Jamie Parke’s Reflecting Pool Control

Just a quick video on my friend Jamie Parke’s Top 8 deck from this past weekend’s 2008 Magic: The Gathering World Championships.

In case you haven’t seen it, here is Jamie’s deck list (designed, I hear, by Gabriel Nassif):

4 Cryptic Command
4 Mulldrifter
2 Negate
4 Remove Soul
1 Tidings
1 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Esper Charm
2 Jund Charm
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
4 Rhox War Monk
2 Cloudthresher
1 Pyroclasm
2 Condemn
3 Wrath of God

2 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Flooded Grove
4 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Underground River
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Meadow
1 Yavimaya Coast

sb:
1 Austere Command
4 Bitterblossom
2 Condemn
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Guttural Response
1 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroclasm
1 Wrath of God

The major differentiating element is that this deck plays Rhox War Monk over Kitchen Finks, which is sometimes worse but sometimes quite dramatically better (for example, Jamie ran all over Tsuyoshi Ikeda in the Top 4 gaining tons of life with Spiteful Visions in play).

The super tech was Bitterblossom in the sideboard. Jamie rode his awesome blossoms to beat Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa in the deciding game of his Top 8 match.

Here’s the obligatory video…

I actually had to go back and edit that just now. I think the opponent (playing what looked like Michael Jacob’s B/W Tokens deck) actually missed a kill the turn I tapped out for Oona. Yay us?

Anyway, I hope you liked it.

LOVE
MIKE

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5 comments ↓

#1 bk on 12.16.08 at 10:17 pm

I heard that deck did absolutely terrible overall.

#2 Gifts Ungiven on 12.16.08 at 11:57 pm

It did. Jamie himself was 2-3-1 during the Standard portion, and poor Steve Sadin just crashed and burned with it. That said, if you can get a giant, skilled team to help playtest your matchups, well, that helps. 🙂

Humorously, the finals featured two players who went 2-3-1 (Jamie) and 3-3 (Antti) during the Standard portion. That’s the problem with Worlds as an information source — the presence of a deck in the top eight is not probative when you’re attempting to identify successful design.

#3 wobblesthegoose on 12.17.08 at 12:16 am

You were a LOT more animated in this video, which made it immensely more enjoyable to listen to.

The last few videos have been pretty monotone.

#4 tartarsauce. on 12.17.08 at 6:36 am

I would be interested to see your take on the Reflecting Pool list Patrick Chapin (along with Manuel Bucher, Wafo-tapa, and the brothers Ruel) ran. It actually put up decent results on day 1.

#5 redder101 on 12.17.08 at 6:03 pm

Hello Mr Flores, I would also like to see some video on the Chapin list that they were playing if you have the time. I wanted to ask if you could help me out on a decklist i have been working on. If you could give any suggestions that would be great. If you can do u want me to give you my email so i can send it over?

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