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2023 World Championship
World Championship
Date September 22-24, 2023
Location Las Vegas, United States
Format Wilds of Eldraine Booster Draft and Standard Constructed
Prize pool $1,000,000
Winner Jean-Emmanuel Depraz
Previous Worlds:
2022
Next Worlds:
2024

The Magic: the Gathering 2023 World Championship, or Magic World Championship XXIX, is the 29th Magic World Championship and was held at the end of the 2022–23 Pro Tour Season on September 22-24, 2023, at Las Vegas MagicCon, USA.[1][2]

Description[ | ]

The formats for 2023 World Championship XXIX were Wilds of Eldraine Booster Draft and Standard Constructed. 105 players competed for a prize pool of $1,000,000.[3][4]

Qualification[ | ]

The Regional Champions (Qualified runner-ups in brackets)
Europe Brazil South America USA East Canada West Canada Central America ANZ South-East Asia Japan China Taiwan
Cycle 1 Miguel Castro
(Theau Mery)
Pedro Mocelin Alejandro Méndez Matthew Saypoff
(Ken Takahama)
Christian Trudel Joseph Karani Brandon Ortiz Anthony Lee Michael Martin Go Rei Hirayama
(Kyosuke Kyogoku)
Sui Dong Jim Tim Lee
Cycle 2 Michael Rohrbock
(Thoralf Severin)
Adriano Melo Francisco Benítez Joshua Willis
(Isaac Sears)
Philippe Gareau William La Hay Jesús Adán Zen Takahashi John Daroen Sahagun Rei Sato
(Kenji Sugo)
Yiren Jiang Cheng Han Lin
Cycle 3 Federico Vuono
(Przemyslaw Olszewski)
Marcelo Rodrigues Cavalcante Martin Dominguez Bradley Schlesinger
(Matt Foreman)
Theo Jacques-Griffin Robert Anderson Archi Peralta Ben Kemp Weng Heng Soh Alex von Stange
(Tomoaki Ogasawara)
Jianwei Liang Hungyi Yu
  • The Top 32 ranked players in the Adjusted Match Points standing that are not already invited, and all players tied with 32nd place in that standing.

Redundant invites are marked by a ^. These do not create pass-down invites.

Prizes[ | ]

Competitors that finish in the top 8 will receive invitations to each Pro Tour and the World Championship in the 2023–24 Pro Tour Season. There is a $1,000,000 prize pool, which is awarded to competitors based on their final standing in the tournament. First place will receive $100,000. All competitors will receive $4000 regardless of the final placing.[4]

Promo card[ | ]

All competitors receive the Secret Lair Prize card Jace, The Mind Sculptor.[6] The Top 16 receive a foil version.

Schedule[ | ]

Friday, September 22

Players with more than 4 wins advance to Day 2.

Saturday, September 23

The top 8 players advance to Sunday.

Sunday, September 24

  • Standard Constructed Top 8 single elimination
  • Best three-out-of-five, sideboarding after Game 2.

Day 1[ | ]

Like the previous year, the changes to Worlds produced two more novelties; more than 100 players (105), and the first Standard ever with nine sets. Incidentally, the metagame resulted in Esper being the top deck again with 34 decks over three archetypes; with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Invoke Despair banned and strong manabases, there were fewer incentives for Red and two-color Black. Mono-Red Aggro became a contender for the first time in years, at the second place with 10 pilots. A quarter of the field registered decks with fewer than four pilots. Jitse Goutbeek was the last player to have won all their matches, losing the last match of the day to Anthony Lee, piloting Golgari Midrange, who had a draw on his record.[7]

Day 2[ | ]

Fifty players who had earned at least four match wins returned for Day 2. The decreased match clock from 60 to 50 minutes showed a significant impact, with a significant portion of games on camera going to turns and at least three were concessions in a drawn game. Reid Duke was the first to lock up the 10 wins, followed by Simon Nielsen in Round 12 and Kazune Kosaka in Round 13. Along the wayside, all other potential winners of Player of the Year fell from competition. In the final round, Willy Edel defeated Kenji Sugo, Lorenzo Terlizzi defeated Ken Takahama, Gregory Orange defeated Cain Rianhard and Jean-Emmanuel Depraz defeated Matt Foreman. At 28 points, Alexei Paulot drew with Anthony Lee, of which Lee got the last spot.[8]

Top 8[ | ]

In the Top 8, Duke fell in the quarterfinals, yielding the Player of the Year title to Nielsen. Three midrange decks defeated their more polarized opponents, and Nielsen's defeat of Esper Midrange was undone against Kosaka.[9] Finalist Depraz claimed his trophy this time around with Esper Legends.[10]

Place Player Prize Points Standard deck Wilds of Eldraine
draft record
Standard record
1 {FRA} Jean-Emmanuel Depraz $100,000 27 Esper Legends 5-1 5-3
2 {JPN} Kazune Kosaka $50,000 23 Esper Midrange 4-2 6-1
3 {DNK} Simon Nielsen $25,000 20 Azorius Soldiers 4-2 6-0
4 {AUS} Anthony Lee $25,000 20 Golgari Midrange 5-1 4-2-2
5 {USA} Reid Duke $20,000 18 Domain Ramp 5-1 5-0
6 {BRA} Willy Edel $20,000 18 Domain Ramp 4-2 6-2
7 {USA} Gregory Orange $20,000 18 Bant Control 3-3 7-1
8 {ITA} Lorenzo Terlizzi $20,000 18 Esper Midrange 4-2 6-2

References[ | ]

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