Woah! We made it to 2016 and after a break for the festive period, I am back with a review of the action from the first SCG Open of the year!

The first SCG Open was held in Cincinnati and the game was modern. Let’s start by having a look at what decks were vying for the SCG title at the start of Day 2.

Day 2 Metagame Breakdown (Top 10 Archetypes) – 91 Players

G/R Tron – 13

Affinity – 9

Burn – 7

Grixis Twin – 6

Jund – 6

U/R Twin – 5

Amulet Bloom – 5

Abzan – 4

Scapeshift – 3

Grixis Control – 3

Modern is a diverse format with no clear ‘best deck’ and, as demonstrated by the spread of different archetypes above. The release of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger has certainly given G/R Tron a further push, and has even started relegating Emrakul to the sideboard, and rewarded 13 players with a Day 2 spot and a 14% share of the metagame.

But R/G Tron was not the big mana deck that ended up winning the tournament, that went to:

Amulet Bloom – Bobby Fortanely

1st Place – StarCityGames.Com Open Series, Cincinnati

Creatures:                                                                                                     Sideboard:

4 Primeval Titan                                                                                              1 Engineered Explosives

2 Azusa, Lost but Seeking                                                                              3 Leyline of Sanctity

Spells:                                                                                                              3 Seal of Primordium

4 Amulet of Vigor                                                                                            1 Slaughter Pact

2 Hive Mind                                                                                                      2 Swan Song

2 Pact of Negation                                                                                           2 Pyroclasm

1 Slaughter Pact                                                                                              1 Bojuka Bog

4 Summoner’s Pact                                                                                         1 Ghost Quarter

3 Ancient Stirrings

4 Serum Visions

3 Sleight of Hand

4 Summer Bloom

Lands:

1 Forest

1 Island

1 Boros Garrison

1 Cavern of Souls

4 Gemstone Mine

1 Golgari Rot Farm

3 Gruul Turf

1 Khalni Garden

1 Mana Confluence

1 Radiant Fountain

1 Selesnya Sanctuary

4 Simic Growth Chamber

1 Slayers’ Stronghold

1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion

1 Temple of Mystery

3 Tolaria West

1 Vesuva

2015 was the breakout year for the Amulet Bloom deck, with a Pro Tour finals win and several high-profile finishes throughout the year. Amulet has a pretty straightforward way to win in Game 1, either making a big hasty Primeval Titan (or several) and attacking for the win, or by casting a Hive Mind and kindly giving you a copy of a Pact that you cannot pay for in your next upkeep. The real demonstration of the power of the deck came in Game 3 of Round 15 when Bill Comminos managed to cast the full playset of Primeval Titan‘s on his T3 and win the game, take a look:

http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/v/33368141?t=06h02m00s

I think the game linked above demonstrates the need for something to be banned from this deck, there has been a lot of speculation and division on whether anything will, or should, be banned from the deck. I firmly believe that Summer Bloom should be banned from the deck, with Azusa, Lost but Seeking remaining the deck has some of it’s combo whilst lowering the consistency. I don’t think Amulet of Vigor should be banned, the double or triple Amulet starts are rare.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Banned and Restricted announcement?

I also want to highlight a couple of other decks that piqued my interest from the SCG event.

Kiki Chord – Jeff Hoogland

2nd Place – StarCityGames.com Open Series, Cincinnati

Creatures:                                                                                                     Sideboard:

1 Spellskite                                                                                                        1 Engineered Explosives

4 Birds of Paradise                                                                                           1 Spellskite

2 Eternal Witness                                                                                             1 Fulminator Mage

1 Fulminator Mage                                                                                           1 Obstinate Baloth

1 Orzhov Pontiff                                                                                                1 Reclamation Sage

1 Qasali Pridemage                                                                                           3 Stony Silence

3 Restoration Angel                                                                                          1 Eidolon of Rhetoric

1 Reveillark                                                                                                         3 Lightning Helix

2 Scavenging Ooze                                                                                            1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

4 Voice of Resurgence                                                                                      2 Slaughter Games

3 Wall of Omens

1 Wall of Roots

2 Courser of Kruphix

1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar

Spells:

4 Chord of Calling

4 Path to Exile

Lands:

2 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Plains

1 Fire-Lit Thicket

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Horizon Canopy

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Raging Ravine

2 Razorverge Thicket

1 Sacred Foundry

2 Stomping Ground

1 Temple Garden

4 Windswept Heath

4 Wooded Foothills

Watching Hoogland play this deck felt reminiscent of watching of a wonderful mash-up of the kiki-pods of yesteryear, and in effect that is exactly what this deck is – it is Podless Kiki-Pod. Hoogland’s tight play, practise with deck and knowledge of all the card combos in the deck allowed him to smash, grind and combo past his opponents on his way to a second place finish this weekend.

The sheer midrange grindi-ness (is that even a word outside of MTG?) would make any Green or Combo player froth at the mouth and the level, and number, of value plays that you can make with this deck.

The value keeps coming after sideboarding with a Toolbox-esque sideboard strategy allowing you to remove the more ineffective creatures from the deck and replacing them with upgrades for the match. Cards like Reclamation Sage; Linvala, Keeper of Silence; and Obstinate Baloth all have a unique sideboard pedigree.

The final deck I want to look at is another Naya-based value deck and is this:

Naya Company – Todd Stevens

4th Place at StarCityGames.com Open Series, Cincinnati

Creatures:                                                                                                    Sideboard:

4 Knight of the Reliquary                                                                            2 Spellskite

3 Loxodon Smiter                                                                                        1 Grim Lavamancer

4 Noble Hierarch                                                                                          2 Kitchen Finks

2 Qasali Pridemage                                                                                     1 Stony Silence

2 Scavenging Ooze                                                                                      1 Ancient Grudge

4 Tarmogoyf                                                                                                  1 Rending Volley

3 Voice of Resurgence                                                                                  2 Domri Rade

4 Wild Nacatl                                                                                                 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Spells:                                                                                                            2 Blood Moon

3 Collected Company                                                                                   2 Engineered Explosives

1 Dromoka’s Command

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Path to Exile

Lands:

2 Forest

1 Plains

3 Arid Mesa

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Horizon Canopy

1 Kessig Wolf Run

2 Sacred Foundry

1 Stirring Wildwood

1 Stomping Ground

1 Temple Garden

4 Windswept Heath

4 Wooded Foothills

Naya has history of having cheap creatures with stats and abilities that are above their CMC. This deck is all about getting as many of those creatures on the board and backing them up with cheap removal in the form of Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile, even Dromoka’s Command gets an outing in this deck. Collected Company is another powerful card that allows you to dig through your deck and, hopefully, have your choice of some of Magic’s best creatures and put them straight on to the battlefield at instant speed.

The sideboard is packed full of additional value cards such as Grim Lavamancer, Kitchen Finks and Spellskite; the traditional hosers in the form of Blood Moon and Stony Silent. The sideboard even gets a couple of planeswalkers with both Elspeth, Knight Errant and Domri Rade coming to play – and any deck that gets to play with Domri Rade is A-OK with me!

So that’s it for this week’s look at the weekend action. What are your thoughts on the decks? Any cards that you think could be replaced with better choices? Do you disagree with my thoughts on banning Summer Bloom? As always let me know in the comments below.