Welcome back to the RCQ Recap series! Another four-list post this week, though thankfully this time it’s not due to technical errors but simply because this event was a cut to Top 4.
September 20th saw 15 players competing at our Montreal store for one of four invites to the Round 2 Regional Championship in Vancouver. Alexandre Leikam took home a second consecutive (constructed) RCQ victory. Since we’ve already had an interview from Alexandre quite recently, let’s chat with our runner-up instead: David Scharing!
Player Profile: David Scharing

Least Favorite Color Pair: Izzet
Favorite Card: Cruelclaw’s Heist
First Set: Theros Beyond Death
Q: Why did you play this deck today?
A: It’s something that hasn’t changed much in the last year. It’s a classic strategy that hasn’t really been touched or affected by the recent bans and it hasn’t received many new pieces from this year’s astronomical amount of set release.
Q: What’s your favorite thing about it?
The consistent gameplan and gameplay loop. Your goal is to deploy a small threat with evasion on the first few turns, then swap it out with Kaito and get ahead with a constant card velocity. Sometimes, you can’t start with a Kaito, but you’ll be able to deploy a lot of small threats with evasion that reduce your opponent’s life total through a “death by a thousand cuts” route. The rest of the deck is efficient removal, to be able to deal with any threats along the way.
Q: What was the most difficult match you played today?
A: Against Izzet Spellementals; a very low to the ground deck that can produce some large creatures for very cheap. The deck plays a lot of cantrips to get as many cards into the graveyard quickly, to then deploy a 1-2 mana 5/5.
Q: Which game today was your favorite to play?
A: Against Mardu Discard in Round 2. Before the last rotation when Bloomburrow released (2 years ago now) we lost Dominaria United, which had a key piece to this deck; a free way to discard a card and allow the deck to function. This deck has since been revived and given a fresh coat of paint, without being impossible to interrupt, since more tools have been added to Standard as well.
Q: What event are you most looking forward to playing next?
A: I’m looking forward to the next set release, Reality Fracture, since it’s the next in-universe Magic set. Beyond that, I look forward to playing in Draft events and other Sealed RCQs
The above answers have been edited for length and clarity
Top 4 Decklists
Izzet Elementals – Alexandre Leikam (1st)
Dimir Midrange – David Scharing (2nd)
Planeswalkers (4)
Mono-Green Landfall – Sébastien Lachance (3nd)
Jeskai Synthesizer – Mathieu Fontaine (4th)

Alex Sowa is a writer, coder and Level 2 Magic Judge. While she runs events of all formats, she mostly plays Commander. You can find her by calling JUDGE… or at one of the links below.