Nothing motivates someone to write up an article quite like having Instant Messenger completely and totally break down, eh?Well, it’s all good. I was planning on writing up these thoughts anyway. I just hadn’t been able to find the time between my busy schedule of work, playtesting, and sleep. Without any uncertainty, I can say this: I may not post the best record at States this year, but I’m going in as one of the most prepared people in the world. Hours upon endless hours of playtesting, plugging away at deck designs by tweaking every single deck concept available even if it’s not one seriously being considered for States. I’d like to give huge props to the small group of people that have worked with me on this unholy project. We may not be teammates 364 days out of the year, but on that one day, the day that States is held, we’re all going in with the collective knowledge that we’ve acquired.
Last year before States, I posted quite a bit about what deck I would be playing and different information regarding its playability and its strengths/weaknesses. In the first two rounds of States, I played against people who had read that particular writing piece, and they both admitted after the match that they had sideboarded according to my suggestions in game two. I was flattered, of course, but somehow the impossible had happened and I had played against two members of MOTL that remembered my real name as they sat down to play against me. Luckily, that didn’t go against my record at all (I was 1-0-1 in the first two rounds), but it made me realize something that Zvi Mowshowitz and Nate Heiss must have come to grips with a long time ago: while it’s often improbable, your own information can be used against you in any tournament if the stars fall in the right pattern.
Trust me, I’m dying to give out my current decklist for States. It’s something that I’m proud of, and it’s something that some people have outright told me won’t work. In fact, MOTL’s own staff member, Tedman, has told me this on multiple occasions. They were wrong, though. U/W/g Control does indeed have what it takes to hang with the other archetypes, and it packs more of a punch than most people give it credit for. I might be willing to go against my better judgment and post a list anyway, along with a long and patient explanation of why it’s not as big of a pile as it appears, but I’m not the only one playing my design this time. At least two other players that I know of are saddling up their Questing Phelddagrifs and preparing to go to war. It’s more than a little frustrating to have a deck that you truly believe in and have tested day in and day out, and not be able to tell people outside of your makeshift team the workings of it.
However, U/W/g Control (affectionately called Crouching Hippo) isn’t the only deck that I’ve personally tested. I’ve stayed more towards the control and aggro-control deck designs throughout testing, more out of a need for board control than any sort of metagaming. I always like to be packing a control deck in a new format, just because a good control deck never gets completely hosed by any deck. It always has a fighting chance, no matter how bad the matchup. I went the same route last year at States, with U/B/r Nether-Go (I’m proud to say I was one of the few control players packing Obliterate in the sideboard that day), and it went quite well. Going even farther back, I can’t recall a time where a new block has rotated in and I haven’t started out playing something controllish.
The very first design that I tested out was U/B Control, complete with Shadowmage Infiltrators and the standard U/B base. The original decklist looked like this:
Finkel-Go
Creatures
4x Shadowmage Infiltrator
2x Air Elemental
Spells
4x Counterspell
4x Undermine
4x Recoil
4x Duress
3x Syncopate
4x Fact or Fiction
4x Tainted Pact
2x Yawgmoth’s Agenda
25x Land of the U/B variety
Two things jump out right from the beginning, I know. Air Elemental and Tainted Pact. I’ll deal with Air Elemental first.
When I was assigned by the group, whom I half-jokingly call Project: Blue Book, to work on a deck abusing the Infiltrator, I knew that most of the deck would build itself. Obviously Counterspell and Undermine went in the deck. The same with Fact or Fiction. Yawgmoth’s Agenda would be a key card for the complete lockdown. However, what I was left with was a lack of a quality kill mechanism. Finkel may be the man, but even he has its limits. The option of trying to get him to deal 20 damage was something akin to taking away a Twinky from Marlon Brando: a very dangerous proposition. So I pulled out current list of Standard cards and began going up and down the list.
Air Elemental was the standard win condition for Nether-Go back when the deck design was really popular right after the Urza Block rotated out. I put it in the pile for consideration and moved on. Other cards that caught my attention were Mahamoti Djinn, Amugaba, and Abyssal Specter. I went through some brainstorming with all of the options before I made my choice. Abyssal Specter, while making for some serious card advantage after a few turns, simply wasn’t much faster of a clock than the Infiltrator itself. Fat Moti and Amugaba were absolute sticks when they hit play…assuming that they made it into play and weren’t removed before the next untap phase. While Amugaba is less vulnerable to removal than Fat Moti, both choices suffered from large casting costs. Early testing results from other members of Blue Book indicated that counter wars were being seen in every shape and form, and having to tap down such a large amount of mana, especially with the removal of Foil, was risky. So for my first test run, I went with Air Elemental. At five mana, it was normally a four turn clock (the Infiltrators and Undermines normally made sure of that), and it was a mana cheaper than Fat Moti, which turned out to be more important than it first sounded.
Tainted Pact was originally there as a replacement for Vampiric Tutor. In testing, though, it proved strong in its own right. However, looking back I see that it really is more of a card for an aggressive design than a control design.
Testing the deck was a study in patience. The repetition of the thing was in some way good and some ways bad. Obviously, consistency is a key part of a control deck, as control is much less able to recover from inconsistent draws than a more aggressive design, but it was so repetitive that this deck made me want to go to sleep. It was almost exactly like playing Nether-Go, and I worked with Nether-Go in one form or another since Masques Block Constructed. This wasn’t the deck for me, I knew, but I continued the testing anyway. After all, other people in Blue Book were playing decks they hated; it was for the good of all mankind.
Well, okay, maybe not for all mankind, but for the dozen or so people in the testing group, yes.
The results were actually much as I thought they would be. The deck faltered against aggressive decks such as Sligh and Stompy, not to mention White Weenie with its Mystic Crusaders, but it smacked around aggro-control designs such as Liquid Tempo and Neo-Squirrel Prison. It had a hard time against the Merfolk version of OrbOp, but it was a field day against the G/U version. I tweaked around the design and managed to get it to the point where it would have a good match against the aggro designs, but that in turn weakened the aggro-control matchup. Both versions had the same type of match against control, where it would have the advantage against U/W Control and U/W/splash only if the Infiltrator managed to get an engine going.
Throughout the testing, I came to realize that U/B alone was too limiting. While you may at this point say, “Yeah, obviously, look at the Invitational decks”, keep in mind that I was testing this quite a while before the Invitational took place. Since Invasion Block Constructed is the obvious measuring stick for the first metagame of the rotation, I almost immediately dug up a strong Go-Mar list and looked it over. Here’s the decklist that I was using, for those interested:
Go-Mar (Alexander Strakhov)
Land
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Coastal Tower
4 Salt Marsh
1 Dromar's Cavern
5 Island
4 Plains
3 Swamp
Creatures
4 Spectral Lynx
4 Meddling Mage
1 Dromar, the Banisher
Spells
4 Dromar's Charm
4 Absorb
4 Disrupt
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Vindicate
1 Rout
1 Yawgmoth's Agenda
The metagaming of this version is obvious, with four Disrupts in the maindeck. However, looking over the decks being tested, nearly every deck had a number of valid targets for a Disrupt. In any case, this version was more controllish than other Go-Mar listings, as it passes up Gerrard’s Verdict for the Disrupts, and that’s what I was looking for. The Finkel-Go/Go-Mar hybrid decklist that I came up with was much like Jon Finkel’s version from the Sideboard and the Invitational, except for the fact that I ran three Duresses in the slots that Jon used for two Absorbs and one Dromar, the Banisher. Here’s Jon’s deck, dubbed Finkula due to the presence of both Finkel and Pikula’s Invitational cards:
Finkula
Land
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Coastal Tower
1 Darkwater Catacombs
4 Salt Marsh
3 Skycloud Expanse
4 Underground River
Creatures
2 Dromar, the Banisher
4 Meddling Mage
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Spectral Lynx
Spells
2 Absorb
4 Counterspell
4 Dromar's Charm
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Recoil
4 Vindicate
As I said, my list was very close to this, although my mana base was a bit different (I was using two Darkwater Catacombs and two Skycloud Expanse rather than the 1/3 split) and I maindecked Duress. In retrospect, Duress really does belong in the sideboard, although I firmly believe that one Dromar needs to get the boot for a Yawgmoth’s Agenda. Some people may not agree with me on that, but I’ve found myself using the Agenda as a lockdown more often than a Dromar has come in handy.
White offered a much better kill condition than was previously avaiable; in fact, it added quite a few. Meddling Mage is just an amazing card, although it’s not broken by any means. Spectral Lynx will stand against pretty much any creature in the format without trample, and is one of the decks best answers to a quick Wild Mongrel (if a card isn’t pitched to the Mongrel it bites the dust, and if one is the Lynx becomes a regenerator with a Funeral Charm built in). Shadowmage Infiltrator is obviously da man. And Dromar…well, if Dromar stays in play long enough to become active, it’s almost always game right there.
However, my final version removed Dromar altogether for Desolation Angel. In my opinion, it’s simply the superior finisher, as if it resolves with kicker it’s time for your opponent to start entering the scoop phase. Dromar is a fine dragon, don’t get me wrong, but autowin cards are always nice. While Dromar’s ability bounces himself a lot of the time if used, Scoop Angel’s ability magically makes your opponent start shuffling for the next game.
Satisfied that it was an acceptable design, I mass emailed it to the rest of Blue Book and went to work on the second deck on the list: Fish. I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for Fish ever since I took a tourney by storm back in the day, riding on the power of Manta Rider and Merfolk Looter. It’s seemingly so simplistic, but it requires more concentration than most other aggro-control designs. To begin, I took the deck that Alex Borteh used at Worlds this year:
Fish Opposition
Land
20 Island
Creatures
2 Darting Merfolk
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
4 Vodalian Merchant
2 Waterfront Bouncer
Spells
4 Counterspell
4 Gush
4 Opposition
4 Static Orb
4 Thwart
Now obviously this needed some revamping (and yes, I’m well aware that this isn’t technically Fish, but it was agreed upon that an Opposition build was the strongest possible archetype). Darting Merfolk, Waterfront Bouncer, Gush, and Thwart have all rotated out. After some brainstorming, I came up with this first design:
Creatures
4x Coral Merfolk
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Merfolk Looter
4x Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
4x Voldalian Merchant
Spells
4x Counterspell
4x Memory Lapse
4x Sleight of Hand
4x Opposition
4x Static Orb
Land
20x Island
Basically, I just replaced elements rather than rebuild the design totally. The deck itself was still quite viable without the cards that rotated out, even though it was weakened by the removal of Thwart and Gush. However, Memory Lapse is a perfectly acceptable counter in the design, and Sleight of Hand works well enough for a cheap cost.
Coral Merfolk is what I found to replace Darting Merfolk and Waterfront Bouncer. While it doesn’t have any abilities to speak of, making it inferior to the two Masques cards, it’s still a 2 power creature for two mana, a rarity in mono-blue. With a Lord of Atlantis in play, it really becomes a stick. The faster clock that it provides is enough to earn it the slot.
Testing the deck was very interesting. One of the matches that I feared most going into the testing stage, Stompy, turned out not to be that hard of a matchup if the Fish do their job like good little guppies and become little Icy Manipulators. Liquid Tempo was a much different story, though. It’s a nightmare match. Gaea’s Skyfolk also becomes larger thanks to the Lord, and between Rushing River, Repulse, and Temporal Spring, the Fish deck just doesn’t get the tempo advantage going. The control matches were interesting, to say the least. If the design was running a number of basic Islands, such as U/W Control and U/B Control, the Fish deck had the advantage. However, if it was, say, Finkula, a deck with zero basic lands, it was a MUCH more difficult match. Against these style of control decks, the Fish themselves became a subpar group of Stompy creatures. A resolving Wrath of God was often game.
A second version of the deck became popular in the subgroup of Blue Book that I was playing against, a version without the Oppositions. The current decklist for that design is:
Creatures
4x Coral Merfolk
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Merfolk Looter
4x Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
4x Voldalian Merchant
Spells
4x Counterspell
4x Memory Lapse
4x Sleight of Hand
4x Rushing River
2x Repulse
Land
22x Island
This version of Fish (an ACTUAL Fish deck, too, not just in name) managed to increase the tempo advantage of the deck at the expense of the heavier control aspect of Static Orb and Opposition. Static Orb was originally still in the deck in the Rushing River slot, but it was discovered that it didn’t matter if an opponent was able to utilize all his/her mana once a threat or three was on the table. Rushing River and Repulse allow for just enough time to deal lethal damage to your opponent before he/she gains board control. The card advantage of Repulse was nice, and it was originally occupying four slots while Rushing River had two; however, it was soon learned that board advantage was more important than card advantage. That should have been obvious by the success of Sleight of Hand in the original design, of course, but it was somehow overlooked.
The list of decks that I’ve tested is quite a bit longer. However, I believe that I’ve prattled on long enough for one article, and I’ve certainly got enough notes to write up quite a few of these buggers. Hopefully in the near future I’ll find time to sit down and write up more findings to hopefully help out people scrambling around for a deck for States, and I still owe that second part of my Extended article.
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posted October 09, 2001 08:47 PM
