Julien Nuijten 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.

Twenty-year-old Gabriel Nassif is considered to be the best player never to have won a Pro Tour™ event. Designed to beat the ubiquitous "Affinity" decks, his blue-white control deck also plays well against anti-Affinity decks. Worlds marked the third time in the season that the Parisian had made it to the final day of a Pro Tour event, and his performance earned Nassif the coveted 2004 Player of the Year award—a title he will defend vigorously next year.

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.