This past weekend, I attended the Swedish Nationals. I didn't win, thanks for asking... But I did get to play Sudden Impact for nine to the dome of Olle Råde, which sort of made the trip worth taking anyway.

After watching the Nationals finals (in which Mattias Kettil mulliganed to a four-card, no-land hand in a Psychatog mirror match, and then proceeded to pull off a surprising loss) I strolled over to where the Top 8 decklists were posted. I guess I thought there might be an article in there.

Guess what? There was. The Top 8 consisted of three Psychatog decks, two Trenches decks, one blue-green-red Opposition deck, one blue-green Upheaval deck and one monoblack control deck. That means that there were two white decks, two green decks, three red decks, four black decks and...

You knew I was getting to this...

Seven blue decks.

Out of eight.

Twenty-one copies of Counterspell in eight decks. Twenty-one copies of Fact or Fiction in eight decks. That's just sick.

Cards I hate:

5. Fact or Fiction

Everyone knows blue is good - but come on, people! Seven out of eight. And I'm not even blaming the people who played those decks; blue is too good not to play. I won't ask people who want to do well not to play blue just to diversify the environment. That's not their responsibility. It is, however, R&D's responsibility, and I do blame R&D. They have created an environment where blue is so dominant that even decks specifically built to destroy blue, packing fast, efficient creatures, maindeck Yavimaya Barbarians and Spellbane Centaurs, fall to blue.

There's so much wrong with this, I don't know where to start. Let's start with Counterspell. Twenty-one copies in eight decks. Was Tolarian Academy ever that dominant? Yawgmoth's Bargain? Clearly, Counterspell is broken. Think about it: When was the last time you built, played, or saw a blue deck without four copies of Counterspell in it? It is an automatic inclusion. How can a card like that be allowed to exist? Roughly the same argument can be made for Fact or Fiction, although Fact or Fiction will truly show up in any blue deck - even a deck that only splashes blue. Not that I've seen many decks splashing blue lately. If you play it, you go all the way.

Moving on. It is generally accepted that there are three basic kinds of decks in Magic: control, beatdown and combo. Of the eight decks outlined above, eight are control decks. Zero are beatdown decks. Zero are combo decks.The entire Top 8 is control. That's sick too. Zero beatdown and zero combo means zero diversity.

Clearly, something's wrong... And what's wrong is the color blue. It's too good. It gets counters, card drawing and board control. And even more wrong is this: There have been green control decks. There have been red control decks. There have been white control decks. There have been black control decks.

But there hasn't been a blue beatdown deck since Flying Men rotated out of Type 2.

CounterRebels? Nope, aggro-control. Skies? Nope, aggro-control. Not a single dedicated blue beatdown deck. Every other color has had both beatdown and control - but not blue. Blue has been control from day one.

And that's the sickest part of it all. When Dark Ritual was removed from Type 2, I rejoiced. I think it was the right decision to make. At the time, I wrote somewhere that black had been defined by Dark Ritual from the start, an entire color defined by one card. Blue is worse. It is an entire color defined by one theme. MachineHead was a control deck, and it played Dark Ritual. Black weenie was a beatdown deck, and played Dark Ritual. Dark Ritual never destroyed its color's ability for diversity. Blue has destroyed its own.

And with these thoughts in my head, I go home, turn on my computer and tune into StarCity to see what I missed while at the Nationals... And there's a link to an article by Randy Buehler, called Resurrecting Flying Men . And what does it say? Let me walk you through it.

Quote:"Previously, we had been thinking of green as the creature color and so it was getting the best creatures up and down the mana curve. Really, though, green should get the best fatties and white should get the best weenies. (...) So enjoy your Wild Mongrels and Basking Rootwallas while you still can because they're a bit better than what we plan to give to green in the future. For two mana, green isn't going to do much better than good old Grizzly Bears and the only really good one-drops green should get are fatty-enablers (like Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise)."

Really? So, green should go back to being what the kiddies play for the big creatures, whereas the other four colors are for serious players? Green should go back to going for mana acceleration to bring out quick fatties, bringing out a walking a turn 3 fatty straight into Counterspell - or worse yet, losing all of its little mana producers to Fire or Violent Eruption? Doesn't work. In order for this to work, we need Blastoderm and Saproling Burst. We are not going to get them. This isn't going to work.

Quote:"If you've been around for a while you probably remember hearing the cries that 'R&D hates green!' Well those cries seem to have died out now. We kept pushing green cards and pushing green cards until we found out what it takes to make them good in Constructed. Since green had really never been on top before, we felt we were better off erring on the side of green being too good for a little while rather than continuing to be weak. Well... mission accomplished, and then some. We now know that it's very possible to make green good. In fact, we can now conclude that if we give green all the best creatures - weenies and fatties - that it's too good."

Oh yeah? Anyone remember seeing seven green decks in a Nationals Top 8 lately? Twenty-one fricking copies of Counterspell... And green is too good. God help me. Randy, here's one guy still crying you hate green. Sure, you gave it Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Blurred Mongoose, Nimble Mongoose and some other nice stuff... But you also gave blue Upheaval. And Hibernation. And Teferi's Moat, and God knows what else. And not only this, but you're going to take away Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, and the Mongoose brothers. Don't expect to be wading through a sea of green anytime soon.

Quote:"We kept coming back to the fact that blue has too much and white has too little. But what could we switch from blue to white? (...) Someone said,"What about flying?" (...) After failing to come up with any other easy or elegant answers we came back to flying. It's always been kind of weird that blue has these really efficient fliers when blue isn't supposed to be a creature color. Meanwhile, we don't get to make as many good fliers as we might otherwise like because we're constantly fighting to keep blue from becoming too powerful."

God. Help. Me. They're trying to make white more powerful and blue less so, so they shift an ability from blue to white. Which ability? Flying. Flying. Blue has still got countering, board control and card drawing to draw into more counters and board control... But hey, that's alright, 'cause white got flying!

Let's return to the Top 8 of the Swedish Nationals. Between maindecks and sideboards, there are three creatures with flying. One sideboard Rakavolver and two Mystic Enforcers. How many of these are blue? One, if you count Rakavolver since it needs blue mana to get flying. Looks like blue flying creatures are a big problem in the environment. You'd better ban Thought Nibbler, guys, this is getting out of hand.

Seriously, what efficient fliers is he talking about? Mahamoti Djinn? Thought Devourer? Sure, they see a little play, with the emphasis on little.

This guy is a former Pro Tour competitor. He works for R&D. If he can look at today's environment and conclude that green is too good, I understand why the environment looks the way it does.

Despite this long-winded rant, I don't hate Counterspell. I don't want Counterspell banned. As long as it is not backed up by board control and instant card-drawing, I'm all right with Counterspell. It appears that blue will have to draw cards via sorceries in the future. That's aye-o-kay with me, as it will go a long way towards restoring the balance of power. I'm also very happy to see Seedtime, although I cannot help noticing that it's placed in the last set of the block, ensuring that it will be in Type 2 for the shortest possible time period, and also that it is said to be intended to hose Fact or Fiction, a card it will share the environment with for four months. But hey, who am I to complain? After all, white got flying.

And while we're on the subject: R&D, please don't remake the mistakes you made in Invasion block. There were four hard, playable counterspells in that block, not to mention a cantrip Remove Soul in a creature-dominated block and a cantrip Force Spike in the control-on-control matchup. See what happened in IBC? Basically what's happening in Type 2 now. I loved Invasion, but there'll be no tears in my eyes when Absorb, Undermine, Dromar's Charm and Mystic Snake leave Type 2.

So, anyway, I went to Nationals with the madness deck I told you about in my last article. True to form, I made some last-minute, untested changes to the deck - but for once, they actually turned out to be right. I suppose it had to happen sooner or later, if only by chance. The decklist you saw looked like this:

4x Zombie Infestation
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Arrogant Wurm
4x Violent Eruption
4x Fiery Temper
4x Flametongue Kavu
4x Terminate
3x Roar of the Wurm
4x Llanowar Wastes
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Urborg Volcano
3x Swamp
5x Forest
5x Mountain

Sideboard:
4x Yavimaya Barbarian
3x Compost
3x Engineered Plague
3x Engulfing Flames
2x Sudden Impact

Before going to Nationals, I took out Engulfing Flames for three Spiritmongers, because who can say no to a Spiritmonger? It totally owns beatdown. I also took out one Yavimaya Barbarian and put in one extra Sudden Impact - because if I'm going to play with random scrub cards, I'm going to draw them. Before going, I also gave it a name; namely, Red Beck. You can think about that one for a while.

After taking the draft portion of the event by storm, going an amazing 3-3 and getting beaten around the head and neck by two-time former Swedish Champion Jimmy Öman, I sit down to think about the Type 2 portion about to take place. Do I even play, seeing as how my chances to make the Top 8 are pretty much down the drain?

Of course I do. Who knows when I'll have the chance to play at Nationals the next time? Might as well enjoy it while I'm here. Besides, I never thought I'd make the Top 8 anyway.

So I'm sitting there, the evening before the most important Constructed tournament I've ever been in, and ponder the problems of my deck. All too often, I find myself without a madness outlet. In an uncharacteristic flash of genius, I realise that I need more madness outlets. I tell you, sometimes I amaze even myself.

So, I play black, red and green. I'm already playing Zombie Infestation and Wild Mongrel. I have no internet connection, so I'm left to my own memory to figure out what to use. One card jumps up, demanding my attention and waving nuts and bolts around.

Patchwork Gnomes
3
Artifact Creature - Gnome
Discard a card from your hand: Regenerate Patchwork Gnomes.
2/1

Okay, it's nowhere near the brokenness of Wild Mongrel or Zombie Infestation... But it appears that it's the best there is. It's good against Spiritmonger, Wild Mongrel, and basically anything else that you can stand in the way of. It provides a free madness outlet for one card at a time. The madness outlet doesn't usually do something as useful as give a creature +1/+1 or create a Zombie, but it's perfectly playable. Besides, it's always great when your opponent has to read the cards you play. I decide to play two, giving me ten madness outlets in total.

So, what do I take out? Well, as much as I like Roar of the Wurm, I have to realise that it is a sorcery that costs four and so should walk into Counterspell half the time... And besides, it is vulnerable to bounce. One Roar of the Wurm leaves. I want to keep the other two in there, since it is so powerful in certain matchups, and because the"big guy" mechanic has always been strong. My first candidate for the next take-out is Violent Eruption, since it requires two red mana if you have a madness outlet. Quite often I'd find myself with Violent Eruption in hand and no mana to play it. However, instant burn can sometimes win unwinnable matchups. I leave all four Violent Eruptions in. My eye then turns to, with the eager help of homeboys Glenn and Karl, Flametongue Kavu. Pointing out that there will be a lot of control and that Flametongue Kavu is just plain bad in most control matchups, they persuade me to take one out.

With hindsight, it might have been better to take out one Terminate, since Flametongue Kavu is not totally dead even in a creatureless matchup. On the other hand, Terminate rocks against Psychatog.

Here's the final decklist, the version I actually played at Nationals:

Red Beck
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Zombie Infestation
2x Patchwork Gnomes
4x Fiery Temper
4x Violent Eruption
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Arrogant Wurm
4x Terminate
3x Flametongue Kavu
2x Roar of the Wurm
4x Llanowar Wastes
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Urborg Volcano
3x Swamp
5x Forest
5x Mountain

Sideboard:
3x Yavimaya Barbarian
3x Compost
3x Spiritmonger
3x Engineered Plague
3x Sudden Impact

So the deck is finalized and I get ready to go to bed. Glenn, always there to help my mood, points out that there will be even more accusations of netdecking (see my first article) now that I have Patchwork Gnomes in there. My reply is the obvious"huh?" Who plays with Patchwork Gnomes?

Apparently, someone does. Apparently, there was an article on Brainburst a day or so before, singing the praise of Patchwork Gnomes as a madness outlet. I despair. There seems to be no way out of this. I'll have to play with Barbarian Lunatic before I'll be considered rogue.

But at least white got flying.

On to the tournament. I have to say that I didn't take any notes whatsoever apart from my life total notes, so this won't really be a tournament report, just a recollection of interesting moments.

I lose my first round to Anders playing some deck. Yep, that's about all I can remember at this time.

Thus having started the day off at a perfect record of 0-1, I face Björn. Unless I misrecall, he was playing U/G Upheaval with Nimble Mongeese, Werebears and stuff. My creatures are almost as cheap, bigger, and do not rely on threshold, so I win.

Now at 1-1, I run into Magnus Lantto, who at this point should be on a higher table. At least that's what he thinks. He's running Trenches and slays me in two straight rounds.

1-2; the perfect place to be. My next opponent is Karolina, running R/G beatdown. This was a fun and even match. I take the first match home, burning out her creatures and beating down. I board in Spiritmongers and Engineered Plague (hoping to name Lizard, thus taking out my own Basking Rootwallas). We reach a creature standoff until Spiritmonger hits and starts distributing pain. Unfortunately, Karolina drops Keldon Necropolis and keeps drawing creatures to throw at me, killing me before Spiritmonger can finish her off. It's down to game three, where I deal with her initial creature rush and then we play draw-go until I hard-cast and flashback Roar of the Wurm. The Wurm tokens are too large to handle, and I walk away with victory.

2-2. I need one more win to be able to look in the mirror without averting my eyes in shame. I face Markus, playing Rug. This is an extremely unfamiliar matchup for me, but I win in two rounds anyway. This is largely due to him not seeing any red mana game 1.

I'm at 3-2, and at least I won't be walking away from Nationals with more losses than wins. I walk up to the pairings board. My opponent is Olle Råde.

Olle Råde.

The most dominant Constructed player ever.

The first player ever to be the best.

The winner of the first ever Invitational.

This is like a junior boxer walking into the ring and finding Muhammad Ali waiting for him.

He's obviously at 6-5, since he's going to play me, so his tournament hasn't been the best... But it's still Olle Råde. The man, the myth, the concept. I suddenly feel like the ultimate scrub.

If white hadn't got flying, I might have despaired. As it was I collected my wits and sat down at the table.

He arrives, we chat, he remarks that this match is basically about nothing. I reply that for me, it is about having beaten Olle Råde, which is quite a lot. He seems to take a little offense, but keeps making friendly smalltalk.

Olle is playing creatureless black control today. First game, I get out zero threats. He puts out Phyrexian Arena, which brings him to sixteen before he drains me for eleven, putting me at nine. He drops to twenty-six and then drains me again, this time for seven. I'm at a stable two when I scoop. He might as well have goldfished.

Round two, I get out an early Compost and proceed to win despite forgetting to draw a card from it three times. Olle remarks that that must be the quickest start my deck is capable of. It certainly was close.

Round three is a fight. His life total goes up and down like a yo-yo, with me attempting to beat and burn him out and him stealing my life. When he has seven cards in hand and a Phyrexian Arena in play, I play Sudden Impact in his draw step, dealing nine damage to him. A nine-point Sudden Impact to the shiny white dome of Olle Råde is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Anyway, I can't quite finish him off before he drains me out.

The whole match was a pretty nervous experience, since at any given time there were three to five people hanging around our table, just to watch Olle Råde play. When I finally scoop, Karl, who has been standing behind me, asks me if I realise that I had a forced win there for a while. Since it's not in my nature to ignore forced wins I notice, I say no. He explains that Olle was at eleven and I was able to burn him out with two Violent Eruptions and a Fiery Temper via Zombie Infestation. I consult my life total notes, and sure enough, Olle has been at eleven. He dropped from thirteen to eleven, meaning I attacked with a Zombie, and his next life change is from eleven to ten, meaning he had a Phyrexian Arena. I remember him dropping to thirteen since he played Duress and was forced to pick a Violent Eruption that I consequently threw at his dome. I ponder Karl's words, but cannot think of a way to kill Olle in the situation, since I don't remember holding as much burn as Karl claims I did. Olle says he doesn't know either.

Thank you, Karl! That'll be a month of sleepless nights, wondering if I could have beaten Olle Råde! Exactly what I needed.

My favourite moment of the tournament is one that I cannot quite fit in with my life total notes or other recollections, but nevertheless it happened like this:

He taps out for an end-step Fact or Fiction. I put a Shivan Reef with two good cards and two other cards in a pile of their own. He (correctly) takes the Shivan Reef pile, only partly because he needs red mana. When Fact or Fiction has resolved, I burn him down to one life while he's tapped out. What good is that Shivan Reef going to be to him now?

Isn't it great when a trick works?

So my Nationals experience boils down to going 6-6 and seeing too much blue played. But that's alright, 'cause white got flying.

E-mail address provided below; please flame liberally.

Patrik Linell
pls@claymore.nu

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