There are few in the Modern format that feel as close to cheating as tapping that one single black mana and putting a 12/12 [Card]Death’s Shadow[/Card] on the stack. It feels like you’re playing Legacy and your opponents are playing Standard. Your deck is in a league of its own.

Jason Qian got to experience that feeling repeatedly this past weekend when the FacetoFaceGames.com Open Series traveled to Toronto for a Modern Open+ and he hoisted the trophy on the back of his Sultai Shadow deck — qualifying him for the upcoming Players Tour.

Jason defeated Eric Peacock and his CrabVine deck in the finals. This graveyard deck, built around [Card]Vengevine[/Card] and [Card]Hedron Crab[/Card], has been flying under the radar a little bit ever since the banning of [Card]Faithless Looting[/Card]. That said, it still has some absolutely busted draws and Eric made that clear on Saturday.

As for [Card]Death’s Shadow[/Card], we all know how good this deck can be in the right metagame. Shadow does a pretty good job of disrupting all of the [Card]Urza, Lord High Artificer[/Card] decks that are really popular in Modern right now and that’s made it one of the format’s best decks in recent weeks. Qian’s build in particular is massively disruptive, using both discard and counterspells to keep control of the game, while also featuring [Card]Tarmogoyf[/Card] as a massive secondary threat. These golgari-based Shadow decks have started to usurp Grixis as the build-of-choice due to their higher threat density and the ability to play [Card]Nurturing Peatland[/Card]. I love Qian’s deck and am not surprised he was able to take down the trophy looking at how well it’s set up against the field.

Joining our two finalists in the Top 8 was Tse Shuen Wan who played a sweet Temur Snow brew, Andrew Barbosa on Grixis Shadow, Sacha Akow Burning people out, David Goldfarb on Tron, Jamie Archdekin on Simic Urza and Nicholas Flemming who actually beat me to make Top 8 and crush my dreams with his Ponza deck.

Walking around the venue on Saturday it was clear to me that Urza was the deck to beat and Shadow was doing a pretty good job of beating it. There was a ton of Shadow at the top tables and almost all of the recognizable faces in the room were on one of those two decks.

While Jason was taking down the Open in the main event we had players on-site battling in side events and hanging out at the Face to Face Games booth all day long. We fired a whopping 14 Commander pods and ten side drafts and even hosted a FREE Pioneer side event in order to help celebrate the launch of the new format.

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 to our champion Jason Qian from everyone at Face to Face Games! We’d also like to thank our awesome sponsors — Ultimate Guard and Oakie Doakie Dice — and our equally awesome judge staff who ran a smooth event all day long!

With our tournament series growing every week we’ve added a feedback point of contact to our workflow in order to create the best events possible for you all in the future. If there are any changes you’d like to see from our events email us at: feedback@facetofacegames.com.

The next stop on the series is coming up this weekend on Saturday Nov. 23 when we’ll be traveling to beautiful Calgary, Alberta for a Modern Open+ and sending our champion to the upcoming Players Tour! Make sure to pre-register and we’ll see you on the battlefield.

[Deck Title= First Place, Sultai Death’s Shadow – Jason Qian]
[Creatures]
4 Street Wraith
4 Death’s Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Fatal Push
2 Drown in the Loch
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Stubborn Denial
4 Mishra’s Bauble
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Delay
2 Plague Engineer
1 Yixlid Jailer
3 Veil of Summer
3 Collective Brutality
1 Collector Ouphe
1 Mystical Dispute
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Hostage Taker
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Second Place, CrabVine – Eric Peacock]
[Creatures]
4 Hedron Crab
4 Vengevine
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Gravecrawler
4 Narcomoeba
4 Merfolk Secretkeeper
4 Stitcher’s Supplier
3 Carrion Feeder
3 Haunted Dead
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Creeping Chill
3 Glimpse the Unthinkable
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Watery Grave
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Thoughtseize
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Fatal Push
2 Collective Brutality
3 Nature’s Claim
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin’s Trophy
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Third Place, Temur Snow – Tse Shuen Wan]
[Creatures]
4 Ice-Fang Coatl
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Vendilion Clique
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
4 Serum Visions
4 Arcum’s Astrolabe
4 Remand
1 Spell Snare
1 Force of Negation
1 The Royal Scions
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Prismatic Vista
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
3 Snow-Covered Island
3 Snow-covered Forest
2 Snow-covered Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Mystical Dispute
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
2 Veil of Summer
1 Weather the Storm
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Blood Moon
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fourth Place, Grixis Death’s Shadow – Andrew Barbosa]
[Creatures]
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
4 Death’s Shadow
4 Gurmag Angler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Dismember
4 Fatal Push
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Mishra’s Bauble
2 Serum Visions
4 Stubborn Denial
2 Temur Battle Rage
4 Thought Scour
4 Thoughtseize
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Swamps
2 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Collective Brutality
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Drown in the Loch
2 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Mystical Dispute
2 Plague Engineer
2 The Royal Scions
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Fifth Place, Burn – Sacha Akow]
[Creatures]
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Boros Charm
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
4 Rift Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
4 Skewer the Critics
2 Skullcrack
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Fiery Islet
4 Inspiring Vantage
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Sunbaked Canyon
3 Snow-covered Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Molten Rain
2 Path to Exile
2 Rampaging Ferocidon
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Wear // Tear
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Sixth Place, Mono-Green Tron – David Goldfarb]
[Creatures]
3 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Thragtusk
1 Walking Ballista
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Karn, the Great Creator
4 Karn Liberated
4 Chromatic Sphere
3 Once Upon a Time
4 Oblivion Stone
4 Chromatic Star
4 Expedition Map
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Ancient Stirrings
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Blast Zone
3 Forest
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Veil of Summer
3 Nature’s Claim
2 Dismember
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Mystic Forge
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Walking Ballista
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Seventh Place, Ponza – Nicholas Flemming]
[Creatures]
4 Arbor Elf
3 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Seasoned Pyromancer
3 Glorybringer
2 Questing Beast
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
4 Pillage
4 Stone Rain
1 Nissa, Vital Force
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Karn, the Great Creator
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Stomping Ground
7 Forest
2 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Obstinate Baloth
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Abrade
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progentius
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

[Deck Title= Eighth Place, Simic Urza – Jamie Archdekin]
[Creatures]
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
4 Urza, Lord High Artificer
2 Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Gilded Goose
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 Mishra’s Bauble
4 Mox Opal
1 Mox Amber
4 Arcum’s Astrolabe
4 Oko, Thief of Crowns
3 Paradoxical Outcome
3 Cryptic Command
1 Engineered Explosives
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Breeding Pool
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Mystic Sanctuary
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Snow-covered Forest
5 Snow-covered Island
1 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Fatal Push
4 Damping Sphere
1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Drown in the Loch
1 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Collective Brutality
1 Cryptic Command
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]