Another season of Face to Face Games Toronto’s Showdown series has come to an end. Players battled for months jockeying for position on the leader board and making sure they secured the 100 points necessary to compete in the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.

After eight rounds this past Sunday, Edgar Magalhaes is your our newest Ultimate Showdown champion!

Now, before we get to more about our champion and all of our Top 8 competitors, let’s talk about the Modern metagame. Of course, at this event players are able to choose their own format for the first three rounds, and then compete the remaining five rounds in Modern.

Now, what that allows players to do is metagame against each other. These folks are playing on the Sunday Showdown series week in and week out against each other, so they’ve certainly gotten to know each other’s tendencies and that showed in the meta at the event.

Everyone showed up with one big target in mind, and that was Humans in Modern. We saw a ton of Jeskai Control and Mardu Pyromancer using cheap kill spells to defeat the powerful aggro deck. We also saw a lot of Affinity and some combo decks here and there to get underneath those decks.

Enter Phyrexian Crusader. Noted Showdown crusher and our eventual champion Edgar, showed up with a powerful metagame call in B/G Infect. The two close friends anticipated the swaths of white and red removal  that ended up defining the event, and Edgar was able to capitalize on their last second audible in a big way. By bringing home a cheque for $1000 cash.

It’s this kind unique story line that makes this this tournament just the best Magic event in the city every year for me. You get to play in a huge Magic event filled with all your best friends for massive prizes. It’s the perfect synthesis of hyper-competitive and super fun.

Notably, this event showed off just how important fighting in the Showdown series to secure your byes can be for your success in the big dance. Of our Top 8 on Sunday, six of the eight players had a bye during the event for finishing on the showdown points leader board. So make sure you keep coming out next season, because every point matters!

Last but not least, I’d like to congratulate William Duong. The Ultimate Showdown was just his second ever Magic event after he qualified by winning the Battlebond Showdown just the week prior. Will was able to secure two match wins in such a tough field!

From everyone at Face to Face Games Toronto, we’d like to thank everyone who participated on Sunday and throughout the year at our Showdown events. These tournaments are great, and they’ve helped to build the community of players at the store that we cherish. We can’t wait to see you next season!

Without any further delay, your Ultimate Showdown Top 8:

First Place, Edgar Magalhaes – B/G Infect

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Glistener Elf
4 Plague Stinger
4 Phyrexian Crusader
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Blossoming defense
2 vines of vastwood
4 mutagenic growth
2 rancor
3 become immense
2 fatal push
1 abrupt decay
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 polluted delta
1 wooded foothills
2 windswept heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 overgrown tomb
2 swamp
1 forest
2 blooming marsh
4 inkmoth nexus
1 Pendlehaven
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 collective brutality
1 duress
2 viridian corrupter
1 maelstrom pulse
2 liliana, the last hope
3 nihil spellbomb
1 illness in the ranks
2 nature’s claim
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Edgar could very well be the hottest Magic player in the world right now. Over the past few months he just can’t seem to lose. Between his win at Grand Prix Columbus, Top 4 at the most recent Regional Pro Tour Qualifier and Top 4 at SCG Cincinnati he’s on an unparalleled heater.

Now, I may be biased here because he is a close friend of mine, but nobody deserves his recent success more. On the Showdown Series Edgar has shown an ability to win with just about any deck in any format. He’s been able to grind going late with 4C Leovold in Legacy, combo’d people out with Sneak and Show and of course navigated Amulet Titan better than anyone else in the world.

What sets him apart — in my opinion — is his willingness to try new things (well that, and his lucky “meme specialist” sweater). You can see that first hand with his B/G Infect deck that won him this very event. Edgar is willing to trust himself and his testing and knows that working hard will continue to pay off.

And, as of late, he’s been proven right in a big way.

Second Place, Jeremy Rubinoff- Dredge

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 Bloodghast
3 Golgari Thug
4 Narcomeba
4 Prized amalgam
4 stinkweed imp
1 Scourge Devil
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 conflagrate
2 darkblast
4 Faithless Looting
2 Lightning Axe
4 Cathartic Reunion
2 Collective Brutality
3 Life from the Loam
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
2 Blood Crypt
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Dakmor Salvage
1 Mountain
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Sheltered Thicket
1 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 engineered Explosives
1 Lightning Axe
2 Nature’s Claim
1 Thoughtseize
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Back to Nature
2 Collective Brutality
1 Golgari brownscale
1 Maelstrom pulse
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Jeremy has frankly burst onto the scene in this year in eternal formats on the Showdown Series. He’s won two Showdowns with the Dredge deck he played on Sunday, and has shown a high level of proficiency in Legacy as of late with B/G Depths.

Jeremy has quite clearly worked very hard to level-up his game over the past year, and has done it with consistent sportsmanship and is also usually our tallest Showdown competitor.

With his Finals appearance on Sunday, Jeremy went home with a cheque for $1000.

Third Place, Jeff Swaluk – Ironworks Combo

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 scrap trawler
2 myr retriever
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 ancient stirrings
3 chromatic sphere
4 chromatic star
3 engineered explosives
4 ichor wellspring
4 krark-clan Ironworks
4 Mind Stone
4 Mox Opal
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Terrarion
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Forest
2 Aether Hub
3 Buried Ruin
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 inventors Fair
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Defense Grid
3 Galvanic Blast
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Guttural Response
4 Nature’s Claim
2 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Since the onset of the Showdown Series at Face to Face Games Toronto Jeff Swaluk has been one of the most consistent top performers in the store every week. He’s a self-proclaimed Standard specialist, but has also had a bunch of success in both Modern and Limited as well (despite how much he hates Modern).

Swaluk showed up with KCI combo in Modern on Sunday, a deck way outside his comfort zone and showed that he truly can do it all. Jeff piloted KCI like a champ all day on the way to his Top 4 finish.

A couple years back, Swaluk made his Pro Tour debut in Hawaii for Pro Tour Kaladesh.

Swaluk is a staple of Face to Face Toronto and I’m sure this won’t be his last Top 8.

Fourth Place, Andrew Gordon – Mardu Pyromancer

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Bedlam Reveler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fatal Push
1 Dreadbore
1 Terminate
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
3 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Manamorphose
2 Blood Moon
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Swamp
3 Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Marsh Flats
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Goblin Rablemaster
3 Leyline of the void
2 Collective brutality
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Wear//Tear
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

For someone who claims to hate practicing Magic, Andrew sure does win a lot.

Andrew played Elves during the Legacy portion of this event and Mardu Pyromancer in Constructed to a Top 4 finish.

With this finish, Andrew has officially made Top 8 of every single Ultimate Showdown Top 8 in history and is the only player to do so. Andrew is a mainstay of the Showdown Series, and like many of our Top 8 competitors on Sunday, has shown the ability to have strong finishes in just about every format out there.

Fifth Place, Michael Chan- Burn

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the great Revels
1 Grim Lavamancer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Charm
4 Searing Blaze
2 Searing Blood
2 Skullcrack
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Inspiring Vantage
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
3 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Destructive Revelry
3 Path to Exile
2 Skullcrack
2 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Rest in peace
1 Deflecting Palm
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Michael Chan might be the single player I’ve lost to the most recently at Face to Face events. This guy knows his decks and plays a lot of Magic.

He’s particularly known for his sweet Mono-Black Pox deck in Legacy which he’s had a lot of success beating up on fair strategies with at Showdowns this year.

Michael seems to attend every Showdown somehow and probably gets the title for best attitude in Magic as far as I’m concerned. He’s all smiles at every event I’ve seen him at, and is always a joy to play against.

Sixth Place, Peter DeVries- Mono-White Taxes

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Blade Splicer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Flickerwisp
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Restoration Angel
2 Serra Avenger
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
4 Thalia, Guardian of thraben
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to exile
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Tectonic Edge
11 Plains
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Rest in Peace
3 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of progenitus
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Shining Shoal
1 Day of Judgement
1 Declaration in Stone
1 Wrath of god
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Our local king of Aether Vial strategies. Peter has been ramping-up his Magic game a lot as of late and it’s really been showing. I’ve been competing against him a lot since I started grinding in Toronto and over the last few months he’s really taken his game to a new level.

Clearly, that showed here as he was able to do one of the hardest things to do in Magic — have success with your pet deck.

Mono-White isn’t exactly the boogeyman of Modern, but Peter knows his deck and piloted it well.

Seventh Place, Keith Capstick- Mardu Pyromancer

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Bedlam Reveler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Thoughtseize
3 Blood Moon
2 Fatal Push
2 Collective Brutality
4 Lingering Souls
2 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Dreadbore
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Anguished unmaking
2 Manamorphose
4 Faithless looting
4 Inquisition of Kozlilek
4 Lightning Bolt
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 BLoodstained Mire
3 Marsh Flats
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Blood Crypt
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Leyline of the void
2 Collective brutality
2 Molten Rain
2 Ensnaring bridge
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Wear//tear
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Engineered Explosives
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Hey look it’s me! The idiot writing this (and many more) article on ManaDeprived.com. I don’t have much to say about myself other than that I had a blast on Sunday and that you should definitely take my Mardu deck list for a spin.

I’ll have an updated list and article for you in the coming weeks!

Eighth Place, Massimo Gordillo- Affinity

[Deck]
[Creatures]
4 Ornithopter
2 Memnite
4 Vault Skirge
4 Signal Pest
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Steel Overseer
4 Master of Etherium
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
2 Karn, scion of Urza
2 Galvanic Blast
1 Welding Jar
4 Cranial Plating
1 Smuggler’s Copter
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
3 Spire of industry
1 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Damping Sphere
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Rest in Peace
2 Whipflare
1 Shaper’s Sanctuary
3 Etched Champion
1 Blood Moon
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

Massimo just shredded the Showdown Series this season. He was our top points leader by a huge margin and truly showed absolute dominance at various points in the year. Massimo is a lot like Michael Chan in that he’s always got a smile for you every time you sit down to play a match against him.

Massimo is also widely known for his wild deckbuilding decisions, as you can see by taking a look at that sweet one-of Smuggler’s Copter in his Affinity deck.

Face to Face Games will be hosting Nats from June 29 – July 1 over the long weekend. Come down early and make a weekend of it! We’ll also be hosting a slew of side events including a 5k Modern FacetoFaceGames.com Open+, a Legacy Eternal Weekend Trial and a Legacy Showdown on the Sunday. Get all the information here.