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GP Toronto, GP Nagoya, SCG Las Vegas Results

This past weekend was pretty awesome for playing or (especially) watching Magic, since all three of the most popular Constructed formats were on display. Some particularly exciting decklists came out of these events too, so let’s get right into it!

First up we had GP Toronto Mana Deprived! Huge shout out to everyone that came to MD’s hometown to battle some Modern, and an extra shout out to everyone at the after party.

As for the tournament results themselves, we had a diverse top 8, with two Scapeshift, UW Control, three Jund, Melira Pod, and Affinity. That’s pretty varied already, but Wizards was kind enough to give us the full top 16 deck lists, where we see BW Tokens, GW Hate Boars, Jund, two Affinity, Kiki Pod, Mono Red, and Infect.

Starting with the format boogieman, three of the four Jund lists were fairly stock. Willy Edel, the GP Toronto Champion, decided to mix things up a bit, however. While most Jund lists have dropped Kitchen Finks and Geralf’s Messenger in favor of Lingering Souls, Edel added in two copies of Finks (trimming Souls), as well as a Grim Lavamancer. Lavamancer can put in a ton of work in the mirror, killing every non-Tarmogoyf creature, while also breaking Tarmogoyf stalls.

More excitingly, however, is the reappearance of Lotus Cobra, a creature that has until now been absent from Modern. Anyone that played during Zendikar remembers the ridiculous starts Lotus Cobra can give you, and Edel put them to good use here, where he could power out a turn 3 Thundermaw Hellkite! Hellkite appeared as a 1-2 of in the other Jund lists’ sideboards, but Edel chose to maindeck them instead. As with Standard, Hellkite is there to kill Lingering Souls, and then your opponent. While previous Jund lists were relatively grindy affairs, Lotus Cobra allows the deck to get much more aggressive, either by dumping it’s hand on the table or unloading a super-powerful threat two turns earlier than expected. Thundermaw on 3 isn’t bad, but Deathrite Shaman into turn 2 Cobra + Finks/Souls isn’t shabby either. The Cobras replaced Dark Confidants, another kill-on-sight creature, but one that provides much more incremental value, so it will be interesting to see which direction Jund goes in moving forward.

Moving away from Jund we have Colin Morton’s homebrew UW Control deck. Morton took a page from old Standard and packed his deck with Wall of Omens and Spreading Seas, which he followed up with Jace (4.0), Elspeth, and Gideon Jura – the Super Friends are back together! While Morton admitted a weakness to combo decks, surely anyone longing to play control in Modern is excited by this finish.

It’s interesting to see Affinity finish so highly, as Lingering Souls seems like it should give both that deck (and Infect) fits, but decks seem to be skimping on their artifact hate, and highest placing Affinity pilot Alex Majlton even had two maindeck Whipflares to clear the way for his robots.

Finally, Melissa DeTora, who had finished day one undefeated, unfortunately missed the top 8 berth by the slimmest of margins, coming in at 9th place playing BW Tokens. The tokens strategy seeks to swarm the opponent with army-in-a-can cards and crusade effects, backing them up with moderate disruption in the form of Thoughtseize, Tidehollow Sculler, and some removal.

GP Toronto Decklists

Moving along, the big news in Standard came from GP Nagoya, which was won by Yuuji Okita with his Angel of Glory’s Rise Reanimator deck. Despite being worried about his RB aggro matchup, Okita managed to go 9-0 on day 1, before defeating two Rakdos opponents in the top 8. Okita’s deck packs the Nightshade Peddler/Izzet Staticaster combo that allows him to mow down opposing creatures regardless of size, giving him the edge in creature-on-creature matchups, but he feared the amount of removal that backed up the hasty creatures out of the red-black decks. In addition to Mulch, Tracker’s Instincts, and Faithless Looting, Okita used Izzet Charm and Chronic Flooding to fill his graveyard as quickly as possible. He then reanimates the Angel with Unburial Rites, bringing back all of his humans (and conveniently exiling all zombies) and possibly killing his opponent on the spot thanks to Goldnight Commander pumping his Izzet Staticasters (which have haste). Otherwise, he can just wait a turn before smashing in with Huntmaster of the Fells, Geist-Honored Monk, and Angel of Glory’s Rise herself. This deck is much more explosive than the more grindy Junk Reanimator lists, but if you need a graveyard fix and casting Thragtusk isn’t really your thing, you might want to give this a look. Just keep in mind that the RB aggro matchup might be a little sketchy still, especially now that the deck is bound to be less of a surprise.

As for the rest of the top 8, there were five Rakdos decks of varying aggressiveness, a Junk Reanimator deck, and GW aggro. Interestingly not a single Blue deck appeared, possibly due to the appearance of Cavern of Souls in every deck (often as a four-of). For anyone tired of Glacial Fortress ruining their fun, it looks like a reprieve might finally be in order after three seasons of dominant UW decks.

GP Nagoya Decklists

Moving on to SCG Las Vegas, we saw a fairly similar top 8 to Nagoya. While there were no Reanimator decks to be found, RB Zombies and RG-based midrange decks once again dominated the field. Some of the midrange decks splashed a fourth color, and the Staticaster/Peddler combo appeared as well, but ultimately a Naya deck quite similar to last week’s champion emerged victorious, in the hands of Brian Page. There was also a solitary UWR Midrange deck, giving a small ray of hope to fans of President Traft. Moving out to 32nd place we see a similar mix, with a few more blue decks and the occasional GW aggro deck amidst a sea of RGx.

SCG Las Vegas Standard Open

The Legacy portion of the Open was dominated by combo, which took 4 of the top 5 slots, with Stoneblade, Bant Midrange, and BUG Control in 6-8th place. Weston Brown smashed through AJ Sacher and Joe Lossett’s control decks with Hive Mind, before finally being dispatched by Richard Centanni, playing Sneak and Show. Without taking anything away from the other competitors, though, the story of this top 8 was without a doubt the quarterfinals match between Joe Lossett and Lauren Nolen. In game 3, Lossett  put on what Patrick Sullivan termed a “master class” in playing UW Miracles. Whether you are a fan of the Counterbalance deck or not, if you enjoy high-level Magic you should check this one out.

SCG Las Vegas Legacy Open

Congratulations to GP Champions Willy Edel and Yuuji Okita, Open Champions Brian Page and Richard Centanni, and the rest of the top 8 competitors!

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