Tournament results for this past week have been relatively quiet. But that’s to be expected when the week before featured the largest Legacy event of all time, Grand Prix New Jersey, and the first major Modern event since the summer, Grand Prix Madrid.

These events dominated the attention of players and writers alike, and I gave my own detailed look at the top Grand Prix decks in my article last week, while Mike Lanigan studied the GP: Madrid results.

The biggest piece of news this past week was not a tournament result but rather the Star City Games organized play changes announced by Pete Hoefling in his “2015 Open Series Announcement”.

Star City Games Shifts to Standard

Standard Open events will be changing format to a two-day event mirroring the Grand Prix structure--that is, 9 rounds of swiss day one with a day two cutoff of the Top 64 finisher or those with a record of 7-2 or better. The top players will return to play a 6-round day two, followed by a single-elimination Top 8.

Accompanying the changes is a doubling of the prize pool to $20,000, by the entry fee being increased by 25% to $50. The effect of this change is to make Standard Opens more desirable and higher-value events with a higher value proposition and bigger payoff for the time investment.

The change to a two-day structure makes a lot more practical, logistical sense considering that Standard Opens currently regularly feature 12+ hour days and push beyond the limits of a reasonable tournament time frame. Given that Open weekends are just that--weekends--and that they draw many players for the entire weekend, the two-day format should not put many people out in the cold, so I expect these changes will be well received and serve to increase to attendance because of the increased competition, prize pool, and prestige.

There is a slight wrinkle in changes, however. Although both Legacy and Modern will have opportunities to serve as the main $20,000 Open format, the current schedule features only 3 Legacy and 2 Modern events over 19 weekends in the first half of the season. It’s clear that the focus is on Standard. Many grinders are happy with the change because it makes testing much easier with the ability to focus on just one format, and with higher rewards for players, I expect the Standard metagame to evolve more rapidly than ever before.

The SCG changes, combined with the Pro Tour’s movement towards the format, means Standard is now truly the gold standard competitive format and will offer dividends to those with preparation time to invest.

Losing Legacy

When there is winner there must be a loser, and in this case Legacy has been put on the backburner.

With the Standard Open Day 2 dominating the Sunday coverage, the $10,000 Legacy Opens have been replaced by a more modest $5,000 Legacy Premier IQ.

The internet’s Legacy aficionados--myself included--have reacted strongly to this announcement, but calls for Legacy’s death knell are bit exaggerated. While these $5,000 Legacy events will not be covered on camera each weekend, they still offer a prize pool that just a few years ago was the Open payout. Most importantly, these will be smaller tournaments than Opens, and with much of the competition busy with the Standard Day 2, these events will also softer than the previous Legacy Opens.

With an entry fee of just $30, these Premier IQ events will likely offer a higher return on investment than Open events. The juicy prize pool and opportunity for playing Legacy all day means these Premier IQs will be the biggest and best Legacy events around and will likely draw big crowds of local Legacy enthusiasts when the series rolls through town.

Pump & Dump?

Some have accused SCG of using the GP as an outlet for pumping and dumping their Legacy cards before pulling the plug on supporting the format, but, according to SCG, they bought more Legacy cards in NJ than at any past event. And according to sources at the event, they were in fact buying many Legacy cards--more than any other vendors were.

Initial analysis doesn’t show a real decrease in the price of Legacy cards, looking at dual land prices for example. And if people have been dumping their cards, they have been quickly snapped up. It’s still early, and I’ll be paying attention to the market, but I wouldn’t panic just yet. Legacy prices are driven by a lot more than SCG, and prices of dual lands and other iconic cards in particular are beyond the realm of game pieces and into true collectibles.

Check out Corbin's great work in "The Future of Legacy" for a deeper look.

The fact that SCG continues to offer significant, continuous support for the format is a great sign. It’s also important to consider that while SCG was a driver of the Legacy scene, it’s just a piece of the puzzle, and Legacy prices are truly unlikely to crash. One perspective is that SCG supported Legacy because of it’s die-hard player base and filled the demand rather than driving the demand itself. I expect that some enterprising entities may fill in some of the void left “Open” with large, independent Legacy events.

The Legacy $5k events will continue to provide solid decklist and metagame data, while the period $20k events will serve as more impactful metagame events comparable to a Grand Prix.

Moving Toward a Modern Age

If Legacy lost in the move towards Standard, Modern won.

Modern maintains its status with a $5,000 Premier IQ each Sunday where it will serve as an alternative to the Legacy IQ. That’s a strong show of support for the format, but it was to be expected. The real win is the $20,000 Modern Opens, which, compared to before, means Modern is actually moving into the spotlight.

SCG has stated that the $20k events are a test and they will adjust the Q3 and Q4 schedules accordingly, and I expect Modern will see huge turnouts and gain even more support in time.

The changes also extend to the quarterly SCG Invitationals, and half of which will now feature a Modern portion rather than Legacy. This is another huge win for the format, and with yet another high-stakes reasons to play it, more competitive players will be drawn to the Modern format. The move to the invitational spotlight combined with $20,000 Opens mean the changes are a big win for Modern overall, and together they show that SCG is moving in the direction of the Modern format and will likely move further towards it in future months and years.

Combined with the new, cheap fetchlands driving Modern demand, now is a great time to get in on the ground floor of Modern as it continues to grow.

What Topics Do You Want to Read About?

With the tournament-light holiday season beginning, it’s a good opportunity to focus on some different topics. I have been grinding Khans of Tarkir sealed and drafts to prepare for the various PTQs I have attended, and I am looking forward to playing the format at Grand Prix Baltimore in a couple of weeks.

There is a new Legacy Cube on Magic Online, and so far it has proven to be quite fun and the sort of experience I look for in a cube. They also pay out a few Vintage Masters packs to the finalists, so, compared to most cube events, they are not such a value sink.

If any readers are interested in seeing more limited content here on QS--especially draft walkthroughs, whether the be KTK, Legacy Cube, or any format--or you are interested in different topics altogether, please let us know in the comments!