After fifteen rounds of Modern, with a total of 2,050 others eliminated, only eight players remained in the running for the fame and the fortune, the title and the trophy. Find out more about these people here!
Name: Grzegorz Kowalski
Age: 26
Occupation: Wannabe Magic pro
Hometown: Wroclaw, Poland
Previous Magic accomplishments:
Four Grand Prix Top 8s, two Pro Tour Top 16s, second at the 2017 World Magic Cup with Team Poland.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Red-Green "Fork" Eldrazi. It's a great deck that we figured out before the Pro Tour. In the end, nobody from the team played it, except for me. Deck knows that I trusted it and is paying off dividends.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
Forked Bolt. Without it the deck doesn't exist!
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
Engineered Explosives. Mass removal is great. It's also fun to kill Blood Moon with Explosives playing only a two-color deck.
Name: Márcio Carvalho
Age: 32
Occupation: Platinum pro
Hometown: Lisbon, Portugal
Previous Magic accomplishments:
Three Pro Tour Top 8s, a ton of Grand Prix Top 8s, Top 4 at MOCS, World Championship finals.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Abzan, because I like the playstyle.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
Liliana of the Veil, just too powerful.
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
Tireless Tracker, grind master.
Name: Joshua Bausch
Age: 27
Occupation: Nurse
Hometown: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Previous Magic accomplishments:
Third at Nationals 2017.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Mono-Green Tron. I think it was the best metagame call and I tested it a lot with friends for the Pro Tour.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. It was there when it was needed.
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
Grafdigger's Cage. I argued with my friends and ended up the only one to run it. Never boarded it once.
Name: Julien Stihle
Age: 29
Occupation: Statistical programmer
Hometown: Strasbourg, France
Previous Magic accomplishments:
Top 8 at Grand Prix Warsaw 2016.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Tron! I've played this deck for years.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
Urza's Tower, Plant, and Mine.
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
Name: Davide Cappiello
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Hometown: Turin, Italy
Previous Magic accomplishments:
Some PPTQ wins, some Grand Prix Day 2s, PTQ victory on GP Madrid's Sunday.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Tron is too powerful, only big stuff.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
Karn Liberated, 7 mana and it will also make the coffee for you.
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
I don't need any card in my sideboard.
Name: David Juric
Age: 25
Occupation: Student?
Hometown: Maastricht, Netherlands, from Slovenia originally
Previous Magic accomplishments:
12-3 at Grand Prix London in Limited, 10-5 at Grand Prix Birmingham in Modern.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Jeskai Control, not Tempo.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
Secure the Wastes, as a burn spell // chump blockers split card. I won multiple games due to 4–8 surprise damage from the tokens.
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
Izzet Staticaster single-handedly won a match against Black-Red Hollow One by blanking Bloodghast and making Hollow Ones die to Lightning Bolt/Lightning Helix.
Name: Marco De Togni
Age: 29
Occupation: Project manager
Hometown: Bologna, Italy
Previous Magic accomplishments:
Three Pro Tour appearances, Top 8 at Italian Nationals.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Abzan. I'll always play what Reid Duke plays.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
Liliana of the Veil. Just too good against so many decks.
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
Damnation. It saved me in a lot of games.
Name: Matic Penko
Age: 31
Occupation: Pro slacker
Hometown: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Previous Magic accomplishments:
Slovenian World Magic Cup team member twice, with one Top 16 finish.
What deck did you play this weekend, and why did you choose it?
Big Tron. I was playing it before you guys decided to ban my Eye of Ugin, and since Lantern won the Pro Tour I was hoping it would be popular.
What was the best card in your main deck, and why?
The one and only Karn Liberated, but only on turn three, or Expedition Map when I had two Tron parts.
What was the best card out of your sideboard, and why?
Nature's Claim to kill opponents' Stony Silence. Thought-Knot Seer was awesome as well, but when Jace, the Mind Sculptor is legal I'm not sure how good it is going to be.