Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
  …
  …
  This is the second time I've written this article, article #4, but the first time it really was just me blathering on for 4 Word document pages about how good Hyper-Awesomeness is, and, it is in fact that good.  For a little picture of just how good, I'll tell you that I've won 2 extended tournaments with it, losing 4 games and only 1 match, true story.

  The match I lost was to the Scapeshift combo deck that plays 8+ Counter Spells BEFORE sideboard.  And counters, ESPECIALLY Remand, are very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very bad for Hyper-Awesomeness.

  However, I do feel as though one story from this past tournament, about a sick beat I took, does warrant sharing.  Let me set the scene for you, it's EOT 5 of the second game, a terrible game in my opinion because the Hypergenesis deck should have killed my opponent dead already, my opponent Wayne has Garruk Wildspeaker in play and ready to 'Overrun' on his next turn.  I cast Thirst for Knowledge trying to put together a winner, and I DO.  So on turn 6 I cast my cascade spell into Hypergenesis and drop: Sundering Titan, Hellkite Charger (still should have been Hellkite Overlord!!!!!), Bogardan Hellkite, and Magister Sphinx!  In case you did not know THIS GAME SHOULD BE OVER RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Spinx nugs Wayne down to 10, Bogardan Hellkite puts him at 5 and since he doesn't have a flier Hellkite Charger SHOULD kill him on attack. But Wayne, who played Ravenous Baloth x2, Terra Stomper and 3 lands when Hypergenesis resolved, boarded in FOG. !@#$%^& FOG.  On his turn he blew Garruk (hehe) and attacked, for approximately 7,123,032 damage.

  Yeah, I got blown out, FULL ON BLOWN OUT.
 
  Then in game 3 I killed Wayne on turn 3!!!!!!!!!!! Jerk.

  The point of this being 2 fold:
1) Everyone loves a good bad beat story
2) And in January Extended PTQs start

  With PTQs firing up, we all need decks!  Well, you all need decks, I'm running the Awesomeness fo shizz!  In the format that was established at the extended PT and the Extended portion of Worlds we (and by we I mean me) know (and by know I mean think I'm right about) a few things.
1) Counterspells are few and far between (Remand IS the best card in the format but shhhhhh don't tell anyone).
2) There are a full on plethora of viable decks that just play dudes and turn them sideways of all different color combos, RGW, RGWUB, BRG, and on and on and on.

  Like on of theses 2 beauties:

Lands:
4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
3 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
3 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures:
4 Kird Ape
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wild Nacatl

Spells:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
2 Umezawa's Jitte

OR

Lands:
2 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Temple Garden
3 Treetop Village
2 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures:
4 Meddling Mage
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Vendilion Clique

Spells:
2 Bant Charm
4 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
3 Spell Snare
3 Umezawa's Jitte

Then there is Dredge... Yeah

Lands:
2 Breeding Pool
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave

Creatures:
1 Bloodghast
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
2 Greenseeker
4 Hedron Crab
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Magus of the Bazaar
4 Narcomoeba
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Stinkweed Imp

Spells:
4 Bridge from Below
1 Darkblast
4 Dread Return
4 Ideas Unbound
2 Life from the Loam
    
  (A complaint I've gotten about the articles thus far is that I've only mentioned my dear friend Bryan Berghorn 1 time.  Since we are talking about a deck with Life from the Loam in it, I finally have another reason to talk about the limited mastermind.  Come back in time with me to Ravnica block, the day the first set is released, at Bryan's home, 6 boxes, 2 people, a few hours. When the bloodbath is all done Bryan and I are looking at a pile of cards bigger than a small infant, and in that pile of cards there are approximately 13 copies of Life from the Loam. I'll let Bizzle take it from here: “This is the worst [expletive] rare ever!  When in the [expletive] would you ever want to return 3 lands from your graveyard!!!!   [expletive] [expletive] [expletive]!  Yeah.  A few months later Bryan was casting Life from the Loam in a GP tournament, and he paid a bundle for them!!!)

  Dark Depths isn't as good as hyped cause the token just dies to everything.  However, don't get rid of your Vampire Hex Mages just yet, cause there is a new Planeswalker in town named Jace, the Opt/Brainstorm/Unsummon-er, and YES you're going to see that guy in extended.

Lands:
4 Dark Depths
1 Ghost Quarter
4 River of Tears
4 Sunken Ruins
1 Swamp
4 Tolaria West
2 Underground River
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Creatures:
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
3 Vendilion Clique

Spells:
3 Beseech the Queen
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
3 Engineered Explosives
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Repeal
4 Thoughtseize

  All-in-Red (I like to call this deck Balls Deep Red, that's just me though) is a nuisance against Hypergenesis but, in my opinion, not a real threat.

Lands:
18 Mountain

Creatures:
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Deus of Calamity
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
    
Spells:
4 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
4 Desperate Ritual
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song

  People SHOULD be playing UR Dragonstorm.  I actually think the best (non-Awesomeness) deck in the format is UW Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek combo. Although, none too easy to just pick up and win with.

Lands:
1 Academy Ruins
4 Ancient Den
3 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
2 Plains
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Seat of the Synod

Spells:
3 Chrome Mox
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Mana Leak
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Path to Exile
4 Spell Snare
3 Sword of the Meek
3 Talisman of Progress
3 Tezzeret the Seeker
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Thopter Foundry
2 Wrath of God

 

  Scapeshift is dope, and powerful, and slightly too complicated for PTQing... (in the general scene, but if you're a master it could get you there.

Lands:
1 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Creatures:
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

Spells:
3 Condescend
2 Harrow
2 Magma Jet
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Ponder
4 Remand
2 Repeal
4 Rewind
4 Scapeshift
4 Search for Tomorrow

  You CAN still run Affinity (I don't recommend it unless there is a bunch of Dredge, but mentioning Affinity lets me tell 2 more sweet stories about dumb dumbs!                             

  Story 1: Evil Jared is running Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek (This deck needs a name that isn't so long... From now on the deck will be referred to as 0/1 Sword) and his opponent is running Ravager-less Affinity. The two combatants are in game 3, Jared has the combo all put together but not enough mana to actually put the game out of reach. They are about to reach time, and the Affinity player has Enforcer, Enforcer, Ornithopter and one of the 4/4's is wearing Cranial plating. The affinity player makes an attack with 2 Black mana up. Evil Jared blocks the 4/4's and leave the Ornithopter unblocked, only to get SMACKED for 9 damage when the Affinity player attaches the Plating at instant speed. The best part is the following exchange that happened right after blockers:
    Affinity player: “I'll attach Cranial Plating to Ornithopter.”
    EJ: “Umm you can only equip as a sorcery.”
    Affinity player: “Attach...”
    EJ: “You can do that?”
    EVERYONE WATCHING THE MATCH AT ARMADA GAMES: “YES, IDIOT” (only I said     idiot but everyone that knew was thinking it.)
    EJ: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MAN!!!!!!
    End scene... AMAZING

  Story 2: Serge is playing Mono Red Storm/Burn combo against Affinity (same player as EJ). It's game 1, Serge is at 15 and the Affinity player is off to a pretty slow start, but has 2 creatures ready to attack, 4 land (2 Black), and a Cranial Plating (1 Equipment, 2 Idiots!) Serge's plan is to let the equip go on the stack and bolt the guy the Affinity player targets. We know this is his plan because he shows everyone, but as he is going to bolt he pulls back, thinks, thinks, thinks, thinks, thinks, and concedes!  Sergio's reasoning?  “Well obviously I was going to bolt the guy but the Affinity player had 2 Black mana up so the Affinity player would just attach as a response to the bolt and the creature wouldn't die to the bolt damage... Yeah, I know what you're thinking, I was thinking the same thing...  For anyone confused, like Serge, Cranial plating gives +X/+0, and the bolt would have killed the creature.  The more important thing is Serge was at 15, and probably had the win in his hand, and was just like Scoops... GOD I LOVE MTG!!
 
  And I hate to be the guy who gives you crappy news immediately after smacking you with a pair of funny stories, but... Jund is probably at least a considerable maybe even top tier deck in extended too.

  Now I've told some stories, given some lists and now I'm going to wrap up saying something that is an almost universal fact in MTG: Formats begin aggro and as the season progresses generally become slower and more controlling.  This is important to take into consideration when looking at PTQing, because early on you're going to be able to get away with some things (turn 2 Hypergenesis for example) that once the format slows down you're not going to sniff.  And in this case, smack in the middle of the season we get a new set dropped into our laps.  So plan accordingly and watch the way the meta shifts so you can be prepared. And don't run Remand, cause it kills me, literally picks up a knife and shoves it into my brain, then chainsaws my body into chunks and feeds me to a pack of pigs.

  P.S.  All of the lists I posted went either 6-0 or 5-0-1 or 5-1 in the Extended portion of Worlds or were in the Top 8 of PT Austin. I didn't include sideboards because I believe the format will shift in a pretty good way a few weeks into the season and all boards will need to be adjusted accordingly.

  To discuss this article, head over our forums here.

< Prev		Next >