Round 9 RCQ+ Recap
This past weekend we held a 4-slot Standard Regional Championship Qualifier! The Top 4 players received invites to the Regional Championship in Montreal this coming May, and our winner also receives a Champion playmat as well as a bye in a Face-to-Face Games event. Our Qualifier was the first post-ProTour Aetherdrift Standard tournament we’ve seen here with 29 attendees! Much like the ProTour, we also ended up with a Zur Domain mirror match battling it out in the finals. With the only main deck difference being a swap of one Hedge Maze for one Shadowy Backstreet, the first game was almost a perfect mirror. However, the big differences between the two come from the sideboard. Let’s take a look at Josh Breau’s winning list as well as the rest of our Top 8 deck lists!
Josh Breau – Zur Domain (1st)
Olivier Mayer – Zur Domain (2nd)
Travis Benedict – Izzet Prowess (3rd-4th)
Aaron Fisher – Izzet Artifacts (3rd-4th)
Darren Mosher – Golgari Surprise (5th-8th)
Zach Nauffts – Dimir Midrange (5th-8th)
Remi Goupil – Monoblack Bloodletter Combo (5th-8th)
Connor Cheney – Izzet Prowess (5th-8th)
While the finals were quite reminiscent of the latest ProTour, the rest of our Top 8 paints a completely different picture. The Monstrous Rage deck of choice was not Gruul or even the latest Mono-Red version, but rather two takes on Izzet Prowess, dropping the total Mice package. Instead of the recent popularized This Town Ain’t Big Enough build of Dimir, we see the classic Midrange version. Then to round it out we have three different absolutely off the wall strategies! A different flavour of Izzet using artifacts like Simulacrum Synthesizer to take over the game, a Golgari Smuggler’s Surprise deck looking to cheat into play Roaming Throne and Gruff Triplets to totally dominate the board, and a Mono-Black Bloodletter of Aclazotz Combo deck, not using Unstoppable Slasher but instead using Rush of Dread to instantly win. With the ProTour being only 2 weeks past, perhaps Standard is more open to brewing than you would think! As always, I reached out to our champion, Josh Breau for a little insight into the format and the deck he took to victory.
T: You won with Domain! With it winning the PT, was the decision to play the deck based on that, or is this a deck you were already gravitating towards?
J: I had been playing Floodcaller Combo for longer than one probably should have, given the state of the Standard Meta, so I had already made a decision to pivot prior to the PT. I chose Domain because Up the Beanstalk is a ridiculous card and this felt like the closest thing to a control deck I could find at the time, since the UW Control deck from the PT was not on my radar until too late. The results of the PT cemented that decision, and I thought the Temporary Lockdown build was the best option given how fast the aggro decks can be.
T: That makes a lot of sense. What do you think the top decks in standard are right now, as many people thought Pixie would be the best, but it had a kind of poor showing from the PT?
J: Coming from someone who’s been playing This Town/Stormchaser’s Talent for a while, I honestly think those decks are a bit weaker now that the cat’s out of the bag. In my experience, the most busted draws from that deck involved Hopeless Nightmare and now that most people are packing some amount of Obstinate Baloths, it adds another hurdle for them to navigate around. Between that and the amount of one to two mana removal available in the format currently, I do feel like it’s a bit easier to play around that deck because a lot of their plays are telegraphed.
T: Yeah, there’s quite a lot more Baloths than there used to be. Even some Domain lists have picked up Pest Control which must be a nightmare for Pixie.
J: Yeah, it’s just easy to “hate” on that deck with cards that also are good vs other decks, kind of a victim through collateral damage.
T: Were there any insane moves or memorable moments from the tournament that stuck out to you?
J: It’s pretty crazy to say, but I feel like I didn’t really have any memorable moments at all. Most of my games were blowouts because I played turn 2 Up the Beanstalk into turn 3 Overlord of the Hauntwoods a lot, and that start is enough to be ahead of just about every deck that isn’t doing the same thing. I drew my Temporary Lockdowns in bunches against the aggro decks, which is pretty huge.
As the old saying goes, it’s better to be lucky than it is to be good. I did thankfully have enough reps on Arena to be able to truly autopilot the deck all day, which is something that I now realize is an important part of minimizing how much luck you need.
T: Not making easy mistakes is definitely part of what makes someone good with a deck! Thanks for the insight, and is there anything you’d like to add, or any hot takes for the readers?
J: It goes without saying, but big props to HFXGames for being the gold standard of events in the Maritimes. Even without including the Micmac Tavern, these are always the most enjoyable events to play because of how well they’re ran. Also, thanks to everyone who lent me cards to get this deck together in short order. In terms of hot takes… let’s get a Pre-Modern tournament going somewhere in the Maritimes in 2025! Just one!
And that wraps up our Round 9 RCQ+! Congratulations to Josh Breau and the rest of the Top 4 on getting their invites to the Montreal Regional Championship in May, as well as the rest of our Top 8 on their finish! Stay tuned for our next Standard Tournament on March 29th, which will be both our Aetherdrift Store Championship as well as one of our Player’s Championship Qualifiers!
See you there!
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Written By: Travis Benedict Pro Tour Competitor, Cat Lover |
