AuthorStarCityGames.com Event Coverage

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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!

The StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in Seattle has crowned a champion! The entire event was a massive success, with Seattle becoming the Open Series stop with the most players returning to play on Sunday. Counted amongst their numbers? Some of the Open Series’ best players. Luis Scott-Vargas, the Los Angeles Standard Open champion, was fresh off his Finals appearance during Saturday competition. StarCityGames.com columnist Cedric Phillips was also in the house, battling his trademark Goblin Charbelcher deck. And of course, Brad Nelson was here battling for the second day in a row.

The Top 8 was a combination of new faces and old standbys. Scott-Vargas was back again for the third time in the season, cementing him as the leader in the Open Series Player of the Year race. He was taken out early, however, by Kevin Ambler of Dallas, Texas. Kevin returned to his second Top 8 in as many days as well, but his Merfolk strategy wasn’t powerful enough to overtake Seattle hero Kyle Boddy in the Semifinals. That set up a showdown between Kyle’s “Boddy Horizons” list and Matt Smith’s Zoo build, the second week in a row a Zoo decklist had been in the Finals of a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open.

But Matt’s Prices of Progress, Fireblasts, and Lightning Bolts were no match for Kyle’s Knight of the Reliquaries and Terravores. Kyle Boddy is your StarCityGames.com Legacy Open Seattle 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!