The 2022 Magic: the Gathering World Championships are approaching! Last week, rankings were released for the order of all the players participating in the World Championship tournament coming up. Want to know the names of all the best players vying to be the 2022 MTG champion? Here’s a look!
Rankings
If you’ve been playing competitive MTG Arena in any capacity, there’s a good chance you’ve played against some of the names on this list. Some of the other players, like Reid Duke, and Jim Davis, are prominent MTG personalities with a large following in the community. Most of these names are known as MTGO grinders, constantly putting in time and effort to better their MTG game. It’s nice to see many players participating in Worlds were up-and-coming talents. It’s safe to say they’ve ‘made it’ by qualifying for this prestigious event.
Two countries are dominating the Worlds stage, and it’s plain to see. The USA almost makes up half of the tournament, with 13 entrants. Japan comes in second with eight. The rest of the countries being represented mainly have one representative, with the sole exception being Germany with two people. For those who followed Pro Tour level play this year, these numbers do not come as a shock. Most of the Set Championship events alternated between being entirely dominated by the USA or Japan. Some other players always sneak into the top rankings, as represented by these results, but the competitive story always found its way back to these two countries.
MTG Championship Prize
The prize pool for the MTG 2022 Championship recently doubled, so there’s a good reason to get excited. Alongside the title of 2022 World Champion and a share of a $500,000 prize pool, the MTG World Champion gets to create and become memorialized on an MTG card. Fervent Champion from Throne of Eldraine is an example of one of these cards. As is written on the card, Fervent Champion’s face features 2018 World Champion Javier Dominguez.
Who are my Picks?
Keep in mind that I may be rather biased with this one. Having played multiple players on this list in tournament settings, I have had fleeting conversations with some of them. I’ve also had competitive success with brews started by some of these players, so I will likely end of favoring them.
Firstly, we wrote a story highlighting Hisamichi Yoshigoe’s rise to fame. He managed to reach the worlds stage in a mere four months of competitive play. After qualifying for the New Capenna Set Championship with a homebrew, he claimed a Worlds spot by finishing in the top four of the MTG Set Championship… with another homebrew. The story alone is good enough for me to root for Yoshigoe.
If you don’t already know, I’m a major fan of the Mutate archetype. Many players who optimized that archetype are currently competing for the title of 2022 MTG champion. David Inglis, Tristan Wylde-LaRue, Karl Sarap, and Matti Kuisma were all part of the team that put the version of Jeskai Mutate together that dominated a set championship. I went on to play this archetype for a long time afterward (but also played a lot of it beforehand) and made an EDH deck to memorialize the archetype after it rotated out of Standard. Since I had a lot of fun with their creation, I sincerely hope they do well. I have tried a multitude of Karl Sarap’s brews in particular and have found some success with most of them.
Finally, as the only Canadian in the World Championship run, I hope Johnny Guttman manages to make us Canadians proud. He also has prepared for Set Championships with the team mentioned above.
READ MORE: What are MTG Acorn Cards?
Will You Watch?
I don’t watch every fleeting second of top-level play, but I drift in and out of games to see what’s happening. Watching high-level play is necessary if you’re interested in making a competitive breakthrough in MTG. Some plays they make are difficult to understand, and knowing how to break down their decision-making can help you reflect on what you can improve. The few games in the next MTG championship will be a sight to see.
