This weekend saw nearly 100 players travel far and wide to Long Island (New York, USA) for the return of the famed NYSE (New York Stax Exchange) Open, this year in its sixth iteration. Many, many thanks to tournament organizer Nick Detwiler and his outstanding staff, for once again putting in the tireless legwork and planning that goes in to executing this awesome and memorable marquee event.
You can find our live coverage from NYSE Open VI (6) on game day here. There were 7 rounds of Swiss, followed by a Top 8 playoff, with many familiar faces in attendance.
The Vintage format has been in a period of massive upheaval for the past six months, after the release of War of the Spark, Modern Horizons, and now Magic 2020. Cards such as Karn, the Great Creator, Narset, Parter of Veils, Collector Ouphe, Dreadhorde Arcanist, Force of Vigor, and Mystic Forge have created seismic, format-changing shifts in the landscape. Thanks to the creativity and exploration of the dedicated Magic Online (MTGO) Vintage community, these cards have made an immediate impact on the Vintage format from the moment they were released online, and this is further demonstrated when physical/paper Magic events happen, such as the NYSE Open 6.
Joe Brennan’s BUG (Black-Blue-Green) Control deck ended up winning this event in dramatic fashion, but without a doubt the key story of the weekend was Team Academy’s Karn Forge Workshop deck. Karn, the Great Creator has made a huge impact on Vintage (as well as Legacy and Modern) since its release in May, and there have been various flavors of Workshop (and Eldrazi) decks that have been built around it. But with Magic 2020 came another powerful tactic in the form of Mystic Forge. This has been immediately deployed in a handful of decks and variants on Magic Online, but Team Academy’s secret testing and tuning with the card yielded the breakout deck of the weekend, and one that will undoubtedly raise the profile of Karn and Mystic Forge to public enemy number one (and two).
Team Academy was not the only one to tune and test a potent Mystic Forge deck, as you’ll see in the decklists section below, where we have provided access to EVERY decklist from the event. What is most notable about Team Academy’s version (aside from placing them in 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 9th with the same deck) is how streamlined it is, and how much different the card choices are than the previous versions of Workshop Karn decks we’ve seen prior. The Academy’s version eschews traditional tactics like Sphere of Resistance, Phyrexian Revoker, and Wasteland for a fully combo-centric platform of speed and resiliency, including full playsets of City of Traitors, Sensei’s Divining Tops, and Defense Grids, as well as tools like Serum Powder to further increase the power of the London Mulligan’s effect on finding a brutally fast and efficient start. The deck is capable of turn 1 kills even, and absolutely requires immediate interaction from the opponent in the first couple of turns. JP Kohler went undefeated in the Swiss rounds and entered the Top 8 as the top seed with a very similar version of the deck, and Nick Kent landed in fifth place with a slightly different version as well.
How this deck (and others) change the Vintage metagame over the next couple of months will be key to measuring the health of the format. While there has been much discontent with Vintage among various format specialists for months, this is likely to further exacerbate calls for action from the DCI. It will be interesting to see how players adapt, now that there is a clear number one target as the apex predator of the format. Tournament winner Joe Brennan accurately predicted the field, and tested and tuned his BUG Control deck to combat this Karn Forge menace, and with a bit of luck and tight play, was rewarded handsomely with the best trophy in the world.
Top 8 Playoff Bracket
Quarterfinals
1 JP Kohler (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) vs. 8 Ryan Eberhart (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) – Kohler wins 2-0
2 Joe Brennan (BUG) vs. 7 Amir Akhundzadeh (Workshop Ravager Aggro) – Brennan wins 2-0
3 Nick Kent (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) vs. 6 Brian Kelly (BUG) – Kelly wins 2-0
4 Vasu Balakrishnan (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) vs. 5 Will Magrann (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) – Balakrishnan wins 2-0
Semifinals
1 JP Kohler (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) vs. 4 Vasu Balakrishnan (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) – Balakrishnan wins 2-1
2 Joe Brennan (BUG) vs. 6 Brian Kelly (BUG) – Brennan wins 2-1
Finals
2 Joe Brennan (BUG) vs. 4 Vasu Balakrishnan (Karn Forge Workshop Combo) – Brennan wins 2-1, and is your NYSE VI Champion!
Pairings and Standings
Pairings
Round 1 Pairings
Round 2 Pairings
Round 3 Pairings
Round 4 Pairings
Round 5 Pairings
Round 6 Pairings
Round 7 Pairings
Standings
Round 3 Standings
Round 6 Standings
Round 7 Standings (final standings after Swiss rounds)
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). As you can see in the sortable table below, Workshops were everywhere, including 12 dedicated Workshop Karn Forge decks (5 of which made the Top 8), 1 slightly older Workshop Karn deck (with Thought-Knot Seer, without Mystic Forge), and 6 Workshop Aggro decks of various flavors (1 of which made Top 8). There were also 2 decks that utilized Workshop, Oath of Druids, and Mystic Forge, all together in a crazy combo amalgamation. All together there were 21 Workshop decks (~22.34% of the field). 13 decks were Jeskai variants (~14.89%, 0 of the Top 16), and were a near-even split of traditional UWR Jeskai and Jeskai Dreadhorde Arcanist variants. 13 decks in the field (~14.89%, including 2 of the Top 8) were BUG and BUGR Control variants (the red splash primarily being for Wrenn and Six, and a couple of other tactics), which often differed quite a bit in composition. 11 decks (~11.7%, and 2 of the Top 16) were Dredge variants, about half of which were Pitch Dredge. The next most played archetype was Paradoxical Outcome at 9 copies (~9.57%, including 3 of the Top 16), with 7 being more traditional UBW or UWR lists, and 2 copies being a crazy UBR variant with 4 Narset and 3 Karn main deck (dubbed herein as “Narset and Karn’s Paradoxical Playhouse”).
[table id=33 /]
Top 16 Decklists
BUG Control, by Joe Brennan - 1st Place
Workshop Karn Forge, by Vasu Balakrishnan - 2nd Place
Workshop Karn Forge, by JP Kohler - 3rd Place
BUG Control, by Brian Kelly - 4th Place
Workshop Karn Forge, by Nick Kent - 5th Place
Workshop Karn Forge, by Will Magrann - 6th Place
Workshop Aggro, by Amir Akhundzadeh - 7th Place
Workshop Karn Forge, by Ryan Eberhardt - 8th Place
Workshop Karn Forge, by Joel Lim - 9th Place
BUG Control, by Dave Kaplan - 10th Place
Outcome UBW, by Pat Fehling - 11th Place
KarnDrazi, by Michael Caruso - 12th Place
Dredge, by Sullivan Brophy - 13th Place
| Business (54) 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Serum Powder 4 Bridge from Below 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Stinkweed Imp 3 Shambling Shell 4 Ichorid 4 Bloodghast 3 Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis 4 Hollow One 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Unmask 4 Leyline of the Void 4 Force of Vigor Mana Sources (6) 4 Petrified Field 2 Dakmor Salvage | Sideboard (15) 4 Contagion 3 Mana Confluence 1 Riftstone Portal 3 Nature's Claim 4 Leyline of Sanctity |
Dredge (Pitch Dredge), by Erik Pentycofe - 14th Place
| Business (60) 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Serum Powder 4 Bridge from Below 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Stinkweed Imp 3 Shambling Shell 4 Narcomoeba 4 Ichorid 4 Prized Amalgam 3 Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis 4 Hollow One 4 Force of Will 2 Mindbreak Trap 4 Mental Misstep 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Force of Vigor Mana Sources (0) | Sideboard (15) 4 Leyline of the Void 4 Leyline of Sanctity 2 Mindbreak Trap 2 Sickening Shoal 3 Contagion |
Outcome UBW, by Jeremy Beaver - 15th Place
Narset and Karn's Paradoxical Playhouse, by Nate Hoffman - 16th Place
ALL Decklists, Alphabetically by Last Name
Below you can find ALL available decklists (some may have been lost in transit, but this is everything we were given). Rather than including a massive wall of text on this page, we’ve created a downloadable PDF file containing ALL of the scanned decklists from the event that we have, in alphabetical order (by last name). The PDF file also contains clickable bookmarks (using Acrobat reader, click on the ribbon icon), which you can use to go directly to decks from player last names starting with A, B, C, and so forth. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FILE IN FULL (17 MB). Use the embed below to view directly without downloading.
NYSE6ALLDecklists
Video Broadcast
Mike Lupo and Andy “Brassman” Probasco provided full video coverage and commentary throughout the event, and you can check out the official NYSE live stream below (at https://www.twitch.tv/tmdbrassman). There are also plans to chop this up and create individual videos by round on YouTube in the very near future, and we will update this page with that once it has been created.
Tournament Action and Report Roundup
As tournament reports from the event slowly filter in around the web, we’ll add links to them below.
– Nick Detwiler’s Tournament Organizer Report
– JP Kohler with Workshop Karn Forge (3rd)
– Brian Kelly with BUG Control (4th)
– Dean Harris with Daze Ad Nauseam (20th)
Below you can find plenty of photos from the games during the tournament, and see many of the cards in action.
The Godfather and Creator of NYSE, Nick Detwiler
Tournament Action!
Quarterfinals, Eberhart vs. Kohler
Quarterfinals, Kelly vs. Kent
Semifinals, Balakrishnan vs. Kohler
Semifinals, Kelly vs. Brennan
Finals, Balakrishnan vs. Brennan
Finals, Brennan taking it very seriously
Live broadcast team, behind the scenes during the Top 8
Mike Lupo interviews the winner, Joe Brennan
Team Trios Winners (Murray, Balakrishnan, Kelly)
Team Academy
The Arabian Knights
NYSE 6 Champion Joe Brennan!
For any corrections, comments, follow up, or to send us any action shots to add to this report (or to submit your own written tournament report for publication), please email eternal.central@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.