At my local comic store, only one person can claim to have a Tier One Extended deck - and that person would be the host and my friend, Andy, who doesn't compete. As such, a wide variety of decks are played there that aren't played very often in many other stores. These range from casual to borderline Tier Two decks, not Pro Tour metagame.

I decided to go with a brand of white weenie as follows:

Creatures (23)
4x Mother of Runes
4x Paladin en-Vec
4x Longbow Archer
3x White Knight
3x Soltari Monk
1x Soltari Priest
1x Soltari Foot Soldier
1x Knight of Dawn
2x Spectral Lynx

Spells (15)
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Enlightened Tutor
3x Seal of Cleansing
2x Empyrial Armor
2x Crusade
1x Story Circle

Lands (22)
20x Plains
2x Dustbowl

Sideboard
3x Armageddon
1x Disenchant
1x Aura of Silence
2x Samite Ministration
2x Defense Grid
1x Sanctimony
2x Serenity
2x Worship
1x Pariah

I didn't have any Tithes or Cursed Scrolls to put in the deck. With the release of Torment, many people have been playing black so I decided to slant my deck towards that avenue. I put in Spectral Lynxes because a few people liked Werebear too much for me to ignore. I thought a Tinker deck might have been played, so I put in some Serenities as defense. I had a Light of Day somewhere, but I forgot to include it in my sideboard.

As I get there, two of my friends were scrambling over Andy's cards to make a deck. One mentioned Counter Oath, but Andy rejected that notion because he felt like that would be unfair to the other players who built their decks from their own cards. They ended up choosing Psychatog with a hasty sideboard and a weak form of suicide black without a sideboard. I borrowed the Enlightened Tutors, the Aura of Silence, a Defense Grid, and two Armageddons.

How can a white weenie deck compete against a wide-open field? I wasn't too sure, but I knew I needed some luck if I was going to best eleven other players.

Match 1
Jason Bugeja playing red-green land destruction

Game 1
As we're shuffling, we make some small chat since we're both graduating seniors from the same high school. He's fairly good and an interesting deck designer. I win the dice roll and elect to go first. I drop a plains and Soltari Foot Soldier, which irks him because he wasn't expecting to play against shadow creatures. I'm not sure what he's playing until the third turn, when he drops a Thermokarst on one of my plains. However, by then I have a White Knight out with no one on defense for him. He finally plays a blocker in Blurred Mongoose, but scoops two turns later as I cast a Paladin en-Vec and Longbow Archer to swarm him.

Game 2
I'm praying he doesn't have any Anarchies in store for me; I also wished I had a Sacred Ground for this matchup. He drops a first-turn Birds of Paradise, which I should have used my Swords to Plowshares on. Instead, I let it live and get plastered by five straight LD spells. I did get a Mother in play, but he had an Incinerate for her. He even used a Flashfire for a single Plains I had. I'm staring at some two casting cost creatures as two Blurred Mongeese do me in.

Game 3
This one went down to the wire. My early swarm took him down to one before falling to an Anarchy. A Blurred Mongoose on his side started hitting me for two before I got out a Mother and Longbow Archer. I gave the Archer pro green and attacked for the win. After the game, he showed me an Anarchy he didn't use. When I explained to him Anarchy doesn't target Mother of Runes and therefore can't use her ability to protect herself from one, he greatly lamented his mistake. I guess the Extended Rotation will take care of that problem

1-0, 2-1

Match 2
Jameson playing Suicide Black.

Game 1
Alas, I must face one of the borrowed decks. Fortunately, he doesn't have a sideboard to access some Dread of Nights or Massacres. This game played out fairly uneventfully, as I went first and played a second turn Soltari Monk who went all the way against his mana flooded draw.

Game 2
I looked for my Light of Day... Which somehow had been forgotten in my rush to make a sideboard. I had to accept mediocre Samite Ministrations instead. A first turn Duress took away a Swords, but also warned him of a White Knight and Paladin en-Vec. The Knights started doing some damage and dropped him to four before he found his single copy of Mutilate. After clearing the board, he built up his forces with a Foul Imp, Carnophages, Lurking Evil, and Phyrexian Negator. I would have died if I hadn't Tutored up a Story Circle with the obvious choice of color. I kept drawing Plains for all his black creatures, so I felt relatively safe even though he had knocked me to four life as well. He tried a Nev Disk, on me but I had Seal of Cleansing in my hand for it. I was fairly sure I was going to eventually draw a pro black creature for the win until he put all of his lands into his graveyard, discarded his hand, and uttered"spring forth, burly protector, and save me."

Dang it, I didn't know he had the Spite in his deck.

Game 3
Again, I make an early swarm that gets Mutilated. However, this time he fails to draw answers for a Mother of Runes and a Longbow Archer in the Red Zone.

2-0, 4-2

Match 3
Josh Bugeja playing Stompy.

Game 1
Well, I get to play both of the Bugeja twins. They're both good Magic players, so I'm ready for a good match. He wins the dice roll and elects to go first. I have no doubt what his deck is when he drops a first-turn Rogue Elephant. A Rancor and a Giant Growth later, I find myself at seven life points. Fortunately, I've found two first strikers in White Knight and Longbow Archer to keep him at bay. I keep dropping first strikers to stall the battle until a shadow creature comes to whittle away his life total. I play a Crusade to speed up the clock, and he scoops a few turns later.

Game 2
He goes first again and produces a first-turn Pouncing Jaguar. He misses a land drop though, which gives me an opening to drop... Plains. His next draw provides a forest and two Rancors on the Jaguar doesn't look good for me. I find a Mother and a Pariah to keep his entire force at bay. I play two more Mothers, a Worship, and a Story Circle before he mentions he forgot to include enchantment removal in his main deck or sideboard. When I asked him how a Stompy player could forget about Elvish Lyrists, he replied it had been a long time since he had played Stompy.

Indeed, it must have been a very long time.

3-0, 6-2

Match 4
Owensby playing mystery deck

Game 1
I drew against the only other person to go 3-0 for the day, so his deck remains a mystery.

3-0-1, 7-3

Semifinals
Brent playing blue black wizardry control

Game 1
I called it wizardry because he played cards like Disruptive Student and Mundungu. Who plays with Mundungu? It just boggles my mind that someone dared to play with wizards, moreover a 1UB wizard from Visions. In fact, I even made fun of him during an earlier round for playing Mundungus. I do know he has Sengir Vampires to kill me, though. I win the dice toss and play a second turn White Knight. He didn't counter my Paladin en-Vec on my third turn, but did play a Mundungu. He tried to play Faceless Butcher, but realized he could only target one of his creatures. The pro black tandem knocked him down to zero.

Game 2
I use my first turn to find a Defense Grid and play it. Again, he has no counter for this crucial play. He does have a Mundungu, but that gives me an opening for my Paladin en-Vec. The Mundungu started taking a few life points for every card I played... But the Mother and Pariah would seal the deal, and he eventually conceded.

Finals
Josh Bugeja playing stompy

Game 1
Hmmm... A rematch I know I can win. He has to win this game and hope for mana screw on my part for the remaining two. I went first, dropping a plains and passing. He removed a Rogue Elephant to put a Vine Dryad in play at the end of my turn. He then went for the Rancor, but I had a Swords to stop that play. A string of first strikers hold back his forces, allowing a Soltari Monk to go all the way for the win.

Game 2
He goes first and makes a Llanowar Elf. I put out a Mother of Runes. His second turn brings on Ticking Gnomes, but he elects not to use it yet on my Mother. My second turn sees a Longbow Archer come out on my side. He attacks on his third turn with the Ticking Gnomes, which I don't bother blocking. I hit him on my turn with the Archer and play a Story Circle much to his chagrin. He uses a Wild Might on his Gnomes to drop me to nine, but a Worship draws a concession. I still can't believe he didn't play any kind of enchantment removal with stompy.

The Extended Rotation affects many players here because they use quite a bit of Ice Age and Mirage block cards. Oh well; Wizards of the Coast is entitled to make business moves. However, this may prove detrimental to the old-guard players around here, although this change will most likely make the decks in my area more competitive since the newbies basically used Standard decks with a few Extended cards.

As for my deck, it doesn't get hit too badly. Losing Swords is huge, but the loss of Empyrial Armor is negligible. I considered replacing Swords with Last Breath, but then I realized Kirtar's Desire would fit the mana curve better and would be better suited to neutralize an opponent's fatty. Plus, I can use Enlightened Tutor to grab the Desire if the situation demands it (Story Circle isn't very good against Masticores, which will be abounding plenty after the rotation). A Worship and Pariah will be maindecked to replace the Armors. I'm going to try Phantom Nomads to substitute for the White Knights, and the Knight of Dawn will be taken out to make four Nomads. I know playing tricks often fails in consistency, but I think a Nomad-Crusade-Pariah/Worship lock could squeeze out a few wins. More playtesting will be required to find out, but Warrior en-Kor can always fill the gap. If monocolor decks become the metagame, then Kor Haven will substitute for Dust Bowl.

I lose only Aura of Silence in the sideboard, which a Seal of Cleansing can do fine for. The loss of Anarchy makes white enchantments much more viable, so more Sanctimonies will go in for Samite Ministration. A Light of Day will find its place in Worship's slot, and a Sacred Ground will do wonders in Pariah's slot.

I'll conclude with a few thoughts on the metagame if this deck were to be more competitive. Someone once commented it plays like a sideboard, which is kind of true when the metagame fits. No Tithes mean a greater chance of being mana screwed and less deck thinning, but the mana curve should be low enough to get around that. Cursed Scrolls would be required to handle more diverse situations, replacing some of the Shadow creatures. The lack of Disk makes red and black much weaker, although both still have deadly sideboard options in Flaring Pain, Flashfires, Massacre, Dread of Night, etc. Sligh has lost some speed, giving this deck all the much needed time to work, and no Anarchy means no mass removal and destruction of white permanents. Three Deuce's mana base got shot along with the loss of Granger Guildmage and Swords, so that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Super Gro left with the dual lands, but a new Miracle Gro would be tough to face - even although a first strike creature would swing the tide. A reanimator deck would cause all sorts of problems, but if you chump long enough to get a Story Circle you may be able to turn the tide. Also, the Phantom Nomads would be important to buy some time.

No Force of Will for control means less tempo decks, but it still would be a tough matchup. A swarm will be required to handle Morphling. Let us also celebrate the loss of Illusions of Grandeur.

Tinker provides a nightmare game one, but Serenity can clear that problem off the board. Junk would be deadly because of Powder Kegs and Pernicious deeds; alas, its mana base took a fatal blow with the loss of dual lands and Tithe. Stompy has a chance to get a fast draw combined with the utility of Elvish Lyrist, which means your draw will have to be as good to win. Suicide Oathing up a huge Cognivore will be my bane, unless I can draw enchantment removal. Even after sideboarding the Oath deck could have a Foil in hand to stop a Seal of Cleansing. I would say I have a fair chance at knocking off rogue decks as well.

I have no idea how this deck would do against The Rock. I do know a deck using Pernicious Deed will prove problematic unless they make a white enchantment that disallows activated abilities of enchantments. If blue-white control makes a comeback, Wrath of God can kill a whole lot of creatures. Maybe Cursed Totem will be required for the sideboard.

And I'm basing my observations on the current metagame. The new popular deck might be able to totally thrash my deck around into oblivion...Or my deck could be its one bad matchup. We'll have to wait till November to find out.

In the end, I guess I will try out the deck when the rotation occurs. By then, I'll be living in Tulsa where I heard the competition will be tougher. Hopefully, my experiences of Rebels running out of steam in the past won't resurface with this deck.

At least I got twenty four dollars of store credit.

And so concludes another chapter in the young Magic history of Comic Mania in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

-Daniel Tu
Ratstrike0@aol.com

P.S. If you're near the area and want a great playing atmosphere, please come in and try a tournament.