Your run of the mill World Cup second round and new extended preview part 1.

I have always been fascinated by the strategical aspects of soccer.  Often one can compare them well to a match of magic, you have the players that start the match playing certain tactics very dependent on the opponent.  "Mis-assignment of role equals game loss," is very applicable to soccer, if you have superior attacking players one shouldn't attempt to defend all game, nor trade punches with an opponent who is better in attack.  Furthermore, sideboarding and substitutions are very analogous with both just adding better cards and also completely changing a team or deck's strategy.



I was planning on writing a world cup preview in terms of magic before the tournament started, however finishing med school was slightly more important.  The next option was doing a second round preview but I did had not come up with a good hook for the magic part.  I was planning on just comparing it to standard decks from the past few years (one year was not enough).  Then Wizards threw me a nice juicy bone:  New Extended.  Now I could write about standard decks from the past few years and it would be highly relevant to what one can look forward to playing extended online and in PTQs.  So without further ado, enjoy!

June 26th 10:00 EDT Uruguay vs. South Korea

Uruguay- Famous for mucking up and playing close games versus equal or better opposition then destroying weaklings.  They are lead by star striker Diego Forlan, whom the attack ebbs and flows with him.  Uruguay are the rock of this tournament and also a less talked about sleeper:

Doran

South Korea- They're Asian.  They came from nowhere to make the second round.  They do little for much of the game then strike.  They wear red uniforms.  I really don't know what team could be compared to a combo deck so I'm sticking them as:

Dragonstorm

June 26th, 2:30 United States vs. Ghana

United States- Weak to mediocre on defense, strong on attack.  Weak in the early game, strong at finishing.  Great at flipping a game at the last possible moment.  America uses an attacking system where its forward Josy Altidore is more of a gatherer and fees midfielders to score the goals; not unlike using cascade as a tutor rather than going to valuetown.  Finding a soccer team as a combo deck is hard but I think I have done it.

Living End

Ghana- The Black Stars are the last African team remaining in the first African hosted world cup.  Many team's fans will jump on the bandwagon come Saturday.  Playing with an organized defense and counterattack, Ghana scored all their goals from penalty kicks to progress to the second round.  Free wins from a defensive position, yet might be too slow in the new format, hmmm?

UWr Planeswalker Control

June 27th, 10:00 am England vs. Germany

England- This one won't be tactical but rather a historical comparison.  Passionate irrational fans who will defend their merits to the death, a history of playing well in early rounds then losing in the knockout stages, usually failed by defense (specifically goalkeeping).  The three lions are a mirror image for:

Red Deck Wins

Germany- This year's German squad is much different from their past:  Multicultural, attacking, no brick wall in goal.  Teaching an old dog new tricks can be hard, but this German team exemplifies it.  Whether these new tricks are actually an improvement on the old or just setting up for failure; the future holds the answer.  A certain deck exemplifies this:

Five Color Bloodbraid

June 27th, 2:30 Argentina vs. Mexico

Argentina-A smorgasbord of attacking options in that in any given game they will have two top ten European club strikers on their bench.  Probably would be higher favorites if they weren't coached by the ultimate lunatic:  Maradona.  I would liken this to a very resilient card advantage creature deck:  Something that can keep throwing threats at an opponent until he either has hall the answers or dies.  Also we're going to need a flagship card to compare to the incomparable Lionel Messi, the best player in the world and breathtaking to watch systematically destroy a team (with or without scoring).  Since the Messi=Messiah comparison among fans is popular, something that raises teammates from the dead would also apply.

Boat Brew

Mexico- A fairly adept attacking team, rabid fan following, yet never quite has enough to get over the top.  this matches to classic strategy that waxes and wanes in playability, but always is attempted to make successful.  Whether it does depends on tournament and meta, we will see about this world cup.

Kithkin

The second half of the draw coming on Friday including an obvious comparison between two powerhouses.  As always if you have any comments or other team/deck comparisons, please leave a comment.