Welcome back guys. Today I'd like to go over what you should expect if you're planning on going to Richmond. My job today is pretty easy though, since anyone who's been to Richmond before knows that the metagame is extremely predictable.

Stax
This is easily going to be the most common archetype, if not strictly Goblin Welder Stax, then an Uba Mask variant or even a crossbreed of Stax and a Workshop Aggro, similar to 5/3 or Forty 40's from last year. The big issues to remember here is that your permanent count is what is going to beat them most of the time, not your counterbase or removal. Don't play a permanent-light deck like Psychatog when much better options like Control Slaver are available. Stay away from control decks you're not terribly familiar with, since you'll find yourself having to do some very bizarre tricks to break free of Stax locks that you won't know how to do with a new deck.

As far as planning ahead is concerned, I would definitely maindeck some hate. Run maindeck Rack and Ruin, Sacred Ground, or even Rebuild. Having an easily accessible hoser will win you enough game ones that you don't find yourself losing entire matches to "that" Stax hand.

Running a deck with Goblin Welder will be very important in this metagame. If you're playing Stax, prepare maindeck solutions, because you're going to see a lot of them.

Fish
While Null Rod fish is seemingly on the decline, don't be surprised to see a couple of them in attendance. Null Rod's viability is going up over time, and if it was going to creep back up anywhere, it would be in Richmond, as that's near where Fish master Marc Perez makes his aquatic home.

That said, don't expect to see Chalice Fish disappear either. It will show up in large numbers and in some strange lists you haven't seen before. More Madness-esque builds like Jacob Orlove's Worse Than Fish will probably be making room for Blue/White controllish builds, or possibly even Blue/Red or Blue/Black. Were Ravnica legal, I would anticipate a lot of Blue/Black builds, but as those cards are not yet allowed I would anticipate Blue/Black as more of a novelty.

I don't think maindecking Fish hate is particularly crucial, especially since the hate you'd want for Fish is terrible in every other matchup. Your Rack and Ruin or two from the Stax matchup will be sufficient game one hate here, just have a definite plan in your sideboard for the matchup. This is one of those matchups you don't want to think about on the fly.

Oath
This is another deck that's definitely losing popularity, I expect this to remain in large numbers in Richmond due to the number of people who put it together out of budgetary concerns. While I feel it will be important to answer in the early rounds, I don't see Oath consistently delivering any results on a field of Stax without some serious hate, so don't plan on seeing this archetype after round three.

If you must have hate for this matchup, bounce spells are usually more effective than ways to remove the creatures or the oath. Rushing River is great for this job, but Echoing Truth or Chain of Vapor also work great.

Gifts Ungiven/Control Slaver
I expect equal amounts of these two archetypes, with the former being flush with good draw spells again since a lot of people really enjoyed Andy Probasco's recent article on the subject. These are the matchups you're going to have to do some serious testing for if you expect to win, since anybody still playing these will have been playing them for a while and know their deck very well.

Unfortunately, the best suggestion I can really give you here is if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Both of these decks are very high powered and Control Slaver especially is a solid choice in a metagame full of Stax. Prepare your Fish and other aggro solutions ahead of time and you'll have at least as much game as the rest of the room.

If you simply must hate them, both decks are weak against tempo based counters like Disrupt, Red Elemental Blast, and even Burnout.

Food Chain Goblins
The previous Richmond should make this archetype's appearance a no-brainer, but I don't expect it to do that well since it's a deceptively difficult deck to play correctly. Even so, you will face it at least once since it pummels Stax routinely and makes fish players want to quit the game and start a florist business.

Pyroclasm looks good on paper, but in practice it's a fairly weak solution since any capable Food Chain pilot can play around it with spells like Goblin Warchief and of course the Food Chain itself. Much better solutions like Blue Elemental Blast can answer things like going off with Food Chain or Warchief, and it can even stop Goblin Recruiter or Ringleader while they're still on the stack.

What you should be playing:

Dragon
I feel this deck or something extremely similar is the best solution to the field. With solid game against Stax, Gifts, and Oath, and an outright slaughter on Fish, you should really only be fighting with Control Slaver and the mirror if you go with this plan. I would even go so far as to suggest a list I once ran in Richmond, with some tweaks to taste:

D4gr0n
4 Worldgorger Dragon
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Eternal Witness
1 Verdant Force
4 Force of Will
4 Animate Dead
3 Necromancy
3 Intuition
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
3 Compulsion
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby

Sideboard
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Stifle
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Sundering Titan
2 Verdant Force
1 Memnarch

The only tweaks I would make looking back include adding Demonic and Vampiric Tutors back to the deck, since Compulsion is too much of a liability against Gifts Ungiven and Stax due to the horrendously slow speed of it. You can cut whatever cards you want for these two spells, but I'm down to a single Compulsion at this point.

Control Slaver
Rich Shay's favorite toy is still a viable archetype, and with its amazing game against Stax and the other Blue decks, it's a serious contender for those of you who own Mana Drains and not Bazaars.

Control Slaver
Jesus Roxas
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pentavus
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
4 Goblin Welder
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fact Or Fiction
4 Force Of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Thirst For Knowledge
2 Mindslaver
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

2 Island
2 Flooded Strand
1 Library Of Alexandria
2 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Snow-covered Island

Sideboard:
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Echoing Truth
3 Rack And Ruin
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Duress
3 Pyroclasm

Food Chain Goblins
It's very unlike me to suggest Food Chain Goblins for anything but ignoring, but due to the high concentrations of Fish, Stax, and unprepared control decks, Food Chain appears to be the best choice for the struggling budget player.

Food Chain Goblins A Vintage deck, by Mike Zaun 1st place at a StarCityGames Power 9 Tournament tournament in Richmond, Virginia, United States on 2005-05-22 Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 1 Black Lotus 1 Mana Crypt 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Ruby Creatures 1 Gempalm Incinerator 4 Goblin Lackey 4 Goblin Matron 4 Goblin Piledriver 4 Goblin Recruiter 3 Goblin Ringleader 1 Goblin Sharpshooter 3 Goblin Vandal 3 Goblin Warchief 1 Siege-Gang Commander 1 Skirk Prospector Enchantments 4 Food Chain	Instants 3 Red Elemental Blast Legendary Creatures 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Basic Lands 5 Mountain Lands 2 Bloodstained Mire 1 Strip Mine 4 Taiga 4 Wasteland 2 Wooded Foothills	Sideboard: 3 Null Rod 4 Tormod's Crypt 3 Mogg Fanatic 4 Pyroblast 1 Red Elemental Blast
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

Any of these three decks should have a solid chance at hitting the Top 8, and even taking home the Black Lotus for first place.

What am I playing?

Oh, you know.

A total pile.

I hope you enjoyed the daily series. Thanks for following along.

Ben Kowal
Vintage Punk