| Nice to meet you Amulet Bloom. Goodbye! I'm typically not one to get into conversations about bannings and unbannings. My opinion is usually, "whatever happens, happens," and I'll adjust accordingly—but what I saw Bobby Fortanely do at #SCGCIN was too silly for even me to handle. Sometimes it takes actually seeing broken things happen for one to fully understand the problem at hand, and watching Fortanely cast a Turn 2 Primeval Titan through a Remand was more than enough for me to kiss this deck goodbye. So congrats to Bobby Fortanely for doing what so many tried to do before him – getting Amulet Bloom banned from Modern. So where does that leave us for #SCGCHAR this weekend? Well, Amulet Bloom is still legal for another week or two, so perhaps we'll see many gravitate to that deck while they can still play it, or perhaps people will try to beat the broken deck with an influx of Blood Moons and Fulminator Mages. Either way, we'll find out this weekend as Chris VanMeter, Andrew Boswell, Ken Crocker, and the rest of the @SCGLive crew bring you all the action from The Queen City for the second event of Season One of the SCG Tour. If you can't make it out to #SCGCHAR, be sure to watch all the action at twitch.tv/scglive! — Cedric Phillips, Online Content Coordinator |  | Linvala, The Preserver And Oath Of Nissa! When a new set comes out, you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who analyzes cards better than Patrick Chapin. With Oath of the Gatewatch around the corner, he's got plenty of new toys to discuss. So what does The Innovator think of Linvala, The Preserver and Oath of Nissa? Read along and find out! |  | Taking Accountability For Your Play For 2015, Chris Andersen saw his most successful year of Magic. With six SCG Tour Top 8s, we frequently saw him in the elimination rounds last year, but the one area where Chris came up short was in qualifying for the #SCGPC. Now he's more determined than ever to be there in 2016 and this week he explains how. | | | In the semifinals of the first Open Event of the 2016 SCG Tour, Brian Braun‑Duin and his trusty U/R Twin deck faced off against Bobby Fortanely and Amulet Bloom. Both decks have had parts of the Magic community calling for bans, so which one ends up being the most unfair? Click and see for yourself! |  | | Charlotte may be the home of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but this weekend, the fastest and loudest event will be when the SCG Tour roars into Charlotte Convention Center for #SCGCHAR! So we get two weekends of Modern in a row? Someone better pinch me. This is too good to be true! If you watched #SCGCIN, you got a chance to witness Bobby Fortanely take down the entire event with Amulet Bloom, a deck which many people believe is on the chopping block for the upcoming Banned List announcement just before Pro Tour: Oath of the Gatewatch. You'd think it would be at the top of my list of "decks you should play this weekend," especially with two copies infiltrating the Top 8. Nope! The belle of the ball is Jeff Hoogland's Kiki-Chord deck that trounced the field and had one heck of a coming out party: | | Jeff is well known for his genius and madness when it comes to Modern. Sometimes his brews are fruitless endeavors, but more often than not, he hits homeruns and Kiki-Chord is no exception. Watching it play out on camera was a thing of beauty, and it looks like it has all the tools to combat the biggest and best decks in Modern. The thing that stands out immediately is the instant kill prospect that Kiki-Chord offers. For those not familiar, Kiki‑Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Restoration Angel create a combo that generates infinite angels, meaning "game over" for your opponent. Chord of Calling works in tandem with these two powerful creatures to give you incredible redundancy and multiple ways to eke out a victory. Aside from a convenient way to end the game with a combo, Kiki-Chord runs a multitude of value creatures that you can either make copies of or blink with Restoration Angel to further press your advantage, such as Wall of Omens, Eternal Witness, and Reveillark. As an avid Modern Burn player, I can tell you that a deck playing multiple Walls isn't exactly what you want to be seeing across the table, let alone Courser of Kruphix! I thought when it rotated from Standard I was safe from it, but Jeff has brought back the green, life-gaining menace to torment me once more. Tying up the package is Voice of Resurgence—a nightmare for control and midrange, removal-heavy decks alike.   The sideboard presents a multitude of strong options to hate out popular Modern strategies. The artifact-hosing Stony Silence makes a welcome appearance to shut down Affinity, as well as Lantern Control. A touch of black for cards like Orzhov Pontiff, Fulminator Mage, and Slaughter Games can be extremely devastating to decks like R/G Tron, Splinter Twin, and other combo strategies. With Amulet Bloom winning at #SCGCIN, it may be necessary to add a few bullets to the sideboard to help keep Bloom from repeating at #SCGCHAR. Decks that play Birds of Paradise are afforded the luxury of Blood Moon and, in order to keep Amulet in check, it might be the kind of alternative this deck has to adopt so that it may claim a crown of its own. If I were you, I'd be keeping a close eye on #SCGCHAR to see the evolution of Kiki-Chord. This deck isn't just a one-trick pony, and I fully expect it to continue proving that fact as it takes to the tournament grounds. Nothing feels better than playing a fantastic deck that no one respects just yet, and if you choose to heed my words, you might find yourself at the top tables and eventually crossing the finish line—hoisting your very own trophy. Just don't let your friends spray you with milk or soda pop or whatever those NASCAR drivers do…that would just be weird. — Mark Nestico, @DynamoNestico | | With a new year comes a new start to the Road to the Players' Championship, and the results from #SCGCIN weigh heavily on our current Leaderboard. With players trying their best to reach a Top 3 spot on the leaderboard at the end of Season One, these early Open events could be the difference between make or break for a Point Leader qualification in our year-end championship. Thanks in large part to his runner-up finish, Jeff Hoogland has moved up two places to claim our top spot on the Season One leaderboard. Jeff has always been a staple on the SCG Tour, known for playing his wacky brews and being very successful with them. This past weekend at #SCGCIN, he used his innovative Kiki-Chord deck to take 2nd place, only losing to the unfair (and some say ban-worthy) Amulet Bloom deck, piloted by Bobby Fortanely. Look for Jeff to be at all of the SCG Tour events during Season One as he looks to get back to the Players' Championship this year, like he did two years ago. Speaking of players from the Players' Championship, Logan Mize has positioned himself to make another run at making it back to the tournament. |  | | The Florida native is a Magic playing machine, as evident by his very busy last two months. He finished just outside the Top 8 at Standard Open in Las Vegas and had a Quarterfinals finish at the 2015 #SCGPC, followed by a Top 16 run at the Modern Open in Cincinnati. Talk about a model of consistency! For all of his troubles, Logan has moved up twenty-eight spots on our Leaderboard, placing him at 24th and giving him one bye for all of the Open events he enters during Season One of the SCG Tour. With so many SCG Points ready to be claimed at every event, each one can have a huge impact on the Leaderboard, week-to-week. Who will be #1 next week? Watch #SCGCHAR at twitch.tv/scglive and find out as we continue down our Road to the Players' Championship! |  |  | | Friday, January 8 | | Invitational Qualifiers Bernardsville, NJ - The Bearded Dragon Games Springfield, VA - Curio Cavern | Saturday, January 9 | | Invitational Qualifiers Clarksville, TN - Frontline Games Columbia, MO - Magelings Games Lafayette, IN - Legendary Games Littleton, CO - Black Gold Louisville, KY - Through the Decades Lutherville/Timonium, MD - Titan Games and Hobbies Minneapolis, MN - Dreamers Vault Games Nanuet, NY - ToyWiz Tampa, FL - The Game Academy Tampa Wilbraham, MA - AAA Games, Cards, and More GPT (IQ Prizes) Bay City, MI - The Stadium Hatboro, PA - Stomping Grounds | Super Invitational Qualifiers Memphis, TN - Greater Memphis Magic Arena | Sunday, January 10 | | Invitational Qualifiers Austin, TX - Whose Turn Is It? Games Dover, DE - TD4W Games East Windsor, NJ - Gamer's Realm Hobby Falls Church, VA - Victory Comics Lexington, KY - Legendary Games New Holland, PA - Six Feet Under Games South Saint Paul, MN - Level Up Games | Thursday, January 14 | | Invitational Qualifiers East Windsor, NJ - Gamer's Realm Hobby | If you would like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails please click here. |
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