Four formats in about four fortnights. That's a lot of Fs in one sentence, and I'll throw in one more to describe Alex Kans's current competitive Magic run: fun.

"The Arena Championship was Historic, the Regional Championship in Washington, DC, was Standard, I'm testing for a new Limited format at the Pro Tour in Amsterdam, and I'm testing Modern for that Pro Tour," the Maryland native explained. "It's a lot of Magic."

That it is—and that's just perfect for Kans. The 24-year-old picked up the game a decade ago in high school and, after discovering Paul Cheon's and Luis Scott-Vargas's videos on ChannelFireball, decided that he would make it to the Pro Tour. But an otherworldly prodigy he was not, and after some time leveling up, he doubted whether he might ever make it at all.

"I took a break for a while, but some friends in college introduced me to cEDH. I got into that, and the competitive itch came back—I played in a Duskmourn: House of Horror Pro Tour Qualifier in Vegas and got a Pro Tour invite. I've been there since Pro Tour Aetherdrift," Kans recounted. "I haven't had a major finish there, but I'm going into my sixth Pro Tour in Amsterdam, testing again with Team The Boulder Merlion."

His doubts, evidently, were misplaced. And the last month of Magic has taken Kans from another name at the Pro Tour to a breakout star thanks to incredible runs at two very different tournaments.

Alex Kans was already a Pro Tour regular, but with back-to-back Top 8 runs at Arena Championship 12 and the United States Regional Championship, he's now on his way to the World Championship.

The first was Arena Championship 12 last month. As Kans mentioned, the format of choice for competitors was Historic, an MTG Arena-only format with a community of die-hard players but less major events for competitors to analyze ahead of the event. Suddenly, players at ease with data tools found themselves with little to no data to aggregate as they tested for an event that's the online equivalent of a Pro Tour and awards World Championship invites.

Or, as Kans put it, they got to have a lot of fun.

"It was almost like a purer form of Magic, no netdecking possible," Kans recalled. "I play MTG Arena a lot for fun, and I thought the Historic gameplay was good. We were going into random Discords, looking for any lists that seemed good. I was looped in with a testing group, and they kept playing this black-white deck. I felt like it would never win, but they promised it was great. Then Phoenix was the breakout deck from the Qualifier Weekend, and that threw a wrench into everyone's perception of the metagame."

It did, and with good reason. Izzet Phoenix ended up as the second most played deck in the field of over 100 players. But Kans wouldn't be found on the popular and familiar archetype. Instead, he opted to continue a trend that has helped him find success on his way to the Pro Tour and at the Pro Tour level: going his own way on deck selection.

That's what he did at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, when his team put together the breakout Izzet Spellementals deck that took the format by storm and has gone on to become a key cog in the Standard metagame wheel. And that's what he did at the Arena Championship when he couldn't quite put his finger on what felt off about the Ketramose, the New Dawn list he was testing in the days leading up to the event.

"I couldn't explain it well to my teammates, but I just hated the vibes on the Ketramose and Relic of Progenitus package," he explained. "It felt a little clunky, a little 'A plus B,' with complicated sideboarding, too. That package just did not spark joy."

Kans went to the drawing board in the final days before what would turn out to be the biggest tournament of his life.

"I wasn't getting good vibes on those cards, so I swapped them out to make my curve more aggressive with Nurturing Pixie and Naktamun Shines Again," Kans said. "I'm super happy with how my deck turned out. It had a very cohesive gameplan, and I could side out anything I wanted and not be restricted. I couldn't necessarily explain it, but I went off vibes and it paid off. I qualified for the World Championship, which is surreal."

The only thing Kans's fittingly historic run at the Arena Championship didn't deliver to him was the trophy. (Satoshi Nakayama won the event with Golgari Yawgmoth.) But it instilled Kans with confidence, just in time for the Regional Championship in the United States. And now, with no pressure on his finish in Washington, DC, Kans went back to his roots, and started testing Standard decks.

"Back at the Pro Tour, I had a green-white deck in the back of my mind that could work at the Pro Tour, and I kept trying to play "Green-White Timmys," as my teammates called it. But we were really excited about Spellementals for the Pro Tour and the matchup into that was bad, so I shelved it."

But after watching Matt Nass make it to the Top 8 of the Pro Tour with a green-white take on Landfall that made some bold changes, Kans was ready to take a chance of his own.

"I started working on the deck after the Arena Championship," Kans recalled. "Then I got into a server with the Team Scrapheap guys, and they came up with a very good list. The core of the list I brought to DC was refined by Scrapheap, and the inclusion of Brightglass Gearhulk and Shardmage's Rescue was a huge part of the deck. Plus, Practiced Offense is making an impact. Ouroboroid takes two or three turns to mature into a game-winning threat, and Practiced Offense does that right away."

No pressure, of course. He came to the event with a deck design endorsed by one of the top teams in the country and hoped to try and break another format. That attitude is exactly what brings Kans to the table.

"I finished Day One with a 9-0 record, and I had people ask if I was going to drop and play in the Limited Championship Qualifier since I was already qualified for the World Championship," he explained. "I said 'No way. I need a trophy.'

"I wasn't around for Vivi Cauldron, but every time people have said Standard is stale, I've been playing a less-popular deck. I was playing Boros Monument at Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™. People don't take the time to really dive in. There's no way Magic is fully explored, and this past year has really opened my eyes to that. Nothing is remotely solved."

The trophy eluded Kans again, but the second major Top 8 in a row is nonetheless the exact kind of breakthrough that Kans and those who test with him regularly have been holding out for. Achieving consistent Pro Tour Top Finishes means that someone is more than talented enough to belong there. At that point, success can come down to external factors like team preparation. Since joining up with The Boulder Merlion, that's an area Kans feels he's more prepared for than ever before—and he's already looking ahead to the next major event where he might keep this rambunctious run going.

"I'm heading to the Team Limited event in Las Vegas at the end of the month (Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes), and I'm playing with Huaxing Bai and Andy Garcia-Romo. I'm very excited for the event," he said. "My goals have shifted from when I first started on the Pro Tour. I'm gunning for one of those Top Finishes there, and my goal is to win. There's no reason I can't do it at this point."

Kans and hundreds of other Magic players are finalizing their plans for Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes, where they'll compete for cash prizes, promo cards, and invitations to the Pro Tour. But beyond that, the competitive Magic world is fervently preparing for Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes, which kicks off at MagicCon: Amsterdam on July 17. And who knows? If his pension for wild deck building pays off, we may even see Kans hoist the trophy.