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The Vintage Conundrum: Why Did Hulk Smash Win The Vintage Championships?

The Final Product that Carl played was the result of no less than six active members of the Paragons (with more adding occasional input) debating, testing, and arguing about various elements of Hulk. But how did we develop it, why was it a solid metagame call, and what is the importance of the Paragons?

Oscar and I are doing a few articles looking at the GenCon experience. We’ll be taking a look at the impact of teams on winning in Type One versus the importance of the individual.


One hundred and eighty-three people came with their Moxen and Black Lotuses to enjoy eight rounds of Type One action at the Type One Championships, which might be one of the largest Type One tournaments since the invention of Standard. After the dust had cleared, the top 8 was a frightful selection of demented Stax decks, twisted Masknaught, and a weary but enraged (or should I say Berserked?) Psychatog.


So after eight rounds, there were two Stax decks in the top 8. All of Oscar’s articles couldn’t shepherd any of the twenty-five Keeper decks that showed up into the Top 8. Your skills are lagging, old man – perhaps we should ship you out to the geriatric home.


This article is going to look at some of the key lessons of the tournament, seen through the focus of teams, the secret evolution of Type One Tog, and discuss some key elements of for the future of the metagame. A few side notes first.


First, a huge debt of gratitude is owed to StarCityGames for their triumphant coverage of the tournament, Professional Events for hosting this milestone, to Wizards for doing it, Chris Rush for putting up a cool prize, and many others who worked to make this possible.


At Origins, I was looking through at Hill Redwine’s Stax list with Kevin Cron, comparing it to Kevin’s and my own – and Andy Stokinger happened to pass by and see Stax. I explained some of the card combinations in a little detail – that’s what he was referring to when he said he saw Stax at Origins. Those of you who read the Stax article might have been surprised at Kevin Cron’s use of Divert in the Stax sideboard; ythe basic idea was to use it as a secret tech card against the anti-Stax hate; in particular, it is a very good solution to Artifact Mutation and Hurkyl’s Recall. In addition, it acts as a Red Elemental Blast much of the time by countering a Counterspell. Finally, it is very strong versus the twenty-five Sligh decks.


Secrecy Wins Tournaments

This is a tough lesson to learn – particularly for a format where there really isn’t Pro Tour-type money on the line – there is a desire to set aside that killer instinct and spread technology on large-scale message boards like The Mana Drain or post decklists on StarCityGames.


There was a bit of second-guessing on my own part before I started working on the $T4KS article, or even the Gro-A-Tog article. I could have kept our build completely secret so Kevin would have had an even better shot at GenCon. Hell, I didn’t even have to mention Rectal Agony in my last article. These things weigh on me. And they do so because I know how valuable information is – as proved by this tournament.


Myself, Oscar Tan, David Allen, Carl Winter, Shane Stoots, Darren Di Battista, and others are members of a team – the Paragons – in which we promised total secrecy with regard to Hulk Smash (the Type One Tog) after it was decided by democratic vote that this was the deck we’d be working on for GenCon. It made perfect sense. JP Meyer, a Paragon, had invented the deck (more on that later), and Darren had tested it in its early stages with him. I picked it up early on as well. It only made sense that we choose Hulk, since it had such a competitive advantage. Moreover, we all agreed that it was the best deck. The most I could do for the readers of my last article was post JP’s last public build on The Mana Drain from March. I’ve been in Europe since July 4th, and most of my testing has been Pre-July.


However, last weekend, I had the opportunity to test Hulk in Antwerp and report to the Paragons list about my experience with the deck. A perceptive reader of the last article had this to say last week in the forums when replying to my article:


I believe I read on that site that Stephen placed 9th in a twenty-nine person tournament on July 19th, playing Hulk Smash. Something to address in an article might then be why he played a deck he considers”good,” rather than using a”strong” deck, as I think strong > good. Was this choice due to different metagame expectations, a specific deck preference, or just a lack of cards?


I was playing without Coffin Purges or Pernicious Deeds in my sideboard and suffered because of it. You see, I announced that I wanted to play in Antwerp on short notice and I had some offers to borrow cards, which I promptly accepted. However, my fully-sleeved Hulk deck lay on my desk in Ohio – an ocean away for a friend in the area who might be brave enough to take my deck to GenCon. As such, my hook-ups failed to supply me with some critical sideboard cards… And as you will see, Hulk is won or lost in the sideboard.


The key point here is simple, though: Type One is a non-integrated format: You can’t go online and see the last Pro Tour results to figure out where to start. It isn’t like Type Two, where you have a very visible and well-known idea of what the tier structure is. It is often said that Pros know what other Pros know – so there are few real secrets. Well, in Type One, knowledge is power. Time and again, I have seen the”Surprise” deck win. Roland Bode in January Dülmen with Gro-A-Tog; myself in Kentucky with Gro-A-Tog; Benjamin Ribbock in march Dülmen with Stax, Paul Mastriano at Origins last year with MaskNaught, and now Crazy Carl Winter at the GenCon Championship with Hulk. The list goes on and on. But the principle is the same. Secrecy wins tournaments, especially in Type One.


Teams Are Critical to Success

The Final Product that Carl played was the result of no less than six active members of the Paragons (with more adding occasional input) debating, testing, and arguing about various elements of Hulk.


The importance of a team cannot be underestimated. The success of a good team is dependent upon two main factors: The first is being able to play new decks well. You don’t want to sit down for gauntlet testing, only to have your opponent play the test deck incompetently. The second is being able to report and interpret the results so that other team members can make use of that information and build on it. I’ve heard Dirk Baberowski say that the Phoenix Foundation tests just by playing decks, and then Kai announces which deck is best. That is one half of what makes a team: Actual testing. And that may be good when you have Kai on your team – but generally, you need to make it a collaborative effort.


Don’t misunderstand me – you don’t have to make this a super-intense experience. You can learn just by casually playing some good decks once a week with your friends. (You have to play them well, of course.) That kind of teamwork is often just as effective in Type One as actually scheduling testing time and documenting the results.


Knowledge of The Format Distinguishes Type One as a Necessity for Success

This kind of touches on what Andy Stokinger said and some earlier points. In Type Two, and particularly Onslaught Block, many decks are already designed and posted on the internet with obvious sideboard that make sense in a widely understood metagame. However, this differs from type one in two major respects.


First of all, Type One is not widely understood – it requires a lot of experience to understand the basic dynamics of how Type One tournaments generally flow – what kind of decks will appear, how many people are likely to be powered, what to expect based upon that power level and so on. Because not everyone can play what is might be considered the”optimal” deck that they might want to play, which leads to a pretty random environment, a wide knowledge will reward you. The Type One cards are so powerful, and the format so fast, that even though you might be playing against Friday Night Magic-level people, they can still steal games if you aren’t prepared.


Which brings me to the second major difference: Type One has a tremendous card pool, which more than triples that of Type Two and far surpasses that of any Block. The most profound impact of this is that it is possible to scour the card pool for great answers to powerful decks. Cards like Artifact Mutation spring to mind as creative answers to Stax. In other words, we are talking about the Sideboard here. Players who might be playing suboptimal decks, but have a great working knowledge of the metagame. People like Richard Mattiuzzo (Shockwave on TMD) play Type One all the time – and I think a great part of his success can be attributed to that. They know the matchups and they know what to Sideboard. The results speak for themselves. The Top 8 wasn’t littered with pro players – it was littered with Mana Drainers, hardcore Type One aficionados like Carl Winter a.k.a. CrazyCarlWinter, Kevin Cron a.k.a. Cha1n5, Richard Mattiuzzo a.k.a. Shockwave, David Allen a.k.a. Thorme, Shane Shoots a.k.a. Triple S – all recognizable names in the Type One community (well – at least their board names are).


(To be fair, we didn’t have any pros at the tournament outside of Andy – I have a feeling that if Mikey Pustilnik had shown up, he would have made the Top 8 too – The Ferrett)


The Debate is Over. Psychatog is the Best Creature Ever Printed.

I can only imagine what Randy Buehler is thinking if he is reading this. I bet he wouldn’t have thought in his wildest imagination that this little Tog would dominate Type One, of all formats. There wasn’t even a single Morphling in the top 8.


Well, it’s true. Gro-A-Tog wasn’t the only place for Mr. Teeth to hang around.


It all began in December and January. Darren Di Battista asked JP Meyer to make a new deck – and JP pulled Psychatog into Type One. His first deck was scoffed at. I admit to being one of the ones who scoffed; I mean, Psychatog, a Standard card, in Type One??!? JP believed in it. And so did Roland Bode. Roland called his T1 Tog deck, at the time, his favorite deck to play. Both of them played it in the Online Mana Drain Invitational. Here is what JP played:


Psychatog

9 Island

4 Polluted Delta

4 Underground Sea

1 Swamp

1 Library of Alexandria

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Sapphire

4 Psychatog

1 Wonder

4 Force of Will

4 Mana Drain

4 Accumulated Knowledge

4 Intuition

3 Gush

3 Cunning Wish

2 Misdirection

1 Mind Twist

1 Yawgmoth’s Will

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Upheaval


SB: 3 Powder Keg

SB: 3 Back to Basics

SB: 3 Duress

SB: 1 Mystical Tutor

SB: 1 Fact or Fiction

SB: 1 Capsize

SB: 1 Shallow Grave

SB: 1 Mana Short

SB: 1 Diabolic Edict


JP carried his deck to an eighty-man-plus tournament in March called The Mana Drain Invitational, gaining 2nd place with his loss in the finals to Gro-A-Tog. You can read his report here: by that time, he had added Green. This deck was obviously powerful to everyone at the time, but it was massively overshadowed by Gro-A-Tog.


It was well known that if Gush was restricted, Tog would still be around – it was publicly proclaimed. In fact, before the announcement of Gush’s restriction, I heavily argued to JP on Instant Messenger that Hulk should add four Brainstorms maindeck and to go down to one Gush. I had played JP in person at Neutral Ground, where I introduced him to my Stax deck, winning about six of nine games against his Tog. The reasoning I presented JP with to add Brainstorms was simple: I pointed out that all the top decks that could run Brainstorm, did run Brainstorm – Keeper, Gro-A-Tog, Rector Trix and so on. It was simply too strong not to add. His concern, as always, was what to cut. My view was that you only needed the Gush once a Tog was in play – and by that time you would have either drawn it, or had access to it via Merchant Scroll. So it seemed a logical conclusion to me to cut down on the Gushes in favor of an earlier card in the game plan: Brainstorm. I also felt strongly about two Duresses maindeck.


Then in mid June, I had done more testing with the archetype, now that it was the future, as we all felt… And one of the first changes I proposed was to add Mystical Tutor in favour of one of the Intuitions. I had done some testing against some Multi-Color ‘Phidian decks and had decided that against Red Elemental Blasts and Swords to Plowshares, Hulk can get into this sort of topdecking mode in which it’s already expended its draw. And instead of drawing Intuitions, which were inevitably used just to thin my deck, I wanted access to Yawgmoth’s Will.


They took it a step further. Not only did they agree with the Mystical, but they added a third Cunning Wish – a move which was brilliant, because it also helped access the Yawgmoth’s Will via either Lim-Dul’s Vault or Vampiric Tutor, which was lodged in the sideboard.


My testing of Hulk against Stax was discouraging for Hulk. But Artifact Mutation turned that all around because it was such an”I Win” card against Stax. Additionally, Duress proved really strong against Stax and I was considering how to add more.


After my Origins experience, I became increasingly convinced of the uselessness of Misdirection and the necessity of more Duresses. They all agreed. It was as if we were all independently coming to the same conclusions. I pushed for four Duresses and no Misdirections. I also cut Strip Mine – which was agreed to as well.


However, in the last couple of weeks we have come to a point of disagreement: My experience at Antwerp demonstrated how incredibly potent Mind Twist is now that the threat of Misdirection is diminished. I said that four Duresses and a Mind Twist maindeck are pretty important. However, JP had come up with some pretty cool tech for the mirror: Deep Analysis. The premise is that you Intuition these into the graveyard first in the mirror match. I strongly disagreed. I found Deep Analysis to be decent, but much more of a later game card – a card that you access once you have already expended your primary draw engine against non-mirror matches. For that reason, I found it much inferior to Duress or the Mind Twist – two cards which I think are extremely strong in this metagame. I also pointed out that our secrecy has probably diminished the likelihood of mirror matches (excepting team-mates) and that it would be much better employed post-GenCon. If Hulk won GenCon (which we were all hoping), then Deep Analysis would be almost a practical necessity to have an advantage in the nightmare that is the mirror match. It was for that reason that I advocated this as my GenCon build:


4 Duress

4 Force of Will

4 Mana Drain

4 Brainstorm

4 Accumulated Knowledge

2 Intuition

1 Gush

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

3 Cunning Wish

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Mystical Tutor

2 Merchant Scroll

1 Mind Twist

1 Yawgmoth’s Will

3 Psychatog

4 Underground Sea

5 Moxen

1 Black Lotus

3 Flooded Strand

4 Polluted Delta

2 Volcanic Island

2 Tropical Island

1 Island

1 Library of Alexandria


Sideboard:


2 Artifact Mutation

3 Coffin Purge

2 Pernicious Deed

3 Red Elemental Blast

1 Naturalize

1 Fire / Ice

1 Blue Elemental Blast

1 Berserk

1 Vampiric Tutor


JP and the rest stuck to their guns. Carl took JP and Darren’s approach and used Deep Analysis.


Let’s take a look at Carl’s decklist:


First Place: Carl Winter, Hulk Smash

4 Mana Drain

4 Force of Will

4 Brainstorm

4 Accumulated Knowledge

3 Cunning Wish

3 Duress

2 Merchant Scroll

2 Deep Analysis

3 Psychatog

2 Intuition

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

1 Yawgmoth’s Will

1 Black Lotus

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Island

2 Polluted Delta

3 Flooded Strand

3 Volcanic Island

2 Tropical Island

4 Underground Sea


Sideboard:

1 Fire / Ice

1 Blue Elemental Blast

1 Mind Twist

3 Coffin Purge

1 Lim-Dul’s Vault

2 Pernicious Deed

1 Artifact Mutation

1 Naturalize

1 Berserk

3 Red Elemental Blast


The result was, undoubtedly, that Carl’s Deep Analysis proved strong in the mirror matches that he had to play. But my list and his are both Paragon Hulk lists that are only a few cards different.


Type One Has A Balanced Metagame, For Now

One of the biggest potential embarrassments for the advocates (such as myself) is that a totally degenerate combo deck emerges and just wreaks havoc over the whole tournament. It would be extremely offputting and suggest that something is inherently wrong with Type One. But after a Championship, with nearly two hundred players, nothing like that showed up! In fact, things went exactly as planned. The only downside is that there is an obvious threshold for the format right now – with the upper decks being extremely competitive and balanced, while lesser decks have little chance.


However, that isn’t always the case. At one point I even predicted that a random aggro deck would squeeze its way into the top 8 (although I thought it might be Suicide Black or Ankh Sligh, not Goblin Sligh). It was nice to see the more pure combo forms squeezed out. The answer to the questions I posited in the last article appear to be that Combo, in its pure form, will not be the future of this metagame. Instead, combo in its hybrid form is the path to success. Hulk itself is Control-Combo with Tog + Berserk as the winning combo. The two Mask decks are certainly Hybrid Aggro-Combo or even Aggro-Control-Combo. And the Stax deck is a Prison-Control deck that basically wins in one turn with Karn, Silver Golem and an army of men after complete lockdown.


The remaining decks were more pure combo, but not in the Mike Long Burning Academy or Rectal Agony vein, reliant on merely Duress or Cabal Therapy – no, these Combo decks used Force of Will, thus proving once and for all that Force of Will is key. (Even, ironically enough, if it is a means for the Combo deck to protect itself from the ravages of Stax.)


In essence, Combo was hated out. There was a general awareness about the power of Rector and Tendrils of Agony. That heightened attention seriously detracted from its ability to succeed. This feeds into the arguments I was making earlier about secrecy. Simply, the control decks came equipped not only with the necessary answers in Duress and Stifle, but appropriate sideboard solutions in the form of Coffin Purge, for example. Additionally, the massive influx of Workshop Prison decks proved a determinative factor. Both first and second place at Antwerp were won by Stax and a variant among a sea of Rector decks. So not only is the metagame balanced, but it is swiftly reactive.


My final impression of the Metagame before GenCon was this (I’ll assume you’ve already read the articles from last week):


Rectal Agony (Academy Rector + Tendrils of Agony) proved to do very well against its cousin Rector Trix. However, Rectal Agony died terribly to Stax, whereas Rector Trix did not. In fact, Rector Trix is probably Stax’s worst matchup because it not only has the discard, but it has Force of Will. And once Bargain is in play, it is very unlikely that Stax will win. Stax has a serious problem with Academy Rectors since its whole game plan is to obliterate the other side of the board. However, Hulk was now teched out with Deeds, Mutations, Duress, Mana Drains, and Force of Will to beat Stax. And it had three Coffin Purges to beat the Rector decks on top of the aforementioned cards.


So on top of the Rock-Paper-Scissors of Stax > Rectal Agony > Rector Trix > Stax, you now have a deck that can combat them all: Hulk. And that is precisely what it did. Moreover, both Mutation and Purge prove strong against the other decks in the field: including Vengeur Masque and regular MaskNaught, not to mention the rogue Dragon deck.


However, it seems to me that Hulk hates Hate. In my testing I was afraid of facing decks with X Red Elemental Blasts and four Swords to Plowshares because it could be such a pain for Hulk. For a while in June, my Hulk sideboard had a Morphling to surprise those decks. However, Mind Twist and Duress perform a protective function against those cards, peeling them out of the opponent’s hand before they can be played – especially Mind Twist, which can create huge card advantage.


While Hulk is King of the Moment, there are number of reasons to doubt its effectiveness as”The Best Deck” of the emergent post-July metagame. One reason is that it might be easily hated out with Red Elemental Blasts and Swords to Plowshares. Another reason is that it is no longer a surprise. The simple truth is that in spite of these factors, it will remain a Tier One deck for the foreseeable future. No one is going to underestimate this deck again. A good team can make sure that you won’t.


Stephen Menendian

I can be reached at [email protected]


P.S.: For the people who made fundamental rules-based mistakes, Oscar will have your asses – especially those who went with”The Deck”!!!