From: David Mitchell Subject: MiViLite Date: Thu, 31 Jul 97 14:12:45 MDT Let's talk about the MiViLite format that is being used in the Chicago PTQ's. I. Decks There are not that many decks being used in these tourneys - here are the seemingly most popular and my humble thoughts. A. MonoRed Celerity/Burn I believe this to be the best deck out there for most people to play. It is very strong, full of critters that do damage the turn they are cast and loaded with the burn necessary to do really ridiculous things. (I always think of Brian at regionals "I intoduced him to new math...you know 2+2=14...Incinerate, Incinerate, Fireblast, Fireblast.) Whether you play with this or not, it _is_ a Litmus Deck...If your deck can't beat it consistently, you'd better change decks. The thing that sets this deck ahead of many of the others in my opinion though is consistency. If this deck gets reasonable mana production, it gets no bad draws. You are either drawing land, fierce critters, or burn which makes the deck very active. You can put the opponent on the defensive and keep him there. Also, due to the sheer speed of this deck (5th turn kills are very plausible) you will get a couple "freebies" over the course of most toureys to opponents getting slow starts. This is always valuable. B. U/W (sometimes monobluse) Control I am almost certainly trying to lump too many decks together here as there are flier beatdown, Gerrard's Wisdom, Ophidian, traditional slow control, and many other variants. I group them all together though, because having played many of them, I have noticed that some of the inner workings are very similar. All of these decks are designed to be able to hold off the fast decks (mono-red and R/B in particular) long enough to smack down something (most often a 'spout) that will serve beatdown (in the spouts case) in 5 turns. This deck has done well at many PTQ's. I attribute this in large part to the number of quality players playing with it. If you give 70% of the best players at a tourney Thallid decks, Thallid decks will become the latest craze as they will do "remarkably well." Having said that though, this deck _is_ very good. I think the problem is that it is so much more draw dependent than the monored. whereas the monored has trouble getting a good draw, this one can get really awful draws. First of all, it can be pretty mana intensive which is always scary. Furthermore, I love Abeyance/Impulse/Manowar as much as anyone, but they just don't help that much against the red deck unless you draw them in droves and have the proper mana. After you boomiewar the lancer/minotaur etc, they usually drop the critter the next turn (and that meeting is bad for the jellyfish) and start throwing natural elements (fire and electricity) at you. The same is true even for Gerrard's Wisdom. It may buy you a turn or two, but provides no real solutions. Some of this could be due to some playing errors on my part as I don't consider myself as good a control player in T2 as Zane or Pam, but I have played hands with this deck where there was nothing I could do except feebly delay a gruesome beatdown. I have never had that happen (barring manascrew) with the red deck....I can _always_ threaten you. Yes, I also have won a lot of games with 20 or more life remaining with this deck, but is is simply not as consistent as mono-red. C. B/U Necratog/Familiar I have not experimented too much with this. I think it is similar to the U/W decks in that if it gets the right draw it can be cruhsing, but it can get some really awful draws. I also think that the good draws that this deck gets are not as strong as the draws the U/W can get. I honestly think the best use for this deck is to be played by a _very_ good player in a deck with ta lot of tricks. Play with Necromancy, Strands, Nekrataal, Rat Bombs, 187 blue, boomie, etc.... Give your opponent more things to think about than he reasonably can. Beyond that, I think the deck is good, and viable, but not as much so as the previous two. D. Others There are some other decks that have been somewhat popular and moderatley successful. Here are what seem to be the most common of them: - Falcon/Armor: Great combo. Get it or die. Has proven way too inconsistent. I think armor could be a great supplementary strategy for a deck, but got forbid the thing gets disenchanted if that's your whole deck. - Green Machine: A pretty decent deck. It seems to run into one big problem. No finishing power. It gets rolling well, then someone vanishes a floodgate or something else unfortunate happens and the game stalls. The player then gets burned to death or is introducued to the 'spout beatdown. On the other side of the coin, you start splashing red for (Torch, 'bolt, or whatever) and your decks "machine" starts to lose it's cohesiveness and the wheels inevitable come off. A blast to play though. - Red/Black: about like the monored only a tad slower....not a plus. Decent though. I am sure I am leaving some out, but these would seem to be the main ones. Playing thoughts I think a lot of the games in this envirnment are won by the superior player (this is why U/W has done so well....a lot of good players using it.) Everyone plays one of a small group of decks, and there are few really bad decks out there. Because of this, I think the main difference are going to come down to good draws, ability, and experience. If you know your decks rhythm and your opponent built his the nigh before after jotting one down off the net, you will still most likely win, because you know what you have to deal with, ans when you have to deal with it. There are a lot of people playing in this enviornment with decks that have been copied off the 'net, but have played very little. They are at a disadvantage due to the parity among the decks and the disparity of the experience/skill between them and their opponents. Also, I think that a deck that beats monored and U/W consistently wins. Even if it dies to the other stuff 90% of the time. I don't know what that deck is (or even if it exists.) But if I find it, that's what I will play. Please share any comments/quesions. Thanks, David