I’m extremely excited to announce that I will now be doing a weekly column for Manadeprived.com! It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now, so I’m glad that my plans have finally come to fruition. Today’s article is one that I’ve been wanting to write for quite awhile now, and hopefully y’all will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
A Brief Aside
My original idea for a title for the column was Toussaint Tuesday, but that was a bit bland, so I went to Facebook for inspiration, and Facebook provided. Some honorable mention for potential titles from my Facebook friends include: Franstar-lit Sanctum, Freaky Francis Fables, Tiny Francer, Francis’ TwoCents, Franstar Friday, Francy Footwork, Thug’n Toussaint Thursday (runner up), and there were a few other weird ones about squid, or tentacles, or something like that. Ultimately, though, I have to give a huge shout out to Ian Baker for coming up with my personal favorite, Fran-tic Search. I love it because it’s a classic nerdy magic column name, it relates to my own name somewhat, and I feel like I can relate to it because I’m always searching for sweet under-the-radar decks, and the newest technology.
Anytime a competitive player enters a constructed tournament, they do so with the metagame in mind. It’s one of the most important factors in this game we all know and love, yet it gets nowhere near the attention it deserves. So I’m here to give you the basics of metagaming.
“Metagaming refers to operating on knowledge of the current strategic trends within a game.”
-Wikipedia
In general, the metagame will be one of three main scenarios that I am going to call the Rock, Paper, Scissors Metagame, the Open Metagame, and the King of the Hill Metagame. One of the most important aspects of Magic is being able to properly assess the current metagame, and react according to the predicted metagame. The most basic example I could give of proper metagaming is if you were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, and you know that your opponent’s favorite weapon of choice is Rock. With this information, you should obviously be whipping out Paper every day of the week.
Predicting a Metagame
Whether it be preparing for a local Friday Night Magic, a Grand Prix, or a Pro Tour, predicting the metagame is one of the trickiest parts of metagaming. The trouble is that these days the rate that a metagame shifts is extremely fast due to the amount of information available on the internet, as well as the quantity of large tournaments that are pumped out on a regular basis due to MTGO and the different open series. Important information such as trends of what has been successful and what hasn’t, and what has won the most recent large tournaments, is crucial for proper deck selection, deck tuning, and playtesting.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
The Rock, Paper, Scissors Metagame is the most uncommon metagame. In this metagame there are three main decks, like in the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. For example, if we named each hypothetical deck Rock, Paper, and Scissors, respectively, then Rock would beat Scissors, lose to Paper, and be 50/50 against Rock, for the most part. The reason that I say for the most part, is because Magic is a game influenced by chance, and even if Rock should beat Paper 9/10 times, that 10th time still comes up from time to time. Also, there are factors such as preparation and skill that could make a Rock on Rock matchup not exactly 50/50.
One such example of a Rock, Paper, Scissors metagame that I’ve experienced was at Canadian Nationals 2008. The main blocks of the time were Lorwyn and Time Spiral, and coming in to Nationals, the deck to beat was Faeries. Because Faeries was so dominant, a new Mono Red deck became extremely popular because of its ability to crush Fae. Throughout that season my personal favorite deck was Reveillark, which had a particularly bad matchup against Fae, but quite a favorable one against Mono Red if tuned correctly. During the grinders, Fae was out in droves, to be sure, but Mono Red had been particularly successful during the grinders because of its ability to crush Fae. Seeing this, I decided to play Reveillark, even though it had a bad matchup against the ‘best’ deck, Faeries. The most played deck, by a long shot, at Nationals that year was Mono Red. Not once during that tournament did I have to play against Fae, and because all of the Fae players were losing to Mono Red, the Fae players were nowhere to be seen at the top tables. The top 8 of Nationals that year contained only 2 Mono Red decks, even though the vast majority of the field was Mono Red, no Faeries, and the most played deck in the top 8 was Reveillark, with three pilots.
It’s extremely important to know which deck will be the most popular in a Rock, Paper, Scissors metagame, and then play the deck that beats that deck. Just because one deck is the most powerful deck, and may be considered the ‘best’ deck, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the most played. Like in my example, Fae was by far the most powerful deck, but because it could be beaten by Mono Red, and the room was full of Mono Red, Fae players didn’t stand a chance. I’m telling you, you don’t want to be Paper in a room full of Scissors.
Open Metagame
An Open Metagame is one in which there are plenty of good decks, but no deck is clearly dominating every other deck. Generally, when a format first begins to develop it will start at this phase until a deck emerges that is better than the rest. In a metagame such as this, there are tons of viable decks, and for strong deck builders, being successful in these metagames is as easy as taking candy from a baby.
For these metagames, the most important thing to remember is to play whatever deck you feel most comfortable with. The power levels from deck to deck aren’t usually large enough to outweigh the edge of being familiar with the ins and outs of a deck. It is true in most formats playing the deck you know best is the right play, but it is even more important in formats that are wide open.
Another very important thing to remember for an Open Metagame is to try to play decks that are inherently powerful. The advantage of playing inherently powerful decks is that if you play against a deck that you are completely unprepared for, you have the ability to overpower them even though you hadn’t prepared for them. For example, if you are playing Cawblade, you have good odds of beating decks you’ve never seen before because Cawblade is an inherently powerful deck, and has great odds of winning against any random deck, but if you were playing UB control that is tuned to specifically beat only a handful of decks, playing against a deck that wasn’t on your radar could be catastrophic.
King of the Hill
The majority of the time formats will eventually turn in to King of the Hill formats, where there is one deck that dominates the format. At this point, we should all know firsthand what a King of the Hill format is like. Cawblade is one of the best examples, if not the best example, of a deck that completely defined, and dominated a format. In a format such as this, you are either with the King, or you’re against him. If you’re neither with him nor against him, then you’re doing it wrong.
In a format such as this, the most important thing is to be either playing the best deck, or playing to beat the best deck. One should absolutely know how to sideboard against the best deck, and know your game-plan against the best deck. If you are playing Mono Red against Cawblade, you need to know to kill [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] as soon as possible, regardless of what they search up.
One example of such a format that I experienced was the extended format at Grand Prix Oakland, where the ‘best’ deck was Thopter Depths. The deck that I chose to play for that Grand Prix was GR Aggro Scapeshift, a deck that was inherently very powerful, with a good matchup against nearly every deck other than Thopter Depths. I knew that I wanted to play the deck, and to be able beat Thopter Depths I diluted the maindeck slightly by adding weak cards specifically for the Thopter Depths matchup such as [card]Dead/Gone[/card], and [card]Ghost Quarter[/card]. I also had 13 sideboard slots almost entirely devoted to beating Thopter Depths. Although Thopter Depths was very popular that tournament, I only played against it 3 times in 15 rounds, however due to my preparations for the matchup, as well as a bit of good fortune, I was able to beat it all 3 times I played against it.
Applying this information
Proper metagaming means knowing what type of metagame you are preparing for, knowing what decks, and how many of each, you expect to be at a tournament, and preparing accordingly. By preparing I mean being well-practiced against decks that you anticipate playing against, knowing the ins and outs of sideboarding against the decks you anticipate, selecting the right deck for a specific metagame, and tuning it to beat the decks that you anticipate.
Banning Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Speaking of Cawblade, if you caught my last article, about three weeks ago, you would know that I am one of many people that believe [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] should be banned, and thankfully WOTC agreed.
Although I rejoiced when I discovered [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] was banned (thanks for the $25 Mr. Crossman), I was quite surprised to discover that [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card] was also banned. Jace is without a doubt one of the most powerful cards ever printed, but I don’t feel like he was warping the format in an oppressive way. Jace is ridiculously good, don’t get me wrong, but he is completely beatable. However, after some thought, I realized that the problem with Jace is that it is a sort of barrier, or deterrent, for new players. From a new player’s perspective, it’s hard to get in to a TCG game where the best card can single-handedly dominate games, is $100 a pop, oh and by the way, you’ll need four of them. I’m sad to see Jace go, but I know that it is to make this great game we play even better, so I know it’s for the best.
All in all, I’m sad that I will no longer be able to smash face with Cawblade, partly because I’m one of the few sick puppies who actually enjoys the Cawblade mirror, however I’m very excited to get my creative juices flowing again. I’m really interested to see all the different directions the format will go, and I for one will be tuned in to all the MTGO and Open series events to see what people come up with. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to Metagame!
Francis “Franstar” Toussaint