Good afternoon, class.  Today we will be looking at the meanest, fastest, most domineering type1 tier1 decks -- and how to break them.

   First, let's look at the playing field.  Belcher, TPS, Dragon, Oath, Assassin, Slaver, Topdeck, Stax, Psychatog, Morphling, and several others that slip my mind ATM.  Any one I missed, post it for me and I'll touch on it.
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   Belcher is absurdly fast, a reliable turn 1-2 win if unopposed.  No deck can outrun Belcher, so breaking Belcher is critical.  If you go first, Chalice of the Void for 0 or 1 can do it.  Null Rod will do it.  If you go second, you may not get a turn before you defend yourself.
   Assuming you manage to beat Belcher, it will go first next game.  To have a good chance at winning, Force of Will AND Foil in the same deck is a good idea despite what Foil's critics say.  If you get a turn, Annul is another good counterspell against the Belcher.  By turn 2, you should be set for an easy control victory.
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   TPS is as almost as fast as Belcher, usually winning on its 2nd turn.  Chalice and Null Rod work here too, as are the 3 listed counterspells.  In addition, other colors have a few surprises for TPS.  Pyrostatic Pillar, Meddling Mage, True Believer, Root Maze, and Chains of Mephistopheles tend to end things for TPS a good portion of the time.
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   Dragon is a t2-3 win, when it's working properly.  Killing/bouncing the Worldgorger is the simplest tactic, as there are 12 enchantments to raise the dragon.  Seal of Removal works best, Although Swords to Plowshares or any 1 mana bounce will work if you play enough to avoid Duress and Cabal Therapy.  Ground Seal, Root Maze, Ankh of Mishra, Zozu the Punisher, Soul Warden, Planar Void, Tormod's Crypt, and even a Seal of Removal more than shut Dragon down.
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   Oath is ideally a t2 win, but needs a 2 card combo plus a mox to do it.  Most Oath decks are running a slower setup that doesn't kill until t3-4.  It's a permission-style deck, so the ideal defense is a land defense.  Forbidden Orchard, Wasteland, Maze of Ith, and High Market do a great job of reversing the oath in your favor.  Extract, Planar Void, and Gilded Drake can also short-circuit the deck -- although they can be hard to play, considering Oath's counterspell arsenol.
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   Cerebral Assassin is a deck I'm not familiar enough with yet to make much comment on, although Extract to hit the Possessed Portal takes away its nastiest weapon.  I'll be following this deck to see what makes it tick, and what makes it stop ticking.
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   The apparent success of Slaver is a mystery to me, because it sports only light control before the slaver lock and is almost entirely dependant on a healthy Goblin Welder.  Burn decks will eat Slaver, just don't spend your burn early so you can be sure the welders die.  Null Rod can be a killer if you can get it past the deck's 8-12 counterspells, but only if you play no other artifacts.  True Believer, Planar Void, Ground Seal, Goblin Welders of your own can wreak havoc on Slaver's ability to fight.
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   Topdeck...2-4 Gaea's Blessings beats topdeck.  Serra Avatar, Darksteel Colossus, and a few other less usable cards beat topdeck.  I predict a b/u topdeck on the horizon, running Planar Void and Duress.  To beat that, Null Rod or Chains of Mephistopheles works best.
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   Stax, Psychatog, and Morphling are waiting in the wings, looking to become top dog again.  I'll do them, and any other decks you think should be on the list, in my next post.

   If you didn't need this info, why'd you read this far?

When you sit down to play in a tournament, you never know what the opponent is going to bring.  There are, seemingly, only three sure ways to deal with this unknown.

   First, play a fast-winning deck -- Dragon, TPS, Belcher.  The tactic is to ignore the opponent's deck altogether, and win before the opponent gets to fight back at all.  Versus a deck with no oppression, these will never lose.  Versus a deck with good oppression, these often do absolutely nothing for three games in a row.

   Second, play draw/control -- Morphling, Slaver, Cerebral Assassin.  The tactic AGAIN is to ignore the opponent's deck altogether, and just counter everything they do that is marginally dangerous while a few key threats slow-roll to victory relatively unchallenged.  Versus a deck with few threats, these will never lose.  Versus a deck with mass amounts of threats, these often find themselves short on mana/counters/threats from start to finish.

   Third and lastly, play all threat -- classicly speaking, Stompie or Crusade style.  Instead of a winning combo that might get shut down by a timely counterspell, the assault is divided among many many cards that each need an answer.  This tactic isn't as fast as combo, but is harder to entirely shut down without delving into cards that are ONLY practical vs mass creature assualt (like Ghostly Prison and Wrath of God).
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   My observation begins where the archeotypes end.  You will note another game, a much simpler game, being played.  Combo beats Mass-Threat, Mass-Threat beats Counterspell, Counterspell beats Combo.  With any number of good decks out there -- we are playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.  The lure of easy wins, by one person or the other,  has brought us to this end.

   I have seen decks, rogue decks, that can beat anything in the field.  They will never sweep, but get a 2 to 1 split no matter the opponent.  And because they never sweep, they are considered to be "not good enough".  But nobody pays attention to the fact that these decks are virtually NEVER swept themselves.  

  The other reason for rock/paper/scissors is what I benignly call the NOOB factor.  In the lower brackets of every tournament, you are likely to face a deck that is sub-par but viable enough to beat you.  Niche decks will usually sweep a noob deck, but a rogue deck will more than likely split 2:1 regardless of opponent.  In point tournaments, advantage Niche.  And also more Niche decks will advance than Rogue decks in the opening bracket or two.  Both keep rogue decks on the fringe, regardless of quality.

  I post this because I'd like to see more attention given to the rogue-deck strategy -- the deck that has control, combo, AND a mass number of threats.  I'm hoping a few people who understand what I'm getting at will join the discussion.

   Think...mass production of Meddling Mage.  That sort of thing.