Just Another Meta Monday
Welcome back to Meta Monday! We are in weird unprecedented times with one of the game's regions cut off. We only had a good two days after the OTA before the United States was cut off so we have the start of what the meta should be for the overall game.
Regional metas might have fleshed out a little bit more but on the grander scale things kind of got stuck in limbo. Either way, let’s go over a couple of interesting lists and what the meta is starting to look like.
Pillar 1: Iron Hand
The release of Moonstone didn’t realize any of the pressure on the meta game that Iron Patriot and Victoria Hand placed on it. It’s made it a bit worse with decks including these cards taking up almost 21% or even more of the meta game as a whole. The synergy between all of this season's current released cards is very nice and players have leveraged this to their advantage.
Iron MoonHand
With the recent change to Mister Fantastic and the addition of Moonstone, the heavy ongoing build of Iron Hand decks has been putting up very good numbers and has become a popular deck for both low CL and upper CL players because the majority of the cards, except the new ones, are easy to get or have easy replacements.
Wiccan stone
It seems that nowadays, a meta deck wouldn’t be complete without the ability to run Wiccan. While it might seem that Wiccan is overkill here, it’s nice to have massive flexibility on turns 5 and 6 with Wiccan's extra energy. It also helps get all of the generated cards on the board and enables some nice Frigga play, such as copying Moonstone on turn 5.
While these are probably the most popular and best-performing versions, there are many ways to build around Iron Patriot, Victoria Hand, and Moonstone.
Pillar 2: Hela
She’s Back! With the most recent change in Thursday's OTA Hela has made a swift comeback to the game. While she is not as dominant at the moment she has quickly become the second most popular option in the game. Time will tell if this will hold especially with her new deck-building guidelines but as of now seeing Hela is not something odd or abnormal.
Hela 1
This version is probably the most common one you’ll see on the ladder and might be the most consistent. It doesn’t pack as much of an easy punch as she did before but still can put up good numbers fairly easily.
Hela 2
I believe this version has already been on the ladder before the buff and I am pretty sure it’s Denish version who usually hangs out in the Top 50 post infinite. It’s solid and has a lot of win conditions outside of Hela which is nice so you’re not as pigeonholed into doing just one thing.
Afflict Hela
This is another Hela cook that’s just a little wacky at first glance but can do well if played correctly. I’m not fully convinced it’s amazing but given the right pilot, it would do well. The ideas in this deck are solid so from a deck-building standpoint it’s a good deck. But, depending on the player this will be either bad or good. It’s not as straightforward and intuitive as other decks but has tools to combat anything that comes its way which typically a Hela deck does not.
Pillar 3: The Others
With a massive portion of the player base effectively shut down the last few days it’s hard to gauge what is going on in the meta since a lot fewer people are playing and innovating. The decks above highlight currently the most popular but not everything in the meta game. Wiccan, Negative, Clog, Move, and Surfer are all alive and well.
Negative
Move
Surfer
Clog
There are other decks in the format but these are the main ones running around.
JFSnap’s Deck for the week.
Wiccan stone
This has been one of the best-performing decks for me and I like the randomly generated card aspect that isn’t as overbearing as an Arishem deck. Hand size control can be a bit of an issue but it has some massive burst potential with the combination of Wiccan, Frigga, and Moonstone in the deck. Just be wary of Alioth.
Clog
Clog is my favorite archetype and while its stats don’t show it’s doing any better than other decks with Hela on the rise, Clog stock goes up. Also, a lot of the other decks in the format have a lot of low-cost cards that feel the board making it a lot easier to clog lanes. Legion has dwindled in popularity making Magik more viable as well. This isn’t my personal version but if you are just getting into clog this is what I would go with to start.
Meta Health
This is a tough question. Just at a glance, I’d say no but with the amount of uncertainty related to the game at the moment,t it’s hard to gauge. It’s possible with the last 2 days being filled with all of the players being able to play the meta would have settled more but I can’t guess that info. Either way, this season's cards are making a big splash which is causing a lot of people to run relatively the same deck which isn’t always the healthiest thing.
I know this is short for a meta report but everything is a little unknown at the moment. What do you think of the meta? Is Hela coming back a big issue for you? Let me know your thoughts down below!