One Double O congratulates the Community Cup Team on their victory against the Wotc team. We rejoice together with everyone with our Momir Vig avatars. Just look at the team's gleaming faces in the picture they have with the trophy!
Also recently, the myMTGO.com's 100 card Singleton tournament has concluded with Louigi winning the event with GW elves, JPit coming second with MonoRed and Tarmotog in third place with UGB Goodstuff.
Decklists can be found here, with a very obvious naming system: http://mymtgo.com/browse_deck_category.php?cid=12
Not all the t8 lists are there now but they'll be up soon.
Before I start going into the lists, let me describe the situation so that we can understand or appreciate the format a little better.
Other than the fact that the decks are played in the 100 card Singleton format, there is a restriction that allows the whole team of 8 to play a particular card.
So, 8 players from each team (the wotc team and the community team) have to bring 8 decks that have been coordinated in a way that allocates the cards in the "best" way.
Cards like fetchlands, duals and tournament staples are the first cards that have to ironed out because every blue deck wants a Fact or Fiction but it can't work that way.
Another characteristic of this rule is that it creates a lockdown of both specific threats and answers one would encounter.
In other words, the odds of a player encountering a particular card is 1 in 8 at best. This means that greedier strategies, or strategies that make use of specific threats that need to be answered are going to be much more valuable.
More non-basic lands can be played because only one person would have Blood moon and other non-basic hate while another a Wasteland so the value of karoo lands go up significantly as well.
The graveyard is going to be a very powerful zone to manipulate because there is no way to consistently guard against it over 8 decks.
Powerful enchantments are also going to matter greatly because odds of a player having an enchantment hate is significantly lower in this format too.
Enough said, let us look at the decks. There would first be a short introduction on the archetype followed by a decklist and then some comments on the decks.
#01 RG Elves
Of the possible combinations, RG is probably not one of the first combinations that one would tend to associate elves with. The more common two are white and black, which tends to have more synergy with the tribe from its selection of support cards.
White is good because GW is traditionally a color that supports a creature strategy. There are a number of cards available that support the deck well as seen from http://puremtgo.com/articles/fake-formats-100singleton-gw-elves-primer. Black is also a possible color because of how the Lorwyn block has pushed elves into the GB combination. It basically gives some removals and it opens up to using cards like Profane command or even Living death which beats wrath effects.
Elves is a strong but fragile archetype. White gives suppression and consistency while black offers resilience and disruption. What about red?
My guess it that the refrain from black or white is so that another deck can use the lands (the GBW rock deck) or just wanting to use red.
Personally, i think that getting non-green mana is not that difficult in an elf deck (as long as not more than one) even without the use of many non-basic lands so it wouldn't hurt the other decks to go into their colors.
The deck houses the Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest combo. Earthcraft, by itself, is a permanent Heritage Druid that does not need 3 elves to work. Squirrel Nest is a good chump blocker.
Together, the combo spits out infinite 1/1 squirrels which should take a few games.
Interestingly, in standard, a deck called "Eldrazi green" has emerged but looks like Wotc already knew the power of Eldrazi monument or is it just plain good that it belonged in the deck anyway? Who could resist flying indestructable elves?
Fecundity is a very strong card to have here because every elf, insect and squirrel turns into an additional card. Incidentally, it combos with Goblin bombardment by letting you turn your creatures into damage and cards.
Elves as an archetype is very straightforward. You cast creatures, try to have some small combos and try as much as possible not to lose steam. I think Weird harvest might be a neat card to run. Odds are that you can play everything faster than your opponent can.
#02 Mono-red / Goblins
People like to mesh mono-red and goblins together for the strengths of both archetypes which blend rather well together.
Mono-red basically wants to kill the opponent with fast drops and burn spells.
Goblins wants to get its tribesmen out as they tend to amplify each other in a strong way.
Goblins is simply substituted into the "fast drops" part of the mono-red equation and this is probably the direct result of that.
At the personal level, I find it difficult to understand why goblins would want to be diluted with mono-red cards (such as burn and non-goblins) especially since the tribe is so highly synergistic with each other as seen from the goblin lords, the very powerful Goblin Ringleader, (Goblin Lackey) and Warren Instigator (which don't do as much as with more friends). However, this style has been proven to be successful at the very least.
There isn't much to say because of the straightforwardness of the deck. You need to be dedicated in its hate to fight it.
#03 GWB Rock
This deck would definitely be one of the greedy decks in the shared format. I suspect that 3 colors for a rock deck is the maximum going into this format because of how much more dedication must be given to the mana base to add one more color.
The rock is a traditionally made as a hotpot of powerful, versatile spells, beating down with powerful creatures for the win. With so many possible combinations of cards from 3 colors, a rock deck can look like anything as long as the playstyle matches the description. The main similarity amongst the different builds would lie in the fact that they would all try to buy time to get into the mid-game because of the fact that they have to get all 3 colored mana out to run effectively and what other way would be better?
This is a rock deck with a partial reanimation theme, spotting dredgers such as Golgari Grave-Troll and Stinkweed Imp or more reanimation friendly cards like Hermit Druid and Entomb. Greater Good is also in the deck, functioning as a powerful dredge engine, a sacrificial outlet for Yosei, the Morning Star as once used in a standard deck at worlds or just a plain card drawing engine which gets better with (Rancor). Also worth noting is that in this particular deck, both Golgari Grave-troll and Stinkweed Imp can be hardcast without being irrelevant to the playstyle.
These utility creatures can be tutored out with a single Buried Alive which can get Genesis and the creature you need. Since the graveyard would
theoretically be under the least attacks (due to the limitations of this format), this combo will be very powerful going into the mid-game.
The fact that the deck plays very defensively, dragging games into the mid-game is probably not going to be a real problem. especially since it spots 44 (!!) lands. I suppose there will be many games where Akroma, angel of wrath can be hardcasted.
To compensate for the large amount of lands, the deck is tactfully created to make each spell worth more than a card, playing minimal cards that trade on a 1-for-1 basis such as Putrefy and Mortify which are both absent from the deck.
#04 Boros Weenie
White weenie is a very possible good choice for the format because it is unique in its card selection.
The archetype here has a red splash.
However, the odds of being able to get a red mana source consistently is not high since there are only 11 possible red sources so I foresee that that might be a big weakness going into games.
Exalted Angel has been allocated here, possibly to give the deck some mid-game power. That might be debatable since Exalted Angel is better in the mid-ranged decks which might want it more.
All in all, the deck looks fine as an extension of white weenie but there are some choices such as Kjeldoran Outpost or Gemstone Mine that might end up hurting games. I think this deck suffers from not being able to have more fetches that would be able to help it to get the red mana more consistently.
#05 Crosis Control
I'm not sure why both teams liked Crosis Control as an archetype even though there is the shared list component (making it a choice that would strain the "land sharing" constrains) but it's rather heartening to see an archetype I personally put into the metagame. The key to making this archetype work (especially under the shared lists restrains) is to minimize the risk of not being able to cast spells because it is a very progressive deck that is very capable at buying time and creating card advantage.
I'm not sure how many times I've talked about the deck but I might as well again.
The deck progresses slowly, struggling to gain control of the game at a slow but constant pace. It plugs the early turns with removals, tries to get back some advantage with counter magic during the turns it can't do anything and it does uses the "it's okay to tap out" belief to fight for an advantage in the progression o the game. The deck, at most points in time, tends to fluctuate in its board position. Even the best cards such as Cruel ultimatum or Nicol bolas, planeswalker do not guarantee a win unless the board position has been totally locked down. As such, I have found myself casting Cruel ultimatum twice or even thrice in a game before the game ended.
The unexpected MVP might be Nucklavee which creates 2 soft locks with the rise half of Rise/Fall and Cryptic command, both of which can bounce the creature to reuse the second effect. Cruel ultimatum on a dead Nucklavee is also very annoying for the opponent.
The rules allow this deck to progress in a way not possible in the normal 100 card singleton format. With the risk of encountering a deck with moons and miners at the minimum, the mana base can be made into a more daring one especially since the urgency of protecting the lands drops by a great factor. The incremental progression of the deck made putting karoo lands very unfavorable because even one Wasteland could set the deck back by a large margin, denying it from its heavy mana consuming plays and crippling the needed advancement to deal with the aggressive decks.
This deck plays almost every possible planeswalker available to its color combination except for Chandra Ablaze which is probably the planeswalker with the least love at the moment. As a compliment to the planeswalkers, Time warp of 3 variations can be found in the deck. Extra turns not only let the planeswalkers reach their "ultimate" faster or rather with less disruption, the game progresses in a very biased way as planeswalkers don't hinder the extra turn with any mana constrains, provided you get them to stick around. The Time warps + Izzet Chronarch can be quite annoying especially when the deck is given more opportunity to develop.
Chandra Nalaar is going to be a very powerful card in this format where the odds of facing a deck with creatures (that can be targeted) are much higher than in a normal 100 card Singleton game where you can encounter random creatures such as Troll Ascetic or you can easily meet a few creature-lite decks in a row.
Magosi, the Waterveil works as a mini-Time warp too. A well placed loss of a turn for one later on can be very strong, especially in such a deck (which can do powerful stuff) and in such a format (where the odds of the land being destroyed is very low). Nevinyrral's Disk over Oblivion stone might be better here because the stone pops planeswalkers which the deck has many of.
The abyss in the sideboard is a rather odd choice because from the naked eye, none of the creatures played are either artifacts or have shroud. The abyss would somewhat hamper the ability of the deck to win using creatures, as improbable as it might seem to most. Oona, Queen of the Fae and Skeletal Vampire (its bats actually) might be able to hang around so that might be one of the reasoning for their presence other than being good finishers that survive a large number of removal spells.
Other than these comments, what more can I say that I have not already?
#06 Monoblack
Monoblack is a very difficult deck to build because although black has access to a wide range of effects, the cards it uses tends to have specific functions that depend greatly on the situation.
For example:
You need your opponent to have cards in hand for your discard spells to work.
You need a targetable non-black creature on the opposing side to play your Doom blade on.
You can't hit the correct creature with Chainer's Edict.
You need at least 3 life to cast your Sign in Blood.
The wrong situation can be thus created to limit the capabilities of the monoblack deck.
The color itself has a hard time dealing with permanents such as artifacts, enchantments and planeswalkers.
Some people like to build the deck more aggressive while some more controllish. There isn't really a popular build at the moment but I recall one making a top 8 in the weekend event some time ago.
This build goes the creature route, supporting with a handful creature removals, discard and card drawing, not excessive in one.
The deck plays similar to a white weenie but with less evasion. I'm surprised not to see a Necropotence here. Other than that, the performance of the deck would depend greatly on the situations that arise. Aggressive decks tend to have less problems.
#07 UG Midranged
UG midranged is probably the most successful archetype in the weekend challenges. That deck had counter magic and strong mid game cards. Seeing that a large number of the good counter magic and a prominent Eternal Witness has already been used up, let us see Wotc's take on the archetype.
Because of the shared lists format, this particular build of UG lacks counter spells but makes up for this with Glen Elendra Archmage, Spellstutter Sprite, Mystic Snake, Venser, Shaper Savant and has one in the form of Voidslime. With minimal protection, the deck would have to be fundamentally strong in order to make up for that loss.
The true power of this deck comes from the fact that almost every creature has a "come into play" ability (enters the battlefield now but...).
(Splitting Image), Clone, Vesuvan shapeshifter and (Sakashima the imposter) work well with a subset of these creatures.
Crystal Shard is a card that REALLY shines in this deck because of how the abilities on the creatures can be reused or bounce can also be used to reset persist creatures. Vedalken Mastermind is a weaker Crystal shard and did anyone notice Riptide Laboratory there?
Opposition and Tradewind Rider can greatly alter how the game is played by locking a player out. Opposition can be used to tap creatures and tap lands during a player's upkeep. Tradewind rider can be used to lock the opponent off a land drop. Clones makes the lock stronger. The reason why these 2 cards are so powerful is because they don't require any use of mana to work. The deck also has the "pickles" combo of Brine Elemental + Vesuvan Shapeshifter to lock down the opponent.
The sickest card in the deck? Upheaval of course! Upheaval allows the deck to turn any board position around. At the very worst, the game is reset with bad life totals but with you going first. It gets exponentially better when excess mana is used to cast creatures out against an empty board. Can you beat a turn zero 3 power creature on a life total of 10? It is not impossible but in all seriousness, Upheaval just ends games that don't necessarily have to end.
This deck in its entirety, looks like a blast to play. A very nice way of getting around the restrictions of the format. Personally, I think that Worldly tutor would probably be better in this deck than in the SB of the elves deck...
#08 UW Control
One of the most classic control archetypes in the format, it also happens to be one that is very flexible in regards to what it wants to do.
Typically, it has a healthy amount of blockers, creature removals and counter magic. Some people like creature finishers while others like combo finishers. The only thing one can be sure of is that if you don't win the game early, you'll be in for a hard time because this archetype tends to be geared up for the late game.
#2 Grindstone + Painter's Servant combo.
Mills the opponent out with a total of 6 mana. Most vulnerable to creature kill but can be protected with the Orim's Chant or Abeyance from the maindeck.
#4 Isochron Scepter + Orim's Chant combo
The scepter chant lock is brutal against decks that have zero outs against it. A very good choice for the shared format because of the lower chance of encountering an instant artifact removal. Silence from the sideboard probably goes in against a deck that likely has no way to kill the Isochron Scepter. Abeyance on an Isochron Scepter can be quite disruptive against decks that wants to cast instants (counter magic) and sorceries. At the very least, it draws you a card per activation. Fire/Ice on an Isochron Scepter spells doom to decks with small creatures. Into the Roil kicks on the scepter like how Orim's chant does.
It's a pity the red splash is not carried out a little more to include Pyrite Spellbomb which could possibly become a creature killing engine together with Salvaging Station which works by burning creatures and untapping Salvaging Station, when the creatures die, to get the spellbomb back into play.
#6 Academy Ruins and Sanctum Gargoyle for some recursive action.
These two cards back up most of the threats in the deck (artifacts).
Unfortunately, (Wanderer's Map) isn't in the list. That would have possibly made the deck more difficult to fight by giving easier access to Academy Ruins.
From the whole list of tech in the deck, one can tell that this deck will be able to get the most card advantage amongst all the other decks played. The sideboard even gives access to the Future Sight + Sensei's Divining Top = 1 mana: draw a card combo.
The deck itself gains maximum value in this format by having many things to that that need rather specific answers which are unlikely to pop out in the format, especially when they are protected at a few levels with counters and recursion. The only other line of attack would probably be the graveyard... but how many graveyard hate are there to spread over 8 decks?
I can't really figure out what the Sculpting Steel is supposed to do other than win more with Isochron Scepter and Salvaging Station or double a defensive Pithing Needle or some sideboard options. I might be missing something so do let me know if you see something.
There you have it. The 8 lists from the Wotc side. If I recall reading correctly, all 8 lists were made by Aaron Forsythe? Although I also read that there were changes made even just before the showdown, it is very difficult to pull this off unless one is very versed at making Singleton 100 decks and can think across a large scale of more than 800 cards while managing 8 decks. *Respect!*
It has been rather interesting to see how specific cards such as Wasteland have greatly impacted the format and see the various strategies employed in these decks. I heard that EDH is very popular at Wotc. Maybe that's where a good amount of info comes in?
By the way, do try to support the Weekend challenges, especially 100 card Singleton. It's not getting enough love to start although the seats are almost always full but just lacking a few more supporters. At least 3 packs for the top 16 at the cost of 6 tix so why not? (Good EV!) It also gives out a nice promo that is only available to the 4 weekend challenges.
Seems strange to me that none of the decks running white used Idyllic Tutor, or Balance. IMO, both of these, as well as Zuran Orb and Crucible of Worlds belong in the Weenie deck
Balance is banned in the format as is Crucible. Orb is situational. You really don't want it when you are behind on tempo. It is best when you have the renewable lands (which you can't really get because Life from the Loam is also banned.) Idyllic Tutor for Land Tax though...That's a nice start. As is Enlightened Tutor.
Orb has two functions, with the main one being to drop your land count to utilize Land Tax every turn. The other is get value from Armageddon (& Ruination)
Both very true, however I find this is often not enough to regain tempo once you lose it. And in fact trying to set up for Land Tax can cause you to be unable to deal with threats on the table. Not saying it isn't a good strategy. I've used it often enough, but it can be risky.
Unfortunately, balance and crucible of worlds are banned. (Balance being banned is understandable cos of how powerful it is but crucible seems like a mistake that's been around for some time. At least Life from the loam shouldn't be banned.)
Balance in WW? Would't that self-wrath?
Idyllic tutor in WW?
Well, Idyllic is not a bad card. A possible reason why it's not in one of the lists could be that the UW deck (which has enlightened tutor), is centered more around artifacts. It might help in the rock deck with cards like Necromancy or Oversold cemetary but I suppose it wasn't really needed there too.
Not really since you usually won't have more creatures due to the lack of good card draw. And with Emeria, the Sky Ruin out, you can bring them back again...
Id love to Tarmo if I had the tix. Not really sure I'd be top16ing but the experience would be nice. Steel has a lot of viable targets in that deck and also can be useful to make a double of a card an op plays such as duplicant etc.
edit: didnt catch this till 2nd read through
"Unfortunately, (Wanderer's Map) isn't in the list. That would have possibly made the deck more difficult to fight by giving easier access to Academy Ruins."
Looks odd there... Looking at the other 7 lists, if they tested their decks together, steel would probably be dead most of the time cos of there fact that there are only 2x swords and 1x duplicant running around all the decks combined. hmm...
Again though it has plenty of good targets in the deck itself. It doesn't need to be used to copy opponent's cards to be good. You might be dismissing it because it doesn't hit the power level you want but I see it as another piece of the combo soup.
I'll just say that Aaron's deck (U/W Control + combos) was absolutely brutal. Also, I don't think that the WotC team played their decks against each other very much. From the sounds of it they had Aaron build and test them for the most part and he was spotted quite frequently playtesting the 100CS decks online.
14 Comments
Seems strange to me that none of the decks running white used Idyllic Tutor, or Balance. IMO, both of these, as well as Zuran Orb and Crucible of Worlds belong in the Weenie deck
Balance is banned, IIRC
Balance is banned in the format as is Crucible. Orb is situational. You really don't want it when you are behind on tempo. It is best when you have the renewable lands (which you can't really get because Life from the Loam is also banned.) Idyllic Tutor for Land Tax though...That's a nice start. As is Enlightened Tutor.
Orb has two functions, with the main one being to drop your land count to utilize Land Tax every turn. The other is get value from Armageddon (& Ruination)
Both very true, however I find this is often not enough to regain tempo once you lose it. And in fact trying to set up for Land Tax can cause you to be unable to deal with threats on the table. Not saying it isn't a good strategy. I've used it often enough, but it can be risky.
Unfortunately, balance and crucible of worlds are banned. (Balance being banned is understandable cos of how powerful it is but crucible seems like a mistake that's been around for some time. At least Life from the loam shouldn't be banned.)
Balance in WW? Would't that self-wrath?
Idyllic tutor in WW?
Well, Idyllic is not a bad card. A possible reason why it's not in one of the lists could be that the UW deck (which has enlightened tutor), is centered more around artifacts. It might help in the rock deck with cards like Necromancy or Oversold cemetary but I suppose it wasn't really needed there too.
Not really since you usually won't have more creatures due to the lack of good card draw. And with Emeria, the Sky Ruin out, you can bring them back again...
Id love to Tarmo if I had the tix. Not really sure I'd be top16ing but the experience would be nice. Steel has a lot of viable targets in that deck and also can be useful to make a double of a card an op plays such as duplicant etc.
edit: didnt catch this till 2nd read through
"Unfortunately, (Wanderer's Map) isn't in the list. That would have possibly made the deck more difficult to fight by giving easier access to Academy Ruins."
Explorer's Map I assume.
expedition map.
Yes lol *bangs head*
sculpting steel is a very versatile card, especially in 100cs, maindeckable in a few decks.
Looks odd there... Looking at the other 7 lists, if they tested their decks together, steel would probably be dead most of the time cos of there fact that there are only 2x swords and 1x duplicant running around all the decks combined. hmm...
Again though it has plenty of good targets in the deck itself. It doesn't need to be used to copy opponent's cards to be good. You might be dismissing it because it doesn't hit the power level you want but I see it as another piece of the combo soup.
Great stuff as usual, Tarmotog!
I'll just say that Aaron's deck (U/W Control + combos) was absolutely brutal. Also, I don't think that the WotC team played their decks against each other very much. From the sounds of it they had Aaron build and test them for the most part and he was spotted quite frequently playtesting the 100CS decks online.
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