[Editor’s Note: Complete coverage of the Inaugural StarCityGame.com”Power Nine” tournament can be found here.]
With the big prize payout and lots of excitement, the general feeling here is that this tournament might even be more prestigious than Worlds next month. Because of this, a lot of the people in attendance are now a lot more forthcoming with their”hidden tech” that they discovered through”team secrecy” and don’t want to tell you, instead of requesting”decklist withheld.”
Marc Perez:
What deck are you playing?
U/R Fish
Why did you choose this deck?
I flipped a coin.
What about Short Bus’s Trinket Mage deck?
Shh, our secret Trinket Mage deck does not exist.
What sort of metagame did you expect here?
Mishra’s Workshop decks, lots of 4-Color Control, lots of Tog, and some Fish.
What does your deck beat?
Everything!
What interesting card choices did you make for this tourney?
By far Crucible of Worlds for the mirror match. We also made the”interesting choice” of putting three members in the top 8. You know, as opposed to the one that Meandeck put in. Just kidding, I have nothing by love for you, JP. But only you.
4 Volcanic Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Wasteland
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
3 Null Rod
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spiketail Hatchling
2 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Curiosity
2 Daze
1 Misdirection
1 Stifle
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
Sideboard
3 Rack and Ruin
2 Fire / Ice
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Maze of Ith
1 Stifle
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Energy Flux
1 Pyroblast
1 Null Rod
1 Crucible of Worlds
Eric Miller:
What deck are you playing?
The Man Show
What exactly is that?
The Man Show is obviously all about the Juggies! It’s got five Strip Mine effects, Crucible, Juggernaut, and a rainbow mana-base for all sorts of sideboard cards.
Why did you choose this deck?
I made this one myself about two years ago and I’ve been playing it forever. I originally made this deck B/U, but I just recently changed it to this multicolor version because straight B/U didn’t have enough good answers. I ran it because quick fat is good and a lot of decks have problems with cards like Chains Mephistopheles and Trinisphere.
What sort of metagame did you expect here?
Tog, Fish, some combo, and GAT.
What does your deck beat?
Fish, because my critters are really big. It’s good against Madness for much the same reason. It’s maybe better than even against other Workshop decks. It’s the worst against Food Chain Goblins.
What interesting card choices did you make?
I’ve also only got two Goblin Welders. They’re actually not that great in here, since I can’t dump stuff into my graveyard that well, but they’re great against Force of Will. Everyone Forces them!
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Black Lotus
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
4 Juggernaut
3 Su-Chi
2 Goblin Welder
2 Triskelion
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Burning Wish
1 Swords of Plowshares
1 Time Walk
Sideboard
3 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Damping Matrix
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Balance
1 Timetwister
1 Sundering Titan
1 Vindicate
1 Hull Breach
1 Dust to Dust
1 Artifact Mutation
Scott Limoges:
What are you playing?
4-Color GroAtog. It’s a variant on the one I won Waterbury with, but with Night’s Whispers over Accumulated Knowledge.
Why’d you choose your deck?
It’s ultra-consistent. When we have to play eight rounds, I want something strong, consistent, and fairly easy to play.
What sort of metagame did you expect?
I expected tons of Fish. It’s done really well recently. It’s why I added the Red.
What does your deck beat?
It doesn’t really have”best” matchups. It’s mostly because it’s got a lot of good matchups and doesn’t get blown out by anything.
What interesting card choices did you make?
I’ve got Mind Twist. A lot of people don’t like it because of the low mana curve here, but it’s just won me so many games.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Gotta give props to my team, Team 187. We worked hard on this deck together.
4 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
4 Quirion Dryad
2 Psychatog
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Night’s Whisper
3 Cunning Wish
2 Duress
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Fire/Ice
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mind Twist
1 Gush
Sideboard
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Fire / Ice
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Berserk
1 Smother
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Misdirection
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Naturalize
1 Oxidize
Doug Linn:
What are you playing?
Meandeck’s Titan deck
Why’d you choose your deck?
Nobody would expect it since we just recently made it, and it’s hard to go wrong with fourteen draw spells. You can’t beat the reliability of Sundering Titan to just destroy somebody.
What sort of metagame did you expect?
Heavy Fish, especially because of Marc’s recent win. I also expected a lot more Tog than showed up. I thought some 4-Color Control would be here, too.
What does your deck beat?
Decks with dual lands, which is well, everything.
What interesting card choices did you make?
The real one that gets people thinking is that it’s weird that I’ve got dual lands despite running Sundering Titan, but usually you don’t even have to hit your own lands with it since everyone has Blue-producing duals.
Anything else you’d like to add?
You guys have been running a really good tournament!
4 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Polluted Delta
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mindslaver
4 Goblin Welder
2 Sundering Titan
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
Sideboard
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Flametongue Kavu
2 Tsabo’s Web
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Fire / Ice
1 Platinum Angel
Rich Herbert
What deck did you bring?
U/R Fish
Why’d you go with Fish?
Honestly, I wanted to play Tog, since I have a lot of experience with it, but we couldn’t get all the cards together among my team so I went with Fish. It’s a really a good deck and draws lots of cards, so it wasn’t exactly like I was taking a deck that I had to settle for or anything. Marc Perez’s wins showed that it was a good deck, too.
What did you expect metagame would be?
I expected 4-Color Control, Tog, and lots of Fish since it was doing really well. I also thought that a lot of people would try GroAtog because they’d want to try out Night’s Whisper. I pretty much just had to guess since I live in Baltimore and there’s like no metagame there.
What are your deck’s matchups like?
I tested a lot against Dragon and found that it was pretty good. Workshop decks weren’t so bad because of my Energy Flux in the board. 4-Color Control was good, maybe 60/40. I found that I was good in the mirror, but I just got wrecked one match by Suq’Ata Firewalker, since I just can’t deal with that. I think people are going to need to play that one because there are just so many Fish mirror matches.
Do have any interesting card choices?
I added more Dazes. They were always really good. I also had to increase my Blue by cutting a Wasteland to make Voidmage Prodigy better and because for some reason I just couldn’t draw Blue to save my life. I have a really random board. I wish I could change it. And for some reason, nobody seemed to know what Energy Flux did. They all expected Rack and Ruin.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I thought it was really cool how many Workshop decks showed up even though there were only five proxies. Usually I’d think that five would be too few and that there wouldn’t be that many unless there were ten proxies. This tourney’s shown me that five proxies is probably the right number.
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Island
4 Volcanic Island
3 Wasteland
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Null Rod
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spiketail Hatchling
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Voidmage Prodigy
4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Curiosity
3 Daze
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
Sideboard
4 Fire / Ice
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Energy Flux
3 Stifle
2 Maze of Ith
Mike Panas
What deck did you play?
Modified 4-Color Control
Why did you go your deck?
I only play during the summer, and since I had a lot of the cards from when I played Wake in Standard I just went with 4-Color Control.
What are your deck’s matchups like?
I lose to Slaver, but a lot of that is because I don’t get to play against it that much. I’m really good against Food Chain Goblins, especially because I added extra Fire/Ice.
What did you expect the metagame for this tourney to be?
Absolutely no clue. I’ve got almost no Type 1 experience.
Did you have interesting card choices in your deck?
No. My deck was really boring. The only thing I really even did that was different was running more Fire/Ice.
Anything interesting to add?
Twice, my opponent said that our match was the most boring one he played today. Because of that, I really think that 4-Color Control needs something faster to kill with.
3 Polluted Delta
3 Wasteland
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 City of Brass
1 Flood Strand
1 Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
2 Exalted Angel
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Decree of Justice
2 Skeletal Scrying
2 Fire / Ice
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Balance
Sideboard
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Gush
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Coffin Purge
1 Disenchant
1 Damping Matrix
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Blue Elemental Blast
Matt Gronke
What did you play today?
Landstill (JP: Oh, God!)
Why’d you go with Landstill, a deck that I hate so much?
I expected random aggro and Workshop and tried to get a deck to fit that. I alternated between it and 4-Color Control,
What are your matchups like?
The most boring games you’ve ever seen. I mean, I kill with lands! It’s almost impossible to finish a game in under fifteen minutes.
What did you expect the metagame to be?
I didn’t expect any combo. I thought that the European combo decks wouldn’t have gotten here yet. I thought that lots of Workshops would be here because my team (Short Bus) would be here and people would want to play it. I also thought there would be a lot of Tog but there wasn’t any, especially Meandeck. I wanted to break me open some Meandeck heads!
Did you run any interesting cards?
I ran the transformational sideboard of Oath of Druids and Darksteel Colossus. I also have three maindeck Annul because I expected lots of artifacts. It was golden all day. I used it a lot even against 4-Color Control as like a one-mana Sinkhole against their turn 1 Moxes.
Anything else you want to add?
Of course! Short Bus took five of the top 10 and three of the top 8, two in the top 4, and I know that there will be an all Short Bus finals.
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Wasteland
3 Faerie Conclave
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Fire / Ice
3 Brainstorm
3 Annul
2 Stifle
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Counterspell
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Regrowth
Sideboard
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Oath of Druids
2 Darksteel Colossus
2 Hydroblast
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Gaea’s Blessing
Chris Phillips
What did you play today?
U/R Fish
Why’d you go with Fish?
It was the only decent deck that I could afford to build! My brother also had success with it at the CCC last month.
What are your matchups like?
I haven’t even played all the big matches yet. I mean, I haven’t played against Dragon or Draw-7 or 4-Color Control. Pretty much, you just keep getting little resource advantages against them while eeking out damage.
What did you expect the metagame to be like?
Similar to the CCC with Tog, Fish, and Workshop , but honestly, I had no idea what else. I didn’t think Fifth Dawn would do too much other than add Crucible of Worlds.
Did you run any interesting card choices?
No, not really. The only different was maindeck Fire/Ice
Anything else you want to say?
I can’t believe I lost a game by casting Ancestral Recall! But I don’t want to say any more about that. It wasn’t a fond memory. It was great watching Steve Menendian lose to me by mana burning from Mana Drain because he wanted to attack that much. I’ve never seen him that frustrated before!
4 Wasteland
4 Volcanic Island
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 Faerie Conclave
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Null Rod
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Grim Lavamancer
2 Voidmage Prodigy
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Curiosity
3 Fire / Ice
2 Daze
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
Sideboard
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Maze of Ith
2 Stifle
2 Misdirection