If you’re anything like me, you still haven’t chosen a deck to play for Regionals. Running after two small kids, holding down a full-time job and two writing gigs, and you’ve got a recipe for Not Much Magic Time. It’s a shame, too, since Regionals is one of my two favorite tournaments of the year (the other being States). I’ve done fairly well the past couple of years, so if at all possible I’d like this year to be the same if not better (as in, actually qualify for Nationals). That means choosing a good deck that I’m comfortable with….
And therein lies the problem. I’m not comfortable running any of them. They all seem to have flaws that I try to avoid when I’m choosing a deck to slog through ten rounds of Swiss. R/G beats can’t handle random enchantments or artifacts, except out of the board. U/G Madness’s mana base gets you into trouble sometimes. Tog requires careful, studied play for ten rounds with very little room for error. AstroGlide is a control deck with no counterspells. MBC faces hordes of maindeck Phantom Centaurs and sideboard Composts. G/W can’t handle problematic men that hit the board.
Last year, I was very comfortable running a deck around Pernicious Deed and Spiritmonger. The manabase was rock-solid based on swamps, Llanowar Wastes, and Tainted Wood. There was plenty of removal and disruption. ‘Monger was a huge cheap monster that was hard to deal with, and Deed handled just about any random problem that cropped up. It felt like a perfect choice for me – and if one game had gone the other way, I may have qualified for Nationals with it.
A few weeks back we held a tournament at our local shop, and thirteen people came out to play. I decided to give Monoblack Control a try, since I had not played it in over a year – but I remember it was powerful and fun to play. It has also seemed to have dropped off the radar, so I thought maybe – just maybe – people would trim back their Composts and Centaurs a wee bit. I also wanted to try out a few cards in the build, notably Phyrexian Colossus in the maindeck and Headhunter in the sideboard. I went 3-1 in the Swiss, losing to a G/W/r Beast deck that maindecked Phantom Centaurs and Elephant Guides. Jeez, what a nightmare!
Still, I did win against monowhite weenie/clerics, U/G madness, and neo-Pirates (Braids). Then I won a hard-fought battle against ‘Tog in the semis; one game win was pure luck, where my opponent didn’t realize he was low enough in life to die to my pumped Nantuko Shade when he chose not to block with his Psychatog. Of course, I deserved a little luck, since up until that point I’d gotten severely mana screwed in a mono-colored deck running twenty-six lands. I split the prize in the finals with the same Beast deck guy I lost to because we were tired and ready to go home.
Elated from victory running a deck I was quite rusty with, I posted the list to the Star City list and wondered if I should maybe tune up MBC for Regionals. Ted Knutson smashed my hopes and dreams by reminding me that I’d have to slog through Composts and/or Phantom Centaurs in probably every other matchup.
Wow, that did sound hopeless. Hmm.
So what to play? What deck is going to perform well in the Regionals metagame?
Life has prevented me from fully dedicating time to one of Magic’s greatest pleasures: Deckbuilding. I love building decks of my own design, and if they’re good enough I’ll run them simply because I love the rogue factor of my opponent not knowing what to expect. Unfortunately, I’ve basically been relegated to netdecking like everyone else, allowing myself the pleasure of tweaking the decks to give it a slight rogue flavor – and hopefully not ruining the gumbo in the process.
My full-time job is a Quality Analyst, so one thing I do”for fun” is to take the lists of Regionals decks from around the world, found on Star City’s deck database, and… Well, analyze them. Sure enough, the big three qualifying decks are R/G beatdown, U/G Madness, and Tog. Aggro, Aggro Control, and Control.
If I had to play one of these decks, it would be U/G Madness. I don’t like single-minded aggressive strategies that can get shut down completely by a random Worship in game 1 like R/G, and I don’t have the patience or arrogance to properly play Tog. But the standard U/G Madness build is so… Dull. The best thing about U/G Madness is that it’s very good at consistently doing the same thing: Play a madness enabler, cast undercosted madness spells, pitch a Wonder and fly over with fast evasive beats while countering your early attempt at saving yourself.
Anyway, while browsing through recent qualifying decklists from around the world I came across two interesting versions of U/G Madness. This first was Sandra Filipovic’s second-place Nationals Qualifier deck from Beograd, Yugoslavia.
The first thing I liked about this build was adding back Merfolk Looters to the mix. While I agree with the conventional wisdom that Aquamoebas are better in the current metagame, being a more sturdy and reliable madness enabler, the Looter really gives you tons of gas for the mid- and late-game. I also like the additional two Counterspells, giving you six ways to say”no.” Lastly, the two Living Wishes give the deck some nice flexibility to access the sideboard – especially Callous Oppressor, which is so good in certain matchups, and especially the mirror. I would have found room for either a Nantuko Vigilante or Nullmage Advocate for enchantment and artifact control, especially for games 2 and 3 when you can expect R/G to bring Ensnaring Bridge to be brought in against you. Tighten the board to take better advantage of Living Wish, and I’d be very comfortable running this at Regionals.
U/G/b Quiet Roar Tog by Martin Brown-Santirso
Regionals Buenos Aires, Argentina – 5th – 8th Place
3 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Merfolk Looter
3 Psychatog
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Wonder
4 Aether Burst
3 Careful Study
3 Circular Logic
2 Deep Analysis
2 Quiet Speculation
3 Roar of the Wurm
2 Smother
4 City of Brass
6 Forest
7 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
Sideboard:
1 Circular Logic
3 Compost
2 Equilibrium
2 Krosan Reclamation
3 Ray of Revelation
2 Smother
2 Upheaval
This evolutionary step seems so obvious I have to wonder why I haven’t seen it before: Franck Canu made waves splashing black into U/G Opposition at the Masters to fight Tog. Splashing black for Tog and Smother to help fight R/G is a great idea. And speaking of durable madness enablers, Tog is certainly one of the best! Aether Bursts and Smothers certainly give the deck solid creature control options while you beat down with your traditional U/G Madness aggression. After sideboarding you can even pull off the Upheaval/Tog trick yourself! A nice hybrid deck that’s certainly worth thinking about.
These neat spins on such a boring and static archetype gave me hope to look at R/G decks, and there are certainly some interesting tidbits to be found in recent results too.
Burning Beats by Ben Chio
Regionals Sabah, Malaysia – 2nd Place
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Burning Wish
4 Call of the Herd
4 Elephant Guide
4 Firebolt
4 Flame Burst
3 Violent Eruption
2 Barbarian Ring
6 Forest
4 Karplusan Forest
2 Mossfire Valley
4 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard:
1 Acorn Harvest
3 Compost
1 Creeping Mold
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Epicenter
1 Hurricane
1 Pillage
3 Spellbane Centaur
1 Threaten
1 Wildfire
While it certainly retains much of the early game oomph of traditional Buddesque R/G builds, the addition of Burning Wish gives me the mid-game warm fuzzies that I have to have in a deck, opening up the sideboard toolbox for all kinds of utility. My only complaint is that Tranquility seems like a must-play for those insane people locked into playing Astral Slide at Regionals. I also don’t know about running Flame Bursts over Volcanic Hammer – with Burning Wish, you can remove a Hammer from your graveyard with Lavamancer and Wish for additional damage.
R/G Beats by Marko Tominac
Regionals Baranja, Croatia – 3rd – 4th Place
Spells:
2 Shock
1 Firebolt
2 Browbeat
2 Elephant Guide
3 Fiery Temper
3 Violent Eruption
1 Burning Wish
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Werebear
2 Krosan Tusker
1 Gigapede
2 Anger
1 Centaur Chieftain
1 Fledgling Dragon
3 Phantom Centaur
2 Nullmage Advocate
Lands:
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Tranquil Thicket
2 Mossfire Valley
1 Forgotten Cave
6 Mountain
9 Forest
2 Barbarian Ring
1 Karplusan Forest
Sideboard:
1 Epicenter
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Gigapede
1 Goblin Goon
1 Seton’s Scout
2 Silklash Spider
1 Pyroclasm
2 Earthquake
1 Blaze
1 Compost
2 Naturalize
1 Tranquility
Marko’s deck cracks me up, reminding me of some of the submissions I get for Scrye Deck Aid with lots of single and double copies. What I do like about this build is that it seems to be embracing an evolutionary step in R/G that I’ve been thinking about, too – a”bigger” R/G that’s not as fast as the traditional build (and thus not as good against Tog), but that is probably much better in the mirror and able to brawl with U/G and Beasts better. If we chop out the maindeck randomness and add in Centaurs and Baloths, I think you may have something.
Speaking of Beasts, despite what Zvi may think, it seems to me that the deck is performing fairly well lately and seems to have decent matchups against all three Tier 1 decks. There are some interesting builds to be found in recent results, too:
Beasts by Hrvoje Kalic
Regionals Baranja, Croatia – 2nd Place
Spells:
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Llanowar Elf
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Ravenous Baloth
4 Phantom Centaur
3 Exalted Angel
4 Call of the Herd
3 Living Wish
3 Elephant Guide
Lands:
3 Plains
2 Mountain
7 Forest
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
4 Brushland
2 Contested Cliffs
Sideboard:
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Anger
1 Silklash Spider
1 Genesis
1 Glory
1 Intrepid Hero
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Nullmage Advocate
2 Naturalize
2 Ray of Revelation
3 Compost
Elephant Guide can be so devastating both as a tempo device and protection from global sweepers, it seems like a great idea to run it in the main. Slap it on a Beast and your Contested Cliffs can pretty much kill anything you possibly want to – or slap it on an Angel to rapidly end the game.
The sideboard seems pretty stock, though I also can’t help but wonder if Beast decks should drop the Naturalizes altogether and go up to four Rays of Revelation to give you great gas versus Astral Slide. Eight instant ways to destroy enchantments in only four slots sounds great, and add to that the Nullmage you can Wish for. (Mirari and Ensnaring Bridge still hurt, and they’re in decks that have the best chances of killing your Nullmage before he goes live – putting all of your artifact eggs in one 2/3 basket does not seem wise – The Ferrett)
WG Beasts by Nicolás Aguirre
Regionals Buenos Aires, Argentina – 5th – 8th Place
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Exalted Angel
1 Genesis
2 Glory
3 Hystrodon
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Mystic Enforcer
3 Phantom Centaur
3 Ravenous Baloth
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Call of the Herd
3 Living Wish
2 Wrath of God
4 Brushland
7 Forest
2 Nantuko Monastery
5 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
Sideboard:
2 Centaur Glade
3 Compost
1 Genesis
1 Glory
1 Nantuko Vigilante
2 Ray of Revelation
3 Reprisal
1 Silklash Spider
1 Worship
A maindecked Wrath of God, huh? Well, why not? The other day I was talking with a friend and mentioning specifically that one weakness I felt in the Beasts deck was if it got a slow start, it could get overwhelmed by faster decks. Look no further than God for the solution – and with Genesis, you can certainly recover from it. Nantuko Monastery and the Glades in the board also have such obvious synergy that I’d almost want to have two more Wraths in the board! I also noticed he ran both Angels and Hystrodons so your face-down creature could surprise your opponent!
Looking for inspiration in these last few weeks before Regionals? Bowling through the deck database can certainly provide some yummy food for thought.