Did anyone realize how hard Constructed testing was going to be after the debacle that was Odyssey Block Constructed? I did, and so did the rest of the group that I tested with for it. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was like pulling teeth; we hated the format before it was really a format. We had decks built, matches tested - and worse yet, we had already become bored with the format.

We knew that U/G was, well, really good and that Monoblack Control was also good... And everything else you tried was junk if it couldn't beat either one of those at least fifty percent of the time.

Flash forward to somewhere between a week and a month from the end of the Block Qualifier season, and we were just plain sick of Odyssey; we hated drafting it, we hated getting it for prizes, and we wanted nothing more than to get on with it. We started testing Extended; it's fun, it's fast, and it doesn't depend on that stupid block we have so gotten tired of.

Frantic Search, pitch Arrogant Wurm and Basking Rootwalla at end of your turn...

Yup, it did it again - that damn Odyssey Block was poisoning our fun testing. Did I mention I hate U/G?

Then there was a prerelease, and some drafts after that... And the tide had shifted. We didn't mind playing again, and we actually started to think about IL Champs - and you know what? It looked like it was going to be fun... Seriously! Tog wasn't doing well in testing, the U/W Mobilization deck was just as we thought - overhyped - and the beatdown decks looked strong.

The one thing that sucked was that U/G Madness was still doing well, in fact, it was so good it had members saying I guess I'll sit out and draft in lieu of playing U/G if that's the best deck.

As if to say,"Hey, Standard can be fun," John shows up with this deck that sports not only Shelter and Sylvan Might - but Silvos, Ernham Djinn, and Silklash Spider. We test it against the few Standard decks that we had put together: Budde Call (Kai's UB), U/G Madness and U/G Threshold... And it's doing well. The combination of quick mana and fast fat backed up by Glory seems tough for most decks to deal with.

The original deck was pure John Jank, like The Rith All-Stars. Which looked a lot like the Red Zone series of decks.

Turn Two Amazing 1.0
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
3 Phantom Centaur
3 Glory
2 Ernham Djinn
3 Elephant Guide
2 Shelter
2 Sylvan Might
1 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
1 Silklash Spider
1 Naturalize
10 Forest
3 Brushland
2 Sungrass Prairie
2 Nantuko Monastery
4 Windswept Heath

Sideboard
3 Naturalize
3 Spellbane Centaur
1 Elephant Guide
1 Phantom Centaur
3 Ravenous Baloth
4 open slots at the time

The single main deck naturalize was doing really well... When we drew it. Only problem was that with one in the deck, waiting for it to show up in games where you were locked or waiting for opponent to kill you wasn't enough. The decision to up the official Naturalize count in the deck to two was made... And soon it started to really pay off. Matches against Opposition and Wake that we used to ordinarily have trouble with were now swinging in our favor. The WW/u Punisher deck had been neutered, seeing as all of their guys are just little annoying 1/1s or 2/2 without Divine Sacrament - or just speed bumps when they didn't have Opposition.

Now we were getting into the meat of testing where we were scouring the Internet while at work looking for something - anything - to test against. On the sat before Champs we assembled a small group to test, with our gauntlet, and enough cards to proxy anything we had seen in the previous week that might show up.

The Gauntlet

• UB Budde Call (Kai's UB)
• WW/u Punisher Opp
• UG Madness
• Monoblack Control
• Wake (3cCunning/4cBurning)
• UG Opposition, with Grizzly Fate
• 3 Color Opposition/Braids/Squirrel Nest
• G/w with Wish - well, not really, but we knew it wasn't as good as Turn Two Amazing
• WW
• Monored

Through twelve hours of testing... G/W was a champ. The Naturalizes won tons of games where Opposition or Wake was tapping out so they could recover the next turn. The only card that people were beginning to question was the Shelter, which was commonly used to help alpha strike vs. decks without Mongrel.

Turn Two Amazing John/Ted
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Phantom Centaur
3 Glory
2 Ernham Djinn
3 Elephant Guide
2 Sylvan Might
1 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
1 Silklash Spider
2 Naturalize
10 Forest
3 Brushland
2 Sungrass Prairie
2 Nantuko Monastery
4 Windswept Heath

Sideboard:
2 Naturalize
3 Spellbane Centaur
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Worship
3 Compost
4 Reprisal

I had very good luck with the Shelters and had decided to leave them in my deck, pulling the Silklash Spider and one Phantom Centaur. Mine looked like this:

Turn Two Amazing Chris
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
3 Phantom Centaur
3 Glory
1 Silvos, Rogue Elemental
2 Ernham Djinn
3 Elephant Guide
2 Sylvan Might
2 Shelter
2 Naturalize
10 Forest
3 Brushland
2 Sungrass Prairie
2 Nantuko Monastery
4 Windswept Heath

Sideboard Chris
1 Naturalize
3 Spellbane Centaur
2 Worship
3 Compost
3 Krosan Reclamation
3 Reprisal

The minor variations in the main deck seemed just that minor. The only change would come the morning of for Ted and John, and mine was pretty much set. Apparently the night before John and Ted kind of got cold feet over Mr. Ernie, and they decided to replace him with Ravenous Baloth in the main deck, and two Ravenous Baloth in the board. I stayed with the Ernham Djinns, and Shelters, eventually pulling Silvos to add a single Spellbane Centaur to the main, and add a Ray of Revelation to the board.

My final deck list for IL Champs:

Turn Two Amazing final
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
3 Phantom Centaur
3 Glory
1 Spellbane Centaur
2 Ernham Djinn
3 Elephant Guide
2 Sylvan Might
2 Shelter
2 Naturalize
10 Forest
3 Brushland
2 Sungrass Prairie
2 Nantuko Monastery
4 Windswept Heath

Sideboard Chris
1 Naturalize
2 Spellbane Centaur
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Worship
3 Compost
3 Krosan Reclamation
3 Reprisal

After playing eight rounds to a 6-2 record, I never felt like I had a bad match up - just ones I either misplayed or just got the worst draws against. I feel confident in saying that this is one of the best decks in the current Standard environment. I would like to think as well that all the testing that we did was able to help the Monday Night Drafters construct a good deck for ourselves and give us a really good look at the metagame as it currently stands.

As we sat at Bennigans, drinking beer and generally making a lot of noise, my phone rings and it's our compatriot Derek"Big Dunka" Monk and he's looking for the final tally on our deck. We tell him John missed Top 8 on tie breaks (who is 7-0 and plays in the last round to protect their rating - and loses!), I finished 19th, and Ted finished 21st, combined record on the day 17-5-2 (6-2, 6-1-1, and 5-2-1). We discuss some minor changes, definitely staying away from anything weird in place of the Reprisals - mainly that Spurnmage Advocate is just not good in this deck.

He goes some ungodly kind of 6-1 or 5-1 and is first seed after Swiss, so in a weekend the deck went 22-6-2 and placed all of its pilots in the top 24.

A big thanks to the Monday Night Drafters and all of the testing, theorizing we did over the course of a month and a half to come up with a good deck.

To those in the group that decided to play other decks like U/G, AsstroGlide, etc... Nah nah nah nah, just kidding.

Well, kinda.

Props to the peeps - peace out

Chris Bagemihl
C_R_Bagemihl@yahoo.com