Leveling Up With Frogs

Ever since US Nationals I had dedicated myself to mastering the deck that is Frog OTK. Although when the deck was young, I had considered it a luck-based “all or nothing” deck that required you to win die rolls and get lucky throughout the day (see my “die roll jokes” in previous articles). After the deck placed second at Canadian Nationals, I gave the deck a second look and discovered that it was a very hard deck to play. You often had to work for your wins and were sometimes forced to win in unconventional ways.

I Day2′d US Nationals with a 7-2 record and lost out to Herald of Perfection (aka “the worst matchup”) in round 10. I honestly wish I had practiced more with the deck before the event. I came very close to topping, and I feel that with more experience and better sidedeck I could’ve got there. After nationals, I started tearing up local tournaments at The Game Academy. I was pretty confident that I would be able to top8 the 2K tournament, but I also recognized that it was Yu-Gi-Oh! and anything could happen.

My sidedeck had evolved a lot since I had started playing the deck. After Sam Tse took Canadian Nationals by storm, the maindeck had become standardized. No two Frog OTK maindecks differ by more than a card or two. I’ve been using Tse’s exact list from the beginning. Here it is for reference…

Monsters: 26
3 Substitoad
2 Ronintoadin
1 Fishborg Blaster
3 Swap Frog
3 Dupe Frog
3 Poison Draw Frog
3 Unifrog
2 Des Frog
2 Beelze Frog
2 Flip Flop Frog
2 Treeborn Frog

Spells: 14
3 Salvage
3 Hand Destruction
3 Moray of Greed
2 Mass Driver
1 Card Destruction
1 Giant Trunade
1 One for One

I’ll explain some of the choices for those who are unfamilar with the deck (which I find is still a lot of people, despite this being one of the top3 decks of the format). Twenty Frogs is the most logical number, as 20 * 400 = 8000.

The 1-of Fishborg Blaster is definitely needed. If you need extra damage with the Mass Driver OTK (say they gained lifepoints with Magical Android), Fishborg Blaster allows every card in your hand to be an additional 400 damage. Sometimes Frogs get removed with Gladiator Beast Retiari, Banisher of Radiance, or D.D. Warrior Lady and you find that you need to do extra damage. Also, being tuner is extremely relevant as it gives you an alternate win condition. If I see a synchro OTK I’ll usually take it over the option of hoping to draw into a Mass Driver. My synchros of choice are usually a powered-up Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier, a Mist Wurm, and 2 Swap Frogs for exactly 8000 (3500 + 2500 + 1000 + 1000). Yet another win condition is to synchro for Colossal Fighter and Armory Arm, attach Armory Arm to your opponent’s big monster, and keep ramming your Colossal Fighter, reviving itself each time, and dealing your opponent 2800 damage for each battle. This OTK allows you dodge Gorz-like effects, but not Hanewata.

Sam Tse’s greatest innovation to the deck was only playing two copies of Mass Driver, the deck’s most common win condition. The key thing you need to realize is that once you resolve a Substitoad loop the game is usually over. You’ll thin the deck of everything minus Mass Drivers and cards that will draw you cards (Moray of Greed, Hand Destruction). After bringing Poison Draw Frogs to the field, you use Swap Frog to send them to the graveyard and draw three cards. In those three cards there has to be a Mass Driver or a draw spell. Getting the Mass Driver early on might seem like a “lucky draw”, but you can usually draw the entire deck if needed.

I really didn’t know what I was doing when it came to the sidedeck. I figured that I should just trust Sam Tse’s judgment on the sidedeck as well, and decided to play this side in the national tournament…

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2 Light and Darkness Dragon
1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Deep Sea Diva
1 Spined Gillman
2 Pot of Avarice
1 Brain Control
1 Enemy Controller
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Raigeki Break

Although I liked some of the cards, I found most of them to be useless. Light and Darkness Dragon was amazing, and I liked my Raigeki Break tech pretty well, but most of the time the side just wasn’t good enough. I modified the monsters in the side after I saw the lists that topped our nationals.

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2 Light and Darkness Dragon
2 Quickdraw Synchron
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Pot of Avarice
1 Brain Control
1 Enemy Controller
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Raigeki Break

Quickdraw Synchron seemed great in theory, but I found that it usually sat in my hand the entire game. Interestingly enough, I found that most of my friends were having the same experience with it. Cyber Dragon was decent, but it wasn’t as stellar as people were making it out to be. Again, the only card that I liked in the side was Light and Darkness Dragon. These less-than-optimal sidedecks were good enough to win local tournaments, but I wanted my sidedeck to be something reliable rather than a pile of fifteen cards that I might throw in the deck just for fun.

I don’t remember where the idea came from, but I figured that an Absolute Zero sidedeck was worth trying. I figured that a Raigeki on legs was pretty good against most of the format. Absolute Zero leads to some pretty sick blowouts and allows you steal games that you shouldn’t have won. Here was my first draft of the new sidedeck:

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
3 Elemental Hero Alius
3 Miracle Fusion
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
2 Gemini Spark
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 E – Emergency Call
1 Treacherous Trap Hole

I honestly thought this sidedeck would solve a lot of my problem matchups. Absolute Zero wrecks X-Sabers, and 1900 beatsticks are really good against Gladiator Beasts and Anti-Meta (especially after they side out their Bottomless Trap Holes). Treacherous Trap Hole is an amazing card that has saved me on multiple occasions. Destroying two monsters with one cards is amazing against… um… everything? After testing this sidedeck for only a short amount of time I realized that changes needed to be made.

There were a lot of situations where I was sitting on a Moray of Greed with one water monster and a Stratos/Reinforcement/E-Call. Now the play here would be to search the deck for Elemental Hero Ocean and activate Moray of Greed. Only I wasn’t playing Elemental Hero Ocean! I decided to cut Alius for Ocean, just because being a water monster is that good (it also allows me to synchro Ocean with Fishborg). Since I no longer had 3 Alius, I had to cut Gemini Spark down to one, which gave me room to add Mystical Space Typhoon to the sidedeck. Here was the final sidedeck and extra deck…

Extra deck: 15
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
2 Armory Arm
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Mist Wurm

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
2 Elemental Hero Alius
1 Elemental Hero Ocean
3 Miracle Fusion
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Gemini Spark
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 E – Emergency Call
1 Treacherous Trap Hole

Here’s what I usually side out, although it varies depending on the matchup:
- 2 Des Frog
- 2 Beelze frog
- 2 Flip Flop Frog
- 2 Unifrog
- 1 Poison Draw Frog
- 3 Hand Destruction
- 1 Card Destruction
- 2 Mass Driver

Now on to the tournament itself, the most exciting part. At this point, I had made a name for myself as the best Frog OTK player in the Tampa Bay area, and many people were expecting me to top. I had decided to call my deck “Next Level Blue” or simply “Next Level Frogs”. I named my deck Next Level Frogs for two reasons. I felt that my sidedeck took the deck to the next level. I’m still convinced that a sidedeck with Elemental Heroes and Miracle Fusions is the best. Secondly, I feel that I’m a next level player. I don’t think I’m up there with Sam Tse, CJ Lack, or Alex Bunts, but I know how to play the deck far better than the average player. I think hard about each play, and my knowledge of math and probability really shines when I play this deck. Also, I am very patient. Winning turn 10 is just as good as winning turn 1 for me. The deck’s style really reminds of Elf Combo, which was one of favorite Magic decks.

Ironically enough, I actually think Frog OTK was a bad meta call for this tournament. Anti-Meta was very popular. The vendors were sold out of Fossil Dyna Pachycephalos the entire day. Also, Gladiator Beasts were popular as well, which is always an uphill battle. I’d say Gladiator Beasts were probably the second most popular deck overall, with X-Sabers being first of course. My best matchup, Frog Monarch was practicing nonexistent. I decided to play Frog OTK only because I knew how to play the deck better than any other deck.

Round 1: Anti-Meta
For game 1, I had opened an FTK hand, but he won the die roll. He summons King Tiger Wangnu and activates Macro Cosmos in my draw phase. I try to stall on 2000 defenders until I can draw answers, but he tributes for Raiza and we’re on to the next game. Game 2 I open the Substitoad combo, but I end up not drawing what I need and I have to go for game on turn 3. He Hanewatas the last 400 damage when I had exact game, but there are only two cards left in my deck and one of them is a Fishborg Blaster. I draw it, set it, and send it at him for game. Game 3 was way too close. He starts out by summoning Doomcaliber Knight, activating Dimensional Fissure, and setting three backrows. I start out by setting Dupe Frog and Mystical Space Typhoon. It gets hit in the end phase by his own MST. He attacks into my Dupe Frog, sets another spell/trap and passed. I decide to special summon Swap Frog to trigger Doomcaliber Knight, normal summon Stratos, and hit for 1800 after searching out Alius. He special summons Cyber Dragon and I thought it was game over. How does my deck beat that, especially with Dimensional Fissure on the field? He runs over the Dupe Frog and passes. I switch Stratos to defense and pass. He adds King Tiger to his board and attacks. My draw for the turn is my one-outer: Treacherous Trap Hole! I summon Alius, and set the Treacherous Trap Hole along with two bluffs, just in case of the off chance that he has Dust Tornado. He thinks for awhile and attacks, and I blow up his monsters. I start beating with Alius while he’s forced to set D.D. Crows and Hanewatas to defend himself. Eventually I put a second Alius on the field and draw into Gemini Spark, just in case. I win.
1-0 (0-1 in die rolls)

Round 2: X-Sabers
I lose the die roll. Game 1 he synchros up for Magical Android early and starts to gain life and also hits me with X-Saber Airbellum a couple of times. I stall by reviving Treeborn Frogs and Ronintoadins until I draw something helpful. He plays Gold Sarcophagus, whose text reads “I win in two turns” because he searches Rescue Cat. I’m able to combo out with Synchros, attack for 9000, leaving him at 600. I reveal the last card in my hand which is Mass Driver, and we’re off to game 2. Game 1 took 26 minutes, so we know that time will be called at some point. He hits for early damage but I’m able to take control of the game with Absolute Zero. Unfortunately time gets called in game 2, and I can’t push for damage so I lose. We’re not allowed to side for game 3, which sucks because both of my Mass Drivers are now in the side deck. I decide to play first, setting Dupe Frog and passing. He Mind Controls, summons Thunder King Rai-Oh, and attacks for 1900. I drop Gorz. He sets three backrows and passes. This is my last turn to win. I have Gorz and token attack. He reveals that his backrows were bluffs, and I take the match.
2-0 (0-2 in die rolls)

Round 3: Demise OTK
This guy didn’t know what any of my cards did, but his deck was surprisingly good. The fact that a deck like this was 2-0 further supports my theory that “Raigeki on legs” is really good right now. I have a turn 2 kill hand so I set Treeborn Frog and pass. He goes Sonic Bird, Advanced Ritual Art, Demise, Doom Dozer and attacks for 5200. He sets a backrow and ends. Next turn I Trunade, Substitoad loop, and OTK with synchros. Game 2 was similar to game 1, only I OTKed with Mass Driver instead.
3-0 (1-2 in die rolls)

Round 4: Gladiator Beasts (Elijah Gersten)
I lose the die roll. Game 1 I get a less than optimal hand, and he quickly Herk + Chariot locks me out of the game. Game 2 I open FTK. Game 3 my five card hand is Future Fusion, Dupe Frog, Substitoad, Giant Trunade, Mystical Space Typhoon. Great hand! I’ll simply Future Fusion to put Fishborg into the grave and turn one Substitoad loop. Unfortunately my sixth card is the Fishborg Blaster, which was very disappointing. I set Dupe Frog and pass. He attacks into it, tags into Murmillo, and Chariots. Then he Dustshoots, and sets me back even more. When I can finally do something relevant, I Trunade and he has Solemn. I lose.
3-1 (1-3 in die rolls)

Round 5: Frog OTK
I lose the die roll, which is usually a death sentence in the mirror match. He opens One For One and turn 1 Substitoad loops. He screws up horribly and punts the game. He’s able to do 7600 damage with Mass Driver. He tries to use Swap Frog’s extra normal summon on a non-Frog multiple times that game, and can’t do enough damage as a result. His hand was actually horrible, but he plays Hand Destructions during the course of his turn and fixes my hand, so I was able to FTK. He starts game 2, and we both open “second turn kill” hands, so he wins. I start game 3 and FTK. I’m glad that’s over with.
4-1 (1-4 in die rolls)

Round 6: X-Sabers
Not much to say about this game. I win the die roll and FTK game 1. Game 2 he has the nuts and kills me on his second turn. Then I FTK game 3.
5-1 (2-4 in die rolls)

Round 7: X-Sabers (Travis Washburn)
I win the die roll and FTK game 1. Game 2 I take control with Absolute Zeroes. I make a bad play by leaving Swap Frog in attack mode with only 1100 lifepoints. I had already used the bounce effect, but I simply could’ve special summoned in defense (although I didn’t want to because he searched Fulhelmknight with Darksoul). I also didn’t realize that my opponent’s water monsters powered-up Absolute Zero, which would have allowed me to make a much better play (his Goyo had stolen Treeborn Frog). Two of his Boggart Knights were gone, but I guess he had a third. He synchros up and attacks over Swap Frog for game. Game 3 I sided back into the FTK, but I couldn’t draw it. I Card Destruction my opponent into a perfect hand and lose.
5-2 (3-4 in die rolls)

Post-match thoughts: I was really disappointed. Had I not misplayed, I would’ve taken the match 2-0. For some reason, it seems like people had expected me to lose in the last round. I suppose I would rather lose to my own misplays than pure luck. My tiebreakers were very strong, and two people with a 5-2 record would make top8. Fortunately enough for me, I slid in at 8th place. In addition, my opponent was starting with a game 1 loss due to registering an illegal extra deck. Sometimes, things just go your way. Joshua Martinez recommended that I spin my totem to make sure that I wasn’t in a dream.

The following matches were all featured on The Game Academy’s youtube channel. Be sure to check it out and when the uploads are finished. Jeremy did amazing commentary as usual.

Top8: Chris Rivera with Zombies
He elects to play first for the second game, and Jake reminds us that neither player can side. He starts with a set monster and 3 backrows. I play Hand Destruction and he comments that he probably should’ve set the other card in his hand (misplay #1). I then special summon Swap Frog and he plays Divine Wrath (misplay #2, you always wait for Substitoad). I play Salvage and he Solemns it (misplay #3). I have another Salvage so I decide to just get back Swap Frog and Poison Draw Frog, put the Draw Drog on the field and end. He attacks over it and passes. I play Swap Frog to thin my deck, bounce and pass. He Emergency Teleports for Psychic Commander and synchs for Urbellum for the Time Seal. For the next couple of turns, I’m walling up with Treeborn and Ronintoadin until I can draw into something. The big play comes when he Brain Controls Treeborn, tributes for Caius, removes Ronintoadin, attacks for 4600, which Time Seals me and leaves me at 100. I realize I had to chance it and see if I can get game. I play Giant Trunade. I normal summon Swap Frog, putting a Ronintoadin back in the grave. I set Mass Driver and Card Destruction for 1 card. With 3 Frogs in the grave and 2 on field, any monster will give me enough damage for game. I draw Flip Flop Frog, which allows me to put 2 additional Frogs in the grave. I reveal my face-down Mass Driver and it’s over.
6-2

After the top4 is determined, we decide to split the prize money at $400 and simply play for the trophy and video coverage. I think splitting was the correct decision, as I knew that I had to play Glads in the top4. In addition, the two people that beat me in the swiss rounds were in the top4 as well. The matchups in the top4 were certain winnable, but not necessarily favorable.

Top4: Maurice Brantley with Glads
I lose the die roll. He starts with Cold Wave, sets a Glad, and passes. I set Dupe Frog and pass. Next turn he plays Prisma, makes Gyzarus, and then makes Heraklinos afterwards. I try to draw outs for a few turns, but I don’t get there and I lose. Game 2 I open One For One and Mass Driver and FTK. Game 3 he starts with a Gladiator Beast, Dimensional Fissure and 3 other backrows. I play Heavy Storm and goes through. What a blowout! The next turn I Substitoad loop and make a 5000 attack Absolute Zero (my four monsters plus his Retiari). Next turn he’s able to Gyzarus but I’ve already taken control of the game at this point.
7-2 (3-5 in die rolls)

Top2: Elijah Gersten with Glads
I lose the die roll. I don’t quite remember how he won game 1, but I believe the game ended very quickly. I probably involved the usual contact fusions and War Chariot. Game 2 I open FTK. For game 3 he knows I’m bringing in the Zero side so he sides out Hanewatas like a master. He opens up with a Bestiari and two backrows. I have a few options, but I decide to go the Substitoad loop and see what he has. He chains Mask Restrict to the first activation and I bring out Unifrog. I bring back Ronintoadin, hoping to blow up the Mask and continue the combo. He plays Conpulsory Evacuation Device on Ronintoadin, so I pass. He contacts, attacks, lags for 2 Laquari, sets a couple of backrows and says go. I summon Stratos, search an Alius and activate Miracle Fusion. Rather than simply chaining Compulsory on Stratos, causing Miracle Fusion to fizzle and winning the game, he decided to wait for Absolute Zero to come out and Compulse him, allowing me to get the 3-for-1. He attacks with a Glad next turn and I drop Gorz; he tags for Murmillo. I summon Alius next turn and start beating. He tops Thunder King and attacks the Gorz token. I trade my Alius with his Thunder King, then Emergency Call another Alius, summon it and say go. He sets a monster as a last resort. I peal another Miracle Fusion, which allows me to attack for game.
8-2 (3-6 in die rolls)

The Game Academy 2K Champion is Allen C. Pennington! Winning this event felt great, and it was a nice way to rap up the format. Hopefully I’ll write a couple more articles in the near future.

*Editor’s Note* – The Game Academy hosts Yu-Gi-Oh! locals every Saturday and Sunday. For more information about our locals, CLICK HERE. Allen is always in attendance to play in our locals to offer advice on card choices and rulings questions. Please check out our

Yes, you’re looking at that right. X-Sabers composed of one third of the Top 32, half of the Top 16, and half of the Top 8! This quick diagram should give you a good idea of what kind of decks to expect at nationals. X-Sabers and Infernities will most certainly remain the most popular decks for awhile. XX-Saber Emmersblades are at about $100 each now, and I expect the price to only get higher for nationals. If you’re determined to play XX-Sabers, I suggest you pick up your set now before they get any higher.

The deck that surprised me the most was the Herald of Perfection deck. Of the three Herald decks that topped, they were fundamentally different from each other, which I consider a good thing. It shows that there is a lot room for innovation regarding this deck. I think part of what allowed the deck to do well was the fact that some people still weren’t prepared for it. Given how well the deck performed, I’ve been hearing a lot of talk of sidedecked Lava Golems and Light-Imprisoning Mirrors. In addition, Banisher of Radiance is a great card for shutting down Heralds as well as Infernities and X-Sabers.

I’m going to seize the opportunity to knock Machinas again. Despite winning YCS Virginia, Machinas only took one spot in the top32. Everyone and their mother seems to be sidedecking Cyber Dragons or System Downs (or both) which makes it very hard for Machinas to beat… anything. Both Machinas and Frog FTK were the inexpensive decks of choice, but it seems that X-Sabers and Infernities stole the spotlight.

If it hadn’t been for Omar Beldon placing first, it would seem that Infernities actually didn’t do particularly well. Beldon had a few smart card choices that I believe carried his build to the top, particularly the sidedeck. There had been some debate about how consistent Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter would be in Infernities, but I think we can all see that it works. Ryko remains the best flip-effect in the game, getting problem cards off the field and milling Infernity monsters at the same time. However, Beldon decided to add Fissure to his arsenal of anti-Consecrated Light tech as well. Like I mentioned last week, Hero’s Rule 2 is a very solid tech card right now. It can protect your graveyard from effects like D.D. Crow and stop your opponent’s recursion like Infernity Launcher and XX-Saber Faultroll as well. Beldon decided to take Herald more seriously than some of the other competitors by adding Light-Imprisoning Mirror and Divine Wrath to his sidedeck. I think it’s possible to improve Omar Beldon’s list (I’d start by putting Plaguespreader Zombie in the deck), but for now, his list serves as a good standard to test with.

I was pretty impressed with both Billy Brake as a player and his decklist as well. It seems that one thing many X-Saber players are worried about is the mirror match. When a player asked me how I planned to beat the X-Saber mirror, my answer was simple, “I’ll just play Rescue Cat before they do!” Rescue Cat is one of the best overall cards in the format, often giving you a 3-for-1 and instantly enabling an in-hand XX-Saber Faultroll. My philosophy was just to run a lot of cards that could search out Rescue Cat and ride my Rescue Cat to a win. Billy Brake seemed to have the same idea, only he took it to a greater extreme than I did. He played just about every card possible that could get Rescue Cat: Sangan, Summoner Monk, and 2 Gold Sarcophagus! Clearly his strategy worked, and this tactic may become a new standard for X-Sabers. He also gave his deck an anti-meta flavor by maindecking 1 D.D. Crow and 1 Thunder King Rai-Oh. Thunder King has seen quite a bit of play lately, so it’s no surprise that it’s found its way into X-Sabers as well.

So what did I learn from last weekend’s results? As the format keeps progressing, the meta seems to be gravitating more and more towards X-Sabers and Infernities (mainly X-Sabers). Infernities are finding new ways to overcome their weakness, Consecrated Light. X-Sabers are the “well-rounded” choice for this format, which is what I like about the deck. Frog Monarchs are being pushed out the meta due to Mask of Restrict approaching sidedeck-staple status (18/32 players were siding it at Chicago). Gladiator Beasts are still a really good choice right now. Similar to last format, its main weakness seems to be it can’t draw “nuts hands” the way Infernities and X-Sabers can. However, I would still consider it to be the most underrated deck for sure.

Despite many players insisting that anti-meta won’t work, tech choices like D.D. Crow and Thunder King Rai-Oh are seemingly everywhere. Compulsory Evacuation Device is also moving up on my list of favorite utility cards. It’s great against Infernities as well as any deck that puts Synchro monsters on the field (wait, isn’t that everything?). This Device is being utilized by nearly every Gladiator Beast deck and is starting to see play in Infernities, Machinas, and sometimes X-Sabers. With everyone searching for ways to improve their matchups, I expect these new tech cards to catch on even more in the few weeks remaining before US Nationals.

I wasn’t surprised when Infernities won YCS Chicago, and I expect them to win Canadian Nationals this weekend as well (due to their unique meta). It has the most raw power of any deck, but it seems to have the most weaknesses as well. This unusual balance makes for a very interesting format. I have a pretty big tournament this weekend as well, and hopefully I’ll come home $2000 richer.

For a competitive card game player, there’s one question that’s always on your mind: What is the best deck? Given that my audience is the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! player, this is often the question that my articles will try to answer. Everyone has their own experiences and playstyles, so it’s not surprising that different players will arrive at different conclusions regarding the best deck. Right now, if you asked someone to name the best two decks, the most common answer you would get is “Infernities and X-Sabers.”

I was dedicated to Infernities until very recently, and I still think it’s an amazing deck. Several pro players have come out and said that Infernities are the best deck, and I can understand their reasons for believing such. Infernities “good hands” are much better than every others deck’s “good hands”. Imagine you’re going second and you get an amazing hand like this…

You win on your first turn right? Oh sorry, your opponent summoned Consecrated Light first turn. Better luck next time! It’s experiences like this that have caused me lose faith in Infernities. Your opponent might open up with a card like Thunder King Rai-Oh, Consecrated Light, Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, or Banisher of Radiance, and deep down you know you have quite a few outs in your deck to that card, but you fail to draw them and end up losing anyways.

Right now, I feel that people are really scared of Infernities and therefore are teching heavily against it. Infernities were the most hyped deck after the release of The Shining Darkness, so the field is very prepared for the deck. I see Thunder King Rai-Ohs and D.D. Crows being maindecked quite a bit, and pretty much everyone is sidedecking Consecrated Light or D.D. Crow. Infernities are a very fun deck to play (but not fun to play against!). I think it may become a better choice in the future, just not correct pick for now.

This is also one of the reasons that I didn’t take Lightsworn to any major events during last format. It was a very powerful deck, but there were too many cards that could ruin your day. It’s always been part of my playstyle to use a deck that I know for a fact cannot be easily countered by a single card. That’s also a large reason that I played Gadgets for so many years. I never had to worry about a tech card that would completely shut down the deck.

So what’s the deck that has solid matchups across the board, but doesn’t have some random sidedeck card that completely screws it over? I really wish my answer was something interesting like Fairies, Gadgets, or the 37-monster deck, but it’s probably a deck that you’ve already heard a lot about. Here’s an easy way to sum up my thought process:

Looking at the Y3K statistics from my last article, the deck that I feel put up the best numbers was, unsurprisingly, X-Sabers (overall matchup = 58.3%). X-Sabers definitely had the most impressive numbers overall. While Monarchs had the highest overall matchup percentage, X-Sabers had a higher sample size which makes its numbers much more significant. Infernities and X-Sabers were the only decks to place multiple players into the top8, which says something in itself.

This is one of those fun cases where numbers and theory seem to match up (it actually happens more often than you might think). X-Sabers don’t seem to have any troublesome matchups; you can sidedeck virtually any card and not have to worry a lot about what opponent brings in from their sidedeck against you.

I can say with strong confidence that X-Sabers are the best deck choice right now, but that doesn’t mean you can expect to auto-win all of your matches if you’re using X-Sabers. I’d like to go over some tech cards that I believe will make the average X-Saber deck even better and more prepared for the current meta.

According to the Y3K statistics, X-Sabers had a harder time against Monarchs than any other deck. For this reason, I believe that 3 Mask of Restrict is a sidedeck staple right now. I think Monarchs are extremely underrated right now, so make sure you’re prepared to beat them. I wouldn’t expect to see Monarchs get less play anytime soon.

I really can’t find a reason to not maindeck D.D. Crow in X-Sabers, even though it doesn’t directly benefit the deck. It’s very useful against Infernities, which is arguably your hardest game 1 matchup. It’s also good in the mirror match, as stopping a Gottom’s Emergency Call can often prevent your opponent from winning the game. Just keep in mind that opponent can try to play around D.D. Crow by targeting two monsters in your graveyard. It’s also good against Frog Monarchs for obvious reasons; it removes Treeborn Frog. I find it to be decent against Gladiator Beasts by cutting off Gladiator Beast Equeste + War Chariot loops, as well as stopping Darius combos. Even against Blackwings, stopping Blackwind – Blizzard the Far North’s effect is helpful as well.

Hero’s Rule 2 is definitely the best card you can side in for the mirror match. It’s basically an improved version of D.D. Crow. It negates the effects of both XX-Saber Faultroll and Ragigura and also destroys them. In addition, being able to negate Gottom’s Emergency Call is very important, especially when they chain it to yours. Hero’s Rule 2 is also good at negating Infernity plays. The only downside that it has compared to D.D. Crow is that it’s vulnerable to spell/trap removal.

I hate to state the obvious here, but 3 Consecrated Lights are also a sidedeck staple. Don’t forget that One For One can also bring out Consecrated Light, which means you have about a 49% chance of being able to summon Consecrated Light first turn. Together, Infernities and Blackwings are a sizable percentage of the meta, so you really don’t have an excuse to not sidedeck this card.

The Fairy deck seems to be seeing increased play, which I believe is partially due to its fun factor. I think for the past three weeks in a row I’ve played against a Fairy deck at The Game Academy’s tournaments. Sometimes I’ll have to play against two! After Lightsworn became a non-threat to the meta, many people took the Light-Imprisoning Mirrors out of their sidedecks, but I think it’s time to reconsider that. Combined, Fairies and Lightsworn were 10% of the Y3K meta, which enough to justify sidedecking Light-Imprisoning Mirror. If it sticks, it’s going to win you the game in either of those matchups.

There are other decks that I believe are good choices right now, so I’m not trying to say, “play X-Sabers or lose.” However, the raw power on the deck, combined with the fact that it has very few weaknesses and a lot of flexible sidedeck choices makes it the best overall deck right now. Until Earth-Imprisoning Mirror is released, or a card an effect along the lines of “As long as this card remains face-up on the field, X-Saber decks cannot win the game.” X-Sabers will be very good pick for this format. The meta finally seems to be solidifying, so I think now’s the time to identify a deck that you want to play and stick to it.

I figure there are some people out there who might want it, but I’m not going to list my maindeck or sidedeck for X-Sabers (although I already listed 10 cards in my sidedeck: 3 Consecrated Light, 3 Mask of Restrict, 2 Hero’s Rule 2, and 2 Light-Imprisoning Mirror). The decklist is not set in stone yet, and I like to leave some of the work for you, the reader, to come up with your build that suits your playstyle and your meta. Plus, I’m probably going to take X-Sabers to a regional in Ft. Lauderdale this weekend, so I don’t want to give my list away. If I top8 this weekend, you’ll be sure to hear about it next week! I always set the bar high, so I’m hoping for another 1st place. Florida seems to be having a lot of cash tournaments as of late (I like to refer to Florida as the Yu-Gi-Oh! Cash Tournament capital of the world), which has given me a lot of motivation to study the meta, work on decks, and try to get as much practice as possible.

Warning: If you do not like math (particularly statistics) don’t read this article. If you don’t want to find out what the top decks in the Florida metagame are, don’t read this article either.

After the YCS (that stands for Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series) in Virginia had concluded, most competitive players in Florida were thinking the same thing: How can we use the YCS results to prepare for the next major event, The Game Academy’s Y3K? With first place taking home more than $1,000 in cash, this is event is what I would call a big deal.

Although Machinas won the YCS, Infernities and X-Sabers greatly outnumbered the other decks in the top32. As a result, I expected X-Sabers and Infernities to be the most popular decks in the Y3K despite their high price tags. I decided to play Infernities for a few reasons. I believed that it had favorable matchups against both X-Sabers and Machinas. I also thought that shear speed of the deck would be able to beat most of the rogue decks as well.

Weeks before the big event I spent my free time writing a JAVA program that would analyze tournament data in order to get statistics on which decks performed better than others. I thought it would be interesting to see which of my predictions turned out to be right. First, let’s look at the breakdown of what decks were played at The Game Academy’s Y3K, shall we?

Metagame Breakdown
X-Sabers: 14%
Infernities: 11%
Machinas: 11%
Monarchs: 8%
Blackwings: 7%
Gladiator Beasts: 7%
Synchro Cat: 5%
Fairies: 5%
Quickdraw: 5%
Lightsworn: 5%
Zombies: 2%
Absolute Zero: 2%
Frog FTK: 2%
Final Countdown: 2%
Deckout: 2%
Anti-Meta: 2%
Spellcasters: 1%
SalvoDAD: 1%
Burn: 1%
Fish: 1%
Dragons: 1%
Library FTK: 1%
Stardust Assault Mode: 1%
Flamvells: 1%
Gravekeeper’s: 1%
Plants: 1%

It seems that X-Sabers were the most played deck, followed by Infernities and Machinas. No surprise there. What surprised me was the fact that monarchs were the fourth most popular deck. I don’t think anyone saw this coming. It’s little details like this that help distinguish Florida’s metagame from the others. There were 26 decks played in total, which is a lot for an event with about 125 people; on average each deck only had five users.

Although we see the usual suspects at the top of the charts, this is what I would call a very diverse meta. But just how diverse? Approximately 92% diverse. I’m being serious. Although 32% of all statistics are made up, this isn’t one of them. To determine how diverse the meta was, I used a formula similar to one that economic analysts use to determine use diverse an economic market is.

1. Convert each deck’s percentage into a decimal. (14% = .14)
2. Square this decimal. (.14 ^ 2 = .0196)
3. Add all of these squared numbers together (sum = .08)
4. Subtract the result in step #3 from 1. (1 – .08 = .92)
5. Convert the number back into a percentage (.92 = 92%)

Since there are only a few decks with sizable percentages and many decks composing only 1-3% of the meta, it’s no surprise that our formula indicated that we had a very diverse field. A word of advise to those attending competitive events in the near future: Be prepared to face many different kinds of decks, especially in the early rounds.

X-Sabers were almost certainly the deck to beat for this event. They were not only very popular, but they lived up to their hype and preformed well throughout the event. I was interested to see how the new flavor of the month was doing, so I decided to look at the full statistics of the decktype.

X-Saber Stats
Histogram of wins:
7 wins:
6 wins: ++
5 wins: +++
4 wins: ++++
3 wins: ++++
2 wins: +++
1 wins:
0 wins: +

Mean wins: 3.588235294117647
Standard deviation: 1.583462327046801

Round-by-round progress:
Round 1: 82.35294117647058%
Round 2: 67.64705882352942%
Round 3: 62.745098039215684%
Round 4: 64.70588235294117%
Round 5: 59.523809523809526%
Round 6: 57.73195876288659%
Round 7: 57.009345794392516%

Matchups:
vs. Blackwings: 57.14285714285714%
vs. Infernities: 63.63636363636363%
vs. Gladiator Beasts: 54.54545454545454%
vs. Synchro Cat: 100.0%
vs. Monarch: 25.0%
vs. Fairies: 50.0%
vs. Machinas: 58.333333333333336%
vs. Lightsworn: 50.0%
vs. Frog FTK: 66.66666666666666%
vs. Quickdraw: 100.0%
vs. Zombies: 33.33333333333333%
Overall matchup: 58.30122063728622%

The “histogram of wins” shows how many people had a certain number of wins (i.e. two people went 6-1 with X-Sabers, three people went 5-2, etc). Interestingly enough, our histogram shows an approximately normal distribution (which is math language for “bell curve”). Of the seventeen users, five of them had records of 5-2 or better, and most people who played X-Sabers had a mediocre record of only four or three wins.

Those who have taken a college-level statistics class (and remembered most of it) might know what the term “standard deviation” means. It’s a measure of variance, or how much the data deviated from the mean. For the average Yu-Gi-Oh! Player, think of the standard deviation as this: It measures a deck’s consistency. The smaller the standard deviation, the more consistent the deck was (and vice-versa).

My favorite feature of the program is the “round by round progress”, which shows how deck performed as more rounds went by. After round 1 the deck was doing very well (82% wins is very good!) but by the end of the tournament it was performing on more average levels with only 57% wins.

What I expect most people to be interested in, however, is the deck’s matchups. To the surprise of many, X-Sabers beat Infernities about 64% of the time, a statistic which I attribute to superior sidedecks. I was also shocked to notice that X-Sabers beat Monarchs only 25% of the time, which has something to say for the viability of Monarchs in the current meta.

Overall, X-Sabers had a very good performance and solid matchups at the Y3K. I’m definitely going to give X-Sabers high consideration as a deck to play at upcoming regional qualifiers and cash tournaments. Let’s compare X-Sabers to their current rival: Infernities.

Infernity Stats
Histogram of wins:
7 wins:
6 wins: ++
5 wins: +++
4 wins: +
3 wins: +
2 wins: ++++
1 wins: +++
0 wins:

Mean wins: 3.2142857142857144
Standard deviation: 1.8883680959850138

Round-by-round progress:
Round 1: 64.28571428571429%
Round 2: 60.71428571428571%
Round 3: 50.0%
Round 4: 54.54545454545454%
Round 5: 53.03030303030303%
Round 6: 52.63157894736842%
Round 7: 53.57142857142857%

Matchups:
vs. Blackwings: 57.14285714285714%
vs. Gladiator Beasts: 25.0%
vs. X-Sabers: 36.36363636363637%
vs. Synchro Cat: 100.0%
vs. Monarch: 60.0%
vs. Fairies: 50.0%
vs. Machinas: 70.0%
vs. Lightsworn: 40.0%
vs. Frog FTK: 20.0%
vs. Zombies: 50.0%
vs. Quickdraw: 50.0%
Overall matchup: 54.797743240366195%

Like X-Sabers, Infernities took two players to a 6-1 finish and three players to a 5-2 finish. However, Infernities had a lower mean number of wins and higher standard deviation, indicating that perhaps X-Sabers overall did better than Infernities did. Like X-Sabers, the deck’s performance steadily decreased as more rounds were completed.

I was not surprised to see that Infernities lost to Gladiator Beasts; this was what I considered to be Infernities’ worst matchup. I was surprised to see that Infernities only managed to beat Frog FTK a measly 20% of the time. I’m guessing that the Infernities players were under-prepared for the Frog FTK deck and focused too much on the most popular decks. I strangely noticed that most of the X-Saber players were armed with sidedeck tech like Hanewata. Apparently, this was not the case for the Infernity players, which explains why X-Sabers did better against the annoying FTK deck than Infernities did.

I was correct that Infernities had a very favorable matchup against Machinas. To Machina players out there, I recommend moving some anti-Infernity tech to the maindeck to strengthen your matchup (personal favorites here include Thunder King Rai-Oh and D.D. Crow).

Otherwise, Infernities didn’t have amazing matchups against most of the big decks, which was a big letdown to me. This is either a sign that a lot of the Infernity players at the 3K didn’t know how to play that well, or Infernities might be a bit over-hyped.

Many people know me as a Gadget player (even though I play many different kinds of decks), and people are always asking me for my opinion on Gadget’s latest incarnation, Machinas. I always give them the same answer: I think the deck is overplayed due to its low price tag and I think it’s doesn’t have any strong matchups. It’s pretty harsh of me to say that, so let’s get an unbiased opinion, shall we?

Machina Stats
Histogram of wins:
7 wins:
6 wins:
5 wins: ++
4 wins: +++
3 wins: ++
2 wins: +
1 wins: +++++
0 wins:

Mean wins: 2.6923076923076925
Standard deviation: 1.6012815380508714

Round-by-round progress:
Round 1: 69.23076923076923%
Round 2: 50.0%
Round 3: 38.46153846153847%
Round 4: 36.53846153846153%
Round 5: 40.32258064516129%
Round 6: 43.05555555555556%
Round 7: 44.303797468354425%

Matchups:
vs. Blackwings: 50.0%
vs. Infernities: 30.0%
vs. Gladiator Beasts: 66.66666666666666%
vs. X-Sabers: 41.66666666666667%
vs. Synchro Cat: 0.0%
vs. Monarch: 50.0%
vs. Fairies: 33.33333333333333%
vs. Lightsworn: 66.66666666666666%
vs. Frog FTK: 50.0%
vs. Zombies: 33.33333333333333%
Overall matchup: 44.08469945355192%

Machinas didn’t take any players to a 7-1 record, and overall performed very badly. The deck appears to only have a couple of favorable matchups; everything else is 50% or less! The overall matchup is less than 50%, which to me indicates that Machinas aren’t a very good choice in the current meta. Machina players may have to rethink a few things if they want to take their deck to the top again.

I don’t want to make this article too ridiculously long, so I’m going to end the statistics here. If you want to see the statistics of other decks (and I wouldn’t be surprised if you do!) click the “3K stats” link at the end of this article.

For my closing remarks, I’d like to say that I’m officially back, and I’ll be writing articles every week from now on. Be sure to check thegameacademyonline.com every Wednesday for my latest article. Expect to see deck analysis, tournament reports, and statistics after every Game Academy cash tournament!

I’d also like to say that I’ve been talking with “the Mattern” a little bit lately, and I believe that Gladiator Beasts are currently one of the best decks in the current meta. It’s nearly an auto-win vs. Infernities, coin-flips with X-Sabers and Blackwings, and its worst matchup, Machinas, is very easy to side against. In addition, most people aren’t siding against Gladiator Beasts at all and are instead focusing on how to take down X-Sabers and Infernities.

For 3K Stats Link CLICK HERE

Christopher Rivera – 1^st place after swiss

Monsters: 19

[1] Dark Armed Dragon

[1] Mezuki

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[1] Spirit Reaper

[2] Goblin Zombie

[2] Krebons

[1] Psychic Commander

[3] Pyramid Turtle

[1] Plaguespreader Zombie

[3] Caius the Shadow Monarch

[1] Sangan

[1] Shutendoji

[1] Zombie Master

Spells: 6

[2] Gold Sarcophagus

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Brain Control

[1] Emergency Teleport

Traps: 16

[1] Trap Dustshoot

[1] Torrential Tribute

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Return from the Different Dimension

[2] Dimensional Prison

[3] Dust Tornado

[3] Divine Wrath

[1] Mirror Force

[1] Starlight Road

Extra Deck: 15

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Red Dragon Archfiend

[1] Psychic Lifetrancer

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Revived King Ha Des

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Though Ruler Archfiend

[1] Magical Android

[1] Doomkaiser Dragon

Sidedeck: 15

[3] Crevice of the Different Dimension

[3] D.D. Crow

[3] Breaker the Magical Warrior

[2] Nobleman of Crossout

[1] Starlight Road

[3] Pulling the Rug

Michael Sanders – 2^nd place after swiss

Monsters: 13

[2] Infernity Archfiend

[2] Infernity Mirage

[2] Dark Grepher

[3] Infernity Beetle

[3] Infernity Necromancer

[1] Infernity Avenger

Spells: 13

[1] Zero Max

[1] One for One

[1] Heavy Storm

[2] Book of Moon

[1] Foolish Burial

[1] Brain Control

[1] Reinforcement of the Army

[3] Infernity Launcher

[1] Giant Trunade

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 14

[3] Infernity Inferno

[3] Dust Tornado

[1] Starlight Road

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Infernity Barrier

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Torrential Tribute

[1] Call of the Haunted

[1] Compulsory Evacuation Device

Extra Deck: 15

[2] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[1] Goyo Guardian

[2] Mist Wurm

[1] Infernity Doom Dragon

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Flamvell Uruquizas

[2] Stardust Dragon

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Magical Android

[1] Chimeratech Fortress

Sidedeck: 15

[1] D.D. Crow

[1] System Down

[2] Cyber Dragon

[2] Fissure

[1] Nobleman of Crossout

[1] Compulsory Evacuation Device

[2] Light-Imprisoning Mirror

[2] Trap Hole

[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension

[1] Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn

Peter Cattani – 3^rd place after swiss

Monsters: 30

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[3] Nova Summoner

[3] Herald the Perfect

[3] Herald of Orange Light

[1] Consecrated Light

[2] Dimensional Alchemist

[1] Arcana Force O – The Fool

[3] Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands

[2] Herald of Purple Light

[2] Honest

[1] Sky Scourge Invicil

[2] Tethys, Goddess of Light

[1] Hecatrice

[2] Soul of Purity and Light

[1] Archlord Kristya

Spells: 7

[1] Brain Control

[3] Dawn of the Herald

[1] Vahalla

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Upstart Goblin

Traps: 3

[2] Royal Decree

[1] Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: 15

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[2] Magical Android

[1] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[2] Colossal Fighter

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Red Dragon Archfiend

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Mist Wurm

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Side Deck: 15

[1] Archlord Kristya

[2] D.D. Crow

[1] Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World

[1] Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[2] Thunder King Rai-Oh

[1] Morphing Jar

[1] Consecrated Light

[2] Gottoms’ Emergency Call

[2] Cyber Dragon

Rob Tanney – 4^th place after swiss

Monsters: 29

[3] Battle Fader

[3] Substitoad

[3] Swap Frog

[3] Raiza the Storm Monarch

[3] Caius the Shadow Monarch

[3] Light and Darkness Dragon

[2] Jinzo

[2] Treeborn Frog

[2] D.D. Crow

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[1] Tragoedia

[1] Dupe Frog

[1] Dark Dust Spirit

[1] Vanity’s Fiend

Spells: 11

[3] Enemy Controller

[3] Soul Exchange

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Nobleman of Extirmination

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Creature Swap

[1] Brain Control

Traps: 0

Extra Deck: 12

[1] Gladiator Beast Heraklinos

[2] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Ancient Fairy Dragon

[1] Red Dragon Archfiend

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Magical Android

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Side Deck: 15

[2] Cyber Dragon

[2] Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

[2] Vanity’s Fiend

[1] Burial from a Different Dimension

[3] Threatening Roar

[3] Dust Tornado

[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension

Chalana Bel-Air – 5^th place after swiss

Monsters: 15

[3] Infernity Archfiend

[3] Infernity Necromancer

[3] Infernity Beetle

[2] Infernity Mirage

[1] Infernity Avenger

[2] Dark Grepher

[1] Snipe Hunter

Spells: 10

[3] Infernity Launcher

[1] Card Destruction

[1] Brain Control

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Foolish Burial

[1] Reinforcement of the Army

[1] Giant Trunade

[1] One for One

Traps: 15

[1] Torrential Tribute

[3] Dust Tornado

[1] Call of the Haunted

[1] Mirror Force

[2] Compulsory Evacuation Device

[3] Infernity Inferno

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Infernity Break

[2] Infernity Barrier

Extra Deck: 15

[2] Magical Android

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Flamvell Uruquizas

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Hundred Eyes Dragon

[1] Infernity Doom Dragon

[2] Mist Wurm

Side Deck: 15

[3] Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

[2] D.D. Crow

[1] System Down

[1] Twister

[2] Threatening Roar

[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension

[3] Mirror of Oaths

[1] Gottoms’ Emergency Call

Christopher Krause – 6^th place after swiss

Monsters: 22

[3] XX-Saber Darksoul

[3] XX-Saber Faultroll

[2] XX-Saber Emmersblade

[2] X-Saber Airbellum

[2] XX-Saber Fulhelknight

[2] XX-Saber Boggart Knight

[1] X-Saber Pashuul

[1] X-Saber Palomol

[1] XX-Saber Ragigura

[1] Rescue Cat

[1] Super-Nimble Mega Hamster

[1] D.D. Crow

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[1] Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

Spells: 9

[2] Book of Moon

[1] One for One

[1] Saber Slash

[1] Reinforcement of the Army

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Cold Wave

[1] Brain Control

[1] My Body as a Shield

Traps: 9

[2] Dust Tornado

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Saber Hole

[2] Gottom’s Emergency Call

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck: 15

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Mist Wurm

[2] X-Sabers Gottoms

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[2] XX-Saber Hyunlei

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Armory Arm

Sidedeck: 15

[2] Cyber Dragon

[3] Consecrated Light

[1] D.D. Crow

[1] My Body as a Shield

[1] Saber Slash

[2] Pulling the Rug

[2] Swallow Flip

[2] Hero’s Rule 2

[1] Mirror of Oaths

Jovani Hernandez – 7^th place after swiss

Monsters: 18

[3] X-Saber Airbellum

[2] XX-Saber Fulhemknight

[1] D.D. Crow

[2] XX-Saber Emmersblade

[2] XX-Saber Boggart Knight

[1] Rescue Cat

[3] XX-Saber Faultroll

[3] XX-Saber Darksoul

[1] XX-Saber Ragigura

Spells: 10

[1] Cold Wave

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Giant Trunade

[1] Brain Control

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Mind Control

[1] My Body as a Shield

[3] Book of Moon

Traps: 12

[2] Saber Hole

[1] Call of the Haunted

[2] Gottom’s Emergency Call

[1] Starlight Road

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Torrential Tribute

[1] Mirror Force

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Dust Tornado

Extra Deck: 15

[2] XX-Saber Gottoms

[1] Magical Android

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[2] XX-Saber Hyunlei

[1] Stardust Dragon

[2] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Armory Arm

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Mist Wurm

[1] Goyo Guardian

Sidedeck: 15

[1] Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

[2] Mask of Restrict

[1] System Down

[2] Cyber Dragon

[1] XX-Saber Pashuul

[2] D.D. Crow

[3] Consecrated Light

[1] My Body as a Shield

[1] One for One

[1] Gottoms’ Emergency Call

Elijah Marnell – 8^th place after swiss

Monsters: 18

[3] Thunder King Rai-Oh

[3] Test Tiger

[2] Gladiator Beast Equeste

[2] Gladiator Beast Samnite

[1] Gladiator Beast Secutor

[1] Gladiator Beast Murmillo

[1] Gladiator Beast Retiari

[1] Rescue Cat

[1] Gladiator Beast Bestiari

[2] Gladiator Beast Laquari

[1] Gladiator Beast Darius

Spells: 5

[3] Book of Moon

[1] Cold Wave

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 17

[3] Dimensional Prison

[3] Compulsory Evacuation Device

[2] Gladiator Beast War Chariot

[2] Starlight Road

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Trap Dustshoot

[3] Dust Tornado

Extra Deck: 15

[1] Rainbow Neos

[2] Gladiator Beast Heraklinos

[3] Gladiator Beast Gyzarus

[2] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[2] Stardust Dragon

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Ancient Fairy Dragon

Sidedeck:

[3] Consecrated Light

[3] Pulling the Rug

[2] Pole Position

[2] Gottom’s Emergency Call

[2] Cyber Dragon

[1] Brain Control

[1] Legendary Jujitsu Master

[1] Jowls of Dark Demise

Everything In One

I’m going to start off this article with two interesting facts about me. The first is that I’ve actually tried to play many different games competitively. However, being competitive at a lot of different things is extremely difficult, and I’ve found that I’ve only been able to be competitive at Yu-Gi-Oh! The only viedo game that I tried to become competitive at was Super Smash Brothers. I still enjoy watching some competitive Smash matches, but I never got good myself.

The other fact is that I love writing controversial articles. I don’t like writing about the things that most semi-competitive players know already. I find that to be boring. I like writing articles that make even the best players think about what I said. One of the reasons that I liked my CrowSworn article from last format was that it generated a good amount of discussion on whether the deck that I described was actually good or not. That’s what I like to see.

So what do these two facts have to do each other? Is Allen going to write a controversial Super Smash Brothers article this week? Actually, that’s not far from the truth…

Nearly every competitive game that exists has tiers, including Yu-Gi-Oh! The phrase “top tier deck” gets thrown around a lot. Every competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! player has a mental list of what decks are “top tier” and what decks aren’t. However, there always a lot of debate (in every competitive game) if tiers are brick walls that can’t be overcome, or can really anything win regardless of its tier status.

One of the things that I thought was great about the Super Smash Brothers community was that, at least once a year, all of the best players would get together and decide on an official tier list. They would take more than 20 video game characters and order them all from best to worst (in the current metagame). With lots of differing opinions, it’s truly amazing that they are all able to reach a consensus on what the best characters are.

In order to decide on the placement of characters into tiers, the Smash Back Room thoroughly examines each character. They look at raw power and stats, as well as each matchup. They would also examine tournament data to see what characters have proven themselves. They do lots of testing to determine each matchup, and they take everything very seriously.

One thing I want to stress here is that you can’t base a tier list off of pure tournament data. There’s going to be a huge sample bias. Every deck isn’t equally represented which is going to affect which decks top major events. The key to coming up with a good tier list is getting many good players to test every possible matchup and drawing conclusions. It might be the case that an underrepresented deck is actually a very good choice in the current meta and has a higher place on the tier list than the tournament data would indicate.

I think it would be amazing if the Yu-Gi-Oh! community were able to do something similar to the Smash Back Room. It would involve a lot of organization and effort; it would be no easy task. I don’t think a “Yugioh Back Room” is going to happen in the near future, so I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. Today, I’m going to present my own unofficial tier list. This is not set in stone by any means, and I expect many of my choices to be debated and discussed. Here I go…

God Tier: “Good matchups against nearly all of the competitive field”

1. Flamvell Cat – Flamvell engine, Rescue Cat engine

2. Non-Flamvell Cat – Often plays Hamsters or is more dark-heavy with Dark Armed Dragon.

3. Blackwings – Self-explanatory

Good Tier: “A good choices in most fields, but has one or more very poor matchups”

4. Gladiator Beasts – Self-explanatory

5. Quickdraw – Quickdraw Synchron + Dandylion engine, Lonefire engine, and other techs

6. Frog Monarch – Very tribute heavy, based around Treeborn Frog

Almost-There Tier: “Has many coin-flip matchups, some bad matchups, and a few favorable ones”

7. Machinas – Gadgets + Machina support

8. SalvoDAD – Battle Faders, Deko+Salvo engine, Cyber Valley, Caius, other sources of card advantage

Mediocre Tier: “Has a hard time against all of the decks in the upper tiers”

9. Lightsworn – Self-explanatory

10. Flamvell Monarch – Spies, Flamvell Engine, 3 Caius, and other techs

Uncompetitive Tier: “AKA the ‘everything else’ tier. Any deck that wasn’t listed above has topped little or no major events.”

The above list is my interpretation of all of the information that I have about this format so far. This is based off of personal experience, testing, tournament data, and trends in the regional and national metagame. I’m going to take some time to justify of all my choices.

Synchro Cat, what’s to say here? This has been the consensus #1 deck for quite some time now based on tournament data as well as popular opinion. The reason I choose to disguish between Flamvell/Non-Flamvell is that both decks have slightly different matchups and play a little differently. Both variants have been very successful. Synchro Cat’s only extremely difficult matchups are Frog Monarch and Quickdraw, both which make up a very small piece of the meta. Non-Flamvell variants of the Cat deck also have trouble against Gladiator Beasts, but even that matchup is only slightly unfavorable. The Blackwing matchup is also a near coin-flip, but all of your matchups against decks on the lower tiers are very favorable. A good build of Synchro Cat is definitely the best choice in a diverse, undefined field. If you play well, nearly every match should be a win.

Blackwings are firmly in control of the #2 spot in the current meta. Despite the deck’s primary card advantage engine, Black Whirlwind, being limited to 2, the deck continues to preform well. Even with the release of Starlight Road, Icarus Attack remains the best removal card in the game. The advantages over Synchro Cat are obvious: It has a good matchup against Gladiator Beasts, while also having an easier matchup against the anti-Cat decks, Quickdraw and Monarch. On the other hand, Lightsworn is still a tough matchup. The deck also has a tendency to crumble to tech like Dust Tornado and Starlight Road. Blackwings are a very good choice in the current meta, having only a few difficult matchups, and no “auto-lose” matchups at all. Just be sure that you’re prepared to face the deck to beat, Synchro Cat.

Gladiator Beasts are unsurprisingly still a good deck. The popularity of the Flamvell engine and easier Stardust Dragon access has made it harder for Gladiator Beasts to win. The Blackwing deck is still a difficult matchup, and it’s popularity makes it difficult for a Gladiator Beast player to survive an 8+ round event. Fortunately enough, both the Quickdraw and Monarch matchups are virtual byes. Gladiator Beasts still know how to punish players who like to set monsters and be conservative. A skilled pilot can easily take Gladiator Beasts to the top if he has the tools to beat Blackwings and Flamvell variants.

Quickdraw variants are relatively new to the scene. It’s a deck that has generated some hype due to several pro players such as Dale Bellido and Jeff Jones having success with it. It loops Drill Warrior with Dandylion to use tokens to block an assault with decks like Synchro Cat, Lightsworn, and Machinas. However, it has a hard time with decks that can take advantage of tokens, Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts. It’s also weak to Royal Oppression which is either maindecked or sidedecked in virtually every deck. The deck can also utilize Caius the Shadow Monarch has a source of card advantage or Light and Darkness Dragon to create a soft lock. The deck is definitely a good choice if you expect a field of mainly Cat decks, but it requires a good meta call in order for you to be successful.

I’m going to be honest here, Frog Monarch is one of my personal favorites at the moment. It’s a deck that is commonly championed by many players, including myself, as “the deck that beats everything except Glad Beasts.” All the deck does is dump Treeborn Frog, and then play a Monarch every turn for an assault of card advantage that most decks just can’t keep up with. Due to Battle Fader, Threatening Roar, and Dark Dust Spirit, you’re going to stomp on every Lightsworn deck that you see. The Synchro Cat matchup is also extremely favorable. You can use monarchs of the Caius and Raiza variety to remove virtually any threat, and you can use Light and Darkness Dragon to lock the game at any point in time. Battle Fader is useful at stopping any Rescue Cat shenanigans. Sadly, the Gladiator Beast matchup is an absolute nightmare. Retiari removing both of your Treeborn Frogs means game over. War Chariots are also effective at destroying any card advantage you might have planned on getting with your monarchs. Don’t play this deck in a field full of Glad Beasts. Once again, if you’re expecting lots of Cats running around, this is an amazing choice.

Machinas are by far the most cost efficient deck in the current meta. All of you need is 3 structure decks and a bunch of staples and you’re ready to go. However, this deck is also very overrepresented due to its price tag. Think of this deck like Walmart: A lot of people use it, and it’s very cheap, but that doesn’t mean that Walmart has the best products. I love to joke that this deck’s worst matchup is Cyber Dragon, which is sadly a very popular card at the moment. An unanswered Cyber Dragon clears the field of all of your monsters via Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. You have to make very careful plays with this deck. It doesn’t have any stellar matchups in the current metagame, but none of the matchups are completely unwinnable either. A very good player could take this deck to a win, but there are definitely safer options.

SalvoDAD is a deck that requires a lot of skill and testing to master. The deck was popularized by Chris Gehring, two-time worlds attendee. Since it’s creation, it has taken a few tops spots at major events, but it hasn’t seen as much success as the decks on the higher tiers. The deck uses Black Salvo, Dekoichi, Cyber Valley, and Caius as sources of card advantage, and is by far the most passive deck in the format. Many players have picked up the deck to match their conservative playstyle. None of the matchups against the higher tier decks are easy by any means, but if you are a more skilled player than your opponent you can expect to win a hard fought battle. This deck has the potential to win a major event if it’s piloted by a very knowledge player with a good sidedeck.

Lightsworn is still the sack deck of choice. Judgment Dragon is one of the best cards ever printed no matter how you look at it. However, the deck is not as explosive as last format, and other decks will be able to set up and gain control of the game before Lightsworn can. The Blackwing matchup is still favorable, but none of the other matchups are much better than 50%. The existence of Starlight Road makes your win condition somewhat less reliable. Lightsworn has gained quite a few tops, but I feel that the deck is overrepresented due to its success last format. However, the deck can be a good choice against an unprepared meta where no one is sidedecking Light-Imprisoning Mirrors. With the right build and a little luck, Lightsworn is bound to remain a good deck.

Last on the tier list is Flamvell Monarch, which also happens to be my least favorite deck of the ten on my list. I’ve commented to many people that “the deck is like Flamvell Cat, only worse.” There’s probably some bias affecting this deck’s placement on the list, but allow me to explain. I see a lot of people playing this deck, yet very few of these decks do well at large-scale events. Triple Caius is good against a lot of decks, but I really don’t feel the other card choices are effective in the current meta. The Flamvell engine is not particularly good against the ubiquitous Gravekeeper Spies, and this deck usually plays 3 Firedogs, 2-3 Magicians, and 2-3 Rekindling. This leads to some very awkward hands against some of the other decks in the format. I just feel this the power of this deck is not on par with all of the other decks in the format. This deck doesn’t have a lot of explosiveness or card advantage. Only use this deck if you’ve tested it a lot, found a build that you like, and are confident in your matchups against the field. You’re going to be fighting an uphill battle, but this deck certainly has the potential to win.

I almost forgot the last tier. The deck you’re playing might fall under the “everything else” tier. If you’ve found an amazing deck that no one else is playing, more power to you. No one expects you to play a deck based on what the public thinks the best decks are. Anyone who’s playing to win should always play the same deck at the every event: whatever deck he feels he has the best chance of doing well with. This deck could be anywhere on the tier list.

Lastly, as you may or may not have guessed, the reason the this article is titled “Everything In One” is because it essentially sums up my opinions on every deck in the current format. It lists every deck’s strengths, weaknesses, and place in the current meta. Anyone who plans on doing well at any big event, such as Shonen Jump Championship New Jersey, needs to have a solid understand of the meta. Until next time (I have no idea when next time will be), test lots, play well, and duel hard.

*Editor’s Note* – The Game Academy hosts an EDH league every Sunday; tournament signups begin @ 2 PM and tournament entry is $7. All entry will be given back to top finishers in store credit to use towards anything in the store. Jeremy is always in attendance to play EDH in our league, offer deck advice, and record matches for his popular YouTube channel. If you don’t have an EDH deck, don’t worry, we normally have a few extras if you want to play. See you here!
Elder Dragon Highlander:  Collector’s Edition Part II

This week we will pick up where last week left us.  We embarked on the journey into Magic the Gathering.  Some follow the path for competitive purposes, others will to amass a giant collection.  Many players seek fun and most of us are in for a little of each.  We perused a list of the top EDH cards for each color.  If you did not get a chance to catch the list, I have decided to copy it here one more time.

When I first started playing EDH, I found deck lists mind boggling.  Hundred card singleton lists are very difficult to comprehend without some framing or explanation about card choices and synergies.  Some folks try to assemble a good stuff type list that just plays a bunch of powerful cards, but this is nearly almost always a sure-fire way to end up with a suboptimal list.  Synergies and card interactions put EDH decks over-the-proverbial-top.  Therefore, you need to identify the most amazing cards that fit together to accomplish your given game plan.

With that disclaimer, it still seems relevant to create lists that collect the most powerful cards.  I love these lists and having discussions about the best cards in a color.  These discussions can help players consider cards they might have missed or may allow a deck builder to double up on effects that fit a deck’s theme or enhance the function.

Back in the day (you know the one), when I started playing EDH.  If followed deck construction advice from community forum members like Zerg (may he rest in peace) and others on various EDH forums.  I would follow Sheldon Menery’s columns and updates on the banned list, and would scour the internets for a reasonable explanation of popular deck lists.  Here are some interesting words of advice from Zerg in his forum post concerning some of the most important card to include in your EDH decks.  His descriptions are brief, but you get the general idea.

“Colorless

• Sensei’s Divining Top – anywhere. Period. Unless your playgroup is excessively annoyed by it.
• Lightning Greaves – for any deck that plans on attacking or has creatures that need to stay alive.
• Journeyer’s Kite – supplies you with lands forever, or until blown up. Mandatory in any nongreen deck.
• Gauntlet of Power and Extraplanar Lens – any monocolored deck. These cards are stupidgood.
• Nevinyrral’s Disk and Oblivion Stone – essential effect in any EDH deck and only available on two cards outside of white.
• Mind’s Eye – one of the best card draw engines in multiplayer, and available to any color.
• Solemn Simulacrum – Just really, really good.
• Sol Ring – Best artifact mana accel in the game.
• Thawing Glaciers – fills the same role as kite, every other turn.
• Maze of Ith – Surprisingly few creatures can get around it, it’s hard to remove (being a land) and fits in every deck.
• Strip Mine – utility nonbasics come with a lot of drawbacks, such as not being not fetchable by most land search cards, not benefitting from gauntlet/lens/etc, and usually not producing colored mana. However, some utility is just too strong to ignore. Same applies to every other land that made a cut to be on this list.

Black

• Yawgmoth’s Will – best card in Magic.
• Necropotence – best card draw spell in EDH.
• Cabal Coffers – Gauntlet of Power #3 in monoblack.
• Volrath’s Stronghold – Many decks would spend an actual card slot on this effect. Stronghold doesn’t even cost you a slot.
• Demonic Tutor &Co. – obvious card is obvious.
• Myojin of Night’s Reach – everyone’s hand goes “bye”. 9000 style points if whoever played it doesn’t activate the ability immediately, passes priority, and you sudden death it.
• Transmute cards – Yes, any card that merely searches for Yawgwin is good enough to make the “best of the best” list.
• Reanimation – one of the key strengths of black. Reanimation is often cheaper, more flexible, and more powerful than that creature you were thinking of adding to your deck.

Blue

• Control Magic &Co. – just like reanimation, it saves you mana, but also serves as removal, albeit usually less flexible than reanimation
• Countermagic –  often underrated in multiplayer because you “can’t counter everything”. The key is to use it to protect your other cards, not try to remove every threat.
• Magus of the Future / Future Sight – absurdity is directly proportional to the amount of mana you have, multiplied by the number of shuffle effects and tripled with Divining Top in play. The only two cards that have the potential to be dumber than Yawgwin.
• Hinder –  the easiest way in the game to say “bye, general!”
• [s]Gifts Ungiven[/s] – combo deck wins (for best results combine with Yawgwin or Eternal Witness in hand).
• Academy Ruins – See Volrath’s Stronghold.

White

• Land Tax and Weathered Wayfarer – these can be as good as green’s land search, but it’s only two cards.
• Sweepers – being able to remove anything and everything at once is white’s main strength. Be sure to include some, this is the only color that has plenty of options. Final Judgment, Hallowed Burial, Austere Command, and Rout, are usually the best.
• Condemn – Right below Hinder.
• Return to Dust – It might be silly to include a random artifact removal spell in this list, but I’ve been owned by this card so many times.
• Mistveil Plains – Probably one of the most underrated cards in the game. Combined with a tutor, you have the ability to fetch anything back from your graveyard. Also searcheable with fetchlands and hoses reanimation targeting your graveyard.

Green

• Eternal Witness – green is the only color with “return any card” effects, which are incredibly strong. Witness is by far the most abuseable of these.
• Far Wanderings – I have no idea why this isn’t in every green deck. Fetching 3 lands for 3 mana is nuts. (Keep in mind that you have threshold for about 80% of the duration of the game).
• Mana Reflection – see Gauntlet of Power.
• Tooth and Nail and Chord of Calling – chances are you have some fat creatures in your deck that you’d like in play. These are the best ways to do that.

Red

• Wheel of Fortune – the only card in red that’s on par with blue and black card draw. It’s damn good, but sadly, it’s the only thing red has.
• Reiterate – redirection/copy effects are great in general, but reiterate is head and shoulders above the rest. Nothing like copying an opponent’s cruel ultimatum. Twice. And still keeping the reiterate. In fact, this card is pretty much the only reason I want to play red.
• Gauntlet of Might – monored red gets an extra gauntlet of power, if you can afford one.
• Insurrection – usually enough to kill one opponent in multiplayer.

Multicolored

• Mirari’s Wake – Mana reflection, but better.
• Cruel Ultimatum – Just reminding you this card exists. If you don’t know what it does, click the link and read it.
• Vindicate – Tie fighters.
• Maelstrom Pulse – Not quite tie fighters.
• Terminate / Mortify / Putrefy – no reason not to have these.
• Debtor’s Knell – You’ll find something ridiculous to do with this every time you play it.

Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion – double strike is potentially very powerful and having it on a land means it’s reusable, doesn’t cost you a card, and wastes no slots in the deck.”

These thoughts do not totally match up with my thinking about EDH deck construction.  Some of the cards I find to be underpowered, too specific, or generally outclassed (e.g. Cruel Ultimatum, Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, and Journeyer’s Kite).  However, the advice runs fairly consistent and helped shape my early thinking.  Eventually, I made it a goal to form a collection of EDH staples and core cards that would serve as the foundation for my deck construction.  I made this decision some time ago along with the idea that I would snatch up foils of my favorite staples and copies of the dual lands and older cards.  Subsequently, the Legacy format has jumped off and my collection of staples has turned into a nice investment rewarding not only in terms of the playability and fantastic aid in deck construction but also financially.

I would like to share some of the hottest movers on the EDH scene and would emplore those wishing to build a similar style collection to act fast.  Every couple of months the cards seem to take a dramatic leap in cost/value.

Buy Now:  For Fun and Profit

Let’s start with some of the cards that are both going to bowl you over and that might be a little obvious.  They might be apparent, but some folks are still out there with holes in their collections.  These are among the first cards that I would obtain and should always be on the “needed” or “wanted” lists.  At times these cards trade like a second currency, but time has proven them to be a stable investment that offers little risk.  If you are ever done with these cards you can ship them for about what you paid or more.

Dual Lands

You don’t have to play with dual lands to be successful in EDH.  However, they are simply the best lands that you can play with if you are looking to fix colors and diversify your mana-base.  If you need to be in both Blue and Black, then you have some options.  The pimped out choice is Underground Sea.  The runner up is Watery Grave, and somewhere following are cards like Underground River, Sunken Ruins, and tap lands that generate the needed colors. Here is the hitch:  as of March 24, 2010 the most inexpensive Underground Sea on popular retail sites (in near mint condition) will cost about $85.  Twelve months ago, you could have landed them for around $60.  Some of the dual lands have nearly doubled in price.  The lands with “less popular” (read as non-blue) colors have shot up from around $25 to over $40.  In early March, Wizards of the Coast announced that they will never reprint the revised (original) dual lands.  Therefore, they are likely going to continue their rise in price.  Pick these up now.

3^rd Edition/Revised

Badlands                    $40

Bayou                         $50

Plateau                       $40

Savannah                   $40+

Scrubland                   $40

Taiga                           $50

Tropical Island          $60+

Tundra                       $70

Underground Sea      $90

Judge Foils/Promo Foils

The DCI and folks at Wizards of the Coast have had their eye on EDH for a long time.  The format expanded its popularity in the judge community and Aaron Forsythe, head of Magic’s research and development, explained in an interview conducted on Youtube (Elderdragonhighlandr Interview Series) that EDH has been on the mind of developers for some time now.  Evidence pops up when you see a hefty multi-colored legendary general or giant octopus like Lorthos.  Further evidence can be found in the printing of the Judge promo cards released as payment and thanks for judges working at sanctioned events.

If you look over some of the staples listed in the format, you can nearly cross reference some of the most popular cards with the Judge promo list.  Let’s browse a couple of selections:

Promo Versions

Sol Ring                      $50+

Maze of Ith                 $40

Yawgmoth’s Will       $20

Demonic Tutor          $40

Wheel of Fortune      Unreleased (coming soon)

Foil Fetch Lands        $30-60

Aside from these judge foils, there are any number of FNM foils and promotional foils that cover the staple cards in EDH.  Eternal Witness and Necropotence can each be found reasonably.  Basically, any of these foil, promotional staples are desirable for EDH collectors.

From the Vault:  EDH Staples

Another area that Wizards has shown love to the EDH community involves the limited release, From the Vault series.  The first set was dragons and offered foil versions of some of the game’s most desirable foil dragon generals.  My favorite is Nicol Bolas.  However, the second From the Vault release secured foil versions of cards that were either impossible or improbable to find in foil.  Examples include the now banned Gifts Ungiven and the oft used staples of Mystical Tutor and Sensi’s Divining Top.  If you can find these products they are surefire EDH winners.  I keep a set and open a set for play in my decks.  Make sure to check out the upcoming From the Vault: Artifacts.  There are going to be even more EDH staples in that set.

Foreign Black Border and Rare Foils

Some cards cannot be found in foil.  For those cards, many players chase the foreign black border versions or original Alpha/Beta cards.  My dream is to own a complete collection of foreign black border dual lands.  If you are chasing the dream, you will have to be vigilant.  Stores might take a wants list and could notify you if the chase cards come through the doors.  You might happen upon them on eBay, but they are hard to find.  Occasionally, there are EDH staples or great cards that were in very short print like Moat and Mana Drain from Legends and the ever-popular Force of Will.  Those cards are likely going to increase in price and should be eventual additions to your collections.

Finally, folks should take the time to note that some cards are barely found in foil.  Merchant Scroll is a great edition for an EDH deck, but the 8^th edition foil is the only foil printing.  The uncommon is worth about $1 but its foil version is worth $25.  This situation happens occasionally.  Some promo cards are rare (like Swords to Plowshares) or the foil just drives the price.  You might watch for deals on these cards or find them in a foil bin for a great price.

I hope this series has been helpful and informative.  Thanks to the forum posters and folks who chase all of these amazing cards.  The hunt is half of the fun.

I’d been looking forward to this past weekend for a few months. I knew that there was a weekend of magic tournaments coming to Orlando which is not uncommon, but three tournaments in 3 days? I’m down. First, my local card shop was holding a $500 FNM. There is a lot of people that strongly dislike this current standard because of a certain black, green, and red deck filled with card advantage and two for ones. It is quite annoying playing against the deck because cascade can be so random, but why not just play the deck yourself? Obviously the mirror is awful, and whoever draws more Sprouting Thrinax or the most Blightnings usually wins, but thus is a mirror. I played Jund for a few months, got bored of winning and spent the last month trying out all the other decks in the format. After playing in many FNMs and mid-week tournaments, I found myself right back where I started, playing Jund. Maybe it’s wrong to enjoy hearing my opponents whining and complaining after they get smashed, but they really can’t complain because they have the same opportunity to play this super powerful deck.

The first tournament of the weekend was the $500 FNM. I chose to play open the vaults because a friend of mine, Gerry Thompson recommended it to me on MODO. It’s nice to have Bligntning cast against you and enjoy it. Here’s the list I played:

4 Wall of Denial
4 Architects of Will
4 Glassdusk Hulk
4 Sphinx of Lost Truths
3 Filigree Angel

3 Courier’s Capsule
2 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Open the Vaults
1 Sanguine Bond
2 Everflowing Chalice
1 Day of Judgment
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Spreading Seas

4 Terramorphic Expanse
7 Island
2 Swamp
4 Plains

Sideboard is your local metagame dependent but some combination of:
Flashfreeze, Doomblade, more Day of Judgments, Celestial Purge, Perimeter Captain, Tidehollow Sculler, Duress.

Things didn’t go so well, and I ended up dropping at 3-2-1. I think the deck is awesome, but the metagame I expected was not what it ended up being. I thought it would be the normal Jund filled environment I play in week in and week out, but boy was I wrong. I played against 2 UW ally decks, 1 Spread Em’ deck (my draw because we just sat there even though I would have won the match given 10 more minutes) 1 Mono Red deck (which is winnable if you draw Wall of Denial), a Jund w/W concoction, and 1 Jund deck. I would definitely suggest playing this deck if you know that you’ll be playing against Jund a lot, and not suggest playing it in a field filled with vampires due to Mind Sludge forcing you to top deck a Open the Vaults in a short period of time due to their fast clock.

I didn’t think I was playing OTV (open the vaults) for the 5K. Actually, I really had no clue what I wanted to play. Obviously, Jund is the audible in such a big tournament since you can just get there some times.

Saturday rolls around and I meet up with Adam Chernoff at the standard 5K, and we go over his Jund list. It seems very good so I end up playing it card for card. It was definitely a very good list, and I don’t blame my losses on the deck. Here’s the list:

4 Putrid Leech
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Siege-Gang Commander

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
3 Maelstrom Pulse

4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
3 Swamp
3 Mountain

I think when building a Jund deck for such a large tournament, where you know you’ll be playing against a lot of different decks, you want to keep your deck as consistent as possible. Notice in this list that there is no 2 of Broodmate Dragons, no 2 Rampant Growths/Explore/Trace of Abundance. I think that along with the 4 Great Sable Stag’s in the main (which is awesome against a lot of different decks) is what sold me. I hate Broodmate Dragon in this deck. I’d much rather have a lower curve that makes it so I don’t get blown out by Goblin Ruinblaster or Tectonic Edge.

I ended up dead at 3-2. I played against 3 Red Deck Wins splash black, 1 White Weenie (Cedric Phillips list which the Jund deck just can’t beat), and 1 other random deck. I lost to White Weenie, and my other loss came at the hands of the red deck.

I hung around and rooted on my friends John Dean and Taylor Raflowitz, who ended up finishing 3rd and 2nd. Congrats to Charles Gindy for winning the whole thing.

My friend Mike Letsch helped me build my Goblin deck for the Legacy portion of the event on Sunday. I had played in 2 legacy tournaments prior, and that was a few years ago. So basically I didn’t know anything about legacy other than what I had read in fellow writer Keith McLaughlin’s articles, and known from playing in those 2 events. I know about Daze, and FoW, and swords which are all good against my Goblin Deck. This is the list I ended up playing:
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
3 Goblin Chieftan
4 Goblin Matron
1 Stingscourger
2 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Earwig Squad

4 AEther Vial
3 Warren Wierding

3 Bloodstained Mire (should be 4)
3 Scalding Tarn (should be 2)
6 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Badlands
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadan Port

Sideboard
3 Pyrokinesis
3 Price of Progress
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Blood Moon
1 Boartusk Liege
2 Tormod’s Crypt

This deck performed very well all day. I also played very well, but blame most of my wins on mulligan decisions. Against an unknown deck, I always mulligan a hand without Goblin Lackey, AEther Vial, or 2 Goblin Piledrivers and a Warchief/Chieftan. The format is so diverse that a hand without those cards usually means you’ll lose. Onto the report…

Round 1 Johnathan Goanos – Mono Red Goblins

Game 1:

I play Vial and pass, while he plays wasteland and passes. On my second turn, I play a Goblin Piledriver, and he simply plays a Mutavault. From the little legacy I know, I assume he’s playing Merfolk, because Goblins doesn’t normally play Mutavault. On the following turn, my Vial goes to 2. I end up playing a Goblin Matron to search for another Goblin Piledriver since it’s so important to have multiples of him in play against Merfolk because of his protection from blue. When my opponent finally draws his third land, he plays his own Goblin Matron and searches for Mogg War Marshall, making my previous play absolutely terrible.  I EOT put my Goblin Piledriver into play via my Aether Vial, and cast Goblin Chieftain on my turn. At this point, the game is basically over.

I board in 3 Pyrokinesis and the Boartusk Liege, and take out 3 Warren Wierding and the Earwig Squad.

Game 2:

He thinks for a while and keeps, while I mulligan an awesome hand against any other deck with Aether Vial, Goblin Piledriver, 2 Goblin Ringleaders, and 3 lands. This hand can’t possibly beat a turn 1 Goblin Lackey, and it’s the main reason I chose to mulligan. My six card hand is much better and exactly what I needed in the form of 2 Mountains, Goblin Lackey, Gempalm Incinerator, Siege-Gang Commander, and Goblin Ringleader. On his first turn, he played a Goblin Lackey, and I did the same. After his draw step, it was apparent that he didn’t have a second land, and from then on, the game was mine. He was pretty upset, and chose not to attack, instead saying “GO”. If he had attacked with his Goblin Lackey, I would have been forced to block with mine, and the game would have been much more difficult from there. Instead, I draw a card for my turn, and cycle my Gempalm Incinerator to kill his 1/1, resulting in a turn two Siege-Gang Commander for me. That’s game!

Round 2 Matthew Cross- 43 Lands
I’d never played this matchup before but know it’s supposed to be strongly in his favor.

Game 1:

He casts Exploration, while I simply play a Goblin Lackey. He then cycles Tolaria West to search out Maze of Ith, and then casts Life from the Loam to get back his Tolaria West. At this point, I decide to concede the game to save time. His deck takes the full 50 minutes to win, and I need to win at least one game in order to have a chance at a draw.

I board in 3 Blood Moon, 3 Price of Progress, and 2 Tormod’s Crypt for 3 Warren Weirding, 4 Gempalm Incinator, and 1 Goblin Chieftain

Game 2:

I Blood Moon him out of the game.
Game 3:

We sit there with me having an Aether Vial while he has no Life from the Loam. I’m stuck on 1 land, but he fails to draw any real action for at least eight turns. Eventually, I draw a Blood Moon and kill him on the following turn with Goblin Warchief, Goblin Chieftain, and two Goblin Piledrivers.
Round 3 Robert “Wu” Tang – 43 Lands w/ Red for Gamble

Game 1:

I know what he’s playing, so I know that I need a turn one Goblin Lackey in order to have any chance game one. I mulligan to five, but my draw is the absolute nuts if he doesn’t have a Maze of Ith or Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. My hand is Goblin Lackey, Siege-Gang Commander, Goblin Piledriver, a Mountain, and X. He fails to draw Maze of Ith or the Tabernacle, and the game is quickly over on turn four.

I board in 3 Blood Moon, 3 Price of Progress, and 2 Tormod’s Crypt for 3 Warren Weirding, 4 Gempalm Incinator, and 1 Goblin Chieftain

Game 2:

We get mid-round deck checked and have to re-sideboard. Apparently, he boarded in Ancient Grudge instead of Ray of Revelation. On turn three, I cast a Blood Moon, and in response to my Blood Moon, he sacrifices a fetch land to get the one basic forest out of his deck. While looking through his deck, he comes to realize that he can’t actually win because of the mistake he made, and can only stall the game. At this point, he respectfully concedes.

Round 4 Charles Chandler- Mono Black splash Tarmogoyf

Game 1:

He casts Thoughtseize against me twice this game, and shortly thereafter plays a Tombstalker. I end up ripping a Warren Weirding from the top of my deck, and my Goblin swarm overwhelms him.

I board in 1 Boartusk Liege (in case of Engineered Plague) and board out 1 Siege-Gang Commander (didn’t seem too good against so much discard)

Game 2:

He plays turn one Dark Ritual into Hypnotic Specter on the play and I die shortly after under so much discard along with his Nantuko Shade.

Game 3:

I have a turn one Aether Vial, but he has his Hypnotic Specter on the first turn to match. I continue to play Goblins, and use Rishadan Port to lock down one of his two lands. We get to the point where he is in single digit life points, and I have nothing in hand, but I have a Goblin Piledriver and a Goblin Warchief in play against his lone Hypnotic Specter. With him still being short on lands, he has no other choice but to keep passing the turn. I continue to draw Goblins, and there is a point in the match where he calls the judge over after I won’t let him take back one of his plays. He lies to the judge, and instead of arguing, I say “whatever” and continue playing. Eventually, his misplay ends up costing him the game.

BTW, I HATE when people lie.

Round 5 Omar Hamid- Bant Natural Order Counter Top

Game 1:

This game is very close. After dealing with each other’s threats, we reach a stalemate with me at 1 life, a few goblins in play, and a Siege Gang Commander. He has a Rhox War Monk, Tarmogoyf, Counterbalance, a bunch of lands, and is at a healthy 17 life. Eventually, I resolve a Goblin Ringleader, reveal 4 Goblins, and he concedes.

I sideboard in 3 Pyrokinesis to deal with his Rhox War Monks and 1 Boartusk Liege because he has firespout in his board. I shave some goblins (meaning taking out 1 or 2 of each) because I really didn’t know what to take out. Just being honest.

Game 2:

We start the game with 15 minutes left, and he’s stuck on a Plains, Forest, and Island in play. My Rishadan Port is tapping one of his colors down each turn, and I manage to play around Firespout to take the match.

At this point I’m 5-0 and double draw into Top 8 with AJ Sacher and Julian De Los Santos. There was 1 match that decided if I made it or not, and they ended up drawing which locked me into 8th place.

Quarterfinals Lewis Laskin Bant Fish w/Stoneforge Mystic
Game 1:

He has double Swords to Plowshares and an Aether Vial with two counters, along with Tarmogoyf and Stoneforge Mystic. The Stoneforge Mystic allowed him to get a Sword of Fire and Ice, and he takes the game in under five minutes.
I sideboard in 3 Pyrokinesis and take out 2 Goblin Chieftan and the Earwig Squad. I usually board out Goblin Chieftains against decks that the size of my creatures doesn’t matter.
Game 2:

He has a lot of counters and removal but only draws a Spellstutter Sprite as his creature along with two Mutavaults, both of which I wasteland. I eventually draw and play more Goblins, and take the game with my creatures.
Game 3:

Much like game two, he is again low on creatures. He only draws a Jotun grunt and Spellstutter Sprite in the early turns and gets severely Mana flooded while I cast Goblin Ringleaders to keep my hand full. With five lands in play, he casts a Stoneforge Mystic and tries to equip his Spellstutter Sprite. I cast Pyrokinesis to kill both of his creatures, and take both the game and the match.

Semifinals Michael Brady- Merfolk
Game 1:

He mulls to 5 but has a turn two Standstill which I break for a Goblin Chieftain, undoing his mulligan. We both play creatures, but he gets an active Jitte against my Goblin Chieftain and double Goblin Piledriver. Luckily, my Goblin Piledrivers make it so that he can’t get more counters on his Jitte because of their protection from blue, and the Goblin Chieftain I played on turn three gives them both three toughness. Eventually, I resolve a third Goblin Piledriver, and at 14 life, my 5/2’s take game 1.
I board in 3 Pyrokinesis and 1 Boartusk Liege and take out 1 Earwig Squad 2 Goblin Warchief and 1 Stingscourger.
Game 2:

This game goes by pretty quickly as I have a turn one Goblin Lackey followed by turn two Aether Vial, and my Pyrokinesis to kill his blockers on turn three allows me to put Siege Gang Commander into play via my Goblin Lackey. After I rip my second Siege Gang Commander on the following turn and kill off some of his blockers, he concedes.
Finals Zack Wilson Aggro Loam
We decide to prize split, even though he didn’t want to at first because it’s a “good matchup” for him.
Game 1:

I have a turn one Goblin Lackey on the play, which he can’t deal with unless he has his own turn one Devastating Dreams. My Goblin Lackey puts a Goblin Matron into play on turn two, and I search for a Goblin Ringleader. Goblin Ringleader comes into play and I end up putting four Goblins in my hand. He’s land screwed and is forced to play his cycle lands instead of using them for card advantage with the Life from the Loam in his hand. I Earwig Squad him on turn three and remove all his Devastating Dreams from his deck. After I search through his deck, I know what is in his hand, and what to play around. Despite having a Seismic Assault, he dies in short order to my Goblin Horde.
I board in 3 Price of Progress and 2 Tormod’s Crypt. Price of Progress is the best possible sideboard card against his deck and he knows it. I shave some goblins, including Goblin Chieftain, Stingscourger, and Gempalm Incinerators
Game 2:

He talks about keeping a “fundamentally decent enough hand that makes you think, well, it just might get there” and eventually just chooses to mulligan. I have a turn one Goblin Lackey again, and put a free Goblin Ringleader into play. He plays a Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale to try and slow me down, but it just wasn’t happening today. I play a Tormod’s Crypt and battle! He resolves a Countryside Crusher, but I have Warren Weirding to kill it and attack again. He plays Burning Wish to get a Devastating Dreams, but has only one other card in his hand. I choose to let my Goblin Ringleader go to the graveyard, and cast a Goblin Warchief. I decide to put Earwig Squad into play for free off my Goblin Lackey since he can’t Devastating Dreams it away even after he draws another card. He has to cast the Devastating Dreams anyway, and my Earwig Squad gets him!
David Sharfman is your StarCityGames Legacy Open champion in Orlando!

*Editor’s Note* – The Game Academy will host Legacy tournaments every Thursday; signups begin @ 6 PM and tournament entry is $7. All entry will be given back to top finishers in store credit to use towards anything in the store. Keith will always be in attendance, so if you have any questions or need deck advice don’t hesitate to ask! =)

Since the last time you’ve all heard from me, I made some significant changes to the Life deck, now incorporating Black in the main deck, replacing Meddling Mage and Pithing Needle with Thoughtseize and Tidehollow Sculler. I’m a big fan of the new changes, as being able to know exactly what your opponent can do to stop you from going-off is extremely valuable information. That’s not to mention some of the cute tricks you can do with a Tidehollow Sculler with Vial [1] or Diamond Valley [2]. Additionally, Doran becomes much easier to cast, and we can now easily support multiple copies in the main deck, greatly strengthening the deck against strategies that can win without having to deal damage, i.e. Grindstone, Academy Ruins [3] and Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

[1] Using Vial to make a Tidehollow on an opponent’s draw step allows you to deny the opponent their top deck for a turn.
[2] Put Tidehollow’s ability on the stack, then sacrifice him to Valley to permanently exile a card from your opponent’s hand.
[3] The presence of Academy Ruins in 38-Land allows them to easily deck the Life player.

As many of the true innovators out there know, making drastic changes to a deck requires much time and effort; it’s not unusual for the theory behind certain card choices and strategies to prove itself invalid. Nevertheless, it’s important to learn as much as possible for such experiments. In the case with Life, we did not immediately think that Black was a stronger choice than Blue, rather it was the product of a failed experiment.

Due to the popularity of those troublesome strategies mentioned above, myself and some non-local players [4] decided it may be worthwhile to combine Life with Cephalid Breakfast [5], adding to the deck’s flexibility, while also adding a possible turn 2 nut-draw kill. This is exactly the same sort of reasoning used recently by Yurchick’s GP Oakland 2nd-place Thopter-Depths, and as far back as Kai Budde’s Oath of Trix, which combined the aggro-stomping Oath of Druids engine with the popular Illusions-Donate kill. As it turned out, two problems plagued our hybrid deck. First, the presence of Dread Return, Sutured Ghoul, 3x Narcomoeba, Dragon’s Breath and Lord of Extinction made the deck mulligan at least 80% more often. In many testing sessions, I’d be ecstatic to only mulligan to six, but even then, those hands would commonly include a Narcomoeba or the like, effectively making them five-card hands. Second, many games you’d be forced to choose whether to go for the cephalid kill or infinite life. The two are completely mutually-exclusive since the using the cephalid reduces your library to only a few cards at most. If the opponent had a Sensei’s Divining Top in play, there was some probability that there is a Swords to Plowshares just waiting on top of the library for the Ghoul to hit play, complicating the decision to some degree.

[4] Doug Azzano, in particular.
[5] The combo involves targetting Cephalid Illusionist a large number of times with Shuko, or Nomads en-Kor to deck oneself. Several Narcomoebas come into play, which are sacrificed to Dread Return targetting a very large Sutured Ghoul (removing Lord of Extinction or Terravore). Dragon’s Breath gives the Sutured Ghoul haste.
[6] Turn 1 Shuko or Nomads en-Kor, turn 2 Cephalid Illusionist.

Though we had a lot of problems with consistency, we found that a few of the matchups had vastly improved (at the expense of others). We were nearly beating Merfolk every game as we could determine the exact number of Stifles and FoW’s we needed to fight though before committing thanks to Cabal Therapy and Thoughtseize.

After giving up on Cephalid-Life, it became clear that we could strengthen some matchups by making the blue-for-black swap, while also slightly shoring up our weak manabase [7]. Here is the list:

Dark Life
4 Aether Vial
4 Shuko
3 Nomads en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
3 Task Force
4 Thoughtseize
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Doran the Siege Tower
4 Eladamri’s Call
4 Living Wish

3 Diamond Valley
2 Starlit Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
4 Marsh Flats
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
2 Scrubland
3 Plains
1 Forest

Sideboard
1 Diamond Valley
1 Nomads en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Doran the Siege Tower
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Progenitus [8]
3 Nature’s Claim
3 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Gaea’s Blessing

[7] We were already playing a couple sources of black mana in the main deck for Doran and sideboarded cards.
[8] To prevent being decked. Build up to a full hand, then discard Progenitus whenever you draw it.

I was prepped and ready to run a very similar list in a local tournament, but I figured it’d be more exciting if I wrote about something new. I convinced Nolan Blackwelder to switch decks with me prior to the tournament so I could talk, instead, about his interesting concoction, Bomberman [9].

[9] Nolan lost in the top 8 with the Life list, though he was winning both games prior to receiving a game-loss, and the unfortunate mistake of forgetting to board in the Progenitus against Stax.

Here is the list I piloted.

UWr Bomberman
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Fire/Ice
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Trinket Mage
3 Auriok Salvagers
2 Intuition
1 Painter’s Servant
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Grindstone
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Pithing Needle

1 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins
1 Dust Bowl
4 Flooded Strand
3 Arid Mesa
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tundra
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Ancient Den

Sideboard
2 Shattering Spree
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Meddling Mage
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
2 Painter’s Servant

I don’t agree with all the card choices, but I decided to play the deck as-is. With around twenty players, the tournament structure was annouced to be four rounds, with a cut to the top-eight. Here we go:

Round 1, Robert Cone (U/G Natural Order)
Robert started on the play, and after a mulligan, ran out a Llanowar Elf on an Elvish Spirit Guide (no land). I untapped and played a Swords to Plowshares, practically ending the game on the spot. Robert found a City of Brass on the next turn and played a Concordant Crossroads, and on the following turn played a Birds of Paradise before passing. I ran out a Trinket Mage fetching Lion’s Eye Diamond and beat in for two. Robert didn’t do much on his following turn before passing back, where I resolved an Auriok Salvagers and generated infinite mana with Lion’s Eye Diamond [10], before drawing my deck with an Aether Spellbomb and going for the kill with Pyrite.

[10] Sacrifice the Lion’s Eye Diamond for three mana, then return it to your hand with Salvagers for two. Replay, rinse, repeat.

I sideboarded in the extra Painter’s Servants, Engineered Explosives and 2x Meddling Mage for the Tormod’s Crypt, Pithing Needle and 4x Accumulated Knowledge. This time Robert led off with a turn one Verdant Catacombs and City of Brass before playing a Vexing Shusher, while I played a Painter’s Servant. Robert resolved a main phase Mystical Tutor fetching Natural Order, and passed back before I ran out a Trinket Mage, fetching Grindstone. Robert, untapped and went for his Progenitus, I played out my 4th land drop along with the Grindstone. Robert scooped immediately, though I actually tried to stop him to ask if he had a second Progenitus in his deck. He hadn’t realized at the time, but Grinding into a Progenitus with Painter’s Servant ends the game in a draw, as the Progenitus keeps replacing itself only to be hit by the Grindstone again, creating an infinite loop [11].

[11] This is only the case because Progenitus’s ability is a replacement effect. If it were a triggered ability, the game would continue leaving the player with only Progenitus in his library.

Round 2, Todd Palmer (Merfolk)
I played first, but Todd started with an Aether Vial before getting first blood by beating in with a Mutavault. I played a Trinket Mage fetching Engineered Explosives. Todd attacked again with the Mutavault, but I opted against blocking, and Todd Vial’d a Lord of Atlantis into play to add a point of damage, before adding a second Mutavault. I untapped and used Engineered Explosives to dispatch the Lord, before attacking with Trinket Mage. Todd stayed aggressive by sending both his Mutavaults, sending me to 11 life. A turn later, Todd came in again with both Vaults, and I decided to throw the Mage in front of one, but Todd Vial’d a Merrow Reejerey to pump his Vault. I attempted a Swords to Plowshares, but he has Force of Will, sending me to 8 life. On my following turn, I cycled an Aether Spellbomb, but didn’t have much action, with only a Swords to Plowshares, a Lion’s Eye Diamond and a bunch of lands, and had to send the turn back. Todd ran out a Jitte, and hooked up his Reejerey, but I send it to the farm, and dropped to 3 from the Vaults. He passed the turn back, and I was all dead-on-board, until… I peeked at the top card of my library… Auriok Salvagers. I ran him out, into Todd’s two card hand, but he had no Force of Will. The Lion’s Eye Diamond hit the board next, and Todd scooped it up.

I sideboarded out all the copies of AK, the Tormod’s Crypt and the Intuitions for 2 Red Elemental Blast, 2 Engineered Explosives, a Pyroblast and 2 Painter’s Servant.

In game two, Todd started out with a Silvergill Adept, followed by a Lord of Atlantis and got in for a few points before an Stp dispatched the Lord. An Engineered Explosives on two was met by Force of Will, and a Mutavault joined Todd’s team. A Red Blast took out the Adept and a Trinket Mage hit play, but a Jitte came online for Todd, and the game ended soon after.

In game three, Todd led off with Wasteland and Pithing Needle on Grindstone. I had a Pithing Needle of my own, but opted to hit up his Wastelands. A Standstill came down, which was met by my Force of Will. Todd ran out an Aether Vial and a second Standstill along with a Force for my Counterspell. We passed the turn back and forth several times, with Vial moving up to three counters, but without ever putting a guy into play. Finally, a Rejeerey hit play along with a Mutavault, and I was forced to break the Standstill with a Swords to Plowshares. I tried a Painter’s Servant but Todd had another Force of Will. A Dust Bowl hit play, and I was started taking out the Mutavaults, while using various removal on Todd’s remaining creatures. This went on for several turns before time was called, with the board being my Pithing Needle and Academy Ruins against Todd’s Aether Vial, Pithing Needle and three turned-off Wastelands. On turn one of the final five, Todd peeled a Tormod’s Crypt but I put the Servant on top with Ruins in response, and followed with a turn two Trinket Mage fetching Grindstone and played an Explosives on one (to deal with the Pithing Needle on Stone). Todd could only add a Reejerey to his army on turn three, while I had enough mana up to Grind him out of cards on the fourth, forcing him to deck on the final turn. Phew!

With only four rounds before the cut, I was safe to draw into the top eight.

Quarterfinals
Natalie Scott (Dredge)
With Natalie on the play, the first spell she attempted was a turn two Putrid Imp. I went for the Force of Will, hoping to lock her out of discard outlets, but she had a Careful Study, discarding a few dredgers. On the following turn, I was able to counter a Breakthrough, but the damage had been done, and within three turns I was facing down six Bridge from Below tokens and a Bloodghast. I managed to peel an Engineered Explosives (which I called ahead of time, as it was my only out), and put an end to the tokens, but was already down to three life. The Bloodghasts cleaned things up fairly quickly.

I cut a Fire/Ice, three Swords to Plowshares, the AK’s, Intuitions and the Pithing Needle for 4 Red Blasts, 2 Tormod’s Crypt, 1 Relic of Progenitus, 2 Meddling Mage and 2 Painter’s Servants.

I elected to play, but my opening seven was just a bunch of Counterspells, Salvagers and lands. Without a winning gameplan here [12] I sent it back and received a similar six. The five wasn’t much better, and finally I wound up keeping the following four: Tormod’s Crypt, Red Blast, Painter’s Servant and Counterspell. Notice the lack of lands. Natalie came out the gates with a Pithing Needle on Crypt, followed by a turn two Tireless Tribe pitching Golgari-Grave Troll. She managed to dredge for three turns, without card drawing, her draw wasn’t very explosive. Not to mention, she didn’t hit a single Narcomoeba and only a single Bridge from Below. A Therapy came down, and missed on Trinket Mage. Finally, I peeled a second land, and ran out my Painter’s Servant naming blue. Natalie, still not hitting much action on her Dredges, continued to dig before passing back the turn, not realizing that her Pithing Needle was about to succumb to my Red Blast. And with that, the Red Blast knocked off the Needle and the Crypt took out her bin. A pair of Fire/Ices locked the land-light dredge deck out of blue mana for a couple turns before a Meddling Mage shut off Dread Return entirely. Natalie finally was able to hit a few Narcomoebas a few turns later, but it was too late. A Trinket Mage found Grindstone, and Natalie entered her scoop phase.

[12] I need to be able to lock her out of discard outlets, or have access to an early Tormod’s Crypt.

Being on the draw makes Counterspell much worse, so I cut two copies for a pair of Intuitions.

After such an epic game two, game three was quite anti-climactic. Natalie started with a Putrid Imp, to which I answered with a Tormod’s Crypt and Relic of Progenitus. Natalie was in no position to try to dredge and was forced to just hardcast a bunch of crappy guys. Between a pair of Trinket Mages and seven self-inflicted damage points from a Coliseum and City of Brass, the game ended in a hurry.

Semifinals
Carrena (Stax)
I kept my opening hand, with a Painter’s Servant, Trinket Mage, Force of Will, Intuition and three lands, and was pretty sure this game would be easy. That was, until Carrena resolved a Trinisphere on turn two. I figured that since I was going for the Grindstone kill, I should save my FoW for something more important, like Armageddon. That was until I realized that I couldn’t cast Force without paying three mana! On the following turn, I burned the FoW on morphed Exalted Angel, as I simply didn’t have anything better to do. When I tapped down for a Trinket Mage on the following turn, Armageddon hit the stack, my lands hit the bin, and I packed it up.

I boarded out the narrow removal spells (StP and Fire/Ice) along with two Intuition and a Tormod’s Crypt for Relic of Progenitus, 2 Shattering Spree, the pair of Painter’s Servants, 2 Meddling Mages and 2 Engineered Explosives.

We played land-go for a few turns before Carrena attempted a Crucible of Worlds, which was met by Force of Will (as she had Wasteland). A turn later, she tried a Trinisphere, which resolved, but was met by my Shattering Spree. Unfortunately, this left me tapped out, giving Carrena an opening to resolve Choke. Within a few turns, Carrena added a Smokestack, and fairly soon I was completely out of land. I started to build back, and was able to resolve a Painter’s Servant, and could Trinket Mage for a Grindstone as soon as I drew a mountain to Red Blast the Choke. Unfortunately, Carrena found an Armageddon before I could pull that off, ending my presence in the top eight.

3-1

After playing in the short tournament, I feel like I got a pretty good feel of what the deck wants to do, and how to play it fairly well. I noticed that it typically felt it was easier to go for the Painter’s Grindstone kill than Salvagers combo, particular post-board, although on paper it seems that the latter should be easier to set up.

Here are a few comments on the deck:
1. The Intuition/Accumulated Knowledge engine felt especially bad, as one doesn’t typically have that kind of time to invest, and drawing three cards is not necessarily better than using the Intuition as a tutor. Honestly though, if I was able, I almost always pitched AK or Intuition to Force of Will when given the opportunity. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong, but I don’t really think so.
2. I was very unhappy with the Tolaria West. I think it makes more sense if the deck had Pact of Negation. As is, I never found myself in a situation when I would rather transmute for a spell, than just play a land. That could also just mean that the deck is too land light.
3. The lack of Plateau put me in several situations where I had to choose between having access to red or white mana. The presence of Wasteland in the format, makes this come up more often than one might think.
4. Thirst for Knowledge seems very good in a deck with this many artifacts, particularly since most of those artifacts don’t mind being deposited directly into the graveyard.
5. Though Meddling Mage is a nice trick out of the sideboard, I think Counterbalance would be even stronger, and has the obvious synergy with the fetchable Sensei’s Divining Top.
6. There isn’t enough red mana in the deck to support Shattering Spree and I’m not sure if there is enough board space to worry about blowing up artifacts in a metagame that isn’t heavily shifted towards Stax.

And an updated list,

UWr Bomberman
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Fire/Ice
3 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Trinket Mage
3 Auriok Salvagers
2 Intuition
1 Painter’s Servant
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Grindstone
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Pithing Needle

2 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
3 Arid Mesa
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
2 Plateau
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Ancient Den

Sideboard
3 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Counterbalance
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
2 Painter’s Servant

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to leave me some nice comments!

Keith McLaughlin

*Editor’s Note* – The Game Academy will host Legacy tournaments every Thursday; signups begin @ 6 PM and tournament entry is $7. All entry will be given back to top finishers in store credit to use towards anything in the store. Keith will always be in attendance, so if you have any questions or need deck advice don’t hesitate to ask! =)

I’ve been testing a little bit of Legacy lately, but as usual, I’ve decided to stick with my trusty Life deck for the time being. For those who aren’t in the know, the Life combo is a deck based which requires three pieces. The first is a Kor, such as Nomads en-Kor, Shaman en-Kor, Outrider en-Kor or whatever. You use the Kor to target Daru Spiritualist, Task Force or Angelic Protector an arbitrarily large number of times before sacrificing the Spiritualist/Force/Protector to a Worthy Cause, Starlit Sanctum (Spiritualist only), Condemn or Diamond Valley (Alternatively, Doran allows you to deal infinite damage with an unblocked Spiritualist/Force/Protector). Though three card combos that don’t outright win the game aren’t so hot, what makes this deck very strong is the redundancy. You have on the order of eight of each combo piece, along with Eladamri’s Call (which can fetch a Kor or Spiritualist) and Living Wish (which can get any piece).

The deck was played a billion years ago, but is mostly known during it’s time in Extended prior to the latest rotation, when the metagame shifted towards aggro decks, such as Red Deck Wins and Goblins. I wasn’t a big fan of the deck because of the popularity of the Mind’s Desire deck which won with Brain Freeze. A year or two later, everyone had forgotten about the Life deck. Doug Azzano, Jack Hutchings and myself were preparing for Grand Prix Philadelphia (I believe, 2005), which was Legacy. The most popular deck, by a large margin was Goblins. Other competitors were the Vault/Fusillade combo deck, Threshold and Solidarity (Reset/Brain Freeze). Life came to mind as being potentially being quite broken, just based on the volume of Goblin players at every event. This was before Doran was printed, so the best way to win after gaining infinite life, was by decking. Gaea’s Blessing was already going to be immensely helpful for the Solidarity matchup. After throwing together a list, we found that the only really weak matchup was against Time Vault/Flame Fusillade. I figured that deck wouldn’t be as popular as Time Vault was over $100 at the time.

(For a tournament report from that Grand Prix, search for my article on StarCityGames.com or check my website kmclaugh.myweb.usf.edu.)

Our gambit paid off, as I faced a total of seven Goblin players (going 7-0 matches), while never playing against a Time Vault the entire GP, while finishing 15th and earning an invite to Pro Tour Honolulu.

Since then, I’ve stuck with the deck for two more events, finishing in the top 8 of an 80-man Legacy event at Pro Tour Atlanta (in 2005, I believe) and then more recently splitting in the top 8 of a Grand Prix Tampa side event for a total of five dual lands and four fetch lands.

I’m not sure that Life is as strong as it was several years ago, as the other decks have become much more powerful, so I decided to give it a whirl in a local Legacy event in preparation for the Orlando 5K coming up in March. Here’s the list:

4 Aether Vial

3 Pithing Needle

3 Nomads en-Kor

4 Shaman en-Kor

3 Daru Spiritualist

2 Task Force

1 Doran, the Siege Tower

4 Meddling Mage

3 Condemn

4 Living Wish

3 Eladamri’s Call

3 Diamond Valley

2 Stalit Sanctum

1 Scrubland

1 Tropical Island

1 Tundra

3 Savannah

3 Horizon Canopy

3 Windswept Heath

1 Arid Mesa (I was short a Heath)

2 Marsh Flats

2 Flooded Strand

1 Forest

3 Plains

Sideboard:

3 Krosan Grip

1 Diamond Valley

1 Gaea’s Blessing

1 Doran, the Siege Tower

1 Task Force

1 Daru Spiritualist

1 Nomads en-Kor

3 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Pithing Needle

1 Tidehollow Sculler

1 Yixlid Jailer

Round 1 Dredge

Lost the die roll, and my opponent mulled to 5, which had me pumping the fist. He kicked off with a Gemstone Mine into a Cabal Therapy blindly naming Force of Will. He followed with a Careful Study on turn 2, but had no dredge outlet, and finally with a Breakthrough on turn 3. Meanwhile, I kicked off with a turn one Aether Vial, Meddling Mage’d Cabal Therapy on turn 2, and on turn 3 played Living Wish for Yixlid Jailer and Vialed him out. All but sending my opponent packing for game 2. As a sidenote, I avoided playing any Kors as I finished my opponent off with the Mage and Jailer, as I’m not typically fond of giving my opponents free information.

-3 Pithing Needle, -1 Task Force

+3 Tormod’s Crypt, +1 Yixlid Jailer

I brought in a Jailer, as Living Wish is the most common Therapy target, and it gives me some small probability of getting the nuts turn 2 Jailer. My opponent again mulled to five, while I kept six. He started off with land-go for a few turns, while I ran a Tormod’s Crypt on turn 1, followed by Daru Spiritualist and a Kor soon after. On turn four or five, my opponent still hadn’t significantly advanced his board position, and I was able to Condemn my Spiritualist for infinite life, sending him packing.

1-0

Round 2 – Jared Serrano – Reanimator

Game one, Jared had the nuts. He won the roll, and Entombed an Iona at the end of the my first turn (I played a Vial). A turn 2 exhumed Iona (naming white) blanked my two Condemn’s in hand. I wasn’t out of this game yet, as I had the Kor and Spiritualist that I could Vial out, but didn’t manage to get a Diamond Valley or Living Wish in time.

-3 Pithing Needle

+3 Tormod’s Crypt

Game two, I kicked off with a turn 1 Tormod’s Crypt and Aether Vial. Jared tried to set up for Reanimation with a Careful Study and Mystical Tutor for Intuition. Meanwhile, I Vial’d out a Nomad and Spiritualist. When Jared passed his third turn, I played an end-step Eladamri’s Call to fetch up Doran, and Vial’d him out for the next attack step.

Prior to game 3 Jared took forever to sideboard which drew a bit of suspicion from me. He kicked off the game with a Leyline of the Void, which was, at first, quite confusing. After realizing he was going to Helm of Obediance me out, I became pretty disappointed that the Pithing Needles were sitting in my sideboard. At the end of my first turn, Jared Mystical Tutor’d for Dark Ritual, and down came a turn 2 Helm. With no way of stopping his turn 3 kill, I scooped it up.

1-1

Round 3 – URB Combo/Control

My round three opponent had an interesting budget deck. It had no dual lands or other flashy cards, but ran both, the Painter Servant + Grindstone combo as well Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek, along with Remands, Brainstorm, Lightning Bolt (which we agreed should’ve been Red Elemental Blast), Trinket Mage and Duress.

Game one I ran out an Aether Vial, and made a Kor and Spiritualist, before it got Pithing Needle’d. Stuck on one land for several turns, I played my own Pithing Needle on Grindstone and ultimately drew a Condemn and was able to go infinite. My opponent had cluttered the board with a Vendilion Clique a Trinket Mage and Sower of Temptation, so I couldn’t get much damage in, but soon found an Eladamri’s Call for Doran. Unfortunately, I was still stuck on two lands, and my opponent eventually drew an Engineered Explosives to crack my Needles. On the following turn, he played out both, his Painter Servant and Grindstone and decked me.

-1 Condemn, -2 Meddling Mage

+2 Krosan Grip, +1 Gaea’s Blessing

In game two, I mulled to six keeping a hand with three lands and three Living Wish. My opponent started with a Cabal Therapy naming Daru Spiritualist and missing. I untapped and drew …… Another Living Wish! This was very scary, as my opponent is a single Trinket Mage away from Mind Twist’ing me. I played the first Wish for a Spiritualist. He had no Trinket Mage and I was able to attempt a second Living Wish, but he had Remand. On turn four, he still had no creature, and I was able to untap and play two of the remaining Living Wishes, for a Doran and a Nomads en-Kor. Two turns later we were shuffling up for game three.

In game three, both me and my opponent got slow draws. He kicked off with two Brainstorms (augmented by fetchlands) while I ran out a Meddling Mage on Trinket Mage, followed by a Shaman en-Kor and finally a Spiritualist. I attacked for several turns, then on turn six, my opponent tapped out to transmute a Muddle the Mixture for a Thopter Foundry, played a Sword of the Meek and Pithing Needle’d my Shaman en-Kor. With a Diamond Valley in play, I had the option to sacrifice the Spiritualist for infinite life prior to the Needle, but decided against it. Instead, I untapped and ripped a land off the top, to Living Wish for a Nomads en-Kor, and played a Doran with the help of my opponent’s Urborg (letting Diamond Valley tap for black), and went in for the kill.

2-1

Round 4 – Green Aggro

My round four opponent was playing a mono-green stompy deck with Berserk, Rancor, and a bunch of weenies along with Kavu Predator and Invigorate. This seems like an auto-win, as even an Kavu Predator isn’t very good against me, provided I am able to get two copies of Spiritualist/Task Force, the first to block, and the second to gain infinite life. After winning the roll, I opened up with the nut draw. Turn 1 Aether Vial, turn 2 Daru Spiritualist while using Vial to make a Nomads en-Kor, and a turn 3 Diamond Valley. My opponent opted to continue attacking (for no particular reason, but he likely had no outs, so who cares?), which gave me an opening to make a Task Force on the end step (with Vial), and attack with the team. When he declared no blocks on the Task Force, I used Eladamri’s Call to find Doran and used Vial for the win.

Game two was much of the same. My opponent mulled to six, and kept a sub-par hand, which only got worse. By turn four, I had infinite life, while he had two creatures in play, neither of which were Kavu Predator. From there Doran cleaned up.

3-1

This record was good enough to finish in second place. This would’ve been a first place finish, but Ross Chancey (playing my Merfolk deck minus a set of Aether Vials) decided to concede to Jared Serrano, to guarantee me a money-finish ($18 store credit). Turns out, had he not done that, we would’ve finished 1st and 2nd. Oops. Jared was a good sport about it and hooked Ross up with some dinner, so everyone was pretty satisfied.

—–

Before wrapping up, I just thought I’d talk a little more about Jared’s deck. Obviously reanimator has a really tough time winning through cards like Tormod’s Crypt, but Jared also plays Show and Tell. Now that card is admittedly very bad if your opponent is holding a Progenitus, but otherwise it’s pretty baller, even if your opponent puts a Dream Halls into play, since you’ll be getting Iona on blue. What that essentially does, is give your deck access to nut draws (Turn 1 Ritual, Entomb, Exhume/Reanimate, etc.), while also having a very strong backup plan. The following list is not Jared’s actual build, but is what I would run as a starting point for the deck.

4 Show and Tell

4 Exhume

4 Reanimate

4 Mystical Tutor

4 Dark Ritual

4 Iona, Shield of Emeria

1 Blazing Archon

4 Ponder

4 Careful Study

4 Force of Will

4 Thoughtseize

1 Intuition

1 Wipe Away

2 Verdant Catacombs

1 Bloodstained Mire

2 Marsh Flats

4 Polluted Delta

4 Underground Sea

3 Swamp

1 Island

I would imagine the matchup against Counter-Top-Balance is sketchy, and Merfolk appears to also be somewhat unfavorable, but this deck seems like it would have some serious game against pretty much anything else.

That’s all for this time. Feel free to hit me up with questions and comments.

Keith McLaughlin

kmclau@gmail.com