World Championship Recap: MTG Dimir Demons Deck Triumphs

Recapping The World Championship in Vegas!

Explore the thrilling highlights of Magic Con Vegas, featuring Javier Dominguez's world championship win, innovative Dimir decks, and key card insights.

Magic Con Vegas is over, and we are all awaiting the exciting things to come for the MTG world in the rest of the year. We have exciting news, new cards coming out, and some fundamental changes to how formats will look going forward. Setting all that aside, we had some of the most exciting magic that has been played in a long time. Javier Dominguez was able to take down the competition and win his second world championship. There were a lot of interesting decks, and there were a few cards that seriously stuck out as all-stars. What was most interesting to see was that a lot of the different archetypes within color combinations stood out. There were multiple different Dimir decks, and there were also multiple different Golgari decks. What I will examine today is the deck that won it all. I usually pick my favorite deck from the top 8, and this ended up being my favorite because I believe that it brings the most spice. The innovation that it has ended up actually bringing an extra win condition that helped Javier get to the finals, and we will go over that shortly.

Total Cards:

There were a few different lists that were labeled as Dimir Demons, and I believe that all of them were good. There were other lists that may have been arguably more consistent, but Javier's strong play and a little bit of luck set him apart from everyone else. There is a mill combo built into the deck that I think is not only some serious spice, but also allows him to be able to play the midrange game and buy time in order to find answers, all while drawing extra cards and making strong demons that demand answers. The win conditions are pretty straightforward in the deck. We are either flying over the top of our opponents with demons that demand to be answered, or we are using the demons to mill out our opponent. In the process, we are also drawing a ton of cards with the annex and cards like Faerie Mastermind.

Relevant Cards in the Deck

Magic the Gathering Card - Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber - MTG Circle

This is one for me that was the MVP of the weekend. It saw play in so many different decks, and it really feels like whoever resolves an annex first and can get it to stick can start to run away with the game. Drawing one extra card per turn doesn't feel too crazy, but the reality is that you are drawing double the cards that your opponent is drawing per turn, while also draining their life total, which effectively starts a clock that is your win condition. Oh yeah, and it also is a great mana sink that gives you a 6/6 demon! This can be incredibly effective in the late game, and it is one of the best top-decks.

Magic the Gathering Card - Doomsday Excruciator - MTG Circle

We had estimates that this card would be a bomb in the right deck, and I believe it has found its home. It is a little bit demanding on mana, and things have to line up right. It is definitely something that is best cast in the right scenario, and it isn't exactly something that you want to cast on curve. This is best when the opponent has no cards in hand, and an opponent is already staring down your Jace that is on the board while you have a decent amount of blockers. If you combo this with Jace's ability to mill the opponent's final six cards, it turns into an auto-win.

Magic the Gathering Card - Archfiend of the Dross - MTG Circle

This card is seeing a lot more play in Standard, and even Pioneer. The value that it adds to the deck is immense. We do sometimes still see people die to it having no oil counters on it, but it wins games for people much more often than it loses games for them. At face value, a 6/6 for 4 mana is good in magic, even with the power creep that we now have. Archfiend also forces the opponent to lose two life when one of their creatures dies, so they even get punished for blocking it. When you couple that with the removal that the deck has, and the fact that it has four copies of annex, it creates serious problems for opposing decks.

Key Matchups in Top 8

Javier had one of the most epic comeback victories that we've seen in the semifinals against Seth Manfield. He was down 2-0 and ended up coming back to win the next three in the matchup after being able to sideboard. The top 8 of Pro Tour and world championships in MTG have now moved to doing a best of five format. The first two games are played with just the main decks, and then all games after that allow the players to sideboard. Usually, it is a death sentence to go up against a player of Seth Manfield's caliber and be down 2-0, but Javier didn't concede a thing. He was able to grind into the late game against Seth's Golgari Ramp deck and come out with a victory. In game five, he actually used the Jace and Excruciator combo to win. The deck truly showed everything that it was capable of in that matchup, as it effectively had to. Javier did a great job in games 3-5 identifying how he had to win each game, and what path to take to get there.

In the finals, Javier once again had to go up against Golgari, but this time it was a bit of a different version. This one did not have the ramp package, and did not feature as many big mana spells that grinded into the late game like Seth's version did. It was a much more straightforward deck, and I believe it is an arguably better matchup for Javier. This was abundantly evident, as Javier ended up winning this round very quickly 3-0. I actually started to do some chores around the house and thought I would be able to tune in after finishing to catch the end of the finals, and when I did, Javier was raising his trophy. They were some pretty quick games. It was unfortunate to see Marcio Carvalho lose again in the finals of the championship, as that was the third time that it happened, but it is impossible to not cheer for Javier, because few deserve that win more than he does.

Is it the Best Deck in the Format?

I believe that this deck was really well-positioned in the world championship meta, and in an open-deck environment. I'm not sold that this would be the best deck on Arena, or for a closed deck tournament in a RCQ format. I think it is incredibly good, and is viable to win at any level. I am just not sold on the fact that it is the best deck, and I'm not sure if we have a clear best deck at this time. With Foundations coming out soon, I believe it also becomes increasingly unclear, but also acceptable that we don't have a "solved" meta yet.

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I am a Magic The Gathering competitive player, and streamer. I specialize in homebrew decks. My favorite formats are: Standard, Pioneer (Explorer on Arena), and EDH. I first started playing MTG in 2001, and have played on and off since then.

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