After our big event in Vancouver, things were rocking this past Saturday at our Calgary Tour Stop. We fired 148 Commander pods and 175 players signed up to compete in our F2F Modern Open! We are definitely back at peak MTG excitement!
Last week, we had surprising decks in the finals of the Vancouver Modern Open where Mono Blue Tempo took down UW Emeria. Would it be more of an expected result this time around?
When it was all said and done, Shayne Brown’s Burn deck took down Jon White’s Hammer Time list, so definitely less off the wall than last weekend. Congrats to both on their exceptional performances!
Andrew Traynor put up another top 8 performance and that makes 3 F2F Modern Open top 8s out of 3 for the Murktide Regent veteran. He put together quite a guide for those that want to try the deck out.
Because of his consistent performance, I decided to ask him if he thought Murktide Regent was the best deck. He said:
“At the core 4c beats Murktide. Murktide beats the random combo decks. And the random combo decks beat 4c. But then there’s a bunch of other stuff with weird matchup spreads. I think it’s commonly considered that 4c is the best deck so if you’re going to mention best deck I would say 4c is it despite a relatively low play rate most likely due to the deck’s price and absurd amount of new cards that people don’t have from playing older Modern decks. Murktide is also changing at the moment with the new addition of Shredder.”
Is that true? Are some of you priced out of the 4c deck? Is it the best deck? Let us know by tweeting at us over @FacetoFaceGames.
Liam Hoban put up another excellent result. I also seem to be seeing his name come up a lot whenever there’s an F2F Tour Stop happening on the West Coast. To refresh my memory, I had to look up this old tweet.
Yep, Liam has clearly been an ANIMAL and crushing it. He brought Grixis Ledger Shredder to the party this time around. When I asked him about his deck choice:
“The question that many people asked me throughout the event is “Why play Grixis Ledger Shredder over Murktide?”. The reason that I believe GLS currently holds the edge over Murktide is because of the matchup against 4-Color Yorion decks. With the inclusion of Thoughtseize, you are able to craft your gameplan accordingly with full knowledge of your opponent’s hand, as well as make the early turns as awkward as possible for the 4-Color Yorion decks to establish their gameplan. Being able to play a grindier match where you trade resources and eventually run away with Kroxa gives GLS the edge. Not only is your maindeck better suited, you also have access to a better suite of sideboard cards, with access to Kaito Shizuki and the haymaker of the matchup, Tourach, Dread Cantor.
GLS has proved to be successful for myself, as between the Vancouver and Calgary Opens, I have not dropped a single match to 4-Color Yorion decks. I recommend GLS for anyone that predicts to face a meta with a large field of 4-Color Yorion decks, or for anyone that enjoys the more midrange, grind em’ out style that GLS offers.”
If you can avoid 4c, play Murktide, but if you expect a lot of 4c, bring Grixis Ledger Shredder? That’s the takeaway I’m getting out of this.
Moving onto the future, the conclusion of F2F Tour Stop Calgary also marks the end of the F2F Welcome Back Tour. The first F2F Tour Stop of Cycle 1 is happening in Toronto on Saturday, July 9th. You might be asking “What’s new, KYT?” It’s going to be PROMO TIME!
Play in any F2F Open in Cycle 1 and these are the promos you can get your hands on!
These are not the only promos that are up for grabs. Check out the event page for full details and hurry, places are filling up FAST!
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.