So, some changes are afoot. For those of you who expected my regular column on Monday, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but at Adam’s request, I’m going trying a different column. This column will be designed as a data mine, essentially to present a weekly look at the current metagame and how it is evolving.

It will focus on Standard, except during Modern Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ) season, in which case I will index results for Modern events as well. I will be relying on easily accessible results information, which means StarCityGames Opens and the weekly reports Wizards of the Coast puts out. If you know of other easily accessible, consistent event information, please let me know via e-mail, and I’ll add them to the list. Also, if you have access to results from an individual event, please send them to me via e-mail.

I have also begun producing videos, but there are some things that still need to be ironed out on that front. The basic idea is that I will be using both video and article content to replace what I was doing previously. I will be doing this in addition to the weekly metagame report, effective immediately.

The metagame report will be centered on providing a breakdown of what decks are doing well. I will be indexing decks that 4–0 a Daily Event on Magic Online as well as decks that Top 8 a premier event (PTQ either online or live, SCG Open, or Magic Online Premiere Event). I will do a short discussion of the results for the week as well as discuss interesting developments. Decklists will be provided for emerging archetypes as well.

As Standard has been going on for a while, we essentially have an established metagame. The current metagame centers around four decks: R/G aggro, Delver, Wolf Run Ramp, and Esper control. Representative deck lists for each archetype are as follows.

"R/G Aggro"

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Wolfir Silverheart
• 3 Wolfir Avenger
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Strangleroot Geist
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Garruk Relentless

• Spells (12)
• 3 Galvanic Blast
• 1 Arc Trail
• 4 Green Sun's Zenith
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 3 Sword of War and Peace

• Lands (24)
• 10 Forest
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Kessig Wolf Run
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Rootbound Crag

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Act of Aggression
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Arc Trail
• 1 Daybreak Ranger
• 1 Manabarbs
• 2 Naturalize
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 2 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 3 Zealous Conscripts

Buy This Deck

"Delver"

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Dungeon Geists
• 2 Phantasmal Image
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Geist of Saint Traft

• Spells (23)
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Divine Deflection
• 2 Faith's Shield
• 2 Gut Shot
• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Vapor Snag
• 3 Gitaxian Probe
• 4 Ponder
• 2 Sword of War and Peace

• Lands (21)
• 1 Plains
• 9 Island
• 3 Moorland Haunt
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Act of Aggression
• 1 Celestial Purge
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Corrosive Gale
• 2 Dissipate
• 1 Divine Offering
• 2 Dungeon Geists
• 1 Hero of Bladehold
• 1 Revoke Existence
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 2 Timely Reinforcements [/Sideboard]

Buy This Deck

"Esper Control"

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Phantasmal Image
• 3 Sun Titan
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (25)
• 1 Doom Blade
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 2 Think Twice
• 3 Mana Leak
• 4 Forbidden Alchemy
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 3 Day of Judgment
• 3 Lingering Souls
• 1 Dead Weight
• 3 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Ratchet Bomb

• Lands (26)
• 2 Island
• 3 Plains
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Drowned Catacomb
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 2 Ghost Quarter
• 3 Darkslick Shores
• 3 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Isolated Chapel
• 3 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Batterskull
• 2 Celestial Purge
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 2 Dissipate
• 2 Divine Offering
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Negate
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Ratchet Bomb
• 1 Revoke Existence
• 2 Timely Reinforcements

Buy This Deck

"Wolf Run Ramp"

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 4 Primeval Titan
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Thrun, the Last Troll

• Spells (21)
• 2 Beast Within
• 1 Devil's Play
• 2 Whipflare
• 4 Green Sun's Zenith
• 4 Rampant Growth
• 4 Slagstorm
• 4 Sphere of the Suns

• Lands (26)
• 3 Mountain
• 6 Forest
• 2 Kessig Wolf Run
• 3 Inkmoth Nexus
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Glimmerpost
• 4 Rootbound Crag

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Combust
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
• 2 Karn Liberated
• 1 Naturalize
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
• 1 Viridian Corrupter
• 1 Whipflare
• 1 Zealous Conscripts

Buy This Deck

The metagame breakdown was very consistent across both Magic Online events and SCG/PTQ events. The breakdowns looked like this:

Delver makes up around twenty-five percent of the metagame, R/G aggro and Wolf Run Ramp are around fifteen percent each, and Esper control is around ten percent. As a whole, these have settled to be the core of the metagame. Thus, Delver is clearly the premier deck, with R/G and ramp fighting for second place. Esper control has also clearly proven itself to be the best control deck in the format and a viable option for players who like that sort of thing.

Infect is generally a combo deck centered around pumping a Blighted Agent a whole bunch of times for the kill. Both of these decks do okay online, whereas their performances offline are limited.

Zombies is another area worth discussing. It appears that various builds of B/R Zombies with Falkenrath Aristocrat and burn spells are the most successful. They are not, however, that much more successful than their Diregraf Captain–based blue counterparts or the mono-black lists. B/R is definitely the better of the two choices, but not by enough that I would dump the others if you are more comfortable with the list you are currently running. The concentration of burn varies greatly, with Brimstone Volley being the only consistent inclusion outside of Falkenrath Aristocrat.

Architect, however, was able to take down two Magic Online premiere events (PTQs and/or actual Premiere Events). I am unsure as to whether this is due to the archetype actually having legs or just due to good metagaming. Architect is definitely a deck worth keeping track of, as it may well be an up-and-coming archetype.

This is the final, aggregate metagame breakdown:

The final thing I want to mention is Gerry Thompson’s winning deck at the most recent SCG Open. Here’s the decklist:

"Delver by Gerry Thompson"

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Geist of Saint Traft

• Spells (23)
• 1 Divine Offering
• 1 Gut Shot
• 2 Dismember
• 2 Thought Scour
• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Vapor Snag
• 3 Gitaxian Probe
• 4 Ponder
• 2 Sword of Feast and Famine

• Lands (22)
• 2 Plains
• 9 Island
• 3 Moorland Haunt
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ratchet Bomb
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 2 Consecrated Sphinx
• 3 Phantasmal Image
• 1 Divine Offering
• 1 Amass the Components
• 3 Timely Reinforcements
• 2 Ghost Quarter

Buy This Deck

This specific Delver list performed extremely well and represents what I feel is the future of the archetype. The big thing to note is the move to Sword of Feast and Famine (as opposed to War and Peace or Runechanter's Pike) as well as the maindeck Restoration Angels.

I also believe that the sideboard Consecrated Sphinx and clones are indicative of what Delver will be trying to do as well. Currently, one of the biggest problems for the deck is the ability of other archetypes to go big against Delver, and the plan with Consecrated Sphinx and clones helps with this issue, allowing Delver to overcome the problem with simple card volume and a fatty of its own. You’ll be seeing it in the future.

That’s all for this week.

Chingsung Chang

Conelead most everywhere and on MTGO

Khan32k5 at gmail dot com