Kazuya Mitamura may have won PT Honolulu but for the Constructed portion the winner was Jim Davis who went 9-1 with his cascade-based Jund deck. The Long Island, NY native wrote a tournament report for a local website about his unique approach to the format, which saw him choose to be on the draw in all the matches he won. In fact, the only Constructed match he lost was the last one when he veered from the script and chose to play first in the last game.

From his report:

The shocking revelation is that I chose to draw rather than play first. In fact, every single game in the constructed portion (save for game 3 round 16, which I will get to later) I was on the draw. This worked out very well because despite losing most of my die rolls in 10 rounds I was always exactly where I wanted to be as my opponents all chose to play.

Now, why draw? When I was first testing the deck Blightning was in the board, and it was simply devastating in the mirror. The deck has no card draw style card advantage, and needs its lands to get going, which means Blightning either stunted mana development brutally or spiked two big spells. This is huge because the way the deck is designed all of your spells have the card advantage built in, meaning most are in essence two spells in one. So if you discard two spells to Blightning you have discarded almost 4 spells of value.

With one or two more wins in Limited — a format that he has traditionally done well in — Jim could have easilly have made the Top 8 of this event and his decision to draw first would have been one of the most talked about in recent Magic history. Due to the split format his performance — and the decision that may have led to that performance — was buried in 33rd place in the final standings.

The second game of the Grand Prix Kobe 2009 Finals between Tomoharu Saito and Yuuya Watanabe has been posted by judge/coverage reporter Naoaki Umesaki. When last we left our finalists the former Rookie of the Year Watanabe was up one game to zero.

Ummm…are all the Elves decks hiding? There were none in the Top 8 of the GPT we posted awhile back and now the 83 person field at the Winter King has churned exactly zero Elves decks into the Top 8 of their $3,000 extravaganza. And it is not like they did not show up in force according to Alex Stambaugh who worked the event as a judge. He said early on Saturday via Facebook that the field was dominated by Elves and red decks. I was not sure  if that meant All-In Red or Goblins or Burn. Two of those three archetypes moved into the Top 8 so…still not clear on that one. I am also not clear on the decision to feature Dominus of Fealty in Casey Miller’s All-In build. Any readers out there have an idea why you would want to inlcude that over the tramply, land-eating Deus of Calamity?

You can find all the Top 8 lists here over on TCGplayer.com.

I am guessing that having decks like the ones played by Robert Graves and Brandon Burk sporting maindeck Night of Soul’s Betrayal went a long way to keeping the green men in check. Here is the winning list:

Gifts Rock
Robert Graves — Winner
2008 $3000 Winter King

1 Etched Oracle
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Ravenous Baloth
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Selkie Hedge-Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Chrome Mox
4 Engineered Explosives
1 Firespout
4 Gifts Ungiven
2 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
2 Putrefy
1 Reclaim
1 Smother
4 Spell Snare
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Academy Ruins
1 Blood Crypt
2 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
2 Twilight Mire
1 Watery Grave
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Clearwater Goblet
1 Deathmark
1 Firespout
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Jund Charm
1 Putrefy
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Smother
2 Vedalken Shackles

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 »

While hanging out  in Berlin at the hotel site bar Riki Hayashi introduced me to Glen White, a UK judge and tournament organizer. Glen and I had communicated a few times on Facebook but it was nice to put a face to the name. Glen has created a Magic site to host the results of the UK edition of Champs (called States here in the former Colonies) and he has a handful of Top8s already live.

One thing I have noticed about the decklists is that they LOVE a Wilt Leaf Liege in the UK. Take that , Blightning Beatdown! There were a couple of exciting new cards on display in the Gravesend Top 8 including the debut of Stoic Angel — or The New Girl in deference to Mike’s win at States a few years back with Lightning Angel — in Ian Walters’ Bant creation.

New Girl
UK Champs - Gravesend
Ian Walters - Winner

3 Stoic Angel
3 Mulldrifter
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Chameleon Colossus
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Cryptic Command
3 Negate
3 Bant Charm
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Flooded Grove
2 Wooded Bastion
2 Mystic Gate
2 Adarkar Wastes
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Brushland
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Island

Sideboard:
3 Wispmare
2 vendilion Clique
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Negate
2 Stillmoon Cavalier
3 Hindering Light
3 Runed Halo

One of the cards I have been really excited about for the new Standard is Realm Razor. There is nothing I enjoy more in draft than getting passed that guy third or fourth and going long on Steward of Valerons. Blow up all the land with two or three mana men/Obelisks in play and that is usually game over for slower to develop opponents. Which led me to think about playing Realm Razor against the slow to develop Reflecting Pool Control decks that have been so powerful in the current Standard. I thought it would make a nice sideboard card backed up by Mike’s fave hybrid spell, Guttural Response.

I am definitely going to be cobbling up something along the lines of this list which can play a turn three Razer off of a turn one Figure of Destiny, turn two Bloomtender, and turn three blow up the world. And should someone Blightning you, never fear, Wilt-Leaf Liege is on the case!

BloomRazer
UK Champs - Oxford
Mark Ratcliffe - Quarterfinalist

Main Deck:
1x Battlefield Forge
4x Brushland
2x Fire-lit Thicket
1x Forest
4x Jungle Shrine
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Reflecting Pool
1x Rugged Praire
2x Wooded Bastion
3x Gift of the Gargantuan
4x Naya Charm
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Bloom Tendewr
2x Brion Stoutarm
4x Figure of DEstiny
4x Realm Razer
4x Wilt-Leaf Liege
4x Woolly Thoctar

Sideboard:
2x Ajani Vengeant
3x Firespout
4x Guttural Response
3x Oversoul of Dusk
3x Runed Halo

If you want to take a look at all the lists you can find them here. You will have to register to look at the forums but if you are looking for some new lists there should be some new lists every week.

The new Gatherer — still in Beta — just soft launched on the mothership and includes a random card feature that occupied far more of my time than I would have imagined.  Of course — much like the shuffler — I am not too certain about the ramdomness of the random card feature. It kept churning up my personal favorites as I clicked through. Poultice Sliver and Cautery Sliver were two of the first five cards that popped up sandwiched around Heartwood Giant — a Tempest Limited bomb. I have not thought about Wave Elemental in many, many years but it was one of my favorite cards to open in Mirage Sealed deck — kinda like a Falter with legs.

I really like the “Search Terms” entry field which begins to pull up results as you enter letters. I am lucky if I can remember one part of a card’s name these days and having the site prompt me is awfully helpful. One minor complaint is that if I type in “Drake” it will bring up all the cards starting with the word “Drake” but not a Wind Drake. Still it is a huge improvement over the traditional Gatherer interface.