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Live Coverage of StarCityGames.com Open Series: Charlotte

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StarCityGames.com Open Series

The StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Charlotte has come to a close! The question headed into the weekend was whether the dominance of Survival of the Fittest would continue, or whether the metagame would adjust to take it into consideration and hate it accordingly. Early in the day a poll of some big name players and the head judge of the event revealed few felt the card deserved serious enough attention to merit a banning (a sentiment echoed on Twitter). Then again, the Top 8 became yet another tale of Survival’s dominance.

It was there that Adam Cai and Nick Spagnolo would meet in the Finals, both playing decks reliant on the enchantment. In addition to playing similar decks, both players also can claim the title of being back-to-back StarCityGames.com Open Top 8’ers after Adam managed the feat in Nashville and Nick pulled it off this weekend in Charlotte. All that remained in the event as they sat down to battle were three games to answer the question of whether Nick’s slightly more traditional blue and green version of Survival Madness would be superior to his opponent’s more Zooish green and white version.StarCityGames.com Open Series Event Coverage!

Live coverage of the [author name=


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[author name= The StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Charlotte has come to a close! The question headed into the weekend was whether the dominance of Survival of the Fittest would continue, or whether the metagame would adjust to take it into consideration and hate it accordingly. Early in the day a poll of some big name players and the head judge of the event revealed few felt the card deserved serious enough attention to merit a banning (a sentiment echoed on Twitter). Then again, the Top 8 became yet another tale of Survival’s dominance.

It was there that Adam Cai and Nick Spagnolo would meet in the Finals, both playing decks reliant on the enchantment. In addition to playing similar decks, both players also can claim the title of being back-to-back StarCityGames.com Open Top 8’ers after Adam managed the feat in Nashville and Nick pulled it off this weekend in Charlotte. All that remained in the event as they sat down to battle were three games to answer the question of whether Nick’s slightly more traditional blue and green version of Survival Madness would be superior to his opponent’s more Zooish green and white version.

Ultimately, after a half dozen mulligans between the two, Spagnolo proved the champion. Adam had to settle with his third StarCityGames.com Open Top 8 and becoming a new entrant to the equation of the StarCityGames.com Open Player of the Year race.

Nicholas Spagnolo is the StarCityGames.com Legacy Open champion in Charlotte!

Nicholas Spagnolo
Stephen Mercatoris
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Chris Cannon
Ryan Rolen
Michael McDermott
Alex Hon
Stephen Mercatoris
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Ryan Rolen
Alex Hon
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Ryan Rolen
Ryan Rolen

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Top 16 Legacy Decklists By SCG Staff
Check out the decklists used by the Top 16 finishers at StarCityGames.com Legacy Open: Charlotte!

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Finals: Adam Cai vs. Nick Spagnolo By Bill Stark
Adam Cai and Nick Spagnolo sat down to the Finals of the StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Charlotte with something in common: both were the title owners of back-to-back Open Top 8s. Adam had done it in Nashville, Tennessee while Nick had done it that very weekend in Charlotte.

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Semifinals: Trey McGinn vs. Nick Spagnolo By Bill Stark
Nick Spagnolo had managed to make the Top 8 of both the StarCityGames.com Standard and Legacy Opens in Charlotte.

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Quarterfinals: Ryan Pawlick vs. Phillip Braverman By Bill Stark
The two players, each playing the Junk/Rock style deck used by Brad Nelson to Top 8 at Grand Prix-Columbus, opened on Mox Diamonds and Tarmogoyf.

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Quarterfinals: Nick Spagnolo vs. Joel Wright By Bill Stark
Just 24 hours after he had managed to make his first StarCityGames.com Open Top 8, Nick Spagnolo found himself back on center stage on Sunday.

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Round 8: Ben Gibala vs. Phillip Braverman By Bill Stark
The Top 8 of the StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Charlotte was almost a clean split in the final round of the Swiss. Almost; the only player who couldn’t draw in was Ben Gibala.

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Deck Tech: Junk with Mike Fyrberg and Kenny Mayer By Bill Stark
Throughout Legacy’s history, beatdown oriented black decks have always lurked amongst the tables of the Top 8. This weekend Mike Fyrberg and Kenny Mayer brought the latest incarnation of that strategy into battle.

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Round 6: Trey McGinn vs. Jesse Hatfield By Bill Stark
One half of the Hatfield brothers duo, Jesse, like his sibling Alix, is a well known Legacy player and deck builder.

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Halloween at the StarCityGames.com Open Series By Bill Stark
Today my walk around the hall turned up more costumes (it is Halloween proper after all), a Player of the Year race that is REALLY heating up, and the new kid on the Standard block.

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Quick Hits: Is Survival too Strong in Legacy? By Bill Stark
Survial of the Fittest as used in the Survival Madness deck has been dominating the Legacy format on the StarCityGames.com Open Series over the past few months.

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Round 3: Kenny Mayer vs. David Price By Bill Stark
David Price specializes in Legacy, but despite only playing on Sunday in StarCityGames.com Open events, he is still qualified for the StarCityGames.com Invitational in December.

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Throwing a RUG on the Fire By Bill Stark
Dan Jordan is the StarCityGames.com Standard Open champion in Charlotte!

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Top 16 Standard Decklists By SCG Staff
Check out the decklists used by the Top 16 finishers at StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Charlotte!

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Finals: Chris Cannon vs. Dan Jordan By Bill Stark
Chris Cannon was the talk of the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Charlotte. His All-In Goblins deck used Devastating Summons and Kuldotha Rebirth to turn his permanents into creatures.

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Semifinals: Nick Spagnolo vs. Dan Jordan By Bill Stark
White was the only color Nick Spagnolo and Dan Jordan weren’t playing between the two of them, with Spagnolo bringing a Blue-Black Control deck to the table while Jordan was with a Red-Blue-Green Turbo Land/Control style build.

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Quarterfinals: Chris Cannon vs. Ryan Rolen By Bill Stark
Ryan Rolen was happy to be in the Top 8, but he was not happy to be facing his opponent, Chris Cannon.

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Quarterfinals: Nick Spagnolo vs. Stephan Mercatoris By Bill Stark
Nick Spagnolo had managed to make it into the Top 8 on the back of his Blue-Black Control deck.

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Round 9: Alex Hon vs. Jeff Jones By Bill Stark
The final round of Swiss action for the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Charlotte found Alex Hon and Jeff Jones squaring off for a shot at the Top 8.

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Deck Tech: All-In Goblins with Chris Cannon By Bill Stark
Red decks continue to be in vogue, and the printing of Scars of Mirrodin is not slowing their pace in the least.

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Round 6: Gerry Thompson vs. Julius Brown By Bill Stark
Gerry Thompson is about as big a name as they come. A Pro Tour star, he is a leading StarCityGames.com Open Player as well, entering the sixth round of competition in Charlotte with only a single loss.

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3:00 – Around the Hall By Bill Stark
The StarCityGames.com staff know how to get into the holiday spirit.

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Deck Tech: Vat Control with Gerry Thompson By Bill Stark
As the new Standard format flexes its muscles and shakes itself out into what it will look like with Scars of Mirrodin, one breed of control deck is beginning to show signs of being tops in its category: Blue-Black Control.

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Round 3: Ali Aintrazi vs. James Orr By Bill Stark
A StarCityGames.com Open Series breakout star, Ali Aintrazi has multiple Open Top 8s on the year as well as using the tournaments to help shape Standard.

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10:49 – To Boldly Judge… By Bill Stark
The StarCityGames.com staff know how to get into the holiday spirit.



Standard Open Pairings, Standings, and Results!

Pairings
Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8


Results
Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8


Standings

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Standard Open Pairings, Standings, and Results!

Pairings
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9


Results
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9


Standings
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9