Talk with Godzo, MPDC 27.06 winner

Hello and congratulations on your win, GodZo!

Could you please introduce yourself?

Hello and thank you. My name is Giordano and I like competitive games. I'm known especially as StarCraft: Brood War player (my favourite game) and I played several multiplayer games, mainly RTS and RPG.

Before StarCraft, I was a nice guy, and I played several tournaments in "real" Magic the Gathering. : )

What is your identity as a wizard?

I like aggro decks like White Wheenie, maybe mixed with blue and flying, also I like green color, so my archetype is maybe an aggro deck with a mix of these colors.

At the moment I only play Standard Pauper format, it's my favorite one. My favourite card? In standard pauper, Gods Willing is one of the best cards.

How did you start playing Magic? MTGO? Standard Pauper?

I played Magic the Gathering in the years '95, '96, but I started to play MTGO just last year (2013), with the release of the M14 core set. 

Your favorite deck ever? Your favorite card?

If we consider all the formats, the old Crusade deck is my favourite one, and Tundra is my favourite card. : )

What led you to playing the deck you won with?

In contrast to my favourite archetypes, I won with a Black Discarder deck, sadly I see a Triumph of Evil with the actual format, that it's also the name I assigned to my last deck. : )

Would you play that deck again in a tournament? If no, why?

Merchant Black Deck is very solid at the moment, also mixed with other colors, I will play it for sure, if I don't find better decks.Also, it depends, if I have time to test new decks.

Sometimes I test new decks in the tournaments directly, because there are not enough people to play during the week. I played some Green Stompy decks in the past tournaments and I placed as second in one of these.

Could you explain some of the more interesting choices in your decklist? Like Carrion Crow, Returned Reveler or Crippling Blight.

Carrion Crow is a nice 3 mana drop, for a black deck, but it can be weak if you are under pressure to aggro decks, because it's tapped when you cast it, I added just one of it to reinforce my air aggression.

Returned Reveler is a pretty bad creature overall, but it's not bad against Red and Izzet and it ensure some board presence together with the Disowned Ancestor, while Crippling Blight is a nice 1 mana nerf or removal against aggro starts, it can kills some 1 mana creatures in turn 1 or it can give me some devotion for Gary. Some of card choices are focused to have the best mana curve in the first game of a match also.

A short recap of the tournament?

I met 4 decks, two Dimir Merchants with Treasure Cruises. In these matches I discarded a lot of blue cards, so they became more similar to mirror matches, these games are often decided by number of gray merchants or flying creatures, Sultai Scavengers are very good in this match up, because they are not easy to stop. Fimbulvetrr said I was the bane of Asphodels and Cruises. : )

Then I met a Red aggro deck, this match up is not easy for black, because Red can be very fast, but my opponent was not too much lucky with draws, so I easily got the win.

and at last I met MyGalaxy, two times, that was a close match up, in the 1st match I was pretty screw with lands, I lost very fast and I risked to go out of the top 4. But in the finals instead, luckily I had very good openings, removals, all I needed and Merchants did the final hit.

What was the best card in the deck, in your opinion?

Merchant!

What card did you miss the most? / Is there anything you want to add after the tournament?

I tested this deck all the past week, I was prepared enough for the tournament and I don't see big changes to make at the moment.

What do you consider to be the best archetypes at the moment?

Merchants Decks (black or splashed), Izzet Control Decks, Aggro Monocolor Decks (Red, White or Green) and Midrange Green Creatures with some splash colors, we have seen some heroics too. Meta is still young, we'll see more archetypes in the next months, I suppose.

What is your strategy against these top decks?

Always the same (with black), discard the cards of opponent hand, attack or defend (depend of which deck I meet) with the first creatures, then I play flying creatures and call the Merchants, that is the basic strategy. Choose the right sideboard to improve the value of the cards.

Can you explain your sideboarding a little?

My sideboard is pretty standard, Feast of Dreams and Festerglooms are very strong removals, but much specific cards, they are only good against specific decks. The other cards permit to me to have more removals, or more draw cards, against control decks or in mirror matches I would to draw more, while vs heavy aggro decks I go with more removals and less draws, versus big creatures I can add 1 more Deathtouch and 1 more Flesh to Dust.

Do you think there are any metagame differences between this MPDC season and the previous one?

Yeah, there are many differences, in the previous season we seen a lot of Ethereal Armor decks (the best card in the format), often countered by Mass Removal decks, and Dimir Mill that counters Mass Removal.

Now we have no more these kind of decks.

Now it seems more about fast aggro, big creatures or draw cards and the Gray Merchant can make the difference in this meta. I like this meta at the moment, because there is more space for big creatures, ramp decks, aggro variances, tokens, and maybe heroics and enchantments, but still I didn't deepen the meta of the new season. For this reason I'm playing mostly decks that i know from the previous season.

General opinion on Treasure Cruise in Standard Pauper?

It's a very good card, especially in the Izzet deck, we seen it's very good in combination with counter and red removals, but I don't see it necessary in other decks, like the black deck for example, it has already a lot of good draw cards.

Do you belong to Standard Pauper Players clan?What benefits do you feel from being in the clan?

I'm in Standard Pauper Players clan, it's a clan of friends mainly, I don't have some benefits from it, a part Adner give me around 10 tix for month (not true lol).

I think should be nice to have more presence and specially to have more people to play during the week, speak about strategies, test new decks and improve as players and deck lists. In the past season I trained a lot with rremedio1 and I had very good results also.

What led you to join the clan?

Adner! He also told me about MPDC tournaments where I discovered this small but cool community.

Do you have any tips for a new Standard Pauper player trying to Top 8 his first tournament?

I would to start with some aggro decks to learn better the meta, learn the interface commands (for new MTGO players), and learn to avoid mistakes. Top 8 is not difficult with a good deck and a good playstyle.

What about your avatar, it's great?

 Yeah, I spent 0.17 tix for it! Oo

See You, Good Luck and Have Fun, and don't Rage (happened to me the previous tournament :/).

GodZo