Today I’ll be having a look at the fresh results from the Standard Grand Prix in Shizouka, hopefully giving us some insight into the Standard format a month before Pro Tour: Hollywood. Although I’ll mention that I’m constantly impressed by the size of the Asian Grand Prix tournaments, especially when in comparison to some of the other ones we’ve seen the past year (or this year, *cough Vancouver*). Note to Wizards: ship the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego some more Grand Prix tournaments.

To start us off, I’ll be taking a look at the finalist’s decks at Shizouka.

U/B Faeries A Standard deck, by Yuuta Takahashi 1st place at a Grand Prix tournament in Shizouka, Japan on 2008-03-09 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpshi08/top8decks Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Mistbind Clique 4 Pestermite 4 Scion of Oona 3 Sower of Temptation 4 Spellstutter Sprite Instants 4 Cryptic Command Sorceries 4 Ancestral Vision	Tribal Enchantments 4 Bitterblossom Tribal Instants 4 Nameless Inversion Basic Snow Lands 4 Snow-Covered Island 2 Snow-Covered Swamp Lands 3 Faerie Conclave 4 Mutavault 4 River of Tears 4 Secluded Glen 4 Underground River	Sideboard: 4 Bottle Gnomes 2 Razormane Masticore 2 Familiar's Ruse 4 Deathmark 3 Thoughtseize
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U/B Faeries A Standard deck, by Olivier Ruel 2nd place at a Grand Prix tournament in Shizouka, Japan on 2008-03-09 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpshi08/top8decks Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Mistbind Clique 4 Oona's Blackguard 4 Pestermite 4 Scion of Oona 4 Spellstutter Sprite Instants 3 Cryptic Command 4 Rune Snag 2 Unsummon Tribal Enchantments 4 Bitterblossom Tribal Sorceries 2 Notorious Throng	Basic Lands 1 Island Basic Snow Lands 4 Snow-Covered Island Lands 4 Faerie Conclave 2 Mutavault 4 River of Tears 4 Secluded Glen 4 Underground River Legendary Lands 2 Pendelhaven	Sideboard: 3 Sower of Temptation 4 Flashfreeze 2 Deathmark 4 Thoughtseize 2 Peppersmoke
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When I look at these decks, one thing that strikes me is just how much the deck has stayed the same since I last wrote about it at States last year… although it’s obviously gained from the addition of Morningtide. Both Faeries builds eschew the one-drop creatures previously featured in more aggressive versions, along with the notable omission of Oona’s Prowler as a standard two-drop in the deck. Instead, both chose more controlling builds, largely thanks to the increased power of the deck due to Bitterblossom. The two decks are near identical at first blush, so let’s go over what makes them different.

Yuuta chose to maindeck an actual pure draw spell in the deck in Ancestral Visions, along with Sower of Temptation to help handle the larger Green men and muck up tribal synergy dorks. Ancestral Visions is an interesting choice that a few months ago I’d probably consider for about 10 seconds and then cross it off the mental checklist. In the current format though, the card is quite impressive. Instead of playing small creatures for a few pings, instead Yuuta sets his deck up to play what’s essentially his late-game, with a fresh hand versus decks he needs to control to beat. Reveillark and Mana Ramp decks are complete jokes if you can get your counters online when they start laying the spells that actually matter in the match. So Visions either helps fish for those counters or allows you to have a fresh supply of Pestermite and Clique to lock down lands to gain virtual Time Walks on the opponent. Either way, it helps get you there. Meanwhile, it also is incredible in a mirror match that typically featured no draw, except off the occasional Cryptic Command.

Ruel’s build has Oona's Blackguard, which I guess was just to maximize the utter blowout that is an unanswered Bitterblossom, because nearly no other normal fairie in the deck gets a boost from it. Unsummon is also around as a cheap way to deal with any resolved creature that might pose a threat, and since Faeries is basically built around gaining and maintaining tempo it certainly seems like a defendable choice. Notorious Throng is the big standout in Ruel’s deck, as a very expensive but amazing ‘I win’ card. When paid via Prowl cost, Throng will almost always end the game, assuming you had any board position at all when prowling it out. The card is clunky, sometimes a win-more, leaves a gaping hole in the defense and other times is only hard cast for a few more Faeries… but all that said, it wins a number of races no other card would let you win.

Otherwise, the two Faeries builds tended to agree on a lot of the common creatures and spells (With the 4th Cryptic being the only real standout from Ruel’s list, but he has Rune Snag to lessen the loss). One thing to note is the increase in man lands, both decks chose to run Faerie Conclave and Mutavault for extra creatures while not lowering the overall mana count. In fact these decks actually are up a land or two on the typical Faeries decks that were floating around previously.

Sideboard-wise I’d need to play around more, but at a glance just from the metagame breakdown and Top 8 decks, it’s pretty clear that Flashfreeze and Deathmark are still very useful in the boards and are going to see a lot of play. Bottle Gnomes may also become a necessity if the various R/G TarmoBurn decks and Burn Deck Wins (The deck Hiromasa Imagawa piloted) picks up in popularity as Bitterblossom and small fliers lose a lot of points in the face of direct damage and Sulfurous Blast. Thoughtseize is another component designed to break the slower mana intensive decks and doubles as additional disruption against Dragonstorm. Razormane Masticore stands out in Yuuta’s sideboard as a bit of an oddity, obviously very strong against aggressive decks, but still for a 5cc card I would expect something with a bit more immediate impact.

Learn these decks and the slight variations and tweaks, because you’ll be seeing a great deal of them in the future. Right now I can only consider UW Reveillark combo and UB Faeries to be the true top tier decks in the format. They beat so many decks for free and have a number of built in edges against the rest of the field due to the inherent synergy involved in so many of the card choices. In addition, both of these decks can go from controlling to aggressive and vice versa in the span of a turn or two, which gives them more plans of attack than the average deck in the current metagame.

Reveillark Combo A Standard deck, by Kenji Tsumura 3rd place at a Grand Prix tournament in Shizouka, Japan on 2008-03-09 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpshi08/top8decks Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Mind Stone Creatures 3 Aven Riftwatcher 2 Body Double 1 Mirror Entity 4 Mulldrifter 4 Reveillark 4 Riftwing Cloudskate 2 Sower of Temptation Instants 2 Careful Consideration 2 Momentary Blink 4 Rune Snag	Legendary Creatures 1 Venser, Shaper Savant Sorceries 3 Wrath of God Basic Lands 8 Island 6 Plains Lands 4 Adarkar Wastes 2 Mutavault 4 Nimbus Maze	Sideboard: 1 Aven Riftwatcher 1 Sower of Temptation 3 Wispmare 3 Teferi's Moat 2 Pact of Negation 3 Remove Soul 2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
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“The combo is pretty simple: Reveillark, Mirror Entity, Body Double, plus Mulldrifter or Riftwing Cloudskate. Get Reveillark and Mirror Entity into play, stack a bunch of Mirror Entity activations for 0, then keep returning Body Double (copying Reveillark) and the Cloudskate or Mulldrifter and draw lots of cards, bounce lots of permanents, or both. It is fairly solid, and worked well enough for third and fourth.”
Borrowed from Bennie Smith’s article last week.

Peebles has a pretty good article on the basic construction of the Blink decks so far, and these are both pretty standardized builds. That said, Kenji’s deck numbers in the maindeck just seem all over the place at first glance. I’m sure that he had good reason for them, considering the hybrid essence of his build with minimal combo parts, but still running the Blink components while eschewing the Pickles combo. You’ll also no Desert in either list. Instead, both Mitamura and Kenji chose to go with Mutavault for extra aggression when ahead on the board, while providing a chump down the road if need be. Only Akira Asahara eschewed any Mutvault instead focusing solely on getting both colors early and often.

The most interesting choices come from the sideboards: Crovax, Ascendant Hero seems like a solid answer to the 1/1 swarm of Faeries while effectively nullifying any Bitterblossoms that have already resolved. Teferi’s Moat essentially shuts down both Elves decks, forcing them to win off Profane Command or one of the few sideboard answers such as Primal Command or Seal of Primordium. Both ran Pact of Negation to force through a Reveillark or other mid-game threat past the obvious counter response coming from the Faeries or control decks that exist. As for Asahara, Arbiter of Knollridge and Wall of Shards stand out as very uncommon anti-aggro elements. The two can be used on their own to good effect against various aggro decks, but are kicked up a notch when used in conjunction with one another. Wall of Shards is very difficult to destroy by any common means and can easily get an opponent to thirty or forty life, which Arbiter can then take full advantage of, buying a host of new turns to assemble the combo.

Elf Aggro A Standard deck, by Ryousuke Masuno 4th place at a Grand Prix tournament in Shizouka, Japan on 2008-03-09 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpshi08/top8decks Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Bramblewood Paragon 4 Civic Wayfinder 4 Imperious Perfect 4 Llanowar Elves 2 Shriekmaw 2 Wren's Run Packmaster 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher Planeswalkers 3 Garruk Wildspeaker Snow Creatures 2 Boreal Druid Sorceries 4 Profane Command	Tribal Instants 4 Nameless Inversion Basic Lands 4 Forest 3 Swamp Lands 4 Gilt-Leaf Palace 4 Llanowar Wastes 2 Mutavault 4 Treetop Village Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 2 Cloudthresher 3 Hunted Wumpus 2 Shriekmaw 2 Squall Line 2 Liliana Vess 2 Damnation 2 Primal Command
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I’ve chosen to spotlight just this build from Ryousuke Masuno over Taichi’s due to the streamlined approach of this list. Although most Elves decks run Tarmogoyf and/or Thoughtseize and some run some number of Wolf-Skull Shaman, Masuno’s build ignores all that and goes straight for abusing the Elf and Warrior engines with Paragon and Perfect. In exchange for giving up disruption and some amount of midgame removal (relying largely on Nameless Inversion, although the two Shriekmaw are a nice touch), the deck jumps straight from beaters to finishing the opponent with Garruk Wildspeaker or Profane Command. The full set of Profane Command is a bold move for a deck that only runs 23 lands, although Civic Wayfinder helps out, since seeing Command early can severely hamstring you in the early game when you want to curve out.

The only thing I find curious about the maindeck of the list is the lack of any Obsidian Battle-Axes or Loxodon Warhammers. Battle-Axe goes well with the pure aggression of the build, and the latter can easily win a race against another aggressive deck (perhaps one with fliers…) after a single swing. Of course, both require some initial investments, and it seems that this deck doesn’t like to do that without seeing an immediate return from whatever it spent mana on.

Sideboard-wise, Hunted Wumpus stands out as an odd choice, as I can only see one or two decks in the format that wouldn’t have a potentially better drop than the Wumpus. Squall Line is an excellent choice for a format full of Faeries decks, and I can only recommend running more as the deck was the second most popular on Day 2 of the Grand Prix and will likely only become more popular in the future. Unlike many of the so-called Faeries hosers, this one actually works because of the combination of low mana cost (yes, I realize Cloudthresher evoke is only one more, but that one mana can really count in a close race) and instant speed. The rest of the choices are rather self-explanatory.

Doran the Explorer A Standard deck, by Shintarou Ishimura 6th place at a Grand Prix tournament in Shizouka, Japan on 2008-03-09 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpshi08/top8decks Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 2 Llanowar Elves 1 Shriekmaw 4 Tarmogoyf Legendary Creatures 4 Doran, the Siege Tower Planeswalkers 3 Garruk Wildspeaker Sorceries 2 Primal Command 4 Profane Command 4 Thoughtseize Tribal Enchantments 4 Bitterblossom	Tribal Instants 4 Nameless Inversion Basic Lands 2 Forest 3 Swamp Lands 3 Gilt-Leaf Palace 4 Horizon Canopy 2 Llanowar Wastes 4 Murmuring Bosk 4 Treetop Village Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 3 Cloudthresher 2 Shriekmaw 2 Wispmare 2 Oblivion Ring 1 Terror 1 Mind Shatter 3 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss 1 Primal Command
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Ishimura’s deck presents a new take on the traditional TarmoFolk / Doran lists that we’ve seen in results over the past month or so, with a heavily reduced creature base. Many decks of this type run between 22-25 creatures, while this version clocks in with 15, almost half of which are mana producers! The aggressive creatures that do remain are still very formidable, with full sets of usual fatties backed by the full set of Profane Command and Bitterblossom, and a few Primal Command rounding out the main creature support. So although the overall number of creatures has gone down, the number of support cards has gone up dramatically compared to most builds. Bitterblossom is the ultimate attrition card, nullifying any from Faeries while providing extra defense / difficult to block attackers for any other ground pounding decks. The six pack of Commands make it difficult to run the deck out of fatties as they’ll constantly be returned to play or tutored up from the deck. I’d like to see a little more life-gain in the deck, but overall it’s quite a solid build. As far as the sideboard goes, the singletons bug me but there’s nothing too out there as far as board cards go.

Burn Deck Wins A Standard deck, by Hiromasa Imagawa 52nd place at a Grand Prix tournament in Shizouka on 2008-03-16 Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Countryside Crusher 2 Greater Gargadon 4 Keldon Marauders 4 Mogg Fanatic Instants 4 Incinerate 4 Lash Out 4 Shard Volley 2 Shock 4 Sulfurous Blast Sorceries 4 Rift Bolt	Basic Lands 15 Mountain Lands 3 Ghitu Encampment 2 Horizon Canopy 4 Mutavault	Sideboard: 4 Dragon's Claw 4 Magus of the Moon 3 Manabarbs 4 Cryoclasm
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Despite having a less than stellar Day 2, this deck still went undefeated Day 1, finished in the money, and was designed in part by Tsuyoshi Fujita. It provides a unique counterpoint to the aggro-control and aggro-control-combo hybrids littering the Top 8, with the simple concept of burning the hell out of anything in Countryside Crusher’s path and otherwise shipping the rest of the burn to the dome. A full set of Sulfurous Blast is wonderful to see in the maindeck here, providing a solid mini-Wrath against the large amount of swarm decks populating Day 2 at the GP. The only cards that really stick out are the two Shock, which just look odd in comparison to the other sets of cards, although the number of Elves and Birds to fry justifies the extra one-mana burn.

As for the sideboard, Dragon’s Claw… wow… Tech for the mirror? I mean, in this deck I can imagine how the aggro games could be pretty close considering the power-ups of certain tribes, but it just seems so odd to see a straight life-gain card like Dragon's Claw in there.

As far as Extended goes, there’s no super tech to share with you before Grand Prix: Philly. My only suggestion to those who are still trying to pick up a deck at this late stage is to play Burn. It seems silly and against every fiber of some people’s being, but Burn Deck Wins in Extended right now is basically just a loose storm deck. Zac Hill described it as a combo deck where you just have to resolve any six of your spells and you win the game, and that’s pretty accurate. The thing is, most decks can’t stop you before you do or they simply lose once they get the Burn player to topdeck mode, because they have ridiculous amounts of gas in the deck. For sideboard cards, the only thing I suggest is Molten Rain, simply because it punches a whole lot of decks right in the mouth and many people don’t expect it coming from burn so they play extra loose with fetches around you, to try and conserve life. If you’re one of those people running fetches and actually want a chance to race TEPS, then run a Blue dual or two and some Stifles, otherwise please just give up on beating any good Ideal or TEPS draw.

Good luck to everyone attending Grand Prix: Philly or Vienna this weekend.

Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom

PS - If you want to play Ninjas, try Faeries. They work far better under Standstill and can actually deal more than two damage per attack phase. Heck, if you’re really lucky and enter the secret cheat code, you might even find they can make opponents discard and counter stuff on the free side!