Mike Flores did a bang up job of talking about the new Standard over at mtg.com on Thursday based on the Invitational and Last Chance Qualifier results of late. At least I assume he did. Whenever I try reading any articles these days, I am overcome with a sudden desire to Go Ride Bikes.
(I wonder if I could get medication for tha- hay, a squirrel!)
(Ahem, and so on.)
In a typically scene-setting fashion, the players who participated in the Invitational were recently allowed to give their ever-valued opinion on Standard by playing it for three rounds, conveniently giving us all a taste of what to expect at Regionals, short of whatever we get from Saviors of Kamigawa.
‘Cept they was just the having fun, yo.
That’s right, they were most likely having a laugh and a good ol’ time. It has been well documented in the Invitational coverage that several players were handed their decklists just before the tournament. In fact, rumor has it that some players even played their matches with their eyes closed on a dare from Mark Rosewater. In double fact, there’s a good chance that many of the players used tennis balls or other spherical objects to control their games by throwing them at their keyboards from a distance of no less than eleven feet away. While eating cheese steaks and watermelons using Fallen Empires boosters as utensils. Yeah, so you have to think twice before taking them there Invitational results for granted, that’s what I’m saying here.
While I could spend hours talking about all of the decks played, but it’s likely you’d also be struck down with a case of the Hay Guys Let’s Go Ride Bikes. This influx of cyclists may cause irreparable congestion on our roads, streets and quaint little paths with pretty flowers at the edges. So instead, I shall just focus on the decks that ended up Three and Oh.
(That’s three wins, and no loses there, Nigel)
Gabriel Nassif managed to best his three opponents with a Mono-Blue Control deck. This should come as no surprise as he also took second place at some French regionals with a very similar build.
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
15 Island
4 Stalking Stones
4 Chrome Mox
4 Thieving Magpie
2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
4 Wayfarer’s Bauble
4 Mana Leak
4 Boomerang
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Hinder
2 Rewind
3 Bribery
Sideboard:
3 Spectral Shift
4 Temporal Adept
4 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Hibernation
1 Bribery
He dispatched Masashiro Kuroda’s Aggro Red deck with a turn 2 Hinder on Kuroda’s Mulligan, followed closely by a Meloku to prevent any possible comeback. Kuroda mulliganned again in game two, keeping a hand that played nothing into Nassif’s Island go, Island go, Island go, and so on. With draws like that, anyone could be expected to beat an Aggro Red deck. Masashiro Kuroda finished an unfortunate 1-2 in the Standard part of this event.
Kai Budde made Nassif fight for it with many Plow Unders, Etched Oracles, Eternal Witnesses, and therefore, more Plow Unders. Nassif decided he would save his fighting for games two and three, and dropped an early Meloku on Budde’s near empty board. In game three, Kai dropped the Meloku, so Nassif followed it with one of his own. Nassif then ground it out over the next many, many turns with a pair of Thieving Magpies, leaving Budde to match Kuroda’s 1-2 result.
Nassif was then lucky enough to get the bye, also known as Bob Maher Jr. Maher asked Mike Flores for a deck, and promptly turned down a Red Burn deck for a Red/White Auriok Salvagers monstrosity that lead him nicely to an 0-3 finish.
So what can be said about Nassif’s 3-0 finish? He beat a kid-deck, and an opponent who mulliganned in both games, leaving his victory over Kai being the only really legitimate win. We already know that Mono Blue Control is good however, and at least Nassif managed to “forget” his Time Stops and played a more focused and coherent build for the Invitational. But as the results show us, they aren’t really results at all.
Tim Aten showcased what is probably the best new deck to come out of the invitational results. Although that’s not saying a whole heap, because the other new decks happened to be a “no rare” deck and the Salvagers deck. Apparently he got the deck or at least the idea of the deck from Cedric Phillips, who managed to fall short of getting a spot in the Last-Chance Qualifier with the Rats deck at Pro Tour Philadelphia.
The idea of running Ravenous Rats alongside Chittering Rats isn’t exactly new, but adding Jitte and some Ninjas to help abuse come into play abilities adds a new edge to the deck that had previously been unexplored, or at least unnoticed by me anyway. Aether Vial comes back to haunt opponents by dropping rats during their draw step, and thinking towards the future, Saviors of Kamigawa brings a particularly strong weapon to the deck in the shape of Skull Collector. Rat goes up, Rat comes down, Rat goes up, and Rat comes down. If it’s a Chittering Rat, and it’s coming down via the Vial, then you’re not getting any new cards, Charlie. Anyhoo, because I’m nice, here’s Tim’s deck so you don’t have to hunt it down.
4
“>Blinkmoth Nexus
1
“>Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
18 Swamp
4
“>Nezumi Shortfang
4
“>Ravenous Rats
4
“>Skullsnatcher
3
“>Nezumi Cutthroat
4
“>Chittering Rats
4
“>Nekrataal
3
“>Throat Slitter
3 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
4
“>Aether Vial
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
Sideboard:
2
“>Distress
3
“>Echoing Decay
3
“>Terror
4
“>Damping Matrix
3 Cranial Extraction
Tim’s first opponent Pierre Canali played his Green/X Gifts Ungiven to a perfect 0-3 finish, which really shows how finicky Green/X can be when built as incorrectly as many of the Invitational versions appeared to be. Brett Blackman came close with the build he used to qualify in the Last Chance Qualifier, in that he successfully included Iwamori of the Open Fist. However, he failed miserably in that he only included one. Iwamori has been suiting up with Swords of Fire and Ice as early as turn 4 on Magic Online for months now, it’s about time Paper Magic caught up with the play.
(*Grumpy-face*)
As Tim’s first opponent, Pierre Canali spent his early turns developing his mana base, whereas Aten instead developed his Rat base. While Canali used his new-found mana to cast a Meloku, Aten snuck past with a Nezumi Cutthroat which Ninjitsueded into a Throat Slitter. Throat Slitter one, Meloku zero. Game two showed that the only problem with Rats is they are small, and aren’t particularly good at killing Etched Oracles. I say “Oracle” over the singular because it took two of them to grind Aten into the ground, only for Canali to stumble on his mana on game three, and have it compounded by Aten’s Nekrataal on a Birds of Paradise.
Moving swiftly along, Aten then fought with Carlos Romao and his trusty Aggro Red deck. Romao at least managed to pull up at 2-1, which is pretty much how Red should do, and showed at least that Aten didn’t get a cakewalk to his 3-0. It even looked pretty bad for Aten at first in game one, as a Slith Firewalker landed a few too many blows, and was soon followed by an Arc-Slogger. Aten truly Ninja’d the turn by Nekrataaling the Slogger, and then Throat Slittering the Firewalker. About the only thing you can say there is “Horse!”
Romao started game two with a handful of burn the he held on to instead of burning away Aten’s Rats. I assume he wanted to burn Aten out eventually, but he lost too much life waiting for a critical turn and soon succumbed to Atens slow but steady card advantage via Rats and Nekrataals.
To round out his 3-0 performance, Aten beat down on Olivier Ruel, who also happened to be playing Mono Blue Control. However, Ruel didn’t quite manage to match Gabriel Nassif record, and instead bottomed out at 0-3.
Game one Tim played two land to Olivier’s two Vedalken Shackles. By the time another land showed up for Aten, Ruel was sitting very pretty indeed. In game two, some Threads of Disloyalty stole some Rats. But this was usually only after they took a card of their own, and only after being recurred at least once. This allowed Aten to eventually overcome Ruel to take the match to game three where Aether Vial allowed Aten to get crucial Rats into play. By Crucial, I mean Ink-Eyes, obv.
(…iously.)
Osyp Lebedowicz took Bob Maher Jr.’s “leftovers” from Mike Flores, and ran them straight up to the 3-0 mark. No doubt causing Maher to say “heh” more than once over the course of the remaining rounds. Lebedowicz’s deck was basically Red Burn. There was no messing around with Slith Firewalkers, Frostlings or Hearth Kamis, and no launching into the game with Chrome Moxes. Nope, Flores decided to build a slow Red Burn deck based around Sensei’s Diving Top, a card that most of the Magic community has decided he doesn’t understand. [Heh. – Knut, who knows what Flores is writing about soon]
4
“>Blinkmoth Nexus
20 Mountain
4
“>Solemn Simulacrum
4 Arc-Slogger
4
“>Sensei’s Divining Top
4
“>Wayfarer’s Bauble
4
“>Shrapnel Blast
4
“>Magma Jet
4
“>Molten Rain
4
“>Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
1
“>Sowing Salt
3 Beacon of Destruction
Sideboard:
2
“>Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2
“>Culling Scales
2
“>Flamebreak
2
“>Stone Rain
1
“>Sowing Salt
2
“>Duplicant
4 Fireball
As you can see, Flores has designed quite the pile there. With very little in the way to stop a Sword of Fire and Ice, or a Troll Ascetic, or even a Beacon of Creation, Lebedowicz rode this comedy of errors through Bob’s casual deck, Eugene Harvey’s Aggro Red deck (0-3), and Julien Nuijten Tooth and Nail deck.
Nuijten, who finished 2-1 should have crushed Lebedowicz, but the Salsa Master managed to draw at least one of his two Sowing Salts in games two and three, and coupled with one or two other land destruction spells, managed to stop Nuijten from doing anything meaningful. How did Nuijten win game one? He mulliganned to five and kept a one land hand, and yet he still managed to fire off a turn 5 Tooth and Nail.
I suspect there will be a very good build of Mono Red Burn out there somewhere, but unfortunately, this is very far from what it should be.
(Mike. That ball you dropped, it’s over there somewhere. Be a good lad and go pick it up, would you?) [Having tested Mike’s deck for weeks, I will flat-out disagree with the Kiwi here and tell you that this is one of the best decks in the format right now, though it needs some sideboard tweaks from Osyp’s version. – Knut, who offered StarWarsKid this deck and the fast Red deck for the Philly LCQ]
Finally, we come to Mister Invitational 2005 himself, Terry Soh. Terry of course managed to crush his opponents in the Standard portion through some solid playtesting, which is also known in the Invitational circles as “cheating”. Soh must have figured out that popping an Oblivion Stone with a Vine Trellis, a Birds of Paradise, or a Talisman of Green/something in play was seldom the hot play of the day. Replacing those cards with Kodama’s Reach certainly helps get the double Green needed, but otherwise seems counter-intuitive. However, those of you who have played with Reach in Block Constructed know that’s it’s just That Damn Consistent.
10 Forest
4
“>Urza’s Mine
4
“>Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
4
“>Sakura-Tribe Elder
4
“>Eternal Witness
1
“>Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2
“>Duplicant
2 Sundering Titan
4
“>Sensei’s Divining Top
4
“>Sylvan Scrying
4
“>Kodama’s Reach
3
“>Oblivion Stone
3
“>Reap and Sow
3
“>Mindslaver
1
“>Plow Under
3 Tooth and Nail
Sideboard:
2
“>Vine Trellis
4
“>Troll Ascetic
2
“>Iwamori of the Open Fist
2
“>Molder Slug
3
“>Plow Under
2 Razormane Masticore
The best part of Soh’s deck has to be the sideboard. The Bring in a Variety of Cost-Effective Fatties is quite strong in the face of things like Cranial Extraction and Sowing Salt. Although, I would personally run more Iwamori, but that’s because he’s a two-story house with a fully equipped barbecue area and swimming pool. Unfortunately, the results tell us that it was all for nothing. Not that Soh’s plan wasn’t a good one, but he lucked out somewhat with the easy match-ups, getting paired with Antoine Ruel and Kai Budde, who were both sporting Green/X Gifts decks. This is not usually a problem match-up for Tooth and Nail unless they can somehow manage to score a Direct Hit with a Sowing Salt after sideboarding. Unfortunately, both players decided on the Cranial Extraction plan, which isn’t especially good verses a turn 4 Razormane Masticore or Molder Slug.
Oh yeah, and Terry Soh other match was with Bob Maher Jr. and his Salvagers of silliness. *cough*freewin*cough*freewin*splutter*
So of those four 3-0 decks, Tim Aten Rats was the only one who didn’t get the bye verses Bob Maher, which really doesn’t count as a meaningful result. This should tell you not to put much weight behind those 3-0 results, other than to add the Rats to your playtesting gauntlet for the upcoming Regionals tournaments.
And with that, I must now bid you a hasty farewell and happy practicing, because I suspect Mike Flores, Bob Maher Jr. and a sack of rusty nails would like a quick word with me out the back…
*Scampers*
(beep)