(This week is brought to you by seasons 5 through 8 of Red Dwarf. Hooray for Christmas presents!)
It’s the end of the year, and in some respects, it’s also the start of a new one! Not exactly profound prose there, but who can be expected to wax poetical over the holiday period? Certainly not me; I’m on holiday. And much like a regular TV show during the holidays, this week’s episode is what’s known as a “clip show.” Well, not quite like a clip show. This isn’t going to be a collection of my funniest lines, fanciest quips, or funkiest photographs, even though I have been told that there were plenty of those.
(Apparently it’s very common for New Zealanders to hold off on blowing their own trumpets, so you’ll not catching me claiming to be capable of any of the above.)
(Not that I own a trumpet, but I can play guitar like a pro.)
No, despite my best attempts to sabotage this column through random acts of sidetrackery and complete change-the-subject-itis, this year has mostly been spent following the trends of the Premier Events Standard metagame. Sure, that has often been talk of card prices, Extended, and the odd jaunt into other things that can and will happen on Magic Online, but mostly it’s been Standard or as it was once known to us old guys, Type Two.
(I say “old guys” because I’ll be turning 29 in a few days, I’m practically geriatric!)
To accompany this week’s Standard Top 8 recap, I’ve included a couple of earlier snapshots for the sake of comparison and general reminiscery. I mean, who really cares what was being played at the start of the year? But it’s always nice to see what’s new and interesting and what’s managed to go the distance and bridge formats with set changes and so on.
Let’s not get too carried away just yet. While you and I may be on holiday, many people are still throwing themselves into the Standard Events with hope of fame, fortune, glory, and maybe a pack or two in prizes. Here’s how the last week in Standard has played out.
14 (13) Dimir Control (Blue/Black Control, made to tick by Desert apparently!)
12 (4) Trisketron (White/Blue Urzatron Control)
11 (17) Boros Deck Wins (Red/White Aggro)
11 (5) Simic Aggro Control (Blue/Green)
10 (7) Dragonstorm Combo (Blue/Red/Black Combo)
6 (7) Panda Connection (Black/White Aggro with hand disruption)
5 (3) Gruul Aggro (Red/Green Aggro)
4 (4) Mono Black Aggro (Small Black men and Bad Moon!)
4 (2) Izzetron (Blue/Red Urzatron Control)
3 (5) Solar Flare (Blue/Black/White Control)
3 (1) Orzhov Control (Black/White Control)
2 (2) Azorius Control (Blue/White Control)
2 (2) Mono-Blue Morph Control (Feed by Fathom Seer and Vesuvan Shapeshifter)
2 (0) Selesnya Aggro Control (Green/White Aggro Control. Yes, sometimes with Glare)
2 (0) Simictron (Blue/Green Urzatron)
1 (6) Angel Control (Blue/Red/White Control)
1 (2) Izzet Snow Control (Blue/Red Snow Control)
1 (1) Goblin Combo (Seething Song and Rite of Flame and Empty the Warrens)
1 (0) MGA (Mono Green Aggro)
1 (0) Golgari Aggro Control (Green/Black Aggro Control)
0 (2) Proclamation Control (White/Blue Martyr of Sands, Proclamation of Rebirth Combo)
0 (2) White/Red/Black Angel Control (Trading the Compulsive Researches for Phyrexian Arena and Castigate)
0 (1) Azorius Green Control (Blue/White/Green Control)
0 (1) White/Red/Blue Momentary Blink Control (For Avalanche Riders, Riftwing Cloudskate and Bogardan Hellkite)
0 (1) Reanimator (Blue/Red/Black cheat fatties into play)
One or two small things that don’t show up from these numbers alone: The Mono-Blue Morph deck seems to be the descendant of the Blue/Green Soggy Pickles Vesuvan Shapeshifter lockdown deck, and is now remarkably close to the Dimir Control decks loitering at the top of the standings. Strange to relate is that the Azorius Proclamation Control deck had exactly zero decks appearing in this week’s Top 8s, after experiencing a reasonable amount of popularity since its premier at the World Champs.
And now to memory lane! Here are the top decks just after the State Champs, held a couple of months ago but obviously before the World Champs.
(Yes, in Paris. I was there and yes, I have said more than enough about that now.)
Top 10 results from the Magic Online Standard Premier Events from November 2006.
13 (6) Izzetron (Blue/Red Urzatron Control)
9 (23) Solar Flare (Blue/Black/White Control)
9 (0) Dragonstorm Combo (Blue/Red/Black Combo)
8 (2) Magnivore (Blue/Red Land Destruction Control)
7 (11) Simic Aggro Control (Blue/Green)
6 (8) Boros Deck Wins (Red/White Aggro)
5 (0) Zoo (Green/White/Red Aggro)
5 (0) Azorius Control (Blue/White Control)
5 (0) Blue Boros Control (Blue/Red/White Control)
4 (0) Izzet Snow Control (Blue/Red Control with Stuffy Doll)
It’s quite interesting how many of those archetype biases seemed to have carried over from the Standard Format before Kamigawa block rotated out. Izzetron is still getting played these days, but is sitting well and truly in the shadow of the new Trisketron. Magnivore hasn’t been seen in many weeks, but is that just because nobody really seemed to play it at Worlds? Now to the waaaay-back machine – here are some decks from earlier this year.
Top 10 results from the Magic Online Standard Premier Events from April 2006.
22 (17) Hand in Hand (Ruel Black/White)
11 (7) Magnivore (Blue/Red with Wildfire/Magnivore)
8 (2) Heartbeat Combo (Heartbeat of Spring and Early Harvest combo)
6 (4) Gruul Beats (Red/Green Aggro)
5 (3) Ghost Dad (Black/White Tallowisp)
5 (1) GhaziGood (Green/White Aggro Control with Greater Good)
2 (2) GhaziGlare (Green/White Aggro Control with Glare of Subdual)
2 (2) Orzhov Control (Black/White Control)
2 (2) Owling Mine (Blue/Red with Howling Mine and Ebony Owl Netsuke)
2 (1) Orzhov Husk (Black/White Aggro with Nantuko Husk and Promise of Bunrei)
Ah, back when the Orzhov were king. It’s still being played these days in the Panda Connection form, with a little Control here and there, but nothing like when there were four different Orzhov decks in the top 10. Ahhh, good times indeed.
Going even further back, except not really that far back because we’re still playing the format, it’s just that people consider it an “old” format… on to Extended! Here are the Top 8 results from the Extended Premier Events for the week.
11 (4) Boros Deck Wins (Red/White Aggro, sometimes with splashes)
10 (3) Azorius Urzatron (Blue/White Urzatron)
9 (4) Affinity (The dreaded Artifact deck)
8 (4) Counterbalance Aggro Control (Nassif’s Blue/White/Red Trinket Mage deck)
5 (7) Tendrils Combo (Extended’s Seething Song, Rite of Flame Combo deck)
3 (7) Goblin Combo (Rite of Flame Goblin Aggro)
4 (6) Four to Five Color Gifts Rock (Green/Black/White Control with Blue and Red for goodies)
4 (4) Scepter Chant (Blue/White/Red Control)
3 (5) Destructive Flow Aggro (Green/Red/Black Aggro with Destructive Flow)
3 (3) Loam Aggro Control (Green/Red/White Life from the Loam Aggro Control)
1 (4) Friggorid (Blue/Black Aggro Dredge)
1 (4) CAL (Life from the Loam Control)
1 (2) Green/White Tooth and Nail (for Decree of Justice)
1 (0) Azorius Control (Blue/White Control, sometimes splashing Red for Fire/Ice)
0 (1) Gruul Aggro (Green/Red Aggro)
0 (1) Green/Blue Tooth and Nail (With Cloudposts!)
0 (1) Psychatog (Blue/Black Control)
0 (1) Unknown
0 (1) Eggs (The French Blue/White Second Sunrise Combo)
0 (1) Enduring Ideal Combo (Similar to Tendrils Combo, but finishing with Ideal)
0 (1) MBA (Mono Black Aggro)
Of note here is the increase in results achieved by Affinity decks. Most people tend to dismiss the deck because of just how ridiculously effective the hate cards are at crushing it. However, if nobody is playing Affinity because it gets horribly crushed by certain hate cards, then why bother actually playing said hate cards? As you can see hinted here, if nobody plays the hate cards, Affinity messes you up. Hard.
So there it is, a quick look back before we go ahead and look forward in the New Year, and so on and so on. I’m off to go enjoy the terrific summer weather we get down this end of the world at this time of year. I’ve heard rumor that it will be turning up any time now, and only a couple of months late! Grumble, grumble, grumble, see you all next week.
*wink*
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