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By: under_the_hammer, Andrew Phillips
Jan 15 2009 12:04pm
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Welcome to the third 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.

Since the last edition of Eternal Wisdom the Classic Community has had a chance to acquire and play with cards from the Tempest set.  Since the release of Tempest 5 of the scheduled 8 classic events have fired to give us 40 decklists to analyse in this article.  The following three cards have already impacted on classic and the Lotus Petal and Wasteland are worth getting if you are play classic. 

Wasteland

Lotus Petal

Grindstone

 

In addition to the impact of Tempest the effect of adding Daze to the classic cardpool is still being felt. The core of Wasteland, Stifle and Daze is turning up in several different decks.  The Wasteslands and Stifle can both act as efficient mana denial strategies in a format which relies on finding Dual lands with the stifable-sacrificing of Onslaught Sac Lands. The mana denial means that Daze is useful even into the mid game, and gives the player an even greater chance of protecting an early threat by complementing Force of Will as a counterspell which can be played whilst all your lands are tapped down.

I knew that the Necrospike deck had preformed really well during this block of data, and this was one of the reasons that Whiffy Penguin and I picked up the deck for the big Classic Premier Event (for more details see our Tournament Report Article).  However I was surprised to see that the next two decks based on number of Top 8 finishes this time around was Threshold and Burn.

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. 

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.

Burn:  This poor deck keeps impressing yet it is so often ignore or dismissed by the classic die-hards. The 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. If you are new to classic and are looking for a relatively cheap deck to play this could be for you. 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. Maybe people will start to acknowledge the strengths of this deck and start boarding Chill's or other hate cards to defeat the deck.

Break-Down of All Top8 Decks

The table below gives a break down of all 40 decks which made the Top 8 from these events.  Each event has been color coded. This type of chart will be common-place in future articles of "Eternal Wisdoms" and will become more complex as historical data becomes available to help track changes in the meta game.   

 

 

The stand-out player of this block of data is the Bazzar of Badhdad, taking 3 Top 8s in the 5 events. This pilot is undoubtable the most experienced and successful player of Zoo decks in the classic format. His decks have continually evolved and is a far cry from simply bashing face with the best creatures in the format. I really want to discuss the merits of this deck further and so in a unique twist his decklist is included below in this article for discussion and in the Top 10 deck supplement (I will usually try and avoid such duplications but I think this example warrants the exception).

This chart also helps to highlight the great diversity in Decks within this format.  Many of the decks have been regular contenders in the Top 8 since the start of Eternal Wisdom So I refer you to earlier episodes of this series for background reading if required.  With this in mind it is my intention to focus on two decks that have emerged recently the Epic Painter and the Monoblack Pox lists (in addition to discussing Zoo).  



 

The simple combo of Painter's Servant and Grindstone has caused a stir in the paper eternal formats ever since the release of Shadowmoor, and the chance to play this combo online has been anticipate for sometime. It is for this reason I am surprised that only one player has picked up this deck and carried to Top 8 success. Uncle.Istvan made back to back Top 8 appearances and produced a  Tournament Report Article which is highly recommended reading. 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.  I expect this deck to stay on the radar but not to be as dominant as Necrospike.

Mono black Agro took two players to the Top 8, and again this deck was boosted by the addition of wasteland and a the deck seems to have been a good metagame call from the two pilots.  In Addition SickSickSickSickSickSickSick piloted a mono black pox deck to sucess.

 
Mono Black (Played by SICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICK 27th December 2008)

Auriok Salvagers

 

3 Tombstalker
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Demonic Consultation
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Night's Whisper
3 Pox
2 Raven's Crime
4 Smallpox
4 The Rack
4 Thoughtseize 


 

 

Lands
4 Mishra's Factory
13 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
 



 

 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). I was suprised to see Relic Of Progenitus in the board as Leyline of the Void seems like a better option and only does the Relic seems to clash with the tombstalkers in the deck. The 14 Maindeck discards in the maindeck seem like a strong call at the moment. The Tombstalker is a difficult card to deal with but its increasing presence in classic warrants research into alternative ways to deal with him.

 


 

 

Finally, we take a look at the recent incarnation of the Zoo deck as played by Bazaar of Baghdad. 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. This is a brief look at the deck and I hope that Bizaar will write a dedicated article about the deck and its matchups in the near future.

Summary

Necrospike is consitently putting up great numbers the deck is insane in that it can win quickly and with counter backup.  This deck can be hated on, but I have seen games where the Necro player simply blows through the hate, I fully expect this deck to see increasing play over the coming weeks. In my mind it is the standout best deck in the format.  I fully expect to see Demonic Consultations get restricted during the next update to the Restricted list, and possibly Necropotence itself.  After the changes to the cardpool with Tempest release and Jace Chandra release we are entering a more stable period and it will interesting to see how the environment plays out.

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 Uncle.Istvan due to his back- to-back in the first two events of 2009.

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"

 

2 Comments

Share an edge; lose an by Bazaar of Baghdad at Thu, 01/15/2009 - 16:46
Bazaar of Baghdad's picture

Share an edge; lose an edge.

Ah well. It's not like the deck is metagame warping or anything. I might write that article for you.
Thanks for the kind words.
BoB

Awesome by Whiffy & Hammer at Thu, 01/15/2009 - 17:43
Whiffy & Hammer's picture
5

Hi Bazaar, It would be great if you wrote such an article.
Sorry all for the editing issues on this article, there was a small conflict I think caused with the editor upgrade the site just received. Hopefully this will be a one off problem.
Thanks U_T_H