David works on the Magic community team as a content specialist. He spends his days writing about Magic Online and trying to play too many colors at once in Limited.

Hundreds of players fought their way through the qualifiers leading up to the Battle for Zendikar Championship Finals. In the end, sixteen players competed for the title of Magic Online Battle for Zendikar Champion.

Congratulations to the Battle for Zendikar Championship Finals Top 8 players!

Battle for Zendikar Limited Championship Finals Top 8 Battle for Zendikar Standard Championship Finals Top 8 zeuth

Eli12

AlexCroh

utared

scarr

Chwarga_

Longobarda

nemureke hauka

SWPC

clemens268

Niederschatten

blaze66

McWinSauce

kyo_testarossa

pokerswizard

The final matches came down to zeuth and utared in the Battle for Zendikar Limited Championship Finals, and hauka and blaze66 in the Battle for Zendikar Standard Championship Finals. How did the victors triumph over their competition? Let's take a look at how each match unfolded.

Battle for Zendikar Limited Championship Finals Recap

utared

versus

zeuth

For the Battle for Zendikar Limited Championship Finals, utared created a fast red-black deck with a strong emphasis on burn spells and landfall creatures. Leaning more heavily towards the late game, zeuth brought a deck built for ramp, huge creatures, and a healthy amount of Allies with rally.

Did utared overwhelm zeuth in the early game or did zeuth manage to ramp into huge beasts and stomp to victory? Read on to see who emerged as the Champion of the Battle for Zendikar Limited Finals!

Game 1

Both players were off to an aggressive start with utared running a lot of cheap red creatures and zeuth getting some early ramp power out of a Turn 2 Beastcaller Savant. Hagra Sharpshooter and Valakut Predator were the first casualties in an early trade.

Seemingly stuck on three lands, utared also had to deal with a newly-played Oran-Rief Hydra.

The Oran-Rief Hydra started doing what Oran-Rief Hydras do best: get huge. Pumped by Tajuru Beastmaster entering the battlefield, zeuth was able to swing in for a devastating 12 damage on Turn 6.

As the game progressed, it became clear that zeuth had a fairly strong pool of rally cards.

Retreat to Emeria re-triggering the newly played Kalastria Healer and Tajuru Beastmaster convinced utared that it was time to concede Game 1.

Game 2

In Game 2, utared showed off what a beating a landfall deck that's not stuck on lands can produce. Akoum Stonewaker came out on Turn 2 and was joined by a Forerunner of Slaughter on Turn 3, meant to counter zeuth's Turn 2 Endless One.

Keeping the pressure on, utared traded Forerunner of Slaughter for zeuth's Endless One then created an Elemental with Akoum Stonewaker to continue chipping away at zeuth.

Instead of creating another Elemental, utared attacked zeuth directly. Turns out it was because of this guy:

With no way to block it, the Shatterskull Recruit kept up utared's onslaught. Shortly after, zeuth's Oran-Rief Hydra made its return, but would it be too late for a comeback?

Unfortunately for zeuth, a well-timed Bone Splinters took care of the Hydra, allowing Shatterskull Recruit to get another 4 damage in.

To keep the Shatterskull Recruit at bay, zeuth played a Kalastria Healer and a Lifespring Druid. It appeared that utared had anticipated this however, and destroyed the Kalastria Healer with Outnumber and the Lifespring Druid with Touch of the Void. With only one creature on the field, zeuth wasn't able to stop utared from swinging in for the win.

Game 3

Games 1 and 2 made it clear that if zeuth could keep a stronger board early on, then utared wouldn't be able to withstand the late game. Both players started out on fairly even footing, each with a 2/2 creature.

Forced to attack due to Reckless Cohort's ability, utared charged right into zeuth's Turn 3 Endless One.

To stay a beat ahead of utared, zeuth chose to take the 7 damage from a hasty Forerunner of Slaughter and a pumped Valakut Predator.

This matched up utared and zeuth's life totals at 14, but utared was tapped out and zeuth was able to swing directly for utared on zeuth's next turn.

With five untapped lands and only one creature to block utared's two, zeuth took 4 damage from utared's Valakut Predator. After the attack, utared played Shatterskull Recruit in the second main phase.

Focusing on the Shatterskull Recruit, zeuth tripple-blocked it and took 4 damage from the Valakut Predator again, choosing to keep both Kalastria Healers back.

Forced to block zeuth's Endless One, or else risk being beaten by the Kalastria Healers rally trigger, utared traded a Forerunner of Slaughter.

If not for a well-timed Blighted Gorge to take out a Kalastria Healer the rally triggers, combined with Unified Front, would have ended the game.

On the very next turn, however, another Kalastria Healer rally trigger from a Grovetender Druids allowed zeuth to attack with everything and slip the needed 1 point of damage past utared's defenses and win the game.

Congratulations to

zeuth

for winning the Battle for Zendikar Limited Championship Finals!

Check out zeuth's winning decklist below. For a look at how the Battle for Zendikar Limited Champion handles a Draft, you can check out the Draft Viewer for this Event here.

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Battle for Zendikar Standard Championship Finals Recap

hauka

versus

blaze66

Hauka's deck for the Battle for Zendikar Standard Championship Finals combined powerful removal with strong, cheap creatures like Mantis Rider and Dragonmaster Outcast. On the other side of the battlefield, blaze66's deck put full focus on control, aiming to lock down hauka and chip away with fliers and awakened lands.

Was hauka's combination of offense and removal able to go toe-to-toe with blaze66's control-heavy deck, or did blaze66 lock the match down and ping to victory? Read on to find out!

Game 1

Hauka was off to a strong start with a Dragonmaster Outcast on Turn 1 and a Soulfire Grand Master on Turn 2. Mantis Rider was on its way to the battlefield on Turn 3, but blaze66 cancelled it with Silumgar's Scorn.

To get the dangerous Soulfire Grand Master off the field, and to avoid losing any more life, blaze66 used Complete Disregard to exile the Grand Master from the battlefield.

blaze66 made a valiant effort to get Jace, Vryn's Prodigy onto the battlefield, but was repeatedly denied by hauka. First, by dealing two damage with a Fiery Impulse. . .

. . .and then by using Crackling Doom to get rid of the same Jace that blaze66 brought back with Ojutai's Command.

In retaliation, blaze66 used a Languish to destroy the Dragonmaster Outcast that had just gained enough lands to start summoning Dragons on hauka's next turn.

In an effort to gain control of the game, blaze66 removed creature after creature. Mantis Rider fell to a Foul-Tounge Invocation. . .

. . .and a returned Dragonmaster Outcast was exiled with Complete Disregard.

With so many spells piling up in each player's graveyard, it quickly became a question of who could get their Jace onto the battlefield and keep it there. Hauka's next Jace met an Utter End.

Hauka continued to shrug off the damage from blaze66's Shambling Vents and used Fiery Impulse to destroy an enemy Jace, Vryn's Prodigy.

The two players rallied back and forth to decide the fate of Tasigur, the Golden Fang, but Tasigur made it to the field unscathed. With a graveyard thinned out by Dig Through Time and a Dig Through Time sitting in that same graveyard, there was a lot that hauka could utilize in there.

Hauka activated Tasigur's ability once before playing another Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. It appeared that blaze66 had run out of removal, as Jace was able to remain on the battlefield to transform into Jace, Telepath Unbound.

With graveyard recursion on top of hauka's already strong board presence, blaze66 decided to concede the game.

Game 2

Game 2 was over almost before it started. Things were looking good for blaze66 with a Turn 3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, but hauka quickly destroyed it with a Fiery Impulse.

After that, Game 2 was all downhill for blaze66. Back-to-back Mantis Riders took out huge chunks of life.

Down to 4 life after consecutive Mantis Rider attacks, blaze66 tried to pull Jace back from the graveyard, but was halted by a Negate.

With no way to survive another Mantis Rider attack, blaze66 conceded the game.

Congratulations to

hauka

for winning the Battle for Zendikar Standard Championship Finals!

You can find hauka's full winning decklist below.