Gifts Ungiven

Good Color Midrange, Geoff Fletcher (139th place)

Geoff Fletcher's deck got a shout-out in the Tournament Center coverage for looking suspiciously like a Standard deck, with one opponent being incredulous about the fact that he was getting beaten down by Battlegrace Angels and Rhox War Monks. This deck is an interesting take on the midrange approach, featuring highly efficient creatures, many with useful effects, and a suit of tempo and board control cards to hopefully let those same creatures keep swinging. The sideboard is heavily tilted against Affinity and to a lesser extent Zoo, which suggests that Geoff may have run afoul of Elves in the course of day two, leading to a relatively weak finish from a stronger start. Appropriately tuned, this deck could do even better.

Martyr, Kim Valori (111th place)

What do you do when you think you'll be playing Zoo all day? Martyr! Kim Valori's Martyr build eschews the Tron-based approach used in post-Worlds-2006 MartyrTron decks, instead, relying on initial lifegain from the Martyr in combination with Ranger of Eos to grab more Martyrs to keep you alive long enough to hit the late game where Proclamation-based Martyr recursion can kick in. Notably, Valori's deck also features quadruple Glittering Wish for a multicolored wishboard, a theme we'll return to later today. Valori didn't go all-in on the wishboard idea, though, with only about half of the cards in the sideboard being accessible via Wish.

Retrace Rock, Tom Keren (95th place)

At first glance, you might be inclined to remind Tom that he left out the Death Clouds, but this take on a card-advantage-heavy midrange build is fascinating for featuring a number of offbeat choices. Standing in as a sort of "Iniquitous Deed", Crime/Punishment will see the most use in its Punishment guise, sweeping part, but not all, of the opponent's board. Tom is clearly leaning on use and reuse of lands to build card advantage, with a full quarter of Life from the Loam powering five retrace cards and working hand-in-hand with Tranquil thickets and Barren Moors. Note also the two Blackmail in the sideboard that can be applied after an opponent's hand has been whittled down via Thoughtseize and Raven's Crime, making them effectively Thoughtseizes five and six.

Spire Golem Control, Andre Coimbra (94th place)

Andre Coimbra frequently brings atypical decks to tournaments, and he didn't disappoint this time around, either. This is a very straightforward mono-blue deck, packed with a mix of card advantage, a "best of" of Extended countermagic, and a handful of creatures to win the game. I really enjoy how focused Andre's sideboard is, with three four-of packages that can come in to deal with Affinity (Hurkyl's Recall), Zoo (Threads), and Elves (Trickbind), complimenting the tools that already exist in the deck for that purpose. I have no idea how Andre actually did against Elves, but with four Stifles in the main and quad Trickbind in the side, he surely wasn't looking to allow any triggers to resolve on his watch.

Bant Midrange, Jorge Alarcon (93rd place)

Jorge Alarcon's deck is a white-blue-green ("Bant") midrange build that combines tough, efficient critters with spot removal and tempo control in the form of Bant Charm and Remand. It also runs the potentially game-icing combination of Worship and Troll Ascetic. I watched that combination just completely wreck an Affinity deck in the last Extended PTQ season (made all the more entertaining in that case because the Affinity player was confident that his deck could "handle anything", and looked aghast when Worship came down with Ascetic out). Jorge's plan is pretty straightforward -- lay down efficient creatures, keep you off your plan, beat you to death.

Affinity, Surachas Boonyasatian (87th place)

One of the "victims" of pre-tournament metagame discussion was assuredly Affinity. Viewed by many as the deck with the most absolute power -- much like Dredge of last year -- Affinity was also eschewed as being too easily hated out -- also like Dredge of last year. I saw some conversations revolving around attempting new versions of Erayo Affinity, or a similar Ethersworn Affinity, or the combined Erayo-Ethersworn deck that can potentially simply lock a non-Affinity opponent out of the game. Boonyasatian's take on Affinity doesn't maindeck any combos, instead adding in two Soul's Fires to play the role of Fling, letting the deck finish off the opponent in one explosive turn (and unlike other "Fling" style cards, you get to keep the critter aftward). This looks like a very solid build for Affinity, one that ought to do well in many metagames.

Dredge, Armin Birner (73rd place)

No longer the utter wrecking ball it was before rotation, Dredge is about a turn slower -- and in this environment, being a turn slower may have meant losing consistently to Elves. It also loses some durability with the loss of Ichorid as well. This current build really, really wants to open on a Chrome Mox to allow a first-turn Dredge enabler, in the form of Magus, Glimpse, or Ideas Unbound, and that's just a little too fragile for my taste. On the upside, you're not nearly as likely to get hated out this year as you were last year.

Disruptive Zoo, Alex Majlton (52nd place)

The word "Blightning" caught my eye as I scrolled through the deck lists, so I backed up and took a more careful look at this Zoo build played by Alex Majlaton. With both Blightning and Sculler in the deck, Majlton clearly hopes to bundle bonus disruption into his aggro at the cost of some fraction of tempo. I'd imagine that, especially in game one, losing two cards to a surprise turn three Blightning would be a potentially game-ending problem for many decks (especially if we imagine the dream play of turn one Isamaru, turn two Sculler, turn three Blightning). At at tournament where the majority of Zoo decks were shot down on day one, Majlaton and his disruptive build made a respectable day two showing.

Next Level Gifts, Patrick Chapin (50th place)

Chapin was the sole member of the "super team" (the same one that LSV was working with) to decide not to go on the Elves plan. As he explains in the Deck Tech for this deck, he already had this deck in mind when he joined up with the team, and although he liked testing with them, he preferred this control build to their combo design. Chapin's Gifts deck employs an exciting intersection of tutors, with both Gifts Ungiven and Glittering Wish in the maindeck at four and three copies, respectively. There are a number of Gifts packages (e.g. "Explosives, Firespout, Wrath, Witness") in the maindeck, as well as a wishboard of hybrid and gold cards to grab with the Glittering Wishes. Overall, the deck seems as if it might be a little on the slow side, but with triple Engineed Explosives, you have a decent chance of Explosives in the opening hand, and a first-turn Explosives for 1 can really blunt the Elves deck's offense. I like tutoring for stuff, and I like solution-based control, so this deck is really pleasing to me.

Blue-black Tron, Shouta Yasooka (31st place)

I'm an avowed Shouta fan, chiefly for his combination of quirky deck choices and success in piloting them to actual victories. Apparently, a day ahead of the event he decided that the deck to use was blue-black Tron, and this is what he came up with. Victory conditions in the maindeck include double Sundering Titan and a Triskelion, along with double Mindslaver. Perhaps more important for PT Berlin, Shouta's Tron deck packed a full four Chalice of the Void, along with double Damnation and Engineered Explosives (with even more stuff hanging out in the sideboard). The Chalice is especially brutal, as this deck can kick out a turn one Chalice for one, effectively stalling an Elves deck until it can find a Viridian Shaman to dig its way out.