Recently, the current Standard environment appears to have become somewhat stagnant. If you look at the top 8 results from the past few weeks on http://www.i-gaming.org/decks, it soon becomes apparent that there are four major successful deck archetypes that that people have been playing; those decks are Green Beatdown (usually a G/r Fires deck), Blue Skies, Rebels, and U/W Control (either Counter-Wrath or Counter-Rebels). Depending on the week you look at, either Blue Skies or Fires seems to be dominating. The winning decks in each archetype vary somewhat, but they usually agree on a solid core of spells that define the deck.

In the case of Blue Skies, the deck is fairly well defined. Tom Guevin's Skies build on The Sideboard is typical: The creature base is Spiketail Hatchling, Chimeric Idol, Rishadan Airship, and Troublesome Spirit. The deck always runs Thwart and Foil as countermagic, Wash Out to clear the board, and Gush as card drawing. Once you see your opponent play a blue flying creature, you usually have a good idea what you're facing and exactly what to do to win.

However, you might be unlucky enough to have been paired against me. My deck looks a little like Skies when you're playing against it... But it's actually a completely different strategy. I'm playing a deck that I first threw together before Nemesis as a non-tournament deck, but it did better than I had any right to expect. The earliest incarnation was an Iron Maiden deck filled with things like Prosperity and every bounce spell I could find to keep my opponent's hand full, and Temporal Adept to forever keep an opponent on one land. It was horrible, but amazingly enough I actually won some games with it.

Then Parallax Tide was printed. It was a card that could keep multiple lands out of play and could be kept active for a long time by repeatedly bouncing it. It became much easier to keep an opponent on one land until I could get the Temporal Adept lock. The deck I used was bizarre; it used cards like Glowing Anemone and Sunder (which aren't as bad as you'd think), ran thirty land to make sure it always has five land out on turn 5 (to play Temporal Adept and Hoodwink in the same turn), used Palinchron as a finisher - and it often beat Replenish, Ponza, and Bargain, but lost horribly to anything with Llanowar Elves or Phyrexian Negator in it. (Although it might seem that anything that could beat Replenish should have been good, Replenish never became dominant enough in online play for this early version of the deck to win.)

After weeks of losing, I eventually decided to try out Ankh of Mishra in the deck (which I had resisted using for fear of hurting myself), and discovered that it was absolutely incredible - I could lock down opponents without Parallax Tide and I could do eight to sixteendamage with a Tide! My deck was suddenly much better, but it still lost horribly to anything with non-land mana sources, and was about 40% vs. blue control decks. Powder Keg wasn't enough of a defense against decks with Elves.

My deck still had a fundamental problem: I could beat most non-green decks most of the time going first, but when I went second, the strategy of "bounce land every turn starting on turn 2" was much weaker, as my opponent had two lands to work with instead of one. With two lands, the opponent could do things that can't be done with only one land - like Counterspelling my Boomerang.

Near the end of the season, I made two discoveries: I found that by changing the way I played the deck, I could beat blue counterspell decks. All I had to do was cast bounce spells during my opponent's upkeep instead of during my main phase; if he countered the bounce spell, he would be tapped out and unable to counter the next spell - and if he didn't counter it, he had one less land in play. My other discovery was that it was pointless to spend four mana on a Glowing Anemone when I could be spending four mana on a Masticore. I had thought that the upkeep would be too much of a problem, but I didn't realize how often Masticore would just win a game on its own.

By the end of the Urza's + Masques season, I was playing a deck resembling this one:

4x Brainstorm
4x Boomerang
4x Hoodwink
4x Rescind
4x Temporal Adept
4x Parallax Tide
4x Ankh of Mishra
4x Masticore
2x Morphling

20x Island
4x Rishadan Port
2x Rath's Edge

The sideboard continuously varied, but it was always a week or so behind the metagame. At different times, I ran Chill, Powder Keg, Hibernation, Meekstone, Defense Grid, and even Overburden. (I'm sure there were others as well.) I know this was the best version of the deck that I made, but I actually had less success with this version because all the other decks had gotten so much better (Son of Hermit was a horrible matchup). If I had played this version of the deck earlier in the year, knowing what I know now, I might have actually made Top 8 a few times instead of finishing 10th over and over again. It could have been worse; finishing 10th out of 60-100 entries using a deck of your own design isn't too bad, now is it?

Then Invasion appeared and Urza's block rotated out of Standard. The deck had lost the most important card: Temporal Adept. I couldn't lock my opponent down with the Best 1/1 Ever Printed*, so I had to change my strategy. I tried a straight LD/bounce deck without the Adept, but I'd often find myself with a helpless opponent and no way to take advantage of that. Games lasted for twenty turns while I bounced land and Tides waiting for an Ankh or an Anemone that never appeared. I decided to try a beatdown variant that would slow the opponent down just enough for my flyers and Ankhs to kill him. I used Spiketail Hatchling, Rishadan Airship, and Indentured Djinn as my creature base and named my deck "djinn.dec" after the 4/4 flyer for 1UU.

It worked reasonably well, but I kept having trouble with those darn green beatdown decks and Rebel decks. Wash Out in the sideboard helped... But not enough. There was also the annoying little fact that Indentured Djinn caused me to lose me far more games than it won. I tried splashing black for various creatures, Vampiric Tutor, and Perish (I have a more controlling version that uses Evil Eye of Orms-By-Gore) but in the end, I settled on this design, which I call Son of djinn.dec. It's similar to Bob Maher's PT Chicago deck and the winning 1/19/01 T2 deck on http://www.i-gaming.org/decks, but it is much more of a control deck than either of those two. Following the decklist will be a card by card analysis and advice on how to play the deck against the most popular decks.

//NAME: Son of Djinn.dec

4x Brainstorm
4x Opt
4x Boomerang
3x Hoodwink
4x Spiketail Hatchling
4x Rishadan Airship
3x Air Elemental
4x Parallax Tide
4x Ankh of Mishra
4x Wash Out

16x Island
4x Rishadan Port
2x Rath's Edge

Sideboard:
4x Submerge
4x Mana Maze
3x Wall of Air
1x Air Elemental
1x Hoodwink
2x Indentured Djinn (open slots that I don't know what to put into)

Mana curve:
Land: 22
1cc: 8
2cc: 11 (15 including Ankh)
3cc: 4
4cc: 8
5cc: 3

The mana in this deck is absolutely perfect. My usual method of finding the proper amount of land for a deck is to start with an land count that is more likely to be too low than too high, then add another land each time I get my land too slowly. I never notice getting mana flooded in the late game (with any deck), although the land counts in my decks tend to be fairly high and I'm sure it has happened. I very rarely draw less land than I need, and when it does happen, it's usually because I've kept a hand with no spells that cost less than four mana or my opponent has been using Rishadan Port on me.

Six of my twenty-two lands are non-basic land. The value of Rishadan Port in any mana denial deck is obvious, but Rath's Edge isn't quite as obvious a choice when Dust Bowl or two Islands can also go into the land slot that it takes up. Rath's Edge is very, very useful. It kills one toughness creatures, such as that Defiant Falcon or Rishadan Airship in the way of your air force. It even hurts your opponent; I've won many games in which the final points of damage came from Rath's Edge.

I've read that every two cantrips in your deck can count as a "virtual" land. I run eight cantrips - four Brainstorms and four Opts - so instead of twenty-two lands, I actually have twenty-six. They are my only first-turn plays, and they are extremely useful. They are never dead cards, they let me run less land in the deck, and they help me find what I need. If I draw any after my second turn, I like to play them during my first main phase instead of waiting until my opponent's end step - I want to have more options right away rather than leave U open for no good reason. I've seen many decklists for Skies decks that have absolutely no one casting cost spells. This is absolute foolishness; there is no reason not to be running four Opts and four Brainstorms in a blue deck if you have no other spells that you can play on the first turn.

My second turn plays are Boomerang, Hoodwink, and Spiketail Hatchling. These cards form the core land denial spells for current Blue Land Destruction decks. Boomerang and Hoodwink are the blue mage's equivalent of Pillage and Stone Rain. Just like the red LD spells, they get rid of one land, but they can also remove other permanents that the Red LD spells do not affect and cost one less mana to do it. Later in the game, Boomerang and Hoodwink can be used to recycle Parallax Tide. Spiketail Hatchling forces the opponent to have an extra mana available when casting spells, so it also serves as a turn 2 land denial spell. The fact that it hits the opponent for one damage a turn is a nice bonus as well. (I'm going to say this many, many times: DO NOT PLAY AN ANKH ON TURN 2!)

Rishadan Airship is the only three casting cost spell in the deck, and it's the only card that I'm not satisfied with. All it does is attack for three damage a turn. It has no defensive value whatsoever against any deck that isn't Blue Skies (against which it can trade for another Airship) and is only good for killing the opponent. However, sometimes all you need is a card that does some damage every turn, and there just isn't anything else worth playing for three or less mana.

Air Elemental is the deck's most expensive card. Five mana for a 4/4 flying creature is actually a pretty good deal in current T2; it puts the opponent on a five-turn clock and it can kill any creature in the traditional Blue Skies deck. It even kills Blinding Angel, the favorite of W/U control decks.

Parallax Tide is the card that makes the deck possible. It removes multiple lands from the game for several turns, leaving your opponent completely unable to cast spells. It's much better than Tangle Wire, which taps two of your own lands on the turn after you cast it and quickly becomes weaker. With even a single Ankh of Mishra, Parallax Tide becomes a powerful source of damage. It can be recycled with a Boomerang or Hoodwink. This card can sometimes "just win" the game, like Blastoderm or Saproling Burst does in a Fires deck.

There's a few tricks you can do with Parallax Tide. When Parallax Tide leaves play, the land returns to play untapped. If your opponent has untapped land, always play Parallax Tide BEFORE combat. If it resolves, remove the untapped land one at a time, starting with land that produces white mana. If he taps any, yield priority and attempt to enter the combat phase. If he's going to remove the Tide, he has to do it immediately or take mana burn. If he does Disenchant the Tide and you have no Ankh in play, use the remaining four counters to remove your own land from the game and get it back untapped. If there is an Ankh in play, respond by removing four of your opponent's land and make him take eight per Ankh. One last trick - if your opponent has less than five land and you need Tide to go away next turn so you can win with Ankh damage, you can target one of your opponent's land more than once to remove all the counters immediately. I've won games that way.

Ankh of Mishra is not as important to the deck as you might think. It essentially serves the same function as Fireblast in 1.x Sligh decks; it hits the opponent for a bunch of damage. In multiples, it can keep an opponent from playing any land at all; you can bounce a land and it stays out of play. I wouldn't run this if Parallax Tide didn't exist, but it's usually good for four or six damage even without one, and it hurts decks like U/W control that like to play a lot of land. You almost never want to play it on your second turn; you'll end up taking as much damage from it as your opponent. Seriously. It's better to sit there with two untapped islands on turn 2 than play an Ankh. Unless you have an amazing draw and are going to combo your opponent to death on turn 5, DO NOT PLAY AN ANKH ON TURN 2!

The sideboard has a few tricks in it. Mana Maze replaces Wash Out against any other deck running a lot of blue. Mana Maze prevents blue spells from being countered; against U/W, a Mana Maze that gets past the counterspells means that they can't stop you from playing Parallax Tide and rushing them with your creatures. Ankhs can still be countered, but if you respond to your own Ankh with a blue instant before yielding priority to your opponent, your Ankhs become uncounterable as well. (Your opponent can still counter spells if they first cast a white instant, such as Disenchant or Enlightened Tutor, but don't tell them that until the match is over.)

Mana Maze also works wonders against traditional Blue Skies decks. Not only does it shut down their counters, but by bouncing their creatures on their turn, you effectively cost them two attack phases - they have to replay the creature on their next turn and then wait for summoning sickness to wear off. They're not running fifteen instants that don't target spells, so you have a big advantage with Mana Maze in play.

Submerge goes in against Fires and other Green Beatdown decks, replacing Hoodwink and a Spiketail Hatchling.

Wall of Air blocks every creature Blue Skies runs. It replaces Rishadan Airship, which becomes much less useful when your opponent can block and kill it with a 1/1.

There are four commonly-played cards that I absolutely refuse to run: Two of them are Chimeric Idol and Troublesome Spirit. Chimeric Idol and Troublesome Spirit tap all of your land during your turn, which shuts down Rishadan Port and doesn't allow you to play Boomerang during your opponent's turn to rescue a Parallax Tide or blunt an attack. The third is Tangle Wire. Tangle Wire is totally useless after turn 4, and slows you down almost as much as it slows your opponent down. Playing Tangle Wire on turn 3 means that you will have no more than two mana available on turn 4 - you've effectively spent two turns playing the card, and only denied your opponent two turns at most. Fires can still go "Forest, Elf" or "Attack with Blastoderm" with one of these in play. Tangle Wire belongs in a more aggressive deck that can back it up with faster threats. The final card I will not run is Counterspell (or any variant). Counterspell is useless in a land denial deck; why counter a spell when you could be preventing your opponent from playing it at all?

Now for how the deck stands up to the common decks and how to play against them. Far too many discussions of decks talk extensively about the decklist, but tell you very little about how to play the deck. I'm going to try to give you as much advice on how to play the deck as I can.

Against Blue Skies:

This is a pretty good matchup for you - but it's not an unscheduled bye, either. Their creature offense is faster than yours, so you have to be the control deck. Air Elemental can kill every creature they use, so if you get one onto the table you're in good shape. Always play as though they do not have a Thwart or Foil in hand. If they have one, you can't do anything about it before you sideboard in Mana Maze. Try to keep them from getting to three mana if you can. If you have the option, play Hatchlings on the second turn instead of a bounce spell when going first but bounce land when going second. (After sideboarding, always play Mana Maze on turn 2 if you draw it.) For games 2 and 3, you want to take out all of your Rishadan Airships, all four of your Wash Outs, and one Spiketail Hatchling. Replace them with the fourth Air Elemental and Hoodwink, the three Walls of Air, and Mana Maze. Mana Maze is a game winner when backed up with bounce; you get to keep them from playing spells if you play instants during their upkeep and they can't stop your Air Elemental and Parallax Tide from dominating the board (by countering them). Oh, and by the way, DO NOT PLAY AN ANKH ON TURN 2!

Rebels:

Mana denial is everything. If the Rebel engine starts going strong, your only hope is a combo-kill with Ankh and Tide, as Lin Sivvi can make an unlimited supply of flying chump blockers. Bouncing land is a better turn 2 play than Spiketail Hatchling - if you go second, they can search with their three land next turn. If your mana control starts to falter, then just start smashing them as hard as you can while Wash Out and Rath's Edge clear away blockers. I don't have much of a sideboard against Rebels; I take out four Rishadan Airship for Hoodwink, Air Elemental, and Indentured Djinn. One more thing: DO NOT PLAY AN ANKH ON TURN 2!

Green Beatdown, Fires style:

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: Fires is one of this deck's best matchups. They need three lands and an Elf to drop Blastoderm, and four land and an elf to drop Saproling Burst. Chimeric Idol on its own isn't going to kill you faster than you can kill your opponent. Any mana denial at all slows your opponent down significantly. Don't waste Boomerang on Elves or Birds; you need to focus on their land. All your creatures fly, so they can't be blocked effectively; attack hard and attack often. Your strategy is mostly the same as against Rebels - stall their development and smash them. Wash Out is godlike here; it clears their side of the board while you continue to attack or deny them mana with Parallax Tide. (Turn 4 Parallax Tide + Turn 5 Wash Out = helpless opponent.) After sideboarding, Submerge lets you bounce your opponent's attackers for free. You don't need anything else; with a bit of good luck you should be able to kill them before they kill you. I know I'm overdoing this, but I don't want you to forget it. DO NOT PLAY AN ANKH ON TURN 2!

U/W Control:

This matchup isn't always in your favor, but it's not an unscheduled bye for your opponent either. Obviously, you have to take the initiative and be the beatdown deck. There's two tricks you need to know to pull this one off: If you have a bounce spell in your opening hand when going second, play a land on turn 2 and end your turn. Then play the bounce spell during your opponent's upkeep. This forces them to either let their mana development be slowed or tap out. It's even worse for them if you target a Coastal Tower, which comes into play tapped. Whenever your opponent has more than one untapped land, it's usually better to wait until your opponent's upkeep to bounce it. The second trick is not to wait for a Parallax Tide to fade away before playing another one - they will counter it if you give them the chance. Mana Maze is absolutely amazing against this deck. Until they Disenchant it, they can't counter any of your cards (except Ankh of Mishra, but you can stop that by responding to your own Ankh with a blue instant). They can still Wrath, but you can use Rishadan Port and Parallax Tide to make it hard to cast both white and blue spells. This is the one matchup in which playing an Ankh on turn 2 might be better than doing nothing at all. The spell you cast on turn 2 is the lest likely spell to be countered. The life loss is irrelevant to you and the more damage your opponent takes, the better. Nevertheless, DO NOT PLAY AN ANKH ON TURN 2 UNLESS YOU HAVE A VERY GOOD REASON!

There are a few decks that that this deck fears, but none of them are very commonly played. One is Ponza. Your creatures will die to burn and you have a low land count. If your opponent gets the mana to cast Boil, you are in trouble. This deck isn't common enough to warrant any sideboard space, but I would run Chill if I knew I would be facing it.

The other deck that scares me is mono-black control. They have a lot of cheap creature removal and Dark Ritual to get around your attempts at mana control. Plague Spitter hurts a lot. Your best chance is to try to do what you do against all the other decks; restrict their mana and kill them with creatures and Ankhs.

Overall, this deck does fairly well against the current metagame. I've been doing amazingly well in the I-magic qualifiers. In the past four weeks, I've ended up going 5-1-1 finish 9th after an ID, 2-2 drop, 7-1-0 (get loss #2 in the first round of the T8 against a guy I swept 2-0 in the seventh round), and this past week, I won the whole thing, having lost only two single games in the entire tournament thanks to some amazing luck.

If you remember only one thing from this article, remember this:

Mana Maze is an amazing sideboard card against decks that run many counterspells.

(Admit it: You thought that I was going to say "DO NOT PLAY AN ANKH ON TURN 2!" again, didn't you?)

- Doug Shine


* - Yes, Temporal Adept really is the best 1/1 ever printed. Have you ever seen an opponent scoop when you play Llanowar Elves or Mogg Fanatic?**

** - "Squee, Goblin Nabob" does not count as a 1/1 creature. In order for a card to be considered a creature, it must be in play. Squee does nothing special when in play.