I like to look at sites like mtgtop8 and star city games to see what's the rave in Standard, Block, Modern, Legacy, etc. When looking at mtgtop8 standard, we see a huge majority of the standard decks are MTGO daily, which is heavily altering the percentages of deck winnings on the right.
What is MTGO Standard Daily?
Is it a good representative of what the best decks in standard are?
How come the winners at the big tournaments are a bit different from the winners on MTGO Standard Daily? Is it because the MTGO Daily decks aren't actually that great in standard?
All this being said, if MTGO daily isn't a good representative, that would mean the percentages of winners on the right of the mtgtop8 site aren't an accurate representation of what wins at all.
Modo is usually about 2 weeks ahead of the "paper" metagame with a slight skew favoring aggressive decks in numbers. The biggest takeaway from modo isn't necessarily the metagame, but the technology. Some of it may never be applicable to paper because say, Red deck mirrors aren't going to be too common at a GP so you shouldn't have geistflame in your deck. However, something like psychic spiral in control mirrors is something that you didn't really start seeing in decks before it became common place on modo.
LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
MTGO dailies generally have the highest skilled standard players short of a GP. As a result, I find the mtgo meta much more informative than any decklists from SCG opens or TCGplayers tournaments.
The daily's are a fairly good representation of what is doing well or the most consistent. Lots of small improvements to decks or sideboards come from MTGO. I think the MTGO metagame and paper metagame are much closer now than the old "2 weeks" rule though. There are 4 or 5 daily's of each format that we no longer get access to decklists and the metagame evolves a little slower.
as pointed out, mtgo def has a more skilled player base
unfortunately, that player base is way more frugile when the cards are digital rather than paper, therefore the budget decks get over represented and skew things a bit.
RDW sees about 1000x as much play online as in real life, thus the remainder of the metagame has to warp to beat RDW playstyle.
It's easier to luck your way through 4 rounds than 10+, so you can see some bizzare decks on mtgo now and then. But if a deck consistently performs good on mtgo, it's a good deck.
Online metagame != paper metagame though, because cheaper decks are more prevalent.
Take your monoblack deck, then set aside 14 swamps. Add 4 Creeping Tar Pits, 4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Drowned Catacombs, and 2 Jwar isle Refuge and add 4 Jace, the Mindsculptors. Your monoblack deck is instantly better. Better yet, drop those refuges, throw in some islands and some mana leaks, and lo and behold, you're now playing a real deck. Congratulations. Welcome to the world of competitive M:TG.
What is MTGO Standard Daily?
Is it a good representative of what the best decks in standard are?
How come the winners at the big tournaments are a bit different from the winners on MTGO Standard Daily? Is it because the MTGO Daily decks aren't actually that great in standard?
All this being said, if MTGO daily isn't a good representative, that would mean the percentages of winners on the right of the mtgtop8 site aren't an accurate representation of what wins at all.
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Standard:
RW Boros devotion/Purphoros combo
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Modern:
WB Martyr.proc
as pointed out, mtgo def has a more skilled player base
unfortunately, that player base is way more frugile when the cards are digital rather than paper, therefore the budget decks get over represented and skew things a bit.
RDW sees about 1000x as much play online as in real life, thus the remainder of the metagame has to warp to beat RDW playstyle.
Online metagame != paper metagame though, because cheaper decks are more prevalent.
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