Magic Weekend Review: Rise of Nations...
...so, this weekend saw three big National Championships, as well as one of StarCityGames.com's $10K weekends. Here's how the weekend played out.
United States National Championship
Josh Utter-Leyton is the United States Magic National Champion, beating Anthony Eason 3-1 in a very action-packed final, including a Game 4 where he had to survive at least five turns without Eason drawing a burn spell to send the match to Game 5. Eason couldn't topdeck the burn, and Josh survives. His deck of choice was Bant Conscription, non-Shaman-flavored, and that deck ran unbeaten over the entire weekend. Eason, the runner-up, piloted classic Red Deck Wins, with all the hasties in tow: Hell's Thunder, Hellspark Elemental, Goblin Guide, and Ball Lightning...as well as most of the burnies: Burst Lightning, Earthquake, Lightning Bolt, Searing Blaze, and Staggershock (as well as Forked Bolt in the sideboard, which was great at clearing out mana critters).
The final slot in Chiba went to John Kolos, who beat David Ochoa for third place. Kolos went with a mono-green Eldrazi Ramp deck...and not Eldrazi Monument, either. This one had all three of the big boys, as well as all the ramp needed to get there...and Summoning Trap to also help speed matters up. Also featured are a set of Primeval Titans, Terastodon, and Obstinate Baloth (with three of his buddies in the Board in case someone was over-reliant on Blightning). Ochoa went with Dredgevine, an all-creature build which relies on Merfolk Looter, Enclave Cryptologist, Fauna Shaman, and Hedron Crab to fill the 'yard with Vengevines and Extractor Demons, then dropping Renegade Doppelganger and another creature spell to bring out the Vines for a big beatdown (or Unearthing Extractor Demon for big beats of their own).
The rest of the Top 8 included Brad "FFFreak" Nelson, who also played Dredgevine, in an almost carbon copy of Ochoa's build; Gerard Fabiano, who played U/W Control; Tim Sussino, who piloted Pyromancer Ascension; and Eric Froehlich (more known now for his poker than his Magic), who went with "Naya Titan and Friends" (the friends being Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth, Garruk, and Gideon), which also included the ingenious inclusion of Trace of Abundance to drop on his Ravines and Wildwoods.
On a local note, Bowling Green, Ohio's Aaron Wilburn finished 9th, piloting a 7-1 Jund build with Grave Titan as the big finisher, but stumbling a bit in the draft portion. To see all of the Top 8 and X-2 Standard decks on one page, click here.
Great Britain National Championship
Joseph Jackson took Great Britain by storm, bringing home the British national championship trophy with his Naya Shaman build, punctuated by many big singletons (Baneslayer, Sun Titan, Linvala, Realm Razer, Stoneforge Mystic) and Cunning Sparkmages as well as the main combo. In the finals, he beat playtest partner Richard Bland, who was playing an exact mirror of the deck, down to the sideboard.
Daniel Gardner became the third member of the team by beating Jonathan Randle in the 3rd place match. Gardner played a pretty basic W/U Control build, with a full six Jaces (three each) and Baneslayer Angels for finishers. Randle piloted Shaman Conscription, with the singletons each of Sovereigns and Eldrazi Conscription for the finish.
Rounding out the top eight, we had James Foster, who went with a much tighter version of Shaman Conscription, which included Jace and Elspeth and omitted Primeval Titans; Eduardo Sajgalik, who went with Grave Titan-topped Jund; James Cleak, who preferred Naya Shaman; and Andrew Morrison, who went with the more classic Jund build with Siege-Gang Commander and including Sarkhan the Mad. The top 8 decks are here for perusal.
German National Championship
Dennis Johannsen took the German National Championship, beating Tobias Gräfensteiner in the finals. Johannsen went with straight Titan Ramp, including a singleton Rampaging Baloths to help foment a beast army, and an interesting sideboard choice in a singleton Swamp to splash three Thought Hemorrhages. Gräfensteiner's deck was actually a twin-billed deck. In Game 1, it's basic Pyromancer Ascension...with three Khalni Garden, hinting at the sideboard, which would change the deck into a Polymorph build, with a single 'morph quite possibly able to turn two Eldrazi Spawn into Progenitus and Emrakul. Now that's beats...but not enough to overcome Johannsen.
Jörg Unfried is the third member of the team, defeating Christian Hauck in the 3rd place match. Unfried went Jund, keeping the Blightnings that most other players had eschewed thanks to the Obstinate Baloth threat. His token generators of choice were Siege-Gang Commander and Master of the Wild Hunt, as well as the 4 Sprouting Thrinax of course. Hauck went with a 4-color version of Shaman Conscription, sporting only three Vengevines, so he can drop in an extra Sovereigns and Cunning Sparkmages.
The rest of the Top 8: Florian Pils, running W/U control with a set of Baneslayers and two Sun Titans; Daniel Gräfensteiner, who ran a carbon copy of his brother Tobias' Ascension/Polymorph deck (Tobias beat him in the quarterfinals); Tobias Dreger, who ran straight Polymorph; and Sebastian Potyka, running Jund with Grave Titan. The Top 8 decks (and all winning decks from the weekend) can be found here.
StarCityGames.com $5K Standard Open Denver
Denver was the place to be for those not lucky enough to be qualified for Nationals this week (or lucky enough to not have to play nationals this week.) Josh Napper took the title, beating Chris Higashi in the finals. Napper ran Naya Shaman, standard issue, with Ajani Vengeant being his sole planeswalker. Higashi brewed a deck he called "4-Color Greedo", which seems to be a mesh of Jund cascade strategies minus the object advantage cards and adding Deny Reality for more cascade and used Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker as his big finisher.
The rest of the Top 8 (which you can see here, as well as the next 8) included: Shiloh Hertz, who went with a Naya Allies deck, with Survivalists, Evangels, Blademasters, Freeblades, Druids, Battlesingers, and Talus Paladins (which were able to fuel a winning lifegain war against a lifegain deck we'll see later in this report), fueled by Bushwhackers, Bloodbraid Elves, and Rangers of Eos; Lance Liberto, playing Superfriends (Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth, Jace, and Gideon)...the only critters on the field are Wall of Omens, Elspeth's soldier tokens, and Gideon when he's activated; 12-year-old Zac Cole, who ran the Grave Titan-fueled version of Jund; Jake Lehmkuhl, who piloted a mono-wite lifegain deck called "Soul Sisters" (this build was also favored by Conley Woods at Nationals), which uses Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant to ramp up the life to fuel both Serra Ascendant and Ajani's Pridemate, and takes advantage of high life totals in other ways, including Survival Cache; Travis Spero, who went with G/U Turboland, sans Primeval Titan, but with Jace, Cobras, and Oracles; and Josh Speranza, who piloted the Siege-Gang flavor of Jund.
StarCityGames.com $5K Legacy Open Denver
Constantine Vidgerman took the Legacy Open the next day, beating Kyle Miller in the finals. Vidgerman piloted a Merfolk deck similar to the brand Tomoharu Saitou used to win Grand Prix Columbus. The main differences were far less fetching and no dual lands for Vidgerman, as well as the inclusion of Umezawa's Jitte in the maindeck. Kyle Miller took a straight red Burn deck to 2nd place. Its suite included Fireblasts, Bolts, Chain Lightnigns, Lava Spikes, and Rift Bolts, and Price of Progress, a choice rendered less than stellar by Vidgerman's lack of nonbasics.
The top 16 decks can be seen here. The rest of the top 8 includes Adam Prosak, playing Countertop; Hans Feng, piloting Goblins; Bob Yu, playing the Ad Nauseam version of Tendrils; Kyle Yeates, with the U/G/W variant of Countertop (that uses Tarmogoyf for the finisher); Stephen Oxford, also going with Goblins (his has Warren Instigator; Feng's did not); and Harrison Beach, who went with U/G Survival with Vengevine. SCG Standard winner Josh Napper also finished 16th in this tournament.
That's all from a very busy Magic weekend.
United States National Championship
Josh Utter-Leyton is the United States Magic National Champion, beating Anthony Eason 3-1 in a very action-packed final, including a Game 4 where he had to survive at least five turns without Eason drawing a burn spell to send the match to Game 5. Eason couldn't topdeck the burn, and Josh survives. His deck of choice was Bant Conscription, non-Shaman-flavored, and that deck ran unbeaten over the entire weekend. Eason, the runner-up, piloted classic Red Deck Wins, with all the hasties in tow: Hell's Thunder, Hellspark Elemental, Goblin Guide, and Ball Lightning...as well as most of the burnies: Burst Lightning, Earthquake, Lightning Bolt, Searing Blaze, and Staggershock (as well as Forked Bolt in the sideboard, which was great at clearing out mana critters).
The final slot in Chiba went to John Kolos, who beat David Ochoa for third place. Kolos went with a mono-green Eldrazi Ramp deck...and not Eldrazi Monument, either. This one had all three of the big boys, as well as all the ramp needed to get there...and Summoning Trap to also help speed matters up. Also featured are a set of Primeval Titans, Terastodon, and Obstinate Baloth (with three of his buddies in the Board in case someone was over-reliant on Blightning). Ochoa went with Dredgevine, an all-creature build which relies on Merfolk Looter, Enclave Cryptologist, Fauna Shaman, and Hedron Crab to fill the 'yard with Vengevines and Extractor Demons, then dropping Renegade Doppelganger and another creature spell to bring out the Vines for a big beatdown (or Unearthing Extractor Demon for big beats of their own).
The rest of the Top 8 included Brad "FFFreak" Nelson, who also played Dredgevine, in an almost carbon copy of Ochoa's build; Gerard Fabiano, who played U/W Control; Tim Sussino, who piloted Pyromancer Ascension; and Eric Froehlich (more known now for his poker than his Magic), who went with "Naya Titan and Friends" (the friends being Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth, Garruk, and Gideon), which also included the ingenious inclusion of Trace of Abundance to drop on his Ravines and Wildwoods.
On a local note, Bowling Green, Ohio's Aaron Wilburn finished 9th, piloting a 7-1 Jund build with Grave Titan as the big finisher, but stumbling a bit in the draft portion. To see all of the Top 8 and X-2 Standard decks on one page, click here.
Great Britain National Championship
Joseph Jackson took Great Britain by storm, bringing home the British national championship trophy with his Naya Shaman build, punctuated by many big singletons (Baneslayer, Sun Titan, Linvala, Realm Razer, Stoneforge Mystic) and Cunning Sparkmages as well as the main combo. In the finals, he beat playtest partner Richard Bland, who was playing an exact mirror of the deck, down to the sideboard.
Daniel Gardner became the third member of the team by beating Jonathan Randle in the 3rd place match. Gardner played a pretty basic W/U Control build, with a full six Jaces (three each) and Baneslayer Angels for finishers. Randle piloted Shaman Conscription, with the singletons each of Sovereigns and Eldrazi Conscription for the finish.
Rounding out the top eight, we had James Foster, who went with a much tighter version of Shaman Conscription, which included Jace and Elspeth and omitted Primeval Titans; Eduardo Sajgalik, who went with Grave Titan-topped Jund; James Cleak, who preferred Naya Shaman; and Andrew Morrison, who went with the more classic Jund build with Siege-Gang Commander and including Sarkhan the Mad. The top 8 decks are here for perusal.
German National Championship
Dennis Johannsen took the German National Championship, beating Tobias Gräfensteiner in the finals. Johannsen went with straight Titan Ramp, including a singleton Rampaging Baloths to help foment a beast army, and an interesting sideboard choice in a singleton Swamp to splash three Thought Hemorrhages. Gräfensteiner's deck was actually a twin-billed deck. In Game 1, it's basic Pyromancer Ascension...with three Khalni Garden, hinting at the sideboard, which would change the deck into a Polymorph build, with a single 'morph quite possibly able to turn two Eldrazi Spawn into Progenitus and Emrakul. Now that's beats...but not enough to overcome Johannsen.
Jörg Unfried is the third member of the team, defeating Christian Hauck in the 3rd place match. Unfried went Jund, keeping the Blightnings that most other players had eschewed thanks to the Obstinate Baloth threat. His token generators of choice were Siege-Gang Commander and Master of the Wild Hunt, as well as the 4 Sprouting Thrinax of course. Hauck went with a 4-color version of Shaman Conscription, sporting only three Vengevines, so he can drop in an extra Sovereigns and Cunning Sparkmages.
The rest of the Top 8: Florian Pils, running W/U control with a set of Baneslayers and two Sun Titans; Daniel Gräfensteiner, who ran a carbon copy of his brother Tobias' Ascension/Polymorph deck (Tobias beat him in the quarterfinals); Tobias Dreger, who ran straight Polymorph; and Sebastian Potyka, running Jund with Grave Titan. The Top 8 decks (and all winning decks from the weekend) can be found here.
StarCityGames.com $5K Standard Open Denver
Denver was the place to be for those not lucky enough to be qualified for Nationals this week (or lucky enough to not have to play nationals this week.) Josh Napper took the title, beating Chris Higashi in the finals. Napper ran Naya Shaman, standard issue, with Ajani Vengeant being his sole planeswalker. Higashi brewed a deck he called "4-Color Greedo", which seems to be a mesh of Jund cascade strategies minus the object advantage cards and adding Deny Reality for more cascade and used Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker as his big finisher.
The rest of the Top 8 (which you can see here, as well as the next 8) included: Shiloh Hertz, who went with a Naya Allies deck, with Survivalists, Evangels, Blademasters, Freeblades, Druids, Battlesingers, and Talus Paladins (which were able to fuel a winning lifegain war against a lifegain deck we'll see later in this report), fueled by Bushwhackers, Bloodbraid Elves, and Rangers of Eos; Lance Liberto, playing Superfriends (Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth, Jace, and Gideon)...the only critters on the field are Wall of Omens, Elspeth's soldier tokens, and Gideon when he's activated; 12-year-old Zac Cole, who ran the Grave Titan-fueled version of Jund; Jake Lehmkuhl, who piloted a mono-wite lifegain deck called "Soul Sisters" (this build was also favored by Conley Woods at Nationals), which uses Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant to ramp up the life to fuel both Serra Ascendant and Ajani's Pridemate, and takes advantage of high life totals in other ways, including Survival Cache; Travis Spero, who went with G/U Turboland, sans Primeval Titan, but with Jace, Cobras, and Oracles; and Josh Speranza, who piloted the Siege-Gang flavor of Jund.
StarCityGames.com $5K Legacy Open Denver
Constantine Vidgerman took the Legacy Open the next day, beating Kyle Miller in the finals. Vidgerman piloted a Merfolk deck similar to the brand Tomoharu Saitou used to win Grand Prix Columbus. The main differences were far less fetching and no dual lands for Vidgerman, as well as the inclusion of Umezawa's Jitte in the maindeck. Kyle Miller took a straight red Burn deck to 2nd place. Its suite included Fireblasts, Bolts, Chain Lightnigns, Lava Spikes, and Rift Bolts, and Price of Progress, a choice rendered less than stellar by Vidgerman's lack of nonbasics.
The top 16 decks can be seen here. The rest of the top 8 includes Adam Prosak, playing Countertop; Hans Feng, piloting Goblins; Bob Yu, playing the Ad Nauseam version of Tendrils; Kyle Yeates, with the U/G/W variant of Countertop (that uses Tarmogoyf for the finisher); Stephen Oxford, also going with Goblins (his has Warren Instigator; Feng's did not); and Harrison Beach, who went with U/G Survival with Vengevine. SCG Standard winner Josh Napper also finished 16th in this tournament.
That's all from a very busy Magic weekend.