As I said in a previous post, the new Tez build would be decided just before GenCon. It turns out, that indeed it was. Here is the Tez list that won the World Champs:
1st – Itou Hiromichi Tezzeret Control
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tinker
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Inkwell Leviathan
4 Dark Confidant
1 Fire // Ice
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Magus of the Unseen
1 Misdirection
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Island
2 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Darkblast
Sideboard
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Trinisphere
2 Pyroclasm
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Arcane Laboratory
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Darkblast
I suspect this will become the base list people start working with from here-on in. There are certain Main Deck slots I think he devoted specifically to the GenCon meta. For instance, Magus of the Unseen and Rack & Ruin were there to stop the top contenders. You could even make the case for Fire//Ice and Darkblast as metagame calls. Though, I think Darkblast will become a staple for Tez decks in the Rod vs. Vault vs. Welder matchup going forward.
Here are the “innovations” I want to focus on for a now: 4 Dark Confidant, 2 Sensei’s Divining Top, 1 Swamp.
Dark Confidant is the natural go-to draw engine people will gravitate towards following the restriction of Thirst For Knowledge- even though Night’s Whisper is more explosive, more immediate, and less life intensive. However, this deck has an average CMC of around 1.6 pre-board and only nine cards in the Main with a CMC of 4 or more. The life loss will only matter in longer games and only really against agro decks like BUG Fish, Meandeck Beatz, GW Beatz, Shop Agro, and Christmas Beatings.
So what does this mean for building in the future. The 2-4 open slots may best be filled by Duress in a generic meta. The slow life attrition from Fetch Lands, FoW, Vamp Tutor, and Bob mean that Thoughseize and maybe Imperial Seal are probably out as options. Duress can trade your one drop for your opponent’s best card and buy you a couple turns to set up. Seal is slow, costs life, and interrupts tempo.
Moving on to SDT. The 2 Tops Itou included can help smooth out any massive loss of life and make up for the restrictions of Ponder and Brainstorm. Where Bob goes, Top is sure to follow it seems. One top used to be fairly standard in Tez builds, as Menendian’s Composite Tez lists have shown. But now with 2, Itou is making it a feature of his deck. Counting the Tops, Itou has build at deck that has 9 cards that either manipulate the top of his library or tutor cards into play/his hand: Ponder, Merchant Scroll, Brainstorm, Tinker, Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and 2 Sensei’s Divining Tops. While Bob, Time Walk, FoF and Ancestral, still gain him card advantage, it’s beginning to become clear that there’s a shift in Vintage priorities from straight card advantage to card selection. This is why I think Dark Confidant will remain the draw engine of choice until someone finds a way to exploit the life attrition it causes. Confidant makes the Card Selection priority even better.
The last thing I want to highlight is the inclusion of a basic swamp. None of Menendian’s composite lists have one. This is something new. With Bob in the mix and so important to the deck running smoothly, I’m guessing that Itou wanted to avoid the complications caused by Wasteland and Magus of the Moon. With his basic Swamp, he is assured that he will be able to cast all eight of his black spells almost regardless of his opponent’s board position (although obviously Strip Mine w/ Crucible would shut it down). I see this as an insurance policy for the deck. I doubt he fetched it out too often during the tournament, but he perceived the threat to non-basics to be high enough that it warranted playing a basic of his secondary color. In the Null Rod/Wasteland infested metagame we are likely to see in the next few months, I don’t believe it’s a bad idea at all. Two XG Beatz decks made the top 8 at World’s. There’s no doubt that green-based agro/disruption decks are going to be a force at least until Zendikar comes out, and perhaps even after then.
Meta-specific decisions for Tez Control builders are becoming harder and harder to implement. They are basically left with 4 open slots to hone their deck to their individual environment. While that may sometimes be a weakness, Tez Control has shown that is resilient to both new printings and card restrictions. It will be fun to see how it evolves over the next few months and just how much influence Itou has on the world-wide meta.
Peace,
-Troy
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Diamond in the Rough #1: Abolish
Heya,
This is the start of a series of articles on cards that have practical applications in Vintage but either haven’t found the right deck yet or are still waiting for a critical mass of printings to happen in order to become relevant. This is more or less a “cards to watch” series that looks at spells and effects that meet the Vintage requirements for power and utility but for whatever reason, have not made an impact.
Today I’m looking at Abolish. The card reads, “1WW, Instant, You may discard a Plains card rather than pay Abolish's mana cost. Destroy target artifact or enchantment.” Okay, so what have we got here?
Instant speed? Check
Alternate casting cost? Check
Affects critical cards commonly played in Vintage? Yep
In popular deck lists? No way
Sounds like a Diamond in the Rough! It’s kind of funny, but Disenchant effects are amazingly powerful right now, and likely always will be going forward. Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, and Qasali Pridemage are seeing a good amount of play in Vintage right now. So cards with Abolish’s effect are generally accepted as solid utility cards. That’s score one point in favor of this card.
Pitching a land is sometimes a problem and sometimes not in Vintage. In the opening grip, it’s usually pretty bad. You need at least your first two land drops to get your deck running. However, as the game goes on, those extra lands become less relevant and playing spells becomes more important. You’re likely to draw into land you don’t need. Abolish gives you the ability to tap out to play some other card, then when you opponent thinks your weak, give you to option to pitch a card you don’t need to play a powerful effect. In a color like white, tapping out is necessary in almost every game at some point. Abolish can let you bait your opponent into exposing a critical card that you can blow away on his end step. Score half a point here.
But what’s keeping Abolish back? Well, honestly, there’s just way too many more efficient cards out there that do basically the same thing. The aforementioned Seals along with more dedicated cards like Oxidize, Ancient Grudge, Krosan Grip, etc are just better at destroying relevant cards. It just lacks a good hard casing cost, cantrip, or some other intangible to make it a viable choice over other cards right now.
So why might Abolish someday be a card that shines? The answer is speed. Every few sets, we get some new mana acceleration card. Elvish Archdruid, Simian Spirit Guide, Rite of Flame, and Chrome Mox are some more recent examples. These are going to keep adding up. Examine how much faster Vintage is today vs. oh let’s say the Mask block era when Abolish was printed. There are so many more ways to generate card advantage and mana on turns 1, 2, and 3 now than there ever were back then. Chances are good, in three to five years, there will be even more plays possible on the opening turns. Thus cards like Abolish will gain more importance. You may not have time to get to your second or third land drop before a Time Vault combo is established or a turn 1 Oath + Time Walk combo is pulled off. It is very conceivable that some time down the road, being able to kill an artifact or enchantment before your first land drop becomes one of the most important plays you can make.
I’m not telling you to run out and buy a playset of these now. But what I am telling you is to not forget about this card down the road. You never know when it might become the next big tech.
Peace,
-Troy
This is the start of a series of articles on cards that have practical applications in Vintage but either haven’t found the right deck yet or are still waiting for a critical mass of printings to happen in order to become relevant. This is more or less a “cards to watch” series that looks at spells and effects that meet the Vintage requirements for power and utility but for whatever reason, have not made an impact.
Today I’m looking at Abolish. The card reads, “1WW, Instant, You may discard a Plains card rather than pay Abolish's mana cost. Destroy target artifact or enchantment.” Okay, so what have we got here?
Instant speed? Check
Alternate casting cost? Check
Affects critical cards commonly played in Vintage? Yep
In popular deck lists? No way
Sounds like a Diamond in the Rough! It’s kind of funny, but Disenchant effects are amazingly powerful right now, and likely always will be going forward. Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, and Qasali Pridemage are seeing a good amount of play in Vintage right now. So cards with Abolish’s effect are generally accepted as solid utility cards. That’s score one point in favor of this card.
Pitching a land is sometimes a problem and sometimes not in Vintage. In the opening grip, it’s usually pretty bad. You need at least your first two land drops to get your deck running. However, as the game goes on, those extra lands become less relevant and playing spells becomes more important. You’re likely to draw into land you don’t need. Abolish gives you the ability to tap out to play some other card, then when you opponent thinks your weak, give you to option to pitch a card you don’t need to play a powerful effect. In a color like white, tapping out is necessary in almost every game at some point. Abolish can let you bait your opponent into exposing a critical card that you can blow away on his end step. Score half a point here.
But what’s keeping Abolish back? Well, honestly, there’s just way too many more efficient cards out there that do basically the same thing. The aforementioned Seals along with more dedicated cards like Oxidize, Ancient Grudge, Krosan Grip, etc are just better at destroying relevant cards. It just lacks a good hard casing cost, cantrip, or some other intangible to make it a viable choice over other cards right now.
So why might Abolish someday be a card that shines? The answer is speed. Every few sets, we get some new mana acceleration card. Elvish Archdruid, Simian Spirit Guide, Rite of Flame, and Chrome Mox are some more recent examples. These are going to keep adding up. Examine how much faster Vintage is today vs. oh let’s say the Mask block era when Abolish was printed. There are so many more ways to generate card advantage and mana on turns 1, 2, and 3 now than there ever were back then. Chances are good, in three to five years, there will be even more plays possible on the opening turns. Thus cards like Abolish will gain more importance. You may not have time to get to your second or third land drop before a Time Vault combo is established or a turn 1 Oath + Time Walk combo is pulled off. It is very conceivable that some time down the road, being able to kill an artifact or enchantment before your first land drop becomes one of the most important plays you can make.
I’m not telling you to run out and buy a playset of these now. But what I am telling you is to not forget about this card down the road. You never know when it might become the next big tech.
Peace,
-Troy
Monday, August 3, 2009
May/June 2009 Large-scale Metagame Report
Heya,
Last week I did a report on the small-scale Vintage metagame for May and June of 2009. Due to a flood of very interesting topics he’d rather write about, Stephen Menendian asked me to do a write-up about the large-scale metagame for the same bi-monthly period. I agreed, and so for these two months and these two months only, I’ll be reporting on the results of the big tournaments. I hope that I am able to produce a report that meets the standard he sets. It will probably be briefer than Steve’s usual reports since much of what I said in the small-scale meta report (link here: ) is also true of the large-scale meta. The important thing about this bi-montly report is that it’s the last one prior to the June 2009 B/R changes. It also marks one full year since the “apocalypse” when Gush and Flash were restricted. Anyway, here we go-
The May/June Metgame Top 8 Breakdown by Archetype:
There were 13 tournaments reported with 33 or more players (at least 6 rounds of Swiss) for a total of 103 decks. One deck was not reported. Here are the top 8 results by Archetype:
27 Tez Control (1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,3,3,5,5,5,5,6,6,6,6,7,7,7,8) [includes 2 Remora Tez, 2 Tezless Tez, and 2 Toughtcast Tez]
13 Drain Tendrils (1,1,2,2,3,3,3,4,5,5,6,8,8)
12 Ichorid (1,2,2,3,4,7,7,7,8,8,8,8)
8 MUD (1,2,4,4,4,5,7,7)
4 Stax (1,2,4,6)
4 BUG Fish (5,5,7,8)
4 UR Fish (2,2,5,8)
4 Oath (3,4,4,8)
3 Painter Combo (2,4,5)
2 ANT (3,7)
2 TPS (3,5)
2 Bomberman (6,7)
2 Suicide Black (5,7)
2 Pitch Long (3,7)
1 Drain Freeze (1)
1 Faeries (1)
1 Selkie Strike
1 Grow
1 Merfolk
1 Stiflenought
1 Mystic Meditation
1 Etherium Workshop
1 Long.dec
1 RBW Agro
1 UW Fish
Remarks:
-Tez decks dominated once again, however they did receive a bit of a challenge from Drain Tendrils. Looking back on Steve’s last report, there were only two Drain Trendrils lists that made the top 8. This marks a massive upswing in that archetypes performance and one that Steve predicted last year [http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/15991_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Vintage_Apocalypse_The_New_Metagame_Uncovered.html]. We’ll see if Drain Tendrils sticks around or was just a flash in the pan that no one saw coming.
-After nearly vanishing from the top 8 in the last report, Oath returns with 4 entries. That represents a 400% improvement from last time. However, Control Slaver is gone completely. I doubt it will ever return thanks to the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge. Maybe with Strategic Planning or Careful Consideration, but I highly doubt it. That’s a sad thing for me. I hate to see an archetype vanish like that, especially if it’s one the DCI wasn’t even targeting with its B/R announcement.
-The last thing I want to highlight is the emergence of some unexpected agro decks. Faeries, Merfolk, Suicide Black, and Selkies all made the top 8. Could they be the new Goblins and Elves? Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Block added a multitude of powerful tribal cards that dominated Standard over the last two years. It’s interesting that those cards may be filtering all the way down to Vintage. We’ll see if these decks pop up again once the meta sorts itself out post-GenCon.
The number of decks that make the top 8 in each bi-monthly report will vary depending upon the number of tournaments. So sheer numbers don’t give a complete picture. Instead, it is helpful to look at percentages. Here is the percentage breakdown of the top 8 by archetype for May/June 2009:
Tez Control: 26%
Drain Tendrils: 12.6%
Ichorid 11.6%
MUD: 7.8%
The Field: 42%
Remarks:
-Moving up from 30% in the last report, The Field grew to 42% of the metagame. Any archetype getting less than 5% of the top 8 pie I put in “The Field” category. I interpret this increase to mean that people were trying anything they could to unseat Tez control these last two months. Obviously, it didn’t work. Tez decks took a share of the top 8 twice the size of the next best performing archetype. Just for historical reference, Gush decks- AS AN ENGINE- only made up 25% of the top 8 at their peak. Just think about that. One archetype performed better than an entire “pillar” of the format. It beat GAT, Gush Tendrils, Next Level Doomsday, Tyrant Oath, and MSPaint combined! That is absolutely astounding!
-Ichorid dropped about four percentage points from its last showing. I noticed a greater percentage of decks featuring Leyline of the Void over Yixlid Jailer (or playing both) according to Morphling.de. IMHO, Leyline is a much better Ichorid Hate card than Jailer, so when the number of Leylines go up, I expect the number of Ichorid decks making the top 8 to go down. However, Ichorid is performing quite well and is still a force to be reckoned with. Ignore it at your own peril.
The May/June Metgame Top 8 Breakdown by Engine:
In my small-scale report I call engines “pillars” to match Tom LaPille’s terminology. However, Stephen has used the word engine for a long time and since I am just the sub this time around, I will keep with his tradition. The top 8 percentage breakdown by engine is as follows:
Mana Drain: 45.6%
Null Rod: 14.6%
Workshop: 12.6%
Bazaar: 11.6%
Dark Ritual: 8.7%
Other: 6.7%
Remarks:
-I know you’re thinking the same thing I am. No change here. Mana Drains tripled-up on the next best engine thanks in part to the surge by Drain Tendrils. This is a feat never accomplished by cards like Gush or Flash. There is a whopping 31% difference between first and second place. On average, almost half of any top 8 in a 33+ man tournament will feature drain decks. Throw in 1 Rod deck and 1 Shop deck and Bazzars, Rituals, and Other have to fight for the last two open positions.
-The 45.6% take of the top 8 for Drains represents a modest 3% gain from the previous report. That’s probably within the margin for error, but the fact that you can go back to the July/August report of 2008 (prior to Tez, Inkwell, and Time Vault errata) and see that Drain decks made up nearly 37% of the top 8 metagame is testament to its dominance. For one full year, Mana Drain has been the top engine and has at least doubled up on the next best thing.
-Real quickly, some thoughts on Tez and Time Vault. There’s a lot of people who want to blame Time Vault for Mana Drain’s dominance. The numbers I cited above suggest that people are misplacing their blame. At best, Time Vault made about an 8% difference and that’s excluding any effect Tezzeret the Seeker and Inkwell Leviathan had on the metagame. Time Vault is not and has not been the problem. Hell, even Mana Drain is not the problem. The B/R decisions of June 2008 was the problem, and I don’t believe it has been corrected by the June 2009 decisions.
The May/June Metgame Tournament Winner Breakdown by Archetype:
Making the top 8 in a large tournament is an exhilarating achievement. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and sometimes can result in some nifty prizes. However, the big money is in winning the tournaments, and that’s where we see where the best decks truly are. The winners by archetype for this report are:
Tez Control: 6 wins
Drain Tendrils: 2 Wins
Ichorid: 1 Win
MUD: 1 WinStax: 1 Win
Drain Freeze: 1 Win
Faeries: 1 Win
And a breakdown by percentage goes like this:
Tez Control: 46.2%
Drain Tendrils: 15.4%
Ichorid: 7.7%
MUD: 7.7%
Stax: 7.7%
Drain Freeze: 7.7%
Faeries: 7.7%
Remarks:
-Fish continued to languish. There were no wins for Fish in this report nor in the last one. In fact, I had to go back to January/February 2009 report to find any wins for Fish decks. This has changes since recent the B/R announcement, but it means that Fish went nealy 5 months without a win. That’s a long dry spell.
-One can think of Drain Freeze as an extension of Drain Tendrils giving that archetype three wins and a 23% share of the top 8, but if you do, Tez still won twice as many tournaments as the next best archetype. It only made up 26% of the top 8 but makes up 46% of the winners. During the May/June 2009 era, if you wanted to win, you pretty much had to play Tez. Nothing else performed nearly as consistently. For me personally, I prefer my metagames to be diverse and uncertain. These numbers for Tez are pretty disgusting from that point of view, but not nearly as disgusting as the next set.
The May/June Metgame Tournament Winner Breakdown by Engine:
The number of wins by each engine for May/June was:
Mana Drain: 9 Wins
Workshop: 2 Wins
Bazaar: 1 Win
Other: 1 Win
Null Rod: 0 Wins
Dark Ritual: 0 Wins
And a breakdown by percentage looks like this:
Mana Drain: 69.2%
Workshop: 15.4%
Bazaar: 7.7%
Other: 7.7%
Null Rod: 0%
Dark Ritual: 0%
Remarks:
-Improving from the last report Workshop decks managed to win a couple tournaments. I’m a little surprised to see MUD making the top 8 so much with all the artifact hate going around. It’s a good thing though, IMO.
-The real story (surprise, surprise) was Mana Drain. It took over 69% of the wins! I regard 13 tournaments as a relatively small sample, but it’s still enough to get a solid feel for what’s going on out there. One almost has to admire the utter domination of Mana Drain. It’s certainly of historic proportions and something that will be discussed for years and years to come. It’s legendary. It really is. Hasn’t it been since the Keeper or Academy days since we’ve seen something like this?
-The funny thing is, 69.2% is actually a decline from the last report. In March/April, Mana Drain decks won 11 tournaments or 73.3% of all tournaments by my count. Those who fear Gush and/or Flash being unrestricted, please explain to me how they were EVER more broken than this?
Now, I’ve been somewhat negative on Tez and Drain decks in this article. I don’t want anyone who plays those decks to think I’m disparaging them. Nope. I think they made the best decision and deck choice for this metagame. The point is to win. Drain decks, and Tez decks specifically, win. Choosing anything else is rolling the dice. Drain decks were the only really logical choice and have been for 12 consecutive months. I say “Bravo!” to all those who have been playing and winning with Mana Drain. However, it is my personal desire to see the metagame shift to something different and more diverse. It’s happened a little bit already. There’s some nascent Fish builds that are doing well. We’ll see if it continues now that TFK is out of the mix and Enlightened Tutor and Crop Rotation are in.
Thanks for reading. I know there’s not much to respond to in an article like this, but if you have any questions, I‘ll be happy to try to answer them. Steve’s the real expert, so Steve, you’re welcome to chime in with anything. Until next time,
Peace,
-Troy
Sources:
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1050
Philadelphia 09.05.2009, 55 Players, Remora Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1051
Annecy, 351 players, MUD Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1057
Catalan Vintage League 09.05.2009, 70 players, Drain Tendrils Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1061
Blue Bell 23.05.2009, 33 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1063
LVV 5, 36 players, Drain Tendrils Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1064
Lega WL #10, 40 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1065
Zurich, 50 players, Ichorid Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1071
Philadelphia 06.06.2009, 65 players, Stax Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1072
Madrid 31.05.2009, 46 players, Drain Freeze Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1076
Breda, 42 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1079
Madrid 14.06.2009, 38 players, Thoughtcast Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1080
Catalan Vintage League 14.06.2009, 58 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1086
Boulder, 40 players, Faeries Won (one deck missing)
Last week I did a report on the small-scale Vintage metagame for May and June of 2009. Due to a flood of very interesting topics he’d rather write about, Stephen Menendian asked me to do a write-up about the large-scale metagame for the same bi-monthly period. I agreed, and so for these two months and these two months only, I’ll be reporting on the results of the big tournaments. I hope that I am able to produce a report that meets the standard he sets. It will probably be briefer than Steve’s usual reports since much of what I said in the small-scale meta report (link here: ) is also true of the large-scale meta. The important thing about this bi-montly report is that it’s the last one prior to the June 2009 B/R changes. It also marks one full year since the “apocalypse” when Gush and Flash were restricted. Anyway, here we go-
The May/June Metgame Top 8 Breakdown by Archetype:
There were 13 tournaments reported with 33 or more players (at least 6 rounds of Swiss) for a total of 103 decks. One deck was not reported. Here are the top 8 results by Archetype:
27 Tez Control (1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,3,3,5,5,5,5,6,6,6,6,7,7,7,8) [includes 2 Remora Tez, 2 Tezless Tez, and 2 Toughtcast Tez]
13 Drain Tendrils (1,1,2,2,3,3,3,4,5,5,6,8,8)
12 Ichorid (1,2,2,3,4,7,7,7,8,8,8,8)
8 MUD (1,2,4,4,4,5,7,7)
4 Stax (1,2,4,6)
4 BUG Fish (5,5,7,8)
4 UR Fish (2,2,5,8)
4 Oath (3,4,4,8)
3 Painter Combo (2,4,5)
2 ANT (3,7)
2 TPS (3,5)
2 Bomberman (6,7)
2 Suicide Black (5,7)
2 Pitch Long (3,7)
1 Drain Freeze (1)
1 Faeries (1)
1 Selkie Strike
1 Grow
1 Merfolk
1 Stiflenought
1 Mystic Meditation
1 Etherium Workshop
1 Long.dec
1 RBW Agro
1 UW Fish
Remarks:
-Tez decks dominated once again, however they did receive a bit of a challenge from Drain Tendrils. Looking back on Steve’s last report, there were only two Drain Trendrils lists that made the top 8. This marks a massive upswing in that archetypes performance and one that Steve predicted last year [http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/15991_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Vintage_Apocalypse_The_New_Metagame_Uncovered.html]. We’ll see if Drain Tendrils sticks around or was just a flash in the pan that no one saw coming.
-After nearly vanishing from the top 8 in the last report, Oath returns with 4 entries. That represents a 400% improvement from last time. However, Control Slaver is gone completely. I doubt it will ever return thanks to the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge. Maybe with Strategic Planning or Careful Consideration, but I highly doubt it. That’s a sad thing for me. I hate to see an archetype vanish like that, especially if it’s one the DCI wasn’t even targeting with its B/R announcement.
-The last thing I want to highlight is the emergence of some unexpected agro decks. Faeries, Merfolk, Suicide Black, and Selkies all made the top 8. Could they be the new Goblins and Elves? Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Block added a multitude of powerful tribal cards that dominated Standard over the last two years. It’s interesting that those cards may be filtering all the way down to Vintage. We’ll see if these decks pop up again once the meta sorts itself out post-GenCon.
The number of decks that make the top 8 in each bi-monthly report will vary depending upon the number of tournaments. So sheer numbers don’t give a complete picture. Instead, it is helpful to look at percentages. Here is the percentage breakdown of the top 8 by archetype for May/June 2009:
Tez Control: 26%
Drain Tendrils: 12.6%
Ichorid 11.6%
MUD: 7.8%
The Field: 42%
Remarks:
-Moving up from 30% in the last report, The Field grew to 42% of the metagame. Any archetype getting less than 5% of the top 8 pie I put in “The Field” category. I interpret this increase to mean that people were trying anything they could to unseat Tez control these last two months. Obviously, it didn’t work. Tez decks took a share of the top 8 twice the size of the next best performing archetype. Just for historical reference, Gush decks- AS AN ENGINE- only made up 25% of the top 8 at their peak. Just think about that. One archetype performed better than an entire “pillar” of the format. It beat GAT, Gush Tendrils, Next Level Doomsday, Tyrant Oath, and MSPaint combined! That is absolutely astounding!
-Ichorid dropped about four percentage points from its last showing. I noticed a greater percentage of decks featuring Leyline of the Void over Yixlid Jailer (or playing both) according to Morphling.de. IMHO, Leyline is a much better Ichorid Hate card than Jailer, so when the number of Leylines go up, I expect the number of Ichorid decks making the top 8 to go down. However, Ichorid is performing quite well and is still a force to be reckoned with. Ignore it at your own peril.
The May/June Metgame Top 8 Breakdown by Engine:
In my small-scale report I call engines “pillars” to match Tom LaPille’s terminology. However, Stephen has used the word engine for a long time and since I am just the sub this time around, I will keep with his tradition. The top 8 percentage breakdown by engine is as follows:
Mana Drain: 45.6%
Null Rod: 14.6%
Workshop: 12.6%
Bazaar: 11.6%
Dark Ritual: 8.7%
Other: 6.7%
Remarks:
-I know you’re thinking the same thing I am. No change here. Mana Drains tripled-up on the next best engine thanks in part to the surge by Drain Tendrils. This is a feat never accomplished by cards like Gush or Flash. There is a whopping 31% difference between first and second place. On average, almost half of any top 8 in a 33+ man tournament will feature drain decks. Throw in 1 Rod deck and 1 Shop deck and Bazzars, Rituals, and Other have to fight for the last two open positions.
-The 45.6% take of the top 8 for Drains represents a modest 3% gain from the previous report. That’s probably within the margin for error, but the fact that you can go back to the July/August report of 2008 (prior to Tez, Inkwell, and Time Vault errata) and see that Drain decks made up nearly 37% of the top 8 metagame is testament to its dominance. For one full year, Mana Drain has been the top engine and has at least doubled up on the next best thing.
-Real quickly, some thoughts on Tez and Time Vault. There’s a lot of people who want to blame Time Vault for Mana Drain’s dominance. The numbers I cited above suggest that people are misplacing their blame. At best, Time Vault made about an 8% difference and that’s excluding any effect Tezzeret the Seeker and Inkwell Leviathan had on the metagame. Time Vault is not and has not been the problem. Hell, even Mana Drain is not the problem. The B/R decisions of June 2008 was the problem, and I don’t believe it has been corrected by the June 2009 decisions.
The May/June Metgame Tournament Winner Breakdown by Archetype:
Making the top 8 in a large tournament is an exhilarating achievement. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and sometimes can result in some nifty prizes. However, the big money is in winning the tournaments, and that’s where we see where the best decks truly are. The winners by archetype for this report are:
Tez Control: 6 wins
Drain Tendrils: 2 Wins
Ichorid: 1 Win
MUD: 1 WinStax: 1 Win
Drain Freeze: 1 Win
Faeries: 1 Win
And a breakdown by percentage goes like this:
Tez Control: 46.2%
Drain Tendrils: 15.4%
Ichorid: 7.7%
MUD: 7.7%
Stax: 7.7%
Drain Freeze: 7.7%
Faeries: 7.7%
Remarks:
-Fish continued to languish. There were no wins for Fish in this report nor in the last one. In fact, I had to go back to January/February 2009 report to find any wins for Fish decks. This has changes since recent the B/R announcement, but it means that Fish went nealy 5 months without a win. That’s a long dry spell.
-One can think of Drain Freeze as an extension of Drain Tendrils giving that archetype three wins and a 23% share of the top 8, but if you do, Tez still won twice as many tournaments as the next best archetype. It only made up 26% of the top 8 but makes up 46% of the winners. During the May/June 2009 era, if you wanted to win, you pretty much had to play Tez. Nothing else performed nearly as consistently. For me personally, I prefer my metagames to be diverse and uncertain. These numbers for Tez are pretty disgusting from that point of view, but not nearly as disgusting as the next set.
The May/June Metgame Tournament Winner Breakdown by Engine:
The number of wins by each engine for May/June was:
Mana Drain: 9 Wins
Workshop: 2 Wins
Bazaar: 1 Win
Other: 1 Win
Null Rod: 0 Wins
Dark Ritual: 0 Wins
And a breakdown by percentage looks like this:
Mana Drain: 69.2%
Workshop: 15.4%
Bazaar: 7.7%
Other: 7.7%
Null Rod: 0%
Dark Ritual: 0%
Remarks:
-Improving from the last report Workshop decks managed to win a couple tournaments. I’m a little surprised to see MUD making the top 8 so much with all the artifact hate going around. It’s a good thing though, IMO.
-The real story (surprise, surprise) was Mana Drain. It took over 69% of the wins! I regard 13 tournaments as a relatively small sample, but it’s still enough to get a solid feel for what’s going on out there. One almost has to admire the utter domination of Mana Drain. It’s certainly of historic proportions and something that will be discussed for years and years to come. It’s legendary. It really is. Hasn’t it been since the Keeper or Academy days since we’ve seen something like this?
-The funny thing is, 69.2% is actually a decline from the last report. In March/April, Mana Drain decks won 11 tournaments or 73.3% of all tournaments by my count. Those who fear Gush and/or Flash being unrestricted, please explain to me how they were EVER more broken than this?
Now, I’ve been somewhat negative on Tez and Drain decks in this article. I don’t want anyone who plays those decks to think I’m disparaging them. Nope. I think they made the best decision and deck choice for this metagame. The point is to win. Drain decks, and Tez decks specifically, win. Choosing anything else is rolling the dice. Drain decks were the only really logical choice and have been for 12 consecutive months. I say “Bravo!” to all those who have been playing and winning with Mana Drain. However, it is my personal desire to see the metagame shift to something different and more diverse. It’s happened a little bit already. There’s some nascent Fish builds that are doing well. We’ll see if it continues now that TFK is out of the mix and Enlightened Tutor and Crop Rotation are in.
Thanks for reading. I know there’s not much to respond to in an article like this, but if you have any questions, I‘ll be happy to try to answer them. Steve’s the real expert, so Steve, you’re welcome to chime in with anything. Until next time,
Peace,
-Troy
Sources:
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1050
Philadelphia 09.05.2009, 55 Players, Remora Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1051
Annecy, 351 players, MUD Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1057
Catalan Vintage League 09.05.2009, 70 players, Drain Tendrils Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1061
Blue Bell 23.05.2009, 33 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1063
LVV 5, 36 players, Drain Tendrils Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1064
Lega WL #10, 40 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1065
Zurich, 50 players, Ichorid Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1071
Philadelphia 06.06.2009, 65 players, Stax Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1072
Madrid 31.05.2009, 46 players, Drain Freeze Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1076
Breda, 42 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1079
Madrid 14.06.2009, 38 players, Thoughtcast Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1080
Catalan Vintage League 14.06.2009, 58 players, Tez Won
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1086
Boulder, 40 players, Faeries Won (one deck missing)
No GenCon This Year
Due to a new addition to my family and a very busy schedule at my job, I won't be able to attend GenCon this year. Bummer. It probably would have helped if the Vintage tournament were on Saturday instead of Friday, but oh well. I wish everyone who goes the very best of luck!
Peace,
-Troy
Peace,
-Troy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)