| Expect the unexpected! Coming into #SCGBALT, Tom Ross had a slight lead over Jeff Hoogland in the SCG Tour Player of the Year race, Bradley Carpenter had a significant lead over Ted Felicetti in the Season Three Race for the Players' Championship, and Joe Lossett was batting for an at large slot to the #SCGPC. Many expected one of those five names to win the main event at the Baltimore Open Weekend but it was a relative unknown, Jonathon Orr, who played spoiler to so many. Orr's weapon of choice was Shardless Sultai, a Legacy mainstay that many didn't expect to perform well in Baltimore. With the influx of Eldrazi, the updates to Death and Taxes, and the prevalence of Lands, Shardless Sultai didn't appear to be the best choice coming into the tournament. But that's why they play the games, and Orr played some of the very best ones on the weekend. His road to the trophy wasn't an easy one but Orr certainly made it look that way by not losing a single game during the elimination rounds, defeating Tom Smiley in the quarterfinals, David Long in the semifinals, and finally Joe Lossett in the finals. What other surprises are in store for the SCG Tour? That's what this weekend is for as we head to the capital of Ohio for #SCGCOL. Chris VanMeter, Andrew Boswell, Nick Miller, and the rest of the @SCGLive crew will be bringing you all the Magic you can handle as we work our way through 15 exciting rounds of Modern. Will Tom Ross be able to retake the SCG Tour Player of the Year lead over Jeff Hoogland? Can Bradley Carpenter hold off Ted Felicetti in the Season Three race? And can Joe Lossett improve on his runner-up finish from #SCGBALT? Find that out and so much more over at twitch.tv/scglive! — Cedric Phillips, Media Manager @CedricAPhillips |  | Modern: A Difficult Conversation Modern is Magic's most polarizing format, so it only makes sense that Mike Sigrist has so many questions. Does something need to be banned from Dredge? Is Death's Shadow the best deck that not enough people are playing? And is Skred Red actually legit? Siggy gives the answers! |  | Commander VS: Commander 2016 Fun! Commander 2016 ships November 11th, but Justin Parnell, Stephen Green, Jonathan Suarez, and Jeremy Noell simply couldn't wait that long to play with Magic's newest set. If you're wondering how the new generals all stack up, wait no longer my friends! |  | Restoring Balance To Modern One of the things I love about Ari Lax is that he isn't afraid to try something new. But sometimes even I think he's off his rocker! The Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir champion says Restore Balance is actually pretty good and his 10-5 record at GP Dallas is pretty hard to argue with! | | | Lands and Miracles are two of the most complicated decks in the Legacy format. Watch as Daryl Ayers and Gerard Fabiano square off in the quarterfinals of #SCGBALT. |  | | The Columbus Open this weekend means we'll be playing Modern again, which has easily become my favorite format. Modern is known for its diversity, though Modern players are generally known for sticking to one or two decks. I don't think I'll ever be able to shake my association with Delver of Secrets, but I do have multiple versions in my arsenal! Modern is currently skewed toward Dredge and Infect, and as such I would be piloting my Jeskai build this weekend: | | 
Where Grixis Delver is good at beating up opponents who are trying to interact while having the requisite tools to fight unfair decks, Jeskai Delver is skewed in the opposite direction. Spell Queller is great for fighting combo decks, though this deck is going to crutch on playing more like a Burn deck against fair opponents. Electrolyze is the best tool for that job, as this deck doesn't have the critical mass of reach that actual Burn decks have, so the ability to draw extra cards matters a lot. Additionally, Electrolyze is just brutal against decks like Affinity and Elves. 
A significant difference between Jeskai and Grixis Delver is that Grixis gets access to Thought Scour, and as such sees a lot more of its deck a lot faster. Jeskai plays off the top more, and for that reason I like going up to 21 lands. You really never want to miss your third land drop given the high volume of three mana spells, and every land up to five will generally matter given the power of using Snapcaster Mage to rebuy an Electrolyze. The extra land also helps to facilitate the sideboard copies of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, which is your best bet at beating G/B/x decks. This deck is pretty weak to removal plus Liliana of the Veil, though Gideon matches up exceptionally against Liliana if you're able to otherwise maintain parity. 
The three cards that you're looking at sideboarding out are usually Path to Exile, Mana Leak, and Lightning Helix. In a given matchup your sideboard plan is to optimize your interaction, and the purpose of any spell in this 75 is pretty clear. This specific configuration doesn't generally allow for sideboarding out Delver, which is something that I do against grindy decks while playing Grixis, though given that all of the threats die to Lightning Bolt you kind of just have to run your opponents out of removal anyway. I played this list at a local event last weekend, and made it to the semifinals in a field of 60 players. I was paired against mostly fair decks, which goes to show that this list has play even when it's not technically the correct metagame call. I'm expecting a lot of linear decks to show up to #SCGCOL though, and this build should crush that field. — Ryan Overturf, @RyanOverdrive | | Jeff Hoogland quickly reclaimed his spot atop the StarCityGames.com Player of the Year leaderboard after dropping to No. 2 for one event. While Tom Ross managed a 64th-place finish in the Legacy Open at #SCGBALT, Hoogland missed Day 2 of the main event and made up for it in a big way by winning the Modern Classic. Hoogland used his trusty Kiki-Chord deck to take down the Classic and earn 16 SCG Points on the weekend, compared to the Boss' four, giving Hoogland the top spot by six points. Joe Lossett all but locked up his spot in a third straight Players' Championship, piloting Miracles to a runner-up finish at #SCGBALT, earning him a bunch of cash and 25 SCG Points. The finish has the Miracle Man soft-locked for the #SCGPC by being the top point earner on the year that isn't already qualified for the #SCGPC while also shooting up the Season Three leaderboard as another possible route to the Players' Championship. Lossett continues to impress in Legacy, making his #SCGBALT Top 8 his third straight Top 8 in two-day Legacy events spanning from the Worcester Legacy Open and Grand Prix Columbus. |  | | Ted Felicetti continued his push for the #SCGPC, taking second in the Standard Classic to stay on the heels of Brad Carpenter in the Season Three race. Below Carpenter and Felicetti, Jadine Klomparens, Jacob Baugh, and Todd Anderson continue their chase of the third Season Three slot for the Players' Championship. Baugh and Anderson also have outside shots at making the #SCGPC via an at-large berth for the yearlong race. All eyes shift to the Modern Open at #SCGCOL this weekend as the race for Player of the Year heads down the final stretch with just two Opens and an Invitational remaining in 2016. Can Ross overtake Hoogland in the brewer's favorite format? Can Lossett make the POY race a three-man fight? And who will claim the title of top player in Season Three? Follow all the action this weekend at #SCGCOL on twitch.tv/SCGLive! |  |   If you would like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails please click here. |
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