Still Had All These! » Extended http://stillhadallthese.com M:tG Strategy, Reports and Shenanigans Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:52:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 M:tG Strategy, Reports and Shenanigans Still Had All These! no Still Had All These! james@jamesdykes.info james@jamesdykes.info (Still Had All These!) M:tG Strategy, Reports and Shenanigans magic the gathering, tcg, strategy, still had all these, ptq Still Had All These! » Extended http://stillhadallthese.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://stillhadallthese.com Extended – Running The Gauntlet http://stillhadallthese.com/2011/01/11/extended-running-the-gauntlet/ http://stillhadallthese.com/2011/01/11/extended-running-the-gauntlet/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:52:25 +0000 James F'n X http://stillhadallthese.com/?p=601 It's time to apply the lessons learned in searching for the best deck and use those lessons to build a testing gauntlet for the Extended PTQ season, at least as it stands right now.  While only scattered information has come out on the paper PTQ season so far, we have a lot of information from the two Magic Online PTQs and several Daily Events.  What the data bears out is one deck is at the top of the heap in terms of results, and a few others are on the outside looking up.  I hope you like flying blue creatures.

Faeries

2 PTQ Wins, 1 Premier Event Win, 29 3-1 or better Daily Event Finishes

Faeries are once again the big dog in the yard, although without full field information, it's hard to tell if there's twice as many Faeries finishes as other decks because twice as many people are playing the deck, but you can tell two things.  The deck is popular and successful.


Unlike some of the other decks in the environment, you'll often see a number of differences between any two Faeries lists.

  • Removal Packages - Many builds are playing 4-6 spot removal spells, some mixture of Smother, Doom Blade, Agony Warp and Disfigure.  This PTQ-winning list eschewed all of those cards, choosing only 4 Peppersmokes as his spot removal.
  • Discard Selection - Most builds are playing 4-5 discard spells in some mixture of Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize, sometimes with more in their sideboards.
  • Planeswalker or no? - Builds have been seen with no planeswalkers or with some number of Jace Beleren or Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
  • Scion or no? - Some builds have brought back Scion of Oona anticipating heavy amounts of the mirror match.  Others are playing no copies of the Faerie lord.

There are some interesting sideboard cards that you might not think of as well.  Wall of Tanglecord helps slow down the aggressive red decks which have given Faeries fits in the past, while Wurmcoil Engine give them a Jund-smashing finisher.  Most sideboard cards are there to punish quick, aggressive decks that have traditionally given Faeries fits.

Jund

3 Premier Event Top 4s, 15 3-1 or better Daily Event Finishes

Less cascade-based than its standard revisions, Jund decks have gone to the graveyard, looking to win the game with Demigod of Revenge.


Jund decks in Extended look a lot different than the Bituminous Blast into Bloodbraid Elf into removal spell fests that were in Standard.  Instead, the amount of removal has been toned down a bit, and the creatures improved with the addition of Kitchen Finks and the impressive Demigod.  Anathemancer punishes the various exotic manabases in the format, and the mana is better than it was in Standard with the replacement of M10 lands Dragonskull Summit and Rootbound Crag with Scars of Mirrodin's Blackcleave Cliffs and Copperline Gorge. Sideboard options include Great Sable Stag to fight Faeries, Volcanic Fallout to fight all kinds of weenie decks, some sort of enchantment removal vs. Prismatic Omen and Pyromancer Ascension, and Thoughtseize to fight control and combo.

Red-Based Aggro

8 PTQ Top16/Top32 finishes, 9 3-1 or better Daily Event Finishes

Whether it be mono-red, or splashing black or green, devoted aggro decks are always part of the metagame.


Much like Faeries, builds of the red aggro deck vary a lot, even more so than the bugs. Creature counts vary wildly, as does the creature package (Plated Geopede? Figure of Destiny? Hells Thunder?). The constants seem to be Goblin Guide, Lightning Bolt, Burst Lightning and in the mono-red versions, Flame Javelin and Teetering Peaks. When you branch out to other colors, though...

The red-green deck loses Teetering Peaks because it has to play 8 potentially tapped lands - the sure thing Raging Ravine and the sometimes tapped Copperline Gorge. Because of that, it prepares for a longer game with Kargan Dragonlord.  And what is it playing green for? Bloodbraid Elf and the reach of Raging Ravine.  But other red aggro decks like to get a touch of the dark side.

This deck chooses to run Teetering Peaks instead of Lavaclaw Reaches which is probably fine. Black is added for the trumps of Anathemancer, Thoughtseize and more varied removal in the board. Sideboard options across the board include Smash to Smithereens for pesky Wall of Tanglecords and Ratchet Bombs, Mark of Mutiny to take big creatures out of your way and use them to bash your opponent to bits, Volcanic Fallout against things like Elves and Faeries, and Leyline of Punishment to stop Burrenton Forge-Tender and mitigate Kitchen Finks.

Blue-White Control

5 PTQ Top8/Top16/Top32 finishes, 9 3-1 or better Daily Event Finishes

Counter this, Oblivion Ring that, play a Sun Titan and win. Simple enough.


This is a traditional control deck, using counterspells (Cryptic Command and Mana Leak), card drawing (Wall of Omens and the Jaces), and removal (Day of Judgment, Ratchet Bomb, Oblivion Ring and Path to Exile) to pave the way for your big creature to finish the job. The finisher of choice is Sun Titan because of his excellent interactions with various cards in the deck. Fetchlands, Tectonic Edge, Ratchet Bomb, Kitchen Finks and Vendilion Clique all love the Sun Titan. This deck can also change gears if need be to play the beatdown game with 3 power creatures for 3 mana that are hard to deal with. Sideboard options include Leyline of Sanctity for Faeries and Wargate/Valakut, War Priest of Thune against Wargate and Pyromancer Ascension, more Wrath effects, and cheap, large flyers like Baneslayer Angel and Coralhelm Commander.

Wargate

3 PTQ Top8/Top16/Top32 finishes, 10 3-1 or better Daily Event Finishes

Scapeshift into Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is much easier when you don't need to Scapeshift or run mountains.


The Wargate deck uses its namesake card to assemble pieces of a two card combo, Prismatic Omen and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. With these two cards in play, once you get to 6 lands, every land you play is a Lightning Bolt. Rampant Growth? Bolt ya. Cultivate? Bolt ya and tutor for another Bolt. Wargate for another Valakut? SO MANY BOLTS. The rest of the deck is counterspells to keep you in the game until you can get the combo assembled and Scapeshift for the one-turn kill. Some versions play creatures to stall the game out as well, and Leyline of Sanctity to protect your hand from pesky discard spells and your life total from pesky burn. The sideboard gives you enchantment removal in the mirror match, more Wrath effects, and more countermagic to fight control decks. There are a ton of Wargate builds, with even transformative variants like this 4-0 daily deck.

Giving up the efficiency of the pure combo build, this deck can quickly shift gears post-sideboard into an aggressive 4 color Bant deck. Bloodbraid Elf and X spells normally don't play well together, but cascading into Wargate isn't bad at all with this deck - you get to fetch up a Valakut!

Hideaway (Green/White Trap)

7 PTQ Top8/Top16/Top32 finishes, 6 3-1 or better Daily Event Finishes

Is there a better feeling than casting a giant Eldrazi monster for 0 or 2 mana?


Here's the plan. You're an aggressive green-white deck. You get to potentially hide giant monsters like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn under hideaway lands (Windbrisk Heights and Mosswort Bridge). If the control decks try to counter your creatures, you get to play Summoning Trap and hope to hit the Eldrazi lottery. Knight of the Reliquary does it all for you by finding hideaway lands, toolbox lands like Sejiri Steppe and Khalni Garden, and Mutavault to up your creature count to turn on the Heights. Our of the board, you get enchantment removal for Prismatic Omen and Bitterblossom, Great Sable Stag to fight Faeries, and Burrenton Forge-Tender to protect from Volcanic Fallout.


Right now, these are the top six decks in the format on Magic Online. Formats change fast, though, so you'll want to keep checking results and updating your gauntlet. The list above is a very good start to take your deck of choice through and prepare for the Nagoya PTQ season, though.

]]> http://stillhadallthese.com/2011/01/11/extended-running-the-gauntlet/feed/ 2 2010 Magic Headlines – Extended on a Diet http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/12/29/2010-magic-headlines-extended-on-a-diet/ http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/12/29/2010-magic-headlines-extended-on-a-diet/#comments Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:27:38 +0000 James F'n X http://stillhadallthese.com/?p=560 As 2010 comes to a close, Still Had All These would like to take a look back at some of the headlines that affected Magic: The Gathering in the past year.

Extended Format Becomes 'Double Standard'

Living End

You were my only friend... *sniff*

Extended was one of the healthiest constructed formats in Magic going into 2010, with the first PTQ season of the year leading to dozens of viable decks, including Hypergenesis, Living End, Elves, All-in Red, Thopter Depths and Hive Mind on the combo end of the spectrum, Zoo, Brozek Deck Wins, Doran and Affinity in the aggro end, and Faeries, Reveillark, Smallpox and traditional control decks as well.  The top 8 of Grand Prix Oakland consisted of seven different decks!  Yokohama showed the same diversity, with six different decks in the top 8.  Houston was no different, with seven different decks too.  The format looked in line for a big shift with the Mirrodin block rotating out, taking away key cards to several decks like Chrome Mox, Chalice of the Void, Thirst for Knowledge, Engineered Explosives, etc.  There was an air of uncertainty about the upcoming format as the top combo decks would lose very little while control decks would lose tools that helped them fight the combos and aggro decks, but Extended seemed to be thriving.  There was eve rumors of Wizards replacing Legacy with an 'Overextended' format due to concerns over the Reserved List policy changes.  So when the banned and restricted list update came out in June with huge changes, no one was surprised... until they read it.

On July 1, 2010, the following sets will leave the Extended format: Ninth Edition, Mirrodin, Darksteel, Fifth Dawn, Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, Saviors of Kamigawa, Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, Dissension, and Coldsnap. From that point forward, the Extended format will include approximately four years of Magic sets instead of seven.

The changes led to Pro Tour Amsterdam, which not only had one of the most insane Top 8 fields ever (Kai Budde? Brian Kibler? Guillaume Wafo-Tapa? Michael Jacob? Paul Rietzl? Marijn Lybaert? Brad Nelson?), but was contested under the shadow of the Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows interaction which choked out several otherwise viable decks. In the end, the top 8 had two White Weenie decks, two 4 Color Control decks, two Doran decks, Merfolk, and Jund. The top extended decks at Worlds showed twelve archetypes amongst the thirty-eight decks that finished 4-1-1 or better. The diversity in Extended has choked a bit, but with a new PTQ season on the horizon, we'll see if the format opens up or stagnates like recent Standard formats have.

]]> http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/12/29/2010-magic-headlines-extended-on-a-diet/feed/ 0 A Few Brief Words on New Extended http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/06/18/a-few-brief-words-on-new-extended/ http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/06/18/a-few-brief-words-on-new-extended/#comments Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:08:13 +0000 James F'n X http://stillhadallthese.com/?p=382 It's hard to grasp what the heck just happened to Extended. Not only have we seen the last Extended PTQ with Chrome Mox, Chalice of the Void, and Engineered Explosives, but also Umezawas Jitte, Tarmogoyf, Lightning Helix, Living End and shocklands. The next time we play Extended to get onto the Pro Tour, the format will look like:

  • Lorwyn
  • Morningtide
  • Shadowmoor
  • Eventide
  • Shards of Alara
  • Conflux
  • Alara Reborn
  • Zendikar
  • Worldwake
  • Rise of the Eldrazi
  • Scars of Mirrodin
  • Set 2 of the Scars block
  • M10
  • M11

Obviously Faeries will be a major power in this format, with Scapeshift, Scapeshift Zoo, and Traditional Zoo close behind.  Reveillark control decks (not combo style, sorry, Body Double!) will be big, and people will get to dust off their playsets of Figure of Destiny and Reflecting Pools.  Vivid manabases will be the norm for the next season and any deck that can efficiently attack that manabase (Spread 'Em with Fulminator Mage?) or battle back with extreme consistency in its mana (Kithkin, Faeries and dedicated burn decks) will have to be good enough to overcome the sheer card quality of the 5CC Control and Cascade decks.

There are definitely upsides and downsides to the new Extended format.  I wish there was something in-between, like the rumored OverExtended format (Mercadian Masques and up) or something more like classic Extended, which rotated sets out every two years and gave some cards (dual lands, anyone?) special dispensation.  I just feel that the new Extended is far too close to Standard, and the room for innovation isn't really there - much like Standard used to be the best block decks against one another until Wizards did a better job of making block themes interact, the new Extended may turn into the best Standard decks from the past three years battling against one another.  We'll see how it goes, but I really hope the next announcement from WotC is a new format (and not one that involves four booster packs and 30 card decks).

]]> http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/06/18/a-few-brief-words-on-new-extended/feed/ 1 The End of Another Season http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/04/13/the-end-of-another-season/ http://stillhadallthese.com/2010/04/13/the-end-of-another-season/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:14:09 +0000 James F'n X http://stillhadallthese.com/?p=342 Well, here we are at the end of another constructed season, and the Still Had All These team acquitted themselves fairly well... except for yours truly, of course. G Pelly had two top 8 finishes, including a final, and Dwayne and Kasey both got to the top 8 in Portland. Dwayne also had a cash performance in GP Houston. I cubed a lot and played a lot of Catchphrase.

Now's not the time to dwell on past failure, though, but to look ahead at what removing Mirrodin will do to Extended by taking a look at major archetypes and see what they lose from the artifact block.

Affinity - This deck, as we know it, is dead. Affinity may return as a mechanic in Scars of Mirrodin, but I highly doubt we will see artifact lands again (at least in the state we saw them in Mirrodin. Maybe ETB tapped ones.) and the cards will be tested a lot more stringently than the Mirrodin cards were.

Chalice of the Void

No more countering Living End the easy way!

Zoo/Bant Aggro/Doran/Dark Zoo - Most of the other creature aggro decks lose almost nothing from the rotation out. Damping Matrix is the most relevant card going away vs. Thopter Sword. They gain from the loss of Engineered Explosives and Chalice of the Void as answers to their various strategies. It will probably be another strong year for Zoo.

Red Deck Wins - RDW loses a lot of its reach as Shrapnel Blast, Blinkmoth Nexus and in some builds Magma Jet go away. Chalice of the Void and Engineered Explosives going out will help the deck some, but RDW was using Chalice to beat the zero casting cost spell decks as well, so they lose a sideboard tool. Molten Rain is going away as well, weakening a land destruction route for the red decks.

Thopter Sword (Depths) - Goodbye, Chrome Mox and Thirst for Knowledge! The combos that make up these decks aren't going away, but the pieces that make them consistent enough to dominate Extended for part of the season are. These decks also lose the occasional Echoing Truth, and the U/W Thopter Combo decks also lose Engineered Explosives and Vedalken Shackles. Losing artifact lands hurts as well. I think the future of Dark Depths combo is more in the black/green versions that showed up near the end of the season using Into the North to tutor up Dark Depths and Beseech the Queen and Shred Memory to find Vampire Hexmage. The future of the Thopter combo decks is likely to be the U/W decks or the Bant Thopter decks, either tilting more toward traditional control elements with Thopter/Sword as a backup or a more aggressive route with access to a transformative sideboard. Maybe Gifts Ungiven will be the card that keeps this combo around.

Scapeshift - Nothing major happens to Scapeshift. It just loses the sideboard options a lot of decks are losing (Engineered Explosives, Chalice of the Void and Damping Matrix).

Hypergenesis - Hypergenesis loses a good target in Sundering Titan, but the big Terastodon had made up that slot already in a lot of builds. Chalice of the Void leaving the format is a benefit to this deck.

Living End - Living End gets the same benefits that Hypergenesis gets as Chalice of the Void is gone. It loses nothing to the rotation.

Dredge - Dredge loses Echoing Truth as a sideboard option, making it a little bit harder to get out from under multiple Leyline of the Voids. It may get some blowback as well as the counter to cascade combo decks may become Nix instead of Chalice of the Void.

All-in Red - Losing the ability to turn one Chalice of the Void for zero against cascade combo hurts. Its big bads like Demigod of Revenge and Deus of Calamity stick around, but the storm kills like Empty the Warrens get weaker since there are no more relevant free spells for the deck. Chandra Ablaze will likely get more popular for this deck, but without Chrome Mox, this deck may be too weak to even make a showing as a rogue choice.

Mindslaver

Guys! Guys! Remember when I could lock up the game?

Elves - Elves only loses Eternal Witness and gains huge from the loss of Chalice of the Void and Engineered Explosives. This is another deck that will benefit from the rotation.

Faeries - It's going to be a while until this deck starts losing tools again - other than an Echoing Truth here and there, Faeries will do nothing but benefit from the rotation - no Chalice of the Void to kill Bitterblossom tokens and no Chrome Mox powered starts to blast past Spellstutter Sprite.

The loss of Mirrodin will have a major effect on only a couple of decks (DDT, All-in Red and Affinity). The biggest change will be to sideboards, as cheap, efficient artifact answers to a lot of problems will no longer be available. Overall, the cards that were one popular from Mirrodin block for extended fell by the wayside quickly this season (Tooth and Nail, Mindslaver, Triskelion, Trinket Mage) and what saw a lot of play were the best sideboard cards in the format in Chalice of the Void, Engineered Explosives, and Damping Matrix. We will see what Rise of the Eldrazi, M11 and Scards of Mirrodin bring to the format, but it looks like most of the strong decks at this point stay strong except for DDT, and the wild cards of the format like RDW, AiR and Affinity are going to need to retool, or are just getting decimated altogether. (Sorry, Arcbound Ravager!)

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