Note: This was originally published as StarCityGames.com Premium content - but like all StarCityGames.com Premium articles, it has been made freely available for the entire community after one month has passed. Join StarCityGames.com Premium today and gain exclusive access to the most informative Magic: the Gathering content available!

[SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE ARTICLE!]

Become a StarCityGames.com Premium Member and receive exclusive access to top-level strategies, new decklists and entertaining reports from many of the best players and writers that the game has to offer! This includes "The Innovator" & Worlds finalist Patrick Chapin, 2010 Player of the Year Brad Nelson, Classic Theorist Mike Flores, Hall of Famer Brian Kibler, GP and SCG Invitational Champion Gerry Thompson, StarCityGames.com Director of Sales Ben Bleiweiss ...and many, many more!

PLUS! StarCityGames.com Premium members now have an EXCLUSIVE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER sent just to them with the latest tech, exclusive content and exclusive deals along with unprecedented access into America's largest Magic: the Gathering sales database, and can view lists of StarCityGames.com's top-selling items - broken down by category, format legality, and rarity - in real time! When it comes to trading, increased knowledge equals increased profits - and increased knowledge is just one click away for our Premium members!

[View feedback from StarCityGames.com Premium members!]

A StarCityGames.com Premium Membership gives you exclusive access to the best Magic: the Gathering content available and is an amazing bargain for just pennies a day! When you're ready to start getting more out of this game, click here to join StarCityGames.com Premium today!

---

If you are a valid StarCityGames.com Premium member and still cannot view the article, please consult this FAQ.

It had Compulsive Research and Zombify. Signets and Wrath of God. A lot of mana, and Dragons, and Angels…

I loved that deck.

But when Time Spiral arrived, I realized that Solar Flare was no longer the best deck in the field.

Of course, as I wrote an article about it, you can be sure that I tested a lot of different Solar Flare variations. And yes, that included Solar Pox. When you test a deck, you should come up with a meta-deck to beat it.

Fortunately for me, I was set to take part in a large Standard tournament called the “Lord of Magic Championship.” This is one of the biggest tournaments in Japan, and many pro players participate. Going into the event, I speculated there would be Gruul Beats, Boros Beats, Simic Beats, and Izzet Tron.

After the testing I knew the lack of life-gaining is the biggest problem for Solar Flare. It is not so much a problem if Faith's Fetters is played maindeck, but that makes the deck weak against Izzet Tron and other control builds. Also, Solar Flare was as weak as ever against Simic Beats. That is natural, because Solar Flare lost life-gaining spells and Simic gained “burn spells” like Psionic Blast and Stonewood Invocation. In my testing, I found these two Blue and Green spells were very powerful against control decks. Even if a game saw the beats being controlled, there were many chances for the beats to recover. It was often said that, “if you have some life remaining, even a single point, and you succeed in controlling Simic beats, you win.” However, it was no longer true.

“If a deck is strong against control decks, the trick is to make it strong against beatdown too – then you'll have the best deck in the field,” as my grandfather used to say.

Looking through the card pool, I found a little card named Spectral Force. This guy is big - 8/8 - and has trample, which is nice with Stonewood Invocation. It obviously laughs in the face of Wildfire and other burn spells. It's even difficult for Skred to deal with this monster.

This guy does have a big drawback, but this problem is solved by playing Scryb Ranger. She also enables the deck to reduce the number of lands, and make it possible to play Spectral Force on turn 3 thanks to Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves.

I tested with this guy, and found my deck was strong against beatdown.

Solar Flare was no longer the best deck in the field - that's why I gave up playing it. It lost to Izzet Tron, and my new deck Scryb & Force. I thought many people would play decks like Scryb & Force, so I decided to throw Solar Flare away.

I took Scryb & Force to the Lord of Magic Championships, and made Top 8, but I lost to Zoo because of opponent's super drawings…

Everyone was surprised at me not playing my “masterpiece,” Solar Flare. But everyone understood my opinion, and thankfully praised my new deck.

Here is the deck list. Perhaps some of you have seen it.

Scryb & Force Featured by Naoki Shimizu on 2006-12-31 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/13420.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elves 3 Mystic Snake 4 Plaxmanta 4 Scryb Ranger 3 Spectral Force 4 Yavimaya Dryad Instants 4 Psionic Blast 4 Remand 3 Stonewood Invocation Sorceries 4 Call of the Herd	Basic Lands 3 Forest 1 Island Basic Snow Lands 5 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Snow-Covered Island Lands 4 Breeding Pool 4 Yavimaya Coast Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven	Sideboard: 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Loaming Shaman 1 Mystic Snake 3 Trygon Predator 3 Krosan Grip 4 Repeal
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

These are Frequently Asked Questions, and the corresponding answers.

Q. Why do you play both snow-covered and non-snow lands?
A. There is no logical reason. When I gathered lands from my land box, I took mix of snow-covered and non-snow lands. That's all there was to it!

Actually, when you target your opponent with Yavimaya Dryad's ability, you should give him or her a non-snow land. I met Rimefeather Owl in this tournament, so it took almost no time for the snow on these lands to melt away.

Q. Only nineteen lands in total? You have nice lucky draw skills, yes?
A. I tested the deck down from 22 lands. Soon I noticed that two lands are enough to play Spectral Force, thanks to Scryb Ranger and the other acceleration, so I reduced the final number.

Q. Loaming Shaman in the sideboard? Are you kidding?
A. I hated Firemane Angels, but there were very few players running that deck in the Lord of Magic tournament… I never sided this in. Okay, so this was crap.

Q. What is Krosan Grip for?
A. It is good against Glare of Subdual and Sacred Mesa. I expected both of those to be played.

Q. I can't afford Psionic Blasts…
A. That's natural – they're pretty expensive. I borrowed three of my four from my friends, and that solved the problem. [And of course, there's always the competitive prices available from StarCityGames.com! – Craig.]

Here is the report from the Lord of Magic Championship, where I first played this deck. I realize this data could be a little old, but it may be valuable anyway.

Round 1 – U/G/W control
Game 1 saw me facing down three Loxodon Hierarchs, almost driving me to despair. To attack his total of 32 life, I managed to resolve Spectral Force. Thanks to Stonewood Invocation and Scryb Ranger, this monster succeeded in avoiding removal, and fortunately it beat him down pretty quickly.

Game 2 saw me make Yavimaya Dryad on turn 2, which couldn't be blocked. I countered his Wrath of God with Mystic Snake, and dealt a lot of damage. After these preliminary beats, Psionic Blasts finally finished the job.

1-0

Round 2 – Gruul Beats
This deck was one of the best decks in the field… or so I thought before the tournament began.

Game 1, and my opponent started with a Kird Ape from a Stomping Ground, which declared he was playing a G/R deck. He followed this with a Magus of Scroll and Seal of Fire, and Magus worked well early as my opponent mulliganed. As my deck was pure U/G, Magus was very difficult for me to deal with. Because of this disadvantage, I lost this game pretty quickly.

Game 2, and I sided in four Repeals and two Serrated Arrows, taking out four Remands and two Psionic Blasts. But I could only draw one Repeal, and that was played to off an Elephant token. I was mana flooded, and then lost.

1-1

Round 3 – Mono-White Snow Control with Martyr of Sands
Of course, Martyr of Sands and Proclamation of Rebirth is very popular nowadays, but at that time it was pretty rogue.

Game 1 saw a fast Martyr and Proclamation combo with 2 Howling Mines and a Story Circle… my opponent gained a huge amount of life, and I conceded.

Game 2 started badly. The only creature I played was Llanowar Elves. My opponent seemed to have a lot of removal, but he didn't think it was good to play Wrath of God or Faith's Fetters against a measly 1/1. Eventually, I drew three Psionic Blasts and one Stonewood Invocation… and that was enough for the victory. But I think this wouldn't have worked if he had seen a single Martyr of Sands.

My opponent didn't see a Martyr of Sands in game 3 either. I played a turn 2 Trygon Predator, which is very effective against his deck. He played Story Circle, but I broke this with Krosan Grip before he got priority. He couldn't draw any life-gain, so I succeeded in beating him down.

2-1

After these three rounds of Standard, the Lord of Magic Championship has six draft rounds. I posted a 3-2-1 in that portion of the event, so I had to win the remaining three Standard rounds.

Round 10 – Gruul Beats
Not again!

Game 1 – I drew zero Call of the Herds, while my opponent pulled two of his own. I lost this game as a consequence.

Game 2 saw us both play Call of the Herd, but I followed with Spectral Force. Gruul can't deal with this gigantic guy, and soon I got Scryb Ranger active to win the game.

In game 3 I summoned two Spectral Forces in succession. He seemed to be light on burn spells, so the two massive monsters defeat him in short order.

6-3-1

Round 11 – Mono-Blue Snow Control
The snow archetype is famous for Skred, but this deck was mono-Blue. Of course, mono-Blue is good against control decks, and there were many players playing them in this tournament, so it was not a bad metagame choice at all.

Game 1 went long, but Scryb Ranger's Protection from Blue is lethal for a mono-Blue deck… It can even stop a monstrous Draining Whelk or Rimefeather Owl! The little faerie dealt nine damage before Psionic Blast and Stonewood Invocation decided the game.

Game 2 saw me lay down early mana creatures, and I kept Mystic Snake in hand while swinging for four each turn. His draw didn't seem to be good, and I won this match pretty quickly.

7-3-1

Round 12 – Solar Flare
I was paired with a player on 21-points at this point, who couldn't make it even if he won this round. Though I am not a particular friend of his, he conceded this match. Nevertheless, we played a game for fun. I got screwed, and couldn't counter Skeletal Vampire. I lost.

8-3-1

I finished the swiss portion of the event in eighth place, squeaking into the Top 8.

Quarter-final – Zoo
The deck I faced had four Avalanche Riders maindeck, and didn't play Pacifism or Temporal Isolation in the sideboard, so this matchup seemed to be good for me.

However…

Game 1 I drew Plaxmanta, double Yavimaya Dryad, and three Scryb Rangers… in total. The other cards I drew were all lands! Though I played a deck with nineteen lands in total, I was mana-flooded.

In game 2 I couldn't draw a Spectral Force, but I did manage to draw some Call of the Herds. It was back and forth, but I was under the hammer near the end. I took the game to the point where the game boiled down to a simple statement: If he didn't draw a burn spell the following turn, I would win.

Of course, he did.

Under such circumstances my opponent always rips burn spell from the top… After all, that spell was his fifth topdeck in succession. What a miracle!

In that tournament, my new deck did well. Though the winning deck at this tournament was Solar Flare (piloted by Takahiro Suzuki), I decided to keep on testing Scryb & Force… primarily because it is good against Solar Flare. After the release of Time Spiral online, I gathered cards for Scryb & Force and continued to test it until Worlds.

Next time, I will write about what I got from this Scryb & Force testing. I think this deck is a strong contender in the post-Worlds metagame… and I'll tackle that in my next article!

Until then,

Naoki