Pete Ingram Wins the Modern Regional Championship in Baltimore, 17 Years After His First Pro Tour

Pete Ingram's first Pro Tour was in Kyoto in 2009. Seventeen years later, over the weekend of September 12–13, 2026, the 36-year-old Long Island native beat Curtis Lam in the final of the Modern Regional Championship at SCG Baltimore — a field of nearly 1,500 players — and qualified, for the first time in his career, for the Magic World Championship. Wizards' PlayMTG account announced the result on September 14.

It capped what Ingram himself called a long road back. He'd already banked a Grand Prix Washington, D.C. win in 2018 and a Pro Tour Top 8, and his last big result before Baltimore was a Top 8 at Players Tour Phoenix in 2020. In between, he described a stretch of "online playtesting not translating well, being rusty, and honestly just starting to doubt my capabilities after a continued lack of success despite previous accomplishments." Six months ago he joined Team Scrapheap. "A shoutout to all of Team Scrapheap and my car buddies for the trip: Dan Jessup, Ben Friedman, and Jim Davis, and to Andrew Jessup for bailing last minute to graciously allow me to win the tournament," he said afterward.

"It's a pretty exciting accomplishment considering my last big one was Top 8 of Players Tour Phoenix six years ago," Ingram said. "This one means a lot to me though as I am so excited to get back to the Pro Tour again after such a long hiatus and am equally if not more excited to get to play Worlds for the first time in my Magic career."

Broodscale Combo took over the room

Ingram won on the back of Mono-Green Basking Broodscale Combo — specifically the build running Devourer of Destiny. Several weeks earlier, at the Magic Spotlight events in Brisbane and Dallas, three different configurations had reached the elimination rounds: one splashing red for Unholy Heat, one running Delighted Halfling, and one on Devourer of Destiny. This past weekend, Wizards' Metagame Mentor column reports, the mono-green Devourer build "emerged as the norm." The plan is simple and fast: assemble Basking Broodscale and Blade of the Bloodchief for an early combo kill, or ramp into Emrakul, the Promised End, backed by Urza's Saga and Kozilek's Command — Ingram's list ran four copies each of Broodscale, Emrakul, Kozilek's Command and Urza's Saga.

The deck's rise wasn't confined to Ingram's own run. Combining the results of the U.S. (Baltimore) and China Regional Championships, Metagame Mentor reported that Broodscale Combo climbed from 6.3% of the field at the prior Magic Spotlight: The Hobbit to 12.6%, "making it the most popular archetype overall." That is a lead rather than a runaway — Izzet Prowess sat second at 10.9%. Where Broodscale separated itself was on results: a 55.3% match win rate, the best of any archetype in the column's table, with a 95% confidence interval sitting strictly above 50%.

At Baltimore specifically, Wizards' The Week That Was recap counted four Broodscale copies in the Top 8, five in the top ten and seven in the Top 16 — "the level of metagame dominance typically unheard of in Modern."

The deck wasn't unbeatable, though. Devoted Druid Combo posted a 54-35 record (61%) against Broodscale in head-to-head play across the weekend, and a small pack of Jeskai Energy players went 15-8 (65%) against it — early signs of what the next round of Regional Championships may need to answer.

A statement result out of China, too

The U.S. wasn't the only Regional Championship decided that weekend. In China, Yuchen Liu won playing Esper Goryo's, defeating Steven Li's Izzet Prowess in the final and defending his title against more than 400 competitors. Several players have won multiple Regional Championships before, but per Metagame Mentor Liu is the first to win the same region's championship in consecutive cycles — a feat The Week That Was called "probably unprecedented." Both Liu and U.S. finalist Curtis Lam join Ingram with invitations to Magic World Championship 33, set for December 2027. Between the two Regional Championships, 40 total invitations to Pro Tour Nauctis — set for February 26–28, 2027 — were awarded.

Mark your calendar

• September 12–13, 2026 — Pete Ingram wins the Modern Regional Championship at SCG Baltimore, defeating Curtis Lam.
• February 26–28, 2027 — Pro Tour Nauctis.
• December 2027 — Magic World Championship 33, featuring Ingram, Lam, and Liu among the qualified field.

The card that carried Ingram's deck all weekend, Basking Broodscale, is on our shelf — NM, non-foil, $0.26 as of September 22, 2026 — for anyone who wants to see what a 12.6%-of-the-field Modern archetype looks like up close: harlequinsmarket.com/shop/2448.

Filed by the Harlequins Market newsroom.