Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #165 – Breaking Down the Madison PTQ

We had a Pro Tour Qualifier in Madison last weekend: the second largest PTQ in North America so far this season, and bigger if some Madison natives weren’t busy that weekend. Want interesting and innovative decks? Read on. Need stats on archetype performance? Sure. Looking for tales of yours truly going undefeated and untied? Of course. More rants about Blue? Maybe next time.

Undefeated and untied? Yeah, I was judging.

Being married to the head judge has some advantages, and some disadvantages. One advantage is that I came home from the tournament with all the decklists, a copy of the final standings, and more. One disadvantage — I’m the first one tapped when she needs another judge on short notice. Going into the event, I knew I could play if the turnout was low, but if turnout got much over 100-125, I would have to wear stripes. We had 183 players. Stripes it was.

(By the way, if you guessed that favorable rulings is one of the advantages of being married to the head judge, you are wrong. Ingrid’s very first action after passing her level 1 judge test was to give me a game loss. It was warranted.)

Enough with the judge crap? Okay. I know – everyone reads an article like this for data, so here goes.

I went through all the decklists and tried to identify all the archetypes being played and how they finished. I’ll provide decklists below. For each archetype, I’ll post the best finish, total number starting the day, and number to break the Top 32. If the best finish is blank, it’s because no one playing the deck finished in the Top 32, or because everyone playing the deck dropped before the end of the Swiss. My table also leaves out a few new decklists (e.g. the deck that finished seventh). I’ll discuss those decks later, as well as discussing the archetypes in greater detail.

Archetype	Best Finish	Number Played	# in Top 32
Boros	Winner	14	4
U/W Tron	Second	16	2
Scepter Chant	Third	7	1
Opposition	Fourth	3	1
Astral Slide	Fifth	2	2
Aggro Loam	Sixth	4	2
Flores GW	Eighth	8	3
Non-Flow Rock	Ninth*	12	2
Affinity	Tenth	18	5
Flow Rock	Twelfth	19	3
TEPS	Twentieth	7	1
R/G Aggro	Thirteenth	3	2
Goblins	Fourteenth	8	1
Trinket Mage	Fifteenth*	7	1
Ichorid	Thirtieth	3	1
Ben Bleiweiss’ U/G	n/a	7	–
Tooth and Nail	n/a	5	–
CAL	n/a	1	–
Psychatog	n/a	4	–
other	n/a	lots	–

* These are highly atypical versions of the archetype. For example, the Trinket Mage deck in fifteenth is B/W splashing U mainly for the Trinket Mage. Decklists are below.

Originally, I was just going to talk about the archetypes one at a time, and slip in the Top 8 lists where they fit. However, identifying archetypes is not always easy. Here’s a quiz: I’ll give you some cards — you identify the archetype. I’ll even put some white space between the cards and the answer.

Isochron Scepter, Lightning Helix, Fire / Ice

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And the answer is….

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Scepter Chant, a.k.a. NO Stick

Kird Ape, Grim Lavamancer, and Lightning Helix?

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And the answer is….

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Boros (which almost always splashes for the monkey nowadays).

An easy one:

Trinket Mage, Sensei’s Divining Top, Tormod’s Crypt, Engineered Explosives?

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And the answer is….

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Trinket Mage (duh) or TrinketTron

Here’s one we all know: Shrapnel Blast, Pyrite Spellbomb, artifact lands and Pithing Needle.

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And the answer is….

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Affinity

How about a deck that runs Dark Confidant plus all of the above cards?

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Y RLY

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And the answer is….

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Seventh place.

Okay, that’s not the “answer,” but it is where it finished. I called it Trinkety Zoo in my notes. I’m not sure what the player actually called it. It’s not written on the decklist.

It’s a cool deck.

Instead, I’m just going to list the Top 16 decks, in order. I’ll have complete decklists for the first eight, and just list the player’s name and archetype for anything not pretty close to the standard archetype. I’ll throw in comments on archetypes later. I’ll start with the winner and walk on down.

Craig is going to kill me. Tables, lots of decklists — a formatting nightmare and I’ll just barely make deadline. Sorry, Craig. [No problem, fella. — Craig.]

I said I’d start with the winner.

Mike Hron.

Way to go H-Ron!

I mentioned that some of the Madison crowd was busy — they were in Geneva. Mike won, Matt came in 96th, Sam 118th, BK not so good, and Chris Richter was judging.

Back to the PTQ.

We had eight rounds of Swiss, plus the Top 8. That is a lot of games, and a lot of chances for an inconsistent deck to crap out. I talked about the difference tournament size makes, so maybe it says something that the deck that won was also one of the most consistent in the format.

Richard Feldman and Zac Hill clearly had an impact on the metagame. I saw a ton of decks running Petrified Fields, Razormane Masticores, and other cards first popularized for U/W in their articles. Tenacious Tron variants were the most common control decks in the field. Eighteen players brought U/W Tron decks, but only two made the Top 32. That’s not very good odds. That deck is not very good again aggro, in my experience, and that was born out in the finals. Boros won game 1 and game 3, both times with a Chalice set to two in play, and after being Wrathed a couple times.

This version does show a lot of Tenacious Tron influence, but also shows some hints of Shaheen Sorani’s original Worlds deck, including a Solemn Simulacrum. It also features Triskelion over Razormane or other creature control. That may be because Tommy Kolowith is more of a vintage player (Team ICBM) than Extended, and Triski trumps Razormane in that format. I should also note that Triskelion was a major factor in the win over Opposition in the semis — Triski killed a lot of Symbiotes, and did it far faster than Razormane Masticore could have. [Hang on, I’ve a call from Richard Feldman coming through… – Craig, amused.]

Third place went to a more traditional base U/W control deck – Scepter Chant. I was surprised by the Minamo, School at the Water’s Edge I kept seeing hitting play. I shouldn’t have been: Teferi is a Legend, and Teferi is a big part of what makes the deck tick. Teferi plus Orim’s Chant on a Scepter is an ugly, ugly thing.

When the fourth place deck first appeared in Top 8 lists a couple weeks ago, I dismissed it. That was probably a mistake. After watching the deck in action in both the quarters and semis, I have a different opinion. Right now, I think the Coiling Oracle / Wirewood Symbiote combination may be the best card advantage engine in the metagame. If the opponent cannot kill the 1/1s, then it can rip through more cards than practically anything else. (Fecundity Goblins might be better at digging — although Fecundity Goblins is not a better bet to make Top 8.) In any case, proxy up the deck. I don’t think the Top 8s are a fluke.

Excuse me, I have to price Oppositions online.

Three people brought Opposition decks to the party. One made Top 8. That’s decent, but G/W Astral Slide decks fared even better. Two people sleeved up Slide decks, and both made the Top 32. That is by far the strongest showing of any archetype. Get out your Sharpies, here’s another overlooked archetype to add to your test gauntlet.

Sixth place was taken by a well-known archetype: Aggro Loam. Cycling lands and Life from the Loam has been doing well online since Ravnica appeared. No real surprises — this is pretty much the decklist that took both first and second in the recent LA PTQ, right down to the low Devastating Dreams count and the Dark Confidants.

Seventh place is not an archetype I recognize. It is, however, extremely interesting. It’s almost like the pilot just decided to play all the good cards in the format, provided they cost two or less, and then added Trinket Mage. Or something like that. I didn’t get to see this deck in action, mainly because the games seemed to end pretty damn fast. I’m going to have to check this out, and see if I can build it online.

It may look janky, but think about it for a while. Then proxy it up.

Feldman and Hill had some impact on the metagame. Mike Flores has, too. Eight people brought versions of his G/W Haterator deck. This has clearly been revamped and tuned a lot (or, more probably, evolved separately), but it is at least the right colors. I love Phantom Centaurs with Armadillo Cloaks and / or Swords, and this deck does that. Heck, it even has the Feldman / Hill tech of four Chalice of the Voids. The most interesting innovation in this deck, however, is the four Ghost Quarters, plus a Red splash for Dwarven Blastminers from the sideboard. Tron much? Not against this deck.

Another player piloting the same deck finished sixteenth — not bad results at all.

The ninth place deck is probably the closest thing to a classic Rock deck to see play. It has Duress and Pernicious Deed — even Withered Wretch. Overall, Rock did not do all that well. Destructive Flow Rock was the single most commonly played archetype, and it did not fare well at all. Four players brought Gifts Rock variants, and one a Flores-style Contested Cliffs version. They all lost badly. I have to concede that I had a Flow Rock variant (with Centaurs and Cloaks), but I don’t really expect that I would have done all that well with it. My version was built for fun, not winning. This version, however, did go 6-1-1 and missed Top 8 on tiebreakers.

The next three decks were pretty much standard versions of the archetypes.

Affinity — Eric Luck, 10th
Boros — Manuel Fernandes, 11th
Flow Rock, Aaron Dettman, 12th

The next deck, on the other hand, is not at all a netdeck. R/G Aggro had three pilots, and two made Top 32. Once again, that’s a whole lot better odds than most of the more common archetypes. It’s far better than Tenacious Tron, or Boros, or even Affinity.

Storming Goblins — Matt Duefler, 14th

A quick note on Goblins. Seven players apparently thought this was Legacy, so they brought Goblins. Without Aether Vial and Goblin Lackey, Goblins are not the be-all and end-all of the format. Five of the Goblin decks were storm / Empty the Warrens versions. Two were Fecundity / Dirty Kitty versions. One was a straight Legacy port — or maybe a leftover from 2004. In any case, they did not do well overall.

The next deck, on the other hand, also seems like a throwback — at least to me. This seems like something from Invasion block. I can’t really say much more than that — I haven’t played anything like this combination of Trinket Mage and discard either online or in real life. I’d like to, though.

G/W Aggro — Daniel Hoppestad, 16th See the G/W Aggro deck that finished eighth.

I’m pushing deadline already, so I’ll save some of the other notes and decklists for later. I’ll conclude with a list of interesting things I found in the decklists.

Cards I Didn’t Expect
* Guilty Conscience
* Stuffy Doll
* Peach Tree Oath

Old Archetypes Live Again
* Sunny Side Up
* U/G Madness
* CAL
* B/W Braids (2)
* Fires of Yavimaya

Completely Off the Radar Archetypes
* Zuberas with a Splice engine
* Rats w/ Coat of Arms
* Erayo
* Glare of Subdual

As a closer, here’s a deck that hit a nostalgic cord. It was like it was 2001 again, in Las Vegas. Ingrid dominated the Women’s Open at GP: Vegas with her version Star Spangled Slaughter. This deck was pretty close to a card for card recreation. Its pilot dropped, but I still like the deck. I just don’t recommend it.

And that has got to be it. I’m at deadline. I know that’s a rotten way to end something, but sometimes needs must out.

PRJ

pete {dot} jahn {at} Verizon {dot} net