TagExtended

Okay, Randy Buehler said in his article commenting on the most recent bannings that he viewed Oath making the list as a lifetime achievement award. In my experience, achievement is not rewarded with forced retirement. Granted, the card is one hundred percent abuseable and there have been many ways to build a decent deck around it, but I don’t see a need to bench it. Randy also indicated that it never dominated, but that its very existence heavily influenced the environment.

So does the existence of Counterspell. Whoopdee frickin’ doo. Actually, a solid argument could be made that the existence of Psychatog has more influence over the Extended environment than Oath of Druids ever did, and that rat bastard is still legal.

With the evolutionary shot-in-the-arm of Mirrodin, Extended had turned into a monstrous format. Wielding bone-crushing brutality and terrifying speed, the top decks tore up lesser creations with the savagery of Fast Mana and Broken Tutor Effects. Stax, Tinker, and Seeeeething Gobvantage thundered and roared across the landscape, with Tog occasionally darting in to take down weaker and unprepared players.

Then one day, a bright DCI light blazed across the sky and hit the format like an Extinction Level Event. The impact crater marked the passing of the Power decks, but also marked the ascendance of the smaller, more flexible and fair decks to finally have their day. The format has chilled and it’s time for the shrews to take over.

Playtesting began with me trying to learn how to play Kai’s Tinker deck he listed on Brainburst. Tragically, I somehow forgot that Kai no longer plays decks that normal mortals can grok. I was doing alright with the deck, but it felt like I never had anything locked away. I never drew the friggin’ Upheavals unless they were in my opening hand, Bosh always ended up in my damned hand so I couldn’t Tinker for him… I just wasn’t getting it. Even when I did get my win conditions on the board, the win never seemed inevitable.

I’m a sketchy player, people… inevitability of winning is important. One-turn kill? Yes please, thank you!

This deck is much better than you think. My testing for New Orleans saw this deck perform insanely well against Psychatog, and pretty well against both versions of the Goblin Charbelcher deck (Mana Severance and Goblin Recruiter). It suffered against Red Deck Wins, which I didn’t expect to see in huge numbers, and The Rock gave it a tight game with its early disruption.

So, that’s the good stuff. Now, onto the bad stuff. The deck loses to Tinker. Very, very badly. Bye now!

Wait a minute… Tinker has been banned, you say? Well, sing hosannas!

Come January 1st, Extended is going to be a very different format. The most recent banned list has torn the format asunder, laying waste to the staple decks in the environment. The last banned list got rid of Reanimator and Frantic Search-based combos, and this one puts the screws to Tinker, Belcher, Hermit, Goblin, and Oath decks.

It should be obvious to all, that decks unaffected by the last two banned lists (like Tog and Rock) will be powerhouses in the new Extended. The interesting question for deck designers like myself is, can we build new decks or revamp the “dead” decks in such a way that they are actually competitive?

I am sure I will not be the only person to mention that the recent bannings do some serious harm to Tinker decks. The banning of Tinker and Grim Monolith also hurt the Mana Severance/Goblin Charbelcher decks and even the Mind’s Desire/Twiddle deck. Cutting Oath of Druids gets rid of Scepter-Oath, and even some classics like TurboLand. The elimination of Goblin Recruiter eliminates the combo-Goblins decks. Finally, no Hermit means he won’t be Angry any more.

So the bannings may have gotten rid of several Combo decks, but don’t think that combo has left the building. There are a score of other combo or combo-ish decks that have potential. I’ll start by listing some of the more obscure possibilities, and then move on to the mainstream decks.

If you’re reading this, then you either really, really like my stuff or you are fairly interested in Aluren. For your sake, I hope it’s the latter. In any case, I’m going to stop taking dictation from the tape recorder and give it to you straight, like a normal writer. I’ve been reading a lot of forum threads on Extended lately. I’ve also been sitting in on conversations in real life and on the net about the format. One thing I’ve noticed is that nobody seems to know anything about Aluren. At least, nobody who’s talking. This has upset me to the point that I’m prepared to write in paragraphs to try and pass on my vast store of infinite knowledge about the slowest (good) combo deck in Extended.

The article is so extensive it broke the database size.

Before we get started, let’s talk about the deck itself. Relatively few articles have been written about Twiddle Desire, and most people are dismissing it as a viable deck for PTQs. There is good reason for this, since it is one of the hardest decks to play, and is not as rewarding as I would like it to be in terms of supporting good play. Simply put, the average player should not just pick up this deck and go to town expecting to get a turn 2 kill consistently. It isn’t going to happen.

Even for experienced players Twiddle Desire does not win on turn 2 25% of the time. Not even close. It’s far better.

I used to love Extended. I have written more articles on Extended than any other (sanctioned) format. I play Limited, I like T2, but I have always loved Extended. At least, until now I have. The sheer power of the Tier I combo decks makes it futile to play any original decks. In a format where a turn one Isochron Scepter imprinted with Counterspell may be too slow, other non-combo decks have very little chance…

I have interviewed my man Gabriel Nassif for your viewing pleasure. This man is not only on a hot streak, but he also invented the saying “That’s for sure, that’s for sure,” making him a bona-fide celebrity.

T: When did you start making Top 8s in the qualifiers?
G: Actually, the situation when I started getting better was pretty strange. My mom would not let me play, so I had to play the PTQs in secret. I played three in a row where I went undefeated and then conceded, since mom would not let me travel.

We all have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen. Most likely Wizards of the Coast will ban all of the”engine” cards. People will loudly cry for the format to change, and Wizards will come through, like they (mostly) should. They will attempt to get rid of the problem decks that currently exist in the format with these bannings: Goblin Charbelcher, Tinker, Goblin Recruiter, Hermit Druid, and it’s always possible they might throw Chrome Mox into the mix as well.

But in doing so, they’ll just be making a mistake. They’ll be trying to cure the symptoms, but miss the disease.

Nice to meet you; I’m Yann Hamon. I have had recent successes on the Pro Tour circuit, playing at Grand Prix: London, Grand Prix: Lyon and Pro Tour: New Orleans, finishing second, first, and third, which is not too bad. Consequently, my composite rating is actually over 2150, and I’m ranked second in the world. Also, I was the second half of the Labarre concession controversy.

I’m going to tell you this story and other interesting ones (at least I hope so) in my report. The report may also contain useful information for your Extended PTQ season – at least until Wizards finally decides to ban some cards and change the format.

When I got my email from Wizards telling me that I had qualified for Pro Tour: New Orleans on rating, I had a decision to make. If I tried my hand at the Pro Tour, I’d be throwing away two more years of Free Money Championships – most people call them the JSS champs, but I prefer Free Money. I won’t lie; playing eight rounds against kids and getting $1,000 to show for it is nice, but it was getting pretty boring. Since many of my friends were also qualified, I chose to go to New Orleans and play for the glory.

Pro Tour New Orleans has come and gone, but not before giving us the NEW Extended gauntlet! StarCityGames.com proudly presents the Extended Decks To Beat!