Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week I'm going to be talking about my Standard deck that made Top 4 in the recent StarCityGames.com $1,000 Open.

The deck, if you haven't seen it, looks like this:

Glittering Wish Control A Standard deck, by Evan Erwin 3rd place at a Miscellaneous tournament in Roanoke, Virginia, United States on 2007-05-27 As reported at http://www.starcitygames.com Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Orzhov Signet Creatures 1 Angel of Despair 3 Loxodon Hierarch 4 Wall of Roots Enchantments 3 Phyrexian Arena Instants 2 Mortify 2 Sudden Death	Legendary Creatures 1 Teneb, the Harvester Sorceries 3 Castigate 2 Damnation 4 Glittering Wish 2 Harmonize 3 Persecute 3 Wrath of God Basic Lands 4 Forest 2 Swamp Lands 1 Brushland 4 Godless Shrine 2 Golgari Rot Farm 3 Overgrown Tomb 4 Temple Garden 2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree Legendary Lands 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 2 Tormod's Crypt 1 Angel of Despair 1 Grave-Shell Scarab 1 Harmonic Sliver 1 Loxodon Hierarch 1 Orzhov Pontiff 1 Debtors' Knell 2 Leyline of the Void 1 Mortify 1 Shadow of Doubt 1 Ghost Council of Orzhova 1 Teneb, the Harvester 1 Crime / Punishment
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

Now if you want some lazy deckbuilding, I'd like to show it to you how it's done. Here's how I built the deck: I took a look at Joshua Price's list, liked it, and realized that with Glittering Wish you then have the ultimate toolbox deck. So if you notice, I took four cards from Joshua's deck: Skeletal Vampire, one Teneb, one Angel of Despair, and one Loxodon Hierarch, stuck the multicolor cards in the board, and voila: I have Glittering Wish Control. It's not the most creative deckbuilding, but it obviously worked pretty well.

I also had to switch to three Wrath of God and just two Damnation, but that's because I had to borrow cards and my buddy Joe didn't have three Damnations. That's where we get into the problem with this deck: The manabase. A good manabase is essential to winning games. This one doesn't have it. I'll post my recommendations for the manabase in a bit.

But what about the deck components? Like I said, it's all about the toolbox. Decks throughout the years have called themselves toolbox decks, and that usually involves some sort of tutoring and some sort of card advantage. In this deck you have Phyrexian Arena and Harmonize. I found that Harmonize was a marginal card whose one shining moment of worth was overshadowed by a barrage of frantic hunting for an answer. Most of the time, I was wishing that Harmonize were a Mortify or Sudden Death.

Persecute, on the other hand... wow, this guy was everywhere at the top tables, and expect to see it all over Regionals. Its ability to simply shut some decks down - like Dragonstorm - can be too much to handle. I single-handedly won on the back of that card in my matchup against Dragonstorm, and so will you.

As for the creature set, I will say that Angel of Despair was nowhere near as impressive as Teneb, The Harvester. Man, this dragon is the real deal, easily the best of the cycle. I know Numot, The Devastator can win games, but in a top-decking war in the late game, nothing says good game like Teneb's Zombifying ass. He's like a big flying Debtors' Knell, just waiting to drop some pain on your opponent. He can also do silly stuff like recur your own Loxodon Hierarch over and over, if need be.

Wall of Roots served its function well, and remains one of the defining Green cards. Whether you like it or not, Wall of Roots is one of the best Green spells we have right now. Recently we got our Mean Green streak back on, detailing every last thing we don't like about the color, and maybe in Lorwyn we'll finally have that Green Teferi we've always dreamt of. But until then, this really is as good as it gets.

As for four Glittering Wishes? It may look like overkill, but you may forget this deck makes a lot of mana. Over half the damn deck makes mana, and your sideboard is full of juicy targets.

My preferred target was usually Teneb. He really does end games better than anything other creature this side of Akroma. Grave-Shell Scarab was my silver bullet against removal-heavy control decks, who run out of counterspells eventually, and Orzhov Pontiff is your target for the Project X matchup, which makes their ability to make a billion 1/1 White fliers irrelevant beyond the fact they will remove all of your creatures, and

Harmonic Sliver is a walking Disenchant, simple as that. This guy gets no respect. Easily the Rodney Dangerfield of the sideboard. Tormod's Crypt and Leyline of the Void are for the Bridge matchup, which is admittedly awful. This could be tightened in a number of ways. One, there are a few dead cards in the sideboard.

The first is Ghost Council of Orzhova. Your manabase is so stretched, you can forget about ever casting this guy. This should've been a more relevant multicolored card such as Supply / Demand or Glare of Subdual.

I also think that for the maindeck the Harmonizes need to go, and the Angel of Despair is a better wish target than a main deck monster. Again, the Dragon is sometimes Just Better.

But how about that tournament report? Well, here's the best I can do regarding my sweep in the swiss:

Round 1 I played a random Teferi's Puzzle Box / Plagiarize deck, yes, really, and after getting crushed game 1 when he Plagiarized me for eight, game 2 and 3 were solved by the Big Dumb Elephant.

Round 2 I played Project X, I think. This is that round where you don't really remember much other than you won and wish you had notes on it. Not that I had notes on any of these matches, just sayin'.

Round 3 I played against Magic Show alum Kenny Mayer and his Gruul deck. My Wall of Roots were blocking their little hearts out and a wish for Loxodon Hierarch seems good to. Well, that and five Wraths in your deck.

Round 4 I played Dragonstorm, easily the most fun I'd had all day. The kid had a Lotus Bloom suspended with one counter, three lands, and was sending the I Have The Combo And You're About To Lose signal. Which is when, of course, Persecute came and took his T-Bird away. Two Seething Songs and a Dragonstorm hit the bin. I also think his pride was in there as well. Very sad, I tell you.

The second game I hit the Turn 3 Persecute and he lost. Isn't it funny how many games come down to a single spell resolving?

Round 5 I played the affable Scott Rogers and his Project X deck. Now for the record I think Project X is a terrible choice for Regionals. It's an aggro-combo deck that isn't very good at the aggro and isn't very good at the combo. The combo is very fragile and the aggro can be hit or miss depending on how many Big Dumb Elephants you have on your team. My Sudden Death kept the combo away, and my Wall of Roots spent a lot of time blocking his team. The five Wrath effects, again, can determine almost any matchup when they want to kill you with creatures and no burn.

After I drew into the Top 8 with a 5-0-2 record, I then faced a really interesting Korlash Control deck. Let's watch.

Man, I don't know about you, but when he transmuted for Rise / Fall with that Dimir House Guard, I was officially on board for calling this the best Standard tutoring engine I'd ever seen. Bummer about that whole "illegal" thing. Still, the Korlash Control deck is mighty scary, and its powerful threats like Detritivore and Chronicler are backed with the aggro crushing power of Tendrils of Corruption. Still, not a bad deck at all.

Up next we have my match against Peter Akeley's Gruul deck. It's not pretty, but it's what happened.

So after that, if I were taking this to Regionals tomorrow, what would I choose? Let's take a look:

Glittering Wish Control v2 Featured by Evan Erwin on 2007-06-03 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14249.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Orzhov Signet Creatures 1 Dimir House Guard 3 Loxodon Hierarch 4 Wall of Roots Enchantments 3 Phyrexian Arena Instants 2 Mortify 3 Sudden Death	Legendary Creatures 2 Teneb, the Harvester Sorceries 3 Castigate 2 Damnation 4 Glittering Wish 3 Persecute 3 Wrath of God Basic Lands 3 Forest 1 Plains 2 Swamp Lands 1 Brushland 4 Godless Shrine 1 Golgari Rot Farm 3 Overgrown Tomb 1 Selesnya Sanctuary 4 Temple Garden 2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree Legendary Lands 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 2 Tormod's Crypt 1 Angel of Despair 1 Grave-Shell Scarab 1 Harmonic Sliver 1 Loxodon Hierarch 1 Orzhov Pontiff 1 Debtors' Knell 1 Glare of Subdual 2 Leyline of the Void 1 Mortify 1 Teneb, the Harvester 1 Crime / Punishment 1 Persecute
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

In this build I add some more White mana via a basic Plains and Selesnya Sanctuary. I also remove the Harmonizes for another copy of Sudden Death, one of the best removal spells ever printed, and a single copy of Dimir House Guard which can go fetch a Wrath of God, Loxodon Hierarch, or Persecute as the situation calls for it.

The question then becomes: Would I actually take this deck to Regionals? The answer is, I don't know. The competition is certainly fierce enough and I've got a tournament under my belt with it.

I'd also like to try more silver bullet answers like Hobbes (i.e. Seht's Tiger) and playtest against Narcolepsy. Narcolepsy, the deck, will probably run this over. It's extremely explosive and if you don't draw the two Leylines or Tormod's Crypts you could easily be waiting for your next round in less than ten minutes.

As for the Project X matchup, it's so good in my last swiss game I didn't even both boarding in Leyline or Tormod's Crypt. Simply hold a removal spell all game, tutor for Orzhov Pontiff when you draw one, and you'll win the game.

Next week I'll go over just exactly what I have decided to take to Regionals, share the most final build possible, and hopefully have some new decks to talk about thanks to Future Sight finally making its way to Magic Online.

So until next week fellow Magic players, this is Evan Erwin, tapping the cards so you don't have to.

Finals Coverage

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, pre-game interviews and coverage with the Top 2:

Thanks to everybody I met while I was up there, all the fans of the show, and even if I hate on Scott Rogers' deck, the man can still play a fantastic game of the Magics. Oh, and hello to the lovely Serra Angel as well!

Until next time...

Evan “misterorange” Erwin
dubya dubya dubya dot misterorange dot com
eerwin +at+ gmail +dot+ com
Written at the very last minute. Craig, forgive me!