I've recently started looking into standard, and have noticed that the meta seems extremely narrow.
Currently Temur Energy and Ramunap Red account for approximately 50% of the meta. This leaves the other 50% to about 3-4 other decks which could be considered "Tier" decks.
Im curious to know if the Standard meta is always this narrow with around 5 decks representing the vast majority of the entire meta game. I can't imagine the meta would have been much wider during Eldrazi winter, so I wonder what a typical standard meta looks like.
Are there usually tons of decks to choose from, or do 2-5 decks rule the roost in Standard?
2-5 decks to choose from sounds pretty normal for standard. however mtggoldfish metagame shares are skewed at the moment since there was a week's period or so when you could't play with cards from the zendikar bock or the innistrad block and XLN cards weren't legal either.
The meta is in a weird place right now with the past few weeks just being rotation-proof decks. With Ixalan coming in today two whole blocks are out making the choice of cards smaller, where the meta will also be in an odd place before it settles down in over a month.
In a typical Standard meta you would have three top tier decks with three to four more in tier two, sometimes being a variation of one another. People will consider a healthy meta if there is a rock/paper/scissor system with the top decks with the stuff underneath having somewhat a fighting chance.
5 decks is hell of a healthy standard. Speaking after SCG there seems to be tier 1 in UW Approach, Mono Red and various Energy decks (sultai, temur and 4 color), with tier 2 following shortly with UBx control, GB constrictor, Grixis Improvise and Esper Gift.
Standard card pool is just too narrow to produce as many tier 1 decks as Modern. What I like to check in a standard, I like to see if every big archetype is represented. Control has approach, midrange has energy, aggro has RR, and combo, while weaker than others (and thank god; cat combo time was ugly as hell), there are options in Gift decks as well as Pummeler.
As long as no single archetype is dominating too much, I think we can call standard healthy.
Things tend to settle after the PT, so I don't really get concerned about format health until after that weekend -- unless, of course, people are putting t4 Ulamogs/Emrakuls into play, but I digress.
Right now the two cards impacting the meta the most are settle the wreckage and fatal push. If something is 2 mana or less it needs to have immediate impact or a way to blank fatal push, and any creature strategy needs a way to play around settle the wreckage.
Also negative counter decks are probably going to spring up now. The mechanic is pretty close to energy in power level.
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!
Also negative counter decks are probably going to spring up now. The mechanic is pretty close to energy in power level.
Can you elaborate on this ? I just don't see it.
I actually want to elaborate on this, but I'm still brewing up some counters decks to get a better picture. The thing is no one is really looking at -1/-1 counter decks because they are too busy working on UB control, UW Approach, WB Stockpile, and of course Revel in Riches + Marionette Master madness. It mostly comes down to Nest of Scarabs being incredibly broken when combined with Hidden stockpile and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. The deck build I'm working with right now tops off using Liliana, Death's Majesty, but I'm still testing to see if it's worth going up to 6 mana to get Vraska, Relic Seeker in the deck. I'm probably going to try doing 4 color Hapatra just to try to meet the challenge that Dev did on his channel. Grind // dust is just amazing right now.
Oh sweet mercy why are the 1/1 death touch snake tokens so freaking expensive.
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!
B/W vampires is turning out to be really fun...more brews are showing up in my local meta, I have not played against Ramunap Red in two whole weeks!!!!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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I've recently started looking into standard, and have noticed that the meta seems extremely narrow.
Currently Temur Energy and Ramunap Red account for approximately 50% of the meta. This leaves the other 50% to about 3-4 other decks which could be considered "Tier" decks.
Im curious to know if the Standard meta is always this narrow with around 5 decks representing the vast majority of the entire meta game. I can't imagine the meta would have been much wider during Eldrazi winter, so I wonder what a typical standard meta looks like.
Are there usually tons of decks to choose from, or do 2-5 decks rule the roost in Standard?
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Youtube Channel
In a typical Standard meta you would have three top tier decks with three to four more in tier two, sometimes being a variation of one another. People will consider a healthy meta if there is a rock/paper/scissor system with the top decks with the stuff underneath having somewhat a fighting chance.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Standard card pool is just too narrow to produce as many tier 1 decks as Modern. What I like to check in a standard, I like to see if every big archetype is represented. Control has approach, midrange has energy, aggro has RR, and combo, while weaker than others (and thank god; cat combo time was ugly as hell), there are options in Gift decks as well as Pummeler.
As long as no single archetype is dominating too much, I think we can call standard healthy.
Things tend to settle after the PT, so I don't really get concerned about format health until after that weekend -- unless, of course, people are putting t4 Ulamogs/Emrakuls into play, but I digress.
But it is literially 1 aggro, 1 midrange and 1 control deck... which in a way is better than usual when it is just 3 midrange decks.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Also negative counter decks are probably going to spring up now. The mechanic is pretty close to energy in power level.
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!
Can you elaborate on this ? I just don't see it.
I actually want to elaborate on this, but I'm still brewing up some counters decks to get a better picture. The thing is no one is really looking at -1/-1 counter decks because they are too busy working on UB control, UW Approach, WB Stockpile, and of course Revel in Riches + Marionette Master madness. It mostly comes down to Nest of Scarabs being incredibly broken when combined with Hidden stockpile and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. The deck build I'm working with right now tops off using Liliana, Death's Majesty, but I'm still testing to see if it's worth going up to 6 mana to get Vraska, Relic Seeker in the deck. I'm probably going to try doing 4 color Hapatra just to try to meet the challenge that Dev did on his channel. Grind // dust is just amazing right now.
Oh sweet mercy why are the 1/1 death touch snake tokens so freaking expensive.
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!
-1/-1 tokens seems like a lot of fragile setup without much payoff.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles