I decided to play Warp World for the M2010 game day. I really like the deck and it got me to the top 8 with a record of 4-0-2. Since there are about 16 different versions of the deck I had my work cutout for me and I had figure out which cards I was going to run. I started reading on what cards were successful in other players experience and did a little testing before coming up with a list I felt comfortable playing. For those unfamiliar with the deck, the deck uses a lot of mana accelerators (like Trace of Abundance, Fertile Ground, and Farhaven Elf) to ramp up quickly to big creatures (Like Siege-gang Commander, Bogardan Hellkite, or Broodmate Dragon). Then, if the warp world deck player has board position they will keep beating down or playing more creatures, if not, they cast Warp world. With 56 permanents mainboard, the warp world player will generally kill their opponent the next turn.

There were a couple of cards that were good in the deck, but didn’t make the cut for me.

1. Keeper of Progenitus, I liked this card, but wasn’t thrilled that he took my 4 drop spot. He also really sucks against kithkin, one of the hardest matchups for this deck already. He’s a 1/3 so he survives Volcanic Fallout and Jund Charm, but I decided that wasn’t enough reason to play him. When I play tested Bloodbraid Elf over him, I was pleasantly surprised. The elves will always find mana acceleration, while I have to wait to untap with the keeper.

2. Wort, the Raidmother, I tried this card as a one-of, but it took up the spot of one of my late game dragons. Having the ability to conspire a warp world would generally win me the game outright, but I decided if I warp world I will generally win anyways, I don’t really need to do it twice.

3. Ant Queen, I wanted to put this card in, but I rarely found a time that it was useful. Ant Queen is good when the board is stalled, but in my play testing, I rarely ran out of cards to make her ability useful. With the Keepers out of the deck, the ant queens lost even more oomf.

4. Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, I play tested him and didn’t like him. He really didn’t do anything if you hard cast him and seemed to rather be really good off a warp world. I didn’t want cards that relied on warp world to be good.

There were also cards that I was pleasantly surprised play testing with, and even more surprised playing with them.

1. Spellbreaker Behemoth, this was my number 1 surprise playing the deck. He is really good to get out turn 3 as he stops almost all early game creatures right in their tracks, giving you time to set up your mana and late game cards. Also, the fact that he was uncounterable, AND made my hellkites uncounterable made him maindeck material.

2. Bloodbraid Elf, I was dubious playing this guy at first, but he is really, really good in this deck. He will always hit a mana accelerator and give you at least 2 permanants, 3 if you hit a Farhaven Elf.

3. Thought Hemorrhage, I didn’t think this card was that good vs control until I started playing it. Hot damn this card wrecks control decks. At one time I double Thought Hemorrhaged a control player on turn 6. He didn’t recover.

Here’s the final decklist:

The day went as follows:

Match 1:  Jund something.
In the first 6 turns of game one I had a Spellbreaker Behemoth, Murderous Redcap, and a Broodmate Dragon while he had a Sprouting Thrinax. Eventually he played his own Bogardan Hellkite, which I killed with a later turn Siege-gang Commander. He used Makeshift Mannequin to get it back but he was too low. He eventually ended up using Lightning Bolt on his own thrinax to have enough blockers.

Game 2 he got mana screwed and I rolled over him.

Match 2: Blue White Kithkin

This player was playing with cards like Sleep, Meddling Mage, Negate, Essence Scatter, and the typical Kithkin rundown. Game 1 his turns went like this: Turn 1 Goldmeadow Stalwart, turn 2 Honor of the Pure, Turn 3 Honor of the Pure and a Silence at the start of my turn, turn 4 Wizened Cenn, a Silence at the start of my turn, turn 5 Spectral Procession.

Game 2 I sided in 3 Caldera Hellions and 3 Kitchen Finks and took out 2 Spellbreaker Behemoth 4 Bloodbraid Elf. I mulliganed to 6 and kept a questionable hand. I accelerated out fairly early and had a Kitchen Finks on the board but he had a turn 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender, 2 Knight of Meadowgrain turn 3 Honor of the Pure. Turn 5 he played a Cloudgoat Ranger. I Finally hit my 8th mana with no creatures on the board and 3 Bogardan Hellkites in hand. I proceeded to play them back to back and eventually swung for 15 in the air twice while he was at 30.

Game 3 He had a turn 2 Knight of Meadowgrain and a turn 3 Wizened Cenn. I accelerated out nicely and by the time he played 2 Meddling Mages naming Siege-gang Commander and Bogardan Hellkite (both in my hand actually) I cleared his board with a Caldera Hellion. He played a Honor of the Pure and Spectral Procession, and I used the Siege-gang to pick them off.

Match 3: Jund
This was actually vs a buddy of mine. He was playing Bloodbraid Elf, Putrid Leechs, and Anathemancers and such. He won game one, I won game two and we decided to draw since both our decks were good.

Match 4: Revelark Control

Because of the draw I got paired with a 2-1 player. He was not a very good control player and was misplaying cards like Hallowed Burial when he had two Tidehollow Scullers on the board. In the final game he tapped all but 1 mana and on my turn I cast Warp World. He conceded before it resolved and showed me his hand which had 2 Countersquall.

Match 5: 5cc Control
This was a tough matchup for me. He kept my creatures down but in the first game he tapped out to counter a Bogardan Hellkite and on my turn I played a Warp World, the first to resolve the entire day. I won after he put hardly anything in play and I dealt 11 damage to him with come into the battlefield effects.

In the second game he countered some early game mana acceleration and got Ajani Vengeant out keeping my land tapped. I got stuck on 2 lands and wasn’t able to go off.

Game 3 was pretty straight forward. I played my guys, he countered some, but I eventually over whelmed him.

Match 6: Draw
After some nifty calculation my opponent and I decided to draw into the top 8.

Top 8: 5cc Control
This was the same player I had played in match 5. I had an opportunity to tap out and play a Warp World when he had 2 mana open, but I was fearful of a Negate or Broken Ambitions so I instead went to 3 cards and played a Bloodbraid Elf. He then proceeded to play a Cruel Ultimatum the next turn and wreck me the rest of the game.

Game 2 I got stuck on 5 mana. I Frantically used my Mulldrifters to try to draw into some more acceleration but nothing came up. He eventually used a Baneslayer Angel to kill me.

Overall I like the deck and plan to play it again. The key parts of the deck will stick around after ZEN comes out, but will need to get some love to stay alive. Fertile Ground and Mulldrifter are both very important in the deck but will be rotating out. We will have to wait and see what happens then.