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March 18- March 22

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Top Decking

    This week's two standard pauper tournaments were in direct opposition to one another.  MPDC was a good example of the main decks over the past few weeks, while SPDC was a much more balanced and diverse set of deck lists.  Lets take a look at the two tournaments and the top decks of the week.



MPDC 20.04

   This week's mpdc, hosted by Malum, had a whopping six Boros decks entered, two of which made the top four.  This shouldn't be a big surprise considering the uncomplicated nature of the deck and it's success over the past three weeks.
    Frycek took home first place with his Boros deck.  This is a standard Boros build with the exception of a Dynacharge for that last, desperate swing to club home the win as well as a couple Traitorous Instinct in the sideboard.
    Frycek benefited from a large number of participants this week.  After two consecutive losses in the swiss portion he was able to rebound nicely and go undefeated the rest of the way. The only two losses came at the hands of an extremely aggressive Cloudfin Aggro deck and Selesnya Beats by joekewwl, which Fry would later beat in the finals.

    Selesnya Beats by joekewwl took second place in the tournament, utilizing a ton of +1/+1 counters via Common Bond and Travel Preps along with potent lifegain from Seraph of Dawn and Centaur Healer.
    The most noteworthy addition to this deck to me is Concordia Pegasus.  This is a great two drop that stops WW or Boros in the air.  Sure, it can be easily removed, but what two mana creature can't?  The Pegasus is a great target for some of those +1 counters or a well-timed Ranger's Guile.  Obviously Primal Huntbeast and Seraph are the main creatures of the deck, but Pegasus is a great two drop for this meta.  Even if it only prevents one or two creatures from getting through before it gets Speared that can often be the difference between winning and losing. As a great backup for air defense, Kessig Recluse can come in mid game to take his place. This is a potent deck that gives Boros plenty to think about.

    Adner is still kicking around Black Flag and for good reason.  He made top four with the deck once again.  The reason this deck can compete where other mono black decks fail is due to it's card draw. The hardest part about winning with an aggro deck is running out of steam.  Two bad draws in a row will cripple any aggro deck, but Black Flag overcomes this hurdle with the classic Sign in Blood and also a very situational, yet potent Altar's Reap.
    This one-two punch is critical to the deck's success.  By playing Sign in Blood early and Altar's Reap late, when there is most likely a creature to be sacrificed, possibly Soulcage Fiend or a Pacified creature for greater effect, this deck rolls right into another removal and another chance to Extort.

    Gq1rf7 brought another Boros Legion into top four this week.  His version uses Wojek Halberdiers and a Splatter Thug as well as a couple Seraphs in the sideboard.  It also utilizes a few Curse of the Pierced Heart.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Curse, but I've found the only distribution for this card is four-of or none at all.  A total of three can be used in Gq's version, but the point of Curse is to get one out on turn two, which usually requires four in a deck and some shuffler love.  It's nice to see some tweaking of the Boros deck however.



SPDC 19.19

    This week's spdc, hosted by jamuraa, had a rather small attendance, but completely turned the meta upside down with a lot of creative deck building.
    Flucus took the gold with his deck, Golgari Defender.  It uses all of the Return to Ravnica defenders to hold the ground and generate tons of mana for Perilous Shadow and regenerating that crucial Trestle Troll.
    Sentinel Spider is pretty mana intensive, but in this deck who cares?  Vigilance on a 4/4 with reach is a pauper bomb and it's out of range of almost all of red's removal and will take down a Seraph, making it the perfect Boros killer. This is what you are saving your Sheltering Word for.  I would rather let a Perilous Shadow or Jailbreaker go than the Sentinal Spider.
    I can confirm from personal experience that a couple fliers and a couple counterspells or bounce can give this deck hell if they are concentrated on keeping the Spider off the board.  That's why I'm a little surprised that it beat FlxEx's Hands Tempo deck, which is formulated for just such a matchup.

    Zoltan piloted WW Inflamed, which is a fancy title for a Boros deck, to second place this week.  I like the choice of four Curses and three Dynacharge's in this list. Sundering Growth is a flexible card.  Even though not many artifacts are running around these days it's still able to get an extra token from Attended Knight or Doomed Traveler if needed. Not much more can be said about Boros.  A good, solid build here.  

    Alwaysdoit placed T4 with the combo deck RG Fling to Win.  If I get a vote, I say RG Fling is just as descriptive and more succinct, but that's just my preference.
    It is sometimes hard for me to objectively evaluate combo decks. My inner Johnny loves them so much, but the fact that they so rarely make top 8 is proof that they don't hold any real staying power.  This is no slight on Alwaysdoit.  He saw a flaw in the meta and took advantage of it, which is all anyone can do.  The problem with this, or any combo deck, is that it can be dismantled completely by a single Dispel or Negate.
   I like this decks theory though. Any creature+Bloodrush+Fling=Win.  The problems start to arise though when you're not drawing well.  There is literally no way to come back when your behind with this deck.  I would personally be running four Madcap Skills and four Ranger's Guile in this deck and Feral Ridgewolf is simply a bad card.  If you want another creature there are many better three drops or even two drops, though why use them?  That slot is probably better used by making the aforementioned cards four-ofs.  In fact, throwing in some Sheltering Word's might go a long way for this deck.  I hate to sound like I'm bashing this deck, because I'll be playing it and having a ton of fun doing so, but I just don't see it as a weekly archetype because of how easily the meta game can cripple it's win con.

   One last deck I'd like to mention from this week's spdc is Pie Master's Ethereal Huntbeast.  This looks like the beginning stage of a great four color control deck.  With a few tweaks I think this deck could have the right balance of control and creature presence to make it a winner. My biggest objection is to the mana base.  This deck needs to be running at least two more lands and even though Prophetic Prism is the linchpin of the deck I don't see a need for four.  Four colors gives it a vast arsenal to work with and as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, the presence of Prophetic Prism opens up the possibility for some 4-color killers.



The Week Ahead

    Normally standard pauper sticks with low cost cards and heavy aggro, but the possibility is there for higher mana cards and more control oriented decks for those willing to invest the time to build them.  Prophetic Prism is the key but others like Abundant Growth, Farseek, Avacyn's Pilgrim can really ramp into a lot of mana while Ranger's Guile, Sheltering Word and Mizzium Skin can protect creatures from removal long enough to get some threats on the board.
   The age old question however is how to deal with WW. It may have taken a back seat this week, but don't doubt that it will make it's appearance many more times.  Sometimes the best defense is a good offense and WW, and to a similar extent Boros, provides that offense.  Concordia Pegasus might become a staple in upcoming aggro decks or at least a great sideboard against Boros.  With so much possibility in multi-color combinations out there I don't think we've come even close to hitting the wall that usually appears within the next couple weeks of the release cycle.  There are still plenty of good deck archetypes yet to make an appearance and I'm looking forward to them over the next few weeks.  Until next week, gl hf.


   





   

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