The Top 8 of Players Tour Brussels is set after 10 rounds of Pioneer and six rounds of Theros Beyond Death Draft.
Don’t miss our coverage of Day 1 and the Top 8 of PT Brussels, Day 1 and the Top 8 of PT Nagoya, or Day 1, Day 2, and the Top 8 of PT Phoenix.
Mattia Rizzi, who helped lead Italy to two consecutive World Magic Cup Top 4s in 2017 and 2018, finished the swiss rounds at the top of the leaderboard after going 13-3 with Bant Spirits. He was joined atop the standings by Juan Jose Rodriguez Lopez, a Top 8 competitor at Mythic Championship IV last July, who also went 13-3 with Mono-Red Aggro.
Magic Pro League members Piotr Glogowski and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa also made the Top 8 of Players Tour Brussels as the third and seventh seeds, respectively. Glogowski, fresh off his Mythic Championship VII victory in December, brought Pioneer’s hottest deck (UB Inverter of Truth) and finished with a 12-4 record. Damo da Rosa, who made his 15th career Pro Tour/Mythic Championship Top 8 at Mythic Championship VII, piloted Niv to Light to an 11-5 finish and yet another Top 8.
Joel Larsson, runner up at Pro Tour Gatecrash in 2013 and winner of Pro Tour Magic Origins in 2015, brought a “homebrew” Sultai Delirium deck and finished as the eighth seed on tiebreakers, needing to win his final round and then hope things broke in his favor to make the cut.
Tomorrow’s Top 8 is rounded out by Brent Vos (Lotus Breach), Zhiyang Zhang (Mono-Black Aggro), and Valerio Luminati (Bant Spirits). That’s a very diverse Top 8 metagame—Bant Spirits is the only archetype with more than one copy (two), while Mono-Red Aggro, UB Inverter of Truth, Lotus Breach, Mono-Black Aggro, Niv to Light, and Sultai Delirium all put one copy into the Top 8 bracket.
Where Does the Players Tour Fit in the Hierarchy of Magic Accomplishments?
2020 marks a huge change in the organized play structure for tabletop Magic with the transition to the new Players Tour. Previously, there were four Pro Tours (renamed Mythic Championships in 2019) per year, but 2020 will feature three sets of three regional Players Tours that feed into three Players Tour Finals.
This two-tiered Players Tour system doesn’t translate neatly into the flat structure of the Pro Tour system, where each of the four yearly Top 8s were basically equal in prestige. But Players Tours Brussels, Nagoya, and Phoenix, collectively known as Players Tour Series 1, are the first of the new regional Players Tours. Without any precedent, it’s unclear if a Top 8 at a regional Players Tour should be given a similar level of prestige as a Pro Tour Top 8, or if a Players Tour Final Top 8 is more comparable to the Top 8s of years past.
It will probably take some time for Magic community (or Wizards of the Coast) to figure out where to fit the regional Players Tours and Players Tours Finals into the hierarchy of Magic accomplishments. Until then, tracking a player’s Pro Tour/Mythic Championship/Players Tour Top 8s is going to be a bit confusing.
The Top 8 Deck Lists at Players Tour Brussels
Pioneer Bant Spirits by Mattia Rizzi
| Creatures (32) 2 Brazen Borrower 4 Empyrean Eagle 4 Mausoleum Wanderer 4 Nebelgast Herald 3 Rattlechains 3 Selfless Spirit 4 Spectral Sailor 4 Spell Queller 4 Supreme Phantom Spells (4) 4 Collected Company | Lands (24) 4 Botanical Sanctum 4 Breeding Pool 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Island 2 Plains 4 Temple Garden Sideboard (15) 2 Devout Decree 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Mistcutter Hydra 4 Mystical Dispute 2 Rest in Peace 2 Seal Away 1 Settle the Wreckage |
Pioneer Mono-Red Aggro by Juan Jose Rodriguez Lopez
| Creatures (27) 4 Abbot of Keral Keep 4 Bonecrusher Giant 4 Goblin Chainwhirler 3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider 4 Monastery Swiftspear 4 Soul-Scar Mage 4 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell Planeswalkers (1) 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance Spells (8) 4 Lightning Strike 4 Wild Slash | Lands (24) 2 Castle Embereth 17 Mountain 1 Mutavault 4 Ramunap Ruins Sideboard (15) 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel 3 Fry 2 Lava Coil 1 Magma Spray 4 Tormod’s Crypt |
Pioneer UB Inverter of Truth by Piotr Glogowski
| Creatures (8) 4 Inverter of Truth 4 Thassa’s Oracle Planeswalkers (3) 3 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries Spells (22) 2 Thought Erasure 4 Thoughtseize 2 Censor 4 Dig Through Time 2 Drown in the Loch 4 Fatal Push 4 Opt Enchantments (2) 2 Omen of the Sea | Lands (25) 2 Choked Estuary 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Fabled Passage 2 Fetid Pools 6 Island 3 Swamp 4 Watery Grave Sideboard (15) 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 2 Cry of the Carnarium 1 Damping Sphere 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 1 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 1 Legion’s End 3 Mystical Dispute 1 Noxious Grasp 1 The Scarab God 1 Thief of Sanity 1 Ultimate Price |
Pioneer Lotus Breach by Brent Vos
| Creatures (15) 4 Arboreal Grazer 4 Fae of Wishes 2 Satyr Wayfinder 1 Thassa’s Oracle 4 Vizier of Tumbling Sands Spells (19) 4 Hidden Strings 4 Pore Over the Pages 4 Strategic Planning 4 Sylvan Scrying 2 Blink of an Eye 1 Dig Through Time Enchantments (3) 3 Underworld Breach | Lands (23) 1 Blast Zone 4 Botanical Sanctum 3 Breeding Pool 1 Forest 4 Lotus Field 1 Sheltered Thicket 1 Temple of Mystery 4 Thespian’s Stage 4 Yavimaya Coast Sideboard (15) 1 Underworld Breach 1 Anger of the Gods 1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries 1 Lost Legacy 1 Natural State 1 Return to Nature 2 Supreme Verdict 3 Thought Distortion 1 Tome Scour 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 2 Unravel the Aether |
Pioneer Mono-Black Aggro by Zhiyang Zhang
| Creatures (25) 4 Bloodsoaked Champion 4 Gutterbones 4 Knight of the Ebon Legion 4 Murderous Rider 3 Rankle, Master of Pranks 4 Scrapheap Scrounger 2 Spawn of Mayhem Spells (11) 4 Thoughtseize 1 Drag to the Underworld 4 Fatal Push 2 Grasp of Darkness | Lands (24) 4 Castle Locthwain 4 Mutavault 14 Swamp 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Sideboard (15) 2 Aethersphere Harvester 2 Agonizing Remorse 2 Duress 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 2 Legion’s End 3 Leyline of the Void 3 Self-Inflicted Wound |
Pioneer Bant Spirits by Valerio Luminati
| Creatures (32) 2 Brazen Borrower 4 Empyrean Eagle 4 Mausoleum Wanderer 4 Nebelgast Herald 3 Rattlechains 3 Selfless Spirit 4 Spectral Sailor 4 Spell Queller 4 Supreme Phantom Spells (4) 4 Collected Company | Lands (24) 4 Botanical Sanctum 4 Breeding Pool 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Island 2 Plains 4 Temple Garden Sideboard (15) 2 Devout Decree 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Mistcutter Hydra 4 Mystical Dispute 2 Rest in Peace 2 Seal Away 1 Settle the Wreckage |