After a shaky final round on Saturday, Luis Salvatto and his Lantern Control deck stabilized in the Top 8 on Sunday to win Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan.
Modern is one of the most popular competitive formats in Magic and the first Modern Pro Tour in two years didn’t disappoint. Though some of the quarterfinal games were fast and one-sided, the semifinal between Pascal Vieren and Gerry Thompson was a match for the ages.
Vieren and his UR Pyromancer deck easily outclassed Thompson’s Mardu Pyromancer deck in the first two games of their semifinal match. Thompson fought valiantly but his grindy deck just didn’t match up well against Vieron’s Blue card draw and card selection. After sideboarding, Thompson managed to win a quick Game 3, forcing Vieren into Games 4 and 5, in which Thompson outmaneuvered Vieren at multiple points, forcing through important threats and winning the match.
But Thompson was in for a rough ride in the finals against Luis Salvatto and his Lantern Control deck. Despite two maindeck copies of artifact removal, the Mardu Pyromancer deck just couldn’t effectively attack Lantern’s redundant lock pieces. Salvatto quickly locked Thompson out of Games 1 and 2 without much resistance. His deck was a littler slower in the face of some sideboarded interaction from Thompson in Game 3, but it wasn’t enough, as Salvatto locked Thompson out once again to win Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan.
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