GenCon is less than a month away, and for players interested in taking home the title of World Champion, now is the time to prepare. Today, I'll show you some takes on some of the hottest cards and decks for GenCon, as well as a discussion of the tournament itself.

GenCon Legacy brings out all sorts of curious and weird decks, and historically, the T8s have been... random? Unrepeatable? I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. One sees decks thought long-dead pop up in the playoffs. While the Vintage Championships are more normal, as there are no proxies and the people who come to game have decks built especially for Vintage, the Legacy event is liable to have any and all sorts of decks show up. As a result, pack a deck that can handle randomness and previously-unseen strategies.

Two cards - Qasali Pridemage and Vendilion Clique - are perfectly poised for this role. They both have general use effects that can mess with a variety of opponents, and they're pretty strong attackers as well. The more I look at Legacy, the more I'm inclined to slot 4 Pridemages into everything I make. They're even gaining stock in Vintage as a foil to Time Vault strategies. It's a proactive pounder, like a maindecked Krosan Grip that wins Tarmogoyf standoffs and mows down Moats. For a deck that combines both creatures, check this out:

CounterTop Featured by Benni Niehaus on 2009-07-26 (Legacy) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/17777_Legacys_Allure_Gearing_Up_For_The_World_Championships.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Sensei's Divining Top Creatures 4 Qasali Pridemage 3 Rhox War Monk 4 Tarmogoyf Enchantments 4 Counterbalance Instants 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 4 Spell Snare 4 Swords to Plowshares	Legendary Artifacts 2 Umezawa's Jitte Legendary Creatures 2 Vendilion Clique Sorceries 3 Ponder Basic Lands 1 Forest 2 Island 1 Plains Lands 4 Flooded Strand 3 Tropical Island 3 Tundra 4 Windswept Heath	Sideboard: 2 Pithing Needle 1 Relic of Progenitus 2 Tormod's Crypt 3 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Krosan Grip 3 Path to Exile 2 Gaddock Teeg
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Skipping out on the early-game cards like Dark Confidant and the lategame cards like Vedalken Shackles, Benni crafted a CounterTop deck that plays well at every stage of the game. The Pridemages are crucial to this and give the deck a power it hasn't had before; they're a trump for all manner of late-game cards the opponent might set up. He's got Jitte and Rhox War Monk as well, giving an edge over aggro decks. The Pridemage pumps up War Monks and Cliques, getting in attacks past defenders and cranking up life totals. I'm not so thrilled about War Monks, even though they've been popping up a lot lately (the Germans seem to have an infatuation with them), but they are another solid defender for the deck and give it an edge against decks like Burn where it would have lost before.

If you want to take the Exalted theme even further, check out this deck, the first-place winner from the same event as the previous deck:

Bant Featured by Max Schlaak on 2009-07-26 (Legacy) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/17777_Legacys_Allure_Gearing_Up_For_The_World_Championships.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Rhox War Monk 4 Tarmogoyf 1 Trygon Predator Instants 3 Bant Charm 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 3 Stifle 4 Swords to Plowshares Legendary Artifacts 2 Umezawa's Jitte	Legendary Creatures 2 Rafiq of the Many 2 Vendilion Clique Planeswalkers 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant Basic Lands 1 Forest 2 Island 1 Plains Lands 2 Flooded Strand 2 Polluted Delta 3 Tropical Island 2 Tundra 3 Wasteland 3 Windswept Heath	Sideboard: 2 Engineered Explosives 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tormod's Crypt 1 Cold-Eyed Selkie 3 Meddling Mage 1 Trygon Predator 3 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Krosan Grip
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Some of it seems too theme-y, and I'd love to make space for Pridemages, but this is a good look at a deck strategy that just intends to make a giant beater out of anything it can land. Notably, the deck runs an Elspeth, Knight-Errant. The Planeswalker is unbelievably hard to deal with and is just about the greatest thing to draw off the top in the midgame. I've read multiple tournament reports with lines like "I was in the lead until he landed Elspeth and used it for three turns." She can toss a Noble Hierarch in the air as a fierce attacker. If you're looking at a CounterTop strategy for GenCon, consider Elspeth if you're looking for a trump like Engineered Explosives-Academy Ruins or Vedalken Shackles. It's especially devastating from the sideboard!

Natty Has Never Been This Good: Field-Tested Natural Order decks

We've had it for a few months, and GenCon is the perfect place to pull out Natural Order and stomp people with untouchable Hydras. Like I had discussed before, you want cards that can handle randomness. A 10/10 that seals the deal in two turns is about as solid a threat as they come, and I've got two exciting, tournament-proven Natural Order decks for you to chew over.

Natural Threshold Featured by Aníbal Carbonero on 2009-07-26 (Legacy) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/17777_Legacys_Allure_Gearing_Up_For_The_World_Championships.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Nimble Mongoose 4 Noble Hierarch 2 Qasali Pridemage 3 Rhox War Monk 4 Tarmogoyf Instants 4 Brainstorm 3 Daze 4 Force of Will 3 Stifle 4 Swords to Plowshares Legendary Creatures 1 Progenitus 3 Vendilion Clique	Sorceries 3 Natural Order Basic Lands 1 Forest 1 Island 1 Plains Lands 3 Flooded Strand 1 Savannah 4 Tropical Island 3 Tundra 3 Windswept Heath Land Creatures 1 Dryad Arbor	Sideboard: 3 Tormod's Crypt 3 Meddling Mage 3 Krosan Grip 3 Path to Exile 3 Submerge
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Aníbal calls this "Spartan Threshold." A curious name. Is this deck madness? Yes. This deck is madness. It reminds me of Alix Hatfield's Natural Order deck that I wrote about many moons ago, capable of playing the Threshold game as well as cheating a monster in out of nowhere. Almost every guy in this deck is green, and with the Dryad Arbor around as well, it should be easy to Tinker a man into Progenitus. Natural Order is a good foil to CounterTop strategies, since it's unusual to have 4-cost cards in a deck (outside of Sower of Temptation), meaning the card can waltz past the blue Enchantment. I'm unsure about the Stifles in the maindeck. Without Wastelands to back them up, Stifle looks pretty tame. It stops mean cards like Pernicious Deed, but wouldn't something like Counterspell do a similar job? They could also easily become Ponder, giving the deck more manipulation and better odds of finding Natural Order when it needs it.

The other traditional home for Natural Order is in Rock decks, and this one is a good example of how to make the most of it:

Natural Order Rock Featured by François Leveque on 2009-07-26 (Legacy) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/17777_Legacys_Allure_Gearing_Up_For_The_World_Championships.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Dark Confidant 3 Eternal Witness 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Tarmogoyf Instants 4 Swords to Plowshares Legendary Creatures 1 Progenitus Sorceries 2 Cabal Therapy 3 Natural Order 1 Profane Command 4 Thoughtseize 4 Vindicate	Basic Lands 2 Forest 1 Plains Lands 4 Bayou 4 Savannah 3 Scrubland 2 Treetop Village 3 Wasteland 2 Windswept Heath 1 Wooded Foothills Legendary Lands 1 Volrath's Stronghold	Sideboard: 2 Engineered Explosives 3 Pernicious Deed 3 Seal of Primordium 3 Extirpate 4 Guttural Response
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I'm inclined to put those Pernicious Deeds in the maindeck, but it's overall solid. One problem that Rock decks have had historically is that they're really good at slowing down the game and controlling the board, but then they do nothing with it an can't win fast enough. Natural Order gives a heck of a win condition to the deck. This list is poised to handle the interesting decks one will see at GenCon and has some unfair tricks of its own. Without ever casting Natural Order, this deck can also get some pretty sweet attacks going and set up recursion loops with Profane Command and Eternal Witness. My concern is winning within the time limits, and while the green Tinker helps out a lot in that regard, I'd still be wary.

I'm always interested in oddball decklists, so I was super psyched to see this one, a decidedly darker take on Enchantress:

Dark Enchantress Featured by Javier Fernandez García on 2009-07-26 (Legacy) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/17777_Legacys_Allure_Gearing_Up_For_The_World_Championships.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Argothian Enchantress 4 Verduran Enchantress Enchantments 4 Cadaverous Bloom 1 City of Solitude 4 Elephant Grass 4 Enchantress's Presence 1 Mirri's Guile 3 Planar Void 2 Seal of Doom 2 Seal of Primordium 4 Utopia Sprawl 4 Wild Growth 1 Words of Wilding Sorceries 2 Tendrils of Agony	Tribal Enchantments 4 Lignify World Enchantments 1 Concordant Crossroads Basic Lands 5 Forest 5 Swamp Lands 1 Bayou 2 Bloodstained Mire 3 Overgrown Tomb 2 Wooded Foothills	Sideboard: 4 Defense Grid 2 Engineered Plague 3 Multani's Presence 1 Planar Void 1 Seal of Doom 2 Seal of Primordium 2 Words of Wilding
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Cadaverous Bloom like you've never seen it before! This deck intends to get the Bloom down and then funnel all the cards it draws from the twelve Enchantresses into a lethal Tendrils of Agony or just make a bunch of bears and attack in. It has some deficiencies I'd remedy first - it's 63 cards and there are no copies of Choke anywhere. The 2G enchantment is a gimme in decks with green and no Islands around. But come on, let's be real here, this is a storm-comboing, Cadaverous Bloom-fueled Enchantress deck! It doesn't have Sterling Grove or Runed Halo to protect itself, but it does have hits like Planar Void and odd removal like Lignify. I like it compared to regular Enchantress lists because it has a much more obvious plan than they do in that you just want to get one of the card-drawing girls out, get Bloom out and start going crazy. It's soft to Krosan Grip, but the Defense Grids on the sideboard help out there a bit. I am really interested in getting some playtesting in with this deck, so if you'd like to see this Enchantress list again in an article, post in the forums or email about what you'd like to see it thrown up against.

Finally, I've gotten some questions from folks about what my Gifts Rock list and my Lorescale Coatl Grow deck look like at the moment. If I'm playing in GenCon this year, it's a high likelihood that I'll be playing one or the other, so here are the raw lists:

Gifts Rock

2 Engineered Explosives
1 Clearwater Goblet
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Etched Oracle
1 Gigapede
2 Ravenous Baloth
4 Sakura-tribe Elder
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Krosan Grip
1 Reclaim
4 Spell Snare
4 Swords To Plowshares
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Regrowth
1 The Abyss
2 Forest
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Bayou
1 Dust Bowl
1 Polluted Delta
2 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Academy Ruins

My biggest concern about the deck is that it can be hard to win within the time limits. It's still got hits like Gigapede and Phyrexian Processor, but in all, it seems unfocused to me. I've moved away from a lot of the recursion plans, and with M10 making Etched Oracle significantly worse, I'm looking for a replacement for it. I haven't had a lot of time to sit down with it and really cut it down to what I think I want in it, so there are still a lot of cute remnants of past decks in it that should be trimmed. I want something like Worm Harvest or Haunting Echoes, but I haven't determined if either are necessary.

Here's the Coatl list I've got sleeved:

Coatl

3 Winter Orb
4 Lorescale Coatl
2 Merfolk Looter
4 Quirion Dryad
2 Thought Courier
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force Of Will
4 Swords To Plowshares
2 Thwart
4 Ponder
4 Serum Visions
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
2 Tundra

I made room for Pridemages in the maindeck, since I'd like to see if they help the deck over the edge. I'd had problems before with Crucible of Worlds and the like, so I'm joining the trend of sprinkling them in every deck I can. With Pridemages, the deck can possibly support Tarmogoyf instead of Dryad. One of the original reasons I didn't run the Green Giant was because it could never beat an opponent's Goyf, and a board stall is just about the last thing this deck wants. The Exalted bonus makes your Goyfs better than theirs, so they get more attractive. Further testing will reveal which is better, or whether the Pridemage even has a place in here. Neither of the above two decks are finished yet, but I wanted to catch up interested readers with where my projects were currently at.

The current metagame is really trending towards R/G and R/G/W aggro decks, so anything you pack for the GP should have a plan for attackers and gamewinners like Price of Progress. The trend could also explain the surge in Rhox War Monks. I don't see myself building a final sideboard until maybe a week before the event, but I'll be testing several options along the way. The key, as I mentioned in last year's GenCon article, is to test well and know what you're playing inside and out.

Until next week…

Doug Linn

legacysallure at gmail dot com