Last weekend brought us some Legacy action with Star City Games: Indianapolis, along with side events for Standard and Modern. Let’s see how the weekend turned out after the [card]Treasure Cruise[/card] banning.

Star City Games: Indianapolis – Legacy Open (Indianapolis, IN)

Decklists

Star City Games entered the top 32 decklists into their database for this event, so there is a ton information available about the decks that did well during the previous weekend.

Top 8 Highlights

[card]Dark Confidant[/card] is back in business! Three copies were found in the winning Sultai Delver decklist.

[card]Stifle[/card] also appears to be back on the charts with three copies in the winning decklist.

[card]Marsh Casualties[/card] is a card to watch—the winning decklist had two copies in the sideboard.

Two Elves and two Storm decks were in the Top 8. Combo seems to be making a resurgence, at least at Indianapolis.

Shardless Sultai made the Top 8. Cards to watch here include [card]Shardless Agent[/card], [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card], [card]Dig Through Time[/card], and [card]Ancestral Vision[/card].

Top 16 Highlights

Two copies of Maverick made the Top 16. Cards to watch in this deck include [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], [card]Mother of Runes[/card], [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card], and [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card].

Two copies of Jeskai Delver made the Top 16. They have reverted to the [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] package in vogue before the banning of Treasure Cruise. One deck featured two copies of [card]Dig Through Time[/card]. [card]Meddling Mage[/card] is still a popular sideboard choice, and happens to be great against all the combo that seems to be popping up in Legacy.

An Esper Control deck called Thopter Foundry made the Top 16. Besides the featured [card]Thopter Foundry[/card] card that the deck was named after, other cards to watch include Dig Through Time, [card]Mental Note[/card], and [card]Thought Scour[/card]. A [card]Counterbalance[/card] package was also featured in the sideboard and should be noted.

Top 32 Highlights

A deck identified as U/W Control barely missed the Top 16. This deck featured three copies of the new [card]Monastery Mentor[/card], along with [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card], [card]Dig Through Time[/card], and many counterspells and cantrips in order to win the game. Could this be the direction that Monastery Mentor decks take in Legacy and possibly Vintange? It’s hard to tell at this point, but out of all the decks played during the weekend, this deck should be watched the closest for results over the next few months.

Three copies of Death and Taxes made the Top 32 in addition to a Top 16 appearance. Death and Taxes is still a strong choice even after the Treasure Cruise banning.

Two copies of Sneak and Show made the Top 32. Two copies of Dig Through Time were found in both decks.

All in all, it looks like new brews featuring Dig Through Time popped up during the weekend, so Khans is still making an impact on the metagame. Dig Through Time can still be used to great success in Sneak and Show and control decks in order to help find answers in the late game. Even Monastery Mentor is making a mark with a new type of deck showing up that featured it.

Star City Games: Indianapolis – Standard Premier IQ (Indianapolis, IN)

Decklists

First place in Standard went to W/U Heroic, which didn’t include anything new from Fate Reforged. Four-Color Soul took second place, featuring four [card]Soul of Theros[/card] and three [card]Tasigur, the Golden Fang[/card] main deck. Tasigur is the real deal, as we’ve also seen in Legacy, and his price should be watched very carefully over the next few weeks (especially foils).

Rounding out the Top 8, other cards to watch out for include:

[card]Ashcloud Phoenix[/card], [card]Flamewake Phoenix[/card], [card]Frost Walker[/card], [card]Rattleclaw Mystic[/card], [card]Savage Knuckleblade[/card], and [card]Shaman of the Great Hunt[/card] in Temur Aggro. I still think Crater’s Claws[/card] is going to continue to be good moving froward, especially going into the next Standard later in the year.

Crux of Fate[/card] out of U/B Control and Sultai Control.

[card]Rakshasa Deathdealer[/card], [card]Warden of the First Tree[/card], [card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/card], and [card]Valorous Stance[/card] out of Abzan Aggro.

From the Top 16, cards to watch include:

[card]Heir of the Wilds[/card], [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card], and [card]Whisperwood Elemental[/card] out of G/R Aggro.

[card]Butcher of the Horde[/card] out of 4-Color Midrange.

[card]Temur Ascendancy[/card], [card]Genesis Hydra[/card], [card]Temur Sabertooth[/card], [card]Eidolon of Blossoms[/card], and [card]Chord of Calling[/card] out of Temur Ascendancy.

[card]Polukranos, World Eater[/card], [card]Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx[/card], and [card]Xenagos, the Reveler[/card] out of G/R Devotion. Jason indicated that Nykthos is near an all time low price for such a powerful effect—get your copies now if you plan to play any of these devotion based strategies such as G/R Devotion or Temur Ascendancy combo.



Standard has been shaken up a bit, with some new players now battling it out with the old. U/W Heroic seems to be solid in a metagame that is still being established, but will it last?

Star City Games: Indianapolis – Modern Premier IQ (Indianapolis, IN)

Decklists

While Stephen Speck couldn’t win GP Omaha, he certainly won this event piloting Amulet Combo! It seems regardless of the variance of the deck’s hands that as long as you have experience piloting the deck, you can do very well with it (not having to play against Birthing Pod is quite nice though!). Cards to watch here include [card]Primeval Titan[/card], [card]Azusa, Lost but Seeking[/card], [card]Amulet of Vigor[/card], [card]Hive Mind[/card], and [card]Summer Bloom[/card].

G/W Hatebears took second place. This deck seemed to be a popular choice amongst a potential field of Dredge decks which players were sure to test out. Cards to watch out for from this deck include [card]Leonin Arbiter[/card], [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card], [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card], [card]Wilt-Leaf Liege[/card], and [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card].

Rounding out the Top 8, other cards to watch out for include:

[card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], [card]Young Pyromancer[/card], and [card]Shadow of Doubt[/card] out of Jeskai Control.

[card]Shard Volley[/card] out of Mono Red Burn—this seems to be a burn spell that is being included in Modern lists these days. Watch out for cheap foils especially.

[card]Ghostfire Blade[/card] in Affinity.

[card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card], [card]Wild Nacatl[/card], and [card]Become Immense[/card] out of Naya Zoo (which is a very weird Zoo list that I haven’t seen before). Sideboard cards to watch here include [card]Seeker of the Way[/card], [card]Chained to the Rocks[/card], [card]Destructive Revelry[/card] (is this Standard!?), [card]Dismember[/card], and [card]Gut Shot[/card].

[card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card] was included as a playset in the the Burn lists and the Zoo list—Swiftspear looks like it will be a strong performer in Modern. Even [card]Young Pyromancer[/card] appeared in some lists.

From the Top 16, cards to watch include:

Cards from Elves [card]Arbor Elf[/card], [card]Devoted Druid[/card], [card]Heritage Druid[/card], [card]Nettle Sentinel[/card], and especially foil [card]Ezuri, Renegade Leader[/card] (which has received additional hype from Tiny Leaders discussions)

Cards from Dredgevine and Dredge Dredgevine included a whole host of creatures that haven’t been seen before. Financially relevant cards include [card]Death’s Shadow[/card] , [card]Gravecrawler[/card] , [card]Skaab Ruinator[/card] , and [card]Vengevine[/card]. Ancient Ziggurat should also be noted, since it appeared as playset due the Dredgevine deck consisting of only 40 creatures and 20 lands. Foils of this land should be watched closely. Dredge was a more spell-based list, but it also used Golgari Grave-Troll, Gravecrawler, and Vengevine as the base along with [card]Grisly Salvage[/card] and [card]Faithless Looting[/card] to help play a quick Tasigur, the Golden Fang

[card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], [card]Lotus Cobra[/card], [card]Sovereigns of Lost Alara[/card], [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], and [card]Eldrazi Conscription[/card] out of the Bant Aggro list.

[card]Blade Splicer[/card], [card]Dryad Militant[/card], [card]Judge’s Familiar[/card], [card]Ghost Quarter[/card], and [card]Tectonic Edge[/card] out of Death and Taxes (which now exists in Modern, apparently!)

[card]Tombstalker[/card] and [card]Bump in the Night[/card] out of R/B Burn. [card]Rain of Gore[/card] is a notable sideboard card in this deck.

[card]Nyxathid[/card], [card]The Rack[/card], [card]Terminate[/card], and [card]Wrench Mind[/card] out of the Rack deck

There’s a lot to keep an eye on this week. Until next time!

Wow, the Top 16 was extremely diverse at this Modern Premier IQ! Plenty of innovation appeared due to the recent bannings and unbannings in the format, with the opportunity to see more when Pro Tour DC happens from 2/6-2/8. Old lists did well but the banning of Birthing Pod and Treasure Cruise has certainly been felt and has taken Modern in a new direction.

That’s it for this week. Next weekend is the Pro Tour, which will provide further information about what decks are now viable in Modern.