Dami Lee Wins Burnaby Regional on Rogue Atlantean Mermail

If you spent the weekend watching regional results trickle in, you probably expected another monotonous sweep of Elfnote taking trophy after trophy. Between Austin Wheeler cleaning up Saint Peters on Elfnote Ars Magna and Alejandra Puente conquering Guatemala City with Elfnote Synchron, the format felt completely locked down by the usual suspects. Then the 60-player Burnaby WCQ Regional in Canada flipped the entire script on Sunday. Dami Lee piloted a clean 40-card Atlantean Mermail list all the way to first place, cutting through a bracket loaded with established tournament contenders.

Lee did not merely dodge top-tier matchups to get there. The Burnaby playoff field was packed with current format threats, including Cash Crites on Angelechy in the Top 4, alongside Top 8 runs from Claire Davis on Blitzclique and Jordan Anchor piloting 60-card Azamina Dark Magician Light and Darkness Ritual. Rather than bloating the deck to mitigate hand traps, Lee stuck to a razor-sharp main deck backed by Mulcharmy packages and tech out of Beyond the Brave: a copy of The Great Gallant Bandit. The Level 10 monster gave Lee an out to opposing boards without committing field presence first, clearing interruptions face-up before initiating water combos.

With Mermail sitting at barely three percent of recorded top cuts across the circuit, Lee's regional victory delivers a reality check to anyone treating the competitive meta as solved. Respecting the water engine is mandatory again, and pilots leaning entirely on standard disruption lines will have to reconsider their side decks before the next circuit stop.