Wizards brought out the hammer this past Monday, and we are absolutely feeling the effects across multiple formats. For today, I would like to go over how the metagame of Pioneer is starting to sort itself out, what we can expect going forward, and maybe even see if we can reach a consensus on what the best deck currently is. Even if you aren't sold on there being a "best" deck yet, it is safe to say that creature-based decks are currently dominating all of the challenges that we are seeing so far from MTGO. From the most recent two challenges that we have available, one to eight metagame saw all of the decks be creature-based, while the other had four of eight decks centered around creatures for their win conditions. Not all of them were aggro - although a good bit of the better performing decks are - but even when they weren't aggro, the decks still used a combination that in some way puts a ton of creatures on the board and swings for a ton of damage. It is evident that decks with twenty or more creatures are currently thriving, and the only thing they really have to worry about right now is board wipes. We are even seeing a new archetype come into play in Selesnya Aggro. I personally think that right now, Izzet Phoenix is the best deck. It is always present in top finishes currently, and it often still performed well before the bans. We will take a look at that deck, and then I will tell you about another one that I think will be cracked wide open pretty soon. No matter what way you slice it, however, creature decks are claiming a large metashare.
Izzet Phoenix
This list is your standard good Phoenix build. It was played pretty heavily before bans, and it will see even more play now. The play patterns in the deck become a little more straightforward now because we are, at least for now, a little bit more narrowed down in what the best decks are. Phoenix has been around long enough that we know what the good cards are, and what it does. I'll spare you a full breakdown of the deck that you've likely heard plenty of times. Just know that Arclight Phoenix does a lot of work, and cards like Crackling Drake come in from the sideboard to also get in for tons of damage, and the format often doesn't allow it to be easily removed. We can check on a newer addition to the sideboard that we are seeing now, as the deck becomes more prevalent.
Ashiok is phenomenal in the mirror, because it mills spells off the top of the deck and exiles the opponent's graveyard. It is a pretty straightforward shutdown of the deck, as it cuts off Phoenix coming back, and it makes it so that the opponent cannot easily delve for Treasure Cruise. There were plenty of calls for that card to get banned as well, and some would argue that Cruise is a stronger card than Phoenix in the build. Either way, Ashiok shuts down both of them, and can be the mirror breaker that's needed in a Phoenix heavy meta.
What Other Decks are Sneaking Up On Us?
Mono Green
Mono Green was a deck that really started to make a comeback at the end of the Pioneer RCQ Season, and then its metagame share died down shortly after that. Now, since Amalia and Sorin are gone, Mono Green is another creature-based combo deck that is going to make its own waves - and it's already starting to. It didn't manage to make the top eight in either of the most recent challenges after the bans, but there were three separate lists that made the top sixteen in one of the challenges. That event had 93 players, so it is safe to say that the deck had a pretty good win rate in Swiss, and all of them were maybe one win or one draw away from making top eight. I believe that the best Mono Green list hasn't been found yet, and when it is found, we will all be in for a rude awakening. Banning Karn from the deck was fine, but the fact that Nykthos and Kiora are still able to stick around means that the creatures will run wild, and they will swing for 30+ damage out of nowhere when they have the pieces aligned to win the game. I think that Mono Green is something people should watch out for, and something that needs to be respected when making sideboard decisions.
My most immediate solutions for these top two decks that I'm seeing are obviously board wipes. In Waste Not, we run Path of Peril and Extinction Event. There is an argument now for Shadow's Verdict to be relevant, as we also want to be able to exile. Leyline of the Void is another one that is a simple solution, although some of the decks we want to use it for often have easy ways of dealing with enchantments.
Sacrifice Decks
Another deck that is making a comeback is sacrifice. This is showing itself in two different forms. We see the traditional Rakdos Sacrifice, and once again, that deck had a top eight appearance as well. There is a newer list, however, that is Jund, and the reason for that is that it uses Ygra, Eater of All to amass ridiculous amounts of value while they are sacrificing everything. It still also runs Mayhem Devil, so it gets residual value there as well. Some of the new Talent Enchantments from Bloomburrow also greenlight the deck once again. This is another reason that I would like to bring in either Shadow's Verdict, or Leyline of the Void to the sideboard in decks that I play. I believe that exile effects will become increasingly relevant as we move forward. There is even an argument to start bringing in Necromentia to sideboards again, because we are going to know very soon what the most problematic cards are, and the meta is expected to be narrow enough for it to be clear what we need to deal with in all of our matchups.
I hope this metagame update was useful to you, and we will be having one for Modern very soon!
