The F2F Tour returned to Langley this past weekend, with 53 players battling it out in Modern for their chance at the championship title.

In a format currently dominated by Temur Breach, there were an extensive amount of diverse decks in the field, with a Top 8 sporting six unique archetypes! After a grueling, yet enthralling event, we crowned an eventual champion – check out their decklist and thoughts on the tournament:

Champion: Xiao Yu (Roy) Yang – Dimir Murktide

Dimir Murktide – Xiao Yu (Roy) Yang (1st)

11 21 34 9

Creatures (14)

4

Orcish Bowmasters

4

Psychic Frog

3

Subtlety

3

Murktide Regent

Spells (28)

1

Cling to Dust

4

Consider

4

Fatal Push

2

Preordain

3

Spell Snare

2

Thoughtseize

4

Counterspell

2

Pest Control

1

Dismember

3

Force of Negation

2

Sink into Stupor

Lands (18)

2

Darkslick Shores

2

Flooded Strand

1

Hallowed Fountain

2

Island

2

Marsh Flats

4

Polluted Delta

1

Swamp

2

Undercity Sewers

2

Watery Grave

Cards (60)

Sideboard (15)

4

Consign to Memory

2

Nihil Spellbomb

2

Stern Scolding

2

Thoughtseize

1

Pest Control

2

Harbinger of the Seas

2

Toxic Deluge

Interview with Xiao Yu (Roy) Yang:

You’re the F2F Tour champ! What was the moment in the tournament when you first thought, “I’ve got this”?  

I never really would say I would be confident enough to be in that state. However, I did enter the tournament feeling confident about Dimir Frog’s state in the meta right now, and I’m also relatively confident in my abilities to pilot this deck since I’ve been playing it since its inception. After that, it’s just luck of the draw, luck of the matchup, and focusing on not making mistakes.

How did you settle on your deck for this event? Was it a last-minute call or something you’d been tuning for a while?  

I’ve been high on the card Psychic Frog since it was spoiled, and I started playing Dimir Frog pretty much as soon as it became a deck. I’ve always liked the non-Abhorrent Oculus version more, and with it shifting back into the meta, I was very happy de-sleeving my Oculuses. With the rise of Ketramose, the New Dawn, Orcish Bowmasters has become a much better card, which is good because I’ve never been a fan of running copies of Unearth and Thought Scour.

What was the one card or play that you think carried you across the finish line?  

Dimir Frogs is both a proactive and reactive deck, so I wouldn’t say one card or play has more weight than others. The general strategy of being a bit more aggressive with my free spells in Subtlety and Force of Negation has proven to be beneficial. 

Even a winner has off moments—looking back, is there anything in your run or deck you’d tweak for next time?  

Well, in hindsight, I didn’t play against nearly enough Boros Energy or Temur Breach to justify the White splash for Pest Control. However, now knowing the meta, I would make the same decision again, because anecdotal evidence isn’t how I justify my card choices. My set of matches were merely a lucky outlier.

Other Top 8 Decks:

• 2nd: CJ Smith – Dimir Murktide
• 3rd: Drew Christensen – Domain Zoo
• 4th: Mazin Marwan – Dimir Mill
• 5th: Alex Williams – Eldrazi Ramp
• 6th: Liam Malcolm – Domain Zoo
• 7th: Brian Thai – Boros Energy
• 8th: Patrick Lau – Temur Breach

The F2F Tour makes it’s thunderous return April 26-27 at Niagara Falls. Good luck to all of our competitors and we hope to see you there!