This past weekend, I attended the Star City Games Invitational in Atlanta. While it was not a great weekend for me when it comes to actually playing Magic, I had an absolute blast all weekend. I learned a couple of valuable lessons that I would like to impart to you today. I would also like to take this time to go over some of my experiences this weekend and why I encourage Magic players to attend events like these.

After I placed Top 8 at the SCG Atlanta Standard Open, the following comments were made on my Facebook wall by fellow Phyrexian Arena writers.

Good day ladies and gents.  The results from SCG Atlanta are in, and Gatecrash has turned the Standard format on it's ear.  Eddie Walker, from this wonderful site, decided he wanted some spending money, and stormed to the top eight only to lose out to the eventual champion.  Also, as it turns out, Boros Reckoner is the card that was beloved by the masses, and with good reason.  It is an aggressive monster with two excellent abilities... that I completely missed.  Turns out that I did not RTFC, and thought it only dealt damage to players, which while good, is not even close to the board impact that Reckoner provides.  Being able to cleanup the ground and positively interact with Thragtusk is pretty bonkers in Standard.   I normally do not miss really big, and I believe that Boros Reckoner will come down from his lofty climb.  So speculators, I apologize for that one. I missed on him. Now with the pleasantries out of the way, let us take a gander at the winning list from the tournament:

I played in the SCG Open in Atlanta this weekend, and managed to finish in 8th.  I am very proud of this accomplishment and is my best performance so far in this game.  I have now achieved one of my Magic resolutions this year, which was to qualify for the SCG Invitational or Pro Tour.  Still working on the Pro Tour side, but I will be attending the SCG Invitational in Atlanta on April 5-7.  What follows is my tournament report from this past weekend.

We have a new Standard format upon us and it's time to get our hands dirty.  The first event using the new format is going to be SCG Atlanta.  I have the fortune of being able to attend this event.  That means I need to find a deck.  Picking the right deck can be difficult, though.