5. Alan Cummings
Alan Cummings
While a few cards from Ixalan made an impact in Modern this weekend, Alan Cummings showed off the most new cards in his unique build of U/G Merfolk. Making the deck lower to the ground, Cummings cut top-end cards like Master+of+Waves to make room for Kumena’s Speaker, Merfolk+Branchwalker, and Kopala%2C+Warden+of+Waves – all from Ixalan. Cummings had to take down Jason Lu on B/W Eldrazi in Round 15 to earn his spot in the Top 8 and represent as the lone fish player in the room on Day 2. Cummings’ Top 8 run came to a quick end, however, falling in two short games to Mikael Conrow on U/R Gifts Storm. Despite the early exit in the Top 8, Cummings put his new version of Merfolk on the map. Check out Cummings’ U/G Merfolk decklist Blood+Moons or Stone Rains, G/R Ponza joins a long list of Modern decks meant to prevent your opponent from playing the game. West did that many times this weekend, reaching the Top 8 by defeating Tony Norton on Jeskai Control in Round 15. In the quarterfinals, West was tasked with facing Andrew Jessup, who was looking for his third Open win this year, on Grixis Death’s Shadow. West was unable to get his game plan on line, falling in two games to the member of Team MGG. Check out West’s G/R Ponza decklist Bitterblossom in his sideboard. In the end, Smith couldn’t take down another U/R Gifts Storm player, falling in two games to Paul Muller in the finals. Check out Smith’s Affinity decklist Opts in the deck. Muller made the Top 8 as the No. 8 seed by beating Dakotah Cotton in Round 15 on Affinity, setting the tone for two his Top 8 matches against the same deck. In the quarters, Muller got past the No. 1 seeded Pieter Tubergen on Affinity in three games before eliminating Andrew Jessup on Grixis Death’s Shadow in two games. Once in the finals, Muller dispatched his third Affinity player in four rounds, defeating Joshua Smith in two brief games to earn the trophy. Check out Muller’s U/R Gifts Storm decklist here.
