I was initially planning on writing an article about metagaming the current Extended, but after reading John Davis' article"Havenwood Battleground Isn't Just For Aluren: TurboHaups In Extended", I have decided to focus on how not to metagame instead. The criticisms I have of his approach to this Extended season are not with his credentials, or even the deck he is choosing to play, but in the conclusions he has drawn about which decks his fares well against.

The first thing to focus on is the Oath of Druids matchup - which John asserts is the best matchup at a whopping 72% record. As Oath is one of the toughest decks to beat in this format, I was surprised by the claim that it can be defeated so soundly with a deck running no hand disruption, only two maindeck enchantment destruction spells, and only three maindeck creatures that can put Oath on the defensive before an Obliterate or Jokulhaups resolves. After Apprenticing the matchup, and allowing John's deck to play first each game, Oath won four consecutive games. Now, this opens up the possibility that I did not know how to appropriately play the deck in question - but as John provided a step-by-step guide to beating Oath, I was able to play the deck as he suggested would result in victory. I also allowed all Burning Wishes drawn to be any sorcery in his sideboard, as opposed to selecting one in advance - that way I would not select the wrong one due to my inexperience.

Oath was able to win the match due to maindeck Living Wish, and card draw. For starters, the strategy suggested by John will not bring you to a victory if your opponent knows you are playing Obliterate or Overmaster/Jokulhaups. Oath is in a dominant board position with a Treetop Village, two lands to activate it, and two lands open for counterspells. At this point, they can hold lands back in case you do resolve a Jokulhaups or an Obliterate. Furthermore, by casting Living Wish for Dust Bowl, Oath forces the Obliterate to be cast early due to the 100% non-basic lands run by John. This means that his deck cannot hold back lands or stall for the ideal hand to play out after the Obliterate as he would like to.

There was only one game in which John's deck was able to keep two lands in hand following a Jokulhaups - and with Exploration on the board, they came directly into play. Oath then land dropped and passed the turn. The ensuing Haunting Echoes would have been countered by a Force Spike - but out of morbid curiosity, I allowed it to resolve. Away went most of my library, including Oaths, and a lot of countermagic. As the Haunting Echoes required the sacking of all lands except for a City of Brass, and I had been sandbagging lands as well, I was able to hit three mana by the time John's deck cast a Terravore and four mana on the following turn. The reason this is significant is that the Living Wish I had cast earlier removed itself from the game, so Haunting Echoes was unable to touch the remaining one in my library. I then Wished for Gilded Drake, snatched the Terravore, and the Pernicious Deed in the opposing hand was too slow to save him from Terravore death.

The next deck to examine is The Rock. This one had a smaller win ratio than against Oath, at only 65%, so this could not be a good sign for his deck. I will not go through a blow-by-blow of why The Rock was able to win, instead I will just explain which cards won the games and why John's deck cannot handle them. The MVP (Most Valuable Player) of this matchup was Yavimaya Elder. When a Jokulhaups or Obliterate was topdecked, since all others were discarded due to duress and therapy, Elder allowed The Rock to search for two lands to help recover. Furthermore, the Jokulhaups/Terravore trick never worked because his deck floating mana caused The Rock to float two as well, allowing Diabolic Edict to be cast to get rid of the Terravore. I even tried the Biorhythm trick as he suggested - but with Biorhythm costing eight mana, The Rock easily had out creatures by that point. Seeing as there are four to eight one-drop creatures in most Rock builds, I cannot see how this trick has ever worked as indicated.

The final matchup that he mentioned was Sligh, which is actually two radically different decks: Alex Mack's"Red Deck Wins," and Benjamin Caumes"Goblin/Piledriver Sligh". There were actually two MVPs in these matchups, Wasteland and Rishadan Port. Since the mana generated by John's deck comes in the form non-basic lands that generate two mana, it was easy to prevent Jokulhaups and Obliterate from ever being cast. Wall of Blossoms, Engineered Plague, and Caltrops also did not work that well in this matchup. The biggest problem with these cards is that almost all of his lands come into play tapped, but City of Brass only appeared on the appropriate turns in approximately 50% of the games played. Wall of Blossoms is not that good against Sligh if it hits on turn 3, which is even a generous estimate as Wasteland stalls it 'til turn 4 in 50% of the games played. Similarly, Caltrops and Engineered Plague can hit on the same turns as Wall of Blossoms if you are willing to sacrifice a land, and if not, they are even a turn after that.

If my intention today was to explain why you should not play the deck John Davis suggested, I would at this point refer to matchups that he neglected to test against, or neglected to mention: Reanimate, U/G madness, and especially Aluren. As my focus is instead on improper metagaming, I will merely suggest that you cannot rely upon them being hated out of the tournament. Someone has to have the cards to hate them out - and if you happen to be unfortunate enough to play against them before they hit their second loss, you better be prepared to beat them, or to pack up your cards and go home. John's deck has no answers to the three listed ones, as each of them can operate very mana light, or are just too quick for Jokulhaups to take care of.

This is not to imply that John Davis is lying about how well his deck performed, or that he is even exaggerating the results. The implication is that he did not test enough, and is most likely relying upon the surprise factor of his deck. The surprise factor can bring you to victory at a Friday Night Magic - but at a Swiss Tournament like any PTQ, the players at the top tables generally know what decks are being played around them, and phrases like"I'll cast Obliterate" usually catch people's attention.