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By: TheMiseDotCom, Andrea Faliero Lassi
Mar 12 2009 12:49am
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 Welcome to Online Tech!

With Pro Tour Kioto finished, Standard is likely to take a little shift in the metagame with the Pros taking advantage of multiple Conflux cards and with the rise and fall of some of the Standard staples. First lets take a look at this weeks last Standard Chart. This time around we have a bigger sample with 21 featured events and 168 decklists:

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 Vengeant Lark/Boat Brew has been dominating the scene with a whopping 25% show up in the top 8s and 6 wins paired up with Fae. White Weenie also had a decent climbing sitting himself in the 3rd position in front of Cruel Control with a 12% attendance. But with the Pro Tour showing up the Pro's lists with Conflux, what has changed?

 

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On your left you can check the oficial Standard Metagame Breakdown from Day 1 while on your left you can see the chart with the Top Standard Lists,meaning the lists that made 15 or more points in the Standard part of the tournament ( 90 Decklists ). Besides being the most played deck, Boat Brew was also the most well suceeded with a 36% show up in the Top Standard Lists. White Weenie once again was a big contender since it had a 7% show up in Day 1 but managed to get a doubling 12,2% in the top decklists. 5c Control managed to get almost the exact % (14,5%) in both attendance in Day 1 and in the Top Standard Lists.

 

 

With 3 Players making the cut at 22 points in the Standard Portion of Pro Tour Kyoto, we have Yamamoto's list as the Boat Brew exemplar with Cedric Phillips showing up a Wr Kitkin and Nagaoka with an Elves build:

WR Aggro
Cedric Phillips - 22 Points in the Standard portion of Pro Tour Kyoto
Creatures
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn
20 cards

Other Spells
4 Ajani Vengeant
3 Glorious Anthem
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
15 cards
Lands
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Mutavault
9 Plains
2 Rustic Clachan
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Windbrisk Heights
25 cards

Glorious Anthem
GB Elves
Takayuki Nagaoka - 22 Points in the Standard portion of Pro Tour Kyoto
Creatures
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Cloudthresher
3 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Wolf-Skull Shaman
21 cards

Other Spells
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
3 Eyeblight's Ending
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize
9 cards
Lands
4 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Mutavault
1 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
2 Twilight Mire
23 cards

Imperious Perfect

 

Without many surprises, Path to Exile and Banefire where the favorite addictions to the Boat Brew build, providing a new cheaper and stronger removal spell and a great finisher vs either Fae or Cruel Control. Yamamoto's build is clearly a metagame choice running Wrath of God main deck to deal with all the aggri decks around and Faerie Macabre in the side to deal with any Reveillark Shenaningans. The GB Elves build didnt't suffer any changes from Conflux, still relying on a fast start backed up with removal and disruption and with the finishing power of Garruk Wildspeaker and Profane Command.

Path to ExileBanefireFaerie MacabreHurricane

 

All Mighty Nassif clashed with the "Best Current Player of the World" Luis Scott-Vargas featuring a classic Cruel Control vs WB Tokens battle. 5c Control was one of the decks that could take full advantage of Conflux. Introducing the main deck Wall of Reverence as a way to stop any aggro hopes of winning the game as well as Volcanic Fallout , killer of kitkins and faeries and all sorts of creatures. The "reversed" Reflecting Pool, Exotic Orchard also makes its appearance helping to smooth the mana base while Celestial Purge is a nice addiction to deal with Bitterblossom,Figure of Destiny,Broodmate Dragon etc.

Wall of ReverenceVolcanic FalloutCelestial PurgeExotic Orchard

There where a bunch of cards that created some buzz during the Pro Tour Weekend. Such as Goblin Outlander maindecked in Red Deck Wins or BR Blightning or Blightning less. Its a cool card since it can shut down White Weenie, WB Tokens and Even Boat Brew. Ignite Disorder helps out against similar decks since its kills almost any creature and its a perfect response to Spectral Procession. Lapse of Certainty was present in a lot of sideboards, such as WW , WB and Boat Brew. Delaying your opponent for a turn can be enough to pass by enough damage to kill him.

Lapse of CertaintyIgnite DisorderGoblin Outlander

 


One of the lists that I liked the most was this 4c Doran Build by Brian Robinson. Featuring Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch has mana ramp into a 2rd turn Doran, The Siege Tower or Rhox War Monkor 3rd turn Wilt-Leaf Liege or Rafiq of the Many. Tidehollow Sculler works as disruption while you bash them with your fast attackers. Nameless Inversion and Path to Exile complement the deck as disruption. Its a really cool deck and I challenge you to give it a spin and see if you like it yourselves.

Birds of ParadiseNoble HierarchDoran, The Siege TowerRafiq of the Many

Extended

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For the last couple of weeks we have been witnessing the rise of the Tarmo Burn / Sligh / Zoo Burn deck as a Faerie Beater.  Featuring 8 events and 64 decks, we have Tarmo Burn reparting the attendance % with fae with almost 25% in this top8s. In terms of wins, only Tarmo Burn shines with 3wins vs the 1 win reparted by Fae, Zoo, Doran , Elves and TEPS.

 


Volcanic Fallout and Path to Exile seem to have found the ideal home in Extended since Fallout gives this deck a powerful tool against Elves and Faeries and Path works as a weapon vs any mid range decks or Swans and All In Red. Speaking of Swans...Last week I had the pleasure to interview JWAY for this article. Those of you that usually play the Extended Daily Events should obviously know the name since he has been bulling this events taking win after win with Swans of Bryn Argoll. I wanted to chat with him about the deck and also how it would adapt to the new Path to Exile heavy enviroment. Well short after our little interview I got a message online from JWAY saying: "Just won a ptq with the deck."

 
Andrea Fonseca: We talked last week about how you thinked about this deck as a way of getting some packs in MTGO but now you posted some IRL results winning the PTQ Honolulu in Little Rock with your Swans list. So how did this happen?
James Zormes: Well, the metagame here is kind of delayed so I hoped that there weren't that many Path to Exile around.

Andrea Fonseca: How did it go?
James Zormes: Well I had pretty good draws and was lucky all day long.

Andrea Fonseca: Would you recommend the deck?
James Zormes: No. I never did. Its pretty much draw dependant and very difficult to play.It will be harder and harder to play since people will start packing in more Path to Exile.

 Shards of Alara Block Constructed

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 I'm not going deep into this format since the data I collected from this 14 Events its without Conflux in the Mix but still Naya,Dark Naya or Vengeant Jund ( Jund splashing only for Ajani Vengeant seem to be always the best and most played decks. I'll leave you here a Naya list I've been having good results. I also advise you to read this exellent analysis about the block metagame from Rasparthe.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Featuring 5 events and 80 decks, I'll get a first look at the Classic Metagame Online. I'm not a big classic player and just recently started to follow the meta so I'll advise you to read any of this articles to get a more real felling of the format:

Whiffy's Lunch Box- The Depth of Classic
Classic Zoo
Eternal Wisdom 6
Necrospike
Wizard not of the Coast - 1st Place - Classic Event #192813 on 02/15/2009
Creatures
0 cards

Other Spells
4 Brainstorm
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Daze
4 Demonic Consultation
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
1 Imperial Seal
4 Lotus Petal
4 Necropotence
2 Ponder
4 Soul Spike
3 Tendrils of Agony
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Zombie Infestation
43 cards
Lands
1 Badlands
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
13 cards

Necropotence

 
With a 15% show up in the top8s, Necrospike is the most popular deck in the Classic Daily Events. Featuring the allmighty enchantment Necropotence it ramps up a storm count to kill with (Tendrills of Agony) or with multiple Soul Spike.

 
Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste.

Elves
KENNY_MACAU - 1st Place - Classic Event #192812 on 02/15/2009
Creatures
2 Birchlore Rangers
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Essence Warden
1 Eternal Witness
4 Fyndhorn Elves
2 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 Wirewood Hivemaster
4 Wirewood Symbiote
31 cards

Other Spells
4 Earthcraft
4 Glimpse of Nature
1 Grapeshot
4 Skullclamp
2 Squirrel Nest
15 cards
Lands
13 Forest
1 Pendelhaven
14 cards

Glimpse of Nature

 
Very much alike Extended, Elves is a growing force in classic. With a possible turn 2 kill and Skullclamp as a resilient weapon that lacks in the Extended versions.Earthcraft its a great tool turning any Elf into a "mana tool".

 
One of the old favorites and still heavily played, Threshold controls the game with the Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top lock and filling up the graveyard for Mystic Enforcer and Tarmogoyf.

Pox
rinazina - 7th Place - Classic Event #192814 on 02/14/2009
Creatures
2 Epochrasite
3 Tombstalker
5 cards

Other Spells
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Cursed Scroll
2 Demonic Consultation
4 Duress
2 Extirpate
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Innocent Blood
4 Pox
4 Smallpox
1 Smother
3 Thoughtseize
31 cards
Lands
13 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Tomb of Urami
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
20 cards

Pox

 
With 12% show up, along with Necrospike, Pox is one of the most popular Classic decks online. Being a very controlish and disruptive deck it can power up a 4/4 Epochrasite after a devastating Pox.

21 Comments

Forgo to add the final: See by TheMiseDotCom at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 05:04
TheMiseDotCom's picture

Forgo to add the final:

See you soon,

Andrea Fonseca, Dust_ @MTGO

"Sliver Flash snagged a win by Erdene (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 06:20
Erdene's picture

"Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste." LOL, only possible in classic. This makes me wonder the amazing possibility of magic cards that come together =)

As for the article, again, very clean, very sleek, good information and a nice way to get geared for the comming ptq's

Just have one question, how has writing improved your game? or, in other way, has writing these articles made you improve your game? I saw you rapidly rise from a 1600 to almost 1800 in a matter of few months :P

Keep them comming, It's always great to read you

"Sliver Flash snagged a win by Erdene (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 06:20
Erdene's picture
5

"Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste." LOL, only possible in classic. This makes me wonder the amazing possibility of magic cards that come together =)

As for the article, again, very clean, very sleek, good information and a nice way to get geared for the comming ptq's

Just have one question, how has writing improved your game? or, in other way, has writing these articles made you improve your game? I saw you rapidly rise from a 1600 to almost 1800 in a matter of few months :P

Keep them comming, It's always great to read you

Turn One Kill by DRAGONDUNG at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 07:45
DRAGONDUNG's picture

If you thought turn one is impressive, you shoulda seen before they nerfed the deck. Turn 0 win was a regular occurance esp with no fow to keep it at bay.

Sorry for the triple post but by Erdene (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 06:22
Erdene's picture

Sorry for the triple post but in my pc it said the page was not available so I refreshed it a couple of times and it answered in triplicate ;S

awesome by LOurs at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 08:15
LOurs's picture
5

i really enjoyed this article : useful for all, looks good ...
All the decks presented here are powerful.
About classic which is the format i know better, i ran couple tournament couple of time, i had to deal with each of these decks and i just want to congrat all players mentioned who are all strong competitors : a powerful deck is nothing when it is not well piloted... A special mention for the Sliver Flash deck : Javasci build is maybe the most original deck i saw recently.

We need to have more article as this one. Take care & go on !

classic by whiffy at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 09:44
whiffy's picture
4

Great article i enjoyed all parts of it. I realize that classic is not your fortey and appreciate that you are trying and give other articles to help the reader get in there, but i gott be a nit picker. Numbers wise you are spot on but when it comes to a pe necro is vastly underplayed. there are on avereage either 0 or 2 pilots in anygiven pe. The "threshold" list is not actually thrsehold at all. this is a straight control deck that happens to have a thresh critter in it. more acuartly this is a intuition control deck. lastly the most popular stratgies in classic appear to be rdw and zoo varients in the most played section, followed by some of the decks you posted. I understand that its hard going off of just top 8 data but the pe's to not actuaratly show the meta, i,e, necro being the most played and what not. Thx for the fantastic article as even with a bit of a loose trail you still followed a format you dont call home and i was mightly enjoyed reading the article.

ps, i spit out my coffe when i saw the last deck in the classic top 8's. Team america as it is more commonly known instead of the joke name i put in to the article as an inside joke to a buddy of mine. lol i cant believe that name stuck as others have called the deck the same thing.

i agree with Whiffy about by LOurs at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 10:10
LOurs's picture

i agree with Whiffy about propelsis9's deck : it is more like a Landstill archetype green splashed tutored by Intuition to me. An "intuition control" name seem to fit it very well also.

Great Article, its always by Isel (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 10:29
Isel's picture
5

Great Article, its always nice to be able to know the winning lists.The interview got a little short and I would like to see more videos.But besides that great job

Classic by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 10:38
Anonymous's picture
5

Good to see some Classic analysis as well. Being a full time classic player myself, it is good to see some focus on this fun format too!

Keep these fantastic articles coming!

4c Doran by Reaper9889 at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 10:57
Reaper9889's picture

:/ Ive been playing a pretty simililary deck to 4c Doran for some time now (Doran, Gaddock Teeg, Rhox War Monk, Tidehollow Sculler, Wilt-Leaf Liege are in both) so all the "Nice deck" Ive gotten with it might be at an end :/

Well you have to than Brian by Isel (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 10:59
Isel's picture

Well you have to than Brian Robinson for that=P

Are you able to data mine win by Metalman (not verified) at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 11:02
Metalman's picture

Are you able to data mine win percentages within a format. For example, I'm curious on how the 4c Doran does versus 5c Control and Faeries. Is it favored, neutral, or a dog?

-M

Well I didnt test trough the by TheMiseDotCom at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 19:22
TheMiseDotCom's picture

Well I didnt test trough the 4c Doran but if you check here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/29a it should give you a more decent view on the win percentages

Nice article. I can't say by Guinhenhas at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 11:05
Guinhenhas's picture
5

Nice article. I can't say much about classic as its just a format with no interest for me, but the analysis made for Extended and Standard is quite accurate.

Fantastic Article by TugaChampion at Thu, 03/12/2009 - 17:27
TugaChampion's picture
5

Another great articles that covers so much stuff!

Another Great article =) by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 03/13/2009 - 08:00
Anonymous's picture
5

Another Great article =)

Win Percentages by Metalman (not verified) at Fri, 03/13/2009 - 10:22
Metalman's picture

Actually I was talking about win percentages in MODO. Is there a way to see how often an archetype beats another within the data that you are digging through within MODO or would it need to be a manual calculation?

-M

Freakin' amazing. This guy is by Anonymous (not verified) at Sat, 03/14/2009 - 07:25
Anonymous's picture
5

Freakin' amazing.

This guy is FrankKarsten v2.0

Trying to get there=) by TheMiseDotCom at Sat, 03/14/2009 - 08:36
TheMiseDotCom's picture

Trying to get there=)

Nice by Gutes (not verified) at Sat, 03/14/2009 - 08:00
Gutes's picture

Yet again , another great article. Keep it comin!