Standard

Choosing a Deck for Provincials & States 2012

The 2012 State & Provincial Championships are this weekend. States was the first large MTG tournament I ever attended back in 2006, when the original Ravnica block was Standard legal. It wasn’t a great performance for me by any means (I went 5-3 and finished 37th), but the important thing was that it got me wanting to go to more tournaments.

Over 60 Standard events are going to be held across the continent on Saturday and Sunday, just a week after rotation. This makes preparing for Provincials/States a unique task.

Card availability is still going to be an issue for some players. The metagame in each area will be different, and even if you have some idea of your region’s tendencies, it’s impossible to predict what kind of brews people will come up with.

The accessibility of these tournaments attract local players of varying experience levels, and, on the West Coast especially, I have to imagine that many of the more competitive players will be attending the first team Grand Prix in years, happening in San Jose on the same weekend. (For this same reason, I want to talk about tournament preparation in a more general sense, as well as get into specifics.)

If your goal this weekend is to claim the title of Provincial or State Champion, how should you go about choosing and tuning a deck?

Know Thyself

When deciding on a deck, think about yourself as a player. What are your favorite cards? What type of strategies do you know best, have the most experience with, actually enjoy playing? Knowing shortcuts like this will help new and experienced players alike.

Winning is one thing, but having fun while doing it can help your confidence, emotions, and comfort level during the tournament. Ultimately, I would always suggest playing what you want to play; this is especially true for a tournament like Provincials/States.

The top decklists from last week’s SCG Cincinnati and TCG Hartford offer good starting points for the format. We saw plenty of different strategies have success over the weekend, from Todd Anderson’s UWR Control to Joe Bernal’s BR Aggro, and numerous decks inbetween.

Let’s say that you want all-out aggression – this is the list I would recommend.

BR Zombies

4 [card]Gravecrawler[/card]
4 [card]Diregraf Ghoul[/card]
4 [card]Rakdos Cackler[/card]
4 [card]Highborn Ghoul[/card]
4 [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card]
3 [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card]

4 [card]Pillar of Flame[/card]
4 [card]Bump in the Night[/card]
4 [card]Searing Spear[/card]
3 [card]Brimstone Volley[/card]

4 [card]Blood Crypt[/card]
4 [card]Dragonskull Summit[/card]
3 [card]Rakdos Guildgate[/card]
11 [card]Swamp[/card]

Sideboard:
3 [card]Appetite for Brains[/card]
3 [card]Dreadbore[/card]
3 [card]Rakdos Charm[/card]
3 [card]Skirsdag High Priest[/card]
1 [card]Underworld Connections[/card]
2 [card]Sever the Bloodline[/card]

If [card]Bump in the Night[/card] excites you, then this is the deck for you. This deck has the ability to close games quickly, and requires your opponent to come up with answers fast, making it a good choice for a wide-open metagame like Provincials/States. It’s more consistent than Jund Zombies, and, as good as [card]Lotleth Troll[/card] is in the BG version, I like the deceptive ability to burn people out when they think they might have another turn to live.

Joe Bernal made Top 4 in Cincinnati with an update of BR Zombies from old Standard into a sleeker, high-velocity weapon with the help of an additional 2-power one-drop. [card]Rakdos Guildgate[/card] as a third dual land shouldn’t be understated, though I cut down to 3 Guildgates and 3 Aristocrats to help keep us from getting bottlenecked at the top of our curve. I also replaced [card]Blood Artist[/card] with Highborn Ghoul; I felt that [card]Blood Artist[/card] was often a lackluster Turn 2 play, especially with Terminus, [card]Pillar of Flame[/card], and [card]Detention Sphere[/card] as primary removal spells. [card]Highborn Ghoul[/card] can force through an adequate amount of damage, got a lot better with the loss of Gut Shot, and is another Zombie for [card]Gravecrawler[/card].

I want relatively cheap, but powerful cards for the sideboard of this kind of deck. [card]Appetite for Brains[/card] is our best way to stop a [card]Thragtusk[/card] from happening. I like [card]Rakdos Charm[/card] for graveyard hate over [card]Tormod’s Crypt[/card] or Cremate, since the damage mode can help deal the last few points we might need. It also gives us an answer to [card]Witchbane Orb[/card], since our reach is important and our creatures aren’t able to do all the work on their own. [card]Skirsdag High Priest[/card] can break an Aggro mirror, and a 5/5 Flying body is especially good in this format.

What if Control is more your style?

UWR Control

2 [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]

4 [card]Jace, Architect of Thought[/card]
2 [card]Tamiyo, the Moon Sage[/card]

4 [card]Pillar of Flame[/card]
4 [card]Think Twice[/card]
4 [card]Azorius Charm[/card]
2 [card]Syncopate[/card]
3 [card]Detention Sphere[/card]
1 [card]Supreme Verdict[/card]
4 [card]Terminus[/card]
3 [card]Entreat the Angels[/card]
1 [card]Devil’s Play[/card]

4 [card]Hallowed Fountain[/card]
4 [card]Steam Vents[/card]
4 [card]Glacial Fortress[/card]
4 [card]Clifftop Retreat[/card]
3 [card]Sulfur Falls[/card]
3 [card]Plains[/card]
3 [card]Island[/card]
1 [card]Desolate Lighthouse[/card]

Sideboard:
2 [card]Purify the Grave[/card]
2 [card]Negate[/card]
2 [card]Sundering Growth[/card]
3 [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card]
2 [card]Dissipate[/card]
2 [card]Supreme Verdict[/card]
2 [card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card]

This is the safest bet for a Control deck to do well at Provincials/States. It has the best answers to Zombies, and can pull wins out of nowhere with a Miracle’d Terminus or [card]Entreat the Angels[/card]. Todd Anderson’s winning list from Cincinnati is so straightforward in its core strategy that I feel like more people will weaken the deck by adding things that aren’t necessary. The only change that I made was adding 1 [card]Devil’s Play[/card] for 1 [card]Detention Sphere[/card] to diversify our win conditions a bit. I like the sideboard plan as it is. For less-experienced players, note that it’s important to be able to play quickly with this deck, since games can go fairly long.

Those two decks are the two extremes of the new format, but what if you prefer a more mid-range creature strategy?

GW Midrange

4 [card]Avacyn’s Pilgrim[/card]
3 [card]Arbor Elf[/card]
3 [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card]
4 [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card]
4 [card]Restoration Angel[/card]
2 [card]Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice[/card]
4 [card]Thragtusk[/card]
1 [card]Sigarda, Host of Herons[/card]
1 [card]Armada Wurm[/card]

4 [card]Rancor[/card]
4 [card]Call of the Conclave[/card]
3 [card]Selesnya Charm[/card]

4 [card]Temple Garden[/card]
4 [card]Sunpetal Grove[/card]
9 [card]Forest[/card]
2 [card]Plains[/card]
2 [card]Cavern of Souls[/card]
2 [card]Gavony Township[/card]

Sideboard:
4 [card]Knight of Glory[/card]
2 [card]Rest in Peace[/card]
2 [card]Ray of Revelation[/card]
3 [card]Centaur Healer[/card]
2 [card]Oblivion Ring[/card]
2 [card]Garruk, Primal Hunter[/card]

This deck is proactive, doesn’t bother playing any narrow cards, and can recover easily from removal with Rancor and [card]Gavony Township[/card]. I prefer a Green/White list over something like Jund. While [card]Olivia Voldaren[/card] has already proven to be one of the most powerful threats to watch out for in the new format, there isn’t a clear picture of what a Jund deck should look like and I don’t think it can compete yet with the explosive power of BR Zombies. White offers better lifegain with [card]Centaur Healer[/card] and Trostani, and we can out-muscle Zombies’ creatures with [card]Call of the Conclave[/card] and [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card]. [card]Thragtusk[/card] plus [card]Restoration Angel[/card] is simply one of the better interactions in Standard, and this is the perfect shell for it.

This list is one based off of Jason Lemay’s Top 4 deck from TCG Hartford. I subtracted a sometimes-difficult-to-cast [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card] for 1 [card]Selesnya Charm[/card] (which might even be a 4-of due to its awesome amount of utility). I also adjusted the manabase to make room for 2 [card]Cavern of Souls[/card], which aren’t helping to fix our mana much but are important to force our Angels and Beasts through counterspells. I also made room in the sideboard for [card]Ray of Revelation[/card] with [card]Detention Sphere[/card] being heavily played.

We might also want to consider a Black splash – the mana is doable, and [card]Golgari Charm[/card] would give us a great answer to [card]Knight of Infamy[/card], [card]Detention Sphere[/card], and [card]Supreme Verdict[/card] all in one card.

And if you’re a Combo player – or just like to go big – this one’s for you.

Junk Rites

4 [card]Avacyn’s Pilgrim[/card]
3 [card]Arbor Elf[/card]
1 [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card]
2 [card]Borderland Ranger[/card]
3 [card]Restoration Angel[/card]
4 [card]Thragtusk[/card]
4 [card]Angel of Serenity[/card]

4 [card]Grisly Salvage[/card]
4 [card]Mulch[/card]
4 [card]Lingering Souls[/card]
4 [card]Unburial Rites[/card]

4 [card]Temple Garden[/card]
4 [card]Overgrown Tomb[/card]
3 [card]Sunpetal Grove[/card]
2 [card]Woodland Cemetery[/card]
5 [card]Forest[/card]
2 [card]Plains[/card]
1 [card]Swamp[/card]
1 [card]Gavony Township[/card]
1 [card]Vault of the Archangel[/card]

Sideboard:

2 [card]Duress[/card]
2 [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card]
3 [card]Centaur Healer[/card]
2 [card]Oblivion Ring[/card]
2 [card]Divine Reckoning[/card]
1 [card]Rhox Faithmender[/card]
1 [card]Vraska the Unseen[/card]
2 [card]Angel of Glory’s Rise[/card]

It didn’t take long for me to realize how insane [card]Angel of Serenity[/card] is, once it was in play against me. It turns out that she gets even more insane in multiples. This deck can reanimate a Turn 3 Angel, or simply hard-cast one while buying time with [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and [card]Thragtusk[/card]. Again, we see [card]Thragtusk[/card] and [card]Restoration Angel[/card] together to great effect.

This is the exact maindeck registered by Joel Paradee and Bryan Gottlieb, who both made the Top 8 at TCG Hartford. A more erratic list by Chris Weidinger went undefeated in the Swiss and came in 2nd at SCG Cincinnati. I prefer Paradee and Gottlieb’s list because has more things to do in the early turns, as well as the ability to go off a turn faster with its mana creatures.

[card]Divine Reckoning[/card] is a nice addition out of the sideboard, as is [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] against the mirror and to make sure that Zombies stay dead. I cut the [card]Ranger’s Path[/card]s as I’d rather have the sideboard slots to pack more hate cards, though having more ramp after sideboarding is an interesting idea.

Know Thine Enemy

There are plenty of other known archetypes that had some success last week, but I feel need even more tuning, are inferior versions of other decks, or are just not well-positioned. These include BG or Jund Zombies, Jund Midrange, Humans, Delver, and Bant Control. It’s still worth considering these other decks, if only to know what to expect when matched against one of them.

Know what other decks are capable of, what technology they’re using, and you won’t be caught wildly off-guard. Have clear, thought-out sideboard plans for the popular matchups. Learn what other decks’ sideboard plans are against you, and play or adjust accordingly. If you brew your own deck for Provincials/States, make sure that what you are doing is good on its own or in the context of the format.

To everyone playing at the State & Provincial Championships – good luck!

Alex Bianchi
Gemmanite on Twitter and MTGO

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