Grand Prix-Seattle Preview

Randy Buehler

"Props to the English, for giving us Cocoa Pebbles."

I read the previous line in a tourney report earlier today and I still have to suppress a smile every time I think about it. Right now there's a lot of excitement in the air about Extended and a lot of people are really looking forward to this season's qualifiers. And this season is a little bit different because there's a Grand Prix on the very first weekend of qualifiers.

It'll be really interesting to see what does well at Grand Prix Seattle on January 15-16. Was Bob Maher's Oath deck really the best deck in Chicago? Or should Brian Davis have won with his Necro deck? Or maybe Tony Dobson had the best deck on Sunday, but he got unlucky after dominating the Swiss rounds on Friday and Saturday. And, of course, there were 5 other distinct archetypes in the top 8 (Forbidian, Thawing Oath, Countersliver, Suicide Brown, and Levy.dec) not to mention several more in the top 16 (Survival/Recur, Hatred, Sligh). The most successful deck in the field (in terms of overall winning percentage) was the Trix deck run mostly by Boston-area players, but none of them made the top 16 (although 3 did finish in the top 32). The top 32 also included a Squirrel Prison deck and a Stompy deck.

Needless to say the field is wide open. But we'll know a lot more in two weeks. In addition to Grand Prix Seattle, there are qualifiers in Orlando, New York, Pittsburgh, Houston, Roanoke, and Toronto. If you think you understand this environment, then by all means go to (at least) one of these events -- come Monday the 17th things may be a lot different. Grand Prix always tend to alter the metagame during any qualifier season, but this time around the metagame is more diverse than usual and the Grand Prix is on the first weekend. Interestingly, there's also a Grand Prix late in the season - at Philadelphia on February 19-20. Who knows what the environment will look like by then!

This PTQ season will undergo one other change on March 1st when Nemesis becomes legal. There is only one weekend of PTQs after March 1st, but by my count there are 19 North American PTQs on either March 4th or March 5th.

So all in all this promises to be a great PTQ season and it all starts next weekend in Seattle. I really wish I could play, but I'm also a fan of the game and so I'm looking forward to watching. My best guess is that Cocoa Pebbles is the "best" deck, though it is certainly not enough better than the other decks that anyone will feel like the have to play it. I do think the right person won PT-Chicago, but that's because Bob Maher's Oath deck was so beautifully well tuned. Once Cocoa Pebbles gets tuned to that point, especially the sideboard, then I'd give it the edge. However, once that happens it may create a metagame where aggro-control decks (like Countersliver) reign supreme.

One deck I'll be keeping an eye on is Necro. The skull will always be near and dear to my heart (not to mention my checkbook), but the latest version is a little different. In the past, Necro has been a poor choice for PTQ's because lots of players run beatdown decks in PTQ's, especially early in the season. Nowadays, though, Necro is actually good against Sligh! Sligh got slower and the modern Necro decks runs 3-4 main deck copies of Spinning Darkness (in addition to Contagion). In addition, Necro should probably have won the Pro Tour. In fact, one could argue that Necro should have won 5 different Pro Tours (New York I, Dallas, Worlds '96 when Justice lost to Chanpheng via a mistake, Chicago I, and Chicago III). In actuality, it's the only archetypes to win two different (constructed) Pro Tours. "Blue/White Control", broadly construed, has also won two Pro Tours (Loconto and Maher), but is it fair to lump those two decks together?

Good luck with whatever you decide to play!