There's just something special about non-rotating formats.

It began with Legacy, in the era before we called it Legacy. The idea was that you could play in and win Magic tournaments with your favorite cards and do it again the next year with the same cards. Like many of those haphazard ideas of '90s Magic that turned into principles of the trading card game industry, it was an experiment.

An experiment that was a resounding success. Not only did players enjoy making decks that were truly their own, but the expanding card pool meant that players could grow alongside their deck and the format, adapting over a period of months and years. Legacy is beloved by the Magic community, being a format where players take the time to track down hard-to-find foil cards for their decks and spend thousands of hours on Discord hunting for that perfect fifteenth sideboard card.

Modern has grown in a similar pattern, albeit with a significant wrinkle: it's regularly played on the Pro Tour circuit, from local RCQs to Regional Championships and even the Pro Tour itself. That means the format has had several decks take the global stage.

We've seen it all, from the victorious debut of Splinter Twin at the first-ever Modern Pro Tour in Philadelphia in 2011 to the incredibly thrilling—for me, at least—finals at Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan with Luis Salvatto's Lantern Control deck. And, yes, even the Hitchcock-esque Nadu, Winged Wisdom decks of Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3. Modern has never failed to deliver genuinely unique decks. Most of them remain in the metagame for years, giving dedicated players a chance to truly learn the ins and outs of what can be complex interactions or lines of play—and be rewarded for that mastery.

That's the idea, anyway—and if the Regional Championship in the United States last month is any indication, it's an idea that's alive and well. While the event was dominated by Breach decks (Frank has all the details), the victor won by doing what they do best: casting Primeval Titan.

Remember what I said about complex interactions? No deck is more famous for them than Amulet Titan. Seriously, I think I know more memes about Amulet Titan lines than I do actual lines. Play a land, untap a land, bounce a land, make a mockery of the mana system Richard Garfield designed, play another land, untap a land, bounce a land ... you get the idea.

The deck has existed in some form ever since the printing of Titan. At one point, it was so strong that Summer Bloom was banned. But you can't keep a good Titan down, and Amulet Bloom has persisted in the lists of its many dedicated followers, those who spend their time between rounds thinking up new ways to chain together five cards—two of which will sound made up—to win from an otherwise unwinnable board state. And they wouldn't have it any other way; Amulet Titan is not for the faint of heart.

But it is the way for Peter Husisian. The 26-year-old Virginia native has played prime time for years and has learned how convoluted those lines can be. He's also learned how to master the deck and, after a stunning run in Portland, the Regional Championship as well.

"For those who aren't familiar, Amulet Titan is a land-based combo deck that can win as early as turn two and wins on turn three very consistently. The deck has seen innovations in the form of convoluted loops that produce infinite mana and damage by recurring Aftermath Analyst and Lotus Field using Shifting Woodland, making it even more complex to both pilot and play against," Husisian explained.

"Amulet Titan is an extremely intricate deck that rewards intimate knowledge from years of play. Many of the skills you learn piloting Amulet aren't transferrable to any other deck. Those who take the plunge into learning Amulet and continue to play it are wildly passionate about it. This is why Amulet Titan pilots form a cult-like community, bordering on fanatical.

"That said, I was still very surprised to see thousands of messages on the Amulet Titan Discord during the tournament. Members were spamming things like 'Spam this seat to pray for Pete!' or 'Post your feet to root for Pete.' That last one was a joke, but some people actually did it."

It's probably not that last one that did it. I'd credit the weeks of dedicated practice put in before the tournament, including a 10-hour session against Grinding Breach specifically with Nathan Goldberg to work on the matchup. Whatever it was, it clearly worked for Husisian, who exorcised all of his own previous Regional Championship demons in Portland, rebounding from three disastrous starts in a row to cruise through the Swiss rounds with a deck that felt good in his hands all weekend.

"Amulet Titan was extremely well-positioned for Portland, and I had years of experience with the deck to back it up. I knew I couldn't have made a better deck choice," Husisian explained. "I qualified for RC Portland by winning the Modern $5,000 Regional Championship in DC with Amulet Titan. This recent strong result bolstered my confidence going into Portland, but I still couldn't shake my previous abysmal RC records."

I’M GOING TO THE PRO TOUR! 11-1

— Peter Husisian (@peter_husisian) February 9, 2025

The deck certainly lived up to these lofty claims. Husisian put on a show as he worked his way through a field of more than 1,000 players while only dropping a single match all weekend (to Orzhov Blink).

"I had multiple bizarre lines that came up during my run at Portland," he recalled. "In one, I Malevolent Rumbled into a set of lands that happened to produce infinite mana and infinite Boseiju channels on turn three using Aftermath Analyst. That is extremely unlikely. For the most part, assembling Analyst loops requires casting a Primeval Titan or Scapeshift to find a missing land since the loops require so many specific lands to pull off. I won two separate games through Stone Brain on Titan using Scapeshift and Aftermath Analyst—most people don't know that you can still win without Primeval Titan in the deck by using Mirrorpool to make infinite copies of Aftermath Analyst. Each copy mills three cards, eventually milling Hanweir Battlements, which is then used to give haste to the infinite Aftermath Analyst copies."

You know, some garden-variety Modern. Husisian credited a number of the established Amulet Titan players—Dominic Harvey, Piotr "Kanister" Glogowski, and more—for their work on the deck; with such a complex deck, it's impossible to beat having a team of experts to bounce around ideas.

It all came together as Husisian qualified for not just the first Pro Tour of his life and burgeoning career but the Magic World Championship later this year, something he certainly had not imagined when he traveled across the country for the Regional Championship. His goal had just been to make it to Day Two for the first time.

"A PT invite, Worlds invite, or a victory seemed completely out of the question," he admitted. "While she wasn't there to congratulate me in person, my girlfriend, who took a peripheral interest in Magic because of me, followed my progress throughout the event. She figured out how to track my record on Melee, which is quite a feat because I usually spend 15 minutes trying to figure out how to submit my decklist every event. She tuned into stream every match I played. My victory was quickly rewarded with enthusiastic hugs and high fives from friends who were likely just as shocked as I was that I won the whole tournament."

That win has changed the trajectory of Husisian's Magic journey. He's gone from worrying about his next Regional Championship Qualifier to worrying about clearing his calendar for the biggest Magic tournament of the year.

"After Portland, I wrote a guide about my Amulet list, appeared on Dom Harvey and Ari Lax's podcast Dominaria's Judgment, and commentated over my feature matches with a friend. RC Charlotte was still around the corner, but my Worlds and Pro Tour invites were a perfect excuse to take my foot off the gas from playtesting. I've spent the rest of my time hanging out with my friends, family, and girlfriend. I am extremely passionate about MTG, and it is very gratifying to have a major result to show for it."