It's been awhile since my last article, and though I haven't really been Magic-ing all that much, I've got something to say on several different topics.

I want to start by discussing a pre-9th Standard deck: Tooth and Nail. A certain writer took the liberty to attack the Florida Mox and Nail list with "...let me make it clear: Chrome Mox is truly awful in a TNN deck." Of course, Kodama's Reach and Birds of Paradise were the suggested replacements for Vine Trellis and the aforementioned Mox. Rather than going into further detail in an attempt to start controversy, let me just say: the Nationals results speak for themselves.

Italy:
1st Place - Manuel Alvisi (4 Mox, 3 Vine Trellis, 0 Reach)

France:
1st Place - Julien Goron (2 Mox, 3 Trellis, 0 Reach)
7th Place - Bastien Lodo (3 Mox, 3 Trellis, 0 Reach)

Greece:
1st Place Vasillis Fatouros (3 Mox, 3 Trellis, 0 Reach)
5th Place Simon Beriou (0 of all three)

Ireland:
2nd Place - Dave Coghlan (3 Mox, 3 Trellis, 0 Reach)
4th Place - Alan Meaney (3 Mox, 3 Trellis, 0 Reach)

U.S. Nationals Decks with Winning Records:
One w/ Reach
Nine w/ Trellis and Mox
Two w/ Only Mox

The only list I was able to find in any pre-9th Top 8 without both Mox and Trellis didn't have Kodama's Reach either!

Moving on, I have a nice 9th Standard list for all the FNM readers out there. It certainly isn't a list you'd want to run at a National Championship, but it is very solid for heavy aggro metagames, putting me on an FNM 11-0 run which will hopefully yield enough rating points to send me to Pro Tour :Los Angeles this October.

Anti-Aggro Mono Blue Control
2 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Spire Golem
3 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
4 Culling Scales
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Boomerang
4 Mana Leak
3 Condescend
4 Hinder
1 Annul
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Stalking Stones
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
16 Island

Sideboard:
4 Temporal Adept
4 Jushi Apprentice
2 Last Word
2 Annul
3 Threads of Disloyalty

I screwed around with some other ideas such as splashing Black for maindecked Rend Flesh and sideboarded Cranial Extractions (for the new Tooth lists with anti-Blue spells galore) but the results weren't as impressive. The mana never gave me trouble, but the lack of Spire Golem made Thirst a lot worse, and Flesh really wasn't that much better. As for Cranial Extraction, I never actually played in a matchup where I really cared for it (remember, this is FNM).

The matchups and sideboarding goes like this:

Aggro Red:
Game One 60-40
Sideboarded 60-40

This list certainly has enough early counter magic (4 Mana Leak and 3 Condescend) to hold off Aggro Red, assuming they don't get the early Slith Firewalker draw. One the other hand, if the Slith gets going then Boomerang, Culling Scales and Spire Golem are all solid answers. Blinkmoth NexU.S. is nice since it trades with most of aggro Red's creatures (or burn spells), and Meloku does a good job of cleaning things up. The only real concern in this matchup is Jinxed Choker, which auto-beats you if you don't have an answer. Luckily, that card is usually regulated to the sideboard, and if you anticipate Genju of the Spires and Sword of Fire and Ice, Annul becomes another worthwhile answer. Watch out for Boiling Seas, though it isn't really the end of the world if it resolves. I've won several games after being on the receiving end of the sorcery spell Boil thanks to the nine non-basic lands.

+3 Threads of Disloyalty (Assuming they have Slith and Hearth Kami)
+1 Annul
-1 Thirst for Knowledge
-2 Hinder
-1 Culling Scales

White Weenie
Game One 70-30
Sideboarded 60-40

Your favorite matchup. Pump your first, and enjoy the ride. Culling Scales wrecks them. Spire Golem wrecks them. Meloku wrecks them. An unanswered Vedalken Shackles wrecks them, and on the play, cheap counterspells aren't bad either. Obviously, don't keep a very slow hand and you shouldn't have any problems.

-4 Hinder
+3 Threads of Disloyalty
+1 Annul

Viridian Rats
Game One 55-45
Sideboarded 55-45

This is your hardest aggro matchup, but is favorable nonetheless. Vedalken Shackles and Culling Scales are both wrecking balls, but of course Pithing Needle and Viridian Shaman are solid answers for both. Still, between Scales, Shackles and Meloku, you are bound to get something to stick. And once one does, the game becomes very easy. Watch out for Ink-Eyes, and play around Needle if you can. In many situations, you can play Shackles, wait for the Needle, then windmill slam Culling Scales into play.

+3 Threads of Disloyalty
+1 Annul
-4 Hinder

Mono-Blue Control
Game One 45-55
Sideboarded 55-45

This matchup is all about Vedalken Shackles. An early opposing Jushi Apprentice can be GG, fortunately, you have several ways to counter it when on the play, and Culling Scales is a solid answer as well. Additionally, Scales is a wonderful way to win the Shackles war. All factors considered, game one is slightly unfavorable. The sideboarded games come down to how dedicated they are to winning, but you have a full set of Jushi Apprentices coming from the board, as well as four very strong ways to say "no."

+1 Threads of Disloyalty
+4 Jushi Apprentice
+2 Last Word
+2 Annul
-4 Spire Golem
-1 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
-3 Condescend
-1 Culling Scales

Blue Tron
Game One 40-60
Sideboarded 50-50

You have a lot of dead cards in this matchup, and not enough hard counters to deal with all their threats. If things start looking bad, just scoop it up, and give yourself time to win games two and three, which are far better for you.

-4 Vedalken Shackles
-3 Culling Scales
-4 Mana Leak
+2 Annul
+2 Last Word
+4 Jushi Apprentice
+3 Temporal Adept

Tooth and Nail
Game One 40-60
Sideboarded 55-45

Just as with the other two control matchups, game one is a bit ugly, but you get a lot of help from the board. Your clock is way too slow, and with Boseiju in Tooth's maindeck, you'd better believe Tooth and Nail is going to resolve. Even without Boseiju, this particular MUC list only plays four hard counters for that nine-mana sorcery, so once the Tooth player has accumulated five or six Urza's lands, it is only a matter of time before you run out of answers. Luckily, a resolved Tooth and Nail isn't the game ender that it is for so many other decks. Though it is rare, I've won games after having Tooth resolved, by stealing their Colossus and friends with Vedalken Shackles. Again this is rare, as you'll still have to deal with Oblivion Stone and Viridian Shaman at that point.

Sideboarded, things get much better, as an early Temporal Adept is all but an auto-win. On top of this, you have extra permission and good old Jushi Apprentice coming out of the board. The Tooth player could try to transform and aggro you out, but that is just asking for a Meloku style ass whopping.

-1 Mana Leak
-1 Condescend
-1 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
-2 Vedalken Shackles
-2 Spire Golem
-4 Culling Scales
+4 Temporal Adept
+4 Jushi Apprentice
+1 Annul (2 if you anticipate Mindslaver)
+2 Last Word

As I said, this deck is very strong for the FNM metagame, where generally aggro decks reign supreme, while control is much rarer. On the other hand, if you need a list for a control heavy metagame, and are not worried about aggro matchups, then a more suitable list would be one like Neil Reeves's from U.S. Nationals, except with Last Word over Rewind.

Finally, though a little belated, I figured I'd discuss my U.S. Nationals experience. As I was trying to keep up in school (summer semester) I didn't have much opportunity to play test Standard, and frankly, pre-9th Standard had become very dull. When I arrived I was practically set on running this Tooth list, metagamed for control.

Mox and Nail
4 Tooth and Nail
3 Chrome Mox
3 Vine Trellis
2 Eternal Witness
3 Creeping Mold
3 Plow Under
1 Sundering Titan
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Platinum Angel
1 Duplicant
1 Viridian Shaman
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Reap and Sow
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
7 Forest
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers

Sideboard:
1 Plow Under
1 Creeping Mold
2 Viridian Shaman
1 Leonin Abunas
1 Eternal Witness
4 Troll Ascetic
2 Pulse of the Tangle
3 Iwamori of the Open Fist

In hindsight, the deck seems nearly perfect for the metagame, and likely would've put up strong numbers. Hanging out during the Grinders, however, I ran into several Florida players who were talking about running White Weenie. After all, it had just put up a strong finish at a European Nationals and had been qualifying players all night. On the other hand, Alex Lieberman, Antonino De Rosa and Billy P. were actually telling me to play a deck that doesn't suck, the Blue-Tron deck with Cranial Extractions which went on to win the entire tournament. Being that I'm generally a better Constructed player than I am a Limited one, I decided that I'd rather play the "lucky" deck that might actually be the nuts, than to put up a solid record with a strong deck in a harsh metagame. Needless to say, I decided to play White Weenie.

White Weenie Pre-9th Standard
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Eiganjo Castle
17 Plains

4 Suntail Hawk
4 Lantern Kami
4 Auriok Champion
2 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
4 Leonin Skyhunter
2 Hokori, Dust Drinker
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Glorious Anthem
3 Jinxed Choker
4 Damping Matrix

Sideboard:
1 Plains
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
2 Pithing Needle
4 Terashi's Grasp
2 Arrest
2 Wrath of God
3 Worship

Anyhow, White Weenie is terrible, and so I wound up having to win my last three matches in a row, which was complete luck, just to pull a winning Constructed record, finishing in 13th place (one point out of Top 8) and giving away over $500 in prize splits (if you were playing White Weenie, you'd prize split too!) Meanwhile, in my weaker format, I was able to go 6-1 with a couple U/W decks, with my only loss due to triple mulligan in an otherwise favorable matchup. I was planning on writing summaries for each match, but it seems rather fruitless since pre-9th Standard is dead and CBS draft is about to meet the same fate, being replaced with Ravnica.

Speaking of Ravnica, I've started working on post-rotation Extended, and I plan on putting together a crash course for the format including some matchup analyses for next time. So make sure you check that out. For now, I'll leave you with one of my recent creations.

Angels!
4 Exalted Angel
3 Lightning Angel
4 Trinket Mage
4 Meddling Mage
4 Silver Knight
4 Fire / Ice
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Pithing Needle
1 Scrabbing Claws
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Chrome Mox
5 Plains
3 Island
2 Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Flooded Strand
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Shivan Reef
2 Skycloud Expanse

Sideboard:
3 Crimson Acolyte
3 Powerstone Minefield
2 Firemane Angel
2 Disenchant
3 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Scrabbing Claws

See ya next time!
Keith McLaughlin
keythree AT gmail DOT com