| Abzan is dead. Long live Abzan! After #SCGINDY and #SCGATL, G/W Megamorph, Jeskai Black, and Atarka Red were the decks to beat for Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar. But at the conclusion of the biggest tournament with BFZ, it was the familiar faces of Anafenza, the Foremost, Siege Rhino, and Abzan Charm holding the title. Many thought that Abzan was done for, given its poor performances on the Open Series. However, Kzauyuki Takimura showed that you can never count out the powerful midrange strategy, no matter how much we may want it to no longer exist. Though Abzan is the one with the trophy, G/W Megamorph, Jeskai Black, and Atarka Red were all represented on the Sunday stage in Milwaukee and at #SCGStates. Mantis Rider, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Crackling Doom, Den Protector, Deathmist Raptor, and Atarka's Command aren't going away any time soon. Also, if Sam Black's Bant Tokens deck has anything to say about it, there will be more than four decks to prepare for moving forward. But this weekend brings Legacy back to the Open Series. With Dig Through Time recently placed on the shelf, it will be interesting to see what happens to everyone's favorite Eternal format. Delver strategies will likely be abundant at #SCGSTL, but what will the combo deck of choice be without the powerful Delve spell? I'll be joined by Patrick Sullivan, Ken Crocker, and the rest of the @SCGLive crew to find out in just a few short days. If you can't make it out to The Lou this weekend, be sure to check out all the action at twitch.tv/scglive. While you're at it, please take the time to fill out this survey about our Invitational Qualifiers. Who knows, maybe you will be the one who wins a box of Battle of Zendikar for taking a few moments out of your busy day. And really, who couldn't use a free Gideon, Ally of Zendikar? — Cedric Phillips, Online Content Coordinator | | |  |  | Building Bant Tokens for the Pro Tour When a metagame is set, Sam Black isn't looking to tune an existing deck. He's looking to brew and break the format. And it looks like he may have done it again with his Bant Tokens deck that had a 75 percent win percentage at Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar. So how did he find Retreat to Emeria? Click here and find out! |  | Megamorph at the Pro Tour When Michael Majors got second place with G/W Megamorph at #SCGINDY, he didn't think that result would have such a huge impact on the metagame for the Pro Tour. But as we know, G/W Megamorph is a deck to beat in Standard. Fortunately, Michael has some updates he used to great success last weekend. |  | Esper Control at Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar When we think of Esper Control, it's not hard to think of Shaheen Soorani, but Patrick Chapin got to work with powerful control strategy, and it led to a 13th-place finish at the Pro Tour. So how good was Shambling Vent and Duress for The Innovator? Better than you could have imagined! | | | Looking for ideas for #GPATLANTA and our Commander Celebration, but don't know where to get started? Then watch as Justin Parnell, Stephen Green, Johnathan Suarez, and Wes Wise battle it out in a 4-Player Commander VS video with random Commanders and a surprise ending you won't want to miss! |  | | Hello everyone! Welcome to this week's edition of "What I Would Play at the Open Series", brought to you by me, CVM. Even though Siege Rhino won another Pro Tour this past weekend, we've got a Legacy Open Series event in St. Louis to figure out, so it's time to switch gears away from Standard. While I would love to spit some hot fire at you about how insane OmniTell is, with Dig Through Time gone, I don't think that the deck is playable anymore. The banning of Dig Through Time is why I'm moving on to something a bit more fair. | | Open Series regular Rudy Briksza and his Shardless Sultai deck made the finals of the Premier IQ at #SCGATL. This was the second event since the banning of Dig Through Time and Shardless Sultai has taken 1st and 2nd place, respectively, in these events. The deck is definitely back on the map, and I'm sure Gerry Thompson has his "I told you so" look on his face. Cards like Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach are much better now that our opponents can't just get right back into the game with a Dig Through Time. Ancestral Visions allows us to have (arguably) the most powerful draw engine still available in Legacy—Glimpse of Nature doesn't count! I think that Deathrite Shaman and Liliana of the Veil are both in pretty good spots right now since discard and ramp actually mean something again. Also, with Delver decks perceived to be on the rise due to the loss of Dig Through Time, having something like Baleful Strix to slow them down should be a huge advantage. Lastly, Abrupt Decay seems better than ever before. As if being a great tool against Counterbalance decks (like Miracles) wasn't enough, it's also an answer to about any creature that we can expect to see. The white splash out of the sideboard for Meddling Mage against the combo decks is pretty cute, but I definitely want to dodge people playing Lands when I sleeve up Shardless Sultai. One of the strengths of Shardless Sultai is that we have so many high-impact sideboard cards that can win the games on their own against a multitude of decks that we expect to see at #SCGSTL. Good luck to everyone at #SCGSTL! — <3 CVM, @Chris_VanMeter | | Those traveling down the Road to the Players' Championship are aware of the treacherous journey they partake. The trials and tribulations, the rise up the leaderboard and the fall off the leaderboard, the thrill of victory and sting of defeat—all of these are familiar for those who desire to stake their claim to a spot at our year-end spectacle. One important stop for those trying to navigate down the Road to the Players' Championship happened this past weekend: StarCityGames.com® State Championships. This past weekend's events crowned state champions and awarded crucial Open Series points. These two events are played in two different formats—Standard on Saturday and Modern on Sunday. What makes these events so special is that each event awards up to fifteen Open Series points to its winner. These all-too-valuable points are earned on a busy Magic weekend, leading to a monumental shift on our leaderboard. This past weekend was no exception. |  | | Johnathan Morawski moved into second place with a Modern States victory in Connecticut. Joe Lossett and Chris Anderson went back-to-back in Southern California and Indiana, respectively, positioning themselves for an at-large berth into the Players' Championship. Craig Bargo joined our Top 32, due to his back-to-back in Kentucky. Todd Anderson moved into third place, with a win on Saturday in North Carolina. Hunter Nance is hot on Todd's heels, both in overall points and having lost to Todd in the finals of North Carolina's #SCGStates. Andrew Jessup won the Connecticut Modern #SCGStates, and with a Top-4 finish in Standard, moved himself into position to make an at-large bid to join his brother in the Players' Championship. There is so much movement on the Players' Championship Leaderboard due to #SCGStates, and there is still more to come, as not all states have reported their results. This weekend has led to many unexpected turns on the Road to the Players' Championship, but the Road becomes much clearer as we head to #SCGSTL and its Legacy Open. If you want to join in on the Road to the Players' Championship fun, but can't make it to #SCGSTL, find an IQ near you and win points and prizes today! Finally, StarCityGames.com® would like to hear your voice as it pertains to IQ prizes. Please take a short survey for a chance to win a Battle for Zendikar booster box! |  |  | | Friday, October 23 | | Invitational Qualifiers Newington, CT - Your Friendly Neighborhood Tabletop Shop Somerville, NJ - The Only Game in Town Tampa, FL - Next Ridge Games | Saturday, October 24 | | Invitational Qualifiers Augusta, GA - Augusta Book Exchange Chattanooga, TN - The Battlegrounds Games Columbia, MD - Hackers Mancave Findlay, OH - Post Board Gaming Goose Creek, SC - Turtle Gaming Kearny, NJ - Gamer's Edge Kettering, OH - Mavericks Cards and Comics Kingsport, TN - Mulligans Gaming Lafayette, IN - Legendary Games Mansfield, OH - The Realm Games Shakopee, MN - Phantasy Hobbies Tampa, FL - The Game Academy Tampa PPTQ (IQ Prizes) Enfield, CT - Most Excellent Gaming Huntington, WV - Hometown Hobbies Prairieville, LA - Gamers Paradise Tallahassee, FL - Gamescape Tyler, TX - Three Suns Unlimited GPT (IQ Prizes) Bellefonte, PA - Jake's Cards and Games | 1K Super Invitational Qualifiers East Windsor, CT - Ice Imports San Diego, CA - At Ease Games PPTQ (1K Super IQ Prizes) Indian Trail, NC - Be There Games | Sunday, October 25 | | Invitational Qualifiers Arvada, CO - Game Heroes Denton, TX - More Fun Game Comics and Games East Windsor, CT - Ice Imports Portland, OR - TimeVaultGames Tewksbury, MA - Batter Up PPTQ (IQ Prizes) Lakeville, MN - World of Games McDonough, GA - TCF Gaming Arena Norman, OK - Wizards Asylum Comics and Games | 5K Premier Invitational Qualifiers Coopersburg, PA - Tales of Adventure 1K Super Invitational Qualifiers Greensboro, NC - Lucky's Card Shop | If you would like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails please click here. |
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