I used to be a pizza delivery guy. Considering that alternative, I’m pretty glad I’m unemployed. Unfortunately, the general lack of income means that I have to be much more frugal, especially when it comes to traveling to Magic tournaments. Like many of you, the rising cost of cards, gas, and literally everything has made it increasingly difficult for me to justify going long distances to a Grand Prix or Star City Games Open, especially when you consider my chances of doing well.

That hasn’t stopped me.

Over the last few months, I’ve been able to afford continuing to go to events largely by following the tips I’m about to give you (except number eight). If you’re the kind of grinder that flies nearly every weekend, hopefully these tips will help you save a few bucks along the way. If you never travel because you feel it’s too expensive, these will show you how you can go to a tournament that’s out of driving distance for a price that’s not out of reach.

1. Fly

I know this doesn’t seem to make any sense, but neither do women, and we love them. If the drive is going to take longer than eight hours, chances are that it’s cheaper to fly. When people say that it’s cheaper to drive, they’re right in a sense. You will spend less money driving. But is that the same as costing less?

Consider this: If your destination is eleven hours away by car, your whole airport trip will be roughly three hours. That means that each way, you’re taking an extra eight hours (you can check my math). That’s a full day’s work. If you’re unemployed, that’s fine; You didn’t mail your letter today or watch The Price is Right. But if you’re one of those unfortunate souls who has to work, losing out on two days worth of pay will probably end up ‘costing’ you more than the flight, and you still have to pay for the car ride! This isn’t even considering the amount of wear and tear that the car experiences, or the price of getting a ticket or into an accident along the way.

2. Book your hotel and flight together

At the risk of sounding like a commercial, I must say that going through a site like Priceline or Expedia actually does save you money, especially when you book a flight and hotel together. You can still accumulate and use frequent flier miles through most of these sites also, though one of the downsides is that you’ll often fly using different airlines. This is because these sites look at many companies, which while hurting your chances of getting free swag from Skymall, makes it much easier to find the cheapest flight rather than just the cheapest flight by Delta, which could save hundreds. Similarly, it is easier to find a hotel or flight that suits your needs, assuming you have any needs that aren’t directly related to money.

3. Be flexible with your times

When searching for flights and hotels, the search engines will generally give you information relatively close to the time you wanted to depart and arrive. Weird, I know. If it isn’t too much of an issue, you can change the time or even dates that you’re looking to fly. Often times, there will be a significantly cheaper flight at what would be considered an inconvenient time for most people. Luckily, Magic players aren’t most people.

For example, on my last trip, I found that it was much cheaper to stay in a hotel for an extra night than to book a flight for Sunday evening. Of course, if you’re unemployed, this is much easier, but then again, if you have a job, you can probably afford to take the fancy flights, with their “bi-pedal flight attendants” and “pressurized cabins.”

4. Don’t take cabs

Cabs are quick, convenient, and require the least amount of knowledge of the area. You’re probably saying, “I don’t need to know anything? Perfect!” Unfortunately, cabs are also one of the most expensive ways to get around a city. The much cheaper alternatives include subways and buses. Luckily, any area that’s hosting a large Magic tournament is likely to have an ample amount of public transportation. Except for GP Bumblefuck. They never have anything.

The biggest obstacle that stops most people from using these methods is the amount of research they assume it takes to figure things out. For most places, it isn’t actually that hard, assuming you can navigate through a series of tubes. Schedules and routes are generally available online and stops are no more than a five minute walk from the site and most hotels.

This is the area where you can save the biggest chunks of cash. For example, in Charlotte last weekend, a cab ride from the site to my hotel was twenty dollars but a bus ride cost less than two. When you add up two days of going back and forth, I saved nearly eighty dollars American (or one Jace) just by doing some research and taking a few short (less than five minute) walks.

5. Pack your own food

Eating out three times a day definitely makes the trip feel more like a vacation, but it also makes your wallet feel a lot lighter by the time you’re done. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t eat out at all; I understand that Saturday night is a great time to go out with your friends and splurge a little, maybe have a few drinks and try karaoke, fail miserably, have a few more drinks and try again. Success! However, simply packing a box of Pop-Tarts can save you at least twenty dollars in breakfast buffets and egg McMuffins. Packing some sandwiches from home has some great value too. Not only are your parents most likely paying for it, but most players are too busy playing in the tournament at lunchtime to go out and get food, meaning that you’d otherwise be paying high prices for low quality meals that don’t come with the ‘atmosphere’ of going out to eat. Of course if you’re anything like me, you’ll generally be free right around the time people start looking for lunch.

If you’re feeling particularly thrifty, you can even do some food shopping when you get to the city. Buying a case of water bottles at a supermarket or gas station will cost you maybe all of ten dollars, but on site, those same water bottles could be three or even four dollars each, more than ten times the price!

6. Get all of your cards ahead of time

I cannot stress enough how much it sucks to need cards from a dealer. The cheapest commons, the ones that you have twenty of at home, are at least a dollar for a playset, uncommons can be over two dollars each, and rares? I hope you’re playing a standard deck without mythics. Beg, steal, and borrow before you try to buy from a dealer and stay on a budget.

Don’t just bring your seventy-five either. If you think there’s a chance that you’ll end up changing your deck at the last minute, try to bring the cards that you’re considering putting in, especially the commons and uncommons as you probably won’t be able to sell those back at more than bulk prices. If you absolutely must buy cards from a dealer on site, at the very least shop around first. You can save a few dollars per card just by walking ten feet to the next booth.

7. Invest in cards for the tournament

But why save money when you can earn it? As I just mentioned, dealer prices at events can reach absurd levels. However, rather than avoid it, with this approach you actively seek to take advantage of the price gouging. By stocking up on tournament staples via your local store, trading, and eBay, you should be able to cash out at the event for a significant profit due to the dealer’s inflated buy prices.

A great example of this comes from Pro Tour: Honolulu where Uril, the Miststalker was selling for over twenty-five dollars a pop. Yes, that Uril. Normally a two-dollar card, Uril was the hot mythic that everyone on site needed for the event but left at home. With a little foresight, not only can you pay for your entire trip by taking advantage of situations like this, you can turn your vacation into a profitable experience.

As with buying, make sure to visit a few dealers before selling to get the most for your cards. Also, while it might seem helpful to ask for a buylist rather than for a dozen price quotes from each dealer, when the prices aren’t written down, it’s more likely that a dealer will overvalue a card and give you a price slightly higher than he should. Bank error in your favor!

8. Win!

And why earn money when you can win it? This may seem obvious, but I think it’s worth going into a little detail. If your goal is to leave with as much money as possible, nothing is going to help you more than coming in first. This means that playing a good deck and testing are valid ways to ‘save’ money. Being unprepared or playing a sub-par list is akin to cabbing everywhere or eating out three times a day. While winning every tournament is probably an unrealistic goal, simply cashing for the minimum amount can mean the difference between taking another trip and spending the next weekend at home. Alone. Always alone… Just win.

While some of these tips may seem insignificant, the money saved by following each of them adds up pretty quickly. I was able to fly round-trip to Charlotte, get two nights in my own hotel room, and play in three events all for around three hundred dollars. If I had booked earlier and arranged for a full hotel room, the entire trip could have cost less than two hundred. If there’s one thing that I know about Magic players, it’s how much they love value. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get a little more of it from your next trip.

See you on the next flight.

Bonus tips!

If you’re flying, pack light: If you need to check your luggage you’ll likely be charged a good amount to do so. Hefty bag, hefty fee.

If you’re driving, the more the merrier: The cost of driving is going to be the same regardless of how many people are in the car so you might as well split it as many ways possible.

Book in advance: It doesn’t have to be too far ahead of time, but some sites won’t let you book if the departure time is too close (Expedia is six hours). Of course, your flight or hotel could be sold out as well. This may force you to take a much more expensive option.

Cheap hotels offer more: From dinky breakfasts to Wi-Fi, for whatever reason, much like a woman, the cheaper the hotel, the more it tends to give away.

With States fast approaching, players are clamoring for decks that can survive without Bloodbraid Elves, Path to Exiles, or Noble Hierarchs. Fortunately, I was able to play in the first large tournament of the new Standard format and have gained some insight into the developing metagame. I’ll talk about what I saw at the top tables as well as the deck I took to a top four finish.

Expect the Unexpected

I have a better idea: Expect the expected. Going into the $5k this weekend, everyone thought that ramp decks and some blue-white control deck would be popular. Guess what! Half of the decks in the top sixteen were ramp decks and nearly a quarter were blue-white control. This trend will undoubtedly continue through States as players will use the results of this tournament as one of their only resources for post-rotation decklists. No matter what you choose to play, make sure that you have a solid game against these decks as I expect them to take up more than half of the field. Valakut Ramp, Blue-White Control, and Mono-Green Eldrazi Ramp all play out very differently and if you can get a handle on these match-ups, you can easily increase your chances of making it to the single-elimination rounds.

Mono-Red was one deck that didn’t show up in nearly the numbers it was expected to. I predict however, that as more Koths get into players hands, this ever-present force will continue to rise in popularity, especially if it can live up to its reputation as the bane of ramp decks.

Cool Runnin’s

One important thing to consider for a tournament like States is that people are drawn into cool or cute decks. Take for example the Soul Sisters deck made famous at US National’s this year by Conley Woods. It wasn’t a very powerful, and in no way format defining, but at more casual events it would show up in overwhelming numbers. People just love to play decks like that. That’s why I expect Elves to be much more popular at States than it was at the $5k. There are a great deal of players who love the idea of a tribal deck and when looking for a list to play, are much more likely to pick the one that seems fun than the boring old ramp or control decks.

With that being said, here’s the list I’ll be playing this weekend:

Michael Lapine – Elves Top 4 – TCG Player 5k, 10/02/10
LANDS: 15 Forest 4 Tectonic Edge 3 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood	SPELLS: 4 Arbor Elf 4 Llanowar Elf 4 Fauna Shaman 1 Tajuru Preserver 3 Nissa’s Chosen 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Leatherback Baloth 4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader 3 Nissa Revane 3 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Eldrazi Monument	SIDEBOARD: 3 Tajuru Preserver 4 Leyline of Vitality 3 Plummet 4 Obstinate Baloth 1 Genesis Wave

The biggest changes I made were taking out the Lotus Cobras and Genesis Waves and adding Fauna Shamans. The cuts were pretty obvious after a little testing and playing ten rounds. Genesis Wave is a “win more” card. In this deck, most of your mana is going to be coming from your creatures, meaning that if you can cast a Wave for eight mana, you probably have a substantial force out already, and should be able to just win without it. I distinctly remember being able to cast a Genesis Wave with X=8 and having a better play: just killing my opponent. The only time I found Genesis Wave to be good was against creature decks that were packing a low amount of removal but those decks are pretty easy match ups anyway as your Ezuri becomes an unstoppable source of recurring Overruns and Eldrazi Monument breaks stalemates.

Once the Genesis Waves were gone, the deck’s curve dropped dramatically. Besides Eldrazi Monument and Ezuri’s Overrun ability, neither of which are choice turn three plays, the curve stops at four. This let me take out the Lotus Cobras in favor of one of the strongest Elves printed in a long time: Fauna Shaman. This addition lets you play a lone Tajuru Preserver in the main deck, which makes your game one against the Mono-Green Eldrazi Ramp deck go from very difficult to favorable. Why? Let’s look at how The Keebler Komeback plays against the more popular decks.

Boardwalk

I’ll start with some general sideboarding notes:

If you’re on the draw, board out a Forest (or a Tectonic Edge if they’re aggressive or don’t have any good targets).

If you aren’t playing against a deck that has All is Dust, board out the Tajuru Preserver. Don’t worry about Gatekeeper of Malakir; you’ll smash Vampires anyway.

Leyline of Vitality is for Cunning Sparkmage, Tajuru Preserver is for All is Dust, and Plummet is primarily for Linvala but can come in handy against Baneslayer Angels and Kargan Dragonlords. The Genesis Wave is for decks that might cause creature-based stalemates. Obstinate Baloths are for the discard deck or, more realistically, decks that want to make short work of your life total.

While many people may group the ramp decks together, this deck handles the two Primeval Titan decks with extremely different approaches.

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Valakut Ramp: This is by far the easier matchup of the two. A turn two Leatherback Baloth puts a tremendous amount of pressure on them and it’s unlikely that they’ll create any sort of board presence before turn four. They do have Lightning Bolts for your turn one Elves and could pack shenanigans in the board, but unless they are coming extremely prepared for this match-up, it should be a quick round in your favor.

Sideboard plan: If you know what they’re boarding, this gets a lot easier. Some lists are boarding into All is Dust, some have Pyroclasms, and some have Cunning Sparkmages. I would board out the Nissa Revane/Nissa’s Chosen package for some combination of Leylines and Preservers. For game three, board out the irrelevant board cards for more useful ones or bring back in the Nissa’s Chosens.

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Mono-Green Eldrazi Ramp: These games are much more difficult than those against the Valakut decks as enough lists are playing maindeck All Is Dusts that you have to either play around it or occasionally get blown out by it. The game plan here is to get your Tajuru Preserver into play and hope they don’t cast Ulamog and All is Dust before you kill them. Be careful when attacking into Summoning Trap mana if a big dude is going to blow you out.

Sideboard plan: All you have to bring in are your three Tajuru Preservers here but they will do wonders for you. I would take out a Nissa Revane or two and because they have no targeted removal, I would board out an Ezuri as well. He won’t be protecting anyone and is likely to stick around.

As far as control decks go, the only one I would really worry about is blue-white. Some big-red lists might show up or a mono-black deck, but I would almost guarantee that you play against Jace and Wall of Omens at least once.

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Blue-White Control: Make sure that you don’t walk right into a Day of Judgment and try to protect your Planeswalkers. A Garruk or Nissa can single-handedly win the game if they resolve so try not to play them into Mana Leak if you can avoid it. Ezuri is pretty insane against this deck also as having an untapped Elvish Archdruid in play with him turns him into a quasi-Dauntless Escort. Baneslayer is also quite good against Elves as it makes combat difficult and your Planeswalkers unplayable.

Sideboard plan: I would keep the one Preserver in just in case they are boarding into All is Dust. Of course, if you know they aren’t then you can board it out. The only card you want to bring in is Plummet and you can cut a Forest and an Arbor Elf or two for them. If they are bringing in All is Dust, board in as many extra Preservers as you can but don’t worry too much about it. They have a much harder time getting to seven mana than the ramp decks do and it’s very likely that you’ll kill them before they can cast it.

Lastly we come to the underdog: the aggro decks. While they didn’t have a particularly strong showing at the $5k, you can expect to play a few decks like these at States, especially in the earlier rounds.

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White Weenie w/Equipment: I really don’t consider this too much of a contender. Considering it’s possible to beat their turn two Argentum Armor draw, when they don’t get it the majority of the time, it should be a relatively easy match.

Sideboard plan: The Fauna Shamans and Preserver are much better at being Elves, but Obstinate Baloths really get in the way of Memnites.

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Mono-Red: As I said, with more people obtaining Koths over the past week, I would expect a surge in popularity of this deck. Luckily, Leatherback Baloth is a house against this deck and Nissa Revane can easily pull your life total out of the danger zone. Post-board it’s important to play around Pyroclasm, most often by playing your guys a later with Oran-Rief open.

Sideboard plan: This is one of the few matchups where I would not board out the land simply because they are very likely to kill all of your mana producers. The Obstinate Baloths and Leylines come in as well as any Plummets that you can fit. I would board out Tajuru Preserver and some number of Fauna Shamans and Eldrazi Monuments.

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Elves: If you out-draw and out-play your opponent, this should be an easy match for you. Of course, things don’t always work out that way. Just remember when you have an active Fauna Shaman that Ezuri can Legend-rule their Ezuri and that a lot of games are simply going to be who has an Eldrazi Monument or Ezuri.

Sideboard plan: This is one of the match-ups I think you want Genesis Wave in as you’ll almost always win the turn after you cast it, possible even the turn you do. Preserver does nothing so board that out. Make sure to keep in Fauna Shamans though as they act as Ezuri five through eight.

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A Keebler Konklusion

With a lack of removal in current Standard decks, the Elf deck seems to be very appealing right now. While it certainly can’t claim to have favorable match-ups against the whole field, with a little testing, there’s no reason why this deck can’t take you to the top eight of your local States tournament. If nothing else, if you’re looking for a new deck that’ll appeal to your inner Timmy, or one that’s easy to play and build for FNM, look no further than Santa’s little helpers.

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A note from the desk of Brian J. Paskoff – Mike’s top 4 decklist from the TCG Player 5k was featured on the main Magic: the Gathering site, which can be found here. Ironically it talks up Genesis Wave, the very card he cut from his maindeck. Congrats Lapine!

While no longer a PTQ season, the Block format has always been a sort of crystal ball that we can look at to see the future of Standard. Shards block was dominated by Jund decks, Lorwyn by Faeries, and Time Spiral showcased a pretty good Mystical Teachings list. In fact, many decks that exist soon after a rotation in Standard are simply Block decks with some choice cards added from the new set. Now, with the new Extended format, we can apply a similar strategy but this time look at former or current Standard decks and see how they get better with the blocks following or preceding their own. Since Time Spiral block will be rotating out before most of us get a chance to play with it in this format, I’m just going to look at what will definitely be some of the main players come PTQ season as well as give some reasons why popular decks of yesterday and today won’t be making a splash.

First up is Jund. While its popularity has seen a decline since the release of Rise of the Eldrazi, it still remains a powerful contender in Standard and can easily translate into the new Extended. Currently, Jund’s biggest problem, besides the mirror, is its mana base. Luckily for Jund players, Lorwyn block was well known for its mana fixing. If the vivid land, reflecting pool, and filter-land combination could let decks cast Wrath of God, Cryptic Command, Cloudthresher, and Cruel Ultimatum in consecutive turns, casting a Sprouting Thrinax reliably on turn three should no longer be a problem. Besides the lands, Jund will be looking to add cards that provide some sort of card advantage while being aggressive as well. Some of the creatures with persist would fit very well into this slot, specifically Kitchen Finks, Murderous Redcap, and, for the sideboard, Puppeteer Clique. While Kitchen Finks has a slightly prohibitive casting cost that would make it difficult to play in the current Standard, thanks to the Magical Christmas lands previously mentioned, it should be the most likely addition to Jund decks and, next to Sprouting Thrinax, provide a deadly home for Oran-Rief, the Vastwood.

Depending on the metagame, Shriekmaw would also love to live in a Jund shell, even if it’s just replacing Doom Blades in the sideboard or some number of Maelstrom Pulse main. Further along the lines of blowing things up, in the same way that Goblin Ruinblaster is great in the mirror, Fulminator Mage is even better. Easier to cast and coming down a turn earlier, you can now freely cascade into your land destruction spell without leaving a red mana open. Finally, in terms of finishers, nothing looks better than Demigod of Revenge. With filter-lands making it castable off of Forests, Demigod will be as easy to play as it was in mono-Red and seems like it would fit right in to Jund, replacing Siege-Gang Commander and Broodmate Dragon.

Speaking of mono-Red, this deck has the interesting quality of existing in both the Lorwyn-Shards Standard as well as the Shards-Zendikar format. Essentially, the Extended red deck is going to take the best of both worlds and form some sort of super-efficient killing machine. It’s like if Arnold Schwarzenegger and the T-1000 were friends. “I like how you turn to liquid metal.” “I like your shotgun.” It takes the best burn spells, like Lightning Bolt and Flame Javelin, and adds to it the best creatures, like Goblin Guide and Figure of Destiny. With all the easy fixing available, it’s possible that splashes will be made for cards like Blightning and Anathemancer or Bloodbraid Elf. One problem with the Red deck is that your opponent can now cast a turn one Burrenton Forge-Tender and a turn two Kor Firewalker…ouch!

If there’s any reason to play the Red deck though, it’s because of its favorable matchup versus Faeries. Remember how much everyone hated those guys? Well now they’re back with a vengeance. Thankfully, all that it gains from Zendikar block is Creeping Tar Pit… oh, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. If you thought giving Faeries a free Brainstorm every turn was bad, just imagine what happens when you combine it with Spellstutter Sprite. Hope you didn’t want to resolve any of your next four spells. Even worse, try getting Mistbind Clique bounced and played again four turns in a row. While most people think that combining this new interaction with previous dominance means that Faeries is going to be the best deck in the format, it looks like there will be enough decks that have good matchups against it that the little menace will be kept in check. The Red deck is known to do well against it and the new Jund deck seems to be at best an even match that gets even worse after boarding in Great Sable Stags. Besides that, there is also my favorite deck that has historically done well against Faeries.

Cue the Southern accent. Lordy, lordy, lordy! When Merfolk Sovereigns was spoiled, I imagined playing a Merfolk deck in Extended called “Twelve Lords a Leaping.” Unfortunately, it was a horrible idea. But now, in a less powerful format, the fish might just be a force to reckon with. Taking most of what it had from Lorwyn Block and adding cards like Coralhelm Commander and Path to Exile, Merfolk should be able to conquer Faeries in the tribal war and with the help of Sygg, River Guide, the removal heavy Jund should be beatable as well. Out of the sideboard, Reveillark should pose quite the problem for Jund also.

As for the Reveillark deck, it should be good too, it really should be. As with Faeries, Jace’s Unsummon ability leads to a whole lot of shenanigans and there are a lot of great new targets for Reveillark’s triggered ability such as Wall of Omens and Stoneforge Mystic. Unfortunately, due to the expected popularity of Faeries, also known as “the better Jace deck,” Reveillark will be a suboptimal choice as it’s matchup versus the Fae is pretty poor. Reveillak is only good if it resolves and as a five-mana sorcery speed spell, it is unlikely that it will. However, in a more Jund heavy field, Reveillark would probably be the way to go as the card advantage of Mulldrifters and Reveillarks outmatches even Jund.

The final contender that I’ll talk about is the Black-White token deck. While Conqueror’s Pledge is an option, it’s most likely going to play worse than Cloudgoat Ranger ninety percent of the time. Instead, the real card from Zendikar to look at for this deck is Eldrazi Monument. This card is essentially the overrun that the Black-White, as opposed to the Green-White, version of the deck never had. It’ll negate any Day of Judgements, stop Jund’s spot removal, and cause all sorts of hell for Faeries. Besides additions though, this deck seems like it would have a good game against many of the top players anyway. Cards that make a bunch of cheap fliers are good against both Faeries and Jund as is cheap, pinpoint discard.

There are a lot of other decks that people are going to try to play that they really shouldn’t. The first one that comes to mind is the current powerhouse Mythic Conscription. The main problem is that their “combo” is a six mana creature that Faeries will have no problem countering. On top of that, Jund’s removal is going to be even more efficient than it is in Standard, making sticking a creature to get conscripted even harder. You do get Kitchen Finks though, so maybe I’m wrong. I just don’t see it being nearly good enough to compete in the same field as Cryptic Command and Sower of Temptation.

Kithkin and Vampires are two decks that despite their differences in appearances are actually quite similar. Essentially, they are both creature-based aggressive decks. The main problem with both of them is that they aren’t fast enough to win before their opponent starts doing relevant things and they have no reach. Unlike the Red deck which can get someone to nine or so and then start slinging burn spells, these two decks have little chance of recovering once they lose their momentum. Because of this, a deck like Jund will completely roll them.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are Blue-White, Grixis, and five-color control decks. The problem with all of these is that Faeries is just simply going to be better. As we’ve seen in the past, Faeries is going to be the best ‘control’ deck there is. They provide a fast clock while preventing your opponent from doing anything. On top of that, assuming Spreading Seas isn’t good enough for Extended, all of these decks are also going to lose to Jund as its Blightnings and Fulminator Mages wreak havoc on their resources.

Rounding out the aggro-control-combo triangle, the only real combo decks that are going to be in the format are some sort of artifact deck based around either Open the Vaults, Time Sieve, or both and the Elf deck based around Nettle Sentinel and Heritage Druid. The problem with the artifact deck is that it is not going to be able to beat the counterspells in the format. Up until now, it has existed in a relatively combo-friendly world with Negate being the only played counterspell but with Spellstutter Sprite and Broken Ambitions, it becomes much harder for the deck to win. The Elf combo deck has the same problem with the additional trouble of being far more susceptible to Jund’s removal.

Finally, there are the midrange decks like Elves and Doran. The problem with these sorts of decks is similar to the problem the control decks have: there is already a deck that does their job but better. In this case, it’s Jund. Jund is like the Elf deck with an awesome red splash or Doran without the white but with an awesome red splash. Between Blightning, Sprouting Thrinax, Bloodbraid Elf, Sarkhan the Mad, Bituminous Blast… I could go on, Lightning Bolt, there seems to be no reason to play a midrange deck that doesn’t start with the Jund shell.

So while there are a lot of options in this new format, it looks as though the Tier 1 and 2 decks are more or less already determined. Jund and Faeries will be doing battle as Boogeyman of this year and last while decks like Merfolk, Reveillark, Black-White Tokens, and Red Deck Wins will give them some competition. Of course, there’s always the possibility that everything I just said is completely wrong and everyone will be putting Emrakuls under Windbrisk Heights or Scars of Mirrodin will give us some new Earth-shattering cards that totally change the game. Either way, the times, they are a changin’.