THE PARIS METAGAME: A NEWBIE’S GUIDE

I have been told that it would be helpful for upcoming tournament players if a sort of “primer” on the tournament scene would be posted, so that they would be better able to prepare for the most common and most powerful decks, many of which they are not familiar.

FIRST-TIER DECKS

The decks of the first tier are those that constantly appear in the finals of every Paris qualifier, as well as the offshoots of those decks.

NECROPOTENCE

The Necrodeck needs little introduction. It is a disruptive black creature deck that wins via massive card advantage, embodied in Hymn to Tourach (or Mind Warp, or Stupor), Nevinyrral’s Disk, and Necropotence. Its damage sources are traditionally small and fast, and include the Fallen Empires and Ice Age “pump” Knights, as well as Hypnotic Specter. The best Necropotence decks also incorporate a small number of heavier attackers, sometimes Sengir Vampire, but more often the difficult-to-destroy Ihsan’s Shade.

Playing against Necropotence:

Beating traditional Necropotence involves one thing: safely reaching the mid- and late-games. The Necrodeck is so fast, the opponent may very well find himself without a hand, devoid of non-land permanents, and close to zero life before he can mount an adequate defense. If he can reach the mid-game with a decent amount of life, his chances of winning are greatly increased, because the Necrodeck’s disruption capability is decreased -- Hypnotic Specter is just a flying Balduvian Bears if there are no cards left in hand. Destroying the roads to victory of the Necrodeck will generally allow the opponent to reach the mid-game. Serrated Arrows is perfect for this purpose, because it destroys multiple “pump” Knights, weakens other dangerous weenies, and can come out relatively quickly. The Necrodeck is very weak in the late game, when larger creatures like Serra Angel and Erhnam Djinn are out and able to block the small attackers, or after a mana-shattering Armageddon removes the Necrodeck’s resources. In the late game, the Necrodeck becomes vulnerable to the opponent’s strategy, just as the opponent was vulnerable in the early game. It is here that large direct damage spells can rob the Necrodeck of its card-drawing abuse, white global sorceries (backed by blue interrupts) can reclaim much lost card economy, or cards like Ancestral Memories, Browse, and Jayemdae Tome can rebuild depleted cards in hand.

Variations on Necropotence:

There are generally three types of non-traditional Necropotence decks.

The Bad Moon, or “Hacker” Necrodeck, named for Brian Hacker, uses a near-limitless swarm of creatures to overwhelm the opponent’s defense and greatly reduce his chance of reaching the mid-game. The weenies used in this deck are ridiculously undercosted (Black Knight, Erg Raiders, Hypnotic Specters, and “pump” Knights) and score vicious damage very quickly, especially with the help of Bad Moon. This is the least strategic of the Necrodecks, and generally lacks much of the control capability of the other versions, embodied in hand denial, Drain Life, and Nevinyrral’s Disk. This lack is counterbalanced by the very selective use of Choking Sands or other land destruction to eke out just a little more damage before the opponent’s deck can reply with a powerful sorcery like Wrath of God or a game-equalizing Nevinyrral’s Disk. In the words of US Open semifinalist Bill Macy, Choking Sands is “like a black Time Walk.”

The Midwest, or “Suicide” Necrodeck, usually associated with Deadguy Chris Pikula, incorporates red direct damage and artifact destruction to make up for its lack of strong hand denial (the Midwest Necrodeck uses only 1 Hymn to Tourach as disruption). It is called a “Suicide” deck because unlike the traditional and Toronto Necrodecks, this deck has no real source of life-gaining ability beyond its Drain Lifes -- which are offensive direct damage sources in any case. Although originally envisioned as a metagame defensive measure against Whirling Dervish and White Knight, the red direct damage allowed the Midwest deck to use its Necropotence drawing engine to quickly kill the opponent without any chance of blocking or defense beyond permission (which is often deemed “wasted” against a Lightning Bolt) and Zuran Orb. The Midwest Necrodeck is also the most effective version against artifact-driven decks, like Winter Orb, because it uses standard Shatters for defense, and has the versatility of Anarchy after sideboarding.

The Toronto or “McCabe” Necrodeck, named for Pro Tour Dallas champion Paul McCabe, is the most strategic and disruptive version of the Necrodeck, although it is also the slowest. This deck is unique because it uses no Black Knights or Fallen Empires or Ice Age “pump” Knights as attackers. Instead, it incorporates only the ridiculously powerful Hypnotic Specter along with the difficult-to-remove Sengir Vampire and Ihsan’s Shade as its offensive keys. Instead of the Knights, this deck dramatically increases its hand-denial and creature-kill with Hymn to Tourach, Mind Warp, and Stupor for the former, Contagion, Nevinyrral’s Disk, and Serrated Arrows for the latter. The McCabe Necrodeck is most significant for its use of Lake of the Dead to generate very large, very early Mind Warps (effectively clearing the opponent’s hand), and the ability to reclaim much of the late-game offensive strength lacked by Necrodecks in general with very large game-ending Drain Lifes.

WINTER ORB

Sometimes called the Prison, the Winter Orb deck was introduced last year by Chris Cade, and has been played to great success by US National finalist George Baxter. There are generally three types of the standard Winter Orb deck, mono-white, u/W, and g/W, (although a r/W version with four Black Vises was used by Marc Hernandez to reach the 1995 World Championships). The mono white deck generally wins via Black Vise, Feldon’s Cane, or Kjeldoran Outpost; the g/W variant uses Deadly Insect and Titania’s Song; the u/W is simply a variation on the mono-white version, except that it generally incorporates Arcane Denial, Mystical Tutor, or Recall, simultaneously sacrificing some roads to victory. For example, the White Trash (or Trailer Park) deck used by Baxter and company at Pro Tour Dallas had 1 Black Vise, 4 Mishra’s Factories, and 4 Kjeldoran Outposts, whereas the u/W Winter Orb deck used recently by Worth Wollpert used 1 Black Vise, 3 Mishra’s Factories, and only 1 Kjeldoran Outpost. The opened slots were used to make room for Arcane Denial and Mystical Tutor.

The general plan of attack for a Winter Orb deck is to use Icy Manipulator and Winter Orb to lock down the opponent’s mana sources until it has control of the game. The opponent is forced to lay additional lands to cast spells, so the Winter Orb player can gain tremendous advantage via Armageddon. The Icy Manipulators are also stall tactics against the use of creatures against the Winter Orb deck.

Playing against Winter Orb:

Beating the Winter Orb deck usually means beating its key artifacts, namely Icy Manipulator and Winter Orb. Icy Manipulator is the card that generates the Winter Orb deck’s card advantage, because it forces the opponent to lay additional creatures, which the Winter Orb player can then remove en masse with a single global sorcery. The Winter Orb is a global environmental effect that slows down the opponent to the Winter Orb deck’s preferred (slow) pace. Arguments among top players arise often as to which artifact should be destroyed with the limited amount of Disenchants and Shatters available, with little agreement. Both are necessary to establish the Winter Orb deck’s soft lock of Icy Manipulator + Icy Manipulator + Winter Orb, which effectively shuts down all mana production. The Icy Manipulators are powerful in-and-of themselves only against a creature deck, whereas the Winter Orbs are powerful against all sorts of decks. Which should be destroyed is highly situational, and keys directly on what kind of deck the opponent is using. Decks that rely on Kjeldoran Outpost or Mishra’s Factory as an offensive threat, or decks that constantly need to use the bulk of their mana supply (like Necropotence or Sligh) will tend to destroy the Winter Orb; decks that have Icy Manipulators themselves can ignore the Winter Orb, and reduce the other player’s control capability by removing the Icy Manipulators.

Variations on Winter Orb:

There are generally 2 new variations on the Winter Orb deck. Both are U/W, and key on the use of Mirage’s Enlightened and Mystical Tutors to grab restricted cards (notably Balance) to disrupt the opponent’s game.

The first variation is the “Florida” Winter Orb deck that uses no Icy Manipulators. Instead, it uses Howling Mines to overload the opponent’s hand, push him into Black Vise range, and deplete his library. This deck was used to good end by the Florida-based Team Five Guys and a Peter. This deck is light on creature destruction, but heavy on Tutors, allowing it to obtain the necessary Balance or other removal card whenever necessary. This deck is sometimes called “Turbo Balance” because it uses that restricted card often, with the help of multiple Feldon’s Canes, Recalls, and Tutors to make up for the fact that it lacks many conventional Swords to Plowshares and other defensive cards generally associated with U/W. This deck also differs from the standard Winter Orb deck in that it has 8 or so counterspells, usually 4 Arcane Denial and 4 Force of Will, to protect its Howling Mines. While a very disruptive deck concept, this deck is vulnerable to conventional Winter Orb because of its lack of Icy Manipulators.

The second variation is the so-called “Finkel” deck, named for its creator, Jon Finkel. This version of the U/W Winter Orb deck increases the amount of Mirage Diamonds for artifact mana, and dramatically decreases the amount of permanent removal: Jon’s version used only 1 Swords to Plowshares, 1 Serrated Arrows, and 2 Wraths of God. Obviously, the deck abuses the Mirage Tutors to obtain the necessary removal cards as well as its key card: Balance. Because of the increased number of Diamonds and other artifacts, the Finkel deck can Balance + Zuran Orb multiple times without fear for its own mana flow, disrupting the opponent’s lands, creatures in play, and especially cards in hand, beyond repair. Finkel used this deck to qualify for Pro Tour Paris two weeks ago in New York, and John Chinnock also used a variation of the U/W deck one week ago in Edison, NJ.

SLIGH

The Sligh deck was named for Paul Sligh, who used it to great success in an Atlanta qualifier last year. The Sligh deck runs on a “mana curve,” meaning that the deck uses many low casting cost spells, and few spells of casting cost 4 or greater. It is significant in that it uses very poor creatures, yet is able to beat very good decks, by its mana efficiency and large number of direct damage spells. Sligh decks tend to be very versatile because their offensive threats (generally weenie creatures) also have a double purpose. Gorilla Shamans and Goblin Tinkerers can attack, but they can also remove artifacts. Brothers of Fire and Orcish Artillery/Cannoneers can attack, but they can also burn opposing creatures or the opponent himself. Because of the low casting costs associated with the Sligh deck, and its large number of instants, it is very difficult to lock. Pat Chapin is the most important player of the Sligh deck in recent months, placing first out of the Swiss rounds at Pro Tour Dallas, and recently qualifying for the Paris Master Division; Dave Price and Jason Stahl have also done very well with this deck.

Playing against Sligh:

The Sligh deck has few vulnerabilities. Its mana requirements are low, so mana disruption, and even Armageddon, are less than optimal against this deck. Its creatures are many, so even Wrath of God is somewhat ineffective, because the Sligh player will just play more creatures the next turn. I have been told that large creatures deter the Sligh player -- Ironclaw Orcs is a joke to begin with, but against an Erhnam Djinn? In my own playing experience, Conversion has helped me to defeat a number of Sligh players, as has Serrated Arrows; however, the best Sligh players use alternate lands to avoid the Conversion-lock, and all Sligh decks have artifact destruction in both the main deck and sideboard.

SECOND-TIER DECKS

The decks of the second tier often appear in the finals of qualifier tournaments, but tend to be less consistent, largely because they are fewer in number. How many Stasis decks can there be in a given final 8 if there is only one in the tournament to begin with?

CONTROL

Traditionally U/W, the Control deck seeks to stay alive and nothing else. They use an almost single-minded array of cards to remove threats from the opponent’s resource pool, such as Swords to Plowshares and Wrath of God for creatures, Disrupting Scepter for cards in hand, and Millstone for the library, with only a few cards to actually kill the opponent, usually a couple of Millstones or 2 Serra Angels. The U/W versions of the Control deck (Millstone and Serra-Scepter) were once a terror among the Type II ranks, with fine players like Mike “Loco” Loconto and Shawn “Hammer” Reginer placing highly in the first Magic Professional Tournament. The general consensus is that this deck has been replaced by newer versions.

Playing against the Control deck:

The Control deck is a very frustrating opponent. Whenever a creature is put into play, it will likely be tapped by an Icy Manipulator, or removed via Serrated Arrows, Swords to Plowshares, or Wrath of God. If cards are left in hand to guard against mass removal such as Balance or Wrath of God, they may be lost to the Disrupting Scepter. Direct damage spells, Armageddon, and other spells can be stifled with blue permission. This deck has sometimes been called the Fortress, because it is nearly impossible to defeat via conventional means. The key vulnerability of the Control deck is lands. With only 2 spells available to blue and white to deal with lands in serious play (Armageddon and Political Trickery) the Control deck is often hard-pressed to deal with the Kjeldoran Outpost effectively. The Outpost almost single-handedly forced the Control deck out of the tournament environment, and gave birth to its chief variation.

Variations on the Control deck:

While the Stasis and Winter Orb decks are properly offshoots of the Control “fortress” philosophy, the most direct descendent is Counterpost. Counterpost, in its best form, is a deck of lands. Its whole offense, and the bulk of its defense are literally lands. Kjeldoran Outposts can generate soldier tokens to attack and to block the opponent’s creatures. Mishra’s Factories can do the same. With blue permission to guard against opposing spells (such as Armageddon, which destroys more than 90% of this deck’s permanents), and white removal to deal with whatever got past the blue interrupts, this deck is very formidable defensively. The most interesting dynamic of Counterpost is its strange relationship with card advantage. Kjeldoran Outposts and Thawing Glaciers allow a significant forward jump on the opponent, in terms of both cards in hand and permanents in play, and the fact that the deck is largely lands creates “dead” cards in the opponent’s library -- with no enchantments and artifacts, Disenchant is of little use and any creature-kill or direct damage used on a soldier token is obviously a waste of cards.

Another version of the Control deck doesn’t use blue permission at all. Instead, this version uses red to supplement its white removal capability. This R/W version, sometimes called the Blow Everything Up deck, is literally capable of destroying all types of permanents efficiently, with Pillage for artifacts and lands, and red direct damage to supplement any protection from white creatures that would normally be able to escape the white Swords to Plowshares and Exiles.

The last variation on the Control deck is the U/R Counter-Cook or Counter-Hammer deck. This deck replaces white removal cards with red direct damage and red’s smaller-scale removal cards, such as Pillage and Pyroclasm, although they usually continue to incorporate some white for Balance and Disenchant. The U/R version is somewhat less efficient than the traditional U/W Control deck, but while the U/W Control deck needs an entirely separate class of cards to kill the opponent (such as Millstones or Serra Angels) the Counter-Cook deck can use its removal cards (primarily the Hammer and red “X” spells) both defensively and offensively.

THE DJINN DECKS

The Djinn Deck comes (traditionally) in two flavors, usually demarcated by their effectiveness against Necropotence. The G/R version, sometimes called Erhnam and Burn ‘em, is highly effective against Necropotence because of its large creatures and direct damage; it is rather ineffective against every other deck, with the possible exception of White Weenie (which is also a disruptive small creature deck), because its creature-kill is ineffective against toughness 4 or greater, and it lacks any significant control abilities. The G/W version, called Erhnageddon, is a much more powerful and versatile deck that uses Armageddon and other white removal cards to control the board, and uses Erhnam Djinns, Serra Angels, and other large and efficient creatures to win after an advantage has been established. Unfortunately, this deck, while a sound concept to be sure, is woefully overmatched by Necropotence, whose Dystopias and Contagions reduce its offensive efforts to dust.

Playing against the Djinn Decks:

The Djinn Decks are very straightforward, which makes them a good choice for newbies, but also very easy to beat for any sound defensive strategy. These decks key very deliberately on their casting cost 4 creatures (Erhnam Djinn and Wildfire Emissary for G/R, Erhnam Djinn, Maro, and Nettletooth Djinn for G/W), and if these creatures are dealt with, the Djinn deck has lost much of its capability. The G/R version can use its direct damage spells to some offensive effect, but likely these spells will have to be directed against the opposing creatures. The G/W version can still use its white removal cards (most notably Armageddon) to get out of a disadvantageous situation, but without creatures, it has almost no offensive capability whatsoever. It is for this reason that Dystopia is so very harmful to the Djinn Decks. A single card, with the investment of a little life, can wipe away an entire deck’s strategy. The other key vulnerability to the Djinn Decks are various U/W Control decks. These decks can use their own white removal spells to deal with the Djinn Deck’s creatures, and deny any control attempts via blue permission spells.

Variations on the Djinn Decks:

The G/R version is sometimes augmented with land destruction cards, like Pillage, Stone Rain, and Thermokarst, but if destroying land is the purpose, then obviously Armageddon gets the job done at a much lower cost, and the use of but a single card. The two Djinn “schools” of thought are sometimes incorporated into a single three-color deck. These decks often use Birds of Paradise and Fellwar Stones for mana consistency. While more versatile than either of the other Djinn Decks, the three-color version is still fundamentally straightforward. Probably more interesting are the “untouchable” versions of the Djinn decks that have no Djinns at all. The G/R versions supplement their Wildfire Emissaries (who with protection from white are essentially untouchable), and the G/W decks choose their whole creature array from Autumn Willow, Deadly Insect, and Jolrael’s Centaur. These versions are slower than the archetypes, and weaker in general for lack of the powerful Erhnam Djinn, but tend to place far more highly in tournaments where white is the dominant color.

TURBO STASIS

Turbo Stasis is a relatively new addition to the family of archetype decks, making a huge splash in last year’s US Nationals. Mike Long and Matt Place placed in the final 4, and Jon Finkel did well for America with this deck at the World Championships. (Ironically, Jon lost to Tommi Hovi, who was also running Turbo Stasis).

Turbo Stasis uses Howling Mines to draw a large number of cards (primarily lands and blue permission) to feed and protect the Stasis once it is on the board. With Kismet also in play, the Kismet + Stasis lock, backed up by Howling Mines, Boomerang, and Despotic Scepter, establishes a position where the opponent will be able to do literally nothing, eventually running out of cards because of the Howling Mine, or dying to the Black Vise because his hand is constantly full and he cannot cast any spells.

Playing against Turbo Stasis:

Turbo Stasis is a very powerful deck, and once the Kismet + Stasis lock is on the board, the Stasis player will almost certainly win. However, top players since this past summer have been consistently able to beat the deck, because they knew its weaknesses. Turbo Stasis absolutely needs its Howling Mines to win. Without them, it cannot draw sufficient land to keep the Kismet + Stasis lock alive, because of Stasis’s upkeep cost. Destroying the Howling Mines usually means getting free card advantage and keeping the Stasis player from locking his opponent. Also, Winter Orbs tend to be problematic for the Stasis player. Even if he Boomerangs or buries the Stasis, a Winter Orb keeps the Stasis player from being able to untap his lands. This is a dangerous spot for him to play from, because the Stasis is that player’s primary line of defense.

Variations on Turbo Stasis:

Because Turbo Stasis requires so many cards to be exactly what they are, very little variation is possible even within the deck archetype. The only difference between two Turbo Stasis decks might be their land distribution, whether one uses Lim-Dul’s Vault or Enlightened Tutor, or whether one player uses Black Vise or simply tries to deplete the enemy’s library.

WHITE WEENIE

White Weenie is an extremely straightforward creature deck. It relies on white’s undercosted creatures, like White Knight and the Fallen Empires and Ice Age “pump” Knights to deal damage quickly and efficiently. These decks are sometimes supplemented with Kjeldoran Outpost for long-term damage capability, and Armageddon for some measure of control over the pace of the game. The current World Champion, Tom Chanpheng used White Weenie to earn his crown, and Bill Macy used another variant to reach this year’s US Open semifinals.

Playing against White Weenie:

White Weenie is a dangerous deck because it appears very straightforward, yet uses extremely potent cards and a direct, but cerebral, strategy to win. It is well-matched against almost every deck type, but is not particularly dominant against any one. Beating this deck usually involves global sorceries like Wrath of God, which removes a large number of the White Weenie player’s cards at once, or fighting back with bigger creatures, such as Erhnam Djinn. White Weenie is notoriously capable of dealing 19 or so damage in the first five turns of a game, but unable to deal the last point. It is fair to say that this deck (along with Necropotence) is the strongest in the early game, but it loses a great deal of momentum in the mid- and late- games. At those stages of the game, the opponent will almost certainly have potent defenses to stop the White Weenie player’s small creatures.

Variations on White Weenie:

There are a number of variations on the White Weenie strategy. Some use Winter Orbs to slow down the opponent’s mana production, theorizing that they themselves need only 1-2 mana per turn to run. Others use Zur’s Weirding to establish a lock, and keep the opponent from being able to reach or cast his most powerful defenses. This version is especially potent in combination with Kjeldoran Outpost. The very best White Weenie decks use white removal cards of their own, such as Wrath of God, to return to parity once their advantage has been taken away.

I hope this (too long) post was of some help, and I know I probably left out some important decks, but nobody's perfect.