October 25th Player’s Championship Qualifier/RCQ Recap 

This past weekend was full of Standard, as we ran our 2nd last Player’s Championship Qualifier, which also happened to be a Regional Championship Qualifier for Vancouver 2026! This weekend was also the SCGCON Regional Championship for Baltimore in the U.S., giving us a lot of results to look at. The U.S. RC was about as anyone expected, with Vivi Cauldron being the most played (and most winningest) deck by quite a wide margin, followed by Mono-Red Aggro. With virtually no bad matchups, the Vivi deck took over most of the tournament, but lost the finals to a hyper-aggressive version of a red deck featuring Leyline of Resonance, Slickshot Show-Off, and pump spells, as well as a fling effect to push damage fast. Although, if you travel North and visit the beautiful East coast of Canada, you’ll find a very different field of decks emerging victorious. Out of the 23 players battling it out for one of the 2 remaining invite slots to the esteemed HFXGames Player’s Championship, it was Sam Somers who reigned supreme with his 4-Colour Control (or Moist Mardu as he would call it) deck. While there were quite a few classic Mono-Red decks in the field, the other side seemed to be ready, with various takes on Azorius, Orzhov, and Jeskai Control decks trying to slow the red decks down. Sam took it one step further and chose a deck that would not only prey on the red decks but would also prey on the decks preying on the red decks! Let’s take a look at Sam’s wild Control deck, as well as the rest of our Top 8! 

Sam Somers – 4-Colour Control (1st) 

Tijler de Jong – Azorius Aggro (2nd) 

Mike Giles – Azorius Control (3rd-4th) 

Doug Maguire – Vivi Cauldron (3rd-4th) 

Justin Hockney – Mono-Red Aggro (5th-8th) 

Zach Nauffts – Dimir Midrange (5th-8th) 

Jayden Szymanski – Mono-Red Aggro (5th-8th) 

Brad Perry – Orzhov Control (5th-8th) 

I was very happy to get to congratulate our newest Qualifier Champion and good friend Sam Somers on his win! I also asked about his recent success and outlook on Magic, and what’s to come for him in the future. 

T: Congrats Sam! Locally, people typically put you on aggressive decks, whether that’s Mono-Red in Standard or Izzet Prowess in Modern. You’ve had success with both, getting yourself a Day 2 with Mono-Red at the last RC, finishing 47th out of 447 people and a finals appearance with Prowess at the last F2F Tour stop in Truro. What made you decide to switch to a deck like this 4-Colour Control list for this tournament? 

S: Two reasons:  
1) I was expecting A LOT of Mono-Red or Vivi decks and thought a deck running 11 mainboard creature removal spells, Lightning Helix and Inevitable Defeat gaining life as well, would fare well into those matchups. I also thought it’s a more controlling deck so it would make the mirrors easier as well. 
2) With the anticipation of that many Mono-Red decks, which was my other choice, I would’ve signed myself up for a bunch of really play/draw dependent mirrors that I didn’t want to deal with. 

T: That makes a lot of sense! Was this a deck you’d been playing for a while or just picked it up on the fly? Do you think you’ll keep playing it in the future? 

S: I picked it up a while ago, around when EOE released. I remember what the last shock land Standard format was like and the meta seemed like every deck was a 4-Colour Control deck. We also have Surveil lands, Verges, and now Starting Town which makes the mana way less greedy than it would seem for a Standard deck.  

T: A good mana base can let you basically play all the best spells! Do you have any specific plays that were memorable for you? Anything that you thought you did really well or a favourite moment overall in the tournament? 

S: Just playing a Consult the Star Charts for like 15 in response to any spell. It just feels like cheating to look through half your deck, find the answer you’re looking for, plus any other card selection (Stock Up, Consult, or Mystical Teachings), answer their spell and still be up cards.  
Also, Stoic Sphinx is such a crazy card. Attacking with that knowing your opponent can’t do anything is just such a good feeling.  

T: Yeah, the Sphinx is a really nice sideboard threat you get to bring in. Now that you’ve qualified for your first Player’s Championship (as well as the Regional Championship in Vancouver), what is the next big goal in Magic for you? 

S: I’d like to cash an RC, that seems like an attainable goal considering my last RC run. Qualifying for the Pro Tour would be the next big qualifying event that I’d like to get to (now that I’ve finally qualified for this Player’s Championship). 

T: You are one of our new participants this year, which is very exciting! What would winning this year’s Player’s Championship mean to you? 

S: Jeez. First, I have absolutely no expectation to even Top 8 and I’m still shocked I’m even included. But if we’re imagining the Universe where I somehow won, I think it would really give me confidence to think my Pro Tour dream would be realistic. For a 16-player event, we’ve got a few Pro Tour competitors among them. If I was able to take home the belt it would show me that I could accomplish what they have in terms of competitive achievement.  

T: Very well said! Is this your first HFXGames event win? If so, do you have any words of advice or encouragement for someone else who might be thinking about upping their game and trying to compete on a higher level, like qualifying for the HFXGames Player’s Championship, or trying to make the Pro Tour? 

S: This is my first ever event win, aside from casual events like weeklies and Prereleases. I also should go on record saying that this is a pretty fake win as I was scooped in by Mike and Tijler. If I was to be in the position to give advice, my advice would be: You have to try to figure out any advantage you can give yourself before you sit down for a game. If you think you can tech better against a room full of Mono-Red decks and decks that want to beat Mono-Red by playing a dumb 4-Colour Control deck, then do that. You also have to get a lot of practice in with a deck; I couldn’t ever pick up a deck that was the “best deck” and get immediate results. The way my playing has gone is that I have to just accept a lot of losing, mess up plays, punt entire games, but eventually I get into a position where I’ve made every possible mistake and when I’ve done that, then that’s where I dominate an event. Don’t be afraid of failure, you’ll remember going to an RC, a Pro Tour, an HFX Player’s Championship. After that, it doesn’t matter how many RCQs or Store Championships that you’ve 0-5’d with the same deck that got you those qualifications. 

T: Beautifully put, that’s amazing stuff and couldn’t be more true! So now that your big Standard win has come to fruition, there are some very big Modern tournaments coming up right around the corner! This coming weekend is the F2F Tour stop in Fredericton and then there’s RC Calgary coming up just 3 weeks after that. What are you going to do to try and prepare for these big tournaments, both in game and mentally? 

S: I’ll probably just play a ton of Modern weeklies and run some MTGO Leagues. I’ll try to relax and take the pressure of performing off of myself and try to focus on playing correctly.  

T: Not a bad idea, you’ve earned it! Thanks for your time, Sam, and before you go is there anything or anyone you’d like to shout out or mention to our readers? 

S: Uuuuhhh, the Lorwyn Eclipsed Spotlight Series in Toronto, everyone go, it’ll be the biggest event in Canada post-pandemic.  

 
An exhausted yet relieved Sam Somers, moments after a grueling Control Mirror (Colourized, c. 2025) 

Congratulations to our newest Qualifier Champion, Sam Somers, as well as the rest of our Top 8 on their performance! There is only ONE (1) Player’s Championship Qualifier left before the end of the year. It will be Standard on November 8th, so make sure to bring your A-Game! There are also 4 At-Large Leaderboard invites for our Top Non-Qualified players to play for, and one more event means one more chance to earn points and solidify your spot! See you there!