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This gathering world lost one of its greatest players with the recent passing of Kai Buda.
Before we start the pro tour, we want to take a few moments to remember Kai and his impact
on this game that we all love so much.
Known as the German juggernaut, Kai Bude lived up to the nickname through his spectacular
record as a competitive magic player, a career that stretches all the way back to the earliest
days of the pro tour.
Kai took the first steps in his epic competitive magic career at a pro tour qualifier in Hamburg,
Germany, where his victory earned him a spot at pro tour New York in 1997.
Only a teenager at the time and with the professional magic scene still very new, he elected to
play in the juniors division. With the top 16 finished there, Kai's journey towards becoming
the greatest champion in magic history had begun. Kai would make his official pro tour main event
debut at Mainz in 1997. Over the next few years, Kai set the benchmark for greatness in magic with
more major victories than any other player, including a world championship in 1999,
four individual pro tour titles at Chicago 2000, Barcelona 2001, New Orleans 2001, and Chicago
2003 across four different formats, two pro tour team titles, New York 2001 and Boston 2002 with
good friends, Dirk Babarowski and Marco Bloom as Phoenix Foundation, displaying absolute mastery
over the Team Rochester draft format and a Team World Championship in 2002 with Mark Zegner and
Felix Schneiders. His tournament success didn't stop at the Pro Tour. He earned a magic Invitational
victory in 2001 that brought the World Void Mage Prodigy. He won a Team Masters title in 2002,
also with Phoenix Foundation, and he recorded seven Grand Prix victories, including three
across four months in his breakout 1999 season, leading into his world championship win.
With this incredible string of performances, Kai was honored as Player of the Year, a record
four times across a five-season stretch, and as soon as he was eligible, Kai was elected
into the Magic Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 2024, Kai's legacy was further memorialized by the renaming of the Player of the Year
trophy to the Kai Buddha Player of the Year trophy.
As a testament to his greatness and longevity in the game, his 13 top finishes stretch over
four decades, from 1999 to 2024.
Kai was known for his sportsmanship and as a humble and generous member of the community,
always willing to share his knowledge and strategic expertise with aspiring players.
Kai's accomplishments come through focused dedication and a tremendous amount of hard
work.
Whether he had a 40-car deck or a 60-car deck in his hands, he seemed to possess an intuitive
understanding of the tournament environment and what to expect from his competitors.
His innovative deck designs, in an era preceding the explosion of online content and play,
serve as an enduring testament to his command across all formats.
Even as Kai's competitive magic career slowed down, he never left the community.
He was an active testing teammate for recent pro tours, working with the next generation
of players who are eager to soak up wisdom from one of the game's first superstars.
Magic has lost one of its titans too soon.
We cherish the many moments in which he amazed us with his mastery of the game and inspired
us with his passionate spirit.
We honor his legacy as one of the most extraordinary magic players to ever play the game.
He will be deeply missed.
In life, everyone gets 15 minutes of fame.
That's what people are saying.
Obviously, for me, that's magic.
That's the only thing I'm well-known for.
There's several PT wins.
There's seven GP wins.
There's four players a year titles.
One of the PT wins is a World Championship title.
So these numbers might not be beaten.
Right now, it looks like there's just people
are just so good at this game.
There's so many great players.
So that someone goes on the street like that,
seems somewhat unlike me.
I did get diagnosed with very lightly lethal cancer a year ago, and that kind of makes you
think about what you did in your life and what your accomplishments are, and in my case,
that's clearly magic, and I'm a tournament player, I'm very competitive, and these titles,
these results, that's my legacy, and I'm incredibly proud of that.
Let's give it up for our Pro Tour Final Fantasy Champion, Ken Yukahiro!
And that's going to do it!
Michael D. Venedino-Quammer wins the Pro Tour here in Atlanta.
After 10 years, Seth Manfield is once again the World Champion!
Welcome friends around the world, the coverage of Pro Tour, Lorwyn Eclips live here from
Richmond, Virginia, where it is a very cold outside, but it's half inside the building
here as we have 304 players sitting down in the Greater Richmond Convention Center to
do battle in standard and draft here this morning for the coveted title of Pro Tour
champion and their share of a half a million dollar prize pool. Hey everybody, welcome
to the news. I'm your host for the weekend, Ray Brotholdi, joined by my bestie at the
VESCII, Monty Davoudi. Hey Monty, what are you most looking forward to this weekend?
Maria, I'm looking forward to returning to Lorwin. Lorwin was actually the first set
I started playing Magic in. So for me, the return to the plane holds a really special
place in my heart and I'm looking forward to seeing a play out across Limited and constructed.
Oh, I'm so excited for limited money. I've been playing drafts nonstop and I cannot wait to see what the players do this morning. Speaking of, let's take a look at our tournament schedule because of course draft is going to kick us off today, Monty.
Yeah, we will kick things off with Lauren Eclipse draft for rounds one through three, and then we'll swap over to standard for the rest of the afternoon. That's rounds four through eight. At the end of that, all players with 12 match points. That's a four for record or better. We'll be coming back for day two.
And day number two is gonna look a lot like day number one
We're picking things up once again with Lore when it clips draft for rounds 9 through 11
Then we shift gears over the standard for rounds 12 through 16 tomorrow
If you reach 36 match points before on round number 16, you will automatically advance to Sunday Sunday Sunday in our top 8
Top 8 Sunday where standard will be the name of the game all
Sunday long will be playing best three out of five games and
and sideboarding will begin after Game 2 as we work towards crowning a champion.
And what are those players playing for in our top 8?
Let's take a look at our prize payout.
Like I mentioned, a half a million dollar prize goes $50,000.
Going to our first place finisher, $30,000 for second place, third through fourth.
Go home with $15,000 for fifth through eighth.
Not bad for a weekend of work.
Well, we're kicking off a brand new magic season here this weekend,
which is always very exciting and we've got our eyes on some of the biggest
testing teams in the room. Right now we're going to take a look at the top
four testing teams. Take a peek at how they did at World Championship 31 and
indeed who is playing for them here this weekend starting with team TCG player
Moni. Yeah, team TCG player was truly the story of the World Championship. They
all came playing the same deck. The Is It Lessons build fantastic win rate ended
up with two players in the top eight including Sam Harding and eventual
world champions set Manfield taking a look at their larger roster for this weekend led by Reed Duke
just a fantastic amount of talent for all of famers and I'm looking forward to see how they do this
weekend. All right there's a look at TCG player what about team handshake moxfield let's take a
look at how they did at the world championship not bad at all put somebody into the top eight in the
form of Arnaut Husschenbett let's take a look at the roster here for this weekend for handshake
Mockfield, Mockfield captain by Simon Nielsen. Check this out. Nathan Stoyer, welcome back to the
Pro Tour, has had incredible 2022-2023 season winning the World Championship and a Pro Tour.
There's a look at the entire roster this weekend for Handshake, Mockfield.
If you look at Team Moriyama, Japan, not the best World Championship from them, though they did
land quite a few players in day two and most importantly, can Yukehiro finalize his run for
player of the year with yet another top 8 to tap out his fantastic season co-captain
by Shuhei Nakamura and Masahita Moriyama. This is the roster for this weekend.
Team Moriyama Japan definitely a team to keep our eyes on this weekend and rounding out our top
big four teams here we have Team Cosmos Heavy Play. Here's a look at the performance at World
Championship 31. Jean-Emanuel de Pro into the top 8 at that tournament knows how to win a World
championship. Let's take a look at their roster here this weekend. JED may be
moving on to a different team that we'll hear about in a second but lots of
heavy hitters here for this team. Javier Dominguez representing for Cosmos.
Heavy play captain by Anthony Lee. There is a look at our top four big teams here
in the room this weekend but of course we have some new teams and other smaller
teams that we want to keep an eye on who you looking out for Monty. Well Maria we
do have a lot of teams of the pro tour whether they're Sanctum of all World
Worldly Council Heavy Play, Rampant Growth Heavy Play, or Flexlaw Diamond, those are
just a few of the many, many teams here at the Pro Tour.
But one new team that I want to shine a small spotlight on is Team Baguette, Siro, Derobly.
Now that name means Maple Syrup Baguette for those who ain't watching at home.
And this is a team formed by Jean-Emmanuel de Pras.
I spoke to him and he said that he really wanted to form and work with a team of all
French speakers.
So this team is a union between players from France and the French speaking part of Canada
and a very late addition of Patrick Chapin to round out their roster.
So baguette, surre au dorable, new teams of the pro-tour led by Jean-Emmanuel de Croix
looking forward to see what they will do this weekend.
And delicious as well.
Fantastic people serve they get well we're kicking things off of course with
Lorwin eclipse to draft here this morning the draft format a little bit
different than maybe then we're used to with five archetypes instead of our
usual 10 money yeah Maria it's something unique about
Lorwin eclipse limited five main draft archetypes to look at based around
these kindred creature types matter strategies one big thing that we've
seen players highlighting in this format is it is critical for you to find the
lane, stick to it, and get a critical mass of creatures of your chosen
creature type. So as we take a look through these draft archetypes, one
persisting theme will be focusing on these types and how to get critical masses
going. So the Eclipse Cycle of course rewarding you for being in these color
strategies with their prohibitive mana costs, lords like Morkin's Loyalist and
the Uncommon Fart really rewarding you for having a lot of the creatures of the
same type, and then the powerful rares like the champion cycle or the command cycle to
further round out. Now one thing I want to focus on is the core identity and mechanic
for each of these archetypes. For elves, it's the graveyard matters. So a card like Dawnhand
Eulogist rewarding you for having elves in the graveyard really helps cement that. Now
moving forward, elves is the most powerful of our archetypes, but we have a lot of depth
in the death, like Kithkin, the most aggressive archetype of the 5 in this format, and a card
like Mismet of Council really does a lot for rounding out the top of your curve, allowing
you to stay competitive into the mid game. Next up, Murfolk, you can vote is the name
of the game for the Murfolk archetype, a lot of the Murfolk's in this format benefit from
being tapped, so a card like Mero Sky Swimmer giving you a great body while allowing you
to take advantage of those becomes tapped abilities does so much in the format.
Elementals, this is a deck that is all about triggers but also has the ability to splash
out quite a bit to move into the vivid strategies.
Cholrath Zellet being both a creature that gives you a trigger that you can double or
take advantage of, while also being a basic land cycling, very key for this type of deck.
And finally, maybe the weakest of our 5 primary archetypes is going to be Goblins in the
Racto strategy. Very powerful rares for the Goblins, but maybe lower card qualities to
go down to the Uncommons in Commons. They're trying to take advantage of the Blight, sacrificing
some of their stats, or weaker creatures and tokens in order to get powerful abilities,
Now, those are our 5 main archetypes, but changelings are really the glue that hold everything
together.
Being of all creature types means that they are the perfect 18th through 23rd card for
any deck in the format allowing you to bring it all together and reach that critical mass
of your creature type.
And finally, just a little PSA, do not touch.
This doesn't mean you can't put them in decks, but fairies or giants are not a supported archetype.
So while they do make great supplemental additions to all their decks, these are not archetypes
that you want to primarily focus on and end up in.
Alright, Monty, I'm just going to force Elves.
How about that?
I think that would work great on Magic the Gathering Arena, Maria, but at the Protor,
you have to find an open lane.
Was that shade there, Monty?
I would never.
You would never know.
Well, how different were you ten years ago?
I know I basically am a completely different person today.
to ask themselves that question is none other than our current reigning world champion Seth
Manfield who won the world championship in 2015 and then again 10 years later in 2025. So how has
he changed in those 10 years? Cedric Phillips caught up caught up with him yesterday.
Seth Manfield, two-time world champion right next to me, pretty good at this whole magic thing. Seth,
You went 10 years in between winning the World Championships, 2015 and 2025. How different?
I mean, I've been playing, it just means I've been playing Magic for 10 more years, right?
I've been playing at these events. I've, 2015, that was really when I was first hitting the scene
in a major way. A lot of players did not know who Seth Manfield was. Now I think that because
as I've been on the Pro Tour circuit for all of these 10 years
since then, I haven't missed a Pro Tour in those 10 years.
So I've been here, I've been playing,
I've been doing my best, and so that's a long time.
In 2015, I was really just kind of hoping to show the world
how good I was.
In my head, I was like, I'm really good at magic,
but not everyone else knows this.
I want to show you.
I'd say you did that.
Yeah, I'd say you did that in 2015.
Yeah, I mean, I think I did.
I also wanted to prove it to myself.
World championships in 2015.
It was only 16 players, I believe.
So it was four different formats.
It was a little bit of a different feel
in terms of a tournament preparation.
But yeah, it was probably the most impactful magic
moments of my life. You could see it in my emotion after winning how much it just like
it meant to me. But I gotta imagine, I gotta imagine 2025. It's a little bit different because
you're 10 years older, you're a dad now, you're a husband now, I mean it's just gotta be
winning straight, but different experience, yeah. I mean at the time magic was just my whole life,
like I was just like only thinking about magic. I feel like now I'm thinking a little bit more
about, hey, you know, you're a dad, you're looking after people, you're doing this and that. So yeah,
there's more going on. And I think that's important to kind of figure out what role magic has in my
life. And I think that I've been able to do that while still being successful, which I prove it.
Now, you said you wanted to prove to people just how good you were in 2015. You were very emotional
after that win. I remember it very, very well. 2025, when you won last year, you know, you were
pretty locked in there, buddy, big trophy, bright lights. I mean, an area where I've always felt
you really excel. You feel pretty comfortable in that zone.
You know, there's something about a big stage where somehow I'm able to lock in
at a certain point and play my best magic. Sometimes I think it's easy to lose focus
throughout a really long, grindy event. I think in the finals I showed that the most
can kind of, hey, this isn't my first time at bed in the finals, even with the bright lights,
Even with that massive trophy on stage where I was like, what is that?
I was like, I didn't even know, you know, there's a lot that goes into the production of the event.
The money, obviously, the pride, the prestige, having my teammates root for me,
all of these things, it's hard to really compartmentalize all of that
and play your best magic in an event with so much on the line.
So you win in 15, you win in 20, 25.
So we're going to go and pencil you in for 2035,
unless maybe you want to get it done this year,
maybe a little back to back.
You know, it's hard to predict when you're going
to hit a home run, basically.
Or it's more or less a grand slam,
like winning an event like Worlds.
I mean, to have an opportunity to do that twice in a lifetime,
I think most people would say that's incredible.
So I can't, I can't say that I'll be back, but I can say that my opponents will be worried
that I will be back.
That is hard to argue with.
He's our two top world champion.
He's Seth Manfield.
We look forward to watching you play all year long, my friend.
Good luck this week.
All right.
Thank you.
Striking fear into the hearts of his opponent, Seth Manfield, everyone.
Let's check out our draft pods this morning as our players get ready to sit down and build
their 40 card decks.
We have some absolute killer pods this morning filled with absolutely incredible players.
Let's take a look at pod number one money.
Yeah, feature table one here.
Of course, set manfield headlining things, but a lot of deep talent here.
Ian Robb, Andy Garcia-Romo, Daniel Getchell, Hoff Sam, and Jacob Nagrow.
Just some of the games, some of the names at this incredible draft pod.
Well, draft pod number two, not to be outdone here.
You're also incredible players.
Hall of Famer Pro Tour champion Paul Riesel at this table,
sitting directly across from his good friend
and testing partner Matt Spirling.
The two of them won a Grand Prix together back in 2012.
And I got a shout out to my Minneapolis friend,
Matt Sticking Johnson, who is a terrific drafter as well.
And feature draft ball number three features the return
out of retirement for Andre Straski.
We also see David Inglis and Sergio Garcia,
Eric Patel and a player that a lot of players in the room might be eyeing as an early potential
candidate for Player of the Year this year, Derek Davis.
Ooh, check it out, here's a look at our feature match area now, this is where all players
want to be this weekend. Take a look at the players, enter the building and the feature
match area to sit down for the first draft of the pro tour. Plenty of nerves among them,
Ian Robb, you called out there, you see him sitting on down ahead of the table, that spot
remains reserved for our current reigning world champion,
Seth Panfield, one of the best players to ever play the game.
But of course, it doesn't get any less nerve-wracking
when you sit down and you just hope it for a good
pack one pick one.
Let's take a look.
Some of his stats here,
he's playing the game in 2014 top finishes to his name,
which is absolutely incredible.
His tournament goal this weekend,
hey, win the pro tour, just a small little goal.
A lot of players might say that and you might say money.
Okay, sure buddy, but somebody who can actually get that done
is set man. You're hoping for a good draft here this morning. Well, let's check out our broadcast team. He'll be joining us in the booth. Of course, you have money and myself. We also have a Leloni and Corey bowmeister as well as Marshall Sutcliffe and Paul
Chian. Cedric Phillips also here with us this weekend talking to the players, giving us a look behind the scenes as the tournament progresses. All right. It's time for the first draft of a new season of Magic the Gathering pro play. I'm going to pass it on over to
the booth, Marshall and Paul and hope for good elf pack one pick one. Yeah, thank
you, Maria. Welcome to the booth here at Pro Tour. Lorwin eclipse, Marshall
Sackliffe with Paul Chion and we are at my favorite time of any Pro Tour, which
is the moment right before the first draft gets going and we're going to get
to show you all of the picks from that. We're going to be following along with
Seth Manfield here and seeing what he opens up. Paul, any big dreams if you're
and you're sitting down, you know, this is a format that is mostly on rails.
There's five viable decks and then maybe a little bit to play with outside of that.
Yeah, I think kind of every player going in would like to kind of pick up the ideal
elf deck. I think between the five kindred types, I think elves has proven
itself to be the strongest thing. So if you can open up a rare that's kind of
in those colors, let's say, you know, Tristan's command, high perfect
more can something along those lines. That's kind of where you want to start.
Take a look at the table here for our draft pod.
Won these pods are done at random here tomorrow.
They will be based on where the players are at in the standings,
but today it's just, you know, computer spits them out.
So you see Seth Manfield there in the upper right,
but he does have a stack table.
You know, I think that when you're a pro level player,
you sit down and you take a look at your table
and you kind of want to know how many faces do I recognize here?
And there's a bunch at this table.
So Seth definitely didn't get away
with it. He's going to have a tough part. Yeah, tons of players here with top finishes.
We've seen we've seen plenty of these players in the future match area over the course of
the last couple of years. So yeah, this is not going to be an easy pod here. You know,
one of the really important things in this format, too, is just kind of signal reading.
You know, it's not going to be an easy draft. You're going to have to scrounge for those,
you know, 20 to 23rd playable cards. But if anybody can do it, Seth Manfield. Yeah, Seth
is a superb magic player overall, but do not sleep on his limited abilities. You know,
really made his name at the GP level, uh, playing limited and then later kind of
proved to us how good he was in general where he's one of those players that's
in that category where you say like who are the best limited players of all
time. We often think of players who are good at limited and maybe not as good
and constructed but he's in that group that you could take a bunch of players
from you know LSVs in their Apollo, uh, of course, you know, Kai, John, all of the
at the top, they're good at both.
Like there's no, you don't differentiate at that level.
Yeah, I mean, if you kind of want to put yourself
in kind of the top 10 players of all time discussion,
yeah, you need to just be great at both.
And Seth is exactly that.
See what he opens up here, pack one, a pick one.
Oh, oh, champions are the perfect.
There you go.
Oh, that is.
This is exactly what you said.
You would hope it happened if you were sitting in that seat.
Yeah, the champions are the perfect.
It is just absolutely incredible.
first pick here. Seth is really going to want to lean into the elf archetype.
I mean, I've seen some people try to splash it with some changelings.
It's a lot tougher to pull that off.
Great first pick here for Seth Banfield, opening one of the best rares in the set.
You mentioned elves has been the number one deck coming in.
That also though means it could be the most contested deck coming in.
So there's a bit of a double edged sword here with opening an elf card like this.
happy to get it, but it's like, all right, shields up. Yeah,
kind of proceed with caution type situation here. But champions
are the perfect is one or is one of the rare cards where you
know, even if it's contested, you try your best to make it work
because it is that strong.
Looks like he has assert perfection, which isn't
technically an elf card. It's just a green card, but it goes
really well in the elf stack and it performs well in it. So it
would be a perfectly good follow up. The other card is
Narbarc Elm, which is actually a pretty solid card too.
It is not enough though.
Yeah, it is kind of in that fine,
but I did not see that.
It's kind of in that fine, but slower category.
I think if you want to cut off elves,
I think Gathering Stone is the more flexible card here,
but if you take the Assert Perfection,
you're effectively cutting off green
and you're trying to set yourself up
for a really, really strong pack too.
Another thing to consider with cards like Gathering Stone,
you know, that rewards you for having as many
of your creature type as possible and in a pro tour draft,
that might not be so easy.
This is gonna get scrappy.
People fight it out.
You don't just get handed a great deck most of the time.
Could I see a blight rot somewhere?
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I imagine that's probably
going to be the pick here.
You know, one thing that you have to be mindful,
of course, it's only just one pack,
but no elves in this pack, right?
So, you know, just one of those things
where you still try to, you know,
be in this color pair if possible.
But look, you take the blight rod, if, let's say, goblins
is open, you can still make that pivot,
because you took just a solid removal spell.
OK.
So elf bomb, and then two removal spells,
but on color for that pair.
So let me hold.
OK.
Yeah, iron shell.
Iron shell, very nice.
Yeah, just a really, really solid creature.
Again, this is the type of creature that, in an elf deck,
it's going to be fantastic.
However, you can still put this into, perhaps, a goblins deck
if you're looking to pivot, right?
So this is just a great pickup here for Seth Manfield.
There was also a Don's Light archer in the pack,
which is also an elf.
So a little hit there for him.
Yeah.
We'll note that kind of that three-mana slot
in the Elf deck is something where you don't have
to really worry about too much because of the existence
of all the three-mana changelings.
You can play gameplay something or prideful feastling.
Right.
Okay, but another assert perfection.
Again, interesting in that it is not actually an elf,
but it is in many ways considered an elf card,
and this really does solidify him, I think,
as there doesn't seem to be anything else in the pack.
Yeah, it's just the best card in the pack.
And, you know, five picks in.
I mean, this is still like a rock solid start here.
The only thing that Seth might be a little bit concerned about
is just the lack of just a bunch of the elves
that you're looking for, cards like Donhand,
Eulogist, and all that stuff,
but he's got three removal spells, he's got a bomb.
So the deck so far is looking great,
as long as he can just continue trying to pick up elves
along the way.
Let's take a look at where he would hope to go
given that he seems to be in elves at this point.
Here's the pick so far, and you can see them in order.
Two elves, three removal spells all on color.
So this is a good start, no doubt about it.
But where does you wanna go from here?
What would be the dream or optimistic picks for him?
Yeah, so starting things off with the commons here,
You know, you just kind of, this format really kind of rewards you for sticking to your creature type.
So you kind of want all elves if possible, and these are the cards that you're looking for.
Scarblade Scout and Dawnhand Eulogist are both just excellent creatures that have that kind of self mill effect,
which is really important because the elves next also tend to care about things in your graveyard,
and there's a bit of a recursive theme as well.
Safe for a cavalry, also just a solid 4-drop.
That's how you make a 4-mana 4-4 now, right?
A four-man or four-for-vanilla is just not good enough.
Safe rate cavalry is good enough.
This is all the techs you need to actually have a four-drop
be competitive with the evolution of limited overtime.
Very annoying card when it's on the battlefield.
What about uncommons that Seth would like to pick up here?
Of course, Eclipse Elf is the headline
over there as it's become basically the best
uncommon in the set.
Yeah, and just taking a look at the uncommons here,
this is, I think, a big part of why I believe Elves is probably
strongest of the Kindred types because of the uncommon payoffs. I mean there's an eclipse card in
every color combination, right? But you have cards like Morcan's Eyes and Morcan's Loyalists,
which are just kind of outperforming a lot of the other signposts on Commons and both of these
cards are just excellent. Morcan's Eyes, whenever you play that thing in the lake game, you're just
like, oh, I'm gonna lose. Yes. You're just gonna make six or seven, two twos, and it's gonna be great.
And then of course, Loyalists also fantastic. Great Elf Lord. Also, by the way, getting any Elf cards.
So when it dies, you can even get back a cart like Morkan's eyes out of the graveyard.
And if you're a dreamer, or dreamers here on the booths, you can think about the rares.
And of course, you come up and you got some good ones.
I mean, this is another reason why Alice has immersed as the best deck is because at every
rarity slot, it's either, it's above average at all of them, basically. I mean, these payoffs,
You know, the other decks have good payoffs too, but these are just unbelievable.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Tristan's command, among the best commands in the format,
Hyperfect, more Kent, Great, Gloomripper, also fantastic.
So if Seth can pick up another copy of one of these,
or maybe another copy of Champion of the Perfect, that's exactly where he wants to be.
All right, well, assuming that he sticks with elves,
these are the type of cards that he wants.
Let's find out how the rest of Pac-1, and in fact, the rest of the draft go for Seth right now.
now. Shuffle and lay out. Coming into Pat, pick six here.
And we'll see if the elves are flowing, that is what he wants
to see. Just some of those common elves would be. Ooh, yeah,
see any of them here. Got like a bunch of archers. No, I mean,
there's a forging wicker mall, which is okay. If you want to
perhaps lean into a little bit of a vivid sub theme, you can
take that. Wanderbrien preacher is an okay to drop a
you can only really want that in the Marfolk decks.
You don't even love it in the Kitken decks.
Yeah, just taking the Forge and Wicker Maul.
Sometimes, your drafts don't go perfectly
and you just need a two-man up card
and that's kind of where you would play
the Forge and Wicker Maul.
Splitter game.
Yeah, and for those of you thinking
that Dream Harvest is a bomb level card, it's not.
It's very expensive.
There's a high level of variance to it.
So for all of you, there's gonna be a lot of people
going to want set to take that card, but I think the kind of the more sound pick
here is just taking something like a bio bio boggart. This is a best of three
setting. If you play against a kitskin deck, this is an excellent sideboard card.
If you're short playable cards, you can still kind of use this to fill out your
mana curve.
Hmm. Concern level rising here, Paul? Yeah, I mean look, we just went back to back
picks with zero elves. I mean we're looking at
Don, you know, we want Don archers or whatever. We want a rooftop perch or we
We want to change lane.
Seth's not able to pick up any of these.
So I mean, this is a clear indication,
and it's not surprising that there are elf drafters too.
It looks like perhaps one, maybe even two.
Yeah, those last three picks, none of them
would be happy in an elves build.
Like he preferred to not play any of them.
Yeah, there's an elf here in Kiteness Grasplin,
but it's such a weak card.
Four mana for three, four is just not
stats that you want.
So Seth's actually preferring to take something
like a blighted Blackthorn as a way to, you know, look,
if your deck doesn't go perfectly,
you can still kind of grind people out with the,
with the Blackthorn there.
There's another Bioval Bogger, but he's,
these are just not cards he preferred.
He hasn't actually picked up a card
that he would be happy playing in his deck
since the fifth pick.
Right.
It's too late to like,
consider a different archetype at this point, right?
It's more about just scrapping the tables.
Yeah, based on what I'm seeing here from Seth Picks,
I think he's basically just locked into Elves here
and kind of hoping it works out.
He's done a really good job of also basically
taking every single green or black card in pack number one.
So I wouldn't be shocked if pack two goes much better for him,
but it has to go really well for him
because we know that pack three is not gonna go
as ideally as he'd like.
So a lot riding on pack two for Seth Manfield
because the start was pretty solid.
take a look at those first five picks and you're like, yeah,
this is good, especially at a PT table.
But the rest of the pack was bad.
I mean, wow, like, literally you could just erase
all those cards and, you know, he would,
I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't play them, you know,
and even an average Elf deck, let alone, and I don't do a one.
Yeah, look, I think on average, when you're doing a draft,
you kind of want to pick up about eight playable cards
in every pack, right?
That lets you kind of put 23 or 24 of those cards.
right now I'm looking at five cards I'm happy playing and then you're going to
have to kind of mix and match between the blighted black thorns and the
bile bile boggards right now so again Seth needs to you know pick up a bunch of
good playable picks and pack number two and also hope to wheel some because
right now with only five good cards he's not in a great spot yeah you know
the only you know outside of the synergies that tend to form when you get a
whole bunch of elves together you know he doesn't have cards that really rely
why on that outside of the champions right now.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But I mean, that's also why you want to put the deck.
So you do hope to get those.
Yeah, I just don't see like a good avenue to pivot here
based on what he has, right?
Got a couple of vile, vile boggers,
but it's not like we saw a bunch of the goblin on common payoffs.
And goblins is an architect that I'm actively looking
to avoid unless it is very clear that it's open
because, you know, I think goblins is the weakest
where, you know, it's not unplayable.
But you need to basically be the only goblins drafter at the table to have a successful deck
And I just feel like somebody else is already in goblins based off of the packs that we've seen
And it feels like a couple of players are also in elves, but
Seth is really banking on having cut as much as he could in that first pack
Can he recover here in pack two? There's a gathering stone though
That's really kind of dropping in value for him. Just because he doesn't have a
Lot of elves at this he's got two elves, right?
Out of the first five picks, he picked up an Iron Shield Elf and a Champion of the Perfect.
So normally, I love gathering.
Same.
Most of my decks are going to have 12 to 13 of the same creature type, but here it might
be a little bit better to just go with something like a Grave Shifter, which you know is going
to be a card that's always going to be good, right?
It's always going to just be a solid card you play in your deck, whereas the upside of
the Gathering Stone is much greater, right?
If you're going into pack number two and you have six elves already, yeah, just take the
Gathering Elf.
Slash, Triple and Layout.
makes a lot of sense Seth going look I might have to kind of scrap here I'm
not sure how many elves I'm going to end up with let's take the Grave Shifter
it's an elf right it lets me be hold my champions the perfect and it's always
just going to be a solid card. Let's see what he gets here oh there's a
Scarblade Scout that is the type of card that he's looking to fill out. Oh an
Eclipse elf at the back of the pack! Oh a little prize waiting for him at the end there.
Yeah we kind of call that you know a mythic uncommon here and if you are kind
of one of the kindred color combinations. You absolutely want to just take all the eclipse
cards that you can get and the eclipsed elf is certainly one of the best ones here. So
huge, huge gift. Great, great start here for Seth Manfield. He has doubled his elf count already
two picks into pack two. That's right. Two for two so far, including an excellent pick up there
with eclipsed elf. Now he does tell me to get his elf count up where it's at to make eclipsed
Eclipse Elf really good, but he's on his way here with two for two so far
He also just picked up two great cards to behold off of the champions
Right. Yes, both of these are elves that come in and play and give you value
Then you behold exile that card if your champions of the perfect dies
Well, you get to cast the eclipse itself again. Yeah, and if it doesn't die you win
Is there an elf here I don't I see it
Again, this is one of those things where it's like at this point
If you see a playable creature with creature type elf,
you're just going to put it into your deck.
So I imagine, you know, Seth isn't happy about a third picked
on slide archer, but he's going to take it here.
Now, this is definitely going better from the elf perspective.
OK, there's a scar blade scout.
And he certainly needs more two drops here.
There's a safe right cavalry, but I think he's more interested
in just making sure you have enough two drops here.
So I think Scarblade's stout is probably what Seth Manfield is going to go for here.
I think the only two drop here he has right now is an iron shield elf.
Yeah, he'll be happy to pick up that scout.
Also really great with the serve perfection because it has lifelink, so get to gain a bunch of life back.
Well, he's four for four.
So I guess he did do a good job of cutting.
He's tripled another one.
out and there is an iron shield up so clearly nobody to the left of Seth is an elves and
I would be shocked if they were honestly because Seth didn't get any elves himself so you know
this is kind of what we needed here for Seth Manfield to put together and kind of salvage
a tricky start to the draft.
This card is just so annoying right?
You play Kifkin deck and your opponent plays an iron shield elf and you go what do I even
do?
Pick up your pack, you have 20 seconds.
And that's his second one of those, so that'll be really nice.
He's two drops, he's coming.
Yeah, and I mean he's going to happily take this here.
Scarblade scout, so now we have four two drops, so we're looking at a good curve.
He has the three removal spells that we saw already.
Champions are the perfect.
This pack is going fantastically here so far for Seth Mefrow.
Now you're not seeing a ton of the uncommons, but still.
You're just filling out your curve.
curve. You got the two drops. I mean, if I'm set manfield, I am just thrilled with this pack.
Incredible pack for him. He hasn't. There's another elf, a Stoic Grove guide. Yeah. He's six for six,
and this can be some mess. Yes, I mean six for six, and now you get to kind of replace the
blighted Blackthorn here, and instead you can just play the Stoic Grove guide. You have a little
bit of self-mill going on. That's kind of what you want to do with this card. Right. You kind of
play a Scarblade Scout, get this into your graveyard, get a little bit of value, but in the late
came you know it's still just a 5-4 that you can kind of convert into a 2-2 later on right to iron shield elves also good with the
Grove guide yeah and look this is a changeling stop excuse me gangly stumbling which also counts as an elf you're just going to be totally fine
playing any number of these three mana changelings to kind of hit your elf quarter by the way
eight elves that's eight for eight so Seth went for two elves in pack one to now ten now
I bet he's what now I bet he's maybe thinking hmm should I take the gathering stone
But of course, it's impossible to predict you're going to get this many elves in a row, right?
That's nine in a row.
Nine elves in a row now Seth now has 11 elves from two in pack one.
That's wild. He solved his curve and number of elves problem in one pack.
Seriously, is Carblade Scout here?
That is probably the biggest gift here because Carblade Scout is a fantastic card in the elf deck.
If you're an elf player, you probably would have been interested in taking that card.
So Seth, I mean, that's the, that's like the, the pick you're kind of doing the fist bump on.
Because when you table that card, all of a sudden, I mean, Seth now has 10 playable cards that he got from pack number two to make up for the five that he got in pack one.
Now we're looking at 15 cards.
He's right back in business.
It also, you know, could mean that there just wasn't that many elves open.
Yeah.
Like how did that come around 10th pick to him?
If there's one or maybe even two other elves player at the table,
somebody would have taken that.
Absolutely.
So that could mean that Pac-3 opens back up for him
in a way that maybe we wouldn't have predicted.
Yeah, I mean, it's also one of those things
where somebody could have given up, right?
That's true.
Somebody takes a lot of the elf cards
because they know it's the strongest thing to do.
And then at some point, you go, you know what?
It's just not open.
I'm going to have to pivot.
I'm going to have to draft goblins or black, white,
or Kitkin or something along those lines.
Yeah, when you're evaluating signals in draft,
it's really handy to treat them
each as an individual data point
rather than try to hang your hat on.
Well, I got this back, therefore.
So it's just one data point, but it's a strong one.
I mean, that seriously is like
one of the top commons for elves
and getting a 10th pick.
I mean, look at this sign.
Seth just put all of those cards that he was like,
Man, am I going to have to play all of this junk that I got in pack number one?
And he's like, nope, all the way to the back.
And now, now you have a nice kind of streamlined deck here with 12 or 13 elves with three removal effects.
Just kind of a really, really solid combination here, especially for a pro tour draft.
And 10 in a row for Manfield there.
Not bad. Not bad when you need 10 elves.
It's funny, the mentality like coming out of pack one.
I'm just hoping like I'm hoping for this pack, right? Yeah, it wasn't just like over the top bombs or crazy
No, but it was like all the commons you want basically outside of the eulogist and you just fill out your curve and your creature count now
I'm greedy again going into three. I'm like, let's get some more. Yeah. I was going
Yeah, I mean that that would be ideal here
So Seth when you bargain with the magic gods, you know, you have to know where you stand
Hey, you know what? I but I do feel like I mean Seth is the world champion
So, you know, he can maybe take some bad beats here, right?
He's he kind of use it all in that one event.
But of course you want to run.
I don't know.
Yeah, I've been covering Seth for years and he always
or not.
Yeah, I think that he said that's true.
He delivers.
All right.
Pack three pick one coming in here.
Oh, listen, I dignitary, very solid uncommon.
Anything else at the rare is a blood crypt there.
So OK, it kind of has to be the dignitary.
The blossoming defense is a fine combat trick, but I think you would still rather just make sure you kind of take all the
Uncommon elf paths when you see them. Yeah, I love that
Let's a lot of dignitary really powerful and he has you know
This is again the synergies of the elf deck really do make themselves apparent and this is where you're like well, you know
Getting a few mill elves who really cares well, you know
These type of things really do start to add up when you see cards like yeah
And the elf back is just so good at enabling all of that with scar bleat scout Lyslana informants and Don hand eulogist
Three you oh and midnight telling I mean you just have four commons that mill yourself. That's right
And they really don't ask anything of you either. That's the thing. They are borderline playable without the mill text, right?
This pack is a little bit underwhelming. I guess there's a blossoming defense
This might be a pack where at this point Seth has already kind of a bunch of the the sea level commons from the elf deck here
Might be interested in another interactive spell
He did pick up the three copies three removal spells early on in pack one
That's kind of it for interaction. So you still have room for you know, three more slots
Maybe for tricks and blossoming defense is certainly one of the better ones
It is if you're gonna play a combat trick in this format. That's the one you want there
you know for the most part you want to keep to keep it on creature type and
enabling your synergies but you know there there are kind of two builds of
elves that pop up right there's the more griny mid-range one and then there is a
little more assertive curve out one yeah and if he ends up in that second
category then he'll be happy to have the boss me defense so a few options here
list loan informant Tam and box with his embrace I do think Seth could use a
fourth removal spell he's currently on the double assert perfection and a
blighted rot. So I think picking up a Boxlithers Embrace is kind of the
the responsible pick here and Seth is not short on two mana plays. He basically
got all the two mana cards that he wanted in pack number two. So I like this
pick here just picking up a removal effect for you know other bombs you
could play against and the exile text also very relevant on Boxlithers Embrace.
You have 25 seconds.
You see a Glister Baron, mischievous, sneak-leaning is technically an elf, although again Seth
does have a ton of two mana plays already.
This is a card, by the way, and I'm glad Seth has it up at the front.
It's a card that's been kind of overperforming.
You look at the Roof of Percher and you're like, oh, this doesn't look that exciting.
It's a five-man, a three-three flyer, but the graveyard heat matters.
You're going to play against other elf decks, and the three life also matters, and it just
happens to be an elf.
that doesn't have a million things to do at the top end.
So, you know, just having a little bit of evasion
in some life game can be nice.
Interesting that there's been a few common elves
filtering through, but it does still feel like
he's being cut.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, he had to take a fourth pick rooftop percher
and fifth pick, there's not an elf in sight here.
So, yeah, pack two absolutely saving Seth here
because we're gonna have to prop by,
Based on how this pack is going,
I think we're gonna have to play some filler here
to round out this deck.
And Dose of Dunglo, that kind of counts
as a filler level card here.
It's a reanimation effect.
I guess if you do have a really great creature
to get back with a bunch of self mill,
why is there a Brigid in the pack here?
That is wild.
This is big six.
I suppose Kithkin are not really being drafted here,
but I don't think there was a clear indication
that Kithkin was where you're supposed to be in pack one.
But I mean, now you see this in pack one,
you take that bridge and figure things out.
But Seth is locked in here into the Alphdack,
not gonna take the bridge.
Yeah, he's just gonna take Stoic Groveguide number three.
20 seconds.
He can take advantage of it though.
We mentioned he's got a good amount of mill elves
and then also discard at his available to him
to really take advantage of Stoic Groveguide's
activated ability from the graveyard,
which is kind of where you wanna be.
So there's a prideful feastling or guiltleafs embraced
Seth's actually going for the guilt leaves embrace here just to have an extra trick
Feastling is just again just kind of like a replacement level elf, but Seth's elf count at this point is quite high
It's looking at 13 or 14. So going for the trick
Yeah, and embrace is kind of the other card that like if you are
Trying to do the beatdown elves version it does pull its way
Yeah, you can apply enough pressure to your opponent that they're forced to do a block that maybe they don't like and the embrace
Is kind of a blowout in the right scenario
It's a little pricey. It is it is but you do kind of get your value to turn that you get to cast it and
Eat a blocker. There's a scar blades malice as well that one
Different kind of combat trick that's one that you can use to win combat
But generally speaking, it's a little bit more defensive like if you've got elves that you really want to
Insulate yourself against removal where you know, they use removal spell you get at least on elf back
Yeah, it's particularly good with a card like Donhand eulogist because right menace creature
And then you have to double block it and then you can kill two things gain some life and get some value
Which Seth currently doesn't have any I?
Would be surprised to see him play it though
Draft as this deck does look very curved out to me
You know he didn't end up getting a ton of the graveyard synergies. We talked about a few of them
It's not zero, but it's not drag. It doesn't really seem to be the focal point of this deck
Yeah, part of the strength of kind of an optimal or optimized elf deck is the fact that you can curve out and
Have the ability to kind of grind into the late game
I don't know that this that kind of has that late game element to it
But of course you do have the champions of the perfect from the grave shifter
So if you can find a way to mill yourself and then kind of get to the point where you can get that champions in play
You can kind of grind out games that way, but we don't see a more cancel loyalist. There is not an unbury, right?
There's can't side you don't have any of those super late game cards
But at this at the same time, I did think that pack to absolutely save Seth
I think if you don't get that pack to an every single elf, right?
We're looking at a deck that's gonna have to play a bunch of filler
But as is because he was able to get those 10 or 11 cards impact number two
I think he kind of put together a solid elf deck with a bomb with some interaction
It's got a good curve.
I mean, it's kind of what you're looking for in a draft deck,
especially at a pro tour.
Let's curve out and just see what happens.
See what he's got here for his build.
I'm kind of looking for the combat tricks.
Yes, blossoming defense.
Oh, too guilt, Lisa Brace made the cut.
So, you know, he's playing, you know,
a very board-centric curve out deck here, Paul.
This every single card that he's playing
is either a removal spell, a combat trick, or a creature.
Yeah, yeah.
And this is just like, you look at this deck,
And yes, it's not going to be the same as kind of what you see when you play online or at your local store
Where you play against a person with 40 clips Maros or something
But I think for a pro tour Jeff draft sets got to be thinking
I know I was in a contested lane, but I still put together a deck that I think is still quite solid
I have a good curve
I have tricks and I have interaction if I sequence my spells properly you can still put together a good finish with a deck like this
I mean that combination guiltly some race on an iron shield elf
That's going to be really, really tough to stop when you're going up against that combination.
I like this build. This is the type of deck that I'd love to sit down with at the PT.
It's clean, it's straightforward, and it can get wins in the hands of a great player.
We are going to take a short break here for Richard. We'll be back with more right after this.
And welcome back to coverage here of Pro Tour,
Lauren Eclipsd, I'm Marcia Slakliff, I'm with Paul Chian.
And we are in Richmond, Virginia.
It is frigid outside, but here inside,
we've got business to take care of.
We've got a Pro Tour to start here.
We've got round number one coming up.
We just watched Seth Manfield draft.
I think a good deck, like if a random PT competitor said,
here's my deck, I would say that,
That's like a two one if Seth shows it to me, I'm like,
and he came up and said, I preode with it.
I would be like, yeah, I believe that.
You know, these decks at the pro tour level
are very, very difficult to draft.
Everybody knows what they're doing
and you just don't get hooked up very often.
Yeah, I mean, it is just so rare to get kind of the 10 out
of 10 or nine out of 10 decks at the pro tour.
I mean, look at the names that we saw at that table,
Ian Rob, they're just a ton of good players at that table.
You're not going to get anything gifted to you.
So if you can, like I said,
all you're looking to do at the pro tour is, you know,
if you don't get all the bombs,
just make sure that you have a solid curve with good interaction
and then just kind of play out the cards
and see what happens.
And that's kind of what Seth has,
but he also has that one bomb.
Look, if you draw champions of the perfect,
you're going to win a lot of games.
So I think Seth's deck is solid, you know,
kind of going into it.
If I were to predict the record for this type of deck,
it would be something like a two-in-one.
Yeah, the two-in-one of the PT is not easy to get.
So let's take a look here at our head-to-head.
Seth is going to be playing against Daniel Getchell here.
And you can see two top finishes for Daniel versus Seth's 14
with that Hall of Fame and World Championship times 2
somehow.
Yeah, it's just like how many invites has Seth
earned to this book?
No kidding, no kidding.
He could fill out a draft table himself, I bet.
This is Seth's list.
we just watched him draft this again. This is a straightforward beatdown Elves
deck. It doesn't quite have the long game that you sometimes see from this
archetype where there's recursion or ways to really take advantage of the
grave here. But there's enough meat on that bone. Take a look at what Daniel's
got to work with. Oh, he's drafted goblins. Now, interestingly, we were
talking about goblins. You and I, Paul, not our favorite archetype here. How do
How do you see this version, ooh, soul emulation there?
Yeah, so this doesn't kind of have
what the typical goblin deck wants,
which is all kind of the drain payoffs.
But it has one of the best rares in the entire format
in soul emulation.
This card is absolutely fantastic.
It's a one-sided raft.
If you can set that card up and you draw it,
there's not a whole lot Seth can do
to kind of interact with that.
So if Daniel can find that card, it's gonna be great.
Also, Goliath Daydreamer is quite a strong card there,
4 mana for a 4-4.
You cast a spell, you exiled, you attack,
and then you get to cast that spell for free.
So, you know, Daniel's got some kind of
potentially game altering bombs as well,
but doesn't quite have like the perfect goblins.
I mean, that curve was terrible.
Right, it was like two one drops and a two drop.
Right, exactly.
Playing against Seth Manfield,
who has a beautiful curve with his elf deck,
it might be tough, especially if you're on the draw.
Seth navigated his seat very well.
That was a tough seat to be in
and he was really relieved for pack two
bring him a ton of playables that he needed. It wasn't that they were, you know, he got an
eclipsed elf, but you know, for the most part they were just commons, but goodness sakes that
he needed that pack to come together. And, you know, taking a look now that we can kind of get
an idea for how the table went, he was in a tough spot there. He was surrounded by players playing
green. Yeah, there were three green drafters, I believe, to his right. And it's not surprising.
He literally got no elf cards after pick five, but again, I say I've said this many times packed to basically save
Seth Manfield's draft and I'm sure all the people to his right going. What are you doing Seth?
We're the green drafters. You're not supposed to be green. So they all kind of got nothing most likely in pack number two
Interesting matchup of creatures here. You see the bio bio boggart
It's actually pretty good
against the Iron Shield Elf. The elf against certain matchups, that particular elf, can be a huge pain, but against goblins it's actually less good.
Yeah, but Seth does have a pretty fun answer here. Might not go for it, but he does have Blossoming Defense, so if he attacks with the Iron Shield Elf, you can actually be Blossoming Defense the Iron Shield Elf, so it wouldn't get that minus one, minus one counter from the Bil-Vile bugger.
The Iron Shield Elf can get indestructible by discarding a card and tapping it, but
minus one, minus one counters are the best way to get around indestructible.
Because Seth can also choose to just go attack if you block because Daniel's definitely going
to block here.
Blossoming defense and then play out a second Iron Shield Elf that is a pretty strong play.
That's what he's doing.
You don't see this very often.
Daniel's going to say, well, but you know,
Daniel has to look at it and also say, well,
I'm going to get something.
Right.
I'm going to trade this for blossoming defense.
The elder auntie also will turn into a 3-3,
and I get a scry or a surveil.
So I think that's probably worth it here.
And you don't take three damage.
OK, Daniel is like, OK, you know what?
I know exactly what you have.
So I will not play into it and just
force you to play something else here.
Yeah, he's looking at it.
Cinder strike in hand, perhaps thinking, well, I could trade that for a blossoming defense,
and then I can actually make sure that my bogger gets rid of this L.
Right.
Yeah, because next turn, if Daniel goes Cinder strike, right, and actually set not playing
out the Eclipse up, but now you can go Cinder strike and kill both creatures.
That is a huge, huge turn here for Daniel Getschel.
Although it would be the only play for the turn
as he has a Goliath Daydreamer in hand.
Well, you know, what's better than one center strike?
Yeah.
Goliath Daydreamer, yes, too.
Okay, just run it down.
This is also nice because it does block
the Iron Shield, Alpha, at least on its own.
So theoretically, that would be held back, too.
Yeah, I imagine, I believe I saw a box
that was embraced here for Seth Manfield.
We'll find out really quickly if you guess one because you do not want to let, I mean,
this is exactly how you can lose to a deck like this. Right.
It's to let that daydreamer stay on the battlefield and once they start, I mean,
even just getting to use it once feels real bad if you're in Seth's seat.
Yeah, I might just be interested in just attacking here or using the, excuse me,
using the embrace here, putting a counter on the stumbling to get rid of the daydreamer.
And it does exile, so it wouldn't trigger the elder auntie.
This is interesting pressure that Daniel's putting on Seth, right?
It's passive in a way, but you know,
Seth would really prefer not to use bog slithers embrace right now.
In fact, he's going to attack with both.
How many cards in here?
Five.
Five cards.
It's a lot of cards.
Although just block the iron shield elf and no blocks there.
It's always a tough spot when your opponent's the aggressor and has four men up and you're tapped out.
Right.
You see Daniel looking to maintain possession of his giant there.
It's not even going to get in combat.
Right.
Although I will say, no matter how this combat goes, Daniel's taking some hits here.
Yeah, the issue with using something like a guilt-leaves embrace here
is just the fact that it gives indestructible, but it doesn't give it hex-proof.
So even if you played this on your iron shield elf,
the minus one, minus one counter would go in the iron shield elf,
and you'd be either forced to use blossoming defense to save it, or just let it die.
Okay, trigger, trigger. Yep, so I'll put a minus counter. I'm not sure the exact order if I surveil.
This trigger is from dying, so I think I placed the counter, and then I surveil one and remove that counter.
Just a sequencing question here on the minus one, minus one counter and the surveil on
Erlumonte.
Can I take four?
These both figure at the same time, so you get to choose the order.
Okay, so I'll put the counter in the most available one.
And I'll keep that card on top.
Oh, okay.
He's got a few too many lands going, so really any action would be nice.
So now, Bostley, there's embrace is a little bit awkward here because you would just kind
of, it costs five mana or blight one.
Now that the counter is on the stumbling, if you cast the, the embrace you lose your
stumbling too.
So that's kind of a three for two situation here.
Yeah, this did not work out well for Seth thus far.
Let's see if he can find a way out of this mess.
Yeah, the other line is just playing an Eclipse Delfar something and then just keep up Blossom
me defense and just kind of cross your fingers and hope the daydreamer doesn't get to go
crazy. Although Daniel did keep a card on top. I feel like you might, okay.
Very awkward here for Manfield. He also only has one black sore, so like you couldn't do
both. Okay, but the blosmy defense is still pretty
good here because you know if Daniel looks to use a removal spell you can't just, you
You can't just fizzle it and then the baseman can't really attack, right?
Right.
Yeah.
It looks like he kept a sour bread into you on top.
I wonder at this point if Daniel is thinking, God, I wish, I wish you just used that blossoming
deep.
Maybe I should have blocked earlier and make you use the blossoming deep.
of graveyard, it's on the stack I guess. That's cinder strike here. Yeah that's that's key Daniel.
He definitely knows about the block. So that's going to resolve and then if Daniel attacks,
cast the cinder strike, you can get a blossoming defense onto the iron shield elf.
And then block and then maybe even discard a card. Yeah I imagine like you'll leave some
brace probably would be going. And so that would leave the giant bed at that point. And then you
And you would have a 4-4 on T versus in Iron Sheldelf.
I mean, also Daniel doesn't have to attack.
And it enters the Blight 2 trigger on the stack.
I think for a second it's Blight 2 on 2.
Probably the on T?
Or itself, rather?
Blight 2 can Blight 2 on itself and make two goblins.
So 2-1 and 2-1-1s.
Goblins.
Fine deal.
And then, I think, because Daniel is reading Seth here
for the Blossom of the offense.
Two cards left.
Just reveal ones.
The asset protection, you think,
one second, five, four.
Because Daniel can just kind of go wide, at least, based off
of this board, and then just pass, maybe,
and then just attack with everything next turn.
So yeah, heads up play here.
This is just high level magic from both sides.
Seth protecting himself from a removal spell
being cast off the daydreamer by keeping up the blossoming defense at the same
time Daniel reading Seth for the blossoming defense and not making what
looks to be a you know quote-unquote obvious attack here trying to get that
elf down. That's really good patience here from Daniel because you know any
time you have the daydreamer at the ready with a spell exiled you want to
is so tempting to just get it while the gift is good.
Could I blight my cinder strike when this attacks?
Here's it.
Seth is going to go for eclipse elf here,
and I think he found maybe a swamp.
Yeah, found a swamp here, so.
You can pay additional costs.
OK, thank you.
OK, so asking if you can blight one
when you're casting the spell off of the Glyathea Dreamer,
and you can.
Yeah, Seth tried to set a trap last turn and Daniel did not fall for it.
You know that early attack with the iron shield elf.
It kind of turned the blossoming defense face up a little.
Right.
Seth is like, you know I have it too.
I'm just, alright let's just get that thing off the battlefield here and now, I mean Daniel
does have a pretty safe attack at least with the goblins on the left, right?
Like he is happy trading a 2-1 Sourbread Antti probably for a card out of Seth's hand.
And this is of course the downside from Daniel of that patience is that he just never got to use a center strike.
Sometimes you just brute force it and just force your opponent to react to you, but he didn't this time.
He's going to attack with just the two middle creatures, 2-1 and a 1-1 Goblin.
Yeah, if there is a trade here it might be the Eclipse Elf 4 of the Sourbread Antti, right? Just 2-1's trading.
Now Seth is ahead in the life total race and maybe he doesn't want to give Daniel a surveil here as well
So maybe you just take the this is just three damage coming in right and there currently no drain effects on the board
Okay
That's your bills a big deal that's a land
going in on it. Yeah, he's flooding out. Daniel Drew. I'm going to cast Perture.
There it is. These two gain three life. So the gangling and the Eclipse Elf get exiled
three life for Daniel. And that's relevant here because Seth Menfield does have a grave
shift. Her hand and grave shift herring back Eclipse Elf would have been so strong.
I think that's exactly what Seth was just thinking with that big sigh we just heard
from. Yeah. He's got to be feeling like each of the little interactions that he's
tried to set up here have been thwarted by Daniel each time either from the
cards he's playing or the way that he's playing them. Yeah. And you know, while
Iron Shield Elf can be very, very good and annoying in certain matchups. A bunch
of one one tokens is what you want to be seeing. All right.
Like the Seth attack into the one one token.
And then what what do you have to do you just pitch a card or casket leave some
brace that's not ideal. Probably keeping up a forest right you probably unless
you want to play both this turn okay sure yeah yeah he really wanted to get
that eclipsed elf back with the grave shaker but that plan is not gonna happen
this time Seth doesn't really have you know he doesn't have any copies of
more cancel loyalist that would be fantastic just to be able to attack
through the goblins but Seth might just have to go hey we're just going to be in
this racing situation and maybe next turn I just attack with everything and
just kind of see what happens. Great draw here for Daniel.
Narlbark Elm as well and I believe he does have the mana here to eat one of
those iron shield elves if he wants. It's a perfect answer because it leaves
to three four behind for the other one.
I am going to kill you.
Oh, okay.
Okay, so now we can actually get even more aggressive and just
attack with everything because you still have a three four to
block.
It has really felt like every single interaction has tilted
towards Daniel.
Seth is he looks tortured right now because of it too.
Yeah, it is interesting like I'm still not sure if that was the
correct thing to do just because like you can you could
keeping those one ones back against the three one is also
pretty strong play, but it looks like Daniel wants to go for
maximum aggression here.
Yeah, with his three four back he's yeah forcing Seth to do
something. Also Daniels had a pretty nice life total 16.
And if Seth decides he wants to race you know at this point Daniel may be okay with this
Is yeah two-turn clock here right and Seth is going to take it here
But Seth can't get in a good attack here with the combat tricks
But he can't attack with both if he doesn't draw a creature here
Actually even if he draws a creature he can't attack with both still right because
You know you can block one of the big creatures that's eight damage coming in
Okay, so this is this is not like Daniel can attack back here for nine
But Seth does have a blocker and Seth is gonna run guilt leave some brace out here to be able to trample through get some extra damage in
This will be for damage coming in getting Daniel down to 12 if you still have a blocker plus blossoming defense
Yes
Yeah, wouldn't expect Seth to play any more lands this game. He'll want to keep cards in hand
Right. This card do his iron shield. I missed the surveil trigger there.
The creature died and then they started doing the untap action. Oh yeah, there was a surveil. Yeah.
It's a land that is brutal, I mean that could have certainly, if Daniel doesn't win, right?
That is brutal.
That doesn't get too, take that, okay.
I'll swing for seven.
Yeah.
Hit.
Remember, guilt leaves, yep.
Remember guilt leaves and brace doesn't give trample, just the turn you cast it.
So.
still doing a good job of blocking and the percher still puts Seth on a two turn clock.
Let's see if Seth can find something here.
On the shirt.
Okay, yeah send the team in. So he'll say one of the yellows. Yeah.
And then that's gonna throw it off buddy. He just is forced to race at this point.
Oh that's a spell right?
I think this doesn't trample.
Oh, it doesn't trample?
Anymore, such as until end of turn?
OK, I apologize.
So I take two.
So I go to 10?
Yeah.
10.
This one for three.
If that's the case, I'll attack for three
and play another Biofile Boggert in pass.
Oh, that was a dream Caesar.
So that was actually a perfect blocker here for the percher.
One card.
do you want to fire it off here there is one card left in hand for Daniel as
you heard Seth just confirm yeah which is a land and Seth is now at three so he
doesn't really have great attacks here so you which the only thing you can do
is just play out a three two dream Caesar put a minus one minus one counter
on the dignitary so you can block the percher that does stabilize the board
though. Yeah, curiously. That gives Daniel some additional outs here. So again, if it
comes down to that, I mean, that surveil on the land, yes, would be the difference between
Daniel, you know, pulling this game out. He'll be top decking any removal spell basically
for the dream Caesar. Oh, attacking here, but not with both. Okay. Because now the counter
will go on the elf and I'm sure Daniel is going to block here. Yeah. Taking out a five-power
creature and you soak up two damage by doing so. It's hard to imagine that Bargher gets that much
better. So Daniel just trying to play around all the tricks that could be possible here. You know,
do you have an edict effect? Does that even exist? Right.
And the one damage, I mean you're not gonna, no blocks, okay?
Okay, right, and he doesn't like right you don't have to blight
Okay, so Ken Daniel find an answer to this flyer cast this
64 that's a three two your flyer
Okay, that's two
Seth I mean still hanging on here
Can Seth find yet another answer? No, he just passes the turn back.
Passes it back. Can Daniel find something?
Yeah, you can't really attack with the goblin either, right? The 6-4?
Gosh, I'm wondering if... Can you imagine if Daniel
blocked with the 1-1? The 5-1 would have been out and then you would have been able to attack
with the berserker right? Yeah totally. Attack for one. So now he's like well I didn't get it.
That's just like alright I'm at two. Yeah. Yeah please please those three anyway so. Yeah.
And what is it the soul emulation would also get it done?
Okay Stoic Grove Guide is a gigantic attacker but now Seth can attack with this big creature here.
for five.
Does Daniel take it now?
I think.
What a tricky game.
No blocks.
He's going to take it.
Both sides on three now.
Three to two.
So now any removal spell from either side gets it done, right?
Both have three powered flyers.
That's right.
Kill spell?
Is there a removal spell here for Daniel?
second percher. Oh, a second percher. So that's another lethal threat. Plus three life. That
was big. Huge rip here for Mitchell. He's going to pass a turn back. Now Seth needs a removal
spell to assert perfection. He's got two of those. No, that's a land. This should do it.
that's gonna do it. Seth Manfield's gonna pack him up. Game one, it goes to Daniel
Getchel. Wow, that was a really intricate game. Both players, particularly Daniel,
trying to really play around everything he could, and he does ultimately get across
the finish line. So it looks like Seth's on six here, coming into game number two.
You get show with kind of a slower hand,
but does have that cinder strike to get rid of a two man of play here from
Seth Manfield, but Seth does have the Iron Shield Elf,
which is a cinder strike proof.
We've taught percher.
We were saying it was underrated, but it really didn't work.
That's all Seth might actually want to play out.
Oh, that's he's got the dignitary there.
Yeah, that's such a great play here on to particularly if he follows it up.
with a scar blade scout or similar.
Right. And also, it doesn't die to a cinder strike,
which is the most likely removal spell that Daniel could have in hand here.
That's cute.
This could be a very explosive start here for Manfield if he can get an Elf into the graveyard.
Yeah, with the scar blade scout. If he just runs that out, hits an Elf, get two mana out,
but does he have a two mana play? No, it's not perfect, right?
You kind of need an extra black, a source of black menace.
Seth, understanding this, just choosing to attack here.
Still, he will have it set up for next turn.
Right.
And he can choose which two drop he'd want to play here.
If he plays the Iron Shield Elf, he can discard the Stoic Grove Guide to turn on the damage.
Right. And it protects you against removal.
And this could just do it automatically, and there it is.
Scarblade scout hits the battlefield and an iron shield elf hits the graveyard.
So five mana available next turn for Seth if he draws a land.
Yeah.
That dignitary is going to do a lot of work if Daniel could have been able to kill off that dignitary.
That would really hamstring Seth's mana production.
Does he have the ability to do so?
Yeah, it just has a cinder strike but can't play a creature here.
So with the cinder strike you need to be able to blight one
So probably want to get a creature out this turn if you really want to kill it next time this get to negative counters and pass
That's a Daniel. Oh ready to
Take on
Some damage here
Was that a narrow barc come there? Yeah, narrow barc elm starts in play as a 1-2
But of course you can remove the counters turn it into a 3-4 deal with the scar blade
And then you can maybe put a counter onto it to deal with the dignitary as well.
Yeah, so big turn next turn for Daniel, but in the meantime, Seth.
Oh, he's your champion for the perfect.
Oh my God.
That's amazing.
And that plays around to all of Daniel's removal.
He's got to feed the flames in his hand.
He's got a cinder strike, but he doesn't quite have the mana to kill it this turn.
Do you just run it out?
It's like, what removal can you have?
Boxlithers embraces the card that could potentially just kill it next turn
He's going for it here
Yep
Yeah
Probably now Daniel can double up though, right?
Cinder strike. Oh, excuse me. You're right. Yeah, absolutely right. Yeah, he can he can
And he exiled Graveshifter, so if it dies, he can still just get it back.
Exactly, but this also means that it's going to take up Daniel's turn worth of mana plus a removal spell,
and he's given himself the Graveshifter to get it back, and Seth just gets to keep his whole board safe.
So yes, Daniel has the answer here, but it's temporary.
And he won't be able to kill it again.
He needs to get the 7 mana.
But even if he gets a seven-minute, you need to get another minus one, minus one counter on the Norilbark Elm, right?
Otherwise, you can just kind of still kind of run through everything that you needed here.
And Seth also has that blossoming defense.
So presumably by the time he gets to Graveshift, turning back the champions of the perfect, and then that's just a loop in of itself, right?
You can just never get rid of it. But even if you did have a removal spell for the champions of the perfect, you would have the defense in hand.
Yeah, does he want to attack with the scout here?
Yeah, there's a couple of options here.
I mean, you can even just go with the Assert Perfection to just kill the Elm, and you can play a Two-Man Elf, right?
That is certainly an option here.
Get more damage through.
And then just have three creatures in play versus nothing on the other side.
So three mana.
Yeah this is big.
I mean you have two really good plays.
You can either Graveship for back your champions with the perfect this turn or you can go with
Elf each your Elf.
But the L is not that scary anymore because it only has the one counter.
It needs the second one to actually be able to kill the Scarblade Scout that's in play
or the Iron Shield Elf that you might play.
He's going to go for the Graveshifter.
So this is the bigger, more long-term game plan.
Yeah, and it makes a lot of sense too because if you think about it, Daniel's deck, how
do you win the first game?
Double rooftop percher, right?
Right.
You are at the point where you get to five mana.
If you play the percher, you exile the champions as a perfect.
And take a look at his hand.
Yeah.
Great call, Paul.
and he actually drew it for this turn.
He actually top decked it.
But Seth, only on two lands here,
feed the flames onto dignitary.
So Seth needs to go back to back lands here.
Bidraw land, needs to go back to back lands here
to run out that champion of the perfect.
Yeah, it's wild because Daniel very much picked up
on the Miss Land Drops there and said, all right,
well, I'm going to go ahead and aim,
aim, I feed the flames at your best mana source here.
I'm not on magic online, it wasn't gaining life,
but I don't know if it was bugged or not.
The creature deals damage. It was...
You should definitely gain life.
He gains life.
The creature deals damage, you can do its power stroke.
Yeah, it's not the... Sometimes you have the spell dealing the damage.
And in that instance, it doesn't work.
So, a little bit of a slowdown there for Seth.
He does get the Elm off the battlefield and gets to slam for five here.
So a nice turn for him, but boy another land off the top of the library next room would be amazing.
Yeah, and also just Seth is at 28. It's not like Daniel has a whole lot of pressure.
Seth has a lot of time to just get this loop going, and it's so hard to stop, right?
You go champions of the perfect. You just go champions of the perfect here.
On the Graveshifter again, and if Daniel finds another removal spell, you can just get it back.
land here. That would be really big. Not 100% necessary because you still have the ability
to attack with both your creatures, use blossoming defense to kill the 3-3 and still play an iron
shield elf. Land just makes things a lot easier because then you can just run out the champion.
Does not find a land so he's just going to attack with both. It feels like Daniel's not
really in the. Your thought to be able to just keep taking hits.
He's going to take it though.
Daniel loves using his life as a resource.
He does not want to let
Bostome defense ruin his day. Yeah, I respect it and guilt leaf
embrace. That would also be quite strong here. True.
Hey, Iron Shield Elf is the follow up.
And while Seth isn't hitting those land drops,
he's got a really good curve with his deck, right?
And he's taking advantage of that right now.
Okay, and that's a seer.
Great removal spell,
still not enough to kill the champions of the perfect.
But to be able to keep that up would be really nice
because if Seth makes another really aggressive attack,
representing the combat trick,
you force Seth to use the combat trick
and then you can sear it in response.
So Bone Club berserker makes a lot of sense here, right?
just because it's got it's four toughness.
So it does a really good job of blocking the elf.
Daniel playing defense here.
So a 4-4 and a 3-3.
And it's time.
And there it is.
A land off the top for Seth.
It is time.
Now if you're Daniel,
do you just see her the grave shifter
just so you can't get it back
and hope to top deck another way
to kill champions of the perfect?
Nope.
All right, well now champions is online set is at 30 life with two creatures in hand
It's gonna be a really really tough spot here for Daniel funny enough. He can't cast either
Right. Yeah. Yeah, but now he's in a spot where everything's a good draw, right?
Yeah, draw land you play a five four you draw card. Otherwise, you're probably gonna just draw a creature. That's right
Lowest on his list or combat tricks, but he'll take basically anything at this point
And Daniel thinking okay champions are the perfect as in play do I need to just start making some aggressive plays and
He actually top-decks garblades malice
So you know anything that blocks the champions of the perfect you could use the scar blade malice to trade gain a little bit of
Life and then make a two-two
That's a big attack
Six power now. Yep me given that you're 30 you can probably afford to just take it once
I'm just setting up for the late game here.
So this is just saying I will just continue to grave shift and just do this.
Right.
If the game goes wrong, it's really hard for me to lose with this.
I like it.
There is that fear, you know, that it's going to get nabbed out of the yard, but Daniel
had already tapped three lands to get the power higher on his creature so he knows there's not
another percher at this point at least. Given the fear of the second percher, Seth is just going
to do the same thing here. Play Graveshifter, get back to champion and what do you do when you're
on the other side? You're playing a Ractos deck with a bunch of removal spells but even then it's
just this loop is so hard to stop. One of the big cards that I can think of that Daniel could draw
that could perhaps win the game would be something like the Soul Emulation that he has in his deck.
This card is an absolute meeting.
It's basically just the one-sided wrath.
If you two-for-one yourself, you just find your biggest creature,
light three, all your opponents just,
basically almost all your opponent's creatures are going to die,
and they take the damage.
Four cards?
I do wonder if Daniel needed or needs to kill the Graveshifter.
right like how is he going to get through this combo because right now it's going to be hidden once again. Yeah.
And it's just hard to imagine that he could work his way through the champions of the perfect three times and still win the game. And he had to do for one himself
already once. And now he's got the protection here too.
Ooh,
Seth attacking here.
and Seth would, I guess, use Blossom in defense.
But you would also have to discard.
Look, Daniel continuing to take damage here,
knowing that basically his path to victory here
is multiple triggers off of this Goliath daydreamer.
Seth's at 27, Daniel's down to seven.
So is Daniel's hope here seared a champion?
Attack seared again and hope it works?
Yeah maybe so. I'll cast here on the 6-6. And if you're Seth you can just
blossoming defense to basically make it so you yeah to fizzle it so you can't
recast it again here off of the Goliath daydreamer or you just let it resolve
and blossoming defense after seer gets cast. But if you do then you don't have a
block. I mean you still wouldn't be able to block right because it would have
taken the four damage and it would be an 8-4. It's gonna blossom a defense
now. Oh, it's still done. Oh, okay. Okay. I thought it wouldn't. Fair enough. But if
you attack, you still can't attack target the champion, right? But Daniel does have
Scarblade's Malice, which gives your preacher's death touch. If Seth dares to block. Yeah.
Seth's at 27. He's not really incentivized to do so. Okay. This is still just such an
uphill battle here for Daniel. I mean he had a solid draw here but now Seth gets
to untap with champions of the perfect in play. Get that rooftop percher out
there possibly. Gain some life put a flyer to get in the way. Draw a card.
I'm going to go.
There you go.
Okay, 5-4.
He's the draw card off the champion.
Yeah, that's nice just because now it makes it harder for the daydreamer to attack.
Do I want to trade my 6-6 for your 4-4?
There's also a bunch of mana up for Daniel.
Ooh.
Okay, that's a 3-1? Yep.
So Seth is attacking with the 3-1.
3-1, 2nd, 3-1, 7-1.
Okay, I'll lock like that, and then for damage, I'll like, I guess, touch.
life link. Okay. Okay. Go to damage.
Let's discard this.
I gain 3 and I make a 2-2 off when my guy dies.
Good. Yeah, and now you get an attack with the daydreamer, right?
You can attack with the daydreamer, kill the 5-4,
and not risk losing your daydreamer here.
But he still has that fundamental issue.
right now this is a good chunk of damage coming in can Daniel muster enough
offense here where the inevitability of the champions of the perfect won't
quite work out he's gonna play a flaring
get out of the land.
I'm going to assume that each of the 15 is that, the 2-2.
I got the 3-2, you have the 2 cards.
Yeah, because a Scarblade Scout can attack and gain some life back.
I'll just swing with all of these and then cast Seer for free on your 5-4.
Okay.
Sorry, this is a 2-2.
Yeah.
So this is 9 damage coming in.
Yeah, it just says you can cast it without paying its mana cost for the second part.
Yeah, I mean the daydream of when it goes off.
Okay, I'll take it.
Second main phase, I'll play a bow group.
Oh, I didn't see that one.
Okay.
I think he got that off of the...
look at this I mean Daniel's just somehow positioned himself where it's looking pretty good.
I'm kind of surprised. I mean he Seth took himself down this path with that block of you know what I'm
just going to chew through your cards because I've got this recursion engine. Right. It is expensive.
Yeah because if you think about it if you play it the other way just play it defensively because
you know you have the inevitability maybe you don't attack right maybe you don't attack and you just
just keep playing creatures, then you can Daniel can't even attack with the
Goliath Dreamer, because you have so many big creatures in play, so this might give
Daniel a little bit of time, because look, if you take your turn off to play
Graveshifter into Champions of the Perfect, I mean sets down to 15 now and
Daniel's got 12-13 power in play.
Yes, Seth has a
Guilt leash embrace
Seth can only play one thing this term, which is a bit awkward here
Oh, you can make a two-touch sure and keeping up Don's light archer to ambush today dreamer, right?
It attacks, blocks, and also can potentially block the percher.
But I imagine you're going to be looking to ambush the Goliath here.
Now, if you're Daniel, you're like, wait, why would you just do that and keep up three mana?
You have to be thinking, you can be representing guilt leaves embrace.
So I like not attacking with the 4-4 here, Daniel playing this game beautifully.
It's like, what can you be representing at every turn of the game with the mana that you have?
I know you have a graveshifter in your hand, you didn't play it.
You clearly have something you want to do here.
And there it is, he did leave the Goliath back,
so really well played here for it by Daniel.
Second main phase, play, I'll just play out my hand.
Yeah?
OK.
All right.
Somehow winning the tempo fight here is Daniel Gechel.
Yeah, and that is what a 4-4 berserker at the moment.
There's a grizzled glutton and the berserker itself.
Oh, it doesn't, yeah, yeah.
Yep.
It counts other, but it starts at 2-4, so yeah, 4-4.
And then the grizzled glutton, theoretically,
will keep the action flowing here for good.
Yeah.
All right, so we're now on play of 5-4
and hope Daniel doesn't rip a good removal spell here.
Yeah, this is where Seth really just needs to turn off.
And this guy, okay, so this is gonna play
the wild wild dogger.
maybe maybe just attack with both you can use it as a combat trick here in
conjunction right yeah and you get to gain a ton of life back right right and
for curious seven with the bogger you can blight onto the bogger so that's an
on-board minus one minus one combat trick as well that's what I was saying yeah
you want to probably target the six four here I said target this and then he said
Okay, you can, yeah, I'll, yeah, I'll make it,
or anything for one second, I guess we're low on time,
so I need to do this really quickly.
You're at 17 life, yeah, I'll just do the, do it,
do this on there.
Okay.
Okay.
I'll block here.
Then.
Yeah, but the combatric doesn't work as it's a 5-4.
So even if you put a minus one, minus one counter
on the 5-4, it'll be a 4-3,
and still be enough to kill Eber's Riker.
That's four tough, five power.
Yes.
So just like this.
But again, this is Seth.
He's really kind of investing for the long term here still.
He's been doing that since about five turns ago.
Right.
But the payoffs will start to come online.
Ooh.
That is an assert perfection here.
What can we get off the battlefield?
However, there's still that onboard minus one, minus one.
You really want to kill the daydreamer,
but I don't think you have enough here.
I don't understand, you know what, I'll just take this trade.
11 life?
Yep.
How many cards, sorry, four cards?
Four cards.
Think for one second, if I block, you play the trick.
It's been a long match.
Daniel, aware of the clock here,
mentioning that in this part of the equation.
Yeah, you can tell he's a thorough player.
He kind of talks through his plays,
but he's still playing pretty briskly,
but this has just been a very
kindy pair of games that we've had so far.
Yeah, absolutely.
Seth has all the tools in hand.
Okay, and it's time.
He's gonna make a 2-2 here as well.
The problem here is you can't use a cert perfection
to kill the Bristleblood.
Right.
Right, so you can only use it to basically kill
the Flaring Cinder if you want.
Who cares?
Oh.
Oh
Did he know he just played at that turn right?
You know no no it was a term before it was yeah. Oh, no, you can't you can't you can't rummage no cards
You know but the cost is tap light one right right, but then you have to discard a card
Can you blight one without thoughts? I guess not
Not a goblin aficionado here, yeah
Yeah, lowest on my list, but land here for Daniel and now Seth is on the brink here of
coming back here with that champions of the purpose.
It's taken him a little while to get everything underway, but he wants to get a bunch of life
here.
Now Daniel really needs, so it picks up the counter, but it didn't take the damage originally
because of the indestructible, right?
And then we're going to see that same loop again.
And this feels like the turn that Seth kind of took this one back.
Right, absolutely.
Because now, I mean, Daniel did draw a Tweez.
He asked, you have one card in hand.
Tweez is good.
You get to rummage here.
He gets there, gets exiled, and then I'll discard.
Yeah, now you can cast Tweez again.
Then I'll go to combat, and I'm going to swing with these
and Tweez it again.
You take a seven.
Second main phase play all their auntie got a goblin. Oh and has blockers. Okay. I mean that was a good turn
Set the spill at 11 though
And that is currently a 3-1
lifelink her on set side
All right, just doing the thing. Yeah, I mean we've seen this now
He has enough man to do it how many times has that it hasn't even drawn him cards, but he's just it's drawn him one card
Yeah
But he could hear right he's got a rooftop percher already found a forest. Yeah, and now
This is where it's starting to fall apart here for Daniel he's still in this but
It's a much much much spot. This is like the
Yeah, if you hit the battlefield something like that. Yeah, and I mean if unless Daniel can find soul in elation
I mean Seth just spent like 17 mana over those last turns like that's going to be really tough to beat and in fact
it's too difficult for Daniel to overcome as Seth picks up game number two that brings us to game number three
the players were mentioning the clock there in the middle part of game two I would assume that it's a factor here
both players on seven
great back and forth that super awesome game and it really was set forth when
Seth made that initial block with his champion and said okay we're gonna play
this style of game yeah it took a long time and it looked a little sketchy but
he didn't win because of that yeah it is just too much to grind through a 6-6
turn after turn I think it actually came down five times right that's just
One, pass.
Great start here for Seth with the dignitary.
Chris and Gletton on the other side.
Might want to kill this dignitary if possible.
I did see a cinder strike.
So we can help some guys here.
Yep.
It's an elf there.
Follow us, wing for one.
Two.
Seth is going to take that one.
That way he could just cinder strike
without having to blight anything away.
That's cool.
Now, question is if Seth can just turn on the dignitary.
this turn with some kind of self mill effect. I did see champions of the perfect by the way.
Yeah, because that was the other thing that happened that game. Remember Seth was a little
bit light on mana and Daniel took out the dignitary and it became kind of a tempo game
from that point on. It just took another nine turns or whatever for Seth to win. Interesting.
Yeah, tweeze. Nice draw here to get that dignitary off the battlefield. And by the way Seth doesn't
have another elf here. So you can't even play at the champions of the perfect
next turn because there's nothing to fortale.
Or behold,
I guess you could just do the dignitaries. I'll just know if he kills it.
If it's dead. Yeah. Yeah.
If he kills the dignitary here, which I imagine going to with the tweeds.
Yeah. Trees also keep all my cards. Thank you.
That's also tough. Good.
Oh, and look at this. Yeah, champions the perfect but can't cast it.
Wow.
Actually can't play anything out of the hand this turn.
What?
Got four spells, but they're all situational.
Oh.
Yeah.
They require a creature.
They require an elf.
They cost too much.
That's just wild.
Daniel did not attack with the Mylvaal Bugger.
I'll run and try.
That's a respect to the Glutton.
counter for that so it's out. Swing for one. Yep.
As Daniel have another creature here.
Holder on team, make a one-on-one problem question.
Okay, that is a decent board now. Seth needs an elf here for champions.
Really an elf for us so far.
Nothing, look at this. Nothing that Seth can play.
He still can't cast me? No.
That's a combat trick and a bite spell and the best card in his deck, in his hand.
Go.
Can Daniel close out though? He has not been able to add very much power to the floor.
A shadow urchin off the top here for Daniel.
Excuse me, just three damage coming in.
He plays shadow urchin and passes.
So Daniel playing around Don's light archer there by not attacking with a 1-1-2.
Going, there's no way you have nothing you can do, right? You have to have something.
Yes, that is that is a safe thought from Daniel. It's not correct here. It is in fact four spells
And none of them castable and another land for Seth and another bite spell. This might just this is
Here now Seth if he does find an elf can still go champions plus a certain perfection, right? Yes, that does kind of get you back into this
Oh, but now with the sour bread on me. This is just around the stack
Whenever let me just read this card really quick. Any cards to your next and step can I just ask a quick judge question?
See we were all wondering this too. Yeah, this one goes until your next turn. Not your next turn this check.
Not only cast cards I tell this until the end of this turn. Yeah, that is correct.
Next step moving the end of your turn now. Okay.
Yeah, red cards are kind of finicky in that sense. Yeah, most of them give you a full turn cycle.
example, a card like the Kohlrath Zealot. You have a whole turn additional turn cycle the cashier spell, not with the shadow urchin.
Shadow urchin is built to get you these cards when you attack with it
During combat and then you second main phase get them back. That's kind of the idea
Double feed the flame cinder strike. Good luck keeping a creep
Yeah, I mean Seth is at least going to be able to go champions here and kill the urchin
But the champions will die and you will still take
Seven damage go down to one at that point can set a set even come back. I don't think so
He's got a few life linkers like a life linker plus a certain perfection is like a way to
Was it lethal right that's seven right
Yeah, he says I don't think I can do anything. He's gonna fall down to one for seven
So it brings you to rooftop percher into assert perfection. Can that do it? Can you three life something like that?
And he doesn't have it Daniel get you'll pick up the win two games to one
Overset manfield to start his pro tour off right
Knocks off the world champ very well played by Daniel funder watch that match
lots of on board stuff, lots of grinding, lots of decision making around what your opponent may have in hand, even if you don't know what they've got.
Yeah, I mean, just some truly high level magic from both sides. You know, it's kind of like a chess match. You're just like, okay, I think you have this.
Okay, I know you have this because of how you kind of kept up your mana and both sides playing that beautifully.
But Daniel just able to kind of push through right at the end. I mean, even that game too, that was an epic game too.
Both sides taking damage when you know you could maybe perhaps make the obvious block
We can see both cards both both sides of the battle field both of course they can't so I mean truly well-deserved win
Against the world champion. That's right really great stuff from the feature match area
And we've got so much more to bring you today
We've got the rest of our draft rounds before we transition over to standard in a little while
We are gonna take a short break here from Richmond. We'll be back with more right after this
and we'll see you next time.
Magic Spotlight Eclipse is coming soon, February 6th through the 8th in Toronto, Canada.
The spotlight main event has sold out, but side events will still be running all weekend
long.
You can attend, catch the coverage live on Twitch.tv slash face to face games.
Need a TLDR coverage highlights will be featured on magic.gg and play mpg social channels and you
can see the full magic spotlight schedule for 2026 over on magic.gg slash spotlights.
Hey everybody welcome back to coverage of pro tour lorawen eclips live from richmond virginia
where it is a frosty outside that the action is heating up here inside the building welcome to
to the news as Marie breath all the end money to booty hanging out with you and we are in
the draft rounds this morning of a brand new magic season so very exciting stuff. Why don't
we take a look at our feature pods and find out how our players are doing at our top three
tables in the room. Some results from round number one money. Yeah over draft feature
pod number one. We did see set man killer or any world champion take the loss to Daniel
get you in round one. I want to highlight Ian Rob fantastic season last season with
two rotor top eights starting off well again here at one and oh all right let's take a look at draft pod
number two and find out how things are going over there paul reidsel you can see got the w here in
this round i also want to call it lucas duco also one and oh that's sticking johnson one and oh as
well lucas and paul scheduled to face off next round and over at draft pod number three we do
see david englis picking up a loss as well as player of the year favorite derrick davis but it
But it was Tarik Patel and Andre Straski picking up wins in round number one.
All right, there's a look at our top draft pods here this morning.
Well, if you're watching coverage at home and you're wondering, how do I make it to
the pro tour?
Well, two of our players out in the field here have the secret answer.
It takes two.
They say that the couple that plays together stays together.
I am joined by Luna Easton and Matthew Wright.
We want to learn more about the two of you here this weekend.
Ed Richman, Luna, tell us how you two met.
So my first tournament, back to magic, after a five-year break, I played in a Star City
tournament. I was doing pretty well. Day two, I think it was the second round. I played against Matt in a
feature match. No idea who he was at the time, but he was playing Ami Latight and I was playing Blue Eye
Control. I remember he beat me pretty handily and during the match I remember thinking, wow, he plays
really clean. He's not leaving me any openings. Because you know a lot of Ami Latight players can be a
a little messy with the execution.
Yeah, a little messy at the execution,
but his plays were very crisp,
which is definitely a huge plus in my book.
Okay, okay, so you're cooking with the ambulance light,
which is a hard thing to do.
So kudos to you, Matthew.
Okay, Matthew, so,
when the two of you are kind of getting ready for tournaments,
because there's so many different ways
to play Magic nowadays and real life and everything else,
like what's the planning process?
As far as just like, hey, we gotta get ready for stuff.
I mean, we just try to play everything,
anything online, anything in paper nowadays.
Schedule can get kind of awkward, but so far it's been,
we've been able to manage it.
And I think that's just what we're gonna try to keep doing
and till something happens, I guess.
Sure, just like a healthy, like magic work,
life's style balance.
Beautiful, beautiful.
Okay, Luna, back to you.
When it's time to kind of get ready for tournaments
and you're thinking, okay, I wanna do this
and you gotta test, right?
So who are you testing with?
Is it exclusively Matthew over here
or are there other teams and players?
Kind of what's the strategy there?
So for the pro tour, you don't have a lot of time with the new cards.
I think specifically for this, the lore room for release is only like two weeks ago.
Yeah, and the cards aren't available online until like maybe a week and a half before the tournament.
So I think for a lot of teams, it can be difficult.
They might have to use third party programs to play.
But one of the pluses of being in a match a couple is that we get to proxy
decks and play in real life and we get to get a feel for the new cards before anyone else does.
So, you know, before we go to the testing house, we'll play against each other, get a lot of reps in, and then once we get to the testing house,
you know, we do want to like get some experience with different players.
Don't want to get too used to playing against each other because you do have to be other people in tournament.
Yeah, so we'll go play tests with other people and kind of like come together and share our thoughts with each other.
And we're usually like more or less on the same page. Okay, very cool. So, Matthew, back to you really quickly.
tournaments like this, you know, most of the time it's your friends that give you
encouragement and try to keep you level-headed. You know, this time it can be Luna.
What's that like with the two of you kind of working together and being in
tournaments and how do you support each other? So not only has being with Luna
really helped level me up as a player in terms of my in-game skill and play, but
it's also, it's definitely improved like the way I handle tough losses, the
way I handle having to play like very high-stressed tournaments, high-stressed matches, and it's
honestly just like been so great to have someone who's had all this experience and and support
me this whole way. So it's been great.
That's awesome. That's awesome. So now we're here in Richmond. You're both qualified, which
is fantastic. So I know there's a little story here where you haven't been qualified for the
same pro tour yet. Yeah.
So tell us a little about that.
Yeah, so last year, I played Pro Tour Chicago,
which was the first Pro Tour of the year.
I did not manage to re-qualify,
but Matt, he qualified for Pro Tour Las Vegas.
So we got to play tests with team TCG, which was nice.
You know, I love the testing house,
even if I'm not qualified.
But unfortunately, not turning,
he didn't qualify for Atlanta.
And then in Atlanta, I was playing,
and Matt was playing PTQs,
and luckily he won a PTQ there,
and I managed to re-qualify in Atlanta.
So then, you know, come time for this pro tour now.
This is the first time we've ever both been qualified
for the same pro tour, which is really exciting.
So you're both qualified finally,
can support each other,
color each other after each other surrounds
and talk about how we won, we're awesome, I lost,
please support me, sort of thing that's going on there.
But what are the goals for the two of you here this week?
And now that you're both qualified together.
Well, obviously the goal is just play well,
enjoy yourselves, have fun.
But, you know, we want to keep coming back to these events.
The best thing would be we both qualify for the next pro tour,
but honestly, I would be happy if even one of us qualified.
I love just coming to these events and hanging out
and just love to continue doing that.
And maybe if you get paired against each other,
maybe a little revenge.
Gotta get that win.
Maybe, yeah.
Well, Luna and Matthew, it's wonderful to meet the two of you
and good luck this weekend here in Richmond.
Thank you.
So cute Luna and Matthew from team TCG player hashtag goals.
Let's take a look at our next feature match.
Round number two is on the way.
We're in draft here this morning.
Some players who have been off to a rocky start.
Stay with Seth Manfield, the current reigning world champion.
We'll face Andy Garcia-Romo coming up.
Let's get to meet the players a little bit better.
Seth Manfield, like I said, the current reigning world champion was also the champion in 2015.
10 years apart he's still managing to take down these tournament 14-top finishes through his name and all
Let's hear some more stats from Riley
One of the best players in magics history Seth has an absurd
64% overall win rate the seventh best in the field plus six trophies third best four winstreaks sixth best and of course
four top eights, second best in the field by only Simon Nielsen's five.
Wow, incredible stuff there, set the manfield up against Andy Garcia-Romo on the boulder
team, great team name, was in the top 20 in the 2025 player of the year race, made the
two and six out of eight pro tours since the return to tabletop.
Let's hear some more stats now with Riley.
With consistent numbers across formats, Andy has two draft trophies and a career-best moment
when reaching the top 8 of Pro to a Final Fantasy earlier last year.
Those are our players here for round number 2, but what about their draft decks, Monny?
Okay, well, we're going to start with Seth's deck.
Of course, we had the pleasure of watching him draft it this morning, and the draft
was a bit awkward.
Seth got off to a great start with Champions of the Perfect, fantastic card, but as we
saw both pack one and three it seems like elves dried up to his right so he
was scrambling for playables his deck was saved in pack two when he got nine
elves in a row in his first time yeah that really brought the deck together so
if you look at it he has that overwhelming amount of elves that he's
looking for he has a massive bomb in canton's of the perfect but the deck is
still a bit awkward you do see that he doesn't have much interaction playing
two copies of guilt leaves some race is never ideal. Overall the deck is good but it's not
great. On the other side we take a look at Andy's deck. Now Andy ended up in Is it Elementals?
A bit of the same story I would say of course we didn't get to see his draft but this deck is fine
not amazing. Big highlight of this deck of course is Sunderflock that's one of the best cards in the
entire format so for Andy to have that one in his elemental deck is great but it
does still feel like it's lacking a bit of the quality that you're looking for.
Of course this is a pro tour pod so decks are more likely to look like six
seven out of tens than eight nine out of tens so we'll see how it plays out.
Well how is Seth feeling after the loss last round our feature match reporter
and Grace caught up with him before round two.
Everdon joined by Seth Manfield.
Seth, how are you feeling about your deck
going into round two?
And, God, he must have felt pretty good
getting those nine elves in a row in pack two.
I mean, I was feeling good about one out of the three packs.
I think my deck is like very solid elves.
I do think elves is probably the best archetype
to be in in this format.
So feeling pretty good.
All right, Seth, thanks for the time.
Good luck in your future, Mesh.
Thank you so much, Cannon.
Well, it's time for round number two
here at Pro Tour, Lorwin Eclipse.
I'm gonna pass it on over to Ailey and Corey.
Thank you so much, Maria.
Thank you, Moni.
I'm Ailey Lone alongside Corey Balmine.
So, and we have the pleasure of bringing you round two
of the action here at Pro Tour, Lorwin Eclipse.
We've just watched Seth Manfield take a loss unfortunately
in round number one.
Our featured drafter, reigning world champion,
up against Andy Garcia-Romo now.
Corey, what did you think about those decklists
as we sold the feature match?
Yeah, I think Moni summed it up pretty well there
at the desk.
Both of them look pretty solid.
nothing amazing but pro tour decks you know they just do not look like let's
say if you're drafting on arena and you get those nine out of tens style of decks
but I still would put the advantage here to set by a little bit as it just
seems a little bit more streamlined still has some bombs and a decent amount
of removal. Does indeed Andy Garcia Roma, pro tour Final Fantasy Top 8 was playing
moderate aggro in that and lost to the eventual champion Ken Yukihiro. Yep
I wish to win more. Let's get things underway here in our feature match. Andy Garcia Roma at the top of your screen up against Seth Manfield down below. Both players have an opening seven. They fancy. Swamp go.
though. Yeah, Sess hand with the iron shield elf for turn two is a great start, but really all
set that's really lacking is some extra pressure. So top taking another two drops here, straight away
as solid, but really just wants to start top taking clips, elves, and some of his five drops here to
put some pressure on and back up those removal spells. Iron shield elf up against a feisty spike
link. We saw Andy Garcia Rima packing quite a few of the changelings in there. Feisty spike link,
We also saw the mischievous sneaklings so definitely relying on some of those changelings that help fill out the curve of these decks
Yeah, Andy's deck is solid. You know, it's not really
Able to be categorized as like just elementals even though we have like the best elemental here in the format with thunder flock
Creature types are a little all over the place, but still a very solid deck as well
Yeah, you know, that's the that's the nature of these decks at the highest level of competition is you're kind of gonna take what you can get
And I mean Seth was second in a line of four green drofters in this pub, so that color was highly contested.
Yeah, and that's the thing, when elves is kind of looked at as the best color pair here, Golgaria is the best color pair.
You definitely get people fighting about it.
Oh yeah.
You kind of just pick up cards and just put the blinders down and start going for it here.
So Andy has a nice play here.
We'll see how this really works out.
You can block with the 2-1 on the 3-1 and then wait for Seth to discard, then try to aim another removal spell,
and force Seth to have to discard multiple cards or cast that Blossoming Defense.
So, very interesting combat for sure.
And he doesn't seem too interested in that. He does have the Tweez in hand.
I love that arc. It's my favorite I saw it.
It has tripled so hard.
Don't be stingy. You've got so many.
Yeah.
for a giant. That's gonna hurt. So, not interested in the block there, goes down to 12, taking
five from the two elves. The Lizalana Dignitry isn't soul ring just yet, as there does need
to be an elf in the graveyard. Now we're gonna see the Tweez take care of the Manadorc.
And this is nice for Andy. Andy did decide to wait to what looks like end step here that
did save him two damage but the blossoming defense here looking awesome. Yep blossoming defense
protecting giving it the buff as well as the hexproof that's a sweet reprint. Yeah it really is
and now Seth did find kind of exactly what he needed just a little more pressure the stoic
guide here off the top is going to be a great follow-up. Give auntie a kiss sour bread auntie
blights too if you do you get two gobbins fantastic card not interested in
the look of it oh and blight rock just being like oh you ain't got a blight I'm
gonna do it for you set minefield taking care of the 4-3 yep just double
checking with the blight on the stack.
If I, this is none of them are anymore,
but I still resolve the ability to get like two.
I'll still get the two in this.
Yeah, should be the way that works there.
So trading your two one for two one ones here.
Okay.
So this will die now, like two goblins.
Being able to have two blockers for the iron shield
to elf here looks great.
Seth isn't gonna wanna trade a whole card
for a goblin that it gets a little rough.
I mean, if you're attacking your 3-1,
your iron shield elf into a 3-3,
you're so happy to discard a card.
And when you're-
It's like Grove God, pretty good to discard one.
That is a good one to discard,
but it is also great to just have a 5-4 in play.
It's a 5-4.
There's a couple of little idiots
on the other side of the board there,
I said I could call them.
Just one one's hanging out.
So if Seth can deploy that,
you bet he'll be pretty happy too.
And when Seth looks at Andy's list,
there's one feed the flames
deal with a four toughest creature. Outside of that, you're able to bounce it with temporal cleansing,
something like that. But either way, it's going to be very tough to deal with those creatures when
they're on the board from Andy. So, Iron Shield Elf chucking that forest unless you draw a land,
we won't see Sturt Grove. Guy deployed next turn from Seth. Andy happy to block. The biggest
creature takes two, goes down to 10-0 and finds one of the best Murphur in the set,
Disruptor of currents, you know how many times I've been blown up by this card. So many
And same that card is so good stop touching my stuff. Yes
so Seth did make a very
Conscious decision there to get the three one into combat because if you don't and you just hold it back
You're able to deploy the Stoic Grove guide instead. We're gonna settle for
The end step archer. Maybe Seth was kind of hoping this goblin would get in there
and you kind of ambush block it but when Andy's at 10 you just kind of have to leave it back so
these elves hit quite hard compared to the little goblins yeah they do they do struggle a
little bit in this format our little gobliny friends yeah sometimes you really need those
uncommon in the goblin side but uh it could be extremely powerful bogart mischief i mean that
That's what you really want to be playing in there.
Four cards in hand, Disruptive Currents, Elder Auntie,
Mr. Sneakling, I see mana open for that, and Unexpected Assistants.
So there's another blocker able to get in there.
And the one good thing for Seth at least is if we attack with this archer and it
were to die then we have the amount of ability online
and then you can play your Stoid Grove Guide.
Yeah, there is that.
So, you know, I don't imagine Seth will be too coy with this attack.
You know, send the two biggest creatures, leave the dignitary back
and then be able to deploy the Stoid Grove Guide.
Yeah, I think the archers for sure coming in and it's just really is the three one
is the iron shield elf getting in there as well.
And, you know, trading a goblin, a one one token with a card that you're going to discard.
It's kind of trading down here in a sense, but oh, yeah
Also, we drew the scar blade scouts. That's a great card to chuck for the iron shield elf
Yeah, it is still a good thing to chuck but it's still trading your two to four your opponent's one one
But it's not having to
Yeah, you know actually tap mana to deploy the two. I'm happy he left the signature back
Because whatever way you cut it unless Andy really doesn't want to block and else gonna hit the R here
Exactly, yep. I think it really is just do you send in the iron shield elf with your archer or not and this is going to work out pretty well.
Yeah, it's going to be a sweet exchange here, especially with the five drop as a follow up for Seth.
Yeah, I think if Seth's getting in there he's priced into discarding the scout, second combat, playing the stoic grove guide, and now Seth is firmly ahead and he's either going to top deck, you know, a great card off the top, or if it's a land or something like that, that's just fodder for the elf.
That card is so annoying to play against. That is for sure. Just me a Donto Vanguard
box. Yeah, it does. That was another one reprinted in X-Lon. Excuse me, Lost Caverns of X-Lon.
I think what his name was though, but it was just the 3-1.
Seth knows a decent amount about X-Lon. Yeah. He could win that pro tour.
That's when I started playing Magic. Yeah, I just the one time, whenever you go to the top
You always get a plus one and I was sess plus one for that
And the only way I'd be playing kind of on the Sunday stage. It's quite fun. It was very cool
Nice start grow guy getting in there disruptor of currents doesn't like what's happening
So gonna bounce that back and a 3-3 on board now for Andy Garcia Romo
Who's developing quite a board state here with the elder auntie hitting the battlefield as well
Yeah, and he's definitely catching up here
you're stabilizing this battlefield quite well.
Oh, but the champion off the top was a heck of a draw there.
Hello, would you like a Beast Whisperer?
Anytime a creature spell, any creature spell
is cost draw card and then able to bring back
whichever creature is exiled with it.
Champion is perfect, a nice little callback
to Imperius Perfect from way back in the day.
just a phenomenal draw though where Seth has you know just to redeploying the
5-4 the Stoic Grove guide looks excellent as when we were talking about Andy's
removal there's really only feed the swarms to deal with that card as far as
six toughness Andy just cannot really get this card off the battlefield
besides one temporal cleansing and then Thunderflock pick it up that's
definitely gonna be Andy's best card in the matchup in any matchup let's get
real. I mean that card is phenomenal. It's really good. I mean in an ideal world Andy
is the aggressor in this match. He's the beat down and he's got Seth at, I don't know, eight
life. That's not how it's going at the moment though because when Sun and Fluck hits you
really just want to finish off the game there and then. But in this point it's kind of just
a band-aid on the situation. It really is. Yeah and just the fact that Andy's deck is
not just streamlined elementals. You know I mean we see some goblins, we see some airpugs.
We see all kind of stuff, so it's not going to be that just one sided you pick up all your cards type thing and
Also, Thunderflock is not as good in limited as it is in constructed because a lot of the changelings do not leave the battlefield
Yes sticking around so that is very true. We might be seeing some flocking going on here in the standard rounds here later
perhaps perhaps
Shadow Urchin, drawn there of unexpected assistance for Andy Garcia-Romo.
Forest and Stoic Grove guide in hand for Seth.
So now really Seth's main decision, you deploy the Forest. Oh, there it is, okay.
So Seth's choice, do you kind of play the Forest and then the guide to leave open your 2-3 blocker
or tap that and kind of see what you draw. But either way, the main focus point of this match
has definitely changed as Sunderflock's in hand and that's going to be huge for next turn.
Nice. Off of the cost trigger. Seth gets to draw. Thanks champions. He's going to get Frisky here.
Six power can go pretty much uncontested. So just going to make a chump lock here from this poor
little goblin and the turn passes back to Andy. When it was just about to get picked up with the
the Sunderflock and easy Chumplock.
Yeah.
And now with Sunderflock about to come down,
bounced all of Seth's creatures,
and Seth can redeploy them, but.
Yeah.
So how cheap is that now?
It's three less, so six mana.
Just enough.
And he gets two of his best.
Two of his best enters cards, back to hand.
Yeah, you gotta hate that.
Yeah, that is very, very strong,
being able to bounce the Disruptor.
Now that just means if Seth goes champion into a two-drop, which is kind of going to be his best draw.
That may not be good enough. The Assert Per Perfection though, off the top, could actually be decent.
Yeah, against the Sunderflock, definitely. One of their owns doesn't have 4-5-5.
The thing we really need right now though is a 4-power creature. Like the Archer that already went to the graveyard, that would have been perfect.
play that, immediately bite down Sunderflock, but as it stands, Seth will have to deploy
a couple of creatures, say go, and we know Andy is able to do some bouncing with the
other rare that we just picked up, the Disruptor of Currents.
So, Seth might just be a little too far behind.
It is certainly feeling like that at the moment.
Andy Garcia certainly has taken the reins in this game, has a 5-5 flyer, has a convoked
threat in hand to be able to bounce anything that he doesn't want so
so perfection just got in credit like way worse and we did just see you know
starting 02 at a pro tour at Worlds those things you know not ideal no we
did just see Seth win the event after starting 02 at a draw so definitely not
impossible for either of these players even if they do pick up a loss it's not
none familiar position for Seth to be on.
Son of luck in for five. Seth goes down to eight.
The airways are clear for Andy Garcia.
Here comes Elder on T back once again, mana available still.
It's not showing as it's in hand, but I'm assuming that the
disruptor of currents is in hand there.
Yeah, yeah.
Of course, when you are playing stuff, getting picked up.
Not always the easiest for the hand spotters, but yeah, that should be that last card in hand.
There it is.
Hey buddy.
Iron Shield, Elf doing a great job on offense and defense now.
That card is just so tricky to get through in basically every stage of the game.
And when Seth is playing a bunch of Stoic Grove Guide, discarding those early is always a nice little combo.
Yeah.
Doesn't like his chances in his matchups.
Seth is gonna go to game number two and you gotta see it picking that up there with an overwhelming roll board presence
Yeah, and that was the case of Seth drawing his best card at a very opportune moment the champions of the perfect
But then Andy drawing his best card and the Sunderflock is just kind of that much better
Then basically, you know 90% of
Limited rares and mythics here. It's just so incredible
We start things off the same way we did in game one with swamp go far astound now for Seth Manfield and iron shield elf back on the table
It's like Seth took a mulligan here to six
This is just a reaping of game one
But now especially when you're mulliganing and you're on the plot on the play like this is something that Andy would actually consider
For a block here
But besides not to
Yeah, just try and, you know, disrupt the hand and make your opponent disrupt his own hand, basically.
Yeah.
So perfection in the yard, you hate to see it, but that is the price you pay when Scoreblade Scout hits the board.
Still solid follow-up, it's not very much need to land forward to be able to progress the battlefield in a meaningful way.
The embrace of phenomenal card, but not something you want to fire off on any of these now three creatures.
Yeah.
It's the one thing that goblins is really good at it's going wide.
Yes.
Yes, you've got a tramp or a flying.
You're going to have a hard time getting through these elves.
Excuse me, through these goblins.
Yeah.
And a blossoming defense off the top is okay, but definitely not amazing here.
We see the tweeze in hand, so if Andy tries to cast that proactively, maybe Seth can get
some good value off of it, but right now, Seth is just thinking, do I not use my mana
at all?
Yeah.
be mana efficient and limited if you can help it or do I just fire off this
embrace on one of these medium creatures when it's Seth's best removal spell
where Seth only has four removal spells in total and he just milled over yeah
one of the assert perfections as well so already down to two left in deck
a little uphill battle here for our reigning world champion Andy Garcia
Romo in a pretty good spot has a way to draw some cards thirst for identity a
way to affect the board state, lofty dreams too. You know what I said about having flyers
is good against goblins, well, when they fly themselves. Yes, give goblins some wings,
a very scary thought. Now, Andy, only on three lands though, so. Struggling a bit there, but
his hand is gas, as soon as he unlocks it, it's go time. Oh yeah, lofty dreams is just a card
I've lost too, so often. Yeah, me too. Get the draw card, you get to convoke it out. Yeah,
really strong. Convoke adds an extra little wrinkle into you know combat
math. She's pretty fun especially if you're playing as like Merfolk. It's like
oh they're tapped out. No they're not. They're never tapped out. Yeah Convoke is an
awesome mechanic. I love it. Whenever you can just have one of those beautiful
turns where you curve out, tap all your creatures to Convoke out a big spell you
know. You just feel big brain. You do. Yeah. Flanshame Mauler lofty dreams,
search for identity. I think it might be time for that to try and find some lands here at some level 10,
but it is tweez that Andy turns to first killing the gangly stumbling.
And that's great. Discard one of your so-so cards in the 3-4 changeling. Try to find land 4.
Finds it. So kind of everything coming up Andy here so far.
And a rough start to our reigning world champ for sure.
2.18 goes Seth, turn passes back to him now, what does he find? Scarblade Scout, okay,
that alongside the blossoming defense, you don't hate that too much.
Chuckle from Seth has two Stoic grow guides, back to back.
things over here has been called. Yeah.
When you draw two cards, it is great for free, but when it's just two, two men, two
twos that get Thunderflocked away, it's not as ideal. That's for sure.
All right, looks like we are turning those sideways and we're not in combat. So that means it is time
We are growing. We have lofty dreams attached to the cool
arithmetic. Just a huge hit for six. And now says patience and
not firing off that premium removal of the embrace is
actually going to be pretty nice. But now it'll be kind of the
case of are we too far behind it? I don't think so yet.
No, not just yet. Like if we can get this flyer out of the air,
which I yeah, there's no way that Andy will be able to respond
to that. Yeah, so if we have, if that hand is accurate, I know we cast a scout. I'm not
sure if there's another one in hand since there's one in play, one in the graveyard.
So if he does have three, so if there's a third, you can play either a scout or do this,
make a 2-2 from the yard, blight onto that 2-2, and then at least attack with a 2-2 life
linker and being able to, you know, catch yourself up a little bit. Life link does really help
in a situation like this. I like this play and then having the iron shield elf back as defense
for the first striker. It's pretty neat otherwise the flame chain moller can give itself menace
two blockers left behind to be able to deal with that too. So things stabilize. Stabilizing for
sure and it really does feel like Andy's deck while it is you know I would say a more average
Is it deck maybe that six or seven out of ten type thing?
You're always kind of on this timer where once you do find the Sunderflock the game gets flipped so quickly
So set is going to be encouraged to still be a little proactive and try to get the game done
Even if it means he's risking, you know a huge crack back
From the other end just because eventually that's going to be a game
Sure is there's a couple of spells in this format when they resolve it is lights out for you
Yes, there's that there's soul emulation. I've died to that so many times. Yes
The format has just been an absolute blast though. I must say it has been fun. Yeah flamkin deal weaver hits the board now makes a treasure
Pretty decently size threat chair for Andy 4-3 with trample
Okay cleansing doesn't like this
Second from the top or ball
Yeah, bottom of your hands. We kind of just need some bigger stuff. That's really needs to find like his champion champions of the perfect would be kind of ideal right now. Just something that outsizes everything that has well gaining him card advantage.
And you know, a format of 66 top so bad. All right, blight rot. There's a piece of removal. So that's going to have to pick a spot what he wants to get rid of with this.
Little spell. He is a little eye on those, like you mentioned.
Yeah, now Seth has an interesting decision. You can attack with your 2-2s into your opponent, 4-3,
kind of use blossoming defense to like kind of 2-for-1 yourself.
Not ideal. Or you can just Blightrot, leave a forest open, kill the 4-3,
or just say go and try to react solely on what Andy does here.
Yeah. I don't hate it. If I see Spike Link thirst for identity in hand, so as it stands,
Okay, unexpected assistance.
You know, wait to draw some extra cards there for Andy.
Maybe find a way to deal with whatever Seth throws at him in this combat phase.
Yeah, and most of the time with Blossoming Defense, you just want your opponent to essentially blink first.
Yes.
Cast something to do something proactive, and then you have that to really fight back.
But in this situation set this so far behind, there's probably going to have to be like,
If you got a removal spell you have it. Here's a blossoming defense on my life linker at home for the best type thing
Island and mountain drone there for Andy. Oh
And a disruptor of Perrin's though. Oh man. All right. That's what we didn't want to see is from set start
Yeah, a third island there too from Andy. So able to
Have the ability to cast this
and we'll see and yeah so Andy looking this is sorcery speed so no matter what Andy knows
there's something up yeah set has the face-up play of exiling the other one in the graveyard
to get a 2-2 it's only a sorcery though so he doesn't have to worry about that that's
what Andy was checking yeah yeah yep yep so that's just telling Andy like no matter
what you have something to do with your mana since you could have used that yeah
so now the fact that this is a first striker your double block is reasonable
but it still looks pretty awkward and looks like this is gonna be kind of a
blob for Seth as he's gonna go for it and Andy is a hundred percent price
priced in to disrupt this with the current so sure is and that might be
absolutely too much here for a reigning world champ does have the blight to be
deal with the 4-3. So there is that no damage taken in that exchange so Seth came out of that
better than he could have. Yeah it was still just as close to a 2 for 1 as it gets so you know and
now Seth is kind of just thinking like all right you can't really have anything or I'm gonna lose
the game so Seth will play in such a such a way that the last two cards in hand basically have to
to the lands.
A third perfection and these scar blade scouts able to take down the flyer, excuse me, able
to take down the Murfolk and gain some life in the process.
Yeah, big deal.
Nice draw there for Seth.
Now the unexpected assistance will be pretty solid trying to find some more action here
from Andy.
So we have a 1-1 and a 2-2 on Seth's side of the battlefield on the other side of things.
We've got the 2-1, the 2-2.
Urchin now hits the board. This is a sweet, sweet card to really take advantage of the
blight counters. Yeah, absolutely. And just, you know, three mana, three, four body ends
up being pretty good. It's supposed to be an air quotes downside to have to blight when
you attack, but there's a lot of decks that can utilize that to make that an advantage.
And it's the coolest creature name.
Yeah, there we go.
There it is.
In with the feisty spikeling now.
A double block.
Would kill it.
It definitely would, but you boost the life linker.
And the life linker is definitely more valuable
than a first striker during your turn.
Okay.
Another gotcha spell in Dawnline's Archer.
4-2 with Flash, able to catch a couple of birds, if needs be.
Also a good blocker for that shadow, Erchin, if Andy decides to get in with that.
Seth just laughing a bit, being like, well, I'm dead.
Whatever your opponent is already ahead and casts a card draw spell like that.
You just, you never like your chances, that's for sure.
But we'll see what Andy picked up.
Two mountains is a bad start.
Card advantage, good.
Yep.
And then Mountain, just two cards in hand.
I think there's three or more.
So hand getting updated here as we speak.
And OK, there is the Cinder.
Flaring Cinder, not a bad inclusion in the elemental decks.
Certainly not the one you'd want to have in the three-drop slot.
Yeah, no, that card is perfectly reasonable.
And just getting, you know, I mean, three other lands is a lot.
But being able to loot away one of these lands, not so bad.
right there with the urchin.
Don's light archer gets that off the board.
Keeps Seth Manfield's life to live 13.
So definitely a scrappy game so far,
but Seth is hanging in there up against
Andy's card advantage and getting the
auntie off the top there was huge.
And he's trying a new recipe and I need some
taste is he got a great auntie goblin voice.
Thank you.
Would you like to taste the wares?
No, no, no.
Is there only a couple of hares in there?
So, Red Auntie brings her little friends along with her.
Spike Ling, the Moller, and the Flaring Cinder on board.
Another card advantage engine,
or at least a way to make the hand better
if we have some formata spells
Andy side of things, Dream Caesar and Graveshifter
in and in there for Seth.
Where do you like to do this?
I think I like just Graveshifting to get some value back here,
even though it's not ideal.
The 3-2 Flyer isn't anything amazing.
Because just discarding one,
you've got to figure Andy has at least one land there.
If it was just one card in hand, I like this play as well.
But at the same time, Andy's battlefield is a lot of too toughness creatures.
So at least Seth can do a decent amount of trading.
But nice.
All righty, finding the stratosaurus, one of the basic land
cyclers in the format.
This game has just been all about the fact that Andy has had some nice card advantage
to able to leverage discarding all these extra lands.
I mean, Andrews are way more in the men there.
Yeah, Andrews are way more lands than Seth.
But that's the advantage of blue versus, um, you know,
something powerful like go Garry Elves is you just have card advantage.
I'll play.
All right.
How does Seth dig himself out of this hole?
Champions would be nice.
Even then.
No, the be all and end all.
Yeah.
Need something to follow that up with, you know,
and try and get a couple of cards in hand himself.
Start by digging yourself out of it with a grave digger,
the grave shifter, a playoff off that classic card.
Poor Lord by the percentage.
Yeah, but no matter what, that's kind of probably
helps us feeling at this very moment.
This card's usually bringing back champion of the perfect,
those kind of like really powerful things.
Eclipse to elf, that's a card we haven't seen.
Yeah, I need to get one.
So Seth gets the archer back, you get to play a land and then make a tutu from the yard.
And now we have a decent amount of blockers, but at the same time Andy also has a really
strong battlefield.
This might definitely be a classic turn everything sideways that can at least trade for a tutu.
So maybe leaving the goblins home.
Kind of just say, alright,
math is for the blockers here.
And he's certainly in the spot where
he can apply the pressure.
He has the air air force air power.
The stratos aura ready to rock and roll.
No. Meaningful air blockers right now.
Just the dream Caesar.
Yeah, just a two one chump
locker at some point and oh,
that's a card. I think I got a glimpse of it.
The roaster elemental, double striker, I could go around.
Yeah, that card looks really great right now when you also have your blue, red, white, and black.
Yeah, everything for green, so a 4-4 double striker here is going to be pretty devastating.
And Seth just like has one removal spell left in his deck to deal with that.
Alright, Andy, at right now, not super interested in deploying it.
Let's do the attack part first so we have menace and plus one on the mauler first strike on the two one
Just a two-two in the sneakling and then the three four in the air auntie's getting in there, too
Yeah, basically everything that isn't going to create card advantage leave the
The cinder back as that card it will just be able to loot away some lands if Seth does start to claw back into the game
So love this attack
I love not playing the creature proactively too because then you really want to start killing the creatures
that have the off colors to get the blue-black changeling out of there as well as our first striker.
Yeah. Andy, not giving away any information unnecessarily. Seth Manfield's now deciding
where these blockers are going to go. And the Mahler is brutal because you can just keep pumping
that up. So normally a three-two menace creature getting double blocked by two tutus. A good exchange
for the two twos but when you get to crank it up to four power and it's a natural two for one
that ends up being that's a great car that's a that that is the two drop you want to be
drafting and uh in these formats you know something that you can use your mantle with at
a later stage there you go gives you some evasion and also lets you block you know a little bit
more efficiently against the bigger threats yeah a solid creature in the style deck maybe red just
isn't as powerful uh as maybe is all the other colors so maybe it lacks a little bit in that
Department
Manfield goes to six
Couple critchers off the board and that was a huge cost for Andy having to pump that to not play the four drop
If that is indeed what I saw the squawk roaster
Don't tease us like that cards
Hell yeah, so now anything sense able to double deploy those
But the problem is the archer also just does not take down the flyer
So right now this Eclipse stealth has to find something you have to gain some life here to gain yourself an extra turn from the 3-5 flyer
And then we just have to find a way
To eventually take down the 3-5, but yeah looking at ses yard
I actually think he's just out of removal spells. He might be because he's used blossoming defense. That's a pseudo combat trick
Yeah, I see two assert perfection in there. We've seen the embrace and the blight rod already cast
I don't know if you draw off to two dawn lights archers, but that's one way to do it
Yeah, the greatest way to do it. So only one in the main. Yeah, I okay. I guess we just have a flyer
Yeah, there's rooftop percha rooftop percha with the archer combined, but that's a
That enough are we done so here
No don't don't lights archer gets in there blocks the cinder in for five
Yeah, to three go set
To where die time. I find anything to deal with this. He does not
There's just nothing in the deck to deal with the two flyers. Oh
And you are C. Romo a thunder flocking his way to a victory here up against a manfield who falls to oh and to
not the spot you want to be in for the world champion, but not any possible spot to come back from.
Yeah, and I mean, we just saw Seth do it not too long ago starting out to and then winning the tournament.
So we know it's possible to be done. Andy's deck looked really nice.
I think we're gonna be seeing a decent amount of games and with Thunderflock as well.
Both in 40 cards and 60 cards. So yeah, nice job to Andy there.
GG's Andy. We're gonna take a short break. But when we come back, we'll have the last round of limited for you friends.
So don't go anywhere.
The Magic Limited Championship is a brand new special event coming in 2027, a competition
that brings limited to the center stage.
You can qualify in 2026 at Limited Championship Qualifiers, LTQs for short, held at regional
championships, spotlight series events, at every MagicCon event in 2026, and an MTG Arena
through the new 2026 Arena Limited Championship Tournament Structures.
Invites are also given to the current world champion, the top 16 drafters in the 2026
play season, and Hall of Fame members can use their one yearly pro tour invite at the
2027 Limited Championship.
details to come so keep an eye on Magic.gg and the PlayMagic social channels for the latest news.
I am all in on that limited championship. Hey everybody welcome back to coverage of Pro Tour
Lauren Eclipsed here from the frozen land of Richmond, Virginia. We are in the draft rounds
this morning. Welcome back to the News Desk Merbeth Holy and Manny de Booty. We have one round of
draft left here on the first day of competition in a new season of Magic
Pro play. So let's check in on our top pods and find out how the players are
doing with pod starting with pod 1 Monty.
Well Maria this was our featured draft pod and Seth Matfield was our featured
draft but he's at 0-2 playing for the pod. The opponent that defeated Seth Daniel
Getchell is going up against a snake for the 3-0 trophy.
Alright rough start there for Seth Matfield. How about our next pod? Let's check out who'll be playing to the pod in this case.
Take a look. Lucas Ducco will be playing against Anthony Lee. Anthony Lee, the captain of Team Cosmos.
Happy play. Lucas Ducco on team Rapid growth. Happy place. The question remains to be answered. Who will play heavier?
And over on pod 3 we do see David Inglis at 0-2, but it's going to be Nick Talbot of Australia
going up against Terrick to tell my countryman for the 3-0 trophy.
There's a look at our top draft pods with one round of draft left to play here on day number one.
Well, one of the biggest accomplishments in Pro Magic Play is winning the title of Player of the Year.
I had the honor of convening that title upon Ken Yukihiro last night.
Pro Tour players and viewers around the world, welcome to the ceremony honoring our 2025 Player of the Year,
Ken Yukihiro. In just a moment we will present Ken the trophy reflecting his
superb season but that trophy is of course the Kai Buddha Player of the Year
trophy named after one of the greatest players to ever sleeve up a deck who
sadly passed away recently. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember
the titan, the legend, the German juggernaut, Kai Buddha.
Thank you everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Joining us today for the trophy presentation
is our interpreter this evening, Joseph Lease.
Ken Yukihiro has nine top finishes
with his first at Pro Tour Avison restored in Barcelona, 2012.
Top eights at Pro Tour Eldritch Moon and Amonkette followed
before rivals of Ixalan in 2018,
Mythic Championship five in 2019,
Players Tour Nagoya in 2020,
and the Mythic Invitational in 2020.
But his most successful season is, of course, 2025.
He reached day two at all four events.
His excellent 10th place finish at the first pro tour
of the season, pro tour Etherdrift,
would turn out to be his third best of the season.
He followed that with his signature victory
at pro tour Magic the Gathering Final Fantasy.
And he ended the season with more standard success,
reaching the world championship top eight
to end the year on top.
Ken, on behalf of the whole Pro Tour family, congratulations.
Thank you.
Ken, what does it mean to you to be player of the year?
Yes, congratulations on the player of the year.
How was your reaction to the match against Yukihiro when you won the tournament?
I knew that I was close to the player of the year from the tournament.
So I thought that I might be able to become a player of the year.
Yes, I have been thinking about the award before the World Championship. I knew I had a pretty good shot at it.
But when I found out I got it and I wanted it, my first reaction was like,
man, I'm so glad I kept playing magic all these years.
It is an award that every magic player dreams of.
And that was myself as well. I was so happy.
Ken, do you have a message for your fellow players, your friends and family,
and your fans around the world?
First of all, I would like to thank my family who supported me from a young age,
and my family who supported me from a young age,
and my friends and colleagues who helped me grow and walk with me.
I would like to express my gratitude to my family, who really supported me as I was young,
and I really dreamed of and committed to becoming
a professional magic player.
Additionally, I wanted to give a huge shout out
to my friends and fellow players as I moved from Fukuoka,
Wakayama in Tokyo, who played with magic with me
and really helped me grow as a player.
Finally, I wanted to express my huge thank you
and gratitude to all my fans who supported me
through all these environment and life changes.
And there were serious moments where I was not sure
whether or not I would be continuing playing magic,
that everyone's support helped get me through those moments
and here right now.
So thank you so much to everyone.
What's there a point when winning player of the year
became a goal?
And what does it mean to be in the company
of such incredible players,
including fellow Japanese stars like Shota Yasuoka
and Shuhei Nakamura?
Hi, players of the year are,
I think they've gradually started to see reality
Do you have any goals for that?
Also, what do you think about the legendary players in Japan,
such as Yasoka and Nakamura,
and the legendary players in the team?
Yes.
While I was doing the magic in Japan,
I was doing it with the players who were in the Play of the Year.
It was a show where I was able to find things that I could do without being able to do anything.
I was very happy to be able to be able to be with such legendary people.
I would like to be a great player who will continue to aim for what I have in mind.
that many people can't ever imagine reaching or dreaming.
It is such an honor to be able to stand here today
amongst all those other legends.
And not only am I honored,
I hope that I can live up to those high expectations
and standards set by everyone else.
But again, thank you so much.
Everyone, please join us in welcoming
Magic's Player of the Year from Japan, Ken Yukahiro.
Congratulations once again to our Player of the Year Ken Yukihiro.
Well, before we get into our next feature match, I just want to take a moment to make
sick motion for the fashion here at the news that's money this bow tie you're
wearing is excellent thank you I just really wanted to embrace the greenery
and beauty of Lorwin with just a little taste of green and of course I want to
match my co bestie at the deskie yes absolutely green here for Lorwin and
thank your grandpa for that tie for me will you I absolutely will take a look
at our next feature match here final round of draft on day number one for the
POD, POD number one, Daniel Getchel will be up against Abe Schnee, both players currently starting off the tournament exactly where they want to be at 2 and 0.
Let's get a closer look at our players starting with Daniel Getchel here.
He has a mox and arena championship top 8 to his name, so no stranger to doing well in online play.
On a Grand Prix as well back in 2019, giving him three top finishes.
Tournament goal, win at least one match.
Mark, are you one, two?
Let's take a closer look at Daniel Getchel's stats with Riley.
With four draft trophies
and a 50% constructed win rate,
Daniel is a very strong contender by the numbers,
especially with three win streaks and a top eight as well.
There's a look at Daniel Getchel,
but what about the opponent here?
Abe Schneig, he'll have to go up against
for the trophy here on day number one.
Abe's been playing the game for a long time,
sort of playing in 1993 qualified via season performance.
No top finishes to his name yet.
Goal win the throw tour while you are certainly off
to a good start, Abe.
Let's get a closer look at those stats now with Riley.
Abe made three out of four day twos all recently
in the 2025 season, along with one draft trophy.
Abe also has an impressive 58% win rate on day two.
So it's on Saturday, things start to look all.
And those are our two players here for round number three feature match, but what decks do they draft Monty?
Okay, well, we're going to start by taking a look at Daniel's deck
And this is the Ractos Goblin's deck that we didn't get to see him draft
But we saw him play against Seth with earlier on in round one. This deck is pretty good
It has a decent curve
You'd like a bit more on the two-saw if you could but the big highlight of this deck of course has to be soul emulation
One of the absolute best cards in the format and getting the job done so far for Daniel on the other side
Ape snaky is a green white
Mostly Kithken deck two copies of the thought left in you are there
I'm paying you off for being heavy into Kithken, but we do also see a
subtle
Vivid sub theme happening here and a copy of Bridget's command as well as Aurora
just some of the cars that are really lending themselves to the power of the
stat. This is going to be a cool one to see on camera. How is Daniel Getchell
though feeling ahead of this match? Tan and Grace had a chance to ask it.
Daniel, you're about to be playing for the 3-0 seat here with a black-red deck
in draft. Now is that an architect that you generally like to be in or are you
kind of surprised by how well it's doing for you? You know I'm happy to be in any
tribe but I will say I tend to like the just guy colors the most and like black
I can green the least, not by a huge amount.
So, you know, a little bit in between my comfort zone, yeah.
Well, Daniel, thanks for the information.
Best of luck.
Well, he might be out of his comfort zone,
but he might just win the pod.
Let's find out.
I'm gonna pass it on over to Marshall and Paul
with the call.
Yeah, thank you, Mira.
Welcome back to the booth here at Pro Tour Lorena.
Clips, Marshall's here with Paul Cheon,
and it's time to put a button on our first draft of the PT.
that would be our third round being finished
when we're done with this one.
And then the players will turn their attention to standard
to see how the rest of their day goes.
But this is an all-important match.
Make no mistake about it.
Getting a 3-0 out of your draft is a huge step
towards a deep finish in the tournament.
And we have Daniel Getchell versus H. Snake here.
Both started in 93.
That's, maybe they thought it said,
when did magic start?
That is a long time ago because I started after that.
And you're extremely old, so.
I feel like I'm older than both of these guys, but who knows?
At any rate, we've got two top tier players here seated
and ready to battle it out against each other
for that three and oh start.
Even just getting the two wins,
you got to feel some sense of relief that, you know,
it didn't come off the rails
on your very first section of the tournament.
As it stands, though, an interesting matchup
between the two Daniel with more of a mid range version,
you know, it has to be said,
we've seen a lot of mid range in the feature match area.
That is kind of how this format tends to play out.
That, but you know, sometimes goblins can be
one of the quicker decks if it's a certain build of it,
but in this case, that's not it.
It's, it's once again, a kind of a grindy version.
Also Daniel a, he's a careful player, right?
We saw him play around basically everything against Seth
in round number one and that paid off for him as he picked up the win.
Abe on the other side of the table has a more typical build until you kind of
look at the top end right. It's a Kithkin deck. You see the two colors there
from Abe signifying that he's in Kithkin. He's gonna play wary farmer. So this is
all kind of what you would think but then he has this like huge top end on
this deck with a bunch of kind of mega payoffs at the top. Yeah we're looking at
couple of Prismabashers and an Aurora Awakener, one of the stronger green
mythics that you can be playing and yeah I mean typically when you think about a
Kithkin deck you're thinking about a deck that's trying to curve out, beat people
down and just kind of end the game as quickly as possible. This is kind of
more of a mid-range strategy in it. I mean that's kind of the thing with this
format. I think initial impressions coming in. A lot of people are thinking
maybe this would be one of the faster formats. You have Kithkin being
represented. You have Murphill with all the convoked. You have Goblins which historically
has been an aggressive archetype, but that's not how the format's been playing out. It
feels like Midrange is the name of the game. We've seen several games already go to 20
plus minutes in the game one mark, and it feels like it can certainly happen here as
well.
I'll go to Lance, steph and Serebel.
A goddess Curva started a little late, but the three and the four were both pretty nice
here.
One of his two thought weft imbuers, that's been a very impressive card, although we do
see that Daniel's pretty well set up to survive an onslaught of a single attack from a huge
creature.
He's already got three goblin tokens that could soak that up.
Yeah.
Combo's really well with the common crossroads watcher because that one has trample, which
actually allows you to trample through some jump lockers. But Daniel, let's see if he
does have access to some removal. Cinder strike, unfortunately, not able to kill the viewer,
but he does have a couple of copies of the feed the flame, which would be a clean answer.
And with the bile vile bugger, you could potentially set yourself up and, you know, maybe two for
one yourself here, right? Because you can use cinder strike with the bile vile bugger
to kill the 05 if you want. Daniel's going to choose mana efficiency, at least for this
turn and go for the eclipsed flamekin. It's not maximized in his deck as you can see he's primarily
goblins but you know a two for one is a two for one and it usually will find you a land at least
some of the time. Yeah given given if you're putting this in your Raktus deck you're probably
going to be skewing a little bit heavier in your red mana maybe play something like a 9-8 split
with nine mountains.
I'm second. You have only cards left?
I have five.
That's what Daniel has.
I'm second with the sour bird.
Abe can't block with the 0-5 here.
Because there's an active fireball bugger.
Before damage, I'll light there.
I'm going to get a card of mountain
with the minus one counter there, draw a card, and then no pass to me.
Daniel's just doing your job, Marshall.
Well, just gonna stand out and get out of his way.
This guy has a future in the booth.
Play a rooftop perch here, exile both your cards, go to 23.
Also, I really appreciate, you know, you can hear both players very clearly
announcing their cards and what they're doing, what they're targeting.
Yeah. No confusion.
Right, and that's, you know, not really for our benefit, we'll take it,
but it means that when you play, there's so many fewer times
where somebody goes, wait, I thought you said this or, you know, and, and things have to
get unwound or fixed. I really appreciate that from both of these players. It is a key part
of playing magic, especially at this level.
Looks like Daniel lining up in heirloom on T here could even potentially get in for a
decent attack here. I mean, even if you attack with everything, the, and then never mind,
looks like a cinder strike here on the percher. I'll cinder strike so I'll
blight here so it dies and I'll trigger my auntie to surveil one counter.
Yeah, auntie becomes a 3-3 here.
I'll grab your bats. Now you can freely attack it with a 0-5.
I'll swing with these. Block auntie, take 5.
Yeah, this is the downside to the 05.
Generally, it's joined by a whole bunch of creatures.
And only one of them needs to get turned sideways.
So it means attacking back can be very difficult.
But Daniel's got enough removal to kind of whittle that board
down to just the imbuer.
And that doesn't mean he gets a decent attack in here.
Here is, however, where a card like the Prismabasher.
You're going to play it here.
You're going to play a Prismabasher through these.
And I'm just not even.
Not.
I'm just not.
This is just a colossal dredmaw, folks.
That's funny.
You have two cards, or three and three?
That is not a common play.
Right.
Just Prisma Basher, only two, no attacks, you're moved.
But 6-6 on this board is going to do both.
It is good.
You can't really attack through it, right?
So now, I mean, Daniel can make the play here of,
all right, is it time to kind of go to the skies here
with the percher?
Or, I mean, you could play at that Bone Club or Zercher, which
is going to be 12 or whatever.
Well, or something which would trade with the Prisma Basher.
I'm going to just play a bone club berserker and then I'll pass to you.
And even if the sides attack with the prismabasher, you can happily trade if needed.
By the way, Paul, you've angered Chat.
What's that?
You said, just a colossal Dreadmaw.
Throwing big shoes.
There's a little change.
Time has changed.
I like the pronunciation.
This is interesting.
You see that combination of the endure plus the clock and festival.
Now we see a wave shifter which is yet to be another.
Because the enchanting town's to this is 11
It's 11 yeah with trample so now Daniel going you know do what I like 14 power I think
There's no way you can just throw everything in front of you you can put the berserker though, right?
Yeah
3 4 5 you should have enough here. That's a just about 14 power
Will Daniel rummage not rummage
Okay trigger the auntie so get a surveyor here
Really want speed the flames. Oh that was that was the flames
So that can kill the imbuer right and shut off these huge attacks
because you can see that Abe has a nice set up with the festival there.
Right.
Even if he doesn't find anything in the next couple of turns,
he can just start dumping mana into it.
Yes, now you can feed the Flame to 05 and perhaps make some decent attacks here on top of that,
especially with the four power creatures.
Exiled 05.
Perhaps even the 2-2 as well.
Sure, I'll swing with bees.
It's a big turnaround.
Huge.
Feed the flames off the top there.
And Daniel didn't have a ton of answers there for the Prismabasher as it sat, so being able
to trade off one creature for it was kind of a big win.
I'm going to activate, so I put a negative counter here, then discard this, draw a card,
then I'll go to damage.
Yep.
And then I'll trigger my own onto to surveil, I believe that triggers so much deck manipulation
you get to surveil and you just don't like you're just going to be in four lands the
whole game if you want right with all these triggers and that was another keep on top after
draw as well from Gatchel so I have 12 to 13 I had the same year that was our scorekeeper
Scorekeeper just checking in there on that.
Ooh, what an interesting draw here from Abe, though.
Bridges to command.
With that rooftop percher, you could,
I believe he has a man to play the percher,
copy the percher, and then also fight something if you want.
Seriously?
That's a big turnaround here.
Wow.
Wow.
That's rooftop percher.
Yeah.
And you can tell by his voice, that's just the beginning.
Yeah.
Go to 15.
Gain a bunch of life, now you're gonna have a pair of 3-3 fliers here.
I'm gonna play a Brigid's Command, I'm gonna copy rooftop percher.
And I'm gonna have rooftop percher fight your aggressive.
Oh, that's a bunch of... Sure.
Sure, so when it dies, I'll trigger...
I think I already know where it is.
So... Active player, non-active player.
So I have to choose my targets, but this is already dead.
So I'm gonna exile it, and you're feed the flames.
Sure.
And then you also get a Surveyor.
Able to gain three more life.
That card is still good.
So two three threes in the air.
Gain six life and kill the Gristlegun.
Yes, and got all the relevant cards out of the graveyard in case that mattered too.
Yeah, curious what Daniel kept on top here.
Probably a removal spell.
Oh, it was just a Scarblade's malice.
Can make an attack here with the 4-4.
18 to 13 right now.
I wonder what he wanted to mean.
Not that it's bad, but right?
It's hard to call it good.
I mean, Abe's at 18 now.
Tack with the man is super awkward though, right?
Because if you play the malice this turn,
you can't play anything else out of your hand.
Right.
And second main phase will play bone club.
This will, by the way, swing the life total life
race though, right?
Being able to have Scarblade malice on bone club
is really is huge.
Maybe that's what Daniel is interested in.
It's a it's currently a 10 power creature.
I wonder Brian.
Oh, that's a great way to shut down the berserker,
but Daniel might just fire it off this turn.
Now, remember, it does have plenty of chump blockers available
now with the clack in festival.
That's in play.
That's right.
Five man to make a one one.
Kitskin.
Another awkward manna situation here.
Does Daniel go for the life game this turn?
You can also just cast feed the flames on the flyer, right?
If you want to just kind of keep that at bay because right now that's a two turn clock
You kill the three three all of a sudden it becomes a three turn clock
Yeah, and then if you can get any type of big hit in right though
I will say if Daniel feels that the massive life game swing is
Something that he needs to have and would advantage him he may just need to go for that
I mean it would just be one man a game
Right turn that down. We we kind of talk about that in theory, right?
If you were to pay a mana and a card, how much life would you have to gain to actually play it?
12 is getting there.
Because this is the window, otherwise that
Trapper, you know, can just keep that thing at bay and you won't ever have that opportunity to get such a huge amount of life in one swing.
Okay, this attack feels like he's gonna go for the malice, but yeah, definitely.
Yeah, but this also opens up an interesting one where if the trapper were to block maybe you just
Use the mouse to kill it right now. It can make a token here that token and definitely getting in
I think that token is going to just get in front of the two four excuse me the 12
Then maybe just get in front of a 1-1 or perhaps jump the 4-4 if your game plan is to just try to win with your flyers, right and
and preserve your life total just take the little bits of damage from the 1-1's
into 2-2's and just try to stay at a high life total so I can see that also
being an option. Also if you trade away a goblin Daniel does get to surveil.
Yeah this is a big question for Daniel. This is the window. Yeah like you
mentioned now with the with the bone club berserker likely going to survive
maybe it's just better to be beneficent here use the feed the flames to kill the
three three and just be happy with this trade
I mean it has no cards in hand yeah the feed the flames looks very tempting now
Yeah, I feel like you will go for this on the flyer
He doesn't have to do it a damage then but
These two trade you take six and I get two surveil triggers. Yes. Yeah. Yeah once you get that trap off the battlefield
It really does change
Cuz now you figure you can get a big enough life total swing to
Daniel once again is facing down one of these huge creatures. There's another Prisma basher
in the list for Abe, right?
Yeah, yeah. And now I mean, I do feel like this Carblyde Malice will be very good though,
right?
Yes.
I mean, it's going to have to trade with this 7-7 trampler most likely.
Everything is just going to like block, block.
You're at 8.
Yeah.
Walking us through this thought process.
And if you're an ablic, can you even afford to play around Scarblade's Malice?
I don't think so.
Can you not?
I mean, I imagine you can put the changing wayfinder on the Berserker.
Right.
And then you put the 7-7 on the 4-4, then the Scarblade's Malice hits.
You still get your 2-2, you gain 4 life.
game for life and all of a sudden you're still just looking at a 3-3 versus the
packing festival. Did you know that you did that? I don't know if I should say anything.
Am I gonna block? Yeah, yeah, you can go to block. I see the little smile. Oh look at this.
Yeah, I mean he's hit eight. Okay. He's gonna try to kill him. Does he have to
still just go for this to gain a million life? I'm sure he does. He's still got,
Remember, there's still another percher too there, right? So he's throwing three that can't be blocked plus seven trample
Yeah, Abe
It's asking it out because there's also a lot of damage based removal that Daniel has in his deck, right?
It's not just
Scarblade's malice, malice, it's you know, cinder strike cards at that
4, 5, 10. 10 lands, okay.
So there's two creatures per turn.
You don't have to gain infinite life, right? I mean you could perhaps
play the Shadow Urchin, give that death touch in response to the attack.
And just gain 3 or 4 or whatever.
Right.
I mean how?
All right, he's committed to this.
Give lifelink and death touch to my 6-4.
It's only 6 damage now though.
You'll gain 6.
So I'll take 4.
You'll gain 6.
So I have 4 to 10.
Then Shadow Orchard comes down.
Second main phase, I'll play Shadow Orchard pass.
Okay.
It's a lot of toughness.
Yeah, and Abe does have mana to make two tokens off the festival here, too.
That's right.
While still being able to attack.
Like how is Daniel gonna get through for these last four, even if Abe doesn't finish
him off?
Yeah.
I guess the question is like how aggressive, because Abe's at 4, do you just keep everything
back this turn?
Because what if Daniel draws a removal spell, then if you draw a removal spell to kill one
of the tokens, then you only have two blockers, you block the two biggest creatures.
Okay, he is getting aggressive here.
I believe an instant speed removal spell would be the game for Daniel.
How about a swamp?
It allows you to play a rooftop percher, which means Abe will no longer be able to attack
with his.
I mean I still feel like you probably want to attack with this, well the Berserker, how
big is it right now?
It's a 6'4"?
Okay, so it wouldn't even, I get, you could play the percher first and then attack for
8.
Right?
So now it's 8 for the Berserker?
Right, which means Abe can either chump block but just keeps it back here instead.
Okay, and two tokens though, I mean it now it just feels like the longer this turn game this game goes the better
It is for aid. Yeah, is there maybe another second Prisma basher? There's something that would be nice
Pummeler for higher. Wow, that is a very good. That is huge. I mean and by the way, what are you gaining seven life?
Yeah, you're getting seven life the biggest power among giants and it's a reach creature and it has reach
And you get enough mana to make a token here.
Right, it's half your mana.
What a turnaround.
That is a nice rip there, Frade.
I do.
His library has been kind to him, right, when he needs to.
I mean, he was already in a decent spot.
All right, put you to 7.
All right.
But now, this could be maybe backbreaking.
This is a snake.
A puddler for higher, gains 7.
That's brutal.
All right.
And you're up, and it's a land off the top for Getchel.
Yeah, and at this point, I mean yeah, how is he gonna get out of this?
He's gonna math here, but the thing is none of these creatures trample you can still you can just act block for a one one
With a one and he's gonna make another pin and that felt like the turn when it got away from Daniel Getchell. Absolutely
He really needed something that turned it to try to retake
And now Daniel probably more incentivized to block the rooftop percher, just because
you don't have a way to get through the reach creature anyways and Abe's sitting at 11.
How do you come back from this point?
Abe just has the superior board, more life, and the manacing can play.
And Abe's fine with just sitting back at this point.
What was the spell of some kind?
I mean, every turn that goes by, it gets a little worse for Daniel, even if Abe doesn't draw anything.
Just give minus two, minus two, zero, two, one, plus two.
Yeah, just make sure.
Lower the vivid count, right, as the spikling counts as a red card.
But at this point, if this vivid card comes down, it's going to be real rough.
Prismabasher number two, by the way, he's already played one this game.
Yeah, so 11 so it was on 12 lands here for 11 in play one in hand
Remember Daniel does have soul emulation in his deck. That's right. That's true. That is certainly an out
I'm just going to cast
Trees on your copy sure, and then I'll discard this small card
He's digging digging but can attack through the reach creature in pummler for hire
Do we have nature kiss good?
Yes, Abe says bring me all of your Kithken tokens. I'm going to need them.
We might need to start bringing out the dice.
I already made one.
He does also have, by the way, two copies of Timid Shieldbearer and a second copy of Thought Weft and Beaver.
So if he draws either of those cards, he can just go wide and just close out the game.
That's right. He still has the trampler
Meanwhile Daniel just digging
Yeah, to kick it and he's even getting close to pin or make three
If he and if he draws a timid shield breaker by the shield bearer by the way, he has enough men in a double pump
Oh, really? Yeah, and that would probably be enough right? I think he's
Almost every land. I have eight one one kick it. You're at seven. That's so much
much. You don't have to, you need to make a good block here, which you can. You can make
a good block here, and you can block just a couple of those.
It's going to wait for you one more turn.
It's impossible for you to do more.
I agree.
Second Klikkon fest.
Oh no!
Man!
And then two more tokens.
Yeah.
We can cast a Flaring Cinder.
Oh, okay.
He's trying to hit the emulation.
He doesn't have the mana for this turn, though.
Right.
Pass my turn to you.
And a turn tap out for two more.
Sure.
So this is seven blockers?
So is this the time when he can just send them in especially with the 7-7 trampler? It feels like oh
Is that an imbuer that wasn't in pure and just attack with the 7-7 trample right? Yeah, or five six seven blockers
So you got to make good luck here six blockers
Multiple blockers here five blockers maybe four or blockers kill yeah, okay. That's good enough. I think go to attack
I love that attack from Able and I also love that he's kicking. This is the more aggressive route, much more likely to get the job done.
Daniel says something like that.
I mean he very clearly wrote it out for you.
I did the work for you, friend.
Daniel saw a lot of lands in the lake, and he was able to get rid of them, but he still
just couldn't turn it around into one of his key spells, and in the meantime, those
Clackin' Festivals took over.
If you're going to flood out...
Yeah, well look, Daniel's playing a deck with a ton of interaction, a bunch of removal,
and guess what's good against that card?
Clackin' Festivals, right?
Look at this, and more of a mid-range start here again, Shimmer Wild's growth.
You can name a third color here, and then when you get that pummeler, excuse me, Aurora
waiting her in place, you can likely do it for three.
It's turn two.
Yeah, he's still got quite a bit here.
You could take the shimmerwild growth, possibly, or the greaveshifter.
the rim spell. Yeah. Basically, he's just saying if this game goes long, I'm not
going to do it, but I'm going to try to prevent that from happening. And that does
slow down a lot. It does make sense here. Turn four berserker, you got a removal
spell, you can kill the small things. So, oh, I can test the hold. I hidden three
drops. Okay. Just a very farmer, you know. But even if Abe draws a land, he can't
anything next turn unless the card in his hand is a four-dropper, a three.
So that's a Berserker go.
Dave needs to string together a few lands here, okay.
He does.
Oh, he drew a prisoner-bassher.
Yeah.
So he's just got seven drop, a six drop, a five drop, and a four drop.
Yeah.
Daniel here. Do you just is your only play? Just Cinderstrike beat down and hope you just yeah can't play your pummeler for higher.
I mean, it's kind of the line he chose right now when he took the ramp spell away. He's just like I don't think he can afford to play too carefully this time.
And if you look at Abe's hand, he technically has a four right now, but he can't cast it right. But if he hits a land land like every land he hits every
Land is more action.
Yeah, it's going to get.
Oh, great, right?
Maybe just strike onto the Elm.
Hit for two.
Now just swing for two.
No much.
OK, Abe's had a comfortable 20 life here,
and Daniel just has no place.
Is there a land here for eight?
A land would be huge.
He's got a five, a six, and a seven drop in hand.
This format has produced some really great games.
It's very on the board creature based stuff that leads to
these really great standoffs that we've seen.
Bridget's Commander or something? Yeah.
I'm like, the only card that would make
Abe think for this long is a Bridget's Command.
That's funny.
So I was like, okay, it must be.
But he's just a little scared of playing it into.
Like Cedar?
Cedar, Cumana.
I feel like if there was a Cedar,
Daniel might have just used it though.
You don't have anything else to do this turn. That's the issue, but you're just kind of all in
He's going all in
All right, he's funny. He said well, I hope this works and it will
Yeah, that works excellent
Saying what we all think when we play you know just cross your fingers right cuz it's like you said like he knows this
This could potentially go wrong, but it's unlikely to.
Right.
And if he keeps this, it's a land.
It's got to be a land.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, tough spot here for Daniel.
Another land.
Goodness sakes.
Both players flooded in game one to be fair.
It's just Abe had the man of sync.
Daniel was able to sift through a lot of his library,
but he's confined to anything.
Relevant.
So we're going to see probably land pummler here.
or a really good forward drop.
Yeah, it's a neat.
Yeah.
And at 17, I think you just block and just,
if you have a trick, you have, OK, no blocks.
Game of plays around all of it all.
You're just so behind it.
Yeah, you got to soak it up.
This is a spot where you have to block.
Right, you got to soak it up.
So you have to sack your guy.
So it's like kind of fine.
Want to play this pummler?
4, is that a different consideration?
Oh, he's thinking about soul and elation.
Right.
Yeah, so if he draws that he does get to wipe the board,
because you can blight 4, and then it's a 3 for 2.
And he's saying a 3 for 2 is something I can accept.
Right, especially with that Awakener in hand.
Right.
He got rid of the clock and festival, but the card's on top.
And now we're going to have to use a cinder strike here
on the pummeler most likely.
Yeah.
That does still give you the out to have the emulation to deal with the 3-3s because the berserker would still have three toughness
I'm gonna send a strike. I'm gonna pay for a ward and blight on my guy. Sure
Then
Swing from attack you're not blocking at the 1-3 right and this of course lets aid know
That the way is clear at least currently right
It attacks. Yeah, six six coming in. Oh way you find her
That's big. Now you can get a swamp and you get two surveil triggers and then
that lets you play the Graveshifter. You get the third color type with the Graveshifter
then the Awakener can do it can go even more and he did not surveil. He's just
passing the turn he said. Okay so he missed the surveil trigger. I don't think
it's gonna matter that much because a land Aura Spell would be good in this spot
but yes certainly could have surveilled.
Yeah, take every advantage you can absolutely
No, and he found forest and he's gonna go with prisoner bastard. Yeah
To be a two plus two plus two worry for yeah, that's a green and white permanence in play
Okay, one of them gets killed
It's still enough to get the job done.
ApeShake picks up the victory over Daniel Getchell
with his big Kithkin deck.
Yeah. Right? Normally they tend to be
one of the more aggressive decks in the format, probably the most aggressive.
Load of the ground, lots of creatures on the battlefield.
But instead this was more of a late game build here from Hade with
some you know two sixes and a seven. They came in really
Andy as well as the Manisynx from the Clackin Festival getting the job done.
Yeah, I mean Abe just finding a different kind of approach to this archetype.
You know, honestly, I've drafted a Kithkin. You know, when I first drafted the format,
it was great. I had all the low things and I was just killing people really fast. But,
you know, that won't necessarily happen anymore. And during the draft, you just kind of have to
adjust and Abe's going, you know what, I don't have to be all in beat downs. I can just go for
the lake and I have all these powerful cards and he made it work. He really did. And you know,
You know, when you have a clackin' festival
and making two creatures a turn against the removal deck,
you feel pretty good.
That's gonna do it for the draft portion of our day here.
We're gonna take a short break,
but when we come back, we'll be transitioning
over to standard.
Don't go anywhere.
Magic Spotlight Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is happening March 6th through 8th in Richmond,
Virginia.
There is a Super Shredder with art by Chris Seaman for all participants and a foil version
for the top 128.
Need a TLDR?
Need a TLDR?
Covered highlights will be featured on magic.gg
and play MTG social channels.
And you can see the full Magic Spotlight schedule for 2026
over on magic.gg slash spotlight.
Welcome back to coverage of Pro Tour.
Lorwyn E. Clips here from Snowy Richmond, Virginia.
There's a look at the convention center
where the tournament is happening this weekend
and a peek inside as players mill around,
waiting to head to their next round.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the new thus
Marie-Brettholdy and welcome Cedric Phillips to the news
bed.
Wow, thank you so much.
It's wonderful to be here.
We're so excited to have you.
Thank you.
Well, Cedric, since you're here,
we might as well put you to work.
Walk me through these feature pods.
How did our players go?
Who got the trophy for each of these tables?
Well, if I must.
All right, let's start with our feature pod,
Rating World Champion Seth Manfield,
a tough start to the tournament at 1 and 2.
But Abe, Snake, 3 and 0 with a Kiskin build
with a little splash of black in there.
Now you will note around this pod,
there is a lot of green in this pod.
Green is kind of the consensus best color in the format.
And some players like Abe and Ian Robb did well
with green in the deck, two-in-one.
Others, Hoffam, Seth Manfield, Jacob Nagrow, not so much.
So even though green is the best color,
it can support a lot of drafters.
It doesn't mean that you're instantly gonna win.
Taking a look at this second pod here,
my three-oh is the Duke, Lucas Ducow,
who we had a little fun interaction at the last pro tour.
He started off very, very poorly and he said,
you didn't talk to me at this pro tour.
I need you to talk to me at the pro tours
because every time you do, things go well.
I forgot we had this interaction.
He came up to me yesterday and he was like,
hey, what's going on?
He's like, you need to talk to me.
It worked.
So he's three and O.
So in a small way, I guess I helped.
I don't know, he's really good at magic.
That's probably a lot to do with this.
Take the credit.
As far as another three O is concerned,
let's take a look around the old Ben here,
Nick Talbot who I had the opportunity to chat with
on yesterday as well getting the three and oh very very nice start new to the
pro-tour scene but very very very happy to be here and let me tell you there's
no better feeling than starting your first pro-tour with a 3-0 in draft I
remember my first pro-tour it was an 0-3 in draft so getting that first win is a
huge big deal but get a second and third one I got one in my first you got one
win yeah in my first draft nice yeah yeah just getting that first one on the
board it's really tough good but once you start doing that the ball can get
rolling it for Nick. He's off to a wonderful start. Alright, well let's check in with some
of our big teams here in the building and find out how they're doing. I would draft
here this morning starting with team TCG player Manny. Alright, well taking a look at the
team TCG player roster here as you see them on your screen. After draft, not bad. Two
players getting the trophy, Matt, Naz, and Hall of Famer, Yadmiss, Eve. New comer to
the team, Taric Patel lost playing for the trophy in his pot, but still happy with the
2-in-1, and Matthew Wright also 2-in-1, but not the best draft record, as he says so many
1-and-2s for Team TCG player.
Cool.
What about Team Handshake, Cedric?
Well, they are off to a really, really nice start, and we will take a look at some of
their records here in just a moment.
Most notably, Stephenscher, who's starting off with a 3-0 record, Carl Seraf as well.
But I want to put a little bit of attention on Eli Casiz, who had a really, really interesting
deck as well, and is off to another 2-1 start.
And welcome back, Nathan Stoyer, the destroyer.
an incredible goblin stack, one of the best I've ever seen in the format.
There's only a loss to a little untimely mana screw, but 2-1 grinded out a very close win
in his third round to get that 2-1 record.
Let's check in with Team Moriama Japan, including your current player of the year, Ken Yukihiro.
How did we do in draft this morning?
Check it out.
Three players managed to 3-0, including Ken Yukihiro.
Let's go, starting off the tournament.
Undefeated, you'll love to see it.
Alright, and finally, we are going to take a look at Team Cosmos' heavy play.
One of the powerhouse teams here on the Pro Tour, and how did their draft go?
Well, three players getting that trophy, Luis Salvatto, previous Pro Tour champion, as well
as Jack Potter and Christopher Larson, Anthony Lee, unfortunately lost playing for the trophy
against Lucas Ducco in feature call 2, Bahavir Dominguez, and him as well as Ian Robb, still
looking great at 2-1.
But what about all of the teams?
Oh, we'll check in with them later.
First, we're going to talk about standard.
Because we are out of draft this morning,
we are shifting our focus to standard
for the rest of the day.
Let's take a look at what sets are in standard,
though, Monnie, remind people at home,
in case you're not aware, it is a huge format.
Yeah, standard is currently in the three-year rotation
format that we've been seeing.
And the development of it has been really interesting
as we do see standards spans all the way back
the Wilds of Eldrain, plenty of sets in Standard now, I believe 14 is the current count, and
Lorwen Eclipse, of course, the most recent coming up just under two weeks ago, and now
featured here at the Pro Tour.
And of course, we do have to take a look at our standard metagame coming into the weekend.
The big question was, what percentage of the field are going to be leading on Badger Moldt
Club?
And it turns out just under 45%, but that doesn't mean we have a stale format.
There's a lot of variety,
civic and bat rhythm all the way at the top.
And the big question this weekend is,
did you bring the cup or can you beat the cup?
I love that.
Well, we will answer it before the weekend is over.
Well, coming up this round,
we wanna shine the spotlight on a spotlight series winner.
That is Alexi Polo who talked to us yesterday.
I am here with Alexi Polo,
the winner of Spotlight Liverpool with a really good deck.
Is it cauldron?
Tell us about your journey to winning that championship.
So I played cauldron the first time in World 2023
when no one was playing it.
I played the CB cauldron, which was a way different deck.
I think it was pretty good, but didn't catch up after that.
So after that, I went ninth, didn't qualify for the APT
and took me, so two years to qualify.
I had taken a break and after that,
When I saw Paulo Vitor playing that deck at Protor Final Fantasy, that deck is crazy.
Then I saw the band list, that deck was as untouched.
And I saw like, yeah, this deck is insane.
And I basically played the deck since the bands from Final Fantasy Gertrion, etc.
And I think it was really, really good.
I played it a lot, like 200 matches probably on Arena in paper, yeah.
So I was very prepared for the tournament, very confident.
I had a pretty special list playing Ops, more like a spell based.
I think it was really good in the mirror and pretty much carried me to winning that event, I think.
Well, you certainly did win and it sounds like the deck that you played, your version of it, very good.
But you can't play that year.
Yes, I'm very sad about it.
So, it might be a little more difficult, but I asked, you know, what's your expectations coming in this weekend?
had that deck that you crushed everyone with, so what are we thinking here in Richmond?
I think playing something similar, I'm playing lessons. I like it a lot. People think it's
bad but it's weaker and I won't say bad but weaker because not a lot of you are playing
it. I still think it's really, really good and I'm really good with this type of decks.
I think I can beat every deck that's new deck with Thunderflock or the Cobdex. So I'm
pretty confident. I'm pretty confident in draft two. So I think I can make you pretty easily
and maybe even you qualify.
Okay. Well, we know that you know your way around. Is it strategy?
Yeah, you've proven that once before. We're going to see if you can do it again.
Yeah. Good luck this weekend.
Thank you.
You could be here if you win a spotlight series.
Easy.
Just win a spotlight.
No problem.
Easy.
easy easy dump well he made it look easy I'll tell you that I'll tell you that and
guess what you might even play against the Hall of Famer let's take a look at
our next head-to-head here with the feature-mass area for round number four
Alexi Polo who we just heard from will be up against Yellow Hat himself Gavna
Seath isn't lessons versus Demir control let's get to meet Alexi Polo here a
little bit better certainly starting off three and oh this is very first pro tour
congratulations Sam won nine in a row to win the Liverpool spotlight series
Let's take a closer look at his statistics center
You can certainly dive in nice little start to this tournament of course starting 3-0 in draft defeating Tom white
That's Nick Winsauce on Magic Online to get the trophy
So again, especially in your first pro tour getting that first win getting over the hump taking that taking that deep breath big deal
Picking up two more wins. You don't expect to 3-0 a draft
But if you can of course your tournament is off to a wonderful start
But now this is where things started to get tough one because did I bring the right construct it back?
But two, the opponent.
Yes indeed, the opponent none other than Gab and the Seas himself, 16.
Top finishes to his name, two Pro Tour wins in 2005 and 2009.
And you might know him better as Yellow Hat if you watch his streams.
Let's hear from Riley Malpho, Captain Seas.
10-D twos from 11 starts.
Seas Gabriel end up with a 66% day one win rate.
The Hall of Famer has four draft trophies,
full win streaks and exceptional win rates across both formats.
Well, I'll tell you what, if I was Alexi Polo right now, I would be pretty nervous despite
my great start. Let's find out how he's feeling. Tan and Grace check in with them before the match.
Interview. So, Alexi Polo is bringing lessons, of course. Lessons was the story of the event
at the World Championships, the breakout deck in the hands of his opponents team,
team TCG player, but for Alexei, he's really still saying that this deck has a lot of power,
and even though the rest of the format seems to have caught up, he's happy with that this
deck tries to utilize Monument to Endurance, as well as Artist Talent, alongside this very
robust lessons package that tries to take advantage of Grand-Gran and set up your graveyard,
and have powerful spells in order to really grind your opponent out of the game using
immense card advantage.
On the other side, Gabneseef no longer playing a lessons.
This is a very throwback style deck.
It's original Demir control.
Very few win conditions.
When the team was talking about what this deck does to win, it's actually a lot of the
times coming down to gently cover up his poor copies, just trying to deprive your opponent
of having any wind conditions left in their deck.
This also has one copy of Morang River region,
as well as two Wanshi Tongs,
but the rest of the deck is just about control.
Counter your opponent's spells,
destroy your opponent's creatures,
draw cards, and just make sure
that they never get a foothold in the game.
Wow, Gatmaseef doesn't need a wind condition.
He is the wind condition.
Yeah, this is a very Gatmaseef.
I was gonna say, this is just the most
see back of all time just do nothing the entire game hopefully the removal spells
line up sweep your board wait a minute 48 just yeah all right well let's hear
from Alexi right now how's he feeling?
I enjoyed my spotlight winner Alexi here now Alexi you went 3-0 and
draft here at the pro tour what archetype did you end up playing? I played
five color vivids I think I had a pretty hard draft and I piloted it very well so
all the practice paid off well hope you got a lot of practice to construct it as
as well because you're starting off with Fella Countryman and Hall of Famer, Gavir on a Seaf
this round. How are you feeling about that?
That's a lot of scatter I think.
Well, best of luck here in this round. Good luck.
Thanks.
All right, let's find out what happened. It's time for round number four. We have Alexi
Polo versus Gav in the Seaf. I'm going to send it on over to Ailee and Corey.
So much Maria, we are ready for our first round of standard here, Alione alongside Cory
Balmeister, and we've got none other than the man with the yellow hat, although I didn't
see him wearing the hat.
Oof, left one at all.
I would like to lay a formal complaint, please, to the hat department.
Well, it's too cold.
That doesn't cover your ears.
It's very cold outside.
I get it.
I get it.
Yeah, it is quite cold.
We've got Gabrielle Nassif up against Alexi Paola, both players at 3-0 as the best mentioned,
You know fighting here to remain undefeated the better you start your tournament off the better your day twos are going to go
Especially when it comes to like tiebreakers that sort of thing heading into the top eight
So an ideal start here for both of these players. Yeah, absolutely
And it's really nice to see Alexi back here after taking down a spotlight to make it here with BB
You know the last time we saw him 2023 taking ninth at the world championship
So close to being trained up for a very long time that one place is so important when it comes to the world championship
So, a phenomenal player, I'm excited to see him do battle here once again.
Gab Maseef at the top of your screen, Alexi Palo down below.
We've got the mere control versus is it lessons?
Now, when asked about this deck and what the wind conditions are,
basically what I heard was we're going to bore our opponents to death.
So, Gran Gran hits the board here first for Alexi Palo.
He has to get a really fast start here and get Gab dead.
Yeah, absolutely and to see if this is a classic, you know, we've all watched his stream where, you know, you're playing on the magic online clock down to one minute and then he takes the win.
That's kind of what this deck is going to be like all day, but something very huge here that Alexi bricked on. It looks like if you can resolve artist talent, that's going to be huge.
Mir. Notoriously has a horrific time actually removing enchantments and artifacts. And now
we look at Nassif's hand, which did not contain an untapped blue source for those two spell snars.
And now they're going to be online for artist talent. That is gigantic.
So getting a couple cards in the bin there.
Getting that lesson count up to try and get the seniors discounts online. I stole that one from
you. Yes, we're from Portland. That's all right. I saw it online as well. So that is
really, really funny. But you know, looking at Nassif's deck, this Demir control list,
you look at it and you just think, God, like, what is this very much targeting?
And like a lot of standard decks that we're going to be seeing is very much targeting the Cubs.
So I would imagine this is the type of matchup that Nassif actually just very much doesn't want
to see. Oh yeah, especially with this start from Alexi. He is just cooking on
ulcer and there's here monument to endurance down. Grand Grand gets in for
one whole point of damage. Yeah, but it matters because she's discarding and
monument to endurance very much likes it when you do that. So yeah. And that's the
thing is both players for game one. It's gonna be very interesting. There's gonna
be a ton of removal on each side that is not gonna be that effective. But the big
difference is Alexi is able to loot those removal spells away. These fire
bending lessons etc like that so big advantage in that department as well
grand-grand is most of the time not gonna live with how much extra removal
Nassif has but wow look at that stands right now three spells there is a one
consult the star charts three steps ahead and deadly cover-ups so we could see
we could see deadly cover-up as Nassif's first play of the game here unless
Alexi costs something for two man yeah and that is that's one of the things
these Demir control players were really talking about is deadly cover up, taking cards out
of the yard to kind of take the biggest threat, the most important thing out. You do that
a couple of times, all of a sudden you are kind of like, you know, a control deck that's
also a mill deck. You're taking copies out of your opponent's deck. And then you have
just classic win-tons like the two restless reefs in the sea deck.
Yes, classic win-tons, creature lands that happen to mill your opponent. So, you know,
is a win kind of guess if you have the time to mill them out go for it but as it stands now storm
chaser's talent monument to endurance grand-grand all going unanswered here from gabinus see if
he's quite happy to let this all play out and the art is full so three steps ahead
gonna draw cards here instead of countering anything that alexi's up to yeah and alexi didn't
try to play any of the two drops in hand here it looks like i didn't want to play artist talent
or something so it's kind of sniffed out the fact that well there's four
spell snares in the main so it smells like spell snares exactly nothing like
spell snare in the morning I could do without it honestly after for coffee but
there you go yeah teaches on land number five here comes what I like to
call grand grand 2.0 but Alexi Palo it's gonna have to try and resolve that
another time and he sure does now we're gonna see another spell snare from
from gabinaseef who says no thank you i can do this all day
yep and those cards of course did cost one but the mana value being two that's
going to be an important thing to keep track of
something like also we're going to see warping a riddler
yeah doesn't cost too many it is uh mana value five so
something to keep an eye on as spell snare is going to be one of the most
impactful cards in marwin eclipsed here
absolutely when we were talking about the decks and what they got from marwin
eclipsed there wasn't all that much to be gained for the as a lessons deck
besides like spell snare so you know kudos to the players bringing it this weekend I do think
they have an uphill battle but perhaps the focus has shifted so much onto the cub decks that they
might get away with it yeah I think that's exactly it you know we we saw at the regional
championship uh at least in Portland last weekend is it lessons had it was the most played deck
going in had a really bad weekend it was terrible and when that kind of thing happens well the next
weekend at the pro tour you expect there to be a lot less of a deck but and that is the case here
It is a lot less than what we saw at, you know, tournaments last weekend,
but that just means the attention, the focus is not completely on lessons,
so it could be a great weekend for it. That's the ebb and flow of competitive
magic at the highest level. People pay attention to those little details.
Sure do.
Deadly cover up number one, Firal Fear from Gavin Asif. Now he gets to go and dig through
the graveyard and take a card, any card, it's going to be accumulated wisdom,
and he's going to now rip through that deck and take out every single copy thereof.
Interesting choice by Nassif because well ancestral recall here does mill Alexi by
three cards by drawing three cards so uh all right absolutely kidding you of course want to
take the wisdom out right away and that's going to stop the velocity here of Alexi pretty quickly.
So no more grand ancestral recall to look forward to here, grand grains in the yard too
you. And time to rebuild here for Alexi. I sure did shuffle. And that is the nice aspect
of deadly coverup. It's already a phenomenal sweeper. That's going to be great against
a lot of the Cub decks, a lot of other aggressive matchups. But even in a matchup like this,
being able to see your opponent's hand is a big deal. I mean, I guess Gab could work
backwards to figure out what is in hand for Alexi just based on, you know, digging through
the library there but yeah getting to see that you are a magician and Alexi
just played the biggest card that these lessons got steam vents that's true the
man base was already pretty solid for the is it lessons deck as you know you
don't need a ton of red but this definitely helps yeah leveling up storm
Chasers talents not else nothing else really happening for Alexi at the
moments just a spiral of canal another talent and spell snare in hand is
currently tapped out so what is Naseef up to consult the star charts I
maintain this is still one of the best card draw spells or at least card
advantage spells absolutely yep yep that's Thaka both very good but this
kind of draw goes file deck yeah this kind of draw go deck you definitely
want consult the star charts over this and this game really feels like it's
already well and truly in in favor of Gabriel Nassif here and it was all about
that turn to when Alexi didn't have red mana to resolve an artist talent before
the spell cards were available that was a huge moment here for Hall of Fame.
I mean could have been GG because there's nothing that Gab can do about the
permanence on the battlefield bar encountering them when they're on the
stacks so yeah and you know as I as I say that this is actually with the land
this is looking pretty brutal you just that's just too activation nice here
from the land and the loss of life from the monument is probably gonna be too
much so demolition field gonna do some heavy lifting here Alexi gets to resolve
storm chaser's talent number two fights and wins the counters battle there
You have Naseef digging once again, stuck it up, trying to find something of value.
I see you're equiting Hex in hands.
That deals with one of the otters.
I don't think that's enough.
Yeah, right now Naseef definitely needed to deal with both otters and then destroy the
land.
So just add too low of life to be able to stabilize there.
All right.
So this was not a matchup that this deck was poised to beat, that Naseef's deck was poised
to beat.
It makes sense here that Alexi would be up a game, but now going to the sideboards. What do you like in the list for?
Nassif he's got Glenn Langer Guardian and now give Kiyoshi Island to Sean as tidebinder one sheet tongue strategic portrayal zero point ballad
Anul this thankful strike flash freeze spell pierce and soul guide Lancer
Anul's and soul guide lanterns are going to be great as well as the inagi at Kiyoshi Island
That's going to be a really powerful card
So, you know, I would say that's going to of course help Nisif's deck construction here
But on the flip side is Alexi also just gets a lot of counter spells and
Gets to take out some of their removal spells
So I would still think a bit of a rough matchup for Nisif and then from Alexi side of things
We know that there's not that many targets for a firebending lesson for example
He's got royal crackling wit, quantum riddler, pyroclasm, a one-shot of his own, it'll quench his seer, spell snare, spider sense, three steps ahead
and still guide lantern. Yeah, yeah, and getting being able to just get some of the removal spells
out, get quench spider sense, three steps ahead, wangchi tongue, riddler and raw all those look great
in the face of a control deck. Grand grand chicken away at the live turtle of gab or at least attempting
to. We have glenel and reguardian and null tishon is tied by under stock up in hand as well as two
Virgins for Gavnaseef.
Yeah, new Glenelondra Guardian here.
A nod to Glenelondra Archmage.
It's seen from way back in the day, haven't persist.
Yeah, being able to flash this in, have a body that can maybe block Grand Grand,
and then have the ability to counter stuff.
Surprise.
So, Gav wanting to perform an action before attackers were declared?
Yeah.
Yeah, and I just looked at the product.
Didn't verbalize as we have every other time.
Yeah, as Tashana's tidebinder here to counter that ability plus go for a block.
Yeah, yeah, well, he did the same thing he's done every other time.
I don't think he did anything wrong.
So.
Better judges to figure out exactly the fix on these kind of situations.
You can probably just shuffle.
Yeah, that's that's what I'm.
Oh, he drew already already saw the card.
That's the problem.
Yeah.
Okay.
Basically will result in a GRV and you continue on.
We're going to call this thing an extra card.
Have you shopped for your library?
And we're going to go from there.
Big thanks to Ward there, the table judge.
Ronald Virginia.
Very, very.
Hey, I know someone cool, Ronald.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Just game in any future game.
My brother, Brad, right?
Yeah.
OK.
I knew it.
Actually, there's a really cool dog named Henry.
Ah, of course, of course.
Yes, yes, yes, my pup.
All righty, so fix that up there, Grand Grand's ability is on the stack here, and Tashana's
Tidebinder will jump in to get in on the action and try and counter that ability, and then
also try and kill Grand Grand, but combustion technique says no.
So it still counters the ability, but now Grand Grand is back to being online, and play continues,
You know that would be the type of thing Alexi almost assuredly
Would not try to attack here if we didn't have quench a removal spell anything like that to be able to
Interact with this tied binder ability as that exchange is just very brutal
You attacked here. Yeah
Thank you judges y'all are the best keeping everything correct. Yeah
Yeah, both players responsibility to maintain the board state and life totals as they should be.
Yep, and this is going to be the type of match that, you know, the little chip shot damage here from Grand-Gran.
Probably not going to be the most impactful as the games that Alexi wins.
It will be just with a ton of cards, a monument on the battlefield.
Just an embarrassment of riches.
Yes, so Nassif playing this proactively says a lot.
It's saying, number one, I want this creature to resolve.
Number two, I want you to think I don't have a counter spell like I don't have my two men available. And now this and all is going to be back breaking. Nice. Honestly, that was just a little subtle mind game that Naseef played.
Yeah, there was four man on tap. Do you think Alexi goes for that play? No, maybe not. Yeah. So that's that's how you become a two time pro tour champion. Yeah, Hall of Famer and Hall of Famer on the best team, all the accolades that you could really track.
The C-Farm already has him.
He has a 1-1 World Championship, has he?
Alright, most of the accolades that you can track.
So we have something to work towards still here for the C-Farm, right?
He hasn't done it all, hasn't taken away those boxes.
That's fair, that's fair.
But that was a sweet, sweet player there from one of the games best.
Now he gets the turn back with the Guardian,
stocking up, taking a look at the top five cards,
determining what it is he wants to deal with what Alexi is deploying.
Looks like two other cards in hand, which are both land.
So stock up 100%, all right, maybe not 100%,
but pretty likely going to the ham.
We're not gonna take the lands,
and then it's just, do you want lantern
or the required in hex to deal with grand-grand?
The lantern is definitely more impactful
as public enemy number one right now in the Cease Mine
would probably be if these accumulate wisdom start,
you know, popping off on the full ancestral recall mode.
Yeah.
Well, this little interaction with the Glenland regard,
It's actually pretty sick underquieting Hicks.
Oh, just blighting on him?
You can blight on your dude and then be able to use his ability again.
Ooh, OK.
That is spicy.
Nice.
Wow.
Now, this is just kind of brutal with how it worked.
Now, Naseeb actually has two mana up
and does not have the counter spell.
And now, Alexi had monument number two
and could have went for it, but was like, you know,
you dealt with this with one mana up.
Surely you have a clean counter spell for it with two.
Surely.
This would have been the perfect turn to do it,
but I guess you can just remove the Glenelondra counter off of it.
But then, you know, Alexi still gets to draw,
and you're going to have to fight through that counter eventually.
Okay. Combustion technique targeting the Glenelondra Guardian.
There's the way to fight through it to start.
You can counter that spell.
Alexi gets to draw a card off of that.
So there's downside, but hey, at least there's a body on board.
Ooh wee, and Artis' talent was going to resolve one way or another.
Alexi Paolo played that turn. Very nice.
Yeah, absolutely. Now the cost reduction. The senior discount, as you were saying earlier from grand-grand, is ready to go.
And now with Artis' talent on the battlefield and just still a good amount of gas in hand from Alexi.
Looking quite strong.
I like that lantern. Look in the library. There is one in-hand already, you said.
Yeah, and that's the problem is lantern deals with about half of the deck, right?
Yeah.
The graveyard aspect is very important to control, but that's not the only way that
Alexia and Is it Lessons deck attack a control deck postboard. We sequence them riddler in hand,
a great way to gain some extra card advantage, even be a one-up, but then monument.
Monument is a big game.
Yeah, monument's the big one. Monument doesn't care what your graveyard looks like,
And it's going to keep refueling it.
So a card like Lantern is so good against isn't lessons when you mix it with pressure,
but when you don't mix it with pressure, it really is a bandaid that will not solve the problem
forever. Pressure is something we know that this deck doesn't have unfortunately.
Like there's no, you know, Morang River region or Quantum Riddler of their own
Furnace. I mean, it's even playing any of those cards.
Yeah, one River region and then two Wanxi Tong Liberian. That's the true win con.
No, we're Riddlers. Yeah, and you know, there is some extra wind cons on the board that I'm sure we brought in
Yeah, you know that is the price you play for this control deck because while these proactive threats
Are not really good against Cub decks
Against Cub decks you want just interaction every single turn to stop them from gaining an absurd amount of mana
But that is a cost in a matchup like this
I think so for the see if the decision paralysis perhaps just a big thought of like how do I
get this talent off the battlefield.
I mean if a monument ever resolves how do you ever get that off the battlefield and
the plain and simple truth to it is you just don't.
Yeah, you know there's no bounce effects barring the one more end of a region you mentioned
Tide binding the monument.
Sure, sure, it's like the main thing that you can really do right now.
That's kind of the awkward position as a control player is like
eventually you have to have a way to win.
You have to take a proactive play.
You can't just sit there and if your opponent to do things
and hope that you have, you know, all the answers
because the truth is you don't know, spoiler alert.
They don't always have it.
You got to make him have it.
Yep, ain't that the truth.
Feed the cycle. I love this card.
This is a clean way to answer another creature,
but being able to Farage as well, considering the amount of things that they're doing,
like there's always something in the graveyard to Farage off of that spell.
Definitely.
And pretty fun that Nasif and his team, you know, kind of were on the breakout lessons deck from Worlds.
It kind of looked like, wow, this deck just looked so much better than anything else.
and now they're playing a deck that maybe doesn't have a good.
Yes, it doesn't necessarily have a good matchup against it
because they thought, well, not a lot of people were going to bring it.
All right, fellas, we built it.
Now can we beat it?
Yes.
With the help of the community at large, of course.
Yeah.
All right, Mountain, Steam, Vents, Riddler, Monument to Endurance,
a tapped out Gav'n-safe is the time now to deploy this monument.
Yeah, shield is down.
So now, Alexi has like two choices here.
You go level up talent, play Monument, say go,
or play Monument, warp Riddler, draw two.
And Monument's going to be good just about any time.
So I like this quite a bit.
And those are the things that are very tough for Demir to deal with.
Artifacts and enchantments.
Because Nanku just while you made discard, if you do draw, OK.
So he just decided not to discard that.
Yep, looks like it.
or missed it, you know, one of those things is possible.
Yeah, you would think you don't really want the steam vents here, but...
You also are plenty fine saving your looting effects until the monument comes down,
but yeah, more, I think I would have looted there.
Cross, the turn pass is back now to Alexi, plays the River Pyre Verge.
Steam vents, Quantum Riddler in hand on the other side of things,
Gabb has just a watery grave, so it's in big trouble.
Here comes the Quantum Riddler.
No warp.
Just a little 4-6.
And with two cards in hand.
Yeah, he couldn't get rid of another one.
Oh, okay, we do have a one card.
I was gonna say, I saw two lands at the start of the turn.
I was like, I don't see any reason
to not play a land beforehand.
But yeah, Alexi plays a land and is threatening to draw two.
And looks like this is a desperation crack a lantern try to find some counter spell
Nothing watery grave number two
So let's get to draw two more cards another land not what he wants to see three steps ahead
Not able to cost that at the moment
But he's poised to take this game down and you know pretty clean to over here up against gabin see if that's the case
Yeah, it's definitely looking brutal
go. But Alexi is at 10 this week. Is it that touch or you really don't want to block with
Quantum Riddler? But the three three steps ahead looks quite good at just cloning your
Riddler. So yeah, yeah, yeah, if I'm not blocking right now, use your life total as a resource
and then go to copy Quantum Riddler whenever you're down to one card and draw a good chunk
of cards here.
Yeah.
Off-cloning now.
He just needs to be careful because those two fairies are five damage as it stands.
Yeah.
And of course, the Glenelondra being able to counter the three steps ahead is a big deal,
but fire vending lesson.
Okay.
I'm interested in that.
Yeah, that actually is quite strong here.
Well, we have enough mana to kick that and then also use two bits of mana.
Yeah, it looks like it. With the cost reduction, you're able to fire that.
Oh yeah, true.
You're able to fire that.
And you get treasures off of the monument.
Oh, and you get to draw two off the Riddler being in play when you loot because we're going down to one card it looks like.
Yuck. This is cool.
So goes to counter that.
Okay.
Okay, we still have two cards in hand so unable to draw the two.
Oh, so many lights.
Ireland, Ireland, three steps ahead.
Cool, the draw mode was chosen off of the monument to endurance.
And have the treasure now has the clone ability
ready to go here for the Quantum Riddler.
So he's able to loot with the talent again,
so he should be able to discard and draw two here.
And then the clone comes in of Quantum Riddler,
draw another card up to four cards,
but that being said, Alexei is kind of drawing bricks here
here off the top, Grand Grand, two land, and another Grand Grand.
So that was an incredible turn from Alexi.
And all that, the final hand is two land, one of which
comes into play tapped, and then two Grand Grands.
Tell us how you really feel about it.
Yeah, yeah.
And wow, not even deploying one of these Grand Grands.
So from what I can see, if we just
have one removal spell here, you could animate that wreath,
kill one of the Riddlers, and attack for lethal.
But the sea sand is just as easy.
Yeah, both players have been drawing absolute bricks,
as you call them, spell snare in hand.
That's not going to do anything.
Demolition field and watery grave.
Not what the doctor ordered either.
Very shocked to not see that treasure turned into grand,
grand, though.
Yeah, just as like an extra.
Just a block of a reef.
If it comes down to that, like right now,
Alexi just left him self-dead to one removal spell.
Maybe Alexi bluffing the counterspell of his own?
Was that treasure left up?
Yeah, this is just the stage of the game where Nassif...
If Nassif did have a removal spell, a bitter triumph, whatever, you can't...
You respect a one-man-of-bluff or anything, you just have to go for it.
They did but Alexa pallow down to six the reef taken care of courtesy of the copy of quantum riddler
Two fairies left on the other side of the battlefield three fours apiece
Alexi gets to untap oh
Okay, you squint hard enough, I believe that was ancestral recall right off the top
Now we get double discounts. Yep
There it is
put grand-grand on there. Honestly, the Steve's face looks just like that.
Yeah. That looks exactly like a cute, late wisdom.
If I, uh,
comedic timing, hard to hit in person. Good job. Oh, but
it's us. Our recall would have been much better.
Wouldn't have been countered by spouse.
But still we do get the triggers off of the monument,
which is big news and also are just talents. So yeah, now we just turn to,
I'm going to chuck a monument at your face and see how you handle that.
Yeah, we are definitely getting to that spot. Now we discard. Now we draw two.
And that did look like two more lands.
OK, OK, well, all right, that'll do. That's an action.
That will do everything coming up, Alexi.
And even if Alexi does just break a couple more draw steps,
the thing is, it's just Alexi is going through so many cards at some point,
it will be impossible to break.
And this game seems to well and truly
Yeah.
He's in the hands of Alexi.
This is the beauty of the deck, you know?
Yeah.
This is what it does at its best.
It digs, it digs, it digs, it digs you out of holes
that you didn't think you could get out of.
Yeah, and looking at, is it lessons?
Looking at is it lessons here in what the metagame we're
seeing right now?
Is it lessons against the Cub decks?
Has been OK.
Nothing special since these Cub decks
are having reclamation stage, setting of loss lore,
these type of silver bullets that really either affect the monument artist talent or the graveyard.
That matchup is not great anymore, but the one thing isn't lessons is really good at beating the other anti-cub decks.
I think that's what we're going to see a lot, where if Alexi plays against a lot of Cub decks, it could be brutal.
If you play against a lot of decks like Damir Control, you could be on your way to a really solid finish here in Richmond.
Absolutely. Looks like Alexi is ever so close now to a 4-0 record here at his first pro tour.
So he made it to Worlds but didn't make a pro tour.
Yeah, really interesting to take 9th at Worlds before you actually play a pro tour.
And really funny that Alexi played cauldron at that way before it's time. This was pre-VV so
naturally when Paolo made the VV cauldron deck it was just perfect for Alexi.
Consult the star charts on the stack spell snare says no, thank you
Man, consult the star charts
Definitely got a lot worse with spell snare because yeah, you put you tap for for that. It is still a true drop spell
Congratulations, Alexi Palo managed to pressure
Gavnis Seif and did some convincing passion there too. Yeah, that looked really good and
And definitely kind of showcase that this Demir control deck wants to play against creatures and two drops.
Yes.
So Cub fits the mold on both of those, so you know, maybe be looking for a little different pairing there for sure.
Absolutely. We're going to take a short break, but when we come back, we'll have more coverage of Pro Tour or when we closed.
the game. We're going to go
back to coverage of Pro Tour
Lord would eclipsed here in a
chilly Richmond, Virginia. It
is icy outside, but nerves of
steel in here as the players
have been through three rounds
of draft so far, and we are in
round number four, which is the
first of our constructed Corey.
Yeah. What do you what would you
be more comfortable with for
Road tour is like maybe sub 40% for sure sub 50. So I was always much more
Confident in the standard format in the constructed format for sure
Well, the best players here this weekend will be excellent in both of these formats
So we are going to jump into a match now between a show to yasaoka one of the games the greatest players Hall of Famer
Versus Carl sir rap is going to be a sultai
Reanimator list versus a five color rhythm. So we've seen these rhythm decks really really pick up a popularity here the last
A lot tell us what it is that Carl is looking to do here as he is one. Oh, yeah, absolutely
So Carl's deck is the a cub deck that has really went and took the list that we saw from Tristan
Wildler ruin Portland to the next level it is playing these kind of silver bullet
effects like explosive prodigy like glass gear hold but it's taken it a step
farther and the black splash is champion of the weird as well as
superior spider-man as another very interesting way to interact just two
incredibly powerful cards and when you just have the ability to nature's rhythm
for anything the opportunity cost to put them in your deck is quite low so one
Another big shout out I want to give is Carl Seraf in a way kind of started this
cover rhythm deck because at the World Championship played that Gugari rhythm
deck that you know played for spider manifestation played for nature's rhythm
yeah that was kind of the first place we saw it was on to something there yeah
was on to something like oh what if we added quantum Riddler to this deck to
make it even better and that's kind of where we see the current cub decks in
action. Deceived being deployed there to take a look at the hand of Carl Serapp,
Shota Yasa Okinaw has some extra information to work with. A couple
Lano RLs, we saw Quantum Riddler in hand there too, and some lands. I missed what
the other playables were, but... Yeah, nice little hand too, but taking the
Brite Glass Gear Hulk makes a lot of sense because another bit of utility
that Carl has access to is one, even in the main deck, Soulguide Lanter, being
Being able to Breitglas Gearhulk for a combination of different cards, either Seamrip or Soulguide
Lantern, as well as Mockingbird.
Mockingbird is so good.
Yes.
It's just really cool stuff.
It's such a sweet card because even if your board state is absolutely atrocious, a Mockingbird
just copies the best thing on the other side.
Oh yeah.
Don't have a cub?
Find a cub over there.
Yeah.
Chances are with 45% of the field registering a cub, you've got to find one.
Right now it's probably as weak as it can get, copying one of these accelerants, but
you gotta do what you gotta do.
Hey, just wait until we find a cub and start hoofing things.
Yup.
So here is the big spot.
We see some good stuff in the graveyard from Shota, with, you know, mana to cast pretty
much anything.
Doesn't look like Shota has another land in hand, but this is kind of the scary turn
when you're playing against Sultai Reanimator.
That four-drop turn, and you know, you have Superior Spider-Man now that actually interacts pretty favorably with these new evoke elementals.
As if you pay the mana that you need for the evoke elementals, when Superior Spider-Man comes into play, you actually get those abilities.
Such a sweet way to get them two turns earlier than you would otherwise.
Yeah, it's just a good plan B. You know, the plan A is just get Bringer of the Last Gift, you know, living end style of effect.
style of effect the board, but 4-man a superior Spider-Man that gets both sides of deceit.
Yeah, looks awesome.
These elementals from Laurel and wear such a boon to this deck, as well as Johnny Manuel
the Braw's card, the formidable speaker.
That card is insanely good.
So good.
I went up to JAD and I was like, hey, I'm so happy that you're playing 4 of your own
card.
And he's like, well, on the bright side, it's good.
So it's a decision.
I was like, you would have played it if it was bad, wouldn't you?
He's like, oh yeah.
Yeah, he said it's a lot better than he thought it would be and you know because he was designing that in the vacuum
He had no idea it was coming out of the warwin
Yeah, didn't know that these salt ice superior spider-man decks for gonna be as powerful as they were so hell, yeah
Absolutely, and I bet it's great in his cube. Yes. Yeah, that is actually what he said
He's like I really want a card that's good in cube. It's like I'm gonna be searching up restoration angel with this
over and over again.
Oh, oh.
So this is huge.
You get Brightglass Gearhulk, and then you get to find Soulguide Lantern.
God, this is such a sweet line here from Carl.
He's like, oh, you put that in my graveyard?
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I mean, everyone knows, new coming into this tournament, that the interaction with Brightglass
Gearhulk in your own graveyard and casting your own Superior Spider-Man, a Demir card
flashing back here, so bless me a card.
Everyone was going to be doing that.
Absolutely.
also rappers low key one of the best players. Yeah. I'm at the moment. Yeah. I
want to say, like, you know, he might not have all the crazy top finishes to,
yeah, to back that up. But like he's, he's an excellent player. I mean, our very
first event together made the top four of the world championship in 2020,
2022, where Nathan Stoyer took that down. Yeah. And since then, he's just
been the epitome of consistency since then, you know, like top 16 worlds here
a couple of weeks ago, Carl is just always one of those players that you know you're
going to have a tough time against such a smart guy and a really nice person to talk
to.
Yeah.
Nice.
So soul guide Lantern ready to activate as soon as Carl's wrap catches a whiff of a
superior Spider-Man show to the second lands here, which is not all we want to see.
Yeah.
Looked at the hand, you know, the nature's rhythm wasn't there, but that's the thing is you have five draws at trying to find a superior Spider-Man, which got break last year, hold to do the lantern thing we saw.
So like the whole deck kind of circles around to itself and really kind of reminds me of like the court of calling style creature combo decks that we've seen in the past.
An attempt at an Overlord of the Bellmark. Impended.
It's going to mill four and hopefully get something back from the yard.
But of course Raph has anything to say about it. No.
Yeah, and that's the thing is if you lantern now, you have to lantern before the cards get flipped over.
So whatever Shota would flip, Shota would still get to pick one of those.
It's rough to lantern in response to an Overlord.
Unless there's a card that's already in the graveyard that's going to pick it.
So Carl is, I wouldn't say happy, but let's just play out what is Shota going to bring
back here.
He's in a bit of pickle.
Yeah, because I don't think Shota, the Hall of Famer actually has a fourth land.
No.
Okay, now did Topdeck a fourth land?
Oh, he did.
Good.
Okay.
That was huge.
Nice.
Nice
It's like he's still trying to cobble together something he has an answer to one of these creatures and better triumph
Yeah, and that's great. I mean better triumph the bright glass gear whole cure
Look solid, but the one card that we saw pretty early on from Carl was still that quantum Riddler in hand
So when you can just empty your hand and start drawing extra cards
You know, you always have more fuel in the tank, especially when you have nature's rhythm in the board to earn the graveyard already.
That kind of never runs out of steam.
It never does this and is it lessons. They're so, so good at restocking their hands.
And I mean, this is the reason why these Cub decks are 45% or 40% or so.
They're incredibly powerful. They're resilient. They're powerful. They're proactive. They're everything you want in a standard day.
deck and usually you fold to these kind of four mana destroy your board type of
reanimator decks but this deck just doesn't do that anymore called some
Riddler here for cross a wrap warps it in and now it's a tough choice I think
yeah better try and think on the Riddler actually here seems just as good
because well it stops another card just right away on surface value and also
stops the harmonize costal from yeah it stops the harmonize and it just stops
it from being warped back to more than likely draw two cards again but I mean
this is the classic thing we've seen in standard before like your opponent plays
an up the beanstalk and players were going to destroy that that exchange is
not good you're too for wanting yourself immediately but the card is just so
powerful that you have to respect it and deal with it as soon as possible so
it's dealt with Carl will get to draw the one card off of it find another land
And there's a gene pollinator.
Oh, hello.
That looks like a bright glass gearhulk to me.
I love that there's two bright glass gearhulks in play,
but actually no bright glass gearhulks.
This deck is wild.
Laughing at you?
No, I'm laughing as you.
That's the Mockingbird flavor deck, right?
That's incredible flavor deck.
And wow, you get two Soulguide lanterns
against the graveyard deck.
Is that good?
Well, yes, yes, yes, it is. Yes, is the answer. Wow, man,
Shota definitely on the back foot here.
It's called Sirap continues to develop this board.
I mean, he's not even doing the scariest thing at the moment,
which is called Bunch of Man of Dorks and then Hufia.
Look at this heads up play from Carl.
Lantern comes into play targets his own Riddler,
not because there's no targets in Shota's graveyard,
but because of Shota goes Superior Spider-Man
And Carl goes to lantern lantern his opponents only
So the superior spider-man from show to would be able to turn into a riddler from Carl's graveyard
So it's a big heads-up play there from from Carl syrup
That's sweet. I
Have 16 has 11
11
Life totals checked out there
green green green, awful
wistfulness and that looks great.
You get to kill a year,
you get to do some drawing.
And that is great, you know,
there's this is a flying
Gearholk, so that is a pretty solid.
Pretty sorry, excuse me.
Now, the mockingbird
kind of tough to keep track of.
We just have the normal
brake blast gear,
Hulk on the ground there for
superior squatter man.
So the pressure is gone right now.
Well, you did have two mockingbirds on, so the other one ended up in X all over there.
Yeah, that's the Gearhold one. The one in flight is the Lana World.
Yes.
But Carl doing math usually means it's hoof time.
And hoof, there it is.
Three eighths for eight.
Yeah, for eight. What are we going to get?
Ah, I don't know.
What eight drop looks good.
Oh, yeah, that guy, that guy.
And there you go. You just always have an I win button for eight man. I hear
and that just has a way more than a pollinator getting in there as well.
Was it one to this is the classic gene of gene pollinator for sure.
So plus six, plus six across both of them. So 11 and.
Yeah, 12, 17, 18 total trample with five.
Yep. Yep.
You know, I'm not a mathematician, but that looks like that.
That looks like lethal to me as well.
And you know what?
That all happened without a cub in sight.
Yeah.
And that, yeah, no cub in sight.
There was some solid interaction from Shota.
But the interaction with Briteglass Gearhulk
being able to find Lantern against the Sultai deck,
which usually has a pretty decent matchup against Cubdex.
Creature Dex, you're going to want that living death style
of effect.
But man, maybe this evolution of the Cubdex
is just maybe solves all your matches.
It's going to be fun to watch that.
We'll see how well it does here this weekend in the hands of some of the best players just like Calswrap.
Next up we're going to jump into a match in progress here.
Jason Yi up against Lorenzo Tulizzi, Jessica mid-range.
Rebecca isn't very represented here as well as Azoria's control also.
One of the lesser played archetypes here this weekend.
So let's jump in as we join Jason Yi is up the game.
So Loren Zerk, let's see, fighting to maintain his record.
Yeah, and I was talking to Arch.
Arch Bota is playing Azoria's control as well.
And Arch was saying, my deck is incredible.
It's just the fact of, all right, got to play fast, not
get draws, that kind of thing.
Jason on the other side, playing a much more interesting style
of control deck.
Shiko to get back, Wendt Stacey to have the flip side of that.
We saw that a little bit at the pro tour here not too long ago.
It was cool.
It was cool.
And now this is kind of taking that deck to the next level.
And it looks really, really strong.
We'll see how it interacts with this.
These are two decks, once again, that I think
is going to be my favorite wrinkle of this pro tour,
is they look like two anti-cub decks,
and you bash them against each other
and kind of see how the best anti-cub deck, how it handles
against the other anti-cub decks.
But they're both going to have headaches after these matchups whenever the anti-cup decks fight against each other.
Yeah, yeah.
Go spider the backside of Gwen Stacy, let she gets able to bring out him in the flying, vigilant, hasty friend.
Out of the graveyard is pretty darn good.
Oh yeah.
Alongside Chico, which is just a crazy good card in itself.
Yeah, it creates just a ton of pressure.
It's been pretty figured out. I guess I would say that the just guy control deck of you know, maybe last year where it was
Sheiko flashing back stock up. That was kind of the thing we were doing like now if you do that in standard
Well, your opponent might just kill you with a crater hoof
So you can't really tap out to do that as effectively now
Jason you passing the turn it to Lorenzo
I think we're gonna see a lot of draw go here as the players just get their mana bases established
I would think so too. Jason's deck look at all those
Yeah, all those number lies in there. Jason's deck is a little more proactive. I would say
But yeah, still a lot of Drago for both players for sure
Is this an end step to show on the side binder? Yep. Just a good old passion 3-mail-3-2. Yeah
But that's the thing is when you're playing a control deck versus a deck that
that has Flash Creatures.
I generally like the deck that has Flash Creatures
as you just get to set up these really powerful turns,
be like, well, I'm going to play this.
You either counter it, and I untap and play something really
busted, or you don't counter it,
and I don't play that busted thing
until I can bait out another counterspell
and do it the following turn.
This list that Jason submitted playing Elspeth Storm Savior.
We've got Ang's Swift Savior.
So many savers, goodness me.
Oh, yeah.
Slayer, excuse me.
And Chico Paragon on the way.
So a bunch of flash creatures, oh, not Chico,
but enduring curiosity and just a bunch of ways
to remove stuff.
I mean, if Voice of Victory hits the board too,
like Lorenzo's, shut out of the game.
Yeah.
It's also playing two pyroclosom in the main.
That is very, very telling.
It's a blood deck you are trying to deal with.
And once again, the target's always going to be on CUB.
I think that's the biggest question for this pro tour is,
one, how do the anti-cub medics play against each other?
And two, is CUB just better than everything else?
And it doesn't matter.
Those are the big questions.
Get lost targeting the enduring curiosity.
It'll come back as an enchantment.
Oh, that was Elspeth off the top of the basin.
So if that resolves, Lorenzo's in a world
world of her. Yep. And Lorenzo, famously we saw top eight. The world championship that
John Emanuel de Praugh ended up taking down. We saw Lexi taking ninth in 2023.
Lorenzo has a bunch of counter spells in hand.
But wow, getting voice of victory there at the Corey Mountain Monastery. That's the perfect
Start we see that spell snare pulled right to the front. Yeah, probably not gonna last long
But that's a card that Jason just got for free. Yeah of its land
Yeah, Corey Mountain Monastery is such a great way for a lot of decks
Especially when it gets to like the mid game and late game
Refill the hands you can do on your opponents and step
So really kind of does do it all and Jason's posing all of the questions that Lorenzo has to answer so yep
And the Renzo's form of the Kori Mount Monastery is the fountain port just kind of two different cards
But you have to do a little bit more work. I would say for the fountain port. Yeah
Stuck up now Jason gets to look and it's library and pull some cards out that helps
I'm gonna head here
Still
has that else but available didn't look to
to fire that off right away.
I think to Sean is time.
I know it's just gonna feel like it's really looking like it.
I mean, the thing is the fact that it's just a three two right now.
It's not just a three two right now because of enduring curiosity.
Drawing a card there.
That's really all you have to do really good.
Actually, when you're up against a control deck that's missing land drops and not
deploying proactive threats and you have a creature, you know,
an aphidian style of effect when you're dealing damage
and you're drawing cards,
everything is on Lorenzo to blink first
and here's the blink.
And now when Lorenzo blinks,
Jason gets to untap and just deploy some absolute haymakers
and probably close this game out.
Jason's hand is pretty gross.
Sheiko there as well.
Lightning Helix, yeah, that could just go upstairs
because I mean, if you wanna kill a fish, sure.
Basically, if Jason has Shiko and one counterspell or one other proactive thing, like voice of victory, land 7, Shiko, we're done.
The game's over.
But if it's just Shiko, Lorenzo has the answer to that.
Even Lorenzo's helping out here.
Yeah.
Taking two from the finally found Hallowed Fountain.
Well, it's Shiko time.
That felt appropriate.
That did. That really did.
Yeah, I don't know what she's gonna get, Corey. I mean voice. You know,
I was saying she going stock up is not the thing to be doing right now.
Well, it's the thing to be doing right now on this turn.
It looks really good,
but we also see the else bit that we drew planes,
walkers up against Azoria's control that just used their last get loss.
Pretty good. Believe it or not.
That's gonna feel so good. Oh, that's Ang to
Jason is popping off.
Jason's cooking. Elspeth, Storm Slayer, the sweetest planeswalker released in a little while.
Just making so many tokens and pumping the team.
Voice of victory on top of the library there.
Yeah, and now when those tokens all have the text of, draw a card when you connect.
So silly.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Looking at the hand for Lorenzo. Just a bunch of no more lies.
Essence scatter like all these defensive measures where there's nothing unestablished pro like Jason yee
It's gonna just walk around these counters. I was like
Essence scatter says no, thank you voice of victory Jason. He's not gonna be too fussed about that
Plenty more gas in his hand like she go like the lightning helix
Yes, there's a fish on the other side of the battlefield, but
Just one fish
Now they do fly and it looks like Tidebinder is going to try to counter this ability, but that's going to open the door for Shiko here.
Or just Aang's with Savior?
Yeah, because we're in this touchdown.
So that's going to be 3-0 Resolves to 5 Lightning Helix makes 6-7-8.
That is it Jason you picking up a pretty solid victory there to go to up against Lorenzo
Terlizzi so undefeated Jason's gonna be feeling pretty good about that gotta be feeling very
good and just having another match and with lightning he likes you know that just feels
fitting for the pro tour that's always an exciting way and that tech looks really cool
from Jason you and the rest of the team you can always count on Jason to bring something
spicy to the always spice yeah Jason you and the rest of the team sanctum you usually
don't see them just playing the stock check. It's like, all right, there's going to be
something awesome going on from that team for sure.
Talk about something awesome. It's the news desk that's going to be with you guys after
this break. So don't go anywhere.
through 10th and Chiba Japan May 29th through the 31st.
More details including how to register are coming soon.
Can't make it to the event?
Individual organizers will be live streaming the event on their channels with dedicated
broadcast teams and commentary.
Need a TLDR?
Coverage highlights will be featured on Magic.gg and PlayMTG social channels and you can see
the full Magic Spotlight schedule for 2026 over on Magic.gg slash spotlight.
Welcome back to coverage of Pro Tour.
Lauren Eclips live here from Chile, Richmond, Virginia,
with the action heating up inside
as more than 300 players are battling here
at Pro Tour.
Lauren Eclips, welcome back to the news.
That's Marie Rosaldi, Monique Davoudi, and Cedric Phillips.
Hey, you're not with you in the standard rounds
of day number one of competition.
Now for the first time, let's reveal our leaderboard
and find out who is leading the field here at Pro Tour.
Lauren Eclips, the first of the season.
And we indeed have some big names who have started out the tournament undefeated.
Luis Salvatto, your Pro Tour Arrivals of Ixlan Champion in 2018, starting out 4-0.
Another Pro Tour Champion also starting out 4-0.
That's Matt Nass, your Pro Tour Ether Drift Champion last year in 2025.
How about your player of the year for 2025?
Ken Yukihiro currently starting out 4-0.
Congratulations on a great start to him.
Taking a look, but now at some more players who are starting out very well indeed, Cedric.
Carl, Carl, Carl Serops, Forno, Jack Potter, and the Titan Master, Forno as well.
This is looking to shape up as a nice little tournament right now.
Those are two names I love, Stephon Schultz, a 3-in-1 right now.
Schultz, come on here, go out, my go, your go, 3-in-1, a great start.
Of course, three of the drafters Schultz normally does.
This is a nice little leaderboard that we are, we're shaping up for a nice tournament here.
Absolutely, we are. No way to kick off the standings here.
Let's take a look at the teams and how the teams are doing after around three months.
Yeah, so what we have here is the top eight performing teams after the limited rounds.
So this is not taken into consideration.
The one round of constructive has been played at the very top.
The bananas with a 66.7 with percentage across limited, of course,
only seven players on the team here.
So some of the bigger teams doing very well like handshake Rocksfield.
much larger roster of 59.5% and of course Baguette Cerro de Robble making an
appearance in eighth place there as a lot of people do consider Jean-Manuel de
Probe one of if not the best limited players currently in the world. Gotta give
props to that team name, crew list ultimatums. Yeah very nice. Well we're
I like the name. I was talking about the car.
I'm sorry. I interrupted. That was a lot. Yeah. Sorry.
Hashtag rude. Yeah.
15 gears over into standard here on day one of competition.
And we talked to some of the players yesterday about what they're playing.
If you want to look for a deck, here are some deck bites.
I'm here with two-time world champion Seth Manfield.
Seth, what are you playing and what does it do?
I am playing the Esper Pixie deck, so you can play some cheap creatures, enchantments
and artifacts.
Then you pick them back up, put them back in your hand and then you replay them again,
so you are able to kind of tempo your opponent out.
Tell me three key cards in your deck.
So it's got to be the Pixie itself, the Kaido, which is your Planeswalker Finisher, and
Boomerang Basics because that's one of my favorite cards.
What's a good matchup and why?
So a good matchup is the Simic Arorboroid deck.
You have so much redundancy with your removal because you can continue to rebuy your removal
spells back to your hand and kill off all of their mana dorks.
What's a bad matchup and why?
So I would say the deck doesn't have really polarizing matchups overall, but if I were
to pick a deck that I didn't want to play against, it would be the Reanimate deck.
I'm here with Nick Talbot.
Nick, what are you playing and what does it do?
We're playing five color elementals.
We're going to play a Thunderfork and we're going to bounce all our opponents, EarthBat
lands to their hand.
Tell me three key cards in your deck.
You've got Ash on turn two, Bezza on turn three, and then Thunderfork on turn four for
the win.
What's a good matchup and why?
I like control you're playing for deceit so you can kind of rip all their
Pait out of their hand and just attack them for lethal all your elementals do something
Even if they get rid of them, they still have an impact. What's a bad match up in life graveyard
Pait is in the board, but reanimator is still tough. So it's all time reanimator
The spider man if they pay too much you black they can hit your deceit and use it against you. So that's kind of tough
Nick, good luck this weekend. Thanks. I appreciate it. I'm here with John money. Well to prod j e d
What are you playing this weekend and what does it do?
I'm playing Soltae Elementals, which is a deck built around the evoke elementals from low-win.
You treat them into play and then you play Sun of Luck and bounce everything except your guys and rinse and repeat.
Tell me three key cards in your deck.
So Sun of Luck is the big card. It's the best one against Badger Morkab.
Deceit is the best of the elementals and formidable speaker, of course.
Yes, of course. Tell me what good matchups and why.
All the Cup decks are good matchups, specifically the classic band Cup deck, because they are
very bad against Thunderflock. Their lands get bounced too with the rest. Once you start
looping, you can return your speaker, search for another Thunderflock. There's nothing
they can do to get out of the loop.
Tell me a bad matchup and why.
The classic Reanimator deck is a band matchup, the bringer of the last gift version, because
it goes over the top of what you do. It also plays the elementals so you don't get to bounce the
whole board and like it's just more grindy than you. JD, come on this weekend. Thank you.
Well if you do well enough at a regional championship you can find yourself here
at the Pro Tour yesterday. Cedric Phillips talked to Daniel Toledo who took one down in Spain.
Cedric anything to add? No notes. Interview is great though. Okay. Well let's see if that's true.
Let's watch it. I am here with Daniel Toledo, who won a regional championship in Antwerp
with boros energy. Tell me more. Yeah, I like a lot of the boros energy build. I played it
a lot in the past seasons and I have a lot of experience with the deck and I think it's a
I would that for B7, so I choose it.
Well, clearly good.
You won.
How did that feel?
Yeah, I was very happy with the victory.
So it's my first win in a big tournament of magic,
and I played magic a lot past 15 years.
So I'm very happy with this.
Now, this is not your first pro tour.
You've played in a handful of these.
What are your goals this weekend?
Yeah, my work for this event is to re-qualify it for the next and for the third product, it's possible, so I will play the World Championship, cause me my big story on our work, so I like to play the four big heavens for this year.
Well, we look forward to watching your play. Good luck.
Thank you.
All right, everyone. Let's set up our next feature match here in the building as we get ready for round number five. Good interview, Cedric, by the way.
Thank you. You passed me so good. I was cooking yesterday.
You really were. Let's check out who'll be watching. Do battle here for round number five in the standard rounds here on day one.
Oh, we just heard from him. Danny Toledo here. We set this up for you. Pretty nice on Demir Excruciator. Very cool deck as well.
up against Hongbin Sun, who's playing band airbending.
Let's give him either players Daniel Toledo here,
two regional championship top eights,
including that win at RC Antwerp in 2025.
So playing game in 2012, tournament goal is 10 match wins
to qualify for the next pro tour.
Let's take a look at his round by round, Cedric.
Take a look of tough start to the tournament with a loss.
No way likes to get any tournament started off with a loss,
but bouncing back with a win and then a loss
in that crucial third round.
Big difference between being two and one versus one
in two after the limited portion,
but able to pick himself up a little bit there
by defeating Stephen Brown,
who's playing Saltire Animator, the two-on-win.
So the road is a little bit rocky here in a day two.
The goal is four wins,
so this is a very, very crucial round
sitting at two and two.
All right, let's take a peek at the opponent here,
Hongbin Sun, started playing the game in 2016.
Turnman's goal is to advance to day two of competition.
First pro tour here for Hongbin Sun,
top-aided at Arena Championship 10.
There's a look at the players.
What about the decks here, Mani?
First, we're going to take a look at the round by round for Hungbun Son.
Let's dive in.
Another loss to kick things off in the draft.
Again, a brutal start, but a bounce back.
And then in the round number three, it's Oscar Christensen.
Also seeing Hungbun Son lose that match.
So both these players, one and two with the potential going to one and limited.
But again, both of them bounce back in the constructed portion by getting things
off to a win.
Weirdly enough, both players beat Salta, that's a little strange.
And for Hungvinson, defeating, excuse me, Marco Del Pivo, two games to one.
So again, for both of these players that are looking to get in day number two of competition,
they're both tuned to right now, again, four wins is the goal.
So this is a very, very important round because if you lose this one, things get really, really hairy.
All right, now it's time for the deck list, Manny. Walk me through this.
Yeah, very similar road so far.
So starting with Daniel Toledo's deck, he's on team Cosmos heavy play.
And a bunch of players on the scene have brought a deck, Demir Excruciator, that goes all the way back to Javier Dominguez' world championship victory a year and a half ago now.
This is a Demir-based, almost demon strategy, trying to get Doomsday Excruciator on the battlefield while casting it.
Well, what's a cool way to do that, Superior Spider-Man? This is not a tool that was available to this Demir archetype when Javier won the world championship.
So the goal is to get Duzzi excruciating in your graveyard and the superior Spider-Man
to put both players' libraries down to 6 cards and then use a card like Insatiable Averus,
for example, to make your opponent draw cards or use Restless Wreath to mill them and close
out the game. The rest of the deck is very much like a Control Deck, similar to the Demir Control
Deck that we saw Gap of Sea playing in the previous round, but this deck is more proactive
has access to a powerful new elemental in Deceit. Now on the other side, we are
going to take a look at Hongbin Sun's Bant airbending deck. Now this is a
flavor of Badger Mole Cub deck, but this is not a Badger Mole Cub deck in its pure
form. This deck is more of a combo deck. You are trying to assemble Apa
a steadfast Guardian, as well as Aang Swift Saviour and Doc Auerloch. This will
will essentially enable you to have an infinite air bending loop while accruing your resources
using your other cars. Now this is a deck that did exist at the World Championship,
but was not overly successful. Since then, there have been two massive changes to the deck. The
first was the printing of a formidable speaker, John-Emanuel de Pras World Championship part.
This makes the deck a lot more redundant and consistent by making you able to go tiering for your targets.
The other is the big innovation that we saw recently of interdimensional webwatch.
This artifact has really leveled up this deck, allowing you to not only find resources,
but also make mana to cast creatures from exile. This really took the Bantai Red Dead to the next level.
All right, thank you, Manny. There is a look at these two decks. It should be a
sweet matchup. Well, Tan and Grace had a chance to talk to Daniel before this
match. Let's find out how he's feeling.
Hey everyone, I'm joined by Daniel Solito who qualifies for this Pro Tour by winning a regional championship.
Daniel, can you tell me the biggest difference between the regional championship and the Pro Tour?
Yeah, I think this event is the highest level tournament you can play.
here are the best players in the world and this event has two formats and this
very difficult to prepare this tournament in a short time. Daniel, thanks for the
time and best of luck in your future match. Thank you.
Well let's find out what happens. It's time for round number five. I'm gonna pass
it on over to the booth. Thank you very much. Welcome back to the booth here at
Pro Tour. Lauren Eclips, Marshall Suncliffe with Paul Cheon and as you
said, big difference coming from the RC level up to the Pro Tour.
You have to qualify using, excuse me,
you have to practice for two different formats in one tournament.
Yeah, absolutely.
And as you can see already, you know,
we have these players who maybe are much more versed in constructed play
because many paths to qualification involve constructed play here,
struggling a little bit in kind of that limited section of the event.
But now I'm sure they're excited.
They already won their first constructed round.
Can they go back to bat?
That's right.
Daniel Toledo here, you see with Damir Excruciator is here via regional championship.
That is one of the ways you too can find yourself here at the Pro Tour.
Hongbin Sun on the other side also got here this one this time through an
arena championship.
So there's many different ways to qualify for the Pro Tour.
You should look around your area to see what suits you best.
And then we'll see you out here with the pros.
In the meantime, an interesting matchup here, Paul.
Oh yeah, Demir, excruciator, huh?
Yeah, I mean, it did win a world championship.
So, I mean, in the hands of Javier Dominguez in the past,
and I think Javier finally convincing his team once again
to sleeve up some dooms, the excruciators.
Now, perhaps finally the time once again.
In a different shell, though, this kind of plays out a lot more like a Demir control deck
with kind of a combo kill finish, right?
You have lots of removal, you have sweepers,
and then you get doomed to excruciate her into play,
perhaps utilize, you know,
parts like the restless week to just
mill out your opponent in one or two turns.
Yeah, kind of a good guys, bad guys thing here, right?
We've got demon excruciators versus like,
you know, like the airbender.
But can any deck with Badger Mold Cub be considered the good guy?
No, probably not by the end of the weekend,
but we're early still here.
Quite a hex is going to take down Lannow or Elves.
I'll probably be saying that a lot over
course of the weekend as well. Land number two here for Daniel and nothing. There's Doc and it
is also going to die to Requieting Hicks. Yeah, nice new removal spell here from Lauren Eclips,
Requieting Hicks, kind of allowing these Demir control decks to kind of come up as previously
the control decks of choice was mostly kind of in the Azorius Jaskai shell. Paul, do you consider
this demons deck one of the I'm going to go against the badger more cub oh it has to I mean when you
take a look at this deck there are a lot of cards that you would fundamentally not really consider
cards that are powerful enough to be a card that you should see in a construct in a standard deck
you know you look at a card like in station blabberish you're like oh that's just not something
that you're going to see it makes sense in this deck but at the same time I feel like this deck is
probably you know you're playing a deck with harvester of miseries uh
requiting hexes you just want to kill any mana creature that enters the
battlefield and then get your combo going. The issue though is Daniel's just
drawn a bunch of removal but doesn't have any way to kind of get the card
flow going or a finisher. Yeah he's done a good job with that first
part but uh it looks like he's down to just a bitter
triumph left. Yeah and this Bant airbending that just has lots of
of ways to get additional resources.
We're talking about a deck with four copies
of interdimensional web watch, which
is a way to get advantage.
You have, of course, the one copy of Quantum Riddler,
which is a great way to get card advantage.
You can search it out with, of course,
JED's World Championship card there,
which is also quite nice.
So you can't just kind of outgrind this deck
using one-for-one removal.
I think the play here or the plan
is to slow things down enough and then find that excruciator.
And you can see right now, things starting to go that direction,
although a harvester of mystery, not too bad here off the top for Daniel,
that is going to reset that land and give him a nice big 5-4 menace.
I'm not sure if this harvester can go all the way,
but that is currently Daniel's game plan.
Right. But like you said, you know, it's tough when he goes one for one, one for one,
one for one, and then UC Quantum Riddler hit the battlefield.
You're not really feeling good. That is not a good sign.
Yeah, interdimensional web watch
Okay, hang at the crossroads and a temple garden doesn't have the minute to play the aim just yet
But you do get to make your land drop for the turn
And that goes until you're ending your next turn right okay
Good hit here for five from Daniel. What does he have to follow up with?
Has a removal spell in the bitter triumph. So that is a way to deal with
at the crossroads. So with the
interdimensional webwatch you can
playing at the crossroads and still have
two mana available. Also has the ability
if you want to kind of slow things down
you do have a couple of ways to airbend
the Harvester of Misery too just to
look if I'm gonna try to put together
a board that has a bunch of creatures
with more than two toughness you can
still get that going just so you just
don't get run over by this card.
Cast, Airbender Ascension, target the Harvester.
Okay, you heard him.
Airbender Ascension does give you that trigger when it ETBs,
so he's going to use it on the Harvester.
And now it will cost two mana to cast from the Airbender Zone.
And Daniel says, sure.
And it's time to play at the crossroads, most likely.
Yeah, all right big turn there for Hongbin Sun
I see a badger mole cub
And you can get a creature with what mana value for yeah, oh, and he hit oppa. Oh oppa steadfast guardian. He sure did okay
So now you can trigger on the stack
Yeah
You can still air-bend the interdimensional webwatch here if you'd like.
It enters and triggers the sensor.
So I'm just making sure that the sensor picks up its counters.
You can target the webwatch and then cast it again for two minutes just to use as a
car-dry engine.
So again, I mean this is kind of what I alluded to earlier.
It's really hard.
Yeah, you're not running your way out of this.
That being said, I think the whole goal of this Demirdeck is not to just kind of put
play this control game where I'm just trying to grind you out of all of your
cards it's survival and find excruciator or superior spider-man and get that
excruciator into play but right now Daniel doesn't have that so he's just on
the harvester plan he can just recast the harvester a mystery won't actually
kill anything this time and he's got a hit with it two times plus to get the
job done that seems unlikely and he's got Hongbin's gonna be able to play this
interdimensional webwatch for two mana draw two more cards
has an ang switch savior available to cast as well and i created again it's just got a swamp
enhanced so he just has to sit back as a spectator and launch a hungman sun go off other only the
same thing again and as you can see also getting an ally token here as you get a one one token
every time you play something with opposite fast guardian in play he's going to cast it straight
away and now that you cast this here we're going to get the airbender ascension to four
which is critical here because now you can blink aim at the crossroads end of turn and get an
extra trigger here just overloading the board with threats. Yeah the card draw, card advantage
engines are very much online here for Hongbin's son. Oh and I think Hongbin has assembled the
combo I don't know that he's got the mana here but he's got dock hour lock. It just goes up to four
and it doesn't matter. So I don't want to pound it to be that way.
Right, there is no...
So go to combat.
Okay.
Attack with Abba.
Yeah, I mean, Abba's going to chip in.
And Hongbin does have Aang Swift Savior, so he's kind of got that 3-card combo going here.
Once he does, he can basically generate infinite ally tokens.
And that's of course going to be extremely difficult to stop.
Multiversal...
Can he do that at instant speed?
Tap.
He doesn't have the ability to cast the Aang just yet.
But when he does, can he end step it?
He can just, yeah.
And especially when you also have Aang at the crossroads going,
you can kind of sift through your entire deck.
And at some point, basically, you can get
so multiple copies of Aang's Swift Savior
all in the air bend zone,
making it almost impossible for your opponent
to come back from that spot
because you're gonna have basically the ability
to counter three spells.
Three, four.
So he flickered Appa on end step and air bent his board,
except for the two allies and of course Appa.
And he's doing this because he's aware of a sweeper
in Daniel's deck, right?
You do have deadly cover.
So he goes, look, I have the pieces to combo off next turn.
So everything is just going to be exiled.
And next turn, I will have the ability
to kind of lock this game down.
Daniel drew superior Spider-Man for the turn.
But there's anything there's aing at the crossroads in the grave
There's there's another harvester there too. Oh, yeah
But he doesn't have any of the big things that he's trying to bring back with this list
His deck has really provided him with like a bunch of spot removal and a couple of harvester so far. Yeah
So he's gonna trade off for oppa and an ally token as he got triple blocked there
But I don't know does it Daniel even have a creature he can hit off of being at the crossroads
If you just copy it.
Mine turn.
I'm tapped.
He passed it from back to me.
And I cast Ring and Blue.
I cast Doc.
And I cast...
Class Doc.
Now everything is free with Doc Aralach in play.
Vaginal Cub.
a little spice there of one of bovine intervention, I think.
That is, is that what that is?
Yeah, that is not a card you typically see in the main or sideboard,
but Hongbin playing around a copy of this.
Swords to cow shares.
I would cast.
Yes, you can call it that.
I would cast.
And the crossbow for free.
Yeah, so I mean, Hongbin will just be able to go off here
and hits a formidable speaker,
so can use that to hit a combo piece,
but actually just found Opa here,
so can put that into play, and with the Aang,
that would be essentially the combo.
There's Opa's dead fast guardian.
Yes, and then-
Who wants to do the trigger?
I float, I float two mana.
I float one-
Yeah, I guess you gotta paint for your combos, but.
I float one green mana and one white mana. Green and white.
Green and white.
I think the question at this point is just how much more
more came Daniel take. He's just gonna have to watch on and just get all this value and
right at some point jealousy takes over. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm been playing very carefully here
knowing that he basically has this game locked down and just needs to make sure he sequences
everything perfectly because he doesn't know what the last card is and that in that. Now you can
You can use that speaker to find whatever missing piece you might need.
And search for a card.
Like this card.
Now this deck also has the ability to kill you on the turn that you're going off as well.
The way that that works is you get a Badger Mold Club into play and you basically once
you kind of have this loop going you infinitely flicker your Badger Mold Club making an arbitrarily
large land that can actually kill you.
I miss some like L.I. triggers.
I miss some L.I. triggers.
And I miss some L.I. triggers.
He's like, oh, because Oppa's on the battlefield?
He could have made some L.I. tokens, but...
No, not one.
And I cast this for free.
Get another L.I.
I think you are in fine good position this year.
Okay, I cast this to put another L.I.
Okay, okay, okay.
So he did actually miss it's a trigger. He didn't get it. Yeah
And there's a cup have like these two voting. So I cast a
Badger more cup
Targeting with the manna
That was the two manna floating right and now with the
And ability to aim the opera you can basically
the Aang, the Appa, play the Appa, Appa, the Aang, they just go back and forth and then
you can flicker as many number of things as you want to play as long as your Doc Aorilex
survives. And clearly at this point, Daniel does not have a way to kill the Doc Aorilex.
He's not waiting for just the right moment as it has passed, right?
One, two, three, I cast the...
Probably this will prompt the concession.
Do you have any response?
Anything else?
Oh, Daniel's like, do your thing.
No concession.
And that's all.
So in this case that I could like go infinite with APA and N3 spear.
Every time I could link the Badger Mall Club, I could get infinite large of the token.
is called demonstrating a loop. Yes, and he has demonstrated it well. And Daniel says
you're good. And that is going to be game number one going to Hongbin son who
really worked his way through a lot of early removal, but not enough pressure of any real
sort there right from Daniel. I mean, he did get a harvester down for a hit, but it just wasn't
quite enough. Yeah, yeah. I mean, when you compare kind of the band air bending back to perhaps the
Simic Rhythm Dex. The Simic Rhythm Dex play many more mana creatures and you know
It does have cards like the Quantum Rither
But I do feel like there's a lot more staying power when you are looking at a deck like the Ben Airbending deck just because
You know, bang at the crossroads interdimensional watch. There's just so many ways to get value it with this deck
See the seat here on turn two
Yeah, great for double black. Great great addition in this Demir, great card rather in this Demir Excruciator deck because you can use
This has hand disruption and then if you tap properly on turn four you play superior Spider-Man with blue blue black black
All of a sudden you can bounce something and take something out of their hand
And that's kind of you know these
Elementals have just made such a big impact in the standard environment allowing for even a deck like this to exist because before if you only have
The excruciator as something to play off the superior Spider-Man
Probably not good enough, but you add the seed and the harvester misery to the mix now you have enough
And it's a nice setup too, right?
Turn two, you can do this to clear the way.
Turn three, do something, then turn four if you find that Spider-Man.
You get it all.
And he kind of has everything there.
There's something in the middle,
stock up, kind of perfect.
Yeah, and can find some interaction here,
can play a Spider-Man next turn as well.
Looks like he's picked up a pair of,
shoot the sheriff here.
So tons of interaction
Little bit of a clock with that deceit potentially and card draw additional card draw with the winter night stories in hand
You also like to see that is he taking away the bovine intervention there and showing it its due respect
Homies like I made the right choice. Yeah, but this is my deck. Yeah
Yeah.
So the most mana efficient play here
will be to just run out something like Formidable Speaker.
But if you're concerned about Superior Spider-Man,
perhaps it's better to just leave up Inkswift Saviour.
Don't need to play right into it.
There's Winter Knight's story now for you.
I'm just happy to target anything with this card.
Right.
Okay, so Aengs with Saviors is going to get it, airbend the winter night stories, pass
the turn back over after playing a land.
Yes, so now there's a formidable speaker.
You do have the ability to go fetch an APA and then you would have kind of the combo
intact but you can't really think your combo is going to actually resolve her work given
the fact that Daniel hasn't used the removal spell yet and just cast a stock up.
our luck very unlikely to live. So if you want to take a different approach then I could
also see potentially just fetching out and you get the crossroads right. You just play
that card and you're just guaranteed to get value.
For a middable speaker has made a big impact.
Yeah, it's actually, you know, I think when I first saw that card my initial response
was oh that is maybe a cool card for perhaps other formats maybe maybe it'd be a cool card in Q but
no I was completely wrong this has made a huge huge impact in standard and does go for Aang at the
crossroads. So Hongbin knows just like in the first game that he can more or less just play a
value-based strategy here. And if the combo comes together, which it happened to do good, but
realistically, he was way ahead in that game anyway. Right. Wow, that was a great draw. Intimidation
tactic. So you can cleanly get the Aang at the crossroads out of Hongbin's hand. And then Hongbin's
basically kind of out of gas here. You can get the Aang at the crossroads out of the hand, or
exhale it rather. And then you can play the superior Spider-Man, copy the seat, you know,
perhaps bounce and get rid of the Aang as well.
Intimidation tactics doing work here for Daniel.
There goes Aang exiled.
Yeah, the other option is of course just firing off a bunch of removal.
Too blue, too black. It becomes a copy of deceit.
And you can take that or doc if you're somehow really worried about the combo although I guess you're getting a piece either way
Right, so now you have a 4-4 here cleanly getting rid of the Aang
Hongbin has some rebuilding to do that was a nice turn for Daniel. Yeah
But now what just a doc hour longer drew another one for the turn right also redundant copy there
Maybe he'll be glad he has it later, but right now it's not doing much
That was an insatiable avarice. It was
Do you I mean you're an 18 you could just go for the you could pay full price
I'll just do it all. Yeah, I mean just why don't you just you can just draw three cards if you like here
And Daniel does have the shoot the sheriff. I mean, he's just gonna do the the limited you double block
I remove your yeah, so he gets two for one out of that combo or excuse me that combat
Alright, two mana. Oh right, I can just run this out instead and just re-evaluate winter night stories.
Another deceit, likely keeping that one in hand.
You can see why these decks that have a re-animator theme like winter night stories.
Ooh, there's the Excruciate!
Can you imagine if you just play that thing?
Next turn, just cast it.
It's going to be hard. It's very likely that Hongbin will just not have the combo pieces to even be able to go off here.
to go off here. There's to see going into the graveyard land number six on the
battlefield here for Daniel. He passes his chair back to Hongdae, but he just
doesn't have anything going on. He's going to attack with the elf. It does not.
I mean, this is just completely different game here. Daniel is the one that has a
huge advantage in terms of resources. And just in case he's going to go ahead and
use you to Sheriff to finish off Doc Arlock and it's like we're going to see
the demon here. It's time. It's just
crusader time. It's 16. Slam it. Boom!
It's just six black man on no bigs.
All right, yeah, we're gonna all have to
read this one together. But the bottom six
outfield line we face down. So it means that
we just have the bottom six. And then the
rest are exiled face down. That's right.
They saved us the time of, hey, let's get
what you sideboarded in. And there is a
Restless reef and play that's milling four cards and if you play a land you can insatiable average party
Hungbin and Daniel can actually win next turn
Just mill you make you draw the rest of your library and call it a game
Speaking of calling it a game. That's what Hongbin Sun just did so that means that we're gonna get a game three decider
With both players getting to kind of do their thing
In games one and then games two respectively
Oh, Torpor Orb there, but for Daniel, although the rest of the hand looks pretty suspect.
Although we're fighting Hex right now, it's nice.
Yeah, Torpor Orb though, really good job at kind of basically preventing the combo from
even happening, right?
Because this entire deck relies on enter to battlefield triggers.
Right.
Was there a shot for this or?
Uh, OK, I didn't see the writing up here.
I was looking down here.
Just making sure the life totals are right.
But of course with the creature combo deck,
even with the Torpor Orb in play.
You can still just beat down that is still an option.
4-5 flying, 3-4 flying, it's not the best, but it's something.
18.
Bramble familiar choosing to just attack maybe doesn't have anything else to do
a two four formidable speaker here no it's a doc hour lock okay two three instead yeah all right
all right it's all just power and toughness
yeah it would be funny it's you know just playing a superior spider-man as a four four
might just be good enough right just kind of keep things at bay
Daniel is going to play a watery grave tap and then pass the turn back with
Requiting Hex on upkeep and I love this killing the bramble familiar
Recognizing that any of the crossroads is something that Hong Kong can play next turn
Which is just a 3-3 flyer, which is kind of annoying to deal with so at this point
You don't really care about the doc hour lock given that you have the Torporal orbit play
I mean that's a big speed bump, but couldn't he have just main phased it?
He could have just main phased it. That is not an effect that you see happen very often.
People fighting for the Bramble familiar.
So either Daniel is okay with that transaction.
It does cost a lot, right? It's basically a turn and a card.
or he missed it and would prefer for the familiar to just be gone I don't know
which one so yeah yeah you can copy the land war elf and make it turn into a
manic creature yeah and it also exiles it for whatever yeah so now it's a we
have a 4-4 land war elf just ripwalling everything here set up the stage
Daniel needs to just get to six man here to get that excruciator online
Is torpor orb gonna be good enough or is Hongbin gonna find enough
Just raw creature power and toughness to keep up here. I mean it's looked super impressive here
Right and prevented the formidable speaker from getting anything. There's an angry me house roads in Hongbin's hand
He wants to name allies most likely
Five mana, three three flyer.
Feels like we're playing limited magic.
I kinda like it, we're back to basics here.
I mean, just like...
No box.
Go.
Go.
Alright, and then Daniel's got our removal spell and an excruciator.
I'll pick three.
So better triumph.
We'll take down the aim.
Yeah, you're gonna take three damage from it anyways.
Right.
You do need the last two cards in your hand.
That's a pure Spider-Man chipping away.
Those are big chunks of pipe.
Yeah, it's the biggest creature on the planet.
Doc's going to attack.
This is kind of funny.
Yeah, well, now we're going to see a six-pull, and there is also a deceit, but that would
just be...
Okay, it's excruciator time.
It's just huge.
No trigger, but if you want to.
Yeah, it's actually just huge.
Hey, who needs a trigger?
Six mana, six six.
There is nothing in Hongbin's bigger than the excruciator.
Yeah, by the way though, no enter the battlefield effect. You still draw two cards of turn
It's not hard on this board now
You're just playing Demir control because corporate has kind of effectively shut off everything else that Hongbing's that can muster up
Maybe it's Demir angry
Demir mid-range. Yeah
Now that a Torpor orb only counts for creatures
So artifacts still get to trigger
here. Yeah, and then you can cast cards here still. Does Hongbin even have a way to, oh,
the bowline intervention? Right. That would be an out here to the Torpor Orb. It does
kill artifacts as well and turn them into cowards. Yeah, there's also multiple seam
rips in the sideboard, but that's a really awkward card to board in against a deck that
basically no other targets. Also, I mean, if Hongbin were to find it, you know,
Lethal's coming up very quickly here. Yeah, I think one of Hongbin's best draws
would be, I do see a singular copy of Vivian Reed in the sideboard. That kills
Liar's, deals with the Torpor Orb, gets you value.
Sure. So I made one...
Oh, he did have a seam rip.
I made two white.
Two white cast seam rip.
Seam rip on the Torfa orb.
Okay, and then now you can hang the doomsday excruciator,
I suppose, but then if Daniel plays it,
he will be able to exile all the cards.
He'll do the combo, or maybe combo's a strong word, but...
Yeah, and given that you're at such a low left total.
I have a white floating.
I have a white floating.
I just got to be very mindful of it.
This is a super important card.
And tap this and cast M on the familiar.
Yup, because the top arrow reduces the casting cost by 2.
So it costs blue and a white.
Just reduce 1, so I can put it in an airbender.
So now you can cast fetch quest off the bramble familiar for free as it is in the airbender.
I have long white remaining, and this is for blue, so this because the dogs will lose the cost, so it only costs blue and black.
I would waste these two for paying this, so all of these men are out there.
So he is now tapped out, so Fetch quest available on Bramble.
You need the blue to cast this one?
No.
I'm missing something.
Yeah, the blue came from the...
I cast Andis Whisper, targeting my Bramble.
Yeah, but I have seen about the mana.
I have the mana.
It's only cost two.
A white hand.
Yeah, but he wants to put this on for the one fast.
Yeah, the multi-versal passage.
I have the white.
And then the white is for the spider-man or the interventions.
And the other white went for the seed.
That's right.
Yeah, it works.
Yeah, it works.
He just wanted to make sure.
OK.
The island's tapped.
Yeah.
There we go.
I'll see you in the play.
And I cast the...
Badge quest.
Badge quest.
Yeah.
What do we hit?
Okay.
Mill seven cards and put it...
Oh!
He hit Opa!
On the battlefield?
He hit Opa onto the battlefield.
Oh my goodness!
That is the last piece that you need.
So now you can Opa the Aang.
I know!
Play the Aang and you can now make an infinite number of tokens.
So I cast...
Do what he needs to do here though.
Eli, I need one Eli.
Thank you.
And he can also play the webwatch.
So now he can draw basically his entire deck.
Okay, so that should do.
Right.
Because I mean he is still facing a lethal flyer here, right?
Like if it was just Appa and Appa died or something like that.
Right.
But if he can do his whole deck then he can get a bunch of flyers.
What a find here.
Unbelievable.
It looked like Hombin was just going to die to this excruciator
on the final turn using every single last bit of mana.
And mana reduction effects.
Right, the reduction effects.
And that was just like, oh, by the way,
you thought I was going to die next turn?
You died.
You died.
Yeah.
And also, by the way, that scene rip, not only did he find it,
but it's in his library.
Right.
Like, you said that's a tough one.
She had scene rip and off of it.
It's a professional web one.
That is unbelievable.
He needed both.
And then he also needed to hit Abba.
And you know what it all comes back down to, Marca?
The requiting heads on turn three.
It could have killed the Bramble familiar, remember?
And Hongbin got it back.
That Bramble familiar is going to win Hongbin this game.
Wow.
And you have extra mana in its loop?
do it. I would say what I could have Alex do it to put both into the
the three. Okay. Okay. That's like seriously. I just
literally this turn happened where this all fell apart. And I could like right now.
That is just an absolutely miraculous. So, now I'm unbelievable. Not just one. He needed
Both he needed both and all of the mana from it
And now we're just trying to say those just basically saying okay, well, how are you gonna kill me sure that I actually died this turn right?
Okay, I could also like I could generate infinite mana for the valve
Yeah, yeah
Just to let you know I got infinite tokens. I got infinite mana and I can draw my deck
There's the Vivian Reed
This is unbelievable
I just cannot believe that house of cards
situation we that we saw I mean Daniel kind of had him locked up yeah I mean we
went from a spot where Hongbin was playing five and a three we do nothing
right to this to this thanks to interdimensional web watch this is in
play I put all of these cards into the event zone and I feel like Hongbin's
practice with this deck a little bit he knows okay
Yeah, a billion. He made one billion. One billion. Solid number. And then he says go.
So he's not able to finish the game right now, but it is enough to get the job done and
an incredible finish from Hongbin's son chaining together exactly what he needed to go infinite.
What a win. What an entertaining match that was, right? And that game three just kind
have had everything, right? We saw the sideboard come to the matter. Daniel probably thinking
about that turn where he basically waited till Hongbin's turn to kill the Bramble familiar.
I mean, to be honest, I didn't even know that that ability, that car had that ability, right?
It's already got a ton of words. It's like, I'll just wait, I'll just kill the creature
on your turn. And that Fedge quest won Hongbin the game. I mean, that was just absolutely
insane, right? Every single bit of mana mattered. The exact two cards that you needed to hit
off the webwatch matter. I mean it would and then of course Hongbin just showcasing just complete
mastery of that bad air bending deck. Really great stuff there about as close as it gets no doubt
about it. We're going to take a short break but when we come back we'll have more magic here from
Richmond than go anywhere.
And welcome back to coverage here of pro tour lower win eclipsed. We're in Richmond, Virginia. I'm Marshal Sackleif. I'm a Paul Chiang. You can see the PT happenings as players make their way to their seats.
And yeah, we're very much in the flow of the tournament now. We're in the standard rounds. If you're just joining us, we already had our booster draft for a couple of rounds into standard now.
standard now and we've got two heavy hitters from Japan facing off against each other.
We have Ken Yukihiro and Takumi Matsura and interestingly they both play for Team Moriyama
Japan.
They did not take the same list with them to this tournament though.
In fact, in some ways a little bit combative there.
Band Airbending versus Moro's Dragons.
Yeah, Takumi kind of known for his prowess with aggressive decks, so any time there's, you know, a deck that
Gives you the ability to kind of turn your creature sideways
I think he's gonna be offing to go for that option. Can you pick hero going for what looks very impressive in
The event airbending that that we saw in the previous game match rather by Hongen Sun here
The theory behind this boros dragon is that the reason why you want to play this is
is, the big card here is the Clarion Conqueror.
What Clarion Conqueror does, it's a three-minute,
three-three flyer, it basically shuts down
all your Menedorks, and in a format
where you're expecting, you know,
40% of the field to be Badger-Mole Cubs,
Land and War Alphidex, if you can get the Clarion Conqueror
in play, turn two, potentially, even with Momo,
that can do a lot of work to just kind of slow things down.
By the way, you see the Momo right there.
Stands Momo's friendly, but I think you'd have to ask
people on the other side. That is Sarkin, dragon ascendant revealing a dragon so you
get a nice little treasure here. Sarkin has finally found a home.
Now while this, while the Clarion Conqueror is very very effective against
various rhythm decks. I do think it's a little bit worse here just because the
band airbending deck does have the ability to airbend the the conqueror
right doesn't shut down coming to play effect so if you cast an angst of
savior or you cast airbender ascension you can kind of use those cards to
temporarily get it off the battlefield and then generate more mana. But we're
gonna see a bunch of flyers here but we'll Takumi be able to put enough
Pressure on before Ken assembles his combo
You can sense
Familiarity between the players, you know when you test particularly when you test with somebody right a lot
You really really get to know the rhythm of how they play
That kind of thing. I will note here. You can see that to come he's on five
Oh sure. That is a tough one. This is a very good five though, right?
Medic Hellkite now. Momo Sarkin turned through Hellkite. It's about as good of a mulligan to five as you can ask for here.
Yeah, and he really downgraded that land there too, right?
Yeah, and I mean most decks are only playing... this deck is probably playing one, two basic lands at the most.
I see a plains right there. You just grabbed the plains in for a botanical sanctum.
That is not the use. It did have a stun counter to further slow things down though.
He does have a replacement botanical sanctum there, it looks like.
Yeah, now the only thing Takumi needs to be really mindful of here is Aang Swift savior.
So might choose not to attack with the Momo, but does anyways.
Or might not be a coward and just go ahead and choose.
And that is an, oh of course also Appa as an option.
Yeah, the paleontologist enabling that here.
Yeah, it's a mana creature that also acts as a graveyard hate-piece.
Seven damage?
Cards in hand two.
Do you want to block the Sarkin? The Sarkin is currently a three-three.
Hey, down to eight.
Alright.
But Sarkin down.
Sarkin down.
What's the follow-up here?
Well, under manifestation that is exactly the hammer blow right
So now access to five minute at least I see a duck hour lock in Kansas
Oh, and you know, this is not a good feeling if you're Takumi, right?
Can you could is that eight life?
Okay, so okay, sure oppa's gonna get airbended with airbender ascension
And then we're gonna see our lock and then a free oppa
Yeah, that's on right.
Yeah.
Alright.
Now you get to make a bunch of one-one jokes.
Because Appa picked up those three permutations, they're all free to cast without matter of luck.
Let's take the one counter off the extension, but they'll be back soon.
So he gets a mage, an arbitrary, is he, message us instantly, right?
He's giving the Demonstrator loophands for sure, so...
So he has a billion tokens?
And finally, he plays this one, and then he follows this one.
Okay, and then finally the last one is going to take out the token.
Because there has to be some number of... there's got to be more than one token.
I think he could die on there to show that it's just a massive amount.
Crazy amount.
Yeah, and he wins.
Because Takumi says, well, I can't kill you.
Right.
So there is no ability for me to actually kill you.
I can kill your land.
I can kill those or you.
And that is game number one, going to Ken Yukihiro
as he's able to set up not the full do everything combo,
but enough of it.
Yeah, I mean, Takumi and Mologin the 5-inch basically
had zero interaction.
I mean, you've got to have some disruption here,
because this is effectively a three-card combo.
And if you have nothing, then you give Ken a little bit of time.
It's just going to be tough.
And unfortunately for Montserrat, he's got a card.
He's the one that's just playing this straight up
two-color duck, right?
I guess he's possibly aggressively also looking
for specific cards.
Yeah, definitely.
He could be a goalkeeper for all, for example.
Very, very good against stopping the combo.
So if you make it so that they can't tap for anything
and the abilities don't trigger, it's kind of like that should
You know, Seamrip still gets this, right, because it stops artifacts and creatures, but Seamrip would work here.
But yeah, this is basically Port Bororob on a stick.
No follow-up flyer here, because he would have cast it ahead of time with the Momo in play.
Yeah, it's happening, probably just thinking, oh, I don't have any connection going on here.
There's the bad remote control.
Let's check it out.
Alright, it's just the grizzly bear.
Oh, right.
Another one of these games, but Ken did start with seven cards in hand.
Burst lightning?
It was worth a burst lightning.
How come he needs a dragon?
Oh, there's a dragon!
No enter the battlefield effect from this sardine guy.
No dragon hop, rather.
This is funny.
having a texture that would work so two damage not so they're trying to figure
out mo mo still gets pumped by the dragon it is I mean given that these two
our teammates and they're doing really well. You can also just tell by the tone of their
voice. It's a lot more casual.
Oh, they have a sign.
I love them.
Turn to cast a new, not-tolerant, not-tolerant.
Maybe this ability and this moment, not-tolerant.
Yeah, but and
To show that that's and
it's too big to and about the end and not to trigger
One one life. Yeah, they they might have missed it when the they're asking when the thrill came in should have triggered Momo
They figured out that it doesn't for the
So do they need to
I'm gonna attack for you 15 after this attack got it
it is yeah all right that's a dragon hawk on the battlefield yeah seriously
Just a 5-5 flyer.
First attack, and 1-1.
Yeah, the judge was wondering if it was from that attack on that turn, but they actually actually fixed it.
1-2-2.
As Momo got to hit for 1, but the throw didn't trigger at the second attack.
Ken's got kind of an uphill battle here. This was a pretty good five. I see an
APA, but remember there is that doorkeeper throw in play so it wouldn't
be able to pick anything up. It would just be a 3-4 flash flyer which would
be still good at eating the doorkeeper throw. I'm sure it's gonna have to show
some caution. Yeah, I mean, at this point you can probably just attack
with the dragon can get down to 18 right no the judges are asking because it was a turn
prior yeah yeah so they looked at what the life totals became and are like wait a minute
so you get to draw an extra card here because you have a creature power four greater
And they take two damage?
And that's a really... wisely does not attack with throw.
So take five and then maybe two more?
If it's still exiled you take two.
Yeah, I don't know what that is.
It's fancy.
Is it a lightning helix?
Okay, it's a lightning helix.
I can believe that it's got red and white in the cost.
Three is more than two, but you do have to pay for it.
And you of course have the option to take out Doc Arlock here.
I think Ken's just going to be flashing in the 3-4 here.
There's just no way Takumi's going to run into that, so might as well just play it out.
Not falling for it.
Okay, Ken just running at some stuff, but none of these can really get in the way of the Dragonhawk that's in play.
play. That troll has been massive for Matsura. Remember, he's on five.
Another hit. It is legendary. Oh, it is legendary. It is legendary. You could still, yeah, you
might just want to get two extra points of damage in. So it's not a dragon hawk, it's
a dragon hawk. Like, that's its name. Yeah, that's right. And this is Clary of Conqueror,
which would cost two mana, but...
So that Dragonhawk just stayed exiled and did two?
And dealt two damage to Ken.
Ah, haha, haha, haha.
And a three.
Ah.
I think Ken's gonna...
Okay, and the Aang won't do it either.
No, although...
Wow.
Dragonhawk was probably the best draw in Takumi's deck.
Absolutely.
At that point.
Especially because it was the maximum amount of mana he could make.
Right.
And that thing had a huge effect.
Because that is one of the things you'll see the sideboard card sometimes slow down the opposing strategy
But if you don't back it up with something it's like they eventually find an answer
Right. It does feel like for this morose dragons that you do need to mulligan quite aggressively to either momo or sartan
Probably right just to kind of get something going early. You must be right Paul because lots are a mulligan again
Yeah, five five six on our free gamer
Ken is now on the play though with the turn two badger mole cub. They've just got first light means
And that's a doorkeeper throw into Kumi's hand if you might just be interested in playing it now so it doesn't get
It has flash right it does have flash
But you just don't want to but if you play at end of turn Ken can respond by can't sting angst with savior and then cost
putting it in the air ban zone. Yeah
Yeah, and he just went to the white face.
Great.
So that's on white.
Okay.
Airbender Ascension does work.
But Seamwork works a little better.
Yeah, Seamwork is what we've seen now in both of our matches this round,
and it's been very effective against these sideboard cards.
Yeah, these sport board or version of sport board.
Really really strong against the Ben airbending decks. Was that it though for Ken?
I believe so no he attacked with his 1-1 turn 1-1 land for the best land. Yeah
Get in there
If you see a clarion conqueror, I believe that's it right there, right?
Man, he almost had the 2-3 punch there, right?
He sure did down the ETB shut down the stuff while it's on the board
So now this temple garden can't tap for mana, right?
Oh, because it's a creature?
It's a creature, so.
No.
Oh, that's hilarious.
It's kind of a rough spot here.
You know, one of the great things about clearing Conqueror,
besides how well it's positioned against these type of decks,
is that it actually has both of the things that we just talked about,
Paul.
It does back itself up.
I mean, it's a clock, and it doesn't have its own.
Right.
You play a Torp for them.
You know, they got time.
You still need to kill them somehow.
Right, but this thing does.
That's a rarity when you see a
card that's that good out of the
board or even the main deck.
Now I do see an airbender
essential here and can you
could use that to airbend away
the clarion conquer and turn off
his mana for a turn.
It's like he's going to try to
build up some manna here.
Oh, just making a for all large
22 temple garden right?
Because I mean it spreads them out.
He gets that one turn maybe but otherwise they're just shut off
Ally the cavern of souls
They're just looking for the little tag they've got yeah, I don't be a common one. We'll see yeah
get to kumi can get a second to dragon and onto the battlefield that'll put an
immense amount of pressure here in canin coming in doesn't have the ability to
flash in an alpha okay that's not quite a dragon not quite it's got more more
friendly you're gonna bunch of cards in here perhaps it's lightning healing
perhaps it's
Could be a dragon, huh if you had dragon off you could have played at last could he no no he couldn't yeah
So one of them probably a dragon, huh?
Yeah, that makes sense. All right. I mean we are getting in with some tutus here, but
that. Takumi is the one who also has access to burn spells in his deck. Lightning Helix
could go a long way here. That is a Magnetic Helcite. That'll trigger the Sarkin and you
can get the Cabaret of Souls here. Because that would be a painless source of blue mana
for Kenji Pigeron. Oh and look at this, just the shuffle. Oh, does he have the planes or
Did he board out? He didn't even look.
Whoa.
Oh man, that hunk. I looks really good.
It's the most have the planes in his hand.
Yes, yep, he does.
Oh, that's so rough.
Oh man, I heard him say something and kind of sigh and just pick up his library.
He didn't even fan it out.
This draw needs to be big here because all he has is airbender ascension.
This is a lethal attack.
Oh, that is Fetch Quest.
So your Airbender Ascension Declarian Conqueror,
your mana gets turned on for a turn.
And then, why can you hit off the Fetch Quest?
Because you would have access to the seven mana.
Yeah.
Perhaps you hit Aang.
one more okay here we go i mean this time i feel like you're a little too far behind but aang would
be one of the better there's an interdimensional webwatch there's three of them
but he got seam rip okay so this means no that's not enough though because if you play
the flyer, that's six damage right?
But you can't play that, he doesn't have to.
Exactly, he's about to get up.
Takumi Matsurura brings the specified weapon to the table, right?
This is the one that's aimed at these, not even like exactly this deck, but decks kind
of like this, and he had the tools to get the job done.
Yeah, I mean just being able to shut down the mana creatures from the Clarion Conqueror
and ability to basically shut off kind of the combo element
of their bending deck with the doorkeeper throw.
You kind of, if you just play four copies of each,
all of a sudden it's really, really difficult
for Ken's deck to do anything.
I mean, take a look, game two and game three,
Takumi was mulliganed to five and six both games,
but it didn't matter as long as he mulligans aggressively
to find kind of those silver bullet type creatures,
all of a sudden Ken's deck just kind of falls apart.
Yeah, I'm really impressed by its ability
to disrupt while applying pressure.
Yeah, that's the thing that you really need in these matchups.
And it got the job done there for Takumi.
Okay, we're going to take a short break here from Richmond.
When we come back though, we'll be at the news desk to set up the next round.
Go go go.
The party coming up soon, Feb 13th through the 19th.
Play in this plain-shifting twist on Commander Party before it vanishes.
Pick up the Far Haven Elf promo card for participating while supplies last.
Check out how it's played over on YouTube.com slash at playMGG.
What's up friends welcome back to coverage of Pro Tour Lorwen Eclipse live
Clips live from Richmond, Virginia, 305 players here in the building battling for their share of a half a million dollar prize
Cool, there is a live look at the floor as the players shuffle up and play here on day one of competition and new seasons of
Pro magic. Hey everybody, welcome back to news at some air with all these center Phillips and Monodavoodi joining me here
Let's take a look at our leaderboard and find out where we're at after five rounds of play here on day one of competition
course, things already starting to get pretty interesting. We have nine players left in the building with perfect records. A lot of big names among them.
Lucas Dukow has two pro tour top eights starting out undefeated. Alexi Paolo, who we heard from earlier in the program, a spotlight winner, currently five in all.
Carl Serrap has a world championship pro tour and Grand Prix top eights to his name, currently starting out undefeated.
defeated. Then lots of great players also sitting at 4-in-1 including Pro Tour Champion Matt Nass
followed by another Pro Tour Champion Louise Salvato-Cedric.
Really, really nice start to the tournament. Our reigning world champion Ken Yukihiro
checking in at 4-in-1. We love to see that. Jason Yee, it is having another fantastic tournament
checking in at 4-in-1. And Simon Nielsen, a player who over the past couple of years has
effectively won everything is also 4-1 so we are seeing some big names really
start to knock the doors down here in the Richmond.
There's a look at our leaderboard. Well two of the players who are here in the building
they always seem to make the pro tour. They always seem to make day two.
Let's hear from them right now.
You know these two, as Ilyka sees in Javier Dominguez, two of Magic's best and brightest.
But we on the coverage team, we know them as the survivors.
Because these two right here, they day two everything.
They never miss.
Since Magic has returned to tabletop play, they have never missed a day two.
And we want to talk to you too about how the heck do you do this?
Because I've played in these things.
These things are really hard, and you make them look really, really easy.
So in 2023, Ely, you made top 16, the world championship, Javier, you made top 8, approach
Lord of the Rings.
Do you remember anything in particular?
I remember I chose a really poor deck for that of it, and luckily, 6-0 limited.
Okay.
Well, that's not surviving.
I don't know what is.
324 you both make the top eight approach for modern horizons three, but only one of you
When's the world championship? Yep. Oh, it's a guy with the microphone
I mean, I said he'd be easily in the way like fucked up. It's oh, okay a little bit of bragging rights
He didn't survive that matchup. All right
2025 we got a little bit of drama
Now you leave off your passive microphone back to you because he's trying to dodge this question
Javier, approach your interview if you start at one in four.
Take the microphone back, answer us.
Before you did make day two, but what happened?
Well, I played for XNabiliterator.
OK.
That's it?
That's it.
That's the whole thing?
OK.
Yeah, that explains a lot.
That explains a lot.
But you did make day two, even with for XNabiliterator.
Boom, four, four.
But now we have to talk about Fisher.
OK, because we know as this year starts,
You guys date you everything you make it look easy even with forex in the obliterator somehow
Well, what are the goals this year player of the year? Okay player of the year Javier?
What are your goals? Well, maybe beat the Ilium three four brackets so I can be the last survivor. Okay, that would have all going three and four
He doesn't want that microphone. I think this is a good time to cut it
Elicousies Javier to mean guys you don't want to play against them because you're probably not gonna beat them
But Javier is going to try at least on day one. That's for sure
That's awesome
It would not be the pro tour and it would not be day two without either of these fine players
You can see is currently sitting at four and one Javier Dominguez is currently sitting at three and two
Well, it's time for some more deck fights if you're looking for a deck to play in standard
We have some answers for you
I'm here with Reed Duke. Reed, what are you playing this weekend and what does it do?
I'm playing Demure Control, designed by the one and only Gabriel Nassif, who in my opinion is the best Magic Deck builder of all time.
Matt Spirling as well, so it's the three of us playing it. This is a pure old style control deck where we're planning to draw a bunch of cards,
counter spells, and win the long game eventually. Tell me three key cards in your deck.
So the first one is deadly coverup. This is a five-mana card that can sweep the board at the
same time as exiling your opponent's best card from their deck for the rest of the game. So
stops graveyard recursion, strips away their combo piece. Two other key cards are one-mana
spells from Loreman Eclipse, Requiting Hex, and Spell Snare. So this kind of makes the deck
leaner and helps us keep up with all those fast matchups out there.
What's a good matchup on Y?
A big reason why we chose to mirror control is we like our matchup against the green decks.
They have so many manadorics and creatures that just hang around on the battlefield
incidentally that when you do finally deadly cover up you get such a big advantage it's
really hard for them to come back.
What's a bad matchup on Y?
There's one card I don't want to see on the other side of the battlefield.
It's Kaito because I can't counter it and it's really hard to remove.
So Demir mid-range is a tricky matchup, but we're pleased that that's like not one of the most
heavily played decklists this weekend. Reed, good luck this weekend. Thank you.
I'm here with Tony Portal on Tony. What are we playing this weekend? What does it do?
So I'm playing the CFT special. It's a Temur harmonizer deck. It's a combo deck that basically
we remove the green midrange creature plan
and put in some combo with blue card draw
and red interaction spells.
Probably three key cards near that.
So harmonizer, it's a key card
because it's the part of the combo kill.
And then something like a card draw,
like a stock up that find those key pieces
and then like an interaction spell like a seer
from the new addition that deals for damage to a creature.
What's a good mashup and why?
So something that doesn't interact with the deck
and you can interact with.
So basically you're a turn five kill deck
and you need to interact and kill on three, five basically.
What's a bad chefeva?
And for the same reason,
something that does interact a lot with the card.
So if they have multiple removal spells,
you can beat like one,
but multiple removal spell that can keep on your turn
and kill your combo piece, that's a bad measure.
Sorry, good luck this weekend.
Thank you.
I'm here with two-time world champion, Javier Dominguez. Javi, what are you playing this week?
And what does it do? I'm playing D.M.I.D. Escricheter, and what it does is playing D.M.I.D. Escricheter,
or copying it. I'm just exciting your opponent's memory.
Tell me three key cards to your deck. I bet I know one.
Yeah, D.M.I.D. Escricheter, Superior Spiderman, which can copy it, and the sixth.
What's a good matchup, and why?
I will say good matchups from Lodex, because they give us time to actually, you know, do the whole combo.
What's a bad matchup on your...
Well, but much of our decks will go under, so we don't have enough time to play the big demon.
I mean, come at us weekend. Thank you.
Well, there's some cool decks for you to check out, and we've got more coming up,
because these next couple of rounds are featuring some very cool decks in the feature match area.
Let's set up our next feature match here, coming at you for round number six.
We've got Samuel Loy and Mateo Ferrera, Semic omniscience in the hands of Samuel Loy.
OK, I'm sad and if it lessens from the tail for era,
let's get to know these players here.
Samuel Loy top aided at RC Melbourne in 2025.
When we asked him who the best constructed player playing
on the Pro Tour is right now, he answered me.
Love it.
I love it.
Love the confidence.
Yes, please.
Confidence.
Let's take a look at his around by round from day one.
So great.
We will take a look ski here.
So we got a two oh start into the brutal loss playing
for 3-0 against Masahito Moriyama, but now bouncing back,
taking care of Steve Stillman playing Salter Animator
and then a little Demir Excruciator.
What I'm noticing here thus far though,
even the matchup this round, is it lessens
no Badger-Mul Cubs it looks like
that Samuel Lloyd has had to play against
with the Omniscient Stack.
So I don't know if the matchup against Badger-Mul Cubs
is good or not, but I do know that he and his team are B,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes.
Ha, ha, ha, absolutely.
Let's take a look at the opponent.
Matteo Ferrer start playing the game in 2016 wants to win this
pro tour as his goalie is a winner of RC Naples in 2024
when asked who the best conservative player playing on
the PT is right now he said survey says me. So both of these
players we can't do that. Okay, I was like is every player
just saying that and I looked through all our surveys and it's
not okay. All right. Make sure I mean, I do like the confidence
that's for sure. All right. A spree I'll start here from
which I do like quite a bit, taking care of Willy Adel in the final round of the draft.
Then you see a loss against Jack Potter, who is undefeated.
He is playing Bant Rhythm, and then a bounce back, going against Yuki at Chicago,
who is playing Is It Lessons?
And now my big question here in this matchup, and for a lot of players in this room,
is how much they're testing its omniscient strategies,
because they're not performing as well as maybe your Badger Mill Cup decks,
and people at this tournament were very much,
I either want to play Cup or B Cup.
Omniscience is very, very powerful if it goes ignored,
And I'm curious to see if the tail is one of the players who just said I didn't think this deck was gonna show up and now I'm paired against it
All right, Monty you wanted to see this omniscience deck in action. Well, here you go buddy. Tell me about it
Yeah, when we're talking about cool decks in the future match area, we're not talking about the lessons deck this round
We are focusing on simic omniscience
This is to build the Sam's Loi has brought and take a look this deck is very cool
You have your dream curve turn to you play loss of amaze that means your tap features have expert
Turn 3, you play a formidable speaker, Jermain Nule Dupro, making yet another appearance.
This is a way for you to discard a card and go get Kona!
Rescue Beastie, the bestie.
Once you have Kona on the battlefield, if you have access to one of these planet lands
in Evendo, or, excuse me, Youth Rose, you'll be able to tap Kona immediately, it'll have
Hexproof, it's protected, you go to your second main phase, you put on missions on the battlefield,
and then a flurry of spells go off.
The eventual goal is to be able to use
the terror of the beats, plus two copies
of Morang River region to just get infinite activations
and kill your opponent very quickly.
The rest of the deck is just a lot of draw spells,
a lot of ways to find your tools and set things up.
On the other side, Mateo Ferrera on is it lessons?
No real introduction needed for lessons.
This deck actually dominated the world championship.
You're trying to get a massive lesson going, turning a cumulant wisdom into ancestral recall,
and you're doing that using Karzik's artist talent and monument to endurance.
This deck is incredibly powerful, but so far the consensus seems to be the format has caught up at this point to its lessons,
which didn't really get anything from Laura Winnick's clips, despite the set being incredibly powerful.
All right, there is a look at the deck Samuel low with that very cool omnisius deck
How does he feel heading into this match tenon grace at a moment to chat with him?
Everyone I'm joined by Sam Loi fresh off a 2-1 starting limited now you're 2-0 here and constructed you're playing in simic omniscience
How are you feeling about your deck choice especially after these two rounds? It's feeling really good
I've been getting quite lucky. So I think that that will add to it, but it seems really well
Positioned against all the black in the room
Awesome. Thanks very much. Thanks
Samuel Loy there. He said, I'm the best standard player in the room. And you know what? I'm
going to put my face on my own shirt. I don't think I've ever seen a more confident
magic player in my life. This is incredible. Snaps for Sam Loy. All right, it's time for
round number six. I'm going to pass it on over to the booth. Thank you so much, Maria.
Thank you, Monty and Cedric. Ailey Lone alongside Corey Balmeister. And we have the pleasure
are bringing you something a little fringe in this round as we check out this omniscient
stack in the hands of Samuel Loy. It's going to be sweet to see if he can get the combo
off because you and I commented RC Portland last weekend and we saw a couple of players
bringing this to the table, but no one ever really fired.
Yeah, nothing really made it to the top eight, but a very powerful deck and a deck that's
kind of tough to be prepared for if it's not on a lot of people's radar because it attacks
you in such a very unique way. So yeah, well, we'll be interesting up against such an interactive
deck like as a lesson. Yes, we are going to jump down to the feature match area here and see how
this shakes up between what is pretty much a known quantity. I bet everyone tested against
is it lessons coming into this weekend, maybe a couple played against this battle missions deck.
Yeah, but or some of the missions deck, but let's see how the cookie crumbles as we get ready to go.
Mateo for up at the top of your screen starts with six cards in hand and Samuel. I don't know either way
I want one of those Samuel boy shirts. Yeah, Alex. No, I think he's got a merch store. I he's got a yeah so far
Samuel is talking it and walking it right now
I mean if you're not gonna be your biggest fan, then you can't
Exactly, yeah, I think some of the big things that we're gonna be looking out for here
from this matchup is cavern being number one so you can just resolve kona and now the game kind of changes from a tail like you really just need to on that key turn four have the ability to have a removal spell ready to go so within combat or with the tap ability on the stack for kona you can just kill the creature
As normally you can interact with this card pretty favorably, but just countering. It's a sorcery speed four drop
Same as true for removal spells. You can just kill it a big card to watch out for that is lost in the maze to give it
Immediately, but also we need a land from Samuel right now
We sure do you know finding cavern is good and all and there is a verge to get free lands on the board
Does have pretty much
Everything you could want in a hand. He just has to get through whatever Mateo Ferrera is doing
Yeah, absolutely. So had the choice of playing the rolling dragon storm there immediately to just make sure you hit land drop number four, but is prioritizing holding up counter spells to just deal with the powerful proactive elements from a tail like endurance or monument.
Yeah, he's got the spelling exhale in hand.
So maybe you want to pay a little bit of attention to what
Mateo is doing, because we have seen these lessons
decks just snowball out of control.
As soon as they resolve what are their permanence,
if it's whether the monument or talent,
things are going to get real dicey quickly.
Yep, totally agree.
Same thing with the omniscience deck.
You get that thing going, and all of a sudden,
you win the game on the spot.
And we have a lot of the pieces ready to go.
You need Kona.
You need omniscience.
And then you need merengue river regions with the dragon storms to make it just for sure GG yeah casting just a bunch of spells for free is usually good enough, but
That's kind of the problem with the simic omniscient stack in general is you kind of need a lot of combo pieces to do such a thing like we still need the planet land to be able to tap Kona as well so
Nice counter spell target here for Samuel probably be very happy to fire off
I mean, if not on this, then what's the next sale going to do reveal dragon or you just
pay in the full price?
Uh, no, just to, you know, no matter what, oh yeah, if it's been held than that, yeah,
if you don't have any mana up, you might as well not show any information and there is
Uthros.
So now it's ready to go.
Uthros is of course a land that enters taps, so we can't do it just this turn, but has
to be basically the best draw in Samuel's tag.
after drawing that third land off the top. So yeah, running hot, playing hot, and drawing
hot is the way to do it here at a pro tour.
Rolling. Dragonstorm, important card here in the combo, as you mentioned. Let's see what
he's going to end up shucking away. Draw two, discard one.
And that would take us in a really rough spot where we have another monument to fire off
and easily could be the play, but then you can just lose the game.
So we didn't play the station land because you don't need to.
You can still station if it's tapped.
Next turn, Samuel is all ready to go.
Oh, yeah. Where if I mean, he's got locked up, right?
Yeah, just locked up.
I think there's no, you know, thing you can do for interaction.
Yeah. When you turn it sideways, it's tax proof.
Exactly. The station goes on the stack, but the creature has already tapped
and there's no way to target it.
So it should be all good to go.
There's an ittle quench you where you can counter
one of the free spells.
Sure, but look what's in his hand.
He's got two, three, excuse me, three.
Are you?
We're doing a meringue river range, but you know what?
Okay.
One of those is getting quenched.
No, I'm fine.
There's Uthros, Titanic Godcour.
Hits the board.
Beast is uncountable.
Courtesy of cavernous souls.
Station active I would like to go to second but and importantly you get to put the omniscience into play
It's not going on the back. So now this can get quenched and you know more than likely
Mateo is going to counter this but
Yeah, there's the quench
but wait there's more and
And bouncy bouncy bounce basically what's gonna happen here?
Samuels gonna bounce that rolling dragon storm multiple times dig through the deck find tear of the peaks and then
That is omniscience working
Really on all cylinders there that was impressive. Yeah, that was a great setup. You know, you didn't have it all
You know in the opening hand but drew into it nicely so yep
And that's the thing up against this isn't lesson deck you do get a good amount of time
Now, this is the start that, let's say, what really needed is grand-grand to just get something going right away
and start filling up your graveyard as fast as possible.
Question technique in the bin there.
And we see cards like seer left in, you know, there's one creature you can kill with that.
It's just that important that you have to respect it.
Because, you know, it's not always going to look like that where you have protection for Kona off the bat.
Sometimes there is a window to get it and you want to be able to get them in that window
Exactly, towards the tower usually is one of the better cards up against the Scimic Omniscience deck
Just one mana, most of the time you're able to just kill Kona
But yeah, when you have protection with Lost in the May, it doesn't matter
Great start here for Matteo, having Grand-Gran and the Enchonment
Well, that does very good Grand-Gran impersonation or it's similar around, I'm not entirely sure
entirely sure, but we do have artists talent there too, so now we're going to be able to
start discarding with every non-creature spell cast.
Man 3 would be fantastic for Matteo.
He's in hand there on the island.
Also has Eggma Kahlo, which is another great way to keep things going in the late game.
Yep, and then the Rall, if you can get that down before you're, you know, essentially
in check, basically, if Samuel has three mana, one of them being a station land, at any point
you can lose the game so you really want to be deploying as many things as
possible until you get to that point and then you start fighting over what
matters and I mean with three formidable speakers here you're able to just
play one of those go get Kona and at least set up that piece of the puzzle
now no omniscience no morang river region any of the other final pieces as
of yet. Mateo decides I would like to get my battlefield going a little bit
better here so levels of the talents formidable speaker is going to chuck
himself into the bin now don't be so hard on yourself JD and goes and fetches
Kona the rescue beastie and here's the top part about playing against this deck
because the tail doesn't know that Samuel doesn't have omniscience so he's
almost assuredly not going to fire off that Kona next turn but you have to
respect it and then oh are you playing too coy against it and now all of a
sudden you're not progressing your own game your own battlefield that can be
the problem.
Stuck up now, draw a discard off of that.
It's a courtesy of Artists Talent.
Also has the Discounts.
OK, and now this is nice, because no matter what,
Mateo has the ability to sear or quench something.
So Mateo doesn't know there's a cavern to resolve Kona.
But with having the sear, it can still just
deal with it within combat.
Yeah, no lost in the maze just yet to protect the beastie.
It's in hand though, so we very well might see that get deployed in the following turn, trying to set it up.
Okay, looking at quite a few options in hand, just deciding how he wants to sculpt it.
The Seer of Equencia, Royal Crackling, Whit.
If you can get to it, Royal would be a pretty nice addition to his battlefield.
Yeah, sticking a Planeswalker, gaining that value,
and then holding up disruption for the combo.
That's definitely the point you want to get to.
But it's tough to get there.
That's for sure.
Big moments as far as what to select off Stalker.
I don't think I'm going to get there.
Yeah.
That's easy.
Not going to that attitude.
Yeah, saying I'm not going to get through my deck here.
And that's, that makes a lot of sense, so.
Wow.
Seer on a formidable speaker.
Oh, okay.
Grand Grand want to get frisky, so check in another land into the yard.
That could be very regrettable because now, okay, we have another seer it looks like.
I was going to say, if you don't have another seer, searing a formidable speaker is very questionable
because formidable speaker, the body of it, it's a blocker.
Yeah, you know, you're not winning with combat damage from the Simic side
So there's really no reason to kill that unless you have another spell not their game play at all
But you know, maybe Sam thinks door's open here. Let's just go for it. Why not?
The problem is going for it doesn't accumulate to really doing too much as you're not putting in omniscience
You know, you can I guess put into play like a formidable speaker or something. I would imagine this is a setup term. Yeah, sure
There's lust in the maze in hand and consult the star charts if you really
want to be mana efficient and do something on the materials end step doesn't have
all the blue mana able to do all that though. Yeah very well could see something
like a lost in the maze plus a consult the star chart unkicked that would be
something that's possible. We have a three blue there. Oh yeah okay okay yep
that's very true. Just green and colorless of caverns for now. Yeah
probably not seeing that so probably just seeing a kick consult the stall chart which just gets
spell pierced. Take one. She'll see. Go Granny, go. Now just one lesson in the grave, the accumulate
wisdoms there and ready to go if you can get some more lessons, but the lantern will be able to do
I don't know if you've thought of it that easily.
Lost in the maze.
Costs two mana up, so it doesn't get pierced.
It'll quench and spell pierce it just like should we team up?
Team up, yeah.
Two for one.
And honestly, you're pretty priced into it.
She got it, right?
What do either of those spells do to Kona once this is in play?
Nothing.
So at least you can loot away some of your cards you want.
Viral, this is in your match, buddy.
Yep.
Pays the two.
and it'll quench you it's the quenchiest and does loot away the extra artist talent and
now having a seer and accumulate wisdom normally really good but the lantern checking oh yeah
into just anticipate instead of ancestral recall is a big difference absolutely that's
all guide lantern messing up all of the great archana against mateo could possibly have in
mind yep soul guide lantern was already pretty strong before lessons you know yeah jumped
onto the scene because of reanimator and now with lessons being a big deck, it is just one of the
best sideboard cards in Stanford. Some people are main decking it. That's how much that's how
much respect they're putting on the archetypes that utilize the graveyard. Yeah, what a card.
So you're at 16, I'm at 18, right? Okay.
Big thanks here for Samuel. How does he want to take this turn?
Yeah, looks like behind the spell pierce I believe is another lesson so the senior discounts on the table here from grand-grand
Also the discount off of the arches tell us are extremely cheap. Yeah wisdom ends here able to be cost. Yep
And doesn't go
And now we do a check
Okay, yep. Unfortunately, we got to put away that accessory cause just anticipates. There we go
Did he activate it?
It is only two so we heard them communicate only two so that card in the back not a lesson so
All right now it is now it's active yes, okay
So monument here does cost one
And then nice yeah now it looks like we ooh so this was a little risky is not gonna work out
You know too poorly, but if there was another accumulate wisdom, which we drew
Any other timing Mateo got a one-man a draw three there. Hell yeah Wow
Wow.
So, Grand Grand's discount no longer applies, but we have seen this deck fill its graveyard
extremely quickly, so.
And just look at the difference this one lantern made.
The accumulate wisdom that only got to draw one instead of three, and now the one that
you just had to discard.
So that's just one lantern that basically prevented four extra cards from a tail.
No big deal.
a question here does you want to answer this consult the star charts on the end
step you can counter it with three steps ahead that is in hand yep importantly
cannot be the stainful stroke even though four mana was paid you know
similar this could get spell snared you know those kind of interactions you got
to make sure you know okay and now it is an omniscience check any cards that
cost 10 men. Who knows? Yeah, that's that's really all that's for sure missing. Now the
seer could still deal with Kono, of course. Yep, still no way to protect a tapped critter.
I did see a loss in the maze, I think maybe they were too there for Samuel. Yeah, and
that's something you want to prioritize. Oh, that is both both in champions are exactly
Samuel launch right now and finds both cards that we really need it. Yeah
That was a great consultation with the star charts that being said Bran gran and Monument combo here is ready to go
Yeah, there's gonna counter anything that goes
So get a little
draw an extra card with monuments and
and the pressure in air quotes is on from a tail as you know this kind of card
advantage you'll be able to just kind of deal with everything but the pressure in
the sense of actually closing this game fast yeah
Would you like some insurance on your omniscience?
Call 7, blue, blue, blue.
What a card, omniscience.
You know, we saw this card, it seemed like it was kind of on its way out when Umbrellas
Awakening was gone, but I mean, there is still, it's still an incredibly powerful effect,
one of the most powerful effects ever.
So finding a way to utilize it.
There's players, there's still something that these players will have on their mind.
Lost in the maze on the stack.
Three steps ahead says nothing.
Thank you.
That's a trigger to resolve here.
The monument as well.
That's the artist's talent.
That is just the counter target spell mode.
That's this result?
Yeah, sorry, sorry.
I draw?
Yeah, yeah.
So is that the upkeep trying to put the pressure on Mateo before the main phase, before you draw extra cards?
Yeah, exactly.
So now having a look at what was exiled with the Soul Guide lantern, just to get a quick count on what you could still expect for the rest of this matchup.
Grand-grand doing her best to a chip away at Sennemils life turtle, but we really want to see this monument to endurance.
Yep, but that's the thing.
Mateo is doing a fantastic job of just stopping Samuel from assembling two pieces.
Yeah, basically just stopping.
The cone is not going to be countered.
And as long as Mateo can sear the creature, then Mateo will be fine here.
So keeping those lost in the maze off the battlefield isn't exactly what you need to be doing.
Sure.
Yep.
So Mateo knows where the threats lie.
You can deal with the creature, so long as it's not hexproof.
Alright, you don't want to be drawing this many omniscience, okay?
Okay, okay. Just 30 mana worth of spells, just between those three gods.
Yes, not exactly what you want.
I think we're gonna chuck an omniscience. If I were to guess, I think.
I think that's a solid bet, if that resolves, we're gonna get rid of that.
And then it's the real question of what do you find through your creatures?
Probably Moran River region, but I could even see a second cone.
Yeah, backup.
Yeah, to just try to keep forcing through and say,
all right, you have to have multiple seers to be able to kill these comas.
Every key creature needs an understudy.
Yeah, exactly.
Or a big old dragon.
Yeah, that too, that'll do.
Being able to get yourself a sift, a coil and catch.
Something that doesn't die to a seer.
Uh, that's, that's good enough for me.
Instead, I'll be Monument.
Whoa!
There is a spicy one, so...
I haven't seen that happen, very often.
Yeah, no kidding. Artifact or creature.
Yeah, Mikhail is playing three, three steps ahead,
in the main deck here.
Just for this kind of combination, not only is it just a hard counter,
but Copping Monument really speeds up the game here.
And that's exactly where he wants to be, because the longer this goes,
Samuel's gonna find the pieces to cobble together this this combo or just beat
him's death with a Morang River region but this is looking good.
Yeah, Taylor's played this incredibly well.
Yeah, we're doing it.
Picked his spots countered what he needed to minimize the risks at the perfect time
and now it's almost at that position where it's just like Samuel is too far behind.
I mean just look up look how quickly he's playing, look at him costing all these things.
Yeah, and that's the thing is we don't have the clock for these players, you know, directly on the screen, but this has been a long match already, and they're going to go to game three, a draw at this stage.
Definitely something these players do not want on their record.
Can you like, wisdom can be an upkeep trigger just to kill Samuel?
Yeah. Yeah, this game looks to be over right now.
I'll create two treasures, skill three.
I'll get it soon.
And then you'll go to dead.
You can lock.
Yep.
You can lock. Bye Granny.
Granny has done enough work here in this match.
I think we can figure out the rest.
Consult the start shots, and then we'll trigger his left to deal damage.
Yeah.
Montaer's just like, I'm going to do this. You're going to die.
But, Samuel will look it anyway.
Just to see what's on top of the library, and we get a game three.
three. Yep. Absolutely. So I think the big difference between
game one and game two is that turn one grand, grand need that
thing to get that just snowballing so you can actually
get card advantage to interact at every pan. So let's see. It
doesn't look to be there quite yet. The hand is very good.
From the tail end. Oh, Grand Grand off the top. Oh my goodness.
Grand Grand's always got your back. That's Grand Grand's
music. So that lantern. Okay, so this did slow Matteo down a little bit, but it looked
like it didn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things in the last game in the grand
grand scheme of things. Thank you. I walked right into that one. You know, Matteo really
had an excellent start and in that I think it was up turn three, he decided to level
up the artist talent instead of holding up interaction. And that really, really solidified
his game plan for the rest of the match, so the rest of the game.
And that's something that you can't do when you're on the draw, like if you level up to
three next turn you could die.
Yeah.
So that dynamic will change a little bit here, but the sacrificing lantern is a huge sign
of weakness.
Yes.
Because you want that card in play, especially with Grand Grand here on the battlefield already.
Samuel opting for card draw.
Maybe he saw it.
Didn't do all that much last time.
just died to monuments so what's the name that hand is horrendous from Samuel
that's like I want to name druid we don't have that I'll take it off it's
close enough yeah just ride on the sleeve with it yeah either way either way
it's just saying formidable speakers gonna resolve
Checking Oothrose, let's go find, go now.
Nope, Morang agreed.
It makes sense, you just need more cards here to be able to discard some of those lands.
We're so far away from any, Terry Lapix is a card you legitimately just don't ever want to draw.
You just want it to be in the middle part of your deck.
Maybe even the bottom part of your deck if you can probably still win if it's there.
And of course, this is a Cymic deck, but technically teamer, but this is a card that you will almost never casting unless it's free.
Or if you have two caverns on Dragon.
There you go.
But we already got one on Druid or Elf, so...
It's not Druid.
So it's going to be tricky to get that there, the big cast.
Stranger things have happened on the Perichord.
That's true.
Okay, heretic reclamation.
A solid answer to a monument if you ever to hit.
That is just a very flexible card.
Can just, hey, I mean, that really is a card that just says,
I'm going to deal with, is it lessened?
It's like, do you have a monument?
Do you have a talent?
Or is your graveyard big?
I'm going to deal with whatever is the problem.
Check all the boxes.
Love to have a label maker in the feature manager.
Yeah, no kidding.
Genius.
All right, now Samuel's hand is functional, at least.
I mean, it did look like we drew a lot of lands,
but we at least drew another Morang River region
to loot some stuff away, and now you have the heritage reclamation, but still a hand that needs some work.
I'll tell you, Chuck in counter spells. It's like, yep, no, I'm just gonna...
You do your thing, man. Let's just develop this battlefield here, Spire Bluff, Knoll Island,
Quintia, Arches Talon, and Monument to Endurance in hand. Samuel's tapped out, so go ham.
He's playing a much more controlling version of Lesson. This is really interesting. You know,
We we very much saw the all proactive style from the world championship
Tails playing three it'll quench you three three steps at two spell snares as far as counter spells in the main deck
And I like that
Is it lessons may have not got really that many new toys besides steam vent and spell snares
But the configuration you can have as far as your disruption can always change
Yeah, you know more threats have been introduced to the format so having answers at opportune times will serve them well
Well, senior discount is online here.
Here comes largest talent.
Does Samuel have anything to say about that?
Looks like consult or just get that heritage reclamation ready to go.
Yeah.
What mode are you picking?
What are you liking the most right now?
I mean, I would think destroying monuments is kind of what you want to do the most.
But yeah, I wouldn't fire it off practically right now.
I would have probably did the same thing as Samuel and also got blown off by a stamped little quencha there.
I like that.
That's a flex.
No.
Sorry, I played it like that.
I played it like that?
I do believe.
I mean, you must have.
We have?
Yeah.
I mean that's the thing always got to remember when you're really in the moment
You know these players are playing for so much. It's like I know this was just a couple minutes. Yeah
Yeah, keeping track of this
Okay, I've seen that one of the players do is play their land for turn upside down
Yeah, so that they always know that is the one that just came in. Yeah, that's fair. That would bug me too much as a player
Yeah
technique so look at close a couple triggers here drawing a card okay and
then when we attack that's gonna make a treasure some of tail has some
interaction on Samuel's turn we know Samuel is far away from doing the thing
yeah and all the tail has one sustainable stroke so there's a world
where Samuel would go cavern on Kona play a tap it games over yeah but as it
stands I mean Mateo is now at the point where he could just be like all right
I'm the beatdown sure and you have grand-grand but every discard is gonna
deal three more to do yeah okay this is just this looks to be an
uncounterable meringue River region but okay it's like not that good no it what
It bounces two things grand-grand and on your mind
We have seen players counter uncountable things just to get triggers on the stack
Yep
And here is what we saw from turn two from Samuel sacking that lantern because the hand was
Kind of weak to begin with yeah
if that lantern was in play and you're able to exile this graveyard and
And Matteo has to like tap out to play Monument and Artist Talent.
Looks a little better, but now you just replay those two things for three mannets.
Not that great of an exchange.
Drop.
Yeah.
Slows him down if that's, I mean, you know, Samuel probably recognizing,
all right, I need to get some pressure down on this board.
So here, catch.
I mean, this is three turn clock.
Yeah.
So and Matteo just has counterspelled, so we do have the lamb to start looting.
So we can do that to get some value going.
Oh man.
That's uncounterable terror.
We're going to see it.
Let's go.
I totally apologize to Samuel for mocking the fact that we're going to cast terror the
piece.
I'm so happy.
That was double cavern off the top, by the way.
the way. Yeah, yeah.
Mariner region and then a terror.
And yee-haw the OTJ is here to stay.
Lovely heritage reclamation gets to blow up.
Draw a discard and now the monument is not popping up. That's another blue card off the top.
And all of a sudden a game that looked un-inimple from second to one.
Now looks basically unwinnable for Mateo.
Wait teamer baby, here it is reclamation in hand again.
Three lands. So not much else happening for Samuel. He needs another creature
just to finish this game right now. But the thing is, is Mateo
is going to, even if we draw combustion technique, the best possible draw
to Kilmerang River region, the terror is going to win. Because we're going to...
It doesn't even matter anymore. So we're going to attack here for...
Oh, wait, come on. You've done anything. Name the beast. No. Yeah, so
purses. All right, Mateo survives
at one
And that's the thing though. You can't target terror. No, because it will never get out of this
You just can't ever beat terror the pizza right now. So I think we're all done here
Gonna take this down
You know what? Maybe he is the greatest magic player in the room Corey
Yeah, he cost terror the peaks in a simic deck. Absolutely
Some people just want it more, you know, yeah
We're thinking let's see maybe three steps ahead finds some
question. I mean you need like two removal spells plus a
Tidebinder, okay, that was one she tongue. I believe librarian. Oh, okay
I could do something. Okay, that gets in the way if we can long she tongue and get it up to four power and
and find a removal spell.
That's what you need to do,
because then you can block terror,
kill Morang River Regent,
and hope Samuel doesn't draw a creature.
Holy mackerel.
He's digging.
Yeah.
He's playing so every single out,
he could possibly think,
I think that's a Toshama's tie-dinder at hand.
Really? Okay.
Oh, there is combustion technique, so.
Okay.
Block the one, kill the other.
That is a way to kill Mereng River region.
Yeah. Do not target terror otherwise you are just dead.
OK, this got more interesting.
But this attraction is on the stack.
And I think we might see.
All right, sorry, I'm not going to discard anything
and just put it to the grave because you don't want to discard technique.
And I think you need to play Wang Xitong just as a chump blocker.
So that is a way from a tail to live through this turn
by not discarding anything like a chump walking librarian
and combustion technique in the Morang River region.
What a time to be alive.
Man, I'm with you.
Mateo, what a spot to be in.
Samuel, you're having a blast.
Yeah, he's having the best time, man.
Yep.
Yeah, and that was just the spell just being countered.
You know, he didn't discard anything there.
You may discard it.
You do, you draw two cards.
So that was just a hard cast and be like, nah.
Nah, I'm good.
I'll pass.
Good lord.
OK, all right.
I've got to do it.
Yeah, that's it.
I mean, sure.
Let's give Matteo a chance here.
Let's show off what he has.
Here is a Flash Chump Locker.
And then the formidable speaker is able to go get...
No, he's just dead.
Terror of the Peaks. Any time a creature enters.
That's true. I was going to say, go get a dragon, but...
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Incredible.
Fantastic. The enters effect of Terror of the Peaks.
In combination with formidable speaker, too much for Matteo to deal with.
But boy, did he fight for that.
That's the one thing is this omniscient deck
Usually does not have a plan B. So if you can deal with the plan a that's you know pretty much how the games end but
Well, that is the first time when I've seen a hard cast terror the peak from a full-on Semictec there that was awesome
I'm so happy. All right friends. We got more magic. Hopefully some more just like that after the break. So don't go in here
Welcome back to the coverage of Bro Tour, Laura Goliwicz here in Richmond, Virginia.
We are deep into our standard rounds, Ailey Lone alongside Corey Balmeister bringing you
the action here and we have seen incredible magic thus far today, Corey.
Exciting moments all around and I feel like, you know what, the audience deserves a little
more.
A little more magic.
I think we should give it to them.
Yeah, as we treat.
For good behavior, let's take a look here at our next feature match.
It is Zeven Faust, rockin' a sweet Azorius tempo list, up against Gianni Manuel de Pla,
former world champion on Sultai Elementals.
Funny thing happened at the cast event that we were at where someone said, have you guys
checked out Zeven Faust's list?
It's so cool.
I had a friend sitting next to him and he was just like, I don't know what to do against
this.
Yeah.
It's just so, so cool.
And an awesome take on the band air banding, you know, you're using a couple of those critters, but also some sweet cards like even interrupter flood pits, Dran or during curiosity doing everything on the opponent's turn.
Yeah, absolutely.
Zeven definitely known for playing some spice and having some very strong results with it as well.
Made the top eight of the Pro Tourer, Matt Nass won with a go gari up the beanstalk style.
Yeah, that was a really nice one.
So, as we join this match in progress, Zeven is up a game against Jean-Emmanuel, playing
four copies of himself in the main deck, as is to be expected.
And he's also playing, you know, kind of a different riff on the salt-tie re-animator
deck, where he's just going full on these elementals that were released with Lauren
Eclipse, you know, Sunderflock being the haymaker right at the top, we've got the seats, we've
got emptiness, playing all the sweet, sweet mythics from the set.
Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of is trying to do the evoke one of your powerful
elementals things. And then when it's about to die, using something like not
dead after all, undying malice to be able to bring them back, something that we
saw from like grief fury, you know, in modern kind of trying to do the same
thing. So that makes sense why we're seeing something like soul guide lantern
being brought in to break up that synergies a little bit. Now that being
said, it doesn't the synergies don't necessarily get broken up if you do
something like wistfulness, because you can stack it in such a way where you
remove the lantern and then bring it back.
Glarb calamities auger, a great card if you're digging through a library for very
expensive creatures like those elementals. So just being able to cost or you know
basically manipulate the top of your library to dig deeper, find those
elementals and be able to cost them off the top because it's available which is
pretty sweet. And looking at the interaction that Xevan has, there's not a
lot for just three drops. There's four seam reps, this is a four high noon deck.
Spell snares so really really hostile to two drops going wide playing a lot of spells
But something like Glarb could be very very difficult to deal with from time
Johnny out on chaperone
Warwick lips to mix couple kids
Let's see which already chooses on some friends
Yeah, and hey that is one way to actually kill Glarb if we get that turned sideways and if well if you don't turn it sideways
ways you're not trying to attack down the Ajani and trying to get that off the battlefield.
Just have the ability to minus two and deal four damage to a tapped creature.
That's a very, very white spell-coded ability. If it was minus two, just deal four damage to
a creature, you know, being able to remove... That would be a genre.
Would be very good. Yeah, we'd start seeing those extremely powerful planeswalkers of history's past.
And now we see not that after all in hand, maybe not necessarily another
evoke elemental to kind of do the combo, but that Soul Guide Lantern could very
well be shutting that down anyways. Because there is an opportunity where it
is in the yard for Xiven to respond. Exactly, yep, it will still go to the
graveyard for a split second and that's when you can Soul Guide Lantern it away.
I think I'm going to get a
little bit of a break.
I'm going to get a little bit
of a break.
Underground mortuary.
Just JD like what's on top.
Okay.
He's allowed to look at any time.
I believe that is a
deceit in the back.
So yeah, the soul guide
Landon is definitely doing the
thing here.
It's such an annoying little
and game plans.
Yeah, for the Graviate players.
Just maybe the best sideboard card in standard right now.
I mean, look at all the applications.
We've seen it good against Reanimator.
We've seen it good against Lessons.
Now good against the new kind of spicy deck
that John-Emmanuel de Pro brought to the table.
There it is.
Formidable speaker, casting formidable speaker here.
At least for the first time on camera that we've seen
and not just that just feels good not that off-roar I'm going to get thrown in the yard
it's usefulness in the climb since we've got Lantern at the board it's like Sunderflock was
pulled to the front there okay it's like that wistfulness to deal with Lantern is another option
but this one this would be useful but let's see where jay goes to it is gonna
just for this turn classes back to seven makes sense on tapping with a
planeswalker just as good now as it's always been this is just incremental
advantage here taking up the ultimate of a Johnny you know could come into play
for sure, but going to just the making tokens here for a good amount of turns.
I think I saw a Deering Innocence in his hand and that's just another way to gain
advantage off of all the tokens being made off of a Johnny.
Yeah, that's great. What does he want to do?
We could see Zedin going pretty deep at the regional championship last weekend.
at least eight and one in the feature match area converted into a top eight, but still
at a solid result playing this is Orius tempo deck as well.
There we go. Enduring curiosity, plusing a Johnny, get a Kithkin, draw a card. Not too
bad.
Enduring innocence for this one, but also has enduring curiosity as well. This is a double
enduring deck.
I love it. I love it. This is a sweet list.
Yeah, it really is powerful.
Good old honest, I'm going to play on your turn magic.
Yeah, four high noons in the main deck is saying a lot to about what you expect to play against.
Yeah, probably not the matchup that we, you know, leave these in.
Well, I mean, it kills a lot of the elementals.
Yeah, to pop it.
Yeah, that is fair.
But, you know, that being the cherry on top of an already established board set, that's
not something you're playing on turn two.
That's something, well, maybe you do.
Yeah, against Cubdex.
I mean, that's an anti-Cubcard for sure.
Trying to storm off essentially on a turn.
Yeah.
Just keeping everyone in check.
Oh, and wow, whistleness off the top.
And that is very importantly, exile.
Oh, it's exile.
You're right.
Destroy itself.
A huge interaction.
Now that's JED saying I don't have to whistfulness the lantern to be able to bring it back type thing
It's well, I'll play the one off the top of my library
Get rid of the card that you're being proactive with and save the whistfulness for the lantern later if you have to
John Emanuel the pros
Avenue of attack has changed. We see spurious by the man in hand. I think he's just gonna be a 4-4 at this rate
Yeah, no
no targets or anything so far and
As far as the Johnny goes, it's minus eight, that's the ultimate, which, you know, I have not seen very often, to say the least.
What is it going?
Yeah, being able to look at the top X cards of your library, where you get your life total, and you may put any number of non-land permanent cards with mana value three or less from among them onto the battlefield.
But you know, that's a lot of the deck.
Yeah, and well, Xavin has a lot of life, so you would be able to just go really wide.
But basically every creature in your deck into play and you know games get a little easier when you can do that
What does JD have in terms of threats for that? He's got this under flock in deck somewhere
Yeah, but that even doesn't return the planes walkers. I mean planes walkers right now
I mean just in terms of off to deal with not bouncing it attacking it. Yeah
Yeah, yeah.
Whistfulness, attacking with this, but these chump lockers with the kithkins
going to be putting that in front of creatures left and right.
Plains walkers that protect themselves. Very good.
Yeah, very true.
Also, another way to just keep applying pressure and developing the board state.
Air temple, abandoned air temple in the lands there.
As soon as you have enough things, just boop boop boop boop.
Yeah, absolutely. We might even see that get active here.
I think seven would like to do something a little more proactive and there is a Tidebinder
enduring curiosity angst with savior. So seven's hand is still great.
That's a stacked hand. Yeah, that's like a lost or JD.
So Tidebinder to counter whatever side of deceit that that's history.
Yeah, I bet he doesn't want his hand seen. I'm gonna go with that one.
I would assume that would still counter that ability but we're not countering the approach.
So I would assume that creature still goes to the graveyard.
Yeah, yeah.
Separate abilities.
Yeah.
That's a show I can trigger.
Requiring Hex does take care of the voice of victory so now Jean-Emmanuel can interact
on Xevan's turn, but I don't really have a ton of actual interaction.
It's the first problem in a line of many problems.
Yes.
Xevan is presented with another one.
So that was another one off the top.
And the way JD had to do it was using tavern colorless mana to untapped
the black source to see cast this.
And this interaction is nice.
You can cast with Glarb.
You can cast stuff that costs four or greater off the top,
Evoking one of these expensive cards does fit that description.
This is a sweet list.
This is a really sweet list.
Playing Superior Spider-Man in a different way.
Yeah.
And one of the most powerful cards in standard.
Basically, combining two pretty powerful decks here this weekend,
or pretty well-represented ones, Elementals and the Reanimator deck.
And I think step one for JAD was,
alright, I'm playing four of myself for sure.
Yeah.
And let's build a deck around it.
Yeah, don't figure out what's everyone else doing.
looks cool. Johnny getting close to putting 19 cards worth of stuff on the board.
Yep, this is definitely getting close and I just keep looking at a way to actually bounce
the Ajani, destroy it. There are not a lot of ways here in JD's deck at all.
You really don't want to bounce the Tidebinder, either.
Yeah.
Okay, another formidable speaker picked up off the top there for Jonimanduel.
That can go get Thunderflock, and that would bounce everything from 7.
Yeah, that might be step one, and then you can attack.
All the blockers will be out, right?
Yeah, you can attack with Whistfulness, the blockers will be gone, but there are still just flash threats.
so you can kind of just recast them and block.
And Johnny Manuel knows about those now
because the second deceit did resolve.
Yep.
And this is the classic.
All right, I got to start reading how close we are to Ultimate.
Mm-hmm.
What exactly it does here from JADC.
Club, bud.
This one is attacking in at a Johnny.
One more Kifken jumps in the way to save the Outland Shepard.
That's a sweet match.
Yeah, very sweet. And Aang Swift Saber in hand. I mean that does stop any kind of
Sunderflock action for a little bit at least. I think JD might have enough though to recast it.
Yeah, that's a lost known part of him.
Yeah, because he's so land. He chucked the Enduring Curiosity so Aang is in hand.
Yeah, I don't think JD knows about no more lies, but with all these caverns,
Yeah, Hunter spells have just not looked great so far. I mean, we're very early in the tournament
But man so many decks are playing three four caverns
And stacking it in such a way that you saw him stack his hands on top first next to all the lantern and then
The evoked going so I would expect to see
Oh did stack the looting that way, okay
That way JD can discard something that wouldn't also get exiled from the Soul of Atlanta.
A minor thing, but just tight sequencing.
Optimal plays. Exactly.
I expect nothing less from John-E-Manuel.
Exactly. Our world champion from a few years ago.
Three world champs ago?
Seven than heavier than John-E-Manuel.
Some interaction in there for JED.
Where is Zeven going with this turn?
Is that at some point you're going to be able to attack down this Ajani, so...
Zeven has to be seen.
Zeven has to really consider, do I play Anx with Saviour now proactively,
or do I save it for the inevitable Sunderflog?
this game some life.
Yeah, the lab is not really going to be attacking too much.
I don't think. Yeah.
Let's put it on the life more valuable.
Not a kiss in our territory.
Yeah, Johnny is ready to go.
OK, all right.
And now the fact that, you know,
that was a really nice play.
Intimidation tactics the fact that we put the tide binder in the airbends on yeah
Can't do something like intimidation tactics get the tide binder on and then Sunderflock and then attack down a Johnny
Sweet line. Yeah, really sweet play. That's why these players here are at the highest level of our game. Oh, yeah
Now you got a thing I guess you can just turn all these creatures sideways
And if you can just hit a Johnny for one that is enough this turn
It's not going to be, though, because there's a tide winder in the way.
Yeah.
So, intimidation tactics, going to take a look at 7-10.
And it's definitely not going to happen with two drowners.
Yowza!
Okay.
One drowner down.
Wow.
Okay, that's going to be...
This is Johnny's going to ultimate me.
I think you are right.
I think if Johnny...
I'm going to see your first to Johnny ultimate of the weekend here.
And you can tell this is Alyssa at 7, it's fine tune and played to death.
He played at the RC last weekend, he's playing it now, so he knows this deck inside and out.
Absolutely, and it's another one of those decks, you know, firmly in the other category
where it's just tough for other people to be ready to play against a deck like this.
You know.
Not set up against it.
I mean, that being said, Jadie's deck is very, you know, either in the other room or also
a bit of a brew.
So here comes the foot, but stride before an attack can be made, tapping down.
Okay, so let's see what happens.
Here, we can try.
Trying to differentiate between the flight.
Interesting interaction, the JED aspect of untapping,
wistfulness, that would just remove the counter, but you know,
if JED is not going to do anything with the mana, at least wistfulness won't tap next turn.
I think it's going to matter.
Yeah, I don't know.
it depends what it depends of the top of the deck is kind to the top 19 the top 19 yeah if the top
rest of the cards of the deck from 7 are kind to him that we might see a problem
just trying to tie bind a jumping in
but a superior spiderman and for a available speaker in hand here comes spidey yep now what lies
says no thank you.
Hi, I guess that is the only way to truly answer it deceit
there to be able to bounce a Johnny and JD was setting that
up the best he could to have superior Spider-Man on deceit
and then deceit to actually bounce the Johnny and as it
stands, have Cameron on spider or man. Unfortunately, yeah,
I think it is time.
We want to see it give the people what they want seven fast.
Yeah, and then that's the question. What what do we
What do we all get how does the game look after all these creatures come into play and normally it's like wow
Okay, that's an insurmountable amount of creatures. Mm-hmm. Sunderflock is still a car. Yes, it is
So let's see. Let's see what he's got
All right, even interrupt her hi noon
These are all just on the board right
He's the permanent, non-land permanent, with Man of 83 or less, so high news as well as lantern.
He's going to throw so many cards off during Innocence.
That's the time of his life!
Wow, okay, so you get all these airbend triggers, there's another Johnny that gets to tick up,
or you know, you can deal forward to one of these tap creatures.
This is amazing. This is very very cool.
Alright, let's do some triggers here.
Yep.
We'll listen in here while the players determine what all the targets are.
These two are pioneers, do not have triggers.
Do you have an interrupt or something?
Is this target?
This one.
It says it just spells in the stack, right?
Do any answers, each will trigger.
See if an interrupt or a sign of a target either.
Swansheets on, Trader, this, I'm not gonna park anything, so bad land turn, I'll exile and de-seat.
And they don't go to hand or anything if you don't play them, so it is a case of, you know, we're almost assuredly gonna see them all come into play.
And that is absurd. This is awesome.
I'll both die in a rushing rule, but I will target...
Now you can airbend two of your own things out.
Jeez, that was sick.
I love that Seven Fast playing a sweet Azorius tempo brew that he's been playing.
And you can just see Johnny Manuel's like, I have nothing for this.
Nothing no sign of luck no way to go and fetch it or ever to resolve at least and just so much value
Yeah, it just you couldn't actually put it into play with high nude even interrupter is just gonna interrupt it the one time
You can't even if you know, then you can't recast it
So yeah, that was really really cool from seven. I'm excited to see more of that deck. Absolutely. Yes, please
So we got more magic for you friends. Let's jump on down to another feature match here
It is a tree out martine versus a Francis Francisco at Sanchez. Excuse me
So, we're going to be seeing
Ractos Monuments versus is it
lessons so similar decks, but
not exactly the same. Exactly
will see a monument of
endurance in both of the bags,
but we'll be seeing a much more
aggressively splanted deck here
from the Ractos side, playing
tricky preachers to deal with
preachers that have the ability
to discard a bunch of cards and
then traditional lessons as we
at one game apiece. So this is the decider for Francisco Sanchez at the top of the screen.
Adrian Martin down below.
We saw a little bit of Aractus Monument start to pop up here and there.
Hasn't had any gigantic results, but I know Benton Matson as well laying the deck.
So quite a few people have brought us to the table.
Moving Mako. I haven't seen you in a hot minute since the days of Vivi.
And we have our 3-1 Iron Shield Elf to be able to discard a lot of cards.
Yeah.
You can create a lot of triggers with Rodding Mako here.
That is pretty sweet.
Yeah.
That is really the new card that I think kind of unlocked this.
The ability to just discard as many cards as you want very much helps when you have a card like Monument.
Grand Grand.
It's the abandoned attachments into the yard, land, there's Ira's demonstration in hand
for Francisco, got a Quantum Riddler, another abandoned attachments.
So good land turn it looks like, so solid hand.
Quite a few options.
And we of course saw Francisco make it to the finals of Edge of Eternity.
Yeah.
Michael Plummer. Super nice guy. Oh yeah, very nice. Great magic player as well.
Players starting their tournament off 3 and 2. They'll be looking to improve that. Yeah, 3 and 2.
4. Still very solid. Yep, 4 you're into day 2, so win it into day 2 of course. When you go into day 2 at
four and four. It's tough to top eight, you know, but still being able to make day two
at these pro tours for AMPs, that is kind of the bread and butter of staying on, getting
to play as many pro tours as possible. Adjust match points for anyone who is acronimally
challenged as I am. Blood gas hits the board now.
Okay, well, I mean, I would say this is like the most ideal IROs demonstration of being
able to kill two creatures, but when you do kill one of them as blood gassed, it's coming back,
but still probably something that we very well could see Francisco fire off.
It's pesky. Francisco opting to go for a burn in attachments here.
It's sort of the only land, but you know the odds you're probably going to draw another land,
and that was multi-versal passage off the top, and then one more card for the cost reduction
from grand-grand. So something like the I-Rose demonstration, and then has the ability to
play something like combustion technique. I love to have an accumulate wisdom right now.
Yes. I feel like in general you're always just wanting accumulate wisdoms in that deck.
Now can't do anything extremely powerful and proactive as far as like, you know,
You could I rose demonstration warp riddler for one non creature for that, but
Now it is online for the cost reduction, but no monument or anything to really
Start doing the thing
There's demonstration as you mentioned gonna take care of those critters on board before they get out of range
a
Free lantern to eat up a nice. Oh you love to see it. You ain't coming back with landfall friend
And now Francisco had the option to just warp a Riddler there, but since it was in full
value, it's just holding up a seer for a creature as well as the possibility of sacrificing
a lantern if you want to.
Moon Shadow, new card from Laurel when it clipsed, and Iron Shield Elf, all right, so we can
make this real big, but alas, not enough cards in hand to get it out of range of that.
good timing, chilling it with this on the stack so it can't get too crazy here.
And now this is going to be one of those turns where you can just play your land, warp a Riddler, and get that draw two.
Yeah.
It's just so incredibly powerful.
In terms of catch-up mechanics in the format, Riddler is probably the best.
Yeah. Yep. You know you got a good card when it's great at catching you up,
It's great when you're ahead. It's just great.
You can mulligan more aggressively.
Yep.
Just if you're hellbent and you draw one of those or have one.
Exactly.
You just undo that.
Exactly. So now has the ability to play Monument as well.
If you kind of want to just tap out.
You just kind of got to think, all right, well,
what kind of ability do you have to kill a Monument?
and braid those kind of things, and if it's worth making it vulnerable.
Riddler warped, tapped out, setting up for potentially a pretty big turn next time.
I want to save for Martin's side. I think we just have four lands in hand.
That is just four lands, two starting times two mountains.
Yeah, I hate to see it. Yeah, sometimes that's just the way they could be crumbles. So congratulations to a Francisco Sanchez
For two he's into Bay two. Yep into day two has a good start here playing lessons playing one of the better decks here in the format and
Hope that hope to see more of that other Ractos monument that gets all that looked really cool
Yeah, some super cool lists and you know some really really good matchups still to come
So friends, we're gonna go to a short commercial break and we'll be with you after that.
Magic Spotlight Eclipse is coming soon, February 6th through the 8th in Toronto, Canada.
The spotlight main event has sold out, but the side events will still be running all weekend long.
Can't attend? Catch the coverage live on twitch.tv slash face-to-face games.
Need a TLDR? Coverage highlights will be featured on magic.gg and play MTG social channels,
and you can see the full Magic Spotlight schedule for 2026 over on magic.gg slash spotlight.
As night falls here in Richmond, welcome back to coverage of Port Pro Tour.
Lorwin Eclipse, 305 players battling here on day number one.
We have $500,000 in the prize pool.
One player will go home with $50,000 after top eight Sunday.
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the News Us.
Maria Brothaldi, Monty Davuti, and Cedric Phillips here with you.
Let's check out our leaderboard and find out where we're at after six rounds of play here
on day one of competition update for you here. We now only have four players who are left
with perfect records here in the building. Lucas Dukau here at the top of your leaderboard
has two pro tour top eights to his name. Alexi Polo, who we saw earlier in the day is a spotlight
winner from Liverpool. And then we've got Marco Balaca here also on six and oh made two out
of three day choose in the last pro tour season. So no stranger to the pro tour and Takumi Matsura
currently sitting at 6-0, two Pro Tour Top 8s to his name as well as two Regional Championship
Top 8s, winning that Boros Dragon's List here this weekend, so it's very cool to see
him undefeated. Everybody who has four wins, by the way, has already qualified for Day
2 of competition, so congratulations to them, Cedric.
Looking pretty nice on page one here, Christopher Larson among those names as well. One of my
favorite players, Jack Potter, the Canadian athlete. Well, take a look, deeper Ely Casise,
Well, he survived again.
Five and one, a lot for day number two.
So congratulations to Ely.
Our Dota, among other players.
We had a lot of players from a lot of different places
doing really, really, really well here this weekend.
It's been a joy to watch as even Tony Porolano,
I had the opportunity to talk with yesterday
for a quick little deck by playing a really unique
teamer combo deck is five and one.
So taking a risk this weekend,
and certainly that deck choice has paid off.
It's locked for day two as well.
Congratulations to everyone who we've got here
battling on day two of competition. Let's check in with our teams here in the building right now
and find out how our testing teams are doing. We're going to kick things off with team TCG
player Moni. Yeah, team TCG player. Of course, the reigning team, we would say they did absolutely
fantastic the world championship so far today, not the best. Their best records are 4-2 in the
hands of Matt Nass, Gapneseed and Rindu. Unfortunately for Paul Ritzel, he is out. Everyone else really
Fighting to decide how their day looks because if these three and threes become five and three great
If they turn to three and fives horrendous, so we'll see how the next two rounds treats them. That's TCG player
What about handshake Cedric? I wonderfully dominant team over the course of magic history. We're gonna dive in a little bit here Carl
Sarap I'm gonna point out him. He's had a lot of accomplishments
I'm still looking for a big pro tour win five and one elicits season survivor five and one Simon Nielsen former player of the year
four and two and four
the destroyer. That's Nathan Stoyer back on the pro tour scene 4 and 2
Lockford in number 2. I know we haven't seen Nathan as much over the past. I'd say calendar year. I would not want to play against him. He might be back. Absolutely not. Let's take a look at Morayama Japan. There's a look at the team. How are they doing here on day one of competition? Well, they have one of the tournament leaders and Takumi Matsura currently at 6 and 0 and a lot of really good records for this team here. Shuhae Nakamura ending the three and three list.
3-less. Notably, nobody on this team is out of making Day 2 just yet, so we can see some
big results from Moriyama Japan as we make our way through the competition.
And the last of our four big teams' Cosmos heavy play as we take a look at how they are doing.
Well, Christopher Larsen, Luis Alvaro, and Jack Potter, all at five and one, doing fantastic.
Again, nobody eliminated from Day 2 contention just yet, but for me, I have my eyes on our
other survivor, Javier Dominguez, doesn't happen as easy as Ilyka sees. He's a three-and-three,
so needs one win in the next two rounds to continue that rivalry. Excellent look there at our teams
here on day number one. We're gearing up for round number seven on day one of competition. Let's check
out our next feature match that we'll be bringing you here in the standard portion of day number one.
Maxime Ravich on Mono Green landfall up against Petter Sohurik on Demir midrange.
Let's get to meet the players starting with Maxime here.
Went 10 and 6 at his first pro tour edge of Eternities to re-qualify and come back and play here this weekend.
Also played in Arena Championship 9. No top finishes to his name.
Started playing the game in 2012. How has his day 1 been said?
We will take a look as Maxime's goal here is to get those 10-1s and re-qualify.
2-1 in draft to start, beating Sam Pardee in the final round of draft, always a tough opponent there.
And you see a wide range of decks played thus far in construction.
Just guy mid-range, Rakdos Monument, and five color rhythm.
The standard event is quite diverse, folks, and you see a couple of wins and losses.
Not going to be going up against another different deck here in Demir mid-range.
We'll have to see how things go here for Maxime.
Let's check out Maxime's opponent here, Petrusa Hurrick, sort of playing the game in 2005
has nine Grand Prix top eights, including four wins from 2016 through 2019.
Requalified for the Pro Tour, VNRC, and Antwerp.
So happy to see him back here on the PT.
Let's take a look at his day one so far, Cedric.
Terminal here for better is the same.
Ten wins to re-qualify, though certainly a different route,
starting one and two in draft, and now playing against a lot of the same
back here in bat rhythm.
But that's wins against bat rhythm three times in a row.
So clearly a good match up there.
Mono Green landfall, though.
Well, that's not a deck many people are playing here this weekend.
So we'll have to see. Yeah, that's very, very cool. Speaking of mono green landfall, Monnie,
talk to me about this deck. Interesting one. Yeah, we're definitely going to start by taking a look
at this. This is another, of course, Badger Mall Cub deck, but quite a different flavor than the
other Cub decks that we've seen as we take a look at it. Much more aggressively slanted as
landfall decks tend to be. You do see four copies of Saz's Chocobo here in this deck in addition to
to the Badger Mall hub, but I think the big cards that this deck is really built around
is the 4-Copy of Mightform Harmonizer. We've seen the Harmonizer in the Sanctum of Altima
Harmonizer uses a combo piece, but here is purely an aggressive element when you combine
it with a card like Ice-Till Explorer, the game can really get out of hand, and because
this is a mono-green deck, you do get access to powerful cards like Sapling Nursery or
the arse to its charm so the sec has a lot of potential going for it but it is an unknown
element coming into the weekend so part of the question is, is your opponent ready to
handle it? Take a look at the other side, we go to the Mir mid-range. Now the Mir mid-range
is the deck that has been floating around standard for quite a while and there have been
many games where it's big, nigh and playable and many games where it's quite great. The
The deck is very much built around cheap disruptive elements as we're used to seeing from midrange
decks, but ideally in this version of the deck, you're getting this in creature form
because one of the key highlights of this deck is enduring curiosity.
Curiosity just being a way for you to stalk up your hand and continue putting pressure
on your opponent means that if you're able to curve something like a deep cavern bat
into a disruptive element, into a curiosity,
suddenly the game gets really difficult for your opponent.
And the big thing Petter has going for him,
he has to play Kaido,
which is still an incredibly powerful card.
There's a look at the players and the decks.
How does Maxime feel about this mono green landfall deck?
Talk to Tannin before this match.
Being joined by Maxime Ravich here,
playing mono green landfall here.
No, this is my choice is one of my favorite decks here
in Standard.
How's it performing for you here at the Protor?
So far pretty good, however, it's not the best choice
into the metagame of Badger World Cup and airbending.
However, if I face against anything else,
I feel pretty good about my chances,
and of course, always have a chance against anything.
So also one of my favorites.
So yeah.
Well, hope you have a good chance here this round.
Thanks for the time and good luck.
Thanks so much.
All right, let's see this mono green landsaw deck
in action, Maxime Ravich there.
I'm going to send it on over to Marshall and Paul
with a call here in round seven.
Yeah, thank you, Mary.
Welcome back to the booth here at Pro Tour Lorna
Cliffs, Marshall Cycliff with Paul Cheon, and we've got some spicy brews, I would say.
You know, normally you'd think that we'd be all about the Demir deck, but we were both
chatting about that mono green deck.
It looks sweet.
Yeah, no, I mean, the deck is extremely explosive.
It has the ability to kind of kill your opponent out of nowhere with kind of all the additional
landfall traders.
So curious how that does against kind of the Demir mid range deck, which is a deck that
has a lot of interaction.
So has the ability to kind of disrupt what the mono green landfall deck can do.
not imagine that we expected in large numbers, particularly that the mid-range check hasn't
really been doing very well recently, but well enough here for Petter as he's 3-0 with the deck.
That's right, you take a look at Petter-Saharic there, and there's Maxime Ravich across the table.
Game number one upon us.
Yeah, they're going to go ahead and fire off. So swamp to kick things off here for
petter passes over to Maxime, who's got the somewhat predictable forest in the land.
Or else we have seen that quite a bit this weekend already. No, we're quite in hex here.
Deep cavern. Pretty hard to remove deep cavern bat when it's on the battlefield with the
mono-green deck. There's a couple of copies of Archdruid's Charm, but that's basically it for interaction.
Lots of really good options here for Maxim. I mean, next turn you can have, you can either go
Earthbender Ascension, get land number four in play, or get run out that Badger-Mole Cub. One really
important kind of new card that has been added to some people playing the mono-green landfall deck,
which I think is going to be really, really powerful in this matchup is sapling nursery.
This is a card that lets you kind of go over to top or just out grind what a lot of these decks
that are looking to play a bunch of one-for-one removal can do. So that is going to be a card
that Maxime is going to be keeping an eye out for. Yeah, and it's really critical to see that it has
affinity for forests. So very much a huge payoff for being mono green as that eight mana cost dips
dramatically. And of course this deck has the ability to play and replay lands to play numerous lands
over the course of a turn. Each of those turns into board state.
And Petter actually keeping a very awkward hand here with zero blue mana. That's swamp.
So Sanctuary founds important. No blue sources inside. Has another deep
cavern bat to basically deal with the eyes to explore. And Maxim is out of action here.
but Peter, if he wants to get something going, needs to find a blue.
Yeah, you know, he probably is going to be relieved to see this
two copies of the Cameron Vat versus Greenback somehow.
Right. That's got to be where it's absolutely best.
That is a hard.
Yeah, that is a way to deal with the bat and get one of those threats back.
So huge, huge draw here from Maxime can choose to fight
and also look for a creature card.
and put it into your hand. So imagine that's what he's going to be looking to do here.
Oh, excuse me. You can only choose one.
Oh, man.
I guess it's a charm, not a command.
Right, right, right.
We've been playing too much limited. Still very, very good here though. Yeah, kill a bat.
And that'll get the ice till explorer back. And it's one of those things where you go. Nice draw. Nice draw.
Yeah, all right. You found your those aren't two forests that I saw in his hand. Yeah
Yeah, Petter knows exactly what he had in hand there and I still explore
Going to do a lot of work as well
You can just get a bunch of lands and play and every time you play a land you get to mill yourself
And that goes really really well with the three copies of Esper origins that are also in the deck
You know you just kind of mill a bunch of cards if you're lucky enough to hit one of those all of a sudden
You get a free spell you can cast out of your graveyard
Both of our players are sitting with a 4 and 2 record, so very good start to the day.
Just looking to finish strong here.
And still no blue source here for better.
Geez, Requiting Hex will take care of the Lanor Elves and knock a couple of mana off
of the table as well.
Exceing debating whether or not to sac the fabled passage.
That was upkeep.
Right, just choosing to draw instead here.
Now remember you can just still sac it here.
go get your land, then play the explorer, and then play the fabled passage numerous
times. There's actually another card that would be nice to hit, which of course is
bossing say, another way to kind of just get additional value here out of the lands
you might mill. Another really, really annoying card for something like the Demeter midrange
deck to handle.
Yeah, this green deck just feels like it's vulnerable to combo finishes and stuff, but
if you're trying to out grind it, it seems really difficult.
This is the first land drop from the Isle Explorer.
Trigger on the stack sacrificing to get a land.
Just to thin out your deck a little bit, right?
I mean, still just reduce, you know,
it just makes it so that, you know,
you can maybe hire a chance of milling us for origins.
It's a lumbering world wagon and a Saaz's Chocobo.
Another Saaz's Chocobo there.
All right.
The Cubs gonna rumble.
And Mechster is gonna pass the turn back.
Can there be a blue source here?
No, I don't think so.
That's another requiting hex.
Yeah, and I mean, Maxime's just playing
two extra lands every single turn here.
Yeah, he's going to get a tremendous number of lands
on the battlefield very quickly.
Choosing to draw here first.
And it's another Badger mole cub off the top.
And the reason why he's doing that is he could find sapling
nursery off the top.
And then so then you want to save that sacrifice trigger on the fabled passage to just be able to make another token if you top deck a might form harmonizer right that's also additional landfall traders that you can get.
We see what he drew for the.
You're a cub.
Okay, so not a super impactful impactful play but Maxime looking for as per origins or bossing say at this point here.
There's a harmonizer getting milled.
milled. He saw two sauces, Chocobo, and now Harmonizer, so all the reds are somehow getting
milled away by the ice till explorer and that seems going to grab a land with a trigger on the
stack once again. So he'll mill two after he's done shuffling. I'm trying to hit that Esper
origins. Only three copies in this list. Two mills and nothing. All right. Lots of lands
though. He's got more than double the lands than on Petter's side here. Yeah, you know,
normally flooding out for the landfall player isn't too bad, but he is not applying much pressure
like Petter. Has a legitimate chance of coming back here if he can get blue mana and start casting
I mean, you know, casting those spells every turn, and there's the hex to kill the OG cub.
Yeah, which is okay, but Maxime's still getting damage in, thinning off the deck.
At some point, Maxime will get to a point if that I-Skill explorer lives, where he
just won't have any lands to draw left.
Oh, Penner just cannot find anything here.
This is nuts.
No blue source, no land drop go?
Holy smokes.
Stapley nursery, there he is.
Oh, there's the nursery at the top.
And that's going to do it.
Petters Eric says, I've seen enough.
I'm going to be way too far behind at this point.
He would be making three, fours every single turn,
at least two of them.
Yeah, this triggers off of any lands,
which is super powerful with all of the sacrifice lands
in the deck.
Well, that's an easy ride off there for Petter, right?
It's just like, you know, that happens every once in a long while.
And it kind of didn't matter what Maxime did.
It was just when we get to that turn of the game, there's no way that he can come
back without a blue source.
Well, Petter will have the ability to cast most of his spells.
This game, or all of them is starting things off with that restless reef does
have the requiting hex here to get the Lanawar elves.
If he so chooses, he still has the ability to also cast a null.
So I imagine you want to just get that Elf off the battlefield.
He's going to hex it away, play second land and then pass.
I believe he said black, yeah, because it has two islands in hand.
And no two-mana plays here out of Maxime here.
So killing that Elf was huge, as this tourney could have run out either the lumbering Worldwagon or the Earthbender Ascension.
But, Pettor does have the answer in the annul in hand to either of those cards,
and deep kevern bat to likely take the other three mana play here.
Yeah, both of those three mana effects will ramp you, get you to land.
The earthbender ascension will also get you the 2-2.
But yeah, much, much better hand here for petter.
even with the Kaito to kind of ninja in, if he so chooses off the bat.
He chooses the Lumbar in the Worldwagon, I believe. Yeah, okay.
And if you're Maxime, I think you're just supposed to just play all your stuff even though there's a chance.
I mean, most of these X are playing two 1-0's in the sideboard basically.
Yeah, this is one of those matchups where, you know, what is Maxime supposed to do like?
Right.
Wait forever.
He's gonna have to just kind of get through all the things that Petter brings to the table,
and it's just gonna get worse and worse.
There's Kaido now from Petter.
Yeah, you can still pick this up as you have dealt damage.
Surveil 2, draw a card.
Not a whole lot of waste of pressure the Plains Walker here was that top top top top top can't be feeling good about that
He's got a removal spell and a Tishonis tie binder and he also has a deep cavern bat for any of the more expensive stuff
And all Maxime has here is a might form a harmonizer and Peter has the answer in that bitter triumph can't even just lock it down with the Kaito if he wants
He's going to actually just activate Boston City here, it looks like.
And is that attacking Kaito, I imagine?
I think he needed to tap it.
Oh, excuse me, you're right.
You're just making it 2-2, sure.
Yeah, but this is a tough spot now because Kaito is just continuing to provide you card advantage over the next few turns.
Before 15-2-2-0.
Yeah, this is going to fall apart very quickly for Maxime.
right finds a requiting hex potentially I do I believe there was also an enduring curiosity
creating hex would be a nice way to get the land if the land if maxine chooses to be aggressive here
and utilizes the land to try to get the Kaito off the battlefield
but it just feels like peter just has all the angles covered here he does he got essence scatter
plus bitter tramp with a superior board position here.
And a second bat.
And of course, one of the things that comes with the bat
is the knowledge.
You just know exactly what you need to play around
and what Maxime's potential plays are for the next turn.
He has one unknown card off the top,
but everything else he'll just already know.
I wonder if Maxime just goes, well,
I just got to go for it here, maybe.
Do I just make a 4-4 and attack the Kaito
and hope you have absolutely nothing.
Second boss.
Yeah, he's just going for it.
It's like, oh yeah, I got it.
Yeah.
Yeah, Maxime is not surprised to see this happen,
but probably a little bummed about it.
He gets his land back and he passes the turn back completely
tapped out and you know, usually the third turn
that they have a Kaido going is going to be difficult
to come back from that, but let's see what happens.
Oh, Peter going for all of the cards here.
Oh, jeez, he's going to draw three extra cards too, thanks to Enduring Curiosity.
All of the value here finds the lander, has the ability to cast the Requiting Hex, and
drawing more cards here with Kaito.
So he saw five cards, got to draw four of them.
Yeah, I mean, this thing can get a little snowbally, especially with Enduring Curiosity
and an uncontested Kaito.
Yeah, interesting matchup.
Just these two decks have such a wildly different approach
to the format.
It probably speaks to the format.
You know, we were talking about how big standard is right now
and Maria was talking about it at the news desk as well.
But one of the features of that is that you really do get
diversity in decks.
I mean, this is, these decks have absolutely nothing
to do with each other.
No, no card overlap.
no strategical, you know, it's just,
this is two very different approaches to the game.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, play draw, certainly very, very big
in this type of matchup, but, you know,
the addition of requiting Hex,
I think just goes a really, really long way
for these various Black Decks to really keep up with,
you know, all the Land or Elf,
Badger Mule Cup Decks that we're seeing.
And we've seen those, I mean,
just soaking up requiting Hexes
every single time they hit the battlefield.
I think they might be asking about the mana value of the lands with the requiting hex or no, okay.
You see Petter's just finishing up his sideboarding.
Yeah, Pete Kavernbatt perhaps a little bit too slow on the draw, so Petter actually choosing to shave one here.
If you're just tuning in, we're happy to have you along. We're in Richmond, Virginia.
bit of a cold snap outside but here in the convention center we got all the
action going on we've got standard for you right now we had draft earlier in
the day the first three rounds of the tournament were draft and we'll repeat
that tomorrow by the way yes that is correct it is in fact cold outside and
And it's cold enough to not be countered, no doubt about it.
I see a Lenoir Elf in a land and a Badger Molle Cup.
This is kind of an ideal hand here for Maxim on the play.
Just kind of ask the question, hey,
Petter, do you have a turn one requiting hex?
Yeah, Lenoir Elf's so good at demanding answers,
lest things get out of control pretty quickly.
Right.
Peter has kept his opening hand and we are underway.
Here's Lanowar Elves now for Maxime, so will it live?
Oh, it's an island!
Just an island so you know.
Yes, it will.
You have to be mindful of a null, I suppose, and spell Pierce, I guess, as well.
And Cub resolves to?
Wow.
And then there's also the Esper origins that you can cast.
This won't get possibly pierced, but it's not even that big.
I think you just let it resolve, right?
Because the power in the Espar origins is the flashback,
not the actual sorcery mode of this card.
Right.
Surveill to game two is, oh, you're down a card.
Yeah, and with the resolve cub now,
and that spell pierce gets so much worse.
Actually, that is true.
Maybe you should do it.
You should have so much mana.
Do it.
Petters head has no removal.
Does have a flood pitch trainer that does get to tap down
a Lannoyer elf, cutting off two mana for a turn,
which would be very, very strong.
But Maxime still has the ability to play an Archdruid's
Charm.
Search out a creature, maybe nice to explore.
perhaps just get the Fletcher rounder off the battlefield so you don't get kaitowed.
Maxime with just two lands strong, but that will not stop him.
There's land number two for Petter.
Okay, going for a Spiglass Siren here instead, there's a lot of mana available here for Maxine,
at least five.
That is a land, so you can just play, it's pretty safe to just cast Mightform Harmonizer
here, right?
I mean, for one mana there's just nothing you can do to counter the Harmonizer here.
And we certainly would have seen any other removal already is so right looks like the way is clear
Oh, right, it's gonna go for us for origins. Yeah, but this will get spell pierced. Oh
It is really punishing and you had the land there too. Any is he gonna play the land of shame? I
Imagine so we'll see
That is brutal
I mean with one man up you have to think what's the safest thing that I can resolve right?
You play the land to play around the spell peers or you play the might form harmonizer and both players smile
You know what?
It could be very punishing though for Maxime we'll see he still has a good hand and a big draw here from Petter finds
We're quieting hex can use that to kill badger will come and also
also cast a flood pitch drowner to really lock down all of the mana generation for Maxime.
Oh, actually just choosing to kill all, deal with all the mana creatures instead, you can
actually just flood pitch drowner the forest here and all of a sudden Maxime would only
have access to two green mana here.
So he went from six to two here?
Only two mana with what?
in an escape tunnel so you can't even pass the Archdruid's term here.
Wow.
Yeah, that spell, Pierre, is nice.
Kind of backbreaking.
Because otherwise he'd have a really scary threat and take a look at Petteri, doesn't
have answers.
I mean, yeah, the Harmonizer would literally be on the battlefield and then Maxim just
drew an escape tunnel, so that's an attack for 16, potentially.
Wow. That was a very powerful. It worked out so well for Petter not countering it on the
first time too. Right and as long as Petter doesn't die next turn I mean he will be able
to get that Enduring Curiosity onto the battlefield
and draw an additional two cards.
I can't imagine Maxim just chum-blocking here.
Get that land out there, swing with both.
Unless Maxim's going, well.
I think he figured it out.
You might just have the curiosity.
Maybe I just block.
Yeah, good.
I like that, Maxime.
Yeah, better still going to run it out.
Right.
Yeah.
So you go to 20 and I draw a card.
Yeah, but this is still such a great spot here.
Maxime has no creatures that he can attack with next turn.
There's still that spyglass siren drawing him
a card every single turn.
Maxime probably doesn't have a clean answer
to the Enduring Curiosity.
Oh, excuse me.
He has it.
Does it exile too?
He does exile too, okay, okay, all right.
Clean answer required.
Clean answer required, excuse me.
So now he went from way behind to a little behind.
Yeah, because Petter still has access to Shona's Tidebinder,
which can certainly do a lot of work,
but can now get the ball rolling here with the map token.
It's a tragic trajectory.
Could use that to kill actually the Mindform Harmonizer,
given that he does have a spyglass siren in hand.
Two damage coming across there with the siren and he's got a backup siren as well.
And Maxime is of course aware that the trajectory is still on top here, so knowing if he plays
out a might form harmonizer, he's just going to die.
Might be better to just run out a couple of small things instead.
Lenoir Alves and Sazes Chocobo.
Maxime's still trying to recover from that spell, Pierce.
That just knocked all the momentum out of his game plan.
His board more or less fell apart after that, too.
Yeah, I mean, one thing with this mono-green deck is if your opponents can kind of handle a couple of things here and there,
It's not really good at coming back in spots like this, where you've just got a pile of
4-mana 4-4s and you're hoping one of them sticks.
Here's the Chocobo.
It resolves and then the combat's going to happen.
To shut us down, Binder, I suppose could have gotten in the way.
No landfall here for the Chocobo.
I think we're going to crack the map and draw a card.
Yes, we are off of the Fountainport that's in play.
So, Petter can find just any number of
Kaito or Enduring Curiosity that would be great,
but he's still looking quite good here,
found a Whiting Hex as well.
So, two cheap interactive spells plus Toshana Tiebinder,
couple of flyers and fountain port going.
At this point though, you have to think, okay, well, maybe I don't care so much
about the Land War Elves. You've already got four mana going. Perhaps the Chocobo
could be a scarier card here in conjunction with the Mightform Harmonizer and perhaps a Fetchland.
and the tragic trajectory is a sorcery. Looks like he's going to fire this off here. Okay,
Oh, no, we're quieting Hex main phase, sure.
He's going to pass the turn back.
There's a Badger Mall code.
Now, Petter can use Tashana's Tidebinder to counter the come into play effect,
so you wouldn't be able to animate any land.
And if you want to do that, you have to let it resolve and then tie binder the trigger.
Because if you don't counter this in any way, shape, or form, Maxime will have access to
four mana. Then you can just hard cast the Mindform Harmonizer as well.
There's the Chishonis Tidebinder.
So Badger-Mul Cub is a vanilla 2-2 creature.
Yeah, he can get three mana while it's on the battlefield.
Right? Yeah, you can float the mana in response to the Tidebinder.
But four doesn't, yeah, and three doesn't actually do anything.
Right.
Given Maxime's hand.
And then once the Tidebiter trigger resolves,
now Badger Mulkove loses all ability
so that it doesn't double your man any more.
And the Stainful Stroke to counter at least one
of the Mindform Harmonizers.
Might be time here to, oh, and still just going for the job.
Wow.
That way you can start turning things sideways.
Yeah.
Getting aggressive here.
I mean, that saws his Chocobo.
Still on the nest.
Yeah, still still still a little one now. I wonder if Maxim is certainly thinking, hey,
I block the land comes back into play, pumps up the chocobo. If I draw, for example, in the
escape tunnel and if the might form harmonizer resolves, I mean, there's something going there.
That's what Maxim is playing to. He found a forest. Yeah, so I imagine he's going to run out the
the harmonizer, the sample stroke was actually a very nice draw here for Petter, slowing
things down, giving him the ability to continue putting pressure here. This is almost certainly
getting countered. So now Maxine could play a land here to make a 2-3 jocobo, or keep
it in hand to perhaps get more triggers off the harmonizer.
Keeps it back, so potentially leaving it as a defensive
preacher against the tidebinder.
And Petter going, you know what, I don't mind this trade.
If you want to trade your Chocobo for my 3-2, so be it.
Maxime is the defense, is kind of trying to preserve the
life total here. At nine, Peter has the active fountain port and all all Maxime
can do is just run on a harmonizer and a LAN or elf.
There's both of them. Wow. This doesn't happen very often, but both players right now are empty-handed.
They are empty-handed now, Peter.
Okay, making a treasure instead of a chump-locking fish token.
Really?
On seven lands already?
Looks like he's just looking for more answers.
Probably going to crack the treasure for a card.
Ah, right.
Oh!
Was that Kaido?
That was Kaido.
Big, big draw here for Patrick.
Can attack with the siren.
Get the Kaito in play.
Perhaps just lock down the Harmonizer.
And then you can, if you want to play a bit conservatively too,
You can keep one of the sirens back to have two blockers to kind of save the kaito.
Just something to consider here for Petter.
It's like, okay, do I want one or two blockers, right?
Because if you ninjutsu in with the kaito,
you will still have the one mana available to play out the other siren.
Choosing to kind of maximize damage here. This allows you to get in for five.
I imagine walking down to Harmonizer looks pretty nice, but he's actually just looking to draw cards here.
He must figure that he realistically can't die from this position.
right? Yeah. Remember no cars in hand for Maxime, so perfect info here for Petter.
Yeah, I still explore would be a great draw here for Maxime. Don't think force gets it done here.
Petter Sahurik applying maximum pressure down to four is Maxime Ravich.
or he will be able to kill the Kaito. Oh, really? Right? Yeah, but remember,
Petter has the other Kaito in hand. Oh, and he shows it to him and that's gonna do it.
Petter Sohurik picks up the win over Maxi Ravich. Very impressive with Damir Midrange. Petter
back on the pro tour after a pretty long hiatus, five and two here on day one. Yeah, with kind of
a deck, a lot of people wrote off as something that you probably shouldn't be playing just because
Standard has continued to get stronger and stronger and I feel like that the mirror decks maybe didn't really get as many tools
But hey the addition of a fighting text against the green matchups
And of course also access to you know some of the other you know cards like spells now just really cheap interaction against the green
Dex certainly helps. He's for know with the deck so far. That's right. I like it
I like the look of that build and it seems well positioned as well
We're gonna take a short break here for Mitchman, but when we come back
We've got more standard action for you, Nick Chow,
versus Dushon Table.
Don't go anywhere.
and welcome back to coverage here of Pro Tour Lorwin Eclipse Star Martial
Cyclist with Paul Chiang and we are in Richmond Virginia. Thank you so much for
joining us. We're happy to have you along. We're watching standard right now
and so far we've seen a whole bunch of different decks down in the future
match area. We've got a couple more band air bending is one of them. We've seen
that one before, but check this out. Nick Chow on four color allies on the other side of the table here.
Yeah, this is certainly, I feel like this is the round where we get to see kind of a lot of the
interesting decks that people are bringing. And the allies deck is certainly capable of some really,
really explosive sparks here. You know, we have several lands that kind of allow you to just,
As long as you name ally you can just kind of cast anything so playing four colors is not really an issue at the
At which point all of a sudden you can just kind of play the most efficient ally at every point in your mana curve
And as you can see both players sitting at three and three
So this is a win and in into day two
That's right six cards here for Justin Nick on seven
And of course being on the play when you're on one of these assertive
creature based decks really matters and you see he's got the earthen ally to
start things out. Yeah this deck I mean if a lot of your key ally survives you
can do some kind of silly things here you know you have earth king's lieutenant
which can of course pump you pump up your entire team so if you can get a
bunch of allies in play that's great you also have cards like Katara the fearless
which kind of doubles the triggers off of the allies that you have so you're kind of just playing your allies
Hope they stick around and if they do then all of a sudden it you just kind of bury your opponents in card vintage
There's that lieutenant to kick things off. I also see great divide guide times four in here
That's explosive index like this, but in the meantime maximum damage coming in
With the earth king's lieutenant. Yeah, I mean getting in for a three on turn two is
on the play that's exactly kind of what you need to be able to put enough
pressure here on the banter bending back because if the games go along you
have to like the banter bending side. That's right. Bramble familiar for Justin.
There is a Jasmine Dragon tee shop here one of the main reasons why you can get
way with playing the four color ally deck here. Tap for any color to cast an ally and
a second lieutenant. So this is a really aggressive start here from Nick Chow.
Yeah, normally it's a non-starter, right? If I told you I've got this really cool deck,
it's all allies, they synergize super well, but it's four different colors and it needs to curve
out. You would say, sorry dude. Yeah, the fact that you can play up to four copies of that land
along with four copies of Cavern of Souls really just allows you to basically play everything.
This is, what is the seven damage coming in?
Nine.
Justin's already at nine here.
Holy smokes, he's done 11 damage over three turns.
Wow and he's got a spider sense in hand too.
Just in case Justin has anything tricky.
Yeah maybe some kind of balance effect with with Aang, something along those lines.
This could be a quick one.
Big Chao really showing the explosiveness of this Hal-Eyes deck and putting maximum pressure
on Justin.
Starting town.
Yeah.
This is going to be a painful, no, it might be, okay, nope, badger mold.
He's not gonna counter the trigger.
Looks like he might.
He has to pick something up.
He has to pick up a tapped card, so picking up the 3-3.
So it wasn't free, right? You didn't pick up a 3-3 trampler here to be able to counter
the trigger ability on the Badger-Mul Cub.
Okay, hey, that is a nice way to clean up the board here.
Double spell turn from Justin.
Badgerum will come to still in play the Bramble familiar next turn will tap for two mana
Seem rip has been doing good work here today
How can Nick best rebuild for maximum damage output is the question?
Looks like he's going for Earth and Ally into that Earth King Lieutenant that we know is
in next-hand here, because it was picked up from the Spider-Sense, so, hey, this is still
a big attack here.
I mean, that is what, a 4-4 Lieutenant getting in with Trample.
to put Justin down to five for eight.
Five, five goes Justin.
Some garden tapped and he says you're up.
As you mentioned, though, this is a lot of
mana available now for Justin.
Get out five. Yeah, a at the crossroads
would be an interesting one just because
you can add multiple threats to the
of course, Justin would need to find, would need to play an extra land on top of that.
Or you know, if Justin had something like another seam rip and an Aang just to deal
with the Tramplers, that could also be something that he could have here to come back.
Nick is down to one card.
I believe the last card was a somewhat new card.
I mean, not somewhat actually new card in winnowing.
Oh, really?
I believe that's what he had in his hand.
And take a look here convoke sorcery for each player you choose a creature that player controls
Then each player sacrifices all the other other creatures they control that don't share a creature type with the chosen creature they control
Yeah, he's got two of those in the board
So basically you get to kind of kill all their other creatures
three creatures. Two men. Okay,
Badger mole cub. So this is
only kind of costing you one
man. All right, while also
putting three creatures in
play, still has access to four
manna here. Excuse me. He
netted man on this. Or broke
even rather. Free badger mole
Although I believe Justin did miss land drops here, so what can he do with the last four mana?
Cap Greenpool.
Yeah, Cassis.
Cassin just here.
Could still have something like an Opa.
Or, Aang Swift Savior in hand.
Three Cups.
But I feel like if you're Nick, it's like what do you do, right?
You can't just say nothing.
You also do have this winnowing that you can run out.
Looks like he's going for it here.
He's got two of them in the game.
I should say both of them in the game.
Right, does Justin have Aang?
He does.
He does.
He will have to take a point of pain here.
Go to four.
So is the second couple of winnowing going to do the thing next try?
possibly I mean this isn't it yeah this is an attack for four right I imagine
there's gonna be a double block here with Aang and a Badger Mool Cub
unless Justin somehow has the ability to kind of combo off here oh where he may
want to keep but then you have right like you just block with one Badger
Mool Cub right if you block with one Badger Mool Cub you go to two perhaps
that gives Justin the opportunity to have enough mana to go Doc Aralock
Opa and then just make a million tokens right and then you don't have to worry anymore
No, it looks like the combo is not pending. So he's gonna go for the double
Now Nick has a decision to make
Do I want to shut you off of two mana by killing the cub or?
Do I want to absolutely minimize the chance that you might be able to combo
Eating up the mana here
He figures that's the best way to prevent potential combos shenanigans or just keep Justin from doing too much
But Justin still has access to a lot of mana here
Six mana available with this board
And that's without a land drop yet either but has to be mindful of the fact that there is a winnowing
that
Was what that is in the air ban zone
So I mean basically what that means is you cast a winnowing, you choose one creature
that they control, that creature lives and basically everything else will die.
Okay.
And that's for you too.
Right.
So white, green, green, green, Florida.
Is this hanging at the crossroads?
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah, and then you can, oh, and
then if you, if you do the, if you
play the bramble familiar, if you
fetch quest and you hit Doc
hour lock, right? Then all of a
sudden you, you kind of have the
combo. Oh yeah, cause so he's
looking for doc hour lock and he
hits, look at how much faster he
got after hitting it. Yeah, there
it is. There it is. So, I mean,
So, I mean, this is, this, this might be,
yeah, I mean, this is the combo now.
He has everything going.
You can flicker the Badger-Mole Cup infinitely,
animate that land, and I believe
that's gonna be a lethal attack here.
Oh, a lethal attack right now.
I mean, even if there's no way
that Nick can get through a belly and tokens,
and Justin picks up the win,
that's gonna put him into day two
with so around to go here.
We have seen so many clutch fetch quests.
Seriously.
Just getting you exactly the piece that you need.
Having that be such a critical part of both how you make mana and do your early game in the deck,
but then having the other side of it just be the thing that finds your combo pieces is incredible.
Yeah, I mean it just kind of does absolutely everything that you want in the deck and it's
been super super impressive. The bad airbending deck, I mean it's one of those decks where
I feel like there's not been too many additions to it. You could have just literally played almost
the exact same deck at the world championship, but somehow the meta games kind of evolved.
They've taken out a lot of the cards that you don't absolutely need and it looks great.
It has. Every time we've had it on camera, it's really stood out to us taking a look at what it can really do.
OK, let's take a look at Reijang versus David Rude.
And once again, we have players who are at the three and three record, which means a win would put them into day two.
And Ray Zhang has brought a spicy one here.
This is...
Well, you know, Saint-Tem of all, they love their combo decks.
This is a really spicy one.
They call it Teamer Harmonizer.
The way it kind of plays out, it's kind of like a Teamer Control Deck, but they have
the ability to kind of kill you out of nowhere and relies on basically Might Form Harmonizer.
You combine that.
combine that with full bore and a fetch land and basically you can just feel more than 20 damage to your opponent out of
Nowhere, and by the way because you're warping in the team or a harmonizer your it actually has trample as well
And presumably this is something that you are looking to maybe use to target something like these badger mold cupcakes that
Are really lacking in interaction, right?
All you're trying to do is ramp and kind of get Crater of behemoth and play and I feel like kind of the theory is
Well, if they're gonna look to do that then I can just try to play
Whichever combo deck I think is best suited against that strategy
I mean to me the the best decks
Really in magic history have often been
Decks that can play a perfectly serviceable fair game plan where they just kind of cast their spells and advance a game plan
but have the ability to oops I
comboed you and now you're just
dead because what it does is it
often forces the opposing player to
respect the possibility of that
happening which makes them play
differently than sideboard differently
and often buys you enough time to
win with your primary game plan anyway.
David off to a nice start here.
Turn one else into formidable speaker.
Trying to find something here.
It looks like this is game three, so we are in a fully sideboarded game here.
So perhaps has an answer here that you can fetch for.
The addition of this car just gives you so much more flexibility
in terms of that building.
It just allows you to play all kinds of different one ups in your back
or even in your sideboard.
There you go. I bet you that's a one of.
Yep.
Enduring curiosity here.
We've seen this card do good work this very round.
Can David make it work so far?
He's got two creatures versus zero.
It is a one of in the sideboard here.
Really great card to search for in the control matchups.
All of a sudden all your kind of
mannered works actually become relevant.
I wonder if Ray has something like a seer or something.
Three copies of it in the main. This is not a removal spell. You see that often
I think the deck that makes the most sense to play a card like this would be like the is it lessons deck
But it's just not enough better than you know something like combustion technique
You kind of need all the lessons so it's nice that we actually get to see
Kind of a controlling deck that has access to this card
Ray just decided to fire it off. They had to really kind of think about it
I mean a lot of times the damage is done. Yeah
But also just completely not using your mana for the turn
not great curious if Ray just has the combo in hand and that is a pyroclasm
getting the off off the battlefield here really just kind of attacking David's
manabase here I like the class I'm sticking around a block oh like David
just kind of has to tap out to play something and if Ray has full bore plus
harmonizer I mean that would just be the game right so what does it go for to
seven off so four and then land land yeah four you go land harmonizer fable
oh but the fable passage is already in play I mean I haven't played with the
deck yet but I mean David also is down to 16 right right taking some damage off
the shots yeah easy mode you see Badger more cub here from David still trying to
set up that curiosity so I guess you you you warp it in fetch the land trigger on
the stack you full board at seven so it would only be 14 damage right I believe
with one yet I'll trigger right the combo really works is the way that you
really want the combo to work is not have the fable passage and play yet
Raise, can I double fetch with the field passage?
Yep.
For efficiency.
So no might form harmonizer kill here just yet.
Perhaps another pyroclasm?
That would be a clean way to get rid of this badger mole cub.
Oh, perhaps just a nice fill explorer.
Fitting up the deck here. The good shuffle
Feels like a nice to look for
No one and go
But this is definitely where David has to start really considering the possibility of getting comboed out here. Yeah, absolutely
Now whether he's got anything to do about it is a different question and if you don't then play on yeah
Yeah, again, this deck is really kind of lacking interaction.
Now, David is playing the Bant version here.
There is a singular copy of Briteglass.
Gearhulk, that's in the deck that you can use to kind of fetch up cards like Meltstriders Resolve
or unable to scream, both of which would work if you had the Gearhulk.
Ooh, it's Auroboroid.
I imagine that's kind of what Ray wants to see.
It's like, OK, play Auroboroid, and maybe I can kind of do my thing.
Right, I get two turns.
Right.
And the nice thing about something like a seer is, even after a trigger off the Auroboroid,
you can still finish it off because it has four toughness, and doesn't represent spider
sense here.
Okay, now I don't see a Mindform Harmonizer in Ray's hand, so can't actually go for that
necessarily.
There is a pyroclasm and a seer in Rey's hand.
But pyroclasm not quite effective here.
Seer would cleanly deal with the aurelboroid.
This is a pretty critical juncture in this match.
We're in game number three.
Yeah.
Ray does have consult the star charts in hand with the ability to play two lands out of the graveyard here
Which means I mean with seven lands in play. That's effectively a dig through time here
And which should be able to kind of find what they need
Setting up the deck
That was the first land playing that fable passage out of the graveyard.
Yeah, and we've seen the sequence scene before.
That's the final result, Team Note Triggers?
Yeah.
Also, you're kind of a three-color deck with some number of basics, but perhaps not infinite.
You want to just make sure you get the land that you actually can find instead of accidentally milling it.
Okay, let's let this chart chart and spell snare.
Oh, look at this.
Being aggressive here, maybe looking to try to go for the win here.
If you can find my form harmonizer, I think that's the game.
So can we find it?
That looked like a my form harmonizer.
My form harmonizer, remember another land drop still available here
and it hasn't managed to kind of do it all here.
That's right.
My form harmonizer, get a fabled passage, full bore, get fabled passage
and this should be lethal.
Is it enough? I mean it's got seven power right now.
That's a 428.
And how much toughness?
Seven.
28 minus 7, 21 damage.
Wow.
Coming through here.
The combo finish for Raging.
I mean, this is why you're doing that.
It's gonna do it, Raging.
Fixed it up, swinging for 28.
Woo!
Holy smokes.
deck has incredible firepower with a massive swing to finish things off, it makes you respect
it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Look, the only real ways that this band that can interact are sorcery speed removal spells,
right?
You have the unable to screams and what have you.
So if you just have an instant speed wait to deal 28 damage, I mean, you're just oftentimes
just not going to have enough toughness on the board to deal with that.
That's right.
makes a lot of sense. We've seen a lot of the decks that are combo versions or
there are very much inward looking there not looking to interact with their
opponent very much or really looking to kind of do their own thing and having
that random one-off just boom that the other decks on half is certainly paying
off there for a fantastic stuff from the feature match area. We are going to take
a short break here from Richmond. When he comes back, we'll be at the news desk.
Don't go anywhere.
The Magic Limited Championship is a brand new special event coming in 2027, a competition
that brings limited to the center stage.
You can qualify in 2026 at Limited Championship Qualifiers, LTQs for short, held at Regional
Championships, Spotlight Series events, at EveryMagicCon event in 2026, and an MTG Arena
through the new 2026 Arena Limited Championship Tournament structure.
Invites are also given to the current World Champion, the top 16 drafters in the 2026
play season, and Hall of Fame members can use their one yearly pro tour invite at the
2027 Limited Championship.
details to come so keep an eye on Magic.gg and the PlayMagic social channels for the latest news.
As night falls here in Richmond, Virginia at Pro Tour,
Lorwin Eclipse, we have one round left to go on day one of competition.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the news desk here as we wrap up our final round with all
the money to go to end Cedric Phillips with you. We've still got that round of
plays. Let's check out our leaderboard and find out where we're at here after
seven rounds of play. Couple players still undefeated here in the building.
Of course, exactly where you want to be on day one of competition. Take a peek
here. Check it out. We have Marco Balaca at 7 0 as well as Takumi Matsura at 7 0
as well. That is a jet sky control deck and a boroughs dragons deck which lead
the field here in Richmond. Taking a look down the standings a little further.
Luis Salvatto here doing very well pro tour champion currently sitting at six
and one running that Demir excruciator list, which is a very, very cool choice
for this weekend. I got to give a shout out to Eduardo Saggilex currently sitting
at six and one. My commentary friend from back in the day, seven Grand Prix top
eight and one win for him. So good. It starts on that page. It starts here as
as well 24 long six and one Dom Harvey the ambulance Titan master six and one Alan Wu
a former pros were champion checking in at five one and one one of my favorite players
of the pros were the Big Dane Christopher Larson at five and two and you're gonna see
a bunch of other five twos here as well like reigning world champion Ken Yuga hero.
Excuse me player of the year Ken Yuga hero.
Gabriel Nassif the yellow hat at five and two and then Jack Potter five and two as well.
All these players that you see that Maria went over and I just went over they're coming
back and playing tomorrow.
Absolutely. Well, we've been sharing some very cool decks for you to trial this weekend in Standard, and if you're still waiting for the deck that's right for you, here's our final look at deck fights.
I'm here with Eli Casius. Eli, what deck are you playing? What does it do?
Is it Blink? And it puts things onto the table really fast and takes advantage of Quantum Riddler to restore your hand.
Taking advantage of attrition, games, and pulling ahead by card advantage.
Tell me three key cards in your deck.
Springleaf Trum, which is the new addition to an old Ark type of this deck.
And Quantum Riddler, of course, and probably Splash Portal, so you can cheat out the Riddler and then blink it to draw extra cards and have a really cheap 4-6 flier.
What's a good mashup and why?
Great matchup is Cub and Airbending.
They play really cheap creatures.
We play really cheaper rule of spells.
And we're getting bonuses from Quantum Ruler
by attritioning really cheap cards.
So they go low and then can't do stuff
because they don't have multiple resources to add mana.
And we go low and then draw extra cards as a reward for it.
What's a bad matchup?
Oh, Reanimator.
So they don't play the cheap creatures.
They play big creatures and they pull them out fast.
So Blue Red doesn't really answer big creatures very well.
You look good like this weekend.
Thank you so much.
I'm your pro tour guilds around the good champion,
Andrew Ellenbogen.
Andrew, what are you playing and what does it do?
I am playing, is it spell lentils?
The basic plan of the deck is to play some cantrips,
play a creature that's mana cost is reduced
by the number of spells in your graveyard
and then use that creature's mana high CMC
to play a Thunderflock way too early in the game.
Tell me three key cards in your deck.
I think I know one.
Sunderflock, we're Night Stories, and you're Crap.
What's a good matchup and why?
The best matchup deck is all of the Cub decks
of various sorts.
Fundamentally, they are not prepared for you
to interact with them on the first turn or two,
then play a Sunderflock head-up schedule
and close the game before they can recover.
What's a bad matchup and why?
The worst matchup for this deck is just by control.
If the card rest in peace resolves,
you basically can see the game.
Andrew, good luck this weekend.
Thank you.
One round left to play here on day one of competition
here at Pro Tour, Lorbin Eclipse.
Let's set up our feature match for the final round
of competition on day number one.
Who will be watching?
Well, of course, it's our two undefeated players
by the time we're done here.
They're the only one.
Takumi Matsuura of Japan on Boros Dragons
versus Italy's Marco Balacca on Just Guy Control.
Zooming in on our players a little bit here,
Takumi Matsuura had a top eight at Pro Tour Borexia in 2023
and a top eight at Pro Tour Thunder Junction in 2024.
He came in third in both of those tournaments, so he wants to be better here this weekend.
Excellent finishes, of course, but you just never want to quite be third.
Let's check out Takumi's Brown by Roush here on day one of competition center.
I don't know.
If he told me I could get third every pro tour.
Haha!
Would you take it?
I think so!
I think so!
Taking a look at the start and 3-0 start through limited, which is always a wonderful thing.
And then picking up four more constructed wins along the way, starting against Is It
Control, Bant Airbending, and then Is It Lessons Twice?
So Metsaurus played against a lot of blue and red based strategies.
Not a lot of badger mole cubs on day number one here for Takumi and
not going to be playing against it here in the final round either.
Pretty notable, a lot of people expecting the cub to get the doves this weekend.
Ooh, I like that Cedric up against Marco.
The lock I hear start playing in 2018, played all three pro tours last season.
That's finished with 11 and five at pro tour Etherdrift.
Wants to win 10 match wins to qualify for the next pro tour.
Well on his way here this weekend.
Let's take a look at its day one, Cedric.
Day number one, again, you're gonna see seven wins
in a row, of course,
because both of these players are undefeated,
so it's a three-oh through draft,
and then four-oh through constructed.
Just guy elementals, bant rhythm, five-color rhythm,
and is it lessen?
So that's four different strategies
that Marco did go up against.
A fifth one here in Boros Dragon,
so getting a wider range here is Marco,
and off to a really good start taking care of everything,
though Boros Dragon's not sure how well-prepared
for this matchup,
as I don't think many people are prepared for it this weekend.
This is a cool deck, Moni.
Talk to me about Boros Dragons and this matchup.
Yeah, both decks are really cool.
Both decks definitely fall into the camp of anti-cub decks.
And I think one thing that when we look at Takumi's list,
he has an absolute master with aggressive red-based strategies.
That's what he's used for a lot of his success in his career.
And this Boros Dragons deck is sweet
because it is very anti-cub.
You're playing four main deck copies of Clarion Conqueror,
which is directly a nod to the Cub matchup.
Now, the rest of the deck is really all about cheap aggression.
One of the all-stars in this deck is absolutely Momo friendly flyer.
Just making all of these dragons, at least the first one you cast, each turn cheaper
means that you get to put on a lot of pressure just having that turn one Momo into turn two
Clarion Conqueror or Nova Hellcite Curve.
This deck does a lot of really cool things, and I think one of the things that a lot of
people consider a weakness is how do you do against the non-cup decks?
Well, so far Takumi hasn't faced a Cub Deck today, and he's still undefeated.
So, really strong showing from him.
On the other side, we take a look at Jeskai Control.
I think a lot of people, when we were talking to them at the player party, when they were
saying what their worst matchup was, it actually was Jeskai Control.
I think this is a deck that a lot of the Cub Decks are very scared of, and the non-Cub
Decks, the anti-Cub Decks, lose to.
This is a very traditional Control deck.
You see a lot of removal, some counterspells.
One of the big things this deck is able to do
is play cards like Day of Judgment and Ultima.
You're getting a lot of value out of your landslot.
And of course, one of my favorite cards,
Jeskai Revelation, just being able to play this card
in your control, just being that ultimate late game
power card, love to see it.
This is very cool.
I'm excited for this matchup.
Before we get to it though, we're gonna check in
on a very unique group of players
who's doing pretty well here on day one of competition.
This is the Italians!
Here they are, check it out.
These are a group of players who, you know,
there is a team that kind of changes
from pro tour to pro tour.
If you're Italian, make the pro tour.
Hey, they might ask you to come on
and test with them in their Discord
if you're not already on a big testing team.
And they are doing great here on day number one.
Check this out, Marco Balacca.
Of course, one of our tournament leaders currently at seven
and oh, we've got a six and one right there.
two five intus really incredible
records here only one player out of
day two contention so far here on day
one of competition so depending on
the rest of the tournament goes the
Italians can make quite a showing here
this weekend.
Well it's time for the final round of
day number one let's find out who our
lone undefeated player will be
I'm going to pass it on over to alien
Corey in the booth. Let's find out
indeed thank you so much Maria Corey
who is going to be our undefeated
the game. So we're going to
see a great game. We've got a
great game. We've got a great
player going into date, too.
Definitely going to put a huge
advantage to just guy control
here as it seems very good
against a boros dragon strategy
here, but dragons. That's a
great argument. Anything could
happen. Sweet list from both
of these players coming.
Mutsuura from team Moriyama,
Japan and the Italians, Marco
the locker. We're going to see
to see these two decks undefeated, but they came poised to defeat the big bad in the room,
which is just an 80-bit little cub, and they're doing an excellent job thus far in the rounds.
Yeah, once again, two decks that very much seem like they are great against cubs, and
now we're playing against the other categories against each other, and adds an interesting
wrinkle to this tournament.
It might come down to who bought the best anti-cub deck, and also has a win condition.
Exactly, yep. So Takumi's deck, definitely trying to just play extremely powerful creatures
on rate. So, you know, by, you know, in turn we have a lot of rare mythic kind of thing.
So just playing extremely powerful cards and hoping they can't get answered easily.
Spider manifestation to accelerate here a little bit for Takumi. Let's see what he follows
us up with. Does have a land in hands, got a couple actually and also has a
cavern of souls to protect his dragons when the timer rises. But for now, where
are we going? We're trying to resolve Legend of Roku? Yeah, Legend of Roku.
Yep, Legend of Roku gets to untap that. That is a huge No More Lies for sure.
And cavern of souls is definitely going to be the most important land here.
Getting these dragons to resolve and forcing Marco to have removal for them
instead of just No More Lies. That's going to be a big deal.
Well, we do know he's packing plenty of removal in his 60 cards
He's got a day of judgment and ultimate times two along with four get lost
Lightning helix just guy revelations like yeah, if you need something removed Marco's your man exactly Marco playing for
Just guys for an elation as well. That is very telling saying I don't really need any other win cons as that card will do everything for you
I think the Jess guy decks really like that card
Yeah, I mean, it's incredible the fact that you can't you don't have to play like Shiko a dragon that you got to tap out with
The fact that you can have a wincon that you can cast at instant speed. Yeah big deal
It's sweet, you know
It does all the things you needed to do in a control deck
It even creates the pressure on board that you need when in the form of the prowess monks
And then you know just the one creature in the deck being the onagi of kiyoshi island. Yes close out the game very powerful card
little anticipate here for consult the star charts just trying to find lands
that's really all these control decks ever want to do just make your land
drops do a lot of draw-going type of thing. Two stockups a no more lies also a
day of judgment in hand so you know Marko might be totally fine to let
something resolve here if it is countable and just clean up the board
next turn with a judgment. Yeah it's not gonna work out that great here if Marko
would have kind of been able to see into the future here I think Marko would
to jam this stock up as Takumi has kind of the most difficult thing possible for Marco
to deal with and that is use the land to search up a powerful dragon, play cavern on dragon
and resolve this card that's going to be very, very powerful.
Went to go and find the Magnetic Helkite that's able to blow a blend and bring a land in
tapped a basic. So it's a good basics check for the opponents playing these multi-colored decks.
And yeah, that is a very real thing. You're going to look how many decks are actually playing a
lot of basics, and Marco is just playing one plane. So if you ever can cast multiple of this
extremely powerful dragon, and it just becomes a four-mana stone rain-style dragon, that's huge.
Nice, Sarcan, Dragon Ascendant hits the board and now we get to see, as you mentioned,
Cavern of Souls on Dragon, so we're going to blow up some land.
Yeah, and just great sequencing there from Takumi just being able, holding that cavern
until now.
Otherwise, maybe you want to know more lies, you know, the two-drop here, but with the
way that this was kind of disguised, Takumi kind of gets everything right.
sequenced it really nicely, leaving Marco with nothing to do really except blowing up everything
on his turn. And importantly, those are all verges. So like the fact that you just got
elegant parlor out of there, the planes still turns on most of the verges, but you know,
the the middle verge, the red verge is only red mana here. Yeah, river by verge.
very important to note as well.
I had a stun counter on it,
so I did a tap.
Yeah, there we go.
So there is land four in hand.
Do we have double lights?
Yeah, looks like it's a daytime clean up these creatures.
But now Marco kind of missed that big turn
with having to just do nothing last turn.
That is where you really wanted to be
a manifestation and cast stock up.
If you know you weren't going to be able to counter
something on your opponent's turn.
Let's see if that comes back to bite Marko as we now resolve a legend of Roku
Exile in top three cards able to play them until the next turn Claire and
Conqueror available to top as well as another Magnetic Hellkite. Hey, hey, should
we still have reins and things? I think we should that looks excellent here being
able to destroy one of those lands and not being able to search up anything is a
big deal and legend of Roku is just a phenomenal card as well most of the time
We see it just in the sideboard a lot of decks and they come in when you play against a deck like is it where they kill a
Lot of your creatures, but I love main decking this card boros house notoriously
Struggled with having card advent. Yeah, I was gonna say up, but you never just get to draw enough cards since we lost like showdown of the
Skull similar card. I was gonna say this is a boros deck. How's he still have things to do, right?
On aren't they supposed to run out of gas at this point? Yeah, no kidding stock up here for a Marco Balaca
Finds a get lost, look like a couple lands, maybe a multiversal pest.
I think Helix as well for the options, so plenty of gas now.
It just comes down to do you want to maybe destroy Legend of Roku even though
there's still solid value that's going to be gained next turn but you don't get
the mana value and of course eventually you have to kill that card as the
backside of Legend of Roku is just a must-kill threat.
Oh yeah.
Avatar Roku, but find that powerful Saga,
able to make some dragons and also firebending four,
because, you know, why not?
Yeah, help make some more dragons.
Yeah.
So, Marko has plenty of questions to answer here.
Let's see Lightning Helix on Mermol, just getting rid of that discount, getting some
life, patting that life total which also might be very important.
Yeah, very relevant.
This boros deck hits really hard, so most of the time it's, you know, it's not this chip
shot damage of three here, two here, you get hit really hard from this boros deck.
Grand, grand.
Bopping in for one.
Not exactly grand, grand.
Same to grand, grand, boros deck.
to get a color of mana so six mana available it's like we have Sir Rock
which essentially costs one getting the treasure then Nova Hellcat as well
haste is gonna be a big deal in this matchup being able to get in some
damage before day of judgment can clean up these creatures see playing no
That's usually a good way to clean up the controls.
Here comes Sarkin, Dragon Ascendant once again, enters, beholds, a dragon, makes a treasure
token, now has five minutes to work with.
But wanting to save that one for later, so you don't lose out on both of the creatures
from Legend of Roku.
Search and fail to find.
Yeah, four search there.
Free shuffle.
Yeah, it doesn't matter pretty minor when the deck is already randomized,
but hey, that's what the card says.
Yeah, it sure does.
Another land drawn off the top there,
no more lies in the hands, spells, snare,
stock up, Ultima available to Marco.
Yeah, and I think this feels like a situation where if I'm in Marco's seat
I very much want to be like all right
I want to use my life total as a resource here take a huge hit for seven
From the two creatures in play and then when the legend of Roku flips into avatar Roku then ultima and
Clean up everything because if you just ultima here, how are you dealing with avatar Roku with Spelzner?
No more lies stock up
So feels like a solid stock up turn to me, but
Of course, it's easy to say when we have information on both players' hands, and we're not under
the bright lights of trying to be the only undefeated player here at the Pro Tour in
Richmond.
I must say, they're super chilled.
Both of these players are not fussed.
It's just another game of magic.
A couple of nice cards drawn off the top there for Marco.
It's all Kory Mountain Monastery.
Rest in peace, get lost, and something else in the middle there.
piece probably going to be the fastest side out possible against this boros mid-range style of
deck. I think I saw a mistrized village in there but yeah I'm going to take the core mountain
monastery and the get lost. Yep that seems solid now having the ability to counter at least one thing.
I'm going to talk Roku, Flippity Flops, back on the board, 4-4, Kone Attack though, because
it was exiled and then returned.
Now kind of the perfect play for Tsukumir is to be able to warp a Nova Hellkite.
That way, it's going to go into the warp zone instead of just get taken care of by Ultima,
and then you have another hasty threat for next turn, so.
That's a big old smack.
It's going to get taken out though, get lost,
takes care of the never-held kinds.
Recognizing exactly what you said, Corey,
that not something that he can deal with
when it comes to playing sorcery speed.
Yeah, and that just has to be
the biggest red flag here from Takumi.
Just thinking, well, you just killed my creature
that's going to go away.
Why not kill one that's already on the battlefield
and is going to stay?
And that could only mean one of two things,
actually, day of judgment or ultima, but that's about it.
both bad news here for the creature's player, Takumi Matsura,
rocking Boris Dragons here, brought the deck to prey on the cubs,
but doing a pretty good job up against other archetypes here this weekend.
Yeah, especially as what Takumi hasn't played against a cub deck yet.
That is quite wild.
I believe they're saying that he did play Ken and he's playing air bent.
Sure. Sure. Sure.
Unless Ben doesn't have any cubs in his band deck.
Yeah. OK.
Maybe not just cynic style thing.
or a strictly rhythm deck.
Yes.
Now it's just the play ultimate,
not even leaving up Nomar Lies here,
just recognizing I would rather play
a steam vents tap to protect my life total
as the odds that Nomar Lies gets to
actually counter something next turn seems very low.
Yes, it's doing a little bit burst lightning.
We could see burst lightning to the face.
Yes, and that's just okay.
Nova Hellkite is exactly what we want,
But yeah, just another land for Takumi that is quite brutal.
But yeah, we might just see it fired off now.
Unlikely, but you know, yeah,
whatever control players tapped out,
you're just like, ooh, I want to hit you now.
Yeah, and Marco, that's exactly what he wanted to see.
Just your aggressive opponent,
just passing the turn without, you know,
progressing onto the battlefield.
So this is exactly where you want to be at it from a just guy control perspective.
I know this Karen conqueror is not going to hang around for a long time,
but that treasure should be used to cost it because you can't do anything with it.
Well, I was on the board. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.
But yeah,
Brady probably going to clean that one up pretty quickly here.
See, not long for this world, but now the treasure is online. Oh yeah.
There we go. There's upside. It's going to be very relevant. Oh, no.
Oh no, it's used. All right.
All good. Oh, I bet that went away with Ultima and they just
Oh, yeah, you're right. That is artifacts as well.
And that's a big old finisher right there. Just guy revelation.
Quite a good magic. Yeah, no kidding. Get a cast that one right
away. Otherwise it goes away and yeah, you kind of want the stuff
it brings along to say the least. Yep. No spell that can bounce
land which is pretty neat. Four damage to face makes two little buddies and draw to
cards gain four life so yeah here is where Marker takes over. Definitely this is it
kind of felt over the turn that Takumi passed without progressing to the
battlefield but you know if that Hellkite didn't get get lost this game
would have looked a lot closer for sure. Yeah ultimately may have still ended up
in the same result here with Marco pretty much in control here, in control.
Yeah, this is really how this matchup feels like it's going to play out and kind of looking
at the side where I know getting ahead of us a little bit, but there is not a lot of things
that come in that are anti-control cards.
No, it's Takumi's main game plan is just get to the board as quick as you can and kill them,
because as soon as they get to turn four, all your stuff is dying.
Yeah. And you know, a lot of the deckbites that we've been hearing throughout the weekend, one kind of common factor that we've been hearing a lot is like, OK, all these anti-cub decks, what don't you want to play again?
It's the question we asked them. And a lot of them were saying control, you know, so not all that many control players here this weekend, but they're going to be pretty happy.
But be a great choice for sure how the meta game shaped out
Plenty lands in hand not what to come he wants to see so now it's just a matter of time and probably like a
three-turn clock if Marco gets some extra
Nonsense going here. Oh like that. Yeah, if this was a testing match
I think we would have scooped it up right now, but hey, you're you're undefeated playing
At the final round of the pro tour
definitely want to go into day two with best record possible these players are
poised to do just that Takumi Matsuura with 11 and 5 at PT Etherdrift, oh excuse me that was Marco 11 and 5 at PT Etherdrift so looking to better
his record here and on track to do so. Yeah absolutely. Takumi's response you know
Any how to qualify for the pro tour advice and he said enjoy enjoy enjoy
That is a very underrated thing like the amount of times when I've had solid results. I have very much had a blast
I've got that guy played was it breach by any chance
That was one of the examples for sure. Yeah. Yeah, very much enjoyed that one
But that is an underrated aspect of professional magic you get so lost in that this is a competitive high-stress
And now we forget that hey, we are still playing the game that all of us love. Yeah
It is a game. Yep, you know, so please do enjoy
Dragon named on the cavern of souls Claren conqueror joins Sarkin lightning Helix says nothing
Yeah, and I think twin ma storm brood
What gets cast most of the time for the removal spell the charm? Yeah, that I think is very telling about
about what, you know, how many cards for control
Takumi has in the sideboard.
That doesn't seem like a card to me that you want to leave in.
But I mean, looking at the sideboard, we see, like right away,
it's just four rest in piece, four doorkeeper throw.
They do not have text.
They didn't do anything here.
So not a lot.
Very clean sideboard though.
It is very clean.
Very simple.
Just doesn't contain a lot of things
that are going to help you out against the control deck.
So this could be a pretty short match up here.
We could see Marco being our undefeated 8-0 player going into day two.
But let's see if Takumi has anything here in the tank to fight against it.
Clarence Conker eats dirt and Marco's up to 26.
Yep, has a huge buffer for a card like Nova Hellkite.
You know, you get into these kind of tricky spots against these red decks that are hyper aggressive.
Once you get down to 9 or so, that's when it's just scary, right?
couple Nova Hellkite hits with a burst lighting or something and you're in a lot of trouble,
but when you're at 26, you can just be like, yeah, sure, I'll take Nova Hellkite a couple
times and then kill it when it's convenient.
It's his butt of scratch.
Exactly.
Spider-Manifestation and Sarcan gonna do their bestest here, but two little two-powered creatures
up against untapped mana from the Jessica control player is a big problem indeed.
Now you see the twin wall storm bird hit the board.
And I like to come here just being like yep I have to jam if you have the perfect
consult the star charts into day of judgment whatever. Yeah what can I do about it? You know nothing.
Gotta play to win instead of play not to lose. There is consult in today and you just think Nova
of a Hellkite is not going to be enough to push through.
Oh my goodness, another Helix 2.
Is it a double white?
Oh, yeah, that's the fountain in the back there.
Is it? No, no, that's the fountain.
But the land in hand, the verge there.
All groovy, there's the Ultima.
Gets rid of all that, and the treasures.
We won't forget them this time.
Yup, and saw that they have judgment as well.
So I was like, no, I actually don't need this removal spell that looks phenomenal against
Poros Dragons.
And you see the heavy side there from Takumi.
Yeah, I'm with you, bud.
What am I supposed to do here?
Well, it's tapped out, I guess.
Warp it in, see what happens.
Yoppa.
Marco, very calmly, 17, no big deal.
It's the last life point of life that matters
They have judgment get lost stuck up get lost a braid
And no matter what we're gonna see all these players
Brighten early in the morning as they will both for sure be a table one. Hell. Yeah, or a pod one
I should say for the draft in the morning. Yeah
We already know both of these players three out there pot to start.
Yeah, absolutely. Curious what they drafted.
Yeah.
Hopefully one of our lovely interviewers can ask them that question.
Find out more about their day one as you move to day two.
Get lost, takes care of an over health kite to turn posses back to Kumi.
He's still sitting at a healthy 20, but yeah.
Hey, I mean the best possible draw off the top was Nova health kite.
Yeah, just keep getting those over and over. That's the best chance here as you can get that for damage in
And then it's not vulnerable to sorcery speed removal. I
Think even if it's to Nova health care, it's on top. It's still gonna be a game, but I do think that is the best chance here
That's a cooey will play to his outs here
His expression doesn't it kind of says it all here really
confidence I will say, Mastra's village for Marco, cool as a cucumber, pausing the
turn back. Look at that hand, good grief. Hey Momo! What's up buddy?
Momo's got to do some friendly help in here, friendly lifting. Oh my, I love this
deck, I think it's so sweet. I don't think it has any chance against
SKI control or maybe even Azora's control.
Yeah, control, I just think would be gent.
Would be pretty brutal, but anything aggressive,
any Cub deck, something like that,
just seems like it is excellent.
I want to see this deck against that.
So we'll likely see both of these players tomorrow
quite a bit as they work their way towards the top eight.
Mama friendly flyer hits the board
and we are now going to explore,
courtesy of the map tokens left here by get lost.
Yep, just trying to be like all I need to do
is I need to hit not a non land on top. Yeah. To have any chance here. What's well. Hey,
you got rid of those lands at least. Sure. Holy moly. And now passing with seven man
available. What could that mean, Corey? You know, I think it means this moment is dead
in response to this. Hey, legend of Broku is excellent. And I did not see a counterspell
ready to go here.
So I mean, one thing
been as well, Marco might be
really tempted here to just
Tidebinder the first ability
of Legend of Roku.
That's definitely the most
important part is the card advantage.
So
how does that work with
the shot is Tidebinder?
Do the steps still progress?
Yeah, the steps would still progress,
but it just counters the exile.
Yes, you still get the man of the next turn.
You would still get the flip side.
As it is an enchantment right now.
Yeah, it just truly doesn't even matter.
OK, yeah, OK, the just got revelation just being able to bounce it.
Yeah, looks pretty solid as well.
Actually getting to use the first line of text on that.
Yeah, first last game was just like, I'll just do this because why not?
Yep, I wasn't able to play about other land to redeploy it here.
Marco found out eight cards and they're like, yep, this is a control
players dream. Oh, yeah, he's living the dream here.
Friends about to go eight to know, I would feel.
And the pro tour.
So excellent start here for the Jessica control player.
Yep, the best players at these kind of moments.
It's it's, you know, some players kind of speed up.
This is the time when you slow down and just feel like, all right,
What possible ways could I lose here and try to close those doors?
But as soon as the control Blair starts attacking, you know, if your time is almost that is a very good sign
And then they start hitting themselves in the face, too
Yeah, throw away a couple damage points here and there no problem
And then a discard to hand size all three of those things are all bad sides exactly
What are the symptoms of my impending loss?
They have judgment checked in the bend too, nice.
Now Legend of Roku probably going to be met by the Tidebinder.
Yep.
So counters, that's a Shonest Tidebinder only continually affecting an artifact creature
or planes will work, yes.
So if you countered the firebending from Avatar Roku on the back side that would shut that
aspect down.
Okay, okay.
But yeah, counters the ability, get lost.
You can have some maps and, you know, of course this matchup has looked pretty brutal for
Takumi, but Takumi has also drawn so many lands for the end of both game and end game
too.
I mean Mark, I even try to help him out with a map to go for it.
Yeah, yeah.
Consult the stats post.
Takumi is having us still having some fun.
I mean you just have to chuckle.
I mean like there's nothing you can do at this point as Takumi is just like, yep, sure.
I have a land in hand come at me bro.
Yep.
been there where you play some maybe not so close matchups.
For most of us, it just doesn't happen at a 7-0 stage here, the biggest stage in professional
magic like these two players are playing.
But hey, awesome results nonetheless.
It's a Camille and the day at 7-1.
Marco 8-0, our lone undefeated leader.
Going into day 2 of Pro Tour Lorna Climps.
Pretty darn good indeed.
Congratulations Marco 2-0 with Jessica Control.
of the very much lesser played archetype to this weekend and looking poised to have an excellent
run tomorrow too. If you keep playing like this. Absolutely a looking credible there and with the
amount of deck fights and players that we're saying yeah our deck just kind of can't be to turn
one rest in peace or a turn two rest in peace like Andrew Ellenboga was saying with their
Spellamentals deck you know just a plethora of different decks are really afraid of control so
might have a nice metagame call here for sure. Indeed. We've got more magic for your friends
will take a short break, but we won't be too long as we wrap up day one of competition.
It's our favorite way to spend
a Friday. It is pro tour.
the last round of action here
today and our pro tour trying
to find those players who are
going to fill out the top
drop table tomorrow, Corey. Yeah,
absolutely going to be a very
interesting one. We've got
20 for the long up against arch
Dota, the team or harmonizer
deck which we saw really
cool things up against
Azorius control. Maybe control
is truly having an incredible
weekend and I did talk to arch
here before this part of our art.
She said, yeah, my dad is busted.
So maybe they they know something
that maybe the rest of the field
who didn't submit a control deck.
No, OK, all right.
Well, let's see what they can do here.
Both players.
Oh, excuse me.
Just arch with seven cards.
Tony on a mulligan to six.
But this mind form harmonizer combo is pretty sweet.
We did see Ray Zhang pop off up against David Ruto.
I think it was in one of the previous rounds.
And basically get this guy out, couple land full triggers, full bore dead.
Yeah, absolutely. And just being able to have Harmonizer, full bore it, and then have one of the fetchlands, their fetchlands, fabled passage,
that just puts you up to a 7 power creature, you double it and you double it. So 28 damage with just those very few amount of cards.
Now Arch, obviously playing Azoria's control, so he's going to be able to stop whatever
Tony is doing here.
How do you protect this combo, like do you just have to wait for the right moment, hope
Arch taps out, because I don't see that happening.
Yeah, this is very much a non-tap out deck, you know, Azoria's control that Arch and some
of the teammates brought, it is very much counterspells, a full set of get loss for
interaction which is going to be great against Tony. So also four day of
judgments which aren't going to be as good, same with seam rips as far as
removal spells, but yeah Tony's just got to pick a spot against Arch for sure.
One advantage to this, I suppose, combo deck as opposed to the Boris
Dragons like that we just so lose to Jessica control, is everything
happens in one fell swoop. Either you live or you die. Exactly, so yeah the big
difference between the last matches, you know, we had the
optionality to be able to tack tap off for stock up thinking
what's the worst that could happen to me.
Or whatever, you know, the worst thing that can happen to
arch if they tap out. Well, the game can. Yeah. Yeah.
And anyone not aware of Tony Porter on took second in the
player of the year race and it was close. It was so so close.
Going into the later stages of the world championship, we had
to put it Tony as the favor. Yeah, be taking it down. Yeah,
No, he was and then we didn't see Ken for most of coverage. Yeah, he just snuck up from behind and then whoops into the top
8 takes the lead easy clap exactly
Tony just getting his manabase
Lined up here arch on the other side of things
Yeah, and that's the problem with saying go when your opponent has four mana
That's usually the time when you're like, well, I need to try to play something they need to counter
Because the alternative most of the time is they get to do some consulting of the star charts
Yes, that is always brutal and where you kind of really want to
Honestly playing against a control deck. I'm I hate seeing consult the star charts more than I hate seeing
Oh, yeah, they're just gonna find whatever they could possibly need exactly. Yep. It's always a frustrating scenario
Plenty of removal in hand there, he caught a quick glimpse of Arch's hand, a couple
of counter spells too, escaped tunnel, just another way to go and fetch a basic.
She sees some of the Monogreland fold-axe playing that too.
Yeah, here it's just pretty much for fixing.
Yeah, sure if you can make something unblockable cool.
It is pretty cheeky to do that before you start your combo and you know, multiplying.
It can happen, you know, you can target one of your earth bent lands and start cranking
it up with the harmonizer to make an unblockable pass.
It's in response to the second attempt.
I said pass.
It's in the end of the string.
Yeah, so it's my return.
This is relevant.
This is relevant.
Does it resource?
Yeah.
Sorry, is it trigger?
Yeah.
Is it draw two?
Yeah.
And then it's forecast.
It's forecast.
It's forecast.
It's going to be a 5-5 here.
Nice.
Yeah, Wanchitong likes it when your opponent goes to search for things, so playing it in response to it's being sacrificed.
And that was in response just so you get that extra boost from your opponent searching the library?
A text that, you know, doesn't come up that often, but still very much relevant.
I bet Wanchitong loves playing against formidable speaker.
Yeah, so now we did... Yeah, exactly. I'm saying we just capped out against the deck that can kill you.
Nowhere a 60 yes arch might be dead. So yeah, I mean
Full bore yet becomes what seven power and game and lamp all
This is
This is negative two arches about to go through yeah, yeah
It's just the top third.
Oh, sorry.
Wow.
And I mean Arch just had to have not had a get lost.
Maybe didn't realize how explosive this deck can be.
So counter spell?
I saw a sunroof.
Does have trample.
Cause it's what?
I trigger this.
You such?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, so that's one less.
That's not going to help, is it?
Yeah, no, that's just negative one, but it's cool, at least.
It is cool.
Yep, I'm dead.
Arch sure is dead here, so Tony Portalon finds the opening.
Arch was tapped out and just took a bunch right there.
Yeah, wow.
I mean, you have to just kind of assume
that Arch's hand didn't have something like a get lost,
as well as those no more lies.
Otherwise, you would think you want to play a little more
conservatively there.
Do you think maybe Arch should have made one?
She's talking a little smaller.
You know, to maybe find get lost, sure.
And then you're not drawing as much.
But I mean, in hindsight, definitely as you died immediately
on the crack back, but you have tough deck to play against
when your deck can kind of just kill you out of nowhere.
I do love seeing what Team Sanctimable comes up with.
It's always spicy.
It's so fun.
It's always spicy, and it's always awesome.
Skate Tunnel, that is a mountain, restless anchorage.
Such a sweet printing of it.
It's so pretty.
The Citadel land is excellent in this deck.
A card that is always extremely powerful with Fountainport,
which is a three-oven arch's deck.
I'll find the blue, and then I'll pass.
I'll find the pollen, going to find all of the colors
Tony could possibly need, or the shenanigans
that are going to ensue.
Stuck it up, let's find some removal spells.
Yeah, I like this to start.
I see get lost in the back.
That feels like what you immediately wanted to take,
but that being said, I believe that is a get lost in hand.
That might be two in hand already.
Yeah, it does look like it.
Yeah, they might be very much prioritizing,
like all right I saw what happened now I need to make sure I can avoid that at all
costs and get lost doesn't seem like the best card for that yeah get lost no
lies yeah you could never have too many exactly you know let's not just a
classic nope I wasn't shuffling I just put those on the bottom
I don't want those guys.
I don't want them jumbled back in.
Fair arch.
I like the beautiful landscape sleeves that they both have.
Yeah.
They're very pretty indeed.
It's always nice to see the players bring their personalities to their decks.
Yeah, there you go.
Or it's just so cold outside, they're like, all right, we need to be remembered.
What?
It's warmer weather.
Represent.
Yes.
So now let's see.
And as much as this looks like an aggressive deck from Tony, as you know, you do win with
a card like Full Boar, you're still playing four stock up, four consult the star chart.
So it is really card advantage, card advantage, card advantage, you know, try to combo off,
harmonizer plus Full Boar.
And in this particular matchup, back it up with counter spells, spell pierce, spell
Spidersense, stuff like that. So this is very much a...
I think I need to discard a combo deck here.
Teri with a full hand.
It's going to chuck a magic spell.
Thunder magic error. A one of.
Probably not the absolute best against his magic control.
role. Spider sense has been pretty good. Yeah, the times we've seen it as being able
to counter abilities. Bossing say now Tony. Nice, Earthbender ascension with one blue
available. So definitely at least representing a spell snare that kind of looks as face up
as possible. We're going to find out. Okay. No more lies is nothing. Yeah.
Excellent, right?
That's exiled, right?
Exiled, yes.
Touch.
Thank you, Arch.
And this was, yeah, okay, I was going to say shortcutting, but the sun can sit at all,
and the field alone can do this ability.
And now as far as a basic check goes, we kind of did that in the last match with the Hellcade
that was going to destroy Lance.
This one, Tony plays a lot of basics.
Yeah, Tony's fine, and then Arch is five.
Yeah.
Both players not too affected by those style of hands.
Also another way to get a landfall trigger.
Fountainport hits the board for Arch.
They're happy to pass the turn back to Tony.
And the passing save.
Wow.
You have finding target that is definitely what I would think is a bit of a sign of weakness here as you know like saying go and having consult the star chart something like that would be a little bit more impactful but you know I mean if arch if they
just have a bunch of counter spells in hand and you start just creating a gigantic creature that could do some stuff but three.
Okay, one sheet's on, back again.
This is on the end step, so Arch is not at risk of dying at this point.
And that gets around to absolutely every one mana blue counterspell that you could have.
You could, you know, web sling spider sense to counter that ability,
but spell snare as well as spell pierce not going to do anything there.
there. And we've seen a lot more...
It's a two-minute start.
No, because you are playing X as well, so you increase the mana value there.
Gotcha.
We've seen a lot more launchy-tongue librarians than I know in this tournament, you know,
either in Demir control, Azora's control.
Yeah, it is strong.
I wanted to make a commander deck out of it, but I'm like,
stuck up on the stack.
This arch allowed it.
I think the answer is no.
Yeah, that would make sense for Arch to be so they can be mana
efficient.
Yeah.
And at some point, Tony is just going to just go card advantage, card advantage.
And then eventually assemble the combo with some counters to back it up.
I really like Arch representing a threat to just make it so Tony doesn't have all the time.
Absolutely. You got to have some pressure along with her permission.
So Arch doing a good job of taking Tony down to 12.
And also now anytime Tony goes in searches,
That's uh, that's gonna get a lot bigger. Yeah, and uh,
tell me is that does do a fair amount of searching with uh,
all the fetch land style with escape tunnel. Oh, hey buddy.
I still explore. When you pay lines from credit cards. Yes.
And you make that addition. And bills every time a lad enters.
So getting some value going there.
Arch is just like, yes, go search your library.
Yeah, exactly.
You can bring back that table pass.
Yeah, I'd like a counter and a card, thanks.
Now, one thing Arch can do,
they can get lost the Explorer with the mill trigger on the stack.
So there's no way you can just be like,
all right, put two lands into play without Arch being able to interact.
the blue aspect to this combo deck certainly gives the team or harmonize a list a lot more
play in the game.
Yeah, it does seem kind of like some of the remnants of the team or honor deck that we
saw you know at the world championship that that kind of fell off pretty quick.
But you know the original team or honor deck.
Can you guess which team created that one?
That's what's sanctum of all it sure was.
Yeah, they've created a lot of spice.
it raise yet almost sure it was get lost good bye looks like that was trigger on
the stack for a mill maybe not the land was played for the guy about that yeah
looks like it maybe they I just missed a mill underneath the ice till maybe down
to six now yeah and this little fish is going to get feisty too yeah this is
exactly where Arch wants to be just have a gigantic creature represent the
clock and as far as removal goes for a Wanshi Tong you know we kind of discarded
the one card that you can to deal with it that thunder magic and basically a
media bounce spells seer yeah three in the main deck but probably sided out
would be my guess, but you never know. And now Archtan, they just are stocked up. There's a couple of
thoughts of Starcraft to get lost. Yeah. So basically anything that hits the board is gonna die.
Yeah. And he's from Tony's side of things. But you know this is the type of deck you can just never
count out. Like in the last match we saw you know Boros we could safely assume there's no
coming back because you're trying to win with chunks of foreign stuff, but with this deck
when you can just win out of nowhere, have the Harmonizer, have two spell snares for
to get lost, and a full bore, well, it's probably over.
The Barrow's deck is fair magic.
This one definitely goes over the top.
I want to do some unfair things.
Alright, Harmonizer on the stack.
It doesn't survive.
a card that I never feel safe when it comes into play.
It's such a terrifying card.
Can you imagine if you had like a fling effect or something?
Yeah.
If Arches is like, yeah, sure.
You can do all that.
It becomes enormous.
Go to kill it and then check it on your face.
That would be funny.
One red or one blue being tapped, I would assume.
We're attempting to go full bore.
But if that was the case, and there's only one blue available.
What's the matter?
I would think it'd be a little difficult.
Okay, all right, second blue would make it possible, at least.
So you're talking to the cell.
Yeah.
And then full board.
So you're talking to the cell?
Yeah.
I would in response to the cell.
Yeah.
Yes.
How's that in response to me?
So that full board will be bigger
and then it'll be doubled to be a larger creature.
Yeah, so in response to the trigger.
So it becomes 14th out of the group.
And yeah, just didn't even have a one's felt
to protect from it.
But Tony's like, you know what?
Anyway for it. I gotta try yeah gotta make them have it and arch at it. Yeah, absolutely. So we got a game three
so maybe a little bit of
Maybe arch
Respecting exactly what can happen after seeing it firsthand. It is open deck. Well, yeah
Oh, what you know could happen with this deck, but I mean you can look at this collection of cards
But until you see it what happened to you that you you know take 28 damage
turn four it's
Maybe not the easiest thing to prepare for absolutely not
I'm speeding up here a little bit to make sure we get through all the action that we want to show you here today friends
And Tony
Deploys a verge to the board both players just land go as it stands
Yep, and this isn't you know most of the time Tony being on the play you want to start to really pressure
sure control as fast as possible. That's just not kind of how this deck operates, but this
has to be one of the best cards against control.
Yeah.
It's a Rock-a-Loose of Hunter.
Can't be countered, and when it's targeted to eventually die, inevitably die, it gets
your card.
Yeah, it gets you a free card there as well as the maps.
Yeah, replaces himself. March, stock it up. It's going to find a couple more ounces to
whatever Tony's got in hand there.
going to be shields down though and Tony can play that earth bender ascension yeah that's pretty
worth stock up but earth bender ascension seems excellent here to get that going yeah get uh
get that little end yeah attack for two and it's pretty easy to get to four counters yeah
but this in this deck when you have a bunch of these fetch land effects like escape tunnel
and fable passage all right so arch now shields down Tony has the opportunity to do some nonsense
Is I still explore a draw on there perhaps?
Yeah, I still would probably be the best card to play as it does you a little bit of ramping,
but Earthbender Ascension here, definitely a strong case for that.
Yeah, because it gets your creature and, you know, an inevitable threat.
Yep, I like this though.
Play it while you can, while there's not a counterspell, get a little extra value, another
mill once that resolves.
Don't forget the mill.
It looks like we're just
shuffling up and do one more
mill.
There we go.
Two consult the saw charts
in the bin.
A lot of goods in hand there
from Arch it looks like.
So at least get one get lost.
And some blue cards in the back, so always a plethora of option, but when you're playing
Azoria's control, that's the name of the game.
Yeah, I still explored that it's a job and got dead.
So now four map tokens on Tony's side of things, two mana left open for Arch.
Can't be feeling too safe to do any comboing right now.
Yep, let's see.
Earthbender Ascension, Full Boar.
Looks like a consult maybe in hand there too.
Yeah, unless that card in the way back is a harmonizer.
That's Vail passage.
Okay, yep.
The Angon Katarra one.
So not looking to be winning the game this turn,
but even just Earthbender Ascension having spell snares
a backup, start using these maps to crank up this land's power.
Yeah.
Even that looks pretty solid.
Yeah, like we saw Arch do in game two.
You know, just get some pressure on the board
and eventually, your puns, life-to-life runs out.
Yeah, but playing the land first would lead me to believe...
I mean, here, you just want to play around no more lies, so that makes sense.
Negate attempts to counter that. Spellsnare says no.
Thanks. Earthburn Ascension will resolve.
Yeah, and Spellsnare, a card that really, really helps out this team or Harmonizer deck.
Being able to push your way through a plethora of two drops, and most of the best interactive
cards are two drops. They're, you know, counter spells, they're removal spells like get lost, so
imagine that is a really nice one here for Tony and the rest of the players playing teamer harmonizer.
So now we play the get this to four counters game to be able to give creatures trample and extra counters.
Yeah, definitely not the main thing that we're trying to do. Like the, you know, mono green
Landfall decks or Celestinia Landfall decks, that is basically the best card in those decks.
This is just a solid role player, this combo deck.
It's another way to get extra lands and to make your land drops count,
especially when you don't have the opportunity to go for the combo.
Yup.
Because your Azoria's control opponent is saying no.
Yeah, or if you just don't have full board and you need trample, that kind of stuff can
really come up as well with a Harmonizer.
Cracking some more maps, let's see what the top of the deck has, more lands, would you
look at that?
So this is the one thing that Arches is very much lacking so far is just the pressure,
so you just have to go Drago and you're not playing Consult the Star charts, you're not
playing something aggressive like Wanchitong, that can be trouble, but that being said,
I do see a Wanchitong in hand for Archdota.
Yeah, a couple no more lies as well as a tide binder, I believe.
Yes, Tidebinder, no more lies and one she tongue.
Yeah, that's brutal because, you know, we kind of thought about it.
Do you want to counter this stock up?
And you really can't.
There's two colorless lands.
You can't even double no more lies in a stock up.
The first two cards we saw both stock up.
So I think it's very fair to say that Tony is stocked up.
Certainly prepared for this endeavor and around eight of our pro tour.
Jeez, has he hit a land every single time?
Seems like it.
And yeah, I mean, that's kind of what you actually do want to do.
Sure, then you're just not drawing those.
So I think this is going to be the big test.
If Arch goes for this, does Tony have an answer or, you know, is Wanshi Tong going to be able to draw some cards and actually present a reasonable clock here?
Okay. Well, 4-4 Bird Spirit. Now able to get in the way of this land that just hasn't gotten lucky off of these Explore triggers.
And Tony did leave open this three mana on purpose, so there's going to be some kind
of interaction here and has to be about the best draw there for Arch.
What'd they find?
Staka.
Oh, Staka.
Otherwise, it was just the No More Lies and a get lost, I believe, before this turn, so
solid draw.
But now this feels like the turn.
It feels like the next turn for Tony as just two mana is not that difficult to play around
because, well, you can only have either one two-drop or a couple of spell stairs as far
as interaction goes, but spell stairs doesn't actually touch the combo of Tony at all.
Doesn't hit full board, doesn't hit a harmonizer, so this feels like the big turn.
Looks like we might be going for three mana tapped here from Tony Portalon, stucking up
First and foremost, I'm just going to try and
show things up here a little bit better.
And that's the big problem here, too.
This could be this could be bait, you know, because you can still win
the game from Tony's perspective by tapping the four lands that are not
earth bent to more harmonizer, full bore and fabled passage.
And the game's over.
All right.
I'm just quite happy to let that resolve.
There's full bore, a couple of land.
Nice, fabled passage.
I bet Tony's happy to see.
Yep, so that was four lands in full bore,
and I think we already had a full bore in hand.
So unlikely that that was the stack of five cards
that ends the game this turn.
No more lies, just waiting to interrupt.
Also, they get lost in hand,
ready to kill anything that looks even remotely suspicious.
Still like seeing Arch tap out there, I mean, not tap out,
but, you know, like actually tap their mana for stock up,
trying to progress the battlefield because holding that up and just saying I'm going to hold up my five mana for the rest of the game.
Yeah, it's not really going to yield you the wind either.
Got to still be progressing.
Ain't a winning plan there.
So Tony.
It's got options.
Where do you think it goes from here?
Yeah, let's see if you, uh, I mean, of course, if you have it, you go for it.
But if we don't, it seems like this deck is just all about more card advantage, more card advantage, until you are ready to go.
But Tonya looks like he is stocked up with cards.
Oh, yeah. That looks like eight or nine cards, it would say.
Yeah, he might need to go to discard again.
No more lies, Tidebinder.
Harmonizer would be a good target for the Tidebinder.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
So, plenty of ways to disrupt the combo here from Tony.
It's a big thing before he plays this land.
Yeah, huge moment for these two players.
Really deciding who's going to be at pod 1 here for this draft.
X and 1, they're almost always at pod 1.
A couple X and 2s sometimes sneak in depending on the size of the pro tour.
Big pause here from both players in the tank is Tony if you're just joining us. Thank you so much for doing so. We have plenty of action throughout the day. It's free to go back and enjoy once this broadcast is over and still two more days of competition to come.
Competition to come yeah, and if this is just three man of stock up, you know
We'll see how fast this no more lies goes on the stack like any target right now. Yeah, I'm like, yes
Okay, going for it. I mean get lost and no more lies
They're pretty much the same as far as interaction and arch has to normalizes. So I would assume you just try
Tony tried. Yeah failed
It's just left with a 2-2 on board up against this 4-4 bird.
But notice how Tony held the land. It felt like that Tony wanted that to happen.
Otherwise you just play the land on tap and then the No More Lies isn't as effective.
Yes, no, okay, the flip side is if you, if the harmonizer does resolve, you want the fable passage to actually combo. So, yeah, yeah, it makes sense.
In case arch has nothing to do, then let's try and kill them as quick as possible. Another might form harmonizer reveal off the top of the library there courtesy of the map token.
Yeah, this is really nice. The demolition field right now can make it so you are not going to draw that harm.
That's true.
This is the fourth shuffle, right?
Yep, absolutely.
And with how fast, Tony, you know, put that back on top,
you got to think that that could be important.
Oh, it is a maze search.
Oh, it is a maze?
Oh, OK.
OK.
So he doesn't want to go find the land then, maybe?
Yeah, looks like it.
I'm just going to leave my form harmonizer on top.
I think there's been a couple of different iterations
of those lands.
some force you to search.
We feel the Bruin, I think was a force.
Yeah. And also not searching,
keeps Wanshi Tong at a manageable four.
Yeah. That is a really great point.
Got any Sears left in there, Tony?
Wanshi Tong really would love if that land forced you to search.
Now Arch having two spells essentially available,
and there might have been a spell snare as well,
and that feels like enough interaction
from this harmonizer probably, and that is spell snare in the back, so.
No more lines.
Snaps it off.
What, just trying to have a response? You paying for it?
Yep.
Cool.
And now, if we just, if there's a spell snare plus full bore and fetch land, that would have been enough, but...
Double no more lines.
That'll do it.
And now that's two harmonizers gone I mean you're in the deck I assume so yeah I would
assume all four yeah there is four of them and you know this deck does not have the best
plan B as far as chip damage you know you can attack with ice till explorer get those
landfall triggers to really crank up one of your lands and then bossing say is probably
your best plan B. I like the attack there you know it's like do you want to trade.
Yeah, please, please try it.
Your bird from my land?
No problem.
Then we might see full bore in its other mode.
Yeah.
It was an actual combat trick.
Yeah, what an interesting part.
Because there's two in hand, all right?
I for sure saw one.
I'm not 100% about the other, but that would make sense to me.
Six extra damage there, passing sake,
and also earth band on that.
Archdota really trying to force this game out.
That is putting Tony down to six.
So that's a two turn clock.
Now it's all up to Tony to have it next turn.
This kind of chip shot bossing say, you know,
you might have enough power here, honestly.
With earth Brenda with trample and the tube full boars.
I think he's got two in hand.
Yeah, maybe.
It's 10, 11, 12, 13.
Ah, okay.
He'd be shot.
Yeah, it would feel tough.
It would feel tough, but.
If the bird didn't block and there was all double landfall triggers.
So remember the one thing about I still explore is every time you fabled
passage, sure, you're going up to as far as powers goes with Earthbender ascension.
You're actually kind of only going up one because Wang Xitong will get a little
larger. Yeah, true, true.
So basically you want to just bring back steam beds.
Yeah, yeah, just any and birds just any land that doesn't actually search as it's the same amount of technical power
Except your opponent doesn't get to draw extra cards. Yeah
So Sean is tide binder arch flashed out there just to well, I didn't actually play it. We just so
Infravelled there in their hand. Oh man, this is this is tense. This is tense so
So, it looks like we do have Spell Snare and get lost, so two pieces of interaction from Archdota.
But Spell Snare has just really felt like there's not been a lot of great targets.
No, not in this matchup. That's for a cub. There's not the many here.
I mean, there's still definitely some. Spider Sands, those kind of things, but consult the Star Trats probably being the biggest one.
So we get two land drops with Icelia Explorer.
So it could just be another land from the yard.
We don't have to actually crack anything.
Yep, that looks like the steam vent.
So this is putting the island to six power.
Good.
Sorry, I didn't mean it.
Yeah.
So you play that in graveyard?
Yes.
You show up from graveyard.
There from the arc, it's a four.
Six, six and a half.
Arch has to block, right?
At this point, if there are the two full-bore in hand.
I think I saw two.
I mean that would be only 12.
Well, no.
So you would need three full-bores.
Three full-bores? Okay.
Maybe we don't have that many full-bores.
You do three full bars as well as you know some interaction. Yeah, but I like this from Arch do this pre-block
Yes, no like all right. Do I have to block or not? That's gonna be it
That would have been so cool for Tony, but an excellent one there for Arch
So it's a rock and the Zora's control and doing excellently finishing the day at seven and one
Yeah, absolutely, and Arch didn't really tap out besides that one turn
Yeah, and after that, they're just like, okay, I'm not, I'm not doing that again.
Oh yeah, that was a sweet match up between two decks that didn't come here to fight each other.
We'll put it in. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And I talked to Arch, you know, right after the draft,
they were two in one. And I was like, well, how do you like control? That's usually not something
that's the most common thing to play on a pro tour. And Archers is like, well,
I don't feel that confident with it. I don't want draws, those kind of things. But I think my deck
as busted was the clothing turns on after a nice 50 at the
pro tour or still might be right. Well, let's see what Arch can
do with that results going into tomorrow. But to wrap it up
for today, friends, we're going to say adios for now. The desk
is going to do just that. Hi, thank you so much. It's the end
of day one of competition. Welcome to the news desk. Marie
with all the money, the booty and Cedric Phillips here with you
to round out day one of competition. So let's check out
our leaderboard and find out what's happened after eight
8 rounds of competition.
One player remains undefeated,
left in the room that is Marco
Balaca of Italy,
pacing the field at 8 and oh,
by the way,
the top nine players here that you
see on your screen all are playing
different archetypes in standard.
Love it. Standard is in a fantastic place.
You also see here your first two
draft pods of tomorrow morning.
So these are going to be some pretty
stacked pods when the players show
up here tomorrow.
Congratulations to all these players
on a terrific start to the tournament.
Yeah, not so bad. Kenyukahiro, hello!
Love to see Kenneth 6 and 2, our rating player of the year.
That's going to be a Draft Pod, Draft Pod number 3.
That's a good one too, with Daniel Gutschel,
Daniel Gutschel, excuse me, and Carl Seraf among those names.
And then Draft Pod number 4.
Oh, I haven't seen Kellogg Pestor's name in a hot minute.
Eli Kassis, Mason Bordana, oh my goodness.
Oh, and some, look at that, how do you pronounce that?
Nasseth? Never heard of him, who is that?
The Seaf, gave her on the Seaf.
That's it dates first day to I think yeah
We might be seeing more of him. We'll play that's popular
There's a look at our leaderboard, but what about the deck list that you've got your eye on here Monty?
I'm really we're gonna highlight three deck lists at the end of day one
And our first one is going to be our deck of the day and of course it has to be just like in full in the hands of Marco
Blocker running the fields with a clean five and out here to be our lone undefeated overnight. This deck is sweet
It's the perfect anti-cub deck and a lot of people said they were really afraid of it coming into the weekend
So great choice for Marco. Next up we're gonna look at a deck on the rise
Is it Spell of Mentals?
The bolder as a team all brought this deck 15 out of 15 players and this deck is
Incredibly sweet dumb Harvey sitting a 7 and 1 with it making it look fantastic and one I have my eyes on tomorrow
And finally, a deck that maybe is on the slide, and that's going to be Soltai Rianne.
The third most played deck coming into the weekend, the highest played non-cup deck this
weekend.
And so far, we haven't run the numbers quite yet, we'll left-fring Carson to do that overnight,
but it looks like Soltai may be underperforming relative to how many people brought it this
week.
Alright, what about players who want to choose your player of the day there, Cedric?
It's got to be Ari.
No, Marco Balacca.
I mean who else could it be when you're top of the standings with a deck that people didn't expect you to win with
It's just got to be that player and it's been an impressive run with just by control
Of course 30 draft 5-0 constructed
But for me the big thing is the constructed aspect of this because that's not one. That's two. That's three. That's four
That's five different decks normally control decks. They tune to be the specific thing
Well, if you can tune to beat everything you've got a really good deck
All right, well, how does Marco Balacca feel being our lone undefeated player, Cedric had a chance to talk to him after his big win last round?
I am here with Marco Balacca, who has now just won eighth match, undefeated after day number one with a deck.
We didn't really expect him to just high control, so why that control deck?
So Marco, we're here with you, this evening with what you brought to G.Sky Control, a guy who made 8-0, so in today's battle.
How did you choose to bring G.Sky Control?
I chose to bring this guy because he's the one I feel most confident with, with whom I've played more games.
And especially in this meta I think he has a great Cup matchup, which I think is the most played match of this tour.
So I brought the Sky Control because it's the deck I feel most confident about it.
And also, I think it's a very good matchup versus Cub, which is a big part of the meta.
So I decided to bring this about confidence and having good matchups.
Well, doing incredibly well so far, as mentioned, 8-0 top of the standings.
But are we thinking maybe top 8 here this weekend?
So Marco, very good, so in the top of the 8-0 class, we are considering the top 8 for this weekend.
My main goal in this game was to do 10-6 to qualify for the next one.
But I have to admit that at this point I am a little bit thinking about it and hoping for it.
I am considering a little bit about the topic for this weekend. Well, we are hoping to see you there Marco. Congratulations and good luck
Just a fantastic day one run there for Marco, but Cedric who else do you have your eyes on?
All right, let's kick things off. We're arched Dota blue white control
Just kind of control blue white control
Not the tournament for me
Yeah, no kidding.
There's Riley.
2-1 through limited 5 and 0-3 constructed.
Now, for Arch, you see a lot of rhythm decks there.
That means kind of cleaned up on,
it looks like quite a few badger mole cub decks.
Team are harmonized, they're taking care of Tony.
Portally on to close out day number one as well.
So a really, really nice run for another blue base strategy.
And then finally, Joseph Sanfaleyou.
That's Sanfaleyou me.
That's Sanfaleyou.
Wind Draw?
Sure, Wind Draw win.
I didn't expect that in limited.
But 201 start.
Only one loss in constructed to Gritz's elementals.
I can only imagine what's in that deck.
And then you see Is It Spell Elementals?
Twice, five color rhythm, band, air bending.
The biggest thing here is that we
are just seeing a wide sampling of decks here in Standard
Rare.
You talked about it a little bit, but this is not.
I mean, Vaginal Cup, very good card.
But this tournament is very diverse.
We're seeing a lot of different things winning.
absolutely we are what about your match of the day money memory I'm gonna go all
the way back to round five where we had the pleasure of watching a reigning
player of the year girl go up against a Kuma Natsura it was a matchup between
that airbending against Maxura's build of boros dragons and it was a crazy
match what the distance a full three games back and forth and ultimately it
was Takumi taking it down by the slimmest of margins. Just an absolute blast to watch them as they were having fun talking to each other the whole time.
And for us as the viewers, just an absolutely fantastic viewing.
I heard them singing during their batch and everything just laugh. It's just great. That is what magic is all about, everyone.
Well, if you want to see some more magic here from the Pro Tour, make sure you come back tomorrow.
And Sunday, of course, you've got day two tomorrow,
rounds nine through 16 coverage will start at 11 a.m.
Eastern time, 8 a.m. Pacific,
so make sure you check that out.
And of course, you do not want to miss our top eight
on Sunday for $50,000.
Goes to the first place finisher.
Well, the weather outside was frightful,
but the meta game was delightful as 305 players showed up
to throw down here in Frosty, Richmond, Virginia
at the start of a new competitive season.
Forty Cards was the name of the game this morning
as the players hoped to draft a good elf deck
or maybe a copy of Ashlyn's command.
The players that left the limited this morning
of 3-0 of the tournament was off to a fantastic start.
Then it was on to Standard,
where an incredible array of archetypes
commanded spots in the feature match area
from dragons to demons
to one of my favorite deck names ever in Is It?
Spellamentals.
In the end, one player exited day one undefeated,
Marco Balacca with just I control.
Can he control the competition?
We'll find out tomorrow.
You've got to tune in to find out coverage starts
as poor up to lower in the clips heads
into an exciting day two.
See you back here tomorrow everyone.