HFX Games Player’s Championship 2 Recap
HFX Games Player’s Championship 2 Recap
As the year has come to a close, we celebrated a year full of Magic in the Maritimes with our 2nd ever HFX Games Player’s Championship. After a year of battling through multiple formats and fighting tooth and nail for an invitation to the most prestigious event of the year, we had 9 Qualifier Winners, 6 invitees who qualified via At-Large Leaderboard Points, and the reigning Champion, who sources are telling me is both extremely smart and equally as handsome. These 16 Players would have to learn the latest Draft format: Avatar, the Last Airbender as well as mastering the new Standard format fresh off of the latest Banned & Restricted announcement, and an influx of new cards to experiment with.
Throughout the year, those who had been able to play in the first ever HFX Games Player’s Championship came to nickname the event “Nova Scotia Worlds”, which rang especially true for this year’s version as it ran at the same time as Day 2 of the Magic World Championship in Bellevue, USA. The HFX Games Player’s Championship was structured after playing a day of Worlds after all (minus one round of course. What, are we going to be here all day?!?), and the timing of both events made the air of competition something you could feel in the room. At 9:30am the players sat down for the Player Meeting where they collected their goodie bags and Play Mat for participating. Head judge Jon Goud gave the room the run down on what was to unfold. There are not many chances you get to play a real, competitive level timed Draft!
While the players enjoyed seeing what surprises were in their goodie bags as if it were HFX Games Christmas, we also celebrated our top 3 performers on the Leaderboard! In the very last Qualifier event, our 3rd place on the Leaderboard, Brad Perry, just barely snatched it from Connor Cheney who had been holding onto the spot, winning himself a Spider-Man Bundle! In 2nd place came our “always a bridesmaid” award winner, Adam Joyce! Our highest non-qualified player, Adam Joyce showed crazy Top 8 consistency racking up points at virtually every event, winning himself a Final Fantasy Gift Bundle! The only player more consistent than him was our 1st place player on the Leaderboard, Michael Giles! Mike won events over and over, and if he didn’t take it down, you knew you’d be reading his name in the finals or the Top 4. Mike set an unprecedented number of points hitting a clean 50, and even took a load off, not playing the last Qualifier. Congrats to Mike on a dominant year of Magic!
Just before 10:00am the Draft was under way and went off with only one hitch (yours truly was a sleepy boy and accidentally picked up a pack very early… oopsie daisies)! The room was quiet, filled only by the sounds of pack wrappers, the shuffling of cards, and the sweet, sultry tones of Jon Goud saying numbers. With 2 Draft pods of 8 players a piece, we were left with 2 undefeated players at the end of 3 rounds: Adam Joyce and myself!
Travis Benedict – Jeskai (3-0)
Adam Joyce – Jund (3-0)
A 3-0 Draft doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in the clear however, as there were still 3 rounds of Standard Constructed to play. The local metagame was far different from what we saw at Worlds 31, which was completely dominated by the Izzet Lessons deck that came from Team TCGPlayer. Only a few things changed locally, as players mostly opted to play what they were familiar with in a closed, slightly predictable field. There were however some decks featuring new cards that popped onto the scene and performed very well! With 16 players we cut to a Top 4, but let’s take a look at what our Top 8 contenders chose to do battle with for these 3 Standard Constructed rounds.
Adam Joyce – Jeskai Artifacts (1st)
Brad Perry – Orzhov Control (2nd)
Travis Benedict – Temur Otters (3rd-4th)
Chris Brackley – Dimir Midrange (3rd-4th)
Michael Cameron – Azorius Pixie (5th-8th)
Tim Foley – Yuna Overlords (5th-8th)
Mike Giles – Azorius Control (5th-8th)
Doug Maguire – Bant Airbending (5th-8th)
After 3 rounds of Draft and 3 rounds of Standard, it was Adam Joyce, Brad Perry, Travis Benedict (oh hey, that’s me!), and Chris Brackley left to duke it out for all the glory in Nova Scotia. I was slain by Brad Perry’s Orzhov Ketramose Control deck, while Adam Joyce’s Birthing Pod-style Artifacts deck defeated Chris Brackley. Then it was just down to Adam and Brad, playing 2 very unconventional decks, proving that you don’t always have to play the “best deck” to succeed.
(Top: Brad Perry, Adam Joyce. Bottom: Chris Brackley, Travis Benedict)
In the end it was Adam Joyce who took down the event, winning himself a nice $1000 cash, along with a re-invite to next year’s Player’s Championship, as well as the coveted 2025 Championship Belt! I sat down with our newly crowned winner to look into his deepest thoughts and see what turns a man into a Champion.
T: Hey there, Champ! Congrats on becoming the 2025 HFX Games Player's Champion, your reign of terror starts now! I'm going to get right into it and start with the night before the event. What were you thinking about the event going into it?
A: Honestly the night before I slept like a baby! Deck list was ready for like a week, I had done a ton of drafts and felt good and really, I knew I was going to win.
T: You knew! Just another day clocking in at the office. You managed to be one of our 3-0 drafters at both of our Player’s Championships, one of them being Mystery Booster 2 Draft. What do you think makes you so good at these drafts?
A: I’ve always loved Limited Magic and think it’s the best format. I’ve drafted a lot over the years and generally I think I can pick up different Limited formats pretty quickly.
T: Draft is the only way to truly learn the fundamentals. So, what went into your choice to play the Jeskai Artifacts deck? Did you just want to take the deck for a joy ride or was it more of a metagame call?
A: I had been messing with it off and on over the last couple Standards. In my testing it was beating Izzet (early looting versions), UB, Otters, so I liked where it was positioned.
T: Sweet, that sounds like a good place to be in Standard. So now that you’ve won the most important event of the year, what are your goals for next year? What is the year long reign of Joyce going to look like?
A: This year will be much, much different than what we previously had with whoever the previous champ was, I don’t even know who it was! The players have to understand… Now that my time has come, it’s not going away. I’m glad people will be coming out and playing and trying but honestly, they are just depositing money into my accounts. This whole scene, I run this… I control the winners and the losers.
I’ll have my belt at every event just to show these goofs what they can never f%$#@%$ have.
I’LL KILL YOU
T: Whoa, easy Joyce we’re buds, right?! No need to get angry! What? No, Uuuuhhh I have no idea who the last champion was! JOYCE NO, PUT DOWN THAT STEEL CHAIR!!!!
That wraps up this year full of Magic! Congratulations to everyone who qualified for this event through the year, our Top 4, and of course to our Winner AND NEW Champion, Adam Joyce! Thank you to everyone who attended one of our events this year, and we hope to see you again in the New Year! We’re running it back once again in 2026 starting with a Lorwyn Eclipsed Sealed RCQ on January 31st as our first Player’s Championship Qualifier! New Year, New Leaderboard, New Belt up for grabs!
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Written By: Travis Benedict Pro Tour Competitor, Cat Lover |