The MTG World Championship was held over the weekend with the finals being played Sunday December 7th in Bellevue, Washington. As reported by Nick Miller at Star City Games, Seth Manfield has won his second title. Manfield became the third person ever to win the title twice using the Izzet Lessons deck first engineered by Matt Nass. Nass would go on to take 10th place.
The deck Manfield used featured many cards from Avatar: The Airbender like Gran-Gran. Other sets featured in the main decklist were Bloomburrow, Spider-Man, and Aetherdrift. The combination of Gran-Gran with Aetherdrift’s Monument to Endurance made Manfield unstoppable.
Initially Manfield struggled on Friday starting the tournament at 0-2. After those early losses that finished Friday at 5-2, Manfield would go on to be undefeated both Saturday and Sunday for a combined 14 unanswered wins. In the quarterfinals, Manfield defeated Ken Yukuhiro 3-0 to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, he would defeat Derrick Davis 3-0 to advance to the finals. In the finals, Manfield again went 3-0 when he defeated Akira Shibata for the title.
For winning the championship, Manfield will receive $100,000, the Black Lotus trophy, and his likeness will be featured in a future Magic: The Gathering card. Additionally, he and the other 7 players in the top 8 will be invited to every Pro Tour in 2026 and the next MTG World Championship. Seth Manfield joins an exclusive club with Javier Domiguez and Shahar Shenhar only the third person to earn two Black Lotus Trophies, having won his first in 2015.
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