Going Rogue part 2 - a little help with deckbuilding from worlds

By Jim Marlow (and Ben Heath)

Hey everyone,

So my last article has hopefully thrown down a gauntlet to you maelstrom pulse whores, and/or bloodbraid lovers, to learn that you can actually gain an advantage over your opponant by having a weaker deck....

I heard from this weeks fnm that a player went 0-3 with jund, although someone else went 4-0.
Heathy ninja edit: The winning deck at worlds was jund hate, such is the dominance of jund in the field at the moment. Jund was also used a lot in the PTQs, seen as a solid deck. Interestingly only 1 Jund deck made the PTQ top 8.

So clearly jund is a swingy deck, with both good and bad performances possible. However, despite over 35% (i think) of the worlds fields playing jund, and a good few of them up at the higher tables, there were some really awesome and clearly powerful rogue decks that managed to equal the results posted by broodmate and co.

Here is a look at some of the crazy decks that went 5-1 or better during the standard portion of worlds.

Petr Brodzek
Main Deck 60 cards

4 Arid Mesa
7 Mountain
4 Naya Panorama
1 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Goblin Guide
4 Hell's Thunder
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Plated Geopede

4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Burst Lightning
4 Earthquake
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Zektar Shrine Expedition

Sideboard
2 Chandra Ablaze
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Path to Exile
3 Quenchable Fire
2 Volcanic Fallout

Im surely not the only one to read this decklist and wonder how this guys standard deck got mixed in with his draft deck . Panorama's in standard: BONKERS!
Ninja edit 2: 1 is ok, it's decent manafixing, and can be seen as another fetch land, albeit a very bad one. Since he already has 8 fetches, I'm not entirely sure he needs any more.

This deck is clearly full of unusual choices, but results speak for themselves, and in a format full of aggro decks, this attempts to outrace them all. Ruinblaster is fast becoming my favourite card in standard....but what the hell does quenchable fire do?


Benjamin Rozmon
2009 World Championships,

Main Deck
4 Arid Mesa
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Sejiri Refuge

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
3 Wall of Denial

3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Day of Judgment
3 Double Negative
3 Earthquake
4 Flashfreeze
3 Jace Beleren
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mind Spring
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Path to Exile

sideboard
1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Day of Judgment
3 Essence Scatter
2 Felidar Sovereign
4 Spreading Seas

It seems like loads of pro's tried and failed to brew the succesful control deck that blue mages were hoping for (myself included). Again this deck is not the control deck i expected to emerge as the strongest, sans baneslayer and with maindeck double negative and earthquake. Spreading seas in the board is more proof that mana denial seems to be the strategy of choice against the b/r/g menace (doesn't quite have the same ring to it)

Yet another ninja edit:
Blue mages were left bitterly disappointed after blue failed to make a name for itself at worlds. From what I saw it looks as though control players need to pick a shard. Go bant for spreading seas deck or grixis for crul pyromancer combo. Don't go esper, it's simply too weak at the moment.

Conley Woods
2009 World Championships,
Main Deck

4 Forest
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Mountain
4 Savage Lands
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Acidic Slime
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Mold Shambler
2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
4 Rampaging Baloths

4 Harrow
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
3 Terminate
4 Violent Ultimatum

sideboard
3 Caldera Hellion
4 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Island
4 Jund Charm
1 Swamp
1 Terminate

This deck was always going to get talked about. This deck is absolute insanity, and i think probably the only bit of fun in a completely boring and uninteractive format. If im going to be uninteractive i want to be casting violent ultimatum turn 3, not aimlessly flipping the top cards of my deck over in search for a blightning like an ape!


I hope these three decks have whet your appetites for the standard constructed event in Leeds next week, and hopfully some decks like these and/or some of your own designs show up to cause havoc among the format. I know that some people enjoy playing well tuned decks, that will always do well and are the best....but i hope there's still some people that would prefer to have a massive laugh doing crazy things with their own brews. If the satisfaction of playing your own deck, or something you've tweaked yourself isn't enough, then surely beating all the netdeckers with khalni heart expedition or zektar shrine expedition is.

I look forward to seeing everyone's monstrosities next wednesday (or tuesday?), hopefully i wont create a monster by writing this because i will stil metagame against jund....and probably face 15 spreading seas decks or something.

Final ninja edit:
It would be okay if all the jund decks had something different about them, like the last deck. But they don't. No, one of Siege -Gangs, Master of Wild Hunts and other stupid creatures doesn't count. I will be posting a deck that, although didn't go 5-1 or better, I whole-heartedly believe to be the best control deck there is at the moment. For those of you who are interested, yes I did play jund in Rome. I'm now sick to the back teeth of seeing jund decks, so I'm glad I got that out the way now! But looking back, I would have played this decklist, all to be revealed!


See you all next week,

Jim .....and Ben.


As always, feel free to comment on the article below. If you would like to contribute to the blog via and article, pictures, or absolutely anything, please contact me at ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk

Guest Article: Ben Heath - Heathy Hates Unhinged

By Ben Heath

Heathy Hates Unhinged

Heathy here with a special feature this time around, revolving around the subject of Unhinged.
Contrary to popular belief, I actually enjoy playing unhinged. I just don’t like to play it every 10 minutes, however most of the time the games are really fun and throws out some wacky combos. Here’s the first one:

The Situation – 6 Islands in play, Topsy Turvy in play as well as a Carniverous Death Parrot and ___________ (yes that is an Unhinged card), both enchanted by Loose Lips, each lets me draw four two cards when they attack unless the opponent says a chosen sentence (I chose ‘I won’t make you play Unhinged again’ and ‘Ben Heath is the greatest judge ever’ or something like that. The point is I knew my opponent would never say them). My opponent is on 16,
I attack, putting him down to 13. Draw four cards, since phases are in reverse order I then untap, then in my upkeep Number Crunch my Topsy Turvy, turn order is returned to normal, so I get another attack phase, put opponent down to 10 and draw four more cards. Post combat play Topsy turvy, head straight back to beginning phase, untap, upkeep Number Crunch No. 2 on Topsy Turvy, put my opponent down to 7 and draw 4 more cards. Topsy Turvy is cast again. This cycle repeats for a third time, my opponent is on 8 and 4 more cards are added to my hand (yes my opponent really was THAT stubborn). As I cast Number Crunch No. 4, my opponent says ‘oh, not another one’. The rest, as they say, is history...

Heathy reports on PTQ conventry

By Ben Heath

PTQ Austin in Coventry – A Heathy Adventure

Howdy
Having had two days to look back at the PTQ in Coventry, here’s my personal report on the day.

Deck: G/W Overrun
Experience with deck: Not enough. Five matches tops I’d say.
Prediction: Anything better than 3-3 would do.
Deck tech: Three Great Sable Stag main, one sneaky Martial Coup in there as well. 22 land and more mana bugs as well. This was gonna be interesting.

Round 1
Vs. Fae

Pre-Match – I had never met this player before, never mind played against him, so I didn’t know what to expect really.

Game 1 – Spec Proc turn 3, Cloudgoat Ranger turn 4. Draw land for the next five turns. I get Vendilion Clique’d twice, revealing land hands of 4 and then 6. However Ajani Goldmane comes to town, then leaves thanks to Cryptic Command. Garruk arrives along with Great Sable Stag and somehow I win Game 1.

Game 2 – Turn 2 Bitterblossom gets me worried. The deck is still working far too slowly, but I eke out a result due to my opponent not getting any Spellstutter Sprites or Mistbind Cliques. With both players getting bad draws in this match it wasn’t easy on the eye.

Aftermath – This guy went on to recover to 3-1 but lost the last two rounds.

Round 2
Vs. Neo-Fae

Pre-Match – Next up, some ginger guy. He’s from Leeds too, apparently. Jim is one of my deck-testing partners and we both knew each others decks inside out. I hadn’t lost to Jim in 3 competetive matches of Magic, so I was quietly confident going into this.

Game 1 – Stag and 3 Spirit tokens on the board with Overrun in hand. Firespout from Jim puts an end to that plan. Cloudgoat Ranger resolves, flip a Windbrisk to reveal Spec Proc. Jim makes the play of the game by scooping.

Game 2 – Quick out of the blocks again, but this time Jim’s deck was having a party, and countered everything and anything. My frustration was clear to see and despite having 24 life, that quickly disintegrated thanks to double Scion and double Bitterblossom.

Game 3 – If Game 2 was the Fae party, Game 3 was the morning after, the hangover. No red mana source meant no Firespout or Lightning Bolt, and it was one of those games that made you appreciate the traditional Fae build. Not how I wanted to win but a win is a win.

Aftermath – Jim went on to 1-2 drop. Shame.

Round 3
Vs Bant Aggro

Pre-match – The draw I had been dreading. Thomas whooped Rik 2-0 in Round 1 as this deck is very fast. He had Top 8’d at the last PTQ and had improved the deck since then. This wasn’t going to be fun.

Game 1 – Thomas shoots out of the blocks, landing double Hierarch and Rafiq. This usually means victory, but as I’m playing tokens I just kept on generating blockers until I had enough to swarm him. Wilt-Leaf Liege under the Windbrisk helped immensely.

Game 2 – He casts silence on my turns 4 and 5. With only 3 Spirit Tokens to save me, I don’t last long. It didn’t help that I had to mulligan to 5 and the only non-land cards I drew were Spec Proc, Ajani and Overrun.

Game 3 – This is the first game where I feel I was truly outwitted. I didn’t expect to see Jenara in the deck. After he Paths my Cloudgoat Ranger, I have two turns to find Spec Proc. It doesn’t come. I lose.

Round 4
Vs Kithkin

Pre-match – I had never met Steffano before, but had watched his last game against Mick Edwards so I knew what to expect. This guy was a very competent Magic player and a better player than I. He was also playing Kithkin. I didn’t think I was going to win this.

Game 1 – He plays Honor of the Pure and two Wizened Cenn. That’s right, on Turn 4 he has two 4/4 Kithkin on the table and 5 cards in hand. I’m stuck with two lowly 1/1 Spirit tokens and I’m staring defeat in the face. Suddenly though I find myself on the front foot thanks to token generators. He makes two Figures, which both promptly bite the dust. A second Honor of the Pure can’t save him from Ajani, Spirit Tokens and Cloudgoat Ranger though and we’re onto Game 2.

Game 2 – Another Rapido start from Steffano and I promptly find myself on 6 life. Martial Coup makes it’s first appearance of the tournament for 5 and it seems to swing the match in my fasvour…until two Cloudgoat Rangers appear on his side of the board. We’re onto Game 3 folks.

Game 3-
WARNING. THIS GAME CONTAINS SCENES OF EXTREME LUCKSACKERY. PEOPLE WITH HEART CONDITIONS, PREGNANT WOMEN AND RIK POWELL SHOULD NOT LOOK. SERIOUSLY, THIS MAKES ROB WAGNER LOOK LIKE A LUCKSACKING N00B.
I’m on the play, It doesn’t matter though as Steffano immediately hits the front foot with Double Stillmoon Cavalier, 3 Spirit Tokens and Honor of the Pure in play. I’m sat there with a single Cloudgoat Ranger, no tokens, 4 life, manaflooded (9 land), 1 card in hand (Ajani). One hope, a one in forty chance of drawing it. I do the corniest thing I can think off. I copy Gabriel Nassif. I arrange my mana for Martial Coup for 7. I draw the card, face down. If it’s not Martial Coup, I lose. I flip it over. I win the game.

Aftermath – Steffano drops after being lucksacked out of the tournament. I realise that in that one instance, I have used up all my luck. How right I was…

Round 5
Vs. 5 Color Cascade

Pre-Match – A PTQ debutant, Jake was 3-1 with a pretty darn good Cascade build. I went into this round 8th in the standings. I was on the bubble, I had to win.

Game 1 – Jake plays. Kitchen Finks followed by Bloodbraid Elf into Kitchen Finks puts him in ridiculously good position. At this point I only have Spirit Tokens. They soon get Pulsed. Only 3 land on the table, all the cards in hand need 4 or more to play. We’re onto game 2 and I fear the end is nigh.

Games 2 and 3 – These were exactly the same so I’ll put them up together. Spirit tokens + Cloudgoat Ranger + Ajani + Overrun under a Windbrisk. Jake’s starts were slower this time round and by the time he played anything with any meaning, it was too little too late.

Aftermath – Jake would go on to finish 3-3, a good first outing to a PTQ then, considering mine was 3-3-1.

Round 6
Vs. Time Sieve

Pre-match – I was 7th going into this final round, and I was up against Daniel, who was in 8th place. We had to play. Richard Bland wanted to make us the feature match, and from the spectators it quickly drew I could see why. But we both refused. Not sure why really, it would have been cool. But this was it. Winner would be 1st seed, loser would crash out of the PTQ.

Game 1 – I keep a good hand on the draw. However my opponent decides to get God hands and draws all 4 cryptics. I see no Stags. I don’t stand a chance.
I force him to combo out hoping he’ll screw up. I’m not worried about time because I know I have to beat him quickly anyway to stand a chance of winning. He doesn’t screw up. I’m 1 game away from falling at the last.

Game 2 – Again God hands gets two Cryptics and a Pollen Lullaby in his opening hand. However, I draw two Gutteral Responses and despite preventing one wave of attacks, Daniel can’t prevent the second wave and it’s 1-1.

Pre-Game 3 – I quickly make a note saying that I’ve pushed my luck far enough, and that I’ll be happy no matter what the result was. That last one turned out to be BS…

Game 3 – Double Noble Hierarch, Great Sable Stag, and 6 Spirit Tokens. Ajani hits the board. Game over, surely? No! Pollen Lullaby No. 1 appears. He’s some way to comboing off, here comes wave number 2. Pollen lullaby again! I’m glad to see the back of them. After his good luck in drawing the previous two games, surely he hasn’t drawn like a God again? He has! Pollen lullaby number 3 appears. I couldn’t believe it. It’s bought him all the time he needs. All he has to do now is not to make a mistake. First warning! Missed trigger off of the Howling Mine. Three of his turns later...second warning! All he has to do is screw up a trigger again!


He doesn’t. Game over. After not seeing a turn for 20 minutes, I actually fell asleep. I won’t lie, I was devastated. Despite Rik trying to comfort me, I couldn’t believe it. I thought I’d blown it. In hind sight I hadn’t, Daniel had drawn better than I had. Looking back I’m happy with how things went. Bring on the next PTQ season! Oh wait, it’s sealed…I won’t bother then.

Guest Article : These plains were made for walking

By Ben Heath

These planes were made for walking...

This is what I like to call the awkward second article, after the smash hit success of my first article (1 comment and rising, people!) I decided to talk about the upcoming Nationals Qualifying season.

In order to explain why I’m writing this article, my aim for 2009 is to make the Nationals, through qualifying or (by some major miracle) ranking. I must explain that when I made this vow 6 months ago my rating was not one you really wanted (1515 composite, stop sniggering at the back there).
Fast forward to now and it’s a very different story (1754 total rating),but the same can be said for a lot of people as well.

This season Team Leeds has had a player on the Pro Tour, two players making Day 2 at GPs and Top 8s at three different 2008 Champs, and I’m sure that these won’t become unique events. My point is that Team Leeds is getting stronger and stronger, and if things go our way and we play the way I know we can, I reckon we’ll have at least six, yes SIX players at a National Championships. Rewind back to last year when we only had two representatives (Andy Edwards and Robbie Aluzas), and it would be a massive improvement if many more of us get to Brighton, which I’m sure we will.

Anyways, the format for the majority of the qualifiers is Standard, and I’ve been spending this past week building decks and fitting revision around it, okay screw the revision, it’s mainly been spent deck building! But when you leave me on my own for a very long time, well I tend to go a bit crazy, and this is what happened when I let my imagination go completely out of control...

Deck List

4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Chandra Nalaar
3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Liliana Vess
2 Jace Beleren

4 Path to Exile
4 Cryptic Command
3 Broken Ambitions
2 Remove Soul
1 Negate
4 Volcanic Fallout

2 Wrath of God
2 Infest

4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Meadow
2 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Crag
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Rupture Spire
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain

I don’t know whether to run this or my new Ziggurat.dec (yes that’s what the archetype of the deck is called!). Let me know your thoughts as well as what you would put in this sideboard!

Later, peoples!

Heathy

Guest Article : Heathy goes to PTQ Leicester

By Ben Heath

Hey guys, this is the first of many, i hope, guest articles to be hosted on the TLM blog. Thanks go to Ben for taking time to write for the blog. If you want to write an article for the blog, feel free, simply send it to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk. Similarly, if you would like an article to cover a particular area/format of magic, then send an email to the above address. After all, the blog is here for you, the reader(s, hopefully!).

Jim

Greetings from planet Heathy.

Today, Sunday 22nd March, was the last chance for British players to go to PT Honolulu, the PTQs coming to Leicester for the last leg of the Extended PTQ season. After a mildly successful time in Birmingham, Jim and I decided to head to Leicester and hope for some better luck over there. Jim was playing his trusty Fae deck whilst I was playing Doran Rock, deck list below. We were joined by Paul Wray (zoo), Craig Stephenson (TEPS) and Andy Devine (loam zoo...I think).

Anyways, without further ado, here’s how I got on...

Round 1

First up for me was the loam deck. Good match up for me, as the cards in both graveyards help me power up goyfs when needed. Any threats generated by him were dealt with well.
Won 2-0.

Round 2

Up against wizards with artifacts. If there is one moment which stands out as the worst moment of today, this was it. Game 1, opponent on 6 life, Tarmogoyf and Thoughtseize in hand. Use Thoughtseize to reveal a Chalice of the Void and Spell Snare. Easy choice, Spell Snare, right? Wrong. I took Chalice of The Void. I lost that game, and it was mine for the taking. Game 2 went much better, dealing with Vedalken Shackles with my opponent on 3 life. Dealt the lethal damage with 2 minutes of the round to play. Didn’t bother with Round 3. Drew 1-1. 4 points. That one mistake proved to be my undoing for the entire night.

Round 3

Next up was zoo. Another easy matchup, outraced my opponent in Game 1, but Game 2 was a different story. Lots of shock lands and Thoughtseizes makes Ben a very sad panda, and in no time I was on 7 life with my opponent on 18. Two Loxodon Hierarchs and a Doran later, and I was on 7 points after three rounds.
Won 2-0. 7 points.

Round 4

Feeling confident after three rounds and only one glaring error, my hopes of my first PTQ Top 8 were smashed by another wizards matchup. Vedalken Shackles, controlling Doran, were my undoing in both games, despite boarding in Kataki, War’s Wage, I didn’t see it at all. I happily admit to being outplayed in this match, but deep down I knew that my night would end after Round 6.
Lost 2-0. 7 points.

Round 5

Next was the type of deck that is my least favourite to play against, which is the combo deck. This one was Swans, but unfortunately for my opponent I had answers left, right and centre. Game 1 I Doran’d him into submission, in Game 2 his Swans met my friends Thoughtseize, Path to Exile and Putrefy. Turned out later that Putrefying my opponent’s Chrome Mox in Game 1 was vital, as he would have been able to have casted Firespout twice, completely wiping my board.
Won 2-0. 10 points.

Round 6

Going into Round 6 I was in 11th place, with strong tiebreakers, a good win against an opponent who was also doing well (which is what I was expecting) would have stood me in great stead. I therefore don’t quite understand why I was paired up with Andy Devine in Round 6, who was down in 20th place. With me on 10 points and Andy on 9 points, we eventually decided that Andy would concede to me to boost my chances of getting into the Top 8, but we played anyway. I won Game 1 after Thoughtseizing all his threats before Goyfing him into submission. Game 2 was when I made my second major mistake of the night, and as a result thoroughly deserved to lose (attacking with a far too weak 2/3 Tarmogoyf into another Tarmogoyf and a 3/3 Wild Nacatl...d’oh). Game 3 I unfortunately got mana-flooded and was pretty disappointed to be actually lose the matchup as I thought it was a pretty good match up for me, but as far as the tournament was concerned I won 2-1 and was on 13 points...honest...

I ended up in 10th place with 13 points, a mere 4% on tiebreakers away from 6th place, who was also on 13 points. Although gutted not to make it, I had a good time, and won some pretty awesome cards in the boosters I won, thanks especially to Andy for letting me win the final round, even though it was all in vain (thanks dude). Thanks to Jim as well for the lift. Now I’m off to celebrate with my mates and get absolutely rat-arsed, later!

Heathy

Deck List

2 Chrome Mox,
4 Thoughtseize,
4 Birds of Paradise,
3 Path to Exile,
4 Tidehollow Sculler,
4 Tarmogoyf,
4 Dark Confident,
2 Umezawa’s Jitte,
4 Doran,
2 Kitchen Finks,
3 Putrefy,
2 Oblivion Ring,
2 Loxodon Heirarch.
4 Windswept Heath,
3 Treetop Village,
2 Overgrown Tomb,
2 Godless Shrine,
2 Temple Garden,
2 Ghost Quarter,
2 Swamp,
1 Plains,
1 Polluted Delta,
1 Bloodstained Mire

Sideboard
4 Bitterblossom,
2 Kitchen Finks,
2 Gaddock Teeg,
2 Ethersworn Canonist,
1 Path to Exile,
1 Tormod’s Crypt,
1 Relic of Progenitus,
2 Kataki, War’s Wage.