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Editor:Audrey Chin-Quan. Wednesday 6th July 2005.
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 How I made my deck for Regionals - by Ian Seet What deck shall I play for the upcoming tournament? It is a question that has plagued many a cardflopper since collectible card games have been in existence. Do you want to use a deck that gives you the best chance of winning? Do you want to play a deck that's suited to your style of play? Or do you just want to play a deck that allows you to have fun? I started pondering upon all these questions a mere two months ago, trying to decide which deck I wanted to take with me to Regionals. I wanted to use a deck that would answer "Yes" to the three questions I have posed above, or as close to an affirmative answer as possible. There were more questions than answers though: Do I have the cards to make the ideal deck I want to play? Will I be able to get all the cards in time? What if I make a deck and it just absolutely and positively sucks? Argh! So many questions...and I hadn't even started the process of MAKING the deck yet! Alright, some criteria to narrow down my choice of deck:
The very first criterion meant Big Red, Death Cloud, Beacon Green and Tooth and Nail were decks I wouldn't play, since I didn't have Arc Slogger, Death Cloud, Beacon of Creation, Plow Under, Tooth and Nail or any piece of the Urzatron. I went through my collection of cards to see what decks I could possibly build and came up with these archetypes: The first deck I dropped from consideration was Little Red. Although the deck finished the game faster than almost any other deck using a combination of quick efficient weenies and burn, I knew I wasn't going to have fun playing the deck, simply because I hated playing AGAINST it. While I loved the little intricacies of Cog decks and the way each component of the deck had synergy with the other cogs, I felt it would be a deck that would fall prey to the faster decks out there and get thoroughly thrashed by control decks. Similarly, Ninjas were out; I wanted to go either control or aggro, and not something that fell precariously in between. I eventually narrowed the choice down to two decks: Mono Blue Control (MUC) and White Weenie. MUC is a deck that suits my style of play to a tee. I like being able to control the board and decide when it is most opportune to go all out and decimate my opponent. On the flip side, White Weenie is a deck that I'm no stranger to either. One of the very first decks I made was a White Weenie deck that was made up of White Knights, Order of Leitbur, Swords to Plowshares, Balance, Serra Angels and Land Tax (the first ever deck, strangely enough, was a U/W Millstone deck). I decided to make both decks and give them each test-drives in constructed tournaments during the months of May and June. I started with the MUC deck; this one was fairly easy to build. My final build was very close to existing MUC decks that had garnered critical acclaim during French Regionals with a few changes in the main deck and an almost completely different sideboard. The MUC deck bombed out for me in the very first Standard Constructed tournament I played in at Gaming Knights (cheap plug: Geelong's premier gaming shop!), going 2-2, with losses to more aggressive red decks. Although I have loved MUC since nearly the start of my Magic-playing days, this deck seemed too reactive for my liking. I found that due to the success of MUC at French Regionals, most decks were prepared to play against it and had a sideboard dedicated specifically to thwart its game plan. Aggressive decks gave it a lot of trouble if I didn't have an active Vedalken Shackles and even when I did, good players knew how to play around it. I couldn't counter every spell and the likelihood of my opponent getting a few creatures into play while I set up the board was pretty high, which meant I needed to take a proactive approach in tapping out to deal with those creatures, leaving me tapped out for them to cast their nasty stuff like Boil. Although I came in 4th place that tournament, the deck just didn't feel right at all and following my own third criterion, I decided to ditch the deck and give White Weenie a go...after all, if White Weenie didn't work for me, I could always go back to the drawing board! In the first tournament with the White Weenie deck, I finished in 3rd place with a 2-1 record, losing my second round match against a Mono Red deck (which would be my bane and THE deck I hated the most). I beat a similar Mono Red deck a control deck during that tournament and did surprisingly well against both. With some proper tweaking, this could very well be my choice of deck! I made some minor tweaks to the deck and somehow managed to win the next Constructed tournament with it, beating three Mono Red decks on the path to victory. The deck bombed out for me in the next tournament though, finishing a lowly 6th place. Although the deck had some pre-sideboard game against Red decks, I had a shocking number of one-toughness creatures that died outright to a Night of Souls’ Betrayal and Hideous Laughter. I overhauled my creature base and made sure the deck wouldn't just roll over and die to Night of Souls’ Betrayal, keeping in mind that I still wanted the deck to be able to beat Red decks before side boarding. I did my final play testing two days before Victorian Regionals and placed 2nd, losing my first and only match against a Rats deck with a lot of fear creatures and a full complement of Umezawa's Jitte. The deck was finally ready!
The deck looks very janky on paper, but it works pretty efficiently. Not only does it fulfill all the conditions of my self-imposed criteria, it also answers in the affirmative for the three questions: The deck is rogue enough that people won't prepare too much against it and gives me a fair chance of winning often, it suits my style of play and it is fun to play (except Umezawa's Jitte made me feel dirty every time I put charge counters on it...but that's a completely different story). Hokori, Dust Drinker is an absolute monster to play against. Everyone I've played against hates the card when it comes into play, often when it is most advantageous to me. It locks the game up for me or denies my opponents mana they need to cast their own threats. I play the full complement of Kami of Ancient Law; even without it's nifty ability, it's still a 2/2 creature for 2 mana. The ability to nuke powerful enchantments in the vein of Night of Souls’ Betrayal, Phyrexian Arena, the Genjus and Heartbeat of Spring is a bonus! My flying Army consists of a playset of Leonin Skyhunters, arguably the most efficient 2/2 flyers in Standard, and 2 Lantern Kami and a single Suntail Hawk. With Echoing Decay also in the format, I'd rather to diversify my 1/1 flyers so that they don't get killed all at one go, and there's one more Lantern Kami simply because of the threat of Rend Flesh. The same diversification principle applies to the 2x Savannah Lions/1x Isamaru combination. If Isamaru were not a Legendary creature, I'd probably run more, just for that extra one toughness. All three are still efficient one-drops that could cause a lot of havoc against slower decks. Razor Golem is just a house; I don't know why people don't play with them more often. It's a 3/4 with Vigilance, it's the best creature in the deck to put an Umezawa's Jitte on, and it only costs you a grand price of three mana (assuming the lands are all 21x Plains). Other White Weenie builds use Chrome Moxen and have less 21x Plains main deck which might be the reason why Razor Golem doesn't see more play, but if you can fit such a powerful creature main deck, why not? Finally, the Auriok Champion. A controversial choice, perhaps, but I've found the life gain to be useful most of the time (WHEN I remember to gain life, that is) and it gives me game against Red decks, one deck archetype, I must reiterate, that I hate with a passion. Not too many Red decks have 4x Pyrite Spellbomb in the main or side, which makes Auriok Champion a very hard critter to kill. Worst case scenario: it's still a creature that can deliver beats and it can always be side boarded out after the first game. I've chosen not to use Chrome Mox simply because I'd rather keep my creatures/spells instead of removing them from the game, just for a little burst of speed. This deck isn't faster than other White Weenie builds, but has a better long-term plan against more controllish deck builds. Aether Vial takes the place of Chrome Mox...it's a tough card to stop and gives decks with counterspells all kinds of problems. Umezawa's Jitte is a card that has, or will warp the format. It should find its place in ANY deck that runs 12 or more creatures, simply because it's flexible and powerful. It gives decks like White Weenie some targeted point-and-click removal, makes your dudes bigger and gives you life if you need it. What's not to like about it? I hate playing against it, but at the same time, it's a card that wins games if undealt with. I'm running only three because it's Legendary and I can't find space to squeeze in one more. The Glorious Anthems are standard White Weenie fare. Promise of Bunrei is one of only two Saviors cards I have in the deck. It's the ultimate card to use against decks with mass-kill effects (with the exception of Oblivion Stone and Final Judgment) and in a pinch, I could always kill one of my own creatures with the Jitte, triggering the Bunrei and giving me four new 1/1 attackers/blockers. Three mana for four creatures is an awesome deal...if one or two Glorious Anthems were in play, those creatures could change the game in a hurry. Worship is my sideboard tech against Mono Red decks. Since I'm already playing Auriok Champion, I prefer Worship to CoP: Red or Ivory Mask...not too many Mono Red decks play Pyrite Spellbomb! A fourth Auriok Champion completes my playset of anti-red hate. Karma comes in against decks that run a lot of Swamps. Even if those decks had a lot of non-targeted removal, Black still can't deal with enchantments, especially one as nasty as Karma. The Pithing Needles are there primarily to stop Vedalken Shackles, but can also stop a lot of other cards that are dangerous to my deck, like Oblivion Stone, Viridian Zealot, Arc-Slogger, Meloku the Clouded Mirror, Hearth Kami...the list is seemingly endless! Samurai of the Pale Curtain used to be in the main deck. It's a solid creature with a terrific ability. The only reason why it's been relegated to the sideboard is because it's counterproductive to Promise of Bunrei. Most of the time, I'll do a straight switch for the two if I'm playing against decks with goes-into-graveyard effects like Kokusho, or if I want to stop Mindslaver or Eternal Witness recursions. Finally, the sideboard is completed with two copies of Sword of Fire and Ice. I've found Umezawa's Jitte to be the more effective equipment, but Sword works nicely against Mono Blue and Mono Red decks. Against decks of a more controllish nature, it allows me to draw into more threats and end the game quicker. If I needed to change the sideboard further though, these two cards will be the first to get the axe. I don't have much game against the most popular deck in the format, Tooth and Nail, but there's still quite some time to go before Nats and I'm sure there will be more tinkering and thinking before the deck is finally complete and ready to compete again. See you guys at Nats! =) Ian Seet (ianinozzie)
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