Weekend Review March 15-16
Tags: #Legacy, #Limited, #News, #SCGSEA, #Standard
posted 2014-03-17 by Nick Miller
A pair of Grand Prix, one in each the Northern and Southern hemisphere, as well as the Open Series in Seattle, WA resulted in a ton of great Magic this weekend. When all the dust settled, we got our newest two-time Grand Prix champion, Jund Monsters and R/W Burn took Standard titles, and BUG Delver returned to the top of a Legacy Open.
Gerard Fabiano bested Grand Prix Dallas 2011 winner Dave Shiels in the finals of Grand Prix Montreal to add a second GP trophy to his mantle. Fabiano went undefeated on Day 1 with his RUG sealed pool, made it through both Day 2 drafts alive and ended up with a powerful; R/W draft deck in the elimination rounds Sunday night. Fabiano took down the title behind two Celestial Archons and a plethora of tricks and removal spells. Other notables in the Top 8 included Team Pro Tour Champion (Boston 2003) and GP Pittsburgh 2013 winner Brock Parker, and now three-time GP Top 8 competitor Morgan Chang.
Top 8 decklists from GP Montreal
Earlier on Sunday, Grand Prix Buenos Aires showcased the Standard format and three-time Pro Tour Top 8 competitor Paulo Vito Damo da Rosa headlined the Top 8 playing Esper Control. PVDR fell in the semifinals to the eventual winner, Philippe Sadde Monlevade, who piloted Jund Monsters to his first GP win. Monlevade’s Jund Monsters build focused more on planewalkers than previous iterations, utilizing three copies of Xenagos, the Reveler and one Vraska the Unseen to go along with the stock four copies of Domri Rade.
Full coverage of GP Buenos Aires
Top 8 decklists from GP Buenos Aires
As for the Open Series’ return the Pacific Northwest, R/W Burn stood atop a Top 8 full of black devotion and aggro strategies in the Standard Open and BUG Delver took home the Legacy Open trophy among a Top 8 mixed with fair and unfair strategies.
Neil Hartman’s fiery Boros Burn build packed quite a punch with the usual suspects, topping out with a couple copies of Stormbreath Dragon. Hartman opted to ditch Satyr Firedancer and stuck four copies of Firedrinker Satyr in the board to bring in agaisnt control decks.
Greg Mitchell piloted BUG Delver past two different types of Miracles decks to reach the finals where he defeated David Bauman’s Death and Taxes build containing two Brimaz, King of Oreskos.