August
Sweden (49 Players)
8/01/04
Stax
Control Slaver
Stax
Gay/R
4CC
4CC
Tog
Stax
Karlsruhe (44)
8/7/2004
Stax
Stax
GAT
FCG
4CC
Tog
Tendrils
Tendrils
Basel (31)
8/15/2004
Stax
Control Slaver
4CC
Control Slaver
SuperGro
Gay/R
FCG
Survival Mask
Eindhoven (43)
8/22/2004
Gay/R
Gay/R
4CC
Rector
Salvagers (NO LISTING)
U/R Control
Tendrils
Tendrils
Mount Vernon, WA (39)
8/28/04
1) Dragon
2) Dragon
3) Tendrils
4) Mono-Blue
5) Stax
6) Ironworks Combo
7) Turboland
8) Workshop Aggro
The Sweden metagame has been heavily favoring Stax as an archetype and I can’t say as though I blame them. The deck is amazingly quick to lock down an opponent and is usually a good deck choice in the metagames dominated by Fish, Tog, and Control Slaver. The Eindhoven tournament had some odd output, but partially that was blamed on some of their better players being overseas for Gencon.
The Mount Vernon metagame is still young as far as I know, but off to a fantastic start. Really, considering this is a place I’ve never really heard much about, it’s quite a diverse top 8 without anything blatantly odd (except maybe the Ironworks combo) or seemingly subpar. My prediction is that the players will have hated out Dragon by the next month (this just in – in a 54-person tournament, the top 8 has zero Dragon decks. Keep looking for DrSylvan’s September report for more information).
There were 18 Separate archetypes for August, for an average of 6.2 archetypes per tournament Top8.
Deck | Finishes | Count | Percentage of the Field |
Stax | (1,1,1,2,3,8,5) | 7 | 17.50% |
4CC | (5,6,5,3,3) | 5 | 12.50% |
Tendrils | (7,8,7,8,3) | 5 | 12.50% |
Gay/R | (4,6,1,2) | 4 | 10% |
Control Slaver | (2,2,4) | 3 | 7.50% |
Tog | (7,6) | 2 | 5% |
FCG | (4,7) | 2 | 5% |
Dragon | (1,2) | 2 | 5% |
SuperGro | 5 | 1 | 2.50% |
Survival Mask | 8 | 1 | 2.50% |
Rector | 4 | 1 | 2.50% |
Salvagers | 5 | 1 | 2.50% |
U/R Control | 6 | 1 | 2.50% |
GAT | 3 | 1 | 2.50% |
Mono-Blue | 4 | 1 | 2.50% |
Ironworks Combo | 6 | 1 | 2.50% |
Turboland | 7 | 1 | 2.50% |
Workshop Aggro | 8 | 1 | 2.50% |
The top 3 decks of August were Stax, Tendrils, and 4cControl, the two decks that capitalize on Crucible of Worlds the best. Tendrils did really well, perhaps that is in part due to the Top 8 reports for two New England events being unreported or it could be that Tendrils has gained strength with Tog missing from the metagame (being the only control deck that ran Duress in addition to it’s normal eight counterspells). My incomplete data for one of these events were:
8/14/2004
30 Players
In no particular order:
Gay/R
Control Slaver
Control Slaver
TPS
Workshop Aggro
Stax
4cControl
Unknown
Assuming this is correct, the upper placement would remain the same except for that Control Slaver would now be tied with Gay/R and we would have a upper deck breakdown of:
Stax – 8 Top 8’s
4cControl – 6 Top 8’s
Tendrils – 6 Top 8’s
Control Slaver – 5 Top 8’s
Gay/R – 5 Top 8’s
Whenever a deck puts 4 or more decks in the top 8’s for a month, we look to this as the dominant archetypes. As I previously mentioned, Stax and 4cControl (and actually to a lesser extent, Fish should be included in this) are the decks that most make use of Crucible of Worlds, which is having a giant impact on the format (whether it is good, bad, or neither is beside the point). It should also be pointed out that only one of these archetypes even uses Workshops and we’re not even concerning ourselves with the notoriously Workshop-light metagame of New England.
Whenever a deck puts 1 or 2 decks in the top 8’s for a month, it could be summed up in three categories. Category One would be a beginning trend, much like Smmenen’s Top 8 performance with Mono-Blue kick-starting its sudden resurrection throughout Top 8’s (Again, see September’s breakdown when it comes out). Category Two could signify absolutely nothing other than someone played a pet deck and it randomly did well. Finally, Category Three could mean that it is a dying archetype that some players haven’t let go quite yet.
In our monthly breakdown, you really see none of the trend starter (Category One) decks, except for maybe the one Mono-blue deck. You can tell this is a trend because if you look through DrSylvan’s August update, you’ll see almost nobody playing it for months with a sudden appearance at Gencon, then regular appearances throughout various top 8’s.
As far as pet-decks (Category Two) go, I tread on dangerous waters here because implying that someone is playing a pet-deck implies that this person is playing the deck because it’s theirs and ignores any factual evidence of whether it is viable or not. Just the same, on the more admirable side of the coin, this could also signify that this particular player actually made attempts to make an archetype viable again. I would be quick to point out that one of these”sub”-reasons for Category Two is responsible for the oddball Salvager and Ironworks Combo decks.
Dying Archetypes (Category Three) seem to be light this month because out of the list, I can only reasonably see Rector and Survival Mask as being decks that no longer hold their former glory. Since Rector will get”accidentally” hated out by Dragon hate, there really hasn’t been a reason to run this deck recently. I know that personally, myself and some teammates gave the project attention but it was abandoned after preliminary testing.
Totals by Jeek (Missing 1 Salvager deck list and the”mystery” top 8 lists)
84 Force of Will
72 Wasteland
71 Volcanic Island
70 Brainstorm
56 Polluted Delta
55 Island
53 Rack and Ruin
49 Mana Drain
48 Underground Sea
46 Red Elemental Blast
42 Flooded Strand
38 Thirst for Knowledge
36 Goblin Welder
33 Cunning Wish
30 Fire / Ice
29 Crucible of Worlds
29 Tormod’s Crypt
28 Ancestral Recall
27 Duress
27 Time Walk
26 Blue Elemental Blast
25 Blood Moon
25 Mox Sapphire
24 Black Lotus
24 Mishra’s Workshop
24 Sol Ring
23 Mox Ruby
23 Smokestack
23 Tangle Wire
23 Trinisphere
23 Tundra
22 Mox Jet
22 Mox Pearl
21 Gorilla Shaman
21 Mox Emerald
21 Strip Mine
20 Dark Ritual
20 Skeletal Scrying
20 Stifle
20 Swords to Plowshares
18 Null Rod
17 Grim Lavamancer
17 Triskelion
16 Accumulated Knowledge
16 Ancient Tomb
16 Cloud of Faeries
16 Demonic Tutor
16 Mishra’s Factory
16 Spiketail Hatchling
16 Standstill
16 Tropical Island
16 Yawgmoth’s Will
15 Curiosity
15 Exalted Angel
15 Library of Alexandria
15 Mana Crypt
15 Shivan Reef
14 Mana Vault
14 Tinker
13 Fact or Fiction
13 Flametongue Kavu
13 Tolarian Academy
13 Vampiric Tutor
12 Energy Flux
12 Memory Jar
12 Taiga
11 Daze
11 Hydroblast
11 Misdirection
11 Mystical Tutor
11 Wooded Foothills
10 Chalice of the Void
10 City of Brass
10 Coffin Purge
10 Mindslaver
10 Mountain
10 Sundering Titan
10 Tendrils of Agony
10 Viashino Heretic
9 Echoing Truth
9 Swamp
8 Food Chain
8 Goblin Lackey
8 Goblin Piledriver
8 Goblin Recruiter
8 Goblin Ringleader
8 Intuition
8 Quirion Dryad
8 Timetwister
8 Tsabo’s Web
7 Disenchant
7 Goblin Warchief
7 Psychatog
7 Rebuild
6 Balance
6 Chain of Vapor
6 Faerie Conclave
6 Gush
6 Lotus Petal
6 Mind Twist
6 Naturalize
6 Pyrite Spellbomb
6 Skirk Prospector
5 Damping Matrix
5 Darksteel Colossus
5 Deep Analysis
5 Gempalm Incinerator
5 Gilded Drake
5 Hurkyl’s Recall
5 Karn, Silver Golem
5 Necropotence
5 Platinum Angel
5 Time Spiral
5 Wheel of Fortune
5 Windfall
5 Winter Orb
5 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
4 Academy Rector
4 Artifact Mutation
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Chill
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Vandal
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Mana Leak
4 Maze of Ith
4 Meddling Mage
4 Mind’s Desire
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Pyroclasm
4 Seal of Cleansing
4 Shattering Pulse
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Volrath’s Shapeshifter
3 Berserk
3 Decree of Justice
3 Earthquake
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Gemstone Mine
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
3 Goblin Tinkerer
3 Ground Seal
3 Jester’s Cap
3 Merchant Scroll
3 Metalworker
3 Morphling
3 Night’s Whisper
3 Sleight of Hand
3 Voidmage Prodigy
3 Windswept Heath
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Defense Grid
2 Duplicant
2 Fastbond
2 Force Spike
2 Forest
2 Geth’s Grimoire
2 Gilded Lotus
2 Meditate
2 Meekstone
2 Nevinyrral’s Disk
2 Oxidize
2 Pentavus
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Pyroblast
2 Quirion Ranger
1 Anger
1 Brain Freeze
1 Counterspell
1 Crumble
1 Ebony Charm
1 Fling
1 Flying Men
1 Frantic Search
1 Future Sight
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Glimmervoid
1 Great Furnace
1 Grim Monolith
1 Memnarch
1 Mox Diamond
1 Phage the Untouchable
1 Razorfin Hunter
1 Regrowth
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
1 Smother
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Starstorm
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 The Abyss
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Wail of the Nim
1 Zuran Orb