神河当時 - 2004年の振り返り

October
Grand Prix events in Vienna and Austin, Texas, kicked off the Limited PTQ season and marked the first high-profile events to use Champions. In Austin, every undefeated player from the Sealed Deck rounds had Nagao, Bound by Honor in his deck. In the finals, Jon Sonne finally won a major event and also showcased the power of red-white with four Cage of Hands in his Rochester Draft deck.

（省略）

November
November saw five Limited Grand Prix events dotting Europe and Asia. Grand Prix–Helsinki was yet one more notch in Olivier Ruel’s belt as he overcame very long odds to make the Top 8, and then after a unusual draft managed to duck the only other name in the draft, Anton Jonsson, for the win.

（省略）

December
December was mostly quiet with only one Grand Prix for the Pro level of competition as the Team PTQ season got underway. Grand Prix–Chicago was won by :B (Tim Aten, Gadiel Szleifer, and John Pelcak) who built on their near-miss from Pro Tour–Seattle. Joining them in the Top 4 was the other American team that just missed earning a Sunday spot in Seattle. The Max Fischer Players (Josh Ravitz, Chris Pikula, and Igor Frayman) fell to a Charles Gindy-led team of Adam Chambers and Zack Parker. This was remarkable because it was the third time Gindy has made the finals of a Team Grand Prix -- each time with a different team.

Standard Deck Breakdown
25 Affinity
13 Red Green
11 Death Cloud
9 Mono Green
7 Urza Tron
6 Green Blue
6 Ironworks
6 Ponza
3 Green White
2 Mono Red
2 Blue Black
1 Mono Blue
1 Mono Black
1 Blue Red
1 Black Red
Akira Asahara bested the best of Japan at The Finals.

引用元
2004: THE YEAR THAT WAS, PART II Posted in The Week That Was on January 6, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/week-was/2004-year-was-part-ii-2005-01-06

2004年を振り返る記事のpart2です。1~6月を扱ったpart1は、神河発売前のため、省略します。また、神河物語の発売は2004年10月1日のため、7~12月の記事中の約半分の期間でしかありません。

やはりと言うべきか、神河物語発売後のスタンダードは、親和の支配下でした。それでも当初は、黒緑スピリット、白ウィニー、赤白侍、キキジキコントロールなどの新しいデッキが現れていたようです。親和に対抗できるだけの力が揃わなかったのが惜しいところですが。