Welcome to another weekly Showdown Recap, where we take a look at what happened at Face to Face Games Toronto’s weekly Sunday Showdown, a series of 1k events feeding into the Ultimate Showdown 5k Invitational. This week, players battled in our last Frontier Showdown for a while to see who could take down the top prize.

This past Sunday at Face to Face Games Toronto was all about the beat-down. I think there’s a case to be made for calling seven of the Top 8 decklists aggressive decks. If it weren’t for Simon Tubello holding it down with the Grixis Control deck he’s had so much success with, we would have had a full aggro set of elimination matches. John Blinov was able to defeat Matt Mealing in the finals with his Atarka Red deck to take home the winner’s label after the dust settled.

It certainly was a familiar looking Top 8 as these eight players seem to be jostling for position every Sunday. Daniel Fournier and his self-proclaimed genius Earthshaker Khenra tech made a semifinals run on the back of my play-set of Wooded Foothills which I lent him. Chris Ha got to cast Siege Rhino, which is the second best thing he does—slightly behind eating and way ahead of bragging about his foils. Dylan Harkness was the brewer of the bunch, sporting a sweet Grixis artifact deck and Benny Wong, was, well, also casting Siege Rhino … MOO !

That’s all for Frontier at Face to Face Games for now, we’ll be transitioning much of our Frontier event programming over to Standard with the onset of Ixalan. So pick up some cards and start prepping for our Wednesday night Standard events and Oct. 14 National Championship.

With his win this weekend John qualifies himself for the next Face to Face Games Ultimate Showdown and the rest of the Top 8 have started their march toward the top of the Showdown leaderboard. Join us this weekend to try to cement your spot on the leaderboard at our Legacy Showdown. If you’re a Modern lover you don’t want to miss this Saturday and our inaugural FacetoFaceGames.com Open + 5k. This event will feature two invites in addition to travel rewards for first and second place to the StarCityGames Invitational as well as 5k in prizes. All that, just a few weeks before our Nationals event, there’s lots coming so get to testing !

First Place, John Blinov, Atarka Red

[Deck]

[Creatures]

4 Monastery Swiftspear

4 Soul-Scar Mage

3 Zurgo Bellstriker

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Atarkas Command

4 Lightning Strike

4 Stoke the Flames

4 Wild Slash

4 Dragon Fodder

4 Hordeling Outburst

4 Incendiary Flow

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Bloodstained Mire

2 Cinder Glade

1 Forest

10 Mountain

4 Wooded Foothills

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Exquisite Firecraft

3 Natural State

4 Roast

4 Sweltering Suns

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Second Place, Matt Mealing, U/W Humans

[Deck]

[Creatures]

4 Archangel of Tithes

3 Glory-Bound Initiate

4 Knight of the White Orchid

3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros Flip

4 Mardu Woe-Reaper

3 Reflector Mage

1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

3 Thalia’s Lieutenant

4 Thraben Inspector

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Declaration in Stone

3 Always Watching

1 Cast Out

1 Stasis Snare

4 Smuggler’s Copter

1 Valorous Stance

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Flooded Strand

8 Plains

1 Prairie Stream

2 Shefet Dunes

1 Westvale Abbey

4 Windswept Heath

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

3 Authority of the Consuls

1 Declaration in Stone

1 Dusk / Dawn

1 Fragmentize

2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

4 Negate

1 Stasis Snare

1 Valorous Stance

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Third Place, Daniel Fournier, Atarka Red

[Deck]

[Creatures]

4 Earthshaker Khenra

4 Monastery Swiftspear

4 Soul-Scar Mage

2 Zurgo Bellstriker

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Dragon Fodder

2 Hordeling Outburst

4 Smugglers Copter

4 Atarkas Command

1 Become Immense

4 Lightning Strike

2 Stoke the Flames

4 Wild Slash

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Bloodstained Mire

2 Cinder Glade

1 Forest

9 Mountain

1 Windswept Heath

4 Wooded Foothills

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Abrade

2 Aethersphere Harvester

2 Blazing Volley

1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

3 Goblin Rabblemaster

2 Hazoret the Fervent

2 Roast

1 Scavenger Grounds

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Fourth Place, Simon Tubello, Grixis Control

[Deck]

[Creatures]

4 Jace, Vryns Prodigy

2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

2 Torrential Gearhulk

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Ruinous Path

2 Yahennis Expertise

4 Censor

3 Dig Through Time

1 Disdainful Stroke

4 Fatal Push

1 Fiery Impulse

1 Hieroglyphic Illumination

2 Kolaghans Command

3 Supreme Will

1 Unlicensed Disintegration

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Bloodstained Mire

1 Canyon Slough

1 Fetid Pools

3 Flooded Strand

2 Island

1 Mountain

4 Polluted Delta

2 Smoldering Marsh

2 Sunken Hollow

2 Swamp

4 Wandering Fumarole

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Collective Brutality

1 Disdainful Stroke

2 Dispel

1 Dragonlord Silumgar

1 Dragonmaster Outcast

1 Kolaghans Command

2 Lost Legacy

1 Negate

1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

1 Radiant Flames

1 Roast

1 Transgress the Mind

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Fifth Place, Liam Kane, Mardu Vehicles

[Deck]

[Creatures]

4 Hangarback Walker

3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar

1 Pia Nalaar

4 Scrapheap Scrounger

4 Thraben Inspector

4 Toolcraft Exemplar

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Crackling Doom

4 Shrapnel Blast

4 Unlicensed Disintegration

2 Heart of Kiran

4 Smugglers Copter

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Battlefield Forge

4 Caves of Koilos

4 Concealed Courtyard

4 Inspiring Vantage

2 Mountain

4 Spire of Industry

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Aethersphere Harvester

1 Duress

2 Fatal Push

3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

1 Glorybringer

1 Painful Truths

3 Phyrexian Revoker

2 Tormod’s Crypt

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Sixth Place, Chris Ha, Abzan

[Deck]

[Creatures]

3 Anafenza, the Foremost

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Siege Rhino

2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

3 Tireless Tracker

4 Warden of the First Tree

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Abzan Charm

3 Dromoka’s Command

4 Fatal Push

4 Smugglers Copter

2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Blooming Marsh

3 Canopy Vista

3 Flooded Strand

2 Forest

2 Llanowar Wastes

2 Plains

1 Smoldering Marsh

1 Sunken Hollow

4 Windswept Heath

3 Wooded Foothills

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Appetite for the Unnatural

2 Blessed Alliance

2 Declaration in Stone

2 Flaying Tendrils

1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

1 Painful Truths

2 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Transgress the Mind

1 Virulent Plague

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Seventh Place, Benny Wong, Abzan

[Deck]

[Creatures]

3 Anafenza, the Foremost

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Siege Rhino

2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

2 Walking Ballista

4 Warden of the First Tree

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

3 Abzan Charm

3 Dromoka’s Command

4 Fatal Push

2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

2 Gideon of the Trials

3 Smugglers Copter

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Blooming Marsh

2 Canopy Vista

3 Concealed Courtyard

4 Flooded Strand

2 Forest

2 Plains

1 Prairie Stream

1 Sunken Hollow

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

4 Windswept Heath

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Authority of the Consuls

2 Collective Brutality

1 Dromoka’s Command

3 Hushwing Gryff

2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation

1 Painful Truths

1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis

1 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Tragic Arrogance

1 Virulent Plague

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

Eighth Place, Dylan Harkness, Grixis Ensoul

[Deck]

[Creatures]

4 Hangarback Walker

2 Maverick Thopterist

3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar

4 Scrapheap Scrounger

3 Thopter Engineer

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Aethersphere Harvester

2 Ghostfire Blade

4 Implement of Combustion

4 Shrapnel Blast

3 Unlicensed Disintegration

4 Ensoul Artifact

1 Tezzeret’s Touch

2 Seismic Rupture

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Bloodstained Mire

4 Darksteel Citadel

2 Mountain

1 Smoldering Marsh

4 Spire of Industry

4 Spirebluff Canal

1 Sunken Hollow

1 Swamp

1 Wandering Fumarole

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

1x Aethersphere Harvester

2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance

2x Key to the City

2x Lightning Strike

4x Metallic Rebuke

2x Roast

1x Seismic Rupture

1x Wandering Fumarole

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]