State and Provincials has come and gone. It taught some lessons. Some we knew, some are new. Among those we knew - Affinity is still strong, Tooth and base-Green are good, and I can't play worth sheet. The new lessons - Champions does have cards to add, and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is anything but a trash rare. Who knew - well, obviously the three people that won States with Kiki control decks, plus the others that made Top 8. More on that later.

I know States is over, so Type Two is a semi-dead format, but I've got a lot of interesting decklists further down. They are worth a look: if nothing else, they would be a blast to play at FNM.

I pulled the decklists for 45 U.S. states T8s, plus some others around the world. Here's a breakdown of the U.S. results.

Affinity is still Affinity. It still plays the best and cheapest creatures, the best and cheapest card drawers, the best - to hell with it. Everyone knows Affinity. It rotates out in 11.5 months.

Tooth and Nail decks are also pretty well known. Many versions added Kiki-Jiki and Sundering Titan. Some splashed Red. Nothing that new happened here.

U/G Control was stronger than I expected - and in a lot of flavors. Meloku the Clouded Mirror was a popular inclusion, but the framework was still that of the old Crystal Witness deck, with Echoing Truth generally, but not always, substituting for the Crystal Shard.

Kiki-Jiki control decks were the one big surprise result - taking several wins. In several cases, the winning deck had a twin in the T8. I'll give decklists below. These decks were generally not built around the Kiki-Jiki / Intruder Alarm combo.

R/G and B/G decks had a fair amount of success, and a few G/W decks did as well. They all built around the Sakura-Tribe Elder, and generally ran some Kodama's Reaches. Beyond that, they reached for each color's power cards - Arc Slogger, Kumano, Death Cloud, Cranial Extraction, Kokusho, Wrath of God, etc. They were not the exact decklists I put in my article, but reasonably close. The only card I missed out on was Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers, which showed up in a lot of decks. Three-color control decks based on Elders and Reach also appeared, generally adding Blue for counters or Black for removal.

Red decks were common. I divided them into Big Red, for those playing mainly burn and red monsters. Those playing more than seven land destruction spells I call Ponza, although the distinction is somewhat arbitrary. I've never been a Red mage, so I'll leave the analysis to others.

In the "also rans", three March of the Indestructables decks made the T8, as did two U/W Cogs decks and a more traditional U/W control deck. Four mono-Green decks made T8s, with half of those being straight Green beatdown and half including the Fecundity / Blasting Station combo. Three mono-Blue control decks made T8, including one that ran Spire Golems. Finally, there were a few decks I could not even characterize.

Now, on to the fun decks.

Joel Noble took eighth place in Iowa with this combo deck. It goes infinite by animating Forbidden Orchard with Lifespark Spellbomb while Intruder Alarm is in play. I'm sort of surprised not to see Kiki-Jiki in here. I'm also surprised he made T8 with this - maybe his opponents couldn't find Cranial Extractions. I played against a similar deck in Wisconsin and tore it to pieces.

Joel Noble: 8th Place - Iowa
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Plains
1 Mountain
3 Island
8 Forest

4 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
4 Thought Courier
2 Eternal Witness
3 Vulshok Sorcerer
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

1 All Suns' Dawn
2 Gifts Ungiven
4 Lifespark Spellbomb
1 Revive
3 Sylvan Scrying
1 Fireball
4 Intruder Alarm

Sideboard
3 Sacred Ground
4 Ivory Mask
3 Karma
2 Cranial Extraction
2 Naturalize
1 Wear Away

Here's a more interesting deck - a 3-color control deck built around Kodama's Reach, but without the Sakura-Tribe Elders. I don't really understand the card choices, such as Okina in a deck with no legal targets (except maybe enemy Horobis?) It has a nice sideboard, though.

Shaheen Soorani - 3 Color Control - 1st Place - Virginia
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
5 Island
5 Plains
10 Forest

4 Viridian Shaman
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Eternal Witness
2 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Pristine Angel
2 Duplicant

4 Kodama's Reach
4 Wrath of God
4 Condescend
2 Hinder
2 Damping Matrix
3 Concentrate
2 Rude Awakening

Sideboard
2 Rewind
3 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Oxidize
3 Sacred Ground
2 March of the Machines
2 Evacuation

Here's another 3-color control deck, this time from Canada

Brian Flowers - 3 Color Control - 4th Place - Alberta
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
2 Mirrodin's Core
5 Swamp
5 Island
10 Forest

1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Eternal Witness
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Uyo, Silent Prophet
1 Soratami Savant

4 Condescend
3 Kodama's Reach
3 Cranial Extraction
3 Echoing Truth
3 Gifts Ungiven
2 Echoing Decay
2 Rend Flesh

Sideboard
1 Rend Flesh
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2 Echoing Decay
3 Squelch
3 Viridian Shaman
4 Oxidize

The next deck is a 5-color control deck built around Sakura-Tribe Elders, Kodama's Reach and Gifts Ungiven, which was intended to find whichever the silver bullet was needed at the moment. Several of the pros in Madison played this deck, and more would have made Top 8 if not for random bad luck - they kept ending up playing each other. I think everyone playing the deck played everyone else playing it.

Mike Hron - Gifts Ungiven - 7^th Place - Wisconsin
2 Island
2 Plains
2 Mountain
1 Swamp
14 Forest

1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1 Molder Slug
1 Pristine Angel
1 Viridian Shaman
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Eternal Witness
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

1 Rampant Growth
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 All Suns' Dawn
1 March of the Machines
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Oxidize
1 Rend Flesh
1 Worship
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Kodama's Reach
2 Echoing Truth

Sideboard
1 Boil
1 Terror
1 Duplicant
2 Cranial Extraction
1 Nourish
1 Sacred Ground
1 Nezumi Shortfang
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Persecute
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf
1 Naturalize
3 Oxidize

Okay, on to the Kiki-Jiki decks. A lot of people have tried Kiki-Jiki with Intruder Alarm, but he generally appeared in T8s without that enchantment. He seems to be better copying cards with good enters play or leaves play abilities. For example, look at this list:

Adam Kugler - Kiki Control - 1st Place - Wisconsin
2 City of Brass
1 Pinecrest Ridge
11 Forest
7 Mountain
1 Island

4 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Hearth Kami
4 Eternal Witness
3 Viridian Shaman
2 Duplicant
3 Rootrunner
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

4 Commune with Nature
4 Magma Jet
2 Sensei's Divining Top

Sideboard
3 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Intruder Alarm
3 Plow Under
1 Rootrunner
1 Duplicant
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Pain Kami
1 Viridian Zealot

Obviously, copying a Sakura Tribe Elder every turn is going to shore up your mana base. Copying Hearth Kamis and Viridian Shamans is fine against artifacts, and copying Eternal Witness is card advantage. The best trick, however, is Rootrunner - which can lock up an opponent's draws for the rest of the game. I believe Adrian Sullivan designed this archetype, and he also made T8 with a very similar build - hopefully he'll write about it. Thomas Woodward also took fourth in Minnesota with a very deck.

Here's another version of what I'm calling Kiki Control. Imagine having your opponent use Kiki and Eternal Witness to cast Plow Under every turn.

Derrick Sheets - Kiki Control - 1st Place - Tennessee
4 City of Brass
1 Island
10 Forest
7 Mountain

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Triskelion
3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Duplicant
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Viridian Shaman
4 Eternal Witness

2 Rude Awakening
2 Plow Under
4 Electrostatic Bolt
3 Commune with Nature

Sideboard
3 March of the Machines
4 Oxidize
3 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
1 Plow Under

Chris Boozer won Georgia States with this deck - and a second copy of this deck made T8 as well. The deck appears to revolve around Time of Need, which fetches the Legend you need. Note that this also incorporates the Kiki-Jiki. Good things happen when Kiki-Jiki copies any of the legal targets in this deck.

1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
9 Forest
1 Island
6 Mountain
2 Pinecrest Ridge
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Viridian Shaman
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Hearth Kami
4 Eternal Witness
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Kodama of the North Tree

4 Oxidize
4 Time of Need
4 Magma Jet

Sideboard
3 Plow Under
3 Fireball
1 Jugan, the Rising Star
1 Myojin of Infinite Rage
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Dosan the Falling Leaf
3 Naturalize
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi

After looking at the results around the world, the format looks interesting. Affinity is still the 600 pound gorilla, but there are a lot of interesting decks out there. Kiki-Jiki. Mirror Breaker looks really good - but mainly because of the interaction of Kiki and Eternal Witness. Based on what we have seen so far (and the lack of a new Witness), I don't see him dominating block. He also seems a bit expensive and fragile for Extended, but that will be decided in Columbus this weekend. [He's a bit fragile and expensive for Extended. - Knut, who was there]

The format looks fine. If your local store runs Standard FNM events, give it a try.

No States report from me. Suffice it to say that that Saturday in Madison started rainy but turned into a gorgeous Indian Summer day. I won two matches, lost two matches, then went home to play in the woods with my dogs. I can't really complain, even when the pup rolled in some really stinky crap. So help me, he smelled just like Affinity - but a good bath took care of that.

So when your friends pull out an Affinity deck, you can try my new solution: lure them to the hose with dog treats, then scrub them down with cheap shampoo. If that doesn't work, try some of the decks listed above. They all have proven their ability to beat Affinity.

Okay, States is over - on to Extended.

PRJ
jahnp@itis.com