With Pro Tour Kioto finished, Standard is likely to take a little shift in the metagame with the Pros taking advantage of multiple Conflux cards and with the rise and fall of some of the Standard staples. First lets take a look at this weeks last Standard Chart. This time around we have a bigger sample with 21 featured events and 168 decklists:
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Vengeant Lark/Boat Brew has been dominating the scene with a whopping 25% show up in the top 8s and 6 wins paired up with Fae. White Weenie also had a decent climbing sitting himself in the 3rd position in front of Cruel Control with a 12% attendance. But with the Pro Tour showing up the Pro's lists with Conflux, what has changed?
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On your left you can check the oficial Standard Metagame Breakdown from Day 1 while on your left you can see the chart with the Top Standard Lists,meaning the lists that made 15 or more points in the Standard part of the tournament ( 90 Decklists ). Besides being the most played deck, Boat Brew was also the most well suceeded with a 36% show up in the Top Standard Lists. White Weenie once again was a big contender since it had a 7% show up in Day 1 but managed to get a doubling 12,2% in the top decklists. 5c Control managed to get almost the exact % (14,5%) in both attendance in Day 1 and in the Top Standard Lists.
Boat Brew
Akisama Yamamoto - 22 Points in the Standard portion of Pro Tour Kyoto
With 3 Players making the cut at 22 points in the Standard Portion of Pro Tour Kyoto, we have Yamamoto's list as the Boat Brew exemplar with Cedric Phillips showing up a Wr Kitkin and Nagaoka with an Elves build:
WR Aggro
Cedric Phillips - 22 Points in the Standard portion of Pro Tour Kyoto
Without many surprises, Path to Exile and Banefire where the favorite addictions to the Boat Brew build, providing a new cheaper and stronger removal spell and a great finisher vs either Fae or Cruel Control. Yamamoto's build is clearly a metagame choice running Wrath of God main deck to deal with all the aggri decks around and Faerie Macabre in the side to deal with any Reveillark Shenaningans. The GB Elves build didnt't suffer any changes from Conflux, still relying on a fast start backed up with removal and disruption and with the finishing power of Garruk Wildspeaker and Profane Command.
All Mighty Nassif clashed with the "Best Current Player of the World" Luis Scott-Vargas featuring a classic Cruel Control vs WB Tokens battle. 5c Control was one of the decks that could take full advantage of Conflux. Introducing the main deck Wall of Reverence as a way to stop any aggro hopes of winning the game as well as Volcanic Fallout , killer of kitkins and faeries and all sorts of creatures. The "reversed" Reflecting Pool, Exotic Orchard also makes its appearance helping to smooth the mana base while Celestial Purge is a nice addiction to deal with Bitterblossom,Figure of Destiny,Broodmate Dragon etc.
There where a bunch of cards that created some buzz during the Pro Tour Weekend. Such as Goblin Outlander maindecked in Red Deck Wins or BR Blightning or Blightning less. Its a cool card since it can shut down White Weenie, WB Tokens and Even Boat Brew. Ignite Disorder helps out against similar decks since its kills almost any creature and its a perfect response to Spectral Procession. Lapse of Certainty was present in a lot of sideboards, such as WW , WB and Boat Brew. Delaying your opponent for a turn can be enough to pass by enough damage to kill him.
For the last couple of weeks we have been witnessing the rise of the Tarmo Burn / Sligh / Zoo Burn deck as a Faerie Beater. Featuring 8 events and 64 decks, we have Tarmo Burn reparting the attendance % with fae with almost 25% in this top8s. In terms of wins, only Tarmo Burn shines with 3wins vs the 1 win reparted by Fae, Zoo, Doran , Elves and TEPS.
Volcanic Fallout and Path to Exile seem to have found the ideal home in Extended since Fallout gives this deck a powerful tool against Elves and Faeries and Path works as a weapon vs any mid range decks or Swans and All In Red. Speaking of Swans...Last week I had the pleasure to interview JWAY for this article. Those of you that usually play the Extended Daily Events should obviously know the name since he has been bulling this events taking win after win with Swans of Bryn Argoll. I wanted to chat with him about the deck and also how it would adapt to the new Path to Exile heavy enviroment. Well short after our little interview I got a message online from JWAY saying: "Just won a ptq with the deck."
Andrea Fonseca: We talked last week about how you thinked about this deck as a way of getting some packs in MTGO but now you posted some IRL results winning the PTQ Honolulu in Little Rock with your Swans list. So how did this happen? James Zormes: Well, the metagame here is kind of delayed so I hoped that there weren't that many Path to Exile around.
Andrea Fonseca: How did it go? James Zormes: Well I had pretty good draws and was lucky all day long.
Andrea Fonseca: Would you recommend the deck? James Zormes: No. I never did. Its pretty much draw dependant and very difficult to play.It will be harder and harder to play since people will start packing in more Path to Exile.
Shards of Alara Block Constructed
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I'm not going deep into this format since the data I collected from this 14 Events its without Conflux in the Mix but still Naya,Dark Naya or Vengeant Jund ( Jund splashing only for Ajani Vengeant seem to be always the best and most played decks. I'll leave you here a Naya list I've been having good results. I also advise you to read this exellent analysis about the block metagame from Rasparthe.
Featuring 5 events and 80 decks, I'll get a first look at the Classic Metagame Online. I'm not a big classic player and just recently started to follow the meta so I'll advise you to read any of this articles to get a more real felling of the format:
With a 15% show up in the top8s, Necrospike is the most popular deck in the Classic Daily Events. Featuring the allmighty enchantment Necropotence it ramps up a storm count to kill with (Tendrills of Agony) or with multiple Soul Spike.
Sliver Flash
Javasci - 1st Place - Classic Event #184502 on 02/08/2009
Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste.
Elves
KENNY_MACAU - 1st Place - Classic Event #192812 on 02/15/2009
Very much alike Extended, Elves is a growing force in classic. With a possible turn 2 kill and Skullclamp as a resilient weapon that lacks in the Extended versions.Earthcraft its a great tool turning any Elf into a "mana tool".
Threshold
prolepsis9 - 1st Place - Classic Event #192814 on 02/14/2009
With 12% show up, along with Necrospike, Pox is one of the most popular Classic decks online. Being a very controlish and disruptive deck it can power up a 4/4 Epochrasite after a devastating Pox.
"Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste." LOL, only possible in classic. This makes me wonder the amazing possibility of magic cards that come together =)
As for the article, again, very clean, very sleek, good information and a nice way to get geared for the comming ptq's
Just have one question, how has writing improved your game? or, in other way, has writing these articles made you improve your game? I saw you rapidly rise from a 1600 to almost 1800 in a matter of few months :P
"Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste." LOL, only possible in classic. This makes me wonder the amazing possibility of magic cards that come together =)
As for the article, again, very clean, very sleek, good information and a nice way to get geared for the comming ptq's
Just have one question, how has writing improved your game? or, in other way, has writing these articles made you improve your game? I saw you rapidly rise from a 1600 to almost 1800 in a matter of few months :P
If you thought turn one is impressive, you shoulda seen before they nerfed the deck. Turn 0 win was a regular occurance esp with no fow to keep it at bay.
i really enjoyed this article : useful for all, looks good ...
All the decks presented here are powerful.
About classic which is the format i know better, i ran couple tournament couple of time, i had to deal with each of these decks and i just want to congrat all players mentioned who are all strong competitors : a powerful deck is nothing when it is not well piloted... A special mention for the Sliver Flash deck : Javasci build is maybe the most original deck i saw recently.
We need to have more article as this one. Take care & go on !
Great article i enjoyed all parts of it. I realize that classic is not your fortey and appreciate that you are trying and give other articles to help the reader get in there, but i gott be a nit picker. Numbers wise you are spot on but when it comes to a pe necro is vastly underplayed. there are on avereage either 0 or 2 pilots in anygiven pe. The "threshold" list is not actually thrsehold at all. this is a straight control deck that happens to have a thresh critter in it. more acuartly this is a intuition control deck. lastly the most popular stratgies in classic appear to be rdw and zoo varients in the most played section, followed by some of the decks you posted. I understand that its hard going off of just top 8 data but the pe's to not actuaratly show the meta, i,e, necro being the most played and what not. Thx for the fantastic article as even with a bit of a loose trail you still followed a format you dont call home and i was mightly enjoyed reading the article.
ps, i spit out my coffe when i saw the last deck in the classic top 8's. Team america as it is more commonly known instead of the joke name i put in to the article as an inside joke to a buddy of mine. lol i cant believe that name stuck as others have called the deck the same thing.
i agree with Whiffy about propelsis9's deck : it is more like a Landstill archetype green splashed tutored by Intuition to me. An "intuition control" name seem to fit it very well also.
Great Article, its always nice to be able to know the winning lists.The interview got a little short and I would like to see more videos.But besides that great job
:/ Ive been playing a pretty simililary deck to 4c Doran for some time now (Doran, Gaddock Teeg, Rhox War Monk, Tidehollow Sculler, Wilt-Leaf Liege are in both) so all the "Nice deck" Ive gotten with it might be at an end :/
Are you able to data mine win percentages within a format. For example, I'm curious on how the 4c Doran does versus 5c Control and Faeries. Is it favored, neutral, or a dog?
Nice article. I can't say much about classic as its just a format with no interest for me, but the analysis made for Extended and Standard is quite accurate.
Win Percentages
by Metalman (not verified)
at Fri, 03/13/2009 - 10:22
Actually I was talking about win percentages in MODO. Is there a way to see how often an archetype beats another within the data that you are digging through within MODO or would it need to be a manual calculation?
21 Comments
Forgo to add the final:
See you soon,
Andrea Fonseca, Dust_ @MTGO
"Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste." LOL, only possible in classic. This makes me wonder the amazing possibility of magic cards that come together =)
As for the article, again, very clean, very sleek, good information and a nice way to get geared for the comming ptq's
Just have one question, how has writing improved your game? or, in other way, has writing these articles made you improve your game? I saw you rapidly rise from a 1600 to almost 1800 in a matter of few months :P
Keep them comming, It's always great to read you
"Sliver Flash snagged a win in one of the events also. With a turn 1 possible kill its relies on Flashing a Protean Hulk into play and attacking with 5 slivers, 4x Virulent Sliver and a Heart Sliver that gave them haste." LOL, only possible in classic. This makes me wonder the amazing possibility of magic cards that come together =)
As for the article, again, very clean, very sleek, good information and a nice way to get geared for the comming ptq's
Just have one question, how has writing improved your game? or, in other way, has writing these articles made you improve your game? I saw you rapidly rise from a 1600 to almost 1800 in a matter of few months :P
Keep them comming, It's always great to read you
If you thought turn one is impressive, you shoulda seen before they nerfed the deck. Turn 0 win was a regular occurance esp with no fow to keep it at bay.
Sorry for the triple post but in my pc it said the page was not available so I refreshed it a couple of times and it answered in triplicate ;S
i really enjoyed this article : useful for all, looks good ...
All the decks presented here are powerful.
About classic which is the format i know better, i ran couple tournament couple of time, i had to deal with each of these decks and i just want to congrat all players mentioned who are all strong competitors : a powerful deck is nothing when it is not well piloted... A special mention for the Sliver Flash deck : Javasci build is maybe the most original deck i saw recently.
We need to have more article as this one. Take care & go on !
Great article i enjoyed all parts of it. I realize that classic is not your fortey and appreciate that you are trying and give other articles to help the reader get in there, but i gott be a nit picker. Numbers wise you are spot on but when it comes to a pe necro is vastly underplayed. there are on avereage either 0 or 2 pilots in anygiven pe. The "threshold" list is not actually thrsehold at all. this is a straight control deck that happens to have a thresh critter in it. more acuartly this is a intuition control deck. lastly the most popular stratgies in classic appear to be rdw and zoo varients in the most played section, followed by some of the decks you posted. I understand that its hard going off of just top 8 data but the pe's to not actuaratly show the meta, i,e, necro being the most played and what not. Thx for the fantastic article as even with a bit of a loose trail you still followed a format you dont call home and i was mightly enjoyed reading the article.
ps, i spit out my coffe when i saw the last deck in the classic top 8's. Team america as it is more commonly known instead of the joke name i put in to the article as an inside joke to a buddy of mine. lol i cant believe that name stuck as others have called the deck the same thing.
i agree with Whiffy about propelsis9's deck : it is more like a Landstill archetype green splashed tutored by Intuition to me. An "intuition control" name seem to fit it very well also.
Great Article, its always nice to be able to know the winning lists.The interview got a little short and I would like to see more videos.But besides that great job
Good to see some Classic analysis as well. Being a full time classic player myself, it is good to see some focus on this fun format too!
Keep these fantastic articles coming!
:/ Ive been playing a pretty simililary deck to 4c Doran for some time now (Doran, Gaddock Teeg, Rhox War Monk, Tidehollow Sculler, Wilt-Leaf Liege are in both) so all the "Nice deck" Ive gotten with it might be at an end :/
Well you have to than Brian Robinson for that=P
Are you able to data mine win percentages within a format. For example, I'm curious on how the 4c Doran does versus 5c Control and Faeries. Is it favored, neutral, or a dog?
-M
Well I didnt test trough the 4c Doran but if you check here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/29a it should give you a more decent view on the win percentages
Nice article. I can't say much about classic as its just a format with no interest for me, but the analysis made for Extended and Standard is quite accurate.
Another great articles that covers so much stuff!
Another Great article =)
Actually I was talking about win percentages in MODO. Is there a way to see how often an archetype beats another within the data that you are digging through within MODO or would it need to be a manual calculation?
-M
Freakin' amazing.
This guy is FrankKarsten v2.0
Trying to get there=)
Yet again , another great article. Keep it comin!