|
14-09-2000
Extended Metagaming: A preparation for the upcoming extended season
With the imminent bombardment of extended tournaments due to the upcoming
extended season and the GP Trials, I’m sure most of you have noticed the
incredible scarcity of any extended strategy/metagaming anywhere on the net.
I’ve noticed this too, but after playing in two extended tournaments in the
previous two weeks (and winning one of them :) I thought I should give an
overview of the extended metagame for all those who feel as lacking in
extended resources as I did. What follows is a decklist of each top deck,
a score for fun, consistency, affordability and overall (note these scores
are just MY opinion) and a brief summary of each deck. All in classic magic
campus style :)
White Weenie
|
3 Armageddon
4 Disenchant
4 Empyrial Armor
4 Longbow Archer
4 Mother of Runes
3 Paladin en-Vec
4 Soltari Monk
4 Soltari Priest
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Warrior en-Kor
3 Cursed Scroll
4 Wasteland
18 Plains
SB: 3 Absolute Law
SB: 2 Circle of Protection: Green
SB: 2 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 4 Erase
SB: 2 Light of Day
SB: 2 Scour
|
|
Analysis Results
|
| Fun factor |
8.0 |
| Consistency |
9.5 |
| Affordability |
9.0 |
| Ease of Play |
9.5 |
| Overall |
9.0 |
|
White weenie is the deck I played two weeks ago to top the swiss of an
extended tournament, so after experience I can definately say that white
weenie is a very powerful deck. The deck just excells in almost every way;
it contains strong, consistent beatdown in the form of knights and soltari’s
supported by the brokenness of mother of runes; the incredible power of
empyrial armour (which is doubly incredible on a shadow creature); extremely
efficient creature removal in the form of swords to plowshares; effective
enchantment and artifact destruction in disenchant and the always amazing
armageddon. In short, there is not a single card in the deck which is not
excellent, and the deck has incredible synergy. And, as a plus, the deck is
very affordable, made up mainly of uncommons. So if you want to play a
strong, consistent deck without forking out too much cash then this should be
the deck for you. Expect white weenie to be a force at any extended tournament.
Draw-Go
|
4 Counterspell
3 Forbid
4 Force of Will
3 Force Spike
4 Impulse
3 Back to Basics
1 Morphling
4 Ophidian
2 Masticore
4 Powder Keg
2 Treachery
26 Island
SB: 3 Chill
SB: 2 Capsize
SB: 4 Hydroblast
SB: 2 Misdirection
SB: 3 Thieving Magpie
SB: 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
|
|
Analysis Results
|
| Fun factor |
8.0 |
| Consistency |
9.0 |
| Affordability |
7.5 |
| Ease of Play |
7.5 |
| Overall |
8.5 |
|
Draw-Go is a classic blue control deck, sporting many counterspells, powder
keg/nevinyrral’s and masticore for board control, ophidians/thieving magpies
for their incredible card drawing power and morphlings for the kill. The deck
can vary a lot; treacheries can be used for more creature control; back to
basics is often main decked as a metagame choice and there is always the
metagame choice of thieving magpie or ophidian. The deck is quite customisable
to the metagame and very versatile. However, it requires a fair amount of skill
to be played to it’s full potential. So if you are the slower thinking type
who enjoys classic blue control then this is definately a contender for a
deck to play.
Stasis
|
4 Stasis
4 Gush
4 Thwart
4 Force of Will
2 Morphling
4 Counterspell
4 Rescue
2 Misdirection
4 Impulse
2 Claws of Gix
26 Island
|
|
Analysis Results
|
| Fun factor |
8.0 |
| Consistency |
7.5 |
| Affordability |
8.5 |
| Ease of Play |
7.5 |
| Overall |
7.5 |
|
In my opinion, stasis is far too slow, boring and inconsistent to be a strong
contender if you plan to do consistently well in an extended tournament. The
deck relies on drawing stasis, playing it, and then hopefully keeping the
stasis in play long enough so that you can either drop a morphling, a masticore
or sometimes even win with a massive stroke of genius via turnabout. Although
most people think the deck is just so strong when they see the stasis hit the
table, they don’t realise that it has a very small chance of winning twice
within the 40 minute time limit and 5 extra turns. However, it is quite an
affordable deck to build and can be tinkered with in many ways. Although
certainly not a tier 1 deck by any means, stasis can be a fun and interesting
deck to play.
Recur-Sur
|
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
3 Elvish Lyrist
3 Spike Feeder
2 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Spike Weaver
1 Cartographer
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Krovikan Horror
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Duress
2 Vampiric Tutor
1 Oath of Ghouls
2 Recurring Nightmare
12 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Bayou
4 Wasteland
|
|
Analysis Results
|
| Fun factor |
7.5 |
| Consistency |
9.0 |
| Affordability |
6.0 |
| Ease of Play |
7.0 |
| Overall |
9.0 |
|
Recur-Sur is a very powerful deck that shows up in abundance in extended
tournaments everywhere. The deck uses survival of the fittest with squee to
pay one green mana to search it’s deck for any creature and put it into it’s
hand, and sometimes uses recurring nightmare to bring back a massive/utility
creature to play which has been discarded to the survival. As such, the deck
is designed to have answers to any threat in the current metagame, and thus
requires skill to be built and played. It is also very expensive to make.
However, it is a very powerful deck in experienced hands and can make some
incredible plays and as such is a very popular and strong deck in the current
extended environment.
Sligh
|
4 Jackal Pup
4 Ball Lightning
3 Viashino Sandstalker
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Shock
3 Price of Progress
3 Hammer of Bogardan
4 Incinerate
4 Fireblast
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Wasteland
19 Mountains
|
|
Analysis Results
|
| Fun factor |
9.0 |
| Consistency |
9.0 |
| Affordability |
8.0 |
| Ease of Play |
8.0 |
| Overall |
9.0 |
|
Sligh is a consistent, fun to play deck which is a great choice in a heavy
recur-sur or draw-go metagame. It can often kill on the 4th or 5th turn and
has much recursive damage in the scroll, hammer and sandstalker. Price of
Progress can sometimes be absolutely amazing, sometimes netting 10 points of
damage. However, unlike popular belief, difficult choices often have to be
made but it is still quite easy to play. Sligh is a great deck if you enjoy
fast, exciting matches and want to have a good chance of top 8’ing.
Well I’m getting pretty tired now but I hope that this article has helped you
with your choices for a deck to play in the upcoming GP extended season. There
are other popular deck sbut the above decks are the ones I have seen the most
in the previous two weeks of tournaments. Anyway, good luck and have fun!
Michael Seymour
cmore9@hotmail.com
cmore on mirc (usually on #apprentice on newnet)
|
