There has been a lack of articles from me of late. For the few weeks preceding Pro Tour Chicago and the Masters I did nothing but prepare for the events. Sadly this time my work did not yield fruit (I lost the first round of the Masters and did not make day 2 in the Pro Tour).
Now that I have time to write again, I really want to talk about Standard. I’m excited about the Standard format for a couple of reasons. The first is the big $3,000.00 Magic Open I’m holding on February 8th at the Brighton Knights of Columbus (my normal Boston area PTQ site). As the name would suggest, it’s a (Standard format) Magic tournament that anyone can play in to fight for a chance at $3,000 in cash prizes. Rest assured I will be covering that event in an article right here on www.starcitygames.com complete with player interviews and decklists.
Secondly, I’ve been working on the format for a while, but have been unable to talk about it at all (lest I give away team Your Move Games’ Masters preparation secrets). I had an unusual deck that I came close to playing, but in the end went with Tog. Instead of letting that deck rot in my files, I thought I’d share it with the Star City readers.
Formats like Standard are hard to break with a new deck. In an old format, the established decks are real powerhouses, and set a very high bar for a new deck to clear. That said, the surprise value of a new deck can easily win you a couple of matches – and in the Masters, that’s a lot of cash. It was clear I had to try.
Going into the preparation for the Chicago Masters, the Standard format had been defined by the State Championships. There were old school decks like Tog, Blue/Green Opposition and Red/Green, modified Odyssey block decks like Blue Green Madness, Mono Black Control, and Wake, and Onslaught-powered newcomers Goblin and Astral Slide.
For Dave Humpherys, it was an easy decision: No deck has ever fit his play style more than Tog. It earned him $15,000 in the last Standard Masters and his invite (thanks to Ryan Fuller’s banning) to the Chicago Masters. He set to work immediately on Tog and never looked back. Every once in a while. I would check in with him and get his latest version so I could playtest it and keep up to speed. I wanted to come up with something new, but my planned fallback position was to play Dave Humpherys’ Tog.
I had a lot of experience with the older decks, so I started out by building and testing Goblin and Slide. Goblin was quick, and could do surprising amounts of damage with the cats and Piledrivers but it just lost to its fellow Onslaught deck: Slide.
Slide, which had such an impressive showing in States, was as equally impressive to play. Its combination of creature control overload and Exalted Angel made it easily thrash any creature-based deck without Islands. The Astral Slide decks have two big weaknesses: Other decks countermagic, and its lack of it. Blue/Green Madness could beat Slide with a good draw. Usually if the Madness deck could counter twice early, it would win. Slide’s lack of permission meant decks with big sorceries could also be a problem. Mono Black’s Haunting Echoes could rip all the cycling cards out of Slide’s library, leaving it defanged.
The real problem deck, however, was Tog. Its combination on counter magic, hand destruction, and the “I win” sorcery Upheaval made this matchup miserable.
In the Masters, like in any tournament, it’s important to know what the opposition is likely to play. The last Standard Masters was a sea of Tog decks. I beat Tog in round one, beat it again in round two, and lost to it round three. The Finals was Tog versus Tog. It was a Togfest – and given how good Tog still was, I predicted more of the same for Chicago.
You see, Masters players, being the best of the best, tend to be a bit arrogant when it comes to Magic. They like to play controlling decks with all the answers. The feeling is that as long as the deck has the tools to make the win possible, they will outplay their opponent and achieve the victory. Tog, with its card drawing, counter magic, creature control, and game-ending Upheavals, fits perfectly into the Masters players mindset.
Given my Tog-heavy prediction, there was no way I would play Slide in the Masters, and I found it unlikely many other pros would want to run it. I wanted a deck that could beat Tog and the format’s fast decks like Blue/Green Madness, Red/Green, and Goblin. The deck I came up with was an archetype that wasn’t getting much attention in Standard: White Weenie.
Master A
4 Benevolent Bodyguard
4 Nova Cleric
1 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Longbow Archer
4 True Believer
4 Whipcorder
4 Master Apothecary
4 Exalted Angel
4 Glorious Anthem
4 Battle Screech
23 Plains
Sideboard:
1 Circle of Protection: Black
4 Mobilization
2 Divine Sacrament
2 Disenchant
2 Demystify
4 Beloved Chaplain
This build is weird. It doesn’t use the typical discard/Glory route. I started with a more typical Nomad, Patrol Hound, Glory version, but wasn’t happy with the results. I had an old Master Apothecary block deck that was quite good; its only problem was that it couldn’t handle Mono Black Control (and in Odyssey Block, that’s a big problem). It seemed to me that Mobilization in the sideboard could solve that problem, so I went to work updating the deck to the Standard format. I’ll describe the role of the different cards, then talk about the overall deck.
4 Benevolent Bodyguard
The Bodyguard served multiple roles. He’s a one-drop cleric, so he’s good for the curve and good with Master Apothecary. His pro-color ability can protect an Exalted Angel until it can unmorph (which in many cases is game over). Finally, he can serve as a”Falter effect” to get the last bit of unblockable damage through.
4 Nova Cleric
The Nova Cleric is another one-drop cleric. His being a 1/2 for one helps a lot against Goblin decks, and his Tranquility effect is fantastic against Blue/Green Opposition.
1 Weathered Wayfarer
This guy’s ability is great. I really wanted more in the deck, but could never find the room.
4 True Believer
A cleric, a 2/2 for two, and amazing against black. His ability prevents you from being Duressed, Chainer’s Edicted, Haunting Echoed, Shocked, etc. The bad news is you can’t Master Apothecary on yourself with this guy out.
4 Longbow Archer
First Strike is handy, and blocking flyers helps a lot in the Blue Green Madness matchup (especially if you have the Believer/Apothecary problem going on).
4 Whipcorder
A morpher, so you can do Angel fake-outs… Or a 2/2 for two and a tapper rolled into one. This guy’s great.
4 Master Apothecary
The man the deck’s named for. He seems incredibly janky, but he is in fact a nightmare for any deck planing on beating you with creatures (Goblin, Red/Green, Madness, etc). With seventeen clerics in the deck, when this guy hits play, you win all creature combats and take no damage. He wins games. Trust me. Actually, don’t trust me – try him out.
4 Exalted Angel
Remember how broken she is in your Astral Slide deck? Even without the Slide trick, you can cast her on turn 3, morph her on turn 4 and you just win. Well, she does that in this deck, too.
4 Glorious Anthem
At first I was using Divine Sacrament in this spot, but the bonus to morphed creatures and not giving bonus to opponents’ Mongrels made me switch to the Anthem.
4 Battle Screech
Best card in the deck. It’s great against beatdown and control.
23 Plains
I considered playing some non-basics like Daru Encampment and Secluded Steppe, but the need for timely double- and triple-white made me stick with the Plains.
Sideboard
4 Mobilization
Mobilization is in the sideboard to beat Mono Black Control. You get this out and you will overwhelm them eventually.
1 Circle of Protection: Black
To hold off MBC while you get the Mobilization set up.
2 Divine Sacrament
Extra Crusade effects are great against Goblin and MBC.
2 Demystify
2 Disenchant
Demystify’s low casting cost makes it fantastic with the tempo of this deck (and great against Opposition), but it’s nice to have a couple Disenchants in case you run into nasty artifacts like Ensnaring Bridge.
4 Beloved Chaplain
Against decks that run Glory or Wonder, you want to side out the True Believer and side in the Chaplain. This gives you an evasion victory path and keeps your Master’s ability working on you.
The deck did what I designed it to do. It crushed Goblin and Red Green, and was solid against Madness and Tog. Mono Black Control was a problem in game one, but the additional Crusades and Mobilizations were too much for MBC to handle after sideboarding. But wow did it lose to Astral Slide. If the Slide player drew anything but a complete mana stall or flood, they run right over this deck. It’s not pretty.
About a month before the event I was happy with the development of the Master A deck, and started working with Zvi on Green/Black Reanimator (with one Mountain for Anger). That deck had some promise, but never got good enough to be considered Tier 1.
Then Black/Red Reanimator hit the Magic: Online scene in a big way. This really messed with my deck design and testing. First of all, it meant other decks were running graveyard hate now, so the fledgling Green/Black Reanimator deck Zvi and I were working on lost most of its surprise power. Secondly, it was another major deck type that the Master A deck had trouble with. I tried Morningtide in the sideboard, but the Reanimator decks could get around that with Duress, or by doing the Buried Alive/Stitch Together in one turn.
Running a deck with one terrible matchup can be a worthwhile gamble – but when there are two, it starts getting very scary. I decided to shelve the Master A deck and run Tog. I would have much preferred to run something unexpected, but I had no good options, and Tog was getting very good test results.
As it turns out, there was no Slide or Reanimator in the Masters. I probably should have rolled the dice and played the Master for the Masters. Like they say, hindsight is 20-20.