GP New Jersey Post Mortem: This Time It's Contained
I'm back from GP New York/New Jersey and I would like to start off with a very simple "Haha, told you so." Looking over the current metagame, I was correct on 5 out of 8 decks I predicted to be in the top 8. Last week I said there would be two UR Delver Decks. Well there was. The American — some of you kids call it Jeskai — Stoneblade deck was a UR Delver variant with the addition of Stoneforge Mystic, Swords to Plowshares, and sideboard — sigh — this thing:
I knew I was in for a long day when I was sitting in the VIP section and I watched Brian Braun-Duin buying eight of these annoying cards from people. SCG allows their players to borrow anything they have in stock, but they don't open sealed product to take out singles.
BBD bought Containment Priest for $40 a piece. I think this is cheap: It may just be the most important Legacy cards ever made. To put this in perspective, when True-Name Nemesis was released last year about a week before Grand Prix Washington DC (which was actually somewhere out in the middle of nowhere Virginia), it didn't stop people from playing decks. You didn't say to yourself "Oh no, TNN is out, I can no longer play dec.dec."
Talking to a judge at the event, he and I both agreed this is one of the worst cards ever released. It is a do-all sideboard card that beats Sneak and Show, Elves, Reanimator, Dredge, and a host of other decks. What is scarier is that you can maindeck this card. With Snapcaster Mage seeing less and less play, this seems like the perfect flash creature to pair with a Stoneforge Mystic and shove an Umezawa's Jitte on. Just think of the impact Restoration Angel had on all our lives when that card was released.
But enough about terrible cards.
My last article was correct with one Storm deck making the Top 8. I don't know how, I don't know why, but regardless of how much hate there might be, Storm always manages to find a way.
The other decks I predicted were also present. I don't know if you guys remember when people started playing Delver-Less Delver decks in standard, but a lot of these UW or UW/r variants are what Miracles was, just much better and more consistent. I mean it's very simple, Here is a list of good cards: Stoneforge Mystic, True-Name Nemesis, Sensei's Divining Top, Force of Will and Counterbalance.
It just happens that those cards are in blue and white. Just tweak it so it can be fast enough to compete with the UR Delvers and other aggressive decks in the world and you have the new Miracles incarnations. To be honest, even though there were 2-copies of classic-style Miracle decks in the Top 8, Miracles just isn't good anymore.
You saw this coming. Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull started as 2-of's in Miracles sideboards. Then they moved to the maindeck, and then people started putting their Terminus's, (or is it Termuni?) in the sideboard. It just turns out that Batterskull is more efficient than hoping to hit a Terminus off the top. Crazy idea. Who would have thought that?
MUD and Infect both made the Top 8. Infect is the new Elves: A very explosive deck that took advantage of the lack of Wastelands being played. It is usually a turn three kill in real life, but to be honest, it's not the best deck. It's not even a good deck. It's a deck that got lucky UR Delver doesn't play Wasteland.
Now back to MUD, the deck that everyone forgot existed. But it wasn't the actual MUD deck that was interesting. It was the true breakout card of GP NY/NJ:
In my first 3 rounds, all three decks were playing Chalice of the Void. I loved that card when I was playing Tezzeret, but now it's just too good. When 90% of the cards you are playing against are 1-cmc, it's better than counterbalance. My first three matchups were against MUD (the deck that ended up in the Top 8), Goblin Stompy, and Affinity. All of these decks had the full compliment of Chalice of the Void either in the maindeck or sideboard.
What made it worse for me is that I was playing Reanimator, a deck with 13 lands and a curve consisting of 1-drops, 5-drops, and 8-drops. Chalice of the void made me feel like I was in prison. It was just painful.
After the results of this weekend, UR Delver will be the new fad. As long as this fad is around, Chalice will be popping up everywhere in bulk, and it's a very definite buy for the mtgfinance world. Or in my case, I sold the 25 or 30ish I own since the vendors were overpaying FOR EVERYTHING. It was kind of insane. Just be careful of the switch from UR Delver to "American Delver-less Miracle-less Miracles" since it's a transition we are starting to see right now.
I was also very surprised to not see Death and Taxes in the Top 8. I know a lot of people playing it that day 2'd, but sadly it doesn't play True-Name Nemesis. I think if it did, it would have had a much better chance at winning.
Now I kind of put my reputation on the line last week when I said that Jund would be a very good choice at GP NY/NJ. Turns out I was right. There were tons of Punishing Fire style decks running around, whether it was Jund or Punishing Maverick. Overall it had very good results and posted a very strong overall performance. You can see this by just looking at the current card prices. Punishing Fire wasn't present in any Top 8 deck, but look at this:
Grove of the Burnwillows is the only Legacy card not featured in the Top 8 to skyrocket in price. It's up a nice 45% on the week. But if you made money on this, sell. Then rebuy. Because we all know in any economic market, Bears make money, Bulls make money, Pigs get slaughtered.
For those of you who didn't attend the GP, know that Burn was everywhere. Maybe as much as 10% of the field. It's one of the cheapest decks so it's always represented at Legacy events. It was annoying but it didn't perform well. Nobody likes playing against Red Deck Wins, and if you want to learn Legacy, don't do so playing mono-red burn.
So this Legacy GP was a wash for me. But I should have known bringing Reanimator to a GP at this point in time is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Kids, just don't do it.
Next week I'll go over where all the money from KTK went. Well there wasn't any in the set to begin with, but I'll try to help you get the most out of KTK so you can make some of them sweet sweet modo tickets. I will also talk about the very short life and death of the Modern Format.
For now I want to show you a Legacy deck that I find hilarious.
I never said it was a good deck. It's just a fun deck.
Remember, I am TERROl2 on Twitch. I will be trying to fix Sneak and Show for a while and then switch to playing some Legacy Cube starting Wednesday. And yes, I do force Stax. Nothing is more fun than drafting Bitterblossom, into Skullclamp, into Smokestack, into Lingering Souls, and to top it all off, Armageddon.
