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By: TheMiseDotCom, Andrea Faliero Lassi
May 28 2009 12:40am
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 Greetings!

Welcome to Online Tech #4. After Grand Prix Barcelona hitted the scene we can some metagame shifts because of the popularity and strengh of the Cascade Swans deck.Right now , we have the first data avaiable about the Magic Online metagame featuring the new Alara Reborn set!

 Standard

 

;} catch(e) {}">As you can see, Black White lost a little of his dominance in the past week. Black Green Elves submerged as a consistent deck across the field able to deal with all the tokens armies as well as control decks. Maelstrom Pulse gave it the removal weapon it was lacking to deal with Enchantments,bigger creatures or annoying permanents. It can deal with Seismic Assault,Swans of Bryn Argoll,Bitterblossom,Spectral Procession tokens (yes,all of them!),Ajani Vengeant,Garruk Wildspeaker,Oblivion Ring,Elspeth, Knight-Errant etc etc. Green White Tokens as also been doing well. Qasali Pridemage and Dauntless Escort gave it a lot of versatility to fight different cards. The Qasali its a good weapon against Seismic Assault and Runed Halo. While the Dauntless Escort its a great way of protecting your team against Pyroclasm,Volcanic Fallout,Firespout and Wrath of God,(not Infest!).That caused some problems to the 5c Control players and it can be seen in Gabe Nassifs list where he decided to run Hallowed Burial instead of the the customary Wrath of God. With equal % we have 3 decks, being the dreaded and bossy Black White, 5c Control and Fog. Fog was created to beat all this tokens decks and it keeps getting its share of play and top8s,but if the popularity of the aggro decks begins to decrease it will also fade. Cruel as been around a lot, variations now with Cascade Cruel and some other forms of 5c Control deck but its vivid as an all around deck capable of pulling it trough almost any matchup. As smaller parts of the metagame we have the old king Boat Brew, UW Lark as a deck that will probably see some more playability since its a new concept with Alara Reborn and Meddling Mage and it has some room for improvement. Jund Aggro has been transported almost entirely by Block and its a fairly good aggro deck using the powerful Cascade mechanic in Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast. RB Aggro its the new Blightning withouth Blightning or with it.
 


A sample list of BG from sugiki. Both Imperious Perfect and Wilt-Leaf Liege were cut from the deck, opting instead for running 3 Garruk Wildspeaker and Putrid Leech as "innovations". Garruk early on was one of the best cards in this deck but then was kind of forgotten since faeries would just fly over and kill it after a turn or 2. Chameleon Colossus was a big bomb for a while also and it started getting a lot of play again, neutralizing Terminate,Terror and Bitterblossom Tokens. It clearly a Path To Exile target but if left unanswered can end the game pretty quickly. I really like those 3 Makeshift Mannequin in the sideboard. An almost forgotten card that can return any target: Cloudthresher,Civic Wayfinder or Shriekmaw and then those nifty Puppeteer Clique in the sideboard.

UW Lark
skyzz - 3rd Place - Standard Event #348115 on 05/17/2009
Creatures
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Meddling Mage
4 Mulldrifter
4 Reveillark
4 Sower of Temptation
24 cards

Other Spells
4 Cryptic Command
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Path to Exile
4 Wrath of God
16 cards
Lands
4 Adarkar Wastes
5 Island
1 Mutavault
4 Mystic Gate
6 Plains
20 cards

Meddling Mage


The deck is not really a new archetype but more of a rebuilt list with the new all star Meddling Mage. Running only utility creatures helps when you Wrath of God the board only to slam a Reveillark after it. Cryptic Command and Wrath of God in conjunction with Kitchen Finks,Meddling Mage and Sower of Temptation help against both aggro and control matchups. A Meddling Mage on Seismic Assault may be a pain for Swans players and if you set another to Bituminous Blast they can only win trough Swans of Bryn Argoll attacks which may be difficult since you run 4 Cryptic Command, 4 Path to Exile and 4 Sower of Temptation. Windborn Muse is a fun sideboard card against Tokens, making them pay 2 for each creature attacking is always a good deal,especially when served with Wrath of God and Austere Command.

Jund Aggro
Pwnius_Maximus - 4th Place - Standard Event #348115 on 05/17/2009
Creatures
3 Anathemancer
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Tattermunge Maniac
23 cards

Other Spells
2 Bituminous Blast
3 Blightning
4 Incinerate
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Terror
14 cards
Lands
4 Auntie's Hovel
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Graven Cairns
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Mountain
4 Savage Lands
2 Sulfurous Springs
23 cards

Bloodbraid Elf


Cascading is fun! Jund Aggro is swift aggro deck using the powerful cascade mechanic to drop threats at lightning speed. Eight 1 drops and 12 haste creatures may show you how quick it is.Anathemancer gives Swans and 5cc a hard time by while the other creatures beat them to death.Its quick enough to compete with tokens and it runs Jund Charm in the board to help fight the matchup.

Jund HackbladeBoggart Ram-GangBloodbraid ElfAnathemancer


5c Control was always there. With all his forms and lists it still managed to keep itself around the block.This version piloted by Marcio Carvalho to a win in a Daily Event features the new arrival to Standard Terminate as sort of replacement to both Terror and Plumeveil.Jace Beleren and Ajani Vengeant help you fight Fog while 15 removal cards help in the aggro battles. As win conditions, Broodmate Dragon,Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker or even Jace Beleren's and Liliana Vess's ultimates manage to do well enough. The great playability of the deck is clearly Anathemancer.Only 2 basic Islands in the deck means that a turn 3 Anathemancer is going for the full 3 damage plus a 2/2 body etc. A unearthed one in late game is possible 10 or more damage without possibility of countering it (discarding Pithing Needle I guess).

 
Kenny Oberg piloted this deck to a 7-2 day one record in Barcelona. Its FUN! In the coverage you may actually read a match where he turn4 kills his opponent both games. The deck is a combo deck featuring Heritage Druid + Nettle Sentinel madness to generates lots of mana by having 2 or more Nettle Sentinel in play and tapping them for GGG and then playing a 1cc or 2cc green card etc generating enough mana for a Regal Force that will draw more cards and generate more mana to play Primal Command bouncing the opponent's lands or Thoughtseizeing them to clear the path for a next turn lethal attack.Also Dauntless Escort helps the chances of the board surviving a sweeper.But still,if you thoughtseize them and then Primal Command up a land you know exactly what to count on next turn. Vs Swans if they don't have the turn 3 Seismic Assault they are basically dead since you'll combo them out without opposition. It also possible for a turn 2 "virtual win" since you can't really kill them in the turn you combo out but as you bounce their lands to the top of the deck and discard their hand there's not much they can do.Ranger of Eos plays out a very important role in deck,since you can tutor up 2 combo pieces or restock the board after a sweeper.The only 2 cards you really have to be afraid are Pyroclasm and Zealous Persecution but far from that you should catch lots of opponents unprepared.

Heritage DruidNettle SentinelPrimal CommandRegal Force

Extended

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 I mean, this is so last year. Extended is a "dead" format at this time in Magic Online.Only 2 events fired during the week with a startling number of Elves! I guess people realized too late that it was clearly the best deck of the format. The only problematic matchup was faires and if get a look at the chart there were 0 Faerie decks in the top8s.Elves dominated the scene with 5 decks in 16 and a 31,25%.It also managed to win both events. Naya Aggro has not been forgotten.Its still a very consistent deck against every matchup and if played by the right player it has good odds against everything. Another deck that people were really exited about was clearly HyperCascade. It managed 3 players in only 1 top8. The rest is just a misc of Loam,Affinity,Storm,Burn and an odd French Eggs list that I will also talk about. Well as speaking of reborn the most played cards were...Well,the only Alara Reborn cards played in this 2 top8s were the ones featured in the HyperCascade deck: 12xArdent Plea,12xViolent Outburst and 2x Demonic Dread.

 

 

 
This list won one of the top8s.Its a pretty straightforward list which I kind of dislike since it doesn't feature my MPV for the PTQ Win, Ranger of Eos.Without Faeries in the mix elves sort of has a clear path for event wins.Blasting Station is sort of an odd choice but may be a relevant sideboard card.There seems to be also 0 Elves hate around without Tezzerator or any deck featuring Explosives and Chalices.

 
This deck was instantly loved by everyone. Turn 3 almost virtual win is always a good choice even for a format as fast as Extended. The new cascade mechanic just proved to be powerful enough to break some rules, as of the cycle of 0mana cost suspend cards. Hypergenesis helps you to drop a horde of ridiculous monsters into play and sometimes winning the game on the spot as dropping 4 Bogardan Hellkites into play. I advise you to read this wonderful article by Basic Land in order to understand how the deck works and some other useful information about it:
Breaking Down Hypercascade

French Eggs
FatManInALittleCoat - 4th Place Extended Event #348103 on 05/18/2009
Creatures
0 cards

Other Spells
1 Ather Spellbomb
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Conjurer's Bauble
4 Edge of Autumn
4 Lotus Bloom
1 Manamorphose
4 Ponder
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
3 Reclaim
4 Reshape
4 Second Sunrise
3 Serum Visions
2 Spoils of the Vault
1 Tendrils of Agony
43 cards
Lands
3 Ghost Quarter
5 Island
3 Polluted Delta
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Swamp
16 cards

Second Sunrise


Who here doesn't love scrambled eggs? I fell in love with this deck the first time I saw it,back in the day where you actually played some "eggs" in it. The deck was then dethroned by Storm, more reliable and consistent, and didn't suffer as much from Chalice of the Void and Engineered Explosives.Well, Faeries and Tezzerators are gone, and this deck doesn't really die to a cold stone Trickbind or Stifle. The deck uses the little spellbombs and cantrips to cycle trough it and Reshape into a Lotus Bloom to generate mana and then Second Sunrise everything drawing more cards,producing more mana and repeating.When you're done to 0 cards in your library,Second Sunrise everything, use Conjurer's Bauble to put Second Sunrise on the bottom (top) and draw it etc. Meanwhile you just have to shoot your opponent with Pyrite Spellbomb and then you have it an infinite loop.

ReshapeSecond SunriseConjurer's BaublePyrite Spellbomb

Classic

 

 Necrospike keeps battling the field but maybe not for long. Pox is always the runner up in this not so healthy format when concerning archetypes. The Ad Nauseam Storm has also been gaining lots of adepts. As I'm not a Classic player I leave that to the ones that really understand the format so I'll leave here a couple of articles that you'll surely enjoy reading if Classic is your fix:

 This all are articles that will answer your questions concerning the format and will probably explain better than I could this lists I'll be posting. I hope that the writers of those articles may also give this a look and explain them in the comments when requested.

Necrospike
TheUsualSuspect - 1st Place Classic Event #348125 on 05/17/2009
Creatures
3 Tombstalker
3 cards

Other Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
3 Demonic Consultation
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Lotus Petal
4 Necropotence
3 Ponder
4 Soul Spike
4 Tendrils of Agony
1 Vampiric Tutor
43 cards
Lands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
14 cards

Necropotence
Merfolks
AthosTheMusketeer - 1st Place Classic Event #348127 on 05/17/2009
Creatures
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
1 Merfolk Looter
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
2 Wake Thrasher
20 cards

Other Spells
4 Æther Vial
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
1 Pithing Needle
2 Spell Snare
4 Standstill
1 Stifle
1 Umezawa's Jitte
13 cards
Lands
12 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
20 cards

Lord of Atlantis

 

Alara Block Constructed

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 And now my current "favorite" format. I'm flying over to Honolulu on Tuesday and I'm still unsure about what to play.If we look at the statistics from MODO, Naya keeps dominating outrageously the field. Almost 60% of the decks present in the 4 Daily Events top8 where Naya variants, winning 3 of those 4 events (the 4th was won by a Mid Range Naya/Jund). Mid Range decks such as the one Zach Hill used on the Cardmasters 5k are another constant online, since they have fair matchups against both Jund and Naya.

Naya
lxixme - 1st Place ALA Block Constructed Event #348091 on 05/17/2009
Creatures
4 Battlegrace Angel
1 Caldera Hellion
2 Druid of the Anima
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Woolly Thoctar
22 cards

Other Spells
4 Ajani Vengeant
1 Banefire
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Martial Coup
4 Oblivion Ring
15 cards
Lands
2 Exotic Orchard
6 Forest
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Mountain
3 Naya Panorama
4 Plains
23 cards

Woolly Thoctar


The big bad wolf. Full of fast creatures and powerful spells. The Noble Hierarch into Woolly Thoctar start is something very hard to beat,especially if you ramp up into a Battlegrace Angel or a Ranger of Eos. Ajani Vengeant and Elspeth, Knight-Errant will likely win games by themselves,and if the board is not in your favor,you can always wrath it away with Martial Coup leaving 5+ soldiers behind.Some versions may also run a couple of different cards such as:

Realm RazerBloodbraid ElfFlameblast DragonKnight of the Reliquary


Alara Reborn bought with it Lavalanche. The powerful sweeper has its home in this Naya/Jund Mid Range deck. Wild Nacatl , Ranger of Eos and Battlegrace Angel provide a fairly aggro start to the deck that can also ramp up into a quick Broodmate Dragon or a swift Lavalanche.

Jund Aggro
korno - 3rd Place ALA Block Constructed Event #348091 on 05/17/2009
Creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Bloodhall Ooze
1 Goblin Outlander
3 Hell's Thunder
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Putrid Leech
20 cards

Other Spells
4 Blightning
3 Firewild Borderpost
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Magma Spray
2 Resounding Thunder
4 Terminate
3 Veinfire Borderpost
21 cards
Lands
4 Forest
6 Mountain
4 Savage Lands
5 Swamp
19 cards

Bloodbraid Elf


One of the new cool kids on the block, Jund Aggro or Cascade Jund depending on it playing main deck Bituminous Blast,is a very fast deck. Bloodhall Ooze is a very good one drop,and it may grow out of hand quickly if left unanswered. 11 Haste creatures provide a steady steam of aggression backed up by burn,removal and disruption such as Blightning,Resounding Thunder,Maelstrom Pulse and Terminate. I don't particulary like the borderposts since I'm not big fan of flipping one with Bloodbraid Elf or being stuck on mana due to a Maelstrom Pulse or Vithian Renegades.

UW Aggro
FFfreaK - 8th Place ALA Block Constructed Event #348090 on 05/17/2009
Creatures
4 Akrasan Squire
4 Aven Mimeomancer
4 Aven Squire
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Sigiled Paladin
20 cards

Other Spells
3 Ardent Plea
4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Lapse of Certainty
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Path to Exile
21 cards
Lands
3 Arcane Sanctum
3 Island
13 Plains
19 cards

Aven Mimeomancer

 

Alara Reborn also permitted a few rogue builds. This list was piloted by FFFreak to a 8th place in one of the events. I got interested and gave him a pm online asking about the deck. We chatted for a while and he told me that the idea was cool but the deck couldn't beat Naya on the draw so it was kind of putted aside. I guess that with some work the list may be redesigned to solve that issue. The plan is simple,drop some guys and keep attacking with an Exalted Creature. Ardent Plea will most likely reveal a threat and Aven Mimeomancer will turn everyone of your creatures into a 3/1 Flyer threating to end the game very soon. Lapse of Certainty may be swapped for Hindering Light. I actually play tested this deck for the PT since I'm always looking for the rogue creation of the field but it just didn't cut it.

Well, this concludes the Online Tech of this Week. I hope you enjoyed and as always I'll leave a little surprise. This is the Draft #5 from LSV, this time with co-writer Riki Hayashi from Channel Fireball.







As always , see you soon,

Andrea Fonseca

Dust_ at MTGO

17 Comments

I just built that elves! deck by quetzilla at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 02:00
quetzilla's picture

I just built that elves! deck for standard but i substituted gilt-leaf arch druid for regal force since i only had 1 regal force but 3 arch-druids -- but i think i like the archdruid better -- its really not hard to get 7 druids out! I borrowed a page from the extended version (which I also have built) and put in mirror entity to make the druid a tiny bit easier to activate, as well as one predator dragon. Then I added fire-lit thickets and ancient ziggurats to help cast the nongreen cards (would add wooded bastions, but don't have any).

I also substituted forests instead of all the rest of that painland stuff because its cheaper and anathemancer gets played.

Anyway its a really fun deck and surprisingly good -- managed to activate the arch-druid vs Sanity Grinding which seems like it would be impossible but it happened -- and I beat him in game 1 too.

Well the Archdruids would be by TheMiseDotCom at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 08:08
TheMiseDotCom's picture
5

Well the Archdruids would be a variation into a diferent build not really concentrated on the combo part but more of a casual "steal your lands" vibe. But test it and tell us how it went!

I put it in as card drawing by quetzilla at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 14:01
quetzilla's picture

I put it in as card drawing rather than for the stealing lands part (12 of your guys are druids). But as I said, I also added a Mirror Entity which makes it 13, and the Entity also allows you to turn all your guys into druids making it much easier to do the land-stealing bit.

It still has he same overall game plan so it's not really a different build. The only match I lost last night was vs 5cB because he brought in WoG in game 3 and I don't own Dauntless Escorts yet to be able to fight those off.

another article, you've been by Erdene (not verified) at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 08:18
Erdene's picture

another article, you've been pouring them out, guess you need money for MODO testing, lol,

Liked it a lot, but i think I miss your draft reviews, lately you've been focusing on deck reviews, albeit good and insightful, personally, i'd like to see a little more variety

again, 5* article

Well being paid is always a by TheMiseDotCom at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 08:37
TheMiseDotCom's picture
5

Well being paid is always a nice bonus but its not clearly the motivation for writing. I'm involved in a number of non-renumerated Magic projects, but still PureMTGo is a growing force in the Community and they reward accordantly their writers.

Great Article by CaretaTheBest at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 09:31
CaretaTheBest's picture

Great article, as most articles i've seen from you.
I really apreciate your T2 and Block annalysis, they are both quite usefull.

Gz.

OmletteDeJenea by FatManInALittleCoat (not verified) at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 11:44
FatManInALittleCoat's picture

I like the egg decklist, its awesome, thats why i've top 8'd with it 3 times...odd enough wotc has only posted one top 8. This deck is so versitle....not much hate really kills it.

Excellent Broad article by Basic Land at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 12:12
Basic Land's picture
5

Great Broad article, it is easy to find the metagame I am looking for, which at the moment happens to be block. Have fun in Honolulu. Thanks for the Hypercascade shoutout.

I played Eggs as well during by TheMiseDotCom at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 12:26
TheMiseDotCom's picture
5

I played Eggs as well during the season, just dropped it because of the hate already given to elves and such. About the hypercascade link it was my pleasure since it provided a way to talk about a now heavily played deck without making the article too extense.

Just curious as to the result by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 12:36
Anonymous's picture

Just curious as to the result of the draft at the end of the article?

LSV Draft by TheMiseDotCom at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 12:39
TheMiseDotCom's picture
5

I'll leave here the links for the matches and they you can go and see by yourself:

Match #1 - Game 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxpnc-ROoZw
Match #1 - Game 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxFrfmxw8E4
Match #1 - Game 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRRrG59HdQs

Most excellent. Thanks for by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 13:12
Anonymous's picture

Most excellent. Thanks for the link and the well written article :)

french eggs by menace13 at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 13:12
menace13's picture

hahah told you no one in the good ole U.S. is calling it omlettes

This article is awesome, and by Twoduckcubed at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 13:50
Twoduckcubed's picture
5

This article is awesome, and I greatly appreciate the amount of time you must spend to write an article like this. Your online metagame articles are one of my favorite magic articles on the internet. Keep up the great work!!!

The HyperCascade deck looks by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 14:24
Anonymous's picture

The HyperCascade deck looks like a lot fun. The biggest problem is getting enough land early to get it off, and going or getting a cascade card in hand thus the need for the serum powder I guess.

Well most versions play by TheMiseDotCom at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 14:43
TheMiseDotCom's picture
5

Well most versions play between 10 and 12 3mana cascade cards. So that means you're likely to have at least 1 in every 7 card hands you draw. Even if you stumble on a land drop, a 4th turn win in a field where Faeries and Counters are almost non existing is pretty quick.

this is a great article...is by HarryHouse (not verified) at Thu, 05/28/2009 - 14:54
HarryHouse's picture

this is a great article...is very usefull,your T2 annalys are usefull.