First of all, thanks to Krosanbeast who took over for me last week.

I will make this one short. I was obviously not there and no metagame was gathered. That doesn't give me many tools to work with. I will instead dedicate my time to the metagame analysis that will follow shortly, where I will discuss the current state of the meta as well as the last 2 events that I missed.

Since the Wizard boards were down during the event, the thread was posted in our own forums: Event Thread

Playoffs

TOP 8:

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(1) Kuna (RDW)
(8) Bazzer (UW Control)
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(5) Hokusai (Gnarrly Beats)
(4) Robe (Grimdrifter)
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(3) Cadaeic (Rebels Teachings)
(6) Mslano (Mono Blue Illusions)
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(7) Shard Goldblade (Grimdrifter)
(2) Me5794 (UR Illusions)
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TOP 4:

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(8) Bazzer (UW Control)
(5) Hokusai (Gnarrly Beats)
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(6) Mslano (Mono Blue Illusions)
(7) Shard Goldblade (Grimdrifter)
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Final:

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(5) Hokusai (Gnarrly Beats)
(6) Mslano (UW Illusions)
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Metagame Breakdown

You can always access the standard Top 8 metagame at PDCMagic's Forums.

Standard Top 8 Metagame

Includes all Standard (SPDC and MPDC) events to date.

Kehm's personal top 5 decks: (what are yours?)

1- Grimdrifter
2- Storm Control
3- Uber Teachings
4- WW
5- Blinkdrifter

Up and coming: Gnarrly Beats, Burnt Nemo, Buffeting Boggarts.

---

Since the beginning, everyone knew Grimdrifter was a very powerful deck. Its only problem was the popularity of WW, which rendered it pretty much hopeless. For a few weeks now, however, WW has nearly completely disappeared, thanks to UR control (Storm Control, URw Burnt Nemo, UR Illusions, etc.) After winning 3 standard events in a row, Storm Control pushed players towards playing something other than WW (since it is a tough match up for them) and/or playing anti tokens deck, which was also to the detriment of WW. Result?

Well, for one thing, Grimdrifter is back. It was only natural that it came back once its most feared opposition was gone. It makes one wonder why Blinkdrifter hasn't really shown up as well. Its problem is the same as Grimdrifter: WW.

And in all the confusion and anarchy within the play field, a new "old" deck saw the day: Gnarrly Beats. The tokens we all loved to hate. It is truly possible that it was a fluke and it is too early to tell if it will be successful again. However, looking at the very solid decklist and the community's love for saprolings, I am ready to bet that this deck will be a force to be reckoned with in the immediate future. Look out for the new spore cry, it is back!

The funny thing is, with the disappearance of WW, there is this one deck that I keep talking about that has a good match against pretty much the whole field. The deck is Uber Teachings. It killed Spore Cry then, and it can definitely kill its weaker version. It owns Storm Control and has very good matches against Blinkdrifter and Grimdrifter. Post sideboard, it can even hope for a win against WW and RDW, both of which are becoming less and less popular. But still no one dares play Teachings. It's mind boggling, really.

I also think Storm Control still has a very decent shot at the meta. Sure, grimdrifter is not the preferred match up. But it's definitely not that bad, especially post sideboard. No one seems to want to play it, though, despite its recent success. It's hard to tell whether or not it could have kept going strong with only 1 player trying in the last 2 weeks.

So what can we expect from the future events?

I think it's fair to say that we will be seeing a lot of Gnarrly Beats. It's just this kind of deck people love to play. Challenging, but not too hard. And most of all, very powerful.

Grimdrifter will stay strong and it will see little but consistent play. It might gain in popularity if it keeps getting good results. It's fun to play, very interactive and powerful. Exactly what most players like.

Storm Control and Uber Teachings will see little to no play. Very challenging decks are hard to pick up without a lot of practice. The smallest mistake can cost a match. The worst thing is that the pilot sometimes doesn't even know he made a mistake. Many players will play it once or twice and give the decks up for lack of positive results.

Now, depending on how popular the other decks are, it's very possible we see WW coming back. But it's fragile right now, so expect it to be a surprise. I will never rule them out of contention, however, as it is probably the best aggro deck we've ever seen in standard PDC.

Blinkdrifter should be coming back shortly. It's still one of the best decks and it is present in MANY players' deck lists. One click is all it needs.

Power Rankings

Here's how the power ratings are calculated:

Each event, players gain points depending on the final standings:

1st - 10 points
2nd - 7 points
T4 - 4 points
T8 - 2 points
Other - 0 point

The power rating of a player is the point average for the current season. (By adding all points accumulated and dividing the total by the number of event participations, we get the average/power rating)

Players who play in less than 40% (2/5) of the events will suffer a small penalty.

There are 45 ranked players out of 108. To be ranked you need to reach the playoff rounds once.

The number of events played serve as first tie breakers, followed by the best finishes.

Thanks to Eegag for the top 5 Icons

Rank (Power rating) - Medals (for top 10 only)

01 Kehmesis (3.64) -
02 GravespwnGoddess (3.41) -
03 Chronic Heaves (3.17) -
03 Robe (3.17) -
05 Icarodx (3.14) -

06 Baron Sengir (2.83) -
07 Krosanbeast (2.80) -
08 Bluedragon (2.73) -
08 Boin (2.73) -
10 Evu (2.50 -

11 Sharn Goldblade (2.50)
12 Karakusk (2.27)
13 Eegag (2.27)
14 Kingritz (2.27)
15 Cecilia Jupe (2.27)
16 Khirareq (2.05)
17 StillIRise (2.00)
18 Hokusai (1.67)
19 Hurriboy (1.60)
20 Mslano (1.59)
21 Cadaeic (1.36)
22 Death Knight (1.36)
23 Rancorous Fool (1.36)
24 Serra Monk (1.36)
25 Me5794 (1.22)
26 Cp70 (1.20)
27 Kaityson (1.20)
28 Plainstrider (1.20)
29 LostSymphonies (0.91)
30 Bazzer (0.91)
31 White Djinn (0.91)
32 Jamuraa (0.57)
33 Jtamaro (0.45)
34 Redleg (0.45)
35 ZechMaples (0.45)
36 Boardslider (0.45)
37 Brokn990 (0.45)
38 Leadwing Coachman (0.45)
39 Nybaseb (0.45)
40 Kuna (0.45)
41 Carinon (0.44)
42 HWolverine (0.40)
43 Lysandar (0.40)
44 WoCoNation (0.40)

Interesting fact (and shameless plug) is that all 4 Commonity clan members are in the top 8!

Most Events Played: Krosanbeast (11)
Most Playoffs: Krosanbeast (6)
Most wins: Cecilia Jupe, Eegag, Karakusk, Subliminal Man, Kingritz, Krosanbeast, Boin, BlueDragon, Kehmesis, RobE, Hokusai (1)
Most Points: Krosanbeast (28)
Best Playoff %: Baron Sengir (83%)

Decklist

1st place deck - Gnarrly Beats - Piloted by Hokusai

4 Llanowar Elves
8 Snow-Covered Forest
8 Snow-Covered Plains
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Essence Warden
4 Gilt-Leaf Ambush
4 Herd Gnarr
4 Icatian Crier
4 Kjeldoran War Cry
2 Llanowar Augur
4 Lumithread Field
4 Marshaling Cry
4 Sprout Swarm
2 Strength in Numbers

Sideboard
2 Dawn Charm
2 Strength in Numbers
4 Sunlance
4 Thornweald Archer
3 Wrap in Vigor

The goal is obviously to get to a huge token count and swarm your opponents with them. Cry and strenght in numbers help pushing for large amount of damage and Gnarrs constitutes a secondary win condition that seems like a main one when it attacks as a 10/10 or bigger.

Wardens win tons of life, fields saves your tokens from mass removal and everything else builds your token count. Lots of fun (and wins) in perspective!

Congrats!

Top 8 deck - Rebel Teachings - Piloted by Cadaeic

Creatures
4 Blightspeaker
2 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Rathi Trapper
2 Zealot il-vec

Spells
4 Faerie Trickery
4 Mystical Teachings
4 Remove Soul
4 Rune Snag
3 Think Twice
2 Terror
1 Eyeblight's Ending
1 Grim Harvest
1 Logic Knot
1 Nameless Inversion

Lands
12 Island
5 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Plains
1 Shimmering Grotto

SIDEBOARD
3 Augur of Skulls
3 Midnight Charm
2 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Mindstab
2 Zealot il-Vec
1 Grim Harvest
1 Mournwhelk
1 Piracy Charm

In Cadaeic's own words:

"The deck has two card-advantage heavy gameplans: Teachings-based counterspell lock and Rebel engine. Based on the draw and matchup, you can go with either or both gameplans. I really like the diversity and ability to adapt. "

It's basically a control / permission deck, not unlike uber teachings, that uses a rebels engine as win condition instead of the big fat flyer. The rebels are somewhat fragile, but backed up with counter spells one could argue that the engine itself can be less fragile than 4 lone Errant Ephemerons as win conditions.

It's a pretty cool deck to say the least and I can't wait to see how this deck will do in the future. Very interesting.

If anyone would like to write for MPDC, please contact Polyjak. If you would like to have any data I have gathered or my article templates, contact me. (You can PM us in the forums)

So I've missed 2 MPDC events.

MPDC 1.09 was won by Kehmesis piloting Storm Control.

Event Thread
Metagame

MPDC 1.10 was won by PredatorGR piloting Blinking Rebels.

Event Thread
Metagame

Is there something you would like to see in these reports? Post a comment!

That's it for this week. I hope I can get metagames for you in the following weeks. If you want to step up and gather the data when I'm absent, please do so! It's for the good of the community. All you need to do is copy / paste the list of participants and watch the matches to tag a deck to each player.

If you don't know the decks, the color combination and type (aggro, control, combo, midrange, LD, discard) is good enough! We'll figure out the rest.

Kehm.