The Mythic Invitational will see 31 members of the Magic Pro League face off against 33 Challengers looking to win their share of the $1 million prize pool. Here are 10 Challengers to watch this weekend: five known Magic pros and five players that are new to Magic’s biggest stage.
To celebrate the very first Mythic Invitational, we’re hosting some awesome fantasy leagues on Thousand Leagues! Pick your favorite MPL players—or some of the Challengers we’ve highlighted below—and you could win a Ravnica Allegiance Mythic Edition!
The Known Pros
Teruya Kakumae (witch on MTG Arena)
Kakumae has won three Grand Prix (GP Kobe in 2014, GP Auckland in 2015, and GP Shizuoka in 2018) as well as the first Pro Tour Team series in 2017 with Team Musashi. He qualified for the Mythic Invitational by being in the Top 8 Mythic Constructed players in February on MTG Arena.
Ondrej Strasky (honey)
Strasky Top 8’d back-to-back Pro Tours (PT Khans of Tarkir in 2014 and PT Dragons of Tarkir in 2015) but struggled to find that kind of success afterwards. He announced his retirement from competitive Magic in August 2018, saying GP Stockholm would be his last tournament unless he won, an event which he promptly Top 8’d—putting him back on the Pro Tour. That lead him to GP Stockholm three weeks later…which he proceeded to win.
After qualifying for the Mythic Invitational by being in the Top 8 Mythic Constructed on MTG Arena, Strasky noted that he will be in a very tough pod, and again joked that he would retire unless he won the tournament.
Thiago Saporito (bolov0)
Saporito also has two Pro Tour Top 8s (PT Khans of Tarkir in 2014 and PT 25th Anniversary in 2018) and a Grand Prix win in Richmond in 2017. He qualified by being the #1 ranked Mythic Constructed player on MTG Arena in February and will be a force to be reckoned with at the Mythic Invitational.
Autumn Burchett (AutumnLilyMTG)
Burchett won the first Mythic Championship last month and is the back-to-back English National Champion (in 2017 and 2018). They are a focused and ferocious player, with an intimidating death stare, with more than enough skill to win the Mythic Invitational.
Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV)
LSV has Top 8’d five of his last nine Pro Tours/Mythic Championships and has 10 PT/MC Top 8s in his career. He is a consensus Top 5 Magic player of all time and would have been a lock for the Magic Pro League if he had attended more Grand Prix in 2018. In all honesty, he’s the honorary 32nd member of the MPL at the Mythic Invitational, subbing in for Rei Sato, who was disinvited after being disqualified from GP Prague in January.
The Newcomers
Taiju Sugiyama (advers)
Sugiyama is a Japanese player with no competitive experience. He qualified for the Mythic Invitational by being one of the Top 8 Mythic Constructed players on MTG Arena in February, and other than the fact that he’s a graduate student that has been playing Magic since 2015, he’s a virtual unknown we’ll get to see compete on Magic’s biggest stage.
Edoardo Annuziata (quicksort)
Annuziata is an Italian player who, like Sugiyama, has no high-level competitive experience. He had only played in a few PPTQs at his local game store before qualifying for the Mythic Invitational by being one of the Top 8 Mythic Constructed players on MTG Arena in February.
Look out for our interview with Annuziata later this week!
Sheila Weidman (pterodactylsftw)
Weidman is a Counter Strike: Global Offensive player for OpTic Gaming with nearly 180k followers on Twitch. She’s one of the popular esports players that Wizards invited to take part in the Mythic Invitational and it will be interesting to see if she can translate her CS:GO success into Magic.
Janne Mikkonen (Savjz)
Mikkonen is a former Hearthstone player for Team Liquid with over half a million Twitch followers. He has played Magic for over 10 years but has never played in any Pro Tours of Grand Prix.
Thijs Molendijk (Thijs)
Molendijk is a two-time European Hearthstone champion with over 600,000 followers on Twitch and plays for G2 Esports. Like Mikkonen, Molendijk is new to Magic’s competitive scene, and both players will be looking for follow in Amaz’s footsteps and convert their success in Hearthstone to strong finishes at the Mythic Invitational.