duuuuuuuuuuuuuude

-Greg

So, Gen Con PTQs, all told, would've cost us around $120 each. Per tournament.

So we bailed.

On the plus side, there are two more PTQs this season within driving distance of us: Detroit and Des Moines. We're not sure if we're going to either at this point, but we normally don't make up our minds until a few days before anyway.

Anyway, if you guys are in the area, Brenna and I will be going to FNM this weekend at the Lich's Lair in Lansing, IL. We'll also probably be doing an M10 sealed at our place Saturday, so if anyone wants in on it just message me. Good luck finding M10 packs!

So, anyway, about decks: I have no idea what to do in Standard right now. Control decks are huge right now, and so a deck should take advantage of the glacial speed of a deck full of Vivids. On the other side of the coin, this prevelance of control means a deck has to be able to beat the fast aggro decks that crop up to take advantage of the metagame. The major sweepers going around happen at three mana (red sweepers like Fallout and Jund Charm), or five or six (white sweepers like Austere Command and Hallowed Burial), so if has a lot of creatures, it has to be able to get past turn three without losing position, and either win by or be able to recover from a turn five reset. You should also try to minimize the scale to which the biggest kill spells affect you.

In short, a deck has to be fast, have a powerful mid and late game, and be extremely resilient to destructive and disruptive tactics - basically, a deck has to be able to do anything, and recover from anything. This deck doesn't exist.

But there is one that's close. Elf Combo is good. Forge-Tender helps with the early sweepers, while cheap, efficient elves and massive card draw help recover from total resets. Cruel Ultimatum is nothing to you, as you can pitch a cheap dork to it, and if in a good position, you should be able to shrug off the life and card disadvantage. Primal Command is an enormous pain for tap-lands, and with all the accel you can get it off on turn turn three or four on a regular basis. Against aggro, you have plent of your own dorks to chump block, and Primal Command can be used to gain gratuitous amounts of life. Speaking of gratuitious amounts of life, I've been adding Soul Warden lately. I gained 25 life in one turn earlier today using Primals and one Warden.

The most important part is a splash for one card: Banefire. Banefire will flat out give you games that you have no business of winning by keeping you from having to wait a turn to rush your million elves in. It also fights through Cryptic Commands by simply blowing your opponent out in the first main phase, because chances are, they'll sand-bag it to tap your team down. Running a single mountain main might not be the best idea, but it allows you to fetch your red source from an opposing Path to Exile, which frees up your Manamorphs to help you get through your deck more quickly.

Here's the list I'm rocking at FNM tomorrow:

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
12 [IN] Forest (3)
3 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
2 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
1 [UNH] Mountain

// Creatures
4 [ALA] Elvish Visionary
4 [MOR] Heritage Druid
4 [R] Llanowar Elves
4 [EVE] Nettle Sentinel
4 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
4 [EVE] Regal Force
4 [M10] Elvish Archdruid
1 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 [SHM] Devoted Druid
1 [M10] Soul Warden

// Spells
1 [CFX] Banefire
4 [SHM] Manamorphose
4 [LRW] Primal Command

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender
SB: 4 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 3 [LRW] Cloudthresher
SB: 1 [M10] Naturalize
SB: 4 [SHM] Guttural Response