Will Krueger won the Regional Championship at SCG CON Portland with Izzet Lessons on Sunday.
After starting the Regional Championship 1-2, Krueger simply stopped losing. He rattled off 12 straight wins to be able to intentionally draw into the Top 8 and continue his winning ways.
As the No. 8 seed in the elimination rounds, Krueger faced off against friend and testing teammate, Maxx Kominowski, in the Izzet Lessons mirror. A quick 2-0 launched him into the semis, where he defeated Matthew Oomkes, on Izzet Elementals, to secure a spot in the finals and punch his ticket to the World Championship to go with his already-earned qualification to the Pro Tour.
In the end, it was a familiar Standard matchup of Izzet Lessons against Badgermole Cub for the trophy, as Elijah Herr made his way to the finals from the other side of the bracket on Simic Rhythm. Game 1 was a quick affair, with Krueger taking care of Herr’s early creatures and setting up Monument to Endurance + Artist’s Talent to close out the game. Game 2, on the other hand, went the distance with Kruger securing the win with only a single card remaining in his graveyard after a wild battle of attrition between both players.
Creatures (32)
Lands (22)
Kruger took home $20,000 and the title of champion, while Herr earned $10,000. The Top 32 finishers earned invites to Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven.
Izzet Lessons paced the Day-1 field as the only deck with a double-digit meta share percentage. Mono-Green Landfall wasn’t far behind and Dimir Excruciator joined those decks as the three archetypes with more than 100 pilots. Check out the Day 1 metagame breakdown of the 1,193 total players below.
Day 2 consisted of 284 players that reached 18 match points on Day 1. See how the archetypes converted below.
View the Top 8 decklists from the Regional Championship. For all the decklists from the event and final standings check out the Melee page for the tournament.
Regional Championship Milwaukee Top 8 from left: John Wager, Matthew Oomkes, Jason Reid, Phil Silberman, Tyson Roylance, Elijah Herr, Will Krueger, and Maxx Kominowski.
SCG CON will be back in action next in Richmond, VA on March 6-8.
