Rafael Kenji Marques Nishiyama was ready for the Regional Championship. After many years of playing Magic and a handful doing so at a competitive level, he was ready to take the next step. He had a Grand Prix Top 16 finish under his belt, a full Magic Online trophy case, a Golgari deck he had been practicing with in Standard, and a plan to prove that a midrange master could win it all. And so, he headed off to South America's Regional Championship in Santiago, confident in his abilities.
It all crashed and burned.
In the aftermath, a dejected Marques Nishiyama turned to his friends and teammates from around Brazil and, during one of his lowest Magic moments, received a piece of advice that he just couldn't let go of.
"At the end of the Regional Championship in Santiago, my friend told me something that really stayed with me. 'It's absurd for a player at your level to waste a Regional Championship playing a deck that had no real chance to win the event,'" Marques Nishiyama recalled. "I deeply wanted to earn my first Pro Tour invitation, but I also had a personal goal of keeping midrange decks competitive, and I insisted on playing Golgari Midrange.
"That sentence echoed in my mind for a long time, and it completely changed my perspective as a player. From that moment on, my goal became simply to be present at high-level events, regardless of the deck or archetype. I felt that I needed to evolve as a competitor and had the potential to do it."
Marques Nishiyama is far from the first highly skilled Magic player to undergo this evolution. Whether it's a Limited expert having to learn the finer points of Pioneer, a Magic Online whiz forced to learn the dice and dexterity that comes with a paper Pro Tour, or a deck builder who learned a difficult lesson, they all come to the same conclusion: you can't let your strength become your weakness. Pro Tour history is littered with players who found success building spicy decks a time or two, but that success made them feel like they had to play a new breakout deck at every event to live up to that reputation. The thing about the best Magic players is that, while they obviously have their preferences, competitive Magic has a way of exposing your flaws as a player, and so they have expanded their game to include more than it did when they first found success. In other words? Reid Duke's consistent success at the Pro Tour for decades isn't just due to his strengths as a player but also his lack of weaknesses.
"At the Regional Championships, I would usually finish with records like X-2 or X-3. Not close enough to qualify for the Pro Tour, but far from having a bad tournament," Marques Nishiyama explained. "My mindset has always been to do a little better than I did at the previous Regional Championship. However, after making the Top 8 at Sao Paulo last year and still missing the Pro Tour invite because there were only six qualification slots for Brazil, I felt very discouraged. Honestly, I only found the motivation and determination I needed to finally achieve my goal after hearing those words from a friend."
Those were wise and prescient words. When the Regional Championship came to Sao Paulo a few weeks ago, Marques Nishiyama finally put it all together. The deck, his mindset, and his draws all lined up as he earned his first Pro Tour invitation and a World Championship invitation while he was at it.
Another Top 8 with Dimir Excruciator. Building more and more confidence for the South America Regional.
— tchuco (@tchucomtg) May 1, 2026
For Sideboard guide and more content about Dimir Excruciator, subscribe to my Patreon. 🤝https://t.co/PvKq8gvIfQ@fireshoes pic.twitter.com/pjpFFzFeNy
Marques Nishiyama started playing Magic when he was 15 years old. The game has now been a part of more than half of his life. In that time, he's been through a lot with the game. It gave him an outlet when he was struggling with depression as a teenager, supplemented his income when he was laid off from a previous position in his field of psychoanalysis, and introduced him to friends he never thought he would meet. The memories he's made with the game also include a feature match at the Spotlight Series in Orlando last year that was commentated by Reid Duke, one of Marques Nishiyama's favorite players for the past sixteen years of Magic.
And now, Marques Nishiyama is a Regional Champion.
He did it with the Pro Tour-winning archetype that he's been dedicating himself to learning the ins and outs of for months. And the Dimir Excruciator deck that Christoffer Larsen won Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed with has plenty of ins and outs to learn. The deck is built around the
The deck caught Marques Nishiyama's eye as something close to his favorite deck, Golgari Midrange, and he went back to his Magic Online roots to hone things in as the Regional Championship approached. And when the moment and the Magic came together, this time Marques Nishiyama was playing a deck he knew could win the tournament.
"I've dedicated myself to studying and practicing a lot with Dimir Excruciator in order to achieve my goal of reaching the Pro Tour and World Championship," Marques Nishiyama said. "This victory brought me a level of recognition and visibility that is very important for someone who works on creating Magic content.
"More than that, though, this win represents a childhood dream coming true. In every competitive game I've ever played, I always dreamed about one day competing at a World Championship level. Being able to finally achieve that through Magic feels incredible."
"I chose Dimir Excruciator because it plays a style of Magic that I'm very comfortable with: resource battles, discard spells, solving problems, and building setups over time," Marques Nishiyama elaborated. "The deck has at least an acceptable matchup against basically every major deck in the metagame, and I believe the only truly bad matchup is Azorius Tempo. My preparation involved a lot of studying, discussions with other players, understanding which decks I was most likely to face, and finding not only the right decklist for those matchups but also the correct gameplay approach, strategic plans, and sideboard configurations."
That preparation included more or less punting on the Azorius matchup to overload his sideboard with anti-Izzet and anti-Landfall cards—a choice that paid dividends over the course of the weekend.
Next up for Marques Nishiyama is the Pro Tour in Amsterdam in July, followed by the World Championship later this year. It's been quite the ride for the Londrina native, and it's about to go international.
"I hope my future in Magic involves playing at more Pro Tours, traveling to other countries, meeting new people, and continuing to create great memories through this incredible game," Marques Nishiyama shared. "And for the rest of the year, I want to prepare for the Pro Tour and the World Championship as seriously as I prepared for this Regional Championship."
It still hasn’t fully sunk in yet, but it’s done! I became the champion of the South America Regional Championship, securing my first invite to the Pro Tour and the World Championship.
— tchuco (@tchucomtg) May 18, 2026
I’m grateful to all the friends who helped me throughout this preparation process and for all… pic.twitter.com/lIIQROq4Ma