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In 1999 and 2000 I was in love with Standard, and for reasons that shouldn't be very hard for you to guess. I also loved Block. Masques Block might have been boring for some players, but it was also the easiest Constructed format ever to get an edge by tuning and practice. In 1999 and 2000 I was always playing fun and absurdly powerful decks that baffled my opponents. Beat you with Stromgald Cabal. Mise the main deck Engineered Plague. Beat you with Predator, Flagship. Side out all my Rebels. Come 2000, 2001, and 2002... I hated Standard. I hated Block. I never so much as made a PTQ Top 8 in Invasion, Odyssey, Onslaught, or even Mirrodin Block formats. In 2000-2001, the reason was Fires. Fires is the prototypical deck that defeats players of any skill level when played by players of any skill level. Few, if any, can stand against Small Child (tm) equipped with Fires, no matter how badly he cheats on lands or how inefficient his specific card choices. The core Fires deck is always the same, so no matter how ragged his outlyers, Small Child's important draws will never vary. The Fix will be in. Birds of Paradise (or Llanowar Elves), Fires of Yavimaya, Blastoderm, Saproling Burst. Once revealed, there was no better strategy. Surely there were strategies that beat Fires... Doesn't mean they were better. Zvi Mowshowitz, known for the Turbo Zvi, the Zero Effect, Turbo Land, and the Solution... Even Zvi played Fires. The problem with Fires was that the strategy was so simple that even if you didn't play it perfectly, it was strong enough to murder most other strategies with some approximation of the above draw, and most trained dogs can run that game, even if they don't know when to Port under Tsabo's Web or how exactly to break the Dust Bowls with 25 lands. Fires was deceptively non-interactive. Imagine playing a Black deck against it... How exactly are you supposed to deal with this game plan? Execute doesn't kill a Blastoderm, and is too slow to solve the real problem, the first turn accelerator. Wrath of God was good but not really good enough over time, all the time. Fires was essentially a deck of twenty Giant Solifuges. Even Blinding Angel was blanked a few months into it when Flametongue Kavu was printed.

A year later was no better, and it may actually have gotten worse, but for the opposite reason. Players accused R&D of "building the decks," but the truth was that they had never actually tested Fires of Yavimaya with Fading. That's why it was so strong. Randy's wave of ex-Pro Tour developers (Worth Wollpert, Mike Donais) came in just in time to miss what would be the most popular deck in Standard. This time, R&D blatantly built the decks. The synergies were so powerful that there was essentially no dissension from the central strategies. U/G Madness, U/G Threshold, and the "Swamps matter" school of Mutilate, Mind Sludge, Cabal Coffers, and essentially Nantuko Shade come out of this era. Mark Rosewater calls this "linear design." In Come Together, Mark uses Onslaught Block as an example of a very linear set, but I think that Odyssey was for tournament players the most linear, maybe ever. "In a linear design, cards are designed to clump together in obvious groups. They have a very narrow but focused synergy. When you look at the set, it becomes quickly apparent what cards belong together."

Linear designs are fun in the sense that solving puzzles and finding interactions that have been created as essentially easter eggs can be eye-opening. My whole thing is to out-think the metagame and solve problems. However in Odyssey, the stupidest player who can actually read can at least put all the Blue and Green cards that say "Madness" on them in one pile with Wild Mongrel and Merfolk Looter. He might start to see the synergies between Wild Mongrel and non-expressly "Madness" cards, like Roar of the Wurm and Wonder. Linear designs are built to be sexy, albeit only in context. Sometimes they are curious but harmless (Beast Bidding) but other times they defy logic and break formats ("you can really only play Arcbound Ravager in a 'Modular' theme deck").

From my perspective in the "current" / then-current formats, my designs got exponentially better when R&D let up on the linear sets. Mono-Blue for 2004 States really did have a 7-3 edge over Ravager. Kuroda-style Red. Critical Mass. Jushi Blue. Wild Gifts. Budget Boros. The Charleston Bats deck. KarstenBot BabyKiller... Maybe not KarstenBot (we'll get to that later). When the decks and mechanics are less linear, moving towards the "drowning in a sea of Tier 2 cards" model, the default decks get less efficient. Ask any arbitrage trader or successful sports gambler how he makes his money... It's almost always because of one inefficient process or another that he can use to tip the scales. I'll take a block with one Gifts Ungiven and one Umezawa's Jitte over a block with a hundred cards like Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm, Circular Logic, Wild Mongrel, and Psychatog, or Thoughtcast, Myr Enforcer, a million artifact lands, and Fairy Godmother any day.

To make this very longwinded introduction cogent, there are two under-utilized ways to steal value in deck construction, and both of them are essentially R&D's fault. One is to play the cards and combinations that somehow didn't get tested. The other is to abuse the ones that were tested, but balanced against format inefficiencies.

The first one is a bit tough. There is only ever a Fires of Yavimaya deck every six or seven years, it seems. However, in the present Extended, there is a clear opportunity to play Sensei's Divining Top plus Counterbalance. I think the only reason Sensei's Divining Top (a card I once disrespected) hasn't been banned in Extended yet is that the right Counterbalance deck has not yet been revealed.

Now what about linear design? Much of the time, linear design is held in check by spoiler cards printed in either the same block or the next one. Withered Wretch is a monster against a U/G Threshold deck that can't counter or kill it. Kataki was a bit late, though... If he had been printed in Champions of Kamigawa instead of Saviors of Kamigawa, we might not have seen the mass bannings that made Tooth and Nail the Deck to Beat at Regionals 2005. The spoilers catch on, and the linear decks might be held in check (then again they might not, depending on the quality of the hosers). What players who are really good at positioning can do is re-introduce linear mechanics in areas where their predators (or answers) are not present.

Affinity and Dredge decks are two examples of linear strategies that might possibly succeed, or even dominate, in Extended. No one is playing Kataki, and despite the fact that there is a stack of Leylines, Crypts, and Claws designed for the sole reason of keeping Ichorid from completely devouring the format, the graveyard hosers are underplayed. Neither deck is remotely sexy... which is why the hosers aren't showing up. On balance, both are dubious in the face of Splash Damage. Ancient Grudges aiming for NO Stick will murder Affinity. Dredge decks lie impotent against the singleton Tormod's Crypts played by each and every Trinket Mage theme deck.

However, less flashy linear designs have the opportunity to experience renaissances beyond even the successes of their relative Block Constructed formats. Osyp recently penned an article on Astral Slide. Did everyone forget that Astral Slide won both its Block Pro Tour and a World Championship more than a year later? Cycling as a linear mechanic actually vomits on Affinity for Artifacts in terms of pedigree! Extended, sure... but Affinity couldn't even win its own Block Pro Tour!

There are scads of linear mechanics that can be exploited. In the abstract, Ravenous Baloth is probably weaker than Loxodon Hierarch. Contested Cliffs only works in a specifically G/R Beasts deck. So... ? We know from past experience that 1/3 or even 1/1 creatures for two mana are not just "good enough" but potential Flagships in linear strategies. These are decks whose critical masses (sometimes) more than make up for their shortcomings in terms of individual card power. Where is the enemy of Goblins-Tribal, Engineered Plague? This is a linear deck that is not currently on the radar: format inefficiency and information imbalance exists.

The opportunities for certain linear decks exist largely because there is no proper hoser, or it is not played. Wondering why TEPS is so powerful today, and why the highest skilled players often gravitated towards Mind's Desire decks in the past? Storm is a linear mechanic with no predator. There is no such card that invalidates a Storm strategy, at least not one that can't be beaten for a mere U.

My recommendation is to find the decks of the past that made people want to tear their fingernails out and see if they can be updated for Extended, specifically using principles from the next section.

The scariest thing about Japanese deck design, at least outside of Tsuyoshi Fujita (who might be the best of the bunch anyway), is that they constantly operate multiple decks at the same time. Their initial Glare deck transformed into a Greater Good combo deck. Their 'Tog decks have more relentless discard than "real" Black decks, and break Life from the Loam with the best of the Dredge decks. They run Goblins decks that pop out Platinum Angels. Mori exemplifies this more than any other Japanese designer, most recently marrying 'Tron and Pickles in Standard.

The scary thing about hybrid decks is that 1) they can play multiple offensive game plans, but more importantly 2) it is essentially impossible to effectively outmaneuver them. Consider fighting the three-color 'Tog deck that Kenji used to dominate Grand Prix tournaments.

Psychatog An Extended deck, by Kenji Tsumura 8th place at a Grand Prix tournament in Beijing, China on 2005-11-27 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpbeij05/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 1 Genesis 4 Psychatog 1 Wonder Enchantments 3 Pernicious Deed Instants 3 Circular Logic 4 Counterspell 1 Darkblast 3 Force Spike 4 Gifts Ungiven 2 Mana Leak 1 Putrefy 4 Smother Legendary Creatures 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror	Sorceries 1 Life from the Loam 1 Nightmare Void Basic Lands 5 Island 2 Swamp Lands 1 Barren Moor 2 Bloodstained Mire 1 Cephalid Coliseum 2 Lonely Sandbar 2 Overgrown Tomb 4 Polluted Delta 3 Watery Grave 2 Yavimaya Coast Legendary Lands 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds	Sideboard: 1 Bottle Gnomes 2 Viridian Shaman 3 Ghastly Demise 1 Oxidize 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror 4 Duress 2 Haunting Echoes 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

If you fought it just as a Life from the Loam cycling deck, you would still have to worry about the 'Togs. If you fought it like a 'Tog deck, focusing on Smothers and discard, say, you will lose to his graveyard (Genesis and card draw both). Is it a Gifts deck? When all else fails, he is just going to tap for Meloku and you're kold.

The thing that made Kenji's Psychatog deck so difficult to play against is that he can play Black Control better than most Black decks. Not only did it have Nightmare Void starting, it could Gifts up the Boseiju to force through Haunting Echoes!

I find hybrid decks extremely difficult to sideboard against. Most of my sideboards look something like this:

4 Serrated Arrows
4 Cryoclasm
4 Stone Rain
3 Threaten

Extremely focused sideboards like this one can speak volumes just by looking at the cards...

4 Serrated Arrows
Kill a ton of x/1 creatures, from 0/1 Birds of Paradise to 2/1 Soltari Priest and beyond. Cut Spectral Force in half by killing Scryb Ranger. Turn off Ohran Viper, but leave his depressed and perforated Corpse.

4 Cryoclasm
4 Stone Rain
Change paradigms against particular decks. Mix a little hybrid theory into the fight yourself. Your paper covered their rock. Now they have reconfigured their rock to fight your paper. Send 'em scissors!

3 Threaten
Falter plus Fireblast... Wow is this good against Spectral Force!

How do you use a focused sideboard like this one to combat a hybrid deck? What happens when the opponent has some creatures, some counters, some card drawing? Does it matter if you won the first game? Can you afford to do a little tweaking only? Is not sideboarding at all enough, even better than... The process can be very frustrating, if not infuriating (from the other side of the table)!

The other neat thing is that hybrid decks don't typically fit nicely into whatever metagame matrix your opponents use to make their decisions. The classic example of a hybrid defying expectation was Lucas Glavin's Cephalid Brunch (Grand Prix finalist and eventual H. Sapiens to Loop Junktion's Neanderthal Man). RDW was really good against Cephalid Breakfast... not so much against the Life side.

Here are two examples of decks that utilize the concepts outlined in this article.

Standard:

KarstenBot BabyKiller Update Featured by Mike Flores on 2007-01-28 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/13591.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Llanowar Elves Instants 4 Skred Snow Creatures 4 Boreal Druid 4 Ohran Viper 2 Stalking Yeti	Sorceries 4 Call of the Herd 4 Cryoclasm 3 Demonfire 4 Into the North 4 Stone Rain Basic Snow Lands 8 Snow-Covered Forest 5 Snow-Covered Mountain Snow Lands 1 Arctic Flats 4 Highland Weald 1 Mouth of Ronom 4 Scrying Sheets	Sideboard: 4 Serrated Arrows 4 Thornscape Battlemage 2 Krosan Grip 1 Stalking Yeti 4 Wreak Havoc
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

This deck is even more of a linear hybrid than most... It's a linear linear hybrid. KarstenBot Babykiller has two linear themes: Land destruction (even if light) and Snow-linear. I actually think there is a gap in Standard for the KarstenBot update now that control players have moved away from fast Akroma reanimation (sad face) to slow Teferi- and Dralnu-based control decks (super easy to beat). Snow is an interesting linear theme because while it is current, no one thinks about it, respects it, or sideboards against it. I had forgotten how good Skred is.

Now if only I could figure out how to beat a second turn Silhana Ledgewalker...

Extended:

Flores Rocks Featured by Mike Flores on 2007-01-28 (Extended) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/13591.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 2 Scrabbling Claws Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Krosan Tusker 4 Ravenous Baloth 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Spiritmonger 4 Wall of Roots Enchantments 4 Pernicious Deed	Instants 4 Putrefy Sorceries 4 Cabal Therapy Basic Lands 5 Forest 1 Mountain 2 Swamp Lands 1 Blood Crypt 2 Bloodstained Mire 4 Contested Cliffs 3 Overgrown Tomb 1 Stomping Ground 3 Wooded Foothills	Sideboard: 4 Dwarven Blastminer 4 Ancient Grudge 4 Sudden Shock 3 Duress
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

I talked about this deck briefly a week or two ago. Believe it or not, this non-Gifts, non-Flow, non-Macey version of The Rock is one of the best decks I have tested for the format! It is a classic implementation of The Rock, down to the two Scrabbling Claws (when I originally qualified, Sol's list had Phyrexian Furnaces main). It is also a classic implementation of The Rock in that it can take on all comers without actually being focused on doing one thing with extraordinary focus (the only thing it does better than anyone else is mash NO Stick, key for the Northeast metagame).

The linear hybridization is obviously a light Beasts-tribal addition, similar to the one Jeff Novekoff used at Pro Tour: Los Angeles a little more than a year ago. It's not just that no one shoots Engineered Plagues at Beasts, no one ever aimed at Beasts. The addition makes The Rock inexorable in many matchups. Two Contested Cliffs make life pretty rough on Ichorid. What exactly lives through battle with a Spiritmonger?

Many, even most, hybrid decks are victims of compromise. I don't really like the number of graveyard hosers, and kind of feel like my consistent wins against Dredge decks have been lucksackery. If TEPS comes back in the real world, I don't know if the 4 + 3 discard package will be enough, even with Blastminer access. In a rare top-down moment anticipating joy, I wish I could play two Patriarch's Biddings in my side.

Krosan Tusker replaced Eternal Witness. I was testing with Witness and realized I was The Rock... What was I getting back, really? The uncounterable Fact or Fiction (okay, Thirst for Knowledge) has been stellar, sometimes smashing long game with Contested Cliffs in play, but usually just justifying the manabase.

While it's not perfect, I think that the sideboard is still quite powerful and appropriate. Don't forget that Sudden Shock is fast against beatdown and backbreaking for poor Psychatog.

I think Flores Rocks is actually awesome in the metagame right now. Take that for what you will.

Good luck tomorrow if you are battling Extended.

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. By the way, Gavin Verhey, the boy who slapped a couple of Soggy Pickles on the Standard sandwich, made up the Flores Rocks deck name... How could I resist?

P.P.S. In sum: I can't wait to see the first Tier 1 Domain-Sunburst hybrid!