Standard

Kenji Tsumura Analyzes Standard #15

Nationals Results and how to use Jace, the Mind Sculptor

image from manadeprived.typepad.com

by Kenji Tsumura (translated by Alex Lin)

Last week on MTG JP, Kenji not only took a look at the Canadian, Australian and French Nationals, he actually commented on the National teams.  As an extra bonus, he also offered insights on how to use Jace, the Mind Sculptor optimally.

Hello!

This is a bit random, but did you watch the World Cup? I think it moved the hearts of a lot of people, to watch the players put their pride, and their countries’ pride, on the line while they fought through the tournament.

Of course, I’m also one of those people. Especially while watching Japan’s matches, far more than during other team’s games, I would cheer as loudly as I could. Actually, in Magic, each country also decides on their representatives, and then they battle to determine who the world’s strongest team is. These representatives are determined, of course, through the Nationals tournaments. Unfortunately, Japanese Nationals have already ended, but this year’s representatives are the impressive team of 2005 Champion Katsuhiro Mori, ‘The world’s strongest father’ Tsuyoshi Ikeda, and ‘The next big hope’ Shou Tagomori.

Japan’s representatives will face off against the other teams this year in Chiba at the World Championships. The format is as follows: each of the three members’ points, as well as the points from the results of team matches at the end of the first and third days, are used to determine the top four teams, which will then face each other on the final day for the honor of being named the team World Champions.

Now then, it’s time to talk about Japan’s rival teams at Worlds. This week I want to take a look at the results of three different National Championships that were held over the past weekend – Canada, Australia, and France – and to discuss both the deck lists and the team members from each country.

As a bonus, I’ve included my thoughts on how to use Jace, the Mind Sculptor’s abilities at the end of this article.

To start off with, let’s take a look at the results from Canadian Nationals.

Canadian Nationals

Canadian Nationals Coverage

Top 8 Deck Lists

Winning LCQ Deck Lists

Jay Elarar
Canadian Nationals 2010 / Champion

1 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
4 Plains
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Sejiri Refuge
4 Tectonic Edge

4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Wall of Omens

3 Day of Judgment
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Essence Scatter
2 Jace Beleren
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Mana Leak
1 Negate
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas

Sideboard
2 Celestial Purge
1 Day of Judgment
4 Flashfreeze
1 Jace Beleren
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Negate
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

The Canadian National Champion played UW Control.

Until now, most UW Control decks have been of the tap out style, focusing on board control, rather than the more traditional counter-filled permission decks, the reason for this being that counters right now are quite weak.

With Mana Leak being printed in M11, a list with eight main deck counterspells has emerged on top. Prior to this, although there were several different UW decks around, there weren’t really any that played eight or more counterspells. In the end, each country’s strongest players seem to have come to the same conclusion: Mana Leak has changed the Standard format.

In reality, Mana Leak has allowed UW permission style decks to increase their percentages against their formerly weak matchups, as we’ll see with French Nationals, where UW defeated UR Pyromancer’s Ascension and Polymorph.

You can still see a heavy influence from previous tap out style decks, as Baneslayer Angel is still being used as the finisher, and Spreading Seas is also being played. I find this interesting, and think it might be a regional choice.

Additionally, I find it interesting that he has two copies each of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Jace Beleren. In the UW mirror match, being able to deal with Jace, the Mind Sculptor is extremely important, and Jace Beleren is the most efficient way of dealing with an opposing Mind Sculptor. If you can play him on time on turn three, Jace Beleren will go a long way toward making the game much easier, and moving forward, I think he will be played more than before.

Jund and Bant decks did not break into the Top 8 at all, but I don’t think that this signals a return to UW as the uncontested strongest deck. It is entirely possible that next week a ‘UW-killing’ Bant deck could appear, since while Mana Leak is a powerful tool for UW, it’s also extremely powerful against UW, so be sure to pay attention to next week’s results.

Vincent Thibeault
Canadian Nationals 2010 / 2nd

3 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
12 Mountain
3 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

3 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Overgrown Battlement
4 Primeval Titan
4 Siege-Gang Commander

4 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rampant Growth
2 Summoning Trap

Sideboard
2 Burst Lightning
3 Obstinate Baloth
3 Overgrown Battlement
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ricochet Trap

This is the runner-up Valakut deck. Although I introduced this archetype in last week’s article, this version has a few more creatures, and it seems to have been tuned to be a bit more active in its game plan. The addition of Summoning Trap seems like an interesting personal touch.

The Ricochet Traps in the sideboard aren’t just key cards against opposing counterspells, they’re also there to redirect Turboland or RU Ascension’s Time Warps, making them extremely useful. As decks that attack from an unexpected direction, they can exploit opponents’ weak points, but you can easily prepare for them with the proper cards, so I would recommend a few copies of Ricochet Trap in your sideboard.

Pascal Maynard
Canadian Nationals 2010 / 3rd

5 Forest
1 Halimar Depths
4 Island
2 Khalni Garden
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Mountain
4 Raging Ravine
2 Scalding Tarn

4 Primeval Titan

4 Cultivate
4 Destructive Force
3 Everflowing Chalice
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Into the Roil
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
2 Mind Spring
4 Rampant Growth

Sideboard
2 Lavaball Trap
4 Negate
4 Obsatinate Baloth
2 Pelakka Wurm
3 Terastodon

This third place deck is a brand new archetype: GUR Destructive Force. With lots of mana acceleration into a Primeval Titan, followed by a Destructive Force finisher, this deck is similar to last week’s straight RG version, but plays blue for Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Mind Spring – the format’s two strongest draw spells.

The problem with many mana ramp style decks is that they can end up flooding on mana sources, however, the addition of blue here does a great deal to mitigate that, while also allowing access to Mana Leak, letting the mana ramp player disrupt his opponent’s plans. I really like this approach, and think that this deck shows the best application of Destructive Force thus far.

There are several of versions of the Destructive Force deck out there right now, so if you liked playing with Wildfire, you should definitely give them a try.

~Canadian Team~

While there aren’t too many famous or recognizable faces on the Canadian team, I get the impression that we’re looking at a group of rising stars. My feeling is that they could present the Japanese team with quite a bit of trouble this year.

Next, let’s look at Australian Nationals.

Australian Nationals

Australian Nationals Coverage

Top 8 Deck Lists

Top Standard Deck Lists

Winning LCQ Deck Lists

Adam Witton
Australian Nationals 2010 / Champion

3 Evolving Wilds
6 Forest
12 Mountain
3 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

3 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Primeval Titan
4 Siege-Gang Commander

1 Comet Storm
4 Cultivate
4 Explore
4 Harrow
4 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Rampant Growth

Sideboard
2 Acidic Slime
2 Back to Nature
1 Earthquake
1 Elixer of Immortality
4 Staggershock
4 Obstinate Baloth
1 Pelakka Wurm

The winning deck in Australia is the same archetype as Canada’s 2nd place – the RG Valakut deck that has been taking the world by storm ever since M11’s release.

This list is a bit closer to the list I showed last week than Canada’s list was, basically looking for the most streamlined way to combo off.

The cards that catch my eye the most in this deck are the Obstinate Baloths in the sideboard. This card has far and away exceeded my expectations in terms of use, and can be found in lists from both the last chance qualifiers as well as lists in the main tournaments themselves. Both the 2nd and 3rd place Canadian lists used them, and pretty much every green deck seems to have some number of them in the sideboard, which shows the community’s united opinion on this point.

If Jund expects their opponent to have Baloths, they have to think carefully about when to cast their Blightnings, as well as to decide whether or not to side them out – Jund will have to keep Obstinate Baloth’s existence in mind at all times from now on. In all three of these tournaments, Jund put up almost no results, which makes me think that this may be due almost entirely to the usage of this card. As it is, a four mana 4/4 that gains you four life when it enters play is already pretty rough for your opponent.

Actually, just by looking at everything so far, it already seems like Sun Titan, Primeval Titan, and Fauna Shaman will be the top rares in M11.

Jeremy Neeman
Australian Nationals 2010 / 2nd

3 Arid Mesa
2 Forest
1 Khalni Garden
2 Mountain
3 Plains
4 Raging Ravine
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Seijiri Steppe
4 Stirring Wildwood
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Tectonic Edge

4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Primeval Titan
4 Wall of Omens

2 Ajani Vengeant
2 Day of Judgment
2 Destructive Force
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Explore
2 Gideon Jura
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Path to Exile
3 Rampant Growth

Sideboard
1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Baneslayer Angel
3 Condemn
1 Day of Judgment
1 Destructive Force
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Path to Exile
1 Tectonic Edge

The Australian 2nd place deck is a different version of the ‘Planeswalker Force’ deck that took the 3rd place in Canada. This deck chose White over Blue, adding Primeval Titan and Destructive Force to a GWR Planeswalker board control deck. Destructive Force isn’t good just with the titans, it also works very well in conjunction with planeswalkers.

The heart of this deck is Knight of the Reliquary. I didn’t pay much attention to it at first glance, but actually the Knight and Destructive Force have incredible synergy together. Due to the wording on the cards, even if you don’t have a single land in your graveyard and your Knight is only a 2/2, when you cast Destructive Force, the lands will go to the graveyard before damage, raising the Knight’s toughness. As long as you sacrifice at least four lands, your Knight will survive the spell.

Additionally, Knight of the Reliquary’s ability, besides providing pseudo mana acceleration, also allows you to more easily reach the double red required for Destructive Force, so I think that this version playing White has enough going for it that it is worth considering.

This deck’s strongest point is its excellent ability to control the board – inversely, however, decks that do not rely on permanents, like the Valakut deck, are its Achilles’ heel. It can also be difficult to deal with opposing titans and Knights of the Reliquary that survive Destructive Force.

Considering the amount of play that Knight of the Reliquary, Sun Titan, Primeval Titan, and Grave Titan are seeing in the present metagame, I think that going forward, determining how Destructive Force decks can deal with opposing titans and knights will become an important topic of discussion.

Because of such a line of thinking, it is easy to see that the 3rd place Canadian Nationals deck chose to play Mana Leak and Into the Roil as countermeasures to those strategies.

Ian Wood
Australian Nationals 2010 / 3rd

4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Teramorphic Expanse
4 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
2 Seaside Citadel
1 Seijiri Steppe
1 Stirring Wildwood
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Verdant Catacombs

2 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Ranger of Eos
2 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
4 Vengevine
4 Wall of Omens

2 Eldrazi Conscription
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Path to Exile

Sideboard
2 Jace Beleren
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Negate
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Sovereigns of Lost Alara

The 3rd place deck has fit Fauna Shaman into Naoki Shimizu’s blend of NLB and Conscription Mythic from pre-M11 Standard. This deck lost to the Valakut deck in the semifinals. The Fauna Shaman engine is slower than Valakut’s combo, making it a very difficult matchup.

Paradoxically, this is proof of the incredible power that the Valakut deck has gained from M11’s additions of Primeval Titan and Cultivate. Decks that can ignore Fauna Shaman, such as Valakut and Turboland, by attacking from completely different angles, are growing more and more popular, and as a result, I think that the value of Fauna Shaman decks is changing.

~Australian Team~

Aside from the winner, the Australian team is made up of fresh faces. However, the champion, Adam Witton, is a Pro Tour mainstay, and can’t be underestimated. During the World Cup, the Japanese team was severely beaten by Australia. I’m going to be cheering for the Japanese Magic team to pay them back!

Finally, let’s take a look at the results from the Land of Control, France.

The French team is filled with famous faces, and they seem like they could be Japan’s steepest competition. Having said that, let’s pay special attention to the French Nationals results.

French Nationals

French Nationals Coverage (French)

Top 8 Deck Lists

Winning LCQ Deck Lists

This is the deck that conquered French Nationals.

Julien Parez
French Nationals 2010 / Winner

1 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
5 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
3 Seijiri Refuge
3 Tectonic Edge

3 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sun Titan
4 Wall of Omens

3 Day of Judgment
2 Deprive
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Jace Beleren
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Mana Leak
1 Martial Coup
2 Mind Spring
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile

Sideboard
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Condemn
4 Flashfreeze
1 Jace Beleren
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Negate

Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
French Nationals 2010 / 4th

4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
4 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Seijiri Refuge
4 Tectonic Edge

2 Sun Titan
4 Wall of Omens

1 Cancel
2 Condemn
2 Day of Judgment
2 Deprive
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Essence Scatter
1 Gideon Jura
3 Jace Beleren
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Jace’s Ingenuity
4 Mana Leak
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Path to Exile

Sideboard
1 Cancel
3 Celestial Purge
1 Day of Judgment
1 Flashfreeze
2 Gather Specimens
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Negate
1 Oblivion Ring

Semifinalist Guillaume Wafo-Tapa is well-known even in Japan, and although he won his quarterfinals match, he was uninterested in the pro points from a semifinals win, and chose to give the win (and 3rd place) to his opponent.

In any case, 4th place is still an excellent result, and UW Control is the same archetype that ended up winning the whole tournament, so the strength of the deck is real.

In both lists, the card that immediately catches your eye is Sun Titan. In Canada, we saw Baneslayer Angel as the finisher of choice, but France has chosen the white titan instead.

The winner chose to use Sea Gate Oracle, while the fourth place player used Jace Beleren instead, but in either case these cards have been included to take greater advantage of Sun Titan’s ability. As we also saw at Canadian Nationals, Mana Leak has had a huge impact on the format, with both decks being permission-style decks that were almost entirely absent from the previous format. The winning list still contains leftover vestiges of old tap out control lists, but the fourth place list has nine counters in the main deck, and can’t really be called a tap out deck anymore.

Another striking difference between these and past lists is the lack of Spreading Seas, long an automatic include in older UW control lists. However, France is the land of control, so perhaps that’s the reason for the change. Spreading Seas is at its best against decks with three or more colors, none of which are blue, such as Jund. Against blue control opponents, its power decreases dramatically. If you take a look at the 2nd and 3rd place lists, I think you’ll understand quickly.

Guillaume Matignon
French Nationals 2010 / 2nd

3 Halimar Depths
8 Island
7 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn

4 Burst Lightning
2 Call to Mind
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Pyromancer’s Ascension
4 Foresee
4 Time Warp
4 Treasure Hunt

Sideboard
2 Flashfreeze
2 Jace Beleren
4 Kiln Fiend
3 Negate
4 Spreading Seas

Antoine Ruel
French Nationals 2010 / 3rd

3 Forest
11 Island
4 Khalni Garden
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn

2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Awakening Zone
2 Deprive
2 Dispel
1 Essence Scatter
2 Everflowing Chalice
4 Into the Roil
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Mana Leak
1 Negate
4 Polymorph
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Spell Snare

Sideboard
1 Dispel
2 Flashfreeze
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Mass Polymorph
1 Negate
4 Obstinate Baloth
1 Spell Snare
3 Unsummon

The 2nd and 3rd place decks are updated versions of the Pyromancer’s Ascension and Polymorph decks that I’ve discussed in previous columns.

As I already said last week, the Pyromancer’s Ascension deck is quite strong against UW control decks, but more interestingly, the 3rd place Polymorph list contains eleven main deck counters, showing that the control matchup was at the forefront of the deck designer’s mind. While the original Polymorph deck already had a strong control matchup, with the addition of these changes, it now becomes incredibly difficult to lose.

Personally I really like this permission-focused version of the list, but I’m a bit worried about the number of Awakening Zones in the list. While it has both its positives and negatives, this card is simply extremely powerful, particularly against control opponents, where you just play it and begin getting further and further ahead in mana production. It also continually produces chump blockers, which can be very important, as occasionally you’ll resolve a Polymorph but still be overrun by your opponent. And of course, it provides an endless supply of creatures for Polymorph.

However, it does have one drawback, which is that you completely expose your deck choice to your opponent as soon as you cast it, as Awakening Zone is not really used in any UG deck besides Polymorph. To some extent, one of this deck’s greatest merits is its element of surprise, and exposing your entire deck to your opponent in such a way eliminates that advantage. On the other hand, if you don’t show this card to your opponent, it can be difficult for your opponent to decide whether you are playing Turboland or Polymorph, for example. If you can give the appearance of playing a Turboland deck, your opponent may tap out, giving you a window to resolve a Polymorph unhindered. However, now that people are familiar with this list, I think that you should increase the number of Awakening Zones, probably decreasing the number of Into the Roil’s in the process.

I feel like the Mass Polymorphs in the sideboard are to find Obstinate Baloths against Mono Red opponents, but I could be wrong, so I’ll try to confirm that with Antoine. This article has gotten a bit long, so I’ll stop discussing Polymorph now.

The UR Ascension deck uses Call to Mind to ensure that it can take infinite turns (until its library is exhausted, at least). Once there are two counters on Pyromancer’s Ascension and you’ve assembled the Call to Mind + Time Warp combo, you can continue to take successive turns until your library runs out of cards, giving you more than enough time to burn your opponent out. Call to Mind is much easier to use than I had originally thought, and I would recommend that the UR Ascension deck play at least three copies of it.

In summation, France is the Land of Control. This made the 2nd and 3rd place decks excellent choices for the meta. However, in the end, UW’s reserve strength was too much, and they lost. At least, that’s my opinion.

Be on the watch for Sun Titan Control from here on out!

~French Team~

My thoughts on the French team members:
Winner  As the champion, he has to be a good player – Julien Parez
2nd      Also finished 2nd at Pro Tour San Juan – Guillaume Matignon
3rd    The elder of the “World’s Strongest Brothers” – Antoine Ruel

Although I had never heard of Julien Parez before, both the 2nd and 3rd place players have Pro Tour Top 8 experience, so I expect this team to give Japan a lot of difficulty.

Recently I had the opportunity to do a draft with Guillaume Matignon, but his deck was incredibly strong and completely ripped my team apart. He was the strongest drafter at San Juan as well, so I intend to pay attention to his drafts at Worlds as well. While Antoine Ruel has had his ups and downs, when he is riding high, I think he’s the strongest player in the world. Although US Nationals, as well as several other Nationals tournaments, have not yet been held, I would say that right now, France is Japan’s number one rival.

How to Use Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Now then, it’s time for the bonus I promised you – my thoughts on how to use Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Jace starts with three loyalty counters. This means that he can die to a Lightning Bolt, and they’ve traded one mana for your four mana, and in my opinion that’s a huge loss in tempo. Because of this, if I’m playing against a deck that has Lightning Bolt, I will almost always use either the +2 or the -1 ability first. When your opponent doesn’t have a creature, if you use the +2 ability in this situation, there are probably very few cards that your opponent can draw to escape. If your opponent does have a creature on the board, he can die to a creature attack plus a bolt, which is pretty terrible, so I’ll bounce his creature instead, which means that at the very worst, I’ve gained some tempo.

If your opponent doesn’t have a Lightning Bolt, but instead has to use Maelstrom Pulse or Oblivion Ring, that just gained you a whole turn that they were unable to play a creature, which is a pretty good trade.
What if your opponent playing a deck that doesn’t have Lightning Bolts? In this case, as I said in last week’s article, I think that it’s best to have four Jaces in your deck, and can’t understand why people would play less than that. Against control decks, Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the single most powerful permanent to have in play. If you cannot deal with him, you will probably lose, so you have to deal with him as fast as possible.

In other words, this means that against control decks, without four Jaces, you cannot win the Jace war. Recently, it’s become more and more popular to include Jace Beleren as well, and this is fine, but I think that in any case you need to have at the very least four copies of a ‘Planeswalker – Jace’ card in your main deck.

Now then, how should you use his abilities against decks that do not have Lightning Bolt?

If you’re playing against another deck with four copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, it’s best to lead with his Brainstorm ability. While I may not gain a huge advantage from this, and it won’t do much to change the board state, if I’ve got an extra copy of Jace in my hand, or if I have a way to shuffle my deck after Brainstorming, I will usually use his Brainstorm ability.

After you’ve used Jace’s Brainstorm ability, your opponent has one turn within which to deal with him. If he is dealt with, it’s important to have a follow-up play. The best of these are: Jace Beleren, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the best of those, which is why I say that it is best to have four copies of him in your deck – ideally you will want one on the board and one in your hand, which is not a difficult situation to create. If your follow up play is Baneslayer Angel or Gideon Jura, you just provide your opponent with a way to get value out of the Path to Exiles that have been sitting in their hand.
It’s a well-known fact that if a Planeswalker is able to remain on the board for an extended period of time, it will exert a great amount of influence over the board. Lately I’ve been designing a deck that will best exploit this fact, but it’s still in its early stages.

It’s easy to say, “Which ability is correct to use ultimately depends on the board state and the number of cards in your opponent’s hand,” and leave it at that, but I want to think about some situations for you to review where you would hear that response. For example, sometimes it is correct to use the +2 ability on yourself, or you might have several copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor in your hand and then it would be correct to use his Brainstorm ability instead. It’s an extremely difficult puzzle, but you should never feel like you don’t have a choice with his abilities – you can’t learn without making mistakes, so I think that this is actually an excellent answer, and that’s why I wanted to add this to my article.

I’m also still looking for the correct answers, and there are several things that are very complicated and difficult to explain, and my own opinions might also change, but if you try using Jace’s abilities, and look for clues during deck construction, I think that’s the best way to try to solve the Jace puzzle.

Next week there are several PTQs and we’ll be hearing about more Nationals reports.

Well then, see you next week!

The original article can be found at: http://mtg-jp.com/reading/tsumura/006692/

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