2002 World Championship 16° - Raphael Levy
Levy's blue-green 'Le Wonder Goose' deck features a ton of small green creatures like Nimble Mongoose and Werebear. With Careful Study and Mental Note to get to threshold, however, those small creatures quickly turn into real monsters!
Levy's deck is all about speed and offense. It's like Kibler's deck -- if Red Zone 2K2 traded away all of its tricks and versatility for a pure and focused attack based on cheap creatures that pack more punch than you might expect and can sometimes even fly.
While most of this deck's creatures are not exactly earth-shattering to begin with, once threshold is achieved, Nimble Mongoose becomes one of the most efficient creatures you could ask for. For just one mana, it's not only a 3/3, but has no fear of creature removal. In the same way, Werebear can play the role of a slow Llanowar Elves, pumping out Roar of the Wurm tokens or fueling Breakthrough. . . or it can dominate the board as a 4/4 beater for just two mana.
In this deck, Breakthrough, Careful Study, and Mental Note are pure enablers: they're there to make the aggressive cards better. Once in a while you might net a card or two with Breakthrough, but for the most part, these cards are supposed to dump Incarnations into the graveyard to enhance team morale and to transform ordinary green creatures into superstars. Once this deck gets going, its creatures can run with those of any other deck. They sometimes win fights because they're bigger. They sometimes avoid fights altogether.
The converse is, this deck doesn't do anything else but attack. Unlike a lot of blue-green decks, it doesn't run any madness cards. Though it has even more madness enablers than most -- Breakthrough, Careful Study, and Wild Mongrel -- it can't defend its board position or push through a key spell with Circular Logic. Surprisingly, this deck doesn't even run Basking Rootwallas.
Raphael Levy
If things start to go south for the Levy deck, it has to rely on Incarnations to win. Either it has to generate good trades and then recoup its creatures with Genesis, or it has to use Wonder to fly over for the win. If, for example, it starts to fall behind against an Opposition deck, there is but a lone Rushing River to dig it out of trouble.
On the other hand, this deck has a ton of sideboard cards against black control. Compost, Phantom Centaur, and even Disrupt can demolish that style of deck. Against Opposition, you can bring in an additional Rushing River and a pair of Ray of Revelations to try to handle enchantments. Joining Rushing River as a catchall answer to creatures is Repulse. This card is good in a variety of situations, both on defense and in defending one's own permanents. You can pick up some card advantage with Repulse against a spot removal spell or in a creature fight, after damage is on the stack.
Because Levy's deck is so light on answers, the way to win is to seize the initiative in the game and never let go. Attack, attack, attack in the air. Drop a 6/6 before passing the turn; make it rough for your opponent to attack back. Come in so aggressively that your opponent has to spend his or her turn putting out blockers rather than furthering his or her strategy. Use whatever tricks you have to keep the initiative when it seems like the tide is turning the other way.
More than any other deck in this series, the Levy deck's blank cards can be defined by what the deck does not give you to begin with. There are several cards we would normally associate with blue-green creature decks that simply aren't here. You might want to check out the classics: the Merfolk Looter, the Basking Rootwalla, the Arrogant Wurm. You might also try out a card or two to disrupt your opponent's strategy. While the Levy deck has all kinds of questions for your opponent to answer, it doesn't have very much to say about his or her spells at all. Aura Graft, Gainsay, and Jungle Barrier are just three different looks at three different types of permanents your opponent might send your way. On the other hand, you can forward Levy's own offensive overload strategy, trying out different fast beatdown creatures. Gaea's Skyfolk is a cheap beater in its own right, with 2 power and evasion built in. You could also venture into the heretofore-ignored three-mana slot, investigating how good 3-power creatures are with Call of the Herd and Spellbane Centaur. The options are many.
I hope this was an informative introduction to this year's chosen four. Grab a copy or two at your favorite gaming store and relive the excitement of the 2002 World Championships!
