AROUND THE BLOCK #5: Arboretum of Despair

Mini-Lesson: Gatherling Metagame Reports

Were you aware that you could access metagame data for any event entered into Gatherling at the click of a mouse button? Well, you can. I am making the hopeful assumption that most of us already know how, but for those who don't, there are at least two ways to get there.

First, on our main page (http://www.pdcmagic.com/), you can click "Gatherling Metagame Reports" under the bold heading "RECENT WINNERS" on the lower right. In that same area, you could click on the name of the event (such as "BPDC 2.04") to access that specific event's metagame report. Try it!

The other way to access metagame reports whenever your deck-designing, hate-flaying, metagame-storming self desires is to click on the golden 'Gatherling' button in the top navigation bar, and then applying the same kinds of skills to click the silver 'Metagame' button on the second navigation bar. Unless you're color-blind and can't read English, this should be a snap. (If both of those conditions do apply to you, congratulations on getting this far in the article!!)

So, let's try it. Use one of those methods to dial up the metagame data for BPDC 3.04. Or, just click that link right there.

The Winning List

Got it? Excellent. Well done.

So of course you want to know what hurriboy's winning decklist looks like, right? (Did you know that clicking on trophies on the forums will take you to the decklist? It doesn't work in articles, but luckily I'm about to show you the list.) Of course you do. I estimate that approximately 143% of the field next week will be a net-deck or bad update of hurriboy's legendary midrange treefolk deck. Okay, maybe not. It seems like the field has gotten past that copy-cat stage. (If you're really interesting in mimicry, just wait until Eventide.) Let the meaningless words cease to fall out of my mouth, and let's have us some decklist.

THE LEGEND OF SCUZZBACK HOLLOW
hurriboy, BPDC 3.04, 1st place

MAINDECK
Creatures
4 Cloudcrown Oak
4 Farhaven Elf
4 Leaf Gilder
4 Mulldrifter
4 Scuzzback Marauders
4 Warren Pilferers
2 Mournwhelk
1 Game-Trail Changeling

Spells
4 Eyeblight's Ending
4 Nameless Inversion
1 Gilt-Leaf Ambush

Lands
11 Forest
10 Swamp
3 Island

SIDEBOARD
4 Bog-Strider Ash
4 Festercreep
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Mournwhelk
2 Toil to Renown
1 Gilt-Leaf Ambush

Lots going on in here. Lots of good stuff. You got 8x mana accelerators. (That's accelerators, mind you, not land-fetching. Those two elves both put additional mana resources on your table when they come into play, allowing you to get a jump on the "one additional mana source per turn" stipulation. Cards like Safewright Quest don't actually accelerate. Also, they aren't creatures, so they can't be recovered with Warren Pilferers. Attention to these details is what gives good decks their synergy.) Mana acceleration is good because you have a lot of expensive dudes in here. Luckily, Mournwhelk and Mulldrifter both have alternate casting modes that allow their powers to come on board before their bodies. (The Evoke mechanic, brah.) Because hurriboy stacked the deck with the Pilferers, he's not too worried about losing those bodies to the netherworld. They can be returned to play for the low-low price of .

Another benefit of Farhaven Elf in this deck is that it enables the pilot to call upon the power of la isla. That's critical for the 'splash.' Why has hurri splashed blue in this deck? Why would anyone do such a thing? The greatest card ever printed, that's why. Mulldrifter. That card, combined with Warren Pilferers, forms the crux of the card advantage engine running within gold medalist "Warrendrifter." I'm sure hurriboy took a look at that list, thought to himself, "Well jeepers, I can do that too!", and proceeded to apply that engine to his treefolk build.

The fun doesn't stop there, however. Hurri knew full well that Scuzzback Marauders is one hell of an aggressive exercise in card advantage. He knew that Cloudcrown Oak, besides being a terrific pain in the ass for Faeries and opposing Mulldrifters, withstands a great deal of this block's played removal spells, and doesn't do too poor a job on the offense either. He knew that Game-Trail Changeling is nigh-unkillable (and can't be countered by Faerie Trickery, either). His deck is filled to the brink with the most annoying and difficult-to-answer creatures in the format -- and ways to get them back after they die. Add the usual black removal suite to the mix and Hurri's deck is able to apply constant pressure in the red zone (after it gets its mana resources online, that is) without worrying about running out of gas (bad draws notwithstanding).

I keep referring to this as a 'treefolk' deck but it's really more like a Block version of Cadaeic314's "Pyramid Scheme," a primarily black-green deck loaded with card-advantageous creatures and creature recursion. While Pyramid Scheme never snagged a gold during its tenure in Standard, the idea was sound, and hurri employed the same principle to great effect in Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Block.

The reason the trees stick in my mind so much, then -- besides the fact that I was running a treefolk deck of my own, with many similarities to hurri's build -- is hurri's inclusion of Bog-Strider Ash in the sideboard. According to Boin, pyromancer extraordinaire, this treefolk is the Aven Riftwatcher of the block format. Not quite, says I, for the swamp-walking treefolk only shines against goblin-centric aggro builds, leaving the kithkin (and the poor merfolk, who seem to have dropped off the radar for now) to do their thing. However, just ask Boin (or hurriboy, for that matter) how much the Ash shines against mono-red, and you'll find that he indeed spells the death of that archetype's dominance. There's one other awesome card here against that matchup, and that is Gilt-Leaf Ambush. Because mono-red plays Intimidator Initiate, you may find yourself unable to block with your 3/3's, 3/4's, 4/4's, and 5/2's. Never fear! After mono-red throws its goblins into the red zone, you tap and plop out two Elf Warrior tokens, potentially with deathtouch (pending clash victory), to, well, ambush your opponent. (If they do win deathtouch, you only need to block in a 1-to-1 ratio, because every blocked creature will die. Just don't block Ballynock Cohort with one.)

So that's my analysis of the winning decklist. It looks to be pretty solid against a lot of what the field has looked like for the last three or four events. It's not without its weaknesses (a strong Faeries may give it a run for its money, especially pre-board), but it's a solid list that should continue to be successful.

Metagame Trends

The list itself is strong, and the fact that it won may mean that we have begun to shift in the metagame from an aggro-centered world to a world populated by aggro-control or midrange decks. These decks tend to take a bit longer to set up but are looking for stability and mid-game domination rather than quick and easy damage and a rapid dumping of the hand. We had a false start in this shift last season with Warrendrifter before the format shifted back to decks like mono-red and blue-red elementals (the latter of which, Skeletoy77's Worlds-winning Aetherbraider, did in fact employ tempo elements and aimed for more mid-range dominance). The new offerings from Shadowmoor fueled aggro to new heights of aggression, and we're just now recovering once more from that trend. But if the metagame doesn't embrace the shift, we will continue to see mono-red and mono-white decks at the top tables.

We should be seeing more cards like Hurly-Burly, Festercreep, Bog-Stider Ash, Gilt-Leaf Ambush, Aethersnipe, Warren Pilferers, and so on, cards that focus more on card advantage or tempo advantage than fast and efficient damage. Removal packages need to be carefully calculated against the perceived dominant decks, taking into account the "edges" of the format (cards like Scuzzback Marauders, Game-Trail Changeling, Pestermite and Spellstutter Sprite, Mudbrawler Cohort and Inner-Flame Acolyte, etc.)

Decks like hurri's, which employ strong green beaters and recursion, are one avenue. Decks like Skeletoy's blue-red elementals, which try to win the tempo game, are another. Faeries, with their tempo-y flash tricks and control elements, are another aggro-control option. These decks should challenge the status quo of aggression we've come to expect so far in the LRW-SHM environment.

The Field

Before I sign off, I wanted to give a shout-out to everyone who bothered to put his or her decklist into Gatherling. I know with the new MTGO v3 decklist format it's an increased pain to input lists into the database, but it is truly beneficial to the community and I think it's one of the most amazing aspects of PDC, the easy access to tons of data. BPDC has always pushed Gatherling as much as possible, and as one of the youngest PDC events, our history is very well-chronicled. So again, thank you to everyone who takes the time to input a decklist into Gatherling!

And now, onto the field...

If you ever feel like doing some of this kind of analysis on your own, you're certainly empowered to do so by the Gatherling Metagame Report. These reports are only as good as the players who add their decklists to Gatherling, however. But they do give a fairly interesting view into what went on at any given event.

BPDC 2.04 - The Field

The hybrids are giving us a skewed idea of exactly what decks we're working with, but it would appear that white weenie (or Kithkin Steel if you will) was the big winner. Gatherling registers it as either , or , depending on the presence of Safehold Elite or Barkshell Blessing and Steel of the Godhead or Somnomancer. WoCoNation and StiLLiRise both made Top 4 ( ) with variations on the Kithkin theme; Jubeju snagged a Top 8 spot (). Rickwins1971 was unable to reprise his victorious run from the previous week, and taint's allusionarily-named variant met with ill luck as well. Poor Alotrel's record with the sinking ship known as Elves is something like 1-15 by now, but you've got to admire his persistence and devotion to his cherished archetype. Ladies, take note.

If you wanted to see Hungry Spriggan in action, you could have watched eldawg or eegag. Both of them have names that start with a lower-case e, and both of them are working to strike upon the magic formula for 's success in the metagame. (Faeries and trees, boys. Faeries and trees.)

Two of us, wlcrh and rjimi, brought the Morselhoarder Combo deck. There must be something about a random collection of five letters that drives one to "go off." The deck made another T8 showing thanks to wlcrh ().

Boin was the lone supporter of Warrior Sligh, which is very surprising. Less surprising was his second place finish ().

Skeletoy77 brought an artful black-green deck with Shield of the Oversoul and some other unique card choices, but couldn't do much with it in this field. His Worlds-winning Aetherbraider was reduxed by ColonelNoseworthy, who assures us he is going to try harder to be on time next week.

You've got to give props to Tropesso for designing and piloting a deck focused around the -1/-1 counter theme of Shadowmoor. In fact, I'll link his "Countermatter" deck right here for your enjoyment. Seeing Fate Transfer in action is a beautiful thing.

Polyjak, in an effort to metagame against the entire field, brought "Oaks of the Bosk." As noted earlier, this deck bears similarities with the winning list, but focuses more on the aggro half of the aggro-control moniker. Noteworthy: maindeck Bog-Strider Ash and Hurly-Burly. If only the field had been more red and less white... Still, it was good enough for a T8 ().

Last but certainly not least, we have a pair of Paupers who strove to revive everyone's favorite blue tribes. (Cliche, alliteration, assonance, and rhyme... all in one sentence. On accident.) HellMut1 had a pretty low opinion of his own deck, "Really Really Bad Millfolk." After looking at it, I can see why!

Just kidding. It looks fine, but history has shown that the time is not right for Merfolk of any build. The other blue tribe, Faeries, found their lone backer in MilkShake75. To me, this is a crime. Faeries could be one of the stronger decks in the format, especially now that the Treefolk hedge has grown up and is prepared to fend off the Warrior Sligh assault.

Thanks again to everybody who used Gatherling! I hope I didn't miss anyone. See you on Monday for 3.05, our last regular event before the Chris Millar Auction of the People extravaganza!

My prediction for the winner of BPDC 3.05: Changeling Giants. No fake.