Welcome to my latest series of articles. In these articles I'll be analyzing popular Type Two archetypes - their history, their present form and their future possibilities. This time, I'll be talking about something I'm sure you've all seen - Blue/Green/Red, or Tempo decks.
Liquid Tempo was a very popular deck in the IBC season. It was based on the Blue/Green Tempo deck posted on the internet before Worlds with Red added for Fire/Ice and Prophetic Bolt. Most accredit David Price for the deck. Here's a rough list for each:

Tempo

4 Gaea's Skyfolk
4 Kavu Titan
4 Blurred Mongoose
4 Mystic Snake
4 Repulse
4 Exclude
4 Temporal Spring
4 Rushing River
4 Fact or Fiction

4 Yavimaya Coast
10 Forest
10 Island

Liquid Tempo

4 Blurred Mongoose
4 Gaea's Skyfolk
4 Kavu Titan
4 Mystic Snake
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Repulse
4 Fire/Ice
4 Prophetic Bolt
4 Fact or Fiction

2 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Shivan Oasis
4 Shivan Reef
4 Yavimaya Coast
8 Island

As you can see, these decks are very tempo-oriented. Tempo is basically time advantage. Let's say that you are playing the Blue/Green Tempo deck and have a Skyfolk and Mongoose in play, and the opponent just tapped out to cast Skizzik with kicker, already with a kicked Kavu Titan in play. They both attack, and you use Rushing River with kicker to return both of their creatures to their hand. You just used two cards (Rushing River and the land) to temporarily nullify two of their cards. Now, normally, this would be a good thing as it saves you a lot of damage. However, with two creatures already in play, this becomes a fantastic thing. The coast is clear for you to attack with your creatures. You could also be holding back one of your eight counterspells, or eight bounce spells ready again to foil the opponent's plans. You are interfering with your opponent's game, and all the while you are dealing considerably amounts of damage while they try to recover from your meddling.

The main problem with the normal Tempo deck is the fact that it plays a few sub-par cards (namely Temporal Spring, and sometimes Rushing River) and has very little outright removal. A Spectral Lynx, Nightscape Familiar or Vodalian Zombie would buy the opponent enough time to set up a game-winning Rage with kicker or Desolation Angel with kicker. That leads to the Red splash. Adding Flametongue Kavu (arguably the best creature in Type 2 right now), Fire/Ice and Prophetic Bolt give it a much needed power boost. It can now use burn to finish the job, or kill creatures, or tap down a blocker so your creatures can do what they do best - smash. It also opened up some good sideboard options.

The mana base for these decks are also fairly simple (more so for Tempo than Liquid Tempo). None of the cards require much mana of the same color (except for Mystic Snake). Fact or Fiction and Prophetic Bolt also smooth all your draws, allowing you to draw pretty much whatever you need at the time.

There is also the fact that these decks were aggro-control, which allowed them to beat pure control decks (like the Red/Black/Blue decks that popped up around Pro Tour: Tokyo and the end of the IBC season) by placing an early threat on the table and then protecting it until it won the game. It could also beat fast aggro decks like Rocket Shoes with control until they ran out of steam and then swoop in for the win.

Enter the new Type Two and we have an infusion of new, powerful cards, a new environment, and therefore a whole new world to explore.

The first deck I'm going to talk about is probably the most successful of the Blue/Green/Red decks, Snaketongue. It saw lots of play around States/Provincials time.

Snaketongue by Jon Sonne

4 Flametongue Kavu (you'll be seeing lots of these guys)
4 Mystic Snake
4 Call of the Herd
4 Counterspell
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Fire/Ice
4 Urza's Rage
4 AEther Burst
2 Syncopate
2 Disrupt

1 Karplusan Forest
3 Mountain
4 Shivan Oasis
4 Shivan Reef
4 Yavimaya Coast
8 Island

The main difference between this deck and the IBC Liquid Tempo decks is that this doesn't rely as heavily on Green. Green is there simply for Mystic Snake and Call of the Herd (another card that will be in pretty much every version of this deck). The rest is Red and mostly Blue. Notice how Repulse is replaced by the more efficient AEther Burst. You can now return multiple creatures to their owners hands after casting more than one of these, which is a much more favorable effect than the drawing of one card here and there.

There are also much more solid counterspells than Exclude, namely Counterspell itself and two copies each of Disrupt and Syncopate. If I had to change anything I would turn the Disrupts into more Syncopates, as locally there are lots of Call of the Herds and Beast Attacks, but that's a different story. Four copies of Urza's Rage ensure that Jon Finkel will never show his ugly mug. Rounding out the deck are the ubiquitous Fact or Fictions, Flametongue Kavus and Fire/Ices. The only grievance I have with this deck is the fact that it topdecks badly and without something like Fact or Fiction or Fire/Ice, it's extremely hard to recover from a land clump/screw. Other than that, I believe this deck to be a powerhouse and certainly a Tier 1 contender.

Opposition builds also saw lots of play at States, most noticeably at Georgia where Brian Kibler took the State Championships with Blue/Green/Red deck. This is what I would play in my version.

UGr Opposition

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongu Kavu
4 Mystic Snake
4 Counterspell
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Opposition
2 Squirrel Nest
2 Urza's Rage

2 Mossfire Valley
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Shivan Reef
6 Forest
8 Island

This deck is fairly straightforward. Play a bunch of dudes, tap down things, counter threats and smash for the win. Flametongue Kavu, ever-present, is a much needed addition to this deck from the original Blue/Green version. Squirrel Nest, from Odysssey, is a powerhouse that must be stopped or the game will end very quickly. Beast Attack has been seen in some versions, but I don't think it's needed as the deck has enough token creatures as is, and with Syncopate running rampant, I don't want another juicy target for it to remove from the game.

The deck's mana base is fairly simple as Red is merely a splash, with Blue and Green pulling the most weight. Mana creatures also allow for an accelerated win, with a turn two Call and turn three Opposition not being uncommon. Sideboard options include Engulfing Flames for those pesky Lynxes/Familiars, more Rages and maybe even Hull Breach.

Finally is a version I have been tinkering with lately.

RGu

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Urza's Rage
4 Aether Burst
3 Syncopate
3 Raging Kavu
2 Fire/Ice

1 Keldon Necropolis
4 Shivan Reef
4 Mossfire Valley
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Mountain
7 Forest

This is a completely different deal than the other decks. This deck is at heart a Red/Green ultra-fast aggressive deck, meant to overwhelm the opponent before they can set up shop. However, in place of
things like Skizzik or Shivan Wurm, I have put in some Blue cards. Syncopate is there to protect my creatures from possible things like Pernicious Deed or Wrath of God. Tapping a Bird and some lands to Syncopate a Wrath when they thought you were only Red/Green is definitely one of the perks of playing a deck like this. Heh. But seriously, adding Blue makes for a different twist. You now have countermagic and bounce to back up your creatures. Not only that but now you can sideboard Jungle Barrier, Divert, Gainsay and the like.

I haven't tested this deck enough to make any concrete predictions on quality, but I think that with proper tuning this deck most definitely has potential.

So there we have it. Several different decks, and they all have something in common. Tempo is a concept that cannot be ignored. Use it to your advantage.