With Day 1 brought to a close here in Hollywood, I can safely say that Standard is about to be rocked and that no one expected it. We've again been reminded why the French are so dangerous, with the likes of Guillaume Wafo-Tapa (undefeated after 8 rounds), the Ruel brothers, and they've allied with the Swissman Manuel Bucher, a name you probably don't know but should. The Japanese were not the ones who brought the awesome, though a lot of them are doing quite well.

Manuel Bucher is a member of the World Champion Swiss team, top 8ed GP Florence, and won GP Zurich in '04. He has designed the deck which is currently the answer to the metagame. Wielded in the hands of a powerful mage such as Wafo-Tapa, it's quick and deadly. I'll be getting Wafo-Tapa or Bucher, to sit down with me and discuss the deck for a future episode but Randy Buehler and Brian David Marshall will be featuring a deck tech episode today with Manuel Bucher if you simply can't wait.

Looking at the Standings to begin Day 2, I'm surprised a fair bit by the spread of the top names. Pat Chapin and Jon Finkel both fell short of day two. Chapin had piloted a five-color Reveillark while Finkel had taken a Merfolk deck in his grip. Another quite interesting deck comes from Zvi Mowshowitz, Steve Sadin, and co. It's a Red/Green Mid-range deck that Zvi makes a very compelling case for it to also be the answer to standard, I had grabbed him for a quick interview and it turned into an amazing lesson on the metagame, deck theory and why Zvi is so revered by so many Magic players. As Evan Erwin told me later, "If Zvi isn't right, he's later proven right." And indeed he definitely hit the gas after round three where he was 0-3, he then went on a tear for 5-0 to end the day 5-3 and make it into day 2.

We're about to head down to the floor to get some morning interviews, so check back later for more writeups about the day and the weekend!