The first Pro Tour of the year was down to its final match. More than 300 competitors braved the snow to make it to Richmond, Virginia, where two days of intense competition led to a diverse Top 8, plenty of unexpected matchups, and a finals match that more than lived up to the hype of Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed.

It was a very slow start to the finals, with Toni Portolan attempting to set up his combo while Christoffer Larsen went to work on his hand with Deceit and a Superior Spider-Man copying Deceit, giving him the mix of hand disruption and pressure that powered his fresh Dimir deck.

And that was that—Portolan stumbled on mana and never got out of the gates. He couldn't recover from the hand disruption, couldn't remove Superior Spider-Man, and couldn't cast enough of his spells to make a difference. In lightning-quick fashion, Larsen was up a game in the finals of the Pro Tour.

With the magnificent Black Lotus trophy resting in front of the duo on a set adorned with Lorwyn Eclipsed imagery, the final match of the first Pro Tour of 2026 continued. And for the second time in this Top 8, Larsen kept a one-land hand on the draw after mulligans—and for the second time he missed his land drop on turn two. Portolan, meanwhile, stocked up. Stock Up is one of the most powerful card selection spells ever printed, gated mainly by its three-mana cost and sorcery-speed restriction. But when your opponent is struggling to make their second and third land drops? Time was not an issue for Portolan—and neither was using Stock Up and Consult the Star Charts to find his Harmonizer combo and even up the finals.

That sent us to the sideboarded games, with the Danish star going back on the play. And that meant that Duress into Deceit—a key sequence all weekend for the Team Cosmos Heavy Play member—was (again) quite effective, even more so when followed up by Superior Spider-Man.

With both their hands now drained, Portolan turned to his graveyard, resolving an Icetill Explorer to ensure land drops, at least. Or more than that; the evasive Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel found its way to the battlefield soon after. That put Larsen under unexpected pressure and sent him digging with his own Winternight Stories. That enabled him to discard a Doomsday Excruciator and cast another Superior Spider-Man to copy it. With that he stole back the initiative, and Restless Reef gave him a path to victory that ignored Sandman and Icetill Explorer.

But it didn't ignore Spider-Sense, which Portolan had in the clutch to save the game and put the onus back on Larsen, who suddenly was looking at decking out himself thanks to the extra draw from the Excruciator. If his next turn couldn't deliver something to change the status quo, he would lose to his own Demon. And even with all of that, no one could have predicted how the last turn played out.

Larsen now stood just one game away from his first trophy in four Top Finishes. To do it, he would have to overcome being on the draw again. Of course, starting the game off with a hand disruption spell is a great way to do that, and Intimidation Tactics into Cruelclaw's Heist was perfect for Larsen as his opponent couldn't manage anything until a turn-four Icetill Explorer. But after depleting his interaction, Larsen was short on removal for the Explorer.

And so, the game dragged on, until Doomsday Excruciator resolved and brought Larson excruciatingly close to a Pro Tour title. But with the Pro Tour trophy hanging in the balance, Portolan untapped with an Icetill Explorer, a 4/4 animated land, and an Earthbender's Ascension. After a long time in the tank doing math, Portolan executed on the plan he cooked up: play Harmonizer, play Fabled Passage from the graveyard, and shock the world.

As Paul Cheon put it on the broadcast, "Christopher Larsen was already hoisting that trophy in his mind." But in real life, he had to prepare for the fifth, final, and deciding game of the last match of Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed after one of the most improbable victories we've ever seen on camera.

The final game was more straightforward, as Larsen used Deceit to take apart Portolan's hand while the Croatia native looked to warp Quantum Riddler to reload his hand. Larsen used Stock Up to do the same, just for Portolan to meet it with his own Stock Up. At this point both players were loading up on resources, but Larsen was the more constrained on mana, especially because of the Spell Pierce in Portolan's hand that Larsen knew about from a previous Deceit. Larsen committed to playing around Spell Pierce, which meant he was forced to pass every turn with most of his available mana up to prevent Portolan from winning through the Pierce.

Quiet the reversal of the previous games. The next round of action was a double discard turn from Larsen, which left Portolan with just a Harmonizer and Spell Pierce in hand, along with a warped Riddler in exile and a Soul-Guide Lantern in play. That's a lot of pieces on the edge of coming together, and the Pro Tour finals hung in the balance.

But the draw step for Portolan was just a land, and Larsen then drew removal for Riddler—not prompting a Spell Pierce—and used his final four mana on a Superior Spider-Man to copy a Deceit and remove Portolan's last relevant card in hand. He now had a clock on the board and was in a great position if he could untap.

That put all the pressure on Portolan's next draw steps. He drew Mightform Harmonizer on his next turn and chose to hold it, playing around removal. That decision was punished when Larsen had another Superior Spider-Man to copy Deceit, stripping the namesake card from Portolan's hand. One big attack for 12 later, it all came down to a final turn: Larsen's shields were fully down, but Portolan had no hand. Could he find the win?

Soul-Guide Lantern drew out the suspense, but it led nowhere. The newly drawn card was a blank, and Portolan didn't hide it. He extended his hand and congratulated Christoffer Larsen on becoming the champion of Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed.