Constructed Decks (Standard) [Major Tournaments & Otherwise]

[schild]

So, going to my first major tournament in, oh, a decade+. After researching the shit out of the metagame, I've decided on Grixis Control. Gonna see a lot of UW/Superfriends variants (which I'll absolutely decimate, 100% win ratio before board, 105% after, lol), Jund (50% pre-board, 100% post-board), and RG Titanramp (not even worried). Besides that there will be your usual crop of Red Deck Wins, Monored Burn, and Jank. Since I can't prepare for the latter and the two former are totally based on their draw (I win about 50/50 against them both pre and post board), I feel like I've got the situation under control.

My deck has no build for the mirror unfortunately. I've teched it out pretty good though so I don't expect to see a mirror. Here's my nearly final list:

CREATURES:
3x Malakir Bloodwitch
3x Sedraxis Specter
3x Gatekeeper of Malakir
2x Grave Titan

SPELLS:
4x Terminate
4x Spreading Seas
2x Cruel Ultimatum
2x Countersquall
2x Mana Leak
2x Thought Hemorrhage
2x Slave of Bolas
1x Bitumonous Blast

OTHER:
3x Jace, The Mind Sculptor

LANDS:
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Crumbling Necropolis
3x Scalding Tarn
2x Mountain
2x Island
4x Swamp
2x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Lavaclaw Reaches

Om nom nom. You can try and guess the sideboard.

Also have a white weenie deck that has a 1% chance of getting played but the decklist is boring, it's just fast and efficient.

[Ingmar]

I am so not up on constructed yet, but one thing I've heard about people doing is running a singleton of Jace 1.0 alongside the 3 copies of Jace 2.0 as anti-other-people's-Jace tech. Worth a look maybe?

Is countersquall's life loss really worth the (admittedly fairly small from the looks of your mana base) risk of not having the exact UB mana available vs. just running negate, which you could still drop if you happen to only have UR instead?

Haunting Echoes seems like a better version of Thought Hemorrhage, maybe it is already in your sideboard as anti Vengevine tech though. Duress seems like a nice early play to set up either echoes or hemorrhage but I don't know what you could cut for it.

[schild]

There's already too much crowding my 3 mana slot and there's nothing I could remove that would make mini-Jace worth it. Hell, 9 times out of 10 when I drop Jace it's to kill their Jace. If I do actually land one and they can't stop it after the first Brainstorm, it's time to scoop because I will fateseal them into oblivion.

[Xilren's Twin]

Jealous I am.  I'd really sad that i live only 1 hour from Star City Games and just can't get back into paper magic.  Just not enough time. 
Oh well, i shall live vicariously through the exploits of others.  Hope you did well today.  Always liked black and blue together.

[jakonovski]

Holy shit, I used to play a lot of M:tG in the days of Invasion and Odyssey. Never could place in anything more than random small time tournaments though, the stress of higher level matches really didn't suit me. Back then the current world champion was just a cocky local kid, and everyone used to mock him for his unorthodox decks. 

Good luck Schild, I'll also live vicariously through you, once I've deciphered the current standard environment. When does this tournament take place?

[sigil]

Well if the sideboard doesn't have something to eliminate enchantments, Tell me how you'd deal with Leylines of Sanctity? 2011 will be live for that one right?

LoS kinda neuters jace, although not as much as the total assraping of RDW

[schild]

Never saw a Sanctity (it was this past saturday). I blew through the first round - Round 1 was 9 total turns. I won on turn 4 and turn 5 respectively. First game I played Sadistic Sacrament (quick change from Thought Hemmorhage before the tourney due to the number of Valakut decks and Sacrament being able to remove them). He scooped the moment I cast it. Second game I hit a turn 5 Cruel Ultimatum due to him Pathing two unearthed specters (dumb idea). He scooped.

Second round I misplayed both games, ended up in losses. I forgot about a few things in RDW, so I was just screwed. Had also never played against Hell's Thunder. Won't make those mistakes again.

Third round was the mirror and since I assumed no one else would be running Grixis, he won games 2 and 3 (I was too teched out for the first game and he couldn't touch me). He sided in 4 Ruinblasters and I had no such answers and it was GG.

I dropped after the third round and headed home since San Antonio is like the third worst city in America (behind Baltimore and LA for those keeping track).

Edit: I'll be more prepared next time and won't run Grixis. Working on a Black/White beatdown deck currently as well as some other things that purely attack the metagame (Mono Blue Control may be good enough now, we'll see). Also, Mill has some favorable things going for it so I might touch that.

[Xilren's Twin]

Looking at the results from sat's ptqs i see a lot of blue white control, jund, rdw, bant, naya as expected.  But I see someone came in 3rd place at the Garden city PTQ running a Howling Mine/burn deck...

4  Arid Mesa
1  Evolving Wilds
2  Kabira Crossroads
13  Mountain
2  Plains
1  Terramorphic Expanse
4  Wall of Omens
4  Burst Lightning
3  Font of Mythos
4  Howling Mine
4  Lightning Bolt
3  Reverberate
4  Runeflare Trap
4  Searing Blaze
3  Silence
4  Temple Bell
Sideboard
4  Demystify
4  Dragon's Claw
2  Leyline of Sanctity
1  Mindbreak Trap
4  Ricochet Trap

And in another PTQ i see a different version Howling mine/Open the vaults combo deck.  Actually 2 overall that i saw

6  Island
3  Marsh Flats
6  Plains
1  Swamp


2  Glassdust Hulk
2  Everflowing Chalice
4  Fieldmist Borderpost
4  Howling Mine
1  Into the Roil
4  Kaleidostone
4  Mistvein Borderpost
4  Open the Vaults
4  Prophetic Prism
3  Silence
2  Temple Bell
2  Tezzeret the Seeker
4  Time Sieve
4  Time Warp
Sideboard
2  Angelsong
3  Condemn
1  Dispeller's Capsule
1  Into the Roil
3  Negate
1  Silence
2  Spell Pierce
2  Thopter Foundry

[Xilren's Twin]

252 people at teh San Antonio PTQ. All 10 had between 100 and 300 people, including 220 in the online ptq.  It seems magic has held up all these years in terms of the pro tour dream keeping tourney attendance high.

Top 8 decks for that tourney are listed here.
Won by fairly typical blue white planeswalker control with Jund second.

[Johny Cee]

252 people at teh San Antonio PTQ. All 10 had between 100 and 300 people, including 220 in the online ptq.  It seems magic has held up all these years in terms of the pro tour dream keeping tourney attendance high.

Top 8 decks for that tourney are listed here.
Won by fairly typical blue white planeswalker control with Jund second.

Actually, MtG has been more popular than ever the last year or two.  Zen and M10 were two of the top selling sets of all time (WotC had to go back to the printers for another run of each), and PTQ and GP attendance has set new records.


I think that the MODO pre-release for M11 is this weekend, if that's your bag.  Sealed, 4 rounds, promo cards for participation/winning.

[schild]

Actually, Simon, the guy playing Jund conceded. He was with our group of folks. He doesn't have a valid passport so couldn't go to Amsterdam. The guy looked through the deck (that was given the win) and said he would've gotten his ass kicked by Simon.

Magic is the most popular it has ever been. They're already doing another print run of M11.