Ian Robb is on the run of a lifetime.
It's not exactly the kind of truly historic run that goes down in the Magic record books (though it is extremely impressive in itself). Nor has it come with any kind of hardware. It's a run that won't end anytime soon—Robb is qualified for the next Pro Tour and the World Championship later this year—but it's also a run that Robb won't ever forget, even if he were never to win another Pro Tour match.
After all, who makes back-to-back Pro Tour Top 8 appearances in their first two Pro Tour appearances? Ian Robb does.
B2B pro tour top 8s
— Ian Robb (@Ian__Robb) June 22, 2025
It was the next step in achieving a dream that played out at Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™. It was there that what began as a tagalong trip to play side events at a Regional Championship culminated in a Pro Tour finals appearance. And while all eyes were rightfully on the heartfire hero, champion Ken Yukuhiro—his opponent in that final match has one heck of a story of his own.
Robb's story begins when he and his friends headed to compete in Washington, DC's Regional Championship last October. Robb has an extensive and successful history in competitive gaming, but he hadn't tried competitive Magic since 2016. Still, he figured that he may as well shuffle up for a few games and give it a shot. He put down one set of cards and picked up another, getting a crash course on the format in the days before the event.
All that preparation was, of course, for the last-chance qualifier event; the only way to gain entry to a Regional Championship without going through an RCQ. To do that, he'd have to win a single-elimination gauntlet on the Friday before the Regional Championship kicks off.
"It was on the last (last-chance) qualifier of the night, but I got there," Robb recalled. "I put some practice in, but it wasn't like I was really trying that hard to qualify; I planned on going and playing side events."
The Magic gods have a way of tossing our plans out the window, and just like that, Robb was qualified for the Regional Championship alongside an astounding 1,800 other players. In what would become a theme, he brought a blue-red deck to play with, and on the other side of a whirlwind weekend later, he found himself in the Top 8 with Izzet Phoenix—and qualified for the Pro Tour.
"I've played Magic my whole life, but I never really took it that seriously. My previous best result was making Day Two of a Grand Prix and doing well in events on MTG Arena," Robb said. "This wasn't something I expected to happen at all."
Little did he know the run was just getting started.
With a surprise Pro Tour qualification secured, Robb now found himself with a different problem than not knowing the latest cards as he looked ahead toward Pro Tour Aetherdrift in Chicago earlier this year.
He needed a team.
"I didn't have a team to test with for Chicago, but I had some friends who knew me from other games. Shout-out to Alex Rubin for connecting me with Theo Jung," Robb explained. "Theo really helped me out. He and the team were willing to take a chance on someone without a Magic resume. If not for them, I would not be in this position."
And what a position it is. Because Robb not only found a squad for Pro Tour Aetherdrift, he and the rest of Team NRG were highly successful at the event. So much so, in fact, that as the rounds counted down to the start of the Sunday stage, it was once again Robb playing deep in a tournament he never thought he'd qualify for.
The race for Top 8 was murky, but Robb knew he had a shot after winning his Round 16 match against Etienne Eggenschwiler. But nothing could prepare him for the moment when his name was the last of the Top 8 to be announced, as he finished just hundreds of percentage points ahead of Vinicius Karam, Abe Schnake, and, fittingly, Ken Yukuhiro.
Robb lost in the quarterfinals of Pro Tour Aetherdrift to the eventual champion, Matt Nass, but that didn't matter. The card gamer who had built his prowess across other games proved he had what it took to compete at the highest levels of the Magic world. With spark lit and confidence affirmed, Robb knew he had an opportunity in front of him. With a Pro Tour Top 8 locking in a spot at future events this season, Robb did what every first-time Pro Tour player dreams of doing: spiking their way onto "the train" and never getting off.
That set the stage for Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY last month. Again, Robb turned to a trusty Izzet deck, in this case the format-defining
Yukuhiro's Mono-Red Aggro rolled over Robb's Izzet list, but with a second Pro Tour Top 8 now under his belt—Robb's Magic resume will never be lacking again—it's becoming clear there's no card game that Robb can't tackle.
"It still feels fake, to be honest," he admitted. "It feels like it happened out of nowhere. It's been crazy, and I've been very lucky."
The biggest challenge to Robb's burgeoning Magic career is that his other pursuits haven't gone anywhere. Balancing multiple games, especially at the very highest competitive levels, is a herculean task—but one that Robb says he is enjoying working out.
"I'm happy with the effort I'm putting in, but with Magic, I still can't tell exactly where I am, to be honest. I know what I think are the holes in my game, and they show up in things, like deck building, that I'm not very good at still," he explained. "Ultimately, I look at it as kind of a freeroll. My goal at this point is to be happy with my preparation; I'm just trying to get better every time I play. It will be okay if I do awful in my next two or three. These tournaments can have such high variance, so it's really just about making sure I can be proud of the work that I put in."
That work has already begun for Pro Tour Edge of Eternities, which will feature yet another first for Robb: Pro Tour Modern.
"Whenever I have some free time, I boot up Magic Online and play a league with a deck I've never played before," Robb said. "My focus is on understanding the game better, and learning."
Modern offers a lot to learn, and MagicCon: Atlanta is now less than three months away. It's a tall order for anyone, much less someone trying to balance multiple competitive gaming careers. But two Pro Tours in, one thing is clear: Robb is a very fast learner.
Winning worlds
— Ian Robb (@Ian__Robb) July 1, 2025