Last weekend, over 160 of the best Magic players from across western Canada met in Vancouver for the Face2Face Tour Weekend, Canada’s Regional Championship. Eight invites to Pro Tour: March of the Machine were on the line, as well as a seat at the World Championship. After eight rounds of Standard play followed by the Top 8, William La Hay emerged victorious. Congratulations to William La Hay, Canada’s Regional Champion!

Champion William La Hay, caption: Congratulations to Champion William La Hay!

Champion William La Hay and friends celebrate his win

La Hay piloted Mono-White Midrange to his Regional Championship win, defeating Michael Van Vaals on Four-Color Legends in the finals. La Hay won game three by using Field of Ruin on his four-color opponent’s lands three times. Van Vaals’ list had no basic lands, making the Field particularly punishing.

Congratulations to Michael Van Vaals, who finished second!

La Hay’s mono-white deck notably had four Demolition Field and four Field of Ruin, a deliberate choice on his part after he noticed the metagame favored decks with three or more colors and a multitude of non-basic lands. It proved to be a perfect choice for the weekend, and secured La Hay an invite to both the Pro Tour and the World Championship!

Michael Van Vaals and William La Hay play in the finals

THE TOP 8 & THE PRO TOUR

Congratulations to the Top 8 of the Face2Face Tour Regional Championship, who earned invites to Pro Tour: March of the Machine. Seven different Standard archetypes made the Top 8, including players’ favorite pick for the weekend, Grixis Midrange, and two copies of the up-and-coming archetype Azorius Soldiers.

Joseph Karani also managed a back-to-back Regional Championship Top 8. Karani won the Face2Face Tour Regional Championship in Calgary last November and followed up that win with a fourth-place finish this weekend, earning him another Pro Tour invite.

Congratulations to Alan Ngo, Boston Schatteman, Christophe Vaugeois, Michael Van Vaals, Joseph Karani, Markus Thibeau, Adham Momen, and William La Hay

See the decklists the Top 8 players used to secure their seat at the Pro Tour here.

THE METAGAME

While the metagame at the Regional Championship in Vancouver reflected Grixis Midrange’s enduring popularity in the Standard metagame, it was a smaller percentage of the field than at other events around the world and ultimately only put a single copy into the Top 8. The deck was also less than a quarter of the field, and the surprising choice of Mono-Blue Tempo was the next most popular deck in Vancouver. Despite that unanticipated popularity, no Mono-Blue decks fought their way into the Top 8.

Mono-Red was also unusually popular in Vancouver, with Mono-White Midrange landing only fourth on the list in Vancouver, slipping from its commonly held second-place spot. Standard is still developing, and there are four more weekends of Regional Championships to see where it takes us!

It was a great weekend full of terrific and hard-fought matches in Vancouver, and we can’t wait to see how these players fare at the Pro Tour in May! Congratulations again to William La Hay, 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!