Euros: Lessons from Day Two Alex Shvartsman People read tournament coverage for various reasons. Some like following the stories that develop in the Pro circuit and enjoy rooting for their favorite players. Some are looking to improve their game by following the pros. Most people, however, only want to know one thing - what is the best deck? A serious tournament such as a Pro Tour or Continental Championship can produce plenty of very relevant information that will help aspiring pros to do better in their next tournament - whether by copying the best decks or metagaming against them. The problem is, most players tend to misread the tournament results. For those who do not have a lot of time to invest, a quick glance at the top 8 deck lists usually determines the top decks. Kai Budde became a World Champion using a Wildfire deck last year, but was it the very best deck in the field? His matchups in the top 8 were favorable and his record in Standard was 4-2. Only one player (Partick Mello) managed a 5-1 record with the deck. In short, the deck worked out very well for Kai, but was it the right deck to play in your upcoming local tournament? The top 8 decks from a Pro Tour are usually a safe bet. Those are the decks that clearly performed better than the rest of the field. With Nationals, Continental and World Championships the math gets much, much trickier, because the competition is split between multiple formats. The deck you see isn't the only reason that a certain player is in the top 8. In the APAC Championship a few weeks ago, top Japanese competitor Satoshi Nakamura made top 8 with his Squirrel Prison variant. Upon closer examination, you will find that he had a 6-0 record in draft and only managed a 3-3 record with his Standard deck. He then lost in the round of 8, ending up with a 3-4 record. Would you want to copy and play this top 8 deck? Probably not. There are several important factors to consider when you are trying to learn what the best decks in a certain format are, especially when basing that information on a multi-format tournament. The first thing to do is look at the most successful decks throughout the six rounds of Standard play - Day 2 at Euros. The following 26 decks had a 5-1 or better record, out of the field of 273 players. 01 6-0 Luca Chiera Ponza/Burn 02 6-0 Dan Holden Stompy 03 5-0-1 Loic Dobrigna Magpile 04 5-0-1 Gert C. Trinity 05 5-0-1 Richard Ostenberg Accelerated Blue 06 5-1 Martin Cedercrantz Angry Hermit 07 5-1 Cristoph Lippert Angry Hermit 08 5-1 David Brucker Accelerated Blue 09 5-1 Sigurd Eskeland Ponza/Burn 10 5-1 Stefano Fiore Replenish 11 5-1 Ondrej Baudys Trinity 12 5-1 Jorge Costa Replenish 13 5-1 Pierre Giroroux Replenish 14 5-1 Frank Karsten Angry Hermit 15 5-1 Helder Coelho Cluster Bomb 16 5-1 Aras Senyuz Stompy 17 5-1 Dominik Hothow B-U Tinker 18 5-1 Gottlieb Yeh Ponza/Burn 19 5-1 Anton Lunau Replenish 20 5-1 Dan Paskins Ponza/Burn 21 5-1 Fabrice Rabhi Stompy 22 5-1 Matej Brezavscek Ponza/Burn 23 5-1 Arto Hiltunen Stompy 24 5-1 Pert Ustohal Ponza/Burn 25 5-1 Steve Newberry Replenish 26 5-1 Ralph Ristedt Wildfire You will notice that neither of the two players to go undefeated that day made top 16, and their deck lists have not been posted (Luca Chiera's deck is at the bottom of this article). The fact that the top two players of the day did not make top 8 means they started off with a 3-3 or weaker record in the Limited portion. This places them at an advantage for Day 2 as they are likely to face weaker opponents than those who did well during Day 1. This is a very important balancing factor. Many people think that Champion Noah Boeken's Stompy deck is better than the version played by Dan Holden. Boeken's own record on Day 2 was 4-2, but he was forced to face much tougher opponents while on top of the standings. That considered, the following is the breakdown of all decks with a 5-1 or better record. Successful decks broken down by archetype: 6 Ponza/Burn 5 Replenish 4 Stompy 3 Angry Hermit 2 Trinity 2 Accelerated Blue 1 Magpile 1 Cluster Bomb 1 Tinker 1 Wildfire Here is how it compares to the decks played. Decks played broken down by archetype: Replenish 45 Ponza/Burn 35 Control Black 29 Accelerated Blue 22 Angry Hermit 21 Stompy 20 Tinker 14 Wildfire 14 Control Blue 13 Trinity Green 13 Bargain 12 White Weenie 12 Hermit-Plaguelord 7 Cluster Bomb 3 Fish 1 Squirrel Prison 1 Rogue/Other 11 So what conclusions can we draw from these statistics? The two most popular deck types - Replenish and Ponza - were both good choices. I combine Ponza and Red Deck Wins statistics, as the line between the two has blurred significantly over the last couple of weeks. Each burn deck seems to sport Pillages and Avalanche Riders these days, while most Ponza decks have added a few 1 casting cost Goblins to apply pressure to their opponents. Replenish was the most commonly played deck at the tournament. Even so, the percentage of Replenish decks at the top tables was high enough to call it one of the stronger contenders in this very diverse metagame. Stompy, Accelerated Blue and Angry Hermit/Trinity variants were all moderately successful. It appears that a well tuned version of these decks should be good enough to win another Standard tournament. The big losers at this event were Control Black and Wildfire. Wildfire and Tinker decks were played by many of the high profile competitors at this tournament. Their reasoning was that Wildfire should be a very strong choice against Angry Hermit and weenie decks. However, the most popular deck was a bad matchup for both of these and it was felt, with only one of each Tinker and Wildfire decks actually achieving a 5-1 record. Control Black managed only a handful of 4-2 finishes, with no 5-1 or better records at all, despite being the second most popular deck type at the event. The decks that did manage a 4-2 record did so on the strength of their artifacts. Nicolas Labarre was playing main deck Phyrexian Processors and Chimeric Idols. Only one Rogue deck managed a 5-1 record. 'Cluster Bomb' is a combo deck that attempts to get off a Saproling Cluster - Ashnod's Altar - Fecundity combo to generate a large amount of mana and cycle through most of the deck, winning via a large Blaze. Helder Coelho's very poor Day 1 record may have played a role in this deck breaking through. The fact that I attended European Championships may have made it a little easier to write this article - but all the relevant statistics used can be found within Sideboard's live coverage of this event. Next time a major tournament takes place, do not automatically assume that the winner's deck is the best. Examine the statistics closely. You will learn more about the field and become better prepared for your next tournament. Here is Luca's deck, which finished first in the Standard portion of the tournament. Luca Chiera (60 cards) 4 Goblin Cadets 4 Goblin Patrol 4 Parch 4 Arc Lightning 4 Hammer of Bogardan 4 Pillage 4 Seal of Fire 4 Shock 3 Viashino Cutthroat 4 Rishadan Port 1 Dust Bowl 20 Mountains Sideboard 2 Ticking Gnomes 4 Tangle Wire 2 Rack and Ruin 3 Cave In 2 Ghitu Encampment 2 Mogg Salvage