In the summer of 2018, after a 10 year hiatus, StarCityGames dusted off the long running Vintage Power 9 series of events from the prior decade at last year’s SCGCON. This year StarCityGames once again unearthed the Power 9 series, at SCGCON 2019.
Attendance was slightly down from last year’s return of the fabled Power 9 series, but 82 of the most dedicated wizards in the country (along with a few international savants) traveled to Roanoke (Virginia, USA) this year to do battle in a quickly evolving Vintage metagame. With the release of War of the Spark unleashing Karn, the Great Creator and Narset, Parter of Veils, Vintage has begun to warp around these two powerful planeswalkers. If your deck is not able to remove or ignore these two planeswalkers, it may be in for some rough sledding.
As you can see in the sortable table below, different flavors of Jeskai together represented 12 decks (out of 82, or ~14.6%), which was the most played strategy in the field. Karn Workshop (with Grim Monolith and Voltaic Key) and Oath variants were the second most played deck, with 9 copies each (roughly 11%), while 7 players fielded traditional Workshop Aggro (8.5%). 6 players each brought Dredge and KarnDrazi (~7.3% each), while Paradoxical Outcome and Survival variants were next with 5 copies each (roughly 6% each).
Metagame Breakdown
Here is a sortable table that shows all players and associated decks played (you can sort by name, deck type, or prize awarded).
| First Name | Last Name | Deck Archetype | Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clair | Bigelow | Outcome 4C | 12 Place |
| Edward | Bonar | Survival GBUW | 04 Place |
| Scott | Bradley | Karn Workshop | |
| Joe | Brennan | Jeskai | |
| Kevin | Brenneman | Oath | |
| Dustin | Buckingham | Oath (Griselbrand) | 06 Place |
| Christopher | Carrozza | Rector Omniscience | |
| Axel | Cobb | Outcome UBW | |
| Richard | Combs | Outcome | |
| Warren | Connell | Jeskai | |
| Cyrus | Corman-Gill | Karn Workshop | |
| Brian | Coval | Karn Workshop | 16 Place |
| Dave | Crowley | Oath | |
| Nick | Cummings | Karn Workshop | |
| Christopher | Day | Workshop Aggro | |
| Eric | Debrosky | Workshop Aggro | |
| Matthew | Deering | Karn Workshop | |
| Nicholas | DiJohn | Jeskai | |
| Kyle | Dorgan | Oath (Griselbrand, Gisela, Sphinx of the Steel Wind) | 10 Place |
| Joseph | Dyer | Karn Stax | |
| James | Easteppe | TurboLands GBR | |
| Daniel | Fischler | Dredge (Pitch Dredge) | |
| David | Fleishchmann-Rose | Oath (Griselbrand) | |
| Andrew | Frank | Mono Red Prison | |
| Justin | Franks | Jeskai Dreadhorde Arcanist | 02 Place |
| Daniel | Gajuardo | Rector Omniscience | |
| Mike | Gouthro | KarnDrazi | |
| Micah | Greenbaum | Jeskai | 15 Place |
| Adam | Grosse | Landstill UW | |
| Joel | Hammitt | Mono Red Prison | |
| Christopher | Hanson | Oath (Inferno Titan) | |
| Stephen | Harvey | Oath | |
| Ryan | Hobbs | Jeskai | |
| Jason | Jaco | Survival 5C | |
| Tyler | Klein | Grixis Control | 05 Place |
| Patrick | Kline | Dredge (Pitch Dredge) | 11 Place |
| Zane | Knapp | TurboLands GBR | |
| James | Kohler | KarnDrazi | |
| Jeffrey | Krasnozon | Karn Workshop | 07 Place |
| Josh | Lalo | Jeskai | |
| David | Lance | Survival GWU | |
| Gus | Landt | Survival GWU | |
| Sejong | Lee | BUG | |
| Joel | Lim | Workshop Aggro | 08 Place |
| Will | Magrann | Workshop Aggro | |
| Eric | Marich | KarnDrazi | |
| Nathan | Marzka | RUG | |
| Paul | Mastriano | Jeskai | |
| John | McDermott | Jeskai | |
| Paul | Messplay | Grixis Thieves | |
| Joseph | Milia | Oath (Punishing Inferno Titan) | |
| Daniel | Miller | Jeskai | 01 Place |
| Jonathan | Mondel | Dredge | |
| James | Mosley | Steel City Vault 5C | |
| Keith | Newyear | Oath (Griselbrand, Niv-Mizzet Parun, Archon of Valor's Reach) | |
| Steven | Porter | Dredge (Pitch Dredge) | |
| Stephen | Quinn | RUG | |
| Michael | Reed | Karn Workshop | |
| Matthew | Rhett | Outcome 4C | |
| Michael | Scheffenacker | KarnDrazi | |
| Max | Schroeder | Oath (Griselbrand, Inferno Titan, Niv-Mizzet Parun) | 14 Place |
| Jeremy | Seroogy | Dredge (Pitch Dredge) | |
| Cody | Simpson | Grixis Karn Vault | |
| Dan | Sollazzo | Delver Lavinia UW | 03 Place |
| Mike | Solymossy | BUG | |
| Kurt | Spiess | Survival GWU | 13 Place |
| Richard | Sponholz | Eldrazi (Powered) | 09 Place |
| Patrick | St. John | KarnDrazi | |
| Jeff | St. Pierre | Elrazi (Unpowered) | |
| Josh | Staples | Karn Workshop | |
| Robert | Stewart | Jeskai | |
| Brophy | Sullivan | Dredge | |
| Michael | Tabler | Karn Workshop | |
| Mike | Tompkins | Workshop Aggro | |
| Luke | Tooker | Jeskai | |
| Richard | Townley | UW Control | |
| Nam | Tran | Workshop Aggro | |
| Chad | Uzzell | Outcome UW | |
| Sahaj | Viradia | Workshop Aggro | |
| Edward | Whiteside | BUG | |
| Justin | Woods | White Red Hatebears | |
| Jerry | Yang | KarnDrazi |
Top 16 Decklists
We do not have all decklists from this event, but courtesy of StarCityGames we do have the Top 16 decklists.
Daniel Miller - Jeskai 01 Place
Justin Franks - Jeskai Dreadhorde Arcanist 02 Place
Dan Sollazzo - Delver Lavinia UW 03 Place
Edward Bonar - Survival GBUW 04 Place
Tyler Klein - Grixis Control 05 Place
Dustin Buckingham - Oath 06 Place
Jeffrey Krasnozon - Karn Workshop 07 Place
Joel Lim - Workshop Aggro 08 Place
Richard Sponholz - Eldrazi 09 Place
Kyle Dorgan - Oath 10 Place
Patrick Kline - Dredge 11 Place
| Business (60) 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Serum Powder 4 Bridge from Below 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Stinkweed Imp 1 Golgari Thug 4 Prized Amalgam 4 Narcomoeba 3 Ichorid 1 Dragonlord Kolaghan 1 Griselbrand 4 Hollow One 3 Force of Will 4 Mental Misstep 3 Mindbreak Trap 3 Cabal Therapy 2 Dread Return 4 Unmask 2 Ravenous Trap 1 Gitaxian Probe Mana Sources (0) | Sideboard (15) 4 Ingot Chewer 1 Chain of Vapor 1 Contagion 2 Nature’s Claim 1 Fragmentize 3 Aether Hub 3 City of Brass |
Clair Bigelow - Outcome 4C 12 Place
Kurt Spiess - Survival GWU 13 Place
Max Schroeder - Oath 14 Place
Micah Greenbaum - Jeskai 15 Place
Brian Coval - Karn Workshop 16 Place
Pairings, Results, and Standings
Round 1 Pairings
Round 2 Pairings
Round 3 Pairings
Round 4 Pairings
Round 5 Pairings
Round 6 Pairings
Round 7 Pairings
Round 1 Results
Round 2 Results
Round 3 Results
Round 4 Results
Round 5 Results
Round 6 Results
Round 7 Results
Round 1 Standings
Round 2 Standings
Round 3 Standings
Round 4 Standings
Round 5 Standings
Round 6 Standings
Round 7 Standings
Tournament Action and Wrapup
Hobbs (Jeskai) vs. Bigelow (Outcome 4C), and Schroeder (Oath) vs. Gouthro (KarnDrazi)
Frank (Mono Red Prison) vs. Hanson (Oath)
Viradia (Workshop Aggro) vs. Lalo (Jeskai)
Harvey (Oath) vs. Franks (Jeskai Dreadhorde Arcanist)
Buckingham (Oath) vs. Miller (Jeskai), and Fischler (Pitch Dredge) vs. Greenbaum (Jeskai)
Stewart (Jeskai) vs. Grosse (Landstill UW), and Lee (BUG) vs. Mastriano (Jeskai)
DiJohn (Jeskai) vs. St. Pierre (Eldrazi)
Debrosky (Workshop Aggro) vs. Tabler (Karn Workshop)
Connell (Jeskai) vs. Brenneman (Oath)
Klein (Grixis Control) vs. Bonar (Survival GBUW)
Vintage has changed dramatically over the past couple of months. With Modern Horizons being introduced this month, coupled with the formal adoption of the London Mulligan rule for all formats, you can expect much more upheaval in the months to come. We’re excited to see what lays in wait, and how players adapt.
For any corrections, comments, follow up, or to send us any action shots to add to this report, please email eternalcentral@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.