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| Metagame Monthly - June 2009 |
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| Magic: The Gathering - Strategy |
| Written by DarkfnTemplar |
| Thursday, 11 June 2009 07:07 |
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With so many standard events still approaching this summer, now is a great time to take a look at our current metagame. All of the secrets are out, and all of the lines have been drawn. After a couple weeks of turbulent tier decks, we can finally get a nice overview of what to expect (and there is a lot.)
Before regionals, B/W tokens was the deck to beat, Fae seemed all but dead, and many decks were on the slip list. 5k after 5k events were showing B/W tokens dominating but some other decks began to sneak in.
With the introduction of such cards as [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card], [card]Putrid Leech[/card], [card]Bitumous Blast[/card], [card]Dauntless Escort[/card], [card]Behemoth Sledge[card], [card]Maelstrom Pulse[card], and (reintroduction) [card]Meddling Mage[card], new decks arrived and the meta quickly shifted. However, the shift was too obvious. G/W tokens was conceived, [card]Dauntless Escort[/card] being an easy fit and [card]Wilt-leaf Liege[/card] giving an extra boost of power instead of disruption. With not much of a control field left, G/W tokens looked to take the tokens crown.
The sad lack of control decks was more than likely due to the fear of [card]Anathemancer[/card]. While only half as strong as it’s spoiled version, everyone knew that getting to 7 lands wasn’t hard, and that doing 6-7 points of damage was usually too much for 5CC to take while battling aggressive creatures. However, no one really knew the best place to put him. Variously decks were built around him but many decks found him to fit in quite nicely. Naturally, Anathemancer fit in well with Blighting Aggro, but others saw another card to help them power out the zombie wizard. Probably the most influential and perhaps best card out of Alara Reborn was [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card]. Jund Aggro became a reality and was easily on the path to becoming a dominant choice.
But even after these changes occurred, only a handful of people knew that the most surprising deck had yet to even come. Let’s do the format warp again! So apparently if you can only cascade for a single card in a two-card combo, it turns out to better than a tutor. Since [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card] could consistently cascade for [card]Seismic Assault[/card], the only “problem” for the old Swans combo was to draws Swans (Who would have thought?) As it turns out, you have a 40% chance of opening with any four-of card in your deck. But what’s the gas you ask? 40 + lands. If 2/3 of your deck is land, you should have a 2/3 chance of drawing one. So the chances of you drawing 2 land in a row, if you target Swans with a land, is pretty good. Eventually you get 10 lands in hand, and then the game is over. If that combo wasn’t good enough, the deck has many back up plans such as 8-10 man lands, [card]Countryside Crusher[/card], and [card]Ad Nausem[/card]!
As a result of it’s pure awesomeness Cascade Assault took the Chicago regionals with ease. No one saw it coming, and it cut through the format. Even two weeks after it’s secret was let out, it still dominated PTQ’s and GP’s. However, the format quickly shifted again to compensate. It turns out that the combo is hated out easily. Nevertheless, many people still lost to it because they didn’t know how to beat it. [card]Runed Halo[/card] was a terrible answer, and I personally felt a sigh of relief whenever an opponent would play a halo instead of a [card]Pithing Needle[/card]. Swans combo forced Jund Aggro and 5cb to run [card]Thought Hemorrhage[/card], and needles. This reduced slots and made the Jund and 5cb Aggro mirror even more explosive. As an additional bonus, Fae became an obvious meta call. Fae could not handle a format with little combo and control. After all, Fae’s percentage against aggro was terrible with the loss of damnation. But with Lark and Swans combo back, Fae could juice some more wins and it showed with 5 Fae players in Seattle making the top 8.
We have finally reached this week. So where exactly is our metagame? Well, Fae isn’t going to be as hot, maybe for a week. Fortunately, the next couple of weeks will show us the healthiest metagame we have seen in standard for a long time. I think in two weeks, the standings will look like this:
Deck Prediction
Right before M10 comes out, Swans should be hot for a while. The great thing about Swans is that it’s always going to be a constant threat. I think Swans was the best thing for this format. Its entrance has completely opened up the sideboards and stops the 9 cards post side silliness, which was rampant at regionals.
So what will I be playing? I’ll be playing a rotation of these three decks this summer. My own 5CCR deck, which I think has its prime right now, a Chapin-esque 5C Cascade Aggro deck, and my Swans build in case I feel that no one is expecting it:
But what if you don’t want to net deck? What cards should you defend against? What cards should I look to break?
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 11 June 2009 08:11 |
