I Hate Mondays #1: When It All Began

Even though I like the set-up and the articles of Kehmesis (may he be writing again soon), jaknife and PolyJak, I want to do things a bit differently. I want to do this mostly because reviewing only the meta might get a bit overshadowed by Gatherling's Meta Reports (in its utopian form), which will be a much more comprehensive read than an article. I'm not exactly sure about how, so tune in in the comments if you think you have a nice direction or idea the series should be heading to. Today this article will contain four parts: "Monday's Meta, a History", "Last Monday", "Gimme The Mic" and "The Spotlight". The last three parts will be a weekly feature.

"Last Monday" will be the usual discussion of the metagame, with notes about rising/falling archetypes, new decks and tech, etc. "Gimme The Mic" will be an interview with someone in the community, this week this is icarodx. Last we have "The Spotlight", this will put a deck in the meta in the spotlight, probably with the help from someone who has shown proficiency with the deck in question. I will try to highlight strengths and weakness, possible different card choices for different metas, etc.

On to the meat of article!

Looking back at the season we get a view of a meta that was lopsided for quite a while. The first MPDC this season was won by Kingritz White Weenie, piloted by the man himself. The insanely focused aggro deck fought its way through a metagame that had a giant "under construction" sign stamped on its forehead. Some regular players later in the season were already attending, such as Blinkdrifter (which stranded in the top 4 against WW, something that would be a sign of the coming apocalypse of the deck), Sticks 'n Stones, Boggart Harvest, but also decks that showed promise but haven't made an impact, like MBC and RDW.

The second event was the beginning of the Blinkdrifter era (with mostly icarodx as the pilot), which would last until a month later, when RaiserUK brought forth the second coming of WW. During Blinkdrifters time in the sun, most of the meta was aggro of almost every sort except WW. Expecially Slivers were played much. Blink itself was represented by at least three decks each event, but never got more than one deck into the the Top4. What can we learn? A good Blink deck isn't blown out of the water easily by aggro and not everyone can play the deck as well as the other.

At MPDC 1.06 RaiserUK triomphed with WW, beating it's creator in the finals. Kingritz was playing another one of his creations, Kingdrifter. Being the creator of both decks (and knowing the weaknesses of WW) I think we can say that the weeners (no not the inhabitants of this village in Germany) aren't a good match-up for the 4C monstrosity. None of the Blinkdrifter decks reached the play-offs. The next event the two winning decks of the season faced eachother of in the finals, both with their most proficient player, Raiser and icarodx. WW teached the Drifter the town wasn't big enough for the both of them.

What are we missing untill now? A control deck. The archetypical UR control deck, this time based around Storm and piloted by the Baron, won it's first MPDC and ended the reign of WW while beating Blink in the finals. A week later, triple storm decks reached the top 4. UR control Storm came out on top of both RG Storm decks, while the last half-final slot was occupied by Boggart Harvest, just like the week before. Both Blinks couldn't fight their way through the forerounds and WW was not present. The storm didn't last long, UR was the only one present in the top 4 of the next event. Momentary Blink showed its head again, this time as those darn dissidents, the Rebels.

The last few events have again been dominated by Mulldrifter. The top 8 of MPDC 1.11 consited of at least 4 Blinkdrifter decks, but were again topped by WW. The last event was also blue based, with two UR aggro-control decks, Faerie control and Grimdrifter. The only WW deck in the event couldn't fight through.

So what can we destilate (hey, I'm a chemist) from this chronological overview? Well we can see the "Deck Rotation Acceleration" (c) typical of newly formed meta's; the further in the season, the quicker decks follow eachother as "the best deck". This is because the weaknesses of different decks aren't know at the start of the meta, but the further technological development goes, the faster people can change decks based on what was played last event. The tech against the decks doesn't need to be invented again. We can also see the succesion cycle of the tree major archetypes: from aggro-control (Blinkdrifter) to aggro (WW) to control (Storm) to aggro-control again (this time countered by a perfectly meta-anticipated WW) to control (Grim). And as everyone knows, Mulldrifter is the formats most defining card.

Play-offs:
- G(r)imdrifter, piloted by SypherSun
- UR Illusions, piloted by 53N531
- UR aggro-control (no Illusions), piloted by joekewwl
- Faerie Teachings, piloted by stiffdiddypinky

Metagame:

Aggro:
Blue Zoo, piloted by Colakim3
Blue Zoo, piloted by hokusai22
Changelings, piloted by coolbartr
Gnarly Beats, piloted by ShardFenix (dropped because of RL issues)
Red Deck Wins, piloted by Kuna
White Weenie, piloted by RaiserUK

Control:
Storm Control, piloted by kehmesis
G(r)imdrifter, piloted by SypherSun
Faerie Teachings, piloted by stiffdiddypinky

Aggro-Control:
Illusions, piloted by 53N531
Illusions, piloted by kaityson36
Illusions, piloted by darkhorde
aggro-control (no Illusions), piloted by joekewwl
Blinkdrifter, piloted by Lark2899
Blinkdrifter, piloted by Islands_FTW

Mid-range:
Sticks 'n Stones, piloted by hurriboy

Unclassifiable:
Standard Mess, piloted by stg_andy

Discussion:
What we see here is actually a just slightly unbalanced meta-game if we look at the three basic archetypes: 6 aggro, 6 (7 if you count hurriboy's Treefolks) aggro-control, but just 3 control decks. Two thirds of the control decks did make play-offs. All aggro-control decks were base blue for Mulldrifter and Illusions has seemed to surpased Blinkdrifter as this archetype's deck of choice. Grimdrifter finally made its first monday win, after winning SPDC twice and becoming runner-up two weeks ago. I personally think it's one of the teir one decks at the moment, but I might be slightly biased.

Notable decks this week are the GW Changeling deck that didn't make top 4 due to tiebreakers and the 5color Standard Mess deck piloted by stg_andy. Even though the deck was utter garbage, andy himself said it was all his standard commons combined, I think it's the first time a 5 color deck was played in a non-PPS PDC event! Next time ask me or someone else to lend you something andy, I know I'll be glad to up your winning chances!

I will finish this now, because I think I've done big enough of a meta-game overview already.

This week we pass the mic to icarodx. Lets see what he has to say:

1) Who are you if you're not playing PDC and where are you from?
I'm 24 years old. I'm husband and father. I work as cost control for a big company. I live in the south of Brazil.
2) What is your favorite format?
I'll forever be a standard player. Standard embodies all I think it's great about pdc, the cost, the accessability, the competitive level, the unstable metagame... Philosofically FutEx follows closely behind and now I'm starting to get into classic thanks to pdc league (thanks Boin)
3)What is your favorite deck-archetype (aggro, combo, control, etc.)?
While I love aggro and I always like to play fast or big creatures on casual, I'm part of the peope that believe that aggro stinks in pdc. I have started my pdc carrier with UG and RG aggro, than evolved to GBr midrange and finished at BW and URw control and I'm very much confortable where I'm right now. Control just give you opportunity to play more powerfull strategies and a heavily skill game. Playing Control in PDC I think it has improved my magic skills a lot.
4) Your favorite card (non PDC)?
Humble
5) Your favorite standard PDC card?
Gatherling says it is blink. I have to agree. (White cards? omg?)
6) What is/are your favorite deck(s) in standard at the moment? And why?
I could go with my excelent invention: burnt nemo, since it owns almost all opposition and destroys the decks it had aimed to destroy, Blinkdrifter, WW and Sticks ['n Stones]. But having lost 4 times to the same guy I have to say I'm a bit frustrated with it. Both Storm Control and Grimdrifter are briliant decks and I like very much the aggro style of boggarts, but my favorite deck is the one I want to develop to beat them.
7) The deck you played to multiple top spots already this season is Blinkdrifter. Why do/did you like this deck so much?
It's easy to like powerfull decks. Drifter, Blink, EE and counters are always excellent options. I have tried something like Azorius Blink since season 1 and now it was possible. While UW have weak removals and a fragile gameplan I felt that with so many raw power cards and a wide collection of support spells it would be a strong option right from the beginning of lorwyn season. I don't have to say that is very pleasing
to be right about a deck and then being able to win with it. For me this is the thrill of following standard pdc.
8) What do you think of the meta-game at the moment? Are you missing something?
I'm missing a way to defeat Storm Control :D. Now seriously, the best decks right now are Storm Control, Grimdrifter, Boggarts and Burnt Nemo. Burnt Nemo is a strong choice, but don't expect anyone win an event with any list similar to the current one if a Storm Control is out there. Both Storm and Nemo can change very little without abandoning their already effective gameplan. Grimdrifter is evolving to a more tuned list but I don't have enough data to say how strong the lists of it outhere are. Boggarts on the other hand have much space for improvement IMO, beginning with its disruption, recurssion and removal suits and ending with specific choices like Heaves' Shades. To conclude I think that there must be potential in green somewhere to build a strong list, possibly paired with black for recursion or blue for drifter.
Thank you very much for your time and thoughts! And the lengthy answers!
Thank you for the opportunity to speak my mind.

This week I'm going to talk about Changelings. First a list:

Changelings, as piloted by coolbartr at MPDC 1.12

Creatures
4 Amrou Scout
4 Avian Changeling
4 Kithkin Greatheart
4 Sidewinder Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Virulent Sliver
4 Woodland Changeling

Spells
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Runed Stalactite
1 Giant Growth

Lands
11 Plains
8 Forest
4 Terramorphic Expanse

SIDEBOARD
4 Aven Riftwatcher
4 Mana Tithe
4 Mire Boa
3 Giant Growth

Since Lorwyn I wanted to build an aggro deck with the changelings. There were a couple of interactions I liked: Elvish Handservant, Kithkin Greatheart, Slivers and Amrou Scout (and to a lesser extend Battlewand Oak). This deck plays 3 of those and Runed Stalactite to enable some sliver and Greatheart Shenenigans. This goes to the throat from turn 1 with 8 slivers going into turn 2 with 4 Lords, 4 3/2 firststrikers and Scout/changeling. It tops its creature curve with the decks only evasive creature. It can get a turn four kill with a double Poison sliver draw and has some lategame staying power with Rebels. It is a little less refined than White Weenie (which has lategame bombs like Ivory Giant and Shade) and it needs multiple creatures in play to work, but it seems to have potential.

Talking about Giants, maby substituting Virulent Sliver with Elvish Handservant and go the Giant route? Getting just one counter on it is already a bargain for G. And the Virulent Sliver draw won't happen very much, meaning its just a 1/1 sliver. The deck could remain WG, but could also add red for Blind-Spot Giant and some reach in Incinerate.

By replacing the Oblivion Rings with cheaper removal the number of lands could be trimmed down, meaning more threats!

Oh, and the forgotten Aurochs: Bull Aurochs!

If you haven't skipped to the end, you are know one of the first readers of my writing. How was it? Faulty sentence construction? (Un)interesting? What do you think about the three regular parts (meta, interview, deck)? Should certain things be added or removed? Too long (probably)? Too wordy? Remember that I'm writing FOR YOU (and a bit for myself and enternal fame and glory)

As a last note I would all MPDC attendees ask to please post their decklists at least in the event thread. This doesn't take 2 minutes (you can export a deck from MTGO as a .txt) and it makes discusing decks and making a meta much easier. I don't want to a nervous breakdown like Kehm before I even got started!