The Top 8 of Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed

After two days of competition, the field of just over 300 competitors at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed was whittled down to just eight–and this Top 8 featured the winners of one of the most dynamic Standard metagames in recent memory. With the top Nature’s Rhythm decks struggling mightily throughout the weekend, the Top 8 instead featured seven unique archetypes, many of which were both novel, and untested against each other. It was with that backdrop that we began play on a true anyone-can-win Top 8 field at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed.

We started things off by jumping into Larsen and Sánchez’s match, where the two players quickly split the first two games of the set before moving onto their post-sideboard games as they battled in the Izzet Lessons (Sánchez) versus Dimir Excruciator (Larsen) matchup. Lessons was the breakout deck at the World Championship last month, while Excruciator was in the process of breaking out this weekend. Both Larsen and his teammate, Luis Salvatto, made the Top 8 with the spicy Dimir deck that aimed to play Excruciator (or copy it with Superior Spider-Man), then mill the opponent with Restless Reef or pseudo-mill them with Insatiable Avarice. That’s exactly what Larsen had done to win the second game, sending both players down to almost no cards in their libraries with Excruciator before winning with Restless Reef‘s mill a turn later.

The third game went long as sideboards entered the equation, with triple-warped Quantum Riddlers at one point. With only one Monument to Endurance in play, he was also able to keep the board reasonably clear until he could resolve Superior Spider-Man copying Excruciator to set up a win.

Onto the fourth game, where Larsen had removal and Stock Up to get things started. With no board to pressure Sánchez, Larsen used that Stock Up to curve into double Duress. Two discards and a draw step later, suddenly Sánchez was staring down his opponent with no board, and no meaningful hand—just an It’ll Quench Ya!, which caught Larsen’s next spell.

It looked like Sánchez’s tournament might be ending, and he needed a big turn to stay alive. Thankfully he found just that, cycling his Soul-Guide Lantern into an Artist’s Talent and a replacement Lantern, keeping the graveyard threats clear while adding to his own engine. But a good topdeck deserves another, and Deceit was waiting for Larsen on the top of his deck.

Now staring down a legitimate threat, Sánchez needed his rummaging effects with Talent to be very good—and they were. He found two copies of Accumulate Knowledge, and had a world of cards at his fingertips, including Monument to Endurance, though mana was now his major bottleneck. That sent the game back into a stall as Larsen tried to set up a Doomsday Excruciator line of his own from there.

It began with a Duress to check to see if the coast was clear. He followed by tapping for six black mana to cast Doomsday Excruciator to play. That set him up to close the game out in short order, unless Sánchez could pull off another comeback. After adding a third Monument to play, he then pulled off an incredible line:

“Cast Torpor Orb, trigger Monuments, drain you. On your upkeep, cast a spell. Choose not to draw with Monument.”

Larsen’s reply: “And what modes are you choosing?”

He cracked a smile a second later—he knew three Monuments meant losing 9 life and the end of the game. And they were onto their fifth and deciding game.

Sánchez had a strong start, with Monument to Endurance hitting play on schedule. A Cruelclaw’s Heist from Larsen then revealed quite the statistical oddity from Sánchez’s hand: the other three Monuments. With a small shake of the head, Larsen took Artist’s Talent from Sánchez’s hand—and then cast it himself.

That sent things further in an odd direction. With three Monuments in play for Sánchez, Larsen’s Deceit and Restless Reef swung for 9 damage. Both players dug furiously for something to upset the status quo—a Soul-Guide Lantern from Larsen was keeping his creatures safe from Combustion Technique, and Sánchez desperately needed removal for the creatures—or something to start a chain of Monument triggers.

It never came. Larsen’s aggressive plan closed it out—and sent the Dane into the semifinals.

It was an epic opener that featured two games where a player won with zero cards in their library. Then we moved into the third game between Sajgalik and Tron, with the Canadian Sajgalik already up two-nil. The Team Worldly Counsel member entered the matchup with an extensive list of notes courtesy of his team’s late-night testing the night before. Now he and his Izzet Elementals deck were just a game away from the semifinals.

But it wouldn’t come easily. The third game went long, with Aang, Swift Savior playing a major role in Tron prolonging the game. But coming behind with an Ashling, Rekindled of his own, Sajgalik kept building up his hand. Soon Sunderflock entered the fray—which ended the game and gave us our second semifinalist.

From there we whipped around to the other side of the bracket, where Portolan and Lupi were locked in their third game. Lupi had the much-feared Badgermole Cub on turn two, and a Spider-Sense to catch a Stock Up. That kept Portolan on the back foot, and an Ouroboroid the next turn threatened to slam the door. Forced to just take a huge hit, Portolan fell to 5 life on the attack and went digging with Consult the Star Charts. When that failed to yield an answer, Lupi picked up the edge in the match.

A pair of Gene Pollinators opened the next game, and from there Lupi began to churn through his deck with warped Quantum Riddlers as Portolan tried to build a board to combo with his deck’s namesake Mightform Harvester. Within two turns, Lupi was threatening to overwhelm the board—but Portolan found his Harvester and a Full Bore. After working through the deck’s combo, he also found a very exciting victory to even things out.

Players simply traded resources to open the final game, and it was a turn-four Brightglass Gearhulk that really opened the action; the four-drop artifact creature was one Portolan couldn’t remove. But he could fight back with his own Icetill Explorer, and that’s what Portolan did, using the extra land drop to power up a freshly-warped Hamonizer and the last of his mana to cast Into the Flood Maw, clearing away a pivotal blocker and coming up with lethal out of nowhere.

We then moved into the last quarterfinals match, between the first Top 8 qualifier in Salvatto and the last in Belacca. But just like his Jeskai Control deck had all weekend before a late stumble, Belacca simply controlled every threat that Salvatto tried. He steered the game into the customary Jeskai Revelation, and the Monk tokens closed out Salvatto from there and advanced the Top 8’s only pure control deck into the semifinals.

With that, Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed rolled onto the semifinals: Larsen and Dimir Excruciator took on Sajgalik’s Izzet Elementals while Portolan and Belacca battled with Temur Harmonizer and Jeskai Control. In other words, two matchups that absolutely no one had on their bingo card in the Top 4 of the Pro Tour.

Izzet and Dimir were trading early turn removal when we jumped into the first match. But Roaming Throne stuck for Sajgalik on the fourth turn, and that meant that when he untapped he could use double Vibrance triggers to take down Larsen’s sole creature. Sunderflock followed, knocking Larsen down to 6 life. He fought back with removal and Doomsday Excruciator to give himself a chance, but a second ‘Flock followed, and Wistfulness closed out the opening game.

Early on, the second game played out similarly to the first—a theme in this matchup. But when the pair reached the late-game this time, Larsen had access to a crucial Restless Reef to follow up his Excruciator, not to mention a pair of Insatiable Avarices in hand, just in case Sajgalik had removal. He didn’t, and the semifinals were knotted at one game apiece.

With sideboards now in play, the third tilt featured a perfect curve for Larsen: multiple removal spells that he chained straight into a turn-six Doomsday Excruciator. That made cards like Wistfulness—where the draw trigger is mandatory if you spend {U}{U}—suddenly look very awkward in Sajgalik’s hand. But he did have a clutch Bounce Off that would have saved him—except Larsen had a copy of Insatiable Avarice to end it by decking instead.

That was an exciting ending. It had nothing on Game 4.

And so, one final game would give us our first finalist. Like most games before it, it came down to how players navigated with their five-card libraries after Doomsday Excruciator resolved. Bounce Off and an attack from Sajgalik put Larsen down to 10 life, and a follow-up Wistfulness (with no blue mana) set him up for a lethal attack.

But the final copy of Deadly Cover-Up cleared the board for Larsen, and that gave him the exact one-turn window he needed to activate Restless Reef and swing for what would be a lethal mill—except he didn’t. Playing around a possible Bounce Off, Larsen instead opted for a safer line with two copies of Superior Spider-Man, giving his life total cover from a surprise crackback. That line proved to be good enough when Sajgalik’s draw step failed to bring anything special, and like that the first finalist of Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed was set.

He still needed an opponent. And while the first semifinal was an epic back-and-forth, the other was much more lopsided. Instead, it was a showcase of the Team Sanctum of All deck’s power, as Portolan went full bore. In three dazzling games, he leveraged everything his deck could offer: the Harmonizer combo, Earthbender Ascension tricks, a second Harmonizer for a “normal” land drop to power up a huge attack, and Icetill Explorer to grind out late-game value in the decider. Sanctum’s deck again once had every angle covered—and sent Portolan into the finals.