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, players battled in good old Legacy for the top prize.

I get pretty excited when I get to talk about Legacy, and this recap is no different. It’s not often we get medium-sized Legacy events like this but when it does happen it’s super interesting to see what Toronto’s local Legacy scene brings to battle in one of the most technically demanding formats Magic has to offer. This past Sunday Jason Arsenault took down the event with likely the most lethal turn-1 combo deck in the format defeating Andrew Gordon (Face to Face Ultimate Showdown winner) in the finals on Sultai Food Chain.

The rest of the Top 8 featured, well, exactly what you’d expect from Legacy. A mixture of combo and spell-heavy fair decks and a lot of copies of Brainstorm and Ponder. One notable feature of this Top 8 has to be the number of linear, combo or aggressively slanted decks. The Top 8 featured zero copies of Delver of Secrets and the closest thing to control was Gordon’s Food Chain deck. Legacy isn’t really a format defined by a particular metagame but it often ebbs and flows. Combo’s good, then Delver props up to battle it and then control decks get popular to take down the Delver decks. Maybe by the time of our Sept. 16th Legacy side-event Showdown Delver will be the hotness once again.

With his win Jason qualifies himself for the next Face to Face Games Ultimate Showdown and the rest of the Top 8 have started their march toward the top of the Showdown leader board. Join us this weekend to try to cement your spot on the leader board at our Modern Showdown to gear-up for our Sept. 16 FacetoFaceGames.com Modern Open+. That event will have 5k in prizes and an invite and travel stipend to the StarcityGames Invitational for both first and second place. For you Legacy lovers, that same event will feature a 1k Legacy Showdown side event. Get to testing !

First Place: Jason Arsenault, Belcher

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Tinder Wall
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Burning Wish
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Land Grant
4 Rite of Flame
4 Chrome Mox
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Desperate Ritual
2 Manamorphose
2 Pyretic Ritual
4 Seething Song
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Taiga
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Bribery
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Goblin War Strike
1 Guttural Response
1 Past in Flames
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Reverent Silence
1 Shattering Spree
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Xantid Swarm
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Second Place: Andrew Gordon, Food Chain

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Eternal Scourge
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
3 Misthollow Griffin
4 Walking Ballista
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Manipulate Fate
3 Ponder
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Food Chain
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Bayou
1 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1x Diabolic Edict
1 Engineered Plague
1 Fatal Push
1 Garruk Relentless Flip
1 Golgari Charm
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
2 Vendilion Clique
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Third Place: Michael Chan, Pox

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Nether Spirit
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Collective Brutality
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Infernal Tutor
2 Innocent Blood
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Smallpox
3 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
3 Dark Ritual
2 Fatal Push
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Phyrexian Totem
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Trinisphere
1 The Abyss
4 Liliana of the Veil
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Mishra’s Factory
3 Polluted Delta
9 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Dark Confidant
1 Dark Ritual
1 Innocent Blood
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
3 Pithing Needle
1 Trinisphere
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Fourth Place: Jeffrey Fernandes, Infect

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Become Immense
2 Berserk
4 Brainstorm
1 Crop Rotation
3 Daze
3 Force of Will
4 Invigorate
2 Spell Pierce
2 Vines of Vastwood
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Ponder
1 Sylvan Library
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Pendelhaven
1 Tropical Island
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Crop Rotation
1 Flusterstorm
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Karakas
1 Piracy Charm
2 Pithing Needle
2 Seal of Primordium
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spellskite
2 Viridian Corrupter
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Fifth Place: Phillip Wong, Lantern Control

[deck]
[Spells]
4 Codex Shredder
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Helm of Obedience
4 Lantern of Insight
1 Mox Opal
2 Pithing Needle
4 Pyxis of Pandemonium
1 Detention Sphere
4 Energy Field
2 Field of Dreams
1 Porphyry Nodes
4 Rest in Peace
1 Runed Halo
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Unexpectedly Absent
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Ancient Den
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Karakas
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Swamp
2 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Back to Basics
3 Collective Brutality
1 Containment Priest
1 Duress
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Necrogen Mists
1 Pithing Needle
1 Seal of Cleansing
4 Thoughtseize
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Sixth Place: Anthony Evangelista, U/W Terminus Control

[deck]
[Creatures]
2 Monastery Mentor
4 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
3 Predict
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Unexpectedly Absent
4 Ponder
3 Portent
4 Terminus
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
6 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Prairie Stream
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Windswept Heath
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Containment Priest
2 Council’s Judgment
1 Dispel
2 Invasive Surgery
4 Meddling Mage
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Vendillion Clique
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Seventh Place: Josh Oji, Death & Taxes

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Flickerwisp
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Mother of Runes
1 Palace Jailer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Serra Avenger
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Vryn Wingmare
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Aether Vial
2 Smuggler’s Copter
4 Swords to Plowshares
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Dust Bowl
3 Karakas
1 Mishra’s Factory
10 Plains
4 Wasteland
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Absolute Grace
2 Armageddon
2 Containment Priest
1 Disenchant
1 Dust Elemental
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Mirran Crusader
2 Path to Exile
1 Pithing Needle
2 Sanctum Prelate
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Eighth Place: Kris Vander Ploeg, Storm

[deck]
[Spells]
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Dark Petition
3 Duress
1 Empty the Warrens
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Bayou
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Defense Grid
2 Flusterstorm
1 Massacre
1 Past in Flames
1 Pyroclasm
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Tendrils of Agony
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]