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Showdown Recap: Feb 26th – Modern

Welcome to another weekly Showdown Recap, where we take a look at what happened at Face to Face Games Toronto’s weekly Sunday Showdown, a series of 1k events feeding into the Ultimate Showdown 5k Invitational. This week, we played Modern, Toronto’s favourite format!

Last Modern Showdown, we saw a diverse field ultimately dominated by the powerful two-card combo of [card]Thoughtseize[/card] into [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]. Yesterday’s metagame was as wide open as ever, with multiple Eldrazi and non-Eldrazi Hatebears decks, Blue-White Prison, Esper Control – you name it! Only two decks, however, sent multiple copies into the top 8. Brenton Henry and Alexei Varakin, both Modern veterans, brought Affinity to finishes in the elimination rounds. Both lists were fairly typical, as the Affinity archetype unfortunately doesn’t allow that much room for innovation, but Brenton went with a slightly unconventional pair of [card]Spell Pierce[/card]s in the maindeck. Slightly more surprisingly, Sun and Moon, the Todd Stevens-powered white [card]Blood Moon[/card] prison deck also showed up twice in the top 8, piloted by Jack Cooke and Philip Wong. As with our Affinity decks, there wasn’t much technology to be found in these decks, with the exception of Philip’s maindeck [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card]. A Standard powerhouse that’s oddly powerful in Modern… you’ll find this to be a recurring trend throughout this top 8.

One of the greatest qualities of the Modern format, and likely one of the reasons why Magic players hang on to it so tightly, is its diversity, specifically the frequency with which odd, powerful decks rise to the top. There’s been much complaining about the linear decks that make up much of the metagame, specifically about how they create uninteresting games and always win. Affinity and Sun and Moon fall within the linear deck category – but they were all eliminated in the quarterfinals by a swath of significantly more interactive strategies. First off we have control master Ben Wang with a very innovative Esper Control list. Ben’s been playing [card]Esper Charm[/card] in Modern for years now, and his current list is a thing of beauty. The counterspell suite is reminiscent of Corey Burkhart’s Grixis Control, with the full playset of [card]Cryptic Command[/card] and pairs of [card]Negate[/card], [card]Spell Snare[/card] and [card]Logic Knot[/card]. Chock-full of card advantage, Ben eschewed [card]Ancestral Vision[/card] for the more quickly-cantripping [card]Think Twice[/card] and jammed the deck full of removal, including a full playset of [card]Supreme Verdict[/card]! Ben’s deck tops out with a pair of [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]s, a pair of [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card]s, and a singleton [card]Secure the Wastes[/card] to achieve instant speed x-spell nirvana. A sideboard [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card] rounds out the unbeatable Standard cards.

Next up we have Chris Duong’s Bant Eldrazi, the sole [card]Thought-Knot Seer[/card] deck in the top 8. Chris’s deck was fairly typical of the archetype, with the powerful Eldrazi, and a removal suite featuring maindeck [card]Engineered Explosives[/card]. The deck has a stellar sideboard, with countermagic in [card]Stubborn Denial[/card] and [card]Unified Will[/card] and white’s powerful targeted hate cards. And of course, it’s also the fourth (!) deck with at least one copy of [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card] in the 75. Alex Georgievski made it all the way to the finals with Lantern, a much-maligned prison deck. Alex might not have been able to play Elspeth, but he made sure to carry on the tournament’s trend of spicy one-ofs in the sideboard with [card]Padeem, Consul of Innovation[/card]!

There might have been four [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card] decks in the top 8, but the best card in Standard right now is in fact also the best card in Modern. Daniel Fournier brought Abzan with maindeck [card]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[/card] to the fray, and was even able to use it to punch through an Elspeth in his quarterfinals match against Jack! The [card]Dark Confidant[/card] build of the deck, championed by Toronto’s Jund Whisperer Keith Capstick, returns to the core principles of Jund strategies, not playing individually weak cards like [card]Noble Hierarch[/card] or [card]Grim Flayer[/card], preferring more disruption and powerful threats.

Chris Ha, still on vacation, falls further in the standings as Daniel’s win skyrockets him to fall just ahead! Ben Wang and Jack Cooke also added some more points to their lofty totals, putting them within reach of the triple-digit points leaders! Join us next week for a Legacy Showdown, and don’t forget to start preparing for March 18th’s Facetofacegames.com Toronto 3k Modern Open!

Daniel Fournier – Abzan – 1st

[deck]
[Creatures]
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
1 Kitchen Finks
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Lingering Souls
[/Spells]

[Lands]
2 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Blooming Marsh
2 Concealed Courtyard
3 Shambling Vents
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
[/Lands]

[Sideboard]
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Collective Brutality
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Damnation
1 Thoughtseize
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Stony Silence
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Alex Georgievski – Lantern – 2nd

[deck]
[Creatures]
2 Glint-Nest Crane
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Opal
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller’s Bell
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
3 Pithing Needle
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Glimmervoid
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Darkslick Shores
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Academy Ruins
1 Aether Hub
1 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Inventor’s Fair
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Quiet Disrepair
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Collective Brutality
2 Welding Jar
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Chris Duong – Bant Eldrazi – 3rd

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Spellskite
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Drowner of Hope
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Ancient Stirrings
1 Talisman of Progress
2 Engineered Explosives
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Windswept Heath
4 Eldrazi Temple
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
3 Brushland
3 Yavimaya Coast
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Unified Will
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Worship
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Ben Wang – Esper Control – 4th

[deck]
[Creatures]
2 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Cryptic Command
4 Esper Charm
3 Fatal Push
2 Logic Knot
2 Negate
4 Path to Exile
1 Secure the Wastes
2 Spell Snare
2 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Think Twice
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Drowned Catacomb
4 Flooded Strand
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
2 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Celestial Purge
2 Dispel
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
3 Thoughtseize
3 Timely Reinforcements
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Alexei Varakin – Affinity – 5th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Arcbound Ravager
1 Master of Etherium
3 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
3 Memnite
3 Etched Champion
1 Spellskite
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Cranial Plating
2 Thoughtcast
4 Mox Opal
3 Galvanic Blast
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Glimmervoid
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
1 Master of Etherium
1 Blood Moon
1 Illness in the Ranks
2 Whipflare
2 Spellskite
1 Wear // Tear
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Etched Champion
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Jack Cooke – Sun and Moon – 6th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Lightning Helix
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Wrath of God
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Banishing Light
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Gideon Jura
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Rugged Prairie
3 Arid Mesa
2 Clifftop Retreat
1 Gemstone Caverns
9 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Needle Spires
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Boil
1 Wrath of God
2 Blessed Alliance
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Brenton Henry – Affinity – 7th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
3 Etched Champion
2 Memnite
1 Master of Etherium
3 Steel Overseer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Galvanic Blast
2 Thoughtcast
2 Spell Pierce
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Glimmervoid
1 Mountain
[/Lands]
[sideboard]
1 Spell Pierce
1 Dismember
3 Thoughtseize
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
1 Whipflare
1 Wear // Tear
1 Etched Champion
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Philip Wong – Sun and Moon – 8th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Nahiri the Harbinger
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Lightning Helix
3 Wrath of God
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Gideon Jura
1 Journey to Nowhere
2 Banishing Light
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Spells]
[Lands]
9 Plains
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Arid Mesa
2 Rugged Prairie
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Mountain
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Needle Spires
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Crumble to Dust
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Wrath of God
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Blessed Alliance
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

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