The much anticipated return of the F2F Tour finally took place this past weekend at the Montecassino Hotel. Players came out in droves to battle across many different formats including Modern, Legacy and Commander. There was also some sweet Two Headed Giant Sealed action going on! And last but not least I won’t forget to mention the awesome players who arrived to party in their Halloween outfits!

The F2F Tour Weekend has been known to feature Modern Opens as their main events. On Saturday, Alessandro Verrecchia won the first Modern Open with a Grixis concoction. When asked about his deck choice, he told me that he has been playing Dimir/Grixis pile for years and that finally those colour combinations might actually be good in the current format. He purposely tweaked his deck to have a favourable Murktide matchup and in his words, an unlosable matchup against Hammer Time. He was rewarded for his preparation because his win-and-in AND finals opponent were both on Hammer Time

His finals opponent actually happened to be Eternal end-boss Matthew Dilks (@MattDilks) who not only managed to finish 2nd, but designed the list that Keith Capstick would pilot to a top 8 in the Sunday Modern Open. Most people are playing the BW version of Hammer these days but Dilks says the extra colour isn’t worth it. According to him, you lose a lot in good/close matchups adding lands that deal damage, such as Silent Clearing. He also put his own spin on the traditional Hammer sideboard.

Another interesting deck that was played was piloted by Zac Ryl (@manacymbal). He’s an up-and-coming content creator to watch out for and he decided to bring Indomitable Creativity, an established fringe deck that he had been working on for weeks. He caught my eye because he started the tournament on a crazy run, going 6-0-1 during the Swiss portion. He attributed his success to perhaps his opponents not knowing exactly how to play correctly against his gameplan.

Dustyn Nogueira (@Cheese_S_Alone) was Sunday’s main event champion and he credits @d00mwake for the deck he chose: YORHINOS! Nogueira was a Amulet Titan player for years but with that archetype for being great in today’s meta, he saw @d00mwake’s creation, thought it looked like a lot of fun and just ran it while also using the creator’s sideboard guide. Nogueira told me that while there are certainly bad matchups, sometimes it doesn’t matter when you win the die roll, Ice their land on their second turn, and start making 4/4s on turn 3 before Teferi, Time Raveler comes down. The deck is also really well set up to beat Hammer, which to much surprise, popular right now.

One cool thing to mention is Boston Schatteman’s weekend. The train loving @TManWithaPlan64 not only top-4ed the Saturday Modern Open, he managed to win the Legacy Showdown on Sunday after dropping from the second Modern Open. He didn’t plan to go 0-2 in the main, so his Legacy deck choice wasn’t exactly the most prepared, but it was a list that aimed to attack the top of the metagame. Schatteman played 3 Ghost Quarters and 2 Yavimaya to be just a bit faster at making a Marit Lage token.

To finish things off, I want to highlight the insane amount of events that people got to play in during F2F’s return Open weekend. James, for example, managed to play both Opens and also find some time to sling some Commander! There’s a LOT of Magic to be played.

He would tell me that he managed to kill each person at his table a different way: “Player to my right died from Zulaport Cuthroat triggers, the player across from me by combat damage and the player to my right I combo killed with Thassa’s Oracle after milling my deck with a Hogaak/Grave-Troll loop with a sac + discard outlet”. Pretty impressive stuff!

And don’t forget there’s a Modern Charity Ampersand Promo event Saturday afternoon at these F2F Tour Weekends. It’s an amazing tournament with tons of value and it’s clear Dom Harvey took full advantage this past weekend.

That wraps up my first event recap of the year. The next two stops for the F2F Tour are in Calgary (November 20-21) and in Montreal (November 27-28). You can find all the information necessary at F2FTOUR.COM. If you are in the area, come check us out!

Saturday Modern Open – Top 8

Sunday Modern Open – Top 8

Kar Yung Tom

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.