Regionals in Retrospect - Accelerated Blue, DrawGo, and Hybrids
**If almost all the Replenish were built in the same way, the same cannot be said for the blue decks. I think a lot of them were mislabeled as 'Accelerated Blue' in some statistical charts, leading to the impression that Accelerated Blue did a little better than it actually did. Still, blue decks definitely did well. The biggest dividing question was: Did you use Grim Monolith? There was no middle ground; either you played all four, or you didn't play any. Those that didn't use Grim Monolith are called 'Draw-Go.' Those that did tend to be called 'Accelerated Blue.' I consider many of those decks to be at best Semi-Accelerated Blue, but I will adhere to convention. Still, I think once you run more than twelve counterspells or so you're no longer running Accelerated Blue just because you have Grim Monolith. You're running a hybrid. This time, I'm using nine decklists, five of them Accelerated.
The normal number of lands for Accelerated Blue (AB) decks was 25 or 26; the need for more counters to combat Replenish has taken the luxury of using 28 lands away. This also allows them to use cards that are less powerful to help them survive, like Daze. With 28 lands and four Grim Monoliths, there's too big a risk of drawing nothing to do. The Draw-Go decks don't have Monoliths, so some of them went a little higher, one playing 28 lands. Two out of the five Accelerated decks used Faerie Conclave as part of their mana base, and those that did use it used four. Since they come into play tapped, Conclave is the kind of card that you would normally see intermediate numbers of if its value was questionable, but apparently some people like it and some don't. A lot of that depends on how many Thwarts you use, of course, but one deck had no Thwarts maindeck and also no Conclaves. One Draw-Go player also used four Conclaves, and one used only two. All the decks of both types but one used four Rishadan Ports, although the last one used none. I think they clearly belong, but this does show that the deck can survive without them if it has to. All decks of both types played about three Dust Bowls, with two playing only two and one using all four. The only other land was Terrain Generator, which oddly enough was in a deck with only 25 lands. I think it deserves to be looked at, but only for those versions running high (27+) land counts.
The counter base is the core of the deck. Everyone used four Counterspell. Almost everyone also used four Miscalculation, with one deck shaving one off and the last one being the only one playing Memory Lapse instead. Memory Lapse still serves the same basic function. Daze was much more likely to show up in Draw-Go decklists, with all but one running all four, but there were still six more between the five Accelerated lists. Interestingly, it doesn't seem to be used as a surprise or bluffing card; only one of the nine decks used Daze without playing all four. Of course, we don't know if they sideboarded them out or not. Two Annul were in the maindeck of all the Draw-Go decks, one even using four. Only one Accelerated deck maindecked it, using three. Annul was also a popular sideboard card (see below). The more expensive counters also varied between the two styles. The Accelerated decks used Rewind about as much as Thwart, with a wide range in their counter bases. One even used two Quash maindeck. The Draw-Go decks, however, were firm believers in Thwart. They all used at least three, and only one used any Rewinds.
Treachery (and Dominate) were another divide between the two styles. All but one of the Accelerated decks used four Treachery or in one case two and two Dominate, and all but one of the Draw-Go decks didn't use any. The one that didn't was also the only one to use Rootwater Thief. Powder Keg was universal in Draw-Go at four, but the Accelerated Blue decks have become split on the issue. Kegs used to be golden in Standard, but the rise of new decks has made them less so. Now three of the five Accelerated decks played without it. Since Keg was a major weapon against creature decks, especially when you fail to draw Grim Monolith, does this mean the deck is now more vulnerable to creatures? I guess the designers decided to take that risk.
The designers also couldn't agree on what card drawer to use in Draw-Go. Accelerated Blue used two or three Stroke of Genius, and one also used four Accumulated Knowledge, as did two Draw-Go decks. The Draw-Go decks all used Opportunity over Stroke, although one didn't use either. It was the only list with four Thieving Magpie along with two Somnophore, and two other Draw-Go decks used three. However, the fourth version showed that Magpie is not required for the deck.
On creatures, all the Accelerated decks used three or four Morphling and all but one used three Masticore. Only one still used two Palinchron, and one tried the Rootwater Thieves. The only other card in an Accelerated maindeck was two Boomerangs in one of them, which the designer claims are very good. The Draw-Go decks tended to use three Masticore and one Morphling, although one flipped those numbers. That's all the cards in the maindecks.
Before I start on the sideboards, it should be noted that one of the Draw-Go sideboards is missing. The sideboards again can be divided by the purpose of the cards. The first card is Annul. The nine decks had the ability to sideboard up to a combined thirty-five Annuls, with one deck having only three in the maindeck. Annul is a vital card in a large number of matchups and is sideboarded in a lot, enough for some players to put what is naturally a sideboard card into the maindeck. The Draw-Go decks had more counters and less ability to deal with cards on the table, so they all maindecked at least two Annul while only one of the Accelerated versions did.
Ponza's value varies wildly depending on who you ask; I consider it rather weak. But all but one deck chose to pack either Chill or Misdirection to deal with it. Chill is more narrow, working against no other popular decks, while Misdirection comes in against more decks. Only one of the Draw-Go decks used Chill, while most of the Accelerated decks did. This makes a lot of sense, especially considering Misdirection's alternate cost: Draw-Go often has extra blue cards, and Accelerated Blue often does not.
There was a scattering of extra creatures to bring in. Two of the Draw-Go decks had Morphling to insure they had a game winning spell in their decks, a lot of the Accelerated decks boarded in a Masticore (one added two), and one deck even boarded two Palinchrons. Three decks had a single Temporal Adept. Finally, one of the Draw-Go decks used four Somnophore as his answer to Stompy and possibly other creature decks. Many versions of the deck seemed to be practically giving up on beating Stompy (other than by getting lucky), boarding only Seal of Removal or Unsummon. Everyone but two of the Accelerated decks used three of one of them, normally Seal of Removal. Two Accelerated decks packed Hibernation and one Draw-Go used Submerge.
The rest of the sideboards were all over the place. One deck had a Dust Bowl. One had two Treachery and one had just one. Two decks brought in Thwart, one brought in Rewind. Only one deck bothered with more than one Arcane Laboratory, once a staple of the sideboard but now discarded as being too narrow. The remaining rouge board cards were Dominate, Powder Keg, Boomerang and Thran Foundry, none of them more than one or two in one deck. The last popular card was that three decks put in two Scrying Glass and one put in one, as an additional source of card economy.
What do I think about this deck right now? Both the new crippled Accelerated Blue versions and the Draw-Go strategies are composed of weaker cards than previous versions. They have more problems with creature rushes, their cards have less power, and they have less land making them more vulnerable in their mana bases. They are forced to run counters that are pretty bad in order to get more of them. Instead of being an aggressive control deck and being able to come back from terrible board positions, these decks now need to stay on target or lose. That's the bad news. The good news is that all these new counters give the deck a shot (how great a shot is debatable, from small to guaranteed) at Replenish and Bargain. It's strange how formats evolve like this, but the decks all seem to get more narrow as time goes by and technology improves. This has cost what used to be the best deck in the format, but it's still a viable alternative. I hesitate to pick a version right now; choose the one that feels right to you, because you'll need to be very comfortable with one of these decks to run it.
- Zvi Mowshowitz
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