Team Modern Super League 2 continues next Tuesday at 9 PM Eastern (GMT -4) on twitch.tv/magic. Michael Rapp also contributed to this post.
What a great start to the Team Modern Super League 2 playoffs! Stream Team were quick out of the gates and held the lead for most of the night, defeating Brew Crew 4-2 in their quarterfinals matchup. They advance to face either the Brothers Who Bash or Pamplemousse in the seminfinals, while Brew Crew were eliminated from the league.
There were a lot of Hogaaks running around last night and we even had the Burn and Rakdos Skelementals decks match up twice over the course of the night.
The Results
Match 1: Jess Estephan (UR Phoenix) defeated Corbin Hosler (Unexpected Emrakul) 2-0
Match 2: MTGNerdGirl (Burn) lost to Caleb Durward (Rakdos Skelementals) 1-2
Match 3: April King (Neoform) defeated PleasantKenobi (Rakdos Skelementals) 2-1
Match 4: Jess Estephan (Hogaak) defeated SaffronOlive (Hammertime) 2-0
Match 5: April King (Tron) lost to Caleb Durward (Hogaak) 1-2
Match 6: MTGNerdGirl (Burn) defeated Corbin Hosler (Rakdos Skelementals) 2-0
Featured Game
(Skip to 1:59:00 if the embed does not do so for you.)
This week I want to spotlight Game 2 of Match 4, where Jess Estephan played Hogaak against SaffronOlive’s Hammer Time. (Check out the decklists here.)
Estephan picked up the first game with a few attacks from Hogaak, Arisen Necroplis while SaffronOlive couldn’t find a cheap way to equip a Colossus Hammer to one of his creatures.
In Game 2, SaffronOlive took a mulligan to six cards and found a hand with two copies of Rest in Peace—a perfect answer to Hogaak! He set up with a Turn 1 Sigarda’s Aid to make Colossus Hammer have flash, then drew a Swiftblade Vindicator—the perfect Hammer target—but chose to try and slow Estephan down with a Turn 2 Rest in Peace, instead.
However, what SaffronOlive didn’t know is that the Rest in Peace didn’t matter much to his opponent’s game plan. Estephan decided to play out her Engineered Explosives with one counter, knowing that she wasn’t going to be impacted too much by the two copies of Rest in Peace and choosing give herself some protection from to the only way she could reasonably die.
Estephan decided to crack the Engineered Explosives to clear the Sigarda’s Aid and dull the effect of the hard hitting Colossus Hammer. Swiftblade Vindicator still posed a problem for Estephan’s army of small creatures—that is until she found a copy of Fatal Push to remove the Viashino and clear the way for attacks. Estephan continued to apply some pressure while SaffronOlive looked to rebuild, and he eventually found a Kor Duelist and a Magnetic Theft and to go for the combo—but Estephan had the Lightning Axe to kill the Duelist and seal the game!
In a wild back and forth match the Stream Team came out ahead to take a 3-1 lead and eventual win the round to advance to the semifinals.
Standings
Qualified for the Semifinals
2-0 Brothers Who Bash
2-0 Pamplemousse
2-1 Stream Team
In the Hunt
1-1 Mage Market
1-1 ChannelFireball
Eliminated
1-2 Brew Crew
0-2 Play Design Team
0-2 Scary Pterrys
Schedule
Quarterfinals:
August 6
Mage Market vs ChannelFireball
Semifinals:
August 13
TBD
August 20
TBD
Finals:
August 27
TBD
If you’re in the market for more Modern Team Super League action you can always check out our exclusive look at the deck lists on Tuesdays, recaps like this one on Wednesdays, or even catch the show itself on Tuesdays at 9 PM Eastern over at twitch.tv/magic.