This past weekend featured Star City Games: Richmond. Let’s take a look at what decks were featured in Standard, Modern, and Legacy.

SCG Open Richmond – Standard (VA, USA)

Decklists

Harlan Firer took down the Standard portion piloting Jeskai Combo. This combo version featured plenty of tokens in order to have a backup game plan in case the infinite combo didn’t work out. A highlight of the deck is four [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card], a card that seems to be seeing play in more and more archetypes as Khans Standard goes on. [card]Stoke the Flames[/card] was also a four-of in Firer’s build. However, I would recommend getting rid of your Stokes since a reprint of the card anywhere is going to completely tank its price (Event Decks!!!).

Other highlights from the Top 8 included:

Three copies of [card]Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver[/card] in Shaheen Soorani’s second-place Esper Control. Ashiok has been declining in price since the October highs of $15 TCGplayer median (all prices quoted in the article will be TCGplayer median). Now down to $10, this could be a good time to pick up your copies if you like them for Standard.

Four [card]Bloodsoaked Champion[/card]s, four [card]Soldier of the Pantheon[/card]s, and three [card]Gather Courage[/card]s from Aaron Birch’s Abzan Aggro. Champion is still high, but Soldiers and Gather Courages are still pretty cheap.

A Four-Color Midrange monstrosity created by Brad Nelson, which featured three [card]Chained to the Rocks[/card] alongside cards such as [card]Siege Rhino[/card], [card]Butcher of the Horde[/card], and [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card]. Nothing new in the main deck, just a hodge-podge of good stuff. Out of the sideboard, Xenagos was seen but nothing else really jumped out to me.



Highlights from the Top 16 included:

Three more Ashioks in the UB control list that placed ninth.

Four [card]Ashcloud Phoenix[/card]es in the 11th-place Temur Midrange list. Phoenix is the real deal, but wait until the Khans lowest prices are reached next year to pick them up for value.

Four [card]Savage Knuckblade[/card]s in the 13th-place Temur Aggro list, along with two [card]Sagu Mauler[/card]s and two [card]Polymorphist’s Jest[/card]s out of the sideboard.

Three Brimaz, King of Oreskos in the 14th-place W/B Aggro list.

SCG Open Richmond – Legacy (VA, USA)

Decklists

Marc Konig took down the even with Death and Taxes, a Legacy standby that continues to place well in the new UR Delver world. [card]Containment Priest[/card] is the new addition to the deck and Konig played one in the main deck and one in the sideboard. Containment Priest works against D&T’s plan slightly by messing with its own [card]Aether Vial[/card]s, but clearly the upsides outweigh this annoyance. Two [card]Gut Shot[/card]s were featured in the sideboard, and Konig mentioned that this card was currently underrated in Legacy. Foils at $4 or less seem like a good pickup.

Other highlights from the Top 8 included:

Three [card]Containment Priest[/card]s out of Ben Friedman’s Jeskai Stoneblade sideboard. Also a playset of [card]Flusterstorm[/card] between the main deck and sideboard.

Another two [card]Containment Priest[/card]s out of Tomas Vicek’s Miracles sideboard.

Ryan Macedo’s Infect build featured two copies of [card]Become Immense[/card] in the main deck. He also mentioned that [card]Hydroblast[/card] worked really well out of his sideboard.

Yet another three [card]Containment Priest[/card]s in the sideboard of Fred Edelkamp’s Jeskai Stoneblade build.

David Long’s Lands featured four [card]Mox Diamond[/card]s and four [card]Gamble[/card] in the main deck, along with four [card]Krosan Grip[/card]s out of the sideboard

Highlights from the Top 16 included:

[card]Keranos, God of Storms[/card] was featured as a one-of in the ninth-place Miracles build

[card]Massacre[/card] made an appearance as a two-of in the 13th-place Storm deck

[card]Flayer of the Hatebound[/card] was featured in the 15th-place Dredge list

Taking a count across the Top 16, there were nineteen [card]Containment Priest[/card]s across the decks, with an average of two copies per deck (well, per sideboard, really). Priest is making an impact on Legacy but still feels overpriced to me.

SCG Richmond – Modern Premier IQ (VA, USA)

Decklists

Modern also provided some interesting decks. The Modern Premier IQ was won by Niklas Kronberger who piloted Scapeshift to victory. Cards to watch from the deck include [card]Remand[/card] and from the sideboard [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]. Remand has gone down to $12 and could go up from now until MM2. Obstinate Baloth only had one printing in M11 and could also go up if more discard strategies start being used in Modern.

Other highlights from the Top 8 included:

Two [card]Siege Rhino[/card]s in Adonys Medrano’s secondnd-place Four-Color Pod deck Watch for foils of this card. If [card]Siege Rhino[/card] becomes a mainstay in Modern, the foil price will eventually reflect this demand.

A deck called Skred, which placed sixth. Tyler Forshaw built a deck around Snow-Covered Mountains in order to utilize the deck’s namesake, [card]Skred[/card], as a cheap answer to many of Modern’s creatures. The whole deck uses cards that aren’t seen much in Modern: [card]Boros Reckoner[/card], [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card], [card]Koth of the Hammer[/card], [card]Volanic Fallout[/card], and [card]Pyroclasm[/card] are the main takeaways (along with [card]Skred[/card] and Snow-Covered Mountain of course). Out of the sideboard, three copies of [card]Chalice of the Void[/card] popped out to me. In addition to the Legacy applications, Chalice is also pretty good against the Modern variants of UR Delver. I feel like it is only a matter of time until Chalice’s price goes up to match this demand.

Two main-deck [card]Chalice of the Void[/card]s in Erik Aliff’s eighth-place Affinity deck.

Highlights from the Top 16 included:

Two Abzan Pod decks, which played five [card]Siege Rhino[/card]s between them.

Two Abzan Midrange decks, which played eight [card]Siege Rhino[/card]s between them. Six [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] were also played across both main decks. The 13th-place Abzan Midrange deck played one [card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card] in the main deck.

The 10th-place UR Delver list played an [card]Isochron Scepter[/card] in the main deck.

The 15h-place Affinity deck played one [card]Ghostfire Blade[/card] main deck. It also played two [cad]Feed the Clan[/card] out of the sideboard.



That’s all for this week! Richmond showed us that there is still innovation in Standard, Legacy, and Modern. Until next time.