2020 Mythic Invitational Day 2 Coverage

Welcome to MTG Arena Zone’s coverage of the 2020 Mythic Invitational tournament! Here you will find all the information you need including the live stream, VOD, and text coverage of each round as the tournament progresses. Remember to refresh this page regularly, as Drifter will be adding his commentary as the day progresses!

With a $250,000 prize pool and top players from MTG Arena, the 2020 Mythic Invitational is the last step for Magic competitors on their path to the 2020 Season Grand Finals. Streaming live and played online through MTG Arena, the world will watch the Magic Esports debut of MTG Arena’s Historic format as the next champion is crowned.

VOD

The broadcast of day 2 commences on Friday September 11th at 9 AM PDT and ends when round 14 of the Swiss is finished and the top 8 is announced.

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Preview

Check out our day 1 coverage to catch up on all the buzz!

Welcome to the Players Tour Finals! We continue our coverage of the tournament – on this page you will be able to read all about the events and matches of Day 2. Today is when the Swiss play stage of the tournament concludes. Only players who have accumulated had a 4-3 or better record in day 1 have made it to day 2. Seven more rounds and we’ll know the names of the Top 8 competitors! Players are looking to make 11-3 overall, which guarantees top 8, while 10-4s will be subject to tiebreakers.

Day 2 PT Finals coverage begins at 9 a.m. PDT.

Top 8

Scroll down if you’d like to see round-by-round standings!

• Check out our Metagame Report where we collate all the deck data, and have descriptions of each archetype.
• Click here for all the tournament decklists!
• Find more background info on MTGMelee’s Tournament page

Round Eight: Grzegorz Kowalski vs Ivan Floch – Jund Citadel vs Jund Sacrifice

Game 1

Kowalski leads with one of his best starts on the play in Goose -> Priest -> Devil + Claim Floch’s Devil, and takes Floch down to just 7 life with his much awkward all taplands draw. Floch fails to draw an untapped land for CoCo, and runs out just one Woe Strider which immediately gets machine gunned down by Mayhem Devil for a blazingly quick first game!

Game 2

Floch trims some Thoughtseizes for Abrades in the sideboarding, to take out opposing Ovens and Citadels.

Kowalski has another Goose -> Devil draw, but it’s a little less impressive on the play. Floch has a t2 Priest and then Claims the Devil and sacrifices it for a huge blowout, being able to play a Woe Strider on that very same turn with the extra mana from Priest. From there, Floch dominates a very one-sided game, trading his Priest for a second Mayhem Devil and two cards with Midnight Reaper. We see a weakness in the Citadel deck this game, since it doesn’t have Collected Company to recover, so Kowalski’s turn 4 of Blood Artist + Priest of Forgotten Gods to chump block isn’t the most exciting. Still, Floch draws five lands in a row with all his Midnight Reaper draws, which gives Kowalski some hope, even as he chumps with his Priest rather than Blood Artist in an attempt to gain as much life as possible from a precarious 4.

Double Blood Artist pings really start to add up, especially as Floch draws his sixth land in a row, but he’s at least able to escape a Woe Strider as Kowalski plays to win rather than not to lose by going to 2 rather than chump blocking. Kowalski responds with his own Woe Strider, and then Floch draws his 12th land of the game in total! Floch makes a desperation attack to draw some cards with Midnight Reaper, but it’s not enough to stop Kowalski’s second Woe Strider from dealing precisely lethal by sacrificing his board.

2-0 to Kowalski, with Floch’s library scoring quite the own goal!

Chris Kvartek vs Chris Leonard – Rakdos Goblins vs Mono Green Planeswalkers

Ah, here’s a deck close to my heart! Check out my Mono Green Planeswalkers guide for the scoop.

Game 2

Chris Leonard is starting a game down, but he starts out the gate with a turn 3 Nissa, which is devastating against the Goblins deck. Leonard plays another Nissa the turn after and does his utmost to kill his opponent quickly, but Kvartek is able to jam a t5 Muxus which finds him a Chainwhirler to clear out Leonard’s Elves and a Matron to search up a second copy. Leonard’s resources are thoroughly depleted, so he’ll be very much at the mercy of his topdecks – in usual Muxus fashion, it has turned the game by itself. Leonard chains some Explores into each other into a Goose, which isn’t the most impressive into Kvartek’s second Muxus, which finds him Chieftain -> Krenko for extreme overkill.

Muxus just doing Muxus things for an easy 2-0 on the Goblins side, but Leonard was 6-1 coming into this so don’t count him out against Goblins just yet!

Round Nine: Gabriel Nassif vs Luis Scott-Vargas – Jund Sacrifice vs Jund Sacrifice

Two of the best players of all time, on the exact same 75? Sign me up!

Game 1

This is probably the most complicated game of the entire tournament to cover so far, so bear with me!

Nassif starts off with a fairly anaemic draw even on the play with Oven into Mayhem Devil, and Luis is able to make him immediately sacrifice the Devil with his t2 Priest of Forgotten Gods, but he loses both his Dreadhorde Butcher and Priest in the process to the Devil pings. Luis is able to land Collected Company on an empty board to find Midnight Reaper + Woe Strider, but Nassif topdecks a Claim the Firstborn to get rid of both with the help of another Devil. Luis fires off a second CoCo to rebuild, picking up a Devil of his own and a Priest. Nassif elects to eat a couple of Food to blow away the Priest rather than cast his own CoCo, showing that he’s settling in for a longer and more attritiony game, which Luis is happy to play with a third CoCo at the ready, netting him yet another Devil alongside a Butcher.

Nassif fires off the fourth Company of the game in response to Woe Strider, which would likely have ended the game alongside the two Devils, which finds him a second Devil and a Midnight Reaper of his own. Luis begins to sacrifice his board, and Mayhem Devil pings fly as a result – Devil still procs off opposing sacrifices! Once the dust from the million pings settles, Luis is left with a Woe Strider while Nassif has nothing. Both players start to rebuild, but Luis pulls ahead as he draws significantly better – while Nassif draws several lands in a row, Luis picks up a third Devil and all action. Finally, Nassif is outresourced, and the sheer power of triple Company had a lot to do with it.

Game 2

Luis keeps a one-lander with no black and doesn’t get there. Nassif resolves CoCo for Reaper + Devil before Luis draws his second land, and Claim the Firstborn is a fairly impactful first play for him to take out the Devil, and begin to try to rebuild on tempo. Unfortunately, Nassif draws a second CoCo -> Double Devil and absolutely obliterates him before he has a chance! A pretty loose keep and clearly even LSV can’t always get away with it…

Game 3

Luis has a fairly slow start on the play, starting with a t3 Woe Strider into Nassif’s Cat-Oven combo with a t3 Midnight Reaper to start drawing two cards a turn. Luis offers the trade with Woe Strider, Nassif brings back the Cat to try to free chump, but Luis goes CoCo -> Reclamation Sage to blow away the Oven at instant speed and stop the Cat from being sacrificed! Nassif’s own CoCo is more disappointing, finding just one Woe Strider, but that is probably the best single card he could get for disrupting Luis’s attacks and maximising the power of his Dreadhorde Butchers. However, Luis lands a post-combat Devil to blow away the Strider immediately, now that the coast is clear and Nassif doesn’t have CoCo up, and Nassif is once more left with an empty board into Luis’s several creatures. Nassif tries to adopt a defensive posture with double Butcher, but gets one of them Act of Treasoned and LSV is able to push through lethal!

A fantastic technical game played by both players, but Luis wins with a little more luck overall; more Collected Companies cast and more Mayhem Devils emerging from hell leads to a convincing victory in both the games in which he didn’t keep a one-lander!

Matthew Nass vs Emma Handy – Mono Black Gift vs Mono Red Goblins

Game 3

Nass has a faster draw on the play and plays a controlling game, removing every Goblin to prevent Emma from using Phyrexian Tower to power out Muxus. Nass lands Massacre Wurm to wipe the board, but Emma is able to land Muxus nonetheless…. to pick up one measly Goblin Matron! You live by the Goblin Grandee, and you die by the Goblin Grandee… Emma quickly takes lethal afterwards as Nass, with all his extra cards from Cryptbreaker, is easily able to remove her two blockers and slay her with Massacre Wurm.

Round Ten: Luis Salvatto vs Chris Kvartek – Rakdos Arcanist vs Rakdos Goblins

VS

Game 1

Salvatto leads off with Claim + Village Rites on a Conspicuous Snoop, and starts to use that resource advantage to discard Kvartek’s whole hand with Thoughtseizes and Kroxas aplenty. Critically, he takes out two Muxuses long before they can come down, and from there Kvartek is in topdeck mode, as Salvatto begins to take a colossal lead through flashing back spells with Arcanist and escaping Kroxa. Kvartek’s first topdeck is a third Muxus, which he can’t cast with only five lands! Kvartek has seen enough, as the Kroxa hit isn’t going to leave him long for this world anyway.

Game 2

Kvartek boards out Thoughtseize, a pretty poor card in a matchup where the other side makes such good use of their graveyard, for some copies of Abrade.

Kvartek has the old Snoop with Krenko on top of his library combo this game, but misses a land drop in the process and runs into Salvatto’s Witch's Vengeance, putting him ahead on mana and resources. Kvartek is able to deal with Dreadhorde Arcanist, the best card in Salvatto’s whole deck, but isn’t able to recover on mana enough to prevent Lurrus, which brings the Arcanist back out, taking great advantage of Kvartek’s missed land drops. Salvatto continues to disrupt Kvartek’s mana with Arcanist Thoughtseizes, but starts to flood out hugely, which is exactly what Kvartek needs. Eventually Matron -> Skirk Prospector enables Kvartek to finally land Muxus, which finds a Lord but not much else. Finally, Salvatto finds Kroxa to swing the game back into his favour, discarding both Salvatto’s copies of Krenko. It’s Kvartek’s turn to brick, which means he quickly loses to a Claim topdeck, making a 7/5 Haste Demon to back Kroxa up.

Rakdos Arcanist showing its incredible power and resiliency this match, with Salvatto’s claim that it’s the best game 1 deck in the whole format holding up so far, now on a 9-1 record!

Matt Nass vs Raphael Levy – Mono Black Gift vs Gruul Aggro

Game 2

Nass is starting a game up with his fantastic and innovative God-Pharaoh's Gift deck (check out our site’s guide to the deck!), but Levy has the right draw to both disrupt and kill him quickly this time round, with Rampaging Ferocidon and double Scavenging Ooze available.

Nass is quickly forced into double chump mode, but is eventually able to land his Massacre Wurms, which may not be killing anything but at least they can block! Double Ferocidon locks Nass out of playing creatures with his low life total, which leads Levy to a lethal alpha strike shortly after, making good use of Ferocidon’s menace.#

Game 3

We can see that Levy has boarded in his Garruk’s Harbingers, especially strong against a Mono Black deck.

Nass mulls to five but curves out with Cryptbreaker -> Lazotep Reaver, enabling him to immediately start drawing cards and forcing Levy to play reactively and take the Breaker off the board. The Priest of Forgotten Gods follow-up is a nightmare for Levy, stopping him from playing a 3 drop the turn after.

Nass capitalises on Levy’s inaction to bring the beats with Rankle. Levy attempts to recover with Gruul Spellbreaker + Primal Might on the Rankle, taking advantage of the Spellbreaker giving him hexproof during his turn, but the Priest is still a huge problem and worse still, Levy starts to flood out; ever the bane of Gruul decks. Nass starts to draw several cards a turn between Priest and Castle Locthwain, and repeatedly having to sacrifice creatures quickly leaves Levy with no resources whatsoever.

A fantastic showing for the Mono Black Gift deck, outgrinding the aggro player in style!

Round Eleven: Chris Leonard vs Brian Braun-Duin – Mono Green Planeswalkers vs Kethis Combo

One of the most unique matchups at the whole tournament, this should be an interesting one!

Game 1

Leonard has the key card of the matchup in Karn, Great Creator for Grafdigger's Cage, which shuts down the entire Kethis Combo deck, and he has it as early as turn 3 here. BBD, not prepared for such brutal hate g1, scoops his cards up on turn 3.

Game 2

Shockingly, the first thing BBD does is put in a bunch of answers to Cage.

BBD takes a mull to five off the awkward Kethis mana base, as Leonard keeps a strong 7 card hand which threatens a turn 3 Karn, the Great Creator. BBD’s draw doesn’t develop, lacking blue mana, but he does manage to Ratchet Bomb away a Gilded Goose to slow the Karn down a turn. Unfortunately, t4 Karn is still good enough here, shutting down BBD’s Mox Amber and searching up a Cage. The next turn Leonard slams down a God-Pharaoh's Statue…

Easy 2-0 for the Walkers deck, with some pretty absurd draws from Christopher Leonard in an already favourable matchup. For more info on this sweet deck, check out our site’s guide!

Seth Manfield vs Chris Palmiotti – Sultai Midrange vs Mono Red Goblins

Game 1

Seth pulses a Conspicuous Snoop early on, which leads him soft to a turn 4 Krenko, which gets Aether Gusted to the bottom of Palmiotti’s library. Palmiotti’s patience pays off as he draws Goblin Ringleader and is immediately able to power out a Muxus, which brings out enough hasty threats to immediately put Seth to 1. Seth untaps and Languishes, but loses in short order to a topdeck Krenko + haste lord.

Game 2

Seth quickly takes the lead with an early sweeper and ramp from Uro, but fails to find a second green source to slam Nissa. Still, he’s able to continue to deploy sweepers while holding up Aether Gust but his life total is slowly being chipped down by haste threats, and he finds himself on 2 life with a Thoughtseize in hand.

Seth decides to gust a Goblin Matron rather than allow Palmiotti to present lethal with Castle Embereth or a lord. Seth is able to Escape Uro to finally cast that Thoughtseize, taking out the Muxus searched up by the Matron. Seth is finally able to land Nissa -> Disdainful Stroke, and with Uro attacking, the game doesn’t last much longer.

Game 3

Seth has a fantastic hand, with Growth Spiral -> Nissa and double Aether Gust available, and he quickly takes the early lead, Thoughtseizing away the opposing Matron to prevent Muxus for now.

From here, he’s able to Gust away a Goblin Trashmaster to stop Palmiotti from taking Nissa down, and it all goes downhill for the Goblins player from there. With the second Gust available, Nissa goes from shaking the world to ending the game in short order.

This very hateful list of Sultai Midrange once again shows off its great matchup against Goblins, maindeck Aether Gusts aflurry!

Round Twelve: Luis Salvatto vs Chris Leonard – Rakdos Arcanist vs Mono Green Planeswalkers

VS

Game 1

Leonard leads off with a t3 Vivien, but it immediately runs into Claim + Fame on Dreadhorde Arcanist to flash back a Bedevil as Stitcher's Supplier kindly provided Salvatto. Leonard uses Voracious Hydra to take down the Arcanist, but he’s quickly running low on cards as these ramp decks do, while Salvatto has his Lurrus Companion ready to net him some more gas. Leonard continues to topdeck Forests and low impact cards, while Salvatto continually accrues more and more value from Lurrus and his better draw steps. Leonard hangs on for dear life for a while, but the value eventually overwhelms him.

Game 2

Leonard lands a turn 3 Karn into Salvatto’s powerful Supplier -> Arcanist draw and chooses to get Tormod's Crypt to prevent him from flashing back Claim. Salvatto starts to get mana screwed, being unable to draw into a third land to enable Bedevil for a while, which allows Leonard to untap with Nissa, but once again his deck doesn’t deliver for a turn, drawing a couple of Forests. Salvatto finally hits the third land and is able to chain some card draw into a Spark Harvest on Nissa. Leonard starts to recover with a Voracious Hydra, but Salvatto’s hand is stacked now that he’s out of the mana screw.

Salvatto really is spoiled for choice in terms of his options at this point, and he’s performing four or five game actions for each of Leonard’s. As with Game 1, Leonard clings on for turn after turn, but is eventually overwhelmed by sheer value.

Rakdos Arcanist crushes Mono Green Planeswalkers 2-0, showing off a weaknesses of playing this sort of ramp deck versus a more consistent deck that can easily outgrind you. With this victory, Salvatto is guaranteed a slot in the top 8!

Matt Nass vs Chris Kvartek – Mono Black Gift vs Rakdos Goblins

Game 3

Kvartek misses the land drop needed for a turn 3 Muxus, but still has a fantastic start. Still, Nass manages to pick up a Thoughtseize to take the first Muxus, but Conspicuous Snoop starts to accrue some value. Nass has a rough time finding enough creatures to activate Priest of Forgotten Gods and starts to take some beats as a result, putting him to just 6 life. Nass fails to find a fourth land for Ravenous Chupacabra and loses a disappointing final game, where his deck didn’t really deliver.

Round Thirteen: Gabriel Nassif vs Grzegorz Kowalski – Jund Sacrifice vs Jund Citadel

Game 1

Kowalski keeps a one-lander with two Geese, doesn’t get there, and haemorrhages a lot of tempo as a result – after all, Geese can only tap for mana once… once Nassif lands a Mayhem Devil and starts burning away the Geese, the game is over.

Game 2

Both draws are decent, but Kowalski has a draw that scales much better into the late game with 2 Collected Company and a Klothys, while Nassif has a few low impact cards in hand, such as two Cauldron Familiars with no Witch's Oven. Kowalski is able to use Priest of Forgotten Gods to power out a quick Company and takes an early advantage, and from there he snowballs into a larger and larger board. Nassif eventually finds a Mayhem Devil, the one thing Kowalski is lacking, but is significantly behind on resources at that point and being beaten down for quite a lot. This is compounded by Nassif flooding out before a Mayhem Devil topdeck from Kowalski finishes him off.

Game 3

Nassif agonises over some sideboard decisions, such as how many Korvold he wants, but he settles on shaving a Priest for one.

Nassif mulls to 6 and keeps a rough opener, lacking red mana, but recovers with a timely extra draw from Priest, allowing him to power out a Woe Strider and get an early advantage. He’s able to convert this into developing the first Devil at a particularly devastating time, taking out Kowalski’s whole board. A second Devil comes down and ends the game, easily crushing Kowalski’s attempt at recovering with a Collected Company.

Nassif delivers in a 2-1 in a match that once again showcases the ludicrous power of Mayhem Devil in these Sacrifice decks, just machine gunning down board after board!

Tiago Fonseca vs Matt Nass – Sultai Midrange vs Mono Black Gift

Game 3

Fonseca has his best hate card ready in Leyline of the Void but Nass is able to make him sacrifice it with Pharika's Libation. Still, Fonseca is able to land a powerful Growth Spiral -> Extinction Event to take out Nass’s Priest of Forgotten Gods, but Nass draws a Thoughtseize and takes away Nissa. Elder Gargaroth comes down and gets immediately Ravenous Chupacabra’ed. From there, Tiago’s hand is depleted and he gets beaten to death by Nass’s little swarm of dogs and zombies while he floods out.

Final Round: Luis-Scott Vargas vs Ivan Floch – Jund Sacrifice Mirror

Two contenders play the same deck for the top 16 in this final round, playing the same deck but with a few key differences!

Game 1

Floch leads with Priest -> Strider, but he’s facing a fantastic hand from Luis with the Cat-Oven combo, a Mayhem Devil, and a Collected Company. Floch is able to disrupt the t3 Devil with Claim the Firstborn, but loses Priest of the Forgotten Gods to the pings generated by Cat-Oven in the process. Luis untaps and slams a Company, but it finds just one Dreadhorde Butcher. Still, Floch starts to flood out a bunch into the Butchers, eventually being able to trade with one but having no answer to the second, which runs away with the game.

Game 2

Luis once again draws the Cat-Oven combo, but Floch has the better draw in Priest -> Devil, which counters the combo while in play. Luis is forced to use Act of Treason as a removal spell to get rid of the Devil before it does any more damage, but it costs him his whole turn unlike Claim. Luis starts to draw two cards a turn with Midnight Reaper, while Floch’s own Reaper looks a lot less exciting without the Cat-Oven combo. Floch’s lead starts to dissipate as a result, with Luis casting multiple spells for each of his. Eventually, Luis finds a second Oven and the Cat-Oven pressure is becoming insurmountable for Floch. Luis eventually finds the Mayhem Devil he needs to hammer the nail firmly into the coffin, right through Floch’s attempt at coming back with a Korvold!

A strong 2-0 showing from LSV, which will catapult him to a top 16 finish!

Seth Manfield vs Chris Kvartek – Sultai Midrange vs Rakdos Goblins

Game 1

Manfield leads with Growth Spiral -> Extinction Event, blowing away Kvartek’s early board, but Kvartek still has plenty of action with double Muxus in hand, Snoop in play, and a Krenko on top of the library. Seth is able to go Nissa -> Giant Krasis, but still has to contend with Muxus no.1… which mostly bricks, just finding a Matron and Gempalm rather than anything big. Seth finds the perfect draw in an Essence Scatter for the second Muxus, and now 6/6 Krasis/Nissa are about to be a huge problem for Kvartek…

With no help from the top of his library, Kvartek quickly succumbs to the giant flying jellyfish.

Game 2

Seth has a handful of wraths and reactive cards but no way to disrupt Kvartek’s two copies of Muxus, the first of which presents a massive board, but luckily Seth is able to Eliminate the Goblin Chieftain to prevent death on the spot, and untap and Languish to clear the board. Unfortunately for Kvartek, the second Muxus bricks completely, finding four lands and another Muxus, and giving Seth an opportunity to play Nissa. Still, Kvartek’s hand is still great and he gets to run out Chieftain -> Krenko to immediately assemble a huge board and take out Nissa, only for Seth to play another into Eliminate on the Chieftain.

Third time’s the charm, since the very last Muxus is well beyond lethal!

Game 3

Seth curves out rapidly on the play, Growth Spirals and Uros flying around. Still, Kvartek has a solid hand as well with Thoughtseize -> Chieftain, but he runs into an early escaped Uro, which finds Seth a huge draw in Essence Scatter for Kvartek’s Muxus and then Thoughtseize for the second, just throwing a Nissa out there alongside it. Kvartek attempts to recover with Warchief -> Krenko, but runs straight into Witch's Vengeance, which allows Seth to swing over with his Uro and Nissa lands for precisely lethal!

2-1 to Seth Manfield, once again obliterating the matchup he was most prepared for.

Thanks for watching! Remember to check back in for Day 1 of the Top 8 tomorrow at 9 AM PDT, for which my coworker Rainmaker will be taking over the commentary.