It’s good to be back.

2020 is here and the first event in the history of the F2F Tour has come and gone. This past weekend we traveled to beautiful Vancouver, B.C. where players entered the battlefield to clash in the brand new Pioneer format!

And when all was said and done, Roy Yang triumphed with his spicy Five-Colour Niv-Mizzet deck.

Pioneer has really ebbed and flowed since its announcement as a supported format back in October. Since the very beginning it was made clear to everyone that bans would come fast and frequently, and over the past few months we’ve seen a ton of cards receive the ban hammer.

And after all of these changes, we’ve arrived at the kind of format where Yang could slice through the format with this awesome deck fueled by [Card]Bring to Light[/Card]. Often in eternal formats it feels like there are a handful of top decks that are extremely powerful, and you’ve got to pick one of those in order to give yourself the best shot to win.

But in Pioneer right now, it’s the wild west. You can win with Control, Midrange, Aggro or Combo. And that’s an awesome way to play Magic.

Yang was able to defeat Ryan Perez and his Azorius Control deck in the finals. A matchup where both decks went toe to toe with some insane top-end threats.

Joining them in the Top 8 was Jordan Boxeur who played Izzet Ensoul, Ben Elliot on Azorius Spirits, Anthony Song who played a Mono-White Aggro deck featuring the Heliod and [Card]Walking Ballista[/Card] combo, Liam Malcolm who also played Five-Colour Niv-Mizzet, Clint Taylor who was our second Azorius Control player in the Top 8 and Michael Kuie who played an awesome Jund Midrange deck featuring [Card]Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger[/Card].

There you have it, an extremely diverse Top 8 metagame. That said, it was notably missing Mono-Black Aggro, a deck that has been the most popular archetype in Pioneer since the most recent swath of bannings.

From my perspective, it looks like some of these more controlling decks, specifically Niv, are doing a good job of keeping aggro down in the format. As you can see above, Niv and Azorius made up nearly 25 percent of the room in Vancouver.

In the competitive community, the Mono-Black versus Niv-Mizzet matchup has been a hot topic of conversation lately. Many people think it’s close, and others feel strongly one way or the other. But at least in Vancouver it looks to me like Niv was able to prevail over aggro on average.

Our first tour stop of 2020 was a huge success. We had 106 players battling in the main event. We capped our FREE Pioneer side event at 32 players and we also ran a record 26 Theros Beyond Death drafts all day on Saturday. Thank you to everyone who came out and made our first event on the 2020 F2F Tour a success!

Congratulations to Roy Yang and to the rest of the Top 8 on their outstanding performances this past weekend. Before I leave you for the week, I’d like to also extend a special thank you to both our judge staff and our sponsor Ultimate Guard for helping us put on a great event.

The next stop on the F2F Tour is coming up this Saturday, Feb. 1 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where we’ll be playing Modern. Make sure to pre-register and we’ll see you on the battlefield.

[Deck Title= First Place, Five-Colour Niv-Mizzet – Roy Yang]
[Creatures]
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Paradise Druid
3 Siege Rhino
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Niv-Mizzet Reborn
1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
2 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Bring to Light
1 Utter End
1 Languish
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
3 Teferi, Time Raveller
1 unmoored Ego
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Oath of Kaya
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Discovery // Dispersal
1 Cut // Ribbons
1 Dreadbore
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Fabled Passage
3 Botanical Sanctum
2 Stomping Ground
2 Opulent Palace
2 Sandsteppe Citadel
2 Temple Garden
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Mana Confluence
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Rest in Peace
2 Mystical Dispute
2 Thought Erasure
2 Rakdos’s Return
1 Kunoros, Hound of Athreos
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Deafening Clarion
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Thought Distortion
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Second Place, Azorius Control – Ryan Perez]
[Spells]
4 Opt
4 Azorius charm
2 Seal Away
4 Censor
1 Dovin’s Veto
4 Absorb
3 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Detention Sphere
2 Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis
4 Supreme Verdict
3 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3 Dig Through Time
[/Spells]
[Lands]
6 Island
3 Plains
2 Castle Ardenvale
4 Fabled Passage
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Field of Ruin
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Aether Gust
3 Rest in Peace
2 Dream Trawler
2 Mytical Dispute
2 Summary Dismissal
1 Dovin’s Veto
1 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Isolate
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Third Place, Izzet Ensoul – Jordan Boxeur]
[Creatures]
4 Bomat Courier
4 Skilled Animator
4 Stonecoil Serpent
2 Hope of Ghirapur
4 Gingerbrute
2 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Shadowspear
2 The Royal Scions
4 Wild Slash
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Ensoul Artifact
3 Ghostfire Blade
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Mutavault
3 Spire of Industry
3 Steam Vents
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Shivan Reef
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Mountain
1 Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Aethergust
2 Laval Coil
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Damping Sphere
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Stubborn Denial
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fourth Place, Azorius Spirits – Ben Elliot]
[Creatures]
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Spectral Sailor
4 Rattlechains
4 Supreme Phantom
3 Selfless Spirit
4 Empyrean Eagle
4 Brazen Borrower
4 Spell Queller
3 Nebelgast Herald
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Curious Obsession
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Port Town
2 Mutavault
1 Unclaimed Territory
7 Island
3 plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Dovin’s Veto
1 Teferi, Time Raveller
1 Isolate
2 Rest in Peace
1 Hushbringer
2 Devout Decree
2 Deputy of Detention
2 Settle the Wreckage
2 Mystical Dispute
1 Disdainful Stroke
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fifth Place, Mono-White Heliod – Anthony Song]
[Creatures]
4 Ajani’s Pridemate
4 Alseid of Life’s Bounty
3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
3 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
4 Healer’s Hawk
4 Heliod, the Sun Crowned
3 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Leonin Vanguard
2 Selfless Spirit
4 Walking Ballista
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Legion’s Landing
1 Gideon Blackblade
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Castle Ardenvale
17 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Baffling End
2 Deafening Silence
3 Devout Decree
2 Dusk // Dawn
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Rest in Peace
1 Silence
1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Sixth Place, Five-Colour Niv-Mizzet – Liam Malcolm]
[Creatures]
1 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath
3 Siege Rhino
1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
3 Niv-Mizzet Reborn
2 Paradise Druid
4 Sylvan Caryatid
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Thought Erasure
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Cut // Ribbons
4 Teferi, Time Raveller
1 Oath of Kaya
1 Unmoored Ego
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Utter End
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Bring to Light
1 Solar Blaze
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Blood Crypt
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Breeding Pool
2 Concealed Courtyard
4 Fabled Passage
1 Forest
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Opulent Palace
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
2 Temple Garden
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Plenty
2 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Rest in Peace
2 Mystical Dispute
2 Infernal Reckoning
1 Natural State
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Unmoored Ego
1 Rakdos’s Return
1 Cindervines
1 Wear // Tear
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Seventh Place, Azorius Control – Clint Taylor]
[Spells]
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Azorious Charm
1 Censor
1 Detention Sphere
4 Seal Away
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Settle the Wreckage
3 Dig Through Time
4 Omen of the Sea
4 Thirst for Meaning
4 Sinister Sabotage
1 Syncopate
3 Cast Away
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Field of Ruin
1 Temple of Enlightenment
7 Island
3 Plains
3 Castle Ardenvale
1 Castle Vantress
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Brazen Borrower
2 Detention Sphere
3 Rest In Peace
2 Dovin’s Veto
1 Nyx Fleece Ram
1 Aether Gust
3 Mystical Dispute
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Eighth Place, Jund – Michael Kuie]
[Creatures]
4 Grim Flayer
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Murderous Rider
3 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
2 Questing Beast
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Get
1 Glorybringer
1 Scavenging Ooze
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
3 Fatal Push
1 Aburpt Decay
2 Kolaghan’s Command
4 Thoughtseize
4 Travers the Ulvenwald
2 Shadowspear
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Hissing Quagmire
2 Stomping Ground
1 Mountian
1 Castle Locthwain
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blood Crypt
4 Fabled Passage
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Pithing Needle
3 Leyline of the Void
2 Epic Downfall
2 Duress
2 Golgari Charm
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]