Alexandre MacIsaac won Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man with Rakdos Aggro at SCG CON Baltimore on Sunday.
Creatures (21)
- 4 Callous Sell-Sword
- 4 Slickshot Show-Off
- 4 Emberheart Challenger
- 4 Hired Claw
- 1 Kellan, Planar Trailblazer
- 4 Stadium Headliner
Lands (19)
Spells (20)
Another Spotlight Series event overrun with Izzet Cauldron saw a red aggressive deck hoist the trophy (The Infinity Gauntlet this time) and, comically, it became the second Spotlight Series taken down by Leyline of Resonance. While MacIsaac could technically cast the Callous Sell-Swords in his Rakdos Aggro deck, the mostly mono-red strategy powered up by copied pump spells had just what it took to end games out of nowhere and leave Izzet Cauldron players wondering where it all went wrong.
MacIsaac entered the Top 8 as the No. 6 seed with a record of 12-3 in the Swiss, but being on the draw in all of his matches didn’t keep the explosive aggro deck down. As one of three non-Izzet Cauldron players in the elimination rounds, MacIsaac had to defeat Kellen Pastore on Simic Aggro in the quarterfinals. From there, it was all Izzet Cauldron the rest of the way.
The Canadian made quick work of Nam Dang in the semifinals, setting up a finals match against Etai Kurtzman, the No. 1 seed. Kurtzman assembled the Vivi Ornitier and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron combo right away in Game 1, even managing to make around 20 mana in a turn to rip through his deck, but without sufficient pressure, MacIsaac went wide and fought through the opposing blockers with pump spells to secure the 1-0 lead. Game 2 went the other way, MacIsaac found an early window to get an attack in and used three pump spells with a Leyline to burst Kurtzman down and complete the 6-0 run in the Top 8 to claim The Infinity Gauntlet and $10,000 for first place.
All players in the Top 8 earned Pro Tour invites for their accomplishments along with cash and foil Spectacular Spider-Man promos. Kurtzman walked away with $5,000 to go with his Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed invite.
Creatures (18)
Lands (22)
Spells (20)
Izzet Cauldron made up 31 percent of the Day 1 field, followed by Mono-Red Aggro and Dimir Midrange. Check out what the 548 players registered below.
Day 2 consisted of 131 players that reached 18 match points on Day 1. See how the archetypes converted below. Izzet Cauldron, similar to Magic Spotlight Planetary Rotation in Orlando, took up more than 50 percent of the Day-2 field. Mono-Red Aggro also upped its meta share from Day 1 to Day 2, improving from 18 to 20 percent of the room.
View the Top 8 decklists from the Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man. For all the decklists from the event and final standings check out the Melee page for the tournament.
SCG CON will be back in action in Las Vegas on November 21-23, featuring the Regional Championship.
