Weekend Magic: 6/19-6/21

The major events of last weekend included Grand Prix: Providence, Grand Prix: Copenhagen, and Star City Games: Indianapolis. GP Providence and  SCG Indianapolis focused on Standard while GP Copenhagen was Modern. Of course, SCG Indianapolis also had Modern in addition to Legacy results. Let’s dive in and see what happened.

Grand Prix: Providence (USA)

Decklists

Format – Standard

R/G Devotion took down the field at Providence piloted by Sky Mason. R/G seems to be the top deck these days, with it also putting two more people into the Top 8 as well. Key cards in this strategy included [card]Genesis Hydra[/card], [card]Hornet Queen[/card], [card]Whisperwood Elemental[/card], and [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card]. Pretty much just ramp out into a win condition and take it down from there. Green decks are very solid in Standard these days so expect to see them until the format is shaken up a bit more.

Rounding out the Top 8 were an interesting smattering of decks, two of which were based on four or more colors. Four-Color Whip was playing green as the main color but splashing for cards like [card]Torrent Elemental[/card] and [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card]. You need three colors to play [card]Sidisi, Brood Tyrant already so splashing one more color in this Standard environment doesn’t seem like a big deal especially in lieu of the Five-Color Dragons deck appearing.

Yes, the Five-Color Dragons deck is based around mostly green and black spells however every color of dragon is included in the deck, as it packs two [card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card], two [card]Dragonlord Dromoka[/card], three [card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/card], and one [card]Dragonlord Silumgar[/card]. Using green’s color fixing [card]Sylvan Caryatid[/card] and [card]Satyr Wayfinder[/card], you can easily find the colors you need to cast these dragon lords. Also, the deck packs four [card]Haven of the Spirit Dragon[/card] for fixing and to get dragons in the graveyard back to the hand. Talk about maximizing potential! The deck is definitely an interesting way to make use of all the new dragon lords.

Grand Prix: Copenhagen (Denmark)

Decklists

Format – Modern

Looking at Copenhagen, Merfolk took down the Modern GP. Key components of the deck included [card]Mutavault[/card], [card]Aether Vial[/card], [card]Master of the Pearl Trident[/card] / [card]Lord of Atlantis[/card], and [card]Master of Waves[/card]. Protection from red in field full of Burn and Grixis seems support important, and [card]Master of Waves[/card] provides that alongside of a team of creatures that it summons upon entering the battlefield. [card]Hibernation[/card] seems like a great sideboard choice as it can completely wreck green decks out of nowhere.

The runner up Hatto was playing Scapeshift, which isn’t unexpected but seemed poorly positioned in a field fuller of faster [card]Griselbrand[/card] fueled combo decks. However, I’m sure Hatto was an expert Scapeshift pilot and so was able to do exceptionally well with the deck even on Day 2 of the GP. Key components of Scapeshift include of course [card]Scapeshift[/card], [card]Cryptic Command[/card], [card]Sakura-Tribe Elder[/card], [card]Search for Tomorrow[/card], and [card]Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle[/card].

Rounding out the Top 8 were Jund, Mono White Death & Taxes, another Merfolk, Grixis Control, Grixis Twin, and Grixis Delver – lots of Grixis decks in other words.

Mono White Death & Taxes was interesting deck choice. It include cards such as [card]Dryad Militant[/card], [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card], [card]Leonin Arbiter[/card], [card]Serra Avenger[/card], [card]Flickerwisp[/card], [card]Blade Splicer[/card], as well as two main decked [card]Spellskite[/card]s and four [card]Ghost Quarter[/card] and three [card]Tectonic Edge[/card]. Quite a punishing deck for the unprepared!

Star City Games Open: Standard (Indianapolis, IN, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
G/R Dragons 1st Eric Rill G/R Devotion 9th Michael Gould
Mardu Dragons 2nd Jamie Kelly Mardu Dragons 10th Matthew Longville
Abzan Midrange 3rd Raja Sulaiman Temur Dragons 11th Andy Ferguson
G/B Dragons 4th Kent Ketter R/G Aggro 12th Jessy Hefner
Bant Heroic 5th Ziang Chen G/R Devotion 13th Jacob Baugh
G/R Devotion 6th Chris Andersen Esper Dragons 14th Daniel Unger
G/W Devotion 7th Corey Castelli Abzan Megamorph 15th Boris Pan
Mardu Dragons 8th Derek Monk Mardu Dragons 16th Marty Williams

In Indianapolis, R/G also ruled the day in the form of G/R Dragons piloted by Eric Rill. Key components of the strategy included [card]Deathmist Raptor[/card], [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card], [card]Rattleclaw Mystic[/card], [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card], and [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card]. Planeswalkers were left out of the main deck and relegated to the sideboard, but they did include one [card]Chandra, Pyromaster[/card], two [card]Nissa, Worldwaker[/card], and two [card]Xenagos, the Reveler[/card].

Mardu Dragons was the runner up, which featured [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card], [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card], and [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card] as the main creatures. Similar to the G/R dragons deck, Stormbreath and Thunderbreak seem to be the best red dragons to include in Standard decks. With Mardu, you also get [card]Crackling Doom[/card] and access to [card]Foul-Tongue Invocation[/card] and [card]Thoughtseize[/card] which is nice.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 8 were Abzan Midrange, G/B Dragons, Bant Heroic, another G/R Devotion, G/W Devotion, and another Mardu Dragons deck.

G/B Dragons seems like it is something new and exciting however the name is kind of misnomer. It’s the same Five-Color Dragons as talked about before from GP Providence.

Looking at the Top 16 we have two more G/R Devotion, two more Mardu Dragons, Temur Dragons, R/G Aggro, Esper Dragons, and Abzan Megamorph. Temur Dragons made good use of [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card] alongside [card]Stubborn Denial[/card]. It’s also nice to see Esper Dragons still in the picture without being too dominating.

Star City Games Premier IQ: Modern (Indianapolis, IN, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
Grixis Delver 1st Mat Bimonte U/R Twin 9th Lauren Nolen
Jund 2nd Mitch Blankespoor Grixis Control 10th Hayden Passarelli
scapeshift 3rd CJ Steele Burn 11th Jackson Smith
Grixis Control 4th Jeremy Bush Grixis Control 12th Cody Murray
Jund 5th Keir Haley Grixis Twin 13th Tony Hess
Zoo 6th Matt Ayers Temur Delver 14th Brett Bennett
Bant Hexproof 7th Austin Bates Zoo 15th Derek Madlem
Affinity 8th Tracy Loeffler Infect 16th Noah Strasler

Looking at Modern, we see that Grixis Delver took down the IQ. [card]Gurmag Angler[/card] seems to be the Delve creature of choice along with [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card] in the U/R decks that can quickly amass a ton of cheap instants and sorceries in their graveyard. [card]Shadow of Doubt[/card] is also a nice trick to include these days as it can hose a wide variety of strategies such as Tron and Scapeshift, and can even blank a fetchland in a pinch.

Jund was the runner up and was packing [card]Dark Confidant[/card] and [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] as always, but no [card]Olivia Voldaren[/card]. Two [card]Huntmaster of the Fells[/card] were present across the main deck and sideboard, and Blankespoor even opted to play two [card]Fulminator Mage[/card] main deck in order to have a better matchup against Tron and other nonbasic land strategies.

Rounding out the Top 8 were Scapeshift, Grixis Control, another Jund, Zoo, Bant Hexproof (aka Bogles), and Affinity. I think it was interesting that Grixis Control played four [card]Cryptic Command[/card]s. Zoo is now packing [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] along with [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card], [card]Siege Rhino[/card], [card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card], and [card]Tribal Flames[/card] in order to maximize the total amount of damage.

Rounding out the Top 16 were U/R Twin, two more Grixis Control, Burn,Grixis Twin, Temur Delver, another Zoo, and Infect. Temur Delver is still packing [card]Hooting Mandrills[/card] and [card]Disrupting Shoal[/card] main deck, and makes good use of [card]Mana Leak[/card] and [card]Stubborn Denial[/card] to help control the game – even [card]Tarfire[/card] was seen as a two-of in the main deck to help [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] out! The second Zoo list was very different than the Top 8 list. Madlem elected to go with the [card]Burning-Tree Emissary[/card], [card]Kird Ape[/card], [card]Loam Lion[/card], and [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] plan and not play any spells costing more than two mana in the main deck – in the sideboard, [card]Dromoka’s Command[/card] seems interesting as a way to help counter spell damage removal as well as provide your own removal spell with a creature in play.

Star City Games Premier IQ: Legacy (Indianapolis, IN, USA)

Decklists

Deck Finish Player Deck Finish Player
Burn 1st Adam Minniear Omni-Tell 9th Zachary Byrd
Death and Taxes 2nd Evan Smith Elves 10th James Hess
Ad Nauseam 3rd Caleb Scherer Temur Delver 11th Jesse Pick
Temur Delver 4th Ben Wienburg Ad Nauseam 12th Benjamin Ball
Manaless Dredge 5th Dan Lashbrooke U/W Stoneblade 13th Bernie Wen
Omni-Tell 6th Chris VanMeter Infect 14th Joe Ehrman
U/W Control 7th Jacob Coffey Sultai Delver 15th Justin Brickman
Jund 8th Dan Mercer Temur Delver 16th Andrew Shrout

Burn took down the Legacy portion of Indianapolis piloted by Adam Minniear. A force to still be reckoned with in Legacy, Burn can still quite well in Legacy thanks to the printing of [card]Eidolon of the Great Revel[/card]. [card]Sulfuric Vortex[/card] and [card]Price of Progress[/card] are components that Legacy Burn players love to sling since they can amass tons of damage over a few turns very quickly.

Death and Taxes was the runner up deck and featured [card]Phyrexian Revoker[/card], [card]Mother of Runes[/card], [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card], and [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card]. D&T is also still one of the top Legacy contenders.

Rounding out the Top 8 were Ad Nauseam, Temur Delver, Manaless Dredge, Omni-Tell, U/W Control, and Jund (which is also similar to the archetype Nic Fit). Key cards from Manaless Dredge include [card]Bloodghast[/card], [card]Phantasmagorian[/card], and [card]River Kelpie[/card] which distinguish it specifically from regular Dredge builds. Jund / Nic Fit key components include [card]Veteran Explorer[/card] to ramp up into cards such as [card]Huntmaster of the Fells[/card], [card]Primeval Titan[/card], and [card]Thragtusk[/card] – also, cards like [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card], [card]Pernicious Deed[/card], and [card]Grove of the Burnwillows[/card] / [card]Punishing Fire[/card] synergy work well at controlling the board until you drop a huge dude.

Rounding out the Top 16 were another Omni-Tell, Elves, two Temur Delver, another Ad Nauseam, U/W Stoneblade, Infect, and Sultai Delver. All of these decks have had extensive Legacy coverage previously so no new updates here.

That’s it for this week! As always, thanks for reading.

 

About the Author
Jared is a longtime Magic player who has been slinging cardboard since Odyssey block (back when creatures came into play). He was introduced to the financial side of Magic during Return to Ravnica block and hasn't looked back since. He is a resident of the VA area located just outside of DC. His favorite MTG formats include Limited, Legacy, and Commander. Regardless of format, he prefers making creature tokens. You can follow him on Twitter: @gildedgoblin.

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