I wanted to bring you some red-hot new tech for States, I really did. I had an idea, and it had synergy, and it served a strategic goal, and it sounded just crazy enough to work. Sadly it didn’t work, at least not in the way I wanted it to. I thought I’d share the idea with you, though, so you can play with it yourself and maybe create a States-winning deck on your own.
Welcome to StarCityGames.com’s 2005 Championship Deck Challenge, where each week some of the best writers we have square off against each other in a battle to deliver the best deck for States. Each deck must adhere to the theme for the week, and on Friday Supreme Arbiter Flores will choose a victor. This week’s theme: Build a Mono-Colored Monstrosity. Mark Young’s swipe at this theme involves one of the more common things you’ll see at States this year – attacking for two.
On Saturday DreamWizards was having a Grand Prix Trial for the Legacy-format GP: Philadelphia. I didn’t really have a deck and I didn’t have any available cards to borrow; fortunately, there was a Standard side event to be held at the same time. I figured lots of local players would be in the same boat as I and that the Standard event would be almost as big as the GPT. I was wrong, but more on that later. First, let’s get to the decklist, which is a completely original creation on my own part…
Recently I began to wonder if the phenomenon of one-ofs in decklists is purely a Vintage-centric phenomenon, related to the absurd power level of the format? Does increasing a two-of to a three-of, or chopping it down to one copy, have an appreciable effect on a Standard or Block deck? To put it bluntly: just how important is one slot? I took some time exploring this question and I thought I would share the results.
Mark thinks he’s finally ready to tackle the tricky concept of velocity and begin to apply it practically to Magic situations, but he’s curious to hear your thoughts on this intriguing matter of Magic theory.
The word going in to U.S. Regionals was that Tooth and Nail was the best deck in the format, and it certainly posted that kind of result. According to the spiffy Star City deck database, decks identified as Tooth and Nail took first place in 12 Saviors-legal Regionals events, and took a total of 84 Top 8 slots in those events. On the surface, one of Tooth’s worst matchups is supposed to be the speedy Red decks, so I decided to put these two decks to the test and see just how big the advantage for the Red deck is here. With Nationals on the way everywhere, this could provide crucial information about just what deck to choose for the big day.
It’s kind of odd, but the best use of Godo that I’ve seen since the start of writing this series had the namesake legend hidden in the sideboard. I’m speaking, of course, of the “Godo Gifts” deck piloted by Katsuhiro Mori to a first-place finish at Grand Prix: Niigata.
On Tuesday or Wednesday last week, I realized that I had a problem. I had started my Godo-related Daily, and I had some decks from earlier this month, but those decks were in serious danger of being made obsolete by the results of Grand Prix: Minneapolis. Godo is a pretty powerful card, but he has a lot of trouble defeating infinite Kagemaro. Like a lot of Western deckbuilders these days, I needed the Japanese to step in and give me some inspiration. Two separate decklists bearing Godo made the Top 8 of Grand Prix: Niigata last weekend, and I thought that both were not only competitive, but get a ton of fun out of running Godo.
Last time, our Godo deck still had problems with the White weenies. I claimed that a White-based legend deck might simply be a better solution, and I was thinking of this saucy little number from Pro Tour Philadelphia. It has a White Weenie-style creature base, but runs all legends and thus can use Honor-Worn Shaku (a.k.a., the Paddle) to power up a stronger midgame than your typical weenie deck.
Last time, we saw that adding Godo to the GWU Control framework didn’t go too badly – if I had kept better hands here and there, I might have made Top 8 of the tournament I played it in – but I wasn’t satisfied. The deck had problems, and since that tournament the format has shifted in ways that only exacerbate those problems. Let’s see if we can fix some of those today, shall we?
This week Mark works through his Godo fetish for Kamigawa Block Constructed. He’s not alone in his love for the Bandit Warlord though, the winning deck from the Japanese Block Grand Prix had the same ideas in mind.
On Saturday night, I had a rough time at my local poker game. A newcomer had arrived, and he looked like easy pickings. He was drunk as a skunk, slurring his speech and absolutely reeking of alcohol. He literally did not even know the difference between the terms “check” and “call”….
Yet I simply could not beat the guy. Time and again he would call me down and show down a better hand. When I left the game, I was pretty angry – until I realized that karma must have been paying me back. After all, earlier that day I had played in my second Vintage tournament, and somehow managed a Top 4 finish out of thirty or so people.
You know that Mono-Blue Urzatron deck that everyone and their dog has been playing at Friday Night Magic and on Magic Online? Well Mark took the idea and ran with it, trying to see if it was possible to come up with something incredibly saucy just in time for Regionals. Did it work? There’s only one way to find out!
Two years ago, Jens Thoren won the Invitational with a tricky little creation designed to abuse Mirari’s Wake in concert with Mirari and Cunning Wish; seven months later, modified versions of the deck proved to be among the most powerful weapons in Regionals and Nationals tournaments around the world. On the other hand, Jon Finkel 3-0’ed the Standard portion of the same event with a Battle of Wits deck which proved mostly irrelevant in both States and Regionals. How do the Invitational decks stack up this time around and more importantly – how are each of the decks affected by Saviors of Kamigawa? Step inside my office friends, as we attempt to find out.
Today’s subject certainly isn’t a new one. In fact, there’s a little-known clause in the back of the Comprehensive Rules; it says all paid writers for Magic-related websites have to devote a certain number of words to rules issues in their first year, or the Wizards of the Coast are allowed to rent out a bunch of Microsoft’s thugs to beat some respect into you. That’s why Tim Aten is so tall and so angry: he doesn’t write about that stuff too often, so they’ve been stretching him on the rack for a while now. Since I’ve been doing this thing for about eight months now, I’m starting to feel the pressure.
