And the domination continues…
One could start to wonder: If I’m not playing blinkdrifter, am I playing to win? By now, we know how most of the standard pdc community reacts in the face of a metagaming challenge: Wait. Players usually get tired of decks anyway, no matter how good the decks are. Whether players are waiting for blinkdrifter to disappear on its own is yet to be confirmed, but what I can confirm right now is that if any effort is made to stop it, it’s ridiculously failing.
Yet, there are already good alternatives. White Winnies and Uber Teachings both have a decent match against drifter decks. Even Red Deck Wins proved to be able to win. I personally think that a lot of players would rather win on their own terms, than to win at all. There is a huge difference, here. And the impact the good decks have on the metagame are huge because of this. It takes way too long for the community to adapt and the strong decks stay on top for longer than they should. History repeats itself each season… Orzhov Discard, Orzhov Blink, Spore Cry and now Blinkdrfiter.
Event Thread
The metagame
I’m sorry to say that I couldn’t gather the full metagame this week. But looking at the top 8, we don’t need a degree to get the picture.
– First place
– Second place
– Top 4
– Top 8
Blinkdrifter –
Grimdrifter –
RW Blink –
UB Counterswarm –
Your eyes aren’t messing with you. 6 players out of the top 8 were playing mulldrifter decks, once again proving its domination. 3 of those were Blinkdrifter decks, the other 3 were Grimdrifter decks.
Note that a mistake in the pairings kept Krosanbeast out of the playoffs with a 3-0 record with White Winnies.
Playoffs
TOP 8:
——————————–
(1) Baron_Sengir (Grimdrifter)
(8) RobE (Grimdrifter)
——————————–
(5) ZechMaples (UB Counterswarm)
(4) LostSymphonies (Blinkdrifter)
——————————–
(3) Subliminal Man (Blinkdrifter)
(6 Cadaeic (Grimdrifter)
——————————–
(7) Brokn990 (RW Blink)
(2) Lysandar (Aggro Blinkdrifter)
——————————–
TOP 4:
——————————–
(8) RobE (Grimdrifter)
(4) LostSymphonies (Blinkdrifter)
——————————–
(3) Subliminal Man (Blinkdrifter)
(7) Brokn990 (RW Blink)
——————————–
Final:
——————————–
(8) RobE (Grimdrifter)
(3) Subliminal Man (Blinkdrifter)
——————————–
Metagame Breakdown
You can always access the standard Top 8 metagame at the PoP’s Forums.
Standard Top 8 Metagame
Includes all Standard (SPDC and MPDC) events to date.
I think it’s fair to say that the metagame has stabilized during the last couple of weeks. The best decks are known, but most players would rather bring their own deck to the top than netdeck. Those who net deck would rather work on the best deck than find a solution to the best decks. We’re mostly left with dominating decks and sub-par ones.
The best decks are definitely Blinkdrifter and Grimdrifter. We could possibly add Kingdrifter to that list, as its gameplan is a mix of both decks and it has proven successful. However, for whatever reason, no one cares to play it.
Then follows the aggro decks, namely White Winnies and Red Deck Wins. Both good alternatives to the mulldrifter infested metagame. The other decent alternative is Uber Teachings, which has a good match up against the midrange decks, but has a somewhat hard match up against the aggro decks.
They are definitely the Top 5 decks in standard right now.
Power Rankings
Here’s how the power ratings are calculated:
Each event, players gain points depending on their final standings:
1st – 10 points
2nd – 7 points
T4 – 4 points
T8 – 2 points
Other – 0 point
The power rating of a player is the point average for the current season. (By adding all points accumulated and dividing it by the number of event participations, we get the average/power rating)
Players who play in less than 40% (2/5) of the events will suffer a small penalty to their rating.
—
There are 26 ranked players. To be ranked, you need a power rating above 0.
The number of events played serve as first tie breakers, followed by the best finishes.
Format:
Rank. Player name (Power Rating) (Last week’s Rank) Medals.
Thanks to Eegag for the top 5 Icons
TOP 10
1. 
1. 
1. 
4. 
5. 
6. Khirareq (3.50) (06)
7. Robe (3.50) (NEW!)
8. Kingritz (3.33) (08)
9. Baron Sengir (3.25) (05)
10. Icarodx (3.25) (07)
—
Most Events Played: Krosanbeast, Carinon (5)
Most Playoffs: Baron Sengir (4)
Most wins: Cecilia Jupe, Eegag, Karakusk, Subliminal Man, Kingritz (1)
Most Points: Baron Sengir, Icarodx (13)
Decklist
1st place deck – Blinkdrfiter – Piloted by Subliminal Man
12 Island
9 Plains
2 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Aven Riftwatcher
4 Errant Ephemeron
2 Faerie Trickery
4 Infiltrator il-Kor
4 Knight of Sursi
4 Momentary Blink
4 Mulldrifter
4 Ponder
4 Rune Snag
3 Spiketail Drakeling
Sideboard
2 Venerable Monk
2 Broken Ambitions
2 Dawn Charm
1 Faerie Trickery
3 Fathom Seer
3 Judge Unworthy
2 Sunlance
There’s not much else to say about this deck. I think the deck just keeps getting better and better. Fine tuning is turning this into a monster of a deck. Subtle differences between blinkdrifter decks add some personality to it, which is a good thing, because there’s nothing personal about that deck.
2nd place / Top 4 deck – Grimdrifter – Piloted by RobE / Baron Sengir
4 Island
4 Phyrexian Rager
16 Swamp
4 Terror
4 Augur of Skulls
1 Death Rattle
1 Eyeblight’s Ending
3 Grim Harvest
3 Mournwhelk
4 Mulldrifter
3 Mystical Teachings
1 Nameless Inversion
4 Pit Keeper
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Terramorphic Expanse
Sideboard
2 Eyeblight’s Ending
4 Gutless Ghoul
2 Ichor Slick
4 Martyr of Bones
1 Nameless Inversion
2 Think Twice
It took a while before players realized how good blinkdrifter’s dark version actually was. We all knew there was potential, but it gained a lot of popularity lately and it is starting to show results. RobE piloted the deck in PDCL 1 without dropping a single match. Pauper Commonity (Sengir and RobE’s clan) took the deck under their wings and their two representatives made top 4 tonight with the same deck.
MPDC 1.05
If anyone would like to write for MPDC, please contact Polyjak. If you would like to have any data I have gathered or my article templates, contact me. (You can PM us in the forums)
Last Monday was MPDC 1.05 and Icarodx won with blinkdrifter.
Here’s the Metagame
And the Event Thread
I’m sorry I was so late with the report. I’m starting to have a hard time finding the time to finish these. I would gladly retire if someone wanted to take over.
See you next week.
Kehm.
I’m at a similar place with the FutEx articles; doing heavy-duty metagame analysis is too much for one person to do on a weekly basis.
I’d be willing to open up writer positions to a wider number of PDC’ers. PM me on the forums if you’re interested, seriously.
Also, thanks for updating all your links and image references, Kehm. Next step is transferring your old articles over here from the PoP blog site…
Lastly, you should now have permission to publish your own articles, Kehm. Sorry for the delay in that.
what a surprise, another drifter win :/
I mean, looking at the standard hall of fame, there has never been such a domination of the metagame before. I keep hating mulldrifter more and more…
and people don’t get tired of decks that win 60% of the time
Aggro players unite!!! Its time to take this behemoth down!! :p
IberianWolf, Orzhov Discard has. Spore Cry was nearly about the same and Orzhov Blink was close.
It’s not the first time we face such a dominating deck. The only reason spore cry didn’t keep dominating is because almost everyone stopped playing it.
And in my opinion, Blinkdrifter is the weaker deck of them all.
I tend to agree with Kehmesis here that Blinkdrifter is *still* less dominating than Spore Cry was (though perhaps only slightly at this point). Not the most relevant point, but I’d tend to take Spore Cry in a head-to head battle. One main difference with Blinkdrifter is that it has some known bad matchups. Kingdrifter (yes, another Drifter deck) is favorable against its Drifter brethren, but, as Kehmesis pointed out, few people play it. White Weenie has an even better matchup, as it was built to smash decks exactly like traditional Blinkdrifter builds. White Weenie is a horrible matchup for these builds. Metagame-conscious and hate-filled anti-WW Blinkdrifter is a slightly different story, but the most optimistic projections of that deck’s pilots are that they can get up to 50-50.
(Aside: Does this mean that the metagame is healthy? Honestly I don’t know and don’t claim to be taking a position on that deeper question.)
Just look at the last MPDC: White Weenie first, Kingdrifter second. In MPDC, White Weenie has won almost as much as any deck. The real mystery is why it doesn’t get the same play in SPDC.
King gets it right. It’s just the popularity of the deck that makes it win. Blinkdrifter is getting insanely good results part because it is a strong deck, but also because it’s very popular.