Congratulations to Austin Yost, your StarCityGames.com Legacy Open champion! In a format filled with powerful cards like Brainstorm, Tarmogoyf, and Stoneforge Mystic, it was Lava Spike and Goblin Guide that took home the trophy. Austin taught opponent after opponent to respect the power of Flame Rift, Fireblast, and every other red spell in the book en route to his victory, besting the format’s top deck: RUG Delver, in the hands of Josh Cho. Josh had a great weekend himself, one-upping his Top 4 Standard open finish with a finals in Legacy.
The StarCityGames.com Open Series is taking a breather for the prerelease next weekend, but @SCGLive will return in Richmond for release weekend with Dark Ascension! Gerard Fabiano will return, with Jacob Van Lunen accompanying him as commentator—don’t miss #SCGRICH!
Antonio Fedon has been living the dream with his Reanimator run today, blowing through opponent after opponent with Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. Austin’s tools were very different, but had been just as effective—a series of red burn spells and a handful of little red men.
Piloting Burn, Austin had scorched through more than a few blue decks en route to the Top 8 today. Unfortunately for Nick Spagnolo, he appeared likely to be next on the list!
One of a few players from yesterday’s Top 8 performing well in Legacy, David McDarby was packing Sneak and Show, a combo deck based on jamming fatties into play on the cheap. Matt Devine, his opponent, would be hard-pressed to match those monsters with Maverick.
Standard Open Top 8 competitor Josh Cho was in the mix to repeat his performance in Legacy today. It had been a long day for Josh, starting with the Standard semifinals, but Delver hadn’t let him down in this tournament, either.
This round pitted StarCityGames.com’s own buyer, Wes Wise, against Matt Kent and his Elvish horde. Wes Wise was packing Mono-Red Painter, an archetype that abuses Imperial Recruiter in conjunction with Painter’s Servant and Pyroblast effects to set up a Grindstone kill.
There’s been a spike in Charbelching today, and Chris Keller is one of a couple players on top records with the volatile combo deck. His opponent this round is Nick Spagnolo, piloting an archetype he has looked forward to experimenting with for some time: BUG.
National Champion Ali Aintrazi never likes to sleeve up the expected at a Constructed tournament. Today, he’s playing a mean twist on Reid Duke’s mono-black Pox list, incorporating green for Life from the Loam and some sideboard options.
Having packed up his beloved Phantasmal Bears and joined forces with Porcelain Legionnaire, Todd entered the Top 8 with a tweaked variant of the popular Delver strategy. His opponent, Justin McPherson, had an entire Human army operating alongside the popular one-drop, and it promised to be a challenging match for both players.
Draft Open machine Shaheen Soorani has been known to sling a Mana Leak or two (million) in his time—it’s no surprise to see him in the Standard open with U/B Control. Robert Beverley, his opponent, has brought a conventional U/W Delver list to the party.
A big Delver advocate, Todd Anderson has played a variety of builds over the Standard season. This weekend, he’s packing Porcelain Legionnaires and Mutagenic Growth, with plenty of Swords to back all of his creatures. Carlos came to the table with Solar Flare, including the Unburial Rites engine.
A delver of Secrets advocate, Gerry mixed up his list a little each week but had stuck to Seachrome Coast since the Invitational. His opponent this round, Jeff Black, was piloting a very different U/W deck with more controlling elements.
Viewers in Round 3 received a real treat—a BUG Architect list featuring tons of bullets and more than a few guns, including Grand Architect and Vedalken Certarch.
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