Well folks, it has been quite a long time since my last article. Down but not out, I’m back to talk about extended. The last article you got from me was my last attempt at PT Chicago. I lost in the top 8. Since then I have competed in four qualifiers for PT LA, missing the top 8 in all four. I like to think I am a limited player, but I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that I am purely a constructed player. I’ll still play limited; I just won’t expect to excel in it.
The current extended environments one of the healthiest I have ever seen. Control, beatdown, combo, and aggro-control are all excelling. This week, I will overview the top decks from Seattle. In the coming weeks, I will get more in depth analyzing specific styles of decks and give you lists I have come up with in my testing.
4 Incinerate
3 Price of Progress
3 Hammer of Bogardan
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Viashino Sandstalker
4 Jackal Pup
4 Shock
4 Fireblast
3 Ball Lightning
4 Cursed Scroll
Land
17 Mountain
4 Wasteland
3 Ghitu Encampment
Sideboard
3 Spellshock
3 Anarchy
4 Pyroblast
1 Price of Progress
4 Keldon Vandals
This deck, developed by Seth Burn, was designed to beat a metagame of Necro, Slivers, and Oath. Ever since sligh became popular, people have mislabeled most red decks sligh. I classify this deck as burn. No creature mana curve and only 4 Pups as permanent creatures. It uses fast burn to beat decks like Hatred and Necro, main deck Price of Progress to beat decks like Slivers and Oath, and has the speed to compete with combo decks. This deck was metagamed well enough to bring both Alex Shvartsman and Jay Elarar to the top 8 of GP Seattle.
Tim Kariel
3 Demonic Consultation
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Winged Sliver
4 Acidic Sliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Hibernation Sliver
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
Land
4 Flood Plains
2 Undiscovered Paradise
2 Gemstone Mine
3 City of Brass
1 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
1 Volcanic Island
2 Tropic Island
1 Savannah
3 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
Sideboard
3 Ebony Charm
1 Disenchant
1 Worship
1 Squee Goblin Nabob
3 Null Rod
3 Pyroblast
3 Survival of the Fittest
Slivers, brought to the world by the multiple top 8’s of Chris Senhouse in last year’s NY qualifier season. Now backed by the power of Demonic Consultation. This deck may be the most powerful aggro-control deck of all time. The speed and versatility of Slivers and the availability of control elements like Counterspell, Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares made this deck the most represented in the top 16 and brought two of its pilots to the top 8. The only weakness in this deck is the mana base. Highly susceptible to cards like Wasteland and Price of Progress, and prone to inconsistent draws, this powerful deck is as fragile as it is devastating.
4 Dark Ritual
4 Demonic Consultation
4 Duress
3 Unmask
1 Spinning Darkness
3 Hatred
1 Kaervek’s Spite
4 Sacromancy
4 Carnophage
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Phyrexian Negator
Land
16 Swamp
4 City of Traitors
Sideboard
4 Masticore
3 Cursed Scroll
3 Perish
3 Sphere of Resistance
2 Null Rod
Deadguy Negator. This deck that brought Worth Wolpert to the top 16 of PT Chicago has now, with some minor adjustments, helped Dave Price qualify for NY with minimal trouble. This deck likes to win as fast as possible. It’s a combo deck, it’s a control deck, it’s a beatdown deck. This deck may look simple, but it can do it all. The biggest problem with this deck is that it has a lot of trouble dealing with any deck that plays basic Mountains, and has a great fear of free spells.
Bob Maher
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
1 Forbid
1 Disrupt
2 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Morphling
1 Spike Weaver
1 Spike Feeder
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Oath of Druids
1 Aura of Silence
1 Null Rod
1 Abundance
1 Trade Routes
1 Ivory Mask
2 Sylvan Library
Land
4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
3 Treetop Village
1 Faerie Conclave
4 Wasteland
3 Flood Plain
1 Savannah
1 Adarkar Wastes
2 Islands
Sideboard
2 Powder Keg
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Compost
2 Oath of Druids
1 Crater Hellion
1 Aura of Silence
1 Circle of Protection : Red
1 Sacred Ground
2 Mana Short
3 Annul
Ah, the Great One. How much needs to be said about a deck that takes back to back premier events. Once again, with minor adjustments to help with consistency, Bob takes this excellent deck all the way. This deck can deal with creature decks, can go toe to toe with control decks, and is as effective as Forbidian against combo. However, this deck runs into the same problems as Slivers with an inconsistent mana base of all nonbasic land. Jeremy Brower took a very similar deck all the way to the finals of this tournament.
Mike Hron
1 River Boa
3 Masticore
1 Mindless Automaton
4 Stormbind
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Wall of Roots
2 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Elvish Lyrist
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Yavimaya Elder
3 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Avalanche Rider
1 Hail Storm
Land
10 Forest
3 Gaea’s Cradle
4 Mountain
4 Taiga
3 Treetop Village
1 Wasteland
Sideboard
1 Tranquil Domain
2 Null Rod
1 Whirling Dervish
1 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Emerald Charm
1 Boil
1 Spike Weaver
3 Hail Storm
1 Spike Feeder
This deck was clearly designed to break Squee. Creature decks don’t stand a chance against this deck. It would also seem that control decks would have trouble with the many threats in this deck and the card advantage given by Squee. The weakness in this deck would seem to be against Combo decks. However, Mike navigated it to the top 8 of Seattle.
4 Dark Ritual
4 Mana Vault
3 Vampiric Tutor
4 Demonic Consultation
4 Duress
4 Necropotence
4 Force of Will
4 Donate
4 Illusions of Grandeur
2 Hoodwink
4 Underground Sea
4 Underground River
4 Gemstone Mine
1 City of Brass
3 Island
7 Swamp
sb:
4 Contagion
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Mana Short
2 Hoodwink
3 Hydroblast
New England has got to have the strongest Magic population in the world. Darwin Kastle, Dave Humphreys, Rob Dougherty, Tom Guevin, Brian Kibler, Chris Senhouse, Mark LePine, Mike Bregoli, and last but not least Magic God, Billy "Baby Huey" Jensen. This group (minus Mark LePine) will always have cutting edge, high quality decks that no one expects. Trix was their hybrid of Necro and Illusions/Donate and brought both Darwin and Rob to the top 16. This, like most combo decks, tries to win as quickly as possible with card drawing and deck manipulation. It also backs itself up with Force of Will.
Joseph Crosby
4 Counterspell
3 Forbid
4 Force of Will
3 Annul
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
4 Ophidian
2 Morphling
3 Powder Keg
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
2 Treachery
4 Thawing Glaciers
4 Wasteland
2 Quicksand
2 Dust Bowl
14 Island
sb:
3 Legacy’s Allure
3 Disrupt
2 Whispers of the Muse
1 Annul
3 Masticore
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
2 Phyrexian Furnace
Forbidian is a deck very dear to my heart. It qualified me for my first Pro-Tour and help put my friend Jamie Parke into the top 8 of Worlds. Powder Keg is what keeps this deck competitive. The environment has sped up, creaturewise, so a better solution than Nevinyrral’s Disk is required. This deck gains mass card advantage through Thawing Glaciers and Ophidians, then eventually kills with Morphling. A solid deck, but you had better be a VERY patient player if you want to play this, or any control deck.
These decks should be the starting point of your testing. These are the decks to play, to plan for and to modify. Use these for your foundation and you will end up successful in your deck building efforts. More to come next week.