's efforts to stabilize. And with a final flurry of spells, Shibata closed out the match—and locked in our semifinal matchups.

The Semifinals

The semifinals were set: Henry and Shibata (Otters and Lessons), and Manfield and Davis (the Lessons mirror).

We started things off with the former, as dueling Otters on the first turn quickly transitioned into a very stable engine for Shibata as he cast an Artist's Talent while Henry resolved a Ral, Crackling Wit with the intent to protect it and ride it to victory. But Shibata cracked back with a huge turn of his own, using casting four one-mana spells, removing Henry's blocker, and pumping his own Otter to a 5/5 to remove Ral from the board—and that was nearly enough for Henry to scoop them up as the pair quickly moved on to Game 2.

The second game set up better for Henry, who was able to follow Stormchaser's Talent with a Badgermole Cub and some of his own removal. Along with Thundertrap Trainer refilling his hand, he snowballed that early advantage into another Ral—and this time, his planeswalker stuck. That was enough to even out the match and send the pair onto the sideboard games.

Ral, Crackling Wit once again made an appearance and was key to the victory for the semifinalist on the play. But this time, it was Shibata who managed to land the key planeswalker, as Henry failed to find enough lands to play the game. Now just one game away from a seat in the World Championship finals, Shibata looked to close things out on the draw.

If he were to do it, it would have to be through a wall of Otters—three Thundertrap Trainers for Henry faced off against Shibata's board of Monument to Endurance and Artist's Talent. And while the Otters kept the gas coming for Henry, Shibata instead worked on improving his hand with the two powerful enablers. As he traded life for time, Shibata started on the board, removing two Otters in a key combat step. When it was clear that the attack would not result in a meaningful impact and Shibata would untap into an unbeatable position, Henry extended the handshake and congratulated Shibata on his trip to the World Championship finals.

One finalist down, one to go. It would be the Hall of Fame member, Seth Manfield, or the last undefeated player in the Swiss rounds of the World Championship, Derrick Davis. As we joined the action, Davis was holding his own in Game 1 with a pair of leveled-up Stormchaser's Talents, but Manfield methodically worked his way back into the game. It started with Artist's Talent and followed naturally into Monument to Endurance. With the engine in place, Manfield moved to controlling the board, and as Davis struggled to keep the card flow up Manfield began to pull away with the pair of powerful permanents. And while it took some time to fully wear down Davis, once he had his engine online Manfield was unstoppable as he moved to a decisive Game 1 victory.

The second game looked much like the first for both players. David led with Stormchaser's Talent; Manfield had Artist's Talent and Monument. And like the first game, the Hall of Famer once again protected his life total and kept up just close enough on board to stay in it as he began to grind his advantage out with his engine cards. Despite Davis adding more Stormchaser's Talents to the field, he couldn't keep up with the flow of cards for Manfield, who swept both pre-sideboard games to find himself now one game win away from another trip to the World Championship finals.

He left no doubt in that game. For the third straight time, Manfield followed the same gameplan: control the early Otters, and lean on Artist's Talent and then Monument to Endurance to ensure better draws than the opponent. The Izzet mirror-breaker was again the pairing, and without his life total ever falling into risky range, Manfield once again won, sweeping the mirror and securing his own chance for a second World Championship title.