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As I mentioned last week, I don’t think I could live with calling myself a Texan Magic player if I don’t qualify for Pro Tour: Austin. There was once a time when I could boast that I never missed the Top 8 of a PTQ in San Antonio/Austin, and those cities still represent the bulk of my numerous high finishes, including a State Championship, a Limited Olympics Championship, and a City Championship. Y’know, all those tournaments that don’t really mean anything, but still work as a nice confidence boost to suck you into the game even further.

Point being: Austin is my second home. I learned how to play Magic with the Austinites on late night draft tables, I formed close friendships with many of the city’s inhabitants making many memorable weekends, and now, with the highest level of play returning to “my city,” I honestly don’t think I could stomach watching from the sidelines.

So my tournament calendar for the next couple of months includes a few PTQ shots in, San Antonio and Dallas, along with the possibility for a long distance drive PTQ, and of course I look forward to tearing up the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Dallas Ft. Worth at the end of the month, like a Pinata with a Obsidian Battle-Axe. I’ve fought in many tournaments at the Fort Worth convention center, and am pretty familiar with the area. If anyone needs any help navigating, just click the “Email the Author” button at the bottom.

With my first PTQ being this weekend, my Bant Control deck in shambles, and with very little confidence in my Jund aggro ever being able to actually win a tournament, I’d imagined myself playing with Vivid Lands and Cruel Ultimatum for the first time. But as usual, I got brewing, and broke M10 Standard again (in my own mind).

It all started when I was play testing with Gindy & GerryT the night before he won Nationals. We were testing his quarterfinal match, which was that unsightly R/W Homebrew Control deck by Mark Hendrickson.

The Spanish Inquisition A Standard deck, by Mark Hendrickson 5th place at a Nationals tournament in Kansas City, Missouri, United States on 2009-07-26 As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/usnat09/welcome Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 2 Armillary Sphere 2 Obelisk of Alara Enchantments 4 Goblin Assault Instants 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Path to Exile 4 Volcanic Fallout	Planeswalkers 4 Ajani Vengeant 2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant Sorceries 1 Call the Skybreaker 2 Earthquake 4 Hallowed Burial 1 Martial Coup Basic Lands 2 Mountain 3 Plains Lands 4 Mutavault 3 Reflecting Pool 4 Rugged Prairie 4 Vivid Crag 2 Vivid Marsh 4 Vivid Meadow	Sideboard: 4 Great Sable Stag 3 Guttural Response 3 Hindering Light 3 Firespout 2 Identity Crisis
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

At first we all laughed at the deck, and wondered how exactly it won any games. It’s pretty clear that it’s metagamed to deal with Kithkin and Elves primarily, with Goblin Assault being a Better Blossom opposite Faeries. The problem with this type of deck in the upcoming format is that it’s so damn awful against Five-Color Control that the matchup is a near auto-loss.

We soon found out that its not exactly an auto loss, and GerryT pointed out that this deck can really peck you to death with Bolts, Ajani, Fallouts, Mutavaults, and Goblins to then finish you off out of nowhere with Earthquake. That plan is poor opposite Five-Color Control, but I won a fair amount of games against Gindy by just staying greedy and taking advantage of his subpar draws with low amounts of countermagic.

Playing the deck, it felt like it has everything I want to be doing to control the format. It has the best, most efficient removal package, with Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and Volcanic Fallout, a truly admirable twelve-pack of “I hate creatures and don’t want to lose to them.”

From there, the deck utilizes Planeswalkers and Obelisk of Alara (vomit) to gain card advantage, and a boat load of Wrath effects to protect it. It’s got a few curve balls with Martial Coup, Earthquake, and Call the Skybreaker to provide some ability to win the game somewhere down the line.

Not exactly the supporting crew I’d pick to support Bolt/Path/Fallout, but the core of the deck is so strong Mark didn’t need much other than good play skillz and a little luck to propel him into the Top 8. Unfortunately for him, half the Top 8 was playing Vivids and Ultimatum.

That’s the story of the Spanish Inquisition, but perhaps we can cut out all that Spainish nonsense, throw in some Sancheezy Mexican funk, and keep the Inquisition to come up with something like this.

The Mexican Inquisition Featured by Kyle Sanchez on 2009-08-09 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/17842_Down_And_Dirty_Project_Austin_Part_1_The_Mexican_Inquisition.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 2 Broodmate Dragon Enchantments 4 Fertile Ground Instants 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Path to Exile 4 Volcanic Fallout	Planeswalkers 3 Ajani Vengeant 3 Garruk Wildspeaker 2 Liliana Vess Sorceries 1 Austere Command 1 Duress 2 Hallowed Burial 1 Identity Crisis 1 Martial Coup 1 Primal Command 1 Thought Hemorrhage 3 Thoughtseize Basic Lands 2 Forest 1 Mountain 1 Plains 1 Swamp Lands 1 Fetid Heath 3 Jungle Shrine 4 Reflecting Pool 1 Rugged Prairie 2 Savage Lands 1 Twilight Mire 2 Vivid Crag 2 Vivid Grove 1 Vivid Marsh 1 Vivid Meadow	Sideboard: 3 Anathemancer 1 Arbiter of Knollridge 2 Runed Halo 1 Austere Command 3 Duress 1 Identity Crisis 2 Primal Command 2 Thought Hemorrhage
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

The basic premise of the deck is that Path/Bolt/Fallout/Thoughtseize is a great way to stop them from doing anything too nasty early on, to give my deck time to cast the big game-breaking spells like the Planeswalkers, Dragons, and the numerous one-ofs. I’ve been working on this brew all week, and I feel I have a decent shot against whatever I sit down against, so I think I’ll give this bad boy a go this weekend. I don’t want to share my sideboarding guide just yet, but I’ll go over the whole deck in the standard format every writer uses when discussing a new deck for the first time.

2 Broodmate Dragon

One of the biggest problems I had when playing Hendrickson’s deck was that it would take sooo long to kill the opponent. Casting 5/5 Elementals is cool and all, but when you pay 14 mana only to have both your 5/5s and the two turns you spent casting them trumped by a single Cryptic Command, it gets a little depressing when you have to actually kill Blue mages. Enter Broodmate. The best and most resilient creature in Standard gives this deck an immediate threat that will win the game fairly quickly if not handled.

2 Liliana / 3 Garruk / 3 Ajani Vengeant

I hate referring to Planeswalkers as card advantage, since they don’t actually get you any new cards, and this particular crew doesn’t effect the board as much as some other busty spells, but if they stick they’ll generate a wealth of opportunities from which to capitalize.

Liliana is one of the pasty substances that keeps this deck stuck together. With her, you can turn all those bomb 1-ofs into essentially 3-ofs, giving this deck a hell of a lot of reach when it comes to finding the specific card that destroys the deck you’re playing against.

Garruk is more of an alternate kill condition, since a couple of Broodmates can be answered, and I might need some more beasties to get the job done. His untap ability is also in unique form in this deck. There are so many awesome cheap spells between Bolt, Path, and Thoughtseize/Duress that his untap two is like being able to cast two more spells this turn. Not to mention the obvious synergy with Fertile Ground.

Ajani is really just there to buy time, and be a temporary answer to cards like Mistbind Clique, Chameleon Colossus, and Baneslayer Angel until I find a Path or Wrath. His life gain is also important since this deck has seven cards that inflict two to me every time I cast them.

4 Path / 4 Bolt / 3 Thoughtseize / 1 Duress

I’ve discussed this package already, and it’s the primary reason a deck like this can compete in the Elves, Kithkin, Jund, 5CB, random Red deck, and Faerie decks. Path is one of the best answers to Mistbind Clique, while Bolt and Fallout do their duty to sweep the little critters away.

The Thoughtseize/Duress package has been freaking awesome so far. This deck cares so little about the majority of cards that they are going to play that nabbing the ones that are important is crucial to keeping an advantage. Against Five-Color Control, this is typically Cruel Ultimatum or whatever card drawing source they need to smooth out their draw, like Jace or occasionally Mulldrifter. I kept worrying about the two damage from Thougthseize, so I moved a Duress main deck. The real goal of these cards in the control matches is to wait to play them before you need to resolve a big spell like Identity Crisis, Thought Hemorrhage, Martial Coup, or a Planeswalker.

2 Hallowed Burial / 1 Austere Command / 1 Martial Coup / 4 Volcanic Fallout

This is the board sweeper suite that has been diversified due to Liliana being the number-warping hot tamale she is. Austere Command is my humble answer to combating those stupid Time Sieve decks running around, and is a crucial tool at dealing with Pithing Needle and Runed Halo since I don’t have any Maelstrom Pulse.

Everyone knows how cool Coup is by now; an alternate kill condition while supplementing as Wrath effect #8 at the top of the curve.

1 Primal Command / 1 Identity Crisis / 1 Thought Hemorrhage

The Command was originally Broodmate #3, but I felt I needed a bit more life gain to combat the Red decks and to offset my Fallouts/Thoughtseize. Since its addition, it’s proved a very helpful card to tutor for to reset my library as well. Sometimes both Broodmates end up in the Graveyard, and Primal sometimes has to function as an expensive Raise Dead.

Identity Crisis and Thought Hemorrhage are both cards that are very well positioned to attack this format. Every deck loses to a Crisis. Five-Color Control, Faeries, Elves, Red decks with Hellsparks and Anathemancers in the yard, and especially those Open the Warp decks showing up everywhere.

Thought Hemorrhage has an equally devastating effect on the game, ridding them of the problematic Cruel Ultimatum/Broodmate Dragon, Cryptic Command/Mistbind Clique, Open the Vault/Tezzeret, Nettle Sentinel/Regal Force, and any and all Anathemancer attempts.

4 Fertile Ground / 23 Lands

Hendrickson had 26, and 2 Sphere so I felt 27 sources should work given I’ve added Garruk to the mix to cast the upper end stuff. All the spells you need to stabilize are all pretty cheap, so it’s pretty easy to buy enough time.

The sideboard is a hodge-podge of cards I’ll need to adjust post board to all the other decks’ plans.

1 Identity Crisis
2 Thought Hemorrhage
3 Duress
1 Austere Command
2 Primal Command
1 Arbiter of Knollridge
2 Runed Halo
3 Anathemancer

Anathemancer gives me a non-Broodmate alternative, although I’m honestly not too excited over them however they are necessary for the matches that might run close to time as a way to steal games out of nowhere.

Duress gives you a surplus of hand disruption to resolve the big spells through counter magic while being excellent disruption to deal with Planeswalkers and Time Sieve Combo.

An extra Identity Crisis to give me more “I Win” cards when resolved through the numerous hand disruption angles I’m pushing in against the other reactive decks out there.

I wanted to have another Wrath in the sideboard to bulk up against creature-heavy decks, and Austere Command provides a versatile answer to Enchantments and Artfiacts I have problems with.

Runed Halo is there to combat Anathemancer alongside additional Thought Hemorrhages. It’s so funny how many decks crumble once you resolve a Hemorrhage against them. It has to do with how controlling this deck is, and how few cards I really care about, and Hemorrhage is the perfect card to fill in the gaps.

Additional Primal Commands and Arbiter of Knollridge are there to combat the Red decks. Arbiter is my pet card, and I’ll be damned if I’m successful and his enormous nipples aren’t by my side.

This is my plan for this weekend. If you have a PTQ and are looking to play something new, exciting, and a great call for the metagame I expect across the nation this week, hit me up with an email and I’ll fill you in on sideboarding plans so we can take down those cherished Blue Envelopes.

Thanks for reading…

Kyle