November Type II Metagame (long)

[Michael J Flores]

THE PARIS METAGAME: A NEWBIE'S GUIDE

I have been told that it would be helpful for upcoming tournament
players if a sort of "primer" on the tournament scene would be posted,
so that they would be better able to prepare for the most common and
most powerful decks, many of which they are not familiar. Most of this
article is a re-hash of what top tournament players already know, and is
in any case far from complete. I just hope that it is helpful to those
who need it.

THE TOP DECKS

The decks of the first tier are those that constantly appear in the finals
of every Paris qualifier, as well as the offshoots of those decks.

NECROPOTENCE

The Necrodeck needs little introduction. It is a disruptive black
creature deck that wins via massive card advantage, embodied in Hymn
to Tourach (or Mind Warp, or Stupor), Nevinyrral's Disk, and
Necropotence. Its damage sources are traditionally small and fast, and
include the Fallen Empires and Ice Age "pump" Knights, as well as
Hypnotic Specter. The best Necropotence decks also incorporate a
small number of heavier attackers, sometimes Sengir Vampire, but
more often the difficult-to-destroy Ihsan's Shade.

Playing against Necropotence:

Beating traditional Necropotence involves one thing: safely reaching
the mid- and late-games. The Necrodeck is so fast, the opponent may
very well find himself without a hand, devoid of non-land permanents,
and close to zero life before he can mount an adequate defense. If he
can reach the mid-game with a decent amount of life, his chances of
winning are greatly increased, because the Necrodeck's disruption
capability is decreased -- Hypnotic Specter is just a flying Balduvian
Bears if there are no cards left in hand. Destroying the roads to victory
of the Necrodeck will generally allow the opponent to reach the
mid-game. Serrated Arrows is perfect for this purpose, because it
destroys multiple "pump" Knights, weakens other dangerous weenies,
and can come out relatively quickly. The Necrodeck is very weak in
the late game, when larger creatures like Serra Angel and Erhnam Djinn
are out and able to block the small attackers, or after a mana-shattering
Armageddon removes the Necrodeck's resources. In the late game, the
Necrodeck becomes vulnerable to the opponent's strategy, just as the
opponent was vulnerable in the early game. It is here that large direct
damage spells can rob the Necrodeck of its card-drawing abuse, white
global sorceries (backed by blue interrupts) can reclaim much lost card
economy, or cards like Ancestral Memories, Browse, and Jayemdae
Tome can rebuild depleted cards in hand.

Variations on Necropotence:

There are generally three types of non-traditional Necropotence decks.

The Bad Moon, or "Hacker" Necrodeck, named for Brian Hacker, uses
a near-limitless swarm of creatures to overwhelm the opponent's
defense and greatly reduce his chance of reaching the mid-game. The
weenies used in this deck are ridiculously undercosted (Black Knight,
Erg Raiders, Hypnotic Specters, and "pump" Knights) and score
vicious damage very quickly, especially with the help of Bad Moon.
This is the least strategic of the Necrodecks, and generally lacks much
of the control capability of the other versions, embodied in hand denial,
Drain Life, and Nevinyrral's Disk. This lack is counterbalanced by the
very selective use of Choking Sands or other land destruction to eke
out just a little more damage before the opponent's deck can reply with
a powerful sorcery like Wrath of God or a game-equalizing
Nevinyrral's Disk. In the words of US Open semifinalist Bill Macy,
Choking Sands is "like a black Time Walk."

The Midwest, or "Suicide" Necrodeck, usually associated with
Deadguy Chris Pikula, incorporates red direct damage and artifact
destruction to make up for its lack of strong hand denial (the Midwest
Necrodeck uses only 1 Hymn to Tourach as disruption). It is called a
"Suicide" deck because unlike the traditional and Toronto Necrodecks,
this deck has no real source of life-gaining ability beyond its Drain Lifes
-- which are offensive direct damage sources in any case. Although
originally envisioned as a metagame defensive measure against Whirling
Dervish and White Knight, the red direct damage allowed the Midwest
deck to use its Necropotence drawing engine to quickly kill the
opponent without any chance of blocking or defense beyond permission
(which is often deemed "wasted" against a Lightning Bolt) and Zuran
Orb. The Midwest Necrodeck is also the most effective version against
artifact-driven decks, like Winter Orb, because it uses standard Shatters
for defense, and has the versatility of Anarchy after sideboarding.

The Toronto or "McCabe" Necrodeck, named for Pro Tour Dallas
champion Paul McCabe, is the most strategic and disruptive version of
the Necrodeck, although it is also the slowest. This deck is unique
because it uses no Black Knights or Fallen Empires or Ice Age "pump"
Knights as attackers. Instead, it incorporates only the ridiculously
powerful Hypnotic Specter along with the difficult-to-remove Sengir
Vampire and Ihsan's Shade as its offensive keys. Instead of the
Knights, this deck dramatically increases its hand-denial and
creature-kill with Hymn to Tourach, Mind Warp, and Stupor for the
former, Contagion, NevinyrralAs Disk, and Serrated Arrows for the
latter. The McCabe Necrodeck is most significant for its use of Lake
of the Dead to generate very large, very early, Mind Warps (effectively
clearing the opponent's hand), and the ability to reclaim much of the
late-game offensive strength lacked by Necrodecks in general with very
large game-ending Drain Lifes.

WINTER ORB

Sometimes called the Prison, the Winter Orb deck was introduced last
year by Chris Cade, and has been played to great success by US
National finalist George Baxter. There are generally three types of the
standard Winter Orb deck, mono-white, u/W, and g/W, (although a
r/W version with four Black Vises was used by Marc Hernandez to
reach the 1995 World Championships finals). The mono white deck
generally wins via Black Vise, Feldon's Cane, or Kjeldoran Outpost;
the g/W variant uses Deadly Insect and Titania's Song; the u/W is
simply a variation on the mono-white version, except that it generally
incorporates Arcane Denial, Mystical Tutor, or Recall, simultaneously
sacrificing some roads to victory. For example, the White Trash (or
Trailer Park) deck used by Baxter and company at Pro Tour Dallas had
1 Black Vise, 4 Mishra's Factories, and 4 Kjeldoran Outposts, whereas
the u/W Winter Orb deck used recently by Worth Wollpert used 1
Black Vise, 3 Mishra's Factories, and only 1 Kjeldoran Outpost. The
opened slots were used to make room for Arcane Denial and Mystical
Tutor.

The general plan of attack for a Winter Orb deck is to use Icy
Manipulator and Winter Orb to lock down the opponent's mana
sources until it has control of the game. The opponent is forced to lay
additional lands to cast spells, so the Winter Orb player can gain
tremendous advantage via Armageddon. The Icy Manipulators are also
stall tactics against the use of creatures against the Winter Orb deck.

Playing against Winter Orb:

Beating the Winter Orb deck usually means beating its key artifacts,
namely Icy Manipulator and Winter Orb. Icy Manipulator is the card
that generates the Winter Orb deck's card advantage, because it forces
the opponent to lay additional creatures, which the Winter Orb player
can then remove en masse with a single global sorcery. The Winter
Orb is a global environmental effect that slows down the opponent to
the Winter Orb deck's preferred (snail) pace. Arguments among top
players arise often as to which artifact should be destroyed with the
limited amount of Disenchants and Shatters available, with little
agreement. Both are necessary to establish the Winter Orb deck's soft
lock of Icy Manipulator + Icy Manipulator + Winter Orb, which
effectively shuts down all mana production. The Icy Manipulators are
powerful in-and-of themselves only against a creature deck, whereas
the Winter Orbs are powerful against all sorts of decks. Which should
be destroyed is highly situational, and keys directly on what kind of
deck the opponent is using. Decks that rely on Kjeldoran Outpost or
Mishra's Factory as an offensive threat, or decks that constantly need
to use the bulk of their mana supply (like Necropotence or Sligh) will
tend to destroy the Winter Orb; decks that have Icy Manipulators
themselves can ignore the Winter Orb, and reduce the other player's
control capability by removing the Icy Manipulators.

Variations on Winter Orb:

There are generally 2 new variations on the Winter Orb deck. Both are
U/W, and key on the use of Mirage's Enlightened and Mystical Tutors
to grab restricted cards (notably Balance) to disrupt the opponent's
game.

The first variation is the "Florida" Winter Orb deck that uses no Icy
Manipulators. Instead, it uses Howling Mines to overload the
opponent's hand, push him into Black Vise range, and deplete his
library. This deck was used to good end by the Florida-based Team
Five Guys and a Peter. This deck is light on creature destruction, but
heavy on Tutors, allowing it to obtain the necessary Balance or other
removal card whenever necessary. This deck is sometimes called
"Turbo Balance" because it uses that restricted card often, with the
help of multiple Feldon's Canes, Recalls, and Tutors to make up for the
fact that it lacks many conventional Swords to Plowshares and other
defensive cards generally associated with U/W. This deck also differs
from the standard Winter Orb deck in that it has 8 or so counterspells,
usually 4 Arcane Denial and 4 Force of Will, to protect its Howling
Mines. While a very disruptive deck concept, this deck is vulnerable to
conventional Winter Orb because of its lack of Icy Manipulators.

The second variation is the so-called "Finkel" deck, named for its
creator, Jon Finkel. This version of the U/W Winter Orb deck
increases the amount of Mirage Diamonds for artifact mana, and
dramatically decreases the amount of permanent removal: Jon's version
used only 1 Swords to Plowshares, 1 Serrated Arrows, and 2 Wraths of
God. Obviously, the deck abuses the Mirage Tutors to obtain the
necessary removal cards as well as its key card: Balance. Because of
the increased number of Diamonds and other artifacts, the Finkel deck
can Balance + Zuran Orb multiple times without fear for its own mana
flow, disrupting the opponent's lands, creatures in play, and especially
cards in hand, beyond repair. Finkel used this deck to qualify for Pro
Tour Paris two weeks ago in New York, and John Chinnock also used
a variation of the U/W deck one week ago in Edison, NJ.

SLIGH

The Sligh deck was named for Paul Sligh, who used it to great success
in an Atlanta qualifier last year. The Sligh deck runs on a "mana
curve," meaning that the deck uses many low casting cost spells, and
few spells of casting cost 4 or greater. It is significant in that it uses
very poor creatures, yet is able to beat very good decks, by its mana
efficiency and large number of direct damage spells. Sligh decks tend
to be very versatile because their offensive threats (generally weenie
creatures) also have a double purpose. Gorilla Shamans and Goblin
Tinkerers can attack, but they can also remove artifacts. Brothers of
Fire and Orcish Artillery/Cannoneers can attack, but they can also burn
opposing creatures or the opponent himself. Because of the low
casting costs associated with the Sligh deck, and its large number of
instants, it is very difficult to lock. Pat Chapin is the most important
player of the Sligh deck in recent months, placing first out of the Swiss
rounds at Pro Tour Dallas, and recently qualifying for the Paris Master
Division; Dave Price and Jason Stahl have also done very well with
this deck.

Playing against Sligh:

The Sligh deck has few vulnerabilities. Its mana requirements are low,
so mana disruption, and even Armageddon, are less than optimal
against this deck. Its creatures are many, so even Wrath of God is
somewhat ineffective, because the Sligh player will just play more
creatures the next turn. I have been told that large creatures deter the
Sligh player -- Ironclaw Orcs is a joke to begin with, but against an
Erhnam Djinn? In my own playing experience, Conversion has helped
me to defeat a number of Sligh players, as has Serrated Arrows;
however, the best Sligh players use non-Mountain mana sources to avoid the
Conversion-lock, and all Sligh decks have artifact destruction in both
the main deck and sideboard.

OTHER STRONG DECKS

The decks of the second tier often appear in the finals of qualifier
tournaments, but tend to be less consistent, largely because they are
fewer in number. (How many Stasis decks can there be in a given final
8 if there is only one in the tournament to begin with?) While it is
important to understand these decks and how they work, greater
preparation is required for the more common decks of the top tier. For
example, the sideboard to my own 'Pile of Bitches has 4 cards against
Winter Orb, 3 Cards against Sligh, 4 cards against Winter Orb or
Necropotence, and 4 cards against Necropotence or Sligh; no particular
attention was brought to the decks of the second tier, although many of
the sideboard switches can be made there as well.

CONTROL

Traditionally U/W, the Control decks seek to stay alive and nothing
else. They use an almost single-minded array of cards to remove
threats from the opponent's resource pool, such as Swords to
Plowshares and Wrath of God for creatures, Disrupting Scepter for
cards in hand, and Millstone for the library, with only a few cards to
actually kill the opponent, usually a couple of Millstones or 2 Serra
Angels. The U/W versions of the Control deck (Millstone and
Serra-Scepter) were once a terror among the Type II ranks, with fine
players like Mike "Loco" Loconto and Shawn "Hammer" Regnier
placing highly in the first Magic Professional Tournament. The general
consensus is that this deck has been replaced by newer versions.

Playing against the Control deck:

The Control deck is a very frustrating opponent. Whenever a creature
is put into play, it will likely be tapped by an Icy Manipulator, or
removed via Serrated Arrows, Swords to Plowshares, or Wrath of
God. If cards are left in hand to guard against mass removal such as
Balance or Wrath of God, they may be lost to the Disrupting Scepter.
Direct damage spells, Armageddon, and other spells can be stifled with
blue permission. This deck has sometimes been called the Fortress,
because it is nearly impossible to defeat via conventional means. The
key vulnerability of the Control deck is lands. With only 2 spells
available to blue and white to deal with lands in serious play
(Armageddon and Political Trickery) the Control deck is often
hard-pressed to deal with the Kjeldoran Outpost effectively. The
Outpost almost single-handedly forced the Control deck out of the
tournament environment, and gave birth to its chief variation.

Variations on the Control deck:

While the Stasis and Winter Orb decks are properly offshoots of the
Control "fortress" philosophy, the most direct descendent is
Counterpost. Counterpost, in its best form, is a deck of lands. Its
whole offense, and the bulk of its defense are literally lands. Kjeldoran
Outposts can generate soldier tokens to attack and to block the
opponent's creatures. Mishra's Factories can do the same. With blue
permission to guard against opposing spells (such as Armageddon,
which destroys more than 90+% of this deck's permanents), and white
removal to deal with whatever got past the blue interrupts, this deck is
very formidable defensively. The most interesting dynamic of
Counterpost is its friendly relationship with card advantage. Kjeldoran
Outposts and Thawing Glaciers allow a significant forward jump on the
opponent, in terms of both cards in hand and permanents in play, and
the fact that the deck is largely lands creates "dead" cards in the
opponent's library -- with no enchantments and artifacts, Disenchant is
of little use, and any creature-kill or direct damage used on a soldier
token is obviously a waste of cards.

Another version of the Control deck doesn't use blue permission at all.
Instead, this version uses red to supplement its white removal
capability. This R/W version, sometimes called the "Blow Everything
Up" deck, is literally capable of destroying all types of permanents
efficiently, with Pillage for artifacts and lands, and red direct damage to
supplement any protection from white creatures that would normally be
able to escape the white Swords to Plowshares and Exiles. While this
deck is unable to actually counter spells, it is remarkable in its
capacity to deal with threats once they reach the board. Between red and
white removal, there is very little that remain threatening, but the
level of mana-intensivity in this deck (coupled with its inability to say
"No!" with counterspells) makes it particularly vulnerable to Armageddon.

The last variation on the Control deck is the U/R Counter-Cook or
Counter-Hammer deck. This deck replaces white removal cards with
red direct damage and red's smaller-scale removal cards, such as
Pillage and Pyroclasm (although most usually continue to incorporate
some white for Balance and Disenchant). The U/R version is somewhat
less efficient than the traditional U/W Control deck, but while the U/W
Control deck needs an entirely separate class of cards to kill the
opponent (such as Millstones or Serra Angels) the Counter-Cook deck
can use its removal cards (primarily the Hammer and red "X" spells)
both defensively and offensively.

THE DJINN DECKS

The Djinn Deck comes (traditionally) in two flavors, usually
demarcated by their effectiveness against Necropotence. The G/R
version, sometimes called Erhnam and Burn 'em, is highly effective
against Necropotence because of its large creatures and direct damage;
it is rather ineffective against every other deck, with the possible
exception of White Weenie (which is also a disruptive small creature
deck), because its creature-kill is ineffective against toughness 4 or
greater, and it lacks any significant control abilities. The G/W version,
called Erhnageddon, is a much more powerful and versatile deck that
uses Armageddon and other white removal cards to control the board,
and uses Erhnam Djinns, Serra Angels, and other large and efficient
creatures to win after an advantage has been established.
Unfortunately, this deck, while a sound concept to be sure, is woefully
overmatched by Necropotence, whose Dystopias and Contagions
reduce its (green and white) offensive efforts to dust.

Playing against the Djinn Decks:

The Djinn Decks are very straightforward, which makes them a good
choice for newbies, but also very easy to beat for any sound defensive
strategy. These decks key very deliberately on their casting cost 4
creatures (Erhnam Djinn and Wildfire Emissary for G/R, Erhnam Djinn,
Maro, and Nettletooth Djinn for G/W), and if these creatures are dealt
with, the Djinn deck has lost much of its capability. The G/R version
can use its direct damage spells to some offensive effect, but likely
these spells will have to be directed against the opposing creatures.
The G/W version can still use its white removal cards (most notably
Armageddon) to get out of a disadvantageous situation, but without
creatures, it has almost no offensive capability whatsoever. It is for this
reason that Dystopia is so very harmful to the Djinn Decks. A single
card, with the investment of a little life, can wipe away an entire deck's
strategy. The other key vulnerability to the Djinn Decks are various
U/W Control decks. These decks can use their own white removal
spells to deal with the Djinn Deck's creatures, and deny any control
attempts via blue permission spells.

Variations on the Djinn Decks:

The G/R version is sometimes augmented with land destruction cards,
like Pillage, Stone Rain, and Thermokarst, but if destroying land is the
purpose, then obviously Armageddon gets the job done at a much
lower cost, and the use of but a single card. The two Djinn schools
of thought are sometimes incorporated into a single three-color deck.
These decks often use Birds of Paradise and Fellwar Stones for mana
consistency. While more versatile than either of the other Djinn Decks,
the three-color version is still fundamentally straightforward. Probably
more interesting are the "untouchable" versions of the Djinn decks that
have no Djinns at all. The G/R versions supplement their Wildfire
Emissaries (who with protection from white are essentially
untouchable), and the G/W decks choose their whole creature array
from Autumn Willow, Deadly Insect, and Jolrael's Centaur. These
versions are slower than the archetypes, and weaker in general for lack
of the powerful Erhnam Djinn, but tend to place far more highly in
tournaments where white is the dominant color.

TURBO STASIS

Turbo Stasis is a relatively new addition to the family of archetype
decks, making a huge splash in last year's US Nationals. Mike Long
and Matt Place placed in the final 4, and Jon Finkel did well for
America with this deck at the World Championships. (Ironically, Jon
lost to Tommi Hovi, who was also running Turbo Stasis).

Turbo Stasis uses Howling Mines to draw a large number of cards
(primarily lands and blue permission) to feed and protect the Stasis
once it is on the board. With Kismet also in play, the Kismet + Stasis
lock, backed up by Howling Mines, Boomerang, and Despotic Scepter,
establishes a position where the opponent will be able to do literally
nothing, eventually running out of cards because of the Howling Mine,
or dying to the Black Vise because his hand is constantly full and he
cannot cast any spells.

Playing against Turbo Stasis:

Turbo Stasis is a very elegant deck, and once the Kismet + Stasis lock
is on the board, the Stasis player will almost certainly win. However,
top players since this past summer have been consistently able to beat
the deck, because they knew its weaknesses. Turbo Stasis absolutely
needs its Howling Mines to win. Without them, it cannot draw
sufficient land to keep the Kismet + Stasis lock alive, because of
Stasis's upkeep cost. Destroying the Howling Mines usually means
getting free card advantage and keeping the Stasis player from locking
his opponent. Also, Winter Orbs tend to be problematic for the Stasis
player. Even if he Boomerangs or buries the Stasis, a Winter Orb
keeps the Stasis player from being able to untap his lands. This is a
dangerous spot for him to play from, because the Stasis is that player's
primary line of defense.

Variations on Turbo Stasis:

Because Turbo Stasis requires so many cards to be exactly what they
are, very little variation is possible even within the deck archetype. The
only difference between two Turbo Stasis decks might be their land
distribution, whether one uses Lim-Dul's Vault or Enlightened Tutor,
or whether one player uses Black Vise or simply tries to deplete the
enemy's library.

WHITE WEENIE

White Weenie is an extremely straightforward creature deck. It relies
on white's undercosted creatures, like White Knight and the Fallen
Empires and Ice Age "pump" Knights to deal damage quickly and
efficiently. These decks are sometimes supplemented with Kjeldoran
Outpost for long-term damage capability, and Armageddon for some
measure of control over the pace of the game. The current World
Champion, Tom Chanpheng used White Weenie to earn his crown, and
Bill Macy used another variant to reach this year's US Open semifinals.

Playing against White Weenie:

White Weenie is a dangerous deck because it appears very
straightforward, yet uses extremely potent cards and a direct, but
cerebral, strategy to win. It is well-matched against almost every deck
type, but is not particularly dominant against any one. Beating this
deck usually involves global sorceries like Wrath of God, which
removes a large number of the White Weenie player's cards at once, or
fighting back with bigger creatures, such as Erhnam Djinn. White
Weenie is notoriously capable of dealing 19 or so damage in the first
five turns of a game, but unable to deal the last point. It is fair to say
that this deck (along with Necropotence) is the strongest in the early
game, but it loses a great deal of momentum in the mid- and late-
games. At those stages of the game, the opponent will almost certainly
have potent defenses to stop the White Weenie player's small creatures.

Variations on White Weenie:

There are a number of variations on the White Weenie strategy. Some
use Winter Orbs to slow down the opponent's mana production,
theorizing that they themselves need only 1-2 mana per turn to run.
Others use Zur's Weirding to establish a lock, and keep the opponent
from being able to reach or cast his most powerful defenses. This
version is especially potent in combination with Kjeldoran Outpost.
The very best White Weenie decks use white removal cards of their
own, such as Wrath of God, to return to parity once their advantage
has been taken away.

I hope this (too long) post was of some help, and I know I probably left
out some important decks, but nobody's perfect.

Mike Flores