Oliver Tomajko won the 2019 Star City Games Players’ Championship on Sunday, defeating Edgar Magalhaes in a marathon three match finals.
The Players’ Championship pit 16 players against each other in three-format tournament—Legacy, Modern, and Standard—with an unusual structure. Day 1 featured three sets of pod play (one for each format) for the ability to advance (and even earn a one round bye) into the 12-player double-elimination bracket on Day 2, where the upper bracket played Standard and the lower bracket played Modern. Four players then advanced to Day 3, where they played a single-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches of best-of-three games, with the higher seeded player (or loser of the previous match) given the choice of which of the three formats to play or to take the play or draw.
Tomajko met Magalhaes in the finals after spending most of the tournament at the top of the leaderboard. He earned a bye into Day 2 with his performance in the Day 1 pods and then cruised through the upper bracket to claim the number one seed in the Top 4. He defeated Dylan Donegan in the semifinals two matches to zero, while Magalhaes defeated Zan Syed in their semifinal matchup in two matches, setting up a finals between the number one and two seeds.
The finals proceeded in reverse chronological order in terms of formats: Legacy, then Modern, and finishing with Standard. Magalhaes took the first match with Bant Snow, defeating Tomajko’s 4-Color Mentor 2-0. Tomajko returned the favor in the Modern match, piloting his Bant Urza deck to a 2-0 victory over Magalhaes’s Sultai Urza deck.
With the match tied two matches apiece, the finals came down to the same matchup we saw in the finals of Mythic Championship VII: Jund Sacrifice vs Simic Flash. Tomajko’s choice of Simic Flash seemed to be an underdog to Magalhaes’s Jund Sacrifice, but he came out victorious after a close three-game match, becoming the 2019 Players’ Champion.
Tomajko rose to prominence by winning US nationals in 2017 as a 17 year-old, earning a spot on the US national team for the 2017 Magic World Cup. He has turned that breakout performance into a successful pro Magic career and finished the 2019 Star City Games season in fourth place on the season-long leaderboard.
Oliver Tomajko’s Deck Lists
Standard Simic Flash by Oliver Tomajko
| Creatures (16) 2 Hydroid Krasis 4 Frilled Mystic 3 Paradise Druid 4 Nightpack Ambusher 3 Brazen Borrower Planeswalkers (4) 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World Spells (15) 3 Opt 2 Sinister Sabotage 4 Growth Spiral 2 Quench 2 Aether Gust 2 Mystical Dispute | Lands (25) 7 Forest 7 Island 4 Breeding Pool 4 Temple of Mystery 2 Castle Vantress 1 Fabled Passage Sideboard (15) 1 Negate 2 Sorcerous Spyglass 1 Crushing Canopy 1 Chemister’s Insight 1 Hydroid Krasis 2 Aether Gust 2 Lovestruck Beast 2 Frogify 2 Mystical Dispute 1 Brazen Borrower |
Modern Bant Urza by Oliver Tomajko
| Creatures (14) 3 Spell Queller 4 Urza, Lord High Artificer 4 Gilded Goose 3 Emry, Lurker of the Loch Planeswalkers (4) 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns Spells (22) 3 Engineered Explosives 4 Mishra’s Bauble 3 Cryptic Command 4 Mox Opal 3 Metallic Rebuke 4 Arcum’s Astrolabe 1 Witching Well | Lands (20) 2 Polluted Delta 3 Flooded Strand 4 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Breeding Pool 1 Hallowed Fountain 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Scalding Tarn 2 Mystic Sanctuary Sideboard (15) 2 Pithing Needle 4 Path to Exile 4 Damping Sphere 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 2 Ashiok, Dream Render 2 Veil of Summer |
Legacy 4-Color Mentor by Oliver Tomajko
| Creatures (7) 3 Snapcaster Mage 3 Monastery Mentor 1 Ice-Fang Coatl Planeswalkers (6) 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Teferi, Time Raveler 3 Oko, Thief of Crowns Spells (27) 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 4 Swords to Plowshares 2 Pyroblast 4 Ponder 1 Spell Pierce 1 Supreme Verdict 1 Force of Negation 4 Arcum’s Astrolabe 2 Veil of Summer | Lands (20) 1 Volcanic Island 1 Tundra 1 Tropical Island 1 Savannah 4 Flooded Strand 1 Snow-Covered Plains 5 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Forest 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Scalding Tarn Sideboard (15) 1 Blood Moon 2 Pyroblast 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Terminus 1 Supreme Verdict 4 Rest in Peace 1 Wear 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 1 Palace Jailer 1 Veil of Summer |
Edgar Magalhaes’s Deck Lists
Standard Jund Sacrifice by Edgar Magalhaes
| Creatures (23) 3 Thrashing Brontodon 4 Mayhem Devil 1 Massacre Girl 4 Gilded Goose 3 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King 2 Beanstalk Giant 2 Murderous Rider 4 Cauldron Familiar Spells (12) 4 Casualties of War 4 Witch’s Oven 4 Trail of Crumbs | Lands (25) 5 Forest 2 Swamp 1 Mountain 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Stomping Ground 4 Blood Crypt 2 Castle Locthwain 3 Fabled Passage Sideboard (15) 3 Duress 1 Thrashing Brontodon 2 Massacre Girl 3 Noxious Grasp 3 Lovestruck Beast 1 Murderous Rider 2 Wicked Wolf |
Modern Sultai Urza by Edgar Magalhaes
| Creatures (12) 4 Urza, Lord High Artificer 4 Gilded Goose 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch Planeswalkers (4) 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns Spells (24) 1 Aether Spellbomb 3 Engineered Explosives 4 Mishra’s Bauble 3 Cryptic Command 2 Thoughtseize 4 Mox Opal 1 Metallic Rebuke 2 Assassin’s Trophy 4 Arcum’s Astrolabe | Lands (20) 4 Polluted Delta 2 Flooded Strand 4 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Swamp 1 Watery Grave 2 Breeding Pool 2 Misty Rainforest 2 Scalding Tarn 2 Mystic Sanctuary Sideboard (15) 1 Darkblast 2 Nihil Spellbomb 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Fatal Push 3 Damping Sphere 3 Veil of Summer 2 Drown in the Loch |
Legacy Bant Snow
| Creatures (7) 2 Snapcaster Mage 4 Ice-Fang Coatl 1 Brazen Borrower Planeswalkers (7) 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Teferi, Time Raveler 3 Oko, Thief of Crowns Spells (26) 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Ponder 1 Supreme Verdict 2 Council’s Judgment 2 Force of Negation 4 Arcum’s Astrolabe 1 Veil of Summer | Lands (20) 1 Tundra 1 Tropical Island 1 Windswept Heath 4 Flooded Strand 2 Snow-Covered Plains 4 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Forest 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Prismatic Vista Sideboard (15) 1 Sylvan Library 1 Volcanic Island 1 Red Elemental Blast 2 Pyroblast 2 Back to Basics 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Snapcaster Mage 1 Supreme Verdict 1 Palace Jailer 2 Return to Nature 2 Veil of Summer |