Learn more about five players who put up a great weekend through a high finish, interesting deck, or memorable moment.
5. Ricky Linn
Ricky Linn
Ad+Nauseam took down the title at #SCGINDY two weeks ago in the hands of Nick Byrd and was in position to repeat this weekend with Ricky Linn at the helm. Linn was one of two Ad+Nauseam players in Day 2, the other being 16th-place finisher Sky Goy, and both squared off in Round 15 to determine which player would represent the deck in the Top 8. Linn won the mirror match and entered the Top 8 as the No 6 seed, facing Aaron Rubin on Death’s Shadow in the quarterfinals. Linn was unable to stop the hottest commodity in Modern, falling in two quick games to Rubin, who prevented Ad+Nauseam from taking down back-to-back Opens. Check out Linn’s Ad+Nauseam decklist Renegade+Rallier and opted to register the deck because of its favorable position against Death’s Shadow and Burn – two decks that were the most popular on Day 2 of #SCGDFW. Stevens was rewarded with a tremendous run through the Swiss, dropping only one match on his to the top seed in the elimination rounds. Stevens was paired against Tarmogoyfs. Check out Grady’s build of Merfolk Austin+Bursavich
Austin+Bursavich is known in this area for his prowess with Infect, but after the banning of Gitaxian+Probe he picked up Death’s Shadow for his first constructed tournament in months. Without playing a game with the deck before the event, Bursavich won Round 15 against Merfolk to reach the Top 8 as the No. 8 seed. Bursavich didn’t let a bracket of being on the draw get in his way, taking down Todd+Stevens on G/W Company in the quarterfinals, Austin Grady on Merfolk in the semis, and finally, Trent Avera on Burn in the finals. Death’s Shadow was the second-most played deck on Day 2 of #SCGDFW and took down its first SCG Tour® trophy in the second event. Bursavich decided to go without the white splash in the sideboard and piloted the deck masterfully on his way to his first SCG Tour® title. Check out Bursavich’s Death’s Shadow decklist here.
