Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven

Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven was the second Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour of the 2025–26 season. It took place on May 1–3, 2026, at MagicCon Las Vegas 2026. The format was Secrets of Strixhaven Booster Draft and Standard Constructed.[1]

Date May 1–3, 2026
Location USA flag Las Vegas, USA
Format Booster Draft and Standard
Prize pool $500,000
Winner USA flag Nathan Steuer
Previous Pro Tour:
Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed
Next Pro Tour:
Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes

State of the format

Several sets into the format past Avatar: The Last Airbender, Standard showed a generalized thesis: Badgermole Cub is the single most powerful card, but its fragility made it exploitable. However, being a green ramp deck, its top end quashes most midrange and control plans, leading to proactive decks with flexible cheap removal being the best counterplay. For example, Black's options of Stab and Requiting Hex matches poorly against Mightform Harmonizer and Icetill Explorer, compared to Burst Lightning or Firebending Lesson and their kickers. As a result, Izzet decks once again proved dominant at a combined 50%, with Lessons, Prowess and Sunderflock Elementals each having their own anti-earthbending tech. Mono-Green Landfall took second with a white variant at 3.4%. White gained a small showing of Azorius Fliers powered by Momo, Friendly Flier and parts of Jeskai Control, which itself is also an Izzet deck. The most popular Black deck was a mere 2.5% of the field. Pro Tour winner Dimir Doomsday Excruciator sat at a lowly 1.8%, with the runner-up Harmonizer Combo losing its surprise factor and dropping out of the metagame.[2]

Day One

There were 325 particpants. Featured drafters: Christoffer Larsen

Larsen drafted a Converge deck focused in Witherbloom, with a late pick Potioner's Trove showing he had the open lane: he would go 3-0 in the draft and 7-1 over the day. For the first time, Cub decks were seen at the top of the standings, led by a strong return from 2022 World Champion Nathan Steuer, trailed narrowly by Potter, both on Landfall decks.[3]

The top eight players after day one:

Rank Player Points
1   Nathan Steuer 24
2   Jack Potter 22
3   Noé Offman 21
4   Rui Zhang[4][5] 21
5   Thierry Ramboa 21
6   Victor Santos Esquici 21
7   Nam Dang 21
8   Christoffer Larsen 21

Day Two

Featured drafters: Nathan Steuer

Steuer's Witherboom deck posted a good 2-1 record, losing Round 10 to Ramboa, who himself lost the finals to Zhang, one of the three undefeated Draft players. The other two were Jacob Mitchell-Rabaey and Stefan Schütz. At the end of Draft, Steuer and Zhang tied alongside second pod winner Matt Nass.

Data from the first day finally showed a Pro Tour where Cub decks were winners, with Izzet decks doing relatively average, with Steuer's Selesnya Landfall performing particularly strongly. Zhang took the first seat in Round 13. Nass joined Zhang in Round 14 over Maxx Kominowski, who would later join them in Round 15 over Matthew Stefansson, as would Schütz over Ramboa and Larsen over Steuer. In the final round, Steuer took his spot over Ramboa, won over Nam Dang and Stefansson over Bryan Rockenbach and Zevin Faust defeated Shota Yasooka. Also at 36 points were Andy Garcia-Romo, Liam Kane, Mateo Ferreira and Alex Rohan.[6]

Top 8

Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
                         
1  Rui Zhang 3  
8  Zevin Faust 2  
  1  Rui Zhang 1  
  4  Christoffer Larsen 3  
4  Christoffer Larsen 3
5  Maxx Kominowsky 1  
    4  Christoffer Larsen 2
  6  Nathan Steuer 3
3  Stefan Schütz 0  
6  Nathan Steuer 3  
  6  Nathan Steuer 3
  2  Matt Nass 2  
2  Matt Nass 3
7  Matthew Steffanson 2  

Playoffs

After many sets in Standard, it was finally Cub's time to shine; in this Top 8, each green deck won over the non-green deck.[7] The reliance on fragile threats meant fight spells became functional answers, and Meltstrider's Resolve adds a check against red removal after resolution. While adding white resulted in multiple mana struggles on camera, Erode answering many big threats was a strong draw. Larsen and Steuer faced off in the final with their own build of Landfall.[8] Despite the final game being a double-mull for both players, the result was a flurry of doubling triggers on the last turns which was not enough for Larsen but plenty for Steuer.

Larsen's double-finals finish puts him in clear first place for Player of the Year going into Worlds, twenty points clear of the next tier of players, as few players overlapped in high placements.

Results

Place Player Deck Prize Points Comment
1   Nathan Steuer Selesnya Landfall $50,000 27 Third win
2   Christoffer Larsen Selesnya Landfall $30,000 23 Fifth Top Finish
3   Rui Zhang Izzet Lessons $15,000 20 Second Top Finish
4   Matt Nass Selesnya Oroboroid $15,000 20 Fifth Top Finish
5   Maxx Kominowski Izzet Spell-ementals $9,000 18
6   Stefan Schütz Mono-Green Landfall $9,000 18 Third Top Finish
7   Matthew Stefansson Mono-Green Landfall $9,000 18 Pro Tour debut
8   Zevin Faust Azorius Tempo $9,000 18 Second Top Finish

References