Scrubbing the Metagame

Feb 1, 2012

I’m a scrub.

No, don’t argue…

Oh you aren’t

I’m trying to change. Really, I am. I’ve been that guy that runs something different just to be different. I’ve also tried to brew just because I like a card, not because it was good. Now, I’m trying to change. I want to win.

I don’t want to win at the expense of something I consider to be more important. Here is my rule: I want to have fun.
What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that I won’t play a popular deck; it just means that I have to enjoy playing the deck. Of course, winning is FUN.

This is what I say, but what will likely happen is that I will be brewing to defeat a metagame. Why? Because I have fun doing it and I’m just not that good. I have to get an edge somewhere and I think my best shot is to have superior technology (this should sound familiar to anyone who reads Mike Flores).
Sometimes a deck catches my eye and I just have to pick it up. Don’t worry. I’ll still be tuning things for what I expect to see.

That is enough introduction. Onwards!

The last “real” tournament I played in was SCG: Atlanta.
Here is what I played:

Here was my thought process when I brewed this up:

I looked at the metagame and just saw a bunch of creatures everywhere. I wanted to hate them out and I wanted to commit to it…hard.

I did some more research, because not all aggro decks are the same. I looked at the MTGO results and saw humans everywhere. Delver was still around, but was not around in numbers in the online meta. I focused down on the human matchup.

Day of Judgment

Slagstorm

Gideon Jura

Elspeth Tirel

Timely Reinforcements

I did say that I wanted to beat aggro right? These cards just make an aggro player grit their teeth.

Desperate Ravings

Tezzeret’s Gambit

Just some Card Advantage. Need a way to dig for a hate card or just get some gas. The Shimmering Grotto help the Ravings reach its full potential, even if it is very loose.

Shrine of Burning Rage

Brimstone Volley+Mortarpod

I have got to win somehow! The Pod and Volley combo is delicious. I love it. I was afraid that it might be too cute, but both cards by themselves are good enough that I don’t think I hurt myself by including this pet combo. Volley is easy to see, I’m killing things and trading tokens. Morbid happens…and often. Doming someone for a quarter of their starting life is a beautiful thing. Mortarpod has been getting respect lately too, as it stops Inkmoth Nexus shenanigans and can pull some game against Delver of Secrets and Illusions. I also make quite a bit of tokens and putting the Mortarpod on them is just an extra angle.

Sideboard

Now we get into some spiciness. What the hell was I thinking?
I thought I would see more Grixis, Ramp, and possibly some other controlling decks. My plan was to take out the sweepers and some of the CA, put in Manabarbs, and fast creatures. Everything else either gains life or puts enough pressure out to be worth the damage I take from Manabarbs.

What happened?

I absolutely destroyed Humans and Mono-Red.

You didn’t see my name. Here is why:

Three big things-
1. I made several play mistakes.

Some plays that were obvious-jumping the gun on shooting with a Mortarpod and Brimstone Volley while my opponent has a Kessig Wolf Run and an Inkmoth Nexus in play.

Some plays that were not so obvious at the time (to me at least)-Holding extra land in hand to increase chances of keeping better cards off of Desperate Ravings

2. I misjudged a match-up.

The Delver matchup was not as good as I thought. The sweepers were a tad slow and even going long I couldn’t overload their counters (+Snapcaster Mage). While I was setting up to drop a nuke, I was taken apart with pinpoint accuracy.

I also had a glaring blind spot in the form of Pike. Runechanter’s Pike took me out of the tourney. This also leads to the third item on the list.

3. I misjudged the meta.

Delver was around in much larger force than I thought. Pike was also out in force and, while I don’t think the Pike was that big of a problem for the deck as it stands, it changes how to sideboard for certain matches.

I saw next to no control decks while I was there. That means I wasted, at a minimum, over half my sideboard slots. My sideboard plan sounded good in my head. The problem was that it hinged on a single card and hoped to get there. If I didn’t draw the Manabarbs then I would struggle with the strategies I was trying to defeat! Eight creatures, fast or not, cannot be relied on to beat every control deck.

What I did right!

Humans and Mono-Red were absolutely laughable. If I had been correct about the meta, I would’ve had an easy day. While my sideboard was built incorrectly, I like the fact that I didn’t just jam hate cards. I set up a plan and went for it. It just turns out that the plan was flawed. I count this as a plus since more often I see sideboards go the other direction and just throw in cards that don’t really fit what is going on in their deck.

I did take this to my local meta where my own play mistakes kept me from taking it down (hint: Don’t leave your Shrines vulnerable…especially when they hit upwards of 10 counters).

I am keeping this in the forefront of my mind to continue to tweak. With a new set on the rise, this will likely fall to the wayside as the meta shifts. It is sad to see, but I’m trying to be a better player and clinging to decks targeted at specific metagame is not the path I want to walk.

Moving into the future. I will be attempting to share thoughts and brews as they are in process or before I play them in actual events (shouldn’t be hard as I don’t get out too much) and then everyone can help me from making horrid mistakes…or encourage me and laugh at my idiocy. Either way, we will have fun with it. I will likely focus on Standard, but will dip into Block Constructed (I’m trying to break into MTGO, which should help me get to play more) and maybe some Modern as it is the current PTQ format.

I’m always open to feedback on writing and brewing.
Comment here or you can find me on twitter @writer1007