Subject: Frank, my regional thoughts, biased Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 10:51:13 -1000 From: "Lavelle, Ned 2LT - 25IDL Automation Management Office" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Analysis of the Standard Environment for Regionals NOTE: only about 2 and ½ weeks till Regionals, time to decide what you are going to play and learn how to play it well! Hi all, Ned Lavelle here with a quick non-scientific, biased, guesstimated, analysis of what to expect for regionals. What I have done is to look on the Dojo at various tourney reports, with special emphasis on the foreign regionals report, thus far Philippines, 2 from England, and 1 from France. So without further discussion lets begin. First some stats, these are by no means exact, but rough estimates backed up with factual reports: Deck Types Qualifying for Nationals: 1. 10 White Weenie decks and their variants. These come in mono and multiple color variants. Included below is a sample listing of a 3 color variant that made top 8 in France: 4 orders of the white shield 4 white knight 2 tundra wolfs 2 benalish heroes 4 longbow archer 2 zahlfirin crusader 2 freewind falcon 4 crusade 2 wrath of god 2 Armageddon 4 disenchant 2 earthquake 4 incinerate 2 terror 3 city of brass 3 undiscovered paradise 14 plains SB: 2 wrath of god 2 aramgeddon 2 serenity 2 terror 3CoP black 2 honorable passage 2 CoP red This deck surprisingly runs none of the super efficient white shadow creatures, soltari priest or monk. This, while not giving him the evasion abilities of the soltari, most likely allowed him to make use of the first striking ability of his white landwalkers. This proves super important in the current field, full of weenie decks. He also opted for crusade instead of empyrial armor. This saved him card advantage from creatures being removed in response to the laying of an armor or from the mass removal via wrath of god ect. The armor is best used on the tapped out opponent on a shadow weenie. Variants of this deck use man o war as a slowdown and control element, with some splashing counter magic, mana leak, or adding some fat creature, derelor or another. Many stretch the definition of White Weenie by going heavier red, nearing dual color status instead of mono-white with a splash of red. The best example of this, and in my opinion the best weenie deck, white or not, in todays type 2 is Joules Haigh's "2 Pints". Named 2 Pints because you kill your opponent so fast that you have time to get 2 beers down before the next round. It is listed below: 4 Soltari Priest 4 Warrior en-Kor 3 Repentant Blacksmith 4 White Knight 2 Shaman en-Kor 3 Empyrial Armor 3 Disenchant 4 Tithe 2 Terror 4 Mogg Maniac 4 Earthquake 3 Firestorm 4 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine 3 City of Brass 1 Reflecting Pool 9 Plains Sideboard: 4 Sleight of Mind 2 Sacred Ground 2 Hidden Retreat 2 Divine Offering 1 Disenchant 3 Honorable Passage 1 Terror Here is a quick 2 Pints Analysis, the deck plays like your normal white weenie, but makes use of the tremendous damage engine of the en'cor/mogg maniac/global damage. This provides terrific synergy and provides tremendous removal for the opponents creatures. Victory can come through and armored shadow, typically the priest, or by dropping a few en'kor and a maniac, then earthquaking for 4 or so and redirecting the damage to the maniac and in turn to the opponent. It would work like this, Joules has one priest, 2 en'kor, and a mogg maniac. The opponent has perhaps 2-3 blockers. Joules then procedes to earthquake or firestorm for say four, targeting the blockers, en-kor and maniac. The damage from the 2 en-kor is redirected to the maniac, 4 from each=8 plus the maniacs damage, 4, =12. If the opponent has no blockers, then he gets targeted as well, taking the damage to 16. Joules then attacks the blocker free path with the priest and 2 en-kor for the final 4-8 damage. Super strong and super fast. Using tithe to fill his hand and utilizing the power of the multilands to increase his sideboarding options. One of the best of the field. 2. 6 Five Color Green decks. This is a very popular deck abroad and here at home. Utilizing tons of mana restriction and the queer elf synergy with mana birds and forests to get his mana. The deck is ready for weenies with wall of roots and wall of blossoms and the typical 4 granger guildmages take out anyone of one toughness or slaps first strike on the unsuspecting river boa blocker. Mid to Late game the tradewind riders come out to fill your hand, with your permanents. A timely Armageddon ensures you won't recover and then an untargetable brings it home. The deck runs a low number of mana sources, despite its geddons and winter orbs, the afore mentioned synergy allows for this which also lets the player run more action or as I like to call them "money cards". That is fewer lands to more cards that do something or affect the game. This deck beats many weenie decks, hurts control through mana deny, and can beat necro with early defense ect, all the wall block steel golem and bottle gnomes. Here is a listing of a good one with some analysis: "5CG by Alex Shvartsmen" 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Granger Guildmage 2 Quirion Ranger 4 Wall of Roots 3 Jolrael's Centaur 4 Uktabi Orangutan 1 Maro 4 Tradewind Rider 3 Mana Leak 4 Armageddon 4 Incinerate 2 Derelor 2 Diabolic Edict 4 Gemstone Mine 3 City of Brass 3 Undiscovered Paradise 9 Forest Sideboard: 3 Pyroblast 3 Propaganda 2 Honorable Passage 2 Disenchant 2 Mangara's Blessing 2 Tranquil Domain 1 Living Death The deck runs only 2 quirion rangers, which might be low. Notice it also runs only 19 land, which by some 5CG players may even be considered high. Perhaps dropping another land and adding another Queer elf would be reasonable. The thing I would like to point out is the living death in the sideboard. It is a terrific choice, as you often must overextend the deck a bit to gain control, losing a lot of creatures. Mid to late game you can then cast the Ldeath for a great advantage, typically a game winner. The 5CG decks usually run either Armageddon or winter orb to restrict mana, sometimes both. I am of the opinion of using 3 winter orbs and one geddon. 3. 4 Living Death Decks I have seen basically two deck types for Living Death. The first, called the famous "14" uses buried alive to get fat creatures in the graveyard early and then cast the living death to get them into play for a big 14 points of damage. An example is listed below. 4 Buried alive 4 Living death 4 Vampiric tutor 4 Dark ritual 1 Spirit of the Night 3 Volcanic Dragon 2 Wall of Blossoms 3 Pyroblast 2 Force Spike 1 Mana Leak 3 Brainstorm 4 Impulse 2 Mystical Tutor 1 Mox diamond 1 City of Brass 3 Crystal Vein 4 Gemstone Mine 2 Reflecting Pool 1 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Underground River 1 Sulfurous Spring 8 Swamp Sideboard: 4 Grindstone 2 Disenchant 2 Rootwater Hunter 3 CoP:Red 2 Lobotomy 2 Mana Leak This deck I am told comes out super fast and must be fairly reliable due to its popular nature and the fact that it has won some tourneys. The Sideboad seems to be almost a transformaitve one, with the kill coming through deck depletion and adding control cards. The other type of living death decks keeps to 2-3 colors and sends a bunch of fast creatures at the opponent, forcing him to deal with them, kill them, which then allows him to cast living death mid to late game to keep his steam going. The LD gives the weenie deck staying power that it typically loses after mass removal or loss of card advantage. Here is a top 8 deck from france: 10 swamps 4 mountains 4 sulfurous spring 2 undiscovered paradise 4 black knight 3 nekrataal 4 shadow guildmage 4 sukata lancers 4 bottle gnomes 3 dauthi horror 4 incinerate 4 diabolic edict 2 dark ritual 4 cursed scroll 2 living death 1 firestorm 1 goblin bombardment Sideboard 4 perosh 4 coercion 4 pyroblast 3 forsaken waste The deck should come out fast and hard using the Ldeath and bombardment to keep creatures in play. The deck also makes use of the lancer celerity and nekratall 187 abilities, triggered by the death. This is the element which should be exploited in my honest opinion, add more like monkeys, man o wars and cloudchasers, go 4 -5 colors and just go for it. Should garnish lots of card advantage. 3. 4 Sligh Decks I won't say much here because everyone knows what this deck is and that it is here to say. This deck archetype typically gets 4 slots in everyone's sideboard. Here is the deck as its geeba inventor would play it: Sligh Invasion by Jay Schnieder 4 Goblin Vandal 3 Mogg Fanatic 4 Mogg Flunkies 4 Suq'Ata Lancer 3 Viashino Sandstalker 4 Ball Lightning 3 Shocks 4 Incinerate 4 Fireblasts 1 Goblin Bombardment 2 Invasion Plans 4 Cursed Scrolls 4 Wastelands 17 Mountains Sideboard: 4 Pyroblasts 3 Havocs 3 Mogg Maniacs 2 Hand to Hands 2 Shatterstorms 1 Detonate He says it best himself, Jay: This is one of the strongest Sligh decks ever. This version owes a lot of its design principles to David Price's "Deadguy Sligh". The Mogg Flunkies are just incredible in this deck. They give an amazing boost in speed and a "Creature of the Line" (something often lacking from Sligh decks) all for R1. Needless to say the in-house name, "Throat-Rip Geeba", is due to the incredible speed and strong attacking power of this deck. This deck gets a 3 in complexity due to its modal nature. Its modal nature is also why I will call this a Sligh deck as opposed to a burn deck. It can be played as a burn deck and run with the best of them but this deck has a control mode - something a burn deck almost never does. Knowing when to play this deck as a traditional control Sligh vs. when to throat rip your opponent is this decks key to victory. Sun Tzu's quote about knowing yourself and your enemy was never more relevant in a deck. You must be able to identify your opponent and look at your hand to see which mode you play in. Many of the cards were chosen based on their modality. Goblin Vandals, Mogg Fanatic, Goblin Bombardment, Suq'Ata and of course Invasion Plans. This card is phenomenal if you're in control mode. With one of these out every Ball Lightning becomes a creature kill, Suq'Atas kill Freewinds, Goblin Vandals are just too ugly for words. If you're trying for speed, all the walls block the Mogg Fantastic instead of the Ball Lightning and Flunky. Also note that aside from the Goblin Vandals, Invasion Plans can't be used as a control card against you. The sideboard has several non-traditional choices. Havoc - it's a better bolt against creatureless white-based control (and they are a deck you go for the jugular on.) Mogg Maniac - so far this decks biggest fear is itself, and what's better vs. another red deck? Hand to Hand - This will stay in until Team En-Kor are no longer an issue, it strips out the teams ability, Honorable Passage, Justice and Cop Red. The odd selections of artifact kill. The detonate often goes in as a better bolt vs. creatureless + rock heavy. The shatterstorms are for Gypsy Pox (the other least favorite deck to face.) 4. 3 mono-Blue This is another deck with many variants, of which I will look at three: Bounce, Big Flying Beatdown, and Fish. All have some type of countering ability and most use tradewind rider. Here are some decklists and comments: Fish: 4 Manta Riders 4 Tidal Warrior 4 Sea Scryer 4 Lord of Atlantis 2 Seasinger 2 Rootwater Hunter 4 Man-o'-War 4 Winter Orb 4 Counterspell 4 Power Sink 1 Mana Leak 2 Dissipate 1 Dismiss 1 Undiscovered Paradise 19 Island Sideboard: 4 Hydroblast 3 Propaganda 2 Disrupt 1 Disrupting Scepter 1 Memory Lapse 3 Mana Leak 1 Sky Diamond This deck can be nasty. Super fast creatures start pounding, early orb keeps the opponent from developing fast and then the lord hits pumping all the friends up and then its fish feeding frenzy. Utilizing lots of counter magic to keep the school on the table. I have seen variants making of use of the awesome Legacy's Allure, very good in this deck due to the slowdown of the mana restriction. I think the deck should run a few mindstones as well, to help under the orb. Big Blue: 4 Counterspell 3 Mana Leak 2 Dissipate 1 Dismiss 1 Force Spike 3 Impulse 1 Whispers of the Muse 2 Capsize 3 Legacy's Allure 4 Ophidian 3 Man-o'-War 3 Suq'Ata Firewalker 3 Tradewind Rider 2 Waterspout Djinn 1 Earthquake 3 Sapphire Medallion 2 Quicksand 1 Undiscovered Paradise 1 City of Brass 3 Caldera Lake 16 Island Sideboard 1 Hydroblast 2 Shatter 1 Steal Enchantment 2 Earthquake 3 Nevinyrral's Disk 3 Pyroblast 3 Chill This deck uses counter magic and man o war for early slowdown, and then uses counters to protect the big boys who win the game quick. This deck wins if it makes it to the late game, or can win with an early fat flier with counter protection, much like weissman's serra gambit. Bounce: 4 Ophidians 3 Man'o'War 2 Wall of Tears 3 Tradewind Rider 2 Suq'Ata Firewalker 2 Waterspout Djinn 2 Legacy Allure 3 Sapphire Medallion 1 Capsize 2 Whisper of the Muse 3 Impulse 4 Counterspell 1 Force Spike 3 Dismiss 2 Dissipate 1 Disenchant 2 Quicksand 1 Adarkar Wastes 1 City of Brass 2 Undiscovered Paradise 1 Gemstone Mine Reflecting Pool 13 Island SB:2 Disenchant 3 Hydroblast 2 Chill2 Perish 1 Knight of the Mist 2 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Suq'Ata Firewalker 2 Pyroblast I am not sure how good this version is, but when you see the saphire medalion and tradewinds, expect buyback abuse and bounce. This deck could use another capsize or two. 4. 4 NecroPotence decks Well I am going to stop listing decks here, taking too much time, but look in the decks to beat section for good examples of the steel necro and bottle necro decks. These are the two incarnations that you are going to see. The bottle necro uses corpse dance to gain lots of health while under the necro, basically an ancestral recall every turn. The steel necro opts for more removal, be it creature or hand. I think that the bottle necro version or a combo of the two is the strongest. Some decks also splash blue for 2-3 lobotomies and some sideboard cards. This is great against some decks, but useless typically too slow and not worth it versus weenie or creature decks. I am surprised that there are not more necro decks winning, maybe no one is playing them. They have great removal for creatures and the early disruption often keep control from setting up before you get a necro down and then you beat control. This is one of the decks I am looking to play, with 2 Pints. 5. 3 Control decks One of these decks had its only kill via 3 thumbscrews. Wow, that's patience. These decks focus around early defense and basically just staying alive, if that can be done, then winning will take care of itself. Other decks in this class are humility/prayer, prop-orb(strong deck), U/W millstone, and Donais 5CU. These decks usually win if they get to late game, but may prove too slow for the super fast field. 6. 3 5CB These decks abuse the multilands and make use fo the best cards in each color, the good stuff. Some use mana denial and memory lapse or mana leak for weenie protection. If you play one of these, use barrow ghoul, just test it out, it is super strong as I learned in my playing of Paul Gallagher's 5cR. Most of these decks are very fast and can deal with creatures, using mana restrication versus control. 7. 2 Red/Green Speedie Blaster I haven't seen any decklistings, but I imagine it uses cards like pincher beetles, centaurs, lancers, muscle sliver and maybe rootwalla to put on an early offense, using burn for a finisher or to clear out blockers. Not a deck I would worry about. 8. Combo decks: I won't describe them all, but all are usually beat the same way, through counters or a damage race. Prossbloom-strongest of them all, and loads of rares, beat it through lobotomy or enchantment removal. Turbo Zvi- the slow kill, beat it through counter magic or enchantment removal or just take your time on your turns and go for a draw, don't stall, that is illegal, but do play deliberate. It is their own fault for playing a deck that is so annoying and slow to win. Intruder alarm-well, it wins through a lot of pinging or, through recursive bounce with tradewinds, the better version. Get the alarm or kill the creatures. Miserable hermit-kills the graveyard with creatures and then throws them at you with haunting misery. Can win super fast, or it can die super fast. Some other hairbrained combo you never thought of, who knows, but it won't work, combos rarely do. 9. 4 Rouge decks Who knows what you will find here? Most likely something using slivers or vineyard or some random card. These decks can be strong but often are good ideas taken in a direction that just isn't efficient enough or is not consistent enough to win tourneys. Well there is my above discussion for whomever to use or not. It ended up being an analysis of recent analysis with decks to beat examples thrown in for decklists when not available. Hope it helps or jars ideas in your head. Here is my prediction for our top 8 here in hawaii: No order, just deck types: 2 necro 1 sligh 2 5CG 1 control 2 WhiteWeenie So take it for what it is worth and feel free to email me with questions or comments, Ned Lavelle Team Island Magic