2002 World Championship 11° - Brian Kibler
Kibler's green-white-red 'Red Zone 2K2' deck loves to put creatures into the 'Red Zone'; that is, attack with them! This aggressive deck can put over thirty creatures on the board. And with Glory in the graveyard, few defenses can prevail against their onslaught.
"Red Zone 2K2" takes its name from Brian Kibler's previous best effort, the original Red Zone, which, in the autumn of 2000, took him to a Top 4 finish where he met his match at the hands of eventual Pro Tour - Chicago Champion Kai Budde. Despite the fact that that current number-one player on the planet chose not to run Red Zone 2K2 (he doesn't like creature-based decks), many of the game's finest declared this the best deck in the format.
Red Zone 2K2 has two primary advantages against other decks. The first is that, overall, it boasts the best aggressive-creature quality in the format. Accelerated into play by the traditional Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves, Red Zone 2K2 launches its offense with turn-two Call of the Herd or Anurid Brushhopper, turn-three Phantom Centaur or Flametongue Kavu, and keeps up the pressure with a host of potential threats. Red Zone 2K2 runs some of the most efficient creature removal (read: blocker removal) available in Fire/Ice and the aforementioned Flametongue Kavu and can also defend its own creatures with Glory. Once Glory is in the graveyard, this deck can laugh off all sorts of spot removal or wave across the board with a team of unblockable attackers.
The other major advantage of Red Zone 2K2 is in its use of Living Wish. Living Wish enables this deck's specialized sideboard, which includes the fourth Glory, an extra land, and a number of "silver bullet" Wish targets -- one for every occasion. Want to protect your Phantom Centaur from Repulse (the Psychatog opponent certainly isn't going to block it)? Why not grab Sylvan Safekeeper ? Does your opponent have a ton of 6/6 Wurm tokens and a Phantom Centaur ? Intrepid Hero might be just the ticket. Want to win an attrition war or race against another creature deck? Both Genesis and Phantom Nishoba seem like reasonable ways to take those games.
Red Zone 2K2 will almost always mount a faster offense than your opponent. While the other decks we've looked at so far can draw more cards with Deep Analysis or counter potentially game-winning threats with Circular Logic, those decks need time and mana to get their strategies going. At its best, Red Zone 2K2 won't let your opponent have the time he or she needs to battle back. As I've said, this deck deploys the most powerful offensive creatures available, as quickly as they're drawn. Your opponent has a limited amount of time to draw the proper answer or a reasonable blocker, and even then, he or she might see a defender tapped with Ice or smashed with Flametongue Kavu. Your opponent might think that a Squirrel Nest or Opposition is going to help stabilize his or her defenses, only to see that expensive basket of eggs removed with a one-mana Wane. Even the most powerful card in all of Standard -- Upheaval -- is somewhat contained by the power of Anurid Brushhopper.
Red Zone 2K2 didn't post quite the same record as some of the other decks we're looking at today; nevertheless, it has an answer for almost every situation. Against mana-hungry board-control decks, Red Zone 2K2 can destroy all the lands with Global Ruin (leaving its own Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves alone, of course).
When you make use of the blank cards that come with Red Zone 2K2, there are a couple of different strategies you can take. One thing you can do is print more creatures to improve your Living Wishes. While Kibler was limited to a fifteen-card sideboard, there may be additional creatures you'll want to try. You may need more Thunderscape Battlemages against Sim Han How's Opposition deck. You may want even more Flametongue Kavu power. While you can't play more actual Flametongue Kavus, Thornscape Battlemage is still available to do much the same work -- and help out against artifacts to boot.
The other route is to play more utility cards. Kibler originally had Seedtime before he converted his choice to a Living Wish deck with a creature-based sideboard. Seedtime is obviously powerful against both permission spells and blue defensive cards like Repulse and Aether Burst. Just as Seedtime pulls a lot of the punch out of some blue instants, you can go for powerful graveyard-based cards like Glory and Anger with Krosan Reclamation, or smash tons of land with Boil. After all the islands are in the graveyard, it's not likely that you'll get many cards countered, and incidentally, Wonder stops helping your opponent as well.
