Slivers couldn't keep it up after seeing Granny naked in the shower and so Madness came out in full force! It was a diverse field for sure, proving the pundits wrong. Block is more than a Sliver breeding ground. All the action, recapitulated within!
Top 8:
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Kingritz - RG Jungle Storm
borekmarek - UR Burnt Rift
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53N531 - Br Madness
BenitoUK1 - UR Control
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longshot270 - MBM Mono-Black Madness
Polyjak - WU Containment Unit
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R3b3lw4rr10r - WRu
Carinon - UBr Looter Madness
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Through a field rife with Slivers and Madness raced these eight decks and these eight players. Some of the noteable decks from outside the Top 8 were Ciren's take on WB Rebels, PendulousSkin's revisitation of Giraffe's UB Advantage, and idoru's bold attempt at a WU Acid deck.
At the top, Madness was definitely the order of the day, showing up at all but one of the Quarterfinals tables. More surprisingly, perhaps, was the complete lack of a Sliver-centric deck at the top. My own Containment Unit, with the ironic transformative Sliver sideboard, was the closest it came to Slivers in the Top 8.
Instead, we see a double showing of Izzet with Burnt Rift and UR Control. We see a triple assault of Madness, in Br, UBr, and Mono-Black varieties. We see a rogue WRu construct from R3b3lw4rr10r, we see the previously discussed WU Sliver Containment Unit from yours truly, and last but not least, we see Kingritz's RG Jungle Storm, perhaps the most interesting of the batch.
JUNGLE STORM
Kingritz, UPDC 1.13 Champion
3 Rift Elemental
4 Grinning Ignus
2 Coal Stoker
4 Nantuko Shaman
4 Keldon Halberdier
4 Durkwood Baloth
4 Rift Bolt
4 Search for Tomorrow
2 Edge of Autumn
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Grapeshot
9 Forest
9 Mountain
3 Terramorphic Expanse
Sideboard
4 Dead/Gone
3 Penumbra Spider
4 Spinneret Sliver
2 Sprout Swarm
2 Subterranean Shambler
Carinon had what appeared to be a transformative sideboard, turning UBr Looter Madness into something like Teachings Control. The one card Kingritz feared most was the one card Carinon had removed from his board before the tourney due to the expected torrent of Slivers decks: Subterranean Shambler. Little did he know, his final match of the evening would be against his worst nightmare -- Empty the Warrens.
LOOTER MADNESS
Carinon, UPDC 1.13, Second Place
4 Dreamscape Artist
4 Errant Ephemeron
4 Looter il-Kor
4 Dark Withering
4 Gorgon Recluse
4 Psychotic Episode
4 Strangling Soot
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Trespasser il-Vec
8 Island
1 Mountain
12 Swamp
2 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Chromatic Star
Sideboard
2 Mystical Teachings
4 Piracy Charm
3 Vedalken Aethermage
2 Ichor Slick
4 Mindlash Sliver
I expect to see goblins out in stronger force next week, as it proves to be a strategy Madness struggles to answer. This, in turn, will necessitate the increase of Shambler-based control decks, such as RW [Blink] or UR Control. It seems to me that Time Spiral Block Pauper can be dissected into the following themes or strategies:
* Slivers
* Rebels
* Thallids
* W/x Blink
* G/x Beats
* Goblinstorm
* Shambler Control
* U/x Aggro-Control
* Teachings Control
* Removal-Heavy Madness
Clearly, Time Spiral Block is more than a one-trick pony in a one-horse town. Slivers is by far the most linear of all themes in the block. Otherwise, Time Spiral is very modular, even in Pauper, and we're poised to begin playing with these pieces like Duplos. See you next Sunday!
