| For Tom Martell, this win was necessary. Tom Martell is a former Pro Tour champion and someone with a Magic Hall of Fame resume. For Martell, it isn't a matter of if he will make the Magic Hall of Fame, but when. But even the best Magic players go through slumps, and Martell was in one heck of one leading into #GPAtlanta. "It has felt like forever since I've held a signed match slip in my favor," Martell had lamented to me at #GPSeaTac. Well, at #GPAtlanta, he held quite a few. As Martell made his way through Day 1 relatively unnoticed at 8-1, he playfully asked if he was going to ever get a feature match. "Gonna have to earn it!" was my response and he took my joke quite literally as he made his way to the finals. One thing about the finals of a Grand Prix—we've got no choice but to feature you, and once we did, Martell did not disappoint. He had very stiff competition on the other side of the table in Owen Turtenwald, another future Magic Hall of Famer, but his obscure green deck was able to overcome Turtenwald's bomb-laden U/R deck, claiming the right to call himself #GPAtlanta champion. StarCityGames' foray into Limited is done for now, but it was a blast to cover Battle For Zendikar Limited last weekend in A-Town. Now it's time to push play on the Open Series yet again, and Kansas City will be the next stop on our whirlwind tour. Given how tight the race is for the #SCGPC, you can expect to see the Open Series' biggest and brightest stars on display this weekend at #SCGKC. Those results should be fascinating to watch. Wherever you're playing Magic this weekend, I hope your draws are good and your mulligans are even better. Have fun! — Cedric Phillips, Online Content Coordinator | | |  |  | Know Your Enemy: Defeating Each Modern Deck Are you new to Modern? A Modern veteran? Somewhere in between? Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir champion Ari Lax has got you covered, regardless of your experience with Magic's most explosive format. This week, he covers all the options for #GPPitt, including what he would play at the big show. |  | CEDTalks: Patrick Sullivan Cedric Phillips and Patrick Sullivan spent the past weekend covering #GPAtlanta and it did not disappoint. This week, the SCGLive duo chronicle their experience at the GP, help Cedric choose the proper deck to prepare for #GPPitt , and discuss the upsides of owning a cat over a dog. |  | Winds of Change What if you could play a fraction of a card in your deck? What if one mana of any color was simplified? What if we didn't have to discard in the cleanup step because of having more than seven cards? Join Tom Ross as he contemplates these questions and provides answers that will surprise you. | | | | | Need to prepare for #SCGKC? What better way than to watch Tom Ross and Brian Braun-Duin battle it out! This week, the two VS Series stars bring you some Standard action that you won't want to miss! |  | | It's always impressive to see two identical copies of the same deck in a Top 8. The two players likely worked together for the event as they were both able to navigate one build all the way to the elimination rounds. Any deck can get lucky and succeed once, but having multiple copies of the same deck in a Top 8 is a clear indication that the deck is no fluke. This was apparent at Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar, as the Dark Jeskai deck piloted by Owen Turtenwald and Jon Finkel would prove to be the breakout list of the tournament. While seeing two copies of the same decklist in a Top 8 is impressive, seeing three is downright jaw-dropping. Well, folks, if you've seen the results from Grand Prix Brussels, it's time to pick your jaws up off the floor. | | Simon Nielsen, Martin Mueller, and Magnus Lantto came in second, fourth, and fifth places respectively in Grand Prix Brussels, and they all played this exact 75. Such a set of finishes is almost unheard-of in modern Magic, and it's even more impressive considering that the deck is so under-the-radar. We've seen some decks based on Rally the Ancestors before, but they have not had the success of the Tier 1 decks in the format.   While it looks like a combo deck, Four-Color Rally is actually more of a value deck with a combo finish. Nantuko Husk combines with Grim Harsupex to create a card draw engine that feels much more like Modern or Legacy than Standard, giving you a fantastic mid- and late game. You are able to keep producing value creatures, interacting with your opponent's creatures, and drawing cards to get further into your deck until you can set up a good-sized Rally the Ancestors. What makes the deck work so well is that you don't need to win the game when you cast your first Rally the Ancestors. There are no graveyard-filling effects like Gather the Pack, and all you really have to do is play your creatures and interact with your opponent. Your first Rally the Ancestors can be small, because as long as you have a Nantuko Husk and a Grim Haruspex on the battlefield or in your graveyard, you are going to sacrifice all of the creatures that would be exiled and draw a ton of cards. This of course helps you set up the next Rally the Ancestors, and once the Rally get big enough you can drain your opponent's life away with Zulaport Cutthroat.  Rally the Ancestors is the deck's namesake, but the card that really holds the deck together is Collected Company. It is important to have the correct mix of creatures to work with, and Collected Company allows you to do so at instant speed while also creating card advantage. A well-timed Collected Company can be backbreaking, and the card plays well against counterspells. It also does a great job of keeping your opponent on their toes, as a good Collected Company in the end step means you will be able to untap and just win sometimes, which your opponents must respect. An end step Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is also powerful, and you can untap, flip Jace, and then recast Collected Company for even more value! With a solid and focused maindeck plan and great sideboard options, Four-Color Rally is a great choice in Standard at the moment. The deck is a proven commodity and, more importantly, a blast to play! Give it a spin for #SCGKC! — Jim Davis, @JimDavisMTG | | It's the homestretch here on the Road to the Players' Championship! Three Open Series events and one Invitational are all that remain for players to lock up a spot in the year-end Players' Championship, across all three formats! This next month of Magic will be a test of play skill and endurance, as players fly all around the country in attempts to earn Open Series points. With #GPAtlanta last weekend, the Leaderboard remained mostly the same, save for significant one change. Eric Hawkins won an IQ, giving him five Open Series points. Not to be overtaken, Rudy Briksza finished second at an IQ of his own. Why do these two tournaments matter? Because, as of today, Rudy Briksza and Eric Hawkins are now tied with 220 points each! If the Season were to end right now, they would be tied for the last at-large bid for the Players' Championship! With only one spot on the line, we'd have to go to a tiebreaker. |  | | What is the tiebreaker, you ask? It comes down to how well you did during our premier events throughout the entire year! The first tiebreaker is best finish at an Invitational, followed by best finish at an Open. If the two players are still tied after that, it goes to second best finish at an Invitational, followed by second best finish at an Open, and so on. So who would receive the last at-large bid into the Players' Championship if the season ended today? Eric Hawkins, with his 139th place finish at the Season One Invitational. As you can see, either player could easily finish higher than that in Las Vegas at our Season Four Invitational, meaning the Road to the Players' Championship is tighter than ever before! Of course, anyone could win at #SCGKC this weekend, so join us next week to see who has made the most progress on the Road to the Players' Championship! |  |  | | Friday, November 20 | | Invitational Qualifiers Bronx, NY - The Lair Newington, CT - Your Friendly Neighborhood Tabletop Shop Springfield, VA - Curio Cavern | Saturday, November 21 | | Invitational Qualifiers Acton, MA - Gaming Etc. Arvada, CO - Game Heroes Augusta, GA - Cardboard Castle Games Cary, NC - East Coast Gaming Decatur, IL - Board Knight Gaithersburg, MD - Play More Games Houston, TX - Bad Wolf Trading Kingsport, TN - Mulligan's Gaming Lafayette, IN - Legendary Games Marion, NC - Goathead Games Nanuet, NY - ToyWiz Orlando, FL - Campus Cards & Games PPTQ (IQ Prizes) Fort Worth, TX - Collected Comics Owensboro, KY - Big Bang GPT (IQ Prizes) Dover, DE - TD4W Games | 2K Elite Invitational Qualifiers Shakopee, MN - Phantasy Hobbies | Sunday, November 22 | | Invitational Qualifiers Baton Rouge, LA - Rocket's Hideout Cards & Games Bristol, TN - MWO Games Charlotte, NC - Get Some Game Corpus Christi, TX - Gamer's Den Hobby Shop Dalton, GA - The Battlegrounds Games and Comics Decatur, IL - Board Knight Eau Claire, WI - Legendary Tabletop Games Guatemala City, Guatemala - Master Games Scarborough, ME - The Complex West Hartford, CT - Voltage Gaming GPT (IQ Prizes) Dallas, TX - Common Ground Games | 5K Premier Invitational Qualifiers Clermont, FL - Gamer's Emporium 1K Super Invitational Qualifiers San Diego, CA - At Ease Games Gaming and Tournament Center | Tuesday, November 24 | | Invitational Qualifiers Brooklyn, NY - Kings Games | If you would like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails please click here. |
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