It's time for Grand Prix DC!

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Newsletter
Thursday, August 31st

All great things must come to an end, and Grand Prix Washington DC is this excellent Standard format's last chance! It's going to be a fitting end to a great season of Magic! If you're taking on the main event, you can't do better than reading the work of Brad Nelson, a former #GPDC winner and maybe the hottest player in the world right now. We've also got Brennan DeCandio and Gerry Thompson on deck, doing their best to take home the glory before the Magic world moves to Ixalan and all the treasures beyond! Stay tuned to SCG next week for more on the Magic formats to come and coverage for all of the new card previews! Next stop: Ixalan!

— Danny West, Content Coordinator

My Process For Winning Grand Prix
By Brad Nelson  

Making last-minute deck decisions has never been difficult for me. It may sound cliché to use a movie trope as an analogy, but I've always bought into the idea that immobility is a death sentence. Even looking at it existentially, death isn't waiting for us, so why should we wait for it? This translates so fluidly to Magic; only random chance can stave misfortune for stagnancy. Many understand this but feel they lack a deep enough well of knowledge to execute it. Rather than venturing into the unknown, they'd rather seek shelter in comfortability. For some this very well may be the best decision for them; but for others it's a mental crutch that keeps them from discovering their full potential.

To appreciate the lessons I'll be teaching today it's important to not assume I believe you're playing the wrong deck, or that am being judgmental in anyway. There are no right or wrong deck choices. There are merely correct and incorrect processes to finding out which decks are right or wrong to play. After all, it's impossible to solve a riddle without understanding it first.

September 16-17
Modern

September 23-24
Sealed/2HG Sealed

Sep 30 - Oct 1
Standard

Supersized Standard's Last Hurrah
By Brennan DeCandio  

If a card like Pia Nalaar was a good sideboard card in Ramunap Red mirror matches because it created additional bodies to gum up the ground and air with, Whirler Virtuoso seems like an windmill-slam creature for the matchup, with Brad going up to the full four copies as well as some additional early interaction in Magma Spray. There's not much I can say that the champ himself hasn't already said, and you can find a full run down of the deck from Brad himself on Premium!

Does that mean that Temur Energy is the best choice going into Grand Prix Washington DC? Possibly, but that could change as the format takes its final adaptation for Standard's last hurrah and final farewell to Battle for Zendikar and Shadows over Innistrad blocks. I'll be looking to attack the metagame in a way that has game against Temur Energy while not just folding to the midrange strategies around. Some decks I've seen pop up that are up to the task might be a bit unfamiliar to some.

Denver to DC: Surveying
The Standard Metagame
By Gerry Thompson  

Green has been the best color in Standard for a while because it's consistent. Cards like Attune with Aether, Traverse the Ulvenwald, and Tireless Tracker help make your land drops and give you something to do with that mana late. It has card advantage and good threats, and can easily fix its mana to splash some removal from a different color.

Obviously, sometimes it's not well-positioned. B/G Constrictor is vulnerable to certain metagame setups, but, as I mentioned, Temur Energy sort of breaks that mold. What if, instead of anticipating metagame shifts and playing a deck that beats Temur Energy, you play Temur and build it with the mirror in mind?

Something like this is crazy enough to work.