The Monday Mulligan: Week 20

Gatherling Metagame Breakdown

Number of players: 20

Play-offs:
White Weenie by Mr Moto
White Weenie by Spring Snow
Gb Elves by Bodeddie
Pyramid Scheme by SypherSun
UBw Control by Baklazan79PL
GU Zoo Charm by fatkiddestroyers
Red Deck Wins by Funkapotimus
More More More - WB Rebels by Spills

Metagame:
Aggro - 7
Control: - 4
Aggro-Control: - 8
Aggro-Combo: - 0
Mid-range: - 1
Unclassifiable - 0

Discussion:
You know what preys on you homebrew creations? White Weenie. The incredibly resilient aggro deck too its third trophy in MPDC this season, solidifying its position as the best deck in Standard. We have seen many WW decks the past few weeks, with multiple silver linings but no win. Today it took both first and second. One of the main reasons of the uprising is the lack of Storm Control and Grimdrifter decks. I'll get back to both of these decks in a minute.

Another aggro deck took a top place, with Gb Elves taking spot in the top4. I don't think this deck, in any incarnation, is really viable and I attribute this place more to skillfull piloting and capitalizing on opponents mistakes than something we have to keep an eye on. Don't expect it to do this good anytime soon again. It gets disrupted too easily, expecially by decks packing boardsweepers, like RDW and SC, or lots of removal like Grimdrifter. The final deck in top4 was my own Greedy Pyramid Scheme. Do my words of yesterdays article gain value by this accomplishment? I hope so :P.

Newcomer Funkapotimus piloted an unusual version of RDW to play-offs, it included some walls and lots of burn over the usual suspects in creature form. Another newcomer, Spills, made top8 with Rebels. This is a very good choice in the current meta because it doesn't have the uphill fight against boardsweepers. I would put two Grim Harvest in the deck though, it makes its late game that much better. A third newbie (yeah for the influx of players!) played a homebrew called Zoo Charm, which uses a mana base with lots of difficult to deal with fatties, such as EE and Durkwood Balloth. The last play-off deck is something known only as control. I suspect it is a version of Slipstick, but I can only guess.

The meta as a whole has a low amount of control decks, which is underserving. Most control decks can fight the main played decks very effectivily. Grimdrifter had quite a few backers at the beginning of the season, mostly in its green incarnation, but has since then fallen from the meta. Grimdrifter is capable of beating WW but it needs to be specifically tuned to do it. Things like Tendrils and Soot are necessary inclusions to buy you time so you can make the lategame where your Teachings and Mulldrifters will draw you more removal and winconditions. I like the green Polish and Pyramid versions better in this matchup, because you can board in Essence Warden, which is a beating, and you can end the game much faster with Aurochs than with random 2/2 and 1/1 dorks.

We all know that Storm Control beats WW, and I am suprised that it has been played this little since v3. Its main two problemetic match-ups, Grimdrifter with lots of discard and RDW, are on a decline because of all the WW. This is the opportune moment to grab this one back out of your digital closet.

My suggestions for next week:

• RDW; It seems most of the White Weenie (except stiff's) don't play sideboard Martyr of Sands. Punish them for this flaw in deck designing. Mainboard Ashes and Grapeshot for extra pwnage.

• Storm Control; Like I said in the last alinea, it beats a lot of the top decks and is criminally underplayed.

• Use UR Illusion; We haven't seen this in a while, but it beats WW and a lot of other decks, both aggro and control. Use Blue Beats tech for better matchups against Storm.

Hope to see you next Monday!