Player’s Championship Qualifier #10 Recap
This past weekend we had 20 players for our 10th Player’s Championship Qualifier tournament, which was our first Modern tournament since the banning of Grief and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Many people wanted those cards gone as Nadu was the dominant force in Modern for as long as it has existed. Many Modern enthusiasts also believed Grief should have been hit months ago, either alongside or instead of Fury when Rakdos Scam was public enemy number one. We now live in a world without either, and if the results of this tournament are an indicator, it looks like we live in a wide open world in Modern. With 7 unique decks in our Top 8 with varying strategies, Modern is looking a lot more healthy if you value deck diversity. With Nadu gone, we see the return of Yawgmoth as the go-to choice if you want to play a Chord of Calling creature combo deck. The deck that took it all down however, was Temur Eldrazi at the hands of local legend, Adam “Joyce” Joyce! With Tron falling out of favor since the release of Modern Horizons 3, this is the dominant big mana deck featuring Ugin’s Labyrinth and Eldrazi Temple to ramp out threats instead of the Urza Lands. Let’s look at Adam’s winning list as well as the rest of our Top 8!
Adam Joyce – Temur Eldrazi (1st)
Travis Benedict – Izzet Wizards (2nd)
Sebastian Steffe – Dimir Murktide (3rd-4th)
Douglas Maguire – Rakdos Hollow One (3rd-4th)
Gabe Vienneau – 4-Colour Tameshi Bloom (5th-8th)
Kyle Lees – Golgari Yawgmoth (5th-8th)
Scott Hendriks – Mono-Blue Merfolk (5th-8th)
Justin Hockney – Dimir Murktide (5th-8th)
I took the time to ask our newest winner and Player’s Championship attendee Adam Joyce some questions about his deck choice and thoughts on Modern as a whole! Here’s what he had to say:
T: How did you end up landing on the Eldrazi deck for this tournament? Do you think it got a lot better after the bans? Was it a good meta call? Or did you just want to throw some big Eldrazi around?
A: While I am a big enjoyer of throwing big Eldrazi around (Emrakul, the Promised End especially), I do think it was a good meta call. Last Modern event there was 4 or 5 other Eldrazi/Tron variants and with the blue splash this should be favoured.
T: Nice, so if this was the deck to beat up the other Eldrazi decks, what decks are you trying to avoid?
A: I think Boros Energy is pretty close, but most of the other low to the ground decks with disruption can be rough, i.e. Zoo or Prowess. Also Merfolk which I hadn’t played against before and I got massacred haha.
T: Yeah Merfolk seems like it would have to be a beating. What are your opinions on Modern right now? Good? Bad?
A: I think it’s currently pretty good. The best deck being Boros Energy is great for the format. It can be beaten if people really want to. The One Ring is an outlier obviously, but I lost more than one game where I had turn 2 Ring during the event.
T: Alright, now give me Adam Joyce’s hottest magic take!
A: Arcum’s Astrolabe has never done anything wrong and probably isn’t playable in the formats it’s banned in. Also Pioneer is the worst format.
T: Hahaha sweet, thank you!
A: Forgot to mention the 61 card special
Congratulations to Adam Joyce on qualifying for our end of year Player’s Championship in December, as well as the rest of our Top 8! We have 3 more Qualifiers before the Player’s Championship in December, with the next one being the Duskmourn: House of Horror Standard Store Champs on October 12th! Come battle it out and earn your invitation! Even if you don’t win, you can earn Leaderboard Points, with our Top 4 non-qualified players on the Leaderboard earning an invitation!
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Written By: Travis Benedict Pro Tour Competitor, Cat Lover |
