In case you missed it, GP Boston-Worcester came and went this past weekend. Several of our local players went on to make Day 2 of the event, including Nick Blake and myself. Carl is a local player who frequents the Abington store. He’s well know for his “unique and interesting” deck lists. So, it’s no surprise that people are wanting to know what he played this past weekend to a Top 32 finish at GP Boston-Worcester. It even peaked some interests when his deck got tweeted about. Here’s the list:
 

Creature:
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1x Treasure Mage
1x Wurmcoil Engine
Sorcery:
3x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Damnation
Instant:
1x Repeal
1x Smother
2x Disfigure
1x Hero’s Downfall
1x Darkblast
1x Mystical Teachings
2x Mana Leak
1x Consume the Meek
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Syncopate
2x Far//Away
3x Cryptic Command
2x Spell Snare
2x Think Twice
Artifact:
1x Knowledge Pool
Land:
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
3x Tectonic Edge
2x Dreadship Reef
2x Snow-Covered Swamp
4x Snow-Covered Island
4x Watery Grave
4x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Dark Slick Shores
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard:
1x Devour Flesh
3x Pack Rat
1x Duress
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Thoughtseize
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Grafdigger’s Cage
2x Shadow of Doubt
2x Threads of Disloyalty
1x Damping Matrix
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

That’s a lot of one-ofs and two-ofs, but it definitely looks like a “Carl” deck as we like to say. The most interesting part of the deck is Knowledge Pool, and, yes, you’re reading the deck list correctly. There is only one copy in the deck. Some of you who follow Jackie Lee on Twitter may have seen her post about how her “opponent casually” locked her out of the game with Knowledge Pool.

Opponent casually comboed me out with Teferi/Knowledge Pool. No big. 11-4 #GPBoston

— Jackie Lee (@JackieL33) July 27, 2014

The obvious question people had was, “What’s Knowledge Pool?” The next question was how Carl locked people out of the game with the card. The short version of the card is this: when the card is played, both players must exile the top three cards of their library. This is through the card’s “Imprint” mechanic. The card goes on to say that, now, whenever a player plays a spell, that spell is exiled. If the player exiles the card, they can cast any card that was originally exiled by Knowledge Pool and play it without paying it’s casting cost.

Sounds great, right? Well not if Teferi is in play. Confused? It’s okay. We all are. The lock is so obscure, I even had trouble forming words to explain it. Here is the best explanation thanks to the internet. “Knowledge Pool’s triggered ability is on the stack at the time they could cast an exiled spell from it, as the stack is not empty, that player could not cast a sorcery at this time. Thus they cannot cast any spells at this time due to Teferi’s effect, meaning knowledge pool exiles any spell not cast from hand without any return for opponents. So they only spells they cast not from hand (flashback for instance or via madness) can resolve and also land drops are unaffected.”

The strategy actually originates from EDH. This was one of the most interesting facts I found out while researching about the lock.

Well that’s it for now. I’ll be writing about my own experiences from this past weekend’s events, and, if you’re lucky, maybe we’ll even get Nick to talk about his time at the event as well.