Kye Nelson won Magic Spotlight: The Avatar with Bant Airbending at SCG CON Atlanta on Sunday.
Creatures (30)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Bramble Familiar
- 4 Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
- 2 Gene Pollinator
- 4 Appa, Steadfast Guardian
- 4 Badgermole Cub
- 4 Aang, at the Crossroads
- 4 Aang, Swift Savior
Lands (22)
Spells (8)
In a finish fit for an anime, Nelson piloted his favorite deck in the format past a field packed full of Simic Ouroboroid and Izzet Lessons. The Avatar fan showcased the power of the Bant Airbending deck despite the archetype having a rough performance at the World Championship last year, where Izzet Lessons broke out as the strongest deck. Nelson tinkered with the build, found Interdimensional Web Watch as another value tool for the deck, and showed the deck still has a place in Standard.
Nelson made the Top 8 as the No. 8 seed, squeaking in on favorable tiebreakers, and had a path to the finals stacked with green decks light on interaction. The Airbending combo of Appa, Steadfast Guardian and Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius provided card advantage and an overwhelming board presence to take on even the strongest boards from Ouroboroid and friends. With 2-1 wins over Eli Swafford on Mono-Green Landfall and Chris Kral on Simic Ouroboroid, Nelson was ready to face Oliver Tomajko and Izzet Lessons in the finals.
The matchup surely didn’t look as bad as it did out of the World Championship and following discourse. Nelson fought through plenty of interaction and draw-threes from Tomajko. Sideboard copies of Reclamation Sage were all-stars in Game 2, clearing away copies of Monument of Endurance and Artist’s Talent, allowing Nelson to keep up with Tomajko’s card drawing. With relatively equal resources, Nelson landed a Quantum Riddler, which proved too much and forced Tomajko to extend the hand in defeat.
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (22)
Spells (33)
All players in the Top 8 earned Pro Tour invites for their accomplishments along with cash and foil promos. Nelson earned $10,000 and Tomajko took home $5,000.
Simic Ouroboroid was the surprise break-out deck on the weekend with more than 15 percent of the field on the deck, leaving Izzet Lessons as a strong No. 2. Check out what the 785 players registered below.
Day 2 consisted of 180 players that reached 18 match points on Day 1. See how the archetypes converted below.
View the Top 8 decklists from the Magic Spotlight: The Avatar. For all the decklists from the event and final standings check out the Melee page for the tournament.
SCG CON will be back in action in Portland on January 23-25, featuring the Regional Championship.
