Just Another Meta Monday
Welcome back to Meta Monday! Maybe it was just me, but it was a long first week of the season with many players struggling to get to infinite as fast as they normally do and the meta feeling awkward. But, when we take a little time to reflect we see that this is mainly because the meta-game has evened out a lot more since the week prior making snapping and retreating a lot more important during gameplay. Most decks have even match-ups into the meta game while the “best deck” hasn’t emerged yet. Although, we have a lot of contenders.
Pillar One: Doom 2099
2099 has never left the meta game since his release but he has left the spotlight. However, this last week he has made a resurgence to one of the most played decks with a slightly different twist than before. However, the typical Doom 2099 deck also is working well.
Doom 2099 Ongoing
This is the list that I have seen most often and is arguably the more popular Doom 2099 list however it is slightly less powerful than the stock version because it doesn’t stick to one strategy and is more of a hybrid Ongoing with 2099 list. This opens it up to a lot more ongoing hate than other Doom 2099 lists that typically pack power alongside the Doombots. However, it is a lot more flexible and doesn’t hinge on getting Doom 2099 down on the board either on time or early.
Doom 2099
This is a pretty stock Doom 2099 list that has been running around for a while. While this list has less cube equity because it is more predictable it still wins the majority of the time because of the amount of stats that it can produce on all 3 lanes. Also, Mobius M. Mobius is a great card to have at the moment because it helps shut down Discard (Swarm), Surtur, Negative, and Bounce. All of which are heavy players in the meta.
Pillar Two: Bullseye, Scream, Ongoing, Arishem
Having 4 separate archetypes in one pillar is a little odd because all 4 of these decks are about the same popularity and cube/win rates but play very differently. It's hard to pump one up or down because of how similar they all are stat-wise.
Bullseye
This deck still just slaps hard the majority of the time. While vulnerable to cards like Red Guardian and Cosmo there isn’t a lot that players can do to counter this deck. It is pretty consistent from game to game and when it gets the nut draw it's pretty unstoppable. It also has pretty simple snap conditions like drawing Bullseye or Daken giving this deck great early cube equity and snap pressure.
Scream Doom
Scream Surtur
These next two decks are kind of hybrids of two of the other decks that are running around the meta game. However, they have a unique Scream spin that gives them both a surprise factor and more flexibility than being lumped into one single strategy. While Scream had a slight nerf recently she still can be incredibly powerful and when you couple that with either Doom 2099 or Surtur-style decks it's a potent mix.
Ongoing
With the new Season Pass card having a heavy ongoing influence, Ongoing was bound to be popular, and it is. More Captain America has been played in this last week than probably ever before. This is also the best lower CL-friendly strategy because a lot of the cards that are Series 4 or 5 are replaceable by a lower series card. This is a pretty simple no-frills and no-tech version. Just play your ongoing cards and create as much power as you can with Moonstone and Ravonna helping burst out some great power in the later turns with Iron Man and Mystique.
Arishem
Arishem is still completely viable and one of the better decks in the meta game at the moment. Many decks are playing very greedy without a lot of tech, so being able to run a deck that includes tech plus a bunch of randomly generated cards with extra energy—sign me up.
Pillar Three: Surtur and Bounce
Both of these are essentially stat decks trying to outpower other decks with pure stats in two lanes. However, they do them in vastly different ways. Surtur just says I go bigger while Bounce just wants to burst power to unknown locations. Both have been working effectively and with few tech options running around to oppose them, it has been going very well.
Surtur
There are some small variants on this deck but this is the most popular version. However, Juggernaut has been seen a lot more instead of Aero in a few lists so just be aware that Jugg on the last turn is a possibility.
Bounce Torres
Old Bounce
Most of the new bounce decks include new Winged Friend Torres as a double-up for the 1-cost cards. However, sometimes that can get predictable. Either way, he seems to have found his spot in bounce and is doing decently well in the meta game. However, the bounce versions that are older and include a little tech like Shadow King are better and are less glass cannon feeling are better for the current meta game. Either way, bounce is back and still very fun as well as puts up good stats too.
Pillar Four: Mill
Last but not least is Mill which has fallen out of favor a bit these last few weeks. It still is strong and a consistent cube-winning machine but it is not as popular anymore especially with Arishem gaining popularity.
Mill
JFSnap’s Decks for the Week
The meta game is currently full of a lot of greedy decks that are not running a lot of tech and counterplay. Discard, Negative, Bounce, Ongoing, Scream, and even Surtur sometimes just fold to a handful of tech cards so my nonmeta choice for the week is to run some good old Sera Control.
Sera Control
While Alioth and Cosmo are in the format they are not as common as people think they are, making last-turn tech plays a really good idea. Also, most decks that are part of the meta game are not running Mobius M. Mobius so Sera is an easy turn-5 play. Also being able to run your own Mobius means you can shut down a lot of the cost reduction from Surtur, Discard, Negative, and Ongoing. You name it.
For the Meta choice, I would personally go with Arishem at the moment because of the diversity of the field and Arishem's ability to run tech cards and have a slightly unknown factor because of the random generation. I know, Arishem is still seen as the enemy but it's a lot less potent now due to the nerfs and provides fun gameplay against a lot of decks.
Arishem
Meta Health
The meta is pretty healthy. For certain people who don’t like seeing Discard that often it might be a drag or those who don’t want Arishem to be as popular but many different archetypes are thriving in the meta game. However, there is a slight trend for hybrid decks to include certain cards consistently like Doom 2099 or Surtur which might get worse as the next week progresses. This might lead to the data saying the meta is “diverse” but it's just a Doom 2099 deck or a Surtur deck with some slightly different cards. Either way, the meta game is technically healthy although nothing new is happening so it might feel stale for some players. What do you think of the meta game?