Meta difference between Single match and "Traditional" constructed games
This is a topic discussed/hinted at on various threads on this forum. We keep bringing it up, but have no thread for it. Wizards just released ranked "traditional" (best of 3 matches) constructed, so this topic becomes even more relevant.
The common complaint is "mono-red aggro/burn dominates." However, this only applies to single-game matches.
You may hear "Nexus of fate/Fog" decks are out of control, but they are mostly represented in "traditional" matches.
I believe there is a fundamental difference between these two modes that many people here have noticed. Single game matches favor the aggro/midrange style decks. Control decks stand a MUCH better chance in best of 3 games match mode.
There are even more compounding factors given the new/beta state of the game. We must keep in mind that, we are at a relatively lower amount of players compared to what this game will net in the coming months/years. This leads to a much smaller meta for us current players. The constant introduction of new ranking systems must be accounted for when evaluating a deck, a type of play mode and MTG Arena as a whole. Remember that would be high ranking players are still relatively low in the ranking system. Many mediocre players may rise to higher than usual ranks as they defeat total beginners.
There is also the fact that single game matches have a best of 2-possible hands mode. This method ends up giving you the hand with the best land/mana spell ratio, which results in many more 2-4 land draws on your initial 7 cards. This Arena exclusive method of hand decision has a noticeable impact on the game. However, I believe the single-game match structure has a much more noticeable impact on the game. Let's explore, shall we?
I have been doing quite well leveling up on single game constructed by lowering the mana curve of my entire deck. Specifically, play many more cheap removal spells/and or creatures to combat the onslaught of aggro decks in this Arena play style. You can beat mono-red, b/r aggro, and mono-white/wb aggro by making a good midrange deck, or a better aggro deck than the opponent has.
My Gruul Midrange "Traditional" constructed deck looks very different than my single match game deck. Here's my single match game deck. The mana curve has been lowered, there are many more cheap burn spells. Also Light up the stage is proving to be incredible in this deck. I would love another Skarrgan Hellkite, maybe 2. The philosophy is simple however, play enough good creatures, cheap removal/direct damage spells to beat mono-red. By adjusting to the single match game meta, which will be inherently different than a traditional match meta, I am winning a good number of games.
Point is, we are all adjusting to these new meta types that Arena offers. Trust me, the pay to play constructed metas offer up a whole different beast than free to play games. There are ways to maximized these new play modes, which is why Mono-red is so popular for single-game matches.
Sorry for the lack of formatted deck lists. Keep in mind they are so new I have no definite deck lists for them. They are in a screen shots because I haven't typed them out into a word processor. Far too much adjusting/card acquisition to give a more definite lists. These decks have been performing very well however.
This is my Gruul "Traditional" for comparison. I want another Skarrgan Hellkite for both versions, so I may spend my last mythic rare wild card on it. I believe in the deck(s).
I've found Rhythm of the Wilds to be not so good in best of 1 matches, compared to more Lightning Strike say. Just started playing ranked after the rank reset (I was back down silver tier 4.) My single game deck is kicking so much ass. Have like an 80% win rate with it now, quickly climbing the ranks. I think this Gruul deck is going to be the new king of single game mode at least for a while. It kicks mono-red's butt nearly all the time, and that is still mostly what we find. My aggro/burn version is getting so good, I wonder if it will fare well in the traditional constructed mode too. The list is so fast, I've had some turn 4 kills.
Mid-range/control players can't hang against me now that I have 4 skewer the critics alongside 4 lightning strike. I just haste in a bunch of creatures, get 'em down to 3-6 life and burn 'em out at the end. It really messes with their math/planning when they think "Well, I can stabilize/gain some life on my next turn, so I can take this damage." Then the burn spells get 'em a turn early.
I am running a Dragons (mono-Red splash white for Justice Strike) deck in upper goal and I am soaring through matches. I have met perhaps one mono-red, most matches are Sultai, Esper, Gruul, and the occasional Dimir. It's fun times in the dragon's lair.
Here is the list I am using, seemed fun and it is.
The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Best of one is basically a joke. There are two decks with many skins to them and you will just run into them over and over again. Red, blue, or white aggro and three color control with teferi or sometimes Ral. Izzit drake is too slow accept against bad players who dont mull or use the suggested land count all the time and gates is just horrible against rush or teferi control. You have to pick one angle or another with gates because going with as middle ground is disasterous.
I found it fun when people were not so into grinding the meta for rank. It just sucks playing because it's really toxic having to deal with the shuffle, the repetition on opponents, and all the annoying people who are only annoying because they are stuck in the same boat. I really want legit chat.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yes it does become quite a grind. I'm doing pretty well with my Gruul deck though. Hopefully wizards figures something out with bo1 that makes it a bit less linear. You can beat these mass aggro decks if you build the right deck. I just like the speed of the games. Bo3 takes so much time to complete comparatively.
You could still have real chat so long as each player had the ability to turn it off. If someone is a jerk, mute them.
I agree with you in part idSurge. Bo1 is no where near bo3. However, Magic is an extremely complex game. It is hard to get people into it, believe me I've seen plenty of failures around that. Wizards main goal should be to get new people into the game, and bo1 helps immensely. You need fewer cards to build a deck for it, and it's much less complex to learn on bo1. That gets more people into the game, which leads to more people playing competitively/in paper eventually.
When you get down to it, growth of the game is the most important factor for everyone who wishes to continue playing Magic for another 2+ decades to come. While Arena isn't perfect (that's why it's in Beta still) and Wizards continuously mess up their planning/announcements, the game continues to thrive after 26 years. We must endure Magic's growing pains. Hold out hope that Wizards do often correct/change things quite often. This is our painful growing phase before Magic continues to explode through Arena.
Oh as far as entry level 'this is how magic CAN be played' its great. I threw a ton of time at Bo1, but its solved now, its broken, and it will always be a race to the bottom, every standard rotation.
Bo3, is how Magic continues to thrive and exist, I see no other way around it.
Indeed. I am breaking into the bo1 format with Gruul however. I almost never see anyone playing it. I'm having success continuing to climb the ladder and beat the dreaded mono-red and mono-blue. It hasn't been easy, but it's been fun. I feel confident this deck is going to take me to ever higher in the ranks once I figure out the rest of the cards.
Bo1 is busted by linear decks, but that doesn't mean you can't make your own linear deck to combat the specific meta that arises. It's a fun challenge for me despite being an experienced player. Totally get it's not for everyone though. If I had more time/$ for cards I might dabble in more bo3.
To me, arena is basically unplayable at the moment because once you get past the lower tiers, you are absolutely pidgeonholed into a single deck unless you were playing for the last two years or threw down some serious money. There's more than enough proof on youtube no one really likes the grinder. It's basically dealing with people timing out, waiting for mulligans, playing for a short burst against the exact same deck over and over in different iterations, and doing this ultimately hundreds of times just for coins and getting to open some crappy pack that will never give you anything, followed by potentially a glimmer of hope in a rare wild card. Talk about one of the stupidest loot box pieces of BS timmy baiting I've ever seen in my life.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
What rank on the ladder for bo1 does it all become the same deck? I"m on gold level 3 and there is still a diversity in the decks.
I'm in gold at the moment and it feels like no one is really doing much in that tier. I've played probably 40-50 games over the last two days and I've seen nothing but blue, red, or white aggro. Sometimes it goes into Esper Control with Teferi or a gates deck.
I'm pretty sure the game gets a ton better at Platinum and Diamond, since that is where I've seen the most people just camp out their days.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Try Bo1 unranked. There is broad variety of decks. There are nearly all preconstructed decks, as well as Dimir surveil, Teferi control, 5C gates, Izzet drakes. There is definitely much less Petitioners and Rat colonies (I met those only in singleton).
What rank on the ladder for bo1 does it all become the same deck? I"m on gold level 3 and there is still a diversity in the decks.
I'm in gold at the moment and it feels like no one is really doing much in that tier. I've played probably 40-50 games over the last two days and I've seen nothing but blue, red, or white aggro. Sometimes it goes into Esper Control with Teferi or a gates deck.
I'm pretty sure the game gets a ton better at Platinum and Diamond, since that is where I've seen the most people just camp out their days.
It is very clear that mono-red and mono-blue dominate the meta. However, there are a good variety of decks when I play. There is also straight G/B Midrange explore, and explore with hydroid krasis. Other krasis decks around besides that. My guess is that the mono red and blue decks account for 30-50% of the meta.
Recently, I've tuned my bo1 deck even further and beat mono-red consistently, and mono-blue nearly as often. It's helped me gain some points. Magic tends to just have metas like that in general with standard. 1-2 decks may dominate for a while. Then a new set comes, or the meta adapts and there's greater diversity again.
Try Bo1 unranked. There is broad variety of decks. There are nearly all preconstructed decks, as well as Dimir surveil, Teferi control, 5C gates, Izzet drakes. There is definitely much less Petitioners and Rat colonies (I met those only in singleton).
I did try running the unranked queue, but everyone seems to be doing ranked almost exclusively now given I've been in that queue for 5+ minutes sometimes, so I just gave up on it and went back to the ranked one.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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This is a topic discussed/hinted at on various threads on this forum. We keep bringing it up, but have no thread for it. Wizards just released ranked "traditional" (best of 3 matches) constructed, so this topic becomes even more relevant.
The common complaint is "mono-red aggro/burn dominates." However, this only applies to single-game matches.
You may hear "Nexus of fate/Fog" decks are out of control, but they are mostly represented in "traditional" matches.
I believe there is a fundamental difference between these two modes that many people here have noticed. Single game matches favor the aggro/midrange style decks. Control decks stand a MUCH better chance in best of 3 games match mode.
There are even more compounding factors given the new/beta state of the game. We must keep in mind that, we are at a relatively lower amount of players compared to what this game will net in the coming months/years. This leads to a much smaller meta for us current players. The constant introduction of new ranking systems must be accounted for when evaluating a deck, a type of play mode and MTG Arena as a whole. Remember that would be high ranking players are still relatively low in the ranking system. Many mediocre players may rise to higher than usual ranks as they defeat total beginners.
There is also the fact that single game matches have a best of 2-possible hands mode. This method ends up giving you the hand with the best land/mana spell ratio, which results in many more 2-4 land draws on your initial 7 cards. This Arena exclusive method of hand decision has a noticeable impact on the game. However, I believe the single-game match structure has a much more noticeable impact on the game. Let's explore, shall we?
I have been doing quite well leveling up on single game constructed by lowering the mana curve of my entire deck. Specifically, play many more cheap removal spells/and or creatures to combat the onslaught of aggro decks in this Arena play style. You can beat mono-red, b/r aggro, and mono-white/wb aggro by making a good midrange deck, or a better aggro deck than the opponent has.
My Gruul Midrange "Traditional" constructed deck looks very different than my single match game deck. Here's my single match game deck. The mana curve has been lowered, there are many more cheap burn spells. Also Light up the stage is proving to be incredible in this deck. I would love another Skarrgan Hellkite, maybe 2. The philosophy is simple however, play enough good creatures, cheap removal/direct damage spells to beat mono-red. By adjusting to the single match game meta, which will be inherently different than a traditional match meta, I am winning a good number of games.
Point is, we are all adjusting to these new meta types that Arena offers. Trust me, the pay to play constructed metas offer up a whole different beast than free to play games. There are ways to maximized these new play modes, which is why Mono-red is so popular for single-game matches.
What say you fellow Arena pioneers?
This is my Gruul "Traditional" for comparison. I want another Skarrgan Hellkite for both versions, so I may spend my last mythic rare wild card on it. I believe in the deck(s).
Mid-range/control players can't hang against me now that I have 4 skewer the critics alongside 4 lightning strike. I just haste in a bunch of creatures, get 'em down to 3-6 life and burn 'em out at the end. It really messes with their math/planning when they think "Well, I can stabilize/gain some life on my next turn, so I can take this damage." Then the burn spells get 'em a turn early.
Here is the list I am using, seemed fun and it is.
4 Sacred Foundry (GRN) 254
4 Clifftop Retreat (DAR) 239
2 Spit Flame (M19) 160
4 Shivan Fire (DAR) 142
2 Lightning Strike (M19) 152
4 Justice Strike (GRN) 182
1 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
2 Verix Bladewing (DAR) 149
4 Runaway Steam-Kin (GRN) 115
4 Rekindling Phoenix (RIX) 111
1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen (M19) 149
4 Goblin Chainwhirler (DAR) 129
4 Demanding Dragon (M19) 135
3 Sarkhan, Fireblood (M19) 154
16 Mountain (DAR) 264
1 Plains (M19) 261
2 Sorcerous Spyglass (XLN) 248
3 Lightning Mare (M19) 151
3 Fight with Fire (DAR) 119
3 Fiery Cannonade (XLN) 143
2 Banefire (M19) 130
2 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
I found it fun when people were not so into grinding the meta for rank. It just sucks playing because it's really toxic having to deal with the shuffle, the repetition on opponents, and all the annoying people who are only annoying because they are stuck in the same boat. I really want legit chat.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
lol why? Do you play MTGO? Because I promise...you dont want real chat.
I've said Bo1 is busted, and it is. Its nowhere near an acceptable format.
Spirits
I agree with you in part idSurge. Bo1 is no where near bo3. However, Magic is an extremely complex game. It is hard to get people into it, believe me I've seen plenty of failures around that. Wizards main goal should be to get new people into the game, and bo1 helps immensely. You need fewer cards to build a deck for it, and it's much less complex to learn on bo1. That gets more people into the game, which leads to more people playing competitively/in paper eventually.
When you get down to it, growth of the game is the most important factor for everyone who wishes to continue playing Magic for another 2+ decades to come. While Arena isn't perfect (that's why it's in Beta still) and Wizards continuously mess up their planning/announcements, the game continues to thrive after 26 years. We must endure Magic's growing pains. Hold out hope that Wizards do often correct/change things quite often. This is our painful growing phase before Magic continues to explode through Arena.
Bo3, is how Magic continues to thrive and exist, I see no other way around it.
Spirits
Bo1 is busted by linear decks, but that doesn't mean you can't make your own linear deck to combat the specific meta that arises. It's a fun challenge for me despite being an experienced player. Totally get it's not for everyone though. If I had more time/$ for cards I might dabble in more bo3.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Dont mind Colt, he lives to make unsubstantiated claims as if they are fact.
Spirits
I'm in gold at the moment and it feels like no one is really doing much in that tier. I've played probably 40-50 games over the last two days and I've seen nothing but blue, red, or white aggro. Sometimes it goes into Esper Control with Teferi or a gates deck.
I'm pretty sure the game gets a ton better at Platinum and Diamond, since that is where I've seen the most people just camp out their days.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
It is very clear that mono-red and mono-blue dominate the meta. However, there are a good variety of decks when I play. There is also straight G/B Midrange explore, and explore with hydroid krasis. Other krasis decks around besides that. My guess is that the mono red and blue decks account for 30-50% of the meta.
Recently, I've tuned my bo1 deck even further and beat mono-red consistently, and mono-blue nearly as often. It's helped me gain some points. Magic tends to just have metas like that in general with standard. 1-2 decks may dominate for a while. Then a new set comes, or the meta adapts and there's greater diversity again.
I did try running the unranked queue, but everyone seems to be doing ranked almost exclusively now given I've been in that queue for 5+ minutes sometimes, so I just gave up on it and went back to the ranked one.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!