do U/B Control decks just run Sea Gate Oracle for the draw power or is there something i'm missing here?

great article by the way, its exciting for a newbie like me to learn about the top level tournaments and such, especially Worlds.

is it like the World Cup where location of the tournament is pre-chosen years before? And if so, where is the next World Championship going to be held?

Wow. These decks are strong but what really surprises me is how unremarkable they are. People around here post decks similar to this all the time. It really takes a intelligent player to make the deck great.

The Sea Gate Oracle's are really like another copy of preordain because they can dig your next draw to be three cards deep in deck. Also it's a target for decks that like to run Goblin Guide because Guide can't kill it and if the deck wants to keep attacking you directly they will have to waste a lightning bolt on it instead of saving that bolt for your Jace. The important part of the Oracle isn't necessarily the brute force card draw but the Filtering. The whole premise of a control deck is that the end game stage of the deck is better than anything the other deck can do so getting to that End Game stage intact is the most important part of the deck.

Next years worlds is going to be in San Francisco. The pro Tour locations are going to be in Paris, Nagoya Japan, Philadelphia, and then San Francisco. The Pro Tours are chosen one year in advance.

does one have to qualify in regional or state tournaments to head on to worlds?

What is really interesting from the Top 8 at Worlds is to note that 5 of the top 8 were playing U/B control and the most interesting match to me was Matignon vs PV or the U/B mirror match. Those decks were really different and what gave Matignon the edge was baby Jace! He just always had more cards in hand and was so far ahead of PV it wasn't even exciting ... well okay game 2 was nuts as PV topdecked some bombs but Matignon always had the answer. A true master build that got him to the finals against a guy playing the exact same 75 cards!

A question that also needs to be asked is "Was U/B really the best deck?" I mean yeah it had 5 of the top 8 piloting it but lots of players using other decks did better in the Day one Swiss rounds. There is a reason 32% of the field (guys who really do know what they are doing) brought Valakut to the table. I'm not a Valakut fan per-se but its worth talking about the so called "best deck" and why it isn't represented here.

I think you want to believe Valakut is stronger than it really is.. UB so easily kills that deck, counter the ramp, kill the titans, tec and seas the valakuts,

@mzy10511 yes it kills that deck when it has magical christmas land going for it, but what about when it has bad draws and has to use some preordains to dig a bit for answers and when Summoning Trap comes down after the counter. It's not quite as clear cut as that.

@crossclimber Valakut is the "best" deck right now. It is going to give you the best results overall againist all matchups, so in worlds where the formats are 6 rounds of Standard, 6 Rounds of Draft, and 6 Rounds of Extended the players don't necessarily need an unbeatable deck, but rather a deck that gives them pretty good matchups across the board because 6-0 isn't necessarily as important as going 4-2 and not being eliminated from contention for the title. Matignon was 3-3 for standard running that same control list, but it won him the Top 8. This brings to light that there are two metagames in the tournament one for the main portion and one for the top 8 and if you want to win the tournament you must prepare a deck that not only does well against the field but also does well against what you believe will make top 8.

Honestly I just wanted to get the discussion going about other awesome decks. Since we have a few takers on my bait I'll say that I think mzy has a point here in that U/B is favorable against Valakut or at least a coin flip. Valakut doesn't have bad match-ups because it goldfishes well and is fairly hard to interact with. Speading Seas, Tec Edge do a fair job of disruption which is why control players made sure to be packing those cards. Valakut may have been the "best deck" but then since it was known as the boogeyman there was a lot of hate for it too. Even with all the hate I'm not sure it lost it's spot on top altho Kibler's "Caw Go" deck is pretty awesome. Now is "Caw Go" a meta game call that made it such a stand out of would a deck like that stand the test of time?

I think this article is misnamed or at least needs a subtitle explaining that it is looking at the Top 8 archetypes.

@LegendInc

You can qualify for worlds via a lot of different methods. Ranging from attaining the appropriate Pro Tour Club level (you need at least 3 but 4 to guarantee it), a top DCI rating (they compare by region), placing well at nationals, placing well at a national qualifier, or qualifying for the online version of worlds gets you an invite to the paper version (the online version is played out at worlds anyways).

And there are even the occasional celebrity invitation.

@Jace Lightning Yes.. Isn't Summoning Trap itself a card that requires some magical christmasland-ing itself? you aren't even guaranteed a creature just yet.

What I'm saying is in an average matchup, where both have an average hand, and draw not amazing but not terrible, UB has the upperhand, with 8 valakut destroyers with so much searching, 2 Doomblades and 4 Jaces+ mana leak to remove your titan, and discard so they know how to play correctly and pick apart your gameplan, I think UB is definitely favored in this matchup.

And since "everyone good" was playing it, it beat all those good people and got into the top 8.

Does anyone know why these decks run the sac lands that DON'T let you get either of your 2 colors(just one plus another not in the deck)? They are all doing that. I can't see the reason.

mmmmk...the fetches are so you can go +0, brainstorm, dump some crap from my hand onto my library, fetch, shuffle it up, and next turn brainstorm into 3 new (and hopefully better) cards, not for thinning or fixing. and the Onslaught fetches are hella not in Standard right now.

I think the most interesting thing here is the B/R vamps build. Not only is it using Dark Tutelage , but it's B/R vamps...and we all thought that vamps died with Nocturnus. Arc Trail is interesting tech, as is Viscera Seer - response to Day of Judgment , sac a whole bunch of crap, look at the same card 6 times, go Kalastria Highborn on your face.

@mzy10511 I'll concede the u/b vs valakut matchup itself, but to be the best deck you must have the best record against the field and that is my ultimate point.

The pro tour is classically known to be a control metagame as many of the worlds top players would rather play control. In that case blue black control is the best control deck for the metagame. IF the metagame was more aggro such as a 5k or something of those sorts valukkut and blue white control are the best decks to play. Most of the top 8 decks were blue black becuase they realized that blue black gave them the best chance in the expected metagame

sporkife: I did not understand that at all about the sac lands. My question is, for example, if you have a G/B deck, why would you run Misty Rainforest , and NOT run Verdant Catacombs ?

Nobody at the professional level running B/G runs Misty Rainforest and no Verdant Catacombs unless they're stupid. Same with all the other off-colour pairs. Sometimes people run extra fetches of only one of their colours for thinning. At the FNM level you often see people running any fetches they have for thinning (not my personal idea of a good time, but people do it).

But I'm saying LOOK at the deck lists.

You say nobody at the pro level runs the off-colour pairs. LOOK AT THE LISTS. The World Champion deck is U/B. It has listed Misty Rainforest and Verdant Catacombs . It does NOT have the one(can't think of the name) that fetches a swamp or island.

Randle's U/W deck has Misty Rainforest .

B/R Vamp deck has Marsh Flats .

AND all 3 do NOT have the ones that will fetch both of the kind that they are running. I find that very strange. Do you see why I am questioning this?

@Vic- you are right the lands only fetch one color. But they are not in there for mana fixing (at least not in the way you are thinking). First off there aren't allied fetches in standard right now. Those were in the Onslaught block so no one has the option of playing a U/B fetch land now. The fetches in the two control decks like U/B and U/W are there for their shuffle effect. If you play a jace use his brainstorm ability and put back two cards you really don't want or need you then can play a fetchland crack it and shuffle up and have new cards on top of your library. Essentially drawing a Misty Rainforest is drawing an Island that lets you shuffle your deck. Same with Verdant Catacombs = Swamp.

In the B/R vamps deck the fetches are there for two reasons. The main one is for Bloodghast. With a viscera seer on the board and/or a Kalastria Highborn he can sac bloodghast scry one use the highborn ability for 2 damage, play fetch bringing back bloodghast sac again scry and highborn for the 2nd time, crack land get a swamp bringing back bloodghast. Also with a deck like BR Vamps you need very very little mana to actually run the deck so using fetches helps get land out of your deck so your chances of drawing action cards are improved. In short fetches do a lot lot more than just help you get the land you want on the board.

yeah with this current standard set, the only fetch lands (apart from the generic, Terramorphic Expanse & Evolving Wilds ) are Enemy Colored fetch lands, colors not specifically adjacent to each other on the color wheel

which seen the color wheel on the back of every Magic Card are; White/Black (Marsh Flats ), Black/Green (Verdant Catacombs ), Green/Blue (Misty Rainforest ), Blue/Red (Scalding Tarn ), and Red/White (Arid Mesa )

Okay. They only make them in enemy colors. I didn't realize that. Not active in standard right now. That was all I needed to know. Thanks.

Knowing is half the battle :D