Deck to Beat Criteria vs. Expected Meta Criteria

[HSCK]

So, this month's Deck to Beat forum update has Team America, Miracles, Jund, and...RUG!? Using their criteria Arsenal and I have been doing monthly meta analyses and RUG's definitely been on the outside looking in. In fact, it's tied for 8th place in 33+ player tournaments with ANT, Shardless BUG, UR Delver, Dredge, and Nic Fit. This is using DtB criteria to crunch the numbers.

That being said, RUG is definitely a deck you should prepare for regardless of how it's been doing in top 8s being collected. It's got a long and powerful history in legacy after all.

So when looking at the DtB forum, should it just use that 33+ player criteria, or should it use all of The Council's results which throw in a large number of smaller tournaments, but may show more of what's being played across the spectrum?

[bruizar]

I'm all for data. Especially given the fact that second market prices depend heavily on perceived competitiveness of decks.

[Barook]

I'm all for data. Especially given the fact that second market prices depend heavily on perceived competitiveness of decks.
Prices and competitiveness are only loosely related now, considering how speculators randomly increase the price on anything.

Personally, I don't like the new DtB cut since lots of information is lost that way without looking it up in the actual thread. I liked the old "gauntlet"-type of thing more. Maybe the old cut was too generous, but the current cut is way too extreme.

[HSCK]

I think the new cut is too extreme and incorrect according to the guidelines.

[Barook]

Remind me - why was the "Deck to Beat" and "Deck to Watch" thing dropped? It showed at the very least what the top decks of the format were, but also what else to prepare for in the grand scheme.

Sure, the diversity sucks this month (thanks, TNN!), but saying that current meta only consists of 4 super-relevant decks is kinda iffy.

[amalek0]

Look at it like this. With Bug, miracles, Jund, and RUG delver at the top, I should be sitting pretty playing lands since those are four pretty solid matchups... Any metagame that's suppressing combo is fine by me.

[HSCK]

But the meta is actually much more diverse, look at my March analysis: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?27877-March-Metagame-Analysis

RUG is not performing that well under the normal criteria, but at the same time should probably be in your testing gauntlet.