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Hey y’all, Oli here. I’m here again to bring to you updates of our local metagame and tournament happenings outside our area that could influence our local tournament. It’s been a while since my first post. Due to busy work and family affairs, I was not able to cover the previous two tournaments prior to this. Sorry for the delay guys, especially to our chief editor, mercy please…

Alright, enough of the apologies and now I’ll be breaking down the metagame last Nov. 8 Standard Constructed tournament and here it is…

Decks Played
BG Elves – 2
Faeries – 2
Demigod Deck Wins (DDW) – 2
Kithkins – 2
Cruel Control – 2
Merfolk – 2
Jund Aggro – 1
Bant Aggro – 1

The Top 4 Results
1st-2nd – BG Elves
3rd – DDW
4th – Faeries

With 14 players battling for supremacy, you could see the even number of decks being played wherein there are no decks being piloted above two. Despite that many varieties of deck showing up in the tournament, two BG Elves, a Demigod Deck Wins and a Faerie Deck emerged at the top. At the top 4 the match ups were: the underdog BG Elves against the almighty Demigod Deck Wins and another BG Elves facing its nemesis the “Faeries”. Eventually two dark green elves slug it out at the Finals to determine whose the fairest of them… opppsss, even though its a mirror match, it was a war of attrition. After an epic final match and the dust settled down, Marco Gonzales appeared victorious beating me two games to one and here is his winning deck list…

BG Elves by Marco Gonzalez
1st Place, November 8 Mtg Iloilo Standard Constructed Tournament

 

Presenting to you the new look of BG Elves! Maybe you will be asking what card replaced the good old Tarmogoyf? Well it’s the Bitterblossom! This card is nuts when combined with Garruk, protecting the Planeswalker and act as a Force Field for you against Demigod and other fatties without trample. During late games you could even overrun your opponent with Faeries. In other aspects, the deck features the eight man lands featuring the greatest Ape land of all time – Treetop Village and the sensational Mutavaults! I’m sure these cards causes migraine to Control Decks in the field. The Elf package is still there except for Imperious Perfect. The lovely lord is not necessary in the metagame anymore, for it is slow and fragile for sweepers and spot removals. Instead, the spot was taken by Kitchen Finks which is superb against Control and decks who love playing with fire. In the sideboard, 4 Infest are present for any type of tiny weenies like Kithkins and Merfolks. Overall, a solid deck by Mao and a good deck choice for the metagame. See all the top 4 decks here.

2008 STATE CHAMPS

To recall our history, we were once colonized by the Americans. But what if we are still under the Americans, we could probably be part of the US and we’ll be having our own States here. Oh well, blame it to our great grandpa’s… Lol!

I know we are all eager to see what decks will dominate in Post Shards Metagame. It happened last November 8 where all States in North America that includes US and Canada had their annual States and Champs tournament respectively. The complete results are not yet posted but some decks can be found in articles and tournament reports on the web. To make things easy for your part, I’ll be posting some 1st place decks that were spoiled online.

WHAT’S NEW?!

Planeswalkers! by Themistoklis Panagiotaras
(States 2008, 1st Place – Missouri)

 

Planeswalkers! by Charles Dupont
(States 2008, 1st Place – Washington)

 

Surprising isn’t it? Playing with four powerful Planeswalkers such as Garruk, Chandra, Elspeth and Ajani Vengeant!

Wow! Playing with “Four” Planewalkers? This is MADNESS! These four dudes will be your potent allies all the time. Using their powerful abilities to control the board, giving you creatures and blowing up your opponent’s lands is a lot of fun. With the support of board sweepers, you’ll have no trouble facing horde of creatures that are threats to your comrades. These Planeswalkers also act as life gainers on your side, for your opponent will be confused which of them to deal first.

Themistoklis also features Realm Razer! The Armageddon with legs, with the help of mana accelerators like Birds of Paradise, Mind Sotne and Garruk’s untap abilty, you’ll be able to blow up all lands as early as turn four and ultilize your Planeswalkers to win you the game. Meanwhile Charles version is a creatureless Planeswalker deck. He utilizes the power of Naya Charms which enables him to return some Planeswalker or board sweepers if needed.

RGW Zoo by Micah Rabin
States 2008, 1st Place – Vermont

 

This will serve as the return of Zoo in Standard. Wait a minute! I don’t even see animals involved here. Anyways Naya cards from Shards provides us with cheap and beefy creatures like Woolly Thoctar, turn three with a 5/4 in play will scare your opponent away. The deck is all about pressure in early turns with the help of the Super Saiyan card Figure of Destiny, a pinch of hasty Rip-Clan Crasher and Sligh’s all time favorite Spark Elemental. These will put your opponent in a shooting range. What about fetching them with Ranger of Eos? Hmmm… very interesting choice of burn by Micah. He probably hates Kitchen Finks and the life gain it provides so with the help of Magma Spray and Puncture Blast, this will handle the troublesome Ouphes for good.

WHAT’S COOL?!

Blue-White Control by Brett Ripley
Champs 2008, 1st Place – Nova Scotia

 

Reveillark is not dead yet, it even got better! The departure of Body Double really affected Blue-White Lark decks and made them too draggy to play but with the arrival of Knight-Captain of Eos these bolster its aggro matchup a lot and locks aggro decks with infinite supply of Fog.

Elves by Nathaniel Muesing
States 2008, 1st Place – North Carolina

 

It looks similar to the winning Pro Tour Deck by Luis Scott Vargas only it is an aggro type of deck instead of doing combo stuff. A very straight-forward strategy that the only thing you have to do is overrun with green dudes and bash! Regal Force will assure you’ll never run out of gas, providing you tons of card draw after you lay all your elves down with the mana machine Heritage Druid. Having problem against sweepers? Not anymore because Thorn of Amethyst is there for the rescue.

Quillspike Combo by Gerald Sixkiller
States 2008, 1st Place – Oklahoma

 

This combo already existed after the release of Eventide, wherein Quillspike abuses the -1/-1 counters of Devoted Druid producing endless supply of mana for Quillspike’s ability, pump itself to something you can’t imagine. During those times they use to throw Quillspike with Rite of Consumption, dealing a massive amount of damage to the opponent and gains you life at the same time. But the combo is very dependent and without any support on setting the combo up, like tutors and card drawing, it turns out to be so slow and sometimes inconsistent. Gerald’s approach is different, instead of doing the single turn combo he goes to aggro mode by equipping Warhammer to Quillspike, trampling its way to victory. It also has great synergy with the Persist ability of Kitchen Finks, Murderous Redcap and Glen Elendra Archmage, utilize these hard to kill guys as long as Quillspike is in play.

Kithkin Backlash
States 2008, 1st Place – Tennessee

 

Actually this deck was created to punish Kithkins and Merfolks, with Chaotic Backlash dealing twice damage equal to the number of white or blue permanents your opponent control, this could be the biggest burn they would suffer. How about other matchups? This is where Painter’s Servant shines! Turning everything even the lands to white or blue and Backlash them for the win! The deck also has the “Pro” guys like the Superman of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Block Stillmoon Cavalier and Little Kid’s Oversoul of Dusk, with synergy with the Servant, these guys will be a problem to the other side especially to other Aggro Decks and spot removals Control Decks have.

STILL DOMINATING!

Cruel Control by Stephen Carpenter
States 2008, 1st Place – New York

 

Formerly called Quick and Toast but with the arrival of Cruel Ultimatum, it was an automatic add-on and the deck was dubbed “Cruel Control”. The deck is pure card advantage and creature control, still it is proven to be dominant and in the Tier 1 spot.

Faeries by Brett Blackman
States 2008, 1st Place – Pennsylvania

 

One of the best deck in the Standard today as long as it is still legal and still the deck to beat. A very consistent and tempo oriented deck where you are like controlling the game and at the same time aggro them with flying dudes or chics for this matter. Although lots of hate were planned to beat the Faes, if you’re in the good draw this deck is unstoppable.

Kithkins by Russell J Slack
States 2008, 1st Place – Michigan

 

The best aggro deck in the format today, with the addition of Ranger of Eos, generates card advantage and more beatdown. This deck is still very tough to handle, one card creates threats like Cloudgoat Ranger and Spectral Procession that is why Control Decks have a hard time dealing with these guys. And of course there is a singleton Mirrorweave to steal some games.

There you have it guys! You have seen new decks, cool stuff and decks that are still on top of the food chain. Expect these decks to be seen on your local tournament scene. This will give you ideas on how to deal with the Tier 1 decks and familiarize some new decks and techs. You could even have your own tech that will surprise others, create your own stuff so you’ll have your own advantage. For if they don’t have knowledge about your tricks, its better to catch them off guard.

Till next time…

1. 

   kiki-jiki

   November 17, 2008 at 11:04 am

   yok! ala merfolk deck list?

   why oh why?

   may ara deck list merfolk. ^^ Shokoy