Week In Review October 25 - October 31, 2001

Alex Shvartsman

Coming Up: Pro Tour New Orleans

The Extended Pro Tour is back after missing a year, in a brand new city. New Orleans played host to a Grand Prix not so long ago and met with approval from both players and staff, and is now hosting a Pro Tour event for the first time.

The location is new, but the format is really not. Expect to see many of the same decks played at the World Championships in August. Certainly, some new decks will be unveiled now that Odyssey has been added to the mix and players have had much more time to try and break the format, but in all likelihood it will be the same old archetypes that are seen around.

Here are some of the decks you will almost certainly see during the coverage:

Secret Force - An archetype that used to be rogue until Worlds, it was one of the more commonly played decks there. A good call, too. Very fast and capable of beating both creature and control decks, Secret Force's major problem was beating combo decks. With combo not prevalent at Worlds, many players opted to play this deck. Question is, can it deal with all the hate people will surely sideboard now such as Perish and Hibernation. Mike Turian's answer to Perish was to board a Penumbra Wurm, but it may not be enough.

Stompy - Another green deck, this one is ultra fast and sometimes plays as few as 8 lands, relying entirely on the first 3-4 turns to achieve victory. It will surely be hurt by more people sideboarding against green creatures and should not be very popular this weekend. Still, it's a simple deck to play that always has a chance to win, which means some players will opt for it.

Oath and TurboLand - This archetype keeps evolving. Once, they were two separate decks, but now TurboLand is simply the best version of Oath (in my opinion, anyway). Some players will certainly play this deck, though we will likely see more standard Oath versions than TurboLand. Could Time Warp win a Pro Tour? That'd certainly be interesting.

Draw-Go - Another one of the old favorites, this archetype too has hit some hard times over the last year, but remains viable if not a top deck. At Worlds, some members of team Godzilla played Draw-Go with a touch of green for Gaea's Blessing. Previously, it has been known to splash black or red. Some variants of this very controllish deck will make an appearance.

Stasis - A much stronger monoblue deck, this archetype is likely to be well-represented, especially among European players. Watch out for many players boarding out Stasis and some other cards to morph into a Draw-Go type deck after sideboarding, in order to trick an opponent into having a horde of useless Disenchants.

White Weenie - Dutch players came as close as anyone to "breaking the format" at Worlds with their version of a white weenie deck. It got plenty of press, and will be tested by many players, and some will surely choose to play it. Fewer players realize that other white weenie decks did well also, including one played by Rookie of the Year Katsuhiro Mori.

Donate - Monoblue version of the deck is not nearly as powerful as the Trix decks of old, but it is the best combo deck available in the format, as of Worlds. Anyone with a preference for combo will spend considerable time testing it and might arrive at New Orleans packing Illusions and Merchant Scrolls.

Turbo-Phid - The deck performed very poorly at Worlds. Was it bad luck, or is it really worse than it looks? Many Ophidians and many counterspells surely can't be that bad. This archetype has a chance to redeem itself if some players will take their chance with the deck in New Orleans.

Three-Deuce, Sligh, CounterSliver and a number of other decks is likely to make an appearance, but their numbers will not be overwhelming. The most interesting thing to watch for will be any new archetypes that might be unveiled this weekend.

Coming Up: New Orleans Masters Tournament

Of no less importance than the Tour is the Masters event starting up Thursday night and held throughout the weekend in conjunction with the Pro Tour. The world's Top 32 players will play Odyssey Booster Draft. With all Grand Prix and qualifiers this season using Rochester, this is the first time Odyssey Booster Draft format will be used at a premier tournament level. Some players (myself included) invested a lot more time practicing for Masters than the Pro Tour itself. The reason? Winning a single round offers an additional cash prize of $2000, equal to finishing in Top 24 of the Pro Tour.

Gateway tournament will allow two players with 8 or more pro points to earn last-minute qualifications, and will begin Thursday morning.

Magic Trivia

Last week's question:

(sumbitted by Andrew Levine)

Your opponent is playing first in a normal Vintage (Type I) game. On her first turn, she plays a basic land and does nothing else. When your first turn begins, you are already at 24 life. How did you accomplish his?

During your opponent's turn, you discarded four copies of Circling Vultures, pitched an Elvish Spirit Guide for green mana, and played Blossoming Wreath for 4.

New Question:

(submitted by Brandon Goldman)

Using only cards that are legal in Standard, how can you manage to have no cards in your hand AND no permanents in play at the end of your *first turn*, (you play first)?

Please do not email answers to me. Correct answer will be posted in the next column.

Quote of the Week

Now that Meridian Magic is no longer operating, I have decided to incorporate one of its best features - posting funny or meaningful quotes overheard in the Magic community - into this column. If you hear something that you think would make Quote of the Week, please email me.

"The alternate art foil Shadowmage Infiltrator has Kai Budde's picture on it." - Chris Cade

Play of the Week

I was playing an Invasion-Planeshift-Apocalypse draft recently (needed a break from all that Odyssey drafting). I drafted a solid, but somewhat slow green-white deck. My opponent drafted 5-color green, and opened with Quirion Elves going first. On his third turn, he cast Dark Suspicions - a card that is not good in Limited or Constructed. My draw was a little slow, and I knew that I would be taking six or seven points of damage before I could get down to 2-3 cards in hand and forget about the stupid enchantment.

Over the next two turns however, my opponent cast out his entire hand. I got some larger creatures into play and he could not come through for any creature damage, but I kept taking more and more pain from Dark Suspicions. Finally, I played out my hand reduced to a single life point. If my opponent did not have a burn spell I could win. Except that my next draw was Canopy Surge! I could not cast it, and could not prevent the one point of damage I would take next turn from Dark Suspicions. Thus, perhaps for the first time in the history of Magic, Dark Suspicions dealt 20 points of damage and won its controller a game.

Bad Play of the Week

Kyle Rose was playing against Ed Linskey in the first round of Day 2 of PT-NY. He was up a game, and had the early momentum with a Squee's Embraced Cinder Shade, to go along with 3 swamps, 2 mountains, and 1 plains. Linskey had a Caldera Kavu and a Morgue Toad, with 2 swamps, 2 mountains, and a forest untapped. Rose swung with the Shade, and Linskey blocked with both creatures, his entire board. After some thinking, Rose decided he needed to keep up his momentum and his board advantage, so, instead of pumping the Shade and using it to wipe Linskey's board, returning the Shade to hand, Rose tapped out to Agonizing Demise with kicker the Caldera Kavu. Linskey made the Kavu black, and now the Shade could longer even trade straight up for the 4/4 Caldera, trading a Squee's Embrace, a Cinder Shade in play, and an Agonizing Demise for a Morgue Toad. Rose would again walk into that same Caldera Kavu changing colors when his Zombie Boa met an untimely death. Kyle focused and played some good Magic, eventually winning the match and helping his team to achieve Top 8 at PT-NY, but had that one game where things just didn't work out quite right.

Eric Froehlich
Rose's Teammate at PT-NY

Got an interesting news story, comment, quote, play of the week, or Magic trivia to report? Please e-mail me at ashv80@hotmail.com.