The last Classic Daily Event that fired was on May 3rd, 2012. A lot has changed since that day. Two sets have been released, and a 3rd is eminently upon us. Legacy has roared back online with a vengeance and Marc Lanigra was crowned Vintage Champion after piloting his UBR Snapcaster Bob Control deck at GenCon. Then there was this little tournament called the Classic Quarter League that took off with its 1st Qualifier for the Classic Invitational next July.
When I had heard that Classic fired a DE last weekend I was pleasantly surprised. I was unable to participate, as I was visiting friends in Portland, Oregon, but I was aware of the momentum building up to the weekend as people were trying to round up enough players to fire an event over at www.ClassicQuarter.com. So when I signed on Monday morning, I was beside myself to find that not one, not two, but three Classic events fired over the weekend on September 8th and 9th! I can’t think of the last time three events fired in one weekend, let alone one month (it was February 2012 for those keeping score). Not only that, but one of the events fired with more than the 16 minimum leading to two decks that went 4-0! There’s quite a bit of data to run through, so let’s take a minute to review the results and interpret what it means for the Classic metagame going forward…
The first event on September 8th features Naoto going 4-0 with his “Delver Type-R” deck. Naoto wrote an article over on PureMTGO highlighting his experience, but let’s review his decklist:
Delver Type-R by Naoto
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While it looks like a typical Delver-style deck at first glance, there are some interesting card choices that Naoto has employed. First, the creature package is much smaller than your typical Delver deck, which usually contain somewhere from 10-14 creatures. Naoto chose to run only 6 while also dropping the Delver count to 3. The other 3 creatures are a singleton Tarmogoyf, Snapcaster Mage, and Quirion Dryad. Each of the singleton creatures adds a unique element to the deck; ‘Goyf as a great finisher and wall, Snapcaster doing what it does best, and Dryad, which combines well with the Gush package and countermagic-removal suite to create a massive finisher when given enough time.
Speaking of the countermagic suite, Naoto has varied the spell package to be able to deal with many different threats. The 4 Force of Will are ubiquitous, but Naoto also ran 1 Mana Drain, 2 Mental Missteps, and 2 Spell Pierces for a total of only 9 counters. Other Delver decks have been running 10 or more counters, sometimes as many as 16.
What allows Naoto the ability to run a decreased amount of countermagic is his draw engine: Gush-Bond + Brainstorm + Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Naoto also throws in a Legacy staple (Sylvan Library) to boot. With the sheer number of draw spells available, countermagic is never too far away.
The creature removal package of 1 FireIce and 2 Lightning Bolts seems a little light for this creature-heavy metagame, but it served Naoto well, possibly due to the ability to draw several cards each turn. Naoto must have anticipated an Oath- and Workshop-heavy environment, though, because he maindecked 2 each of Ancient Grudge and Nature’s Claim.
Perhaps the most peculiar card in the entire maindeck was the singleton Temporal Mastery. In most cases it would only serve as a blue Relentless Assault, but Naoto must have had some success with it in testing. The top deck tutor package of 1 Mystical Tutor and 1 Vampiric Tutor can search up the pseudo-Time Walk when necessary. There was one example where Naoto might have been unable to win without the Mastery, so it seems like it was a wise choice. Maybe this will be the best use of the miracle card going forward. Instead of jamming 3-4 in a deck and focusing on its powerful ability, all that really is needed is 2 top-deck tutors and a singleton Mastery.
Naoto’s sideboard is also quite spicy. Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice is the pair of Huntmaster of the Fells. This is a card that was never considered Classic-playable before, but in a control mirror, it can be quite powerful. If you can manage to get Huntmaster to transform, the 4/4 beater combined with the 2 points of direct damage can be enough to swing a match either by taking out a key blocker (Delver anyone?)or Planeswalker, or by just going straight to the face. Will we see more Huntmasters going forward? I’ll hedge my bets, but I suppose I have to pony up for a couple of the expensive standard mythics to experiment on my own.
The rest of the sideboard is fairly typical, providing Naoto some options against Dredge, Oath, creature-based decks, and control mirrors.
The next event on September 8th to fire featured 2 decks to 4-0!
Merfolk by Huffy Henry
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Sun Titan Dredge by ncsu31sb
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Both of the decks kept it close to the books with the Merfolk deck adding the new lord, Master of the Pearl Trident and ncsu31sb going with the Sun Titan Dredge build.
When it comes to sideboard choices, though, each pilot put his own stamp on each deck with some key choices. Huffy Henry’s sideboard included a singleton Grafdiggers Cage, which is interesting. Most decks that decide to run Cage opt to go with 2 and often a full playset. Huffy Henry also went with 3 Hurkylls Recalls to fight off Affinity and Workshop decks.
Ncsu31sb, on the other hand, did not go with the “Cage Breaker” package of Mental Missteps, instead opting for a variety of anti-Dredge-hate cards that can target artifacts, creatures, and enchantments.
The final 4-0 deck of the weekend came in the September 9th event, where Cat Weasel piloted her usual weapon of choice: Oath.
GG Oath Fish by Cat Weasel
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Cat Weasel’s deck is a pretty stock “GG Oath” deck except for one slight wrinkle: a singleton Griselbrand in the main deck! Here’s another card that wasn’t available when the last Daily Event fired back in May. While there isn’t an engine built around Griselbrand, there is enough value to be found from simply drawing into Time Vault-Voltaic Key or even just a fistful of countermagic. Post-board, Cat Weasel has access to Blazing Archon which can be valuable against creature-based decks.
Continuing the momentum into another weekend, Classic was able to fire a Daily Event on Saturday, September 15th with Eternal_Hammer taking the top spot with a Workshop deck:
Stax by Eternal_Hammer
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Eternal_Hammer managed to go undefeated with a few cards that haven’t been all that successful in Workshop decks of late. Smokestack has been irrelevant in Workshop decks for so long that people has stopped calling the deck “Stax”! Hammer also maindecked a pair of Ratchet Bombs to help fight off the creature menace. Old standby Karn, Silver Golem also makes an appearance, which is a natural fit with the heavy non-creature artifacts that are at Hammer’s disposal (Crucible of Worlds, Smokestack, Serum Powder, etc.).
Perhaps the most noteworthy omission from the deck is Thorn of Amethyst and Sphere of Resistance in the maindeck. These two cards have been Workshop staples since Workshop was released online with MED4. Without these Spheres, Hammer is relying on Lodestone Golem to slow down the opponent’s countermagic and removal and to nullify Storm. The lack of Storm in the environment is probably the biggest factor in moving the Spheres to the sideboard, but it also allowed Hammer to run the “Stax” package in the first place with such a high creature count.
Hammer’s manabase is also noteworthy in that he has dropped the Mishra’s Factorys for Buried Ruins which allow him to buy back spent Bombs, Tangle Wires, and creatures, among other threats. Hammer also has 7 ‘Strip effects’ with the pair of Ghost Quarters complementing the usual 5-pack of Strip Mine and Wastelands.
The sideboard is well served to manage Dredge, Storm, Oath, and creatures. Hammer also has access to a 4th Crucible for the mirror match. Wurmcoil Engine pulls double duty with the creature decks and the mirror. Its interaction with the Buried Ruins is an added bonus.
Taking a snapshot of the entire metagame from these 4 events, we see 5 distinct archetypes going undefeated: Dredge, Workshop, Oath, Merfolk, and Delver. As always, Classic is a wildly wide-open format. Because we can’t conclude much from such a small sample size (four events) and only by looking at the undefeated decks perspective, let’s take a glance at all of the decks that placed 3-1 or better. Here is the breakdown:
Workshop: 5
Delver: 5
Oath: 4
Dredge: 3
Fish: 1
Affinity: 1
Merfolk: 1
With these results, we can start to see some trends. Workshop, Delver, and Oath appear to be the top decks with Dredge not far behind. When you factor in the preliminary metagame of the 1st Qualifier Tournament of the 2012-13 Classic Quarter League, those results are further validated.
Unfortunately, the top decks are so varied in their strengths and weaknesses, it’s nearly impossible to attack the metagame right now. Perhaps Oath is the best deck to deal with the Workshop and Delver decks right now. It would probably be my first choice to go to battle.
Pure control decks are still going to have a hard time in this environment. Sideboard matches are key since you can’t reliably maindeck enough answers to artifacts, creatures, and Oath. Dedicating 6-7 slots of your sideboard to Dredge doesn’t help the cause either. If I were to take a stab at a pure Blue-based Control deck these days, it might look something like this:
Snap Bob Control by enderfall
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enderfall
Clan Magic Eternal
Follow me on Twitter @enderfall
I love watching videos of stax, hint hint
Just realized the SnapBob Control sideboard is missing 2 Vendilion Clique’s.
As for the video’s, I hope to get in a DE this weekend and will post an article about it. Maybe I’ll play Stax…maybe not….
Fixed. Thanks for that.