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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Mar 20 2009 10:56am
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GP Chicago, Legacy and Classic Archetypes - Part II



Last week, I wrote a bit about how constructed Pro Tours and Grand Prix define metagame - specifically, how Grand Prix Chicago defined the Legacy metagame.  I looked at the Top 8 decklists last weekend, examining the decklists and the cards still missing from the online format.  I'm pleased to see that some other writers examined those results - and walkerdog even took a variant to a Top 8 finish at the PE.



Looking at the other decks was a lot of fun.  Time to do it again, with other top archetypes.



To review, the paper Legacy and online Classic formats are not identical.  Classic allows some cards that are banned in Legacy.  Legacy also has access to a lot of cards that have not yet been released online.  The Legacy banned list includes the following cards:  Demonic Consultation, Earthcraft, Entomb, Flash, Goblin Recruiter, Gush, Imperial Seal, Mana Crypt , Mind's Desire, Necropotence, Skullclamp, Vampiric Tutor, and Worldgorger Dragon.   I can also add Demonic Tutor - it is supposed to appear in the next duel deck, and it is banned in Legacy.  On the flip side, Legacy includes the Stronghold, Exodus, Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy, Urza's Destiny, Mercadian Masques, Nemesis and Prophecy sets, which will be released online over the next two years or so.



I'll provide the decklists, then details on the cards that are missing online.  Many of these decklists include the five true dual lands that have not yet been released online.  Those five - Bayou, Plateau, Scrubland, Tropical Island and Volcanic Island - are critical, but there is no real point in mentioning that after every deck.



I'm going to start with Goblins.  Goblins did not make the top 8, but it was the second most played archetype on day 2.  (The most played archetype was Counter-Top, which I covered last week.)  Here's a fairly typical Goblins deck.


 

Legacy Goblins is pretty straight forward.  The critical one drops are either Aether Vial or Goblin Lackey.  Then you beat.  (Note:  I am not, and never have been, a Goblin player.  I really don't much like the red peril, so my expertise regarding the deck is limiited to knowing how to beat them with particular decks I do play.)

;">Magic: The Gathering  Rishadan Port was one of the most annoying lands ever printed.  Back before Sensei's Divining Timewaster, there was less to do during upkeep with a mana produced in response to having a land tapped down, so Port was even more obnoxious.  Even now, it is reusable mana denial, and can often color screw your opponent.  ;">Magic: The Gathering  Goblin Lackey is the reason Goblins is so good against control.  If he lands turn one, and connnects turn two, you can be facing a Siege)Gang COmmander in play on turn two - and the opponent still has mana up to Shock something with the SGC.  Lackey is still three sets away on MTGO - either too far or too close, depeding on what you think of the red peril.
 As I mentioned last week, REB is subtly better than Pyroblast.  You can misdirect Pyroblast to a non-blue target, and the spell will do nothing.  REB cannot be redirected to a non-blue permanent, so it will destroy something in that mode.  In general, REB > Pyroblast.  Hopefully REB and BEB will be in a future MED.  ;">Magic: The Gathering  Goblin Recruiter is not in this list.  That is not becasue the card is bad - it is becasue the card is banned in Legacy.  In Classic, you can add a Recruiter, if necessary.  The combination of Recruiter, Aether Vial and Lackey is really good.  You can combo with Recruiter, Matron, Skirk Prospector and so forth.  That amount of tutoring allows for more one offs - including some black goblins. ;">Magic: The Gathering

The third most common deck on day two was the (Ad Nauseum) & Tendrils of Agony combo deck.  I included a representative version in the top 8 review, last week.  The fourth most common archetype was Merfolk, and that did not break into the Top 8.  Gaudenis Vidugiris (second place at GP Hannover, and GP Indianapolis) played a Merfolk deck to a 9-0 record on day one.  I'm not going to feature his deck.  I grabbed one from the last chance qualifier tournaments held on Friday.  Both are similar - I just typed up Mathew's deck before remembering Gau's.

Merfolk Standstill
Mathew Bartlett, Winner, GP Chicago Last Chance Trial
Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Silvergill Adept
4 Wake Thrasher
19 cards

Other Spells
4 Aether Vial
3 Counterspell
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
2 Umezawa's Jitte
20 cards
Lands
16 Island
1 Mishra's Factory
4 Mutavault
21 cards

Wake Thrasher

 

Merfolk are a pretty straightforward archetype.  Note that the deck is reasonably disruptive and controlling.  It plays Cursecatcher, counters and Standstill, in addition to Aether Vial.  It tries to get a threat down, then protect it for the win.   

;">Magic: The Gathering

Urza's Saga will, eventually, bring us Back to Basics.  It is Blood Moon, but worse.  With Blood Moon, you get to tap non-basics for red mana.  With Back to Basics, you get to tap them for whatever they produce - but only once.  Blood Moon can mess with $500 mana bases - Back to Basics annihilates them.

Personally, I hate B2B.  It was often played in Stasis decks, back in the day, and I hated Stasis, too.

 ;">Magic: The Gathering Blue Elemental Blast is Red Elemental Blast, but blue.  Everything I said about REB applies to BEB.

 The next most common archetype, after Merfolk, was Threshhold.  This is an interesting Threshold variant which includes the (Natual Order) into Progenitus combo.  A number of decks ran this combination, to greater or lesser success.  This build went 5-0 in the Trial, but Josh missed the day two cut, and finished 227 (out of 1,230) in the main event. 

Secret Threshhold
Josh Cicio, Winner, GP CHicago Last Chance Trial
Creatures
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Nimble Mongoose
1 Progenitus
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Werebear
12 cards

Other Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterbalance
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Natural Order
4 Ponder
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
25 cards
Lands
1 City of Brass
4 Flooded Strand
1 Savannah
3 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
4 Wooded Foothills
12 cards

Sideboard
1 Empyrial Archangel
3 Krosan Grip
4 Pyroclasm
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Submerge 
8 cards
Natural Order

There is not a whole lot to say about this deck.  I would love to try the Natural Order combo, having played Secret Force on and off in the day.  However, Natural Order was a bit better when countermagic was not as common, nor as cheap.  I'm not sure that it works - OTOH, few Legacy decks can deal with a 10/10 protection from everything guy that actually hits the table.   

;">Magic: The Gathering I talked about Submerge last week.  It is still just fine for blue decks against green ones.  It will arrive seven or eight Classic sets from now.   ;">Magic: The Gathering

Gaea's Cradle is not in the decklist, but I want to mention it.  The coverage featured a play which produced a turn TWO Progenitus.  Turn one was remove Elvish Spirit Guide from the game to play (Findhorn Elf), play Cradle, tap Cradle to play Llanowar Elves.  Turn two, play a land to protect from Daze, Natural Order for Progenitus.  

I love Urza's Saga.  It is stuffed full of cool cards.  Sure, it has some totally broken mechanics, but it is also the home of more great cards that nearly any other set. 

Moving away from a "fun" block that was totally broken by combo, here's a deck from a block that was dominsted by one aggro-control deck.  It should be familiar.  

 

Sometimes, nothing more is needed.  This is basically an Extended Fae deck with Swords to Plowshares, and some UW and WB duals to support the Plows.  I'm not sure that this is necessarily the best deck to build for classic , but it may be a good choice for an expert Fae player.  "Play what you know" is often the best advice.



Let's move on to a more interesting deck.  This is a blue fliers deck, with some interesting options.  Pestermite is a great surprise /  tempo card.  Sower of Temptation is great.  The Trinket Mage package, especially when you include the sideboard, is quite nice.  I don't know how good this actually is, but it seems interesting.  If I can get my hands on the MED fliers, I may try it out a set or two from now.  The pilot, Frederick Chang, went 5-0 in the trial, and made day two in the GP.

 

This deck needs a number of cards.  I have already talked about Back to Basics.  I find the FoW in the sideboard, and the six swords, fascinating, but they clearly worked.   Some of that has to be the combination of Trinisphere, the Moxen and the eight lands that tap for two mana each.  That combo means that this deck can drop a lot of threats very quickly, while other decks are still getting up to speed.

Magic: The Gathering April 13 is the day this card goes on sale.  Once upon a time, it was the bomb.  It is still very good, but saw little love in the GP.  That is also true of cards like Chrome Mox - maybe the risk of getting two for oned is too great.  It depends on the format.  I played four of these in my paper 5color deck.  That deck ran 18 Armageddons, and Terravore  Magic: The Gathering City of Traitors is probably the most widely played card form Exodus, with the possible exception of Oath of Druids.  It is such potent mana acceleration that it has been - I believe - banned in Extended at one point.  It was a critical part of the manabases of explosive decks when it is legal.   

Let's move on to another deck that uses Ancient Tomb and CIty of Traitors.  This is a Painter's Servant / Grindstone deck.  I know that the combo does not work as well in current Classic, but I would point out two advantages to the Legacy build.  First, with City of Traitors, the deck has four more ways to get three mana on turn two, or five on turn three.  Second, with both Pyroblast and REB, the Legacy version has eight one mana spells that, with Painter's Servant set to blue, destroy anything on the board.  I watched Painter's Servant decks kill Tarmogoyf with a Pyroblast all weekend.  It seemed to work just fine.

 

Painter's Servant / Grindstone
Drew Feder - GP Chicago Last Chance Trial Winner
Creatures
4 Imperial Recruiter
3 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Stingscourger
1 Vexing Shusher
17 cards

Other Spells
4 Painter's Servant
4 Chrome Mox
4 Grindstone
3 Magma Jet
4 Pyroblast
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Sensei's Divining Top
25 cards
 
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire 
4 City of Traitors
9 Mountain
18 cards

Grindstone

 

I have already talked about Red Elemental Blast and City of Traitors enough already.  However, the deck does not need much else.  The one card it does have is Viashino Heretic.  I have loved that guy forever.  One of my favorite free wins came when an opponent cast Darksteel Colossus when I had a Heretic in play.  At the end of his turn, I used the Heretic on his Colossus.  "Fine, but it doesn't kill it" he said.  "Right, but you still take 11," I reminded him.  "Now, during your upkeep..."

Magic: The Gathering

 One of my all time favorite casual decks is something I call the Solution.  It has a bunch of random, hard to spot control elements.  One of the best is the Heretic combined with Thran Forge.  If they play a creature, I make it an artifact and kill it.  The deck also has Isochron Scepter tricks, reuasalbe enchantment removal, etc.  It is just a lot of fun in multiplayer - at least in paper.  It is not Classic worthy, but neither is Painter's Servant / Grindstone.

Yet.

  ;">Thran_Forge.jpg

 Let's move on to another archetype - this one is almost completely available online.  The cards are online - but they are not cheap.

Scepter Chant
John Knapp, Winner, GP Chicago Last Chance Trial
Other Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Fact or Fiction
3 Fire // Ice
4 Force of Will
3 Isochron Scepter
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Orim's Chant
4 Standstill
4 Swords to Plowshares
32 cards
 
Lands
1 Academy Ruins
2 Faerie Conclave
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Plains
2 Polluted Delta
1 Tolaria West
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Wasteland
18 cards

Sideboard
4 Red Elemental Blast 
4 Meddling Mage
Nevinyrral's Disk 
1 Pyroblast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Tormod's Crypt
15 cards
 
Isochron Scepter

 

The cards that are not yet available online - Red Elemental Blast.  Blue Elemental Blast.  REB.  BEB.  I feel like a parrot.  As for the cost of this deck:  I am the proud owner of a Pernicious Deed, three Force of Wills and a number of duals, but I still have zero Meddling Mages and  zero Orim's Chants.  I don't see that changing anytime soon.  Someone else will have to test this archetype in Classic.



Okay, on to one final deck.  This list is not from the GP, it is the winning deck from the Legacy Championships last summer.  One Counterslivers deck did make day two at GP Chicago, but I don't have that list.  I do have this one. 

CounterSlivers
Blake Patrow - Winner, GP Legacy Championship at GenCon
Creatures
4 Crystalline Sliver
3 Hibernation Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Winged Sliver
19 cards

Other Spells
4 Aether Vial
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
23 cards
 
Lands
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
3 Mutavault
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Windswept Heath
18 cards

Sideboard
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Planar Void
2 Harmonic Sliver
2 Krosan Grip
3 Stifle 
15 cards
 
Muscle Sliver

 

CounterSlivers, Baby!  Two years ago, I wrote a series of articles on StarCity Games about a tournament featuring the 32 best Extended decks of all time.  You can check it out in my SCG archive - the articles are YW # 170 to YW #177.  The point is that Counterslivers not only made the list, it made the Top 4- getting knocked out by the GB Survival deck that won the event.  More importantly, whenever I was looking for people to play other decks, Counterslivers was the first deck most of them asked for.   It is just fun.  Now the CounterSlivers deck in that event was the powerhouse from 2002 - so it did not include cards like Aether Vial, which was first released a couple years later.  The Extended version also predated fetchlands, which this deck has. 

I love Counterslivers.  I can't wait to get another chance to play it.  On the plus side, other than Planar Void, a great answer to graveyard recursion decks, I don't have to wait long.  Stronghold is supposed to arrive April 13th.  Yays!

Magic: The Gathering

 Crystalline Sliver is the glue that holds the deck together.  It is cheap, a 2/2, and it stops no end of removal.  Back in the day, Ingrid and I had enough cards for one Counterslivers deck, and she played it.  I played GB Survival.  I hated seeing Crystalline hit.  

 Hibernation sliver may be deceptive at first.  It seems bad.  I would just note three things.  1) I attack with everything, and anything you block bounces - and is available for blocking on your turn.  2) Your targetted removal will never hit. Finally, 3) Yes, I have only one card in hand.  I do not have the mana to hard cast the Force of Will.  However, I can bounce my Winged Sliver and remove it to Force your spell.  Just saying...  Magic: The Gathering

If you want more info on Counterslivers, Ingrid wrote a tournament report on her 12th place finish at a Madison PTQ.  It's still out there, somewhere.  My report (with a slightly better finish) was, too.

Time to quit, now.  If the downtime ever ends, I have to get back to trying to draft my way into the rest of my duals.  Wish me luck.

PRJ

"one million words" on MTGO

8 Comments

good times by whiffy at Fri, 03/20/2009 - 11:24
whiffy's picture
5

nice ness exlempfied.
2 things
classic goblins run clamp cause its so good and i bet legacy would too.
imperial painter has won 2 pe's and top 4ed another 2. epic painter won 1 pe and top 4ed a second. so its goodenough now it just depends on your match ups. ie rdw is awful to see.

Interesting comments by LOurs at Fri, 03/20/2009 - 11:33
LOurs's picture
4

thank for this second part. Interesting to note that, except goblin where the lack of lackey is a big weakness, all these decks could be tried in our current classic mtgo meta, assuming some minor changes.
I really like the blue aggro one.

Another article full of good by blandestk at Fri, 03/20/2009 - 16:39
blandestk's picture
4

Another article full of good information.

I tried to post this a couple articles ago, but a suggestion I have for your articles is to avoid the personal collection details. Adding a tidbit to the end about checking out to draft into dual lands is ok, but I don't care how many Pernicious Deeds and Forces you have. It makes the articles seem blog-like, which is off-putting. I want to read articles, not blogs. Even if it's opinion-based, the article format is what I come here for. Don't read this harshly, because I enjoy reading your articles quite a bit.

Painter's Servant and Grindstone by Rob McKenzie (not verified) at Fri, 03/20/2009 - 20:16
Rob McKenzie's picture

I beg to differ on Painter's Servant/Grindstone being not ready for prime time in Legacy or Classic. Reuben Bresler placed 34th in the main event with the deck (list here, A-F section: http://www.thestarkingtonpost.com/?p=463 ) and the deck is way fun to play and watch (Coverage of a match between Bresler and Kowal here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcove... )

That said, Gamble is a lot of what carried Bresler. And that is not going to be out on MO until Urza's Saga. :-/

Painter is fine by walkerdog at Fri, 03/20/2009 - 20:39
walkerdog's picture
4

Good info, but the Painter decks have had a definite impact on Classic as the Whifster had pointed out. Painter builds are strong, albeit slightly meta-dependent.

I like that you add little by Chad (not verified) at Fri, 03/20/2009 - 22:14
Chad's picture

I like that you add little comments about where your collection currently stands ... it helps me better relate to your situation.

ditto by whiffy at Fri, 03/20/2009 - 22:19
whiffy's picture

im in favor for seeing collection status its nice to see how someones collection grows.
kinda feels like when you first started and you would watch in anticipation as your buddy cracks his paks.
( every week me and my buddie would go spend our hard earned allowance on a starter each and open them one at a time as we oohed an ahhed over each others new cards, Force of Nature ftw!)

I agree about the personal by Steve (not verified) at Sat, 03/21/2009 - 18:18
Steve's picture

I agree about the personal collection remarks. It's really lame.