Single most important type 2 thread

Lackeos · Joined: 10 Oct 2004 Posts: 236

I switched from magic-league to MODO. Get this: there's actually a metagame on MODO, omfg!

Okay, so I'm going to educate everybody in the league. I'm not playing here anymore, since it's awful as far as playtesting goes, but hopefully I can do a bit to help your game.

Okay, first. Dissension isn't out on MODO yet. But that hardly matters, given the lame cards in it. So here's the pre-Dissension metagame:

Tier 1 (these decks are popular and top 8 tourneys)
Izzetron
Hand in Hand
Heartbeat

tier 2 (these decks never top 8)
Zoo
Gruul
Mono-green aggro
Wafo-Tapa (Niv-Control)
Ghost Husk
etc.

tier 3
awful decks that get their balls stomped on, like mono-red aggro, izzet combo, boros deck wins, and equally wretched piles

decks that no one ever plays ever
Owl
Eminent Domain
Ghost Dad
U/R Vore
Basically these are decks that don't stand a chance at consistently beating 70% or more of opponents, so they have been completely abandoned. Since people pay $6 to enter constructed tournaments, they don't just play whatever crap they're in the mood to, they run something that hopefully has a shot at 3-0'ing.

Okay, now you know what the metagame is. Let's move on to match-ups.

Hand in Hand beats everything except Izzetron
Izzetron beats everything except Heartbeat
Heartbeat beats everything except Hand in Hand
awful decks don't beat anything except each other

Cool. Now since I play Hand in Hand, I'll give you a few tips on playing it.

Against the mirror, it will usually be a tempo battle. If you let your opponent take a bunch of damage from his Confidant like an idiot, he'll probably die before you. Just make sure you assess whether it's a tempo battle, and if it is, don't kill his Confidant. Make sure you're all of your decisions involve racing them. You should have 4 maindeck Paladin, 3 maindeck Hand of Honor. Some good sideboard technology is more Hand of Honors and Hand of Cruelties, maybe a fourth Jitte, 3 Phyrexian Arena, and possibly some Wrath of Gods (despite being an aggro deck. You just have to play them like you're intelligent, and they will pay off).

Against Heartbeat, you typically want to name Early Harvest with Extraction, although rarely Drift of Phantasms is better. Their bomb card is Weird Harvest. You don't wan't to assume the control role, you want to assume the aggro role. Try to rape them with Okiba-Gang Shinobis, despite the possibility that they might drop Bottled Cloister on you after sideboard. Be aware that they might transform after sideboard, so the best thing you can do is keep all of your Mortifies and Jittes, to combat the aggro or the combo plan.

Against Izzetron, your bomb is Jitte. It keeps you out of Blaze range, pwns their Melokus and Keigas, and lets a creature survive Wildfire with Jitte still attached. If they haven't resolved a bomb yet, your other bomb is Shinobi, because making them dump their hand is awesome. Get some threats on the board before trying your Castigates. After sideboard, make sure that you try to deplete their countermagic or make them tap-out before casting Phyrexian Arena. If I have 2 Paladins and an Arena in hand, I will try to play both Paladins first and hopefully they won't have a counter for Arena.

The last three tips I can give you are for general metagames.
1) At the start of the metagame, try a good list of every good deck. Stick with whichever seems naturally powerful, pending any developments in the metagame. This will lead into...
2) Sticking with a deck is golden. When you play the same deck for 500 matches, you will make better mulligan decisions, fewer mistakes, and you will be able to refine the manabase, mana curve, and card choices to perfection. You will be a lot more dangerous than an average player who's using the average list.
3) At big tournaments like Regionals and Grand Prixes, expect to play against about 3-4 completely rogue opponents. If there is an absolutely dominant deck, expect to play it almost exactly three times. The other two decks will obv be the tier 1.5 decks. Don't ever expect your opponents to be playing the decks that you prepared for, because you don't control them.

synch987 · Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 256

but you pay for things that don't exist :/

i'll stick with the league

and doesn't vore beat heartbeat and usually beat izzetron? (this is rhetorical)

STiL · Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 21

Dig in your pockets and pull out some cash (bills, coins). In reality, how much are the materials that made them worth? A lot less then their value. The same with Magic cards. They are only worth money because of the value people place on them. A Lotus is less than a penny worth of cardboard, but it's valued at a whole lot more. The same principle applies to MODO. Just because they don't physically exist does not mean that they don't contain value. Is it more profitable for Wizards than paper magic? By a significant margin. Is it any more expensive than paper magic? Not at all. So, while not willing to spend money on MODO is a valid reason to not play it, saying that using MODO is somehow a less worthwhile way to spend money on Magic is retarded.

To the OP: regionals will have a metagame that's significantly different than the one you say is on MODO. I realize that you provide some very good tips for metagaming in a general sense, but completely disregarding certain archetypes (including every single deck containing Dissension cards) is stupid. MODO is a metagame in and of itself, and comparing it to real life is a stretch at best (example: B/W is a lot more popular online). Each area has it's own metagame, so presenting your information as the end all T2 metagame guide is wrong.

Taoofss · Joined: 22 Dec 2004 Posts: 308

1. If i wanted to play with money, id go down to the card shop Friday nights.
2. Regionals will have Dis, so testing the metagame on MODO is usless right now.
3. Heazy Street out races izzet tron and heartbeat, and can win a game here and there with good draws vs h2h.
4. Vore with a good draw beats everydeck.
5. Most of what you state is false. There are articles on other site that lists what decks did well in MODO tourneys.

4/24/06 – 734504 – Standard 2x (52 players)

1 – MituliakV – BW Husk
2 – Bravo_1 – BW Aggro
4 – mugen A – Heartbeat Combo
4 – Warriors_T – BW Aggro
8 – Mr. Seaver – UR Urza
8 – lynxcat – White Weenie, red splash
8 – Prodigy – WR Burn
8 – nickx – UR Magnivore

4/24/06 – 734505 – Standard 2x (51 players)

1 – MituliakV – BW Husk
2 – Phyrexian War Turtle – BW Aggro
4 – Zasrani Amici – Heartbeat Combo
4 – Blackozzy – Heartbeat Combo
8 – Bravo_1 – BW Aggro
8 – capser – UR Wildfire Urza
8 – Thommo – BW Husk
8 – Veganman – GWB Greater Good

4/26/06 - 734506 – Standard 2x (47 players)

1 – Wicked.Warrior – UR Wildfire Urza
2 – TheCursed1025 – BW Aggro
4 – o0putz – UR Wildfire Urza
4 – mirakurufait – GW Aggro
8 – starwolf_1352 – RGW Zoo
8 – sneaky robot – UR Owl
8 – lynxcat – RW Aggro
8 – bburksgg – BW Aggro

4/26/06 – 734507 – Standard 2x (50 players)

1 – WedUk - URza
2 – ovejita – Mono Black Aggro/Discard
4 – Orluff_DK – BW Aggro
4 – Gambling Gnome – GW Aggro
8 – Counterthis - URza
8 – Ceriaton24 – UR Magnivore
8 – noehcmaharbaluap – BW Aggro
8 – longshot248 – RW Aggro

4/28/06 - 737713 – Standard 2x (45 players)

1 – WedUk - URza
2 – horsted – Mono Green Aggro
4 – Bazaar of Baghdad – GW Aggro
4 – Veganman – Eminent Domain
8 – Izzvergg – unknown (see below)
8 – PTFAN – BW Ghost Dad
8 – johan80 – RW Aggro
8 – skyllo – UR Owl

As you can see, more than just heartbeat, hand, and izzet top 8. Are alot of the decks these three? Sure, they are the 3 strongest decks out there, it doesnt mean other decks cant compete though. And this doesnt even show what version of b/w agro is played. Could be h2h, could be rats, could be discard.

TugaChampion · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 401

I play magic in real life and you know what? IT actually has a metagame!!!

These decks have done very well in the past:
Zoo
Gruul
Ghost Husk
Owl
Ghost Dad
U/R Vore

I know Zoo and Owl aren't really tier 1 and Owl really depends on the metagame to win or lose but the rest is tier 1 in real life. Also I heard that Sea Stompy is very popular in MODO and some people who don't want to waste much money go mono-red with bloodmoon MD and have some chances (no much but it's still not zero).

Snack · Joined: 05 Sep 2004 Posts: 114

Paper/Scissors/Rock = Nub

jeremiah · Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 7

you are underestimaitng zoo i have ben tesing zoo scinde before jones played it at honnlolu and i have beatten hand in hand, beat combo, and any ur variant.The only deck i have lost to is rwu firemaine godo control.

Kholdstare · Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 49

if you areant retarded and you play emeinent domain with the right sideboard and number of cards....you can compete quite well. the dreams domain list is pretty good too.

snoopster · Joined: 04 Dec 2004 Posts: 730 Location: nj

Craze · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 5423 Location: Indiana, U

Streakz · Joined: 13 Oct 2005 Posts: 109

because everyone loves talking to people like Craze and their definately are not clans on MODO where I actually speak with goodplayers daily (that was all sarcasm for anyone with an IQ below 10 that is reading this)

snoopster · Joined: 04 Dec 2004 Posts: 730 Location: nj

Craze · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 5423 Location: Indiana, U

Damn straight people love talking to me, its how my channels get big and I get access everywhere. And your right about the clans thing, but it kinda limits you on just playing magic. IRC allows a hell of alot cooler shit.

pG got banned from DCI, I won't but I was just using it as an example

Tanis1217 · Joined: 15 May 2006 Posts: 4

Oh how do I begin. So, s/he used the word 'metagame' and everyone was like "OMG SO F'ing PRO. I BETTER DO WHAT HE SAYS." Whatever. Heartbeat? Hell no. R&D Gifts is better than Heartbeat, but hey that's where I play. And yes, I do know what a pro player is. Perhaps you should look at your local meta game, add a little net decking, shake (Not stir), and understand that Regionals is about 50% netdeck and 50% scrub/random. There is no 'education' from playtesting online except to increase your own skill with any given deck. And yes, Zoo + Husk are Tier 1. So is Tron. Hand2Hand I think may be, but then again Hymn doesn't own in every format it's in so maybe (just maybe) there is too much hype over H2H. Take all this stuff with a grain of salt because I am, after all, someone you don't know somewhere you've probably never been. Play at FNM, play at your house, play online, but expect everything to be good at regionals because that's what it's for.

snoopster · Joined: 04 Dec 2004 Posts: 730 Location: nj

wtf are you talking about?