October Modern Player’s Championship Qualifier Recap
October Modern Player’s Championship Qualifier Recap
This past weekend we dove right back into the Modern format for our latest Player’s Championship Qualifier. 17 players came out to fight for one of the remaining slots left for our end of year tournament, as well as getting practice for the upcoming Regional Championship in November! The ProTour showed us that the time for combo decks in modern is now! Dedicated combo like Mono-Blue Belcher or Amulet dominated the PT, but locally it’s a very different story. In a field full of Prowess and Eldrazi/Tron strategies, it was Tim Foley’s Boros Energy deck that emerged victorious. Many people had thought the deck had fallen out of favor, falling from being the most played deck since it’s inception down to just the 3rd most represented deck at the ProTour. Tim’s here to prove the naysayers wrong with his build of Boros Energy. Let’s take a look at Tim’s card selection as well as the rest of the decks in our Top 8!
Tim Foley – Boros Energy (1st)
Mike Giles – Mono-Blue Tron (2nd)
Matt Bailey – Mono-Green Eldrazi (3rd-4th)
Pat DeMone – Izzet Prowess (3rd-4th)
Chris Brennan – Esper Goryo’s Vengeance (5h-8th)
Jayden Szymanski – Izzet Prowess (5th-8th)
Cody Leblanc – Esper Blink (5th-8th)
Adam Joyce – Gruul Eldrazi (5th-8th)
I had the pleasure of talking to our latest Qualifier Champion, Tim Foley to see why he landed on Energy for this tournament, and his aspirations as a competitive Magic Player!
TB: First off, congrats on qualifying for the 2nd Player’s Championship! It’s nice to see someone new qualify! What was going through your head when you got your invite?
TF: Thank you. The Player’s Championship is a super cool event, so I’m stoked to qualify. I’m usually pretty bad for dying in the Top 8/Top 4, so I was super stoked to finally be able to close out a local event (with the help of Mike Giles in the finals 😉)
TB: That’s awesome! And you did it Boros Energy, a deck people were starting to write off in the format. Do you think it’s a case of our local metagame being wildly different than what you see elsewhere? Or do you think people were a little too quick to dismiss Energy as a contender in a combo-centric Modern?
TF: I think people were likely too quick to dismiss the deck. Locally, we have a ton of combo lovers and Tron gamers. With Boros, all of the cards are just so powerful that it feels like you always have outs. While not an actual combo deck, being able to make plays like Guide of Souls into Ocelot Pride, Goblin Bombardment into Ajani, or escaping Phlage with Arena of Glory, the deck has a lot of options that create seemingly insurmountable value out of nowhere with very low effort or deckbuilding constraints. It also has access to a slew of great sideboard hate pieces such as Blood Moon and Containment Priest.
TB: Just a solid, well-rounded Swiss army knife kind of deck by the sounds of it! So, with game against any kind of strategy, what type of decks are you really afraid to see across the table?
TF: Honestly, the thing I’m most scared of is Tron. Not great for someone playing Modern in Halifax. The new Ugin is so powerful. It’s life gain tied to removal, which is a must answer threat. That paired with the big bodies they produce make it very difficult to close out games.
TB: I see, it must have been difficult fighting through the field of Eldrazi to get to the end! Were there any standout moments or plays that stuck out to you through the tournament?
TF: Luckily, I was able to dodge the Eldrazi matchups for the most part. The biggest standout play to me over the weekend was in my game 2 vs Matt Bailey in the semi-finals. I cast a turn 3 Blood Moon, which I thought would force him to have a Boseiju or win me the game. However, what I didn’t know was that Matt was playing a Wastes that he was able to fetch using his Prismatic Vista that he played on the prior turn. After that, he was able to quite easily finish me off and send us to a game 3.
TB: Matt had the answer to the answer, very heads up by him! So we’ve gone over your latest tournament run, but you’ve had some success outside of the local scene as well, coming off of a 9-5 record Day 2ing your last Regional Championship, and a Sunday Open win before that. What’s your next big goal, or the next step for you and Magic?
TF: My main goal before RC Montreal was to make Day 2 of an RC. Now that that’s done, my goal will be to qualify for the Pro Tour.
TB: Awesome, I believe you can make it if you keep playing as well as you have been! Do you have any words of advice for our readers who may also be on the similar grind of trying to make the Pro Tour?
TF: For sure! When sitting down to play magic, I believe it’s super important to always believe you can win. At the end of the day, you always have a chance to win, regardless of the matchup or who your opponent is, so always play to your outs.
Congratulations to Tim on getting his invite, as well as the rest of our Top 8 on the fantastic performance! There are only 2 more opportunities to qualify for the most exciting event in the Maritimes, so make sure you join us for our October 25th Standard RCQ and the Spider-Man Standard Final Battle on November 8th! There are 4 Leaderboard invites up for grabs as well, so come play and earn those Leaderboard Points!
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Written By: Travis Benedict Pro Tour Competitor, Cat Lover |