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On some levels, grad school is really rewarding.

In other ways, it can kind of suck; I missed an event this weekend that I was really looking forward to: the Midwest Masters Series – Minneapolis. The prize structure for this event series is truly fantastic, with over $3200 in cash given out, 4-day badges to GenCon, and 8 invites to play in a $10,000 tourney there. Wowsa. To make it even better, the event was being run by my favorite tournament organizer, Steve Port of Legion Events.

This was the first time that this event series was really nearby, but I was too busy doing schoolwork to make it; filming a documentary on a great cabaret-pop-punk band sounds fun, until your body is dying from being behind a camera for 10 hours. So, even though I couldn’t be there, I was there in spirit, rooting for my many friends who took the trek up from Madison to compete.

The last of these events looked something like this (pre-Worldwake):

1st – Eldrazi Jund
2nd – Black Jund
3rd – LSV UWR
4th – Jund Ramp (No Leech)
5th – Cruel Control
6th – Jund
7th – Jund
8th – Red Beatdown (piloted by GGsLive’s Noah Swartz!)

In some ways, it’s easy to see why the doomsayers would be upset about this Top 8: five of eight Jund decks, even if three of them are reasonably variant from what one might normally expect for the archetype. In the end, though, Jund, likes Faeries, is being viewed as the de facto “too good” archetype, by many.

There is a lot to be said for this point of view. The deck really is a difficult deck to beat – at least if you hope to be able to have a shot at a diverse metagame. The real problem to tackle is the constant grinding down that the deck can produce, particularly if it manages to get off a few Blightnings. For many decks, one Blightning will put you on the ropes, and two is just lights out. Oh, Wilt-leaf Liege, where art thou?

For the doomsayers, then, expect to see yet more howling after this top eight. Sure, a robust examination of the Standard portion of San Diego put only one Jund in the Top Eight of the “actual” Standard, but once Jund pushed in with some help of its pilots’ draft skills, they rose to the top there. Further, among those with 24 points or more, Jund represented a full third of the top of the field.

And so, we get to the Minneapolis Top 8:

1st Place – Jens Erickson – Boss Naya
2nd Place – Matthias Hunt – Jund
3rd Place – Forrest Ryan – Jund
4th Place – Gerry Thompson – Koros
5th Place – Daniel Green – Jund
6th Place – Josh Buttke – Jund
7th Place – Julien Booher – Boss Naya
8th Place – Ryan Overturf – Jund (No Leech)

Yikes. Is the end nigh? Is it all over but the singing for Standard, at least until Rise of the Eldrazi shows up to save us? Are our Jund overlords going to continue to stifle other decks? I’m not so sure, but, it certainly is well worth paying attention to good ol’ Jund; many people, myself included, refocused all of our attention on the new decks of San Diego, and it has mostly been to our detriment.

Let’s take a look at the five lists from Minneapolis:

2nd Place – Matthias Hunt – Jund

4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Broodmate Dragon
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Putrid Leech
2 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Sprouting Thrinax
1 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
2 Explore
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Forest
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Mountain
4 Raging Ravine
1 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

SIDEBOARD
1 Bituminous Blast
3 Deathmark
4 Great Sable Stag
1 Liliana Vess
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Terminate

3rd Place – Forrest Ryan – Jund

4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Putrid Leech
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Blightning
2 Explore
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Forest
3 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Mountain
4 Raging Ravine
1 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

SIDEBOARD
2 Bituminous Blast
4 Deathmark
4 Great Sable Stag
1 Liliana Vess
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Malakir Bloodwitch

5th Place – Daniel Green – Jund

4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
2 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Sprouting Thrinax
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
3 Bituminous Blast
4 Blightning
3 Explore
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Terminate
3 Dragonskull Summit
3 Forest
3 Mountain
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
4 Raging Ravine
2 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

SIDEBOARD
2 Chain Reaction
3 Duress
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Mind Rot

6th Place – Josh Buttke – Jund

4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Putrid Leech
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Rampant Growth
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Forest
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Mountain
4 Raging Ravine
1 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

SIDEBOARD
3 Deathmark
3 Great Sable Stag
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Master of the Wild Hunt
2 Terminate
2 Thought Hemorrhage

8th Place – Ryan Overturf – Jund

4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Blightning
2 Explore
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Forest
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Mountain
4 Raging Ravine
1 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

SIDEBOARD
4 Deathmark
4 Great Sable Stag
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Master of the Wild Hunt
2 Terminate

From a main-deck perspective, it seems very clear that these decks are mostly influenced (surprise, surprise) by Pro-Tour San Diego Champion Simon Görtzen. Buttke’s deck is, in fact, card-for-card Görtzen’s deck, at least in the main. The rest have some minor variations, but are still essentially Görtzen-based lists.

Of the five, all of them used two-to-three mana ramping, usually in the form of Explore. All but one ran 27 lands (Green ran 26). And, like Görtzen, they ran a lot of man-lands. Green, only ran four, but Forrest Ryan ran seven, and the rest all ran six, like Görtzen.

Green’s list was the real oddball, of the bunch, if that can be said of decks that share a near card-for-card replication. He ran three acceleration, and that smidge less land (and man lands). The biggest difference, though, was in his spells. Green was the only player to really commit to Bituminous Blast (running three), and he ran the full package of Maelstrom Pulses.

For the other players, they all went with three Maelstrom Pulse, and mostly eschewed Bituminous Blast (Hunt ran one, perhaps to keep people guessing). Everyone except Overturf settled on four Putrid Leech (which Overturf replaced with Elvish Visionary).

In essence, what this means is that you can expect something very particular of Jund, in general, right now. Typically, the winning Jund lists are going to be jam-packed with mana. This means that if you’re planning on going the mana-denial route, it is probably best suited to a deck that is playing more akin to a Sped Red or RDW kind of route, rather than a Ponza route. That is, you’d better be clocking them, or don’t expect that plan to bear very good fruit.

Maelstrom Pulse is back. If your deck is banking on permanents because you remember Jund to be a deck that isn’t well-suited to dealing with non-creatures, put that memory to rest; those days are over. At the same time, Bituminous Blast is much less common, as man-lands have taken over those slots, being a good way to fight the mirror and simply making the deck more stable over a long game (and more threatening).

Also, this means that we have a more ponderous Jund deck in many ways. There might be Putrid Leech going on, but there is also a hell of a lot of comes-into-play tapped, as well. Craig Wescoe and other WW decks were putting up strong numbers versus Jund, often on the back of dropping a vicious clock before Jund could get set up. Even with Explore and Rampant Growth to help, those early turns are still Jund’s weak moments. Try to capitalize on that.

Overall, testing against, specifically, the Görtzen build seems like a wise call right now; Jund decks are always going to have a ton of minor variation, so it would be good to also spend a little bit of time against slightly different versions, but the fact that so many decks in Görtzen’s philosophy of Jund did so well in a large money event is well worth noting.

In their sideboards, each of the decks mostly have a pretty standard, by-the-numbers approach, but there are two points of interest. Daniel Green uses Chain Reaction as a kind of Damnation against the aggressive decks. While consistent, early RR is often hard for these decks to achieve, he is running 16 red sources. I have to imagine that Chain Reaction did wonders for him in the Swiss, particularly with his Bituminous Blasts. Ryan Overturf’s small choice was one Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, which can be quite good in a world of so much Jund (if it doesn’t get eaten up in the discard war).

4th Place – Gerry Thompson – Koros

4 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Goblin Bushwhacker
1 Kitesail Apprentice
2 Kor Duelist
4 Plated Geopede
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Steppe Lynx
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Adventuring Gear
1 Basilisk Collar
2 Earthquake
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Sigil of Distinction
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Mountain
5 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tectonic Edge
3 Terramorphic Expanse

SIDEBOARD
3 Baneslayer Angel
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Earthquake
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vithian Stinger

Ah, GerryT. Gerry married a few deck concepts together to come up with the break-out deck of the tournament, a Barely Boros update that takes the Ranger of Eos tutor package and twins it with the Stoneforge Mystic package, and wraps it up with a helping of Cunning Sparkmage.

With a reasonable expectation of equipment, thanks to the Stoneforge Mystics, his Ranger of Eos package includes the equipment loving Kitesail Apprentice and Kor Duelist. Kor Duelist can be particularly vicious, capable of delivering 10 points of damage out of nowhere, quite easily, and even more with just a smidge of work. In one very enjoyable game of Magic, my hand and creatures were completely exhausted, but I had seven mana and top-decked a Ranger of Eos for the win, summoning a Goblin Bushwhacker and a Kor Duelist, and equipping the Duelist with Sigil (dropping it to a +3/+3). Take sixteen! Woohoo!

Borrowing from Boss Naya’s sideboard plan, the deck includes the devastating Cunning Sparkmage/Basilisk Collar combo. This combo is the real deal. The thing that is so insidious about it is the way that each card, individually, is relevant. Put together, though, and so many of the problems of the past, like the potential stream of unending threats from base White(/Green) decks are actually overwhelmed. Trying to “fairly” kill these creatures was often an overwhelming matter; sometimes even one would be too much. But with a Build-Your-Own-Visara, it is not just manageable, it is likely.

The deck runs a whopping 26 land, though 15 of them are sack-lands. This has the interesting effect of generally guaranteeing that you will rarely be mana-screwed (particularly in a deck that exists so low on the curve), can consistently trigger Landfall, with only occasional risk of screw. A pair of Tectonic Edge also help alleviate the worry of screw. Overall, this deck looks very tight, with only the Elspeth being a card I could see being worthy of any wiggle room; do note, though, that if you cut Elspeth, you should make sure to replace it with a similarly powerful card.

7th Place – Julien Booher – Boss Naya

2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Ranger of Eos
1 Scute Mob
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Wild Nacatl
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
1 Journey to Nowhere
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Arid Mesa
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Raging Ravine
1 Rootbound Crag
2 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Verdant Catacombs

SIDEBOARD
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Stoneforge Mystic

1st Place – Jens Erickson – Boss Naya

2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Ranger of Eos
1 Scute Mob
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Wild Nacatl
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Path to Exile
4 Arid Mesa
5 Forest
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Raging Ravine
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Sejiri Steppe
2 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Terramorphic Expanse

SIDEBOARD
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Stoneforge Mystic

Spellwise, these two look to have been likely working together, with small substitutions from the LSV version of Tom Ross’s Boss Naya deck.

Both ran the one Baneslayer Angel, giving hint to the potential that they both worked together (their spells are identical, excepting one Path to Exile versus one Journey to Nowhere), but their lands have some minor and interesting differences. One ran strictly Verdant Catacombs, and the other Misty Rainforest (for this deck, essentially the same card). The solitary Baneslayer was played over the Elspeth that LSV favored, a switch that strikes me as somewhat random; why not run more? Baneslayer doesn’t have the same degree of diminishing returns that Elspeth can have, and Baneslayer doesn’t actually solve problems that this deck might have to deal with (at least not problems that the rest of the deck doesn’t deal with already). Otherwise, the board is virtually the same as well, with Oblivion Ring replacing the Qasali Pridemage.

This deck has reportedly had problems with Jund. If that is the case, it certainly seems as though Jens managed to dodge that problem, or perhaps either he found a sideboarding approach that worked, or his opponents didn’t know the proper plan to attack the relatively new Boss Naya deck. Jens isn’t new to success; he defeated the very talented Tommy Kolowith to take down a limited PTQ for Kyoto, so it seems reasonable to think he might have prepared for well for a tournament of this magnitude.

Overall, Boss Naya at least shows that it can perform well enough to still be worthy of consideration. I know a whole slew of Madison players tried to play Mythic at the event; many were right at the top of the standings, but none quite made the cut. Whether this says more about the quality of the deck, the players, or the luck they had is up for discussion.

I know that I’m still trying to figure out what to do with this format. I’ve been monkeying around with some “fun” decks when I get the chance, and haven’t largely had the time to really address the format at large. I do think it is interesting, though, that of the Top 8, they could really be boiled down to two camps: Blightning and Basilisk Collar.

Right now I’m all about the Collar. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing it around for some time.

Until next week,
Adrian Sullivan

SPECIAL BONUS INTERVIEW!
with Legion Events Tournament Organizer, Steve Port.

So, how big is your Minneapolis store, Misty Mountain North?

Steve Port: 8,500 square feet - it seats 350 well, 400 if we rearrange, 500 if we tighten it up. We had 300 seats set for the day. I expected 250, but we got 235. We lost a few carloads from Fargo and the Dakotas due to weather/ice on the roads. The newly promoted Level Four Jason Lemahieu was our Head Judge, plus we had a pile of the regular local sort of Minnesota crew.

What prompted you to help start the Midwest Masters Series [MMS]? Is this kind of tournament something you see being a part of the future of organized play?

Alan [Hochman of Pastimes] and I had been talking about doing something for a while. We had each done something independently and we realized we could cover more ground if we linked up. We brought in Mike Guptil [of PES] to give it a bigger regional feel. There are a lot of people out there now running the $5k type events. We're hoping our specific focus towards a regional area with a large cash final event people can fully expect to travel to will have good appeal.

We do think this sort of event is a strong component of organized play in the future. There are more and more players right now. And the more players we get the more events like this can be supported, the more players it helps generate.

I envision a day when there can be a good-sized event in Chicago and Minneapolis on the same weekend and both pull great numbers despite relative being so close – that possibility is pretty close to on us. Wizards has been pumping out great set after great set. It's got players energized and reinvigorated.

Recently, Magic has been getting some just incredible sales numbers, worldwide. Are you seeing the excitement about WotC's product reflecting in your events?

Oh, definitely. Our weekly events in store even are rocking. We did a random draft at Misty North yesterday with some players, including a guy who hadn't played in 10 years until just recently and a guy who just started collecting with M10, and that's a pretty regular cross-section. There were 10 people (not counting me and my staff) doing an all foil Shards draft and of those 10 people, only four had played the day before. I love that. I love that there are different levels/venues for people. I strongly believe in the Pro Tour system, the top-down pyramid structure. And a huge anchor of that is the grass roots. The "kitchen table" player it’s very hard to reach those guys sometimes. but right now they are really getting what they need. The days, exposure is coming from a lot of sources. Take the Xbox game - we saw a large surge of new players with the Xbox release. Guys who hadn’t played since high school paid the $15 for the game and were reminded how much they loved playing. And bam! They're back!

So for such a diverse crowd of players, where does the MMS fit in?

The MMS fits in on the upper level. As we get more and more casual players, eventually they start filtering up, looking for more competition. Maybe they’re not ready to drive all over for GPs and such, but they are looking for more competitive play at a regional level. MMS fits right in there, near GP level.

You might be a tournament organizer that players from outside the Midwest would recognize. Why might they know who you are?

I run all the public events at the Pro Tours and have been heavily involved in Nationals for a few years, including running all of Nationals last year in Kansas City, the first time a non-Wizards organizer has run Nationals in the US.

And the Magic Cruise, I suppose.

MC3 has over 50 people already booked with about 35 of those committed to the tournaments once I get that registration info up. CRAZY! It's been up a month and the event is almost a year away and we're already half full!

When is the cruise?

Feb 6-13th 2011.

It seems like you give a lot of your time to Magic, with things like the Magic Cruise and the MMS. What keeps you at it?

I love what I do. LOVE it. Like, in the grand scheme of things, if the cruise was all about money I'd have quit after the first one. Ultimately I ended up getting to go on a cruise for about what it would have cost me to do as a vacation for myself and Lindsey [Steve’s wife]... but it's just such a great thing.

And we were talking about those different sorts of players before? The cruise puts together the casual players and the more competitive players with a casual side. I think the perfect example of that is Bryan Lynch and Melissa DeTora. They both won spots on the cruise last year and we were chatting on the boat and they said they weren’t sure it was their sort of thing but they wanted to try it anyway... and they had such a blast they've already signed up for the next one

So, for anyone who isn't sure about whether to come to a MMS event, what would you tell them?

The MMS events are great even if you aren't planning on playing at the main event. There are great dealers on site, and there are drafts and other side events. We ran drafts and a Standard Worldwake Game Day with 33 players at this last MMS in Minneapolis.

We also had Elder Dragon Highlander pods! Man, EDH has really taken hold. I love that. It's like the thing 5-Color used to hit a little, only even more so. Definitely has gotten a strong foothold. Now, we're even running special EDH stuff at Pro-Tour.

---

Steve’s events are among the best out there. Be sure to check out Steve’s events page, Legion Events, where you can keep in touch with all of the awesome things he’s doing, whether it is PTQs, GPs, GPTs, or his own events like The Magic Cruise and now the Midwest Masters Series.