Judging From Exile - A Canadian Look at Judging Magic: January 2018

Event Recap:

A Face To Face Games.com Tournament Series Trial Event - January 6th, 2018

Nineteen Magic players from across Central Ontario gathered in Penetanguishene on Saturday, January 6th to take part in a first for the region - a 'Face To Face Games.com tournament series' trial event. The event was a Modern format Magic tournament, and was held at Competitive REL. The Head Judge for the day was yours truly, the Judge in Exile.

Despite the bitter cold weather that seems to be encompassing half the globe currently, we still had players make the trek to North Of Exile Games in Penetanguishene from North Bay, Toronto, Barrie and several other locations to test their skills (and decks) against one another in what would turn out to be a very fun and value packed event.

Players traveled great distances to participate

in our first ever Competitive REL event

Throughout the event players were randomly selected to win prizes including a Face To Face Games.com playmat, a North Of Exile Games playmat, a copy of the recently released Merfolk vs Goblins duel deck, and more.

Some of the prizes that were awarded during the event included

Face To Face Games.com and North Of Exile Games playmats

The winner of our Trial event would win a 1 round BYE at the next Face to Face OPEN, free entry into the event and a special Face To Face Games 'Trial Winner' playmat.

Registration closed at 1pm, and after a few minutes of organizing deck lists round 1 was underway. Players would participate in 5 rounds of swiss in total, before we cut to our Top 8.

Our top 8 consisted of the following players, along with their deck archetypes:

Logan Abella - Burn
Eric Penny - Affinity
Matt Manuel - Esper Gifts Vengeance
Michael Setacci - Jund
Ryan Gillard - 8 rack
Kevin Bunker - Abzan

...what's that you say? That's only 6 players? You're right! I saved our two finalists for last, so that we can take a look at the two decks that dominated our event more than any others.

Up first is our runner-up:

Chris Edmunds - 5 colour Humans

4 Aether Vial
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Mantis Rider
4 Meddling Mage
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Reflector Mage
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

1 Plains
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Unclaimed Territoty
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Cavern Of Souls

Sideboard:
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Stony Silence
2 Izzet Staticaster
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Dismember
2 Vithian Renegades
1 Lantern Scout
1 Mirran Crusader

With Cavern of Souls to make all of Chris' creature spells uncounterable and Unclaimed Territory to help with additional colour fixing, playing 5 colour Humans is not so much to ask.

Aether Vial allows Chris to 'cheat' in some Humans at instant speed for some fun surprises, and both Meddling Mage and Reflector Mage give Chris some control-style answers to threats that may appear from his opponent's side of the battlefield.

Finally, we come to our winner of the event, Matt Sutherland and his Grixis Death's Shadow deck that he affectionately likes to call "Ham Sandwich":

4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Gurmag Angler
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Thoughseize
4 Mishra's Bauble
2 Dismember
4 Fatal Push
4 Stubborn Denial
4 Thought Scour
3 Opt
2 Temur Battle Rage

4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Swamp
1 Island

Sideboard:

3 Engineered Explosives
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Liliana Of The Veil
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
3 Collective Brutality

For those of you who aren't 'in the know' about Magic's Modern format, Death's Shadow decks revolve around the player getting their own life total very low as quickly as possible, in order to fully take advantage of the overwhelming power of an early Death's Shadow.

Sacrificed Fetch Lands such as Scalding Tarn make for great cards to delve away later on, when Matt needs to get a 5/5 Gurmag Angler into play for only 1 black mana.

Congratulations again to our winner, Matt, and thank you again to everyone who came out and made our first ever Competitive REL event in the North a memorable one!

Matt won himself free entry into a Face To Face OPEN, along with a 1 round BYE and

this extremely Canadian 'Trial Winner' playmat!

Look forward to hearing about more exciting Magic events being held in Penetanguishene in the future, as we continue working hard at our constant goal of...

#BuildingABetterPlaceToPlay

Oh, and did you know that we also have a webseries on Youtube? It's called 'Building A Game Store in a Small Town' and you can find episode 1 of it HERE.

-JVM

Hello World, and welcome back to Exile!

It's been a long, long time since I've written a Blog post, mostly due to the amount of hours I have been putting into building up our new game store; North Of Exile Games.

The Life Of The Entrepreneur

Working for yourself brings it's own unique set of challenges and rewards, and I have certainly enjoyed all of the challenges these past 6 months have brought. One thing that I learned quickly about being your own boss is that there is suddenly no such thing as a 'day off'. Even now, it's Monday afternoon and I am sitting inside our store - which is closed today - writing this long overdue Blog post.

My last post here was an emotional one, as I was filled with the excitement that comes from having a long-standing dream come true - I was about step into the exciting world of entrepreneurship and open up my very own game store. I didn't know if we even could be successful opening a game store in a small town that had never had one before, but I was optimistic that my partner and I could put our enthusiasm to good use, and at least make a good attempt at it.

I'm happy to relate that our first 6 months in business have been very successful. We achieved 'Core Level' status as a store within 10 days of our first opening, which allowed us the opportunity to host prerelease events for Magic's Ixalan set in September. Our Friday Night Magic Events have reached into the mid-20's for attendance multiple times, and we managed to get 34 players here for a casual 'Pizza & Magic' event that helped us to level up to 'Advanced Level' status within our first 5 months of being in business.

A typical FNM for us, with a variety of formats happening

We hosted a $5 casual Magic event, and bought everyone pizza as thanks

for coming out - this helped us reach 'Advanced level' in under 5 months!

Reaching 'Advanced Level' status as a store was a major goal for us when we were opening up, as being an 'Advanced Level' venue is the minimum requirement to be able to host Premier level events such as Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifiers, Star City Games Invitational Qualifiers and Face To Face Games.com Trial events. We knew that once we reached Advanced we would have a big advantage over other stores in Central Ontario, thanks to us having a Level 2 Magic Judge (me!) who can officiate those Premier level events for us.

Stay tuned for a special post coming soon, where I will recap the recent events from us holding our first ever Competitive REL Magic event in the store this past weekend, a 'Face To Face Games.com tournament series' trial event.

But before I go, let's take a look at some of the fun and games that have been happening in our new store, and have a glimpse at some of the awesome people who help comprise our constantly growing gaming community.