After two full days of intense competition, the Sunday stage is set at Pro TourFate Reforged. We have an interesting Top 8 that shows the debut and return of many talented players, as well as the breadth and depth of this new post-bannings Modern format. This week, Team Gathering Magic is all about Pro Tour Sunday, and we can't wait to share our picks for the sweetest cards, decks, and players. Who do you think will be crowned champion?

Picks of the Week: February 8, 2015

Alex Ullman is Associate Editor for Gathering Magic, a renowned Pauper (cube and Constructed) player, and member of the victorious 2009 Magic Online Community Cup team.You can find him on Twitter as @nerdtothecore.

Pro Tour Fate Reforged is approaching its final hours. Nine hours from when this post goes live the Top 8 will begin and the Modern mayhem will begin. My pick today is for the person I think will win the tournament.

Eric Froehlich

Good old rock, Jund Abzan, nothing beats Abzan. Or rather, nothing beats Froehlich, at least recently. After an insane run that helped propel the Pork Bun Oath to victory at Grand Prix San Jose, Eric Froehlich simply continued to win. Piloting Abzan, the long time pro player and current 11th ranked player in the world enters Sunday as the overall number one seed, meaning he will be on the play all day.

In looking at potential matchups, I like EFro’s chances. Round one is an Abzan mirror against Jesse Hampton, himself a team Grand Prix champion. Being on the play is one component to my selecting Froehlich, but the other is his years upon years of experience. Jesse Hampton is no slouch having made Top 8 at the first Modern Pro Tour, but in mirror matches I value experience and EFro has that in bushels.

The semi-finals would pit Froehlich against either Seth Manfield’s Burn or Justin Cohen’s Amulet of Vigor Combo. Either way I like the disruptive and versatile Abzan deck to propel him to the finals where I predict he will square off against fellow Channel Fireball/Face to Face Games super team member Jacob Wilson. Wilson, making his second consecutive Modern Pro Tour finals will fall to the elder statesman.

I am rooting for Eric Froehlich. Not only do I think his deck is well positioned, not only is he one the play, but he has the Fire with a capital F. Last year there was rumbling on Froehlich making it into the Pro Tour Hall of Fame. He came out and said to vote for other more deserving candidates and that he would use the upcoming year to prove he belongs in the hallowed hall. A Grand Prix win is great but a Pro Tour Trophy is better. It is clear Eric has that rare combination of drive and skill needed to win when the spotlight is brightest.

There is one other reason I am pulling for EFro (well, two, since he and I both root for the New York Mets). Eric Froehlich has been public with his struggles with tilt. You know - that feeling of utter dread that comes with losing (or in some cases not playing up to the skill level you know you can achieve). Froehlich has been very upfront with his tilt and trying to deal with it in a more constructive way. He has made strides in this area and it is clear. And it has benefitted the community. His articles on coping with emotions are a boon to players everywhere.

Eric Froehlich has been a part of Magic for a long time and on Sunday, I want to see him hoist the novelty check.

Good ole EFro; no one beats EFro.

Abzan Midrange? Modern | Eric Froelich - Top 8 Pro Tour Fate Reforged

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Tarmogoyf
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (18)
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3 Path to Exile
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Batterskull

• Lands (24)
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 2 Treetop Village
• 2 Twilight Mire
• 2 Gavony Township
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Liliana of the Veil
• 1 Batterskull
• 2 Zealous Persecution
• 4 Fulminator Mage
• 1 Creeping Corrosion
• 2 Stony Silence
• 2 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Timely Reinforcements
• 1 Choke

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Carlos Gutierrez is an Associate Editor for Gathering Magic, an engineer-in-training, and a Commander and Pauper enthusiast. By day, he works as a STEM educator, but he spends his weekends hitting all his land drops and trying new board games, puzzles, and video games.You can find all of him sharing Commander craziness, baked goods on Twitter, and complaints about graduate school at @cag5383.

Cohen’s Prime Time at #PTFRF

There are a lot of awesome stories to follow at Pro Tour Fate Reforged. There's Lee Shi Tian putting up his third consecutive Top 8 at Modern Pro Tours, each with a different deck. There's Seth Manfield who paced the field before staggering across the finish line. There's Eric Froehlich in his fourth Pro Tour Top 8. None of those are the player I'm pulling for tomorrow morning.

The story I'm excited about? Roommates Justin Cohen and Sam Black teamed up for this event and brought the Amulet combo deck. They drew with one another in the penultimate round, forcing themselves to play it out in the final round. Sam Black lost to Jesse Hampton, but Justin Cohen won against, putting multiple copies of Amulet Bloom in the top 16.

[Cardlist title=Amulet Bloom - Modern | Justin Cohen, Top 8 Pro Tour Fate Reforged]

• Creatures (7)
• 4 Primeval Titan
• 1 Simian Spirit Guide
• 2 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

• Spells (26)
• 4 Serum Visions
• 4 Ancient Stirrings
• 4 Summer Bloom
• 4 Summoner's Pact
• 2 Pact of Negation
• 1 Slaughter Pact
• 4 Amulet of Vigor
• 3 Hive Mind

• Lands (27)
• 1 Khalni Garden
• 1 Vésuva
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 1 Tendo Ice Bridge
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Forest
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 4 Gemstone Mine
• 3 Tolaria West
• 3 Gruul Turf
• 4 Simic Growth Chamber
• 2 Cavern of Souls

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Leyline of Sanctity
• 2 Thragtusk
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 2 Firespout
• 1 Pyroclasm
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

Buy This Deck

Primeval Titan is one of my all-time favorite Magic cards. I’ve loved the Amulet of Vigor combo decks ever since they were trying to chain Mosswort Bridges into Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. You can’t possibly know how excited I am to see these Hivemind builds putting up awesome results at premier events.

In the quarters, Cohen will face off against Manfield's burn deck. This is a tough matchup, but it's one I think Cohen can win. The plan has to be to use Summer Bloom or Amulet of Vigor to jam your six drops by turn three. If Cohen can resolve an early Hivemind to end the game, or a Primeval Titan for Radiant Fountain, I think the game should be pretty straightforward. After sideboarding, Thragtusk, Wurmcoil Engine, and Leyline of Sanctity all come into play, which is a problem for Manfield. Sure, it's possible that Cohen stumbles and does nothing, but I think Cohen gets more "free" wins off his degenerate draws.

In the semis, Cohen would square off against either Froehlich or Hampton piloting the Abzan menace. This has tended to be a bad matchup for the Amulet deck, but Cohen and Black believe they've broken it by transforming into a fair deck with a higher top end of Thragtusk, Wurmcoil Engine, and Hornet Queen. I feel pretty good about that matchup too, as Cohen has a play to win the drawn out games, but can also just combo off in the early turns.

The deck is powerful and explosive. The story is compelling. It plays so many of my favorite cards. What’s not to love? It’s hard to argue with Lee Shi Tian putting up his third consecutive Modern Top 8, but I’m ready for this deck to break out, and I can’t wait to watch Cohen crush the competition with turn two Primeval Titans.

Choosing a Weapon – Hero’s Blade

I’ll be honest. Hero's Blade is a card I missed in my first pass through the Fate Reforged spoiler. My second time through, I knew there was something I wanted it for, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Three times and I’ve finally caught up and I’m very excited to pick up copies and slot them into some Commander decks. It’s a free equip for Kemba, Kha Regent to start powering out value Cats. It’s a free equip for Prime Speaker Zegana to draw extra cards for free. There are a lot of cute things that commanders can do with free extra power, and I can’t wait to find out where the limits are.

aMSa goes to APEX

For most of us, last weekend was all about crazy plays, upsets, and left sharks. For me, it was all about APEX, the biggest Super Smash Bros. Melee event ever assembled. The gameplay was awesome. The upsets were real. When the dust settled, something amazing happened. There was a Yoshi in Top 8. Yoshi has been a bottom tier character with limited potential for almost ten years now. Last year a Japanese player started posting videos showcasing the kind of technical depth that Yoshi had available to him. When aMSa started showing up to events, he started putting up exciting finishes like Top 25 at EVO 2014. But it was easy to call it a gimmick. People just don’t know what to do against Yoshi. The top players will definitely adapt next time.

Then APEX happened, and aMSa crushed it. He played his heart out, and took the best player in the world to the full five games with the entire community watching. aMSa is a peerless sportsman who plays with a ton of style and really brings the excitement. People love an underdog. People love Yoshi. aMSa was trending on Twitter along with the Super Bowl. What else is there to say? When you find a way to shake up the metagames at the most competitive levels of play of a game that’s been played for 15 years, you’ve got to be doing something right.