[Article] Go Team America! a Dan Signorini Interview

[Whit3 Ghost]

After being run over by college applications, I decided to finally write up the second installment of the interview series I started prior to the Source’s Fifth Year Anniversary Tournament. When the dust settled from that event, a new competitor had emerged onto the legacy scene, Team America. The deck’s success was not a one hit wonder either, Team America has gone on to top eight at a plethora of events across the world and even saw the honor of being played by Team Australia in the Legacy section of the team event at Worlds. Due to the deck’s continued success, I decided that Dan Signorini (nitewolf9 around the source), the mastermind behind Team America would be a great subject for the next installment. Dan surely did not disappoint.

Before we begin, here is the profile for Team America:
Team America- Circa Fifth Anniversary Tournament

4 Tombstalker
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Stifle
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Thoughtseize
4 Snuff Out
4 Sinkhole

4 Wasteland
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou

Sideboard:
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Krosan Grip
3 Diabolic Edict

List of finishes
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=20393
Official Team America Thread
http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11605
Unlocking Legacy, Focusing on Dan’s T8 Finish with Team America
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...y_by_Play.html


How are you Dan? Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to everyone who might not be familiar with yourself and/or Team America?
I’m doing just fine, thank you. First of all, my name is Dan Signorini and I am 26 years old. I live in Northern VA and am an avid Legacy enthusiast. I have had a hand in developing a few decks, namely Eva Green, It’s the Fear, and now Team America (all collaborations). Since I am no fan of “tooting my own horn”, I think the following testimonials will bring my character out into the forefront more effectively and with less bias than my self-gratifying banter:

“This kid is the real deal, folks. A triple threat: the brains of a triple Ph.D., the build of an Olympian champion, all topped off with an exceptionally manly swagger.” - Alix Hatfield

“He’s so dreamy…” - David Price

“…Dan who? Oh right, the other guy that actually played red death!” – Anwar Ahmad

“Why isn’t this article about me? For fuck’s sake, god damn you all.” – David Gearhart

“A fantastic American debut…potent as a shot of vodka.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

As for Team America, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it’s a blue/black/green aggro-control deck designed around the concept of generating a large amount of tempo in the early game through cheap and/or free disruption spells, followed by a large creature in the form of Tarmogoyf or Tombstalker to finish a struggling opponent. The deck’s disruption primarily aims to attack an opponent’s mana in a highly focused assault involving the trinity of Sinkhole, Stifle, and Wasteland. It has been highly successful in its relatively short amount of time on the Legacy scene, and was a joint effort between myself and the legendary Legacy deck designer David Gearhart. As an aside, he is probably going to high-five me for that sentence… multiple times. Seriously, it just doesn’t stop.

How did the deck come about? Take us through the R&D process for Team America?

Okay, for starters, this deck in its original form was by no means intended to be competitive at all. David Gearhart decided that he was going to build a deck using cards that generally don’t see play in America, but are consistently represented in top 8’s in European Legacy tournaments. The deck had Tombstalker (a great start…), Dark Confidant (yes, four…with four Tombstalkers…take that, sound deck designing theory!), Force of Will, Daze, Thoughtseize, Sinkhole, four main deck Extirpates (yes, David Gearhart at one time actually played these in the main deck), Stifle, Wasteland, and no removal whatsoever. While somewhat fun to play, the deck had problems when your opponent actually managed to do something that included resolving a threat. For some strange reason I decided to play this abomination off and on, as apparently I had temporary brain damage. Also, it is kind of fun to Extirpate duals. Until your opponent plays something like City of Brass… listen, that’s irrelevant, the deck was kind of fun to play. But Dark Confidant and Tombstalker really don’t play well together, especially without Sensei’s Divining Top (no matter what that guy who top 8’d a standard tournament with bob + four Greater Gargadons has to say). So, I decided to cut bob for Phyrexian Dreadnought, when the errata happened, and to cut Extirpate for Snuff Out. While Snuff Out was incredible, as I thought it would be because of how ridiculous it is in Eva Green, Dreadnought remained a huge liability. The problem was something that two for one’s you when removed (while being very easy to remove), was not good for a deck with no way to recoup the cards invested, 12/12 or not. David eventually added green to the deck, because "Tarmogoyf is too good not to run in a deck like this”, and put Quirion Dryad in the spot that Ponder now occupies. He thought that the deck needed more than just eight threats, and although I knew of the Canadian Ugr threshold lists that were doing just fine with 8 creatures, I also thought the deck might be too threat light. The consensus was that Dryad sucked, and at one point we tried Street Wraith in that spot. That was also not really what the deck was looking for, so we finally settled on Ponder. Looking back now, I can’t imagine the deck without the eight cantrips, which also makes the blue count for Force a more comfortable twenty as opposed to the original sixteen.

Once we had optimized the main deck and had an idea of what gave the deck issues, we settled on a list for the 5 year anniversary Source tournament that included a sideboard of four Krosan Grip, four Tormod’s Crypt, four Blue Elemental Blast, and three Diabolic Edict. David decided to give his most recent build of It’s the Fear a shot, while I decided to pilot Team America. Eric Gosse also decided to pilot the deck for that tournament. Although he did not make top 8 that day, he has been doing consistently well with it since.

Around when did you realize “Oh hey, this can actually be competitive,”?

I’m not sure if there really was any “Eureka” moment that switched the perception of the deck from being a pet project to a serious choice for a major tournament. It was a very gradual change, with many small steps. There was a lot of grunt work that went into developing Team America that included a lot of hours of testing. However, I do think that adding green to the deck was one of the major stepping stones.

Could you take us through your current list, and explain the card choices?

Certainly. As I have already gone through a lot in the R&D question, let me try to make this as brief as possible.

“Team America”:

4 Tombstalker
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder

4 Thoughtseize
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Stifle
4 Sinkhole
4 Snuff Out

4 Wasteland
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou

Sideboard:
4 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Krosan Grip
3 Hydroblast
3 Diabolic Edict
2 Reanimate

To understand our choice, you have to think of this deck more along the lines of Suicide Black as opposed to Threshold. The eight cantrips are there to add consistency, dig for the relatively low number of threats in the main deck, and add to the blue count for Force of Will. Tombstalker and Tarmogoyf are the two best pound-for-pound threats in the Legacy format, hands down. Force of Will, Daze, and Snuff Out are all “free” spells that allow this deck to generate a lot of early tempo, while Thoughtseize is probably the best disruption spell available in black. It helps you answer pretty much anything that will stop your threats from "getting there", so to speak. The disruption package is completed with Stifle, Wasteland, and Sinkhole, allowing you to wreck your opponent’s manabase and keep Daze relevant well into the game. I have said this many times before, but I will say it here again: these three elements form a complete mana denial package. If your opponent sits on fetchlands, they will be more vulnerable to Stifle. If they fetch basics, Sinkhole will punish them by cutting off a color. If they fetch nonbasics, Wasteland will be very effective. Couple this with the hand-sculpting ability of Brainstorm and Ponder and it just seems like you always have the right kind of disruption at the right time.

The manabase is designed to achieve double black as early as possible, while also having access to all three colors in the deck. The Bayou really helps you here as with a single Underground Sea and a single Bayou, you can cast anything in the deck. You only run one because you really don’t want to see opening hands with cantrips that include bayou as the only colored source. The numbers of Bloodstained Mires and Flooded Strands can vary, but I personally feel that the configuration above is ideal.

As for the sideboard, Blue Blasts are there as a versatile way to deal with Moon effects, really aggressive red decks, and Goblins. Tormod’s Crypt helps the abysmal pre-board ichorid matchup, while Krosan Grip is there to deal with things like Top and Counterbalance, and more recently Phyrexian Dreadnought. Diabolic Edict has proven to be a bomb in aggro-control mirrors, as well as a way to eliminate black creatures, while Reanimate (a recent addition), is an extremely versatile way to increase threat density and boost aggro matchups.

That is a really tight mainboard configuration. Is there anything that you’d want to add in if you could find the space for it?

I don’t think there is anything I would want to change in the maindeck. Two things that have been impressing me more and more with Team America are its incredible consistency and its focused game plan. If you are going to play a deck like this, you need to get used to the idea of four-of’s. That’s what works in Suicide, and that’s what works here. Because of this an interesting gripe has surfaced from many in the online community that the deck seems to be “unoriginal”, or a “bunch of good cards slapped into one pile”. After reading this interview and understanding the methodology behind the card choices I hope we will be vindicated in our card selections, as this deck plays quite unlike anything else out there.

How synergistic do you think the maindeck is? It definitely looks like everything plays together really well.

There is a lot of synergy in Team America. The ability to play twelve spells that don’t cost any mana, in a deck that aims to play as much disruption in the early game as it can, is invaluable. One of my issues with the Ugr “Canadian” Threshold lists is that Stifle and Wasteland on their own don’t seem to put enough pressure on an opponent’s manabase. I believe the burn that they run helps to mitigate this by providing reach after the initial onslaught, but with Sinkhole you can keep the pressure going much more effectively. This point was illustrated above, but I can’t stress it enough. Sinkhole really is phenomenal in a strategy like this. Tombstalker is an amazing threat and very easy to cast as you’re putting a lot of cards into your graveyard early. The name of the game here is tempo, and this deck simply uses the best tools at its disposal to generate massive amounts of it.

What are the most common lines of play with the deck?

The beauty of playing this thing is that the overall game plan is so simple; disrupt your opponent, drop a threat, and keep on disrupting while you smash them with said threat. Ideally a turn one Thoughtseize is what you want to see in pretty much any matchup, but the deck does provide plenty of things to do from turn one out. Stifle, Ponder, Brainstorm… your hand and what your opponent does will dictate how you utilize these cards. Generally speaking, you want to try to start blowing up lands from the very beginning, while using Snuff Out and counter magic to control threats that try to slip through. For example, a strong sequence of plays against most decks would be something along the lines of: turn one Thoughtseize, turn two Sinkhole, turn three Wasteland followed by Tarmogoyf, with a Snuff Out or Force of Will being cast at some point in there. You can replace the Thoughtseize with Ponder to find that turn two Sinkhole, or maybe leaving a land open for Stifle. As a rule of thumb, you want to disrupt as much as you can as early as possible, and adapt your later plays to what your opponent manages to get through your disruption.
You always want to play Thoughtseize first against an unknown (and in fact, almost every) opponent.

Is the sideboard pretty static, or does it undergo major changes depending on the metagame?

I think the sideboard is pretty much optimized at this point, but you obviously want to be adaptable if you are expecting a disproportionate percentage of a single archetype. The current board covers a lot of bases.

Much like when I interviewed David for It’s The Fear, Team America also has a lot of random card suggestions from people across the internet. What are some frequently mentioned cards that should be nowhere near the list?

Here is a short list of those cards along with a brief explanation:

Extirpate – It was in the original version of this deck and it sucked. In the board, it doesn’t help you nearly as much as Crypt does against Ichorid, and really isn’t worth the space against anything else.

Basic lands – A lot of people worry about Moon effects and Wasteland “wrecking” their manabase and thus run basic lands, but I feel that you pay a price in consistency by adding them. Team America is very color intensive and needs to have double black early, while also having access to blue from turn 1 and green from potentially turn 2. I feel that you will lose more games to not having access to the colors you need with basics than you will by your opponent dropping an early moon effect on you or Wasting one of your dual lands.

Other threats – such as Sea Drake, might be nice to have in the deck, but there really isn’t anything that would be better as a creature not named “Tarmogoyf” or “Tombstalker” (and even if we could run more of these, it would be very hard to make room).

Dark Confidant – This deck is all about tempo, and Dark Confidant is all about drawing extra cards later on and not being able to fight. Aside from Tombstalker hurting you a lot if flipped, and the already immense strain on the life total from cards like Snuff Out and Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant will eat up tempo to put more cards in your hand. This has been discussed time and time again in the context of Suicide Black, and the same argument applies here. While a great card in some strategies, Dark Confidant does not belong in a deck that wants to dominate the early game and win by generating a tempo advantage.

Spell Snare – The only slot this card could occupy would be the one that Sinkhole currently holds, and we feel that Sinkhole is too important in the deck to cut for a conditional counterspell. We tested Spell Snare in many different configurations, and it always seemed to be a weak link. I know a lot of people love this card, but this is just experience talking; in the context of Team America it is sub-optimal.

What is a favorable meta for Team America? What do you love sitting down against?

This is an interesting question because a lot of people seem to feel that Team America is a “metagame” deck. I’m not really quite sure what this is supposed to mean, but if your deck plays lands and spells, Team America can disrupt it. Highly proactive, disruptive strategies will usually make your opponent worry about you, and not the other way around. As for specific matchups, I think the favorable list includes, but is not limited to:

multi-color control decks like Landstill and It’s the Fear
Goblins
most Survival builds
Storm combo

I also really enjoy playing the Threshold matchup. It is not quite a favorable one, but is usually very close (most of the time it’s going to be around 50/50 in the context of lists running Counterbalance, probably favorable for those that aren’t). The sideboard is also well equipped to deal with aggro-control strategies, providing cards like Krosan Grip and Diabolic Edict. Edict has been especially nasty in these matchups and a sleeper hit since the Source anniversary tournament.

Conversely, what makes you curse your pairings?

I will never want to see an Ichorid player sitting across from me while piloting Team America, even though my track record against them has been pretty good. Additionally, Dragon Stompy is probably as close to a nightmare matchup as you can get.

Goyf sligh and Zoo decks playing tons of removal are also going to be anywhere from slightly to annoyingly unfavorable matchups.

While it is untested so far, I also think a mono colored control deck with tons of removal, like The Mighty Quinn, will probably give Team America headaches.

This being said, one of the deck’s strengths is its ability to fight through almost anything. The sideboard really helps where you need it and the deck’s consistency alone can pull out some unexpected victories.

[Whit3 Ghost]

Is there any way to really shore up some of the bad matchups this deck has?

The board really helps against Ichorid, and while it’s nigh impossible to pull out a pre-board win you do get into favorable percentages post board on the back of Tormod’s Crypt plus cantrips and even Reanimate.

Dragon Stompy is going to be tough but they are also very inconsistent. Sometimes a single Force of Will or Thoughtseize will be enough to win, and post board Blasts/Grip do help a lot. I’ve won by casting a single Sinkhole on a red source in this matchup after Stifling a Mox imprint, or by Forcing their first disruption piece and riding a single Tarmogoyf to victory. It’s still not good, but at least you have some tools to help.

The blasts, edicts, and reanimates really go a long way against the likes of goyf sligh and zoo.

Krosan grips and reanimate are also very useful tools against the problematic monochrome control decks.

How do you think Team America matches up against the other tempo decks in the format such as Dreadstill and Canadian Threshold?

As far as our testing has shown, Dreadstill is really down the wire. It depends on the build they are running and how disruptable their manabase is. Snuff Out on a Dreadnought is very bad for them, but both Counterbalance and Standstill can be ball-breakers. Pre-board it is probably slightly unfavorable for Team America with most builds of Dreadstill. Post board however, Krosan Grip is a beating for Dreadstill. We’ve found that you really don’t need to break Standstills early against them post board as you can hold wastelands to deal with Factory, while building a hand full of threats and removal. It is a tricky matchup and one that should definitely be tested thoroughly before one pilots Team America in a major tournament. I really can’t say it is anything more than 50/50.

As far as Canadian Threshold, I feel ahead in the matchup. Tombstalker trumps both Tarmogoyf and Mongoose, and your removal will hit Tarmogoyf without having to enter the combat phase. Post board it gets worse for them as both Diabolic Edict and Reanimate are extremely powerful here. There will also be times where they cast a turn one Mongoose, and then counter all your threats while it chews your face off and you’re left sitting there staring at Snuff Out. I think this is the exception rather than the rule however, and in both tournament play and testing this matchup hasn’t really been a problem.

Do you think, as some people have said, that Team America has made Stifle/Waste in Threshold obsolete?

Not at all, although I think running Sinkhole as well is one of the more effective ways to employ that type of disruption. Canadian Threshold, for example, might have a better time dealing with decks that run things like Dark Confidant or other black threats like Nantuko Shade, along with gaining the extremely powerful sideboard tool of Pyroclasm to deal with swarm strategies. I believe Team America is a very strong choice for a high level legacy tournament, but I think saying it has made the other builds of “Tempo Threshold” obsolete may stifle innovation (if you’ll pardon the pun). There is always something new to try.

What was it like debuting the deck at the Source 5 Year tournament, then t8ing?

It was nothing short of awesome. Being able to X-0 the swiss and then go on to make top 4 in one of the largest Legacy tournaments of the year, with a deck that I helped build, really was a very rewarding experience. Plus, the tournament was a hell of a lot of fun and very well organized.

How do you feel about people across the world playing your creation to great success? How cool was it to see Team America playing against Team America at worlds this year?

It makes me feel pretty good that people are doing so well with a deck that I helped create, especially when people are picking it up on an international level. You can’t help feeling a little proud of yourself.

As for Team America vs “Team America”, the irony was certainly not lost on me. It does make me wonder how the decision making process went for the Aussies to finally settle on Team America as their Legacy choice, and what Cheung thought of the deck after playing it.

When you started optimizing Team America, did you ever think that it would be this good?

Not really, but it did seem quite strong. I will mention that I was pretty confident going into the source anniversary tournament, so that says something.

What are your feelings on the format at the moment?

I think Legacy is very healthy right now. A lot of different archetypes are being well represented and you really never know what you’ll run into in a big tournament.

Are you playing anything else besides Team America right now?

Yes, there are a few other decks that I am playing around with. I do really like 5 color Threshold, as well as It’s the Fear. The latter is especially fun for me because I rarely play control decks, and it presents a unique kind of challenge. I also sometimes play a variant of the Rock, although this is mostly because I have a real problem with Spritmonger.

What’s in your gauntlet right now?

Since Team America is pretty well tested against most of the “staple” Legacy decks, the focus for the Grand Prix is probably going to be testing Extended ports and aggro decks, along with Dreadstill and possibly some of the newer Storm combo decks. It all depends on what we think people are likely going to be playing, which is always a hard thing to estimate.

Besides Team America, anything that you’ve been playing that you like?

As stated above, I think I like It’s the Fear and 5c Threshold the most out of the other decks I have been playing. I also am rather partial to Eva Green, but Team America is very similar and, I believe, in many ways superior.

Have there been any decks that have disappointed you once you’ve picked them up?

I think the last deck I was truly disappointed in was Dead Guy Ale. I really, really wanted that deck to be good, but it never seemed to work for me. Solidarity was another deck I really enjoyed, but the advent of Counter/Top and Tarmogoyf kind of took the wind out of its sails.

What are your thoughts on the banned list for Legacy?

The banned list for Legacy is fine the way it is I think, although a few things could probably come off: namely Land tax and possibly Dream halls. I don’t think it’s holding anyone back for them to stay there, however.

How excited are you for Grand Prix Chicago? Are you going? If so, what are you playing?

I’m extremely excited. The last Legacy Grand Prix was ruined by Flash, so maybe this time around we can all actually play Legacy (although piloting Flash did yield some hilarious moments, namely involving Spiritmonger). I am definitely going, and it looks like I’ll probably be playing Team America, mainly due to how comfortable I am with the deck at this point.

Finally, any parting shots, props, or randomness?

I think this thing is probably way too long already, but I would like to say thanks to you for conducting this interview, and to everyone at the Source for providing such a great resource for Legacy. Also, I feel very lucky to be located in such a concentrated group of legacy talent, which is really what makes decks like these come to fruition. I hope this interview helps answer some questions people have been asking about Team America, and if you have any other questions please feel free to pm either David (Deep6er) or me (Nitewolf9) on the source.

[Shawon]

Keep up the great work! This was very informative to read. You ask very on-point questions.

[electrolyze]

Really, Really great article guys. I enjoyed reading it and I think it was very informative too.

Team America FTW !

greets, electrolyze

[Bourgeoise]

Maybe you should just find a way to fit Spiritmonger in the main Dan. I mean, Spiritmonger = gg if your opponent lets it land, it has regeneration for only one black for those times that your opponent tries to actually burn him out, it gets bigger whenever your opponent chumps it with his goyf or mongoose, and can even change color for the relatively low cost of 1 green mana (don't tell michael jackson) to protect itself from snuff out. All that and you get a 6/6 package for 5 mana, what a steal!

Nice article and very informative on my favorite deck in the format. Shouldn't have given away the trade secrets right before Chicago though imo. Now the field will be playing stompy and ichorid to try to keep us down.

[citanul]

and can even change color for the relatively low cost of 1 green mana (don't tell michael jackson) to protect itself from snuff out

Because it isn't black to start with?

[Deep6er]

Definitely a nice job, I liked it a lot.

Out of curiosity, who's next for the interview?

[scrumdogg]

Another fantastic job, these articles are informative, well written and enjoyable - a difficult result to accomplish. Very much looking forward to the next installment.

[quicksilver]

He’s so dreamy…

[Whit3 Ghost]

Definitely a nice job, I liked it a lot.

Out of curiosity, who's next for the interview?

Thanks guys.

I've PMed Rodney a couple times on the subject and he hasn't got back to me (If you're reading this PM me).

[GreenOne]

Definitely a nice job, I liked it a lot.

Out of curiosity, who's next for the interview?

It MUST be you. I'd love it.

[Bryant Cook]

Great article. Rodney is a good choice.

[Whit3 Ghost]

It MUST be you. I'd love it.

It's already done dude.

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=11517

[Parcher]

Needs moar pictures. Dan may be the only Legacy player sexier than Anwar.

For cereal.

...and his buns are like spring steel.

Seriously though, why no mention of his three doctorates?

[AngryTroll]

Great read, thanks for the effort!

I've been watching Team America (the deck) for a while, and I especially enjoyed reading about the development process, from "a pile of great cards that don't see enough play" to "one of the more solid choices of aggro control in the format."

Keep up the great work-these interviews are awesome.

[quicksilver]

Seriously though, why no mention of his three doctorates?

the brains of a triple Ph.D.

Oh and btw here is a picture of Dan for everyone to drool over:

[Apex]

The interviews are getting better and better, and Dan is a very cool guy from the sound of this. I liked reading this alot.

Props for the interview Whit3_Ghost and the innovative design in deckbuilding Dan Signorini.

[nitewolf9]

I'm happy to hear this was so well received. Also, that is a terrible picture of me, Dave. And apparently I need to pluck my eyebrows. I'll let you do it, if you want. But only if you ask nicely...really nicely.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Not enough Dan Signorini. Otherwise, good.

Dan, will you do us a favor and design a custom cheese that can be enjoyed with crackers and wine, and remind us of you during those unfortunate moments when we cannot bask in your effusively supernal glow?

[rsaunder]

I'll be your agent if you ever want to go into male modeling.