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Testing, testing, testing. If there’s anything that I believe in, it has got to be the value of testing. I’ve gone into the values of empiricism and the values of theory in the past, and it’s a good bet that I’ll occasionally revisit the topic ever so slightly, if not more. When it comes to something like Eventide, it is definitely the case that I’m an optimist. But there is always testing.

Testing does some interesting things. It can provide us a reality check, or it can provide us inspiration. The most losing of decks can be transformed into a winner with the right shifts in card choices. For me, a lot of testing is exactly of this ilk: I’m trying to find a way to turn something that I think might have promise into a winner (or, alternatively, to stop wasting my time on it).

A good example of this came from this weekend’s PTQ. I was gunning some games versus Faeries with an update of my Red deck for a post-Eventide world. Owen Turtenwald was gunning Faeries, with literally no cards from the new set. And he was slamming me. I certainly learned a lot as I was playing, to be sure, but the fact remains that he was slamming me, unlike the last Faerie player who I’d played. What was the difference? Competence might have been a large part of it. Owen really, really knew his deck. It was a clear indication that I needed to go back to the drawing board. The right revision might take the deck a long way.

A great example of this is the success, this weekend, of Aussie Assault. For those of you who aren’t aware, Aaron Nicastri took a Seismic Assault/Swans of Bryn Argoll combo deck to the Australian National Championship and walked home with the trophy. At the end of the swiss, he was the number one seed, and he fought some tight battles to win the whole thing.

In the Top 8, he defeated Faeries 3-1, Faeries 3-2, and then Stoken Tokens 3-2. One thing to pay attention to, though, is how similar this deck actually is to Patrick Chapin’s published version of Swans from several months ago. Let’s compare them:

Seismic Swan Featured by Michael Jacob on 2008-05-11 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15810.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Lotus Bloom 1 Mishra's Bauble Creatures 2 Dread 4 Swans of Bryn Argoll 1 Vexing Shusher	Enchantments 4 Seismic Assault Instants 4 Manamorphose 4 Telling Time Sorceries 4 Beseech the Queen 4 Ponder Lands 4 Dakmor Salvage 4 Graven Cairns 2 Reflecting Pool 4 River of Tears 4 Shivan Reef 2 Sulfurous Springs 2 Sunken Ruins 2 Tolaria West 4 Underground River	Stats: Average mana: 1.43 Average creature mana cost: 4.29 Average creature power: 4.29 Average creature toughness: 3.71 Deck Composition: Lands: 46.67% Enchantments: 6.67% Artifacts: 8.33% Creatures: 11.67% Sorceries: 13.33% Instants: 13.33%
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Seismic Swan A Standard deck, by Aaron Nicastri 1st place at a Nationals tournament in Canberra City, Australia on 2008-07-20 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/aunat08/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 Lotus Bloom Creatures 4 Swans of Bryn Argoll Enchantments 4 Seismic Assault	Instants 4 Telling Time Legendary Creatures 3 Vendilion Clique Sorceries 4 Beseech the Queen 2 Gaea's Blessing 4 Ponder 4 Thoughtseize Lands 4 Dakmor Salvage 4 Gemstone Mine 4 Graven Cairns 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Shivan Reef 4 Vivid Creek 3 Vivid Marsh	Sideboard: 4 Imp's Mischief 2 Krosan Grip 3 Pact of Negation 3 Damnation 3 Firespout
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For any of you that took the time to playtest Patrick’s deck, like I did, I’m sure that you found what I took to be its major problem: it didn’t like resistance. In a world free of resistance, it could brute force its way to a victory fairly quickly, and incredibly consistently. Put it up against any reasonable deck that might do something, however, and it just felt incredibly outmatched. It’s not fun feeling like you are just the chump there to be pushed around. Nicastri’s deck, whether or not it is based on the deck (designed by Michael Jacob) that Chapin presented, chooses to perhaps be a touch less fast, and in return prepare the way for its victory quite potently. Let’s look at what they have in common, and what is different about them (in edt shorthand notation):

In Common:
4@ Swans of Bryn Argoll, Seismic Assault, Telling Time, Ponder, Beseech the Queen

Different:
Patrick – 4 @ Manamorphose, 2 @ Dread, 1 @ Vexing Shusher, Mishra’s Bauble (!!)
Aaron – 4@ Thoughtseize, 3 @ Vendilion Clique, 2 @ Gaea’s Blessing

These are, essentially, agreements about the core of the deck. Dread or Gaea’s Blessing are largely there to serve the same purpose, allowing you to avoid being decked as you attempt to go off. That difference is minor. What is not minor is the choice to go, essentially, all in on targeted hand destruction, as opposed to using Shusher as a silver bullet, and running cycling cards to make the deck smaller. This change, though, ultimately is relatively minor, and it drastically changes the way that the deck plays. The coverage makes clear just how often Aaron dodged the various hate that his opponents threw at him. Patrick clearly states that his build ought not be the ‘final build,’ which is just fine. I do think it is incredibly illustrative what can be accomplished by small changes.

One question becomes, what can you do with this deck that is of use in post-Eventide Standard? The answer, sadly, seems to be, "not much."

While I could easily see Cascade Bluffs making itself quite useful, there isn’t much more beyond that that seems particularly exciting. One could see Cauldron Haze as a potentially useful extra step of defense against certain kinds of Terror-based elimination of your Swans, but that seems fairly weak. Desecrator Hag might be a reasonable Gravedigger effect, but again, this seems overly weak. Worm Harvest is an interesting card to think about as an alternate kill card, but it is beginning the question kind of hard (unless it is put into your yard by a dredge effect, what is it feeding off of where you haven’t already won?), and that isn’t an exciting spot to be in. Snakeform might be a reasonable answer to the now-more-than-ever likely position of the mirror match, but even then, it is just as vulnerable as the answers other cards from other decks have: namely weakness to the copious targeted hand attack.

All said, this deck’s improvements from its original mainstream publication are largely the result of (most likely) some sweat on the part of Aaron Nicastri and friends. While it doesn’t look like Eventide does much to help it out, brainstorming and playtesting might find some real gems for the deck. Compare this to my own red deck, Chevy Red.

When I wrote about this deck, I made some pretty hefty claims. One of those claims is that the vast majority of people that had built Red decks for Hollywood did it Wrong™. I still maintain that they did. Of them all, only Andre Coimbra’s (designed by Patrick Sullivan) seems at all rational to me. His deck and mine are pretty radically different. His is, at heart, a Sligh deck. Mine is much more a burn deck. Most recently, we’ve seen the Japanese deck including Ashenmoor Gouger. I hate to turn up my nose and sniff at it, but it strikes me as wildly misbuilt, though it has potential. The place where there might be gold, I think, are in these two Sullivan decks (mine, and Patrick’s). To alleviate confusion, I’ll simply refer to the deck as "Coimbra’s" from here on out.

Chevy Red Featured by Adrian Sullivan on 2008-06-15 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/16016.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Keldon Marauders 4 Magus of the Moon 4 Mogg Fanatic 2 Orcish Librarian 3 Simian Spirit Guide Instants 4 Flame Javelin 4 Incinerate 4 Sudden Shock Sorceries 4 Browbeat 4 Rift Bolt	Basic Lands 16 Mountain Lands 3 Ghitu Encampment 3 Mutavault Legendary Lands 1 Kher Keep	Sideboard: 3 Everlasting Torment 3 Wild Ricochet 3 Word of Seizing 3 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage 3 Keldon Megaliths
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Sullivan Red Featured by Patrick Sullivan on 2008-06-01 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15954.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Keldon Marauders 4 Magus of the Scroll 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Sulfur Elemental 4 Tattermunge Maniac Instants 4 Flame Javelin 4 Incinerate 4 Shock	Sorceries 4 Rift Bolt Basic Lands 16 Mountain Lands 4 Ghitu Encampment 4 Mutavault	Sideboard: 3 Serrated Arrows 4 Greater Gargadon 4 Magus of the Moon 4 Lash Out
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I’m very confident that his numbers, like mine, are the result of a lot of playtesting. From there, the question becomes, "Now that Eventide is available, what other weapons do they both get?" Brainstorm and Test. Those are the answers.

Here’s what we have to work with that matters:

Puncture Blast
Perhaps an alternative to my Everlasting Torment or Coimbra’s Sulfur Elemental, which exists primarily as a way to nullify cards like Finks and be an uncounterable surprise threat. That said, it does seem like a weak alternative, despite what it does to Chameleon Colossus. (There you go, Zac.)

Stigma Lasher
More than anything, this seems like a great card for Coimbra’s board. A permanent answer to any of the lifegain that might plague it, fast to begin with, and just all around problematic, I see this as a real threat for a lot of decks. Remember, many a Faerie player expect that they might be able to subsist on a few Bottle Gnomes backed up by counters and Masticore to be able to hold their own against Red. A single hit of this tosses that plan in the bin.

Figure of Destiny
Wow. While not as potent as he is in Block, this card is still a hell of a beating. Without question, this card seems like an incredible fit into Coimbra’s deck. I’d wager that it would be an incredibly improvement over some combination of Shock, Magus of the Scroll, or Sulfur Elemental. Further, the more cards like this that you run, the better that Tattermunge Maniac gets. In my own deck, it is a card that you strongly have to think about, but what you’d cut for it becomes a hard decision (if you make the room at all). Only testing could make this be answered.

Rise of the Hobgoblins
Here is a card that might strictly be an improvement for Coimbra’s sideboarded Greater Gargadon. In the mirror, a card like this seems incredibly sick. Conversely, this card begs the question, "Is there a deck that can simply be made to use it as your kill?" (Zur! *cough* *cough*)

From all of this comes my suggestion for an updated Sullivan Red (of the Patrick Variety)…

4 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Magus of the Scroll

4 Flame Javelin
4 Incinerate
4 Shock
4 Rift Bolt

16 Mountains
4 Ghitu Encampment
3 Mutavault
1 Kher Keep

Sideboard:
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
4 Puncture Blast
4 Rise of the Hobgoblins

I never really cared for the Sulfurous Blast plan for most Red decks. Too often, you have too many creatures out that you’d really rather not die. In its place, the Jaya Ballard plan can serve a lot of impressive roles – eating up creatures turn after turn, or turning dead draws into burn to the face.

Magus of the Moon, again and again, has proven its worth against so many opponents. There are matchups you have no business winning because this guy has hit the table. This isn’t any different today than it was yesterday. Access to him is essential.

Puncture Blast is a great way to simply up your burn count against any deck that you want to do so, as well as render impotent all number of cards. Kitchen Finks is simply not too exciting if it doesn’t come back, and Chameleon Colossus is a joke as a 1/1. Even against Faeries, it can be a great thing to either knock their Clique down to a manageable size, or make their sideboarded Masticore less than impressive.

Rise of the Hobgoblins is crazy powerful in any game that might go a few turns. Much like Greater Gargadon, it can completely swing a mirror match. Unlike that card, there is nothing silly about this card in multiples. That said, it is expensive, and it might actually be more cost effective to run Mogg War Marshal, which serves much the same purpose in the matchups where you’re looking for a card like this.

With regards to the main deck, the addition of Figure of Destiny is based on my experience with the card in play. It is, at worst, an improved Pouncing Jaguar. That in and of itself is pretty amazing. What’s more amazing is that you can ride it all the way, oh so very easily. On the play, versus a Bitterblossom, it is all too common to get draws such as: turn 1 Figure, turn 2 grow it and add another one-drop. On the third turn, attacking with a 4/4 and a 1/1 or 2/1 can easily put so much pressure on your opponent that when they’ve untapped, they are between 13 and 11 life. That’s pretty insane, actually. With so many potent one-drops, it can be far easier to overwhelm a Faerie player than you may have otherwise thought. In fact, this might actually be an argument to return to Patrick’s initial build with Keldon Megalith instead of Ghitu Encampment (though I doubt it).

Overall, I still think there is a lot of hope to be found in Eventide for Constructed. I know that I’m plugging away with it. Even if there won’t be good stuff for every deck, I think there is enough out there for some decks to make do with it.

See you at Nats next week!

Adrian Sullivan

…

Bonus PTQ Top 4 List!

I made Top 4 with a Merfolk deck this last week. Here’s my list:

Second Chance Fish – Adrian Sullivan

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Stonybrook Banneret
2 Sygg, River Guide
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Oona, Queen of the Fae

4 Ponder
4 Cryptic Command
3 Sage's Dousing
2 Negate
1 Turn to Mist

4 Mutavault
10 Island
4 Wanderwine Hub
3 Mystic Gate
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Plains

Sideboard:
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Negate
4 Wispmare
3 Pollen Remedy
2 Austere Command
2 Reveillark

I call this Second Chance Fish because of the nature of the deck – it can find a second chance, just because of Oona. The big thing that I wanted to do with Fish, after watching a ton of people play it, was make it have something to do if it puttered out. I started out with one Oona, and eventually moved to two. The Oona give the deck a second chance all the time.

This list was original based on the Fish list by Mehran Latif. One of his friends took the list to Top 8 of the PTQ in Chicago, and I watched Mehran play it as well. Overall, after picking his brain, I had determined a lot of what I liked about the list. Buuut, as I said last week, I knew that I wanted the deck to be somewhat preboarded against Faeries (note the Oona).

A part of this meant giving up game against a lot of other decks, but I was willing to do that. In the end, it meant running main deck Negate, and only two Sower, even though they are so fantastic elsewhere. Even though you still have cards you board in against Faeries (Wispmare, for example), your main is as potent as you can probably make it* against Faeries while still being a Fish deck in any given matchup.

I really enjoyed the deck a lot, and I’d play it again in that old horrible format any time. That said, I do think that Faeries was still the best deck in the tourney (and in the format). I simply didn’t feel equipped to be able to beat the best players in the room who were also armed with the same deck. My personal record against Faeries was 3-2, losing to Faeries twice, in the first round with mulligans versus turn 2 Bitterblossom, and in the Semis against eventually champion Justin Meyer (who, incidentally, was also packing two Oona). Owen Turtenwald largely smacked me around in our random pre-Top 8 playtesting with his Faeries, but I’m still pretty confident that it’s about a 55% match (great numbers, I know).

* The one Turn to Mist started out as two Turn to Mist, and I really enjoyed how they played out. However, every time that I drew a second Turn to Mist, I usually lost the game. That was no good. While I am still fine with having played it, I could easily see making this card into another Sygg, Sower, Dousing, or Negate.