This is the third in a series of articles that chronicle the last several extended seasons. The previous articles can be found here and here. As always, the roots of the current extended season can be found in the past: with the exception of Ravager Affinity, all of the Pro Tour: Columbus decks have appeared, in some form or other, in years ago. Some go back a lot farther than you might think.
A Quick Summary of the Season
Legal sets: Ice Age block through Odyssey (Necropotence, Survival of the Fittest, Replenish and Demonic Consultation banned)
Pro Tour Kick-off: Worlds, June 2001 and New Orleans, Nov. 2001.
The Defining Decks: Mono-Blue Trix, Oath of Druids, Rock, Super Gro, Reanimator
New for the Season: Benzo, Rock, Miracle Gro, Super Gro,
The Beginning of the Season
The season got off to an early start in 2001. Usually, the extended decks are first exposed at the Pro Tour in fall of the year. In 2001, the World Championships included six rounds of Extended. The format was still in turmoil following the banning of Necro, Demonic Consultation, Survival and Replenish. With Replenish gone, Pandeburst was dead. Survival was gone, killing Tradewind Survival and Full English Breakfast. Counterslivers lost its primary tutor, crippling it. Trix was supposed to be dead, since Necro and Consult were gone, but it was supposed to die after Dark Ritual and Mana Vault were banned, too, but it lived on…
At Worlds, a number of Secret Force variants appeared, combining the mana acceleration of elves and Gaea’s Cradle with the power of Natural Order. The Cradle Elf decks also abused Skyshroud Poacher to fetch a ton of Deranged Hermits and kill with Squirrels. Brian Kibler version splashed White for Armadillo Cloak, and used Natural Order to get Rith, the Awakener or Sliver Queen into play. Overall, Secret Force had the strongest showing, winning 62% of it’s matches.
Other decks made strong showings at Worlds, including White Weenie, with Alexander Witt going undefeated with a version splashing Blue for Meddling Mage and Brainstorm. Sligh showed up in force, and had some success against every archetype. Tradewind Prison decks appeared, trading in Survival for Opposition and Winter Orb. Cradle-Elf decks also exploded (pun fully intended) with fast mana, Masticore and Coat of Arms. The traditional Maher Oath decks put in an appearance, with Djinn Okamoto going 5-1-0 with the classic Ped Bun design. Three-Deuce wasn’t widely played, but its results were solid. However, Worlds also introduced a new version of Trix, now powered by Sapphire Medallions and fueled by the Accumulated Knowledge / Intuition engine.
The Pro Tour saw a field that was ready for White Weenie and Secret Force. Perish, Hibernation and Massacre were common sideboard cards. More importantly, mono-Blue Trix proved to be a very viable deck. Kai Budde won with Trix, although he needed to topdeck his sideboard Morphlings to do it. I’ll start the season talking about Trix – after all, everyone else did.
Trix: Kai Budde
14 Island
4 Shivan Reef
4 Volcanic Island
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
4 Counterspell
4 Donate
3 Fire /Ice
4 Force of Will
4 Illusions of Grandeur
1 Impulse
3 Intuition
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Sapphire Medallion
Sideboard
1 Hibernation
2 Hydroblast
3 Morphling
4 Pyroblast
3 Pyroclasm
2 Stroke of Genius
This version splashes Red for Fire / Ice main, and Pyroclasm sideboard – both effective answers to elves and White Weenie decks. Against control decks, the Pyroblasts, Morphlings and Strokes come in, and the combo goes out – the deck becomes mono-Blue control. Since these decks are primarily Blue, and play off Islands, the sideboards often contained one Ruination. Ruination destroys a lot of decks, including Oath, Three-Deuce, PT Junk, etc. Later in the season, the mono-Blue Trix decks also started maindecking a pair of Morphlings, giving them either the combo or beatdown win.
In the finals, Kai was battling against Tomi Walamies‘ U/W/G control deck that ran counters, card drawing, Wrath of God and Green for Treetop Villages and Call of the Herd. This deck, later in the season, was called “Operation Dumbo Drop” after an infinitely forgettable movie.
3c Control
Tomi Walamies
3 Adarkar Wastes
3 Flood Plain
1 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
2 Wasteland
1 Morphling
3 Brainstorm
3 Call of the Herd
4 Counterspell
4 Fact or Fiction
1 Forbid
4 Force of Will
2 Gaea’s Blessing
4 Impulse
1 Intuition
3 Seal of Cleansing
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Tithe
3 Wrath of God
Sideboard
1 Call of the Herd
3 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Devout Witness
2 Hydroblast
1 Intuition
2 Powder Keg
2 Rootwater Thief
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Swords to Plowshares
A breakout deck at the Pro Tour was “Benzo,” the Reanimator deck played by the YMG team. It broke the new-that-season Entomb and Zombie Infestation. It is interesting, however, that the success of this deck lead to a lot of people playing Phyrexian Furnace, which then lead the YMG team to make significant changes in the deck for the PTQ and GP seasons. The Entomb version of Benzo almost vanished, although it did pop up occasionally in the late season, when maindeck Furnaces declined and a few people were lucky enough to avoid them through the entire PTQ. An alternative build, Zombie Nation, was closer to what was played during the season.
Zombie Nation
Andrew Cuneo
4 Badlands
3 Mountain
4 Sulfurous Springs
8 Swamp
1 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Wasteland
4 Ashen Ghoul
4 Krovikan Horror
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Buried Alive
1 Contamination
3 Death Spark
1 Diabolic Edict
4 Duress
3 Firestorm
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Zombie Infestation
Sideboard
1 Anarchy
2 Boil
1 Contamination
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Massacre
2 Perish
4 Pyroblast
1 Ruination
1 Stench of Evil
The rest of the T8 at the Pro Tour included Three-Deuce, a Maher Oath variant, a Secret Force deck that splashed black for Duress and Pernicious Deed, in addition to Nevinyrral’s Disk. Another very successful archetype was BUG, which combined counterspells, card drawing, Treetop Villages and Pernicious Deed. I can’t find a decklist from the Pro Tour, but here’s a slightly later version:
BUG:
Josh Smith – Champion, GP: Houston
4 Bad River
4 Wasteland
4 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Underground River
2 Bayou
2 Faerie Conclave
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Morphling
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Impulse
2 Brainstorm
2 Gaea’s Blessing
4 Duress
4 Diabolic Edict
1 Forbid
Sideboard
4 Submerge
3 Powder Keg
2 Annul
2 Disrupt
2 Misdirection
2 Hydroblast
PT Junk was also a solid force, finishing 10th, 17th and 19th at the Pro Tour. I don’t have those decklist (not electronically, and I’m not going to retype them) so here’s another, similar version.
PT Junk:
Krumick, Shannon, T8 at GP: Las Vegas
4 Bayou
2 Grasslands
4 Savannah
4 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
4 Treetop Village
4 Wasteland
4 River Boa
4 Spectral Lynx
2 Spiritmonger
4 Call of the Herd
4 Duress
4 Gerrard’s Verdict
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Tithe
2 Vindicate
2 Wax / Wane
Sideboard
1 Aegis of Honor
4 Choke
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Erase
2 Ground Seal
1 Honorable Passage
1 Overgrown Estate
Here’s another deck that I remember playtesting a lot during the season. Card drawing, counterspells, Swords to Plowshares, Pernicious Deed, Vindicate and Spiritmonger to finish. It can deal with practically anything – except a lot of Wastelands or a Dustbowl being active for long. The versions running Shadowmage Infiltrator were called Finkel decks (after the card’s creator). Those running Meddling Mage as well were called Finkula decks.
Four Color Finkel:
Frank Gilson
4 Bayou
1 Caves of Koilos
4 Grasslands
4 Savannah
4 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Morphling
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Spiritmonger
4 Wall of Roots
4 Duress
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Gerrard’s Verdict
4 Pernicious Deed
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Tithe
4 Vindicate
Sideboard
4 Circle of Protection: Red
1 City of Solitude
2 Perish
2 Persecute
3 Seal of Cleansing
2 Serrated Arrows
1 Swords to Plowshares
Another deck that first appeared at the Pro Tour was Sol Malka’s G/B Control. It was pretty much the same deck he had played at Worlds, and would play, and write about, for seasons to come. He finished 18th, but the archetype took hold. The maindeck Phyrexian Furnaces were fine against Benzo, the Chokes and Emerald Charms worked against Trix, and the powerful creatures helped beat everything else. The Rock had come to Extended.
The Rock:
Sol Malka
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Spike Feeder
4 Yavimaya Elder
2 Spike Weaver
4 Spiritmonger
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
4 Duress
2 Vampiric Tutor
2 Phyrexian Furnace
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Living Death
8 Forest
5 Swamp
4 Bayou
4 Treetop Village
2 Dust Bowl
Sideboard
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Bottle Gnomes
1 Phyrexian Furnace
3 Diabolic Edict
1 Living Death
3 Choke
2 Emerald Charm
1 Tranquil Domain
2 Uktabi Orangutan
Another control deck that appeared at the Pro Tour was the U/W/R control deck that several people played, including Jon Finkel. It combined Meddling Mage, Force of Will, card drawing, Fire/Ice and Swords to Plowshares. It had some play against nearly everything, but was vulnerable to Morphling and Wastelands. It appeared, sporadically, throughout the season, proving that anything with Swords and Force of Will could work, but it never quite took off. It did qualify a few people, and Ingrid went undefeated and untied to win the Women’s Open at GP Vegas with it.
Star Spangled Slaughter 2001:
Jon Finkel
3 Adarkar Wastes
4 Faerie Conclave
3 Flood Plain
4 Plateau
4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
2 Wasteland
4 Lightning Angel
4 Meddling Mage
4 Ophidian
4 Counterspell
4 Disenchant
4 Fire / Ice
4 Force of Will
4 Impulse
4 Swords to Plowshares
Sideboard
2 Crimson Acolyte
2 Engulfing Flames
3 Honorable Passage
3 Hydroblast
4 Pyroblast
1 Seal of Cleansing
To round out the honorable mentions at Pro Tour New Orleans, several players played an early version of the Aluren deck, then called Raisin Bran. That version revolved around Spike Feeder, Man-o’-War and Wall of Roots – and won with infinite mana and a Stroke of Genius. It was a foreshadowing of versions to come. Aluren has been present ever since, including at PT: Columbus. Aluren is a lot like Turboland used to be – a solid, viable combo deck, provided you have spent the time it takes to really master it.
Developments During the Season
PT: New Orleans had shown that Secret Force was not the deck to metagame against – Trix was. People came to the first GP of the season, Las Vegas, loaded with anti-Trix tech. I brought both an Enchantress build with lots of maindeck Seals of Cleansing and a Malka Rock variant with Choke, enchantment kill, and a full set of Duresses. Everyone else brought similar cards, and all the hate – especially Choke – kept Islands almost completely out of the top 32. Rock (played by Dr. Mike Pustilink, who maindecked Choke) went on to win the tourney, and Mike Flores won the PTQ on Sunday with a Rock deck. Also premiering at that event was another YMG graveyard deck that was a lot less affected by Phyrexian Furnace, and a little deck that was built around Winter Orb and a trash rare from Planeshift, Quirion Dryad. Alan Comer named that little deck Miracle Gro, and grow it did. By the end of the season, Miracle Gro and Super Gro decks were dominating the format.
The Rock and his Millions
Michael Pustilnik, Winner, GP: Vegas
4 Bayou
2 Dust Bowl
8 Forest
5 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
4 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
4 Spiritmonger
3 Wall of Roots
4 Yavimaya Elder
1 Choke
4 Duress
1 Living Death
4 Pernicious Deed
2 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Recurring Nightmare
2 Vampiric Tutor
Sideboard
1 Choke
3 Diabolic Edict
1 Dust Bowl
2 Emerald Charm
1 Massacre
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Rank and File
1 Stench of Evil
1 Tsunami
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
It says a lot about the format, and Trix, that the winning deck had a Choke maindeck and Vampiric Tutors to find it. Back in those days, Rock was slower, but much more controlling. Recurring Nightmare and Spike Weaver could create perpetual Fog. Phyrexian Plaguelord could deal with any creature, including Peacekeeper and Masticore. Against control decks, Rock baited out counters, double-checked with Duress, then undid all that countering with a devastating Living Death. The deck had lots of silver bullets, and the ability to find them.
Next up is Wild Zombies, which was built to abuse Zombie Infestation and Firestorm by discarding / burying creatures that would not stay in the graveyard. That gave it plenty of offense, which it could back with Duress and the silver bullet / Vampiric Tutor plan. It didn’t have the awe factor of Reanimating Verdant Force on turn 2, but it also wasn’t anywhere near as vulnerable to Swords to Plowshares and Phyrexian Furnace. Cards like Wild Mongrel were also pretty good when you discarded several Krovikan Horrors and Squee, Goblin Nabobs every turn.
Wild Zombies
Rob Dougherty, T8 GP: Vegas
4 Badlands
4 Bayou
1 City of Brass
4 Llanowar Wastes
3 Swamp
4 Taiga
4 Ashen Ghoul
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Hermit Druid
4 Krovikan Horror
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Wild Mongrel
1 Buried Alive
4 Duress
1 Emerald Charm
1 Firestorm
1 Phyrexian Furnace
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Zombie Infestation
Sideboard
4 Call of the Herd
2 Emerald Charm
1 Firestorm
1 Ground Seal
1 Mountain
1 Null Rod
1 Phyrexian Furnace
4 Pyroblast
Next we turn to the ten land (plus Land Grant) deck that came to rule the format. This deck was designed to play on almost no land – and to force the opponent to play the same game via Winter Orb. It uses tons of pitch counters, and cards like Daze, to lock up the opponent while the Quirion Dryad got huge. The deck is almost unique in that nothing actually costs more than two mana, and most of the deck costs nothing at all. Submerge, in the sideboard, is just devastating against Green decks. The deck would evolve over the season, but even at this stage, it was powerful.
Miracle Gro:
Alan Comer, GP: Vegas
6 Island
4 Tropical Island
3 Gaea’s Skyfolk
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Brainstorm
4 Curiosity
4 Daze
3 Foil
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
4 Land Grant
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Winter Orb
Sideboard
2 Boomerang
4 Chill
3 Emerald Charm
2 Misdirection
4 Submerge
That wasn’t the only strange and wonderful deck to appear at GP: Vegas. Ped Bun, the architect of the Oath deck Bob Maher, Jr. used to win PT: Chicago, introduced a deck that could gain infinite life using Worthy Cause, or deal infinite damage with Angelic Protector and About Face. The Life deck has hovered about the fringes of the format ever since, including a Top 8 appearance at PT: Columbus.
“Life Viva Las Vegas”
Ped Bun
4 Caves of Kolios
3 Remote Farm
1 Ancient Tomb
4 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
4 Plateau
4 Plains
4 Angelic Protector
4 Task Force
4 Warrior En-Kor
4 Nomad En-Kor
1 Serra Avatar
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Duress
4 Tithe
4 Worthy Cause
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Gerrard’s Verdict
1 About Face
Sideboard
4 Pyroblast
3 Diabolic Edict
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Gerrard’s Verdict
2 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Planar Void
Over time, the early Miracle Gro decks added White to the mix, for the best removal spell ever printed (Swords) and a 6/6 pro-Black flier for four mana in Mystic Enforcer. The four-mana creature was possible because the deck also now ran Werebear, which provided additional mana under the Orb and was quite a beatstick once the deck hit threshold. The mana denial strategy really hurt Trix, of course, but also decks like Rock that tried to use Pernicious Deed to reset the board. Deed was just too expensive. Only Sligh could function adequately under Orb, and even with Sligh, killing the Dryad was tough, since the Gro player could often Brainstorm and Gush in response to a burn spell.
Super-Gro
Ben Rubin – Fourth Place, GP: Houston
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Flood Plain
1 Grasslands
2 Island
1 Savannah
4 Meddling Mage
4 Werebear
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Quirion Dryad
3 Mystic Enforcer
4 Land Grant
4 Force of Will
3 Winter Orb
4 Brainstorm
4 Gush
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Foil
Sideboard
1 Winter Orb
2 Mind Harness
3 Legacy’s Allure
3 Annul
2 Wax/Wane
3 Hidden Gibbons
1 Submerge
Here’s how the season played out at the various GPs.
Las Vegas, Nevada (Dec. 8-9, 2001): 2 Rock, 2 Three-Deuce, 2 PT Junk, Wild Zombies, Threshold-‘Geddon
Curitiba, Brazil (Dec. 8-9, 2001): 2 U/W/B Finkula Control, U/B Finkel Control, 2 Three-Deuce, Benzo, Rock, Operation Dumbo Drop
Sendai, Japan (Dec. 15-16, 2001): 5 Trix, Wild Zombies, Miracle Gro, “Zombie Go”
Houston, Texas (Jan. 5-6, 2002): BUG Control, 2 Super Gro, 2 Miracle Gro, Oath, Sligh, PT Junk
Lisbon, Portugal (Jan. 19-20, 2002): 3 Super Gro, 2 Sligh, 3 Maher Oath
Post Season:
By the end of the season, Trix had returned, the Rock and other big mana decks were gone, and practically everything (except Sligh) ran Force of Will. Oath of Druids was still a solid answer to any creature-based deck, even under Winter Orb, and people still donated Illusions of Grandeur. The format got one last burst of publicity at the Nice Masters, in May, 2002. At that event, the decks broke down as follows:
Trix: 5
Sligh: 5
Super Gro: 5
Oath of Trix (Oath with the Donate/Illusions combo): 2
Traditional Maher Oath: 3
BUG: 3
PT Junk: 2
Operation Dumbo Drop: 2
Legion Land Loss (the other deck that likes Winter Orb): 2
Wild Zombies: 1
Aluren: 1
The final 4 were Trix, Oath, Dumbo Drop and Super Gro. Super Gro won the event.
At the end of this season, many players were a bit sour on the format. Force of Will, Winter Orb, Oath of Druids and Donate/Illusions are not all that fun to play against. Anything that cost more than three mana was marginal, and decks like the Rock had generally discarded Spiritmonger – actually, every large creature – because five mana was way too expensive. Super Gro was almost as annoying to play against as Stasis had been, but it was much faster. Not only did Super Gro punish any deck that ran expensive cards, it punished any deck that had bad draws. It was nearly impossible to play your way out of a bad draw in that format.
Wizards had had enough. Two rounds of bannings had failed to kill off Trix, and people were still turned off by its presence in the format. Winter Orb was like super land destruction and came down on turn 2. Creature decks feared Oath of Druids, and everything ran Blue. Wizards decided that the format needs drastic changes, and it made them. It rotated the sets. Ice Age block rotated out, taking Force of Will, Sword to Plowshares, Krovikan Horror, Wall of Roots and Illusions of Grandeur with it. Mirage block also rotated out, taking Fireblast, Emerald Charm, Gaea’s Blessing, Phyrexian Furnace and Null Rod, among others. Finally, Fifth edition rotated out, taking Ball Lightning and Winter Orb along. Finally, in the most painful cut of all, the dual lands also rotated out of Extended.
My duals. My beautiful duals….
*Sob*
Sorry.
What effect did that have on the format? Look at the decks that had been played at the Masters, and what they would lost.
Trix / Oath of Trix: dead – Illusions gone
Sligh: ??? – Fireblast and Ball Lightning gone
Super Gro: dead: Force of Will, Swords and Winter Orb all gone
Traditional Maher Oath: dead – Gaea’s Blessing powered the deck
BUG: dead? – the deck relied on dual lands and fetchlands to make the mana work
PT Junk: dead – Swords and duals meant the mana and removal were gone.
Operation Dumbo Drop: dead – duals again.
Legion Land Loss: dead – Fyndhorn Elves and most of the land destruction rotated out
Wild Zombies: dead – Krovikan Horror and Elvish Spirit Guide were gone.
Aluren: ??? – Man-o-War, Wall of Roots and the duals were gone.
Of all the decks listed above, only Rock and Benzo were roughly intact, although Rock had lost Bayous, Wall of Roots and Phyrexian Furnace. Benzo had lost some duals, but it’s nemesis, Phyrexian Furnace, also rotated out.
The next article covers the new, post rotation format.