Post Berlin and Readers Comments Part 1

BDM, MichaelJ, and Wilson Price of Progress discuss the 9th through
16th place decks from Pro Tour Berlin. While the Top 8 was dominated
by Elves the next 8 decks were dominated by diversity with cards as
diverse as Fecundity and Azami, Lady of Scrolls populating the lists.
With Worlds on the horizon and a PTQ season not far behind will any of
these decks dethrone Elves as the king of the Extended hill?

BDM, Michaelj, and Wilson PoP answer the Top8Magic comments section
with a discussion of everything from smattering of basketball talk
(ranging from LeBron and company in Cleveland to why BDM thinks the
Knicks will make the playoffs), the impact of Rewind on the creation
on Cryptic Command, the new season of Top Chef, why Tom hates
Chinatown, and Elves, Elves, Elves!

Will Price: I think I have a good T2 deck for Worlds/the Philly 5k.
Julian (Levin): O yeah
Julian: Ship it

Greedy Grixis
4 Bitterblossom
3 Grixis Charm
4 Cryptic Command
4 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Fulminator Mage
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Mulldrifter
3 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Shriekmaw
1 Reveillark

4 Reflecting Pool
4 Sunken Ruins
2 Rugged Prairie
1 Fetid Heath
1 Mystic Gate
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Graven Cairns
2 Underground River
1 Shivan Reef
4 Crumbling Necropolis
3 Arcane Sanctum

Julian: What has this format come to.
Julian: I dunno what kind of criticisms I can give having never played a game with Shards.
Will: Don’t criticize, just praise.
Julian: Best deck I’ve ever seen.

Hey everyone, my name is Will Price, and I am a new member here at Top 8 Magic. You may recognize me from one of my several appearances on the podcast, or if you frequent Neutral Ground or PTQs in the New York area. I have been playing Magic semi-seriously the past few years (semi-serious in that I go to tournaments, just never win) and have always wanted to write about it. Hopefully through posting here I can motivate myself to take the game a bit more seriously and perform better in the tournament scene.

T2 is my favorite format. As such, I live for States (which thankfully returned) and Regionals, and the rare T2 PTQ season. Despite scrubbing at States (a story for a different post), there is still reason to play T2. There is a 5k event in Philly the first weekend of December, and Worlds the weekend after which I am hoping to attend.

This deck has been my project for the past two weeks, and I am currently of the opinion that it is quite strong. Let’s call it a Contender. Against a control deck, you play the pseudo-tempo game. Do your best to disrupt them early with Fulminator Mage and/or bouncing Vivid lands with Grixis Charm (or Cryptic if you want to get greedy). Once they are behind on lands your goal is to stick a threat and protect it. Use Mannequin aggressively on their EOT so you can resolve your big spells on your turn. They usually can’t beat an Ajani or a Bitterblossom. Against aggro you are the control deck. Fulminator Mage can often 2 for 1, trading with a guy and a man-land. Sower and Shriekmaw are insane, especially since you have Mannequin. They also can’t beat an Ajani. Or a Bitterblossom. Noticing a trend?

As for specific matchups and sideboarding, that data is not in yet. I have not done enough focused testing to certify this deck a winner. I see a lot of potential with this list and will be posting a lot about it between now and Worlds (maybe I can trick someone who is playing in the event to run it? I’m looking at you Fabiano). More explanation will come as I start heavy testing against real T2 decks (read: RDW, Kithkin, 5c, Faeries). Until then, I am inviting everyone who reads to test it, tweak it, and make suggestions. Here are a couple of things to think about:

Is Grixis Charm that good? It has a ton of utility, and the Overrun effect has won me a lot of races given the amount token production. Is it just a “win more,” or is it the real deal?

Am I crazy for not running more Reveillark?

Is the mana awful? I am not exactly an expert at building a land base. So far it has been fine, although I have had more than one game where Ajani is sitting in my hand because I am missing either red or white.

That’s it for now. Let me know what you what you think with comments!

Wherein Mike discusses another 20 tournaments, and their relative Green-ness. This section includes most of his more recent success as a deck designer, including Kuroda-style Red, Critical Mass, Jushi Blue, and U/W Wafo-Tapa.

So this is a track of my previous 20 individual Constructed tournaments (in case you are new here this is a continuation from yesterday’s popular The Grinch That Stole Mike’s Rating) post.

So in my previous 20 tournaments I was Green only about 1/3 of the time (7/20). The Green component was +75 Rating Delta.

The overall in these 20 tournaments was +146… so I did much better overall to the tune of almost 18 points per tournament. For those of you who didn’t pass the second grade, that means the non-Green component was +71, so I did only mildly better on Rating Delta with Green.

But…

Green got the benefit of Critical Mass, which was +91 rating points in one tournament (that means the other six Green tournaments together were -16 Rating Delta. PTQ wins are of course very rich in Rating Delta, and Rating Delta is highly subjective based on relative rating… look at the very next tournament where I played to an identical record, but only +41.

The difference was that in Critical Mass I lost in the first round and with Jushi Blue I lost to Julian Levin in the last round, i.e. the worst possible round for Rating Delta.

In addition, Green got Ichorid and Astral Slide on basis of Dredge cards like Golgari Grave-Troll and Life from the Loam. Both of these were positive rating. So of the non-Critical Mass / non-Dredge Green decks (4) Rating Delta was -66, with only the brilliant Playing Fair in the black (and that deck was very Black… Green being primarily for Spiritmonger and Pernicious Deed).

Key caveats for non-Green…

The NAC Qualifier on 8/18/06… I went 2-1 but that doesn’t tell the story. I actually played against then-Number One Apprentice Julian Levin again in the 75-card Keiga mirror (see Jushi Blue, above). In this one Julian got the same sequence he beat me with at States, that is second turn Boomerang (maybe he beat me with second turn Jushi at States… I don’t remember). However this time I fought and fought and he “beat” me to resolve Debtors’ Knell.

However I knew how Debtors’ Knell worked. This just created an infinite loop of Julian getting back Keiga… and another Keiga… every turn. That is, he never got an attack due to the good old Legend Rule!

However after [functionally, strategically, sneakily] beating Julian in this wonderful fencing match where he had the “Boomerang draw” and multiple Compulsive Researches, I conceded the match to preserve his rating. That is, I really went 3-0 in that one!

Including the U/G Threshold tournament, I was 1-2 (but really 2-1) against Julian Levin in this 20 tournament stretch.

Enough excuses for Green / non-Green.

Green: +75
non-Green: +71

However non-Green has a very slight edge in per-match points (2.0111… v. 2.0).

Firestarter: Josh says it’s all about deck selection, not color. He says my most recent 20 matches could have had a high positive Delta even if I chose Green, had my Green been Kitchen Finks… but paired with Mulldrifter instead of more Green cards.

Discuss!

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LOVE
MIKE

BDM recently accused me of being the Greenest one of all.

Certainly I am envious of… everyone. I have stunk at Magic since basically my win at the 2006 New York State Championship, with only one individual Top 8 (a Standard Regionals) since.

Is it because of being too Green?

Here is a list of my last 20 individual Constructed tournaments, conveniently the 20 since my win over Greg Poverelli with This Girl.

According to this — or my last 20 individual Constructed tournaments anyway — I am Green 80% of the time and down 199 rating points.

Green: 80%
Not Green: 20%

Green: -249
Not Green: +50

Is it that simple? Is Green the pits?

… Maybe?

In these 20 tournaments, my biggest delta was at States two weeks ago, +52 rating points, with a Jund Mana Ramp deck.

My biggest loser was also with Jund colors, -50 at an Extended PTQ last winter.

Both Green.

I don’t know what that means because rating is so relative; my best finish out of the bunch — Top 8 and an inch from qualification — was with Mishra, a mere +20 delta.

Not Green.

So… Firestarter:

1) Am I the Greenest one of all?
2) Am I the pits or is Green the pits?
3) How do I turn this around and establish myself once again as a Top 25 rated player?

Go start fires!

LOVE
MIKE

PS Update - I forgot that alleged B/U Control Time Spiral PTQ I actually splashed Green for the Green six drop Dragaon and the Battlemage… So 80/20 Green, and -249/+50 are the updated stats. Oh my!

The Top 8 London Champs lists have been posted on MTGChamps.co.UK and it has Faeries and Merfolk on the top of the heap. The Faeries list that won is sporting some unusual maindeck cards including Peppersmoke and Tidings. The former seems like it would be dreadful against 5Color but if you are expecting a field full of Faeries and Stonybrook Bannerets it makes a lot more sense. Tidings, on the other hand, is something of a mystery but I will certainly be building this tonight on MTGO and trying it on myself.

Faeries
Carlos Moral - Winner
London Champs 2008

4 Bitterblossum
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
4 Cryptic Command
4 Agony Warp
3 Thoughtseize
2 Peppersmoke
2 Tidings
2 Broken Ambitions
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Oona’s Grace
2 Faerie Conclave
3 Swamp
4 Island
4 Underground River
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Secluded Glen
4 Mutavault

Sideboard:
2 Razormane Masticore
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Oona’s Grace
2 Peppersmoke
2 Flashfreeze
3 Infest
2 Jace Beleren
2 Persuasion

The second place list was the Merfolk deck that is becoming a metagame fixture with Stonybrook Banneret into Sage’s Dousing giving the aggro deck up to eight Dismiss-like counterspells. This feels a lot  like an old school fish deck and can be incredibly frustrating to play against when they counter everything you try and draw a card each time. This list is incredibly straightforward and eschews the Knights of Meadowgrain that are in some of the other lists I have seen of late. Many people have written this archetype off in Standard with the rotation of Lord of Atlantis but Wake Thrasher has stepped in and gets plenty large all on his own.

Dissmisive Merfolk
London Champs 2008
Charlie Grover - Finalist

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Stonybrook Banneret
4 Sygg, River Guide
4 Wake Thrasher
4 Merfolk Rejerey
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Sage’s Dowsing
4 Cryptic Command
8 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wanderwine Hub
4 Mystic Gate
4 Adarkar Wastes

Sideboard:
3 Pollen Lullaby
4 Deft Duelist
4 Burrenton Forge Tender
4 Reveillark

The semifinals were rounded out by a pair of MonoRed Aggro decks and the bottom half of the elimination bracket featured four different archetypes; Elementals, 5-Color Planeswalker, Elves, and an EsperLark deck: Read the rest of this entry »

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