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 players battled in Modern to see who could take down the top prize.
Well, the Modern metagame has come full circle again. Ironworks combo was banned and [Card]Arclight Phoenix[/Card] may be everywhere, which has made room for an old menace to rise again — Dredge.
Matthew Hawton was able to stave off the likes of Daniel Fournier, and Showdown stalwart Liam Kane and become victorious with his Dredge deck on Sunday.
Dredge will just never die in Modern. It’s just the classic example of a deck that when the metagame is welcoming, and the hate is low can absolutely win a tournament on any given weekend, and Matthew showed us that on Sunday.
The runner-up on Sunday was Liam Kane, which makes this his fourth consecutive Showdown Top 8. Yes, this kid is good. Liam has been a mainstay at the shop for the last few years and just seems to be progressively more dominant as the years go by. He played Bant Spirits, a deck many have written off as of late, but Liam made look dominant.
Joining Liam and Matthew was Daniel Fournier playing [Card]Steam Vents[/Card] as usual, Dominic Harvey playing yet another home brew (guy is a made scientist in the best way possible), Ryan Sandrin, who played Turbo Druid to his third Modern Showdown Top 8, Lisa Seelye with an awesome Dimir Thopter/Sword deck, one copy of Mono-Red Prison and a loan Mono-Red Phoenix deck.
Sandrin brought some spice to his Druid deck on Sunday. He played [Card]Reflector Mage[/Card] on the splash in order to set his deck up better against [Card]Thing in the Ice[/Card] out of Izzet Phoenix. Certainly something that’s worth doing given the prevalence of Phoenix right now, and something you should probably try if you’re interested in this Druid deck.
As for Fournier’s spicy Phoenix deck. Check out everything he has to say about it, right here in his conveniently-timed article.
With his win on Sunday, Matthew cements his spot in the upcoming Ultimate Showdown, while the rest of our Top 8 have begun their march up the leader board to qualify. If you’re interested in your Ultimate Showdown point total, you can check it out here. If you’d like to inquire about your point total or report a discrepancy, please email Toronto@facetofacegames.com. This upcoming weekend at Face to Face Games Toronto we’ll be hosting a Legacy Showdown. With Grand Prix Niagara Falls just around the corner make sure to come on out and get your testing in!
[Deck Title= First Place, Dredge – Matthew Hawton]
[Creatures]
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
4 Bloodghast
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Narcomoeba
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Creeping Chill
4 Shriekhorn
1 Darkblast
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reunion
2 Conflagrate
4 Life from the Loam
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
2 Blood Crypt
3 Copperline Gorge
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sheltered Thicket
2 Gemstone Mine
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Nature’s Claim
3 Lightning Axe
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Collective Brutality
2 Stain the Mind
2 Leyline of the Void
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
[Deck Title= Second Place, Bant Spirits – Liam Kane]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Supreme Phantom
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Selfless Spirit
2 Rattlechains
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Spell Queller
3 Deputy of Detention
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Flooded Strand
3 Windswept HEath
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
2 Horizon Canopy
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Knight of Autumn
2 Unified Will
2 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Dromoka’s Command
1 Disdainful Stroke
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
[Deck Title= Third Place, Izzet Phoenix – Daniel Fournier]
[Creatures]
4 Thing in the Ice
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Crackling Drake
4 Arclight Phoenix
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Serum Visions
4 Opt
4 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Axe
1 Flame Slash
4 Faithless Looting
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Gut Shot
4 Manamorphose
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Island
1 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Life Goes On
2 Spell Pierce
1 Dispel
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Blood Moon
1 Young Pyromancer
2 Abrade
1 Beacon Bolt
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
[Deck Title= Fourth Place, Turbo Druid – Ryan Sandrin]
[Creatures]
4 Devoted Druid
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
2 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Walking Ballista
1 Eternal Witness
1 Scavenging Ooze
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Incubation // Incongruity
4 Chord of Calling
4 Postmortem Lunge
4 Eldrich Evolution
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
3 Horizon Canopy
4 Windswept Heath
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Razorvenge Thicket
1 Dryad Arbor
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Worship
2 Knight of Autumn
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Reflector Mage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Auriok Champion
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Mark of Asylum
2 Path to Exile
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
[Deck Title= Fifth Place, Mono-Red Phoenix – Vincent Cuenca]
[Creatures]
4 Arclight Phoenix
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Soul-Scar Mage
2 Bedlam Reveler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Light up the Stage
4 Gut Shot
4 Manamorphose
4 Lava Spike
4 Faithless Looting
4 Forked Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Snow-Covered Mountain
16 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Blood Moon
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Shattering Spree
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
2 Dragon’s Claw
3 Tormod’s Crypt
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
[Deck Title= Sixth Place, Dimir Whir – Dominic Harvey]
[Creatures]
2 Spellskite
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Whir of Invention
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Damping Sphere
2 Pithing NEedle
2 Welding Jar
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Mishra’s Bauble
1 Collective Brutality
1 Battle at the Bridge
4 Mox Opal
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Tolaria West
4 Darkslick Shores
2 River of Tears
2 Spire of Industry
4 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
3 Island
1 Inventor’s Fair
1 Academy Ruins
1 Darksteel Citadel
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Sai, Master Thopterist
1 Trading Post
1 Torpor Orb
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Welding Jar
4 Unmoored Ego
2 Battle at the Bridge
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
[Deck Title= Seventh Place, Mono-Red Prison – Brandon Oake]
[Creatures]
3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Legion Warboss
4 Simian Spirit Guide
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Abrade
4 Desperate Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
4 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Hazoret, the Fervent
[/Spells]
[Lands]
13 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Mutavault
3 Gemstone Caverns
4 Ramunap Ruins
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Abrade
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Dragon’s Claw
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Spellskite
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Trinisphere
1 Torpor Orb
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
[Deck Title= Eighth Place, Dimir Thopter Sword – Lisa Seelye]
[Creatures]
4 Hangarback Walker
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Damnation
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Welding Jar
2 Glint-Nest Crane
2 Executioner’s Capsule
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Whir of Invention
2 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Liliana of the Veil
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Inventor’s Fair
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Academy Ruins
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Swamp
2 Island
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Watery Grave
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Polluted Delta
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Darkblast
1 Deathmark
1 Damnation
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Thoughtseize
2 Pack Rat
2 Negate
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]