Matthew Foulkes won Pro Tour Lille this weekend with Briar, Warden of Thorns, adding a second major win to his résumé with the Elemental Runeblade hero.
Foulkes made the elimination rounds of the second Pro Tour as the No. 2 seed, joining other big names like Pablo Pintor (winner of the first FAB Pro Tour), Christian Hauck (German National Champion), and Pheano Black (Calling Indianapolis runner-up). Four heroes made the Top 8: four copies of Briar, two copies of Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light, and one copy of Viserai Rune Blood, and Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire. But after the quarterfinal round, only the four Briars remained.
Foulkes was no stranger to Briar, having won the UK Nationals with the hero before she received errata that limited her ability to make only one Embodiment of Earth token per turn. He sliced through the Top 4, eventually defeating Bartosz Ziemba of Poland in the finals. Foulkes earned $25,000, a Pro Tour Champion prize card, Gold Legendary of their hero’s Class/Talent, and a PTI for his win.
Briar was the most played hero in the Classic Constructed portion of the Pro Tour with 80 pilots of the 354 competitors. Visera was the next-most played hero at 62 players. The full metagame breakdown for Classic Constructed can be seen below.
| Hero | Number of Players |
| Briar, Warden of Thorns | 80 |
| Viserai, Rune Blood | 62 |
| Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light | 59 |
| Fai, Rising Rebellion | 36 |
| Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity | 28 |
| Bravo, Showstopper | 27 |
| Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire | 27 |
| Dorinthea Irongson | 7 |
| Lexi, Livewire | 7 |
| Iyslander, Stormbind | 6 |
| Dromai, Ash Artist | 6 |
| Katsu, the Wanderer | 3 |
| Levia, Shadowborn Abomination | 2 |
| Kano, Dracai of Aether | 2 |
| Rhinar, Reckless Rampage | 1 |
| Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn | 1 |
Check out the Top 8 decklists for Pro Tour Lille here.
Other winners on the weekend include Joris Verhelst, who won the Classic Constructed Calling with Prism, and Michael Hamilton for winning Uprising Draft Battle Hardened with Fai.
Legend Story Studios (LSS) published the Banned & Suspended update today, following Prism’s ascension to Living Legend. Read more on the B&S announcement here.