Road to States

The 2001 Magic State / Province / Territory / Island Championships (November 11 & 12). DCI-sanctioned Standard (Type II) Tournament. 

The New Type 2 - Justin Pearson 

 Lets take a look at the new type 2 environment on November 1: Everything will slow down a bit with most of the speed hitters, namely Blastoderm, Saproling Burst, the Rebel chain, Chimeric Idol will all leave Type 2. So that means some new interesting decks might work in this environment. A deck I have been testing is a U/B/G deck, it has tested really well, and from what I have gathered as many of you have the new type 2 will be all Blue just like IBC was in the last couple months. Lets take a look at deck I have been working on:      

Creatures (14)

4 Gaea’s Skyfolk ( quick beats)
3 Vodalian Zombie( pro green , can block an opponents Shadowmage Infiltrator )
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator( insane card drawer )
3 Spiritmonger ( beef in the deck )

                                    Spells (22)
4 Counterspell ( good ol’ counterspell )
4 Recoil ( great bounce, never a dead card )
3 Fact or Fiction( runs through your deck, hands down the best card drawer  in type 2 )
4 Duress ( early protection from opponents counterspells , Fact or Fiction and other mean spells)
4 Undermine ( another counterspell but with a neat little bonus )
3 Pernicious Deed ( may not be the best with all the little creatures in the deck but it is worth it.)          

Lands (24)
4 Underground River
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Salt Marsh
5 Island
3 Swamp


        Some of the rares in the deck may be difficult to get your hands on but your deck will benefit so much for having power cards like Undermine , Shadowmage Infiltrator ,etc.. If you cant get some of these cards you could use substitutes such as Thieving Magpie in place of the Infiltrators , basic  lands instead of Apocolype pain lands.  It might be hard to find a replacement for Spiritmonger but for this case Kavu Chameleon will do just fine. Pernicious Deed may be replaced with another power Enchantment like Phyrexian Arena or can be removed for more counter such as Mystic Snake. Mystic Snake might not be as powerful as Pernicious Deed but you cant go wrong with adding 4 more counterspells to your deck.  Lets look at a much easier (but still powerful) deck to build:            

 Creatures
4 Gaea’s Skyfolk
3 Vodalian Zombie
3 Thieving Magpie
3 Kavu Chameleon
4 Mystic Snake

 Spells
4 Counterspell
4 Recoil
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Duress
3 Force Spike

 Lands
4 Underground River
4 Llanowar Wastes

4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Salt Marsh

5 Island
3 Swamp

Now lets talk about Sideboarding options for this deck. I think another Spiritmonger is a must against other creature heavy decks. One card that definitely should go in is Tsabo’s Web; the reason for this is I have seen a lot of Squirrel – Opposition decks around my area. The web stops the squirrel nest land from untaping and that can be a lot if they get both that and Opposition out. I would try four Blurred Mongoose in the sideboard, it is uncounterable, untargetable, and I would gladly trade my Blurred Mongoose for an opponents Meddling Mage in combat. Another Pernicious Deed should go in the sideboard to be sided in against other creature heavy decks. Persecute is a perfect fit to be sided in against most blue decks. Here is the sideboard I have thrown together:

1 Spiritmonger
2 Tsabo’s Web
4 Blurred Mongoose
1 Pernicious Deed
4 Persecute
3 Jungle Barrier 

Now remember that this sideboard is for my area, you might want to change it if your area favors a certain deck type. Never copy a sideboard exactly of any website because all of them are mostly for a different part of the country or in this case even the world.

Thanks for reading my article and if you have any questions, comments or a deck you would like me to work on my e-mail is Quiksand666@aol.com. I am on a lot so if you have AIM I will most likely be on.

Thanks,