Fans,

Enjoy this great Deck Tech from Pro Tour: San Diego 2010 with Zvi!

Sorry I have not posted for awhile. I have dissapeared a little bit into the frenzy that is Twitter and if you want to follow me there I can be followed at http://twitter.com/Top8Games. What I have been tweeting about mostly are some decks that have popped up recently at the Star City 5K Open, PTQ Top 8s, and even here in our ersatz forums/comments sections. The first was a new version of the green-white token deck that originally appeared at the 5K immediately preceding PT Kyoto. There was another 5K this past weekend in Indianapolis and a new version of the deck made it as far as the Final Four.

Green-White Overrun
Joshua Scott Honigmann — 4th Place
StarCityGames.com $5,000 Standard Open

4 Birds Of Paradise
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Elvish Visionary
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Stillmoon Cavalier
4 Path To Exile
2 Ajani Goldmane
2 Elspeth, Knight-errant
3 Martial Coup
2 Overrun
4 Spectral Procession
5 Forest
1 Plains
4 Brushland
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Treetop Village
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Wooded Bastion

Sideboard:
4 Burrenton Forge-tender
3 Cloudthresher
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Ranger Of Eos
1 Wilt-leaf Liege
3 Naturalize

Read the rest of this entry »

In addition to the awesome coverage work that Bill Stark and Dane Young did covering GP: LA, Bill has followed up with an exhaustive burst of typing over at TheStarkingtonPost.com to post ALL the decklists from Day Two of the GP. Below you can find the decks that finished from 9th through 20th in that event and you can look through all the lists on Bill’s blog. I was only going to post 9 - 16 but when the next four players are Martin Juza, Sam Black, Gabe Walls, and Adam Yurchick I decided to just keep going a little while longer.

A couple of notes:

The top tables of this tournament were absurd. It was a pretty hot little Top 8 but then as you keep scrolling down the standings you have a former World Champion, a pair of Worlds Team Champions, Gavin Verhey locking up another invite on his climb to PT inevitable PT success, rising star Martin Juza, Gabe Walls, and Adam Yurchick.

The Top finishing Elf deck was in 18th place but it warrants looking at as LSV suggests that Elves might be good again based on the Storm front that is rolling in for the PTQ season.

The highest finishing Death Cloud deck — Michael Jacob’s — did not have any actual Death Cloud in it but Brazillian superstar Carlos Romao’s did. With or without the Clouds, the Raven’sd Crime package seems like it could be a nice way to combat TEPS decks from crafting that perfect turn.

I broke the ManuelB deck away from the traditonal Faeries listing mostly on the basis of Azami, Lady of Scrolls. Although you could easilly lump it in with the Fae this deck is something else altogether.

Gabe Walls’ Slide deck was certainly an unexpected but welcome surprise. When people were prepping for Berlin I definitley liked Edge of Autumn as a sneaky cycler and was glad to see it have some success although it would have been nice to see Walls make a return to the PT in Hawaii.

Death Cloud
Carlos Romao - 9th Place
Grand Prix-Los Angeles
Format: Extended

3 Damnation
4 Smother
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Raven’s Crime
1 Worm Harvest
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Kitchen Rinks
4 Thoughtseize
4 Life from the Loam
3 Death Cloud
2 Crime/Punishment
3 Barren Moor
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Golgari Rot Farm
3 Tranquil Thicket
2 Windswept Heath
4 Polluted Delta
2 Forest
4 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Bitterblossom
2 Persecute
3 Darkblast
3 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Ravenous Baloth Read the rest of this entry »

One of the public events at GP Okayama this past weekend was a Super Grand Prix Trial for GP Kobe — the 2009 GP schedule can be found here — which offered the winner three byes, entry, and transportation to the event. (I would imagine the organizers were happy none of the Austalian or Europeans in attendance won the Trial.) The format was Extended and provides one of our first peeks at the post-Berlin metagame. It was a pretty small event considering the prize — most of the public event thunder on Sunday was stolen by what was essentially a five-slot qualifier for Kyoto — that only had 17 players. Nonetheless it was something I was eager to look at as I am sure you are too.

It sounds like these lists will show up on the Mothership sometime in the next week or so. Both Mike and I are off this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday so they won’t be appearing there. In the meanwhile I figured I would post them here. Before you continued reading below the fold…  How many Elves decks were in the Top 8? 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.