On Sunday 7-12-26 I played in an 8 person RCQ at Treasure Chest games in Cloquet. I went 2-1 playing Izzet Prowess https://deckbox.org/sets/3892325

The 75 – I am a big fan of the high level of consistency in this style of prowess deck. Almost every card being a 4 of just means that the games tend to play out very similar which obviously helps with the mental load of figuring out likelihood of drawing to outs and helps with mulligans if you are in a matchup that wants certain cards. There have been a few prowess lists going around lately using cards like Stormchasers Talent and Boomerang Basics but while the do help when the games go long I would rather just not let them get to the point where I would need a card like that. The one card that I tend to board out in most matches that I run into is Expressive Iteration. While it is the only card advantage card in the deck 2 mana is just a lot of mana, so if the games don’t go long then they are likely to just be stuck in my hand. I was thinking about this on the drive home but I have not yet figured out what I would play in it’s place since there is still a need for sorceries to reach delirium.

The Prep – Being completely honest I did not prep for this tournament at all. Not having any new players I was trying to help get into the format, or borrowing decks to anyone I didn’t really have a high level of motivation to push myself for this event and didn’t really want to drop the $50. Being honest I wasn’t even planning on playing the event I was just Ben’s only option for a ride, and I wanted to hang out with Sherrie who was judging the event due to it being her birthday. If there had been an even number of people I wouldn’t of played, but to make it an even 8 I decided to buy in.

The Tournament – We had a grand total of 8 people for the event which means it was 3 rounds single elimination. No match losses to give, and with such a high buy in made it pretty high stakes. We had 2 prowess, 1 merfolk, 1 grixis shadow, 1 dredge, 1 boros land destruction, 1 domain zoo, and 1 storm deck. I had no opinions on what I would get paired against, I don’t think prowess has any truly terrible matchups from what I have played and I can just steal a lot of games off the explosive nature of my deck even if the matchup is bad.

Round 1 – This round was honestly really funny. I was paired against Adam who was the other person playing prowess, and in the prior RCQ we both were the only people playing boros land destruction. I lost the roll and when he went Scalding Tarn fetch Steam Vents I automatically knew we were in a mirror, and when I told him that when I started my turn he also found it amusing. Great minds think alike I guess. Game one he missed his second land drop, and even after finding it he was still not able to recover since I had a aggressive start and was able to remove his threats. Game two I drew 7 lands which in general is not great for the deck, but in an aggro mirror obviously is even worse. Game 3 I was able to stick a Cori-Steel Cutter on 2 and make a token which just meant my pressure was to high. I was able to cast Preordain and Spell Pierce my own spell for the lethal prowess triggers and the token. Merfolk beat Land Destruction, Dredge beat Domain Zoo, and Shadow beat Storm.

Round 2 – My next pairing was against Dredge. Obviously a rogue strategy in the current format and my sideboard isn’t really set up to be good against it which can make the deck very powerful. But I still the ability to just be very very fast. I won game 1 by just having a lot of threats, and a lot of prowess and prowess adjacent triggers the turn before he had blockers. Game two my draws weren’t great, weirdly enough drew to many sideboard cards in Consign to Memory and not enough threats to really put on pressure, and consign not being a proactive card meant I couldn’t use it to trigger damage. I ended up drawing the perfect 2 cards in a row of Mutagenic Growth and a second free spell in Surgical Extraction, which allowed me to attack for 18 damage in one turn, but he was able to flash back an Otherworldly Gaze and bin a Creeping Chill to survive which means I was dead on his turn. I must admit to being kind of a dick in this situation. I thought he just wasn’t aware that he was dead on board so when he was fiddling with his cards and actually making me fully surgical his card I thought he was just wasting time, completely forgetting the ability to trigger chill with surveil. I was going to wait until after the match to apologize for how I acted but I forgot due to another thing that happened and I did not apologize before he left. So while I do not expect him to read this, if he does, or if anyone who does read this wants to tell him: Lee, I apologize for acting like a dick. I have no excuse, you were playing correctly and I wasn’t. For game 3 it was another game where I drew to many sideboard cards, I ended the game with all 3 consign in my hand. But I also had multiple threats and was able to put on a lot of pressure. The turn I went for the win I extracted something from his yard which game me the ability to see that he had a Dismember in his hand. I went for an attack that was 1 point from lethal and finished with a lightning bolt after the combat damage was dealt. Dismember costing life meant that even if he had cast it he would of taken lethal damage from my second attacker. Shadow beat Merfolk in the other match.

After Round 2 – So now an interesting interaction happened. After we were done de-sideboarding Lee in a somewhat annoyed sounding tone asked me if I actually intended to play out the match with Ben. I asked him what he meant and he said that neither me or Ben even cared about the invite, I told him that this wasn’t true, Ben wanted to win the invite and actually go to L.A., he then said that I was probably just going to concede to him in that case since I didn’t even want to play in the first place. I told him that that was between me and Ben. Now obviously Lee wanted me to concede to him so he could play for the invite against Ben since I “didn’t want it anyways”. I do not think this matters. I have conceded to people in the past for things when I wanted them to get something like a Dungeon’s End Invitational Invite, or to help them make top 8 of the invitational. I even told Ben before the tournament started that if we got paired round 1 that I would concede to him since he actually cared about the invite and I would just play games of Modern with Sherrie. This does not mean in any way that I should of conceded to Lee. If I wanted to let people who wanted the invite play for it I should of conceded to my round 1 opponent, I already know he has been trying for an invite so he can play at the Regional Championship with his brother, which is a better reason then most to concede to someone. Just because someone wants the invite more then me does not mean they deserve to advance. If Lee wanted to play in the finals for the invite, then he should of beat me. It doesn’t matter if I plan to concede anyways. He did not win the match, he did not earn the right to play in the finals. I paid the same $50 he did, and if I play I always play to win.

Round 3 – Final round against Ben on Grixis Shadow. Kinda the perfect outcome since I was his ride. I also borrowed him the Death’s Shadows he was playing but for some reason he wouldn’t give them back when I asked for them before we started. Not very nice of him to withhold my own cards from me when I asked. I asked the judge about it and was threatened with physical violence by said judge. Guess I had to play it out. Game one I was heavily restricted in my threats due to two early Thoughtsieze and while was able to remove the first Moonshadow he played he then resolved 2 Death’s Shadow, and the next turn dealt 16 damage to win the first game. The only thing I remember about game two was he made me discard one of two copies of Mutagenic Growth I had in my hand, and I drew a third copy to get lethal damage on my turn. Game 3 Turn 1 Thoughtsieze into turn 2 Thoughtsieze means I had no threats to really put pressure on. He attacked me down to 3 while he was at 5 life, and played a Psychic Frog to have a blocker for my single Dragon Rage Channeler, I cast Mutagenic Growth in my upkeep to surveil for a removal spell and binned a land, and proceeded to draw a Slickshot Show-Off. Dead on board and can’t attack for lethal. GGs Ben.

Aftermath – Didn’t need to concede to Ben either way. The fact he beat me straight up is sweet, I’m sure he felt much better about that outcome then if I had just conceded to him. He has been saying since the Sealed RCQ that he wasn’t able to play in that he would like to win an invite to go to the one in L.A. so I am glad he was able to get there in the end. Hopefully he can get the time off work. After the tournament I ate cupcakes that Sherrie brought and played a couple games of modern with her for kicks.

The Elephant in the Room – So now something that I don’t know the best way to approach but I want to say something. Obviously this RCQ had a much lower turn out then the previous one. I’m sure part of this is due to the heat, it was 95 degrees and the AC wasn’t the greatest which isn’t really the fault of the store. The new location will have more space and a working AC so that will be much nicer once they finish moving. The other reason why some people didn’t show up is multiple people went to another Modern format RCQ in Rice Lake. A long drive when there is one so much closer but the buy in at that tournament was only $20, which if you are carpooling means it is much cheaper to play for what is probably the same prizing. I have been thinking for a while that the high cost of the local RCQs would limit the number of people who would be willing to try and play in them, it’s much to high for a casual player to reasonably consider playing, and even for the more competitive minded who want the invite the “expected value” just isn’t there at such a high cost and low prize payout. When even the local players who want there to be more events like this decide that it’s better to drive an hour and a half rather then support the local store I think it says something that I hope people are willing to learn from. There are going to be other stores holding RCQ events in the Twin Ports area in the next coming months so it will be interesting to see what their price point ends up being and what kind of turn out is had as a result. I do not intend for this to be disparaging against Treasure Chest Games, I like the owners, I like the store, I am extremely grateful towards them for being willing to even hold tournaments of a competitive nature. I had been missing playing at a competitive level, and it is giving me the chance to help the community grow and help others get better at the game which I haven’t been able to do for years. But I don’t want them to get discouraged at low turn out and stop doing them, and I think that the cost will affect turn out.

Final Thoughts – A lot of potential drama in this tournament report but I have never been one to avoid saying what I think needs to be said. I do not intent to insult anyone with what I wrote but that doesn’t mean people won’t take things personally. I enjoyed the tournament, and had fun playing. GGs again to Ben, you crushed it. Also Happy Birthday Sherrie 😀

On Sunday 6-28-26 I played in a 17 person RCQ at Treasure Chest Games in Cloquet. I went 2-3 playing Boros Land Destruction https://deckbox.org/sets/3893485

73/75 – I wasn’t the only one playing Boros LD at the event and the other player did make top 8 playing a different built utilizing Karn the Great Creator and tempo cards like reprieve but I do personally have confidence in my build in the meta that was at the event. The extra spot removal, the 4x Wrath of the Skies, even the 2/2 Flying First Strike body on the White Orchid Phantom were relevant to both closing out games and having the extra land destruction available. Outside of the 4 drops the deck is very very consistent with all the 4 ofs and the overlapping of effects. The biggest mistake was the two eldrazi titans in my sideboard. Just on evaluation I do not thing the deck can ever reasonably beat mill, and I expected to see some of that deck at the tournament. Both mill players that I play against regularly were at the event but neither played mill but I stand by my choice to have the titans since I think both were reasonably likely to play the deck. In hindsight knowing what they ended up playing I would of played 2 copies of Wear//Tear instead.

Preparation – My preparation for the tournament was admittedly minimal. I don’t have the extreme competitive drive that I used to nor do I know if I could of actually made it to either of the Regional Championship options that this would of qualified me for but obviously that isn’t going to prevent me from trying to play to the best of my ability at the event itself. I only played 6 total matches with the deck before hand going undefeated but still dropping games. I feel like I learned a decent bit in those games about how the deck should be played and what to focus on but still would of been better to get more reps in I am sure. Most of my time related to getting ready for the tournament was spent trying to help two other people I was borrowing decks to who had no real experience in Modern try to get as prepared as possible for what was effectively jumping into the deep end for their first experience. I borrowed Jonas a controlling variation on Eldrazi Tron that they were able to at least play at one FNM to get a few games in, and I borrowed Claire Ruby Storm which they were unfortunately unable to get any play experience with but they did a lot of solo practice and we talked theory a lot which I enjoyed a lot personally.

The Tournament – The tournament had 17 players as mentioned. I don’t know the full deck breakdown and I can’t find it posted anywhere as of yet but from memory I think there were 4 tron decks, 2 Boros Energy, 2 Goryo’s, 2 Boros Land Destruction,2 Ruby Storm, 1 Death’s Shadow, 1 Merfolk, 1 Simic Ritual, 1 Vengevine, 1 Red Belcher. My hope was to dodge merfolk and Belcher and hope that my sideboard would carry me if I got paired against storm.

Round 1- My round 1 was against Logan on a green based Eldrazi tron hoping to take advantage of sowing mycospawn against the other tron decks. He unfortunately didn’t even know a deck like mine existed in the format and obviously my deck is designed to prey on decks like his. He seemed to take the ridiculousness of the matchup in stride. 2-0

Round 2 – Round 2 was against David also on a tron variant. He at least knew my deck existed but obviously even knowing what I was doing there isn’t really any recourse to be taken. He played out game 1 but conceded game 2 quickly once the writing was on the wall. 2-0

Round 3 – My first challenging matchup against Russ on Simic Ritual round 3. I won a very grindy game 1 after I was able to wrath of the skies and take out 3 birthing ritual which limited his engine greatly. I sideboarded poorly going into game 2 and 3. I trimmed on 1 wrath of the skies, 2 of each red land destruction spell, and a couple of spot removal spells and brought in 4 res tin peace and 3 vexing bauble. I think what I brought in was correct but I think I should of cut all of the red land destruction spells. Once I am trimming down on them like that it is very hard to truly lock him out, plus his main deck Endurance means he can keep putting his lands back into his deck to find again. If I had kept in all my removal I would of been able to just go hard control against him and possibly won game 2 or 3. I fittingly lost with an unstable (due to Harbinger of the Tides) in my hand where if it had been the wrath I boarded out maybe I could of stabilized. 1-2

Round 4 – I got to play against Jan on Merfolk round 4. Outside of maybe mono R belcher this was easily my worst matchup in the room in my opinion. To many islands to go with the normal game plan of running them out of resources, a lot of temp style counterspells to make my removal very hard to get what I want to with it. I also have zero sideboard cards to bring in. Was able to stall a bit game 1, grinded out a win game 2 off the back of White Orchid Phantom having first strike, and got fully ran over game 3. This was also the matchup where I learned how important Field of Ruin and Demolition Field are for my mana fixing. I was regularly having problems with my mana with no ability to used them to get basics and it cost me heavily in my ability to interact on curve with their creatures. Was a good match though and Jan is always great to talk to about stuff. Even though they make me feel old by bringing up the old days. 1-2

Round 5 – Round 5 I got paired against my own deck in Jonas on Tron. This match I got in my own head after going two winds into two loses. Game 1 my opening 7 had 2 lands only one of which could produce white, and a lot of white cards. I immediately thought “so this is how it’s going to be” and kept when I absolutely should of mulliganed. No reason to keep a sketchy hand when I know I have a good matchup. It was just my mental game slipping. Jonas had a very slow set up before they were able to get treats going. I missed my third land drop for 4 or 5 turns before starting to get the ball rolling. They said they were playing very defensively and trying to make as much mana as possible as opposed to playing out threats so I was able to make the game closer then I would of expected getting them down to 6 life before they stuck and Ugin. I checked the clock and noticed we only had 14 minutes left in the round so I conceded shortly after to try and win 2 games as fast as I could. Game 2 I made a very greedy play and was punished heavily. I had the ability to break up the assembly of tron on my turn 3 before they actually had it online but decided to leave up 3 mana to flash in an aven mindcensor with the idea being if they played an eldrazi I had a path to exile so I could stabilize easily and have an almost full lock and a clock. They played natural tron on turn 3 and cast an Ugin. Since I wasn’t able to find an Erode in time it essentially locked up the game. We went to time (inaccurately since we had a time extension due to a deck check) but I had no way of winning the game either way. Had we had more time I would of likely played less greedy and stuck to the normal game plan but with only 10ish minutes to try and win 2 games with a very slow deck I feel like I had to be greedy. Honestly I should of just conceded turn 4 game 1 and saved a lot of time. All of this being said I take nothing away from Jonas. They played how they felt they needed to to have a chance of winning after their experience in the matchup from the FNM two nights prior and I think they played well. 0-2

Aftermath – Two wins and three losses was obviously not enough to make top 8 but Jonas was able to make top 8 after winning our match which is sweet. Claire got 9th on breakers only losing out by .2% which for someone who had never played modern before let alone Ruby storm is awesome. As someone who focuses much less on my own wins now adays and cares much more about growing the community and teaching others to get better at the game seeing both people I was invested in doing so well was honestly better then making top 8. Claire likely would of made top 8 if someone else wasn’t conceded to so they could make it in instead which is unfortunate but is just part of tournament magic. I am glad I was able to help two other people expand their experiences in this game that I am so invested in.

Final Thoughts – I feel good about the tournament over all. I enjoyed my deck, the other deck I considered playing would of been prowess due to a lot of experience with that style of deck and having a decent win percentage with it but I think the reactions to me playing the land destruction deck have much better story equity then me just playing aggro. Could of made better choices but it’s good that I know I made those mistakes and can thus learn from them. Thanks to TCG for hosting the event. Congrats to Adam for winning, he is a great player and will definitely use the invite which is nice.