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By: under_the_hammer, Andrew Phillips
Feb 01 2009 1:19am
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Welcome to the five installment of "Eternal Wisdom"

The Last Eternal Wisdom article can be found Here.

Please note there is a supplementary article containing the decklist which I feel represent the current Top 10 Classic Decks to Beat. This supplement has been updated to include decks from this month's events and some of the containing decklist are refereed to in this article.  In addition I have presented three additional decklists which are of interest or which look like an emerging decktype that we should be aware of.

Classic is experencing a really boom-time at the moment, many new classic plaeyrs are emerging and the success of the format has been acknowledged by WOTC with the addition of an additional Daily Event - taking the total to 3 a week. Not only have the number of players boomed there has also been a boom in the price of quality Classic Cards. I dont want to go into too much details on price changes but it is a good indicator to format health.   So Since the last edition of Eternal Wisdom the Classic Community has had a period of stability not seen in quiet some time. Tempest is firmly having an impact but the classic card pool has been static again following the recent explosion of Jace v Chanda duel decks, Masters Edition II and Tempest.  Despite this stabilisation there has been a very open field with many different deck types taking their pilots into the coverted Top8 slot.As ususal the deck supplement gives example decklists and all have made at least 1 Top 8 in this round of data. Since the introduction of the third daily event all Classic events have fired and noteworthy is the large field of the Sunday event which has been seeing 6 rounds of swiss due to higher participation levels.

Necrospike is one of two decks to take 8 Top 8 slots from the 8 events that have fired. This level is far from the domination that some players have suggested but the power of Necrospike is undeniable, sometimes this deck just pulls of busted first turn plays such as Duress, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual Necropotence and Daze Backup etc. When you face this hand you are helpless and the game seems very unfair.  The other deck to post this number of Top 8 results is StifleNought, a deck which has been off the radar for a while.  The deck "cheat" a 12/12 trampling dreadnough into play by preventing the come-into-play clause on the aforementioned Dreadnought. The third place deck is the ever present Threshold which has been covered in previous Eternal Wisdom articles.

Top 3 Decks

Necrostorm:  If left unchecked this is a brutal deck which can drop a potential game-winning turn 1 Necropotence with Force of Will backup.  There are ways to attack this deck and deckbuilders need to consider this threat, if you do not come to the table packing some disruption then expect to lose very quickly. Players are much more aware of this powerhouse, and now Necro must evolve to compete against the increasing hate. One way which this deck has evolved is to use a transformational sideboard which allows the deck to switch to a Team America Deck (an example of this necro decklist and an example of the Team America deck that it hopes to mimic post sideboard are located Classic Decks to Beat supplement. 

StifleNought: This deck is a natural foil for the Necrostorm deck, the ability to stifle or trickbind the lethal tendrils,and the array of counterspells and counterbalance take the fight to the Necrostorm players.  The ability to put a 12/12 trampler into play on turn 2 is a strong play against many a deck, and the addition of Trickbind alongside Stifle present a challenge to opposing blue mages. Traditionally the Nought is allowed to resolve and the fight is over the resolution of the stilfle on the triggered ability, but if you opponent has two mana up then you have to factor that the Split Second Trickbind is a really possibility leaving you facing a 12/12 monster if you dont counter the intital threat.

Threshold:  This deck has been ever present in the classic metagame since the conception of Classic and more so since the release of Force of Will with the release of Master's edition. However, the deck has gained a big boost from new tools in the form of Daze and Wasteland. The strength of this deck is its ability to switch easily between control or beatdown roles depending on the matchup and board state. The fact that so many different player has success with this deck masks the fact that this deck is technically challenging to play successfully.   

There is still a huge amount of diversity in the environment as evidenced by the differing decks in the sister article of top 10 decks to beat. All of these decks have made at least one Top 8 from the 8 events that this article covers.  

Last time out I focused on a deck called Epic Painter (A blue black combo control deck which aims to win the game with the Painters Servant / Grindstone combo. The painter makes all the cards a color of its controllers choice including the cards in the library, so when the grindstone is triggered it can Mill the opponents library with one activation.  The fact that both combo pieces are artifacts opens up alot of design options and although Uncle.Istvan opts for a black blue shell other options such as white blue and mono red are worth exploring. The ever present Pithing Needle can shut down this combo of course and destroying the Painter in response to Grindstone is another foil for the deck. In the last article I highlighted Uncle.Istvan's back-to-back success with Epic Painter, but making waves this time out is a different take on the Painters deck.  The deck was highlighted some weeks ago in an article by Whiffy Penguin, but it was not until Eaglescout19 picked up the deck literally from Whiffy (Eaglescout19 lost a lot of cards on another account due to a disloyal "friend" so Whiffy stepped in and lent his deck) Needless to say this competent pilot went on to win the event with the deck.   A decklist now sits firmly in the Top10 decks to beat article but before we talk about its contents I want to show you a similar decklist as played by RenatoAmado also to success in a Daily Event.

Painter Red
Played by RentaoAmado
Creatures
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Painter's Servant
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Vexing Shusher   
19 cards

Other Spells
2 Blood Moon
4 Chrome Mox
4 Grindstone
2 Guttural Response
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Mana Crypt
4 Pyroblast
3 Sword of Light and Shadow  
23 cards
 

Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Crystal Vein
10 Snow-Covered Mountain
18 cards

 

Imperial Recruiter 

The secret to this deck is the disruptive natrue of the Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon (the later being recruitable by Imperial Recruiter) this enables the deck to attack the greedy dual land infested Mana bases of many classic decks. The sideboard Trinishere is amazingly stong against certain decks like Necrostorm if it can resolve.  Now normally a 3cc artifact would be far to slow for the powerful skull, but it is not unreasonable for the Painter Red player to land this card on Turn 1 thanks to the highly efficient Crystal Vein.   The Sword of Light and Shadow in this version are also very important, the Sword can help protect the Paitnters or provide a fast-beat down clock when attached to any of the decks creatures. The deck can apply pressure and is often capable of winning with out the core combo.  Grindstone on its own normally does very little excepted when partnered with a Painter (Note I have lost a game whilst playing NecroSpike to a painterless Grindstone after a Demonic Consultation went badly - but to be honest it was the consultation not the Grindstone which ultimately was responsible for the loss), however the other combo piece, Painters Servant does have some interesting interactions in the deck such with Jaya, Pyrobalsts and Guttural Responses. There is much talk of this deck being beaten by a singleton Gaea's Blessing in the Sideboard but this is a view often banded by people that have not tested against the deck, after all the Painter Red runs graveyard removal tools such as Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus, and can easily and regularly win due by simple beatdown. 

Javasci has also had great success with a combo deck having revived Flash - Flash was restricted after dominating the classic scene: The centre of the deck revolves around these two cards :

Imperial Recruiter  Imperial Recruiter 

 

With the current wording of Flash you can put the Hulk into play refuse to pay the required 2 Green and 3 Colourless Mana and have the Hulk head to the Graveyard from Play - hence triggering the search your library clause.  Historically classic Flash has pulled Disciple of the vaults and artifact creatures which die to dome your opponent from the Mirrodin Commons ability.  However, Tempest introduce Heart Sliver to the Card Pool and enables the classic player to pull of a kill that is seen in some Vintage Flash decks. When the Hulk ability resolves you find 4 Virulent Sliver and the Heart Sliver and swing for a Posion-induced death of your opponent.  The Sliver Kill requires far few cards than the previous artifact- disciple kill and allows for more design space which Java fills with my tutors, counters and Ancestral Vision. Ancestral Vision seems a little out of place in a deck that histroically wants to kill on the first three turns, but Javasci persisted with his testing and proved the assumption wrong. The ancerstal give the deck a chance to reload in the mid game and overpower the opponent.  Like the aforementioned Painter Red deck, this build of Flash can win via the beatdown route and the 4 Tarmogoyf in the sideboard are waiting to make an appearance should the situation call for them.  The cunning wish main deck enables the recovery of Flash if removed from game, or can pull the Reclaim in the sideboard to recover the lone flash from the graveyard if necessary.  The full deck list is in the sister article, as a Top 10 Deck to Beat. This deck can be hosed by Leyline of the Void, but the downturn in the fortune of Dregde means Flash is currently able to dodge the fear of this hoser.

Javasci has had a very strong run in Classic of late having success with  4 Colour Chant Zoo deck as developed by Bizaar of Baghdad, following a request in last months Eternal Wisdom, Bizaar of Baghdad wrote an excellent article here on puremtgo to give a fantastic insight into this deck type and I can help thinking that his deck and article are contributing to the price rise of Orim's Chant that hamtastic recently hightlighted in his State of the Program series. Shards of Alara added the impressive Wild Nacatl and Ethersworn Canonist and these are becoming auto-include in this decktype.  This version is very sophisticated compared to early versions of the deck, and it is far from a deck that hopes to beat down for the win.  The obvious difference is the inclusion of Orim's Chant (the cost of which likely contributes to the fact that the deck does not see as much play as its success warrants). Also imbedded in the deck is Enlightened Tutor and an interesting selection of toolbox targets (Ethersworn Canonist,Bitterblossom, Cursed Scroll, Isochron ScepterOblivion Ring, Pithing Needle and Umezawa's Jitte). The Isochron has some gamebreaking imprint targets including the powerful combo of impriting Orim's Chant. Gaddock Teeg, and Ethersworn Canonist add to the beatdown plan with their 2/2 bodies but there global effects are far more important to the success of this deck.  

After writing this article Bizaar of Baghdad set his mind to a different deck, namely Fish (aslo in the sister article) Once Bizaar has made 5-10 Top8's with the deck ill pester him to write a new article :P - in the mean time I will talk you through some of the finer points of this deck. The deck as is so often the case with this Pilots deck is tuned to attack the current predicted metagame, but at the heart of the deck is the Aether Vial Standstill core.  The idea to drop a turn 1 Vial, turn 2 Standstill then protect the Vial and let it churn out Creatures under the Standstill, adding to the threats on the board by dropping Mutavaults and Mishras Factories also under the standstill radar. Now lets look at the creature package of this deck: 

Imperial Recruiter Imperial Recruiter Imperial Recruiter
Imperial Recruiter Imperial Recruiter  Imperial Recruiter

None of these creatures are spectacular in the power and toughness stakes yet they all have powerful additional effects which add to the strength of the deck, of course either one of them can become powerful on the battlefield by carrying the Jitte into the Red Zone, but it is the associated ability that puts these cards ahead of more aggresively costed critters.

When Master's Edition 1 was first released 18 months ago (approx) Pox was experimented with alongside its small sister Smallpox, but this deck has been off the radar for a longtime. The Crucible of Worlds enables the pilot to break the syngery of the Pox effects by bringing back sacraficed lands, but it can also recur Wasteland to demolish any greedy manabases relying too heavily on non-basic lands. The pox effects also help fill the graveyard to power Tombstalkers early arrival an example decklist run by Dunkle_stille is provided in the sister article.

One of the players that has to be a favourite in the Classic Quarter run Player of the Year race must be FatManInALittleCoat so when he makes multiple Top 8' s with a novel looking deck it is time to pay attention so without furtherado I present his NextLevelStandstill Deck:

Next Level Standstill
Played by FatManInALittleCoat
Creatures
2 Eternal Witness
4 Tarmogoyf
6 cards

Other Spells
4 Brainstorm
3 Counterbalance
2 Counterspell
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Daze
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Force of Will
2 Intuition
1 Life from the Loam
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Standstill
4 Swords to Plowshares 
31 cards
 
Lands
1 Academy Ruins
4 Breeding Pool
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
3 Wasteland
23 cards

Standstill

Three is the magic number - Dont be fooled this is a hard deck to play and requires a very good understanding of the decks you expect to see in classic. There are manying interesting lines of play and this deck is very dynamic in the way it plays out the deck is obviously not good enough to beat Necro ever time and will fuel the reason why the Pilot ultimately falls out of love with this deck. The sideboard is amazingly strong in this deck allowing the pilot to sure up many frequent matchups, and having three ofs enables Intuition to effectively tutor for the desired cards. The deck has lots of hidden card advantage stratergies and recognising and maximising these are critical for winning with the deck. In the hands of a competent pilot this deck is a house, and one that should stay present and be evolved for sometime.

The burn deck refuses to go away despite theories that it would fade away.  The pilots of burn decks historically preyed on the fact that their opponents would be inflicting damage to themselves from the Ravnica Shock Lands,  and it was anticipated that the arrival of the original dual lands would signal the death of the traditional Burn deck. Then the release of Chill was expected to drop the competitive edge of this deck, yet still it puts undeniable strong numbers.There is often a perception that burn is an easy and dull deck to pilot, but to have success in the format the pilot has to be on his toes especially against a resolved counterbalance for example. 

The recent evloution of this deck has  been to include Badlands allowing a splash of blackmana to enable the deck to play sideboarded Duress and Rain of Gore, the primary reason is to try and take the game to Combo specifically NecroSpike - this is real evidence that the Necrospike deck is having a warping effect when a player is dedicating so many cards to tackle the threat of the skull, also note the 4 Pithing Needle which although have a far ranging effect also aim to nullify the Black powerhouse. There have been several players calling for the restriction of necropotence and or Demonic Consultation over recent weeks, but this is proof that the people that work to attack the deck rather than sit back and moan about it are having success. My view of Necro does change but currently I like the effect the deck has in defining classic as a unique format moving the format further away from Legacy and should help to accelerate the possibility of Legacy being a dedicated successful online format. 

Summary

Necrospike is consitently putting up great numbers the deck is insane, yet people are now more aware of this deck and are finding ways to combat this threat, that being said sometimes the deck just wins and several players have picked up the deck just due to its sheer power.  The deck is having an effect on the metagame there is no doubt, but whether this is positive or negative will be debated for some time to come. If there is to be any intervention then it is a least a delay till the next Restricted list update on 1st March I really believe that the next month will provide the suitable data to guide the policy makers.

The Classicquarter which can be found at www.classicquarter.com is hosting data for the 2009 Classic Player of the Year Race.  The player that is the most successful in the Daily Events will be crowned Classic Player of the Year and a Prize has been offered by the kind people of Wizards of the Coast - More information will follow shortly at the Classicquarter, so if you are a competitive player keep and eye on this.  At the time of writing the early leader in the race is Prolepsis9 with a string of recent success.

I hope you liked this article and I will be back in 4 weeks time with the next installment of "Eternal Wisdom" in the meantime be sure to enjoy playing classic. Please keep the discussion going in the comments section and feel free to contact me in the client as I am always happy to talk to Classic Enthusiasts.

Till next time,
Under_The_Hammer

Proud Member of the MTGO clan "Magic Eternal"

5 Comments

lol eaglescout16 not 19 by TheUsualSuspect at Sun, 02/01/2009 - 10:04
TheUsualSuspect's picture

its eaglescout16 i was 16 when i made the account. which I still cant believe was 4 years ago god times fly by. Nice article btw.

Eaglescout by under_the_hammer at Sun, 02/01/2009 - 11:01
under_the_hammer's picture
5

Hi TuS I was not sure if you wanted to make it public knowledge that ES19 was your alternative account so I did not reference it. Yeah 16 19 lol. How time flies!

thx for the discretion by TheUsualSuspect at Sun, 02/01/2009 - 16:58
TheUsualSuspect's picture

thanks for the discretion on that one, But yeah I don't mind since I'm now using that account for everything from classic to the occasional std and alot of drafting lol.

Quite bizarre by Blade at Sun, 02/01/2009 - 22:27
Blade's picture

Anything up with calling Bazaar Bizaar ? :)

Once gain, great recap, though.

Do I get an article request by Bazaar of Baghdad at Sun, 02/01/2009 - 23:38
Bazaar of Baghdad's picture

Do I get an article request yet? :=)

Man, good job, here: it's tough to cover so much ground!

How in the world do we define a metagame here!?!

Peace, Bazaar of Baghdad