This second installment continues the idea that the future Extended can be shaped by looking to past Standard environments. This should be seen as a starting point to work from not as the final word on any of these decks.

Here's a question: How is it that in the current Standard environment, three-color decks are very well accepted, yet everyone is lamenting the idea that when the old-school dual lands leave us, we will all be forced to change our ways and go one or (gasp) maybe two colors? With the amount of new dual lands (filter and tap), and the cycle of painlands being complete, how is it going to be that hard to go two or even three colors? (Then again, I may be off my rocker and everyone will just make mono colored decks... but I highly doubt it.)

Of course, the following decklists may very well destroy the above idea, as this is prior to the Invasion of gold cards, and the decks did in fact tend to remain one colored - or, at best, two colors (Replenish and Angry Hermit comes to mind).

It is just another thing to keep in mind when considering deck choices at the end of the year.

As the Tempest Block and its speed rotated out (goodbye, Jackal Pup and Cursed Scroll!), the Masques Block found itself side by side with the uber-powerful Urza Block (hello brokenness). Just by looking at the lists, it seems that decks tended to run more Urza cards than Masques ones (which is not surprising, given the innate power that Urza cards seem to possess compared to other blocks). However, the introduction of Masques Block free counters into the environment allowed blue decks to be a bit more active in their game plan, as seen below.

Deck Index:

• Flores Black
• Tangle Stompy
• Trinity Green
• Tinker
• Magpie
• Accelerated Blue
• Ponza

Flores Black; Jon Finkel, US National Champion

Main Deck:
2 Phyrexian Negator
3 Skittering Skirge
1 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Skittering Horror
1 Stromgald Cabal

4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
1 Engineered Plague
1 Eradicate
1 Massacre
1 Perish
1 Persecute
1 Stupor
2 Unmask
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Vicious Hunger
4 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Rishadan Port
2 Dust Bowl
2 Spawning Pool
15 Swamp

Sideboard:
2 Engineered Plague
1 Eradicate
1 Massacre
1 Perish
2 Phyrexian Negator
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Powder Keg
2 Rapid Decay
1 Stromgald Cabal
1 Stupor
1 Thran Lens
1 Unmask

But blue isn't the only color that can exert control. Maindeck hate, and the ability to tutor for it at will (for a paltry two life) makes this deck extremely powerful in the right hands (and who better than Finkel's at the time?). This deck does suffer from two of its most powerful cards being banned (Ritual and Will), which would allow this deck to have massive turns in the mid-to-late game - or in the case of Ritual, an explosive early game. However, there is still something to be said for having any answer you need in the main deck. Current Control Black decks attempt this in some ways with either main deck Diabolic Tutors or Planar Portal.... But it has nothing on the cheapness of the Vampiric Tutor. In this form, though, it would not have the swamps available for the extreme mana production that Standard Control Black uses. So that leaves it for this deck to morph (and lose some of its non-basics), or stay very much the same as it currently is, but probably adding both Chainer's and Diabolic Edicts for its removal.

Main Deck:
4 Tangle Wire

4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Lyrist
3 Pouncing Jaguar
2 Wild Dogs
4 Elvish Archer
4 River Boa
3 Albino Troll

4 Rancor
4 Giant Growth
3 Invigorate
2 Hurricane
2 Rath's Edge
3 Gaea's Cradle
15 Forest

Sideboard:
3 Spreading Algae
3 Harmonic Convergence
4 Vine Dryad
3 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Blastoderm

The latest version of the Stompy deck for its time - this one packing Tangle Wires in the place where Winter Orb might go to get an extremely quick drop on their opponent, then tie up the opponent's mana so they don't have time to respond. This is what I suspect the new Extended Stompy decks will look like, possibly drawing on their Tempest past to add the Cursed Scroll to the deck. Or maybe they'll draw from Odyssey with its Mongrel and Rootwalla tag-team, and of course the amazing Call of the Herd (which we already know was good enough for Extended). Overall, though, Urza's Block did more for this deck type than any other in the new Extended.

Main Deck:
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Priest of Titania
2 Blastoderm
3 Masticore
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
4 Deranged Hermit
4 Skyshroud Poacher

4 Tangle Wire
4 Plow Under
2 Fallow Earth

4 Rishadan Port
3 Gaea's Cradle
16 Forest

Sideboard:
3 Carpet of Flowers
1 Meekstone
1 Cursed Totem
4 Thran Foundry
1 Splinter

Look carefully, for this is where the Angry Hermit and Son of Hermit decks were birthed (and later laid the blueprints for the Fires deck the following year). As opposed to the idea of dropping a series of small creatures quickly, this one wants to accelerate into a fat creature and then disrupt the opponent for the remainder of the game (which should only be a few turns). With ten spells and four lands directed towards this disruption, it can quickly leave the opponent with little to no mana on their turns. Sometimes even known as a control green deck, this could be a good starting point for those inclined to play the Legion Land Loss decks. 

Main Deck:
2 Tectonic Break
2 Powder Keg
3 Masticore
3 Fire Diamond
4 Pillage
3 Earthquake
4 Seal of Fire
4 Stone Rain
4 Avalanche Rider
2 Shock
2 Hammer of Bogardan
1 Cave-in
1 Lightning Dragon
14 Mountain
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Rishadan Port
3 Dust Bowl

Sideboard:
3 Mogg Salvage
3 Pulverize
2 Tectonic Break
4 Boil
3 Thran Foundry

Is this a diamond in the rough? As with the Sped Red decks from the previous year, we see a continuing theme of red disruption. As a bonus, this had access to the worrisome Rishadan Port and was also able to sport the mighty Dust Bowl. It has been said that aside from the early Alpha/Beta days of Sinkhole disruption, this was as good as land destruction gets. The most interesting aspect I find about this deck is the decision not to use the depletion lands from Masques Block. The idea that turn 2 land kill is the most important idea obviously doesn't count when Rishadan Port is available for disruption. In addition, the Fledgling Dragon (from Judgment) might be a better replacement for the Lightning Dragon this deck uses.

Main Deck:
4 Metalworker
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Grim Monolith
4 Tinker
4 Brainstorm
4 Tangle Wire
4 Voltaic Key
4 Phyrexian Processor

4 Masticore
1 Crumbling Sanctuary
1 Mishra's Helix
1 Phyrexian Colossus
4 Rishadan Port
4 Saprazzan Skerry
4 Crystal Vein
9 Island

Sideboard:
4 Chill
4 Annul
4 Miscalculation
2 Rising Waters
1 Mishra's Helix

Right now it seems as if everyone is speaking as if Tinker will be the deck to rule after the rotation. Already a solid deck in the current Extended environment, it has been overshadowed by other combo decks that are currently viable. In November, many of those old rules don't apply, and this deck doesn't lose anything to the rotations. Its ability to generate massive amounts of mana and tutor for whatever it needs quickly makes it a strong choice. In addition, the idea of Upheaval making its presence felt in Extended through this deck is very likely (and we know how it is affecting the current Standard environment). With only the threat of Foil and maybe Daze as free counters to stop the deck, it would be one of the decks to prepare for going into next Extended Season.

Main Deck:
4 Daze
4 Miscalculation
4 Counterspell
3 Thwart
3 Foil
4 Powder Keg

2 Masticore
2 Morphling
4 Thieving Magpie
1 Temporal Adept
2 Treachery
2 Faerie Conclave
19 Island
2 Dust Bowl
4 Rishadan Port

Sideboard:
1 Temporal Adept
4 Annul
4 Seal of Removal
2 Chill
4 Submerge

Main Deck:
4 Grim Monolith
4 Powder Keg
3 Masticore
1 Annul
4 Miscalculation
4 Counterspell
4 Thwart
3 Morphling
4 Treachery
3 Stroke of Genius
2 Dust Bowl
20 Island
4 Rishadan Port

Sideboard:
3 Annul
3 Misdirection
3 Somnophore
2 Stronghold Machinist
4 Submerge

I group the two blue decks together, but that is not entirely fair. With the Magpie deck filling the more conservative control role (packing eighteen counters), it would hope to play the more traditional control role of counter or Keg everything the opponent throws your way, and then drop a Morphling and win the game in four turns. On the other hand, Accelerated Blue could play that controlling role or quickly try to cast a Morphling or Masticore to dominate the board. Compared to today's Standard environment, it is interesting to note that these decks felt very little need to use bounce, as the Powder Keg was available to them for permanent removal (and the bounce would be made worthless against Morphling).

Son of Hermit; Dominik Hothow

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
4 Yavimaya Elder
4 Avalanche Riders
4 Blastoderm
3 Masticore
4 Arc Lightning
4 Plow Under
3 Earthquake
11 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Rishadan Port
4 Karplusan Forest
2 Dust Bowl

Sideboard:
3 Boil
3 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Tectonic Break
2 Reverent Silence
1 Earthquake
1 Splinter

Developed from the Trinity Green deck, Angry Hermit was considered by some to be the better version, making better use of the mana acceleration the deck can produce. From Angry Hermit came Son of Hermit, which doesn't even have a Deranged Hermit in the deck, choosing to focus on getting a Blastoderm or Masticore on the table quickly. Instead of Tangle Wire, the deck features Avalanche Riders to disrupt the opponent (as well as Plow Under). The addition of red allows the deck to have access to burn, which can finish the opponent off where the Blastoderm might fail (given that it could only do fifteen points of damage before fading away). Certainly this style of deck whether in this form or a form closer to Fires is certainly a strong chose for a somewhat unknown environment.

I have purposely not gone into the two dominant combo decks for this era (Replenish and Bargain), as the bannings in Extended rip the very cards for which the decks are named for from the deck. Leaving those two decks as unviable in the new format as they were in the present one. In addition, I have left the Rebel deck for discussion next time.

Next time, we'll look the format that has only been gone for a mere seven months as we see how Masques Block is dominated by another powerful block: Invasion.