The third SCG Tour Online Championship Qualifier kicks off Saturday, a week after the first big Standard event with Core Set 2021. Catch up on last week’s Championship Qualifier, players to watch, and the coverage team for all the action this weekend.
Format
While Temur Reclamation hasn’t gone anywhere since the release of Core Set 2021, the deck didn’t dominate last week’s Championship Qualifier like it did for many events prior to the latest expansion. Erin Diaz did win the event with a unique take on the deck, but was the lone player in the Top 8 casting large copies of Explosion. Bant Ramp was the most popular deck and most represented deck in the elimination rounds, with three players qualifying for the Seasonal Championship with it. Nicholas Price lost in the finals with his take on the archetype, using Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Scavenging Ooze, and Teferi, Master of Time from Core Set 2021.
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (29)
Spells (19)
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (10)
- 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
- 4 Teferi, Time Raveler
- 3 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
- 2 Teferi, Master of Time
Lands (28)
Spells (13)
Other decks to make the Top 8 were Sultai Ramp from Fabrizio Anteri, Mono-Green Aggro from Corey Baumeister, Jund Sacrifice from Berk Elçi, and Mono-Red Aggro from Robert McKee.
Anteri loaded up on a playset of Cultivate to fuel massive copies of Hyrdoid Krasis and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon as his top end. He also used maindeck copies of Thought Distortion and three copies of Nissa, Who Shakes the World to fight Temur Reclamation. Anteri added Jolrael to his ramp deck as well.
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (28)
Spells (14)
Baumeister got aggressive last weekend, beating down with Mono-Green Aggro with four copies of Scavenging Ooze. The powerful two-drop allows Mono-Green Aggro to fight Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, Elspeth, Conquers Death, and recursion from the Jund and Rakdos Sacrifice decks. He also had Garruk,. Unleashed and Heroic Intervention from Core Set 2021 in his sideboard.
Creatures (28)
- 4 Scavenging Ooze
- 4 Pelt Collector
- 4 Barkhide Troll
- 4 Lovestruck Beast
- 4 Questing Beast
- 4 Stonecoil Serpent
- 2 Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig
- 2 Gemrazer
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (5)
Elçi only had a couple of new cards in Jund Sacrifice, Scavenging Ooze and Solemn Simulacrum. The four-mana 2/2 does a lot of good things for the deck, helping you get to six mana for Bolas’s Citadel, providing an extra body for Priest of the Forgotten Gods, and providing value with the many sacrifice outlets.
Creatures (24)
- 1 Solemn Simulacrum
- 2 Scavenging Ooze
- 3 Priest of Forgotten Gods
- 4 Mayhem Devil
- 4 Gilded Goose
- 2 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
- 4 Cauldron Familiar
- 4 Woe Strider
Lands (24)
Spells (12)
Lastly, McKee’s Mono-Red Aggro used zero new cards from Core Set 2021. Plenty of little creatures and Embercleave can still get the job done.
Creatures (30)
- 4 Runaway Steam-Kin
- 4 Tin Street Dodger
- 4 Scorch Spitter
- 4 Robber of the Rich
- 4 Fervent Champion
- 4 Bonecrusher Giant
- 2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
- 4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
Lands (22)
Spells (8)
Players To Watch
- Paulo Vitor Dama da Rosa
- Autumn Burchett
- Ross Merriam
- Ari Lax
- Brandon Burton
- Corey Baumeister
- Adam Hernandez
- Zach Allen
- Mani Davoudi
- Jim Davis
Coverage
Coverage kicks off at 10 am ET with Dom Harvey, Emma Handy, Ryan Overturf, and Craig Krempels calling the action. Cedric Phillips will be filling in for my role of picking feature matches, interviewing players, and keeping things running behind the scenes. Watch the action at twitch.tv/starcitygames and check out the tournament page on MTG Melee.