Guide to the Post-Worlds Metagame

OK. So Worlds is finally over and after many battles between dueling Vanquishers, Siege-Gang Commanders and Garruk Wildspeakers, one man, Uri Peleg, was able to weather the storm and take home the trophy with a funky little B/G/w deck whose primary selling point was its ability to bust out a fat 5/5 treefolk on the second turn.
(No, I'm not talking about Sheltering Ancient… although I've been told that that card combos pretty well with the Oni of Wild Places Avatar)

In the top 8, Peleg was able to easily dispatch Katsuhiro Mori in three straight games and then take out Kotaro Otsuka 3-1 before facing the Innovator in the Grand Final. This was a matchup between Doran, the Siege Tower and Mono-Red Dragonstorm and, although I was cheering for Chapin all the way, Peleg was ultimately able to emerge victorious in just four games because, you know, Hypnotic Specter can, like, block…




But now that all that's over, the one important thing that we must not forget to do is analyze the aftermath of Worlds and try to deduce the shape of the standard landscape. Whose stocks have gone up? Whose have crashed? What deck should you play at your next Friday Night Magic?

Well, to put it simply, in terms of decks there were three big winners at worlds: Gilt-Leaf Palace, Karplusan Forest, and Spinerock Knoll… let's take a look at each of these in turn.

Public Enemy Number One: Gilt-Leaf Palace

It does not take a genius to work out that the most successful decks to come out of Worlds are those powered by the Elf Dual land Gilt-Leaf Palace. Not only did a variant of the deck (splashing white for Doran, the Siege Tower) win the whole tournament but FIVE players in the Top 8 had the Black/Green land in their deck (Giving us a grand total of 19 copies!). Now of course, one has to always be a little wary of a statistic like this since Worlds is a multi-format event and as such it is quite possible to make the Top8 without having a good standard result. But if you just look a little closer then you'll see that all of the B/G decks in the top 8 posted excellent results in the standard portion of the swiss: Katsuhiro Mori, Yo****aka Nakano and Christoph Huber all went 5-0 while Roel van Heeswijk and Uri Peleg were able to put up a similarly impressive 4-1.

What then, is the formula for success for these G/B decks? Well, like all “Good Stuff” decks, these G/B lists play the best possible cards at every point in the curve, mixing efficient creatures like Tarmogoyf, top notch removal like Shriekmaw, hand disruption in the form of Thoughtseize and card advantage generated by the undeniably powerful planeswalkers so that what we have in a end is a mish-mash of questions and answers. It does not focus on controlling the board or attacking the opponent but is perfectly capable of doing both, playing the role of midrange control against aggressive decks and aggro control against control decks.

As such, all the G/B decks in the top8, although different, are actually built upon the same skeleton. Indeed, all you have to do is

Play FOUR Thoughtseize (Hand disruption)
Add some Tarmogoyf (Efficient creature)
Add some Eyeblight's Endings and Profane Commands (Removal)
Add some Garruk Wildspeakers (Card advantage)
Add some Other Creatures (maybe some Trolls, maybe some Trees)
Add some Other Removal (Shriekmaw, Nameless Inversion and friends)
Add some Other Card Advantage (Ohran Viper and Masked Admirers are the default)
Add some Land (but don't forget 4x Treetop Village!)
Top it all off with some Mana Elves or Birds to accelerate your curve.

Voila!

Run along now, you've got yourself a G/B deck.



OK. OK. It's not as simple as that. In fact, it's a whole lot more complicated since the major selling point of these G/B decks is their ultimate flexibility. And so, while the cores of these decks remain the same throughout, the peripheral cards are endlessly customizable. You can play certain cards over others to give the deck a different feel and indeed, from just the Top8 alone, one can easily spot three distinct archetypes (B/G Elves, B/G Rock and B/G/w Doran), each with their own game plans, strategies and matchups.

B/G Elves

Of these three archetypes, B/G Elves is the most aggressive of the bunch. In fact, this deck is so aggressive that calling it midrange would probably be a misnomer and indeed, the single thing that distinguishes this list from the others is the noticeable paucity of removal; the deck does not run Shriekmaw while the slow but powerful Liliana Vess has also been relegated to the sideboard. Instead, the deck is built around the various tribal synergies, which means that it is capable of consistently casting Wren's Run Vanquisher, the best aggressive two drop this side of Tarmogoyf, on turn two (When Wizards first published the 5-0 Standard decklists, there was a misprint on Mori's and Nakano's decklists. Instead of having Wren's Run Vanquisher, the decks were listed as running a playset of Wren's Run Packmaster. This is of course ludicrous since Wren's Run Vanquisher is the stones while Wren's Run Packmaster is a piece of s#*t.). In fact, one can even argue that it is better than Tarmogoyf since while Tarmogoyf is obviously a better creature in general, the Vanquisher is almost always a bigger, better and more aggressive play on turn two. Indeed, apart from being a 3/3, which is already above average for a two drop, the Wren's Run Vanquisher is also blessed with Deathtouch which is surprisingly relevant. This means that it can not only attack into Wall of Roots without having to worry about being blocked but it also means that it can also hold off much larger, more expensive creatures like Tarmogoyf and Doran, the Siege Tower. This ability to trade with anything that decides to tussle with it in combat also means that you can fearlessly attack into anything. Whereas a Phyrexian Ironfoot can easily hold of a Call of the Herd Token by himself, such a stop sign does not affect the Vanquisher at all. Similarly, whereas a Call Token is loath to attack into five untapped Islands, Vanquisher laughs at the possible of Teferi and charges ahead anyway. Furthermore, in the three-drop slot, the deck also runs the more aggressive Troll Ascetic over the card-advantage generating Ohran Viper while it is also the only deck of the three to pack a full set of Profane Commands, giving the deck some much needed reach.




What this ultimately means is that Elves is a more aggro-control version of G/B; Vanquisher, Tarmogoyf and Troll Ascetic together combine to make quite a fast clock while Thoughtseize does the discard duty. It thus has an excellent matchup against permission decks like Sonic Boom as the winning combination of discard + cheap threats can easily Overload the opposing deck's countermagic. On top of this, due to the faster speed of the deck, G/B Elves is also much better suited towards dealing with tempo strategies like U/B Mannequin and combo decks like Mono-Red Dragonstorm when compared with a slower deck like G/B Rock.

TarmoRock Katsuhiro Mori
2007 Worlds New York City, NY Format: Type II - LRW  
Finished: 5th - 8th Place Number of Players: 388  

Main Deck
1 Boreal Druid
1 Civic Wayfinder
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Masked Admirers
1 Mirri the Cursed
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Troll Ascetic
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
2 Eyeblight's Ending
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
4 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard
2 Cloudthresher
1 Krosan Grip
3 Liliana Vess
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Phyrexian Totem
2 Razormane Masticore
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Viridian Shaman


The downside to the deck of course is that it lacks midrange power. This does not mean that it is bad against aggressive beatdown decks. In fact, G/B Elves are actually quite good against aggressive decks since its creatures, like Tarmogoyf and Troll, are not only hard to get through but Imperious Perfect is also particularly excellent at breaking stalemates (which often occur when your opponent has multiple goblins tokens from Mogg War Marshalls and Siege-Gang Commanders). Furthermore, the deck does have access to some excellent sideboard options in the form of Razormane Masticore, Slaughter Pact and Loxodon Warhammer. However, what this lack of midrange power does mean is that it can easily fall prey to slower, board control strategies. Indeed, Mori's build of Elves lacks the incremental card advantage provided by cards like Shriekmaw and the third copy of Garruk Wildspeaker (unlike the other G/B decks, Elves only runs two copies of Garruk) which means that it has a lot of trouble keeping up with the slower more controlling G/B Rock lists. On top of this, its lack of powerful late game options also means that it, compared to G/B Rock, is not as good at dealing with removal heavy anti-beatdown decks like U/W Martyr. Indeed, the matchup is nigh unwinnable until postboard when Liliana Vess will come in to give the deck some extra staying power.

The other disadvantage of the deck is the fact that the tribal synergies actually impose some pretty heavy restrictions on particular card choices. Indeed, just as a deck in Legacy will need about 20 Blue Cards to be able to support Force of Will, the G/B Elves deck needs a similar number of Elves (Mori runs 19 Elves in his deck) to be able to consistently cast a turn two Vanquisher. This requirement actually leads to some deckbuilding decisions that many might find baffling. A lot of people have already commented upon the singleton maindeck Mirri the Cursed, describing it as “hella random” and asking why it is there. The problem here however, is that they are asking the wrong question: instead of asking why there is a single copy of the Vampire Cat, they should instead by asking why there aren't MORE copies of the Vampire Cat. Indeed, Mirri the Cursed fits the deck's aggro control strategy quite well. As it has flying, it is great at bypassing roadblocks like Wall of Roots, Phyrexian Ironfoot and Tarmogoyf while the fact that it has first strike means that it will always win in combat against any of the fliers in U/B Mannequin. Furthermore, as it is a Black creature, it is completely immune to Shriekmaw while the fact that it has haste (kind of like a Neo-Solifuge) makes it a perfect aggressive response to a board sweeper like Damnation or Molten Disaster. Thus, it can be said that Mirri the Cursed is the perfect four drop for the deck and we definitely would be playing more if the deck did not require 19-20 Elves to function properly. As such, the deck is forced to run an alternate four drop instead that is an elf; and while although Masked Admirers is undeniably a great card, strategically, it fits much better in a more midrange deck like Huber's G/B Rock. The question as to why Mori has only THREE! Tarmogoyfs and THREE! Troll Ascetics in his deck instead of the full four can also be similarly answered in this manner.

No, it's not because our former World Champion doesn't own a playset.




G/B Rock

Another possible archetype based on the Black and the Green is the more traditional Rock deck. Although the deck runs many of the same cards as G/B Elves, the feel of the deck is completely different. This is because the players who create and pilot these Rock decks have made the conscious decision to give up the power of Wren's Run Vanquisher. Such a decision ultimately has two consequences. Firstly, it means that these decks will not be able to come out very aggressively at all since there are no Black/Green two drops in the current format that are in any way comparable to Vanquisher. Indeed, a turn two Tarmogoyf will often not get beyond Squire stats without assistance from a card like Looter il-Kor, Tarfire or Augur of Skulls. The second consequence of this decision is that the act of eschewing the powerful Vanquisher has the effect of freeing up a lot of deck space. Now the deck no longer has to be filled with substandard elves just to satisfy the elf count but can instead play cards which are better all round (of course, Huber must keep some elves in his deck so as to not have Gilt-Leaf Palace always come into play tapped. But since Gilt-Leaf Palace, unlike Wren's Run Vanquisher, can still be played even if you do not have an Elf to reveal, there is no need to run an extremely large number of them). A simple example of this is how Huber runs 2x Birds of Paradise instead of 1x Boreal Druid and 1x Civic Wayfinder. One of the biggest advantages of freeing up of deck space, of course, is that it grants the Rock player the opportunity to play Shriekmaw. Now that the removal slots no longer have to be taken up by cards which are also elves, Huber can play the insane 187 machine which, of course, completely changes the shape of the deck and its accompanying strategy. Instead of playing out like an Aggro-Control deck, Huber's slower Rock list is much more similar to a midrange control deck that aims to two-for-one the opponent into oblivion with cards that generate small incremental card advantage. As such, more aggressive options like Troll Ascetic are replaced by cards like Ohran Viper, which performs the double role of providing card advantage and defending against opposing Tarmogoyfs, while cards like Masked Admirers fit into the deck perfectly despite the lack of tribal synergies. Indeed, compared to Mori's list, Huber's deck has a much better late game with the curve topping at THREE! copies of Liliana Vess.

TarmoRock Christoph Huber
2007 Worlds New York City, NY Format: Type II - LRW
Finished: 5th - 8th Place Number of Players: 388

Main Deck
2 Birds of Paradise
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Liliana Vess
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Masked Admirers
4 Ohran Viper
3 Shriekmaw
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Eyeblight's Ending
1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Nameless Inversion
3 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
3 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard
1 Damnation
1 Extirpate
4 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Graveborn Muse
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Pithing Needle
1 Riftsweeper
1 Shriekmaw
3 Viridian Shaman

Yet this however, is not a decklist that is completely without weaknesses. Although the deck is quite strong against both beatdown decks and should be able to take out slow decks with Liliana Vess, one of the things that you will have noticed about the list is that it is exceedingly fair. Indeed, none of its cards do anything particularly broken and as such, its relative slowness compared to Elves necessary means that it will have a hard time keeping up with a deck like Dragonstorm (Ohran Viper is not exactly the scariest beatdown card). Thoughtseize is generally not enough to win the game unless you also have pressure and this deck will often be incapable of generating enough early pressure unless it has access to a very early Garruk.




Furthermore, as the spells that B/G Rock utilizes are relatively more expensive than the spells in B/G Elves, the Rock deck does run the risk that it will get out-tempoed by either permission or bounce. Indeed, the deck has a terrible matchup against U/B Mannequin as the deck has no real way to regain the tempo lost from bounce effects (Not to mention the fact that many of the cards in Rock are basically inferior versions of Mannequins card—Viper is basically an inferior Finkel while Mulldrifter is usually better than Masked Admirers). Permission is also a problem since what will often happen is that a blue deck will be able to trade a 2 or 3 mana counter for a 4 or 5 mana spell and indeed, unless the Rock player has turn 2 Ohran Viper on the play, the Sonic Boom player is a huge favorite. This of course, explains why Huber has anti-Blue cards in his SB like Eyes of the Wisent while Mori's Elves list does not.

Apart from the possibility of losing to tempo, the final weakness of the B/G Rock deck is that it is actually possible to get out-midranged by a bigger and badder curve. Although the Rock player can gain card advantage at any point in his curve which tops with the very impressive Liliana Vess, some decks are capable of doing better than just merely two-for-one. Indeed, some decks will just continually trade spells with you and then suddenly play a couple of three for ones in succession: a Harmonize into a Siege-Gang Commander and then a Bogardan Hellkite. Shriekmaw is good, but it is after all, only a two-for-one.

The other problem with Shriekmaw is that it is a card that gets progressively worse as the format develops. Indeed, players are often prepared for it and are designing their decks in such a way so as to avoid getting wrecked by it. Back at States, Shriekmaw could kill anything and everything, but now, cards like Phyrexian Ironfoot, Doran the Siege Tower, Nath the Gilt Leaf and Siege-Gang Commander are seeing more and more play.

TarmoRock Uri Peleg
2007 Worlds New York City, NY Format: Type II - LRW  
Finished: 1st Place Number of Players: 388

Main Deck
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Liliana Vess
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Ohran Viper
3 Shriekmaw
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Nameless Inversion
2 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
1 Brushland
3 Caves of Koilos
1 Forest
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
4 Treetop Village
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard
2 Cloudthresher
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Riftsweeper
2 Serrated Arrows
1 Shriekmaw
2 Stupor

Uri Peleg's Doran list is actually a very interesting case. While Mori's Elves list could be said to lean more towards Aggro-Control and while Huber's Rock list could be said to lean more towards Mid-range, Peleg's Doran list tries to get the best of both worlds. On the one hand, it can play Aggro-Control since although it does not have access to Wren's Run Vanquisher it can nevertheless generate a blisteringly fast clock by playing Doran the Siege Tower on turn two (Doran is basically Vanquisher +2). This is a potentially fatal threat for the opponent and is extremely difficult to answer. In fact, Doran is nigh unkillable due to the fact that he is a Black creature with more than 3 toughness (this makes him immune to Incinerate, Nameless Inversion, Shriekmaw, Slaughter Pact etc) and unless the opponent is able to muster up an Eyeblight's Ending or an Oblivion Ring very quickly, the Treefolk Shaman will most likely go all the way. When this is backed up by Thoughtseizes and Tarmogoyfs into Planeswalkers, a control deck will have a difficult time keeping up.

Yet on the other hand, Peleg's Doran deck is also able to play midrange control. As he is not burdened by the restriction of having to play 19-20 Elves in his deck, he is able to fill his deck with strong mid-endgame cards like Shriekmaw and Liliana Vess and Nath of the Gilt Leaf from Sideboard. Doran himself is also a great midrange creature since he is so huge and so efficient for his cost that he will almost always lead to a 2 for 1 against beatdown decks. Peleg's 3-0 thrashing of Mori's Elves deck is a testament as to how strong a midrange deck the Doran deck can be.

But then again, nothing is perfect and the one glaring weakness that his deck has is the mana base. Doran costs GWB and is fiendishly difficult to cast. And although Peleg has done an excellent job on the mana, resisting the temptation to play any White cards other than Doran himself, the deck nevertheless still has some consistency issues and mulligans more often than either G/B Elves and G/B Rock.

But then again… that's just the price you pay for power…
Part two is coming soon so stay tuned!
by Kuan-Kuan Tian

The Best Decks in the Worlds – 2007

The Best Decks in the Worlds – 2007
Standard Innovations and insights from the 2007 World Championships.

1 Doran Aggro
2 Dragonstorm
3 Black-Green Elves
4 Black-Green Midrange
5 Mannequin

There is a beauty and a danger to the current status quo, to holding the World Championships at the end of the year, after States and Champs, after Standard has been allowed to germinate for a few weeks on Magic Online. For many spectators, enthusiasts, fans of the game and tournament players both, the coming of the Pro Tour—a Constructed Pro Tour in particular—is a special event. We sit at home, login to magicthegathering.com, and wonder, wide-eyed, what these geniuses will do next.

There is a danger to it. In the old days, Team CMU could spring their mono-blue decks on the metagame, or Tinker-Waters would make the red-green "anti-" decks look silly. But these days, that wonder of the Pro Tour dances precariously on the tip of a raised needle. Remember last year? Most of the undefeated Standard decks were Boros variants, some a little different than others, but nothing awe-inspiring. I suppose that onetime Player of the Year and onetime best deck designer on the planet Gabriel Nassif and his tag team partner Mark Herberholz did us spectators a solid with that Martyr-Tron deck... but the accomplishment was ultimately overshadowed by eventual 2006 winner Dragonstorm.

Ah, Dragonstorm!

There is a beauty to the positioning of the World Championships, too. Remember two years ago, the first of Katsuhiro Mori's three consecutive Top 8s, the one he won? A unified cadre of Japanese players cracked the metagame with their green-white Ghazi-Glare deck, crashing through the tournament, placing numerous paragons into the elimination rounds, and eventually taking the crown. They were able to gaze long into the metagame established by Champs, the sea of Tide Stars and Hinders in those virgin days before the universal adoption of Remand, and really and truly dominate with the two least offensive colors in the history of competitive Magic. They had transformative sideboards, powerful threats, and even maindeck enchantment kill! Wow. Bam! Bravo.

This year's World Championships showcased a new Standard deck of such legend, excitement, and explosiveness that its long shadow hangs over even the format-solving Ghazi-Glare. This deck, a Dragonstorm update innovated by the ingenious deck design triumvirate of Pat Chapin, Gabriel Nassif, and Mark Herberholz is likely the most dominating single-tournament deck since Team ABU put four eventual victims of Zvi Mowshowitz into the Top 8 of Pro Tour–Tokyo.

Patrick Chapin
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
4 Fungal Reaches
4 Molten Slagheap
12 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Spinerock Knoll
24 lands
4 Bogardan Hellkite
4 creatures
4 Dragonstorm
4 Grapeshot
4 Incinerate
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Pyromancer's Swath
3 Rift Bolt
4 Rite of Flame
4 Shock
2 Tarfire
32 other spells
Sideboard
2 Ancient Grudge
4 Dodecapod
2 Empty the Warrens
2 Ignite Memories
3 Sulfurous Blast
2 Wheel of Fate
15 sideboard cards


Gabriel Nassif
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
4 Fungal Reaches
4 Molten Slagheap
12 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Spinerock Knoll
24 lands
4 Bogardan Hellkite
4 creatures
4 Dragonstorm
4 Grapeshot
4 Incinerate
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pyromancer's Swath
4 Rift Bolt
4 Rite of Flame
4 Shock
32 other spells
Sideboard
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 Dodecapod
2 Ignite Memories
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Martyr of Ashes
1 Pithing Needle
2 Wheel of Fate
1 Wild Ricochet
15 sideboard cards

Rumor has it that a prototype of this strategy had been espied in a side event at Grand Prix–Daytona Beach. Chapin, innovator of the Korlash Standard deck, the man who put Sligh on the Pro Tour map way back in 1996, and a Constructed Grand Prix finalist, was given a simple directive and a short list of scribbled-down cards: play Dragonstorm with Spinerock Knoll. Go!

Pat hybridized the Dragonstorm combo with a Pyromancer's Swath burn strategy (which had a huge amount of natural overlap with Spinerock Knoll) and played the maximum number of Fungal Reaches and Molten Slagheaps. The deck also has a great deal of misdirection to it: Chapin is a popular columnist at StarCityGames.com, and the week before Worlds, he wrote about an unrelated Skred Red update. He was able to bluff one opponent with Snow-Covered Mountain, who played tentatively (as against a board control deck) but was handed a nasty surprise with the explosive Dragonstorm kill.

So how does this new metagame monster work?

Spinerock Knoll is a corner piece to the strategy. This land is basically an Impulse, and allows the mono-red Dragonstorm to play like a "blue" deck. Ideally you will put Dragonstorm under a first-turn Spinerock Knoll. On the second turn you can, say, suspend a Rift Bolt. On the third, you warp in the Rift Bolt for 3, play a third land, play Rite of Flame for a pair of Shocks or Tarfires, and, having fulfilled the 7 damage requirement, reveal the Dragonstorm for another 20.

Of course the deck can just suspend Lotus Blooms, play Rite of Flame, rip counters off the Fungal Reaches, and run out Dragonstorm (or Empty the Warrens, or Ignite Memories) "per normal."

The third plan is to set up mana into a Pyromancer's Swath and a couple of burn cards... With the trademark enchantment in play, you don't need very many.

The Dragonstorm deck is extremely resilient, but all of its pilots expressed a vulnerability to the color black (and unfortunately both Nassif and Chapin had quarterfinals opponents with Thoughtseize and more)... but Wheel of Fate can dig the Dragonstorm players out of even a stack of Stupors. Not only is that card the natural enemy of cheap discard, it is a perfect card to have warping in the turn after you've moved in with Pyromancer's Swath.

So why so dominant? We've seen decks with three or even four copies in the Top 8 of major events before, and you can kind of argue that there were five similar decks in this year's Top 8, whereas Dragonstorm at the World Championships could boast only two... However, typically, for every deck that does well, even decks that defy statistics or perform above and beyond expectation at the end of a big event, there are ten failures scattered throughout the room... Except for Dragonstorm. The deck was extremely impressive, and Chapin, who was staying at Jon Finkel's apartment in New York, was able to infect all his roommates with the fire. Ultimately Dave Williams, Mark Herberbolz, Amiel Tenenbaum, and Finkel himself all finished 4–1 in Standard along with Chapin and Nassif. Bob Maher brought up the rear with a lone—but still better-than-even—3–2. That was it. One 3–2 record in a room filled with the best players in the world, with almost every one of the best players of all time participating. The "underachiever" was a single better-than-average Hall of Famer!

Unsurprisingly, such an exciting new deck caught on like wildfire in the amateur events at Worlds, and many Northeast challengers looking for the right deck to play in Sunday's Win a Car Tournament gave it a whirl. Spencer Reiss, who had won a pre-Worlds satellite in New Jersey, got his build directly from Chapin at the end of Day One. After numerous 8-man practice events, Spencer went into the Win a Car event 13–2 with the new deck, winning quite a few side events.

So will Dragonstorm remain the best deck to play?

Like many metagame breakers, Dragonstorm may not be the right choice for the long haul. Chapin said that besides having several of the best players of all time behind their deck, the Dragonstorm group had the power of surprise behind them. People had no idea how to play against the new build on Day One, but by Sunday, the Top 8 competitors had plenty of opportunity to test. Walking the side events it was easy to see the effect that the deck had on the metagame, even from players who were not themselves adherents. Maindeck Story Circle? It was like Masques Block Constructed 2007 at some tables. Thorn of Amethyst, Imperial Mask, and even more exotic solutions peppered the 8-mans.

Here are a couple of other tools, for existing decks: Our newly crowned World Champion Uri Peleg played three Riftsweepers in his sideboard. Riftsweeper is one of the best cards against Dragonstorm because it can trump Wheel of Fate while helping out against the more common Rift Bolts and Lotus Blooms. Stopping any suspend card while setting up a fast threat can be pretty good, but Dragonstorm almost needs Wheel of Fate to escape heavy discard.

Andre Coimbra suggested Mistbind Clique, a card Faeries is already playing. "You can tap them out, including the Spinerock Knoll, in response to their third spell, before they've dealt seven damage." I know I would be frustrated on the wrong end of that one!




The World Champion
Uri Peleg
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
1 Brushland
3 Caves of Koilos
1 Forest
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
4 Treetop Village
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
23 lands
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
1 Hypnotic Specter
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Ohran Viper
3 Shriekmaw
4 Tarmogoyf
23 creatures
2 Eyeblight's Ending
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Liliana Vess
2 Nameless Inversion
2 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
14 other spells
Sideboard
2 Cloudthresher
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Riftsweeper
2 Serrated Arrows
1 Shriekmaw
2 Stupor
15 sideboard cards

In a tournament, and Top 8, littered with the old Golgari colors, our World Champion spiced it up with a little Selesnya, a wee bit of Orzhov. His signature change was merely to add White to a strategy otherwise similar to the black-green midrange decks, to the tune of four copies of Doran, the Siege Tower main, and one planeswalker-answering Oblivion Ring in the side.

Peleg's deck really loves a first-turn accelerator. From Birds of Paradise he can move to Doran, Ohran Viper, or even Hypnotic Specter!

As with a couple of the top decks from this event, Uri played not one but two planeswalkers, both the near-universal Garruk Wildspeaker and the arguably more powerful Liliana Vess. This helped to give him the ability to attack the opponent from numerous angles. Doran actually improves Ohran Viper, making the already dangerous heir to Ophidian a virtual 3/3. Tarmogoyf gets better than ever, going to *+1/*+1 from */*+1 (at the very least giving it the ability to smash another Tarmogoyf to death); even Birds of Paradise starts hitting in the sky, going positively Cloud Sprite. He can swarm or Overrun with Garruk Wildspeaker, finish with Profane Command, or dial it back to 1998 with a black-green "Living Death" care of A Villainess.

Profane Command is some kind of a versatile endgame spell. It allows you to win Fireball-style to the face, win evasively from the Red Zone, or basically entwine a Barbed Lightning (or get even bigger).



The Midrange
Christoph Huber
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
3 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
23 lands


2 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Masked Admirers
4 Ohran Viper
3 Shriekmaw
4 Tarmogoyf
19 creatures
1 Eyeblight's Ending
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Liliana Vess
1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Nameless Inversion
3 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
18 other spells
Sideboard
1 Damnation
1 Extirpate
4 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Graveborn Muse
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Pithing Needle
1 Riftsweeper
1 Shriekmaw
3 Viridian Shaman
15 sideboard cards


Roel van Heeswijk
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
7 Forest
3 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
3 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
23 lands
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
4 Ohran Viper
2 Shriekmaw
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Tombstalker
3 Troll Ascetic
23 creatures
3 Eyeblight's Ending
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Thoughtseize
14 other spells
Sideboard
1 Cloudthresher
1 Damnation
1 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Krosan Grip
2 Liliana Vess
1 Profane Command
2 Shriekmaw
1 Swamp
1 Tombstalker
1 Troll Ascetic
15 sideboard cards

My split between these two archetypes (Black-Green Mid-range versus Elves) is fairly arbitrary. For the Midrange decks I basically chose the ones with Ohran Viper and more planeswalkers, and for the Elf decks I went with the decks that have Wren's Run Vanquishers and Imperious Perfects.



The Elves
Yoshitaka Nakano
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
4 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
23 lands


1 Boreal Druid
2 Civic Wayfinder
3 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Masked Admirers
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Troll Ascetic
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
24 creatures
3 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Profane Command
3 Thoughtseize
13 other spells
Sideboard
2 Cloudthresher
1 Krosan Grip
3 Liliana Vess
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Nekrataal
2 Slaughter Pact
1 Thoughtseize
2 Viridian Shaman
15 sideboard cards


Katsuhiro Mori
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
4 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
23 lands


1 Boreal Druid
1 Civic Wayfinder
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Masked Admirers
1 Mirri the Cursed
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Troll Ascetic
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
23 creatures
2 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
14 other spells
Sideboard
2 Cloudthresher
1 Krosan Grip
3 Liliana Vess
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Phyrexian Totem
2 Razormane Masticore
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Viridian Shaman
15 sideboard cards


These decks have many cards in common and function in similar fashion. The Elf decks are more proactive. They can go Llanowar Elves, Vanquisher, Perfect 1-2-3, or, given an accelerator, attack with Mirri the Cursed (!!!) in the sky on the third.

The Midrange decks have a variety of threats that they can bring to bear. Some are high-end Elves like van Heeswijk's Nath of the Gilt-Leaf or Huber's Masked Admirers (still awesome in the late game). Others are the six (!) planeswalkers in the latter. Basically, these decks can attack the opponent from several different angles, taking cards with Nath and Thoughtseize, obviously dominating the Red Zone with crazy threats like Tarmogoyf, or finish long from behind a wall of chump blockers with Profane Command. They can threaten early with Ohran Viper to get ahead in the short term, or jam into a tremendous attrition advantage with the nearly inviolate Masked Admirers. Basically all of these decks have a potential ace against beatdown in Loxodon Warhammer, and all of them play a hefty amount of creature kill. Subtly, the Warhammer can be key against Dragonstorm, too. While that deck is powerful, it is not infinite, and a little life gain can make some games impossible to win with burn.

The Mannequin Deck

Last, but not least, an update to the Mannequin deck...
Kotaro Otsuka
2007 Worlds Top 8

Main Deck
60 cards
4 Faerie Conclave
2 Mouth of Ronom
4 River of Tears
5 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Underground River
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
24 lands
4 Epochrasite
4 Mulldrifter
3 Phyrexian Ironfoot
4 Riftwing Cloudskate
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Shriekmaw
23 creatures
3 Cryptic Command
2 Damnation
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Mind Stone
13 other spells
Sideboard
2 Damnation
2 Liliana Vess
3 Nameless Inversion
2 Persuasion
2 Pithing Needle
4 Thoughtseize
15 sideboard cards

Otsuka's version differs in a couple of places from the decks we have seen coming out of States / Champs or Grand Prix–Krakow. In addition to a little mana acceleration, Kotaro has a real way to say "No" in Cryptic Command, giving the deck a little more play up against true control or combo.

Besides those, Otsuka's deck remains a single-minded card advantage engine... All two-for-ones with Makeshift Mannequin to two-for-one again.

Notable by their absence: Grim Harvest and Profane Command

A Couple of 5-0s...

Not every great deck made Top 8. Here are a couple of undefeated Day One decks for your enjoyment and analysis:

Chris Lachmann
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0

Main Deck
60 cards
4 Highland Weald
2 Karplusan Forest
3 Mouth of Ronom
1 Scrying Sheets
5 Snow-Covered Forest
5 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Treetop Village
24 lands
2 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Cloudthresher
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wall of Roots
15 creatures
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Harmonize
4 Incinerate
4 Into the North
2 Molten Disaster
4 Skred
21 other spells
Sideboard
4 Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
3 Spectral Force
4 Sulfurous Blast
15 sideboard cards

One half of the Sliver Kids backed up their PT victory with a strong 5-0 Standard start Day One. Chris went with a mid-range green-red deck. This version echoes the "big mana" of previous versions but adds a Snow sub-theme for Skred and Scrying Sheets. Even at the end of the weekend, many top Pros were advocating Green-Red Big Snow; just keep in mind that most consider it a dog to the potentially overwhelmingly powerful Dragonstorm.

Hong Fei Yeung
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0

Main Deck
60 cards
3 Faerie Conclave
2 Pendelhaven
6 Snow-Covered Forest
6 Snow-Covered Island
2 Treetop Village
4 Yavimaya Coast
23 lands
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Mistbind Clique
4 Mystic Snake
3 Pestermite
4 Scion of Oona
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Wall of Roots
28 creatures
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Psionic Blast
1 Remove Soul
4 Rune Snag
9 other spells
Sideboard
4 Flashfreeze
2 Naturalize
2 Pithing Needle
3 Sower of Temptation
3 Spectral Force
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
15 sideboard cards

Blue-Green Faeries returns!

Doubtless these decks have already affected your local Standard tournaments and have probably been played against you on Magic Online.

As a fan of the game, I am overjoyed to see some of the new decks that came out of this year's Worlds. The updates to the black-green decks, the surprise rise of Dragonstorm, and the steady performance of Mannequin, even in a slightly altered form, show that the format is still wide open: You can successfully play an established deck or approach a tournament with the knowledge that there is still room for innovation.
by Mike Flores

Legacy Format Analysis and Breakdown at Worlds

Much has been said about the addition of Legacy to the Worlds competition formats this year. Were the pros going to take things seriously? Would they create some new decks unseen before on the competitive circuit? Would they take the lazy road and simply spruce up an Extended deck, or scramble for whatever they could find on site? The answer, as it turned out, was a little bit of all of the above. Let's take a look at how the archetypes broke down on the day:

Threshold: 76
Goblins: 34
Cephalid Breakfast: 26
Landstill: 24
Dredge: 24
PT Junk: 16
Charbelcher: 15
Survival: 14
Stax: 14
Dragon Stompy: 11
Affinity: 11
38-43 Lands: 9
White-Blue-Black: 8
Aggro Loam: 7
Enchantress: 7
Solidarity: 6
Black-White: 6
3Deuce: 6
Counter Goyf: 5
Black-Blue-Green: 5
Slivers / Meathooks: 3
Black Splash Green: 3
Aluren: 3
Monoblack Aggro: 2
Mono-Blue Control: 2
The Perfect Storm: 2
Iggy Pop: 2
Rifter: 2
White Weenie: 1
Life: 1
StifleNaught: 1
Sea Stompy: 1
Stompy: 1
Other: 10

Threshold overwhelmingly fielded the most players for the five rounds of Friday play though there were hardly two identical versions of the deck to be found. Some players ran traditional blue-green builds, eschewing splashes to solidify their manabase and protect it from Wasteland. Others opted to splash white for things like Mystic Enforcer, Swords to Plowshares, and Meddling Mage and still others opted to use red for Lightning Bolt and Fire // Ice.

Not surprisingly, Goblins played second fiddle to the eponymous Tarmogoyf decks, fielding 34 players. The boggart precursors have been a mainstay on the Legacy circuit for some time and saw some professional success earlier this season when Owen Turtenwald used them to place second at the Legacy Grand Prix in Columbus in May. Of course there has been an important change in the format since then: Tarmogoyf has entered the arena, and with it the dominance of Goblins has tapered off somewhat. Even Turtenwald was concerned about the deck's Threshold matchup, opting to run Affinity for the weekend.

While Grand Prix–Columbus is the only other professional-level Legacy tournament we have to look at for results this year, it seems the Legacy Championships at GenCon–Indianapolis actually had the most impact on the current format, almost certainly due to the fact Columbus was played before the Mirage rare Flash was banned. The innovation from the GenCon Top 8 seen most often throughout the weekend was the combination of Sensei's Divining Top and Counterbalance. Because of the aggressive nature of the format, decks must interact on the first, second, and third turns or face being irrelevant. Because of that fact many decks feature a high concentration of cards with the same converted mana cost, and a Top keeping rotating one-, two-, and three-drops on a player's deck with Counterbalance in play can completely lock out an opponent.

Of course, that's not the only impact from the GenCon championships. You may recall the Cephalid Breakfast list young Jesse Hatfield marched to the Top 8 of that event; while the archetype was a known entity going into that tournament Jesse was the player who managed to have the most success with it, and apparently the professional community took note. A surprising 26 copies of the deck showed up to play for World Championships fame and glory, making it the third most popular archetype on the weekend.

That's not to say the pros weren't up for innovating a bit themselves. A contingent of French players showed up with a mono-red deck intent on making big plays via Moxes and two-mana lands like Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors, usually in the form of disruptive spells like Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, or either Blood Moon effect (Magus of and the original enchantment) before powering into larger threats like Arc-Slogger. They even utilized rituals like Seething Song to make sure their overpowered cards hit the table quickly.

Olivier Ruel’s Dragon Stompy
Main Deck
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
11 Mountain
4 Arc-Slogger
4 Gathan Raiders
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Rakdos Pit Dragon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
3 Seething Song
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Trinisphere
3 Umezawa's Jitte
21 other spells
Sideboard
4 Powder Keg
3 Pyroblast
1 Pyrokinesis
2 Rorix Bladewing
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Trinisphere

On the other side of the Atlantic the American grouping of Gabe Walls and Mike Hron were busy at work on a deck of their own design, though they weren't using Mountains in it. Instead they set out to abuse the recently unbanned Replenish with the plethora of enchantments available in the format. City of Solitude could shut off their opponent's counterspells, Ground Seal could severely disrupt strategies based on abusing the graveyard, and Elephant Grass, Moat, and Solitary Confinement disrupted creature strategies.

Gabe Walls Enchantress
Main Deck
1 Bayou
7 Forest
3 Plains
3 Savannah
1 Scrubland
2 Serra's Sanctum
1 Taiga
4 Windswept Heath
4 Argothian Enchantress
1 Aura of Silence
3 City of Solitude
4 Elephant Grass
4 Enchantress's Presence
2 Exploration
2 Ground Seal
2 Moat
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Replenish
1 Sacred Ground
1 Sacred Mesa
2 Solitary Confinement
3 Sterling Grove
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Words of War
Sideboard
3 Choke
1 City of Solitude
2 Karmic Justice
2 Krosan Grip
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Thoughtseize

While initially met with grumbles from the pros used to playing only Extended and Block Constructed formats at Worlds, Legacy turned out to be a great format for the event. Players buckled down to find edges just as they do for other formats and their innovations are sure to be felt in the Legacy community at large. Will we see a return to the format at next year's World Championships? You'll have to check back in to magicthegathering.com in twelve months to find out...

by Bill Start wizards.com

Undefeated Standard Decks at Worlds 2007

Metagame Breakdown

With this being the biggest World Championships ever, we had a wealth of Standard decks to enjoy, and it's interesting to see how the best in the game chose to attack the format, given the limited information they had from States / Champs, Grand Prix–Krakow, and a handful of tournaments since.

As looked likely from the info from the traders first thing in the morning, Red-Green Big Mana was the most popular deck, looking to play some colossal threats earlier than really seems fair. A few players, including the newly enshrined Hall of Fame member Kai Budde, chose to add an extra color on occasion, but essentially this was the deck looking to make big monsters and swing.

The most popular tribe of the day was Faeries, in both blue-green and blue-black incarnations. The latter was the deck of choice for Zvi Mowshowitz, who finished the standard happy on 4-1. The other popular choice was Elves, who were particularly well liked by the Japanese contingent, including Kenji Tsumura.

From a control angle, Makeshift Mannequin decks led the way, but there were green-black Rock decks and variations on classic blue control, be it Pickles lock or Guile-powered counterspell heavy control.

Check out the full list:
Archetype Count
Red-Green Big Mana 64
Makeshift Mannequin 43
Rock 39
Green-Black Elves 29
Blue-Green Faeries 28
Mono-Blue Control 20
Blue-Black Faeries 16
Blue-Black Teachings 15
Skred Red 15
Mono Blue Pickles 10
Dragonstorm 10
Tarmo Rack 10
Merfolk 8
Blue-Red Beats / Burn 7
Aggro Red with Tarmogoyf 7
Momentary Blink 7
Blue-White Control 6
Red-Green Beats 6
Doran Control 6
Blue-Green Control 5
Rakdos 4
Red-Green-Black Beats 4

After this, there were a whole mess of decks that showed up in smaller numbers. These included the Rites of Flourishing deck, Wild Pair, mono-black beatdown, and a mono-green Stompy deck featuring all the hasty monsters a boy could ever want. One of the more exciting new decks included in here was the deck designed by Masashiro Kuroda and run by three Japanese players including Tsuyoshi Fujita, sporting Thousand-Year Elixir, Mangara of Corondor and Immaculate Magistrates. Billy Moreno chose to play a Gro deck, striking his own path with the combined threats of Tarmogoyf and Quirion Dryad. Akira Asahara, meanwhile, was playing Reanimator to get his discounted massive monsters by way of the graveyard. There were 27 of these assorted decks, enough to keep the field on its toes for Day 1.

Undefeated Standart Decks
Jan Doise
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck: 
4 Faerie Conclave
3 Mouth of Ronom
4 River of Tears
4 Snow-Covered Island
6 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Underground River
1 Urza's Factory
4 Epochrasite
4 Mulldrifter
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
4 Riftwing Cloudskate
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Shriekmaw
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
3 Damnation
4 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Profane Command
Sideboard:
2 Bottle Gnomes
1 Jace Beleren
2 Mournwhelk
3 Nameless Inversion
3 Pithing Needle
4 Thoughtseize

Simon Englund
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck:
3 Faerie Conclave
1 Gemstone Mine
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Pendelhaven
4 Shivan Reef
2 Snow-Covered Island
5 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Vivid Crag
2 Yavimaya Coast
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Looter il-Kor
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Fatal Frenzy
4 Incinerate
4 Psionic Blast
4 Rift Bolt
4 Threaten
17 other spells
Sideboard:
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Fatal Frenzy
2 Jace Beleren
3 Manabarbs
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Sulfur Elemental

Hong Fei Yeung
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck:
3 Faerie Conclave
2 Pendelhaven
6 Snow-Covered Forest
6 Snow-Covered Island
2 Treetop Village
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Mistbind Clique
4 Mystic Snake
3 Pestermite
4 Scion of Oona
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Wall of Roots
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Psionic Blast
1 Remove Soul
4 Rune Snag
9 other spells
Sideboard:
4 Flashfreeze
2 Naturalize
2 Pithing Needle
3 Sower of Temptation
3 Spectral Force
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter

Gerardo Godinez Estrada
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck: 
2 Highland Weald
3 Karplusan Forest
2 Mouth of Ronom
2 Scrying Sheets
6 Snow-Covered Island
5 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Treetop Village
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
2 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Cloudthresher
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Coldsteel Heart
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Harmonize
4 Incinerate
4 Into the North
2 Molten Disaster
4 Skred
Sideboard:
3 Akroma, Angel of Fury
2 Avalanche Riders
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
2 Quagnoth
3 Sulfurous Blast

Christoph Huber
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck:
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
3 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Masked Admirers
4 Ohran Viper
3 Shriekmaw
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Eyeblight's Ending
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Liliana Vess
1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Nameless Inversion
3 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
Sideboard:
1 Damnation
1 Extirpate
4 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Graveborn Muse
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Pithing Needle
1 Riftsweeper
1 Shriekmaw
3 Viridian Shaman

Chris Lachmann
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck:
4 Highland Weald
2 Karplusan Forest
3 Mouth of Ronom
1 Scrying Sheets
5 Snow-Covered Forest
5 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Treetop Village
2 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Cloudthresher
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wall of Roots
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Harmonize
4 Incinerate
4 Into the North
2 Molten Disaster
4 Skred
Sideboard:
4 Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
3 Spectral Force
4 Sulfurous Blast

Katsuhiro Mori
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck: 
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
4 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Boreal Druid
1 Civic Wayfinder
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Masked Admirers
1 Mirri the Cursed
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Troll Ascetic
4 Wren's Run Packmaster
2 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
14 other spells
Sideboard:
2 Cloudthresher
1 Krosan Grip
3 Liliana Vess
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Phyrexian Totem
2 Razormane Masticore
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Viridian Shaman

Yoshitaka Nakano
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck: 
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
4 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Boreal Druid
2 Civic Wayfinder
3 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Masked Admirers
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Troll Ascetic
4 Wren's Run Packmaster
3 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Profane Command
3 Thoughtseize
Sideboard:
2 Cloudthresher
1 Krosan Grip
3 Liliana Vess
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Nekrataal
2 Slaughter Pact
1 Thoughtseize
2 Viridian Shaman

Mikko Nurmi
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck: 
4 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Karplusan Forest
5 Mountain
4 Treetop Village
2 Urza's Factory
3 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Cloudthresher
3 Quagnoth
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Wall of Roots
3 Fertile Ground
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Harmonize
4 Incinerate
2 Molten Disaster
4 Search for Tomorrow
Sideboard:
2 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Molten Disaster
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Quagnoth
3 Serrated Arrows
1 Spectral Force
3 Sulfurous Blast

Sam Stein
2007 Worlds, Standard 5-0
Main Deck: 
3 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Pendelhaven
5 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Llanowar Elves
3 Oona's Prowler
2 Shriekmaw
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Troll Ascetic
2 Eyeblight's Ending
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Nameless Inversion
2 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize

Sideboard:
1 Eyeblight's Ending
2 Liliana Vess
1 Masked Admirers
3 Riftsweeper
2 Shriekmaw
4 Stupor
2 Sudden Death

www.wizards.com

Saturday, November 24 Tournament Standard

Metagame
RG Mana Ramp: 14
RWG Predator Aggro: 3
Haro Rock: 1
BG Rock: 4
Gb Elves: 6
Skred Red: 8
MGA: 7
Uw Pickles: 3
Ug Faeries: 6
Mono Blue Pickles: 3
Sonic Boom: 8
Mannequin Control: 6
Mono Black Control: 6
Discard Effects.dec: 1
Gruul Beats: 2
Mono Red Jank: 1
Rb Goblins: 2
Mono Blue Merfolk: 1
Gbw AggroControl: 2
Mono Green Treefolk: 2
Uw Merfolk: 5
Ub Faeries: 3
Changeling Zoo: 1
TarmoSkred Red: 1
Gb Midrange: 1
TurboTog: 3
Mono Green Elves: 2
RG Tokens: 1
mtgfanatic's deck: 1
Angelfire: 1
TSPS: 2
KajTheMan's Deck: 1
RBg AggroControl: 1
WRU Blink: 1
UB TarmoControl: 1
RB Control: 1
Snow White: 1
BW Haakon Inversion: 2
Mono Black Aggro: 1
Bg Haakon Inversion AggroControl: 2
Kithkins: 1
RU Aggro: 1
Uw Blink: 1
Mono Blue Aggro: 1
sideney's deck: 1
Ug Pickles: 2
GRB AggroControl: 1
Mono Red Aggro: 2

TOP 8:
RG Mana Ramp
1st - MiguelG
Main Deck:
5 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Karplusan Forest
5 Mountain
4 Treetop Village
1 Urza's Factory
1 Pendelhaven
2 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Wall of Roots
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Cloudthresher
4 Fertile Ground
4 Harmonize
3 Incinerate
3 Molten Disaster
4 Search for Tomorrow
2 Loxodon Warhammer
Sideboard:
3 Krosan Grip
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 Pyroclasm
4 Eyes of the Wisent


RWG Kavu Justice
2nd - D4rk3z
Main Deck:
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Horizon Canopy
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Treetop Village
1 Mountain
2 Forest
5 Plains
3 Brion Stoutarm
4 Kavu Predator
3 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 Serra Avenger
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Incinerate
4 Call of the Herd
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Fiery Justice
Sideboard:
3 Crib Swap
1 Fiery Justice
3 Krosan Grip
4 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Mystic Enforcer
2 Thrill of the Hunt


BG Rock
Top 4 - Haro
Main Deck:
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Treetop Village
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Ohran Viper
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Graveborn Muse
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Shriekmaw
3 Nameless Inversion
4 Thoughtseize
4 Eyeblight's Ending
Sideboard:
2 Shriekmaw
2 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Distress
3 Krosan Grip
3 Extirpate
2 Profane Command


Gb Elves
Top 4 - Equinox-
Main Deck:
4 Thoughtseize
3 Wren's Run Packmaster
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Masked Admirers
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Elvish Champion
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Thornweald Archer
3 Boreal Druid
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
6 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Pendelhaven
4 Treetop Village
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Horizon Canopy
Sideboard:
4 Slaughter Pact
2 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
3 Shriekmaw
3 Krosan Grip
3 Riftsweeper


RG Mana Ramp
Top 8 - Batutinha
Main Deck:
1 Urza's Factory
5 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Treetop Village
6 Forest
3 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Wall of Roots
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Cloudthresher
1 Deadwood Treefolk
3 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Molten Disaster
4 Harmonize
4 Search for Tomorrow
3 Fertile Ground
3 Incinerate
Sideboard:
2 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Quagnoth
2 Krosan Grip
4 Eyes of the Wisent
4 Sulfurous Blast


Skred Red
Top 8 - Tidus-
Main Deck:
4 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
15 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Fungal Reaches
4 Martyr of Ashes
3 Stalking Yeti
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Stuffy Doll
4 Coldsteel Heart
4 Skred
3 Molten Disaster
4 Incinerate
4 Dead/Gone
2 Disintegrate
Sideboard:
1 Fungal Reaches
1 Molten Disaster
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Serrated Arrows
4 Sulfur Elemental
3 Akroma, Angel of Fury


MGA
Top 8 - GreatMind
Main Deck:
2 Pendelhaven
10 Forest
4 Treetop Village
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Quagnoth
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Boreal Druid
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Spectral Force
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Masked Admirers
2 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Fertile Ground
Sideboard:
1 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Call of the Herd
4 Eyes of the Wisent
4 Gaddock Teeg
3 Riftsweeper


RWG Kavu Justice
Top 8 - Nameless1
Main Deck:
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Treetop Village
2 Forest
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Pendelhaven
3 Mountain
1 Karplusan Forest
2 Brushland
1 Plains
2 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Kavu Predator
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Greater Gargadon
3 Mogg Fanatic
1 Magus of the Scroll
4 Mogg War Marshal
3 Masked Admirers
4 Tarfire
4 Incinerate
3 Fiery Justice
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Oblivion Ring
Sideboard:
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Molten Disaster
3 Krosan Grip
3 Riftsweeper
2 Serrated Arrows

Hm, no blue in top. Green eats each other.
   +      =   old, but works?

Ravnica-TimeSpiral T2 Metagame

Well, after seeing part of what is emerging from Time Spiral I decided that it would happen for every player, and see that they are filled out, the strongest, and that a less viable to get out of kamigawa.

First off, let's enumerate the gazillion different playing deck at the moment. Let me give you overview of what they are supposed to do, and what kind of feasibility after kamigawa broken.

Aggro
Heezy Street (R / G aggro)
W / G ghazi - glare.dec
Zoo
B / R Aggro
U / G erayo ninjas
U / G snake aggro
U / R / G aggro (Mar Stompy)
B / W hand
Ghost-shell

Control
Structure and strength
Heartbeat
Tron (includes green splashes)
The masterpiece (G / W / B or rock enough)
Solar Flare (japanimator)
Magnivore
UW / X control decks

^ ^ There are many more dishes than this that can be played, in fact more than 30, but for the article lengths well, and my sanity, let's go with the most popular dishes at the moment.

That long list of good dishes, which is what made this year's magic so much fun for me personally. You can not determine the target (although for a while can), and has made the tournament demons whole lot more fun. (Facing another cover each round was the shizz - nizzle me)

Sadly, however, some of those covered are no longer viable after kamigawa turns out, so lets give balance to this list, and see what we can expect from the Time Spiral standard.

First, we will start with the Pro Tour Honolulu-winner

Heezy Street

The point of the cover is to strike down as fast as it can with creatures efficient and burn. This coverage is much more consistent than brothers Zoo is, as the basis of manna for this group rarely gives any problem. One of the best aggro covered at the moment, but not the best. At losses -

Flames of the hands of blood
Umezawa's jitte

In much intact. One loses jitte, which is huge but it was not in the main deck, which was one of the best cards in the standard, and each aggro deck will be sad to see it go. Flames blood is a very good burn spell gave this group against some card game as loxodon hierarch and shackles of faith, or any other card of an opponent who won life to put them beyond the reach of your burn. It will be sad to see it go.

This verdict of the platform loses very little, and will undoubtedly be a force to deal with in the new Time Spiral standard. The Watch out for him. Viable.



- Ghazi Glare

The group itself has changed considerably in the past year, rose from the legend bashin 'glare of a line of glare calling, a aggro glare. I will not cover all types of this group, so instead I will go with the original ghazi-dazzle.

This cover is a beast, but after being at the top, which, like most of the good dishes, are hated place, or establishing a level. He won worlds and stuck around for about 3 months, then just let the radar. In any case, the point was to accel in a coup stick, drop a glare or jitte and just win. This group, though not so popular, it is still quite good ... Well, until now. Losses -

Umezawa's jitte
Yosei, the morning star (huge, this card deck gave the game against controlish deck, and controlish means covered with the wrath of God, roofs and decks that use tons of Manna)
Hokori, drinker powder (it was a card SB in which it was pointed out over a greater good and seedborn muse and 2 more yosei's to combat glare covers, and other platforms intensive management. Therefore, the statement about yosei break "control" matchups.)
Kodama tree north
Arashi, half of the sky
Pithing needle

In general, this group loses a LOT of things they did well, and almost all of its synergy.

Verdict - Blatantly, this group is neutered. It still has potential in a aggro-dazzle way, but the legendary original, unfortunately, is no longer viable. If you get a deck with glare, as well, is not as good, just on the side charm hatred or anger play god. Problem solved. To care for other decks. Less viable Dead


Zoo

The point of this group is falling more efficient 1 and 2 drops in the game, and then burn FTW. The basis for this group is manna problems, and has been ignored largely because Heezy Street, Sea and Stompy. Losses -

Flames of the hands of blood
Isamaru, hunting konda
Umezawa's jitte

Only lost 3 cards, but the three letters are important to this group of game. It will live and kicking in TS standard, but for the most part, will not be the aggro deck of choice.

Verdict - With the loss of its most consistent 1 drop, probably most important burn spell, and the staple jitte, I think that this group is reduced to increase the radar. Less feasible


B / R aggro

In truth, but there is a definite B / R archetype, so it's hard to see if what wins and what loses. But there are two cards to be played on the deck of insurance, and the two are rotating. Losses -

Umezawa's jitte
Flames of the hands of blood

Verdict - Loses 2 important letters, but with the fact that this group is probably the least well aggro deck at the moment, I think it will get less popular, unless we get a good black letters from TS. Viable ... Only disadvantaged.


U / G Erayo ninjas

The point of this group is to drop
Erayo, Soratami ascendant
Ninja deep when
Umezawa's Jitte
Perturbando shoal
Higure still wind

Verdict-lose everything that made the cover. Dead


U / G snake aggro

Play snakes with impressive capabilities. Losses -

Not even going to go over it, where snakes in kamigawa and kamigawa is leaving ...


Verdict-lose everything that made the cover. Dead


Be Stompy

It is considered the best cover in the format now, and by far the best aggro. It's very good, but you lose a little. He also wins a lot of Time Spiral, if the wing so far is correct. So we will see what happens. Losses -

Meloku the mirror cloudy
Umezawa's jitte
Thoughts of ruin
Ninja deep when

Overall, the platform that they lose a bit viable. Moreover, without the power of jitte, I believe that this form of aggro (light or no-burn) is dead. Time will tell, but I believe that the day when the sun is more of this type arc.

Verdict-loses much they did well. Less viable Dead


B / W hand

Causing havoc in your hand, drop a jitte, swing, and never will be without cards because of Bob, or their lives because of jitte and descending. This format of the cover shaken for a while, and for a few months after Honolulu was the most played on the platform. However lost popularity because their states have a bad match against Tron, and Tron is really hot in recent months. It is still one of the best dishes, not just as played as it was before. Losses -

Umezawa's Jitte (This really is the fact that the card of this group go)
Hand of Honor
Descendant of Kiyomaro
Part of Cruelty
Shining shoal
Hokori, drinker powder (which later joined)
Verdict-Yes, this group loses its namesakes, and their cards power; Descendant, and jitte, which was why it was a better aggro. Without jitte however, the cover can not sacrifice the quality of its creatures to make an opponent discard. (Correa the jitte on a rat or grotesque and swing) Therefore, this type of arch is not much more. Dead


Ghost - Husk

Osyp Lebedowicz made this popular archetype. However, even the most, or second most popular aggro now. This group was the most played in regionals this year. The question is getting a nantuko shell on the board, and hold a promise of bunrei, and swing for the win. Losses -

Promise bunrei
Umezawa's jitte
Hand honor

- The only verdict card really important is the loss of bunrie. Without it loses its power to win on turn 4 or 5. Dead


Well, now that I have gone through all the aggro covered, and its success so far of my favorites; control decks J.


Structure and strength

This group took by assault nationals, and is, literally, as yang, while Sea Stompy was Yin. Both of the above decks was the biggest in the top 8 of the national (well, and these solar flares). The point of the cover is too gain control of the board through accountants, and the wrath of God. The big game is to play counterweight, in conjunction with the top to have free counters what your opponent plays. Full of synergy, keeps a steady supply of cards with dark confidant, and wins with meloku or dark confidant jittied. (A control platform O_o'') Very funny deck, is a blast to play and is very good ... Well, until now. Losses -

Sensei top guessing
Umezawa's jitte
Meloku the mirror cloudy

Verdict-lost two of its position to win, but the reality real tragedy is the loss of the top. Without the top, I fear that the entire counterweight shenanigans is not viable at all. This group was an explosion in the month was around, but without kamigawa, this group is Dead

Heartbeat

The issue is leaving a heartbeat of the spring, and accumulate tons of manna buy using drifts of phantasms early to fetch crops, you should download the drifts strangers with the harvest, harvest and confusion with the strange mixture, and with a win or rely The firemind or magazine, traitor to mortals. Losses -

Heartbeat spring-lost more, but none of that is relevant, without this card

As a verdict of the first combined the platform I have ever played, this had a special place in my heart, but now this in the past. Dead


Tron (green with splashes)

The point of this group is to get tron line, remove one million cards, drop a fat blue creature, and throw a demonfire in the noggin for 15 + damage. Losses -

Keiga, the tide stars
Meloku the mirror cloudy (most not even run their more)

- The verdict loses its fatty covering blue creatures, but that can easily be replaced with simic skyswallower or tidespout tyrant. This group is far from done. Viable



The masterpiece

The point of this group was to increase the manna, anger, or persecute its opponents outside hand, drop a fatty and win. He never finished cards through pyrexian scene. Most is a rock evolved. Losses -

Kokusho, the night stars
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
Cranial extraction
Yosei, the star of the morning (from the version that was run)

The verdict of the platform loses all kamigawa endings, but all that can be replaced with angel despair, rumored akroma angel of anger, simic skyswallower, and any other U / B / G / W acids. The creatures may not be as effective, but still get the job done. Viable


Solar Flare (u / w / b control)

The point of this group is to expand management through signets, wrat board, and reactivate a fatty by zombify, or simply dropping a fatty. Use a light counterspell dresses 4 remands. Most top 8 is outside the platform ALL nationals. Not much hype however, it is not considered the best. Losses

All kamigawa legends -
Yosei, the morning star
Kokusho, the night stars
Meloku the mirror cloudy
- The eyes of ink, servant of oni
Extraction cranial
Descendant of kiyomaro

Verdict - Loses whole legend, the other creatures can be plugged into the holes, but overall, it will not be nearly as good. Less viable Dead.


Magnivore

The point of this group is rhythm. Kepp his opponent out of the earth through rebound, rain stone, and demolish. Acquired some popularity against tron, but tron is not more popular than ever, so this group has lost popularity. Losses -

Eye of nowhere

Verdict-Well, I could be called by some silly people, but this group loses a card. ONE card. Not feasible. From the mere fact that dies horribly to aggro, and that this group is particularly pace, the 2 manna rebound sorcery, it will be the death of this group. Unless we get another 2CC rebound detailing TS-Less viable; Dead

U / W / X control

These covered quite evolved with the addition of Dissention. Personally, I think that U / G / W is the best archetype of control, but you can decide for yourself.

U / W Control

The point of this group is the long game. You let the first creatures get however, use a smattering of shackles and the sentence. The big game is wrath of God, stabilize, and hold the board and win. This group is strong, and lose very little. In fact, it loses nothing but hinder. Cancel (the spiral against time to 1UU) does the same thing, except it is a difficult counter. Losses -

None. Hinder is replaced with Cancel

A verdict of the strongest type arc after kamigawa broken. Search and prepare to deal with this. Viable.

U / G / W against ghazi

Much the same as U / W, but this group has another factor working for her. - Tree City. Whether a control card breaks the game, and gives this group chump blocker turn after turn, while the excavation for a response. In my opinion, this group is the best in the format after kamigawa leaves, his only bad matchups where B / W magnivore. Both of which are not so good after TS. As will be seen. Losses -

Nothing.

Verdict-One of the dishes strongest rotation. The best of the U / W / X-type arc. Look and prepare for it. If I were you I would play. Best option.


U / W / R firemane control

Get manna online, anger, gain life with the Angels and win. This group loses nothing kamigawa really win much on the fact that skull, and pithing needle go. So watch for this group in the coming months.

- Improved verdict on the platform standard TS. Very viable; Perhaps best choice


So this is my take after TS becomes legal norm. Some of it is obvious, I know, but my hunch that his burning based aggro will become tier one aggro choice again, because not to burn the basis aggro covered not have the power to umezawa's jitte more. Likewise, the blue-based control dishes get much stronger after the rotation, and windreaver becomes much better, and the IMO is the best creature in the format after pithing needle is gone.

For those of you going to the states, here's my advice-Prepare burning based aggro. A lot of it. If your still deciding on a deck to play suggest U / W / G against ghazi, oU / W / R firemane control. These two decks roll aggro, and got something to control matchups well. If you are playing blue-based control device package of charm and hatred because leyline of lifeforce, and Defense Network are gaining in popularity.

Thank you for reading.

By Mike Nelson A.K.A. Blade