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Main » Articles » Your Standard Gauntlet

Your Standard Gauntlet

GatheringMagic.com
Posted on June 21, 2010
 Reddit

[easybox]Jay Bailey is an aspiring writer seeking to fulfill the "Gauntlet Columnist". In this article Jay explains what his gauntlet would look like. Please leave feedback about what you thought about this column. Not every article in this series would be about what decks go into the gauntlet, but it would focus on deck testing and seeing how decks stack up against the gauntlet. -- Trick[/easybox]

For my first article, I intend to write about forming my gauntlet. I already have one set up, but it requires updating. When I update a gauntlet that hasn't been updated in a while, I generally start from scratch, so that's what I'm going to do. This ought to give you a bit of an insight into how I do things, and I can polish and extend this piece for a first article.

For this piece, I'm going to come up with the decks I would add into the gauntlet, and why. I'll take you through how I find the decks step by step, and we'll have a finished gauntlet by the end of it.

We know a gauntlet should be a list of the decks you expect to face at a tournament. Right now, there are five major decks that I think will appear in significant numbers in the upcoming PTQ season:

  • Jund

  • Next Level Bant

  • Mythic Conscription

  • W/U Tapout

  • Super Friends

The main issue with Jund is that there are a lot of different variations. A gauntlet needs to be reasonably small, so I only want to include a couple of different Jund builds in it, depending on their popularity. But first, we need to fill out the list with some minor decks, so for this, I go to StarCityGames.com and check the PTQ breakdown so far. Unfortunately the PTQ season has only just begun, so we'll have to use National Qualifiers, and check out the breakdown for GP: Sendai on the mothership.

This is fine though, because that's what PTQ-goers will have to work with, so it'll be reasonably realistic.

According to GP: Sendai, Vengevine Naya is still going strong, at 63 decks, just below W/U and Super Friends, along with Eldrazi Green (48) , Grixis (37), and Vampires (29). Mono-Red also makes it at 26. However, if we were to include all these decks, we'd have no less than 10 decks in our gauntlet, and that's with only 1 Jund list. So which ones do we include?

The five major decks definitely make it into the gauntlet. Even though Super Friends is decently similar to W/U, the matchups play quite differently, so both deserve a slot. Naya is popular, and it's quite a strong strategy, really abusing Vengevine. It can attack from a unique angle, so it should make a slot.

I'd like to include two Jund lists, so ideally, we'll only have one more slot left to make a total of 8 decks in the gauntlet. To me, that list should actually be Mono-Red. It's not as popular as Grixis, or Eldrazi Green, but it's a very good litmus test to see if your deck is fast enough to handle the pressure. Eldrazi Green shouldn't be too much trouble for a deck with the anti-creature suite to handle Mythic Conscription, and Grixis is the 9th slot for me, but unfortunately, doesn't quite cut it, due to process of elimination.

Now it's time to find the lists. We'll start with Jund. The two decks I want are regular Jund, and "tech Jund" with Cobras, Sarkhans, and Bit Blasts. Not everyone can afford to test all the two-cards-changed lists in our gauntlet, and this way ensures that with minimal time, the gauntlet tests against the most popular build of Jund, and against the different cards Jund might use to try to gain an edge.

Again at StarCityGames, I start my hunt at GP: Sendai. Shota Yasooka's 3rd place deck is very close to the traditional build of Jund. I have the advantage of playing Jund myself, so I know that by changing a few cards, we end up with a very popular build, leading us to this:

"Regular Jund"

As for our more liberal Jund, Takeshi Ozawa's 5th place deck provides us with not only Sarkhans, but also new tech: Abyssal Persecutor! On top of this, he goes to 2 Maelstrom Pulse, and 3 Putrid Leech. By replacing a few cards once again, we end up with a very strong testing ground for Jund's most popular tech cards. Usually I don't like messing with builds, but when we're looking for extremes, sometimes it's the right move. For the other decks, it probably won't be necessary.

"Tech Jund"

Now we have Jund taken care of, let's move on to an easy one: Next Level Bant. The build everyone is referencing is also Kibler's winning list, and I would expect just about every PTQer building Next Level Bant will use it.

"Next Level Bant"

Our next deck is Vengevine Naya. A fairly unique way to attack the format, combined with popularity, makes it an important part of our gauntlet. Naya didn't make it to the Top 8 of GP: Sendai, but it did make 12th at the SCG Open in Philadelphia with an interesting list featuring 3 Thornling. It's a unique addition, and similar enough that if you can deal with this list, you can deal with traditional Naya, so I'm going to let it see play in the gauntlet.

"Vengevine Naya"

The next deck on our list of gauntlet decks is Mythic Conscription. The highest-place list (4th) of Mythic Conscription at GP: Sendai is quite solid, and other than a couple of cards difference, is a very unchanged build. It's a good fit for the gauntlet: a very powerful version, but also incredibly close to, if not the, most popular list at the tournament.

"Mythic Conscription"

Three more decks to go. Unfortunately, W/U didn't make a Top 8 showing at GP: Sendai. Though it's star may be waning, it's still a powerful force, so we shall have to look elsewhere.

The more high-profile the event the better, so we'll check the SCG Open in Philadelphia. We have to go a fair bit down the list to see the first W/U Tapout, so we may be removing it from our gauntlet soon. However, we still need a list to test against for now, at the very least. It's a good list, so I'll be happy to use it:

"W/U Tapout"

Now for Super Friends. Fortunately, Super Friends made a good show of itself in GP: Sendai, so we can head back there once again. The 2nd place deck has removed 2 planewalkers for 2 Prophetic Prisms to combat Spreading Seas. I don't know if I agree with the change, but I doubt it'll see widespread adoption, at least immediately, so I'll change those back to create this stock Super Friends list:

"Super Friends"

And now, on to our last deck, Red Deck Wins. While it's a trial by fire that many players shall face at a PTQ, it doesn't often put up wins, which means it won't be easy to find a good list for it. Fortunately, SCG Opens put up the Top 16 decks, not just the Top 8, so maybe we can find one in there.

And we do, in 6th place no less. Here it is:

"Red Deck Wins"

And thus we have our gauntlet. Normal Jund, Tech Jund, Next Level Bant, Naya, Mythic, W/U, Super Friends, and Red Deck Wins.

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