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Main » Articles » Moving with the Metagame

Moving with the Metagame

Darwin Kastle
Posted on February 13, 2012
 Reddit

The addition of Dark Ascension is obviously shaking up the Standard metagame a bit. With the Pro Tour in Hawaii, the metagame should start taking shape. Most players seemed to expect some sort of base-white token deck to be the deck to beat at the PT. If they’re correct (and I think they probably are), the metagame will change again in response. If I were playing a token deck at the PT, it would probably look like this:

"The Human Spirit"

I’ve also considered adding Darkslick Shores and Isolated Chapels to be able to flash back Lingering Souls, but I think the deck has enough gas that I don’t need to mess up my mana further. While the token cards in this deck are really powerful thanks to things like Champion of the Parish, Honor of the Pure, and Drogskol Captain, the real MVP might be Phantasmal Image. Unlike the Illusion deck, this deck has two sets of creatures that are really exciting to copy: Champion of the Parish and Drogskol Captain. Turn-one Champion, turn-two Image, and turn-three Gather the Townsfolk can be quite a beating—especially if you have another 1-drop. Copying the Captain is the really sick way to go, though. Having two hexproof 3/3 flyers that ensure all of your other spirits get +2/+2 is pretty awesome in this deck.

The strength of this deck is the ability to apply incredibly high levels of pressure at almost every point of the game. It has incredible 1-drops that put your opponent on a vicious clock. If your opponent has good spot removal, you have a lot of tokens and ways to pump them. If you’re opponent has a lot of good ground blockers, you have a lot of flying. Even against decks with a massive amount of removal, the Moorland Haunts may end up seeing you through.

If decks like this turn out to be the main threat at Tier 1 in Standard, which I think could easily end up being the case, the metagame will adjust in response. I think one of the biggest things you’ll see is an increase in maindeck Ratchet Bombs and a general increase in removal for small creatures. When decks like Solar Flare and ramp are the dominant decks, this wouldn’t be the case. In that situation, you just want to make sure you can deal with a few large creatures. You want to make sure not to over commit to maindeck removal—especially removal that isn’t good against large dudes. At Grand Prix: Orlando, we saw that Delver decks were becoming the dominant deck. Now I think we will see aggressive creature decks (especially token decks) be even more dominant. This is an example of the type of deck that might become a good metagame call:

"Zombie Bomb"

This deck is excellent at killing small creatures. If you can keep tokens under control with Ratchet Bomb, Tragic Slip, Geth's Verdict, Mortarpod, and Consume Spirit should be able to handle everything else. Another nice feature of the Bomb in this deck is that it gives you an answer to artifacts and enchantments—something black normally can’t handle. Tragic Slip gives you a turn-one answer to cards like Champion of the Parish, Stromkirk Noble, and Delver of Secrets. Later in the game, it can handle almost any creature, thanks to cards like Mortarpod, Verdict, and the Bomb. As long as it’s a creature-heavy metagame (which I expect), Verdicts are at their best in a removal-heavy deck like this one.

One of the things I like about this deck is the sustained pressure it puts on your opponent. It has a 2-power 1-drop that keeps coming back. It has an aggressive 3-drop with undying. The 4-drops at the top of the curve are gigantic. I’m not certain whether Lashwrithe or Phyrexian Obliterator is better at the 4 slot, which is why I have some of each. The main reason I might prefer the Obliterator is that it has trample, but if the metagame becomes about small creatures, the Obliterator could be a total beast.

This deck does a good job of taking advantage of being mono-colored. It has cards at 1, 2, 3, and 4 mana that use the maximum number of black mana symbols. Consume Spirit also rewards the decision to play with all Swamps. Between creature removal, life-gain, and game-ender it can play many roles. It’s among the main reasons I’m going with twenty-five lands instead of twenty-four. I’m hoping between the twenty-five lands and the four Ragers, I’ll usually be able to drop a 4-drop on turn four (assuming I draw one.)

A shift in the metagame can also force existing decks to transform . . . and spawn new decks. I could see Red Deck Wins, which is usually powered by small creatures, shifting to a build more like this:

"Red Deck Burns"

While this deck doesn’t use cards from Dark Ascension, it has still been influenced by the introduction of a new set. The cool thing about taking the deck away from being creature-based and filling it up with more burn and removal is that not only is it better equipped for a creature swarm metagame, but it will frustrate other decks metagaming against creature swarms. Since all of the removal consists of either Ratchet Bomb or burn, it’s no problem if your opponent isn’t playing a creature swarm.

While this deck doesn’t play any creatures that I’m worried about losing to Slagstorm or Ratchet Bomb, that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in ability to kill opponents. Shrine of Burning Rage, Chandra's Phoenix, and Koth of the Hammer are all major threats in this deck. While it doesn’t have the overwhelming early pressure of a creature-based RDW deck, it still has the damage-delivering ability to prevent to your opponent from feeling safe when his life total starts to slide toward single digits. Backing up your twelve big-threat cards with twelve 3-damage spells means your opponent should never feel safe.

Not only do I like Slagstorm and Ratchet Bomb for their ability to kill multiple creatures, but I also like their ability to deal with hexproof creatures like Invisible Stalker and Geist of Saint Traft. While this deck doesn’t reward playing all Mountains quite as much as Zombie Bomb rewards you for playing all Swamps, if you ever achieve the ultimate ability with Koth, you’ll be really happy to have all Mountains. Volt Charge doesn’t have cards like Stromkirk Noble, Stormblood Berserker, or Bloodcrazed Neonate to add counters to, but you still have Shrine—plus, now you can pump Bombs and Koths.

Chandra's Phoenix is the perfect creature for this deck. First, even if your opponent has been forced to save up creature removal, you might get to hit him at least once because it has haste. Then, when he does kill it, you have a multitude of ways to retrieve it. Obviously, your opponent can potentially Oblivion Ring it, but with Shrines and Koths, you have other juicy targets for O Ring. Also, you’ll often have the option of killing your Phoenix in response. For similar reasons, it’s not a big deal if you kill your own Phoenix with a Bomb or a Slagstorm.

Of course, it remains to be seen if I’m correct about the direction the metagame will move. As I write this, Christian Calcano just used a W/U aggro deck to beat David Williams’s Birthing Pod deck in Round 1 of the PT, so it could definitely happen. Even if the Pro Tour doesn’t end up with as definitive an answer as GP: Orlando did about the metagame, I suggest you prepare yourself for a wave of aggressive creature decks. Either get on the wave or figure out how you’re going to break it.

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, deck lists, dark ascension, darwin kastle, brewing

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