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I left Kyoto for Detroit on Tuesday the 3rd of March, and arrived on the same day. I immediately started testing for the upcoming Legacy Grand Prix in Chicago, trying to figure out what I wanted to beat. As several people told me that I should not run Mono-White Stax at the Grand Prix, and that Force of Will is the better choice, I decided to work on a Force of Will deck. As the only matchup I really wanted to beat was Counterbalance, I moved away from more traditional Counterbalance decks towards a Mono-Blue Faerie deck. This is what I ended up playing after testing with Brian Demars, Eric Froehlich, Gabriel Nassif, and Patrick Chapin.

Faeries Featured by Manuel Bucher on 2009-03-15 (Legacy) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/extended/17198_Positive_EV_Grand_Prix_Chicago_and_Conflux_in_Extended.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Chrome Mox 4 Sensei's Divining Top Creatures 4 Spellstutter Sprite Enchantments 4 Counterbalance Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Thirst For Knowledge	Legendary Artifacts 2 Umezawa's Jitte Legendary Creatures 4 Vendilion Clique Basic Lands 3 Island Lands 4 Flooded Strand 4 Mutavault 3 Polluted Delta 1 Riptide Laboratory 3 Tundra	Sideboard: 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Tormod's Crypt 1 Ethersworn Canonist 3 Burrenton Forge-Tender 1 Energy Flux 3 Threads of Disloyalty 2 Enlightened Tutor 1 Umezawa's Jitte
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As I don’t own a lot of Legacy cards, I want to thank RIW Hobbies, Patrick Chapin, and Eric Froehlich, who enabled me to play the 75 cards I wanted to play.

I ended up going 2-3 after three byes. I lost to every non-Counterbalance deck I faced, while I won against the two I did.

I lost round 4 to Affinity where I wasn’t blessed with my draws. I managed to win game 2 without Energy Flux, as I presented a very good draw, but I got crushed in the third game while I took a mulligan to four in the first. I managed to win rounds 5 and 6 against other Counterbalance decks. My round 5 opponent, Peter Smutko, could have forced the draw, but as I was in a winning position in the third game he decided to concede. I lost the following round to a 42-land style deck. I didn’t really know what to do, but after speaking to several people I am pretty sure that I played well but the match up is close to unwinnable. Round 8 I played against a Threshold deck without Counterbalance. The deck I run has a lot of trouble fighting all the early disruption and Nimble Mongoose. Cards like Fire/Ice and Stifle are a blast in the matchup, and I ended up loosing two out of three long and mentally-demanding games.

In the end, the deck did what I wanted from it to do. Still, I ended up with a pretty bad result. First, I think that the deck has a lot of potential, but I didn’t have enough time tuning the deck for other matchups. Cards like Venser, Shaper Savant; Glen Elendra Archmage; or Dark Confidant definitely deserve a try in such a deck. I also think I should have ended up playing Mono-White Stax, as I didn’t have a lot of experience with the cards I ended up playing. I hadn’t cast a Force of Will in a sanctioned tournament before, and I am sure I didn’t play the card correctly at the tournament.

For the first time in my life, I ended up in the extra turns more often than not. The combination of Sensei’s Divining Top and fetchlands make it almost impossible to run a Top mirror over three games in fifty minutes. As I didn’t have a time issue in Relic mirrors in Time Spiral Block Constructed, while I had big time issues at this tournament, I really think that the DCI should consider banning Sensei’s Divining Top. It is too powerful, and it is not realistic to finish all of your rounds in time. I am a very quick player, and I did not have enough time.

If your field is full of Counterbalance, a deck like this might be for you, as it beats Counterbalance decks quite well. Legacy has so many decks, though, so it might be better to just run LSV’s deck (like Nassif did).

It was interesting to gain a perspective on Legacy. Casting Brainstorm is always fun. It can be frustrating to prepare for a format that has a million different decks, swingy games, broken cards, and so much shuffling, but there is a lot of room to explore the format, as there are so many playable cards in this format. It is definitely more challenging to play Force of Will than I had realized. It is always a tough decision, whether the spell I remove is better than the spell I am countering.

Overall, I had a lot of fun over the weekend, from the good times with friends to the strawberries at the breakfast buffet. Efro and Megan took me to a strange restaurant that served great chicken wings. The waitresses were very friendly and kept making me laugh. Their orange and white costumes were different than most waitresses I have seen. [Hmmm... Craig, amused.]

As my result was unimpressive and I don’t have a lot of experience with this archetype in Legacy, I want to move forward to the impact of Conflux in Extended.

First of all, I want to share a list that won two different PTQs in Germany, going undefeated in swiss both times. The list is created by Carlo Mazzurco, who won one of the PTQs, followed by another win with Florian Pils running the deck.

Black/Green Featured by Carlo Mazzurco on 2009-03-15 (Extended) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/extended/17198_Positive_EV_Grand_Prix_Chicago_and_Conflux_in_Extended.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Kitchen Finks 3 Knight of the Reliquary 2 Sakura-Tribe Elder 4 Tarmogoyf Instants 2 Darkblast 2 Putrefy 2 Slaughter Pact Legendary Artifacts 2 Umezawa's Jitte Sorceries 2 Crime / Punishment 4 Life from the Loam 4 Raven's Crime 2 Thoughtseize 1 Worm Harvest	Basic Lands 3 Forest 1 Plains 2 Swamp Lands 3 Barren Moor 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Godless Shrine 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Polluted Delta 1 Temple Garden 4 Tranquil Thicket 1 Treetop Village 1 Twilight Mire 4 Windswept Heath Legendary Lands 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 2 Pithing Needle 2 Loxodon Hierarch 2 Seal of Primordium 2 Darkblast 3 Extirpate 1 Crime / Punishment 2 Damnation 1 Thoughtseize
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Knight of the Reliquary serves as a mana accelerator, disruption, and win condition at the same time. He also dodges most of the Blue countermagic played right now, such as Spell Snare and Spellstutter Sprite. A mix of Slaughter Pact, Darkblast, and Putrefy helps the deck ensure that the Knight stays on your side of the table (killing Sower of Temptation is easy), while the casting cost is great at dodging Engineered Explosives. Red decks have a lot of trouble with fighting a huge threat like this, since the Knight is at least a 5/5 on the 3rd turn more often than not, thanks to all the Fetch and Cycling lands.

Next up is the deck that seems to profit most of Conflux: Zoo.

Zoo Featured by Manuel Bucher on 2009-03-15 (Extended) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/extended/17198_Positive_EV_Grand_Prix_Chicago_and_Conflux_in_Extended.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 4 Tidehollow Sculler Creatures 4 Kird Ape 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Viashino Slaughtermaster 4 Wild Nacatl Instants 4 Lightning Helix 4 Might of Alara 2 Path to Exile	Legendary Artifacts 2 Umezawa's Jitte Sorceries 4 Tribal Flames Basic Lands 1 Forest Lands 1 Blood Crypt 4 Bloodstained Mire 1 Godless Shrine 1 Overgrown Tomb 2 Sacred Foundry 1 Steam Vents 1 Stomping Ground 1 Temple Garden 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills	Sideboard: 3 Ethersworn Canonist 2 Kitchen Finks 3 Sulfuric Vortex 3 Ancient Grudge 1 Path to Exile 2 Sundering Vitae 1 Umezawa's Jitte
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While Might of Alara saw lots of play before the rotation in the form of Gaea’s Might, there are several new cards in Conflux that are worth exploring. Viashino Slaughtermaster acts as a power outlet for Might of Alara, just as Boros Swiftbalde did in earlier seasons. In addition to the Swiftblade’s ability of double striking, the Slaughtermaster gets the ability to pump himself to be an actual threat on its own. Path to Exile is the new weapon of choice to fight other people’s Tarmogoyfs. In the mirror match and against other Red decks, the drawback of letting them fetch up a basic land is a small price to pay when you are dealing with their biggest threat without losing a turn. Hellspark Elemental is another card with potential in this deck, especially if you are planning to run a more burn-heavy style of Zoo. I definitely see that guy fighting side by side with Keldon Marauders, and blowing people out with Might of Alara. Volcanic Fallout is another card with lots of potential for the deck. Being able to sweep your opponent’s board at instant speed is deadly for Elves, and also gives you a nice tool against Faeries while your Kird Apes, Wild Nacatls, and Tarmogoyfs survive the blast.

Noble Hierarch is finding its place in several decks like Bant Aggro or Doran. This is a Noble Hierarch deck played by Oliver Wahl to a Top 4 result in a PTQ.

Bant Featured by Oliver Wahl on 2009-03-15 (Extended) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/extended/17198_Positive_EV_Grand_Prix_Chicago_and_Conflux_in_Extended.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 1 Birds of Paradise 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Rhox War Monk 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Troll Ascetic Enchantments 1 Worship Instants 4 Bant Charm 4 Path to Exile 2 Stifle Legendary Artifacts 4 Umezawa's Jitte	Legendary Creatures 2 Vendilion Clique 2 Venser, Shaper Savant Basic Lands 3 Forest 1 Island 3 Plains Lands 1 Breeding Pool 2 Flooded Grove 3 Flooded Strand 2 Hallowed Fountain 1 Mystic Gate 1 Temple Garden 4 Treetop Village 3 Windswept Heath	Sideboard: 4 Relic of Progenitus 4 Ethersworn Canonist 1 Worship 1 Gaddock Teeg 2 Iwamori of the Open Fist 3 Sunlance
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The deck seems to be amazing in any Tarmogoyf or Red matchup. It has eight ways to fight your opponent’s Tarmogoyf, featuring both spells four times: Path to Exile and Bant Charm. The combination of Rhox War Monk, Umezawa’s Jitte, Troll Ascetic, and Worship is devastating for every deck running Mountains and burn spells. What I miss is a way to fight Blue decks. With only two of both Vendilion Clique and Venser to fight Blue decks, it seems like a very bad matchup. I suggest that you play some Vexing Shushers in the sideboard to put up a fight versus Blue decks.

Scattershot Archer is a new tool for Elves to fight Faeries. You might consider running this guy over Vexing Shusher, as it hurts your combo far less, and it still disrupts your opponent. On the downside, you are running another one-mana creature which makes you more vulnerable to Engineered Explosives. Still, the card should be able to grant you an early Glimpse of Nature, protecting you from Spellstutter Sprite.

Telemin Performance gives a new weapon for Blue decks fighting unprepared Storm players. But as I expect most Storm players to run a Vendilion Clique in their sideboard to fight it, I would not run the card the next few weeks. After the Storm players start cutting the Cliques from their sideboard as nobody is running the Performance, the card might be able to win some games on its own. It is definitely a card you might consider playing in your sideboard in about two weeks.

Wretched Banquet is another card you might want to consider in your Faerie sideboard if you are running Black. While it has similar functions as Deathmark, it is also able to kill an early Kird Ape or Mogg Fanatic. The downside is that the removal gets much worse if you manage to stick a Sower of Temptation. But I expect you to be on the winning side of the table when you do that, so it shouldn’t hurt too much.

Now that Conflux has had an impact, I think that the Tier 1 decks are Faeries, some sort of B/G or B/G/w Loam deck, and Domain Zoo. I think that Affinity and Storm have lost their surprise factor and are no longer decent choices. I think that burn-style decks have lost their niche in the metagame, now that Zoo has such great new weapons. Might of Alara is just incredible.

I think that Bant Aggro has a lot of potential, but it needs a better plan against non-Tarmogoyf decks. One possibility might be to improve the permission and disruption. I don’t think Black gives you enough to be worth the extra color. Doran, Sculler, and Thoughtseize are nice cards, but I think you should either be Bant or Doran, but not both.

A big mistake that I see a lot of people making in this format is trying to win against too many decks. You aren’t going to beat everything. It is better to try to figure out what the field will look like, and plan to beat that. It is just not realistic to beat every deck in the format. There are too many swingy matchups.

I recommend that you play a deck that you like, particularly if you have already had some success with it before. Being familiar with your own deck is more important than the specific archetype. Personally, I still like Faeries and will probably play some sort of Faerie strategy in Hanover (and likely Singapore).

I will be able to share more experience with the post Conflux Extended format after I’ve played Grand Prix: Hannover next weekend. I also will be attending the Grand Prix in Singapore, playing the same format. I had a fun time in Chicago, but it’s time to get down to business. It’s time to get back to winning.

Thanks for reading.

Manuel B