The Japanese are widely regarded as some of the best and most innovative deckbuilders in the world. Japanese Regionals have been going on for weeks, but news about what decks are doing well there has been pretty quiet so far. Kanoot decided that nonsense had gone on long enough, and today he puts five popular Japanese archetypes on display for the masses including decklists that have been very successful thus far in the land of the Rising Sun.By now most of you are probably settling into the decks you will be playing at Regionals. Perhaps you are testing and tweaking sideboards, or trying to find those last little bits of maindeck tech that will put you over the top and earn you a slot at Nationals. Before you lock in, however, you might want to see what we have for you today…
By the time Magic Worlds takes place in Yokohama this November (complete with what I’m told will be a kickass Hall of Fame induction ceremony), I will have been to Japan six to seven times this year, and I never get tired of the people or their joy in constructing goofy, yet fantastically effective Constructed decks. Since we normally don’t see many Japanese decks on this side of the pond outside of Grand Prix or Pro Tours, I decided to check with my connections and see what they were working on for Regionals. What follows are five archetypes presented for your consideration. From what I’ve read around the net, these are mostly decks that have not had a ton of exposition recently on English-language websites. None of these lists contain Saviors of Kamigawa cards because those haven’t been legal for the Japanese Regionals that have taken place thus far, but all of them are decks that have placed in the Top 8 so you can be assured that they have survived trial by fire in the Regionals trenches.
Notes About the Japanese Metagame
Believe it or not, most tech in Japan still spreads via print magazines like Mana Burn, a Magic-only mag published by Hobby Japan. For whatever reason, there is no Japanese StarCityGames equivalent, though I expect that will probably change in the next year. Therefore what the Japanese pros like Fujita, Asahara, and Oiso have to say in Mana Burn actually has a massive impact on what decks get played in Japanese tournaments. Whereas metagames here and in Europe are subject to change in the blink of an eye based on what gets published on the internet, the metagame in Japan is relatively stable month to month, and tech spreads more slowly. Looking at the rogue decks showing up in Japan now though might give you a clue about some powerful archetypes that have thus far gone overlooked in the U.S. Thus by looking at the Japanified technology we’ve got listed below, you might actually be taking a peek into the future.
Then again, you might just be completely wasting your time… temporal manipulation is tricky like that, ya know?
From the Regionals results I’ve seen thus far, the archetypes at Japanese Regionals are very similar to what I predicted for North America two weeks ago with one exception. The Japanese seem to have a fetish with the Blue control decks, and while they aren’t the most popular decks out there like Manuel Bevand seems to think they should be, they comprise much closer to 10% of the metagame than the 5% I predicted. These decks also get a significant boost if people don’t prepare for them with sideboard cards, so be aware that they exist. Hell, since I mentioned it, let’s start with some of the Blue decks that have done well over there
Creatures (8)
Lands (25)
Spells (27)
- 4 Hinder
- 3 Disrupting Shoal
- 4 Rewind
- 4 Mana Leak
- 3 Boomerang
- 4 Vedalken Shackles
- 3 Condescend
- 2 Concentrate
Sideboard
This deck is fascinating because it is presideboarded for the Tooth and Nail matchup – not a bad plan when one in every five decks at the start of the day will be Tooth, with that percentage increasing the more the day goes on. Temporal Adept is actually quite saucy against normal control decks as well, so it’s not like the card will be useless against non-Tooth decks. It’s a little surprising that there’s no Bribery in the maindeck and that the draw engine is exclusively Magpie and Concentrate, but I guess Boomerang + Shackles + more counters than any other Mono-Blue build around means you can deal with threats pretty effectively. The sideboard for this deck gives you Jushi Apprentice, Time Stop, and Boseiju to help with the battle for control, though I’m not sure you need too much help when you pack an astounding eighteen counters to start with. Control players among you may now dance for joy.
Creatures (7)
Lands (23)
Spells (30)
Memnarch Control
Creatures (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (33)
Mark Young has an article about this set of decks tomorrow (including discussion of Memnarch!), so I just wanted to say that most of the builds I’ve seen have more of the spell complement of Akihiro’s list with more of Katsuhijo’s creatures. I think this deck is one of the late rogue movers that I mentioned in my metagame article and you shouldn’t be at all surprised to see one or two of these over the course of ten rounds.
Creatures (5)
Lands (24)
Spells (32)
Now this… this is what I was looking for. This is by far the best Mono-Black Control deck that I’ve seen publicly available thus far, and it should be a nice little alternative for those who aren’t happy with how their Rats decks are performing. (For the record, I’ll be discussing my trials with Rats on Friday, including a small section called “You know a deck is underpowered when…”) That said, I think this deck actually gains a lot from Saviors, with Kagemaro an obvious inclusion as is one Tomb of Urami, and I’m not entirely satisfied with the distribution of discard between the maindeck and sideboard. Regardless, this list has enough things right that tuning it should still be possible in the remaining days. Now you just have to hope you don’t end up facing silly White Weenie decks packing 4 Karmas in the sideboard…
White Weenie
Hasegawa Yuichi
4 Suntail Hawk
4 Lantern Kami
2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
3 Kami of Ancient Law
2 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
2 Hokori, Dust Drinker
3 Shuko
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Glorious Anthem
4 Raise the Alarm
2 Steelshaper’s Gift
15 Plains
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Eiganjo Castle
Sideboard
4 Karma
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Auriok Champion
3 Otherworldly Journey
1 Orb of Dreams
Let it be noted that I don’t discriminate against what I consider to be bad decks when discussing tech or the metagame, even when I don’t feel they are that good. I know there’s this whole contingent of players that live in the Deep South who love playing White and absolutely refuse to play Black. Here at SCG we try to accommodate all sorts of political, religious, and uh… “other” beliefs, and therefore I feel it is my doody to chat for a moment about how the yellow guys are building their pale decks.
Yes, that whole paragraph was a test to see how many of you would be offended. I didn’t mean a single word of it, so let’s just get over it, huh? For the record, I love all peoples, even you dirty White Weenie players (excluding Chris Romeo, but that’s personal).
White Weenie has shown up in a couple of Japanese Top 8s, so winning with the weenies isn’t a completely isolated incident. This deck does exactly what I discussed in an earlier article with the token creatures + Glorious Anthem plan, plus it features Hokori, and it adds an unexpected equipment chain including Steelshaper’s Gift and Shuko. It also has a very solid sideboard, giving players a big boost against Red and Black decks. For those still looking at this deck from a budget perspective, it has a total of 16 rares, more than half of which are reasonably cheap. If you have a friend who needs a deck and just likes to swing, you might want to keep this one in mind.
Creatures (11)
Lands (23)
Spells (26)
This is a deck I did not expect to see in a Standard Top 8 list, not even from Japan. The manabase scares the sh*t out of me, but wow is this list powerful. Standard decks don’t even know the Hana Kami lock exists right now so they aren’t prepared to break it up like decks were in Block, not even post sideboard. Wrath of God is almost invisible as well (how often do you get to say that?), so I can see how bad players would completely overplay their boards going for the fast kill and walk right into a huge board sweeper. Ponza would seem to be an awful matchup in game 1 at first glance, but 3 Rampant Growth, 3 Kodama’s Reach and 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder can cure a lot of mana woes in the early game, and there are enough silver bullets in the maindeck and the sideboard to handle any deck in the metagame with room to spare.
On the downside, I’m not sure it’s very good against decks packing counterspells, and this deck is hard as hell to play well, so anyone considering it will need serious playtesting time before Saturday if they want to make the leap. If you give it to a friend, it should come with a big fat warning label that reads, “FOR EXPERTS ONLY.”
Alright kids, that’s it for today. Five archetypes from Japan, all of which look solid or better. I’ll be back on Friday with my final Regionals blowout article, including discussion of shifts in the metagame, what deck(s) I think are good bets, what pieces of tech fit the metagame, and I’ll also unveil my finalized Hall of Fame ballot at that time. Until then, good luck with your playtesting.
Cheers,
Teddy Card Game
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