Live Coverage of StarCityGames.com Open: Philadelphia
Another successful StarCityGames.com Open weekend has come and gone! Approximately 800 competitors battled it out over the two days of competition. Sunday was all about Legacy. Pro Tour champion Jacob Van Lunen made waves early with his Monoblue Control deck, lurking at the top tables. Chris Woltereck and company were in the house with a brand new version of 43 Lands, this one with Living Wish, but when teammate Ken Adams unintentionally drew himself out of the Top 8 in the last round, hopes of seeing a copy of their deck in the single elimination rounds were destroyed.
In a repeat of Saturday action, two players made their second Open Top 8s on Sunday: Jesse Hatfield and David Price. Both had their previous top performance in Legacy, and David Price was even using the same deck he had played then. They made it through the Quarterfinals, but had their hopes of a championship crushed by Jim Orr and Matt Elias.
That set up a Finals featuring two of the defining archetypes of the Legacy format: Elias’ Zoo deck and Jim’s Counterbalance deck. Orr’s quiet demeanor hinted at his preparedness for the event, but his deck simply couldn’t keep up with the Cats and burn of Matt Elias’ Zoo list. A lucky Path to Exile to clear enough attackers to get through past a Progenitus meant Matt Elias was the official champion!
Another successful StarCityGames.com Open weekend has come and gone! Approximately 800 competitors battled it out over the two days of competition. Sunday was all about Legacy. Pro Tour champion Jacob Van Lunen made waves early with his Monoblue Control deck, lurking at the top tables. Chris Woltereck and company were in the house with a brand new version of 43 Lands, this one with Living Wish, but when teammate Ken Adams unintentionally drew himself out of the Top 8 in the last round, hopes of seeing a copy of their deck in the single elimination rounds were destroyed.
In a repeat of Saturday action, two players made their second Open Top 8s on Sunday: Jesse Hatfield and David Price. Both had their previous top performance in Legacy, and David Price was even using the same deck he had played then. They made it through the Quarterfinals, but had their hopes of a championship crushed by Jim Orr and Matt Elias.
That set up a Finals featuring two of the defining archetypes of the Legacy format: Elias’ Zoo deck and Jim’s Counterbalance deck. Orr’s quiet demeanor hinted at his preparedness for the event, but his deck simply couldn’t keep up with the Cats and burn of Matt Elias‘ Zoo list. A lucky Path to Exile to clear enough attackers to get through past a Progenitus meant Matt Elias was the official champion!
Pro Tour: San Diego Champion Jacob Van Lunen represented the Sliver Kids in the Legacy portion of the StarCityGames.com Open Series in Philadelphia, piloting a mono blue homebrew.
Lewis Laskin is quickly making a name for himself as a deckbuilder on the StarCityGames.com Open Series. Check out the update to Landstill that he’s piloting in Philadelphia’s Legacy Open!
“I don’t know who you are, but you got a hard matchup for yourself in this round.” Steve Carpenter challenged his opponent, Jacob Van Lunen, as they began shuffling for their match.
Five hundred twenty-one players have come, and five hundred twenty have gone. The StarCityGames.com Standard Open here in Philadelphia has come to a close!
After a long day of play, it was down to just two players: Kenny Mayer and Max Williams. The two were battling in one of the marquee matchups in Standard, Kenny playing Jund and Max playing Mythic Bant.
One of two players in his second StarCityGames.com Open Series Top 8, Ben Wienburg sat down to his Quarterfinals match against Jason Cawley looking to stay alive and pad his Open points total.
Ali Aintrazi already had one StarCityGames.com Open Top 8 under his belt. His innovative Turbo Land deck, an update to the Zendikar Block version that had seen play at Pro Tour-San Juan, had served him well on the weekend and drawn many a curious onlooker.
Kargan Dragonlord was second at-bat for Phil, and that merited a pause from Jim. “Is that good?” He asked, craning his neck to see the card. “I guess. I killed some Naya player with it,” his opponent replied.
“Do you want to just draw?” Chris Lachmann asked his opponent as they shuffled up for their Feature Match. The suggestion was ridiculous, but the match was the biggest in the room: both Pro Tour champions slugging it out to stay undefeated.
Wondering who is here in Philadelphia for the StarCityGames.com Standard Open? We took a stroll this morning during the player’s meeting to see who was in the house!
