Welcome to a special 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. Last weekend, we ran not one, but two major events in Toronto! A Facetofacegames.com 3k Modern Open, and a Modern Masters 2017 Sealed 2k Double Showdown. Time to bring you results from both!

Let’s start with Saturday’s Modern Open. Over 160 players from across the province coalesced upon Seneca College to fight for the title, and as usual, the Modern metagame was unpredictable – with one notable exception. [card]Death’s Shadow[/card] won the event. As expected.

There were, however, tons of exciting decks to cover. Ricardo de Amorim, for instance, piloted a sweet BW Eldrazi Hatebears deck to an eighth place finish. Eschewing the format’s typical hand disruption of [card]Thoughtseize[/card] and [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card] in favour of [card]Tidehollow Sculler[/card] and [card]Thought-Knot Seer[/card] allows Ricardo to play an extremely high density of must-answer threats. The creatures also happen to exile the card picked from the opponent’s hand, allowing the “processor” [card]Wasteland Strangler[/card] to not only [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] a creature, but also ensure that a [card]Tidehollow Sculler[/card]ed card can’t come back. The rest of the deck is a glorious amalgamation of the powerful disruption of Eldrazi decks with the staples of the Hatebears archetype.

Despite spring being just around the corner, Wilson Wong tried his best alongside Ricardo to extend the Eldrazi Winter as long as possible (sorry). He brought the more traditional Bant Eldrazi deck to seventh place. Wilson jammed some sweet technology into his deck, however – a maindeck [card]Eternal Witness[/card] ensures a constant stream of colourless horrors, while [card]Disdainful Stroke[/card] out of the sideboard, all-star of Standard past, stops his opponents from doing the same.

Caleb Keung won the last Toronto Open with a variant of Shota Yasooka’s Eternal Command deck, and not only top 8’d back to back Opens, but did it with a somehow even sweeter deck! A man truly after my own heart, Caleb crushed through the Swiss rounds playing Blue Moon with 3 (THREE!) maindeck [card]Torrential Gearhulk[/card]. He might have won with a turbo-[card]Cryptic Command[/card] deck, but he called this deck Mono [card]Remand[/card] Control, which he took very seriously by also maindecking a pair of [card]Unsubstantiate[/card]. I can only imagine the look on his opponent’s face the first time he bounced a Gearhulk in response to a [card]Terminate[/card]. While it might be a one-of, I can’t possibly leave this paragraph without bringing up the single [card]Glimmer of Genius[/card] in Caleb’s deck. My love affair with [card]Read the Bones[/card] is well-documented, and this is downright dreamy. Glimmer Gearhulk in Modern. You’re my hero, Caleb.

Up until very recently, Modern was a format dominated, in theory, by a series of powerful linear decks. Kiln Fiend, Infect, Death’s Shadow, and Dredge were all repressive to some degree. They were consistent, and while more or less easy to disrupt, they were fundamentally faster than the rest of the combo decks in the format. With the “recent” bannings, all these decks either disappeared or slowed down considerably, which made room for the oddest of combo decks to surge to a top spot. [card]Ad Nauseam[/card] has been crushing it in Modern lately, and Kevin Fang represented it well this weekend with his fifth place finish. For those still unfamiliar with the deck, it uses [card]Angel’s Grace[/card] or [card]Phyrexian Unlife[/card] in combination with [card]Ad Nauseam[/card] to draw your entire deck, then [card]Simian Spirit Guide[/card]s either [card]Laboratory Maniac[/card] or [card]Lightning Storm[/card] for the kill. Be wary of this deck in coming weeks!

Another big winner from the fall of the fast linear decks was [card]Scapeshift[/card]. Drake Honess brought the [card]Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle[/card] combo deck to a semifinals finish, playing a fairly stock build. For a while, [card]Scapeshift[/card] decks were focused on [card]Through the Breach[/card]/[card]Primeval Titan[/card] in an effort to beat out the [card]Become Immense[/card] decks, disrupting them with maindeck [card]Chalice of the Void[/card]. Now, however, they get to focus on consistent, powerful cards like [card]Khalni Heart Expedition[/card] and [card]Courser of Kruphix[/card], giving them solid matchups against Jund and Abzan once again.

Gary Maguire, our other semifinalist, brought another sweet deck that we don’t see nearly enough of in Modern. Esper [card]Monastery Mentor[/card] made big waves around the release of Fate Reforged, thanks to the power of its signature card alongside cheap interactive spells and [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card], but never really stuck around. The unbanning of [card]Ancestral Vision[/card] last year, however, gave the deck some lasting power, and Gary’s clever addition of Frontier and ex-Standard all-star [card]Smuggler’s Copter[/card] brings a lot of reach to the deck. This deck is ultimately very similar to Abzan, with hand disruption alongside the format’s best removal suite in [card]Fatal Push[/card] and [card]Path to Exile[/card] allowing powerful threats to stick.

Connor Voskamp brought Naya Burn all the way to the finals, and was one [card]Skullcrack[/card] awry from registering every red player’s dream – a deck that is simply 4 copies of 15 different cards. Many burn decks as of late have been playing fastlands as part of their manabase, be it [card]Copperline Gorge[/card] for [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] action or just [card]Inspiring Vantage[/card], but Connor chose to go deep on the red mage flavour and disregard his life total entirely, playing a full set of [card]Sacred Foundry[/card] and three [card]Stomping Ground[/card] to ensure fully untapped mana at every stage of the game. Another clever decision in Connor’s decklist is the presence of [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] in the sideboard, presumably for matchups without the high density of removal that makes additional creatures a liability.

Matthew Loong was our hero of the day, however, playing the en-vogue [card]Death’s Shadow[/card] deck to his second Facetofacegames.com Toronto Open title! Matthew brought a stock version of the deck, featuring singleton copies of terrifying [card]Temur Battle Rage[/card] and [card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card], and a split of five different powerful 3-mana spells. The white splash is in the sideboard here, for the lasting power of [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and [card]Ranger of Eos[/card], at its best when it can fetch a pair of 8/8s.

Check out the top 8 decklists, and don’t miss the Showdown updates alongside some words on Modern Masters 2017 limited right after!

Facetofacegames.com Toronto 3k Modern Open Top 8

Matthew Loong – Dune-Brood Death’s Shadow – 1st

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Death’s Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Fatal Push
4 Mishra’s Bauble
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Temur Battle Rage
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Dismember
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Tarfire
1 Abrupt Decay
[/Spells]

[Lands]
1 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Godless Shrine
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Marsh Flats
1 Blood Crypt
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
[/Lands]

[Sideboard]
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Kozilek’s Return
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ranger of Eos
2 Lingering Souls
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Anger of the Gods
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Connor Voskamp – Naya Burn – 2nd

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Charm
4 Atarka’s Command
1 Skullcrack
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Stomping Ground
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Path to Exile
1 Skullcrack
2 Kor Firewalker
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Destructive Revelry
2 Deflecting Palm
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Gary Maguire – Esper Mentor – 3rd

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lingering Souls
3 Smuggler’s Copter
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Thoughtscour
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
4 Path to Exile
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Shambling Vent
1 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Marsh Flats
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Damnation
3 Collective Brutality
2 Negate
2 Meddling Mage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Detention Sphere
1 Celestial Purge
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Drake Honess – RG Scapeshift – 4th

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
4 Primeval Titan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Anger of the Gods
4 Scapeshift
3 Farseek
3 Explore
3 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Search for Tomorrow
2 Summoner’s Pact
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Cinder Glade
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Misty Rainforest
7 Mountain
3 Forest
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Nature’s Claim
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Primal Command
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Kevin Fang – Ad Nauseam – 5th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Laboratory Maniac
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Ad Nauseum
4 Angel’s Grace
4 Spoils of the Vault
1 Lightning Storm
4 Pentad Prism
3 Pact of Negation
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Darkness
2 Thoughtseize
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Painful Truths
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Caleb Keung – Blue Moon – 6th

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Torrential Gearhulk
4 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Glimmer of Genius
2 Unsubstantiate
4 Remand
3 Electrolyze
4 Cryptic Command
3 Blood Moon
3 Spell Snare
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Mountain
2 Steam Vents
8 Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spreading Seas
2 Relic of Progentius
2 Shattering Spree
3 Negate
2 Dispel
2 Kozilek’s Return
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Batterskull
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Wilson Wong – Bant Eldrazi – 7th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Drowner of Hope
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Eternal Witness
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
4 Noble hierarch
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Talisman of Progress
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Blessed Alliance
4 Path to Exile
4 Ancient Stirrings
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Gavony Township
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Windswept Heath
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Brushland
4 Eldrazi Temple
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
[/Lands]
[sideboard]
2 Rest in Peace
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Stubborn Denial
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Natural State
2 Stony Silence
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Ricardo de Amorim – Eldrazi Hatebears – 8th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Flickerwisp
4 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Wasteland Strangler
1 Blade Splicer
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Caves of Koilos
3 Shambling Vent
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Concealed Courtyard
2 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Dismember
1 Wasteland Strangler
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Reality Smasher
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

It being Modern Masters 2017 release weekend, we also ran a Sealed Showdown with double prizes! Many spent the whole weekend drafting this sweet new set, and the reviews are in: it’s awesome. So awesome. It’s like Modern Cube on Magic Online, except instead of being bad, it’s awesome! First off, Wizards of the Coast realized that formats with tons of mana fixing and powerful gold cards – like Khans of Tarkir – are extremely good. Secondly, when you make sure that even the bad cards in the set are actually quite good from a Limited perspective, you open up a ton of sweet, powerful archetypes. Instead of going into detail about every single deck, I’m gonna highlight some of the more interesting things to turn up. First off, I’m pretty sure that Tyler Nightingale, despite being knocked out in the semifinals, had the strongest deck out of this top 8 by far. White-Green in this set revisits Return to Ravnica’s Populate mechanic, and he had a very powerful Populate-centric deck featuring a host of playable black cards, including the unbeatable [card]Obzedat, Ghost Council[/card].

Blue-White has one of the more fun cube-style mechanics in recent memory, taking advantage of [card]Momentary Blink[/card] style effects to rebuy enter the battlefield triggers over and over again. Dylan Harkness not only drafted a good blue-white deck, but managed to pick up a [card]Thragtusk[/card] to add to that! Imagine the value! It’s too bad he didn’t see a [card]Restoration Angel[/card].

In the end, however, Jeff Wan took it all down with a hyper-aggressive Red-Green deck, featuring a staggering 3 off-colour [card]Avacyn’s Pilgrim[/card]s to ensure the speed of his strategy. Between [card]Gruul War Chant[/card], [card]Tattermunge Witch[/card], [card]Gaea’s Anthem[/card] and [card]Dynacharge[/card], all his small creatures suddenly don’t seem so small anymore.

Jeff’s win qualifies him directly for the Ultimate Showdown, while our hero, Chris Ha, returned from vacation, immediately put in a top 4 finish to jump to second in the standings this week, overtaking Jeff Swaluk. Join us this Sunday for a Modern Showdown – and please play Caleb’s beautiful [card]Torrential Gearhulk[/card]. Please.

Modern Masters 2017 Sealed 2k Double Showdown

Jeff Wan – Red-Green – 1st

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Hanweir Lancer
1 Scorched Rusalka
1 Vithian Stinger
3 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
1 Death-Hood Cobra
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Slaughterhorn
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
2 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Tattermunge Witch
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
1 Dynacharge
1 Madcap Skills
2 Magma Jet
2 Fists of Ironwood
1 Gaea’s Anthem
2 Ground Assault
1 Gruul War Chant
1 Giantbaiting
[/Spells]

[Lands]
8 Forest
8 Mountain
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Dylan Harkness – Bant – 2nd

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Augur of Bolas
1 Mist Raven
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Spire Monitor
2 Tandem Lookout
1 Wall of Frost
1 Wing Splicer
2 Wingcrafter
1 Thragtusk
2 Deputy of Acquittals
1 Talon Trooper
1 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
1 Kor Skyfisher
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Crippling Chill
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Serum Visions
2 Aethertow
1 Momentary Blink
1 Pitfall Trap
[/Spells]
[Lands]
7 Island
5 Plains
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Simic Guildgate
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Tyler Nightingale – Abzan – 3rd

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Attended Knight
1 Blade Splicer
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Grixis Slavedriver
1 Ogre Jailbreaker
1 Penumbra Spider
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Centaur Healer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Lingering Souls
2 Rootborn Defenses
1 Unburial Rites
1 Archanus Web
1 Call of the Herd
1 Druid’s Deliverance
1 Harmonize
1 Aethertow
1 Slime Molding
3 Call of the Conclave
1 Orzhov Signet
[/Spells]
[Lands]
6 Forest
4 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Golgari Guildgate
2 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Shimmering Grotto
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Chris Ha – Grixis – 4th

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Mist Raven
2 Spire Monitor
1 Wing Splicer
1 Extractor Demon
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Pit Keeper
1 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Battle-Rattle Shaman
1 Mudbutton Torchrunner
1 Kathari Bomber
2 Moroii
2 Spike Jester
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Compulsive Research
1 Crippling Chill
1 Bone Splinter
1 Sever the Bloodline
1 Auger Spree
1 Pilfered Plans
1 Soul Ransom
[/Spells]
[Lands]
5 Island
3 Mountain
7 Swamp
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Rakdos Guildgate
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Joel Repta – Dune-Brood – 5th

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Abyssal Specter
1 Grixis Slavedriver
1 Scourge Devil
1 Death-Hood Cobra
1 Slaughterhorn
1 Slime Molding
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Vital Splicer
1 Agent of Masks
1 Broodmate Dragon
2 Kathari Bomber
1 Sprouting Thrinax
1 Sunhome Guildmage
1 Woolly Thoctar
1 Wort, the Raidmother
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Explore
1 Slime Molding
1 Fiery Justice
1 Ground Assault
1 Putrefy
1 Unflinching Courage
1 Gruul Signet
1 Selesnya Signet
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Forest
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
1 Arcane Sanctum
2 Boros Guildgate
2 Golgari Guildgate
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Selesnya Guildgate
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Shawn Dhaliwal – Jund – 6th

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Desecration Demon
2 Dregscape Zombie
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Pit Keeper
2 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Mudbutton Torchrunner
1 Scourge Devil
1 Skirsdag Cultist
1 Carnage Gladiator
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
1 Kathari Bomber
2 Spike Jester
1 Sprouting Thrinax
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Bone Splinters
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Traitorous Instinct
2 Augur Spree
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Forest
6 Mountain
7 Swamp
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Savage Lands
1 Verdant Catacombs
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Delan Hamasoor – Jeskai – 7th

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Flickerwisp
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Kor Skyfisher
2 Lone Missionary
1 Sensor Splicer
2 Mist Raven
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Deputy of Acquittals
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
1 Wall of Denial
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Banishing Stroke
1 Familiar’s Ruse
1 Magma Jet
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Thunderous Wrath
1 Aethermage’s Touch
2 Azorius Signet
1 Boros Signet
1 Izzet Signet
[/Spells]
[Lands]
5 Island
4 Mountain
4 Plains
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Izzet Guildgate
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Jeffrey Lee – Naya – 8th

[deck]
[Creatures]
2 Attended Knight
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Master Splicer
1 Sensor Splicer
1 Youthful Knight
1 Hanweir Lancer
1 Mogg Flunkies
2 Pyrewild Shaman
2 Hungry Spriggan
1 Slaughterhorn
2 Thundersong Trumpeter
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Momentary Blink
1 Path to Exile
1 Dynacharge
1 Magma Jet
1 Thunderous Wrath
1 Giantbaiting
[/Spells]
[Lands]
5 Mountain
6 Plains
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Shimmering Grotto
[/Lands]
[/deck]