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We’ve had quite a weekend, with several Nationals results in along with the glorified Kentucky Open. I’m going to list the Top 8, talk about whatever piques my interest, and try to fill it out

Kentucky Open

1st - Eric Hadam - Kithkin
2nd - Kyle Boggemes – Five-Color Control
3rd - Steve Sadin – Five-Color Control with Enigma Sphinx
4th - Chris Anderson - Elves
5th - Andrew Shrout - Faeries with main deck Meddling Mage
6th - Ian Gossett – Five-Color Cascade with Enlisted Wurm, Liliana Vess, and Naya Charm
7th - Nick Becvar - Jund Cascade
8th - Vincent Lanceford - Kithkin with a single main deck Harm’s Way

This tournament had a few surprises. For one, I didn’t expect Sadin to travel to Kentucky, but as history has shown time and time again, at any tournament he attends and I don’t, he does well. It’s getting to the point that he should really just pay me not to show up at Nationals. I mean, I’m not qualified, but I plan on hitting those grinders hard and should have no problem earning an invite as long as my head stays clear. This format is panning out exactly as I predicted, and I’ve got a couple of brews that I’ll have to flip a coin to determine which one I want to win Nationals with.

Cedric’s Kithykins won the whole she-bang, proving the White menace to be on everyone’s minds tomorrow and Friday.

There were some very interesting decks that weren’t exactly on my radar for metagame breakers that popped up here that I’m not glad to know about. Ian G’s Cascade deck is inspiring on many fronts, and utilizes several game plans that I found very attractive.

5-Color Cascade A Standard deck, by Ian Gossett 6th place at a Miscellaneous tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.bluegrassmagic.com Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Bloodbraid Elf 3 Borderland Ranger 4 Enlisted Wurm 4 Kitchen Finks Instants 4 Bituminous Blast 2 Naya Charm 4 Volcanic Fallout	Planeswalkers 2 Liliana Vess Sorceries 3 Captured Sunlight 4 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Primal Command Basic Lands 2 Forest 2 Mountain 1 Plains 2 Swamp Lands 1 Exotic Orchard 1 Fire-Lit Thicket 4 Jungle Shrine 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Savage Lands 3 Twilight Mire 1 Wooded Bastion	Sideboard: 4 Anathemancer 4 Putrid Leech 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Hallowed Burial
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This is very similar to several Cascade decks I built before M10 was released, and exudes the type of game plan I want to use to attack the format. Having big busty spells that reek of attrition, with numerous cards to dig you out of the inevitable hole you start out in for playing such a heavy set deck. Once the wheels get rolling, this deck is impossible for linear aggro and control decks to stop. The Cascade engine is reinforced by Liliana, and I’ve known from experience if you untap with her it is very hard to lose.

The sideboard is clearly defined as a midrange alternative; however, I’m not so sure how necessary it is to bring in Putrid Leech AND Anathemancer. Leech in particular provokes racing and gives the opponent a proactive out to winning against you, but with so much life gain to offset him he fits in perfectly. Lightning Bolt in the board feels about as natural as putting all your PTQ Top 8 pins on your mat to show off at GPs, and I’d like to at least two more Primal Commands somewhere in this list.

Sadin’s deck looks wacky, but I’m really digging his sideboard Blightning plan. Is Enigma Sphinx really any good? That’s a question I just don’t know the answer to, but I know I’d rather cast Martial Coup for 7 mana than a stupid 5/4 flier.

Faeries A Standard deck, by Andrew Shrout 5th place at a Miscellaneous tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.bluegrassmagic.com Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Meddling Mage 4 Mistbind Clique 4 Scion of Oona 4 Spellstutter Sprite Instants 4 Cryptic Command 4 Path to Exile Legendary Creatures 3 Vendilion Clique Tribal Enchantments 4 Bitterblossom	Tribal Instants 3 Sage's Dousing Basic Lands 7 Island 1 Plains 1 Swamp Lands 2 Arcane Sanctum 2 Drowned Catacomb 4 Glacial Fortress 3 Mutavault 4 Secluded Glen 2 Terramorphic Expanse	Sideboard: 2 Tidehollow Sculler 3 Sower of Temptation 4 Esper Charm 3 Hallowed Burial 3 Peppersmoke
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This is a pretty revolutionary Faeries list. There have been full blown Esper attempts before, but none that had the same smooth mix of a Meddling Mage plus Vendilion Clique approach. Mage is a very solid answer to the numerous cards Faeries can’t deal with, like Banefire, Volcanic Fallout, and Great Sable Stag, so it will be interesting to see if this deck is adopted by the fearful Fae fellowship.

Sage’s Dousing is pretty greedy, since Broken Ambitions does everything that you want it to do, and it really appears like it slows the deck down tremendously. One of the important things to note is that he’s not slowing down his nut Faerie draws by splashing for Mage, Path, and an ivory-filled sideboard. He has full four-ofs across the board to keep his deck saturated with the degenerate Faerie cards we’ve all grown to hate.

I’m very glad that this list popped up, because I would have no clue what I would be playing against if he led with a turn 2 Mage, followed it up with a Clique, used Dousing, then dropped a Mistbind to throw me for a loop.

The mana looks a little shaky with only 9 White sources, but otherwise this looks like a nice Faerie hybrid, and definitely something to keep on your mind when they drop a Glacial Fortress turn 1.

Another revolutionary list from this tournament was Vincent Lanceford’s unique and innovative Kithkin deck.

Kithkin A Standard deck, by Vincent Lanceford 8th place at a Miscellaneous tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.bluegrassmagic.com Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Cloudgoat Ranger 4 Figure of Destiny 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart 4 Knight of Meadowgrain 4 Wizened Cenn Enchantments 4 Honor of the Pure Instants 1 Harm's Way 4 Path to Exile	Planeswalkers 3 Ajani Goldmane Sorceries 4 Spectral Procession Basic Lands 17 Plains Lands 3 Rustic Clachan 4 Windbrisk Heights	Sideboard: 4 Ethersworn Canonist 4 Burrenton Forge-Tender 4 Stillmoon Cavalier 3 Unmake
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Some forum haters might mention that this is just Cedric’s version, but take a closer look. VinnyL skewed from the normal Kithkin 75 and made some monumental changes to metagame his stock Kithkin deck for the KFC Open. To gain a creature advantage on the other Kithy’s out there he chose to up his Rustic Clachan number to 3, providing the extra reinforcement he needed to propel him to the top. He wasn’t done there though; he also made a dramatic addition of a singleton Harm’s Way to give him an upgraded one-mana removal suite.

Japan

1st - Shuhei Nakamura – Five-Color Control
2nd - Yuuya Watanabe - Faeries
3rd - Yuma Shiota - Elves with 3 main deck Path to Exile
4th - Kenji Tsumura - Elves
5th - Naoki Sakaguchi – Five-Color Control
6th - Tomomi Shiraishi - Elves with only 2 Regal Force
7th - Ren Ishikawa - Faeries
8th - Taichi Fujimoto – Red/Black Demigod/Blightning

You can always tell the strength and caliber of a Japanese Top 8 by the number of squiggly red lines underneath all the crazy names when you’re typing it up. This one is no slouch, with a pair of Players of the Year, and Yuuya being 07’s top rookie.

This is what I expect the Top 8 of U.S. Nationals to look like. Strong Five-Color Control lists, Elves aplenty maindecking Path to Exile, with some scattered Faeries and Red decks rising like yeast in the Standard oven.

Shuhei’s is by far the most interesting of the group, and go figure, it won.

5-Color Control A Standard deck, by Shuuhei Nakamura 1st place at a Nationals tournament in Tokyo, Japan on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/jpnat09/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Broodmate Dragon 3 Mulldrifter 3 Plumeveil Instants 2 Agony Warp 3 Broken Ambitions 4 Cryptic Command 1 Doom Blade 4 Esper Charm 1 Essence Scatter 4 Volcanic Fallout Sorceries 3 Cruel Ultimatum 3 Hallowed Burial	Basic Lands 3 Island Lands 2 Cascade Bluffs 1 Exotic Orchard 2 Mystic Gate 4 Reflecting Pool 3 Sunken Ruins 2 Vivid Crag 4 Vivid Creek 3 Vivid Marsh 2 Vivid Meadow	Sideboard: 1 Pithing Needle 4 Great Sable Stag 2 Puppeteer Clique 2 Runed Halo 1 Essence Scatter 1 Liliana Vess 2 Deathmark 2 Identity Crisis
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What’s really impressive here is Shuhei’s slot arrangements. For his two mana permission spells, he split them up with a combination of Essence Scatter, Doom Blade, Broken Ambitions, and the underestimated Agony Warp. When he has three mana up, he is representing countermagic, Volcanic Fallout, Esper Charm, and Plumeveil, making it very hard to gauge just where he’s at to make the appropriate play. Hallowed Burial kills everything that Fallout doesn’t, and tripling up on Broodmate Dragon and Cruel Ultimatum is a trend I’d expect to continue in all the other Five-Color Control lists.

His sideboard is a tough one to attack, with the Liliana/Identity Crisis/Needle package covering the combo and control decks, Stag for Fae, and various removal slots to fill in the holes. Lots of sideboarding options and ways to outmaneuver the opponent… however, I’d expect the Five-Color Control lists at U.S. Nationals to adopt some other sideboard tactic to stay fresh and ahead of the game. This could be anything from Baneslayer Angels to Thought Hemorrhage to a Duress/Blightning plan to adapt for the all important mirror match.

Three Mulldrifter is also kinda wacky; I’d much rather have Jace. He goes a long way toward buying extra time, or he’ll put you so far ahead the extra 3-6 damage you take won’t matter.

Australia

1st - Jamie Mackintosh – Elves
2nd - Ian Wood - Jund Cascade
3rd - Hugh Glanville - Faeries
4th - Jeremy Neeman - Elves
5th - Aaron Nicastri - Makeshift Manipulation
6th - Michael Xia - Kithkin
7th - Garry Wong – Five-Color Blood
8th - Aaron Nicoll – Merfolk

If people prepare properly for Five-Color Control, we could very well have a similar Top 8 to Australia. For the past few years it feels like there is always an influential deck that comes out of Australian Nationals that warps U.S. Nationals. If I had to pick a deck, I would definitely say Aaron Nicastri did it again with his unique Makeshift Mannequin deck in which he incorporated Soul Manipulation.

Baneslayer Control A Standard deck, by Aaron Nicastri 5th place at a Nationals tournament in Canberra City, Australia on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/aunat09/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 2 Baneslayer Angel 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Mulldrifter 4 Shriekmaw 4 Sower of Temptation 3 Stillmoon Cavalier Instants 2 Cryptic Command 4 Makeshift Mannequin 4 Soul Manipulation Sorceries 2 Infest 2 Planar Cleansing	Basic Lands 2 Island 2 Plains 3 Swamp Lands 4 Arcane Sanctum 2 Fetid Heath 3 Mystic Gate 4 Reflecting Pool 2 Sunken Ruins 2 Vivid Creek 1 Vivid Marsh	Sideboard: 2 Scepter of Fugue 2 Baneslayer Angel 1 Stillmoon Cavalier 1 Vendilion Clique 1 Ajani Goldmane 2 Duress 2 Infest 4 Thoughtseize
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He has a myriad of desirable creatures that are backed up by the potent reanimation of Soul Manipulation and Makeshift Mannequin. The two seem like they would work perfectly together, but when I was messing around with this deck it became slightly problematic since Manipulation inhibits Mannequin.

For instance, opposite Kithkin, you have turn 2 Shriekmaw, turn 3 Soul Manipulation with Mannequin in hand. Do you really use Manipulation to counter/bounce Maw? Or do you set them up for the two-for-one next turn while representing Cryptic Command? The deck is very hard to play perfectly and has a sprawling amount of complicated decision trees that I didn’t know how to properly approach out of inexperience. I’d imagine a lot of the people picking this deck up will have similar dilemmas, which leads me to believe this is one of those decks that won’t transition very well from deck creator to other pilot’s picking it up for the first time with no insight on when to do what, where, and why.

I’d imagine this deck to have a hard time against Faeries, Elves, and possibly Five-Color Control, and I think Glen Elendra would go a bit farther than the huge discard suite in the sideboard.

Merfolk also made an appearance, but that deck is really bad, and poorly equipped to handle the multitude of angles from which updated modern Standard lists will be attacking.

Spain

1st - Enric Marti playing Five-Color Control
2nd - Jonathan Cano playing Jund Cascade
3rd - Alain Simon playing GB Elves
4th - Saul Aguado playing Kithkin
5th - Samuel Arevalo playing Faeries
6th - Jaime Marrero playing Five-Color Control
7th - Jose Garcia playing Red/Black
8th - Sergio Garcia playing Faeries

I don’t know the filtration standards in Spain, but something has to be in the water they’re drinking. The winning list is funky like a chunky monkey doing the humpty dumpty with Bugs Bunny.

5-Color Control A Standard deck, by Enric Martí 1st place at a Nationals tournament in Granada, Spain on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/spnat09/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Bogardan Hellkite 3 Kitchen Finks 4 Mulldrifter 2 Wall of Denial Enchantments 1 Runed Halo Instants 4 Cryptic Command 4 Esper Charm 1 Naya Charm 1 Negate 1 Path to Exile 2 Terminate 2 Volcanic Fallout Planeswalkers 2 Ajani Vengeant	Sorceries 2 Cruel Ultimatum 2 Hallowed Burial Basic Lands 3 Island Lands 2 Cascade Bluffs 2 Exotic Orchard 4 Mystic Gate 4 Reflecting Pool 2 Sunken Ruins 2 Vivid Crag 4 Vivid Creek 2 Vivid Marsh 2 Vivid Meadow	Sideboard: 2 Pithing Needle 3 Ethersworn Canonist 2 Runed Halo 2 Celestial Purge 2 Negate 1 Volcanic Fallout 2 Banefire 1 Hallowed Burial
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There are a number of decisions made in the building of this Five-Color Control list that I don’t fully understand. Why you would make the split 2 Volcanic Fallout 2 Hallowed Burial? Clearly those two-ofs aren’t stable enough to solidify the matchups for which they are each in the deck. The removal package is the most awkward I’ve seen in awhile, with 2 Terminate (huh?), 1 Negate (huh #2), 1 Naya Charm (huh #3), 1 Path to Exile, and a Runed Halo.

Ajani Vengeant is sadly outdated and not cutting it anymore in this Bloodbraid and Elf infused Standard. I haven’t tested with Bogardan Hellkite (huh #4), but there’s no way it can be correct when compared to the dominating Broodmate Dragon that is so hard to deal with and gives you a proactive approach that can be played two turns earlier. Two Wall of Denial (huh #5) is random too. One of the neat things about Wall is that it encourages them to overextend into a Fallout/Wrath, but when you run 2/2/2 it becomes very hard to setup any sort of intelligent well-planned route. The numbers in this list are just too random to be taken seriously, and he can’t reliably plan to beat any deck consistently with such skewed choices.

Don’t play this list. Play Shuhei’s list.

All that said, he’s a National Champion, while I’m a lowly weekly column dude who dreams of hoisting the same trophy he just won so effortlessly with his Five-Color Oddity.

The runner-up, on the other hand…

Jund Aggro A Standard deck, by Jonathan Cano 2nd place at a Nationals tournament in Granada, Spain on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/spnat09/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Boggart Ram-Gang 2 Chameleon Colossus 3 Great Sable Stag 2 Kitchen Finks 4 Putrid Leech 3 Wren's Run Vanquisher Instants 2 Bituminous Blast 3 Jund Charm 4 Lightning Bolt	Sorceries 3 Maelstrom Pulse Tribal Instants 3 Nameless Inversion Basic Lands 5 Forest 2 Mountain Lands 3 Auntie's Hovel 2 Fire-Lit Thicket 3 Gilt-Leaf Palace 1 Graven Cairns 4 Savage Lands 3 Twilight Mire	Sideboard: 3 Anathemancer 1 Kitchen Finks 2 Chaotic Backlash 1 Jund Charm 2 Snakeform 3 Deathmark 3 Thoughtseize
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These Hovel/Palace Jund decks always make me scratch my head. I dismissed them so long ago because it was so frustrating to effectively sideboard with them. Having a better two-drop in Wren’s Run Vanquisher is shibby and all, but when you compromise your removal with Namecrap Inversion, and revealing your finisher Chameleon Colossus on turn 2, it really changes the number of plays you can get away with.

I agree with solidifying the manabase by excluding Cryptic Command, but I just can’t get behind the reveal lands because they don’t always play out the way you’d like them to, and I feel most people are concentrating too hard on maximizing their 60 before worrying about their 75, which is a dangerous pitfall for hopeful deck builders. It’s taken me a long time to figure out the significance how sideboarding really impacts a match, and how important it is to have a strategic edge over the people I’m paired up against at the big tournaments, and this kind of deck throws all that logic out the window.

It is an extremely efficient 60-card deck though, and even includes maindeck Great Sable Stag, which I’m still up in the air on including in the main. He’s pretty amazing when he’s amazing, but he’s also abysmal when he’s abysmal.

G/B Elves A Standard deck, by Alain Simón 3rd place at a Nationals tournament in Granada, Spain on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/spnat09/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 3 Chameleon Colossus 4 Great Sable Stag 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Putrid Leech 4 Wilt-Leaf Liege 4 Wren's Run Vanquisher Sorceries 4 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Profane Command	Tribal Instants 4 Nameless Inversion Basic Lands 5 Forest 2 Swamp Lands 4 Gilt-Leaf Palace 4 Murmuring Bosk 4 Mutavault 4 Twilight Mire	Sideboard: 1 Doom Blade 2 Snakeform 2 Deathmark 2 Infest 1 Primal Command 1 Profane Command 4 Thoughtseize
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This is my favorite deck in the Top 8; its smooth, clean, crisp numbers, solid game plan, great sideboard options. Lots of cheap efficient spells backed up by Green’s creature superiority. I think the Nameless Inversion could afford to become Doom Blades, or perhaps a 2/2 split, or put a 3rd Profane Command for the 4th Inversion. The reveal lands aren’t nearly as problematic in this deck as the one above, since Bosk can always come in turn 1, and this deck shouldn’t have a shortage on Elves for Gilt-Leaf Palace.

I would expect the stock of these Rock-ish type decks to rise. However, I’d really like to see some kind of hand disruption in the maindeck out of principle. Duress and/or Thoughtseize. This deck is very quick and efficient, and dropping a creature plus hand disruption on turn 2/3 can really cripple the opponent and act like a Time Walk of sorts to keep them off that crucial turn 3 Kitchen Finks, turn 4 Bloodbraid Elf, or snag that Cryptic Command.

Singapore

1st – Kithkin
2nd - Kithkin with Rise of the Hobgoblins sideboard
3rd – Five-Color Control with 4 Baneslayer Angel and 3 Brion Stoutarm
4th - Green/Red Aggro
5th - Faeries
6th – Five-Color Blood with Uril and Enlisted Wurm
7th - Sanity Grinding with Sleep and Time Warp
8th - G/R Aggro

Cedric’s Kithkin really scratched their way to the top this tournament. The only thing more depressing than seeing a Kithkin finals is seeing a Kithkin finals in Singapore.

You know that 3rd place Five-Color Control list also can’t be that great if it lost to one of those Kins, with so many tools against the super linear aggro deck. Chapman Sim was packing 4 Baneslayer Angel, 3 Brion Stoutarm, 3 Path to Exile, 3 Volcanic Fallout, 3 Maelstrom Pulse, 4 Kitchen Finks, Bloodbraid Elf, Bituminous Blast… every single card in his main deck is awesome against Kithkin. I really don’t think you can make a Five-Color Blood deck more dedicated to pummeling them into a Kithy pulp, but Chapman couldn’t get it done. He probably got unlucky, but you’re kind of asking for it when you try and get techy with a Giant Shaman.

The two R/G decks are remarkably similar from main deck to sideboard, with only a few slightly altered slots. I wouldn’t be caught dead shuffling those sixties up for a tournament, but for some people, playing bad Red decks is just your thing. You know who you are, and you don’t need to act like you’re outsmarting everyone when you show up with Colossal Might in your maindeck and Manabarbs in your sideboard.

Sanity Grinding A Standard deck, by Albertus Law 7th place at a Nationals tournament in Singapore, Singapore on 2009-06-21 As reported at http://www.top8magic.com/2009/07/singapore-nationals-top-8-decklists/ Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Plumeveil Instants 3 Broken Ambitions 4 Cryptic Command 4 Dream Fracture 4 Twincast Planeswalkers 4 Jace Beleren	Sorceries 4 Sanity Grinding 4 Sleep 4 Time Warp Basic Lands 21 Island Lands 4 Shelldock Isle	Sideboard: 4 Wall of Frost 4 Flashfreeze 3 Oona, Queen of the Fae 3 Vendilion Clique 1 Traumatize
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Albertus’s list is pretty inspiring on several fronts. He needs to max out on Broken Ambitions, but other than that, Sanity Grinding is the type of deck that people are forgetting about, making it an excellent rogue option for the aspiring mages trying to find an underestimated brew with which to battle. Sleep and Time Warp give this deck a great way to buy a lot of extra time, making great Evacuation replacements.

The sideboard is also pretty cool, with Wall of Frost keeping things chilled. Vendilion Clique and Oona are great Grinding alternatives; however, they look slapped on there like most other generic creature packages. One of my favorite cards to play with in the old Sanity Grinding decks was Dominus of Fealty, since you’d get in there with him once every blue moon. I don’t think Flashfreeze brings anything new to the table, and could probably be cut to strengthen some other matchup because upgrading your counters really doesn’t seem sideboard-worthy.

Standard is shaping up just as I expected. These Nationals make a great precursor to U.S. Nationals, where things are going to be shaken up a bit before calming down in the passing weeks.

Elves, Five-Color Control, and Rock style decks are all on the rise.

Red decks and Kithkin are going to be answered. There’s no way is Kithkin breaking the U.S. Top 8, unless Cedric manages to do well on the draft portion. Red decks don’t have a flag-bearer yet, but Michael Jacob could make a run at three years in a row with Red aggro, and I wouldn’t bet against him in my most inebriated hour.

Faeries might have found its next evolution with Meddling Mage main deck. However, I’m holding my breath on that one. I’d really like PV’s opinion on the White-based list, since I’m far too lazy to throw it together and see if it’s worth a damn.

Big mana alternatives are very potent when primed properly. This is my angle of attack for Nationals. I’ve got a mean Bant Control list, and a streamlined Jund Aggro list that are both positioned to do well this weekend. I don’t want to put them in the article, but I’ll try and put the lists in the forums on Thursday/Friday.

I’m going to Tweet this whole weekend, so stayed tuned on my page for frequent tournament updates, twitpics, and Sanchez-style coverage of U.S. Nationals. If you’re attending, be sure to holla at yo boy, and stop by the StarCityGames.com booth to support the best Magic website in creation.

Twitter.com/The_Sanch

Thanks for reading…

Kyle