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Showdown Recap: Jan 22nd – Legacy

Welcome to our fourth weekly Showdown Recap, where we take a look at what happened at Face to Face Games Toronto’s weekly Sunday Showdown, a series of 1k events feeding into the Ultimate Showdown 5k Invitational. Fresh off of Grand Prix Louisville, this week featured the Legacy format, and 50 players brought out their dual lands and [card]Force of Will[/card]s to do battle.

As the first major Legacy event in a while, GP Louisville featured a bunch of new and refined strategies, many of them aided by the new Conspiracy: Take the Crown all-star [card]Leovold, Emissary of Trest[/card]. There was plenty of RB Reanimator, the flavour of the month on Magic Online, and I was personally turn 1’d by the deck twice through my [card]Force of Will[/card]. That deck was found to be extremely fast and consistent, a serious threat to the format that would encourage players to jam additional graveyard hate into their sideboards. Due to the speed of the deck, however, many traditional cards like [card]Nihil Spellbomb[/card] and [card]Rest in Peace[/card] were likely to not be fast enough! This, alongside the prevalence of [card]Life from the Loam[/card] and [card]Punishing Fire[/card] in Lands decks, meant that [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] was likely to see a resurgence as the hate card of choice in Legacy sideboards.

In the end, however, despite the scare of RB Reanimator and [card]Aluren[/card] with [card]Leovold, Emissary of Trest[/card], Reid Duke took down the event with a Sultai midrange deck heavily focused on playing Leovold on turn 2, with full sets of both [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] and [card]Noble Hierarch[/card] powering it out. This makes blue and cantrip-heavy decks quite risky to bring to the table, so what did this mean for the Showdown?

We saw the rise of… Deadguy Ale?

What?

Local Legacy superstar Wilkin Chau has been playing [card]Dark Confidant[/card]s on turn 1 for years, but this venerable [card]Scrubland[/card] deck had never really been popular, let alone successful, in the hands of anyone but him. However, as a deck with [card]Thoughtseize[/card], [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card], powerful threats, and no Leovold-vulnerable cantrips, the disruptive midrange strategy seemed well-positioned in the post-Louisville field. A full three players made it to the elimination rounds of the Showdown with variants of Deadguy Ale, two of them featuring Wilkin’s “invitational card”, [card]Shriekmaw[/card].

Of course, Legacy is Legacy, and there were some solid brews in the top 8. Another Toronto Legacy legend, Lam Phan brought UB Landstill (or as we call it, Lamstill), eschewing the traditional [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] for the new [card]Fatal Push[/card], allowing him to deal with a wider variety of threatening creatures. Josh Oji is always one to stray off the beaten path, and this week he brought a deck featuring not only [card]Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast[/card], but even a maindeck [card]Padeem, Consul of Innovation[/card]!

In the end, however, the young Boston Schatteman was able to take first place in the event with an old stalwart, [card]Delver of Secrets[/card]. The Grixis version of the deck combines powerful threats with extremely efficient answers, and no matter what Leovolds might exist, Delver always seems to stick around.

With his win, Boston becomes the fifth player to qualify for the Ultimate Showdown! Congratulations to our top 8, and as always, thanks to everyone for coming! Join us this Sunday for a Standard Showdown, fresh off a new banlist and powerful cards from Aether Revolt. Will black-green strategies dominate the event like they did at SCG Columbus, or will the Jeskai Saheeli decks take the throne that was promised to them? Preregister now!

Boston Schatteman – Grixis Delver – 1st

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
1 True-Name Nemesis
3 Young Pyromancer
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Dismember
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
[/Spells]

[Lands]
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Scalding Tarn
[/Lands]

[Sideboard]
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Baleful Strix
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flusterstorm
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Painful Truths
1 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Winter Orb
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Jason Drossis – Sultai Midrange – 2nd

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Baleful Strix
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
2 True-Name Nemesis
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
1 Spell Snare
2 Fatal Push
2 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
1 Painful Truths
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Pithing Needle
1 Dread of Night
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Thoughtseize
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Flusterstorm
2 Hymn to Tourach
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Wilkin Chau – Deadguy Ale – 3rd

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Shriekmaw
1 Hero of Bladehold
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Thoughtseize
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Hymn to Tourach
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Vindicate
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
3 Lingering Souls
2 Chrome Mox
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Scrubland
1 Bayou
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Karakas
4 Wasteland
4 Marsh Flats
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Rest in Peace
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Pithing Needle
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Sanctum Prelate
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Humility
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Josh Cronk – RG Lands – 4th

[deck]
[Spells]
4 Exploration
4 Life from the Loam
4 Gamble
4 Crop Rotation
4 Mox Diamond
4 Punishing Fire
1 Manabond
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Dark Depths
4 Rishadan Port
4 Thespian Stage
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Glacial Chasm
3 Maze of Ith
1 Forest
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Karakas
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Dark Depths
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Sphere of Resistance
3 Krosan Grip
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Boil
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Lam Phan – UB “Lamstill” – 5th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 True-Name Nemesis
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Fatal Push
2 Diabolic Edict
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
3 Standstill
3 Spell Pierce
3 Spell Snare
2 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Dust Bowl
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Snow-covered Island
1 Snow-covered Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Flusterstorm
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Dread of Night
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Engineered Plague
1 Damnation
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Alexander Tkach – Deadguy Ale – 6th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Deathrite Shaman
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Chrome Mox
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Cabal Therapy
3 Thoughtseize
3 Hymn to Tourach
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Vindicate
1 Council’s Judgment
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Lingering Souls
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Wasteland
1 Bayou
1 Savannah
3 Scrubland
1 Karakas
2 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Leyline of the Void
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Containment Priest
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Choke
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Toxic Deluge
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Josh Oji – Grixis Tezzeret – 7th

[deck]
[Creatures]
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Baleful Strix
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
3 Daretti, Ingenius Iconoclast
1 Dack Fayden
2 Izzet Charm
2 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Batterskull
1 Trading Post
1 Thopter Spy Network
1 Transmute Artifact
2 Dimir Signet
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Wasteland
1 Academy Ruins
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Inventor’s Fair
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Brian Bogdon – Deadguy Ale – 8th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Shriekmaw
1 Hero of Bladehold
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thoughtseize
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Chrome Mox
2 Vindicate
3 Lingering Souls
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Cabal Therapy
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Scrubland
1 Bayou
4 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Karakas
4 Wasteland
2 Swamp
1 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Humility
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rest in Peace
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Toxic Deluge
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

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