Last week, we took a look at doing research, with an emphasis on why it is important to your development as a competitive Magic player. Today, let’s put that into practice by digging up some decks that are relevant to the various Champs tournaments occurring this weekend at GenCon.
For those that are unaware, there are three Champs tournaments that occur at GenCon. Normally these include Block Champs on Thursday, Vintage Champs on Friday, and Legacy Champs on Saturday (although in 2008 Draft Champs replaced Vintage Champs, which was at U.S. Nationals instead). For someone like me, who loves Magic in general as opposed to being tied to a specific format, GenCon offers an awesome buffet of events. It helps that of the five major constructed formats — Vintage, Legacy, Extended, Standard, and Block — Champs includes the three that I most enjoy.
Block Champs tends to have the lightest attendance despite having the best prizes, and tends to have a top 8 dominated by ringers. This tournament is an obvious draw for pros: prize worth several thousand dollars cash, attendance generally under 100 players, and a format that is now mostly played by pros for the Pro Tour and on MTGO.
Vintage Champs is a strange beast. Vintage players, who mostly compete in unsanctioned proxy tournaments, don’t have DCI ratings with which to judge each other, so the title of Vintage Champion carries a lot of weight in the community. The prize, a new and unique painting of a Mox, is more about recognition than cash value. Vintage players put a premium on making top 8 in this tournament. In reality, it is a poor way to determine the “best” Vintage players, as many of the format’s top players don’t even attend. Attending GenCon primarily for Vintage Champs is a high-cost, low-value proposition that is only feasible for players that can field a non-proxy deck, or have access to one.
The prize for Legacy Champs has remained static: one play-set of Revised Duals. The value of this prize has probably doubled since 2008, when I made top four of this tournament. This event has a top prize similar to a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open, and will probably have similar attendance, occurring immediately after last weekend’s Grand Prix. I suspect that this will be the most competitive Legacy Champs yet, given the surge in the popularity and relevance in the format.
The rest of this article is going to contain a lot of decks. Those of you attending GenCon will find it to be a valuable resource, I’m sure, but even if you’re not going, the process of locating and compiling these decks is a good example of how you can go from nothing to gauntlet to prepare for a tournament.
We’ll start with Vintage Champs, look at Legacy Champs, and finally Block Champs.
Vintage Champs
Finding quality Vintage decks online is usually more difficult than completing the same task for other formats. There aren’t any Vintage tournaments on MTGO. Deckcheck and Morphling are a good start, but The Mana Drain is still the ultimate source for information on Vintage. The website has recently been restructured to make finding information on specific decks easier. Here are some recent examples that are likely to be the key players at Champs.
On July 3rd, three important decks took the top spots at a Vintage tournament with a number of name pros.
In first place was a deck that is picking up a lot of steam this summer: Tezzeret. That might seem like a strange statement, as Tezz has remained a solid choice for any Vintage tournament. However, the combination of restrictions, new printings, and metagame shifts all took their toll on Tezzeret in 2010. An updated version, which utilizes Trygon Predator and Nature’s Claim, makes a lot of sense when you look at the other top decks. These cards provide resistance to MUD, Oath of Druids, and Null Rod, and are reasonable inclusions for the mirror as well. This is the winning list:
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (16)
Spells (34)
- 1 Sensei's Divining Top
- 1 Brainstorm
- 2 Mana Drain
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 1 Yawgmoth's Will
- 4 Force of Will
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Time Walk
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 1 Time Vault
- 1 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Tinker
- 1 Voltaic Key
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 3 Thoughtseize
- 4 Spell Pierce
- 1 Nature's Claim
Sideboard
This deck has plenty of resistance to combo decks, utilizes both Bob and Jace as draw engines, and can sideboard into a more aggressive build by way of Tarmogoyf. If you’re playing at Champs, this is the style of Tezz you should be testing against.
In second place at this tournament was Noble Fish. Fish had picked up steam earlier in the year, but don’t think the declining buzz on Noble Fish makes it a poor choice. This style of Fish has game against all the major players in the format, although this particular build looks a bit soft to Tendrils decks:
Creatures (17)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (18)
Spells (23)
The two Jace are interesting, and may be a nod to opposing Jace as much as anything. This build has a ton of Dredge hate, which a lot of people might replace with some more cards against Oath and/or Tendrils, but this is a solid shell and a good example of what this deck looks like. At a non-proxy tournament like Champs, don’t ignore this deck.
In third place, which is not normally how this guy is introduced, was LSV, playing Bob Tendrils. There are a few different Tendrils decks that are active in the format, including TPS and ANT, but Bob Tendrils is probably the most versatile. Here is LSV’s list:
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (13)
Spells (42)
- 1 Sensei's Divining Top
- 2 Tendrils of Agony
- 1 Brainstorm
- 1 Cabal Ritual
- 1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 1 Yawgmoth's Will
- 3 Duress
- 4 Force of Will
- 1 Necropotence
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Hurkyl's Recall
- 1 Time Walk
- 4 Dark Ritual
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 1 Timetwister
- 1 Mind's Desire
- 1 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Chain of Vapor
- 1 Rebuild
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Lotus Petal
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 1 Ponder
- 2 Preordain
LSV wrote in a report that he wasn’t impressed with Preordain, but it still seems better than the other options that fulfill a similar function. A lot of Vintage players have taken their eye off Storm decks, making the more flexible versions, such as this one and Jace Storm, have the potential to slice through a tournament field. Compare the two decks:
Creatures (1)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (15)
Spells (40)
- 1 Tendrils of Agony
- 1 Brainstorm
- 3 Mana Drain
- 1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 1 Yawgmoth's Will
- 4 Force of Will
- 1 Necropotence
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Hurkyl's Recall
- 1 Time Walk
- 3 Dark Ritual
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 1 Time Vault
- 1 Gifts Ungiven
- 1 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Chain of Vapor
- 1 Misdirection
- 1 Tinker
- 1 Voltaic Key
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Fact or Fiction
- 1 Lotus Petal
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 1 Ponder
- 2 Thoughtseize
Sideboard
Those people who trashed Jace in Vintage are probably feeling a little silly right now.
Moving on, let’s take a look at Dredge, an important deck to watch at Champs. I posted an example of a Dredge deck with Leyline of Sanctity a few weeks ago, and it immediately put up results; players are already evolving the build, such as this one:
Creatures (22)
- 2 Ichorid
- 1 Flame-Kin Zealot
- 4 Golgari Grave-Troll
- 2 Golgari Thug
- 4 Stinkweed Imp
- 4 Narcomoeba
- 1 Fatestitcher
- 4 Bloodghast
Lands (14)
Spells (24)
- 4 Cabal Therapy
- 4 Serum Powder
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- 2 Dread Return
- 4 Bridge from Below
- 2 Nature's Claim
- 4 Leyline of Sanctity
Sideboard
The idea with these decks is to maximize resilience in post-board games. This deck is absolutely loaded with anti-hate cards, including Petrified Field, Leyline of Sanctity, Darkblast, Chain of Vapor, Serenity, and Nature’s Claim. A lot of people winning with these decks are stating they are unimpressed with Leyline of Sanctity and would rather play Unmask or Leyline of the Void; I’m not sure whether the impact of Leyline of Sanctity isn’t obvious, or whether it should hide in the sideboard for the time being.
Regardless, be ready for this style of Dredge deck at Vintage Champs. Dredge is among the cheapest of non-proxy Vintage decks, and is probably the best of the budget options.
Probably the biggest mover in 2010 Vintage has been MUD, which should surprise absolutely no one. Anyone with experience in Vintage knew Lodestone Golem would have an impact, it just took some time for people to find the right home for this card. In fact, there are still a number of competing Workshop decks that use it. The chief divide is between builds that use Null Rod and Sculpting Steel main, and those that use Metalworker and Sword of Fire and Ice (or Staff of Domination).
Creatures (14)
Lands (18)
Spells (28)
- 1 Mana Vault
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 4 Sphere of Resistance
- 1 Trinisphere
- 2 Sword of Fire and Ice
- 1 Black Lotus
- 4 Tangle Wire
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- 4 Thorn of Amethyst
Sideboard
Creatures (9)
Lands (18)
Spells (33)
- 1 Mana Vault
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 4 Null Rod
- 4 Sphere of Resistance
- 1 Trinisphere
- 3 Sculpting Steel
- 1 Black Lotus
- 4 Tangle Wire
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- 4 Thorn of Amethyst
Sideboard
Expect these two builds to come out in force at Champs. Workshop decks were immensely popular in last year’s preliminary events, and given the fact that they are much stronger now, you cannot afford to be unprepared for Lodestone Golem.
Vintage Champs should be an exciting tournament this year. The field is open and diverse. With a number of Vintage tournaments lined up for the fall, including a TMD Open at Waterbury, this is a great time to get into Vintage.
Legacy Champs
Writing about Legacy before the GP may be an exercise in futility, but it is interesting to see if any of the decks that had buzz on MTGO or in the trials will break through at the event. GP: Columbus will really impact the field for this year’s Legacy Champs. The format standards — Zoo, Merfolk, Goblins, Lands, Dredge, NO Bant, etc. — haven’t changed much, so I won’t recap them here. Instead, let’s take a look at some of the decks from online Legacy events to look for decks that might be on the rise in real life.
The deck that probably got the most interest in the lead-up to GP: Columbus was Aluren. It put up some solid results in a number of daily events, and a steady stream of name / pro players posted requests for Imperial Recruiters, setting in motion a chain of events where everyone I know who plays Legacy either a) asked my opinion on Aluren, b) asked to borrow Recruiters, or c) asked if buying Recruiters to flip them after Aluren won the GP was a good investment. Thanks a lot, Facebook. Here’s an example deck from Darkestmage:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Man-o'-War
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 4 Imperial Recruiter
- 1 Cavern Harpy
- 4 Coiling Oracle
- 2 Dream Stalker
- 1 Parasitic Strix
Lands (23)
Spells (19)
Sideboard
Hardly anything in this deck has changed. It has a better mana base with the new fetches, and a back-up Natural Order / Progenitus plan, but the goal is still to combo you out with Aluren. It has a nice protection / disruption package and the deck is fine, but I’m not sold on this being a deck that you want to rock at a tournament like a GP. Once the deck is “out” there, you probably also get diminishing returns. Still, it is interesting to see an older strategy like this suddenly emerge online as a player in the format. Some of the strategies that impacted Legacy when it was a new format, like Survival and Aluren, are being updated and apparently are still quite viable today.
The other 4-0 Legacy deck from this same event is a really tight Thopters list that I could definitely see myself playing at Legacy Champs, by Whiffy Penguin:
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (22)
Spells (35)
The only card that might seem a little out of place is Warmth, but mono-red burn decks have been popular in Legacy MTGO. Additionally there is no Back to Basics or similar card main, which many people use in cardboard Legacy to combat Lands. I’m an advocate of maindeck Ensnaring Bridge, and Meddling Mage is a must-have at this point. The use of Elspeth as an alternate win condition has also been solid in my testing. Depending on how the format shakes out after the GP, there’s a good chance I will play something close to this.
Speaking of Mono-Red, take a look at this deck, a 4-0 list courtesy of SorryMsJackson:
Creatures (12)
Lands (20)
Spells (28)
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 4 Fireblast
- 4 Ankh of Mishra
- 4 Chain Lightning
- 4 Price of Progress
- 4 Lava Spike
- 4 Rift Bolt
Sideboard
Well, hello there, Ankh of Mishra! It may seem slightly out of place in a deck that also plays 12 fetches, and one that wants opponents to play lands to burn them with Price of Progress, this is about the cheapest Legacy deck you’re going to see. Kiln Fiend seems like a really bad choice in cardboard Magic, where opponents have, uh, “blockers” but in some match-ups it will obviously help you race. This deck can win on turn 3 with an optimal hand and some unblocked Kiln Fiend action. However, it seems really vulnerable to decks with basic lands and Counterbalance/Top. Still, very nice to see Ankh of Mishra seeing play, and this deck has to be a nightmare for Lands, with those full sets of Ankh and Price of Progress.
Finally, here’s an update on New Horizons that plays Noble Hierarch, which I think Josh Silvestri hates less than the regular version:
Creatures (16)
Lands (23)
Spells (21)
Sideboard
This is another pretty tight list, although in the Zoo and Goblins match-up those missing Plows are going to hurt. Against everything else, though, you have a better manabase and are much better equipped to use Daze and Ponder and still deploy threats at the same time. You will also win Goyf stand-offs.
Looking at decks people always want to be viable, but generally haven’t been, here’s a version of Combo Elves that put three players at 3-1 in the same daily:
Creatures (30)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Wirewood Symbiote
- 4 Quirion Ranger
- 3 Fyndhorn Elves
- 4 Heritage Druid
- 4 Nettle Sentinel
- 1 Regal Force
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 1 Progenitus
- 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Lands (4)
Spells (26)
Sideboard
This deck can catch some people unaware, and with four Gaea’s Cradle it is capable of some really broken early game plays. Emrakul gives the deck an out to Moat without having to play a Storm finisher like Grapeshot. Additionally this deck has the Natural Order / Progenitus back-up plan. Unfortunately, this deck cannot play Skullclamp like the Vintage version, and because it has the Natural Order combo, it gives up a secondary method of engaging in the main combo (a la Weird Harvest or Cloudstone Curio from Extended). If you draw Progenitus, you have no way of shuffling it back, and those Natural Orders can throw you off when going off, although Natural Order can always find you a Regal Force. With all those Cradles, another Regal Force seems like it might be worth a slot here. The use of Vengevine out of the board as an aggro plan is also very interesting; all those four-ofs give the deck a shot against Counterbalance.
The last deck I’ll leave you with is an example of Storm in post-Mystical Tutor Legacy. While a lot of people expect the format to tilt heavily toward creature decks, with an ensuing anti-creature backlash, Storm is still viable beyond Belcher:
Lands (14)
Spells (46)
There are other versions floating around including a Doomsday build that TK used to win a Grand Prix Trial. Regardless, don’t sleep on Storm decks. These builds were viable before Mystical Tutor/ANT decks took over the Storm archetype. TES isn’t as consistently fast, but it still goldfishes against most creature decks and has more disruption against opposing control decks.
So, that’s a cursory glance at MTGO and Grand Prix Trial results. Aluren, Survival, Burn, TES, Elves, and an updated Noble Horizons — if you played any of these decks at the GP and were caught unaware, consider doing some better research online before your next big tournament.
Zendikar Block Champs
I was not qualified for PT: San Juan and do not play constructed on MTGO, so Zendikar Block is completely foreign to me, as Legacy and Vintage may be foreign to those of you who only play the PTQ formats (currently Standard, Extended, and Sealed). I have always enjoyed Block formats and have done reasonably well at them in the past, and I think it is really unfortunate that there are no more Block PTQ seasons. They give some cards a chance to shine in Constructed play that they’d otherwise never have, and for people who like to grind out value in trades, Block season was always a goldmine. Regardless, the reduced number of Pro Tours has forced out Block Constructed as a PTQ season, so we’re stuck with only the PT itself plus MTGO events to look for decks.
The Pro Tour usually defines the format, and MTGO refines it. We saw it with the Shards season, and see it again this year with Zendikar. The Pro Tour was won by a Blue/Green/Red Jace deck, and this deck continues to put up results in Zendikar daily events, changing and evolving over time as a three-color deck can. The other 4 Jace deck is Blue/White Control, which is a steady performer but seems to have dropped off since the Pro Tour (perhaps because less people are playing mono-red, and perhaps because the other 4 Jace deck is just better). Opposing the Jace decks are a few mono-color decks, chiefly Devastating Red (which is essentially the Standard deck without Lightning Bolt) and Beastmaster Green, which did very well at the Pro Tour. Mono-red, being a known quantity, was largely hated on at the Pro Tour, but seems to do decently online as the format has moved away from the base-white decks that are prepared for it. More popular is a Red/White aggro deck reminiscent of Boros Bushwhacker. A slower, “Big Red” type of deck has also emerged, along with a more traditional Green/White Eldrazi Ramp / Summoner’s Trap deck. This latter deck is powerful, but I suspect it has consistency issues typical of ramp decks (which the Jace deck gets around by playing, well, Jace).
This, basically, is the format. In any given daily event, one of those decks is pretty much a lock to be the winner. Not bad for a block format, really, as there is nice diversity in the deck styles and all of them look pretty viable. This would have been a fun format for a PTQ season.
Let’s take a look at these decks in a little more detail. Keep in mind that until I went through this exercise, I hadn’t even considered this format outside of reading about it during the Pro Tour coverage and pestering Lucas Siow with random questions.
In order to get a handle on the format, I took a look at the top 8 from the Pro Tour, and then looked through the results of Zen block Daily Events from MTGO.
This is the evolution of the Jace deck that previously featured four-of Comet Storm:
Creatures (12)
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 3 Oracle of Mul Daya
- 1 Rampaging Baloths
- 2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
- 1 Avenger of Zendikar
- 1 Sea Gate Oracle
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (29)
Spells (15)
Lots of card draw and cantrip effects, plenty of lands and mana producers, and the flexibility typical of this color combination in most formats, this is a combination ramp/control deck that centers on Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Basically, it is a “good stuff” deck with a rotating selection of singletons and removal selections that change a bit over time. For reference, here is the version that PV used to win the Pro Tour, which was referred to as Comet Storm. Many current versions don’t play that card at all. This card has a lot of the strength of the U/W list without some of the vulnerabilities, as it is better equipped to change roles in different match-ups.
Headed into the Pro Tour, U/W Control was generally considered the top deck, and a lot of the other decks are designed with it, and mono-red, in mind.
Here’s a recent 4-0 example:
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (26)
Spells (20)
Walls, Planeswalkers, plenty of counters compared to similar decks in Standard, plus anti-red cards out of the board — this is the type of deck that suppresses mono-red in the format. Here is the Pro Tour equivalent.
Mono-red is still a player in the format, of course. In Zen block, this deck is eerily similar to Devastating Red in Standard. Any time a deck compares that heavily to a Standard deck, it should be one of the more powerful decks in the format. This is a 4-0 example:
Creatures (20)
- 4 Goblin Bushwhacker
- 4 Goblin Guide
- 4 Plated Geopede
- 3 Kargan Dragonlord
- 3 Kiln Fiend
- 2 Tuktuk the Explorer
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
This deck is almost a 20/20/20 deck, as the extra lands really function as burn spells, either by way of pumping Geopede, adding +2/+0, or removing a blocker. A similar (and probably better, really) Mono-Red deck made top 8 at the Pro Tour.
Green/White Ramp decks attack U/W by using Eldrazi, and combat the rest of the format by turning into a Summoner’s Trap deck post-board. This style of deck also cracked the top 8 of the Pro Tour; here is a 4-0 version from a daily event played by AFaucher which has Day of Judgment in place of Overgrown Battlement:
Creatures (13)
Lands (27)
Spells (20)
The breakout deck of the Pro Tour was a highly aggressive Monument Green deck, which paired the best cards in green with the finishing power of Eldrazi Monument and Beastmaster Ascension, and put two players into the top 8. Much like Esper Aggro in the previous Pro Tour, this deck may have powered its way through this specific event but loses some potency as a known quantity. That said, it is still putting up results, and Brad Nelson is still rocking it in some daily events:
Creatures (29)
- 1 River Boa
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 4 Wolfbriar Elemental
- 4 Joraga Treespeaker
- 4 Kozilek's Predator
- 4 Nest Invader
- 4 Vengevine
Lands (24)
Spells (7)
As you can see, this deck hasn’t changed much at all.
A deck that I didn’t see in the Pro Tour coverage that shows up in a lot of daily events is a mono-red Ramp deck, or a sort of “Big Red” deck that skews toward control instead of dead-ahead aggro. Here’s an example played by windy2220:
Creatures (15)
Lands (25)
Spells (20)
So what is this deck doing, exactly? It has plenty of cheap removal in Staggershock, Burst Lightning, and Searing Blaze, and acceleration in Everflowing Chalice. Cunning Sparkmage takes care of mana creatures and tokens alike. It has mana suppression in Tectonic Edge, Roiling Terrain, Goblin Ruinblaster, and Lodestone Golem. Hellkite Charger and Lodestone give the deck quick finishing ability, while Valakut gives the deck a nice long-game plan that dodges counterspells. This deck is sort of an alternate to the G/W Ramp deck; less tricky, but probably good at what it does.
So, based on the Pro Tour results and the MTGO Daily Events, I can get a basic deck on the format and see what, if anything, has changed since the Pro Tour. The question then is simply, what to play?
Three Champs events, twenty decks, and some solid gauntlets for three different formats. Completing research like this does not take that long, and yields terrific information for play-testing and for the purposes of understanding a format and metagame, and predicting results within that format.
See you at GenCon!
I almost forgot, if anyone knows the best way to transport a painting, get in touch with me…
Matt Elias
[email protected]
Voltron00x on SCG, TMD, and The Source