Wise Words - Worlds and the New Breed

Gary Wise

After three weeks of non-stop Magic, I'm a little burnt out, so no flowery openings and no loose tie-ins today. With Worlds having just passed, there were a number of stories that deserved to be put to the record for posterity purposes, and what follows is a look at them.

Metagame shift - In what may be the single greatest metagame turnaround in Standard history, Day 1, which had prognosticators assuming that Counter-Rebel, Skies and Probe-Go would be the dominant archetypes, instead saw the emergence of two other decks that were the most played among PT players.

The first of these two archetypes was Saproling Burt (named for its creator Burt Jones, I believe), a deck based off the Orbosition decks that emerged a few months ago that sees a splash for green in order to produce massive numbers of creatures with relatively few cards for use with Opposition. By condensing the number of creature cards in the deck without condensing the number of creatures, one is able to replace creature cards with card drawing (Fact or Fiction, Gush), deck thinning (Sleight of Hand, Opt) and the like, making the deck flow better but the mana a little worse.

What made the blue-green deck so appealing for so many players was the fact it beat the presumed metagame. What many failed to account for though was the resulting metagame shift this knowledge presented. When I sat down for my first round match against the a top player from the most-shielded country at worlds, China, I came to the quick conclusion that a lot more people knew about the blue-green deck than my team and I had anticipated: he played islands and forests.

The result of many people knowing about the emergence of the deck was that some took their testing one step further, trying to find a solution to Saproling Burt. What many of those players found was that the archetype best-suited to this task was Machine Head, the red-black deck that everyone has wanted to make work for so long, only to have Blastoderm and Saproling Burst get in the way. With Machine Head so well-suited to beating the blue-green archetype and capable of taking out any of the blue-based decks that had shown themselves as of late, a number of players decided that it would be viable to take the risk, understanding that there was likely to be less Fires played than at any point since Pro Tour-Chicago.

The results speak for themselves. Of the four 6-0 finishers, two played Fires, with the Machine Head decks clearing their path of Orbosition decks only to run into fat green creatures. Still, despite this obvious flaw in the Machine Head plan, it worked for a number of players, foremost among them the eventual champ Tom Van de Logt.

Van de Logt is so tall, he had to kneel for this shot in the Canadian National Tower

Our New Champion - Van de Logt, who stands around twelve feet tall with a last name to match, is amazingly grounded for a man whose head is so high in the skies. Is he the best player in the World? Probably not, but he's definitely solid, and along with a number of his Dutch team mates, he made a gamble going into Day 1 that paid off to the tune of $36,000 and the title of World Champion.

What Tom and his mates did was very simple: they decided to play Machine Head, knowing it was still unable to stop green's two big faders: Blastoderm and Saproling Burst. With the dominance of blue-based decks at European Championships, then Canadian Nationals, the Dutch decided to accept the risk of facing the odd Fires deck out there. Going 5-1 in the Standard portion of the tournament, the risk obviously paid off, and 15 rounds later, Tom became the reigning World Champ.

For those of you who aren't too sure who Tom is, he's been around for a while. Over the last two years, the Netherlands has become one of, if not the, powerhouse of European Magic, and Tom has more than gone along for the ride. Last year, he finished third at his National Championships before making Top 8 at European Championships and then at Worlds. This year, he won Nationals and came within a final round match of his second consecutive Euros Top 8 before his performance in Toronto.

Historically, Tom's performance was important if only because of his back-to-back Worlds Top 8's. Tom and Tommi Hovi were the only competitors to make this year's Top 8 who had done so at Worlds previously, putting the two of them in an elite group with Jon Finkel, Janosh Kuhn, Jakub Slemr and Scott Johns as the only players with two Worlds Top 8 finishes in the Pro Tour era. As a matter of fact, Finkel, Slemr and Van de Logt, all World Champions, are the only players to play all five days at Worlds twice. Not too shabby for a guy who only showed up at one of the Pro Tours he was qualified for this year, because of school.

Dave Williams - Did he do it? Didn't he do it? Those are the questions that the world wants answered coming out of Worlds. Dave Williams has always worked hard on his game and has always had as strong a desire as anyone to succeed. For a long time, David languished in the muck of frustration with his inability to succeed at the pro level, then finally, this year he freed himself with GP success, a Top 8 finish in Tokyo and his performance at Worlds.

Dave and I had a long talk after his disqualification, insisting that he was innocent and it was the respect of his peers, not the money or the pro points that concerned him most. Dave mostly hangs out with Bob Maher and the OMS brothers on Tour, all of whom have impeccable reputations. Aside from them, he spends a lot of time with players whose reps don't shine as bright. That, combined with that intense desire for success, still leaves me slightly skeptical, though not convinced either way, about whether or not he did it. For me, the jury is still out.

As for what Dave actually did according to authorities. Dave was using Accumulated Knowledges that were apparently slightly marked by curvature, which Dave says was due to Bob Maher having loaned him the previously played Accumulated Knowledges for an otherwise near-mint deck. During the match, Dave and his quarterfinal opponent Van de Logt played four games, and judges noted that before three of these four games, after Van de Logt shuffled Dave's deck, Dave would cut, the result of that cut being one of the Accumulated Knowledges being on top of his deck. In the fourth of those games, Dave did not cut and an Accumulated Knowledge was near the top of the deck.

So now the question becomes how much of an advantage Dave would get out of having the Accumulated Knowledge on top of his deck. Playing a combo deck (Opposition/Orb/Saprolings), it would obviously be best for Dave to get the combo pieces in his opening hand, so one might think it better to have one of the pieces in his opening hand, but that may not be the case. In a deck that only has six other two-casting cost spells, casting a turn two Knowledge is definitely optimal, allowing the player to cycle one card closer to those combo pieces while simultaneously helping one avoid mana screw and optimalizing the other Knowledges in the deck. In other words, it's definitely advantageous to have the Accumulated Knowledge in your opening hand instead of drawing it on turn 3: the only question then is whether it's more of an advantage, especially vs. Machine Head, than some other kind of stacking device.

To that question, I have no answer except this: for a guy for who respect has been such a motivator, it's hard to believe that after having watched Casey McCarrel recently screw up in an important Top 8 match for all the world to see (this is not meant to draw a comparison of Dave's person to Casey's, it's only relevant because of recent history), that Dave would then repeat that kind of screw up. I definitely think that the disqualification was warranted because regardless of intent, the deck was marked and those markings were having an effect on the match, but beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.

One last thing on this issue: a number of players who were not at Worlds and who have very few of the facts of the case at hand have come forward proclaiming Dave's innocence. For years, people have complained that the DCI hasn't been hard enough on pro players, and now that they're taking a stand, those players are derailing that stand by preaching to the community about things they know nothing about. Before you pass judgement, try waiting for the facts of the case. You're embarrassing yourselves.

George Baxter - This is my favorite story of the weekend. Sunday night, walking back to the tournament from Casey's Bar and Grill (yes, the jokes were flying), I noticed a young couple we passed in front of the Convention Center and, as an afterthought, called out to them "George Baxter?" Baxter, one of the original greats, made the Top 8 at 1996 PT-NY and was part of the 1996 U.S. National team, but hadn't been around in a while.

Baxter turned around and showed a flicker of recognition, and I reintroduced myself and asked if he was in town for World Championships. He replied that he was here for his honeymoon (who honeymoons in Toronto?) and asked where World Championships was. The group of us stood there in front of the tournament center in disbelief. Turns out George hadn't picked up a card in over three years and had only very occasionally taken a look at what was going on in the gaming world. We took him inside.

As interesting as it was to watch George's reaction to seeing what Magic had become, even more interesting was seeing his new wife experience in reality what had only been stories to her previously. George has graduated from law school and is working in corporate law, so finding the time for Magic just doesn't happen, meaning that for her, Magic is a few stories of international travel and a few boxes in the basement or attic.

The rest of George's visit was fun to observe. The few players who'd been around long to have known him came and said hi, while others milled about, wanting to catch a glimpse of a man who might be Magic's equivalent of Cap Anson, George Mikan, Walter Hagen or Rod Laver. Mostly, Skaff Elias and George reminisced about the old days, specifically the fact that the man couldn't fill out a deck list properly if you offered him $25,000 to do so, talked about the Masters and the differences between then and now. It was nice to revisit the past.

The new breed - Through the Pro game's history, there's been a slow steady precession by which the old would fade away to be replaced slowly by the new. A few of us old timers have managed to hold on, but aside from those few like Darwin Kastle, Dave Price and the like, the old guard like Baxter have gone the way of the Dodo.

Recently, I've noticed a change in the new guard. Instead of the slow infiltration, the PT is used to, where a player would start out by getting his or her head kicked in, eventually putting up numbers before emerging as a star with a breakout performance, there's a new breed of player that is climbing to the Pro Tour's ranks so hardened by the PTQ circuit that they immediately start putting up the numbers, checking in with one solid finish after another. Here's a look at a few of those guys that old pros should be afraid of and PTQ types can aspire to be:

Kamiel Cornelissen - Kamiel is obviously some Dutch nightmare sent to clean us all out. This guy is unbelievable, starting his Pro Tour odyssey at PT-NY last April and playing in every premiere-level tournament up until now and still looking for his first finish outside the Top 32. Everyone knows that Kamiel is among the top five players on the planet right now: the only question is where in that top five he lies.

Jan Tomcani - The first real star to come out of the Slovak Republic, Jan Tomcani is a hybrid of the old school rookie and the new. Jan's first Pro Tour appearance came a couple of years ago when he graduated prematurely from the PTQ ranks only to get thrashed in Rome. After that, he went back to PTQs, hardened up, and when he got back to the Tour in Tokyo this year, he was ready: His 27th place finish in Tokyo earned him an invite to Barcelona where he finished ninth thanks to a final round loss to Patrick Mello. Ninth is a tough pill to swallow, but Jan came right back at Worlds, winning the Standard portion en route to making his first Top 8. I'm guessing there will be others.

Albertus Law - Again, Law took a few lumps last year before breaking from the Pro Tour for better than half a year. When he came back, he was more than ready, putting up two strong finishes before breaking through to the Top 8 in Barcelona. Law wasn't at Worlds, but he should be back this season and ready to continue his recent streak.

Lawrence Creech - This self-proclaimed 'worst player ever' is rebutting his title with his success. Creech has now appeared in five Pro Tours, finishing 8th at PT-LA and making Top 32 at two other events. Performing well in both Constructed and Limited, he may have lost the Rookie of the Year race in the season's last weekend, but his resume suggests he'll have more important laurels to worry about in the future.

Ken Ho - Part of the old San Francisco crowd, Ho didn't break through with Rubin, Clegg, Casey and the gang, but his wait was apparently worth it. Through his first four Pro Tours, Ho was yet to finish in the triple digits, with three Top 32 finishes in his first three PTs before the Ken Ho All Stars came second at GP-Columbus. Ken had his first really disappointing finish at Worlds, so how he'll recover in New York and New Orleans will be interesting to watch.

Jens Thoren - Broken Jens, like Ho and Creech had a disappointing Worlds, but that doesn't diminish what he's already done. Jens has been finishing in the low double digits all year, reinforcing the notion his star is rising with his dominant performance in the swiss portion of Euros, where he finished five points ahead of the field. I'll be surprised if Jens doesn't have his PT breakout performance soon.

Before I finish things up this week, I want to thank Andy Heckt, Scott Larabee and Mike Feuell. The first two are WotC employees who get me all the little obscure tidbits of information I can't find for my articles, while Mike is the administrator of website www.crocker.com/~elf/protour/, a great resource for any Pro Tour fan, showing how each player who has ever shown up to a PT has fared. I think I use the site for 90% of my articles. Be sure to look up your heroes, your friends or yourself. That's it, have a good week.