Before I get into the weirdness, I figure I'd toss out some red meat for Spike to feast upon. Last week I got a message from Thomas Leveille, the guy playing in the Virginia Beach City Champs program that was kicking ass on points about halfway through. At the time of my interview with him, he was obviously feeling confident at being able to qualify for their finals tournament, but he was also just as obviously feeling a little anxious about the prospect of kicking so much ass in the “Swiss” part of the City Champs program, only to stumble and fail in the Top 8 finals and walk away with nothing.

So, how did it pan out? Thomas pinged me on AIM with this message last week:

ThomasL: Well Bennie, I'm going to Nationals.
Bennie: Hey, congrats!

Q. Congrats on Qing for Nationals through the City Champs finals! How does it feel?
A. Feels great. I finally get my shot!

Q. Last time you mentioned a "secret weapon" for Standard, and a plan for draft as keys to your success. Has anything changed for you since then? Any different approaches you've done to keep on top?
A. Near the end, I stopped playing, except for maybe once a week. I was at 235 points so I didn't really see the need to play more, but I was testing all the while. I made sure to keep an open mind to decks, and to keep an ear out for what people were playing in the Top 8s.

Q. What Standard deck(s) did you play since last we talked that did well for you?
A. I haven't been able to come up with anything personally, because of school and work, but I have played U/R Tron, Baby Killer, Zoo, and Dralnu since we last talked (stock versions). I am not a fan of Dralnu anymore, too many games with doo-doo draws. Zoo is probably my favorite deck in the format, just because of its explosiveness - it can kill turn 4.

Q. Now that you don't have to slog through Regionals, do you have any cool post-Future Sight Standard deck tech you'd like to toss out to the rest of us poor slogs?
A. I'll give you two. One is a Tron deck if you folks are fans of Tron. The other is an old aggro deck that has fallen from favor, with some new zest.

U/B Tron Featured by Thomas Leveille on 2007-05-27 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14204.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 3 Azorius Signet 4 Dimir Signet Artifact Creatures 2 Triskelavus Instants 1 Commandeer 3 Mana Leak 2 Mystical Teachings 4 Remand 3 Repeal 2 Spell Burst 3 Think Twice Legendary Creatures 2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir	Sorceries 2 Compulsive Research 3 Damnation 2 Persecute 1 Tidings Basic Lands 1 Island Lands 3 Tolaria West 1 Underground River 1 Urza's Factory 4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Urza's Tower 3 Watery Grave Legendary Lands 1 Academy Ruins 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Tormod's Crypt 3 Bottle Gnomes 3 Annex 1 Spell Snare 2 Trickbind 1 Damnation 1 Persecute
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Crypt and Ghost Quarter for Transmute tech!

Basically, the decks runs around board control, keep control while acting on opponent's EOT as much as possible (much like Dralnu). In control, if needed, you can transmute for Academy Ruins for the Trisk combo. Persecute is a house, as it's card advantage for whenever an opponent taps out early, or when you have counter backup.

For aggro matchups, board in Gnomes / Arrows and the fourth Damnation. For Dredge, one Trickbind and two Crypts. Spell Snare for control and the mirror, Annex specifically for the Tron, mirror, or Angelfire's bounce lands. For Dragonstorm, bring in two Trickbind, and one Persecute.

Zoo Featured by Thomas Leveille on 2007-05-27 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14204.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Kird Ape 2 Magus of the Scroll 2 Ronom Unicorn 4 Savannah Lions 4 Scab-Clan Mauler 4 Tin Street Hooligan Enchantments 2 Keen Sense 4 Seal of Fire	Instants 4 Char 4 Lightning Helix Sorceries 2 Browbeat 4 Rift Bolt Lands 1 Battlefield Forge 3 Horizon Canopy 4 Karplusan Forest 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Stomping Ground 4 Temple Garden	Sideboard: 2 Aven Mindcensor 3 Loxodon Hierarch 3 Sulfur Elemental 2 Brute Force 1 Honorable Passage 4 Rebuff the Wicked
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Optimal plays, or at least with this version: one-drop, turn 2 Keen Sense plus one-drop, or the curve plays. God hand - three one-drops in the opening seven. Zoo is the most explosive deck in the format. I favor it over Gruul due to the sideboard cards. Never overextend! Two to three creatures are always enough, unless you are playing against Fader-type decks. Use lesser burn spells (Seal / Bolt) to get creatures out of way, and hold Helix and Char for in-response or EOT plays. Once the opponent's life total reaches around twelve, cast Browbeat. Mulligan hands with four or more lands, or no sources of Red. The deck is pretty straightforward - turn things sideways and win!

Q. Would you care to detail how the Top 8 City Champs playoffs played out? What other players / decks did you square off against?
A. I played Baby Killer. My opponents in the Swiss were:

John Spires with U/R Tron: 2-1 to me.
Jacob Boughmen* with U/R Tron: 2-1 to me.
Cedric Smith with B/R Storm: TIE
Brian Kelly with Dragonstorm: TIE

Top 4
A rematch against U/R Tron (Jacob). 2-0 to me, both games won with turn 1 Bird, turn 2 go. End of turn Krosan grip his Signet. My turn, BLOOD MOON! Blood Moon had to be the champ of all my matches.

Top 2
A rematch of against Dragonstorm (Brian Kelly). Game 1 Brian mulliganed to 4. Needless to say the advantage was to me. Game 2, turn 3 Song, Song, Dragon in my attack step. I scoop to that. Game 3, turn 2 Cyroclasm, turn 3 Avalanche Riders, and turn 5 Cyroclasm and Stormbind. 2-1 to me!

(For those not familiar with “KarstenbotBabyKiller.dec” here's a stock version from Frank Karsten's Deck o' Pedia, though obviously Tom had Blood Moons crammed into the sideboard — Bennie)

KarstenBotBabyKiller Featured by Frank Karsten on 2007-05-27 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14204.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elves Enchantments 3 Stormbind Instants 4 Skred	Snow Creatures 4 Ohran Viper 2 Stalking Yeti Sorceries 4 Call of the Herd 4 Cryoclasm 4 Demonfire 4 Stone Rain Basic Snow Lands 9 Snow-Covered Forest 7 Snow-Covered Mountain Lands 4 Stomping Ground Snow Lands 3 Scrying Sheets	Sideboard: 2 Hunted Wumpus 2 Silklash Spider 2 Naturalize 1 Stalking Yeti 4 Volcanic Hammer 4 Wreak Havoc
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Weirdness, the First — Dancing & the Scottish Rite Temple
When I signed off last week, I had plans with my buddies for a full night of Regionals testing last Friday. Then my wife “reminded” me that my daughter Anna Marie had her dance recital Friday night. I put “reminded” in quotes because she didn't actually say “don't forget about Anna Marie's dance recital,” but rather she started talking about the dance recital late last week, and I hid my D'oh! moment and played along as if I had not actually forgotten and made other plans. At the next available moment I contacted my buds and told them I couldn't make the playtest session. See what being addicted to cardboard crack does to your brain?

The dance recital was held at something called the Scottish Rite Temple. I'd never heard of it, and Martha told me it was some sort of Masonic place. As we pull into the parking lot, I freak out a little bit - the building is huge and impressive, sporting Greek architecture with columns and such. It's also on a stretch of road I'm fairly familiar with, and must have driven past hundreds or thousands of times... and yet the building itself is not at all familiar. It freaks me out because I should have recalled driving by such a building, because it is unlike any of the other buildings around it. It definitely stands out... and yet it doesn't. It's like some weird spell is on it where your eyes and attention just slide past it unless you're specifically looking for it.

I've always been cautiously curious about the Masons. It's such an ancient and secretive order, with deep roots in our country - many of the Founders were Masons - and yet what is it that they actually do? My stepfather is a Mason and he won't tell me what goes on there. Also, I don't know of any ex-Masons - it's like, once you join, you don't ever leave. Which is where the “cautious” curiosity comes in. Of course, for all I know they get together, wear funny hats, drink hard liquor and tell stories.

I can say they have a really nice auditorium set-up that hosts a two-hour-long, massive dance recital quite nicely.

The aura of mystery deepens a little bit when we get on the elevator to go up from the ground level to the first level (my mother-in-law has a hard time with stairs). There is a strip of duct tape covering the button and floor labels above the 1st floor.

The urge to rip off the piece of duct tape and push the button to the “secret” floor was strong, especially when I took the stairs later on and realized that the stairs only go from the ground floor to the 1st floor. There weren't any stairs that I saw that went up another flight.

Hmm...

While I was waiting for the performance to begin, I picked up a copy of The Scottish Rite News (“Devoted to the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Valley of Richmond, Orient of Virginia”). The front page had a message from the Venerable Master. I flip it to the back, and there's a list of officers with exotic titles such as Sovereign Grand Commander; Wise Master, Knights Rose Croix; and Commander, Knights Kadosh. There's a section for members who have passed on, with the legend “Virtus Junxit-Mors non Separabit.”

Definitely weird... but intriguing. I later read the entries regarding Freemasons and Scottish Rite on Wikipedia and feel no closer to understanding what they're all about than before.

The performance was well over two hours, and Anna Marie's part was about five minutes long. She kicked ass, and the other girls for the rest of the two-hour show did pretty well too. Unfortunately, she didn't come on until after intermission, and my son Aaron couldn't stay awake long enough to see his sister.

Weirdness, the Second — Weird Harvest
I've always hated Weird Harvest; it's the prototypical horrid Green “sharing card” — a sorcery so that you have to basically use your entire turn to cast it, and of course being unable to make immediate use of the card, whereas your opponent now has 3-4 new creatures in his hand without spending a card or mana to get them, and a full turn to utilize them first. To add insult to injury, a totally evil combo deck made good use of the card (utilizing another symmetric green card, Heartbeat of Spring).

Then along came the Grandeur ability, and now things are more interesting.

I'm sure you've already heard about the Weird Harvest/Tarox Bladewing combo deck, where you Seething Song out an early Tarox (and swing), then cast Weird Harvest the next turn for the other three copies of Tarox, pitch them all to Grandeur and attack with a 32/31 Dragon (though you'd probably only need to pitch two copies for a lethal attack). This combo quite nicely breaks the symmetry of Weird Harvest by killing your opponent before he gets a chance to use the creatures that he gets to fetch from your spell. I have to admit this use of Weird Harvest doesn't appeal to me for two reasons:

This smacks of the “all-your-eggs-in-one-basket” liability, especially if you've invested a card already with Seething Song. When the second Grandeur ability on the stack, I can totally see something like Snapback, Mortify, or some other instant-speed deathkill nailing you 3-4 cards to 1.

If you want a dragon combo, why don't you just play Dragonstorm?

While Tarox didn't appeal to me, the notion of pairing Weird Harvest with Grandeur got me thinking, and I ended up with this little bit of weirdness:

Weird Chant Featured by Bennie Smith on 2007-05-27 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14204.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Aven Mindcensor 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Deadwood Treefolk 4 Heartwood Storyteller 3 Llanowar Elves 3 Wall of Roots Legendary Creatures 4 Oriss, Samite Guardian 4 Saffi Eriksdotter 3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 1 Venser, Shaper Savant	Sorceries 4 Weird Harvest Basic Lands 4 Forest 1 Island 1 Plains Lands 4 Breeding Pool 4 Brushland 4 Hallowed Fountain 4 Temple Garden Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven	Stats: Average mana: 1.70 Average creature mana cost: 2.85 Average creature power: 1.55 Average creature toughness: 2.73 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 10.00% Creatures: 35.00% Lands: 26.67% Legendary Creatures: 20.00% Legendary Lands: 1.67% Sorceries: 6.67%
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I kicked this list out to my playtesting buddies... and the response was pretty tepid, even after I explained the synergy that oozes out of this decklist. If Weird Harvest is one-sided then it's pretty ridiculous! Aven Mindcensor breaks the symmetry. Oriss lock, of course, breaks the symmetry if they can't cast the creatures they search up.

One of the things I wasn't real fond of in versions of other Oriss decks that use Undertaker to maintain the lock was just how darn fragile Undertaker is... not to mention it being pretty easy to run into the “Masticore” problem, where you basically take away your draw step in order to keep up the board control. If you can't punch through on the board (and your 1/3 Oriss isn't going to be doing much punching through) then you can find yourself in a hard position to win.

Chaining three Deadwood Treefolk, along with a Saffi on the board, both maintains your Grandeur fodder while providing a stream of 3/6 fatties to turn sideways. Not exactly beat down, but resilient.

I crammed Teferi into the deck with a shoehorn in order to have the possibility of setting up a true hard lock, and as protection from counterspells ruining your Weird Harvest fun. Don't forget that you can also use the Grandeur ability during your own turn to turn off your opponent's counterspells.

I wanted turn 2 Heartwood Storytellers in there since you may struggle getting off a Weird Harvest against control, Storytellers ought to keep your hand flush, keep your mana drops rolling, and eventually coughing up a Teferi.

Anyway, after explaining this all to my Magic buddies, every single one of them were either dubious or downright hostile to the deck's viability. It was my hope that when we playtested I would have the opportunity to prove either them or me right. Sadly, I had an appointment with the Illuminati that took precedence, but rather than just sit on the deck until I had a chance to put it through some paces, I wanted to go ahead and toss this out there to you all to ponder, poke, tweak, and critique if you are so inclined.

Weirdness, Bonus Decks!
I have to admit it's a sickness. When I get a Magic idea in my head, there's a pit-bull part of me that locks its jaws on it, dog-drool flying, and runs with it far longer than it has a right to. Here are a few other Weird Harvest / Grandeur deck ideas that I've been kicking around.

Weird Baru Featured by Bennie Smith on 2007-05-27 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14204.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 1 Deadwood Treefolk 1 Indrik Stomphowler 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Rumbling Slum 2 Wood Elves 4 Yavimaya Dryad Enchantments 4 Pandemonium Instants 4 Summoner's Pact	Legendary Creatures 4 Baru, Fist of Krosa 1 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero Sorceries 4 Weird Harvest Basic Lands 8 Forest 4 Mountain Lands 4 Karplusan Forest 3 Skarrg, the Rage Pits 4 Stomping Ground	Stats: Average mana: 1.70 Average creature mana cost: 3.12 Average creature power: 2.44 Average creature toughness: 2.56 Deck Composition: Creatures: 33.33% Basic Lands: 20.00% Lands: 18.33% Enchantments: 6.67% Instants: 6.67% Legendary Creatures: 8.33% Sorceries: 6.67%
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The idea here is to drop a Pandemonium, drop a Baru, and then Weird Harvest for 3 more Barus, activate Grandeur three times to make three 5/5s or 6/6s and kill immediately with Pandemonium. Good beatdown fun! I'd almost like to squeeze Greater Good in here, you know?

Weird Blackblade Featured by Bennie Smith on 2007-05-27 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14204.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 4 Epochrasite Creatures 1 Deadwood Treefolk 1 Indrik Stomphowler 1 Lord of the Undead 1 Undertaker 4 Vinelasher Kudzu Instants 2 Putrefy 4 Sudden Death 3 Tendrils of Corruption	Legendary Creatures 4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade Sorceries 4 Farseek 4 Search for Tomorrow 4 Weird Harvest Basic Lands 5 Forest 6 Swamp Lands 4 Llanowar Wastes 4 Overgrown Tomb Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven 3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Stats: Average mana: 1.77 Average creature mana cost: 3.00 Average creature power: 1.13 Average creature toughness: 1.31 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 18.33% Lands: 13.33% Creatures: 13.33% Artifact Creatures: 6.67% Legendary Creatures: 6.67% Legendary Lands: 6.67% Sorceries: 20.00% Instants: 15.00%
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The idea here is to not care about breaking the symmetry of Weird Harvest, figuring that your gigantic Korlash and Vinelasher Kudzu will be larger than anything your opponent can search out of their deck. Use your removal spells to clear away blockers and smash in with your big beats.

So what about Weird Harvest with Linessa, Zephyr Mage? Nah, that's just a bad card, right?

Heh.

Bennie