It has been about nine years since I was running around GenCon collecting free Rage cards and telling the Magic representatives that I did not want anymore of their product. It has been about six years since I finished third in a Pro Tour with the amazing Binding Agony Fire Covenant deck. It has been about two years since I last touched a card with the intent of playing seriously either for money or to reclaim a spot on the Tour...

That is, until now.

My spot on my team has always been to analyze the field; to search the Internet to find the latest tech that will have someone from our team make it to the next level. In the last four years, we have one Pro Tour Regular, four PTQ Winners, two Virginia State Champions, and one Virginia Regional Champion. Now I have decided it is time for me to reclaim my spot as the King of our team and enjoy a nice trip to Venice.

Saying this and delivering the results needed are two very different things - but delivering results is something that I have always succeeded at.

Since I am setting out to win a PTQ in MD at Dream Wizards later this month, I have had to analyze the field and which decks it contains. We all know that the following decks are popular: The Rock (the best deck, in my opinion), Aluren, Sligh, Angry Hermit, Reanimator, U/G Madness, Oath, Suicide Black, White Weenie/Fiend Variants, Psychatog, and Rogue Decks.

The key to winning in an environment like this is knowing your opponent's strengths and your weaknesses. You need to understand who is a favorable matchup for you and who is likely to defeat you. Then focus on changing your deck so that defeats become close - or even wins. This is hard to do, if you're trying not alter your favorable matchups. Below, I will analyze the popular decks and point out their strengths and flaws. At the end, I will introduce the deck that will qualify me for PT Venice and show how it fares against the field. Now let us take an in-depth look at these decks and their major flaws, as well as how they win.

Let's take a look at Sligh first. This is almost assuredly going to be one of the most-played decks this season - as it has been every season since Tempest. There are currently two main versions floating around the Internet. Let's look at the worse of the two first. The bad version of Sligh is the goblin version used by Benjamin Caumes to finish second at Grand Prix: Reims. The problem with this deck is that Aluren is popular - and plenty of people are willing to pack four Engineered Plagues to stop the Aluren decks, especially if it also will help them beat Sligh as well. Engineered Plague beats this version of Sligh, killing all but one of the creatures in this deck, and leaving only twenty-eight points of total damage left in the deck: The sum of all of the burn spells plus the Barbarian Rings. This will simply not do. And so this deck finds its way to the graveyard of decks that are good - but not good enough.

To counteract the effectiveness of Engineered Plague, Sligh evolved a new version of this deck - one that won Grand Prix: Reims."The Red Deck Wins" version played by Alex Mack has only one duplicate creature type. This greatly lessens the effectiveness of Engineered Plague, and the Blistering Firecat can always use its morph ability to get around it.

How do these decks win? That is quite simple...They beat your head in. They plan on getting you to zero life before you can do anything to stop them. If you do find a way to destroy all their starting force they plan on drawing burn to finish you off. This works quite well, considering that the eight sack lands played by this deck greatly decreases its chance of drawing land. However, this deck still has a flaw: While its creatures no longer share a creature type in common, they still have one common aspect between them - they all have one toughness. While the sideboard options are endless, I will mention one possibility to think about: Caltrops.

Yes, I know this is a bad card, but think about it... How is Blistering Firecat going to attack you? How about Goblin Cadets? How about Jackal Pup? The answer is that they are not going to attack you. Now should you play this card? It is up to how well your deck works against red. If red beats you, is this a card you should consider? Definitely! Is this a foolproof win solution? No... But it is food for thought.

Also, for those who are forced to play the Goblin version of Sligh due to the lack of rares they possess, please play Goblin King tech in your sideboard; this is to counter-act Engineered Plague. Also, please kill your opponents in response to them sacrificing a Ravenous Baloth. I have watched too many games where the Sligh player can kill someone in response to their sacrifice of the Baloth, but they do not. Keep in mind your opponent does not gain life right away. If you can put enough damage on the stack to kill your opponent before the life gain resolves, then you win. Please remember to do this when playing against The Rock.

Next let's take a look at my favorite deck in the field; The Rock. The name says it all; this deck is a rock. It can be a beatdown deck, it can be a control deck, it can be an aggro-control deck, and it can be a combo deck. I think this deck should be called The Answer - since that's truly what it is. Your opponent plays a threat; you play the answer. This deck has the best matchups in the field, going at least 50-50 versus all archetypes in the field.

The flaws with this deck are not in its design, but how people play it. People who play this deck think they are dogs and can sense fear: They look at what you have on the table and decide to just lay one threat after another. The problem with this philosophy is that all of their threats end up on the table at one time. A good Rock player should never have a Spiritmonger on the table. They should win with Treetop Villages, Visara the Dreadful, Pernicious Deeds, and Diabolic Edicts.

The only difficult match-up for a good Rock player is U/G Madness. It is the only deck in the field (other than the Rock, of course) that can constantly produce threats. It is not like Reanimator or Angry Druid that say here is my threat bet you can't deal with it...Oh well, you did. We lose. U/G Madness can play a threat and have something in play to sacrifice to the Rock's Diabolic Edicts. Thus, it forces the Rock to try to force through one of its own threats or to Deed to get rid of the threats. The matchup between these two either comes down to who has the Treetop Village in play and can lay the beats with it. This is a very dangerous matchup for both of the decks... But is really the only tough match-up for The Rock.

So if I am this fond of this deck why am I not playing it? The reason is that it is an extremely hard deck to play. You have to know when to commit with everything. If you think you smell blood and go for the throat, only to find out your opponent was just faking, it you will lose. I also have designed my deck with beating the Rock in mind. I will explain that later.

Next up is Suicide Black: Its hand removal is the same as the Rock's. It is a strong deck, and can beat a lot of decks with one exception - Sligh will crush you. And Sligh is likely to be around 40% of any Extended PTQ due to its ease of play and cheapness of build. You can not expect to win with this deck. Yes, it is better against all of the other archetypes that can crush Sligh, but it is not worth scrubbing out to an eight-year old.

Next up are Reanimator - and its weird twisted cousin, Angry Hermit. These decks are fairly simple: If they go first, they will say,"Here is my threat; deal with it or die." If you deal with it, they will die. If they go second, they will try to destroy your hand, then play their threat and go for the win. The funny thing about these decks is that they are either played by very good players - or casual players coming to a tournament for the first time. It is quite funny to see a casual player steering this deck.

The main thing to consider about these decks is that they are capable of a God draw, where it does not matter what you do. They also love to Paris; they have to, in order to get the cards they need. The key point I wish to make here is to the people who play this type of deck. If you go first, please stop getting Verdant Force or Multani against the Rock! You lose for doing this. The rock will Deed on zero and then Diabolic Edict you if you play Verdant, and Multani will just get a Diabolic Edict out of his hand. There is a reason that you have a Petradon in your deck. If you go first, you should always get this creature out. He slows your opponent down. If your opponent only has one land in play oh well. Get the Petradon! Then cast your hand disruption next turn and call Diabolic Edict with your Cabal Therapy or look at their hand with the duress. I have seen so many Reanimator players lose to Reanimate Verdant Force then letting their opponent go. Their opponent cast a Duress or Cabal Therapy to take away the hand removal of the Reanimator deck. Then next turn, they will cast a Deed and follow it up next turn with Deed for zero and Diabolic Edict. Granted, they will be at two but it is not worth it. Just go for the Petradon and the slow but sure victory. If you try anything else you will lose. I have played about 50 of these match-ups and that is how it works.

The problem with Reanimator decks is that a lot of people are scared of them and therefor playing tons of hate for them, from Planar Voids to Ground Seals (and Ground Seal is a very bad sideboard card, as Exhume does not target) these decks see tons of hate and since they are mainly black they have very little they can do about it.

The next deck is White Weenie, or Fiend. I love this deck as well. It is fun to watch it play. It can simply own certain decks. Meddling Mage is this deck's MVP - but people have key flaws in the versions they field. First, they play Topple in their sideboard to deal with Reanimator, Spiritmonger, and large threats of this type. Please stop doing this, as it is a horrible idea. Play Tariff. For those of you who do not know what it does, each player must pay the casting cost of their highest cost creature or sacrifices that creature. This can be cast on turn 2, as it only costs two mana - and let your opponent try to Cabal Therapy you for it! That is not going to happen, as they will have no idea that you are playing it. (Well, until they flash it back - but hey - The Ferrett) Also, it kills Multani while topple does not.

This deck is wonderful, but has its problems with The Rock. If you chose to play this deck in Extended, you must do the following to beat The Rock: Do not cast Meddling Mage until you have at least one other creature in play. When you cast Meddling Mage, call Pernicious Deed; if you do not you will lose, since it is the one card in The Rock's repertoire that you can not handle. Yes, you play Seal of Cleansing. Yes, you can remove your own creatures with Parallax Wave. The rest of The Rock does not bother you, and this is a favorable matchup for you if you can keep the Pernicious Deed off of the board.

Through play testing this deck you go 60-40 against Oath. You go 45-55 against The Rock in your toughest match-up. You beat red 70% of the time - and if you play Tariff instead of Topple you beat Reanimator about 65% of the time. This is another wonderful deck for the season, and reminds me of The Rock in a lot of ways.

Here's some tech that our Fiend Player is taking to the next PTQ: He is running Zur's Weirding. This is for the Rock, Reanimator, and Aluren. Since hands are played face-up, Cabal Therapy becomes a big problem - but the chances are poor that your will have one on turn 4. Also, Rebel searching does not trigger Zur's Weirding, and neither does the Scroll Rack in the sideboard.

The idea from this came through playtesting. This deck kept losing to people topdecking to beat it - and now it no longer worries about such things. Threats only cost two life to get rid of, and that is something that this deck can afford to pay. Also, there was the consideration of playing Words of Worship with Zur's Weirding... But while this is too kooky to receive actual consideration by my team or myself, it still is an interesting idea none the less. For two card slots in your deck and one mana, you can assure your opponent never draws another card and you gain three life per turn. Not bad, but I don't think it is good enough to consider. If anyone else has any ideas on how to tweak this deck, please email me. It is one of my favorite decks and is fun to play, but currently loses to too much for me to consider playing it. I do like the idea of Words of Worship versus Sligh, but I can not bring myself to play it.

Finally, the time has come to take all of these ramblings together and look at the key components to building what many will call a Rogue deck - but you should realize that it is not a Rogue deck that you are building. You are building a metagame deck to attempt to beat the Field. The following is the deck that I have created, and why each card is in the deck.

First, the decklist:

Spells
4 Overmaster
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Exploration
4 Burning Wish
3 Jokulhaups
3 Obliterate
2 Pernicious Deed

Creatures
3 Terravore
3 Ravenous Baloth
4 Wall of Blossoms

Lands
3 Hickory Woodlot
3 Sandstone Needle
4 Dwarven Hold
4 Havenwood Battleground
4 Tinder Farm
4 Sulfur Vent
4 City of Brass

Sideboard:
1 Biorhythm
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Jokulhaups
1 Obliterate
1 Living Wish
1 Masticore
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Terravore
1 Multani's Decree
1 Earthquake
1 Gilded Drake
2 Caltrops
2 Engineered Plague

First let's discuss why certain cards are in the deck, and then we can discuss how to play the deck versus the different archetypes.

This deck is not easy to play. You must playtest extensively to understand how to beat certain decks: Your overall goal is to gain card advantage by using only three or four lands to cast a Jokulhaups or Obliterate, then recover quicker than your opponent and win.

Keys To Playing The Deck:
First, never have more than six lands in play, as you do not need more than six lands. Second, you only play three Jokulhaups and Obliterates so you can Wish for the fourth copy. Third, The Overmaster replaces itself when cast and allows you to make huge plays like turning Jokulhaups into an Obliterate, testing to see if your opponent has a counter spell, or forcing through a late-game Haunting Echoes. The Burning Wish is the entire key to your deck.... The wish is what makes this deck an ideal metagame deck. Whether you need an Earthquake versus Sligh or want to annihilate the Psychatog player with an Overmastered Haunting Echoes, the Burning Wish always remains an MVP.

Versus Sligh (53% chance of winning)
This is your toughest matchup, and the deck has been retooled to deal with Sligh through extensive playtesting. First, Wall of Blossoms will cost Sligh some early burn and will also slow them down. Second, three maindecked Ravenous Baloths also hold off Sligh. Third, Burning Wish for the Earthquake is one of your most powerful plays. Fourth, Sligh plays quite land-light; if you can hold off till they have three or more lands in play before you Obliterate, your chance of winning increases greatly.

This is how your typical game versus Sligh goes: Turn 1 land, Turn 2 land, Turn three land - at this point you can either drop a Wall of Blossoms, you have dropped a Ravenous Baloth, you have Vampiric Tutored, you have Burning Wished, or you have drawn a Pernicious Deed. Then on turn 4, if your life total is below ten (or you do not have a blocker for Blistering Firecat), then you need to reset the world by casting Obliterate. When you cast Obliterate, if your life total is above seven and you have a land in your hand, your winning percentage is about 80%. If you are less than seven, concentrate on Tutoring or wishing for a Ravenous Baloth. If on turn 4, you are above ten and have a blocker for Blistering Firecat then wait one more turn to reset the world. Cast Jokulhaups on turn 5 along with your Terravore, and this is almost certain victory if you are at least at five or more life when this happens. This is truly all there is to playing Sligh. It is all about what is your life total when you cast your Obliterate effect.

In conclusion, during this matchup you rely heavily on Wall of Blossom, Ravenous Baloth, and Wishing for the Earthquake. That is why all of these cards are in your deck; they are here to beat Sligh. If you are lucky enough to get an Exploration in your hand to start the game, your chance of winning increases by about ten percent, assuming you can lay at least one additional land with it. You side in your Engineered Plagues and Caltrops versus Sligh.

Versus Oath (72% chance of winning)
This is your matchup - and if you draw land and lose, please let me know how. There is nothing wrong with letting your opponent Oath once to put a creature into play; that's what you want to do. You will want to wait until you have an Obliterate before doing this. You will also want to make sure you have saved at least three lands, and have an Exploration in play. What you do is get your hand set, and then cast your creature; your opponent will then oath. After your opponent Oaths, you have a few options to win: Cast Obliterate on your turn, then follow up with two lands from Exploration. Your next turn, you can cast a Terravore that will be surprisingly big - considering that they probably passed a few lands when Oathing. If you do not have a Terravore, simply lay another land and Burning Wish for your Haunting Echoes while your opponent has one land in play; you'll have mana to pay for the Force Spike if necessary. On your next turn, you cast your Overmaster, as your opponent only has two untapped mana; then cast your Haunting Echoes. This normally will result in a scoop from Oath players.

There are many other ways to beat Oath with this deck, but these two are usually the most common. Against Oath you sideboard in nothing, as all of your sideboard cards are wishable, including the Gilded Drake.

Versus The Rock (65% chance of winning)
This is a really fun game to play. First, outside of playtesting, in every tournament that I have brought this deck to, they always Cabal Therapy for Aluren. Next, there are no counterspells to worry about, so cast Overmaster whenever you wish to draw a card.

There are two ways the rock plays against you. If they go beatdown by casting their creatures and trying to roll over you because they think you are playing Aluren, then you will win. The Druid is a problem in this matchup, but he can be played around. This deck can not put pressure on you like Sligh can; you can easily wait until you have five lands in play, so you can cast Jokulhaups and Terravore or Ravenous Baloth on the same turn. If your opponent is putting so much pressure on you that you can't wait, then you have won. They will have maybe one or two cards in their hand (which are probably edicts), and will not be able to recover as quickly as you can from the Obliterate. You do play twenty-six lands for a reason. Haunting Echoes is quite effective against The Rock, as well as Wishing for your Gilded Drake. Also note that this is why you play Biorhythm. You can wish for a Biorhythm after Obliterating and win against the Rock. They usually take a while to get a creature back out - and if you have a Wall and four lands, then you can win. Watch out for Diabolic Edicts when casting this spell. Do not do it if your opponent has two untapped lands of which one is a swamp.

In conclusion, this deck is immensely fun to play, but I am playing it to win. The whole idea is old-school card advantage: I waste four cards to get at least seven of yours - hopefully, anyway. You want to use three lands and a Jokulhaups (or four lands and an Obliterate versus decks with counterspells) to gain card advantage.... Then use the fact that you play 26 lands to recover faster than your opponent for the kill. If you are stalling, just hold a few lands and try again. Watch out for red as it can kill you quickly, but have fun laughing at Psychatog and Oath, as they will not beat you. The Rock is a tough matchup - but if you have practiced enough, you should win.

Your worst nightmare, though, is Enchantress: It will own you. You can only hope to Burning Wish for a Multani's Decree and win. It is sad to say that you lose to that deck, but you do. Biorhythm is also a win here, as it does not abide by the rules of Worship.

In closing, I hope to be on my way to Venice. With this deck, I feel that I will - as long as I can avoid the idiot who didn't know that dual lands rotated out and is therefore playing four Back to Basics in his main deck. I must frown and say that will send me packing.

I wish you all a happy holiday and see you on the 29^th at Dream Wizards!

John Davis