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 What Exactly is the Metagame?: A Brief Analysis
For everyone that actively uses the internet as a metagame resource, PT Houston
gave a seemingly good report for things to come. Turbo Oath, referred
to as “Coggie 1” by Adam Whitlatch, won the whole thing. The rest
of the top 8 consisted of mono black reanimator, Kastle’s Rock deck, B/U
reanimator, Angry Ghoul, Psychatog, another version of the Rock deck, and an
Alluren deck. For a more detailed summation, I recommend reading
Robert Dougherty’s article “The New Extended Metagame” on Sideboard.com. Of
course, there was also suicide black, a rogue version of sligh, and DRACO
EXPLOSION among others, but that is about it. Then there was Grand
Prix Reims. The winning deck: Oath? Any reanimator? Rock? Alluren?
No, no, no, and no. In the end, this became the winning decklist:
Main deck
4 Bloodstained Mire
8 Mountain
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
4 Wooded Foothils
4 Blistering Firecat
4 Goblin Cadets
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Jackal Pup
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Firebolt
4 Seal of Fire
4 Volcanic Hammer
Sideboard
2 Fledgling Dragon
3 Mogg Salvage
2 Savage Firecat
4 Stone Rain
4 Thran Foundry
The obvious question: How could this have possibly happened? Well, boys, rats,
and Destans, this is the effect of the metagame. In short, reanimator
was completely nonexistent in the tournament due to the fact that it is easily
hated against. When there aren’t any 2nd turn mass-life-gaining
fatties with trample, sligh actually has a fair chance. What about
combo, you say? Yes, it is true that sligh has had trouble with combo
for some time now. I’m sure many of you recall being prepared for
victory on the next turn only to see that your opponent has gained 20 life and
sent you a rather cruel donation (Donate-Ilusions of Grandeur). However,
the situation is a bit different from that. When timed correctly, a
single shock, seal of fire, or basically any other instant burn spell can stop
both major combos (Alluren and Angry Ghoul). Add that to the fact
that Kastle’s build of the Rock, according to Seth Burn and others, loses to
it and you’ve got a tier 1 deck. As it turned out, there was even a
mirror match in the finals (generally speaking). The remaining six
decks of the top eight included a third sligh deck, suicide black, DRACO
EXPLOSION, white weenie, “Feinds” (u/w/b that resembles Junk), and psychatog. Ok. Now
that we have this information, what does it tell us about the future? It
tells us that A.)Reanimator can be easily hated against and B.) the format still
isn’t solved. That’s about it. However, if I had to
guess, I’d say that reanimator could make a small comeback once the sideboard
hate has lessened due to its absence. In addition, “Herbert”
(Phil Fennig’s nickname for the Rock), will likely adapt more to beating sigh. Of
course, once the next trix or super gro shows up, all of this information
becomes irrelevant. Until then, that’s my prediction. If
I had to pick a deck out of the current selection right now, I’d probably
revamp “Herbert” because it seems to be the most versatile and least hated. For
casual play, on the other hand, does anyone have any Dracos? :)
Questions? Comments? Did you really hate this article,
disagree with every single point I discussed, and hate me as an individual?
Feel free to email me at slighguy3@hotmail.com
“You can’t dominate a Draco, but a Draco can dominate you!”
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