Deck Tech: Team Punisher
But was none of them said was blue/white Birds. Bird decks have been kicked around on the Internet ever since Judgment was released, mostly due to the cards Battle Screech and Soulcatchers' Aerie. But Scandinavia's top pro Magic team, Team Punisher, has come up with the best version of the deck to date—a version without the Aerie. The deck was originally designed by Jussi Pekala and Mattias Jorstedt, and Jorstedt won a PTQ with it in Sweden, going 9-1 over the course of the tournament. The other Scandinavians were so impressed with the deck that they are playing it at Worlds; all three members of the Finnish team are running it, as are all three members of the Swedish team, plus Jens Thoren and Australian Rob Nadebaum, who was one of Punisher's playtest partners. The deck certainly worked. Tomi Walamies went 6-0 with it, Finland's Tuomas Kotiranta used it to cinch a Top 8 spot, and Anton Jonsson was one win away from the Top 8, and had he used his Spurnmage Advocates correctly against Ken Krouner, he would have pulled it off.
Quiet Speculation offers some interesting choices—Deep Analysis for cards, Battle Screech for creatures, or Prismatic Strands for damage prevention. The Strands are vital to winning races, and are basically more versatile versions of Moment's Peace. The most interesting card in the sideboard is Sphere of Truth, which is only good against the mirror. "We thought everyone would have this deck," said Walamies, "If you practiced, you would have seen how good it was." So how did they do? Overall, only about 50/50. While that may not be the percentage they were after, it at least shows that their deck is on par with the two juggernauts of the format, mono-black and blue/green. Below are Walamies' and Jonsson's versions of the deck. Jonsson eschewed main-deck Envelops and went with Breakthrough instead to get threshold faster. Their sideboards also differ by a few cards.
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