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The Clock
By UniversalSnip

Second Place, Pro Tour: New Orleans
Lands:
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Rishadan Port
Spells:
4 Brainstorm
2 Chrome Mox
4 Force Spike
1 Gilded Lotus
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Grim Monolith
4 Mana Severance
1 Mindslaver
4 Mystical Tutor
1 Rushing River
2 Talisman of Dominance
3 Talisman of Progress
4 Tinker
2 Voltaic Key
// Sideboard:
SB: 3 Annul
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 4 Chill
SB: 2 Deep Analysis
SB: 1 Ensnaring Bridge
SB: 1 Platinum Angel
SB: 3 Quicksilver Dragon

Despite it's vaunted reputation for turn two kills, you will most commonly see The Clock win on turns three to four. The combo is simple, direct, and synergetic: cast Mana Severence, then activate a Goblin Charbelcher (the Clock of the deck name) to deal damage equal to the number of cards left in your library. Tinker fetches Goblin Charbelcher for the kill or Gilded Lotus for mana acceleration, with Rushing River and Mindslaver providing powerful silver bullets. Disruption is minimal and efficient, with a quick kill taking priority. One exception presents itself: Rishadan Port. A closer look reveals a full 16 blue mana sources, which leaves you unlikely to be colorscrewed.

Unusually, Polluted Delta is included almost purely to increase the power of brainstorm, already a monster with so many ways to shuffle. It has a minor deckthinning effect, but nothing significant under such a fast gameplan.

Generally, when playing the deck, remember that you must be able to win with the mana sources at hand after casting severance. Failing to do so will slow the deck down to a disappointing crawl.

Tinker
By UniversalSnip and Skankhair

Tinker is an obviously powerful card. It not only tutors for an artifact, but it puts it into play for free. In Urza's Block Constructed, Tinker decks were powerful, but so was the whole block. In T2 and Block, after a wave of bannings prevented some of the most broken of the broken, Tinker remained playable as it's namesake was not banned. Despite the fact that Tinker would later be known as a perfect example of why cards are banned/restricted, in the Block and T2 environments at the time, Tinker was not overtly overpowered. But it was one of the best decks in both formats.

In Worlds 2000, Tinker took first and second place.

Tinker (T2) Worlds 2000, Jon Finkel, First place:
Land (21):
9 Island
4 Crystal Vein
4 Rishadan Port
4 Saprazzan Skerry

Creatures (9):
4 Masticore
4 Metalworker
1 Phyrexian Colossus

Other Spells (30):
4 Tinker
4 Brainstorm
4 Grim Monolith
4 Phyrexian Processor
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Voltaic Key
1 Mishras Helix
1 Crumbling Sanctuary

Sideboard (15):
4 Annul
4 Chill
4 Miscalculation
2 Rising Waters
1 Mishras Helix

This deck could pump out 2 19/19 tokens each turn, and it didn't have to wait many turns to do so.

In Extended, Tinker was help back by the fact that Null Rod was in the format. Once Null Rod rotated out, the powerful deck that could be hated out became the powerful deck that couldn't be hated out.

Tinker (Extended)
4th Place at Pro Tour: New Orleans
Lands:
3 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
7 Island
4 Rishadan Port
4 Seat of the Synod
Creatures:
Spells:
4 Grim Monolith
4 Masticore
4 Metalworker
2 Mindslaver
1 Mishras Helix
2 Phyrexian Processor
3 Stroke of Genius
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Tinker
2 Upheaval
4 Voltaic Key
Sideboard:
SB: 3 Aether Spellbomb
SB: 1 Mishras Helix
SB: 1 Phyrexian Processor
SB: 1 Planar Portal
SB: 1 Rejuvenation Chamber
SB: 3 Stifle
SB: 1 Stroke of Genius
SB: 1 Upheaval
SB: 3 Welding Jar

Tinker does one thing very, very, very well, and that's generating mana. A lot of it. At this point, it sinks that mana into some huge spell, which chains into a flurry of brokenness (think stroke of genius for 8-12) ending in a totally dominant board position. You then die to Masticore with a mouthful of it's mana-bullets locking down the board, or processed 10/10 tokens, whichever seems more convenient at the time. The real genius of this deck is that it runs two cards: Tinker and Metalworker. The rest is support, designed to funnel the deep resource pool it generates into a win. It will typically finish going off by laying multiple tangle wires, playing Mishra's Helix, slaving you, or bumping the entire board back into it's owner's hand with mana floating, all of which ensures the win condition coming either this turn or the next will meet with minimal resistence.Often, however, the match was about activating a slaver successfully; the card was so potent in this metagame that a single stolen turn was all the win condition you needed. Slaver was so widely recognized for it's power after PT: Tinker that Phyrexian Processor was signing your own death warrant, and later builds tended to avoid it.

TinkerStax (Extended)
First place, Pro Tour New Orleans
Lands:
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Brass
4 City of Traitors
2 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Shivan Reef
Creatures:
1 Bosh, Iron Golem
4 Goblin Welder
1 Pentavus
1 Platinum Angel
Spells:
2 Chromatic Sphere
1 Citanul Flute
1 Gilded Lotus
4 Grim Monolith
3 Lightning Greaves
1 Masticore
4 Metalworker
1 Mindslaver
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Tinker
3 Voltaic Key
// Sideboard:
SB: 3 Defense Grid
SB: 1 Elf Replica
SB: 1 Mindslaver
SB: 3 Rack and Ruin
SB: 2 Shattering Pulse
SB: 1 Triskelion
SB: 4 Welding Jar

Tinker Stax (which, despite it's name, failed to use the card Smokestack) was a deck that arose out of the artifact dominated metagame of Pro Tour: Tinker. At this time, any given game was effectively over between turns two and four. A wave of bannings followed shortly thereafter.

The key here was that the deck, although less blatantly broken than typical tinker, included extremely powerful tech against it's most powerful opponents. The strongest of these was the red splash for Goblin Welder, which had a frankly shattering effect against other artifact based decks. Tinker is a significantly less powerful card when your target gets switched back out for the sacrifice, and mindslaver, frequently a win when activated, is gamebreaking if pumped for multiple turns. Notice the use of gilded lotus as an alternate mana engine. Platinum Angel also provides a strong game against the combo decks that ran rampant.

Bosh, in the Pain heavy format, was frequently a 1-2 turn clock. Note that Darksteel wasn't yet released, or this would be Darksteel Collosus .

Ponza
By AjaxUD

Ponza is a mono-red deck that features a slew of land destruction, with some quick, efficient creatures (such as Slith Firewalker ), and two angry burn/beaters ( Arc-Slogger and Kumano ) as their big boys. The idea is to start dropping Demolish , Molten Rain , and Stone Rain as quickly as possible and to not stop. Slogger and Kumano are useful for clearing away pesky creatures, and for beating in face by attacking and/or targeting opponents with their abilities. The deck plays rather easily, and is fairly self-explanatory. It's a deck I would recommend for people making the conversion from casual to competitive Magic, as it requires less thought than many other decks in the current Standard environment.


A typical Ponza build may look something like this:

Ponza, Michael Grihangne (1st Place, Regionals FRA: PACA, 2005)
LANDS:
1x Shinka, The Bloodsoaked Keep
3x Stalking Stones
19x Mountain

CREATURES:
4x Slith Firewalker
2x Kumano, Master Yamabushi
4x Arc-Slogger
4x Vulshok Sorcerer
4x Hearth Kami

OTHER SPELLS:
4x Magma Jet
4x Electrostatic Bolt
4x Demolish
4x Molten Rain
4x Stone Rain

SIDEBOARD:
3x Pulse of the Forge
4x Pyroclasm
4x Detonate
4x Shatter



Other builds take a slightly more aggro approach, perhaps by switching out Stalking Stones for the quicker, smaller Blinkmoth Nexus . Other builds put in Chrome Mox and/or Seething Song for some mana acceleration (though this tends to get more into the aggro nature of Red Deck Wins).


Here's the offical Ponza thread from the T2 boards:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=333138

Battle of Wits
By Skankhair, junkcicle, and AjaxUD

The Basics: Battle of Wits is a deck revolving around the card Battle of Wits . This deck requires you to have a large library and is usually full of tutors, card draw, and control.

BoW has been tried pretty much since the card was printed, and has had some mild tournament success here and there, but it's mainly just a casual deck.



The Decklists:
"Sam Gommersal, 2005 Invitational (2-1) - Extended:" Show
"Kayafar Saleh - 1st Place, 2005 Texas States, Standard:" Show

Notes: Saleh's T2 deck uses Enduring Ideal as an alternate condition, in the event that Battle of Wits is hit with hate such as Cranail Extraction . The addition of Brainspoil (which can Transmute for BoW, of course), effectively gives the deck another tutor - and 4 more very important outs.

Draco Explosion
By: Dragon’s Breath

Draco Explosion is essentially a combo deck.  The combo is to use Scroll Rack or Brainstorm to place Draco on top of your deck, and then use Erratic Explosion to “explode” your opponent for sixteen points of damage. (The other 4 points can be taken with Faerie Conclave, or another Draco Explosion.)



Draco-Explosion
3 Draco

4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Counter spell
4 Fire/Ice
3 Erratic Explosion
3 Intuition
3 Mana Leak
3 Volcanic Hammer
2 Cunning Wish
2 Earthquake
2 Scroll Rack
1 Mystical Tutor

7 Island
5 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Lonely Sandbar
2 Polluted Delta

(example) Sideboard
3 Gilded Drake
3 Stifle
2 Pyroclasm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mana Short
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Snap
1 Sonic Burst