Yoshinori Oogo - Enduring Honden1st Place - Japan - Sanjou - 8/13
5 Plains 1 Island 2 Swamp 2 Mountain 8 Forest 1 Cloudcrest Lake 1 Pinecrest Ridge 1 Waterveil Cavern 3 Tendo Ice Bridge 24 land
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Meishin, the Mind Cage 1 Genju of the Realm 2 Honden of Cleansing Fire 4 Enduring Ideal 2 Honden of Night's Reach 4 Kodama's Reach 2 Cage of Hands 2 Ghostly Prison 1 Honden of Life's Web 4 Sensei's Divining Top 4 Final Judgment 2 Honden of Seeing Winds 3 Honden of Infinite Rage 2 Honden of Night's Reach
3 Ghost-Lit Stalker 1 Genju of the Realm 2 Ghost-Lit Raider 2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All 2 Ghostly Prison 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord 1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang 1 Patron of the Kitsune
OK - that's the decklist that won a PTQ. (There are a few other lists tha did win a PTQ, but I think this is the closest to what I could build, with the exception of many many cards, but it's still the closest. ;) ) PTQs are Kamigawa block. I would agree that my build is far inferior to any other build any experienced player could come up with, but let's put it this way: mine fits in my budget and uses cards I already have. I'm pretty sure that my casual build would turn out nearly identical to what most players would can only find and afford this many cards using whatever resources they have. Obviously, if I were to be using Apprentice, you can be certain that there will be no shortage of mana fixing. The fact is, I have none of these fixer lands (I'm going to acquire some Mirrodin's Cores to help (cheapest way out). I don't even have Kamigawa dual lands, showing you how unspectacularly diadvantaged I am. I don't have Genju of the Realm. I'm lacking Tops, which I can't ever seem to get hold of nowadays. (Big surprise.)
And if I don't have all this, why do I have Final Judgment? Because Final Judgment is useful in just more than one deck, especially casual ones that don't need to run Wrath of God (but still need mass removal) - I don't go to tournaments in Malaysia, because I don't have the experience, money and time to do so. I could be less concerned with building the best deck to beat everything that could and would show up because I already know I don't need to. Then, whatever small group I can gather to help me playtest my deck is really really small, at best.
Heck, I could barely build half the sideboard. As for Enduring Ideal in Standard, rotation is happening tomorrow. Whether Enduring Ideal will win the day will probably never depend on Honden. Deckbuilding has become a pretty ugly affair: if you see blue - Meloku is a shoe in, if you see red, expect Zo-Zu, Lava Spike and Glacial Ray (maybe), see black, ah, Hand of Cruelty comes to the rescue, white - 8.5 Tails maybe, Isamaru, maybe but most likely at least 2 Jitte, as for green, what else would you see? The usual suspects. :D
Heck, I was surprised a Enduring deck won a PTQ, but I would prefer a Myojin deck winning. Honest. :D