Examining Team Constructed

In the aftermath of Hawaii, and the supposed establishment of something of a clear metagame, the Team Constructed season looms with all of its challenges. This article now represents over three months of work—especially grueling work in the last two weeks to synthesize the data we had with the new format created by the Pro Tour. With that in mind, I’ve divided the larger, “deck list” section into Aggro, Control, and Combo lists, and I’ve listed both the decks from my initial metagame prediction (marked with an [I]) and the decks from the Pro Tour. While the first sort of deck might seem less useful, they are still good starting points, representing the larger metagame before the influx of Pro decks. The lists also provide relevant data about what exactly I was testing with and against before arriving at the latest lists.

Getting Started with Team Constructed

Grand Prix: Madison is this weekend, and the Team Constructed format is still far less explored than I expected. I don’t know if all of the technology is being hoarded and locked away somewhere in little boxes, or if other people just don’t build decks from spoilers (hence, they haven’t had enough time to test), or what. No matter the reason, I want to add to the discussion.

Flores chimed in after the announcement of the format with a couple of articles about the Grudge Match and how those Unified Constructed decks were built. While it certainly seems true that you would want to play with the best cards in the format spread across your three decks, I am less than convinced that that is the only way to build for the tournament.

With that in mind, I am going to try and provide a gross number of decklists that should, at least in part, represent the sum of the metagame. This list is actually dominated by a pre-Tour metagame assortment, most of which has been re-evaluated, but shows some signs of age since I started writing this article on February 1st.

Keep in mind, if you assemble your three decks from the following lists, you may have to tune some of them so that they fit together, but for the most part I’ve done the work for you in making the lists as unified as possible. For each deck, I’ve listed its strengths and weaknesses, along with notes on other decks it seems to fit best with.

AGGRO:

The best teams seem to be split either 66% aggro or 66% control (or even 66% combo with Izzet and Heartbeat – though you might run into some problems there). There is little reason to try and run Aggro, Control, and Combo, since you are not likely to find pairings that would match-up neatly with your strategy. Assuming an aggro metagame (the opposite of Pro Tour Hawaii, which will likely be the metagame at the Grand Prix) then you would be best to play strong creature control. Of course, you will want at least one aggro deck, and these lists are a place to start.

Strengths: The deck finds great use for the Ghost Council, hiding him from Wrath of God and possibly netting extra damage with Blind Hunter (sac the Hunter to hide the Council, haunt something, Wrath away). I’m not entirely sold on Bob in a deck with such a high average mana cost, but he can always hit the graveyard in a number of ways. This deck reminds me of Blow from a few years back. It abuses Wrath of God in a creature-based deck in a very effective way.

Weaknesses: You take a lot of damage from your lands and your Bob, and only rarely does the bleeding effect get it all back. The deck seems to be far better suited for Block, but I can’t argue that it doesn’t take anything away from your other decks.

Team Decks: This can form your aggro-control base. I like combining it with the “Critical Mass” list here, and something like the random Burn decks in the form of Guildmage Burn or Mono-Red Fire. You can go for broke and use Eminent Domain as the third deck, adding in a fourth Kokusho to team up with the extra Meloku and Keiga you have hanging around. You’ll have to tinker with the mana base of either Eminent Domain or Critical Mass, either in the form of more bouncelands (not always a bad thing) or more basic lands (in this format, that might be better) This forms a strong control based team, with the option of Critical Mass and the Bob deck going for the beatdown.

Strengths: Like the Miseville Bob deck above, Ruel’s deck exploits the power of the strongest black and white cards in the format. This deck is clearly more aggressive than our deck, with a completely different set of card advantage tools.

Weaknesses: After testing the post-Tour format, this deck suffers because it is strictly worse as an aggro deck than the Zoo and Gruul decks in the Top 8. Neither does it gain any particular advantage in terms of gaining a control role in aggro mirrors.

Team Decks: You are looking to pair this with a Blue control deck, like Owling Mine or Izzetron, and then probably a mono-Red or Red/Green deck. The best team that this deck seems to fit in is with Owling Mine and Heezy Street.

Strengths: I like this version because it has four Skarrg, which has proven to be the best land in Standard, at least so far. This is a pretty fast build, but it has long game reach with the Guildmage and, to an extent, Rumbling Slum. The best opening of Elf, Shaman, Slum is nigh unbeatable, as even a turn 4 Wrath of God is only going to happen after they’ve taken three on turn 3, and nine on turn 4 if you are playing first.

Weaknesses: This build is Forest-lite, but still has a 75% chance of snagging one in the first two turns, and with careful mulliganing, your Ape should always be a 2/3. Even so, you are playing with the most anticipated deck in the metagame, which means you need to expect decks to have specific main and sideboard strategies against you.

Team Decks: This is the Jitte deck, if you include it, and should probably be paired with a deck with Ghost Council in it, although I actually like Eminent Domain and Guildmage Burn with my Gruul. Such a pairing gives you Kokusho and Keiga, and even possibly Meloku, as well as the random combo wins from the Izzet deck.

Strengths: It’s a Pro Tour winning decklist, which makes it at least some good. The deck is typical Gruul, with the strange inclusion of Giant Solifuge, which I don’t understand but will bow my head to. You have all the tools to break an aggro mirror, and can survive getting Wrathed and still recover. The burn complement is innovative, and the use of just the Cloak is equally strong.

Weaknesses: I just have a hard time not seeing Rumbling Slum. I don’t know if the game has changed even more than I thought, but you have to admit, given the history of 5/5s for four with drawbacks, it is odd that a 5/5 for four and no drawback is riding the pine somewhere.

Team Decks: Since this is strictly Red/Green, it fits in just about any combination of decks, especially the one I will recommend at the end of this article. You can even run this along with other green-intensive decks, or incorporate it into a team with decks with Green splashes. Either way, its versatility and power (as well as its pedigree) all but guarantee that this will be one of the most popular decks at the Grand Prix this weekend, and during the Pro Tour Qualifying season.

Strengths: There’s the obvious Leyline into a turn 2 7/7 trampler, which is probably the best turn 2 play possible right now. This deck adds multiple control elements and a solid mana base (the Orchard might look odd, but between Night of Souls Betrayal and the Leyline, you should be fine).

Weaknesses: This is probably the most frequently discussed deck to emerge entirely from Guildpact, which puts you at the disadvantage because Boomerang and enchantment removal can really wreck your day. Fortunately, since I actually finished this deck long before Forsythe “spoiled” it on MagictheGathering.com, you have a number of weapons against bounce in the form of Hinder, Remand, and Mana Leak. Of course, you probably have to give them a one-turn window in order to remain aggressive.

Team Decks: This is a hard one to pair up with, because it steals Blue control elements and Blue lands while remaining essentially weak. It isn’t Tier 1, and therefore you might be better off playing with a Blue deck that is known to be solid, and doesn’t have the consistency issues of this deck. If you do choose this, pair it with Black/White and Green/Red for an ultra aggressive set of decks, two of which can play control.

Strengths: I really like Ghost Council in this format, and I might go as far to say that it is the best card available (despite its seemingly restrictive mana cost). This deck, technically, isn’t mono-Green, but that was the name I initially found it under, so I’ve kept it. The Chord of Calling into Angel of Despair at instant speed is quite fun, even though ten mana is a bit hard to muster up. This deck can play like a Ghazi-Glare deck, and has further versatility against Wildfire with the reusable Cloak.

Weaknesses: While I haven’t had any problems with the mana so far, the manabase seems pretty weak. Night of Souls’ Betrayal and Pyroclasm hit this deck hard, and while I don’t expect to see those cards main, sideboarded games might be difficult. The convoke engine seems almost pointless, since all of your little creatures produce mana anyway, but I don’t want to ignore this kind of deck because the Ghost Council is just so amazing.

Team Decks: This deck doesn’t pair well with anything, which is definitely a strike against it. You are using all of the good Green duals, and all of the mana accelerating creatures (save for St. Tribe Elder, which might merit inclusion, anyway), which means that your best bet is a pairing with two Blue decks. I like Guildmage Burn and Flores Blue for this purpose, but either Eminent Domain or Critical Mass might serve in place of one of those decks.

Strengths: This deck uses the Leyline and Wildfire to add reach to a deck that is otherwise potentially limited. The Signets and the Stones give you access to Naturalize, etc, for pesky Worships and Ivory Masks, and Blood Moon hamstrings at least 75% of the decks in the format. With the Leyline active, you can do 117 damage if you were to draw out your entire deck. That’s a lot of reach, especially in the late game where Signets and Stones can be dead draws. Keep in mind too, that the deck with the Leyline is far more capable of dealing with creatures, as Shock becomes essentially a two-for-one, as does Volcanic Hammer and Char. While this deck might make you laugh, it actually performs decently in practice. This isn’t going to set the world on fire by any means, but the combination of Blood Moon and Wildfire is guaranteed to hamstring your opponents’ early to mid game plans.

Weaknesses: It’s a burn deck that loses to a resolved Ivory Mask or Worship plus pro-Red creatures. Green enchantment destruction out of the board is definitely needed, but there is probably a good chance that neither Ivory Mask nor Worship will see play in the main (there shouldn’t be a Boros deck, and Good Form will probably not see a lot of action). I’m not sold on this deck, but it does deal very effectively with decks designed to cast big creatures, and it can sweep the board with Wildfire.

Team Decks: You can pair this with anything (save for Eminent Domain), so you can feel free to tinker around with various configurations. This might be a good deck if you are looking to get a new player into the game (once you teach him or her about when to use pinpoint direct damage on creatures and when to save it for your opponents).

Strengths: This is basically the same thing as Craig Jones deck, but we missed the Bathe in Light tech. If you want to use his deck, just change the few cards necessary and you should still benefit from similar playtest results.

Weaknesses: There aren’t many for this deck. This version has less reach (no Shock) and no real protection for its creatures, but it makes up for it by having more creatures to draw. And, if nothing else, you can just top-deck Lightning Helix for the win.

Team Decks: You aren’t going to be pairing this with B/G/W or Gruul. The best team decks seem to be De Rosa’s For Whom the Knell Tolls, and Owling Mine (or Izzetron). That leans you towards a control team, but you could play Orzhov Aggro or Ghost Dad, and shift back towards aggro.

CONTROL:

In a Team Format, control should reign supreme. It makes sense, since control decks usually have no “bad” match-ups (everything is usually 50% at the worst), and you only have to win two out of three matches. The problem is that Hawaii was so utterly dominated by control (despite the aggro win) that the metagame should likely shift towards more aggressive decks. But, to throw a third factor into the equation, the presence of Owling Mine means that players who expect a shift towards aggro won’t play Mine, but might play control to beat the aggro, while in turn falling victim to those players who foresee the shift from aggro back to control and decide to play Owl. Does that all make sense? Needless to say the Grand Prix metagame has been extremely hard to pin down – especially with the Pro Tour involved.

What that means is that choosing your control decks right is important. Not all of the lists here are going to be optimal this weekend, but most of them could be. Choose a deck based on your strengths as a player, especially given the complexity of most of these decks. If you haven’t been practicing, I recommend one of the Pro Tour decks, simply because those are the most heavily tuned builds, and you can follow the coverage to pick up on how to play.

Strengths: This deck makes a lot of mana, and abuses its ability to do so. A lot of the Guildpact additions have merely strengthened the mana base, and added a bit of utility to the main, so what you have is still a very strong deck with a lot of previous success.

Weaknesses: My own opinion of this deck is not very high, but I do like the addition of Mimeofacture and Invoke the Firemind. The problem is that this deck has had a lot of exposure recently, and I think that the overall strategy doesn’t really fit anywhere. Sucking up Keiga and Meloku in a deck like this just hasn’t done it for me, but other teams may have more success.

Team Decks: URzatron has worked well with aggressive minded partners, taking the role of the control/Sensei’s Divining Top deck in the triumvirate. The best results came with Orzhov Aggro and Fast R/G, as there is no overlap between any of the decks, and you get to play with Wrath of God, Bob, Top, and Jitte, which are among the strongest cards available.

Note: It is probably best to use Osyp’s deck. I’m mostly including the first list to give you an idea of how accurate my metagame picture was a month and a half ago, so that you can get a sense of why this article is still valuable.

Strengths: It’s a Flores deck, although not really in its current configuration. I expect to see some new incarnation of this within the next few weeks, but this build has proven itself to be solid and devastating. It doesn’t really use Guildpact save for the Dryad Sophisticates, which are just amazing with a Jitte strapped on. This deck sucks up a lot of spells you might rather split up, but its power is undeniable, and may make up for the Jittes, Melokus, and Keigas it hordes.

Weaknesses: It is a well-publicized deck, with no real apparent weaknesses, but plenty of exposure that insures someone has found enough holes to punch through. Again, it sucks up Jitte, Meloku, and Keiga, as well as a number of Duals and Tendos, which limits your options for partner decks.

Team Decks: You have to be careful what you pair with this, but for the most part, B/W decks have little overlap, and you can build Burn or Good Form around Critical Mass, pairing aggressive decks with an aggro-control deck seems to be the strategy if you want all three decks to have an aggressive bent.

Strengths: It’s an Adrian Sullivan deck, and I’ve always been partial to technology from his team (going back to the earliest Cabal Rogue creations). As you should expect, it’s a mana control deck that gives you enough tools to accelerate to a big guy and a Wildfire, while controlling the board with Dream Leash and Icy Manipulator. It is extremely frustrating for most people to play against this deck, and that is one check mark in its favor. The mana is actually surprisingly consistent, and seemingly versatile if you need to adjust the mana base to include other decks in your team build.

Weaknesses: This version eschews countermagic, in order to play alongside a dedicated Blue deck, and might suffer occasionally for it. There isn’t a lot of room for tinkering, and this is probably as far as I would go in terms of adapting it for Team Constructed. This version doesn’t have Pyroclasm for the reason that it just simply does not hose anything any more. The R/G decks have an average of three toughness. Electrolyze, which is what is currently in that slot, gives you the same chance of card advantage, while not being totally useless if you run against decks with bigger creatures (and it can still kill dragons and the like in combination with Wildfire).

Team Decks: I really like Eminent Domain and it fits with any sort of aggressive strategy as the control element. It does not steal too many cards, and if you do not pair it with Blue, you can add countermagic to further the control elements inherent in the deck’s strategies.

Strengths: This is a recent version of a deck that has seen a number of build changes; it attempts to capitalize on the power of both Jitte and Ghost Council but with a distinctly different frame than the Ghazi-Glare based build. A resolved Debtor’s Knell in the midgame almost always results in a win, especially in combination with Wrath of God, Putrefy, and Mortify. This deck also gets the turn 2 Hypnotic more often than it should, and that is a play that demands respect.

Weaknesses: Pyroclasm and Night of Souls Betrayal hurt, but if there is a Night of Souls’ Betrayal in play you can resolve the Dominator for the win, which lessens the blow. I’m a big fan of this deck, so I am probably a little blind to other defects, but repeated testing has demonstrated that this deck has considerable power against both control and aggro. The glaring weakness is probably against Heartbeat combo, which I don’t foresee a lot of anyway.

Team Decks: Like the other Ghost Council deck, this deck can’t be paired with any other Green, White, or Black deck, since it steals so many spells. It works really well paired with decks like Guildmage Burn and The Hunted, because it is almost always one win for your team, and the Hunted and Guildmage Burn steal more victories than they should.

Strengths: This is a team version of the deck that Flores wrote about on MagictheGathering.com recently. Our version predates his, and so I have more results about ours. The lists are nearly identical, so either way you should be fine. The deck is extremely complex, but likewise powerful. Your starting hands look uglier than that girl who kept trying to date you in high school, but far more rewarding (pretend she came back a few years and a few pounds later). As a sidenote to this deck and a lead-in to “Weaknesses,” I am convinced that the “karoos” are far too dangerous in this format to warrant consideration in anything other than a two-color deck. I’ve never won a game where a Rot Farm or Basilica was bounced or stolen on turn 2 or 3. The fact that they come into play tapped, moreover, only slows your deck down. Lest I betray some sort of ignorance, keep in mind that the lands are apparently a source of card advantage, and they do insure your next land drop. If you play against enough Magnivore, Eminent Domain, and Owling Mine decks, however, you will not feel the same way. I’ve even seen Zoo and Gruul decks online run Stone Rain, just because the control match-ups can swing so far in their favor if they get a turn 2 Rain against a bounceland.

Weaknesses: Owling Mine can still be a big hole, even though our version of this deck has been running fine against it. The problem is that you need to go faster than the deck really allows. There is some consideration to be made for squeezing some Sakura-Tribe Elders in here, but that would require a greater commitment to Green.

Team Decks: Like “The Haunting,” this deck sucks up way too many duals. However, a very strong team (and the one I will recommend at the end of this article) can be formed using this, Izzetron, and Gruul. The decks all play very nicely together, and the team is incredibly solid against the field. Once you try to branch off of that core, though, it becomes very hard to fit anything in. You can’t play Zoo without Temple Gardens, nor can you run Hand in Hand together with this.

Strengths: This doesn’t look too different from the earliest builds, mostly because I couldn’t find anything that satisfactorily integrated Guildpact, and because I don’t like messing around too much with dedicated permission decks. The card advantage engine is solid, and the counterspell suite is equally valuable. Threads of Disloyalty is a lot better now than it was at Worlds, and is definitely a reason to consider playing a deck like this. At this point, I might suggest changing the splash to either Red or mono-chromatic Blue, since I’m not sure Cranial Extraction and the Black cards are valuable enough in the new metagame to warrant giving your manabase to Blood Moon and the like. But I am not a dedicated control player, and for that reason, I’ll keep my comments to a minimum.

Weaknesses: Like every Flores deck, this suffers from overexposure and a lot of hype. I don’t see a whole lot of cards to integrate with this from Guildpact, and I think that is a mistake. I want to hold off judging this deck too harshly or too favorably until I see a professionally updated build. I do feel quite strongly that this can’t beat 36 guy, 4 Leyline Green or Green/Red, but I don’t know how much of a presence that will have.

Team Decks: If your team wants to play control, this can form the Blue component of the triangle. Or it can be the control rock that you rest the other decks on. With a solid pilot behind it, Flores Blue is always a great contender.

Strengths: The ubiquitous Japanese all-star, this post-Tour update is very solid against aggro and decks like Owling Mine. The deck is a little slow, but more than makes up for that with its power. Frequently, you will be on the back-foot against aggro, but then cast an end of turn Congregation at Dawn with Elves and tons of land leading to the win (either through successive Hierarchs or the hard lock with Gleancrawler and Yosei).

Weaknesses: Everyone knows about the deck, and everyone has something in mind to beat it. A plethora of main-deck enchantment removal neutralizes the Glares and the Greater Goods, but of course, there isn’t much any one can do about a Congregation into triple Hierarch…

Team Decks: Pair this with Blue and something else (I like Burn… but that’s because I’m weird… or something), and you’ll have the basis for a strong team, but you are slightly limited in your options because of the mana elves, Hierarchs, and Jittes that this deck demands. Experimentation with this one seems to be the most rewarding option.

Strengths: I wasn’t initially going to include this, but it doesn’t appear as though the team is going to run this, so I am less worried about it. This deck is a lot stronger against aggro, and has been winning me a fair share of online eight-man queues. The tech is obviously Spiraling Embers, which has been maligned since I revealed it on MTGO, but which still continues to surprise Zoo players who burn themselves to fourteen and sit on an empty hand, believing themselves to be safe. This deck still wins outright against any sort of control, while shoring up a few weak points.

Weaknesses: Despite the technology, this deck still has a giant bulls-eye pointed on it with aggro’s name all over it. I’m leery of recommending this, simply because in the hands of an inexperienced player, it is almost an autoloss against aggressive Red/Green and Zoo.

Team Decks: Pair it with an aggro deck and another control deck, and hope for the best. If you play against B/G/W all day long, you’ll have a sterling record. Otherwise, it might look ugly, but you should still be able to get the job done, as long as your teammates are playing solid and winning matches.

COMBO:

Strengths: See my last article for a discussion of this deck, but its largest strength resides in the power of combo if it only has to win one out of every three rounds to contribute to a successful team. With solid decks built around this one, you get an incredibly powerful engine that will occasionally overwhelm your opponents. This is the latest version of a deck I truly hope to see somewhere other than the JSS tournaments it has been winning all over the place.

Weaknesses: It is still essentially a three-card combo deck, which is never very consistent, and uses small creatures to power the deck through. This version lacks the burn that earlier versions had to force a win through a Cranial Extraction or the like. Still, you will find that the Remands and Muddles should provide you a decent cushion, and with Kira you can now safely lead out Guildmages against B/G/W decks with no fear of Mortify or Putrefy – which is a huge difference.

Team Decks: If you find yourself leaning towards R/G and B/W, you might find a space for this as well, since it doesn’t overlap. That will give you three aggressive decks, plus two with control elements, which seems to be a nice blend in these early stages of the Team Unified format.

Strengths: There’s something about this deck, right? I’m not actually sure how effective Turbo-Ideal is, but if you can pull it off (and don’t lead out with a Form – which, surprisingly, quite a number of pilots try to do) it seems strong. I don’t have enough of an opinion to really weigh in here, but the Ideal decks from Block and earlier Standard seasons always seemed like a one-hit wonder to me.

Weaknesses: Cards like Absolver Thrull and Mortify are going to see play, and once you resolve Ideal, you dangerously limit your options with this build. I don’t really see how you beat Red/Green post-board, and that can’t be good for the Grand Prix… Moreover, you have better options, such as All-American Dreams.

Team Decks: Using Steam Vents and Sacred Foundry isn’t really a problem, and you can pair this with a Blue deck and a Ghost Council deck pretty easily. I just am unconvinced that you would want this deck anyway, since there are so many other options.

Strengths: It’s a great deck, and it is Frank Karsten’s gift to Standard, and it is amazing when it gets going. I am extremely hesitant to recommend this for the Grand Prix, simply because my experience has been that this is even harder to play than Block Gifts. Most people just don’t seem to realize how difficult this deck can really be. I see people playing it all the time on Magic Online and Magic Workstation, and just can’t explain their strange plays and frequently erroneous sideboarding. That aside, my god, is this power to the extreme.

Weaknesses: Having said that, I’ve never seen this deck win against a resolved Black Leyline. Mortify works one time, and then you have no options. Yosei? Kokusho? I don’t know… Of course, you probably noticed that none of the decks in this list run Leyline of the Void, so you might dodge it completely. With enough practice, this might be the deck to turn to.

Team Decks: Man, is this hard to pair up. You steal multiple copies of every dual land, and Wrath of God. So far, I’d recommend Electric Fish and a mono-blue Flores Blue deck as far as teammates. You could try R/G in the place of the U/R combo, if you aren’t entirely sold on the idea of a solid Izzet deck.

Strengths: I was extremely surprised to see this Top 8, even if Bracht’s version is slightly different than ours. It simply can’t beat the Izzet combo deck, and doesn’t have better match-ups against the field – so why would it be there? It doesn’t really gain anything from Guildpact, so all I can do is wish you the best of luck.

Weaknesses: It seems so hard to beat countermagic with this deck. I don’t really know if it’s a lack of understanding on my part, but it seems to be a similar problem from people that I’ve asked. There is also the minor dilemma of Conjurer’s Ban, which could come out on successive turns from 3 to 5. You never know though, and I highly doubt that this deck will disappear (I kept this line from the first version of this article, written a month and a half ago, just to reinforce that I do know, somewhat, what I’m talking about).

Team Decks: Feel free to pair this with anything that doesn’t include Sakura-Tribe Elder, since you play only basic lands, and no spells that cross over (obviously, you can’t play this and Gifts, but if you are leaning towards this, you probably aren’t going that route anyway). If there is another combo strong enough to compete with this and the Izzet deck, I’d love to see three combo decks in one team.

Wrap-Up

Whew. Those of you who feel slighted by my exclusion of your deck, I am sorry. I’ve only included decks that I’ve personally tested in some way, so that I have at least a little experience to offer for my conclusions. The other decks that I should at least make you aware of would be the milling Dimir deck, the Boros deck, and the Dredge deck. Oh yeah, and Fungus Fires. And the Homebrew. And most importantly, Battle of Wits. Is Battle really good? Yup. Do you have a chance in hell of having it survive a turn in this metagame? No way.

Likewise, Fork Glimpse uses really good lands, and probably a number of counterspells, and still falls short too often. The Boros Deck Wins is really just Gruul without any good cards. Bennie Smith Dredge deck is very interesting, but, much like Gifts, cannot win against a resolved Black Leyline. Fungus Fires? Internet leagues aside, I can’t get behind this deck. I still, several months later, have no idea what it does besides suck. I’ve met very competent FF players, and their results just don’t seem repeatable by most of us, since the deck is just so inherently weak. David Williams’ MLH is intriguing, but is probably the one deck in Standard I have the least experience with.

As for sideboarding, this can be the trickiest part of building for Team Constructed, as a number of realistic sideboard options are artifacts or single colored utility cards. Luckily, there are usually a number of options. Generally, one deck should get a number of Pithing Needles, and the other two decks should split artifact/enchantment destruction spells. Almost every deck can play Naturalize, which is something I would suggest. I have no idea why Wizards didn’t print Hull Breach, but you can still do something like this: four Shattering Spree in Guildmage Burn, four Pithing Needle in The Hunted, and four Naturalize in The Haunting. That would cover your Jitte-destruction needs, and you would diversify from there.

Testing for the Grand Prix: A Triumvirate of Terror

So, I’ve listed almost twenty decks, and to be quite honest, they all have the possibility of being viable with tuning. What does that mean exactly? You have a lot of options. What I recommend bringing to Madison would be a team of Izzetron, Beach House, and Gruul. Using the decklists above, here are some sideboards and general strategies.

Izzetron:

4 Giant Solifuge
4 Annex
2 Smash
2 Pyroclasm
2 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Repeal

Against Owl:
-2 Pyroclasm, -4 Electrolyze, +4 Giant Solifuge, +2 Smash.

Against Aggro:
-4 Compulsive Research, -1 Confiscate, +2 Pyroclasm, +2 Ryusei, +1 Repeal.

Against Blue-Based Control:
-2 Pyroclasm, -4 Electrolyze, -2 Confiscate, +4 Annex, +4 Giant Solifuge

Against Control:
-2 Pyroclasm, -4 Electrolyze, +2 Smash, +4 Annex

Both this sideboard and the plans have come up in testing, and I’m not sure exactly how Flores and Osyp used the original sideboard, or what their plans were. These are general guidelines. Note: I also recommend running Miren, the Moaning Well, in the main, if you can find any room for it (we have been cutting a Confiscate).

Miseville Beach House

2 Putrefy
2 Descendent of Kiyomaro
1 Seize the Soul
1 Eradicate
2 Naturalize
2 Scour
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Presence of the Wise

Or

4 Dark Confidant
3 Ghost Council of Orzhova
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Birds of Paradise

The transformational sideboard seems weird, but it is effective against Owling Mine. The plan for the transition is:

-1 Cranial Extraction, -1 Ivory Mask, -1 Nightmare Void, -3 Faith’s Fetters, -1 Dimir House Guard, -4 Wrath of God, -1 Arena, -2 Orzhov Signets, -1 Angel of Despair.

For the normal sideboard:

Against Owl:
-4 Mortify, -4 Wrath of God, -2 Phyrexian Arena, +4 Sakura Tribe Elders, +1 Presence of the Wise, +1 Naturalize, +2 Descendent of Kiyomaro, +2 Putrefy

Against Aggro:
-1 Cranial Extraction, -1 Nightmare Void, +1 Seize the Soul, +1 Eradicate

You might also consider bringing in the Presence and Descendents.

Against Blue-Based Control:
-4 Wrath of God, +1 Eradicate, +1 Seize the Soul, +2 Putrefy.

Against Control:
-4 Wrath of God, -1 Ivory Mask, -1 Faith’s Fetters, +2 Scour, +2 Descendent of Kiyomaro, +1 Eradicate, +1 Seize the Soul.

You obviously have to use discretion when bringing in Scour, as you wouldn’t want a dead card. But usually there is at least one important target for you to hit.

Heezy Street:

1 Flames of the Blood Hand
2 Tin Street Hooligan
2 Rumbling Slum
2 Naturalize
4 Blood Moon
4 Umezawa’s Jitte

Before I start, I have to say that I don’t understand this sideboard very well, and so I’m leaving it up to other aggro players to explain it to me. This is the very general plan that we came up with, with little of my own say going towards this:

Against Aggro:
-3 Flames of the Blood Hand, -3 Frenzied Goblin, -2 Giant Solifuge, +2 Tin Street Hooligan, +2 Rumbling Slum, +4 Umezawa’s Jitte.

Against Control:
-4 Scab-Clan Mauler, -1 Scorched Rusalka, +4 Blood Moon, +1 Flames of the Blood Hand.

The strategy here at least somewhat makes sense to me, as you are taking out the color dependent Maulers and the anti-Jitte tech Rusalkas, and hosing the control deck’s mana base and life-gain.

Using these general sideboard plans effectively, as well as employing the extra tools each sideboard contains, will reduce the complexity of the metagame and allow for this strong combination of decks to compete at the highest level.

Wrapping Up

I just wanted to say first that I am extremely impressed with the state of the game that Rosewater’s design and development teams have given us. You have real deck parity for the first time in a very long time, and even if the decks are apparently bad, it still makes for a healthy game.

I’m looking forward to this weekend’s Grand Prix in Madison, and I want to encourage everyone to attend. Thanks to everyone who makes an article like this possible, and hopefully I will be back with more soon.

Send all of your comments and questions to [email protected].