The Metagame

[DuelLadyS]

I couldn't agree more with your sentiment. Once you've found a deck that does well locally, you just need to expand your circle! FNM is a great place to start if he's looking for ways to improve his deck outside of his normal play group.

Now for dealing with Doom Blade, have you considered Autumn's Veil [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194208] can be pretty potent against Black removal as well.

I do have an Autumn's Veil in my green deck, but I'd like to look into reworking it before getting too many more of those- right now it's a 65 card mono green aggro with ramp, Dungrove Elder and Leige of the Tangle serving as the big boys. It's not terribly focused (being my first deck), I'd like to fix that. I'll have to see if I have an Apostle's Blessing... I picked up a Mana Tithe as an experiment, but I imagine once folks know I've got it'll be fairly useless. I haven't explored much simply because we've only been playing a few months. Even sticking with Modern to help cut down on the card pool, that's a daunting amount of cards to explore.

The most amusing game I had with him was when I finished my mono black deck, since I built it more around the others in our group who don't play black. End result- he had a bunch of Doom Blades and Deathmarks he couldn't play, and I had a bunch of Hideous Visage and Gruesome Deformity that did me no good to play. (Then we switched to 2 headed giant and found out our black decks made a devastating combo against the rest of our group.)

 

[Draconalis]

By the time the combo arrived, I already had a smattering of creatures and some non-land mana sources in play. Every time I was able to squeak something out, he's manage to use all his resources to keep me from making and progress and we'd revert to our stalemate. He really had the "control" part down pat, he just didn't have anywhere to go once he controlled the board.

Ah, indeed. Kinda reminds me of the time my terrible B/G Morbid deck was played against my friend's terrible B/G deck. He had thrun, glisa, and an infinite damage combo and creatures to spare, but I had a royal assassin keeping his none hexproof creatures at bay, 3 reanimated skeletons to chump block, the "Pay a mana sac a creature for life" cleric, and a creature that grew bigger with every creature's death... but no trample.

It was a complete and utter stalemate that I only won, because I run mill-blades (trepidation blade... or whatever)

So my mill win condition worked! I was just as surprised as anyone... given that it wasn't a mill deck at all.

That was the worse game I've ever played...

 

[Draconalis]

I do have an Autumn's Veil in my green deck, but I'd like to look into reworking it before getting too many more of those- right now it's a 65 card mono green aggro with ramp, Dungrove Elder and Leige of the Tangle serving as the big boys. It's not terribly focused (being my first deck), I'd like to fix that. I'll have to see if I have an Apostle's Blessing... I picked up a Mana Tithe as an experiment, but I imagine once folks know I've got it'll be fairly useless. I haven't explored much simply because we've only been playing a few months. Even sticking with Modern to help cut down on the card pool, that's a daunting amount of cards to explore.

The most amusing game I had with him was when I finished my mono black deck, since I built it more around the others in our group who don't play black. End result- he had a bunch of Doom Blades and Deathmarks he couldn't play, and I had a bunch of Hideous Visage and Gruesome Deformity that did me no good to play. (Then we switched to 2 headed giant and found out our black decks made a devastating combo against the rest of our group.)

Post your deck and I can give you suggestions. My friend has a NASTY extended ramp green.

If you aren't playing standard, these two cards alone are worth looking into

Terra Stomper, 8/8 trample, can't be countered for 6

Overwhelming stampede, all over your creatures gain +X/+X and trample, where X is the power of your strongest creature.... so your Terra Stomper is a 16/16 and all the mana dorks you used to get him out are 8/9 (Birds of Paradise) or 9/9 (Llanowar Elves) and it's the same cost as overrun... I believe.

Other than that, you can get some Withstand deaths, and Vines of Ashwood, withstand makes you creatures indestructible and a kicked Vines of Ashwood is (for two mana) +4/+4 and hexproof.

There is another card, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head, but it's an enchant creature that makes target creature an 8/8

You can also use Omnath, the Eater of Green Mana to make overwhelming stampede hit for insane numbers as well.

 

[Fleetfiend]

Most of the people that I play with are really Aggro heavy, using Green or Red\Green Mana Ramp decks.

I mostly play for fun, and I currently have four decks:

Green/White Auras, focuses primarily on powering up <url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193478>Aura Gnarlid or some of the other cards in the deck.

A Blue deck that has lots of Blue elements, and is often quite annoying. It mainly stalls out until I can get <url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205029>Stormtide Leviathan out. I'm thinking of taking it apart, though.

White/Black, that has lots of life gain and life drain.

Blue/White/Black tap deck, using cards like <url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220239>Gideon's Avenger,<url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=236464> Royal Assassin, <url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=235191>Frost Titan, etc to control the majority of their field.

I really like all my decks. But like I said, I don't play competitively at all yet, so I have no idea how any of these would act against some more widespread meta. Probably not well. xD

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Well, my meta is mostly Aggro at the moment, I'm pretty much the only person who plays combo. My main one is the Enduring Renewal [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108842]/Goblin Bombardment [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4821]/Ornithopter [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=206331] trick, but I've recently made a fairly ruthless UB Zombie Mill deck. Once my Academy Rectors [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15138] come in though, my Enduring Renewal deck will be broken as hell.

Currently I'm thinking of making a Grindstone [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4610]/Painter's Servant [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=146022] deck. Should be a laugh.

I do have an Autumn's Veil in my green deck, but I'd like to look into reworking it before getting too many more of those- right now it's a 65 card mono green aggro with ramp, Dungrove Elder and Leige of the Tangle serving as the big boys. It's not terribly focused (being my first deck), I'd like to fix that. I'll have to see if I have an Apostle's Blessing... I picked up a Mana Tithe as an experiment, but I imagine once folks know I've got it'll be fairly useless. I haven't explored much simply because we've only been playing a few months. Even sticking with Modern to help cut down on the card pool, that's a daunting amount of cards to explore.

The most amusing game I had with him was when I finished my mono black deck, since I built it more around the others in our group who don't play black. End result- he had a bunch of Doom Blades and Deathmarks he couldn't play, and I had a bunch of Hideous Visage and Gruesome Deformity that did me no good to play. (Then we switched to 2 headed giant and found out our black decks made a devastating combo against the rest of our group.)

Post your deck and I can give you suggestions. My friend has a NASTY extended ramp green.

If you aren't playing standard, these two cards alone are worth looking into

Terra Stomper, 8/8 trample, can't be countered for 6

Overwhelming stampede, all over your creatures gain +X/+X and trample, where X is the power of your strongest creature.... so your Terra Stomper is a 16/16 and all the mana dorks you used to get him out are 8/9 (Birds of Paradise) or 9/9 (Llanowar Elves) and it's the same cost as overrun... I believe.

Other than that, you can get some Withstand deaths, and Vines of Ashwood, withstand makes you creatures indestructible and a kicked Vines of Ashwood is (for two mana) +4/+4 and hexproof.

There is another card, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head, but it's an enchant creature that makes target creature an 8/8

You can also use Omnath, the Eater of Green Mana to make overwhelming stampede hit for insane numbers as well.

Strength in Numbers [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=116730] would also be a good addition for that sort of thing.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

My group of friends which is apparently my metagame is surprisingly varied. Granted only one of my friends so far uses a standard ready deck other than me. However, I see use of combo involving kaalia and some mean dragons, and saproling armies. Aggro involving myrs and goblins. I use most of the control in u/b/w deck. I'm surprised at how well I'm handling a tri deck xP. I also like using a necrotic ooze deck involving the praetors.

 

[s0osleepie]

Most of the decks I build tend to be of the aggro variety. I only recently stepped out of my current comfort zone to build a BW Myr Battlesphere [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194201] (or two) that was set up to deal 10 ? 20 points of direct damage. Regardless if it wins, it is a blast to play with and that is all that really matters to me

...There is another card, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head, but it's an enchant creature that makes target creature an 8/8

You can also use Omnath, the Eater of Green Mana to make overwhelming stampede hit for insane numbers as well.

Are you thinking of Omnath, Locus of Mana [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=34684] is an amazing card. I haven't seen him played in standard, but he is REALLY nasty as the commander of a mono-green EDH deck.

 

[DuelLadyS]

Post your deck and I can give you suggestions. My friend has a NASTY extended ramp green.

Deck as follows: Welcome to the Jungle [http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=269135] (my decks are named after songs. Just a flavor thing.)

I prefer cards like Caravan Vigil to things like Llanowar Elves for ramping, helps the Dungrove Elder's case. (I really to get some Rampant Growths.) Filers are pretty common in my group too. I DONT like full playsets, if I can avoid using 4 of the same card, I will. I prefer the variety.

I'm defintely going to be looking at all these cards you guys have brought up so far- if not for me, than for my friend who really needs to split her red/green deck up.

 

[Slycne]

I like my Illusion deck. Tossing that turn 3 Wurmcoil or Steel Hellkite is always fun.

T1 - Phantasmal Bear
T2 - Lord of The Unreal
T3 - Grand Architect, tap everything to play 6 casting cost artifact

 

[walrusaurus]

I recognized the name of exactly one card in this whole article lol. it's been ages since i've played. I definitely preferred the control style shielding myself from my whilst slowly whittling away at their life. We used to call it the white weenie don't know if there's an equivalent these days.

 

[walrusaurus]

I recognized the name of exactly one card in this whole article lol. it's been ages since i've played. I definitely preferred the control style shielding myself from my whilst slowly whittling away at their life. We used to call it the white weenie don't know if there's an equivalent these days.

 

[Fayathon]

I'd play more often but the shops around here that do FNM won't let me play any deck that isn't comprised strictly of cards that are from the current block, barring basic lands, of course. The last time I bought cards with any real passion was the Mirrodin block, and I'm not interested in paying a few hundred dollars just to catch up to the local scene.

It really doesn't help that all of my friends stopped playing casually either...

When I was playing though I rocked a little of everything, my favorite decks were my Green/White Phantom deck, it was an Aggro/Combo mix that did really well, and my Black/White Aggro/Control deck, because nothing did creature control for me quite like zombies.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It really doesn't help that all of my friends stopped playing casually either...

That right there is why I stopped playing. When the only thing they want to play is competitive, it gets really damn old real fast. Especially with a power-creep, singularity-meta (little deck variance).

Up until around this time last year I was still doing metagame analysis for Standard, and helped my friends take absolute control over two local metas (placing an average of 3 out of top 20-30 for about 11 solid weeks; one of them deals with the trades, the other wins packs).

However, I'm in University, and don't really have the time, patience, or will to keep my own game that sharp, but I do the number crunching and look for meta-choices. To date, my only real achievement, competitively, is predicting the best deck for 2008 World Championship (Standard) 3 months before it was even built.

In short: I'm a sadist who loves metagame prediction and the statistics therein, but I don't really have any motivation to play anymore.

I do like how "Hexproof" is just a cute keyword for what we used to call "Super-Shroud".

 

[Draconalis]

Are you thinking of Omnath, Locus of Mana [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=34684] is an amazing card. I haven't seen him played in standard, but he is REALLY nasty as the commander of a mono-green EDH deck.

No, the card just makes them an 8/8, regardless of their previous power. If you put it on a 10/10, it becomes an 8/8. The card is called Gigantiform

Spoiler

Deck as follows: Welcome to the Jungle [http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=269135] (my decks are named after songs. Just a flavor thing.)

I prefer cards like Caravan Vigil to things like Llanowar Elves for ramping, helps the Dungrove Elder's case. (I really to get some Rampant Growths.) Filers are pretty common in my group too. I DONT like full playsets, if I can avoid using 4 of the same card, I will. I prefer the variety.

I'm defintely going to be looking at all these cards you guys have brought up so far- if not for me, than for my friend who really needs to split her red/green deck up.

I understand not enjoying play sets, but the problem with that mentality is that you have a lower change of getting the card you need, when you need it. Running a bunch of singletons can screw you over. Take for example that you prefer spell ramp because mana dorks don't help your dungrove elder, yet you only have 1 elder. So you may never pull him, and all your ramp was due to spells, thus you have no creatures on the field to work with.

One thing you need to do is cut your deck down to 60, and the first thing I see that should be gone is the caged sun.

I have tried over and over to think of a use for the caged sun... but ultimately... the initial mana cost is just too high. By the time you have the mana to cast it, you should be casting a big creature in green ramp.

I question the satchel too, I like the card, but I've never seem to make it viable. I think it's the 2 and tap, it's too slow. The wurm's tooth is another card like that, you gain life for playing cards, but on turn 2, you'd rather be either playing a ramp spell, or a 3 mana cost creature.

Speaking of three mana cost creatures, Leatherback Baloth is amazing, 4/5 for 3.

The hamlet captain wont help you at all, as he only buffs other humans, and you have..... 1 other human in your deck? And he turns into a werewolf, losing your ability to buff him.

Looking things over, it just seems like you have too many creatures that are about 3 to 4 ish mana, and aren't game winners. What you want are lots of mana spells, to drop bombs quick.

For quick aggro, the Scythe Tiger wouldn't be bad, it's a 3/2 shroud for 1 green, but you have to sac your land afterwards. Since he has creature removal protection, I've been debating how good that is.

I have alot more to say, but I don't really want you to think you're "doing it wrong" because the game is about having fun. If it works for you even some of the time and you have fun, sure. If you want something that will work more often, I can help you make a deck that will stomp faces. It's ultimately up to you.

Edit:

Oh... and in the case of caravan vigil, I find that even in my morbid deck, it's a pain in the ass to get the morbid effect due to it being a sorcery. It's a ramp spell, sure... but it's kind of a "to late for real ramp, I need a third swamp for this spell though" kind of card.

Edit x2:

What's the 1 white mana source for?

 

[Ensiferum]

I mostly play casual and Legacy. My casual meta is largely full of aggro decks with a bit of control, but my legacy meta is almost all combo and control. I personally play a range of decks, from vampire aggro to faerie control in casual as well as Dredge (combo) and Tezzerett Affinity (aggro) in Legacy.

 

[Zom-B]

Myself and my cousin who I regularly play with are definitely Johnnys. I might have a touch more Timmy than him, as I like my decks to have one or two big Timmy cards that might splash out near the end of a game to seal the deal. Our other friend who we also play with is definitely a bit more Timmy, with a twist of Johnny.

For the most part though, we both like making funny theme decks or looking for interesting, if not highly deadly combos. One of my most recent decks, which is actually pretty successful in our little circle, is a goblin/rogue deck. Lots of quick summoning goblins and rogues and then a bunch of cards taht exploit having creatures with the same creature type. It's really surprisingly effective. I just tweaked it a bit today, can't wait to try it out again.

On the other hand, I've definitely made some Spike decks. I had two really killer decks that I stopped using simply because within our circle/meta game, they were too good. I had a brutally efficient Ally deck that was literally unstoppable. It would get to a point, maybe five, six turns in, where I was gaining life, putting +1/+1 counters on every creature and then giving all those creatures protection from the colour of my opponent's blockers and just roll right on through and crush him. The other oen was a U/G/W exalted deck that similarly became hard to stop. When you have a 5/6, 6/7/ 7/8 Rhox War Monk attacking every turn, getting bigger every turn, victory is not far behind.

As good and efficient as those decks were, I retired them because it wasn't a fun way to play. Unless my cousin had decided to make a deck specifically designed to counteract those decks, there was just no way he was going to win.

Anyway, we definitely play for fun, first and foremost. While we all like to win, we all enjoy a competitive game much more. Most of our games recently (3 player matches) have resulted in well spread out wins with sometimes nail biting finishes. Even surprise wins, where you think that you have no chance, but somehow pull it out. Granted, multiplayer is a different animal than a typical two man duel, but we have fun, we get to use all sorts of old, silly, funny, and powerful cards in various ways and that's what it's all about for us.

 

[Zom-B]

I quit playing after the Ravnica block went out of style, but this type of deck was my favorite of all time.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=555118

Straight up Mill deck, force players to discard repeatedly.

Mill, land destruction, and counterspell decks while very effective are the most annoying decks to play against. In a tournament setting when all you want is to win, I say go for it. Any other time, I would not fault myself or anyone else to craft a deck specifically to counter one of those deck types.

While they win, they do it in a way that sucks the fun out of the game for the opponent. At least in my opinion. That's why I rarely make those kind of decks myself.

I miss serious Mill decks sometimes, though they seem to be bringing some of it back in Innistrad with Laboratory Maniac [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221186] if you want to go with a "mill yourself" strategy instead.

Perhaps the Innistrad block for tournament play is slowly bringing back mill decks to tourneys, I know that personally, in our card stock, there are shit tons of cards that eat up libraries. From Hedron Crabs to Nemesis of Reason to Mind Funeral and on and on. There are dozens of mill cards spread all throughout the various blocks.

 

[Zom-B]

There is another card, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head, but it's an enchant creature that makes target creature an 8/8

Gigantiform. Goes really, really well with Sovereigns of Alara.

 

[DuelLadyS]

I have alot more to say, but I don't really want you to think you're "doing it wrong" because the game is about having fun. If it works for you even some of the time and you have fun, sure. If you want something that will work more often, I can help you make a deck that will stomp faces. It's ultimately up to you.

Oh, not at all- I only started a few months ago, right before Innstrad came out. I'm very interested in learning more about card combinations that I may or may not know about. (I imagine the look on my face when I saw a veteran player use Regress on their own card to avoid a Doom Blade was priceless. I'd never thought of it!)

I'm getting to be more OK with multiples of the same card (if you look at my account at MTG Vault, it's kind of obvious which decks are the newest becuase they have more multiples.)Still, I prefer 2s and 3s to the full 4. I hate the idea of locking myself into such a small set of cards, especially with so many out there.

As for the oddites of this deck specifically... this was my 'starter' deck. It's been remade several times in the brief time I've been playing, hence the lack of focus from random stragglers in old versions- like the captain and the sunpetal grove (it was a white/green legacy deck to start with!) Couple that with me paying attention to my newer decks instead of this guy when buying singles- never remembered to get another Elder- and I kinda lost where I was going with this one. Which is why I love seeing all these great options to get it tuned up!

 

[anian]

First of all, to give my side of the story, a friend of mine tried to show me (though not teach me) this game, but then last year I bought the digital version (seemed real cheap yet a good introduction), but I really didn't get much out of it.

This is not a criticsm of the article, I don't know enough to criticize or judge, just saying, as a small part of the audience who'll read the article, I'm writing this so you might know if you want to concentrate on more knowledgable players and not absolute beginners (I imagine it's hard to balance it out). Just as a point of view reference.

So what I'm trying to say this is from a point of a beginner (meaning I only scratched a bit on the surface of the game and strategy behind it) and this is just what I got out of it - not really that much. People who have been playing for a month or more seem to get something out of it, but about 80% of I didn't really even understand what the hell I was reading. But to someone like me who can't plan out a 3 card throwing turn or even a 3 turn strategy, to me it sounds like this: "I use this card and this card in my deck, this is a good deck if you want to deplete somebody's mana/attack before they attack you"...practically I have absolutley no use for this nor does this help me understand why this is good with some other thing.

Again, I'm just voicing my opinion, people seem to like the article and it's more of a "hey gang of people who play MtG, lets talk about it" then "let me show you how this works".
But in any case, good luck.