Pro Tour Berlin Results

First things first, here's the metagame breakdown for the entirety of the pro tour:

Deck	# of players	% of field
Zoo	126	27.75%
Elves	71	15.64%
Storm	39	8.59%
Next Level Blue	32	7.05%
Junk	27	5.95%
Faeries	25	5.51%
Death Cloud Rock	21	4.63%
Affinity	18	3.96%
All-In Red	17	3.74%
Burn	17	3.74%
Dredge	9	1.98%
Hulk Combo	5	1.10%
Life from the Loam Rock	5	1.10%
Tezzeret Control	5	1.10%
Bant Control	4	0.88%
Martyr Proclamation	4	0.88%
Second Breakfast	4	0.88%
Blue-Red Tron	4	0.88%
White-Blue Tron	4	0.88%
Bant Aggro	2	0.44%
Goblins	2	0.44%
Swans Combo	2	0.44%
Battle of Wits	1	0.22%
Beasts	1	0.22%
Belcher Combo	1	0.22%
Black-Green Rock	1	0.22%
White-Black Tokens	1	0.22%
Green-White Slide	1	0.22%
Rift Slide	1	0.22%
Seismic Loam	1	0.22%
Mono-Blue Control	1	0.22%
Mindlock Orb Control	1	0.22%
Blue-Black Tron	1	0.22%

Now we all knew that Zoo is gonna be the biggest deck out there, but Elves is definitely the big surprise here. I think in the magic online league Extended tournaments which i talked some about a few ago, Elves comprised one top 8 deck total. And suddenly here it is in full force as the second most popular deck in the pro tour.

On a side note, Magic writing done by the pros themselves is a little fucked up. Elves was never even considered once in any of the articles I read over at the official site or at Star City Games, but obviously that whole community knew about it and how good it was. They were waiting until after the Pro Tour just to be like whoops, sorry we didn't tell you guys that! Its like when Time Spiral first came out, Flores hyped a bunch of decks which he considered to be decks to beat for that tournament. So he went on about how good solar flare was and R/B aggro and such, only to show up to the tournament with a deck he crafted himself designed to beat the meta game which he singlehandedly formed. But whatever I digress...

Anyways lets look at the top 8 shall we:

6 Elves Combo
1 Tezzeret Control
1 Faeries

Wow. Elves dominated the whole tournament. Here is Luis Scott Vargas' list that won:

creature [32]

4 Birchlore Rangers

4 Elves of Deep Shadow

4 Elvish Visionary

1 Eternal Witness

4 Heritage Druid

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Nettle Sentinel

1 Regal Force

2 Viridian Shaman

4 Wirewood Symbiote

instant [4]

4 Summoner's Pact

sorcery [8]

4 Glimpse of Nature

1 Grapeshot

3 Weird Harvest

land [16]

4 Gilt-Leaf Palace

2 Overgrown Tomb

1 Pendelhaven

9 Snow-Covered Forest

60 cards

Sideboard:

1 Mycoloth

1 Nullmage Shepherd

2 Viridian Shaman

4 Thoughtseize

2 Thorn of Amethyst

4 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Pendelhaven

15 cards

So yeah, Elves is now the best deck in extended. Excuse me while I go kill myself...

Pro Tour Berlin

Pro Tour Berlin is this weekend, and obviously its Extended format (else I wouldn't even bring it up). I'll be following the event coverage this weekend and posting some of the more interesting decks as they are revealed. Extended meta-game will cemented once this is over, and after that its time to start actually testing out some deck ideas against the new meta-game. Extended PTQs season won't happen until early next year, but with a format so seemingly wide-open you gotta get on the testing train earlier.



On a side note: Pro Tour Kyoto Qualifiers have started and the format is Shards of Alara Sealed deck. Unfortunately one of the Los Angeles dates is TBD, but the other is on 12/27/2008. I will definitely be attended that one, and encourage any reader in LA to do the same, since Shards of Alara limited has been a fun and intricate format so far.

For my bay area peeps:
Sacramento 12/06/2008
San Jose 12/20/2008

It don't matter if youre black or white

So you know what card used to rape my U/G Tron build last season? Mesmeric Orb. Well only if it was combined with Extirpate…well maybe it was just extirpate which ownd me. Whatever, while we’re on the subject lets talk about Tron.

Last season, Tron was a big contender which came in two main varieties; U/g and U/w. The green versions used Moments Peace to stall the board long enough to power out an early Titan or Angel, or fetch the lock for the win. The white versions actually had board control, and didn’t utilize the Mindslaver lock instead opting for things like Decree of Justice for a supplementary kill-mech alongside Titans.

So now that we actually have some deck lists for the post rotation Extended metagame, lets take a look at how Tron is doing this season…

1 Top 4 appearance… and its U/b…

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?!!?

Sigh… well for starters Tron is a control killer. This format is dominated by aggro. U/g lost their Moment’s Peace, so until there is a good replacement for that (Wall of Roots is a terrible replacement btw) the deck is done for. But why U/b over U/w? Here’s the list:

creatures [5]
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 Platinum Angel
3 Sundering Titan

instants [15]
4 Condescend
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Remand
2 Spell Snare
4 Thirst for Knowledge

sorceries [5]
1 Beacon of Unrest
3 Damnation
1 Zombify

artifacts [11]
2 Chrome Mox
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Dimir Signet
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Mindslaver

lands [24]
1 Academy Ruins
1 Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
3 Tolaria West
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
3 Watery Grave

Sideboard [15]:
3 Extirpate
3 Remand
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Smother
1 Damnation
1 Mind Shatter
4 Thoughtseize
1 Engineered Explosives

Okay so what makes Black superior to White? White gives us Oblivion Ring, Wrath of God, Decree of Justice, Circle of Protection: Red, Kataki, War’s Wage, and Exalted Angel. Black gives us Damnation, Beacon of Unrest (for the lock), Thoughtseize, Extirpate, Oona, and some good tutorable spot removal. Hmmm…

Let’s sum all of this up: White is pretty good against creatures, has an uncounterable finisher against control and has some amazing sideboard options for Affinity and Red Decks. Black is about equal in the creature removal department, but Extirpate and Thoughtseize give it some extra power against the slew of combo decks running around these days. Because of the rise of aggro and combo I believe that Black a better suited support color for Tron than white. However, if control becomes a major force again, then maybe Tron will have to switch back to White.

Z says: Morb

Journeyman ARuiz broke down the format, but he failed to mention a certain latent variable that will change the landscape of the tier lists. This one card, when used properly, has the potential to rout the efforts of any other popular deck. Some of you may already know what I am talking about. The rest of you need to take a closer look at yourselves as Magic players.

Yes, I speak of Mesmeric Orb.

1. It is 2 mana. Yes, chalice of the void can cancel Morb with a humble 4 manaroonies (and believe me, once Morbs start hitting the decks, chalices will be in all sideboards x4). However, chalices don't impress me. Besides, they'll probably end up being put into your opponent's graveyard from your opponent's library. In the meantime, your second turn Morb is already on the board.

2. It's an artifact. You can throw it in your monoblack control deck or your green, red and white aggro deck. This is key, because Morb is a powerful addition to any deck. And there are no exceptions. If your deck starts fizzling out, sit back and let the orb do the job.

3. The cards in your hand suck. The cards in your library are okay. But the cards in all players' graveyards are amazing. With Morb, you don't have to limit yourself to 0-7 cards. With the right cards, you will have all graveyards at your spellcasting disposal.

4. The unforeseen danger. Okay, so this bonus is void once word hits the plains, but, really; when was the last time you were building a deck and wondered, "Oh, I better adjust to address the untapping too much issue"? I'm guessing it was another famous orb, of which I was also a fan -- Worb.

5. Dredge. Problem solved.

Angelic Musings

Alright, so anyone who has played constructed with me knows that my two favorite loves are Tron and Lightning Angel. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that Lightning Angel is good enough for Extended these days. However, if you haven't seen Shards of Alara yet, it contains a new Lightning Angel Variant:

Stoic Angel

Creature - Angel
Flying, vigilance
Players can't untap more than one creature during their untap steps.
3/4

Now, I shouldn’t have to explain how amazing this card is. If the trends in extended continue the way they are, this format will be dominated by various aggro decks, which Stoic Angel excels against. It’s also in the color of Cryptic Command, which besides being an amazing counter, also has the ability to tap all your opponent’s creatures. Throw in some Threads of Disloyalty, Tarmogoyf, Kitchen Finks, Bant Charm

Stifle and a shit load of counters and you got a deck that can easily hold its own against the slew of aggro and combo which are defining the format right now.

Here’s a sample deck list:

Bant Level Blue:

Lands (23):

1 Forest
4 Island
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Breeding Pool
3 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
2 Temple Garden
1 Plains

Creatures (12):

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Stoic Angel
4 Kitchen Finks

Spells (25):

2 Threads of Disloyalty
4 Spell Snare
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Cryptic Command
4 Remand
2 Stifle
3 Bant Charm

4 Ancestral Vision

I haven’t had the opportunity to test this at all, but there are a few things I’m unsure about right off the back. First, I’m not sold on Kitchen Finks in this list. Maybe Wall of Roots would be better? It would have greater synergy with Stoic anyways. Also, Chrome Mox might be good to power out early Stoic Angels. Vedalken Shackles over Threads of Disloyalty?

Sigh ...I don’t know … I couldn’t play this deck even if I wanted to. I’m not shelling out 200 dollars for an unstable mana base and an extra 200 for Cryptics and Goyfs. I can barely afford to live as it, and all my extra money needs to go to drinks. Still an interesting idea if anyone wants to toy around with/ refine it.

Metagame Breakdown thus far...

I mentioned last week that there had been a series of Post-Rotation Extended tournaments taking place on Magic Workstation. While the metagame won't entirely be shaped until Pro Tour Berlin, here is a quick glimpse on what the metagame is shaping out to be thus far:

Aggro: 30%

Zoo – 4

WW -1

Burn – 5

Goblins -1

Sea Stompy – 1

Elves – 1

Boros -1

Affinity -2

Mid-Range: 15%

Doran – 8

Control: 25%

Death Cloud – 3

New level Blue – 6

Faeries – 3

Tron -1

Combo: 30%

Dues Red – 5

Bubble Hulk – 2

Belcher – 1

Swath Storm – 4

Swans - 4

Hmmmm... well first thing I want to say is that some of these deck archetypes are a bit off. For instance, some versions of Swans play like a control deck and just have a a combo as the finisher. The Dues decks work as both a combo deck accelerating into a first or second turn giant creature, or a more mid range deck with ritual powered out land disruption.

With that out of the way a few things. One, over half the field is fast aggro and combo. Cards like chalice of the Void and Trinisphere are looking to be really good in this format. Affinity is not being the powerhouse it was supposed to be this season, but thats probably because people are expecting it in large numbers right now. A few players will definitely be able to squeeze a top finish in the upcoming season once all the affinity hype (and resulting sideboards) die down. Zoo is doing well, but not as well as I would expect, especially since everyone was praising the new Wild Nacatl as the card which was gonna put the deck over the top. Overall, nothing too unexpected is happening just yet (except for some awesome combos like Bubble Hulk and Belcher)

You can check out the wining decklists here: http://www.deckcheck.net/format.php?format=Ons_8th_SoA

Awesome

I wanna talk some about the decks which barely get hurt by the rotation (such as Affinity, Zoo, U/W Tron etc.) but first I need to present something to you:

Extended Belcher:

Mainboard:

5 Mountain
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
4 Wild Cantor
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Chromatic Star
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Manamorphose
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Chromatic Sphere
3 Guttural Response
4 Seething Song
4 Chrome Mox
4 Goblin Charbelcher

# 60

Sideboard:

4 Shattering Spree
4 Defense Grid
3 Pithing Needle
4 Tormod's Crypt

# 15

The past couple weeks there have been some practice Post-Rotation extended tournaments going down on Magic Workstation. The top 8 deck lists are being posted periodically to DeckCheck.net. I'll go over all the lists thus far on a later date, but I wanted to share the above list in particular, since I thought it was amazing, and very reminiscent of the CRET Belcher builds in Legacy and Vintage. This deck took first in the tournament it was in.

Extended Extinctions Part 2

Urrggh I'm sober and at work, this depresses me. If only I had some more vicodin, but alas, let us continue.

The Rock: The deck retains all of its solid mid-range creatures like Doran, Tarmogoyf, and Loxodon Heirarch. However it loses some of its most valuable disruption tools in Duress, Cabal Therapy, and Vindicate. These can be replaced with Oblivion Ring and Thoughtseize, but neither of these are as good as the original. The deck is still good and will be played, its just weaker. Also, Pernicious Deed rotates... sadface

Next Level Blue: In terms of the actual rotation of this only really loses Force Spike. However, Sensei's Diving Top is now officially banned in Extended. So its Counterbalance-Top super disruption combo is now over. Trinket Mage can still search for some bombs like Engineered Explosives and Pithing Needle, but the main force behind this deck is gone. I expect to still see it around since it retains amazing control cards like Vedalken Shackles, Threads of Disloyalty, Crytic Command, and Remand, but like the Rock it'll just be significantly weaker.

Enduring Ideal: This deck loses Solitary Confinement, which was its main defensive card which made the deck actually work. Burning Wish is also gone, and there is no good tutor to replace it. Sensei's Diving Top was also huge in setting up the draw needed to Enduring Ideal and win. I don't expect this deck to survive... at all.

Goblins: Don't get me wrong, Goblins will still be a decent deck post rotation, especially with all of the good Goblin cards Lorwyn added to the mix (such as Frogtosser Banneret and Earwig Squad). Goblin Ringleader (Amazing Card Draw) and Goblin Matron (Amazing Tutor) both rotate out, making it much harder for Goblins to come back if they are under pressure.

Next post, Ill cover which decks barely got hurt by the rotation. Also, I'm in the process of trying to find a way to auto-link cards. Hopefully I'll be able to remedy that problem soon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go try to find a pill of some sort to eat. Yum!

Extended Extinctions Part 1

Ya know ... I wanted the first post on this blog to be creative, fun, unique, and all those other things people strive for in writing. I wanted to write something that would set me apart from all the random magic nerds and pro tour players writing about Magic for the main stream sites. But then ... I realized I wasn't drunk enough to give a shit about what anyone who reads this blog is gonna think about it. Yeah, FUCK YOU READER!! I said it! What?! We can take this to fisticuffs later.

Instead, this blog is simply going to be an outlet for all my musing about Magic's current most exciting format: Extended.

As some of you should already know, Extended is about to face a massive rotation. With the release of Shards of Alara on October 3rd, the following sets will be leaving extended: Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse, Odyssey, Tormet, Judgement, and 7th Edition. With such a large number of sets leaving, the format itself is going to cease to exist as we know it. Sure, some juggernauts such as Affinity will still be around untouched, but just about every other deck known in Extended's existence is about to die or about to undergo some massive overhauls. So, before we can start brainstorming on what the best way is to break this format wide open, we need to discuss which decks got slapped in the face with the new rotation.

U/G Tron:

Sadface :( U/G Tron only loses one card: Moment's Peace. However, this is the card which made the deck amazing. Sure Life from the Loam combo'd with Gifts Ungiven sets up Mindslaver locks and guarantees the player finds all three Urza Lands. But Moment's Peace is the card which allowed the deck to even survive to the point where it can cast Gifts Ungiven and do ridiculous things. Its the only thing which kept the deck from rolling over and dying horrible to aggro. The closest replacement I can think of is Wall of Roots, which is an almost irrelevant card to have out when you're staring down two Myr Enforcers, two Frogmites, and a Ornithoper with Cranial Plating equipped ... on turn three. If you really want to play Tron, stick with U/W or U/R instead, or better yet just don't play it at all. Tron is only a good deck in a control heavy metagame, and this new format is looking to be more and more aggro dominated.

Scepter Chant:

All three spells which this deck abused with Isochron Scepter are rotating out: Counterspell, Orim's Chant, and Fire/Ice. With those around, this is just a bad U/W control deck. And oh yeah, its main card draw was Fact or Fiction which is also gone. You can probably put together a decent W/U control deck using Cryptic Command, Exhalted Angel, Wrath of God, Remand, Vedalken Shackles and so on, but there are better control options out there (such as Mono Blue with a green splash for Goyf or Faeries)

Madness:

There is not too much to say about this deck. Almost every relevent card with Madness is rotating out with the Odyssey Block.. along with most of the good discard outlets available in Extended. But this deck hasn't been a force to be reckoned with for a long time, so really this whole paragraph was pointless.

Aggro Loam:

This deck loses all of its core elements except for Life from the Loam and Seismic Assault. Without Terravore, Devestating Dreams, Burning Wish, and Werebear, the deck simply loses a lot of its power. This is a shame, since this was one of the better and more flexiable decks in Extended available for the past few seasons.

Dredge:

The loss of Icorhid is bad, but thats manageable. The loss of Deep Analysis hurts, but again this deck can survive without it. The loss of Breakthrough, Careful Study, and Putrid Imp make this deck almost unplayable. Sure the main combo is there, since Dread Returns and Narcoameoba are still around, but all of its main discard outlets are gone. Magus of the Bazaar and its ilk are too slow to make the deck the force it once was. At least now we don't have to worry about trying to hose two broken linear decks in our sideboard.

TEPS:

The Extended Perfect Storm only really lost the Invasion sac lands, which allowed it to go off turns earlier than it had any right to. I doubt highly that we'll be seeing anyone Sins of the Past targeting Mind's Desire on turn three anytime soon, but since Storm is such a broken mechanic, we'll probably see some other iteration of this deck. This will most likely be either u/r or mono red for consistency and kill with Grapeshot coupled with Pyromancer's Swath, or Empty the Warrens. Either way, the deck as we once knew it is gone (although it had fallen from popularity for some time now)

More to come! But first I must go drink, there is a gallon of Rossi sangria calling my name right now.