Eli Kassis won the first Championship Qualifier of Season Two with Temur Reclamation, adding another win to his list of accomplishments on the SCG Tour.
Creatures (6)
Lands (24)
Spells (30)
The Invitational champion and two-time Open winner entered the Top 8 as the No. 2 seed, losing only to the No. 1 seed, Paul Woo, on Mono-Red Aggro in the final round of the Swiss. After cutting through the elimination bracket with wins over Adrian Casabo on Four-Color Reclamation and Joseph Sanchez on Jund Sacrifice, Kassis earned a rematch against Woo.
Creatures (27)
- 4 Runaway Steam-Kin
- 4 Scorch Spitter
- 4 Robber of the Rich
- 4 Fervent Champion
- 4 Bonecrusher Giant
- 3 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
- 4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
Lands (4)
Spells (29)
Kassis missed on his fourth land drop in his 29-land deck in Game 1, leading to a quick loss on the draw, but got to improve his deck considerably after sideboarding. The member of Team BCW maneuvered his way out of a tough spot in Game 2 when a Storm’s Wrath cleaned up some creatures along with a Tibalt, Rakish Instigator and Chandra, Acolyte of Flame.
In the deciding game, Kassis found an early Flame Sweep to hold off Woo’s early aggression. Toward the mid-game, Kassis was able to leverage an Aether Gust and Expansion to take out a Torbran, Thane of Red Fell and Runaway Steam-Kin while saving his Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath from a Redcap Melee. From there the game was academic as Kassis rode Uro to victory.
The rest of the Top 8 was filled by Tim Milner on Rakdos Sacrifice, Wataru Ueda on Mono-Black Aggro, Alexander Gordon-Brown on Mardu Winota, and Nicolas King on Four-Color Reclamation. Kassis, Woo, Milner, and Sanchez all locked up their invites to the Season Two Championship, while the rest of the Top 8 only need 50 more SCG Online Points to do so.
View the Top 16 decklists.