This is the last article in my series on past Extended seasons. In reality, this is a two-part article, because the season had two parts. Initially, the season was dominated by decks built around Tinker. Halfway through the season, bannings (Tinker, Hermit Druid, Goblin Recruiter, etc.) kicked in, changing the metagame completely. The post-bannings metagame led into Pro Tour: Columbus and the metagame we have today. I’ll also include some data on how that metagame is shaking out.
A quick Summary of the 2003-2004 Season
Legal sets: Tempest block through Mirrodin (Bannings mid season!)
Pro Tour Kick-off: Worlds, Sept. 2004, then Pro Tour: New Orleans, Nov, 2004
The Defining Decks: Part 1: The Clock, George W. Bosh, Tinker, Mind’s Desire, RDW2k3 Part 2: RDW 2k3, Reanimator, Life, Goblin Bidding, Tog
New for the Season: Tinker variants, Death Wish Goblins, Loop Junction (sort of )
Before the Season:
The season did not actually begin with Day 3 at the World Championships in Berlin, but what happened there had a huge impact. Day 3 was Extended, and it showcased many of the archetypes from previous years, plus some new brokenness. Among the successful decks were a role-call of the previous season’s defining decks: Angry Hermit, Benzo, Tog, U/W Weenie (with Blue for Meddling Mage and Brainstorm), a classic Suicide Brown, Red Deck Wins and U/G Madness. New for the tournament was Gobo-Vantage, a goblin deck based around Goblin Matron, Goblin Lackey and Goblin Ringleader. What was clear was that Entomb and Goblins created some amazing plays: Turn 1 Entomb Nether Spirit, turn 2 Contamination lock, and Goblins, playing second, facing a turn 2 Exhumed Verdant Force and still winning. The format had some clear problems, and Wizards had to act.
The DCI banned Entomb, Frantic Search, Goblin Lackey in October. The DCI did not ban Tinker. We can only speculate about why they didn’t ban Tinker – the new set coming out was all about Artifacts; maybe they thought leaving Tinker around would help showcase these artifacts. Maybe they didn’t think it would be a problem. Whatever the reason, Tinker was not banned before Pro Tour: New Orleans 2003.
Pro Tour New Orleans 2003 was Pro Tour: Tinker.
The breakout decks of that tournament were “Tinker, “”The Clock” and “George W. Bosh.” I’m just going to give short descriptions and not waste space on decklists, since the decks were not playable after the bannings and didn’t lead to anything now being played. But if you really want them, the Wizards site still has the PT coverage, including decklists and match coverage, here. [And StarCityGames.com coverage can be found here. – Knut, who was there]
The basic Tinker decklists had lots of mana accelerating lands (e.g. Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors) and mana artifacts (Grim Monolith, Thran Dynamo, Metalworker and Voltaic Key to untap them). The deck could generate insane amounts of mana, and use that mana to power Stroke of Genius, Upheaval or sweep the board with Masticore. The deck also had lots of silver bullets to power out, like Myr Incubator, Mindslaver and Mishra’s Helix. Three basic Tinker decks made the Top 8.
The Clock used mana acceleration and Tinker to play a quick Goblin Charbelcher, and Mana Severance to remove all lands from the deck. At that point, it would activate Charbelcher for 40 damage or so. The Clock was amazingly fast, often firing on turn 2, and the deck brought three of its players to the Top 8.
George W. Bosh was a refinement of the standard Tinker deck that added Red for Goblin Welders and to pay the activation cost of Bosh, Iron Golem. Goblin Welders are brutal against other artifact decks, and can do amazing tricks turning tapped Monoliths and other marginal cards into any artifact in the ‘yard. GWB also ran Pentavus, which provided a stream of artifact tokens to feed Welder for a perpetual Mindslaver lock.
The final T8 deck, and the only deck that did not use Tinker, was a classic Psychatog deck that splashed Red for Fire / Ice – and included four Isochron Scepters to imprint it on. Since Scepter Tog was the one Pro Tour T8 deck that survived the bannings, here’s a decklist:
Psychatog:
Tomohiro Yokosuka
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Darkwater Catacombs
8 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Shivan Reef
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Swamp
1 Underground River
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Boomerang
2 Brainstorm
4 Chrome Mox
4 Counterspell
3 Cunning Wish
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Fire / Ice
2 Intuition
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Mana Leak
Sideboard
1 Corpse Dance
1 Diabolic Edict
3 Duress
3 Engineered Plague
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Orim’s Chant
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Stifle
1 Tsabo’s Decree
The PT coverage was a bit schizophrenic. On the one hand, it was trying to make the format sound exciting. On the other hand, it was clear that a lot of people were unhappy with a format that featured games like this (from the Sideboard coverage)
Playing First Isn’t Always Enough
Neil Reeves was playing first with his Oath deck against Kazushi Kawamura’s seemingly typical Goblins and pulled up the god hand of Island, Forest, Chrome Mox, two Fire/Ice, Oath of Druids, and Isochron Scepter. On his first turn he played out a land, imprinted the Mox, and cast a Scepter with Fire/Ice. He lost this game.
How? Kawamura’s first turn was Ancient Tomb, Chrome Mox, Seething Song, Goblin Recruiter, Skirk Prospector, sac both goblins, Goblin Charbelcher. Neil had one chance to draw one of his three outs, didn’t, and immediately lost when his opponent had a second Ancient Tomb to pay the activation cost despite being hit by Ice.
Turn Two Mindslaver Isn’t Either
Against Osamu Fujita, Kai Budde had a perfect Tinker hand that resulted in City of Traitors, Grim Monolith and Metalworker in play on turn one. He had the Tinker in his hand and enough artifacts to be able to fetch and activate a Mindslaver on his second turn. No matter. Osamu played a Chrome Mox and Tinkered it away for a Gilded Lotus, then Twiddled it twice to allow a Mind’s Desire, which gave him enough cards and mana for a second Mind’s Desire, this time for eight. With Tendrils of Agony available to be cast for free, Kai had no choice but to scoop before even untapping for a second turn.
The DCI looked at this metagame and announced bannings. Tinker, Grim Monolith, Ancient Tomb, Oath of Druids, Hermit Druid and Goblin Recruiter all got the axe. However, because the B&R list updates are effective quarterly, these cards were still legal for the first month of the 2003-2004 season. One Grand Prix, GP: Anaheim, took place during that month.
Anaheim had an interesting variety of decklists in the Top 8, but it was clearly influenced by Tinker and artifacts. Two Tinker decks lead the Top 8. Two Psychatog decks also made the Top 8, but only one ran Isochron Scepters. The Tog decks did have maindeck Rack and Ruin and Shattering Pulse, however. Two Red Deck Win variants appeared, one running 8 land destruction spells, Rishadan Ports, Wastelands and Tangle Wires in an attempt to slow Tinker down. (The other is below.) A single Rock deck made the T8, with a heavy anti-artifact suite onboard. The T8 deck that garnered the most attention, though, and which won the GP was Ben Rubin “Dump Truck”
Dump Trunk
Ben Rubin
2 Underground River
2 Skycloud Expanse
4 Flooded strand
4 Polluted Delta
3 Island
2 Plains
2 Swamp
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Meddling Mage
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
3 Exalted Angel
4 Duress
3 Seal of Cleansing
4 Brainstorm
1 Smother
3 Diabolic Edict
1 Disenchant
3 Deep Analysis
4 Vindicate
2 Peek
1 Tsabo’s Web
Sideboard
1 Energy Flux
1 Upheaval
1 Lobotomy
1 Damping Matrix
4 Chill
3 Chrome Mox
3 Vampiric Tutor
1 Sphere of Resistance
I never really understood or had much luck with Dump Truck, and by the time it had hit the net I was already looking ahead to the post-bannings format. Dump Truck seems like a typical silver bullet deck, but without the tutors to find the bullets. Peek over Vampiric Tutor? Well, I can’t argue with success. Maybe the card drawing was enough.
Here’s a more familiar decklist, however. Red Deck Wins has always had speed, consistency and power. With the format concentrating on artifacts, people had less room for Chills, while RDW had plenty of room for artifact destruction. This decklist is pretty similar to those being played today, although the slower format allowed RDW to drop the Chrome Moxen, which were always something of a desperation play. RDW had land destruction – and was probably a major force in the decline of The Clock. Stripping the land from your deck is not good when you might lose the land you have next turn. [To be fair, the Tinker-era iteration of this deck was pioneered by Dan Cato, who finished 9th in New Orleans – Knut, sup Dan?]
Red Deck Wins:
Nathan Saunders, GP Anaheim Top 8
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
6 Mountain
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
4 Jackal Pup
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Blistering Firecat
4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Pillage
4 Tangle Wire
2 Shattering Pulse
4 Firebolt
4 Seal of Fire
3 Volcanic Hammer
4 Chrome Mox
Sideboard
2 Lava Dart
2 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Rack and Ruin
4 Cursed Scroll
2 Psychogenic Probe
2 Fledgling Dragon
Once the bannings became effective, some decks, like Tinker, George W. Bosh and The Clock were dead. Everyone had their opinions on what would happened to the rest, but the general consensus was that what was once good would be good again. A lot of decks that had added Chrome Moxen – trading card advantage for the speed to run with Tinker – could now afford to run at a normal pace again. Deck that had been a half step behind, like Reanimator, suddenly found themselves back at the head of the pack.
The one major tournament that was played under this format was GP: Okayana on January 24, 2004. The Top 8 decks were Goblin Bidding, Death Wish Goblins, Aluren, 2 Dancing Ghoul, Scepter Tog, Reanimator and Loop Junction.
Goblin Bidding was a powerful deck in Type Two at this point, combining the early game power of Goblins with the late game power of Patriarch’s Bidding. The deck was solid, but it was taken one step further when the Biddings were moved to the sideboard, to be fetched with Burning Wish. This also allowed the deck game one access to a number of other bombs, like Perish, Living Death, Shatterstorm, Haunting Echoes and, to get around Worship, Tendrils of Agony. The past is prologue: compare this list with Oliver Ruel’s T8 list from Pro Tour: Columbus. The biggest difference is Cranial Extraction in Ruel’s list, but it would have been in Sag-ryeol Lee’s list, too, had it been in print.
Death Goblin’s Wish,
Sang-ryeol Lee GP Okayana
6 Mountain
2 Swamp
3 Rishadan Port
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Shadowblood Ridge
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Skirk Prospector
3 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Matron
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Burning Wish
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Living Death
Sideboard
3 Flametongue Kavu
1 Shatterstorm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Infest
1 Chainer’s Edict
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Living Death
2 Duress
3 Perish
1 Decompose
As I said, the elimination of speedy Tinker decks brought Reanimator back to the T8. This list is a bit different from the current build, however. Because of the presence of so much RDW & Tog, the reanimation targets included Phantom Nishobas instead of Rorix. Gadiel Szleifer preferred the speed of Rorix over the lifegain, and his list included Show and Tell, but otherwise the lists are practically identical.
Reanimator
Itaru Ishida GP Okayana
6 Swamp
2 Island
4 Underground River
4 Polluted Delta
4 Putrid Imp
4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 Phantom Nishoba
1 Visara the Dreadful
3 Duress
4 Exhume
4 Chrome Mox
4 Careful Study
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Reanimate
Sideboard
3 Phyrexian Negator
1 Show and Tell
1 Energy Field
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Rushing River
1 Gilded Drake
4 Powder Keg
3 Defense Grid
The Dancing Ghoul decks were the next evolution of Angry Hermit (see previous articles for Angry Hermit decklists.) Angry Hermit had used Hermit Druid to dump the entire library in the graveyard, then Reanimated Sutured Ghoul. When reanimated, the Sutured Ghoul automatically picked up a free enchantment, Dragon Breath, to give it haste, and ate enough creatures to make it lethal. Dancing Ghoul did away with the Dragon Fangs. It used Buried Alive to stock the graveyard, and Corpse Dance to reanimate the Ghoul and give it haste. Although Dancing Ghoul took two T8 slots, this decklist did not survive to finish well at PT Columbus. Instead, the players discovered a new method of dumping the library into the graveyard: en-Kor creatures targeting Cephalid Illusionist. “Cephalid Breakfast” is the newest incarnation of the Angry Ghoul decks that debuted at Pro Tour Houston when some players sold Bob Maher a deck the night before the PT.
Dancing Ghoul
Ver1.7 Kazuya Hirabayashi GP Okayana
1 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 City of Traitors
3 Underground River
2 Sulfurous Springs
1 Shivan Reef
3 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 City of Brass
2 Sutured Ghoul
3 Krosan Cloudscraper
4 Brainstorm
2 Mystical Tutor
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Corpse Dance
4 Duress
3 Buried Alive
1 Fling
1 Overmaster
4 Burning Wish
4 Mox Diamond
Sideboard
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Exhume
1 Decompose
1 Buried Alive
3 Overmaster
1 Pyroclasm
4 Defense Grid
1 Damping Matrix
1 Brush with Death
The next deck in the GP Okayana T8 was a Psychatog deck featuring Isochron Scepter (a/k/a Scepter Tog.) No Tog deck made the T8 at Pro Tour Columbus. The top finisher with a comparable deck was Julien Nuijten, who played Scepter Tog a 30th place finish. I’ll provide both lists. There are differences, but not major ones.
Tog Tog !!
Shinsuke Hayashi GP Okayana
7 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground River
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Cunning Wish
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Fire/Ice
3 Memory Lapse
3 Deep Analysis
2 Intuition
1 Upheaval
4 Chrome Mox
1 Vampiric Tutor
Sideboard
3 Powder Keg
3 Perish
3 Duress
1 Mana Short
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ensnare
1 Coffin Purge
1 Corpse Dance
1 Diabolic Edict
Scepter Tog
Julien Nuijten-30th, Pro Tour Houston
9 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Shivan Reef
3 Chrome Mox
4 Counterspell
3 Isochron Scepter
4 Mana Leak
2 Daze
4 Fire/Ice
2 Cunning Wish
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Upheaval
2 Fact or Fiction
4 Brainstorm
Sideboard
3 Smother
2 Disrupt
1 Corpse Dance
1 Echoing Truth
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Arcane Laboratory
1 Upheaval
1 Zombie Infestation
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Coffin Purge
The Okayana T8 featured an Aluren deck in the T8. At Pro Tour: Columbus, the best finish for an Aluren deck was tenth. The decks are not complete matches, but the decks are very similar – and show that Aluren has come a long way since it was bouncing Wall of Roots with Man-o’-War back in the days when Trix battled Counterslivers.
Aluren
Asuka Doi, GP Okayana T8
4 Hickory Woodlot
4 Yavimaya Coast
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Island
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 City of Brass
3 Polluted Delta
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Cavern Harpy
3 Raven Familiar
3 Wirewood Savage
2 Cloud of Faeries
1 Soul Warden
4 Brainstorm
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Living Wish
4 Aluren
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Intuition
2 Chrome Mox
Sideboard
3 Naturalize
3 Duress
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Raven Familiar
1 Wirewood Savage
1 Soul Warden
1 Stern Proctor
1 Academy Rector
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Maggot Carrier
1 City of Brass
Aluren
Kyle Goodman, 10th at Pro Tour Columbus
4 Polluted Delta
3 Forbidden Orchard
3 City of Brass
6 Forest
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Island
1 Swamp
3 Cavern Harpy
3 Raven Familiar
4 Wall of Blossoms
1 Cloud of Faeries
2 Wirewood Savage
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Aluren
4 Living Wish
4 Intuition
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Brain Freeze
4 Brainstorm
Sideboard
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Academy Rector
1 Auriok Champion
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Maggot Carrier
1 Raven Familiar
1 Stern Proctor
3 Orim’s Chant
3 Pernicious Deed
Finally, a deck called A Beam – Loop Junction rounded out the T8 at GP Okayana. That name may not be familiar, but the deck should be. What some hints? Ped Bun was playing an early version of the deck against mono-blue Trix and The Rock in GP Las Vegas. I have mentioned it on and off in past Yawgmoth’s Whimsy’s. It made T8 at Pro Tour Columbus. Got it now? If not, here’s the decklist. The version Ryuichi Arita used to place 7th at PT Columbus follows.
A Beam -Loop Junktion,
Akira Asahara, T8, GP Okayana
4 Brushland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Starlit Sanctum
2 High Market
4 Forest
8 Plains
3 Nomads en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
4 Shaman en-Kor
4 Task Force
3 Academy Rector
1 Serra Avatar
4 Eladamri’s Call
4 Worthy Cause
4 Living Wish
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Animal Boneyard
1 Test of Endurance
1 Rule of Law
1 Future Sight
Sideboard
4 Orim’s Chant
1 Nomad en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Monk Realist
1 Rule of Law
1 Starlit Sanctum
1 Kor Haven
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Krosan Reclamation
1 Wasteland
A Beam – Loop Junktion (a/k/a Life):
Ryuichi Arita, 7th, Pro Tour Houston
4 City of Brass
2 Forest
6 Plains
4 Brushland
3 Starlit Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
1 Academy Rector
1 Eternal Witness
3 Daru Spiritualist
4 Task Force
4 Shaman en-Kor
3 Nomads en-Kor
4 Eladamri’s Call
1 Test of Endurance
1 Animal Boneyard
1 Parallax Wave
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Rule of Law
4 Worthy Cause
4 Living Wish
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Sterling Grove
Sideboard
4 Orim’s Chant
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nomads en-Kor
1 Starlit Sanctum
1 Academy Rector
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Energy Flux
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Engineered Plague
1 Genesis
1 Isochron Scepter
Was there anything else to learn from that GP? Well, an Affinity deck won one of the last chance qualifiers. Several players brought Enchantress, and U/G Madness made Day 2.
A large contingent brought Mind’s Desire decks (although the Mind’s Desire decks ran Sunscape Familiar instead of Nightscape Familiar.) However, RDW is always more popular in PTQs than at the Pro Tour, so the Sunscape Familiar version might be better for the PTQ season – Sunscape Familiar blocks Jackal Pups and lives.
That’s it for Extended in seasons past – it’s time to play. Here’s an early breakdown of the season so far, based on the GPT (and other tournament) reports I have to date. I have excluded a few very small GPTs – how meaningful is a T8 in a nine-player tourney?
Red Deck Wins: 13
Reanimator: 6
Scepter Chant: 5
U/B Desire: 4
Rock: 3
Squirrel Prison: 3
Goblins, Affinity, Life, U/G Madness: 2 each
Scepter Tog, Pirates!, Hatred, Aluren, Gro-A-Tog, Mono Green: 1 each
White Weenie – T4 in the nine player tourney.
What does this mean? I think it means that if you are not testing against RDW2k5, you may be in for a surprise. The same is true against Reanimator – can your deck handle a turn 1 Akroma? Test hard against those – and against the Mind’s Desire decks. You might also want to test against Squirrel Prison – it has some numbers, but they are just low enough that they could be a fluke. On the other hand, Squirrel Prison did make money at PT: Columbus.
I don’t know that I would spend a ton of time testing against Tog, Life, U/G Madness and probably Rock. It appears that their time has passed, although some people will still play them. Affinity is in the same boat – it is probably a strong tier 1.5 deck, but it is a deck that everyone has the cards for, experience with, and – although it was sort of a fluke – it did win the Pro Tour. It will be common at the PTQs.
Finally, this means that the format is still wide open. Red Deck Wins is the defining deck, at least so far, but it can be beat. Reanimator is the second most common. Scepter Chant and Mind’s Desire are third. Those decks take three very different approaches to winning – no silver bullet can handle all three. (Okay, Solitary Confinement / Squee can, until the other decks get their sideboard cards, but that isn’t a real deck.)
That’s it for the Extended recap. Extended season begins now. Like every other season, it is starting out with a metagame based partly on the last Pro Tour, and partly on the testing people have done since. By mid season, we should have a breakout deck, and some spoiler decks for that deck. I’m guessing that it will be Honden.dec. (Not really, I just like watching people snort milk out their nose.) Actually, if I had to put money on it, I’d back Desire, or another combo deck I can’t talk about. However, by mid season, people will also stop sideboarding against certain decks, so a few people will steal a qualification with something like Life. Life is, after all, a very consistent combo deck – it is just easy to beat once you know how.
Of course, in the middle of February, Betrayers will be legal. I expect a few decks to get a boost. People will keep trying to make White Weenie work, and the Red Genju might find a home in RDWs, but other cards might also have an impact. Maybe.
History class is over. Go out and play.
PS: thanks to Wizards and www.magicthegathering.com for most of the decklists used in this series.