May 15, 2010

Welcome to National Qualifiers week!  This Saturday, around the United States, players will attempt to qualify for the US National Championships in every state.  Here's a quick factsheet on what to expect at your local NQ.
Format: Standard Constructed
Structure: Swiss pairings with a cut to Top 8.  In NQs with two or four slots, single elimination playoffs will be played until the desired number of players are left.
REL (Rules Enforcement Level): Competitive.  No takesy-backsies, be prepared with sleeves, pen and paper, counters, etc.

You should also prepare to play against a few different archetypes that are sure to be popular, either based on tournament success or because of ease of access to the cards.  Here's the gauntlet of decks I'm looking at preparing for.

U/W/R Planeswalkers

This deck came storming out of the gate at the StarCityGames 5K in Atlanta.

U/W/R Planeswalkers - Lewis Laskin - 1st Place, SCG Open Atlanta

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Creatures (4) 4 Wall Of Omens Enchantments (7) 3 Oblivion Ring 4 Spreading Seas Instants (4) 4 Path to Exile Sorceries (7) 2 Day Of Judgment 3 Divination 2 Martial Coup Planeswalkers (12) 3 Ajani Vengeant 3 Elspeth, Knight-errant 3 Gideon Jura 3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor Lands (26) 4 Island 1 Mountain 5 Plains 3 Arid Mesa 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Glacial Fortress 3 Scalding Tarn 2 Tectonic Edge Sideboard (15) 1 Kor Firewalker 2 Meddling Mage 3 Wall Of Denial 1 Celestial Purge 3 Flashfreeze 4 Negate 1 Day Of Judgment

The plan is pretty simple - get control of the board through either color denial with Spreading Seas or creature negation with Wall of Omens, Path to Exile, and Oblivion Ring.  Play planeswalkers.  Use planeswalkers to win the game.  The deck leverages the sheer versatility of the most powerful cards in Standard to win from a lot of different positions.  I don't like the single red source in the deck, as Spreading Seas is a popular card in the current environment and getting your lone red source cut off makes games where you need an active Ajani pretty awkward.  I also really like Kor Sanctifiers in the sideboard to deal with opposing Pithing Needles, Oblivion Rings, and random other troublesome artifacts and enchantments.

Jund

The 800-pound gorilla on the format that has been losing its grip since the Eldrazi arose.

Jund - Jacob Dobbs - 2nd Place, PTQ Amsterdam, San Diego, CA

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Creatures (15) 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Putrid Leech 3 Siege-gang Commander 4 Sprouting Thrinax Instants (10) 2 Bituminous Blast 1 Burst Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Terminate Sorceries (9) 4 Blightning 3 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Rampant Growth Lands (26) 3 Forest 3 Mountain 3 Swamp 2 Dragonskull Summit 1 Lavaclaw Reaches 4 Raging Ravine 2 Rootbound Crag 4 Savage Lands 4 Verdant Catacombs Sideboard (15) 4 Dragons Claw 4 Goblin Ruinblaster 4 Doom Blade 3 Jund Charm

The decks in the format evolve to beat Jund, and Jund evolves to beat them back.  The deck has taken one of the blue envelopes this PTQ season, and it did it in an interesting way.  How do you beat an 0/4 Wall on turn two?  How about a 5/5 first striker each turn for the foreseeable future?  Plated Geopede combined with fetchlands, both of the Zendikar variety in Verdant Catacombs and the Rise of the Eldrazi variety in Evolving Wilds!  Why Evolving Wilds?  To fetch up the lone Island in the sideboard post board so that he could cast Sedraxis Specter!  It's hard to post one example deck or just have one Jund deck in the gauntlet, but it's going to be extremely hard to beat all the variants.  Use the usual suspects like the deck above as your basis for testing.

U/W Control

Sometimes called Tap Out because, well, it taps out for big X spells like Mind Spring, Martial Coup and Everflowing Chalice.

U/W Control - Phil Napoli - 1st Place, PTQ Amsterdam, New York, NY

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Artifacts (3) 3 Everflowing Chalice Creatures (9) 4 Baneslayer Angel 2 Sphinx Of Jwar Isle 3 Wall Of Omens Enchantments (7) 3 Oblivion Ring 4 Spreading Seas Instants (6) 2 Deprive 2 Negate 2 Path To Exile Planeswalkers (4) 1 Elspeth, Knight-errant 3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor Sorceries (6) 2 Day Of Judgment 1 Martial Coup 3 Mind Spring Lands (25) 7 Island 6 Plains 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Glacial Fortress 1 Sejiri Refuge 3 Tectonic Edge Sideboard (15) 2 Kor Sanctifiers 3 Celestial Purge 3 Flashfreeze 2 Negate 1 Path To Exile 1 Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre 1 Jace Beleren 2 Day Of Judgment

Similar to U/W/R Planeswalkers, this deck uses more large creatures to finish the game as opposed to Gideon Jura powered up by Elspeth.  The old Walletslayer teams up with Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Martial Coup tokens to take down the opponent.  Permission in the form of Deprive and Negate keeps the game under control.  Mind Spring refills your hand.

Mythic Conscription

What happens when you attack with one creature while Sovereigns of Lost Alara is in play?  It gets +10/+10, trample, and annihilator 2!

Mythic Conscription - Jeph Foster - 1st Place, PTQ Amsterdam, Richmond, VA

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Creatures (28) 4 Baneslayer Angel 4 Birds Of Paradise 4 Dauntless Escort 4 Knight Of The Reliquary 4 Lotus Cobra 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Sovereigns Of Lost Alara Planeswalkers (5) 1 Elspeth, Knight-errant 1 Gideon Jura 3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor Enchantments (2) 2 Eldrazi Conscription Lands (25) 4 Forest 2 Island 2 Plains 1 Arid Mesa 3 Celestial Colonnade 1 Glacial Fortress 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Sejiri Steppe 2 Stirring Wildwood 2 Sunpetal Grove 2 Verdant Catacombs Sideboard (15) 4 Kor Firewalker 2 Qasali Pridemage 2 Rhox War Monk 2 Vapor Snare 1 Deprive 4 Negate

The plan is to get Sovereigns out and then attack with a creature, tutoring up Eldrazi Conscription and getting in for X+11.  Barring that, accelerate out Baneslayers, planeswalkers, and other awesome creatures and be the beatdown.

Red Deck Wins

Kill it.  If it can't be killed, burn it.  RDW has a simple philosophy - it just wants to watch the world burn.

Red Deck Wins - Daniel Bragg - 6th Place, PTQ Amsterdam, Denver, CO

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Creatures (18) 2 Ball Lightning 4 Goblin Bushwhacker 4 Goblin Guide 4 Kargan Dragonlord 4 Plated Geopede Instants (14) 4 Burst Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Searing Blaze 2 Staggershock Sorceries (4) 4 Devastating Summons Lands (24) 12 Mountain 4 Arid Mesa 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Teetering Peaks Sideboard (15) 4 Goblin Ruinblaster 2 Shatter 4 Unstable Footing 3 Earthquake 2 Mark Of Mutiny

The plan is simple.  Lay down fast, aggressive creatures.  Burn out anything in the way.  Finish them off with Devastating Summons and Goblin Bushwhacker.  RDW has always been the budget player's deck of choice - it's deadly consistent and has the power to win even in a field of dedicated control decks.  The only issue is that Jund is also relatively cheap to build, and it has a lot better track record.  It's up to you whether or not you want to have RDW in your gauntlet, but I can guarantee you at least a few people will be sleeving up little red creatures and burn.  Be prepared.

Polymorph

They're like Transformers.  They're more than meets the eye.

Polymorph - Vincent Thibeault - 1st Place, PTQ Amsterdam, Montral, QC

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Enchantments (6) 3 Awakening Zone 3 Spreading Seas Instants (8) 3 Deprive 3 Into The Roil 2 Vines Of Vastwood Creatures (2) 1 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn 1 Iona, Shield Of Emeria Planeswalkers (6) 2 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Jace, The Mind Sculptor Sorceries (14) 4 Explore 4 Polymorph 4 Ponder 2 See Beyond Lands (24) 4 Forest 5 Island 4 Halimar Depths 4 Khalni Garden 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Verdant Catacombs Sideboard (15) 2 Ice Cage 2 Mind Control 1 Flashfreeze 2 Fog 1 Negate 2 Spell Pierce 1 Unsummon 1 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn 1 Iona, Shield Of Emeria 2 Telemin Performance

The goal for the Polymorph deck is to get a creature into play with either Awakening Zone, Khalni Garden, or Garruk Wildspeaker, then use the namesake sorcery to turn that creature into either Emrakul or Iona.  Deprive and Vines of Vastwood protect your monsters from opposing spells until they can end the game.

Good luck to everyone playing this week in National Qualifiers tournaments!