Welcome to another 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. This week, we took a break from three weeks straight of Facetofacegames.com Tournament Series events in Ontario to run a Legacy Sunday Showdown!

Last time, we saw a metagame dominated by [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] decks. From [card]Aluren[/card] to [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] with every kind of [card]Leovold, Emissary of Trest[/card] in between, Sultai was doubtlessly the deck to play in that metagame. Perhaps as a response to that tuned blue-heavy disruptive metagame, this Showdown brought out a bunch of more rogue decks alongside the expected [card]Food Chain[/card] strategies.

Let’s start from the bottom, with Jason Mccullough putting Miracles’ first Showdown top 8 on the scoreboard. For a while, Miracles decks were heavily influenced by the powerful [card]Monastery Mentor[/card], playing [card]Ponder[/card] for a higher cantrip count, or more down the Joe Lossett Legend path, with [card]Karakas[/card] and [card]Venser, Shaper Savant[/card]. Recently, however, we’ve been seeing a return to the more traditional [card]Entreat the Angels[/card] win condition – the path Jason chose to take. He threw a curveball at the typical red splash however, choosing to play the powerful [card]Notion Thief[/card] over [card]Pyroblast[/card]. Move over, Leovold! Something else to note is his sideboard’s heavy reliance on [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] for graveyard hate. As [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] and Delve spells fade from popularity, [card]Rest in Peace[/card] becomes weaker, and so spending less and less mana for your graveyard hate becomes preferable. With four [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]s in the maindeck, and with the primary graveyard hate targets being the blisteringly-fast BR Reanimator as well as specifically [card]Life from the Loam[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] should be at the forefront of any hate you might want to play in this format.

Next up we’ve got Hearthstone star Andrew Gordon and Jason Drossis taking [card]Food Chain[/card], the [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] deck of the week, to quarterfinals finishes. Both decks are practically identical – a powerful disruptive midrange deck with lots of gas thanks to [card]Manipulate Fate[/card] and [card]Misthollow Griffin[/card] as well as a combo finish. The sideboard features additional disruptive elements. This deck is nothing to laugh at, as it has more powerful cards than the similar [card]Aluren[/card] deck, and is better at ending the game than its [card]Shardless Agent[/card] cousins.

Miracles has been oddly absent in our results, but so has its basic [card]Plains[/card] brethren, Death and Taxes. James Mckay piloted it to a quarterfinals berth this week. Death and Taxes, fittingly, hasn’t changed much over the years, with the exception of a significant shake-up coming from Conspiracy: Take the Throne. [card]Recruiter of the Guard[/card] lets the deck play a powerful uncounterable toolbox off of [card]Aether Vial[/card], and [card]Sanctum Prelate[/card] is a surprisingly powerful card.

Moving on to our semifinalists, we find a pair of sweet, rare decks. Travis Macdonald brought a 12-post mono-brown Stax (?) deck to this deep finish, powering out [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], [card]Trinisphere[/card], and huge [card]Walking Ballista[/card]s, playing [card]Triskelion[/card] as Richard Garfield intended. Any deck playing [card]Spine of Ish Sah[/card] unironically has my vote. On the other side of the converted mana cost spectrum, we have Eric Hunter with quadlaser Burn. As someone who types up or edits far too many decklists every week, I have great respect for someone who runs eleven different cards in their maindeck. On another level, 4-ofs are extremely good because they demonstrate that the deckbuilder just knew what cards were better than other ones. No messing around. Just good stuff. Burn ’em.

Quinn Gregg came off a Frontier Showdown win a few weeks ago to a finals appearance here with the cross-format Eldrazi menace! The second mono-brown deck in this top 8, Legacy Eldrazi gets all the power of the banned Modern deck, but gets to consistently play turn 1 [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] followed by [card]Thought-Knot Seer[/card]. We haven’t seen quite as much of this deck due to the rise in [card]Baleful Strix[/card] recently, but Quinn showed that it’s still a force to be reckoned with.

You might have noticed a bit of a trend in the decks in this top 8 – with the exception of the basic [card]Plains[/card] decks, this top 8 relies heavily on 3-colour manabases or colourless manabases that are weak to [card]Wasteland[/card]. It might not surprise you, then, that Zane Pimiskern won the event with a turbo-[card]Wasteland[/card] deck! 4-colour [card]Life from the Loam[/card] consistently runs a bit under the radar in Legacy, as it falls solidly in between a disruptive Maverick-style deck and the popular but easily-hated Lands. Any deck that gets to play [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] and [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] is no laughing matter. This deck is real, and [card]Wasteland[/card] is an exceptional card in Toronto’s Legacy metagame.

Congratulations to Zane, whose win qualifies him for the Ultimate Showdown! Quinn and Jason Drossis’s finishes put them both solidly into the top 10 of the standings. Join us on Sunday for a Frontier Showdown with bonus points towards the Ultimate Showdown! See you there!

Zane Pimiskern – 4c Loam – 1st

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Punishing Fire
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Vindicate
2 Green Sun’s Zenith
2 Life from the Loam
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Sylvan Library
[/Spells]

[Lands]
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Wasteland
1 Savannah
1 Badlands
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Taiga
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Barren Moor
1 Forest
1 Cabal Pit
[/Lands]

[Sideboard]
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Toxic Deluge
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Vindicate
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Golgari Charn
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Quinn Gregg – Eldrazi – 2nd

[deck]
[Creatures]
2 Endbringer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Endless One
4 Eldrazi Mimic
2 Simian Spirit Guide
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Warping Wail
2 All Is Dust
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Dismember
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Wasteland
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Mishra’s Factory
2 City of Traitors
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Faerie Macabre
3 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Warping Wail
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Emrakul, The Promised End
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Eric Hunter – Burn – 3rd

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Flame Rift
4 Price of Progress
4 Rift Bolt
4 Fireblast
[/Spells]
[Lands]
20 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
4 Searing Blood
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Pyroclasm
4 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Sulfuric Vortex
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Travis Macdonald – Stax – 4th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Walking Ballista
4 Metalworker
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Platinum Emperion
2 Scrap Trawler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Karn Liberated
2 Staff of Domination
4 Grim Monolith
1 Lightning Greaves
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Trinisphere
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Crystal Vein
2 City of Traitors
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Vesuva
4 Glimmerpost
4 Cloudpost
2 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Inventor’s Fair
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Bottled Cloister
1 Trinisphere
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
2 Torpor Orb
1 Orb of Warding
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Tormod’s Crypt
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Jason Drossis – Food Chain – 5th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Eternal Scourge
3 Misthollow Griffin
4 Walking Ballista
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Manipulate Fate
4 Food Chain
4 Force of Will
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Diabolic Edict
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Flusterstorm
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Thoughtseize
1 Hydroblast
1 Golgari Charm
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

James Mckay – Death and Taxes – 6th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Mother of Runes
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraban
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Serra Avenger
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Recruiter of the Guard
4 Flickerwisp
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Sanctum Prelate
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Karakas
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
2 Cavern of Souls
9 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Aegis of the Gods
1 Moat
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Rest in Peace
2 Council’s Judgement
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Cataclysm
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Helm of Obedience
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Andrew Gordon – Food Chain – 7th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Walking Ballista
3 Misthollow Griffin
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Eternal Scourge
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Brainstorm
4 Food Chain
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
3 Ponder
3 Manipulate Fate
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Swampalongside
1 Forest
[/Lands]
[sideboard]
1 Pithing Needle
1 Hydroblast
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Diabolic Edict
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
1 Engineered Plague
1 Golgari Charm
[/sideboard]
[/deck]

Jason Mccullough – Miracles – 8th

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Council’s Judgement
2 Entreat the Angels
3 Counterspell
4 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will
4 Terminus
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Swords to Plowshares
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Plains
2 Marsh Flats
1 Karakas
4 Island
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Path to Exile
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Moat
1 Humility
2 Notion Thief
2 Flusterstorm
1 Counterspell
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]