Asp's Grasp?! Can it be?!

That's right, Bob Maher is the winner of the 2004 Magic Invitational. The event spanned five formats, five days, and two cities, and featured 16 of the game's best and most popular players from four continents. Maher and Sweden's Mattias Jorstedt rose to the top after 15 rounds of play, then Maher took down Jorstedt in the best of three formats. Maher won the Auction of the People 2-1, lost Mirrodin Block Constructed 0-2, then rallied to take the final game of Online Extended on the back of the Seething Song-Furnace Dragon combo!

Bob wins the right to design a card that will be included in a future Magic expansion and will feature his likeness in the art. (Past prizes include Darwin Kastle's Avalanche Riders, Chris Pikula's Meddling Mage, and Jens Thoren's Solemn Simulacrum.) Bob's initial submission was a sorcery that gave target player nine poison counters, a less-than-serious attempt that had us all a little worried. Since winning, he has vowed to come up with a more fitting serious suggestion. We'll keep you posted on what he comes up with here at magicthegathering.com!

For those of you without access to Magic Online, we'll have web coverage of the finals posted on this page on Sunday. For those that do have Magic Online, you can watch replays of every game played in this wacky showcase event by logging on and clicking the Magic Invitational banner. Congratulations Bob!