| Sky blue. Water wet. In life, some things stop coming as a surprise. When I walk into Chipotle and see a huge line? Not a surprise. When Stephen Curry takes an off balance three-pointer and it's nothing but net? Just another night of watching basketball. When I get paired against Gerry Thompson deep into a tournament and lose a close three-game set? That's been happening for over a decade! So, when I found out Tom Ross won #SCGCOL with G/W Tron, my first thought was "Yeah, of course." The Boss' resume on the SCG Tour speaks for itself at this point, but consider this: we're watching the best SCG Tour player of all time right now. With two Invitational wins (back to back, don't forget!), five SCG Tour Open wins (including going back to back on that earlier this year, too!), two Players' Championship appearances (with a third on the way later this year), and a sizable lead in the SCG Tour Player of the Year race, how can anyone argue otherwise? What makes this win special is the deck he did it with. Modern, in its current state, is about as volatile as a format gets. With decks as powerful as Infect, Death's Shadow, and Dredge running around, it's surprising that Ross was able to get the job done with G/W Tron. But The Boss gave everyone advanced notice in a VS Video with Todd Anderson that he felt G/W Tron was a good place to be. So he did what any great player does; put his money where his mouth was. The question now is if Jeff Hoogland can do the same. For the majority of the year, Jeff has led the SCG Tour Player of the Year race, and with Tom not attending #SCGKNOX, there's never been a bigger weekend for Hoogland. Matthias Hunt, Ryan Overturf, Nick Miller, and the rest of the @SCGLive crew will be bringing you all the Standard action you can handle as we keep our eyes on Jeff's performance and many others looking to qualify for the Players' Championship! If you can't make it out to The Marble City for #SCGKNOX, be sure to catch all the action over at twitch.tv/scglive! — Cedric Phillips, Media Manager @CedricAPhillips |  | Is It Time To Unban Splinter Twin? Shaun McLaren is here to ask a difficult question—is it time to unban Splinter Twin? The powerful enchantment was a tournament winning card from Day 1, and its banning made plenty of people happy. But would its unbanning solve the problems of Magic's most polarizing format? |  | Video: G/R Land Destruction In Modern! Ari Lax has quite the sense of humor, so when I found out he was going to try out a G/R Land Destruction deck in Modern, I was immediately skeptical. But he might be right about targeting mana bases, especially with G/W Tron recently hoisting a trophy. See this wacky deck in action! |  | The Return Of Mantis Rider When I think of Mantis Rider, I think of Kevin Jones. But it's Kevin's teammate, Jim Davis, who's had the most recent success with the card. The reigning Players' Champion came up one match short of another Top 8 at #SCGCOL, but his Jeskai Aggro deck performed admirably and he's here to tell you why. | | | It's not often that the SCG Tour's No. 1 and No. 2 players square off, but #SCGCOL delivered just that. Watch as Jeff Hoogland and Tom Ross battle it out in Modern with Player of the Year race implications! |  | | Last week I offered a Jeskai build for Modern, which means that I owe a debt to the Grixis overlords. Luckily, Grixis is fantastic in Standard right now, and I have a great recommendation for the Knoxville Open this weekend. Joe Lossett put up an 8-2 record with a Dynavolt Tower deck at Pro Tour Kaladesh, and since then I've been experimenting with the archetype. If I could battle this weekend, I would do so with this: | | 
I don't see Incendiary Flow in many control decks, though the card serves a vital role. B/R Zombies isn't a very popular deck anymore, but you still run into a decent number of Scrapheap Scroungers, and the ability to exile them is invaluable. Burn spells also just combine very well with Dynavolt Tower, as some of the creatures that you'll need to kill will have four or more toughness. 
The more suspect two-mana sorcery is arguably Take Inventory. I personally have nothing but good things to say about the powered down Accumulated Knowledge. A two-mana draw two is way too good to see print, and it wasn't long ago that people were playing Divination in Standard. Cantrips play very well with Dynavolt Tower given that you just want to cast a lot of spells, and Take Inventory three and four and just kind of broken when you cast them. The first one is pretty lackluster, but the card does a ton of work in grindy matchups, and gives you a huge fundamental advantage against other slow Glimmer of Genius decks just by generating more raw card advantage. 
While the deck is very powerful just with the blue and red spells, To the Slaughter solves a lot of problems. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Emrakul, the Promised End, and Bristling Hydra are all obnoxious cards that To the Slaughter will frequently just one-for-one. I have been extremely impressed by this card, and being able to flash it back with Torrential Gearhulk is delicious gravy. 
You've no doubt noticed that the sideboard is just a mess of counterspells. You bring some of these in against control decks over the red spells, though I've actually been winning the majority of my Game 1s against control decks as is. What these are primarily here for are combo decks. I haven't felt the need for many counterspells anywhere else, though my maindeck is pretty weak to decks featuring Aetherworks Marvel and Metalwork Colossus. It's definitely ham-fisted in appearance, though the non-combo matchups are favorable enough to justify it in my experience. If you're like me and your two favorite things in Magic are doing nothing and killing stuff, then you're really going to love this list. I'll be in the booth for #SCGKNOX and I really hope to see some Dynavolt Towers charged on camera! — Ryan Overturf, @RyanOverdrive | | After an event in second place, Tom Ross has retaken the lead in the SCG Tour Player of the Year race following his win at #SCGCOL. Ross used his third Open win of the year to leap in front of Jeff Hoogland by 18 SCG Points heading into the Standard Open at #SCGKNOX. The top spot has fluctuated between Ross and Hoogland for the past month, and now Hoogland will attempt to climb atop the leaderboard as Ross participates in the Epic World Championship. For Hoogland, it will be the last event to make up ground before the year-ending Season Three Invitational in Atlanta. Todd Anderson converted another weekend into a Top-8 finish at #SCGCOL, marking his 30th life-time Top 8 on the SCG Tour, for 15 SCG Points. Anderson closed the gap on Todd Stevens in the Player of the Year race and Jacob Baugh in the Season Three race, giving him two pathways for an invite to the 2016 Players' Championship. After taking second at the 2015 #SCGPC, Anderson wants back and is a strong finish away from sliding into either the final at-large berth or the third slot in the Season Three race. Baugh tallied a Top-16 finish in the Open to keep himself in the hunt for both slots as well. |  | | #SCGKNOX will be of huge importance for players on the cusp of an #SCGPC invite. Caleb Scherer and Todd Stevens are clinging to their spots in the Player of the Year race that would qualify them for the Players' Championship while Anderson and Baugh chase them down. In the Season Three race, Brad Carpenter and Ted Felicetti hold commanding leads for two of the three slots, but Baugh, Anderson, and Jadine Klomparens are all in contention for the final Season Three qualification. Joe Lossett is also live for Season Three, but is in fine shape to qualify via the yearlong race while Brad Nelson still controls his own destiny in Season Three. The final stage will be set in #SCGKNOX as the last Open of 2016 takes place, leaving everything to come down to the Invitational in Atlanta. Check out all the Standard action at twitch.tv/SCGLive! |  |   If you would like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails please click here. |
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