The Week That Was: Lopez Prepares to Make Landfall at the Pro Tour

3 min read
The Week That Was: Lopez Prepares to Make Landfall at the Pro Tour

Landfall Rises: Jorge Lopez's Path to the Pro Tour

The Standard season has been a whirlwind of shifting metagames and emerging strategies, and the recent Regional Championship events have highlighted the incredible diversity of the format. From classic Izzet Prowess builds to the surging Mono-Green Landfall decks, the field has been wide open, with no single dominant strategy emerging.

At the forefront of this metagame evolution is Jorge Lopez, the recent champion of the Central America Magic Series Regional Championship. Lopez, a longtime Magic player, finally earned his first-ever Pro Tour invitation by piloting a powerful Mono-Green Landfall deck to victory, defeating a field of diverse and competitive strategies.

The journey to this breakthrough moment has been years in the making for Lopez. As he explains, he's always been chasing the opportunity to compete at the highest levels of Magic, including making Top 8 appearances at the Mexican National Championship and a Grand Prix Top 16 back in 2005. However, those accomplishments never led to a Pro Tour invitation, until now.

Lopez's road to the Pro Tour began in 2025, when he dedicated himself to qualifying for the newly created Regional Championships. Through the Secret Lair Showdowns at MagicCon and Regional Championship Qualifiers, Lopez built up his confidence and honed his skills, eventually setting his sights on the Central America Magic Series Regional Championship in Mexico City.

At the Regional Championship, Lopez's Mono-Green Landfall deck proved to be a formidable force, sweeping through the Top 8 with clean 2-0 victories. This success was a testament to his dedication to playtesting and mastering his chosen strategy, rather than simply chasing the latest pro deck tech.

As Lopez prepares to make his Pro Tour debut, he's carrying with him the valuable lesson he learned during his pursuit of the Secret Lair Showdown Lightning Bolts: focus on one game at a time and play your best Magic. Whether he's competing in his hometown of Mexico City or facing off against the world's elite in Amsterdam, this approach has helped him reach new heights in the game he's loved for over two decades.

With the Standard metagame in a state of flux and multiple viable strategies emerging, Lopez's Mono-Green Landfall deck could prove to be a formidable force on the Pro Tour stage. As he embarks on this new chapter of his Magic journey, the community will be eager to see how he fares against the best players in the world.

"I am excited to play my first Pro Tour and my first World Championship," said Lopez. "And my goal is to keep playing at the highest levels of the circuit, so I will focus on playing my best Magic one game at a time so I can be at the top in a consistent way!"