WINNERS: FNM - FTHS Night Magic IKO2

The Second Open MTG Arena Tournament was a great success for the growing MTGA community in the Philippines. A total of 34 players registered for this 32 capped event.

Things were not very smooth however. One of the main concerns of both the participants and us, the organizer was the upcoming update on MTGA. June 1, 2020, Fires of Invention and Agent of Treachery were banned in Standard. The companion mechanic also had changes on how they come into play. Ban effectiveness for MTG Arena was scheduled 4-June-2020. The FNM tournament was scheduled the day after the scheduled ban, which is 5-June-2020. We proceeded with the event amidst receiving clarification from the players on their deck list. We came up with the decision that participants should make sure that the deck that they will register in the tournament, must not contain any of the two upcoming banned cards. The companion mechanic will be cast normally until the update is up. It was an emotional mix up, with some players being positive about the decision and some disagreeing on it.

June 5, 2020, FNM proceeded with 26 players firing off Round 1. Round 2 and still no update on MTGA. Then came Round 3 and finally before the end of Round 4, nearing 12 midnight Philippine time, the update warning showed. “Just when we were headed to the last round of the swiss pairing.” Nevertheless a difficult decision has to be made again. With a thought that this will be for the good majority of the players, we had to announce that due to this delayed update, the remaining round and Top 8 will be scheduled the next day. We sighed in relief upon knowing that most of the players were happy with the decision. Scheduling the remaining rounds the next day will enable most of the players to update their MTG Arena.

Day two, out of 26 players on day one, 17 came back for Round 5. Unfortunately one of the top players during the swiss rounds is having technical issues. We were informed that he will drop from the event. 

Result of the 5 Rounds of Swiss:

*Complete Results can be viewed by clicking the photo 

Archetype breakdown for this tournament:

The Final match was between KingColt#98910 - Miko Marcelino of Marzinet Cafe, piloting the classic Mono Red Aggro against MadbuM#95602 - Mark Perez a former regular at Spiral UST piloting Azorius Yorion. KingColt#98910s’ Mono Red Aggro had a really good run during the swiss rounds, winning all of his matches. Final Match and Azorius Yorion stopped Mono Red Aggro’s dominance.

Azorius Yorion by MadbuM#95602:

Mono Red Aggro Main Deck by KingColt#98910:

Below are the highlights of the Final match:

Finals, Game 1:

Amidst being in a pinch of down to 7 life, MadbuM#95602 was able to claim victory for Game 1. 

Finals, Game 2:

Seven seems to be the lucky number for MadbuM#95602 today. Turning the game around to sweep the finals and claim the sweet victory!

It was a great feeling closing the event and hearing positive feedback from the participants.

Next week will be our last tournament after the recent PreRelease of IKORIA: Lair of the Behemoths. We will be streaming feature matches for this event, so please let us know in advance if you want to test out your connection before the tournament begins. 

Be sure to check out our website at finalturnhobbyshop.com to see the list of our upcoming events.

Congratulations again to the winners and see you in our future tournaments! 

Note: Complete standings, pairings, archetype breakdown can be found in our organization at  mtgmelee.