In the past I’ve analyzed the largest tournaments that Type One has to offer in order to determine the state of the metagame. However, not all of us live near these huge affairs, of which there are just a handful each month around the world. To most, Type One tournaments are twenty to forty people battling for a Mox at indeterminate intervals, or even smaller weekend gatherings. Not everyone has Power cards, proxy policies vary (most aren’t sanctioned events for this reason), and people will not be playing the absolute best decks (ah, Psychatog, how I hate thee so…).
So today, I’ll explore some of the available data for small tournaments in January and February that were still big enough to get posted on www.morphling.de and try to find some insight into small metagames based on their differences with larger ones.
(For the purposes below, define Power 19 as: Black Lotus, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Timetwister, Illusionary Mask, Berserk, Bazaar of Baghdad, Library of Alexandria, Mishra’s Workshop, Moat, The Abyss, Nether Void, Chains of Mephistopheles, and Mana Drain. So basically anything over about $30. I’ll be listing appearance counts of each at each tournament.)
2004-01-10 Heidelburg (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=87)(? players)
1. IsoKeeper
2. IsoKeeper
3. Suicide Black (with Deed)
4. Vengeur Masque
5. Reanimator
6. MUD
7. RG Beatz
8. Sligh
8 Black Lotus
7 Mox Emerald
6 Mox Jet
4 Mox Pearl
5 Mox Ruby
5 Mox Sapphire
4 Ancestral Recall
4 Time Walk
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Moat
1 The Abyss
8 Mana Drain
2004-01-17 Madrid (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=100)(? players)
1. Nether Infestation
2. Rector Tendrils
3. Suicide Black
4. Dragon
5. TPS
6. RGW Zoo
7. Keeper
8. MUD
4 Black Lotus
6 Mox Emerald
6 Mox Jet
6 Mox Pearl
6 Mox Ruby
6 Mox Sapphire
5 Ancestral Recall
3 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
8 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Library of Alexandria
2004-01-18 Moers (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=89)(28 players)
1. UrPhid
2. IsoKeeper
3. IsoKeeper (with Standstill AND Oath sideboard)
4. TnT
5. [Unknown]
6. Affinity
7. Goblin Sligh
8. Keeper
5 Black Lotus
5 Mox Emerald
5 Mox Jet
5 Mox Pearl
5 Mox Ruby
5 Mox Sapphire
4 Ancestral Recall
3 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Library of Alexandria
1 The Abyss
8 Mana Drain
8 Mishra’s Workshop
2004-01-31 Aalborg (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=96)(39 players)
1. Keeper
2. IsoKeeper (budget)
3. Hulk Smash
4. Gobvantage
5. Gobvantage
6. GRB Survival
7. TnT
8. [Unknown]
3 Black Lotus
2 Mox Emerald
4 Mox Jet
3 Mox Pearl
4 Mox Ruby
3 Mox Sapphire
2 Ancestral Recall
2 Time Walk
1 Berserk
2 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra’s Workshop
8 Mana Drain
2004-02-01 Bologna (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=95)(38 players)
1. Stax
2. Dragon
3. TPS
4. Stax
5. RG Beatz
6. RUG Madness
7. Suicide Black
8. Suicide Black
4 Black Lotus
4 Mox Emerald
5 Mox Jet
4 Mox Pearl
4 Mox Ruby
4 Mox Sapphire
4 Ancestral Recall
4 Time Walk
3 Timetwister
8 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Library of Alexandria
6 Mishra’s Workshop
2 Nether Void
5 Chains of Mephistopheles
2004-02-01 Castricum (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=98)(32 players)
1. IsoKeeper
2. Holistic Keeper
3. Oath of Druids
4. Welder-MUD
5. IsoKeeper
6. IsoParfait
7. Charbelcher
8. UR Fish
5 Black Lotus
5 Mox Emerald
5 Mox Jet
6 Mox Pearl
6 Mox Ruby
6 Mox Sapphire
5 Ancestral Recall
4 Time Walk
2 Timetwister
2 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra’s Workshop
2 Moat
16 Mana Drain
2004-02-07 Columbus (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=94)(? players)
1. Hulk Smash
2. Trinistax
3. Charbelcher
4. TnT
5. Hulk Smash
6. Draw7.dec
7. UR Fish
8. Stax (w/ Mindslaver)
7 Black Lotus
7 Mox Emerald
7 Mox Jet
7 Mox Pearl
7 Mox Ruby
8 Mox Sapphire
7 Ancestral Recall
4 Time Walk
4 Timetwister
2 Berserk
2 Library of Alexandria
13 Mishra’s Workshop
8 Mana Drain
2004-02-07 Karlsruhe (http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=102)(30 players)
1. IsoKeeper
2. Dragon
3. Dragon
4. Hulk Smash
5. IsoParfait
6. RG Beatz
7. Full English Breakfast
8. RG Beatz
6 Black Lotus
6 Mox Emerald
4 Mox Jet
5 Mox Pearl
6 Mox Ruby
4 Mox Sapphire
5 Ancestral Recall
5 Time Walk
1 Berserk
12 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Moat
8 Mana Drain
8 tournaments totaled
8 IsoKeeper (1,1,1,2,2,2,3,5)
4 Dragon (2,2,3,4)
4 Hulk Smash (1,3,4,5)
4 Stax / Trinistax (1,2,4,8)
4 Keeper (1,2,7,8)
4 Suicide Black (3,3,7,8)
4 RG Beatz (5,6,7,8)
3 TnT (4,4,7)
3 MUD / wMUD (4,6,8)
2 TPS (3,5)
2 Gobvantage (4,5)
2 Charbelcher (3,7)
2 IsoParfait (5,6)
2 UR Fish (7,8)
1 UrPhid (1)
1 Nether Infestation (1)
1 Rector Tendrils (2)
1 Oath (3)
1 Vengeur Masque (4)
1 Reanimator (5)
1 Affinity (6)
1 Draw7.dec (6)
1 GRB Survival (6)
1 RGW Zoo (6)
1 Madness (6)
1 Full English Breakfast (7)
1 Goblin Sligh (7)
1 Sligh (8)
2 [Unknown] (5,8)
20 Control (8 IsoKeeper, 4 Hulk Smash, 4 Keeper, 2 IsoParfait, 1 UrPhid, 1 Oath)
14 Aggro (4 RG Beatz, 3 TnT, 1 Vengeur Masque, 1 Reanimator, 1 Affinity, 1 RGW Zoo, 1 RUG Madness, 1 Goblin Sligh, 1 Sligh)
12 Combo (4 Dragon, 2 TPS, 2 Gobvantage, 2 Charbelcher, 1 Rector Tendrils, 1 Draw7.dec)
9 Aggro-Control (4 Suicide Black, 2 UR Fish, 1 Nether Infestation, 1 GRB Survival, 1 FEB)
7 Prison (4 Stax, 3 MUD/wMUD)
Keeping in mind that there’s only 62 decks out of 64, here’s the color breakdown, remembering that Worldgorger Dragon doesn’t count as Red in the real world, even if for objectivity’s sake it does in this count:
62 Brown
44 Red (40 w/o Dragon)
38 Blue
35 Black
29 Green
19 White
I think this is much more indicative of what people see at the local level, even though nearly all the results are from Europe. There’s an almost palpable delay to the tech at these tournaments, which shows up in decks continuing to win after larger tournaments have utterly hated them out (e.g., Dragon), and in the absence of decks that have only recently hit the presses which aren’t widely popular yet (Landstill and Oshawa Stompy in particular). There’s also the obviously wider distribution of deck types to reflect the higher percent of a given tournament’s population making it into the top 8.
The color counts themselves are fairly close to what we expect from Type One, though this is slightly heavier on Black and lighter on Green than the larger tournaments of late. Most people are surprised by Red’s higher showing than Blue, but when you think about it, most blue decks also use red (Fish, Stax, Keeper, sometimes Hulk, technically Dragon, UrPhid, Madness, etc.), and there are mono-Red decks whereas there are no mono-Blue decks. Not to mention that Welder-Mud uses Red incidentally to its brownness, skipping the Blue.
Of great interest to me was the success of IsoKeeper relative to everything else. The general wisdom on The Mana Drain is that Isochron Scepters are too vulnerable to use in Powered metagames, which pack a lot of artifact removal and control (everything from Null Rod to Cunning Wish for Oxidize), thus preventing the Scepter player from using his stick more than once, if at all. This is tentatively supported by the Columbus tournament, which I know was allowing unlimited proxies, and therefore representing a highly competitive metagame, with no Scepters succeeding. In the other tournaments though, since not many locals have Power, there’s less hate for the Scepters and they have a much greater chance to achieve the insane advantage that they were initially hyped for.
Also noteworthy is that the most successful archetype was control. This conforms to some old assumptions about the format (i.e., that Vintage players won’t let go of their Mana Drains until Richard Garfield himself personally signs the ban order and extracts them from their cold, dead fingers), but also reveals that the control-hating decks (like Suicide) are kept well-checked by the creature decks. I’m sure this is aided by the power of Psychatog to turn Phyrexian Negator into a one-way Jokulhaups, but mostly, it’s a sign of burgeoning maturity in even the smaller metagames. Mono-colored decks and Keeper are now merely”possible” instead of”defining” matchups for a Type One deckbuilder.
(As an aside, you might notice the”Stax / Trinistax” listed up there. That same Columbus tournament with unlimited proxies was also Darksteel-legal. For more evidence that Steve Menendian is a dirty pinko commie, check out his articles, spreading tech to the proletariat month after month.)
What else does the randomness tell us? Look at the deck I had the hardest time classifying: Nether Infestation.
Nether Infestation or”Gul’s Roul’s” by Alejandro Escribano
Threats
3 Ashen Ghoul
3 Zombie Infestation
Draw/Search
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Entomb
2 Intuition
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
Control
3 Circular Logic
4 Force of Will
3 Duress
3 Nether Void
2 Stifle
3 Turbulent Dreams
Mana
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
2 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
3 Wasteland
Sideboard
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Coffin Purge
1 Duress
4 Energy Flux
2 Sickening Dreams
1 Stifle
1 Wonder
1 Zombie Infestation
Almost any observer will now be scratching their head, just like I was the first time I saw it. This is the kind of crazy metagame deck that can arise unpredictably in Type One, and it makes a great point about the diversity of the format: there are enough good cards to make as many mid- and lower-tier decks as there are players at most tournaments, and a person who makes the right metagame call can win with what would generally be considered a bad deck.
This deck uses the graveyard and discarding just like several other, more prominent decks, but in a way that only overlaps minimally with other strategies within the same mechanic. It also uses Nether Void, historically a distinct and very defined deck, with a whole different group of cards being abused under the Void. The unique uses of the mechanics enabled this deck to overcome even the fully-Powered Rector-playing opponent in the finals -that Top 8 was far from budgetized, but it was also showing key absences such as Workshop decks, which would’ve provided a new meaning to”enemies driven before you” for the winning deck.
This is one of the things that makes Vintage so attractive to me, and I’m sure numerous others. Whereas someone who goes to their FNM might face four Affinity decks in a row, or get lucky and fight a mix of the handful of major decks in the format, a Type One player rarely faces the same matchup all day long. On a given day, I would be well advised to design my deck to face every color but White, and to have:
(1) creature spot and/or mass removal
(2) spot and/or mass artifact removal
(3) graveyard removal
(4) some preemptive control measures like discard or counterspells
(5) a manabase preplanned to soak up Wastelands, Stifles, and Blood Moons
(6) a way to take advantage of opponents’ weaknesses in number five. Heck, I’m probably forgetting some.
And by the way, all of those should be playable in the first three turns at the latest. (Adds a little more thrill than”land, go”, doesn’t it?)
Lastly, one of the hallmarks of local tournaments is that they’re more budgetized than the bigger tournaments, but is that really a significantly true statement? This is why I totaled the”Power 19.” In sixty-one decklists (two unknowns, one withheld IsoKeeper), this is what I found:
42 Black Lotus
42 Mox Emerald
42 Mox Jet
40 Mox Pearl
43 Mox Ruby
41 Mox Sapphire
36 Ancestral Recall
29 Time Walk
11 Timetwister
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Berserk
32 Bazaar of Baghdad
11 Library of Alexandria
39 Mishra’s Workshop
5 Chains of Mephistopheles
6 Moat
2 Nether Void
2 The Abyss
56 Mana Drain
This is by no means a shabby collection of cards! There is the proviso that for most of the tournaments, I have no idea about the proxy policies. However, looking at the decklists, at least some of them were zero-proxy, Columbus was unlimited-proxy, and the Europeans are somewhat well known for running a higher proportion of sanctioned tournaments than the Americans. Certain indicators give away that an event didn’t allow proxies, like seeing a Mox Jet in a Goblin list where clearly a Ruby would be the better choice. Also, amongst thirty or more people, the Top 8 decklists probably have much, much more Power in them than the tournament as a whole. Nevertheless, the”mostly budget” axiom of smaller local tournaments is less true than we might have imagined.
Next time, we get the breakdown of the February data for the major tournaments. For all you B&R policy wonks out there who’ve noticed that the February summary would undoubtedly appear too late for the March DCI announcement, I don’t see anything dangerous moving up on us, so no worries.
Philip Stanton
a.k.a.”Dr. Sylvan”
prstanto at uiuc.edu