Based on the results from the World Championships in Chiba, the Standard metagame has become stagnant. When this happens, it's a perfect time for a deck that only targets part of the metagame. As I discussed in last week's column, the metagame has become a pretty clear-cut Rock, Paper, Scissors:

1. Valakut Ramp
2. Blue Control
3. Red Aggro

At Worlds this weekend, the metagame solidified even more. 36 decks finished 5-1 or better in the Standard portion of the event:

12 Valakut Ramp

7 Blue/Black Control

5 Blue/White Control

2 Blue /Green/Black Control

2 Blue/Green/Red Control

3 Red/White Landfall

2 Red/Black Vampire

1 Red Deck Wins

1 Green/White Quest

1 Mono-green Elves

So Valakut Ramp and Blue Control decks accounted for 28 of the 36 top performing decks. Only one in six of the decks was a Red Aggro deck and the Top 8 had just one R/B Vampire deck and no Boros or RDW. With more than four creature light control decks for every Red aggressive deck, it might be time to make a deck that targets Rock and Paper, but ignores Scissors in game one.

If you can build a deck that beats Ramp and Blue Control in game one, you can just make sure your sideboard addresses aggro decks. I built a Mono-black Control deck with that in mind:

[cardlist]

[Spells]

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Sign in Blood

4 Diabolic Tutor

2 Mimic Vat

1 Ratchet Bomb

1 Consuming Vapors

1 Mind Sludge

4 Everflowing Chalice

[/Spells]

[Creatures]

4 Gatekeeper of Malakir

4 Liliana's Specter

3 Abyssal Persecutor

3 Bloodghast

[/Creatures]

[Lands]

25 Swamp

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Disfigure

3 Skinrender

3 Vampire Nighthawk

2 Doomblade

1 Bojuka Bog

1 Marsh Casualties

1 Wurmcoil Engine

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

Inquisition of Kozilek - Blue Control decks have around 25 targets and Ramp decks typically have at least 20 targets. If I didn't care about other decks at all, I might run Duress instead. However aggro decks rarely have more than 12 targets for Duress and they usually have at least 25 targets for Inquisition. Against Ramp, hopefully I can take a ramping spell. That way, I can both slow them down and lower their hand size, making a turn four or five Mind Sludge game over. Against Control, I can use it to take their Mana Leak or Cancel before casting an important card with the rest of my mana.

Sign in Blood - Great for smoothing my draws. It helps me avoid mana screw and mana flood. Its drawback isn't a big deal against control decks, making it a good card for the environment. It combines with Diabolic Tutors to shrink my deck and make my draws more consistent. It can even sometimes be used as finishing damage.

Gatekeeper of Malakir - Even in a creature light field I need some creature removal. Against Blue/White Control it's ideal, because I get rid of their Wall or Angel and get some pressure into play. While it's strong against Blue/Black Control and Valakut Ramp, Grave Titan and Avenger of Zendikar can be annoying. I'll often tutor for Ratchet Bomb against Valakut to address this. It's especially good against aggro, because not only do you kill a dude, but it also takes down another creature or a removal spell.

Liliana's Specter - Like Gatekeeper, it's a creature with built-in card advantage. The Specter does a few really good things in this deck: It helps set people up for Mind Sludge. It provides some flying pressure. It's great with Mimic Vat. Being able to put Specters into play during my opponent's draw step can be a pretty good soft lock.

Diabolic Tutor - Thanks to Everflowing Chalice, I can get a key card on turn three or in the late game, Tutor for something and play it on the same turn. Tutor allows me to play narrow one ofs like Ratchet Bomb and Mind Sludge and still get them when I need them. Instead of having access to 1-4 copies of each card in my deck, it's kind of like having access to 5-8 copies of each card in my deck. Yes it's a little slow, but often having exactly the cards you need makes up for it.

Abyssal Persecutor - A 6/6 flyer on turn three or four can practically win some games by itself. I address it's drawback with Gatekeepers, Vapors and Ratchet Bomb. Against a deck that wants to counter my attempts to get rid of it, I use discard to force them through.

Bloodghast - One of the best creatures against Blue Control. It gives me some turn two pressure, while also being resilient against both removal and permission. It can even be annoying for Valakut Ramp. While they try to use Valakut or Pyroclasm to take the pressure off as you kill their creatures, they keep on coming back.

Mimic Vat - The only card with two copies in the deck. It's usually going to be too slow to Tutor for and I really don't like drawing two of them, but they're really powerful. They go great with Specters and Persecutors. They are good against creatures like Vengevine and Bloodghast that I don't want hitting the Graveyard. They also go great with the big creatures that are so popular in the environment. I recently had a game against Valakut Ramp where I got a Primeval Titan into the Vat and it was fantastic. It also gives me something powerful to sink my mana into every turn if I'm mana flooded, especially with Chalices.

Ratchet Bomb - While it's a little slow for things costing two or more, it's a great answer to tokens and such. Cards like Consume the Meek are too, but the Bomb is cheap enough that I can often Tutor for it and use it in the same turn. It also gives Black a way to destroy Artifacts, Enchantments and Planeswalkers. It can even be used to get rid of multiple Abyssal Persecutors.

Consuming Vapors - Good enough that I wish I had room for more. However, given the low number of creatures in the decks I'm focusing on beating, it's hard to justify running very many of them. It gives me some life-gaining against aggro. It's great against most Titans. It's great with Persecutors.

Mind Sludge - Despite the fact that I'm only playing one copy of it, Mind Sludge was one of the primary reasons for the creation of this deck. Unlike the Black Control deck featuring Trinket Mages I built a couple weeks ago, I wanted only Swamps because of Mind Sludge. It's good against pretty much every deck in the environment, especially since I can get it off on turn four with a Chalice. Inquisitions and Specters can help reduce my opponent's hand size to make Sludge a game breaker. Since it costs more than Diabolic Tutor and I really don't want to draw two, it makes a good one of, I just Tutor for it frequently. After I crush someone's hand with Sludge, I can usually either quickly finish them with a Persecutor or lock them down with a Mimic Vat. When going first against Valakut Ramp, this is usually the card I use to beat them.

Everflowing Chalice - Given that I only main-deck eight cards that cost more than three mana and only one that costs more than four, this isn't an obvious card for this deck. However, speed is critical and casting my four mana spells a turn sooner can be game turning. In addition, having extra colorless mana to sink into Mimic Vat is helpful, as well as being able to Tutor for things and cast them on the same turn. Also, Sign in Blood can sometimes give me enough spells that I need enough mana to cast two things per turn.

Against aggressive decks I will generally take out the Bloodghasts, Inquisitions, Sign in Bloods, Mind Sludge and two Tutors for the entire sideboard except for the Bojuka Bog. Having that much removal, creatures, card advantage and life gaining usually makes aggro a good matchup after side boarding. I'm not assuming I lose game one, I'm just not focusing on beating aggro the first game.

Playing the just beat Rock and Paper, but not Scissors game is what the big decks are trying to do also. The Vampire and Boros decks think they're too fast for Ramp and Blue Control and they hope to outplay or avoid the mirror match. Blue Control decks are designed to beat Ramp and Aggro, etc. The difference with playing a deck that isn't part of the Rock, Paper and Scissors triangle is that you won't be the type of deck they're prepared for and that should give you an advantage.

The problem comes if you guess wrong about which two parts of the triangle you should be concentrating on. If Worlds is any indication though, this should be pretty clear. I like playing a deck featuring cards like Trinket Mage, Fauna Shaman or in this case Diabolic Tutor because I believe that if I have a variety of tools/answers and the ability to search for them, I can handle pretty much any matchup. Even if you are metagaming with your deck choice, finding a deck that plays to your strengths is important. If the kind of decision making that goes with playing a Tutor based deck works well with your skill set, I recommend giving MBC a try while the metagame is so well defined.