Preparing for PTQ: Berlin
As stated elsewhere, I can’t actually make it to the Wellington PTQ, and the Auckland one will include Eventide so is entirely a different ballgame. With that in mind, I thought I’d share some more fruits of my deck design, and testing, of the last few weeks. I must mention that the deck design may be a bit more radical than usual (:o) since I’ve been consciously avoiding a tribal theme to the newer decks. Also my playtesting has been limited to around 10 games per deck, due to time contrainsts posed by impending (and current) exams. And since I can’t concentrate on study at the moment, you get this literary masterpiece instead. I must mention that my phone and internet went out around midday today (sunday), and according to Telecom this fault affects around 200 people in my area and will be resolved by around 1900 hours on Tuesday (55 hours later). I’m uncertain what sort of fault takes two working days to fix, but later on Telecom sent me the following helpful text message: “If you service is not restored by: 19:00pm on 24.3.06 call 120.”. That’s right, NZ’s biggest telecommunications provider thinks it’s currently March two years ago, so I probably shouldn’t be surprised that their service is a touch on the unsatisfactory side. I tend to upload this tomorrow at Uni, so if you’re reading this that is probably what happened; additionally I don’t have a chance to check decklists online, so am working from memory, and personal notes.

Anyway, enough background, back to the task at hand: sharing thoughts about Wellington’s upcoming PTQ. PTQ results have been rolling in from around the world (via the internet, that wonderful protocol that I do not currently have access to), and we can draw a couple of conclusions from them – some of the conclusions that I’ve drawn will be discussed here.

Question: What’s the best deck in the format?
Answer: Kithkin.
(I seem to recall the pre-Future Sight White Weenie was very good in Timespiral block too),
Consensus list:

W Kithkin
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
2 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
2 Mirror Entity
3 Thistledown Liege
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
3 Mirrorweave
4 Spectral Procession
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Mutavault
14 Plains
4 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights

Sideboard:
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile
2 Reveillark
4 Pollen Lullaby
3 Ajani Goldmane

The exact list varies, some going down to 25 lands (losing a Mutavault) and dropping their curve a bit, others maindecking Burrenton Forge-Tender (dropping a land and a Cloudgoat Ranger and some other bits) and a few other tweaks. But that’s probably the 75 I’d run, possibly toying with a 4th Mirrorweave in the board over a Reveillark, because the card is a bigger blow-out than [censored]. A lot of decks also have a side order of Kinsbaile Borderguard and Militia’s Pride, but to me their inclusion would depend on the environment you’re expecting. To me, the deck is a combination of synergistic White Weenie, backed up by the powerhouse that is Mirrorweave. The lack of reach has been highlighted as the deck’s weakness, especially against control, and I’ve maximised on Cloudgoat Rangers accordingly. I’ve found Windbrisk Heights very good, potentially providing both considerable card advantage and greatly improving chances of a combo win.
When playing against Kithkin, I’ve found that trying to keep their creature count as low as possible is important, reducing the synergy from Mirrorweave+Liege, and hopefully preventing Windbrisk Heights shenanigans. Having a bunch of tokens handy is also nice, since beating Kithkin on creature count via cannon fodder can completely neutralise a Mirrorweave blow-out. There’s be more this on this below.

Question: I hate Kithkin, what else is there to play that is equally good?
Answer: Faeries, 5-colour control.
Ok so I just said Kithkin is the best deck, but these two are pretty much at the same level.
Let’s take a look at Faeries. Overall a consensus list for Faeries is harder to make since there is a reasonable amount of variance, but the key cards are definitely Bitterblossom, Cryptic Command and Mistbind Clique, with other mainstays being Spellstutter Sprite, Nameless Inversion and Scion of Oona, and Island, Swamp, Sunken Ruins, Secluded Glen and Mutavaults. So, that’s almost a deck there, where is the “variance”? Well noone seems to have found the perfect number of Shriekmaw, Vendilion Cliques, Broken Ambitions, Ponder, Sower of Temptation, Thoughtseize, Peppersmoke, Incrememental Blight and Puppeteer Cliques in both maindeck and sideboard. I myself am a big fan of maindeck Sower of Temptation and Vendilion Clique, and I’m going to give a list that reflects this. The final choices should definitely be meta/playtest/style-dependant, especially since I’ve spent most of my time designing new decks and testing those, rather than testing and tweaking existing decks. To quickly explain some of my choices: Sower of Temptation is great in the format, being reasonably versatile (from just stealing fat, to stealing Scion of Oona, to blowing up things with Mannequin counters on them) and having a wide range of targets. Broken Ambitions is a nice potential turn 2 counter (on the play, on the draw I’d possibly side it out). Vendilion Clique can acquire valuable information (such as that the opponent is holding a Mirrorweave and is just waiting to top-deck a Liege), and replace said Mirrorweave with a Plains. Ponder seems to be in lists for the purpose of making a turn 2 Bitterblossom, but can also be good in the mid and late-game for smoothing draws. Thoughtseize as mentioned elsewhere is extremely powerful against basically everything in the format, since it can remove key cards (Mirrorweave springs to mind again, but Makeshift Mannequin, Smokebraider, Incandescent Soulstoke are also nice to nab – just stay away from Cloudthreshers if you have reasons to suspect a Makeshift Mannequin). Puppeteer Clique is very good against Mannequin decks. Other cards that are worthy of consideration are Oona, Queen of the Fae (for the mirror, and can simply deck control), Mulldrifter+Makeshift Mannequin (for a more control-centred build), Declaration of Naught, and Faerie Trickery (again good against Control, and counterspells in general are nice to have). In terms of the Sideboard, those are the cards I’d most value, but concrete sideboarding strategies have not eventuated from within my cranium.

Faeries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Sower of Temptation
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Scion of Oona

4 Cryptic Command
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Ponder
4 Bitterblossom

9 Island
4 Swamp
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen

SB:
4 Thoughtseize (should really think about this main, but it never fits)
3 Incrememental Blight
3 Puppeteer Clique
2 Shriekmaw
3 Peppersmoke

Yes, 25 lands.
In terms of matchups, the Kithkin matchups is a bit of a wild card, if they come out fast and strong, and/or your early plays are sadly lacking, they can and will trample all over you (figuratively), and the early pressure applied by a Goldmeadow Stalwart + Wizened Cenn on the play can be daunting. For a while some decklists used a bunch of Vivids and Firespout maindeck, which naturally helped the Kithkin matchup especially in Game 1 but slowed the Faerie deck down by a significant fraction of a turn and thus was not so good against Mannequin/Control decks, for the most part recent lists have moved back to a pure U/B list. In game 1, on the draw, the favourite is the deck that doesn’t play Scion of Oona. On the other hand the Sideboard helps Faeries deck in this matchup a lot more than it does Kithkin, and the 4 maindeck Sower of Temptation aren’t too bad at pulling their weight (2UU) either.

5 colour control is pretty hard to narrow down, since almost every list available is different. Essentially the basis is Quick’n'Toast’s ‘Vivid Pool’ manabase, which allows you to play things like Horde of Notions. As well as 8+ Vivid lands and 4 Reflecting Pool, lists commonly feature Makeshift Mannequin, Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, Nameless Inversion, Reveillark, Kitchen Finks, Firespout, Cloudthresher, Oona and any number of cards that end with “Command”. Calling the archetype 5 colour control is pretty desciptive assuming familiarity with cards in the block: the deck does stuff, tries not to die, generates an obscene level of card advantage (e.g. Mannequin targetting Reveillark, drawing 4 cards and netting a bunch of fliers that amount to a 4 turn clock) and pokes people to death with Oona, Horde of Notions, or simply Mulldrifter. A slightly different take is Elemental Control, which runs most of the aforementioned cards, plus Smokebraider and maybe Incandescent Soulstoke (just to be different from pure control).

Overall these kind of decks tend to be slow and potentially ungainly due to the presence of so many “comes into play tapped” lands. They can absolutely dominate with the right draws/other beneficial situations, and can stabilise well against “insert aggro deck here”. But if your first play is a 4th turn Kitchen Finks with nothing to back it up against a Kithkin deck that kills you next turn then this can be discouraging, and when I’ve tested the deck I’ve found myself mulliganing a lot more than I like.

Question: So, that’s 3 decks. Is there anything else?
Answer: Probably. A lot of people are devoting a lot of time to this question, and have come up with various things they hope are answers. A lot of these are tribal (Shamans, Treefolk, GW Elves etc…) but there are also numerous decks that play lots of colours without a clear-cut tribal element, say various flavours of 3/4/5 colour aggro. Green White Elves in particular looks very promising, as mentioned previously I don’t have access to any lists but I know it’s at least top8′d once, from personal testing it’s very consistent and strong, but has definite problems against Faeries, no matter how many Cloudthresher you board in.
5 colour control muscled it’s way into a world of Faeries and Kithkin, but this was not altogether surprising.

Ok, so none of what I’ve written so far has been particularly original, so I’ll add some of the stuff I’ve been working on, which is more original but possibly less helpful. So here’s a few decks and ideas.

GBw Medley
4 Shriekmaw
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Safehold Elite
4 Doran the Siege Tower
4 Farhaven Elf
3 Marsh Flitter
1 Reveillark

2 Profane Command
4 Primal Command
3 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Nameless Inversion

3 Wooded Bastion
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Vivid Grove
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Murmuring Bosk
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Mountain

SB:
3 Wispmare
3 Pollen Lullaby
2 Cloudthresher
3 Firespout
4 Gaddock Teeg

The deck resulted from me blending my GW and GB Elf decks to try and put in Doran, and then taking out most of the cards that made it an Elf deck (viz., Elves). The key idea originally being that Doran was really quite good against Kithkin (as a blocker if unanswered), and Faeries (won’t die to a surprise! Mistbind Clique), and Control (5/5 on turn 3). And so far this has proved pretty true. The card choices probably look decidedly odd, and the numbers are (admittedly) in need of some work, but to respond to the first point, I’ll talk about the list a bit. Shriekmaw is good, so are Kitchen Finks, 4 Shriekmaw reflects my belief that creatures are very important in the format, and when compared to the 2 Finks it reflects that Finks are nice, but not really as nice as getting my Doran back from a Sower, or Terrorising a Thistledown Liege. Safehold Elite (controversy #1) has proved to be a nice card when I’ve played him, applying early pressure and chumping Kithkin pretty effectively, and being the only thing to play before turn 3 (originally the deck also had 4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher and 4 Wolf-Skull Shaman, but these were dropped when i decided I didn’t just want to rehash Elves), the fact that he’s underwhelming if drawn late, is outweighed by the fact that lots of alternatives are underwhelming if drawn too early. The presence of Doran has been explained, and he (it) in turn explains the manabase. Farhaven Elf (controversy #2) helps ramp a bit allowing the Commands to dominate, makes the 25 lands manageable, and finds red for Firespout (the fact that he dies to the ’spout is negated by the fact that he probably chumped before you can cast it). Marsh Flitter (controversy #3) is actually a really good card against Kithkin. As mentioned above, high creature count is important against the white men, and Marsh Flitter is a tutorable, Mannequinable, Reveillarkable method of raising creature count that flies and has a not-irrelevant ability. The only reason there aren’t four is because I cut one for a land. Reveillark was an afterthought, who took the place of Oona; Shriekmaw and Finks obviously can’t be returned, and Safehold Elite is a bit underwhelming, but Doran (even without Body Double we can return an effective 5/5 with Reveillark), Marsh Flitter and Farhaven Elf can be useful, plus the sideboard offers Wispmare and Gaddock Teeg. I do want Oona in there somewhere though, so will have to look at cutting something. Oh yeah, 4 (!) Primal Command, I love this card. I like searching my library for answers to questions, I like stalling people by dumping their Windbrisk Heights on top of their library, I like to gain 7 life in a tight race (and do the more relevant of the preceeding choices) and occasionally I like to force a deck utilising Makeshift Mannequin and Horde of Notions to also use Feldon’s Cane. Everything else should be straightforward to understand.
Huh, wazzat? Gaddock Teeg? He’s great. Tibbons put me onto him, and after briefly considering a short list of cards (Broken Ambitions, Makeshift Mannequin, Austere/Cryptic/Profane/Incendiary/Primal Commands, Spectral Procession, Mirrorweave, and four Planeswalkers) we stopped our careful considerations and decided that as a relatively undemanding 2-drop this little advisor is pretty tech.

Red And Black
4 Fulminator Mage
3 Spitebellows
4 Shriekmaw
4 Demigod of Revenge

2 Profane Command
3 Incendiary Command
4 Thoughtseize
3 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Lash Out
4 Bitterblossom

4 Graven Cairns
4 Mutavault
8 Mountain
8 Swamp

SB:
1 Spitebellows
4 Firespout
4 Nameless Inversion
4 Poison the Well
2 This Space For Rent

Anyone who’s played Faeries may be familiar with a Turn 1 Thoughtseize followed by a turn 2 Bitterblossom. This deck tries to capitalise on this opening by blowing up a land on turn 3, and maybe even turns 4 and 5. Packing a ridiculous amount of removal and some decent threats I feel that the deck is promising, and the few rounds of testing that I’ve done have supported this. Obviously the deck needs work, but the basis should be there.

Out of the decks I’ve already mentioned last week, I’m still fond of G Elves, GW Elves variants, and I’m particularly surprised that Merfolk hasn’t shown up in a top8 somewhere that I could find. I mean, it runs counterspells AND Mirrorweave, and there’s definitely room for Windbrisk Heights.
Question: If PTQ: Berlin was tomorrow, and I could get all the cards, what would I play?
Answer: WoW TCG, I’ve always wanted to try it
Now if I had internet access, and the time and inclination I’d try to port R/B tokens into Block, since it’s a cool deck and a few of the essentials are there: Bitterblossom, Marsh Flitter, Furystoke. But as it is, dinner is about to be served, and I’ve had enough of writing about Magic. And yes, the internet here is still dead. So I will have to upload this later, and should really contact Telecom and point out to them when exactly 24.03.06 was.
-DarkSentinel
(thinking about turning cards sideways, but leaving it to you)