| Worlds 2004 Primer |
| By:Mr Pink |
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| Well, worlds is coming up in a few days and I could not be more excited with the current state of Magic. As with many people I am disappointed with the passing of Skullclamp but glad of the many new decks it has spawned. To me, 5th Dawn was the best thing to happen to magic when it was reaching a time of mediocrity when the whole field was playing clamp based decks and there was no variety in decks. This has changed with the performance of decks in the past 2 nationals with 5D shows a new breed of decks being produced. The winning decks being Counter/Obliterate and Tooth and Nail (take that Inquest magazine who deemed the deck un-playable in standard because of its vulnerability to counterspells) With this in mind, I hope the finals of this year's worlds is not a boring mirror match (of what two decks I'm not sure) because that is what it has been for the past two years and has disappointed and bored me. The three worlds that ended in a mirror match were: Worlds 2000: Jon Finkle vs. Bob Maher - Finkle wins. Finals Match: Tinker vs. Tinker with the same decklist except that Bob used 10 islands with 3 Stroke of Genius and Finkle used 9 islands with 4 Brainstorms.) Worlds 2002: Carlos Romao vs. Mark Ziegner - Romao wins. Finals Match: Tog on Tog. Romao used strait B/U tog with sideboarding for the mirror match and Ziegner with an interesting build of R/B/U tog that could burning wish for Upheaval. Although they were different decklists, it was Tog on Tog so technically; it was a mirror match Worlds 2003: Daniel Zink vs. Jin Okamoto - Zink wins. Finals Match: Wake on Wake. The decklists were very similar but the main difference was Zink's use of 2 Vengeful Dreams and how he only had 2 Decrees of Justice. Also, Okamoto had only 3 Decrees witch was different from the rest of the field maindecked 4. I guess this was the best choice. But the real reason for Zink's win was his aggressive sideboard choices for the wake mirror. Read the live coverage here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/worlds03/finals if you are not convinced that Zink's deck was superior. The first match was over 2 pages long, ending in a decking while the second one was just 2 paragraphs. This is the art of the mirror. Know what your opponent has and play against it. But, I am getting off topic. With these matches in mind, let's hope that Worlds 2004 is not a mirror match, but if a dominant deck comes through the cracks, know what you opponent will have and sideboard against it! All there left to do now is wait. Another interesting note, both Zink and Romao had their decks tuned to beat the mirror match, proving that the key to playing a popular decktype is knowing how to beat your own deck! Past Worlds Matchups: Worlds 1996: Tom Chanpheng (White Weenie w/ blue splash) vs. Mark Justice (Necro w/ Red Splash) - Chaanpheng wins. There is no coverage for this matchup but an interesting fact about Chanpheng was that he forgot to list his Adarkar Wastes so the two Sleight of Minds that was maindecked and sideboarded were useless. Even after this embarrassing mistake, he still went on to win the worlds. Crazy huh? (more info: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/91 ) Worlds 1997: Jakub Slemr (4 color Black) vs. Janosch Kuhn (Counter-Hammer) - Slemr Wins Once again, no coverage. Worlds 1998: Brian Selden (Rec/Sur) vs. Ben Rubin (Sligh) - Selden wins. Finally! Coverage! Well, this match was quick with the first match going to Rubin and the three matches in a row that Selden won all ended with him reanimating Verdant Force into a concession from Rubin. Worlds 1999: Kai Budde (German Dragon) vs. Mark Le Pine (Ponza) - Kai wins. Three strait matches won with little opposition from Le Pine. But all that was interesting was that Jakub Selmr placed fifth in this worlds, making him the closest anyone had come to winning 2 Worlds.. Worlds 2001: Tom Van de Logt (Machine Head) vs. Alex Borteh (Merefolk Opposition) - Van de Logt wins. This was a debacle say the least. A three game sweep. Tom's deck was nothing but creature kill and Alex was playing a blue weenie deck. The mere fact that game 1 he summoned a second turn Plague Spitter and the third game a third turn Plague Spitter, this match was no contest with Van do Logt in mind. He won the worlds and also, he placed fifth so he is right up there with Selmr but the fact he did it out of order makes Selmr the better man by a little. (Don't kill me Tom!) So may the finals be a match between two crazy rogue decks! Mr Pink out |