Gabriel Nassif Bio

Professional Magic® player Aeo Paquette played the deck that defined the metagame at the 2004 World Championships: "Affinity." Against a field full of decks designed to beat Affinity, this nineteen-year-old Canadian piloted his fast beatdown deck to a 5—1 record during the Standard portion of the tournament. Paquette credits his friend Jeff Cunningham for helping him design an Affinity deck that could compete so well against the field.

The youngest ever Magic® World Champion, Dutch wunderkind Julien Nuijten came out of nowhere to stun the field. Just fifteen years old, Nuijten proved that he can play with the best. Playing a green—white Astral Slide deck designed to destroy "Affinity", he posted a respectable 4-2 record on the Standard day at Worlds and then calmly swept the field on the final day. He says the inspiration for his deck came from an Internet article by Pro Tour™ veteran Brian Kibler.

Pro Tour™ veteran Manuel Bevand played an artifact-based combo deck to a perfect 6-0 record on the Standard day at Worlds. His deck uses Krark-Clan Ironworks to quickly get a Myr Incubator into play, which then creates thirty or more 1/1 Myr creatures—sometimes as early as the third turn! A twenty-seven-year-old freelance game designer from Paris, France, Bevand has been a Magic® regular since 1994, playing in over a dozen Pro Tour events. He credits Magic Online for getting him back into championship form.