It has been seven months since the 2010 StarCityGames.com Open Series got underway. The city in which it began? St. Louis. The weekend of July 26-27 marked the first time the Open Series had returned to a city it had been to previously and expectations were high.
One player who had extremely high expectations was Alex Bertoncini. Why? Because he headed into the weekend the Open Points leader, gunning for the title of Open Player of the Year and the set of Power 9 that comes with it. The Standard day of competition was mediocre for the player, but he powered back on the second day of competition. In the Legacy format, Alex’s Merfolk deck proved tough enough to make the Top 8. There he squared off against Cody Damm in the Quarterfinals. Cody’s Zoo deck was a bad matchup for Bertoncini, but he proved just why he’s the Open Points leader by tearing through in two straight games.
Across the bracket Blue-White Control player Josh Guibault was headed to the Finals with all eyes on the prize. His Counterbalance/Thopter Foundry control strategy had a host of silver bullet targets for a powerful Enlightened Tutor engine. That proved key allowing him to fetch up the Foundry or Sword of the Meek for his combo, or occasional bullets like Moat. It was that Legends enchantment which let Josh lock Alex out of attacking in the pivotal game 3 and sent Bertoncini off in the lead for Player of the Year but without the second title he was gunning for.
Josh Guibault is your StarCityGames.com Legacy Open champion in St. Louis!
It has been seven months since the 2010 StarCityGames.com Open Series got underway. The city in which it began? St. Louis. The weekend of July 26-27 marked the first time the Open Series had returned to a city it had been to previously and expectations were high.
One player who had extremely high expectations was Alex Bertoncini. Why? Because he headed into the weekend the Open Points leader, gunning for the title of Open Player of the Year and the set of Power 9 that comes with it. The Standard day of competition was mediocre for the player, but he powered back on the second day of competition. In the Legacy format, Alex’s Merfolk deck proved tough enough to make the Top 8. There he squared off against Cody Damm in the Quarterfinals. Cody’s Zoo deck was a bad matchup for Bertoncini, but he proved just why he’s the Open Points leader by tearing through in two straight games.
Across the bracket Blue-White Control player Josh Guibault was headed to the Finals with all eyes on the prize. His Counterbalance/Thopter Foundry control strategy had a host of silver bullet targets for a powerful Enlightened Tutor engine. That proved key allowing him to fetch up the Foundry or Sword of the Meek for his combo, or occasional bullets like Moat. It was that Legends enchantment which let Josh lock Alex out of attacking in the pivotal game 3 and sent Bertoncini off in the lead for Player of the Year but without the second title he was gunning for.
Josh Guibault is your StarCityGames.com Legacy Open champion in St. Louis!
Josh’s blue-white control strategy had been very powerful against creature strategies on the weekend, but had it met its match against Alex’s Merfolk deck?
Before his Semifinals match against Anthony Avitollo had started, Josh Guibault pointed out he felt favored due to the fact Anthony was playing creatures.
Throughout the weekend Christian Valenti Charbelcher combo deck had been killing people as early as the first turn by way of Goblin Charbelcher or Empty the Warrens.
His opponent, Cody Damm, didn’t have as many Open points as Bertoncini, but he did have a favorable matchup with his Zoo deck squaring off against Alex’s Fish build.
th were gunning for Top 8, but as Sam studiously pointed out, while the winner would play the single elimination rounds the loser would plummet so far in the standings as to miss even making the Top 16.
Mixed in with his outgoing smile and quick-to-laugh approach to life is the characteristic that has allowed him to succeed as a competitive gamer: his will to win.
Alex Bertoncini entered the third round of competition at the Legacy Open in St. Louis the leader in the StarCityGames.com Open Player of the Year race.
The StarCityGames.com Open Series returned to St. Louis, and Red Deck Wins took another pilot to the Standard Open title, giving Joey Mispagel his first Open Series win!
After both surviving Quarterfinals matches that went to all three games, Jason Schousboe and Joey Mispagel sat down to determine who would go on to compete for the title of Open champion.
Conley Woods is a man who can always be counted on to have an innovative deck at events, and the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in St. Louis is no different.
“I wanted to go to sleep after Round 3; I thought I was done!” Damien White joked with his opponent as they sat down to the final Swiss match of the day.
We look at the metagame waves the StarCityGames.com Open Series has been making on the rest of the Magic metagame, and one of its most recent products – Turboland.
