What is the strongest Type 2 deck of all-time?

[br14n^lol]

jar was broken, turn 1 defense grid turn 2 - win was great back in '99. there was also an underplayed food chain bargain deck that was really cool/good. turn 2 food chain turn 3 bargain - win was good back in 1999. Id say anything with bargain/jar was/is pretty broken.

megrim jar was in standard for a short while when urzas legacy was first printed but broken jar raped extended for about 2 months.

[dahcmai]

I'd have to side with Jar. That deck was busted as hell. It just didn't have a chance to show people how bad it was in any tournament. It was banned before that. Gives you an idea of how bad it was just from that.

[HAVE HEART]

Rath + Urza cycles. Choose whatever ridiculous combo you want from that era. Sol Lands, Grim Monolith, Tolarian Academy, Yawgmoth's Will, Yawgmoth's Bargain. Oh, and then all of Artifacts that drew you a new hand (and Windfall).

[EGarrett]

Okay I looked at some previous "Ultimate Standard Tournaments" and both of them terminated before they even got to the finish. I seriously can't find anything on either of them beyond the first round. So that makes me lean towards doing this myself. And a 16-deck tourney of solitaire matches would probably be much easier to run than the 32-deck ones they were running where they had to build the decks on MTGO and find other people to play the other side. Hmmmm...

[joshpart23]

I have actually put together a few of these decks and played them against each other for fun. I used:

Necro (w/ 4 Strip Mine, 4 Consult, 4 Hymn, 1 Black Vise but pre-Alliances)
Academy (version that won States, Tempest Block, 5th and Saga)
UB Fae (TS/Lorwyn block version)
UW Caw Blade (w/ Batterskull)
Jund

I was surprised at how well the more modern decks did. Necro is actually fairly mediocre I think, it gets draws that just beat anything because that amount of discard and land destruction just cripple opponents, but it isn't as busted as I thought. Academy is the most powerful of these decks in a vacuum. I didn't put a Tinker or Bargain deck together so not sure about those. If this were run as a tournament it would also be different in that you could prepare for these decks. I just used old deck lists and tried not to metagame for the opposing decks. I think Caw Blade could sideboard to be competitive with almost anything. Also a side note, as far as I remember Balance was never legal as a 4 of in Type 2. I remember playing the mono white prison deck with 4 land tax, but Balance was restricted by then.

[Zombie]

Why do people underrate Lark-Blink from TS-Lor so much? Yeah, Faeries was annoying, but the format would've been way worse without them. Reveillark was just broken. I might side with Faeries as well if the M10 rules changes are in effect, though, that kills Blink shenanigans so the deck is much weaker. But I don't think Faeries is such an automatic choice from TS-Lor.

[BL4kLotus]

Just found this forum (a little late) but I've been interested in this topic and have run 3 tournaments now to get some actual data. I also contacted some of the other people online who have done the same, and grabbed whatever results I could find from magic-league. Here's a link to the thread with all that info:

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=420342

Skip to the end for the most recent tournament results, where Memory Jar goes undefeated.

So far, it looks like Memory Jar is the hands down best, Academy a close 2nd. Most of the other early decks, including Necro, just can't compete with the card quality and power level of threats since about, say, 2006. All decks perform differently in an "all-time" tournament than they would in their natural metagame. Most control decks have a harder time, combo decks do better. Various Monored, and Mythic Conscription have done very well. Jund is strong as long as it hits land drops. Post-skullclamp Affinity, Tinker, and Delver aren't as good as expected. Luck, as always, still plays a role.

[Eldariel]

In my experience at least on Magic-League, it would be crucial to find not only a competent, but a strong pilot for each deck. Playing something like Jar is one thing since it facerolls so much, but something like Tinker, Raffinity or Necro carries an obscene number of decisions that heavily influence how the decks do; they're unforgiving and powerful (not saying your results are wrong but e.g. I was just about the only one who saw success with Tinker on ML; I'd wager much of that is simply that I actually had experience playing it).

[HammafistRoob]

Doran Rock was super fun with Tarmogoyfs Thoughtseizes and bitterblossoms.

[apple713]

I am pretty sure the top 5 (no particular order) goes like this:


Academy
Megrim/Jar
Necro
Clamp Affinity
CawBlade (if New Phyrexia was included)

Academy, Megrim/Jar and Necro is without a doubt broken. Clamp Affinity can pull off fast wins out of nowhere. Laugh all you want now but CawBlade with Mental Misstep can actually go toe to toe with the mentioned decks above and is the most consistent of all.

+1, think he nailed it.