While building a deck and taking it to a tournament and winning with your creation is certainly a rewarding goal, the true greats of deck building will do it for more than personal glory from winning a tournament. They will strive to build decks that shape metagames for years to come. They will build decks for their friends playing in tournaments they aren't playing in, and take just as much pride from their friends' success with their creations.
Building for your Friends
I've been asked by friends and acquaintances many times over the years for feedback on various decks they are playing. Many times the feedback is simply "I don't like this deck in this metagame", or "I like this deck, but not Card A". Outside of help with limited decks, it has been very rare that I've built a deck for a friend that I wasn't also going to play.
The first time I remember building for a friend was the 2003 Event Horizons Invitational. This was a 16 person invite-only tournament for the best of the Texas / Louisiana region. It was put on by Tim Weissman, the regional TO of the area back when those were still a thing. My friend Michael Musser was invited based on his successes on the PTQ circuit and his recent top 16 finish at Pro Tour Venice.
One of the formats of the event was Onslaught Block Constructed. With only Onslaught and Legions released, the competitors were allowed to choose any previous released third set to complete the block (the options were Weatherlight, Exodus, Urza's Destiny, Prophecy, Apocalypse, and Judgment). I don't remember the specifics of banned cards, but I do remember there weren't a lot on the banned list, if any.
When discussing which options he had, I realized that some very broken cards from Urza's Destiny were legal, the main one being Yawgmoth's Bargain. I began to look through the various Onslaught and Legions cards to see if anything could be used with Bargain to make a potent deck. I discovered Words of Worship, which combos with Bargain quite well in a lower-powered format like Onslaught block. With a bunch of mana in play, ever mana you spend will net you 4 life. Eventually you can have enough life to avoid dying and draw your deck. The next question is how can you kill? Luckily, Words of War lets you kill even with an empty deck!
The pieces starting fitting together almost magically. All the cards are enchantments so we can use Replenish to put them into play. Read the Runes can dig to find our cards and put enchantments in the graveyard for Replenish. Read the Runes also lets you sacrifice Academy Rector to put Bargain or another combo piece directly into play. The Explosive Vegetation mana engine that had served Mike so well in Venice would help set up the combo so you had plenty of mana at your disposal.
The final deck list was something very close to this (mana was probably different and/or better):
Words of Bargain played by Mike Musser at Event Horizons Invitational
4 Yawgmoth's Bargain
3 Words of Worship
1 Words of War
4 Replenish
4 Academy Rector
4 Read the Runes
4 Wirewood Elf
4 Explosive Vegetation
2 Thran Dynamo
3 Krosan Tusker
4 Grand Coliseum
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Plains
7 Forest
Sideboard
Unknown, but I remember 4x Masticore or maybe 4x Phyrexian Negator.
I don't know exactly who among the 5 people in the room at the time came up with which part of the deck in the brewing process, but I did feel a different sense of attachment to the results. I would have been rooting for Mike to win the event regardless of what deck he played for the three rounds of this format, but this felt more personal. When he lost after playing for 3-0 and the format trophy, I felt like I had let him down, despite the absurdity of the situation in general.
Recent History
I'm still a very active player, so rarely do I help build decks that aren't also for me. Some recent examples have happened that make me think it wouldn't be too bad of a gig for when I don't play so much. At GP Atlanta, Collin and I used our same iterative process that lead to Bant Snowblade to build his top 8 Jeskai Mentor deck. It wasn't a big departure from other lists, but our change to include Accumulated Knowledge to fight against the card advantage of Wrenn and Six was rewarded.
A much more potent example was at GP Austin last month. I went early on Friday to play the Pioneer PTQ with Elves. I got the idea to play Elves from an MTGO Challenge, but made some significant changes. I cut all the Chord of Calling and added Icon of Ancestry and Thorn Lieutenant to have a better game plan against the Medium Red decks that were popular at the time. I went 4-2 in the event, but I learned quite a lot. One of the biggest takeaways was that Elvish Visionary was not a playable card. I knew if I had to play the PTQ again on Sunday, I would replace them with more Thorn Lieutenants.
As luck would have it, I wouldn't need to play the PTQ on Sunday. I was 8-1 in the main event heading into day two. My good friend Will Lowry, however, was looking to play a PTQ. He could have chosen to play his Modern Urza deck, but he was somewhat interested in my Pioneer list. We were both beginning preparations for PT Phoenix, so it seemed like a smarter choice to play Pioneer. He wasn't sold on Elves, but I explained to him what I thought the deck was good at and where I thought it was lacking.
We were discussing various options to increase the size of the creatures in the deck against red and also looking for something to stop the flying army out of the Dredge deck. I did one last Gatherer search for Elves in Pioneer when I discovered gold: Wildborn Preserver. Of course a card from Throne of Eldraine would be better than just about every other elf in the format! At this point, I bought 4 Preservers from the dealers immediately and added them to the deck. We laid out a 75 that we both agreed on, and I knew Will was going to win the tournament the next day. If only I had discovered the card sooner!
Sure enough, Will won:
Congratulations to William Lowry on winning Sunday's Pioneer PTQ at #MTGAustin with Elves!— ChannelFireball (@ChannelFireball) January 13, 2020
Here are the Top 8 deck lists (thread) pic.twitter.com/Gou946DifS
Elves in Pioneer
Since that event, Pioneer has changed quite a bit. Theros: Beyond Death added two very potent combos with Underworld Breach and Inverter of Truth. It did not add any Elves to the deck. I share the Elves list a month ago because we were still considering it for PT Phoenix, but now its safe to say it won't be a major player in the metagame going forward. I'll have to achieve that last part of the deckbuilder's dream some other time.
In the meantime, Will has been working with Adam and Dana Fischer to keep the list up to date. Dana plays Elves whenever she can get the chance, and Will has been happy to help out. She went 5-1 at GP Phoenix before losing the last two rounds to miss day 2. Maybe if there are changes to the format in the future, Elves will be a real player.
Elves! played by Dana Fischer at GP Phoenix:
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Elvish Clancaller
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Gnarlroot Trapper
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Shaman of the Pack
4 Steel Leaf Champion
3 Thorn Lieutenant
4 Wildborn Preserver
4 Collected Company
2 Icon of Ancestry
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Forest
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Mutavault
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Unclaimed Territory
Sideboard
3 Assassin's Trophy
1 Fatal Push
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stain the Mind
4 Thoughtseize
1 Ultimate Price
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