The Ultimate Extended Tournament began with 32 decks, and it is down to nine. (Yes, nine.) Those nine decks contain a total of eleven cards that were, at later times, banned in Extended. It really is a battle of broken decks — but disruption is proving more important than brokenness. Force of Will is heading the disruption team — and Force of Will forces me to talk about Future Sight.
Let’s recap the rules: We started with 32 decks, including 5 from the current Extended, with the rest being a mix of the most powerful decks I have ever seen. Round one pairings were random. Matches include two unsideboarded games, with each deck playing first once. Post sideboard, if a deck is 0-2, it plays first, otherwise the decks alternate again. First deck to three wins takes the match.
I have written about this tournament in my last half dozen or so articles. Check out my archives for more info and match coverage.
Moving into round eight, a couple things are clear. First of all, the deck of today just cannot compete with the brokenness — both in terms of speed and disruption – of those of prior periods. The speed is legendary. The disruption is what is winning matches, however. That disruption was summed up by three cards: Duress, Force of Will and Wasteland. Here are the surviving nine decks, and the cards they ran:
Trix: Force of Will, Duress
High Tide: Force of Will
Maher Oath: Force of Will, Wasteland
SuperGro: Force of Will, Winter Orb (a superior Wasteland, in many ways)
PT Junk: Duress, Wasteland
JarGrim: Force of Will
Academy: Force of Will, Wasteland
CounterSlivers: Force of Will, Duress
GB Survival: Duress, Wasteland (and Cartographer to recur Wasteland)
The two decks without Force of Will reached the third round by beating other decks without Force of Will. How important was the Force? In this event, nothing without Force of Will beat decks with Force of Will. Historically, the last two big events before Ice Ages block rotated out of Standard were defined by Force of Will. At GP Lisbon, 2002, the top eight decks were 2 Sligh decks, 3 Maher Oath and 3 SuperGro versions — and the Sligh decks were all running four Wastelands and 4 Pyroblasts. At the 2002 Masters, the Sligh decks were all eliminated early and the top four decks were Oath, Trix, Operation Dumbo Drop and SuperGro. All four ran Force of Will.
And Wizards just reprinted a Force of Will variant. I have been thinking about that a lot. Here are the cards:
Pact of Negation is not a true reprint of FoW — the cards are different. On a deeper level, Pact of Negation is still not Force of Will. I have now been playing with Force of Will constantly for over a month. I know a lot about Force of Will.
Force of Will has three main roles. First, it protects combos. Force of Will allows combo decks to go off, while not having to reserve mana to fight off disruption. In that respect, Pact of Negation is even better than Force of Will, because you do not have to lose another card, or a life point, to play it. However, Force of Will’s second function was to stop an opponent from playing a very early threat — or comboing on turn one or two. For that purpose, Pact of Negation is totally useless, unless you would prefer losing during you upkeep instead of during your opponent’s main phase.
Force of Will’s third role was as another counterspell for control decks. In the past, when decks wanted to keep their mana free for the “end of turn Fact or Fiction you lose” card drawing, Force was rarely hard cast. Today, card drawing is more often at sorcery speed — but Pact does not cost two cards, the way FoW does. Pact may be playable in this role, but whether it will earn a slot depends heavily on the metagame. Time will tell.
On to results. There are nine decks in this round. The matchup between JarGrim and Junk was so close, and I was uncertain enough about whether my play skill was skewing the outcome, that I decided to advance both PT Junk and JarGrim to play against Academy. Here are the results as of this week. Match coverage follows.
| Enchantress | Enchantress | Trix | Trix |
| UW Tron | |||
| Trix | Trix | ||
| Twiddle / Desire | |||
| Stasis | Stasis | High Tide | |
| CMU Gun | |||
| GobVantage | High Tide | ||
| High Tide | |||
| Maher Oath | Maher Oath | Maher Oath | Supergro |
| Angry Ghoul | |||
| Turboland | Beat Stick | ||
| Beat Stick | |||
| Benzo | The Clock | Supergro | |
| The Clock | |||
| SuperGro | SuperGro | ||
| Affinity | |||
| Legion Land Loss | Legion Land Loss | Jar Grim and PT Junk | Jar Grim and PT Junk |
| TEPS | |||
| Jar Grim | Both, see above | ||
| PT Junk | |||
| RDW2k | RDW2K | Academy | |
| Aggro Loam | |||
| Academy | Academy | ||
| Cephalid Life | |||
| Gaea’s Might Get There | Pandeburst | Counterslivers | |
| Pandeburst | |||
| Counterslivers | Counterslivers | ||
| Psychatog | |||
| Free Spell Necro | Balancing Tings | Survival (yes, Survival) | |
| Balancing Tings | |||
| George W. Bosh | Survival | ||
| Survival | |||
Trix buries High Tide
A few commenters in the forums requested that I include decklists. Here you go.
High Tide
Jon Finkel, GP: Vienna 1999
17 Island
4 Thawing Glaciers
4 High Tide
4 Time Spiral
4 Turnabout
4 Frantic Search
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Counterspell
2 Stroke of Genius
1 Intuition
1 Arcane Denial
Sideboard
4 Hydroblast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Null Rod
2 Time Elemental
4 Mystic Remorha
Trix
William Jensen, GP: Philadelphia, Feb. 2000
4 Necropotence
4 Illusions of Grandeur
4 Donate
4 Force of Will
2 Hoodwink
4 Demonic Consultation
2 Vampiric Tutor
2 Firestorm
4 Duress
4 Mana Vault
4 Dark Ritual
Sideboard:
3 Contagion
4 Hydroblast
4 Pyroblast
4 Phyrexian Negator
Trix has Necropotence. High Tide does not. Necropotence — the power of the skull. Necropotence is an insanely powerful card. To illustrate just how powerful, I’m going to include a game that I did not count. Trix drew an opening have of six lands and Necro. Just for practice, and because I was too lazy to shuffle again, I decided to play it out. High Tide had a good hand, but no Force of Will (which could have countered Necro, making all land a dull hand), so we played it out.
Trix: Peat Bog
Tide: Island
Trix: Badlands, Necropotence, (Necro 5 cards, discard to seven)
Tide: Thawing Glaciers
Trix: Underground Sea, Mana Vault, 2 * Duress (taking Frantic Search and Merchant Scroll, leaving High Tide, 2 * Stroke and Island) Necro for 5 cards, discard to 7 in hand
Tide: Island (EoT Trix consults for Donate)
Trix: land, Illusions, Donate (Tide: Counterspell, Trix FoW removing FoW) Illusions resolved, so Necro 20 cards (but no FoW) (Tide: EoT use Thawing Glaciers)
Tide: during upkeep, High Tide, tap second Island to pay upkeep, Island, Turnabout (floating 3 mana), tap all five Islands for 10 mana, Stroke Trix for 10 cards — decking it. (Consult, plus drawing 35+ cards off Necro does that.)
How good is Necro — Necro and six lands was good enough for a win, if Trix hadn’t left the last two Force of Wills in the ten cards remaining in its library, or had drawn a Hoodwink, or… The point is, of course, that by turn 4, Necro had drawn almost two thirds of its library.
Now for the games that count.
Game 1: Tide on the play, Trix mulligans to five.
Tide: Island
Trix: Underground Sea
Tide: Island
Trix: Badlands (Tide Brainstorms EoT)
Tide: Thawing Glaciers
Trix: Underground River, Necro (Tide: Impulse, then FoW removing Turnabout. Necro counters with FoW removing Donate, Necro resolves) Necro for seven cards, discard down to seven in hand, go
Tide: Island, Brainstorm, use Thawing Glaciers to shuffle
Trix: Underground Sea, Ritual, Ritual, Consult for Illusions, Illusions (Tide: FoW removing Mer. Scroll), Necro use floating B to Consult for Illusions, tap out to play Illusions. Necro 12 cards, discard down
Tide: Frantic Search, Thawing Glaciers
Trix: pay upkeep, Badlands, Donate
Tide: pay upkeep, go
Trix: Hoodwink the Illusions on upkeep. Win
Game 2: Trix on the play, Trix mulligans once, Tide twice.
Trix: Underground Sea
Tide: Thawing Glaciers (Trix: Consult for Necro EoT)
Trix: Underground River, Ritual, Necro, Necro for four cards.
Tide: Island
Trix: Peat Bog, Mana Vault, Necro for 4 cards
Tide: Island, go (hand was 2 * Time Spiral, Frantic Search, Turnabout)
(Trix: consult for Illusions EoT)
Trix: Volcanic Island, Illusions, Donate, Necro lots (Tide: Thaw EoT)
Tide: Frantic Search during upkeep, Trix: FoW Frantic Search, Tide cannot pay upkeep.
Sideboarding: Trix brings in three Pyroblast for 2 Firestorm and a Hoodwink. (I could have brought in four, but misread the sideboard list — the original, wrong Trix list only had three.). High Tide has nothing really helpful.
Post sideboard game 1: Tide on the play, no mulligans:
Tide: Island
Trix: Volcanic Island (Tide Brainstorms EoT)
Tide: Island, Merchant Scroll for Force of Will
Trix: Gemstone Mine, Ritual, Necropotence (Tide FoW, Trix Pyroblast) Necros 6 cards.
Note: Trix had Ritual / Necro turn one, but sat on it until it could have extra man for the Pyroblast also in its opening hand.
Tide: Thawing Glaciers
Trix: Underground Sea, Duress * 2 (taking Frantic Search and Turnabout, leaving an Island and Thaw), Mana Vault, Necro 5 more cards
Tide: Thawing Glaciers
Trix: Badlands, Necro 4 cards (Tide thaws out two Islands EoT)
Tide: Thawing Glaciers, go
Trix: Underground Sea, set aside cards down to two life, Donate Necro.
Note: Trix is Necro locked (with an extra life to use fro Forcer of Will), but has not seen an Illusions of Grandeur. Getting rid of Necro gives it its draw phase back.
Tide: Thawing Glaciers, Necro 7 new cards.
Trix: topdeck Hoodwink, Hoodwink Necro
Tide: High Tide, High Tide, Merchant Scroll for Turnabout, float mana, Thaw out two Islands, cast Turnabout. (Trix casts FoW, Tide counters, Trix hardcasts FoW, Tide FoWs removing Impulse) Turnabout resolves, Tide casts Time Spiral. Both sides draw a new seven cards.
Tide: High Tide #4, float 32 mana, Turnabout (Trix Pyroblasts, Tide counters, Trix consults for Pyroblasts, Pyroblast, Tide hardcasts Force of Will. Turnabout resolves. The only downside: Tide has about thirty mana floating, and only a Brainstorm in hand.) Brainstorm reveals Island, Merchant Scroll, Frantic Search. Merchant Scroll for Stroke, Stroke self for 20+ cards, Turnabout, Stroke Trix for the win.
Tide stole one — but only because Trix drew almost thirty cards without seeing an Illusions, Consult, or Vampiric Tutor, and the game still came down to needing to Brainstorm into a Stroke or Time Spiral.
The final game was a non-event. Trix Ritualed into Necro on turn 2, with a Badlands and Pyroblast ready. Tide tried to combo turn 3, but Trix had a Pyro for the Frantic Search, and another Pyro for Tide’s FoW. Trix comboed on turn 4.
Trix advances to the Final Four.
Maher Oath is helpless against SuperGro, the Orb of Steel
Maher Oath
Bob Maher, Winner GP: Seattle 2000 / PT: Chicago
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Faerie Conclave
3 Flood Plain
2 Island
1 Savannah
3 Treetop Village
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Wasteland
1 Morphling
1 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
1 Abundance
1 Aura of Silence
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
1 Disrupt
4 Enlightened Tutor
1 Forbid
4 Force of Will
2 Gaea’s Blessing
3 Impulse
1 Ivory Mask
1 Null Rod
2 Oath of Druids
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library
1 Trade Routes
Sideboard
3 Annul
1 Aura of Silence
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Compost
1 Crater Hellion
2 Mana Short
2 Oath of Druids
1 Phyrexian Furnace
2 Powder Keg
1 Sacred Ground
Super-Gro
Ben Rubin, Fourth GP: Houston, 2002
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Flood Plain
1 Grasslands
2 Island
1 Savannah
4 Meddling Mage
4 Werebear
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Quirion Dryad
3 Mystic Enforcer
4 Land Grant
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Gush
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Foil
Sideboard
1 Winter Orb
2 Mind Harness
3 Legacy’s Allure
3 Annul
2 Wax / Wane
3 Hidden Gibbons
1 Submerge
At the end of the 2001-2002 Extended season, Oath and SuperGro were battling it out in major events. However, the Oath decks that were played at the Masters were significantly different from the version Bob played in Chicago. The Chicago deck was much more heavily Green, and it was several sets behind SuperGro. A revised Oath would have had a lot more game against SuperGro, but I am playing the versions that won their events, not a hypothetical reconstituted deck.
Game 1: SuperGro plays first, no Mulligans
Gro: Tropical Island, go
Oath: Tundra, go (Gro: Brainstorm EoT)
Gro: Quirion Dryad (Oath: FoW removing Disrupt, Enlightened Tutor for Oath EoT)
Oath: Tropical Island, Oath
Gro: Flood Plain, go
Oath: Tundra, go
Gro: Brainstorm on upkeep, blow Flood Plain, Tropical Island, Winter Orb, (Oath Brainstorms in response) Gush (returning Island)
Oath: Tundra, Sylvan Library
Gro: Mystic Enforcer…
SuperGro went on to play out a ton of lands. Oath got out a Sylvan Library, and later an Abundance. Gro sent a Swords at the Oath, and the Mystic Enforcer beat Oath down, but a combination of Spike Weaver and so forth held the day until Oath could Enlightened Tutor for an Aura of Silence and kill the Winter Orb. Then it was able to start moving counters onto a Treetop Village, then a Fairie Conclave. Eventually an 8/7 Fairie Conclave won the game.
Game 2: Oath on the play, no mulligans
No play by play, this game. Once again this game went very long, but a critical play occurred on turn 1. Gro opened with a Flood Plains, Land Grant (revealing no lands, and — other than Brainstorms, junk). Oath forced the Land Grant. That’s a gamble, but since Gro has so many devastating two drops, locking it at one land while Oath sets up can be really effective — but it is a gamble. Unfortunately for Oath, it lost that gamble. Gro topdecked a Tundra, allowing it to play Brainstorm, blow the Flood Plain and wind up with serious card advantage instead of being mana screwed. Shortly thereafter, Gro got the Winter Orb through, and Oath had mana problems. Oath managed to get an Oath of Druids down, but it eventually lost a battle over Swords to Plowshares targeting Spike Weaver. Without the fog machine, Oath eventually lost.
Sideboarding: Oath takes out Null Rod, Trade Route, Ivory Mask and Morphling. It brings in Aura of Silence, Crater Hellion, and two more Oath of Druids. The Crater Hellion is a mixed blessing — it kills everything on the other side except particularly large Quirion Dryads (rare) and thresholded Mystic Enforcers. Worse yet, it sticks around for a turn, meaning that once it has wiped Gro’s board, Gro can Oath out a creature. If it Oaths out an Enforcer, that is probably game over, unless Oath has a Swords to Plowshares.
Gro brings in three Annuls, the final Winter Orb and the two Wax / Wanes. It takes out the Merfolk Looters and two Swords to Plowshares.
Gro slapped Oath around pretty thoroughly. It has a ton of threats. Meddling Mage can stop Oath. Winter Orb is completely brutal against Oath, which relies heavily on Treetop Village and Fairie Conclave — and other costly cards. More importantly, Werebears, Dryads and Enforcers quickly get large enough that Morphling cannot block them easily — and not at all with Winter Orb in play.
Oath generally put up a decent fight, but Gro just had too many threats. Generally, Oath could deal with the first few, but eventually Gro would win on card advantage with Gush, mana advantage with Winter Orb, then manage to Swords the Spike Weaver. Without Weaver, and with mana constrained, Oath could not stop the beats. The games tended to run many, many turns, but Oath won maybe one in four.
SuperGro moves on.
PT Junk sticks it to the Academy
Like the Oath / SuperGro games, I played a lot of extra games with these decks.
PT Junk
Adrian Sullivan
4 Duress
3 Skyshroud Elite
2 Powder Keg
3 Cursed Scroll
4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Blastoderm
4 River Boa
3 Seal of Cleansing
3 Demonic Consultation
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Tithe
3 Mox Diamond
2 Grassland
4 Wasteland
4 Treetop Village
4 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
3 Bayou
3 Savannah
Sideboard
3 Massacre
3 Perish
3 Ebony Charm
3 Wax / Wane
3 Choke
Academy
Tommi Hovi, Winner PT: Rome
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tolarian Academy
4 Tundra
3 City of Brass
3 Abeyance
3 Power Sink
3 Intuition
3 Mind over Matter
4 Windfall
4 Stroke of Genius
4 Time Spiral
2 Scroll Rack
3 Voltaic Key
4 Mox Diamond
4 Mana Vault
4 Lotus Petal
Sideboard
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Chill
4 Wasteland
1 Arcane Denial
4 Gorilla Shaman
Game 1: Junk on the play, both decks mulliganed twice.
Junk: Treetop Village
Academy: Volcanic Island
Junk: Savannah, Boa
Academy: Academy
Junk: Wasteland, waste Academy
Academy: —
Junk: Elf
Academy: —
Junk: beat with Village, etc.
Academy: CoB, Abeyance to draw a card
Junk: beat…
Game 2: Academy on the play, Junk mulligans
Academy: Ancient Tomb, Mox Diamond, Vault
Junk: Mox Diamond, Elite, Village
Academy: Tundra, Windfall (discard 2, draw 4)
Junk: beat, Village
Academy: Academy, Time Spiral, Lotus Petal, Mind over Matter, Stroke of Genius for 9 cards, Mox Diamond, discard cards to float 29 mana, Intuition for Stroke, Stroke self for 23 cards, Mox*2, discard to untap Academy, Vault, Vault, Scroll Rack, Key, Key, discard to float tons of mana, Time Spiral into Stroke.
I played some extra game 1s — 1-1 is typical. Academy goes off turn 2-3 on a good draw, Junk crushes it if it stumbles.
Sideboarding: Academy does not have much to bring in. Junk doesn’t have much, either, but it has lots to take out. The Swords to Plowshares leave for Wax / Wane, and the Cursed Scrolls are replaced by Ebony Charms (to combat Time Spiral recursion.)
Here’s the game Junk lost. Junk was on the play, and mulliganed.
Junk: Grassland
Academy: Tundra, Key
Junk: Bayou, Elite
Academy: Academy
Junk: Wasteland, waste Academy, Elite
Academy: Tundra, Vault
Junk: Village, Consult for Duress, Duress (taking Time Spiral)
Academy: Tundra, Mox Diamond, Windfall (discard 0, draw 3)
Junk: Seal of Cleansing, beat to 10
Academy: go (drew Mind over Matter, but Seal was on the board)
Junk: beat for 7, (Academy at 3, Academy Intuition EoT for Stroke)
Academy: Stroke self for 9, 2 * Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal, Key, Mind over Matter, (Seal killed MoM, Academy discarded twice to untap in response), Stroke for 9, MoM, Key, Rack, discard 6 cards, Time Spiral,
Junk’s only chance there was that Academy would fizzle — it did not.
Junk won most of the rest of a dozen or so post-sideboard games played. Phyrexian Negator was the beatdown, while Duress plus Wasteland stopped Academy just long enough. The most important card Junk had was Demonic Consultation, and that consulted for Duress or Wasteland in nearly every situation. Here’s a typical game. Academy mulliganed once.
Academy: Volcanic Island, Vault, Key
Junk: Mox Diamond, Bayou, Duress (taking Spiral, leaving MoM, Abeyance)
Academy: Tundra
Junk: (Academy: Abeyance on upkeep) Consult for Wasteland, Wasteland, Waste both lands
Academy: go
Junk: Seal of Cleansing, seal Key, Village
Academy: go
Junk: Negator
JarGrim out-combos Academy
The Academy list is above.
JarGrim
Randy Buehler, GP: Vienna 1999
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Underground Sea
3 Underground River
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Memory Jar
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Mana Vault
4 Defense Grid
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Diamond
4 Tinker
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
2 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Megrim
Sideboard
2 Sand Golem
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Abeyance
1 Disenchant
2 Pyroblast
4 Force of Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Perish
1 Gloom
1 Chill
Since I wussed out on the Junk / JarGrim match, I ended up having both decks play against Academy.
Academy looked like a sure fire winner. Game 1 it fired off a critical Power Sink, and later an Abeyance, both through a Defense Grid. Academy creates plenty of mana to do that sort of thing.
Game 2 JarGrim managed to go off turn 3, on the play, after Academy double mulliganed. (Academy has a problem with mulliganing — it has too many cards, like MoM and Time Spiral, that cost a ton.)
I played two more unsideboarded games, and Academy won them both easily. Power Sink and Abeyance both hammered JarGrim, even through Defense Grids, and Academy was getting the nuts draws and going off turn 2.
Sideboarding was pretty straightforward. Academy takes out three Windfalls, because both decks tend to empty their hands when doing well, and giving them more cards when they are doing badly is stupid. It brings in two Red Elemental Blasts and an Arcane Denial. JarGrim takes out the Defense Grids for Force of Will (which can stop Stroke, and since the Defense Grids are, as Craig would say, complete rubbish.) JarGrim also takes out one Lotus Petal for a Mystical Tutor (which can be pitched to Force of Will.)
At this point, I was reasonably happy. If Academy beat JarGrim, then I had solved the JarGrim / Junk mess — and I was sick of playing JarGrim anyways. But, at that point, the wheels fell of Academy. Here are my notes. (PSBG = post sideboarded game)
PSBG1: JarGrim on the play, Academy mulligans twice. JarGrim goes off turn 2.
PSBG2: Academy on the play, JarGrim goes off turn 1.
PSBG3: JarGrim on the play, Academy mulligans once, JarGrim goes off turn 3, after an Abeyance turn 2.
We played four more games, and Academy could not win. It was not even close. If Academy had a counter, JarGrim had a Force, or Yawgmoth’s Will, or whatever.
Both JarGrim and Junk advance.
It’s now past deadline, and Craig has told me that I either have to turn this in now, or be condemned to playing JarGrim for all eternity. CounterSlivers verses Survival will come next time.
Later
PRJ
“one million words” on MTGO
pete {dot} jahn {at} Verizon {dot} net