Team Modern Super League 2 continues next Tuesday at 9 PM Eastern (GMT -4) on twitch.tv/magic

Mage Market defeated Stream Team 4-1 in the first semifinals of Team Modern Super League 2. Mage Market advances to the finals, where they will face the winner of next week’s match between the Brothers Who Bash and Pamplemousse, while the Stream Team have been eliminated.

Stream Team got off to a promising start as MTGNerdGirl dispatched Michael Bonde in the Burn vs Gifts Storm matchup to take an early lead. Unfortunately, things got harder from there as Mage Market picked up wins with Bant Spirits, DredgeGaak, Cheerios, and Esper Control to close things out.

The Results

Round 1: Michael Bonde (Gifts Storm) lost to MTGNerdGirl (Burn) 0-2

Round 2: Thomas Enevoldsen (Bant Spirits) defeated April King (Tron) 2-0

Round 3: Andreas Petersen (DredgeGaak) defeated Jess Estephan (Hogaak) 2-1

Round 4: Michael Bonde (Cheerios) defeated April King (Mono Red Prowess) 2-0

Round 5: Thomas Enevoldsen (Esper Control) defeated Jess Estephan (Azorious Control) 2-1

Match of the Week

Skip to 2:20:27 if the embed does not do so for you.

Let’s take a look at the final game of the night, Jessica Estephan (Azorious Control) vs Thomas Enevoldsen (Esper Control), specifically Game 3.

I think it is pretty easy to choose any of the sideboarded games from this Match of the Week as control post-board is very interesting. With that being said, I think it is more interesting to talk about what made this cool instead of the typical play-by-play recap.

Now, the way Enevoldsen’s Esper deck is built, the mainboard overall is weak in control mirrors and UW can really attack Esper from a different angle with the large amount of Planeswalkers they can play. And that is exactly how Estephan won Game 1—by putting a bunch of Planeswalkers on the battlefield and using a few removal spells to protect them.

Both decks transformed for the sideboarded games. Estephan went on a more creature-centric game plan with Monastery Mentors and Baneslayer Angel with a few additional counter spells. This game plan is generally good against control mirrors as the opposing control decks tend to board out removal spells. With Esper, though, they get the addition of a) more threats in Plague Engineer and more importantly b) discard spells with Duress and Thoughtseize.

On Turn 6 in Game 3, Enevoldsen used Cryptic Command, with modes counter draw, to answer a Teferi, Time Reveler and draw into a Duress to answer just about every card in Estephan’s hand. These discard spells work extremely well with Snapcaster Mage to strip away key cards for the opponent. In this case Esper Control was able to play a well-timed Duress to see two Cryptic Commands, Force of Negation, and a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, to then follow it up with a Surgical Extraction to get both copies of Cryptic Command. Clearing out Estephan’s hand cleared the way for some Snapcaster Mage beats to help Mage Market move onto the finals!

Standings

Qualified for the Finals
3-1 Mage Market

In the hunt
2-0 Brothers Who Bash
2-0 Pamplemousse

Eliminated
2-2 Stream Team
1-2 ChannelFireball
1-2 Brew Crew
0-2 Play Design Team
0-2 Scary Pterrys

Schedule

Semifinals:

August 20
Brothers Who Bash vs. Pamplemousse

Finals:

August 27
Mage Market vs TBD

As always be sure to catch the week’s Team Modern Super League 2 decklists here every Tuesday morning, and be sure to watch the show on Twitch.tv/Magic Tuesdays at 9 PM EST. Can’t make the show? Don’t worry—you can always catch these recaps on Wednesday mornings right here at Hipsters of the Coast.

Thanks everyone for reading and be sure to let me know what you think on Twitter!

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