Hey there! This week, I will be doing something a bit special in the form of an interview with Sami Haeggkvist from Finland. Sami crushed the first World Magic Cup Qualifier weekend here in Finland and managed to win both a Pro Tour Qualifier and the WMCQ on consecutive days. This article was originally planned for last week with the win still very recent, but due to some personal scheduling conflicts, it is appearing this week. My apologies to those of you who would have wanted to read about the deck when it was still super-fresh. Without further ado, let’s go into the interview!

Sami & Standard

Note: Sami answered these questions in Finnish, and I then translated the answers.

Hey, Sami, could you tell us about yourself and your Magic accomplishments so far?

I started playing Magic at the age of nine, and I’m twenty-two now, so I’ve been playing Magic for over half of my life! I’ve played in roughly ten Pro Tours, and my biggest accomplishments are one Grand Prix Top 8, three Nationals Top 8s, and some money finishes at the Pro Tour.

What do you think about the current Standard format?

I think Standard is tricky because it feels as though each deck has some weakness. For a while, I felt that most decks, such as Blitz and Jund, are so powerful that they define the metagame by themselves. Recently, though, the format has opened up again, and the metagame is very varied, with different decks winning each week. I think this is a very good direction for the format. The best decks right now are R/W/U, Junk, Blitz, The Aristocrats, and of course W/B/R Rites.

Speaking of W/B/R, congratulations on taking down both the PTQ and the WMCQ with the deck this previous weekend! Could you tell us why you chose this deck?

The deck plays very similarly to Jund, with many inherently powerful cards. I think the deck has many favorable matchups and only a few bad matchups—mainly The Aristocrats. I chose the deck because I was expecting a lot of control decks such as Esper and R/W/U, and I think both are good matchups. I also like the aggro matchups, especially against Blitz, and I was also expecting a fair number of aggressive decks. When choosing decks, I appreciate that a deck is consistent and has game against everything. W/B/R filled all of these criteria.

The Deck

How did you build the deck? Did you start from scratch or did you find an initial list somewhere?

I first saw the deck on Magic Online a couple of weeks ago and became interested. The original list had several problems. One problem was that there were too many different removal spells, which led to situations in which you drew the wrong spell at the wrong time. The other main problem was that the original sideboard was very incoherent, and I ended up replacing most of the sideboard for the final version.

Here is the list Sami played. There were some variations between the two tournaments, but this is the list from the WMCQ on Sunday.

"W/B/R Rites by Sami Haeggkvist"

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Angel of Serenity
• 2 Restoration Angel
• 2 Thundermaw Hellkite
• 4 Boros Reckoner
• 2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
• 2 Olivia Voldaren

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (19)
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 2 Dreadbore
• 2 Rakdos's Return
• 2 Unburial Rites
• 3 Mizzium Mortars
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 4 Lingering Souls

• Lands (26)
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 3 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Dragonskull Summit
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Sacred Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Appetite for Brains
• 2 Duress
• 1 Electrickery
• 2 Gloom Surgeon
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Purify the Grave
• 1 Rise from the Grave
• 2 Slaughter Games
• 1 Ultimate Price

Buy This Deck

What was the testing process like? Did you test the list a lot before the tournaments? Did you play in (MTGO) tournaments or were you testing with someone?

During the first week of testing, I was successful against the field, but at the same time, I was struggling against Junk Reanimator. This was particularly frustrating because that was the most-played deck on Magic Online at the time. The original deck had three Tormod's Crypt, two Slaughter Games, and two Appetite for Brains for the matchup, but after playing the matchup about fifteen times, I noticed that I kept losing despite playing both Slaughter Games and Tormod's Crypt in the same game.

The problem was that Junk had too many different ways to win games between Gavony Township, Craterhoof Behemoth, Thragtusk, and Loxodon Smiter. Often, I would remove Angel of Serenity with Slaughter Games and then lose to Craterhoof Behemoth, and vice versa. Due to the fact that this deck has no mana acceleration, Slaughter Games was also worse than in Jund, for example. Tormod's Crypt had no synergy with the rest of the deck, unlike Purify the Grave, and the deck could not take advantage of the main upside of Tormod's Crypt—notably, the fact that it is very fast.

While Tormod's Crypt and Slaughter Games were underperforming, Appetite for Brains was very impressive, so I increased the number to four. Jani found an article talking about Rise from the Grave, and after brief testing, we saw that the card was very good in this matchup. I changed the sideboard and finally ended up with a version that I thought could defeat Junk Reanimator. At his point, I decided to play W/B/R in the two tournaments.

Could you tell us about some of the popular matchups? Which are good, and which are bad?

Junk Reanimator – The matchup feels favorable, and you have many powerful cards that can win the game on their own. However, there are still many decks I would rather face, as when Junk draws well, things can be rough, especially in the first game.

Naya Blitz – I would not mind being paired against Naya Blitz all day. After sideboarding, you have access to a lot of cards that help you stay alive until you are able to play Boros Reckoner and Olivia Voldaren. When you make it to this point in the game, you are usually favored to win. This is the matchup I played the most during the weekend, and my record was 5–0.

Gruul aggro – This matchup is much trickier than Naya Blitz because you can still easily lose to Thundermaw Hellkite or Hellrider in the midgame. Gruul also plays more Ghor-Clan Rampagers, which are very good against W/B/R. I think this matchup is very close to even.

R/W/U – Your cards are much more powerful, and you have many roads to victory. The most common ways of winning are resolving Obzedat, Ghost Council or Rakdos's Return, but this is harder than it sounds. This is a very tough matchup to play for a number of reasons. The first of these is that your spells are at sorcery speed, which is traditionally the ideal situation for the R/W/U Flash deck. You have to apply pressure with an early Liliana of the Veil or Boros Reckoner and Lingering Souls to force your opponent to react. This will let you resolve one of the important spells easier. Restoration Angel is also very good at applying pressure because you can play it at instant speed.

Esper control – This is among the best matchups for W/B/R. It is very similar to the R/W/U matchup, with the main exception being that you don’t have to be afraid of cards like Aurelia, the Warleader that cause you to lose instantly.

Jund – This feels like a mirror match where you have more powerful spells. The most dangerous aspect of Jund is Bonfire of the Damned for the miracle cost. When you are ahead, you should try to close the game as soon as possible to prevent the opponent from having time to draw that Bonfire of the Damned. Usually, this match ends before the opponent has time to fully take advantage of Kessig Wolf Run, but it is still a potent card, as is your Vault of the Archangel.

Naya midrange – I haven’t played this matchup a lot, but it feels as though you each just slam threats down one after another and see who wins. Both decks have powerful cards, and most games will most likely be very one-sided, with the deck being on the play having a major advantage.

The Aristocrats – This is the roughest matchup because you don’t have very many good answers to Falkenrath Aristocrat. If The Aristocrats is a popular deck in your metagame, I do not recommend playing W/B/R.

Do you have any general advice on playing the deck?

You will also run into the situation in which you have to decide if you can use Liliana of the Veils +1 ability in the fear of Loxodon Smiter. If you have problems beating Loxodon Smiter in the current situation, not plussing Liliana is most likely the correct play.

Could you give us some advice on sideboarding?

Junk Reanimator:

+4 Appetite for Brains

+1 Rise from the Grave

+ 1 Purify the Grave

(+1 Electrickery)

−2 Liliana of the Veil

−2 Rakdos's Return

−2 Restoration Angel

−1 (or 2) Mizzium Mortars

+2 Gloom Surgeon

+1 Ultimate Price

+1 Electrickery

+1 Oblivion Ring

−2 Rakdos's Return

−2 Liliana of the Veil

− 1 Thundermaw Hellkite

Gruul aggro:

+2 Gloom Surgeon

+1 Oblivion Ring

+1 Ultimate Price

−2 Rakdos's Return

−2 Liliana of the Veil

R/W/U:

+2 Duress

+1 Slaughter Games

+1 Oblivion Ring

−3 Mizzium Mortars

−1 Dreadbore

+2 Duress

+2 Slaughter Games

+1 Oblivion Ring

+1 Appetite for Brains

−3 Mizzium Mortars

−2 Ultimate Price

−1 Boros Reckoner

Jund:

+1 Oblivion Ring

+1 Rise from the Grave

−2 Ultimate Price

The Aristocrats:

+1 Oblivion Ring

+1 Electrickery

+1 Ultimate Price

+1 Gloom Surgeon

−2 Liliana of the Veil

−2 Rakdos's Return

After playing these two tournaments, are there any changes you would make to the deck going forward?

I think that for every tournament, you should change a card a two depending on the expected metagame. In the Finnish metagame, I would add one Murder or Victim of Night and a third Obzedat, Ghost Council somewhere in the seventy-five—it is so good against midrange and control.

Would you recommend this deck to others? How does the local metagame have to look for this deck to be good?

I would definitely recommend this deck because it offers a lot of challenging and interactive games. You are able to impact the game a lot with your own choices instead of the deck doing these changes for you. The deck rewards tight play and doing the correct choices, and all matchups are winnable.

Are there any interesting stories or games from the weekend that you would like to share with us?

Not in particular, as the details of most games blend into each other after the tournament. I do remember not using Liliana of the Veil’s +1 ability multiple times in the tournament, and at least in the quarterfinals of the PTQ, it won me the game.

Thank you for the time, and good luck in Amsterdam and Dublin!

Signing Off

Next week, I’ll be writing about my experience at Grand Prix: Strasbourg, where I started off well but then finished just outside the Top 64. I had a good time playing Legacy, and I ran into several interesting situations in games that I would like to share with you.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact me either via Twitter or the comments section below. I would love to hear from you and know what you would want me to write about.

Thanks for reading,

Max

@thebloom_ on Twitter

Maxx on Magic Online

You can find my music on: http://soundcloud.com/bloomlive