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By: Clan Lotus Farmers, Clan Lotus Farmers
Aug 04 2011 11:50am
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Classic League Season One

One thing is certain: the Classic League has been a success beyond my wildest dreams.  What I had anticipated was a small tournament of about 16 people at most.  What we got was twice that number, on very short notice.  The Classic League succeeded not only in numbers, but also in how smoothly it progressed, and for that, much thanks and gratitude has to go to the Classic community.  This is a great group of players who enjoy gaming.  The rare moments where problems could have disrupted the tournament's schedule, there was nothing but compliance and players going out of their way trying to make this event work for everyone.  That makes me think, more than any statistic could, that we have something special to build on here and that the community is anything but dead.

As a point of reference, if you're not familiar with the Classic League, you can check the last article here, which includes all the deck lists of all 32 players.

Classic League Top 8

Going into the top 8, there were a lot of deck archetypes being represented as the skilled pilots navigated their way through five grueling rounds of Swiss to make it to the promised land of milk, honey and foil Classic cards.  Among the top 8 decks were: Dredge, Oath, Fish, Gush-Control, LED Storm and three Shop decks.  To have six different deck types being represented in a Classic top 8 is something I did not expect, but was quite pleased to see.  Before we go further with divulging the results, let us first take a moment to meet the men behind the screen names; here are your Classic League Season 1 top 8 players:

 

corran_34


  • Name: Justin Johnson
  • Clan: None
  • Playing MTGO since: On and off since the beginning. Started in this time around Ravnica
  • Playing Classic since: Same as before. Played some before the split with Legacy, more since then.
  • Deck you played and why: I went with a Null Rod Shop variant because I felt like it had solid game against most other decks. It is pretty aggressive and shuts down a lot of other strategies.
  • Deck you don't want to see: BlueDiamonds' Gush deck. That thing destroyed me.
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: Already looking forward to it. This lets me play a competitive Classic in ways that PE/DE never did.

  Winnings: 

ncsu31sb


  • Name: Michael Phillips
  • Clan: crushcan
  • Playing MTGO since: 2004
  • Playing Classic since: Somewhere pretty close to the beginning
  • Deck you played and why: Workshop, nice being able to play with 4x of a $300 card in real life, and Lodestone Golem just beats
  • Deck you don't want to see: Oath
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: Gotta support classic

  Winnings: 

StewardUlk 


  • Name: Jens G.
  • Clan: None
  • Playing MTGO since: uh... dunno, we still had the old client
  • Playing Classic since: I started playing competitive with MED1
  • Deck you played and why: MUD/Aggro-Shops, because I can't afford Force of Will ;)
  • Deck you don't want to see: Fish!
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: If time allows, Hell Yeah!

  Winnings: 

BlueDiamonds/BlueForever


  • Name: Kelvin Hoon
  • Clan: Lotus Farmers/NQG
  • Playing MTGO since: Odyssey
  • Playing Classic since: Med1
  • Deck you played and why: Time Vault Control; Simplest win condition
  • Deck you don't want to see: Dredge, coin flip based on hate cards
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: Yes

  Winnings: 

bactgudz


  • Name: Adrian
  • Clan: Magic Eternal
  • Playing MTGO since: Conflux
  • Playing Classic since: ME3
  • Deck you played and why: Dredge. I wanted to test out the new phi-mana spells in Dredge. I was willing to slow down the deck a little compared to Fatestitcher builds in order to add a bit more resilience and controlling elements with Noxious Revival, Gitaxian Probe + Cabal Therapy, and ample main deck anti-hate.
  • Deck you don't want to see: Fatestitcher Dredge and Storm.
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: Yep

  Winnings: 

dunkle_stille


  • Name: David Kaufmann
  • Clan: Clan Magic Eternal and Clan New Times ;)
  • Playing MTGO since: 2006
  • Playing Classic since: 2008 I guess
  • Deck you played and why: Oath, because it has a lot of plans and I win buttons while still being consistent every time.
  • Deck you don't want to see: Mirror
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: Very likely

  Winnings: 

Cantripping


  • Name: Ryan O
  • Clan: Lotus Farmers
  • Playing MTGO since: About a year after launch, started MTG during ODY block
  • Playing Classic since: The release of the dual lands (ME2)
  • Deck you played and why: LED Storm - it's the only deck I have all the cards for (missing Force of Will for blue decks, and dredge really isn't my style) and it's also the deck I have the most experience with by a wide margin.
  • Deck you don't want to see: I hate Mishra's Workshop soooooo much
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: You know it!

  Winnings: 

Timmins


  • Name: Nicholas Abbondante
  • Clan: Classic Quarter
  • Playing MTGO since: Fall 2005 (Ravnica Block)
  • Playing Classic since: Summer 2008
  • Deck you played and why: 4c Fish, it has a good matchup against most of the meta
  • Deck you don't want to see: Dredge
  • Will you be playing in Season 2: I haven't decided

  Winnings: 

Top 8 Synopsis:  In a twist of fate, the three Shop decks were not paired up against each other, setting up an ominous chance of having all three make the top 4 [/foreboding].  

Quarterfinals: (Match 1) Although bactgudz (piloting Dredge) steamrolled through the Swiss rounds going 5-0, none of those matches were against the dreaded Shops, which managed to end his amazing run in the quarterfinals.  (Match 2) BlueDiamonds' wave-making Gush-Fastbond-sporting-Vault-Key control deck was apparently too hot to handle for the lone Oath pilot in the top 8, dunkle_stille. (Match 3) Was surprisingly a heart-wrencher.  Normally one would imagine Shops to own Storm in this match up, but the black and white results don't show how soul crushing this loss was.  In fact, let Cantripping tell you in his own words:

'Game one, I win the die roll, open Polluted Delta > Swamp > Mana Crypt > Sol Ring > Imperial Seal for Tinker. I'm holding Tolarian Academy, Duress and Hurkyl's Recall. I'm like, "yeah, in the bag". He goes Workshop, Mox Opal, Mana Vault, Thorn of Amethyst, Lodestone Golem. No problem, I can still Tinker, and I do. He casts Phyrexian Metamorph AND Sphere of Resistance, I'm one mana short of the Recall and he locks me down. Feck. Game two I again land a turn 2 Tinker on the play, he drops the 1 x Maze of Ith from out of his sideboard, then locks me down. [expletive deleted]'

Classic is like that: haymakers vs. haymakers.  As an aside, this is one thing I love about Classic.  Even an insanely crazy play like a turn two Tinker is not a sure bet to win the game.  (Match 4) Was a shocker to me simply because Timmins has been tearing up the Classic Daily Events and feasting on the ripped out hearts of Shop players for months, but alas!  It wasn't to be this time.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so let's take a peek at what happened in game 1 of that match (click to enlarge):

This picture is quite telling in more ways than one.  Not only does it seem like Precursor Golem is a great beater, even when targeted (presumably) by a Swords to Plowshares, but also there is one card in particular in this screen shot that has perhaps nudged Shop decks to a cut above the rest of the meta.  Can you tell which one?  We'll come back to this later.

Semifinals: So after that promising six deck types in the quarterfinals, we ended up with 2 deck types in the final four: Shops x 3 and the lone blue spell slinger, BlueDiamonds.  As luck would have it, BlueDiamonds faced and defeated all three of these Shop decks/players in the Swiss rounds and the Classic community was a-buzz with the prospect of a blue, Gush wielding deck taking down the whole tournament.  Yet again, Shops would prove too much to handle and in corran_34's words, the wins were "powered by crazy Shop draws both games."  The other match was a preview of the finals as it was a Shop mirror match.  Game one saw a Crucible of Worlds and Strip Mine for ncsu31sb: surely a lock mighty enough to take down any opponent!  Game two saw another advantageous card in the Shop mirror: Metalworker, who powered out the likes of Wurmcoil Engine.

Finals: From the play-by-play provided by corran_34, it appears that the finals were a real slug fest. As I said above, Metalworker is amazing in the mirror . . . that is, unless pre-emptively answered with a Phyrexian Revoker. Game one went back and forth until finally a Wurmcoil Engine combined with a Crucible of Worlds and Wasteland put it away for corran_34. Game two looks grueling, but less glamorous of a finish with corran_34 being beaten to death by an Assembly Worker (i.e. Mishra's Factory). Game three looked a lot less close: Lodestone Golem and Crucible of Worlds for corran_34, which is soon followed by a Strip Mine and Ghost Quarter.

Classic League Season 1 Top 8

 

Congratulations once more to corran_34: you are the Classic League Season 1 champion!

 

Lessons Learned: the Current State of Classic (Editorial)

Warning, opinion follows.  Classic is in a position that looks a little like this:

 
Almost universally across all Eternal formats, blue is the love of people's life, the apple of their eye. Complaining about decks such as Dredge and particularly Mishra's Workshop decks, on the other hand, is entirely socially acceptable. I'm a big believer that for the most part, metas will work themselves out in Eternal formats, but with that said, there is growing evidence that Workshop based decks in an un-powered (i.e. no Moxes) environment is making Workshop decks better in Classic than in Vintage. It certainly doesn't help that the most recent expert level expansion, New Phyrexia, gave Workshop decks a new and extremely powerful weapon: Phyrexian Metamorph.  

Remember above when I asked which card you can see in the screen shot that has pushed Shops over the top?  Well, there was not only a Metamorph in hand, but if you look closely, in play there is another Metamorph doing his best Lodestone Golem impression.  Metamorph has granted Workshop decks a very powerful tool that is unbelievably flexible.  What can Metamorph do?  For instance: 1) copy Sphere effects; 2) legend slayer (note how Blightsteel was killed by Metamoprh in Cantripping's recounting of his loss, above); 3) copy your or opponent's artifact mana (Wasteland hurts Shop decks); 4) copy a threat.  What's more, in the newest meta shift, he is instrumental in copying Slash Panther.  Personally, I have cast two Metamorphs the turn  after playing a Slash Panther to give me 12 attacking power, and I must say, it's a beating.  In short, Phyrexian Metamorph is the real deal.

Now normally the definition of a warped format is one in which you must either play the best deck or have to pack an inordinate amount of hate for said deck, and while on the surface that may seem true in this case, it is also true that if one is not prepared for a first turn Oath of Druids you will also find yourself saying "gg" within a few short turns.  Classic is a format full of degeneracy.  Most decks pack a minimum 7 sideboard slots just for Dredge, even though Dredge remains a small part of the meta.  Why?  Because it is explosive enough that if you aren't prepared for the Dredge match up, you will most likely auto-lose.  Personally, I don't see a major problem with the current meta or the way the tournament ended.  Of course, people's perceptions are more important than what I say and if they don't enjoy Shops in the meta, they simply won't play.

 

Yet, before we get carried away with viewing the results as some sort of nameless, faceless, invariable deck archetype, we should pause for a moment and understand that match results are not based on one single factor, and instead, are a variable nexus, consisting of the pilot's skill level, the variance and randomness of play (such as cards drawn) and of course the deck itself.  The fact that there were three Shop decks in the top 4 does not necessarily point to an unstoppable deck; rather, there are a lot of factors that lead to that result.

Instead of getting overwhelmed with negativity, I think there are important lessons to take away from this:

  • Oath decks underperformed in contrast to previous events.  Time to tweak the deck?
  • BlueDiamonds' Gush-Control deck did beat all three of the other top 4 decks in Swiss.  It is unrealistic to expect it to have a 100% win percentage, so it is still a positive in the meta's fight over Shop dominance.
  • Dredge can still wreck a meta.  Similarly to above, simply because the bactgudz lost in the first round of elimination, that doesn't negate the fact that he went 5-0 with a cool new Phyrexian-mana using Dredge list.
  • The top 8 decks consisted of six different archetypes.  That, to me, is healthy, regardless of who won or lost those match ups.

Classic League Season One Conclusion

To sum up, this has been a great experience.  It is obvious that there is a core of enthusiastic Classic players who like to play Magic at one of its most powerful levels.  It is equally obvious that the Daily Event format – for whatever reason – is not satisfying the needs of the Classic community, but thanks to the initiative of the community members, the Classic League can begin to kindle an interest in the format among those who had stopped playing and those who are curious.  The flexibility of play times coupled with zero entrance fees and cool prizes have made the Classic League attractive to many.  It is our hope and expectation that Season 2 of the Classic League will crush Season 1 and pave the way for a bright future of competitive Classic.


Classic League Season Two

So the question on everyone's lips in the Classic community is "when does CL Season 2 begin?"  Answer: Registration closes Friday, August 19th and the first round pairings will go up on August 20th.  If you are at all interested in getting your feet wet in competitive Classic, then this might be a good place to start.  If you want to play competitive Classic, but have a tightly packed schedule, then this too might be the place for you, since – as you will read below in the FAQ – it's a quite flexible League system.

Some FAQs (please click to show the answer):


What is this? How does it work?

How much time do we have to play each round?

How do I sign up?

What if I can't play a round? What if I want to drop?

What can I win?

 

Well, that is it in a nutshell. If you have any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, post a comment in the Classic League Season 2 discussion thread, contact me at mtgoclassicleague@gmail.com or in client (user name Krtek) or at ClassicQuarter.com (user name MMogg).

If you find you cannot play, but want to support Classic and the Classic League, you may do so with something as simple as playing some competitive Classic in the Tournament Practice room or as generous as making a donation to the prize pool.  Every little bit helps.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you in Classic League Season 2!

a.k.a. Krtek

7 Comments

Nice pics, guys, esp that by menace13 at Thu, 08/04/2011 - 14:45
menace13's picture

Nice pics, guys, esp that Nicholas guy in a tie-looking sharp, bud-.
Cute baby, Bactgudz.
Dunk- that hair is epic, Shiny and luxurious!

MMogg-Good job on the League.

tbc Round1 vs me was a by StewardUlk at Thu, 08/04/2011 - 15:43
StewardUlk's picture

tbc Round1 vs me was a default Win. But a real good shot at the Metagame never the less!

thx to MMogg for making this happen, was a blast to play!

Very cool seeing the by greyes3 at Thu, 08/04/2011 - 16:49
greyes3's picture

Very cool seeing the profiles. The event sounded awesome. Congrats to everyone.

For a person who is not even by Paul Leicht at Thu, 08/04/2011 - 18:29
Paul Leicht's picture
5

For a person who is not even a little invested in classic (I have 4 duals for example.) I found this a great read. Very nice article. I particularly liked the top 8 facts section.

Thanks for the positive by MMogg at Thu, 08/04/2011 - 19:47
MMogg's picture

Thanks for the positive feedback guys! I hope it looks and feels different than your average tourney article. =)

But, unfortunately: CORRECTION! I made a major gaff in the article regarding Blightsteel Colossus and Phyrexian Metamorph. For some reason, I was thinking Blightsteel was legendary. >_< Sorry for the misinformation. In reality, in Cantripping's match, Metamorph copied Blightsteel and they traded blows.

Good Times by Montolio at Fri, 08/05/2011 - 07:33
Montolio's picture

Great article Michael,

The profiling of the players was pretty cool.

I enjoyed playing in season 1, and am looking forward to season 2.

Now to figure out what I am going to play.

Thanks again, for orchestrating this.

Good read... seeing the by Kaxon at Sat, 08/20/2011 - 21:16
Kaxon's picture

Good read... seeing the profiles is a lot of fun. I'm glad to be on board for season 2!