From your local game store to the Players Tour for the first time ever at Face to Face Toronto.

After four straight weekends of Standard action, Tyler Nightingale became received our first ever WPN invitation to the Players Tour with his win at our Standard WPNQ on Sunday. One of Toronto’s biggest characters is on his way to Phoenix!

The story of Sunday was one deck — Jeskai Fires. Both Nightingale and his prestigious finals opponent Daniel “GulDukat” Goetschel played the Cavalier version of this deck and there was even a third copy in the the Top 4. Since the recent banning of [Card]Once Upon a Time[/Card], [Card]Oko, Thief of Crowns[/Card] and [Card]Veil of Summer[/Card] Standard has been constantly in flux. Many players turned to the combination of [Card]Cauldron Familiar[/Card] and [Card]Witch’s Oven[/Card] out of the gates, or the ever-consistent Golgari Adventures — but Jeskai Fires has really risen to prominence over the past week or so. And Tyler definitely took advantage of that.

Notably, Fires also took down the Ottawa WPNQ this past weekend, so for my money this is the deck to beat in Standard right now. Turns out, cheating on mana is broken as always!

Joining Tyler and Daniel in the Top 8 was Cem Mutlu also on Fires, Marlowe Lain who played the Izzet Control deck that’s popped up in Standard over the last week, Andrew Abela on the Golgari [Card]Witch’s Oven[/Card] deck, Zane Mitchell also on Izzet Control, Jamie Archdekin also putting cats into play but this time in the Jund colours and Andrew Naylor playing Rakdos aggro.

The results of this weekend’s events were actually quite surprising to me at first glance. The adventure decks and the cat decks are so powerful and consistent it felt like the entire competitive community was gravitating towards them being the decks to beat going forward after the bans. The thing about [Card]Fires of Invention[/Card] decks is that they’re inherently pretty under-powered when they don’t find their namesake card. So to me that seemed like a hallmark of a decent, but ultimately inconsistent deck.

That said, the addition of [Card]Sphinx of Foresight[/Card] to the list, which Tyler was boasting about ad nauseum, has really bolstered this deck and made it an incredibly powerful deck that deserves the respect it earned this past weekend. If you’re playing Standard any time soon, be ready to beat Fires.

Now, before I leave you for the week, I have to give you an update on the Open Series if you haven’t heard yet. As we announced last week, in 2020 we’re bringing you the F2F Tour — your path from LGS to Players Tour. This change will be bringing you everything you loved about the Open Series, plus the addition of our F2F Tour Weekends, which will give you a shot to qualify for the Player’s Tour in your hometown. For all the details — check out our announcement.

Congratulations from everyone at Face to Face Games Toronto to Tyler Nightingale on his victory and subsequent qualification for the Players Tour in Phoenix. We’d also like to to thank every single one of you who came out to any of our WPN Standard events over the past months. We think it’s amazing you can now qualify for Magic’s premier competitive event at your own LGS and we couldn’t be happier with the support this first WPNQ series received.

This upcoming weekend at Face to Face Games Toronto we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming and will be hosting a Legacy Sunday Showdown. Make sure to pre-register and we’ll see you at the shop!

[Deck Title= First Place, Jeskai Fires – Tyler Nightingale]
[Creatures]
2 Bonecrusher Giant
2 Kenrith, the Returned King
4 Sphinx of Foresight
3 Cavalier of Gales
4 Cavalier of Flames
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Fires of Invention
4 Deafening Clarion
2 Justice Strike
2 Shimmer of Possibilities
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Aether Gust
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Steam Vents
2 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Triumph
3 Temple of Epiphany
3 Fabled Passage
3 Castle Vantress
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Disenchant
1 Aether Gust
4 Mystical Dispute
3 Devout Decree
4 Legion Warboss
1 Time Wipe
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Second Place, Jeskai Fires – Daniel Goetschel]
[Creatures]
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Sphinx of Foresight
4 Cavalier of Flame
3 Cavalier of Gales
2 Kenrith, the Returned King
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Shimmer of Possibility
4 Deafening Clarion
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Fires of Invention
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Castle Vantress
2 Fabled Passage
3 Temple of Epiphany
3 Temple of Triumph
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Legion Warboss
3 Devout Decree
3 Lava Coil
4 Mystical Dispute
2 Disenchant
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Third Place, Izzet Control – Marlowe Lain]
[Creatures]
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
4 Brazen Borrower
4 Bonecrusher Giant
3 Gadwick, the Wizened
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Ionize
4 Opt
2 Negate
3 Mystical Dispute
3 Quench
2 Ral’s Outburst
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Fabled Passage
2 Shock
4 Temple of Epiphany
4 Steam Vents
2 Castle Vantress
4 Mountain
8 Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Essence Scatter
1 Nagate
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Aether Gust
3 Flame Sweep
2 The Royal Scions
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fourth Place, Jeskai Fires – Cem Mutlu]
[Creatures]
4 Sphinx of Foresight
4 Cavalier of Gales
4 Cavalier of Flames
1 Kenrith, the Returned King
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Fires of Invention
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Drawn into Dreams
4 Deafening Clarion
3 Shimmer of Possibilities
1 Time Wipe
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Steam Vents
1 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
2 Sacred Foundry
3 Castle Vantress
3 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Mountain
4 Fabled Passage
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
2 Ashiok, Dream Render
4 Mystical Dispute
1 Solar Blaze
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Aether Gust
2 Devout Decree
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fifth Place, Izzet Control – Zane Mitchell]
[Creatures]
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Brazen Borrower
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
4 Gadwick, the Wizened
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Ionize
2 Negate
4 Opt
2 Quench
2 Ral’s Outburst
3 Shock
1 The Royal Scions
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Castle Vantress
2 Fabled Passage
10 Island
4 Steam Vents
4 Temple of Epiphany
4 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Aether Gust
1 Disdainful Stroke
3 Flame Sweep
3 Lava Coil
2 Mystical Dispute
1 Negate
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Sixth Place, Golgari Cat Food – Andrew Abela]
[Creatures]
4 Cauldron Familiar
4 Gilded Goose
3 Massacre Girl
2 Midnight Reaper
3 Murderous Rider
4 Paradise Druid
3 Thrashing Brontodon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Trail of Crumbs
4 Witch’s Oven
4 Casualties of War
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Castle Locthwain
9 Forest
4 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Cavalier of Thorns
2 Deathless Knight
3 Duress
2 Legion’s End
4 Lovestruck Beast
1 Murderous Rider
2 Return to Nature
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Seventh Place, Jund Cat Food – Jamie Archdekin]
[Creatures]
4 Cauldron Familiar
4 Gilded Goose
4 Paradise Druid
4 Trail of Crumbs
4 Mayhem Devil
3 Wicked Wolf
4 Korvold, Fae Cursed King
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Casualties of War
2 Vraska, Golgari Queen
4 Witch’s Oven
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Blood Crypt
4 Fabled Passage
4 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Duress
2 Massacre Girl
1 Murderous Rider
4 Lovestruck Beast
2 Deathless Knight
1 Garruk, Cursed Huntsman
2 Cindervines
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Eighth Place, Rakdos Aggro – Andrew Naylor]
[Creatures]
2 Guttebones
4 Fervent Champion
4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
4 Dreadhorde Butcher
4 Blacklance Paragon
3 Bonecrusher Giant
1 Murderous Rider
4 Spawn of Mayhem
4 Rotting Regisaur
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Embercleave
2 Drill Bit
[/Spells]
[Lands]
11 Swamp
8 Mountain
4 Blood Crypt
1 Castle Locthwain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Bonecrusher Giant
1 Cavalier of Night
2 Drill Bit
3 Duress
1 Epic Downfall
2 Experimental Frenzy
1 Lava Coil
1 Legion’s End
3 Murderous Rider
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]