Alex von Stange won Magic Spotlight: Fracture with Jund Sacrifice at SCG CON Hartford on Sunday.
Jund Sacrifice Alexander von Stange
Von Stange added a another trophy to his collection, which already contained an RC title from Chiba in 2023, in his first Spotlight Series event since moving back to the United States. Equipped with his Jund Sacrifice deck he tested with Team Worldly Counsel, von Stange raced out to an 11-0 start before taking a pair of losses in Rounds 12 and 13. He bounced back with a win in Round 14 to set up his ID in the final round of Swiss to lock his Top-8 berth.
Von Stange entered the Top 8 a the No. 3 seed and set his sights at a championship after securing his Pro Tour invitation to the PT in Tokyo next year. He took down Max Medeiros, on Dimir Midrange, in the quarterfinals then won a Jund Sacrifice mirror against Yineng Xu in the semis to set up a finals match against Connor Ott, the No. 1 seed, on Jeskai Artifacts.
Ott jumped out to early leads on the battlefield in both games of the finals behind mana acceleration and United Battlefront, but von Stange was able to slow the bleeding as he assembled his engine. Facing down massive Construct tokens from Ott, von Stange leveraged Lively Dirge to find his combo pieces and blast Ott down with the help of Biotech Specialist and plenty of tokens to sacrifice.
Jeskai Artifacts Connor Ott
The entire Top 8 earned Pro Tour invites, cash prizes, and a foil copy of the Jace Beleren promo card, but von Stange walked away the big winner with $10,000 and a beautiful Black Lotus trophy.
Mono-Green Landfall topped the metagame on Day 1 and only improved its metagame shared on Day 2 while also earning two Top 8 slots. Orzhov Lifegain and Izzet Spellementals filled out the Top 3 archetypes, but neither deck broke through to the elimination rounds. The Top 5 was rounded out by Dimir Midrange and Azorius Control, with Dimir Midrange also putting two copies into the Top 8 of the tournament.
Day 2 consisted of 181 players that reached 18 match points on Day 1. See how the archetypes converted below.
View the Top 8 decklists from the Magic Spotlight: Fracture. 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 Minneapolis on January 8-10, featuring Magic Spotlight: Star Trek.
