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 It's been a long time coming, but is it finally here? Extended has been just rife with competitive decks, and depending on the field, no single deck could do it all. But, with
the introduction of Scourge, Extended seems to have a pair of new decks, both of which appear to have what it takes to dominate if left unchecked.
Locally, the Extended metagame is not typical of a local PTQ; although, competition is still rather fierce. Worlds
revealed what the Pro's take was on these two new decks - Goblins and Mind's Desire. Never a fan of the red
inbreeds, I decided to run Desire.
For those who don't know, Mind's Desire is a combo deck. I'll list the version I played.
4 Minds Desire
4 Frantic Search
4 Cloud of Faeries
3 Snap
4 Sapphire Medallion
4 Brainstorm
3 Fact or Fiction
2 Intuition
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Sleight of Hand
3 Cunning Wish
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
8 Island
The deck casts a bunch of free spells, netting extra mana via the untapping of Tombs and Cities, or by having
Sapphire Medallion out. Some versions run Sunscape Familiar, but I think the splash isn't worth it just to give your opponent a target for their removal. The Sleights are weak, but you have to have something to replace Merchant Scroll until Eighth rotates in. Originally, I was running Careful Study, but then after smacking myself for pure idiocy, I threw in the Sleights. I'm not sure which is better, Opt or Sleight, but I went with the one that gave me more info, since I don't go off at instant speed anyway. Anyway, that's enough rambling about something that really doesn't matter anyway. Here's the sideboard ---->
3 Chain of Vapor
3 Mana Short
1 Snap
1 Evacuation
1 Stifle
1 Hibernation
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Intuition
1 Brain Freeze
1 Gush
1 Misdirection
It's pretty self explanatory - Brain Freeze is the alternate kill. Mana Short is against counters...to make sure you have an even easier time winning.
I felt so unsure about the deck at the beginning of the day, as I have about Extended in general for a few months, that I almost considered just scrapping the idea and going with something else. I'm glad I reconsidered.
Round 1: My Bye
That bastard didn't even show up. Oh well, at least I got time to scout around.
I see the usual assortment of U/G, B/G, Psychatog builds, and Reanimators. All good matchups for me. There's also an Enchantress I'm not too worried about, and a pair of goblin decks piloted by the Quad Cities players which I most worried about.
Round 2. Tim Greuneich w/ Goblins
I honestly wanted to avoid this matchup, as I know that it is far too fast paced for my liking. My initial feeling is that I'd be at the disadvantage, but the games sure didn't go that way. He gets a fast start game one, and I have to keep up, but fortunately, I get the bah-roken third turn kill. I know this doesn't cover strategy much, but when playing this matchup, there isn't much strategy other than win ASAP.
Game two I forget to get an Island with my fetchland, but it was inconsequential as I was doing my math without it. Even with it, there simply wasn't enough time to assemble enough pieces and go off, as well as take the necessary damage from Ancient Tomb. At 1-1 the last game starts well with his mulliganing down to five. He keeps and gets a lackey draw and puts Piledriver and Scald into play by turn two. I'm just glad he has that instead of another certain two mana enchantment. He is close but just doesn't have enough gas before I start my magic. And, honestly, Scald is only mildly annoying.
I sigh a breath of relief after winning the match I didn't want to play. But in the end, I'm glad I know how it can go.
Round 3: Chris Talbert w/ U/G Madness
There really isn't much to say about this matchup. It's not as fast as Goblins, but it does present a mild screen of annoying half-counters. Nonetheless, counters that read "unless they pay X mana" aren't that dangerous at all. Actually, it's very simple to play around. End of turn snapping their madness outlet will either draw the counter out or prevent them from playing their Logic. Just make sure you can net enough mana to pay for Daze and you can pretty safely go off. If they're up to date and playing with cards like Stifle, then you have to be a little more watchful. Try to get the Mana Short and resolve that. They can't tap out to be safe, so their clock is weakened. Talbert didn't even have Daze, let alone stifle, and his draws were less than
aggressive. I had plenty of time to set up, and when I had more than enough, I just started casting and won.
Round 4: Kris Ruetz w/ Enchantress
I played Enchantress awhile ago, but wasn't overly impressed with it. While powerful, the deck just has its terrible matchups, which I was
fortunate enough to meet first round. Kris is playing a G/W version with Auratog/ enchanted Birds kill. He says he's playtested the matchup and has done well against it, but wasn't sure of the version he was playing against. I don't want to say anything, but I just think there's almost no way he can win. He'd been itching to play me all day, and I figured we'd meet eventually. He did manage to beat a Goblin deck earlier in the day with Solitary Confinement, a plan I
definitely will have to remember. However, I think he was going to try the same plan against me, since my kill is targeted. But Chain is a very simple answer to that, so I have little worries about it. First game he gets going very quickly, but runs out of enchantments to play and all I have to do is play stuff and win.
Game two is a little better for him, but he ends up playing Confinement and letting it go when he doesn't want to stasis himself. It's not relevant as I go off with Chain of Vapor in my hand on my next turn.
Round 5: Shane w/ U/G Shane.dec
He has Werebear, counters including Mystic Snake, and Quirion Dryad. I offer an Intentional Draw, as that is all I need, but since he's not undefeated, he wouldn't want to take it anyway. I decide to play it as though it were U/G and bank on the fact that I'm pretty sure he doesn't know you can't just counter the Desire. It turns out to be rather anti-climactic, as I simply combo the first game, and then second game fizzle on my own, but go off on the following turn. He had counters to work around, but the only one that I wasn't able to bait was a pointless Force Spike.
So, that leaves me at 5-0, not something I usually do. I'm pleased with the way the deck plays and I'll probably give it a try again.
However, the Gush can definitely be cut from the board. In the future I'd like to have more Stifle power to bring in. Misdirection and maybe Hibernation could be cut as well. I like Evacuation better, but maybe it's just me.
Normally, I'd cover what's good against the deck, but I'll leave that up to everyone else, since they wouldn't want to get advise off of the net anyway.
I'll leave you with a breakdown of what I can remember of the metagame and do the usual Props n' Slops.
1st - Mind's Desire
2nd - Goblins
3rd - B/G (Cemetery?)
4th - Psychatog
5th - Enchantress
6th - Reanimator
7th - Faerie Opposition
8th - U/G Threshold-Gro
Not a single duplicate deck in the top 8. You don't get much more diverse than that. And for once, every color is represented.
Until next time, may you topdeck that Frantic Search.
Props:
Mind's Desire - for its broken goodness
Cities Players - for making the trek
Casey's - for its non-Todd-esque prizes and their usual support
Yu-Gi-Oh - haha, got ya
Kris, Chris M., Laith - good luck in school
Slops:
Eric - for missing two tournaments in a row
Talbert - for comparing Shane's deck to Super-Gro
Rudy and Destan - for failing to manipulate the system through concessions
Talbert (again) - for this exchange ->
Me: Go pick them up.
Him: I can't, there's my dad's cooler in the back.
Me: Well, make one of them sit on it.
Him: Oh, I'll make one of them sit on it.
-Adam Whitlatch-
awhitlat@knox.edu
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