Ben Rubin Bio

Twenty-three-year-old professional Magic® player Brian Hacker of San Diego, California, thought he had a good chance of winning the finals with his white weenie deck. Hacker said his deck was well set up to defeat his opponents with its twenty-something aggressive creatures—including a number of shadow and en-Kor creatures. Unlike traditional white weenie decks, which rely on Armageddon as a major threat card, Hacker's deck uses Cataclysm, which he feels better complements the use of Empyrial Armor.

Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each card in your hand.

Brian Selden, a seventeen-year-old high school student from San Diego, California, says his deck revolves around the interaction between Survival of the Fittest and Recurring Nightmare. The former is used to put creatures into the graveyard and the latter can then bring them into play. With this combo, Selden is able to use his creatures to react to an opponent's threats. The deck also contains over twenty creatures, many of which have an effect when they enter play or perform some other useful function, such as the Spike Weaver. Unlike many similar decks, Selden's dips into blue, primarily for Lobotomy. He said this was the key to many of his victories.