After reading all the comments and examining my choices, I have cut the field to 32 best Standard decks of all time. The brackets are up. I have also figured out how to avoid making some of the stupid plays I made last week. Yes, I know what Skullclamp is supposed to do…
What’s going on: I am going to run a tournament matching 32 of the best Standard legal decks of all time in a single elimination tournament. The idea is to find out if modern decks can run with the best historical decks. The event will play best of 5 matches, with 2 unsideboarded and up to three sideboarded matches. The decks chosen are a selection of the most famous historical decks, as played at the time.
Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of you have given me feedback on the decks that should be included. I made a few changes. I have also spent time hunting down decklists. Here is the short list of the decks that were worth considering.
5 color Control (Gabriel Nassif, PT Kyoto)
5CG / Tradewind rider
Accelerated Blue / PartickJ.dec
Angry Hermit (Aaron Forsythe, U.S. Nats 2000) *
Astral Slide (Gabe Walls, U.S. Nats, 2003)*
Boat Brew – Brian Kowal
Boss Naya (LSV, PT San Diego) *
Brawler Ponza (Sean McKeown, Grinders, 2001) [no sideboard] or Sped Red
Buried Alive (U.S. Nats 1997?)
Chapin 5CB
Comerzilla – Alan Comer
Corrupter Black (Jacob Slemr, Worlds 1999)- Adrian Sullivan
Counterbalance – Frank Karsten, 2006
Counterpost
Covetous Wildfire (Kai Budde, Worlds 1999) *
Crazy Old 26 a.k.a. Mycosynth Lattice Control (Tomohiro Yokosuka, Japanese Nationals)
Cuneo Blue (Randy Buehler, Worlds 1998)
Deadguy Red (Rubin, Worlds 1998)
Death Cloud (Chris Manning, U.S. Nats, 2005)
Devastating Red (current Standard)
Doran (Yann Massicard, GP: Seattle)
Dragonstorm (Mihara, Worlds 2005)
Dralnu du Louvre
Elves w/ Monument (Todd Anderson, States)
Eminent Domain
ErnieGeddon
Faeries (Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Hollywood 200) *
Fires (Zvi, PT Chicago 2000)*
Five Color Green circa Regionals 97,
Flagpole
Ghazi Glare (Katsuhiro Mori, Worlds 2005) *
Goblin Bidding (Wolfgang Eder, Worlds 2003)*
Greater Gifts – Frank Karsten
GW Slide – Julien Nuijten, Worlds (2005?)
Heartbeat Combo
Jund (Owen Turtenwald, GP DC)
Kithkin – Cedric Phillips – PT Kyoto
Kooky Jooky – Adrian Sullivan, States
Machine Head – Frank Karsten
Mythic Conscription (Nakoi Nakada – GP Manilla)
Napster (Jon Finkel, U.S. Nats 2000) *
NecroPotence – Brian Wiessman {no sideboard}
Next Level Bant (Brian Kibler, GP: Sendai)
Pirates
Prosbloom – Long / Lieher, U.S. Nats
Quick n Toast – Oliver Ruel, 200
Reanimator (Peer Kroger, Worlds, 2003)
Rec / Sur (Brian Seldon, Worlds) *
Replenish (Tom Van de Logt, Worlds 2000) *
Reveillark
Sabre Bargain (Jon Finkel, Masters 2000)*
Skred Red – Frank Karsten
Skullclamp Affinity (Go Anan deck / Shuuhei Nakamura, Japan Nats.) *
Sped Red (Parke/LePine 99 Worlds)
Squirrel Opposition (Eugene Harvey, U.S. Nats 2002) *
Stompy (Matt Linde, Worlds 1999)
Super Friends (Carlos Romao – GP DC)
The Rock and his Millions (Sol Malka)
Tinker (Jon Finkel, Worlds 2000) *
Tog (Carlos Romao, Worlds 2002)*
Tolarian Blue (Chris Warren IL States version) *
Trinity Green
Turbo Xerox – Alan Comer
Turbo Zvi
UG Madness (David Humphries, Worlds 2003) *
White Weenie (Matt Linde US Nats. or Hacker, Worlds?)
That is a lot of decks. It is more than enough to do a 64 deck single elimination event — but the 32 hour Extended version of this event took me hundreds of hours of prep, play and writing, and I have no desire to still be playing this out come Christmas. 32 is my limit.
Tell you what – I will set up brackets for the unused decks. It will be like the other March Madness tournament. If people want to play out any of those matches, feel free to do so, and I’ll record the results. I’m not going to play out the boring matches on that bracket, though. I’ll have more than enough misery playing matches like Tog on Cuneo Blue, or Faeries versus Replenish.
I have published the full list of decks, the Top 32, and decklists for as many of the 67 decks I considered as I could find. I have it as a Goggle doc., but you can view it here . If you want decklists, look there.
What matters, though, is the 32 decks for the Ultimate Standard Tournament. The real UST.
I made a first cut — down to 32 decks. Then I pasted the list into Excel, added a column of random numbers, and sorted them accordingly. I then pasted them, eight at a time, into brackets. I was pretty lucky. I was aiming for one modern deck in each bracket, and I only had to make one swap to accomplish that. I also looked for decks that were paired against classic enemies. I found two of those. My personal favorite deck was paired against Replenish — a deck it was specifically designed to crush. (Seriously — it plays three Rapid Decay’s maindeck.) That was too good a matchup — no one would believe I wasn’t giving it a free bye.
I also looked at my broken decks. I didn’t want to give them an easy matchup round one. Affinity had a passable matchup — but Academy was paired against Goblin Bidding. That’s one of the few Goblin deck without Red Elemental Blast, or at least something useful, in the sideboard. Goblin Bidding is fast — but not turn 2 fast, and Sulfuric Vortex out of the board is not going to change that. That seems ridiculous. I did a quick repair, to see whether things got better.
This time Academy was facing Rec/Sur. The rest of the matchups were bad. Four of the new decks were in the second batch of eight, Squirrel Opposition was playing Tog, all three of the 1998 Worlds decks were in the same half bracket, etc.
I decided to just fix the first pairing. I could play around a bit, but keep pretty much the same ordering. My biggest problem, though, was Academy. I eventually found a four-way swap that solved some of the problems. Faeries was set to play another modern deck — Kibler’s NLB. I swapped it to match up against Replenish, which should be an interesting matchup. I then swapped Affinity and Academy — now Affinity was facing Goblin Bidding (yes, I remember that matchup from old T2, but we can’t have everything), and Academy was facing Rock and his Millions.
Rock and his Millions is a really fun deck, but I have now played it a fair amount in casual play recently. I even played it in a Vintage 2HG tournament. I’ve had my fun. I have to admit that, as listed, it is not going to beat Academy. It has Duress — at least a few — and land destruction — but Dustbowl is not Wasteland. It is a slow mid-range deck — and not set up to be even close to matching Academy’s speed and power. Sigh.
I decided to cut Rock and his Millions for the last deck I had pulled out of the Top 32 — Adrian Sullivan Corrupter Black. I had pulled it because I already had a pile of other solid black decks built along similar lines — Necro, Napster, etc. However, Corrupter Black may actually have the tools to handle Academy. It has Vampiric Tutor, Duress, Wasteland, Stupor and Persecute out of the board. It has Phyrexian Negators and Dark Ritual.
It has a chance.
Anyway, here are the brackets.
Northwest Bracket:
Napster v. Astral Slide
Brawler Ponza (or Sped Red if I can’t get a SB) versus Nassif 5Color Control
Boss Naya versus Ghazi Glare
Affinity versus Goblin Bidding
Northeast Bracket:
Next Level Bant versus Cuneo Blue
Necropotence versus Rec/Sur
Chapin 5CBlood versus Squirrel Opposition
Tog versus Tinker
Southwest Bracket:
Mythic Conscription versus Deadguy Red
Corrupter Black versus Academy
Doran versus Fires
Sabre Bargain versus Stompy
Southeast Bracket:
Covetous Wildfire versus Jund
Replenish versus Faeries
UG Madness versus Dragonstorm
Super Friends versus Angry Hermit
A number of the matchups look interesting. I’m not sure I can call the outcomes. Each bracket contains just enough decks I haven’t played to make me wonder. It should be interesting.
Playing it Out:
Well, now it’s time to start playing the matches. The first question is — how?
One option is to build all 32 decks in paper, find willing (and able and skilled) opponents and have at it. That tough. First of all, putting together all the decks is a lot of work. I’ve got maybe a fifth of them together, after only about 3 weeks. Finding opponents is also tricky. I have a standing engagement to run tournaments on Thursday at Pegasus Games in Madison, WI, but that store has the fewest high-caliber players. I will attend Standard events at Misty Mountain Games when I can, but I have only been able to make it there about once a month. The best players are at the third store, Netherwood, but that one is inconvenient to reach, and play happens on nights when I am almost never available.
Paper play has, in the past tournament, was only marginally successful. Putting together actual decks take so long in paper.
The next option is to play the games out over Apprentice or Magic WorkStation. That really didn’t work well last time, and I’m not hopeful that it would be any better this time. I ended up with some truly random matches, against decks that turned out to have the wrong cards, and against players even worse than I am. Moreover, programs without rules enforcement — well, I tend to screw up and not notice. Playing in paper, I tend to pay attention at least somewhat. Playing electronically, I expect MTGO style prompts for everything. Apprentice just doesn’t work for me.
The next option is to play it out using Adrian Sullivan style playing cards and grids. That works — more or less. I can keep track of proxy games, even to the point of remembering all the cards on both sides. On the down side, I don’t always remember the cards themselves. I haven’t played Oran-Rief the Vastwood for a while, and last week I misremembered what it does. Worse yet, I somehow edited Skullclamp to — as one forums poster called it — “Fairclamp.” Sheesh — no excuse. Main result of that fiasco — I know that, if I am going to play with physical cards, I need to use either the real things or a scanned copy. Grids and names don’t work for me.
The final alternative is to play this out on MTGO. MTGO has rules enforcement, and it doesn’t misremember cards. It also has some pretty good methods of storing replays — both text and video. That makes it a pretty good option — but you can’t do proxies on MTGO. You have to have the actual cards. That could be costly.
However, to the extent I can, I would love to play this out on MTGO. My collection is halfway decent. It was better a year ago, when I had an account, set up by Wizards with 4 of everything for the Community Cup Challenge, but I can’t access that account anymore. Boo.
Although my collection is decent, it is far short of complete, especially for the period before I first got decent Internet access at home, partway through Kamigawa block. I am short of everything before that, and am also short of a fair number of Mythics. For example, I have just one Jace, the Mind Sculptor online, despite a lot of sealed and drafts. I just can’t open them — and they are now over $100 apiece online. I could see my way to buying some cards to allow me to play these decks, but I really don’t have $400+ to complete Next Level Bant. Not when I still have a bunch of unopened Zendikar and Worldwake packs to draft through, first.
I am going to look over the brackets and decklists to see what decks I could field now, what cards I would need to buy, and what decks are simply unavailable. That’s the real problem. Sets like Fifth Edition, Urza’s Destiny and the entire Masques block have not been released online. Decks needing those cards are simply not going to work online.
I’ll identify those decks with a bold NO.
Let’s see what MTGO will let me do.
Northwest Bracket:
Napster: NO Napster includes a dozen cards — mainly from Masques block — not yet available online.
Astral Slide: Slide is online, but I am short a number of cards. Maybe. Is it worth investing in four copies of Exalted Angel and Lightning Rift?
Brawler Ponza (or Sped Red): NO Rishadan Port again, and some cards from Urza’s Destiny, like Masticore, that are not yet available. Keldon Brawlers are also not online.
Nassif 5Color Control: Online, and I have pretty much the entire deck.
Boss Naya: I have this deck.
Ghazi Glare: Online, and I have most of it.
Affinity: Online, and I have most of it.
Goblin Bidding: Online, but I have never invested in Goblins. I need someone else to play this against me. Buying the deck online would cost several hundred bucks.
Northeast Bracket:
Next Level Bant: I’m short 3 Jace 2s, 2 Vengevine and a Gideon. I want the cards, but that’s a whole lotta dollars. I don’t want to buy what I may well draft.
Cuneo Blue: Online, but I’m short a Disk, a couple counters and the Rainbow Efreet. These are not high cost cards. Doable.
Necropotence: online — I need the Disk and Yawgmoth’s Wills, but I have the rest. (I also need a sideboard list. Anyone got one?)
Rec/Sur: Online — but I would need the Survivals and some Recurring Nightmares — that’s a couple hundred bucks.
Chapin 5CBlood: Doable. I’m short a Twilight Mire and a couple Syggs. Wish I had bought before the recent Extended announcement.
Squirrel Opposition: Online. I’m short some Squirrel Nests, but otherwise okay.
Tog: Online. I never bought Togs, although I won a couple as promos. I need some cards, but these are old cards, and not worth all that much. I wonder if I can play Tog anymore. Hopefully Tinker will crush it.
Tinker: NO Crumbling Sanctuary, Rishadan Port, Masticore, Metalworker, etc. etc.
Southwest Bracket:
Mythic Conscription: Online, but I’m short a lot of Mythics
Deadguy Red: Online, and cheap.
Corrupter Black: NO Phyrexian Negator (except promos, I guess), no Powder Keg, Rapid Decay, etc. etc.
Academy: NO Mana Vault has never been released online.
Doran: Yes. I have most of it, except, surprisingly, the Dorans.
Fires: NO Rishadan Port and Dustbowl again.
Sabre Bargain: NO It uses a bunch of Masques block stuff, and Masques block is a year away.
Stompy: NO almost, but not quite. The expensive cards are the Gaea’s Cradles. The missing cards are Thran Foundries.
Southeast Bracket:
Covetous Wildfire: NO Masticore, Covetous Dragon, Temporal Aperture, etc.
Jund: Online (as you may have noticed.)
Replenish: NO Replenish, the enchantments that get replenished. Etc.
Faeries: Yes
UG Madness: Yes. I’d need some cards, but it is a cheap deck.
Dragonstorm: online. I think I have most of the cards, but I have not played this for a long time.
Super Friends: Yes — but the Friends are expensive.
Angry Hermit: NO Masticore, Rofellos, Skyshroud Poacher, Rishadan Port. I would also need four Deranged Hermits, 2 Gaea’s Cradles and so forth, which I don’t yet own. I’m still drafting Saga/Legacy, and ever hopeful — but no money cards yet.
Still, that’s a lot better than I thought. I may be able to play a lot of this out online. I’ll cash in some of my writing credits and spend some bucks. I may play out some matches between two of my accounts, but I’d also welcome opponents. When I’m online — which won’t be as often as I’d like until the weekends — I’ll hang out in a room called “UST”. Just type “/join UST” from any prompt online. If you want to play along, great. Just bring one of the decks on the list. If you want to watch and kibitz, that’s fine, too. I’d like — heck, I need — all the advice I can get.
To reiterate, the decklists can be found here . Just copy a decklist into a text file (use something like Notepad), save it, then load it using the “local text deck” tab in the MTGO deck editor. (Note — don’t include the decks name in the file, and you may have to clean a couple list up. I tried to clean up all the typos, but I just found another a few minutes ago.) Your best chance to play is probably to bring a deck I don’t have, but one that is matched up against a deck that could be played online. I’d love to see a good player bring Super Friends — but not in the first round. It is matched up against Angry Hermit, which is not online yet. Angry Hermit will have to be played against Super Friends in paper.
To play the decks that are not in existence online, you’ll have to find me at a store sometime. Thursday at Pegasus is probably the best option, although I will try to make Tuesday at Misty, and get to Netherwood when I can.
Now, I have to go put some decks together.
PRJ
“one million words” on MTGO