Top Notch Tech-Gomar Brian Kibler In the beginning, there was the Serra Angel. Graceful and deadly, Serra dominated the battlefield, flying over opposing forces to attack while holding those same forces off below. Supported by Counterspells, Mana Drains, Moats, and Disrupting Scepters, Serra swooped down time and time again upon her hapless foes, slowly but surely whittling them down into nothing. The days of Serra Angel's tournament stardom are long since past, despite her recent reemergence in Seventh Edition, but she's passed the torch along to new generations of big flying finishers. In Extended there is Morphling, in Standard there is Mahamoti Djinn, and in Invasion Block Constructed there is Dromar, the Banisher. The role of these sorts of creatures in control decks has always been twofold. First and foremost, they serve as a big body to get in the way of opposing creatures. Yes, that's right; Morphling's most important job is just to block, which is why its ability to untap is such a tremendous boon. Serra Angel performed a similar sort of double duty by not tapping to attack, while Dromar's "Wash Out" ability functions along the same lines. Mahamoti Djinn has no such special ability, but what more can you ask of a 5/6 flyer? Blocking Kavu Chameleons and Blastoderms all day seems like quite a deal as it is. On top of all of these spectacular defensive abilities, these creatures come with an additional special feature - they kill your opponent! In most dedicated control decks, the actual process used to win the game is largely incidental, but creatures like Morphling, Moti, and Dromar are generally superior to other options - such as Millstone - because of the impact they have on the course of the game - that is, keeping you alive. This quest to stay alive is quite evident in what has become one of the prominent and successful archetypes in IBC, and certainly the one with the best name - GoMar. Making its debut at Pro Tour Tokyo in the hands of many French players, Gomar failed to crack the Top Eight of that tournament, but came back with a vengeance in Grand Prix Moscow and the Masters, with Ryan Fuller winning the former and joining Jon Finkel and grinder winner Tuomo Nieminen in the Top Eight of the latter. Finkel and Nieminen's losses came at the hands of eventual winner Ben Rubin, playing Domain, and Fuller's came to Finkel in the mirror match. Clearly Gomar was a force to be reckoned with. Jon Finkel Barcelona Masters-2001 Main Deck Sideboard 8 Island 7 Plains 3 Swamp 4 Salt Marsh 4 Coastal Tower 4 Galina's Knight 2 Dromar, the Banisher 4 Opt 4 Dromar's Charm 3 Exclude 3 Rout 1 Yawgmoth's Agenda 4 Absorb 2 Lobotomy 1 Recoil 4 Fact or Fiction 2 Spite/Malice 3 Prison Barricade 2 Aura Blast 3 Crusading Knight 1 Rout 1 Lobotomy 4 Gainsay 1 Repulse And then the Apocalypse cometh, and with it, the world turneth upside down. The introduction of Apocalypse into IBC will clearly bring about many changes - the question is, what do these changes mean for Gomar? "Joy and celebration" seems to be the answer to that question, if first impressions are anything to go on. Apocalypse's opposing color theme stands to be an enormous boon to this U/W/B control deck, with a tremendous number of options laid right at its feet. There's no where to go but up. The most immediate entry into the deck from Apocalypse - and perhaps the card that will prove to be the most crucial to the deck's continued success - is none other than a lowly and unassuming land. It's no Kjeldoran Outpost, nor Tolarian Academy or Gaea's Cradle, but it solves the most frustrating problem Gomar previous had to face - it's mana base. Caves of Koilos does wonders for Gomar's mana consistency, allowing for the deck to either reduce its complement of comes-into-play-tapped lands - to reduce the number of multiple Salt Marsh and Coastal Tower draws - or to simply play a full twelve nonbasics, making colored mana problems a thing of the past. With color-hungry early game cards like Absorb and Dromar's Charm, Gomar is starved for all the mana it can get, putting Caves of Koilos squarely at the top of the list of cards to play from Apocalypse. The rest of the deck fills out well with a few Apocalypse additions. Spectral Lynx is a good replacement for Galina's Knight in a format where red is no longer the dominant color. Regeneration functions almost the same as Protection from Red with an upkeep of one black mana, with the exception of cards like Scorching Lava that couldn't take out the knight but offs the Lynx just fine. Additionally, Lynx can survive the activation of Pernicious Deed, while Galina's Knight simply heads for the graveyard - a factor that is sure to be important in the months to come. Vindicate replaces Recoil as the catch-all solution to cards like Collective Restraint and Elfhame Sanctuary, as well as conviently dealing with otherwise troublesome sideboard cards like Kavu Chameleon, if you don't have a Spectral Lynx handy. Many modern Gomar lists I've seen go so far as to replace Dromar himself with Desolation Angel, which seems somewhat counterintuitive and greedy to me. The Angel is appealing in certain matchups, such as against Domain, but in general the control deck wants to keep as much land in play as possible. There's little worse than blowing up the world and dropping a 5/4 flyer into play only to see that same Angel somehow destroyed while you're holding a fistful of counters and lacking the land to play them. So Vindicate, Spectral Lynx, and Caves of Koilos are the first stringers from Apocalypse to make their way into Gomar. What would a typical Gomar deck look like with the addition of these cards? Interestingly, not very different from the pre-Apocalypse era, as many of the additions are straight swaps. The differences in how the deck plays, however, are tremendous. Gomar July 2001 Main Deck Sideboard 4 Coastal Tower 4 Salt Marsh 4 Caves of Koilos 6 Island 5 Plains 2 Swamp 2 Spectral Lynx 4 Meddling Mage 2 Dromar the Banisher 4 Dromar's Charm 4 Absorb 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Vindicate 4 Opt 2 Rout 2 Lobotomy 2 Spite / Malice 1 Yawgmoth's Agenda 2 Lobotomy 3 Disrupt 3 Crusading Knight 2 Spectral Lynx 3 Gainsay 2 Exclude Looks familiar, doesn't it? Very little needs to change in order to adapt Gomar to the post-Apocalypse environment, and even these minor changes stand to make the deck considerably more powerful. There is a great deal of room for tinkering with the decklist, as well, with a large number of cards choices up in the air based upon metagame expectations. This is especially true of the sideboard, of course, but many cards in the maindeck are very easy to swap out for comparable replacements based on the given field. Meddling Mage, for instance, is included as a four-of in the maindeck of this listing, while Spectral Lynx is relegated to two main and two in the board. This presumes an environment in which Meddling Mage will be very powerful - that is, one comprised largely of control decks. In a more beatdown oriented field, Spectral Lynx may be the superior choice for the main, and if you expect Toyko all over again, Galina's Knight can make an encore appearance to bolster the deck even further against R/G. This flexibility is one of Gomar's chief strengths. Both the deck itself and the cards available to tune it are extremely versatile, providing for a wide range of options against all strategies. Counterspells are clearly the epitome of versatility, with their ability to nullify any spell, and backed up by Vindicate, it's hard to slip anything through the cracks. Lobotomy can handle the odd Obliterate or Urza's Rage, if Dromar and friends haven't ended the game by then. With such efficient two drops to choose from, it's quite possible to go into beatdown mode with the deck, playing into an aggro-control strategy against slower decks like Domain as well as having the potential to take advantage of a mana short opponent both with fast creatures and Vindicates to exacerbate their land troubles. This same flexibility makes playing Gomar a more complicated feat than it is to pilot some other decks in the format. The Gomar player needs to be understand the nuances of each matchup, knowing when to play aggressively and when to stay back on defense. With only eight real counters and two Spite/Malice to deal with gamebreaking spells, it's important to understand what is and is not important to stop in any given matchup. Likewise, naming the correct cards with Meddling Mage takes a bit of practice, particularly in the more complicated control matchups like against Arena or Domain decks. This having been said, hopefully I can offer some insight into these dilemmas. The Domain matchup is likely the one most significantly bolstered by the addition of Apocalypse, making what was previously an even if somewhat disadvantaged matchup into a virtual slaughter. Domain decks were previously often able to slip a Collective Restraint through the battery of counters to stall the Galina's Knight assault, and Gomar decks had perhaps a pair of Recoils at best to deal with this situation. Vindicate makes the resolution of Collective Restraint a virtual non-issue, as the Gomar player can simply blast it away at his or her leisure and continue the march to victory. Even little aspects of the matchup have improved, such as Spectral Lynx being protection from green and thus unblockable by Questing Phelddagrif - meaning also that the Domain player will have to send Phelddagrif flying overhead every time he wants to attack, gleaning our hero a card in the process. Sideboarding can scarcely make the matchup more difficult, with Lobotomies, Disrupts, and Gainsays coming in to deal with nearly anything. Disrupt makes casting Harrow a - pardon the pun - harrowing ordeal, while going up to a full complement of four Lobotomies turns the Domain player's Mana Mazes (if they choose to play them) virtual suicide. Meddling Mage on Collective Restraint and Global Ruin - or Obliterate, if that's of particular concern at the time - will tend to swing the game drastically in your favor. Arena decks are slightly trickier, as there's less of a standard design for them at this time. Assuming most Arena decks will look like my Gladiator design, Gomar can generally stand up to them fairly well. Dromar's Charm can pick off Spectral Lynxes that manage to hit play, and Vindicate can take care of Arenas that slip through the cracks. Pernicious Deed isn't a particular threat, given your Lynxes' regeneration ability, but it is still a good card to name with Meddling Mage, as it can not only destroy that same Mage, but pick off any future Pikulas you may want to play before it's blown. Voice of All punched through with Addle is actually a fairly significant problem, however, as all of the deck's point removal and flying defense is black. Spiritmonger can be held off by Spectral Lynx or it can be Routed away, but it's still annoying enough to counter if it comes down to it. Fact or Fiction replenishes your hand from Gerrard's Verdicts, making the discard effect much less painful, and after sideboarding Disrupts make playing an early Verdict, Vindicate, or Death Grasp into an unappealing prospect. Crusading Knight is large and in charge, although whether it's worth siding in against a deck full of regenerating and color changing ground creatures is questionable. Lobotomy can easily pick the Arena player's deck clean of threats if he or she isn't careful, leaving your dragon legends free reign to swoop in for the kill. Against beatdown decks, either R/G or R/B, Gomar shines in its primary goal - staying alive. With Spectral Lynxes holding the ground and Absorbs and Dromar's Charms countering key threats and providing much needed life, there isn't much that can breach the Gomar player's defenses. Even cards that were previously a significant problem, such as Kavu Chameleon, now have a simple solution in the form of Vindicate. One card in particular, however, becomes much more effective against this version of Gomar than previous incarnations, and that is Shivan Zombie. With Vindicate replacing Repulse and the entire creature complement of the deck being at least partially white, there is no way to stop an on-board Shivan Zombie short of Routing it away. This would be a disturbing prospect if it weren't for the fact that Shivan Zombie is only 2/2, and the Gomar player can easily race, particularly with the inclusion of Crusading Knights after sideboarding. The Excludes in the sideboard are mostly an issue of fine tuning for these matchups, both providing card advantage and adding another three cost counter to the curve, replacing less useful spells like Lobotomy or Meddling Mages. The extra Spectral Lynxes come in as well, further bolstering the deck's ground defense and minimizing the effectiveness of opposing red removal. The primary goal in these matchups is simply to stay alive. If you have a double digit life total when an angry dragon hits play, chances are you're going to win. Gomar's versatility means that it stands to have a good shot against whatever else the format can throw at it as well. It's hard to go wrong with efficient creatures, counters, and removal. Perhaps an U/G tempo deck, such as those that reared their heads at the Origins PT NO qualifiers, could give Gomar a serious run for its money, but even then I wouldn't count the big dragon and friends out. Maybe I'm biased, but dragons seem to have a way of winning through any odds. In any case, if you have any questions or comments on this week's article, feel free to email me at majesk@aol.com. Please try to keep your questions specific - I can't really give a good answer to "What do you like in IBC?" or "What's good in Type Two?" I will, however, do my best to answer every email in a timely fashion, so if you don't hear back from me immediately, keep heart that you will soon enough. Until then, good luck, and believe in the power of dragons.