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By: JXClaytor, Joshua Claytor
Nov 23 2009 1:25am
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The 2009 Magic: the Gathering World Championship ended a scant few hours ago.  André Coimbra won with Naya, and in the finals easily cruised past jund, which is a good matchup for the deck.  Past years the World Championships signaled the end of serious tournament play for the Standard format, and people stopped caring about it until Regionals and National championship events came on in the new year. 

This year is a bit different though.  When WOTC decided that it was no longer in their best interest to support the State Championships (and Provincial championships.) Sun Mesa events jumped in and organized tournament organizers throughout the United States.  We had a rag tag State Championships last year, and this year after learning from mistakes, Sun Mesa has again spearheaded this effort and will be delivering State Championships again throughout the United States.

Of course, it's not a real state championship.  Apparently there was a vote among the organizers and they decided to make each State Championship an open border event.  In the past you had to be a college student or a resident of the state to actually play in the event, but this year, that restriction is no more!  Anyone can walk into the Kentucky International Fair and Expo center and play in the Kentucky State Championships.  Does not matter if you live in Japan, or Kentucky.  Indiana or New York, you can pick and choose the place you want to play at! 

This is a really weak decision in my eyes.  I mean really, the title of state champion is useless; you got nothing from it outside of a plaque and some form of bragging rights.  The title was already absurd to begin with (and I'm a former state champion) but there was something about the event.  Maybe there was a little bit of mystique in being able to add your name to the list of past champions, but this version of States is nothing more than a giant Magic Game Day.  It's no longer a special event, it's just a generic event with a plaque and some nifty play mats added to it. 

I do not want you all to think that I am complaining to complain.  I know how good we get it when compared to other tournament choices for some of the regions of the world.  Man, we have it good over here.  Starcity is running a monthly 5k event, Legion, Pastimes and Professional Event Services announced the Midwest Masters Series, and BluegrassMagic runs a weekly cash event.  I appreciate the fact that Sun Mesa Events had the gumption to undertake this large coordination effort.  I just like my tournaments to mean something, even if the meaning is nothing more than bragging rights. 

I kinda went off in a weird direction there, thanks for putting up with me! 

Normally, States is the event that sets the metagame of Standard until World's comes around and changes it again.  This year it's different though.  Champs 2009 is on December 5th.  That's thirteen days away!  Of course in those thirteen days I have one presentation, five final exams, a full work schedule, and three papers due.  That leaves me with very little time to actually test.  Thankfully Thanksgiving is this week, so I'll have three days off later this week to take a step back away from school and actually play some magic. 

This time off will be the only time that I get to use for testing for this event.  What I need to do is sit down, look at the standard metagame, the decks that were played at worlds, and see which ones I like.  After I cut the list down to four or five decks, I can concentrate my testing on the lists that I feel are going to be the most played.  With that in mind, it's time for me to set off on the testing process.

If you point your browser to dailymtg.com you can see the metagame breakdown of the standard decks played and Worlds (Don't go yet, I'm not done!) , you can also see the decks that finished with a 5-1 or better record, and of course, you can view the top eight decks.  Normally, it is not in your best interest to use one event as your gauge, but in this case you can make an exception.  I say that because the World Championships are a hugely influencing event.  Players will flock to the new tech, learning the ins and outs of the hottest new lists.  Enough of my ramblings, let's take a look at things.
 

 

Total Standard Metagame

Jund  143
Boros Bushwhacker 62
Junk 38
Bant  33
Eldrazi Green 31
 Naya  13
Dredge 11
4cControl  11
Green-White Aggro 8
White-Blue-Red Control 8
Monored 6
White Weenie 6
Pyromancer Ascension 5
Vampires 4
Ranger Zoo 4
Esper Control 3
Grixis Control 3
White-Blue Aggro 3
Blue-White Control 3
Red-Green Valakut
3 Monowhite Control 3
White-Red Control 2
Turbo Fog 2
Owling Mine 1
RGB Accel 1
Time Sieve 1
Black-White-Red Aggro 1
Total 409

27 Different decks represented.

Decks that went 5-1 or better. 
* denotes at least one version of that deck in the top eight

Jund* 21
Vampires: 1
Mono Red: 2
Bant* 2
Turbo Fog 1
Mono White Tokens* 1
Green White Aggro 1
Boros Bushwacker* 7
Green White Angel 1
UWR Control 2
Naya* 1
Magical Christmasland 1
Nissa Green 1

42 Total

13 different decks represented.

That is a lot of decks to go over.  I think it would be in my best interest for me to look at the decks that finished 5-1 or better.  Laziness of course plays a part in this, but the decks that finished 5-1 are also on the internet.  So while I may be interested in a copy of Owling Mine, I am going to have to go without because I do not have the time to innovate. 

I'm expecting my Champs event to be heavily influenced by the decks and results of worlds.  I expect an upsurge of Naya, mainly because it won the event and ape smashed Jund in the process. I believe that the result of the finals may be the most influential of all. 

What else do I expect besides Naya?  Well control is pretty much unheard of.  If you look at the 5-1 decks you have three control decks (four if you count magic christmas land.  I'm not really sure what to call that one.  It's a killer deck though and Woods is one fine deck builder.  I can not wait to see his report!)  Four out of 42 is a distanct lack of control options.  However out of them I really enjoy Turbo Fog.  With a heavy aggro field, one would think that a lot of fogs would make you a heavy favorite. 

So that leaves a couple of more decks for me to look at before I decide what to play on the 5th.  

A lot of aggro decks.  Sigh. 

I'm pretty terrible at playing aggro, but I've long thought that if you do not at least consider sleeving up (Bloodbraid Elves) in this format than you're wrong.  We have the standard Jund deck to look at, and we have the new freshness that is Naya.  Honestly Naya is a little more appealing to me.  You seem faster than Jund, you seem a lot more resiliant, and your men are huge.  I'd add Naya to my list before I added Jund, so there is a second deck to look at. 

At this point I have a control deck which looks to take advantage of the metagame, and the deck that just won worlds in my queue.  I think I am netdecking pretty well at this point.

*Sidebar* I run paper magic events at a local store in Radcliff, Kentucky.  As we were wrapping up a draft, a play decided to start spouting off about netdecks.  He said that I could give any idiot off the street a copy of jund and they would win.  Of course that's impossible, because a player off the street is not going to know how to play magic.  I know people have their reasons for hating netdecks, how they ruined magic and all of that, but I think that is extremely misguided.  You're not Conley Woods, you're not Adrian Sullivan, you're not John Loucks or Mike Flores or Pat Chapin or Brian Kowal.  There is a good chance that the deck you worked on is not going to be good against the decks that you want it to be good against.  Going rogue is admerable sure, but it's a good way in my mind to lose your money.  Netdecking is not a crime.  It's not illegal, and you know what, for someone that has zero time to actually brew decks anymore, learning the decks that someone else built inside and out is not a bad thing.

*Steps off of soapbox*

So I still have three decks to pick out.  As much as I like Gerry T, there is no way I'm playing the Spreading Seas deck.  It looks cute sure, and it looks like it could stomp a mudhole in jund and walk it out, but what does it do against other decks?  At a glance (and this is my own loss since I am taking an obviously biased look at the deck.) it looks like a deck that does nothing.  So I can rule that one out.  Niothing against GerryT, but I have to focus my testing on certain decks. This one will be played later.  It does at the very least look cute. 

I may be going about this the wrong way.  If I think the metagame is going to look like this:

Lots of Naya, Lots of Jund, some bushwacker, some Vampires and some Nissa (which I do think it will look like.  This format is a great aggro format.) Then I think it would behoove me to learn how to play those decks.  Learn them, and understand them, how they work, what makes them tick.  I'd be attacking from the inside out! 

With that said, I'll be taking a look at the following decks over the next couple of days.

Turbo Fog
Naya
Jund
Bushwacker
Nissa
Mono White Tokens
Green White Emeria

Here are the lists.

 


With that said, I'll hopefully find the time to test each deck, record some games, and present my findings to all of you as the week progresses.  Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time! 

13 Comments

Another deck that should by Adam (not verified) at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 01:57
Adam's picture

Another deck that should probably be added to a gauntlet somewhere along the line is some sort of Grixis. It hasn't taken a step out into the public view because it's more or less Jund with smaller creatures. However, with Naya winning Worlds, I can see a huge uptick in the decks that will be very cold to a Grixis deck built for tempo and disruption, finally topping up on Cruel Ultimatum to reload in the mid-late game. If it's not in your gauntlet yet, just give it a try.

On principle I agree. Grixis by Paul Leicht at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 02:23
Paul Leicht's picture

On principle I agree. Grixis control has been talked about a lot in whispers lately. And it seems like a strong answer to certain decks. I am a little surprised though to see it did not fair well at Worlds. Maybe the pros know something...

Josh nothing wrong in netdecking for serious competition. I think where I hear the most complaints about it is from people who are a) very casual and b) people who think of themselves as rogue deck builders and want to interact with others of the same mindset. What these people fail to realize is that true netdecking is about innovating on known decks not merely copying them and shuffling them up. Well that's my pov.

Naya Confusion by Anonymous (not verified) at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 02:44
Anonymous's picture

Why do you have a pic of lotus cobra next to the naya build, when none are in the list?

Because I like Lotus Cobra by JXClaytor at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 10:16
JXClaytor's picture

Because I like Lotus Cobra

lol by wasted at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 21:51
wasted's picture

lol

sometimes by JXClaytor at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 21:55
JXClaytor's picture

the simplest answer is the best!

Another picture confusion. by Anonymous2 (not verified) at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 11:41
Anonymous2's picture

On the note of confusing pictures... How did Kor Skyfishers beat out Boros for the picture. I mean the deck isn't called Boros skyfisher.

well if you look at the by ShardFenix at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 12:10
ShardFenix's picture

well if you look at the decklist there is not a single boros card in the deck. Boros was the red/white guild in ravnica...so must red white decks are now boros something. And Kor Skyfisher is actually pretty important in the deck. and as such it deserves to be the picture. and goblin bushwhacker is just meh..its good but not great

The deck is called Boros by hovercraft-randommiser (not verified) at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 12:30
hovercraft-randommiser's picture

The deck is called Boros Bushwacker, it is not meh at all, while the most important card there is goblin guide followed by geopede, lynx then skyfisher. The Bushwhacker is a great finisher even thoough only as a 2 of mostly.

ref; deckcheck most played cards per archtype:
Arid Mesa · Lightning Bolt · Goblin Guide · Path to Exile · Plated Geopede · Teetering Peaks · Steppe Lynx · Celestial Purge · Kor Skyfisher · Burst Lightning · Ranger of Eos · Elite Vanguard · Scalding Tarn · Harm's Way · Marsh Flats · Goblin Bushwhacker · Magma Spray · Hellspark Elemental

Personal choice by JXClaytor at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 16:47
JXClaytor's picture

I hate the art to Bushwacker. It's ugly. If I could have imported a picture, I would have used a pic of the bushwackers tag team from WWE.

Hear, hear! though I don't by Paul Leicht at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 17:04
Paul Leicht's picture

Hear, hear! though I don't know anything about the Bushwacker's tag team.

The2009s State Provincial Championships-"States without Borders" by Glenn Godard (not verified) at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 12:41
Glenn Godard's picture

Hey Joshua, Glenn from Sunmesa Events here,thanks for the gauntlet for the Championship. One thing I always loved was that if you got ready for standard with States you always were ready for the coming year.

On the no border we decided it was really unfair to so many North American players to not be able to play in the championships because they were so far from home. Texas, & California are two examples. I do agree it detracts somewhat from the title. Time will tell. Something you didn't mention is that all the champions get free entries to all Primier Constructed Events hosted by ALL the organizers for a year. That's definately Not like your average Game Day.

Hi Glenn, thanks for stopping by JXClaytor at Mon, 11/23/2009 - 16:46
JXClaytor's picture

Hi Glenn, thanks for stopping by!

I never did take into account States such as California and Texas, I am admittedly a bit short sighted in the regard because I'm within a 4 hour drive to so many different cities on this side of the country.

This is just an idea, what if for instance in California and Texas, you split the state up, and run two different events? (Like a NoCal and SoCal Championship?) I'm not sure how that could happen, but like I said, it's just an idea!

I do apologize for not mentioning the free events, that is a pretty awesome prize and again something I failed to mention, mainly because that's been standard in Kentucky for a few years now :)

Also want to mention this. check out Sun Mesa's champs webpage I think it is the2009s.com there you can see where champs events are happening, and details about the writing contest they are having.