Last weekend, over 170 of the best Magic players from across Canada met in Calgary, Alberta for the Face2Face Tour Championship, Canada's western Regional Championship and the culmination of months of qualifying events. Four invites to Pro Tour: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan were on the line, as well as a seat at the World Championship. After thirteen rounds of Pioneer followed by a Top 8 playoff, Boston Schatteman, piloting Izzet Phoenix, emerged victorious. Congratulations to Boston Schatteman, Canada's Regional Champion!

Congratulations to Champion Boston Schatteman!

Schatteman's journey to the trophy began when he qualified for the Regional Championship via an RCQ at Chimera Gaming. Calgary marks his second Regional Championship Top 4; his first was in Vancouver this past March.

Liam Kane and Boston Schatteman play in the finals.

Schatteman defeated friend and testing partner Liam Kane in the finals. This was also Kane's second Regional Championship, he finished third at the Face2Face tour weekend in Toronto in June. Schatteman played Izzet Phoenix, a deck firmly in the wheelhouse of a player who describes himself as a "Steam Vents one trick," with delve spells Treasure Cruise, which was excellent, and Temporal Trespass, which he gave a "dishonorable mention." Kane played Rakdos Sacrifice, the same deck he made the Top 4 with in June.

The Top 8, The Top 4, & The Pro Tour

Congratulations to the Top 8 of the F2F Tour Weekend Calgary Regional Championship!

The Top 8 included eight different archetypes, showcasing the breadth of the Pioneer metagame. In addition to Izzet Phoenix and Rakdos Sacrifice in the finals, there were standbys we've seen since the start of Regional Championships a year ago, like Enigmatic Fires, Gruul Vehicles, Mono-Green Devotion, and Azorius Control, joined by newcomer Boros Heroic, which saw a jump in popularity this weekend.

With four Pro Tour invites on the line, it was a tense quarterfinals. Congratulations to the Top 4 players in Calgary, who earned invites to the Pro Tour!

Congratulations to Attila Fur, Derek Pite, Boston Schatteman, and Liam Kane

Like Schatteman and Kane, Pite is no stranger to the Top 4, having placed there in both of the previous F2F Tour Championships in Toronto last November and this past June, while Fur had previous success in Calgary, winning the Grand Prix there in 2019.

You can see the decklists they used to secure their seats at the Pro Tour below:

The Metagame

Mono-Green Devotion was once again on top of the Pioneer metagame this weekend, though there are almost two months of Regional Championship competition to go to see if the deck can hold onto that kind of popularity in a powerful field. Almost a year ago, Mono-Green Devotion was the most popular choice among RC competitors, but as time went on it lost ground to various flavors of Rakdos.

Boros Heroic and Boros Convoke both saw a jump in popularity this weekend, with the Wilds of Eldraine instant Monstrous Rage making waves in the Heroic deck. It was a great weekend full of terrific and hard-fought matches in Calgary, and we can't wait to see how these players fare at the Pro Tour in Chicago! Congratulations again to Boston Schatteman, and to Canada on another great Regional Championship.

Find out more about how you can qualify for the Regional Championship and the Pro Tour by visiting here and finding out more from your regional organizer!