The only event that happened last weekend was the Star City Games Players’ Championship, an event exclusively dedicated to sixteen incredible players that have done exceptionally well at Star City Games events across the country. There are sixteen Standard and sixteen Legacy decks that come out of the event, so lets see how well the decks did against each other when only the pro’s were around to pilot them.

SCG Players’ Championship – Standard (Roanoke, VA)

Decklists

Wow: three Sultai Reanimator decks taking the top three spots of the Standard portion really speaks to the power of the deck. Even in a field of excellent players, the Sultai Reanimator deck reigns supreme. Lets take a look at which cards were included across those decks.

Maindeck Mythic Rare Uncommon 6x Pharika, God of Affliction 12x Whip of Erebos 15x Murderous Cut 4x Sidisi, Brood Tyrant 12x Thoughtseize 12x Opulent Palace 1x Soul of Innistrad 12x Sylvan Caryatid 7x Sultai Charm 12x Courser of Kruphix 2x Reclamation Sage 10x Llanowar Wastes 8x Temple of Malady 8x Eidolon of Blossoms 8x Doomwake Giant 6x Yavimaya Coast 6x Hornet Queen 4x Temple of Deceit 4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 3x Hero’s Downfall 2x Windswept Heath 2x Polluted Delta 1x Temple of Mystery 1x Mana Confluence

Sideboard

7x Disdainful Stroke 6x Hero’s Downfall 5x Bile Blight 5x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 4x Read the Bones 4x Negate 4x Kiora, the Crashing Wave 2x Treasure Cruise 2x Thoughtseize 2x Sultai Charm 2x Silence the Believers 1x Reclamation Sage 1x Drown in Sorrow

OK, so the first thing that pops out to me is the lack of [card]Sidisi, Brood Tyrant[/card]. Yes, Brad Nelson did play them and he won the overall Players’ Championship with the help of his particular build. However, with two other competitors Gerard Fabiano and Reid Duke opting not to play them it is quite clear that the Sultai Brood doesn’t need the tyrant in order to still place well. What is important are the [card]Whip of Erebos[/card], [card]Thoughtseize[/card], and [card]Sylvan Caryatid[/card]s found across the decks. Other notables include eight [card]Eidolon of Blossoms[/card], eight [card]Doomwake Giant[/card]s, six [card]Pharika, God of Affliction[/card]. These are all cards that could be potentially undervalued going into the new year based on the results here.

Let’s also analyze U/W Heroic, as this deck appeared three times in the Top 8 along with Sultai Reanimator.

Rare Uncommon 12x Hero of Iroas 12x Ordeal of Thassa 8x Temple of Enlightenment 12x Favored Hoplite 8x Flooded Strand 12x Battlewise Hoplite 3x Mana Confluence 7x Seeker of the Way 1x Eidolon of Countless Battles 5x Ordeal of Heliod 3x Stubborn Denial 2x Triton Tactics

Sideboard 9x Stubborn Denial 7x Glare of Heresy 5x Treasure Cruise 5x Erase 4x Ordeal of Heliod 4x Ajani’s Presence 3x Lagonna-Band Trailblazer 2x Mortal’s Ardor 2x Mortal Obstinacy 2x Aqueous Form 1x Triton Tactics 1x Dig Through Time

The deck is very straightforward in order to stay on the aggro tempo plan based on the linear numbers and lack of mythics. The most important cards include [card]Hero of Iroas[/card], [card]Ordeal of Thassa[/card], [card]Favored Hoplite[/card], and [card]Battlewise Hoplite[/card]. [card[Flooded Strand[/card] has been trending upwards over the past few weeks on the success of this deck. Many of the fetchlands have stabilized in price for now, so keep the ones that you’ve already acquired. The low point for fetches will come starting next spring and going into the summer, so I would only recommend picking up Flooded Strand and the rest if you plan on playing with them until then.

Four players opted to play Jeskai Tokens at the Championships, and while it only put one player into the Top 8, the deck still remains a competitive choice for players. Notables from Jeskai Tokens include [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card], [card]Jeskai Ascendency[/card], and [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card].

Only one player decided to play Mardu Midrange despite its recent successes. I don’t think this means it is going to be the end of the deck but unfortunately it means that there isn’t much analysis on what higher level players would play in their Mardu Midrange builds. [card]Bloodstained Mire[/card] and [card]Wooded Foothills[/card] are still the cheapest fetchlands, and if B/R/G decks prove popular next year we can expect these fetchlands to start climbing like [card]Flooded Strand[/card] has.

SCG Players’ Championship – Legacy (Roanoke, VA)

Decklists

Just like many SCG Legacy Opens that we’ve seen in the past, the Top 8 of the Legacy portion also reflects the diversity of Legacy’s metagame compared to formats like Standard. Brad Nelson’s Legacy go-to choice is Sneak and Show. Two main deck [card]Overmaster[/card] are the notable cards from this build. Everything else reflects the typical Sneak and Show decks but with the addition of three main deck [card]Flusterstorm[/card] in anticipation of Storm and Delver builds. One card with a surprising price is [card]Boseiju, Who Shelters All[/card] which is $9.50 TCG Median. This card just got a reprint in the FTV series, so I would not expect Boseiju’s price to move for quite some time.

Sultai Control is a spin on the old Team America decks, which is focused on controlling your opponent until you can drop a game-ending threat and win from there. Fabiano’s take on the deck includes two [card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/card] and two [card]Counterbalance[/card] to help against faster decks while also playing Legacy staples such as [card]Abrupt Decay[/card], [card]Treasure Cruise[/card], [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], and [card]Thoughtseize[/card].

The players’ decks reflected what they were most comfortable with, which makes sense give Legacy’s extremely diverse format. However, Reanimator was the most popular choice with three players piloting the deck. Kent Ketter and Joe Lossett were both playing four [card]Gemstone Cavern[/card]s main, which is a land that if you’re not playing first you can begin the game with the land in play with a luck counter on it by exiling a card from your hand (if you have it in your opener). The luck counter allows the land to tap for any color rather than colorless, which means that you are essentially playing a pseudo-[card]Chrome Mox[/card] on your first turn. This allowed them to have faster clocks on the draw; sometimes the difference between a win and a loss in a format like Legacy. Non-foil Caverns are $2 while foils are $10, so if this version of Reanimator continues to show up at Legacy events I would expect non-foils to rise in price since it only has one printing.

Keter and Lossett also both played two [card]Firestorm[/card] main deck. This could mean upward mobility for the card’s price, since it is now seeing additional play outside of Dredge.

Other notables from Legacy include four Overmaster between the main deck and sideboard of Omni-Tell, two [card]Dack Fayden[/card] in Grixis Control, and three [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] in Deathbalde.

Wrapping Up

That’s all for this weekend! Players and spectators had high hopes for the SCG Players’ Championship and Star City certainly delivered on them. We got plenty of great Magic action along with some interesting deck choices that could ultimately spell changes financially for select cards that played important roles in the decks.