[Article]Eternal Europe: BOM-Bastic

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Inspired by the combination of the BOM taking place last weekend and having talked about EU vs US meta on the Everyday Eternal broadcast, I try to use the BOM results to paint a picture of the EU meta:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28426_BOM-Bastic.html

Do you agree with my conclusions?

[lordofthepit]

I thought it was really interesting that BOM provided full archetype info, which SCG used to do in 2010 and 2011 ("Too Much Information"). The decks that posted an especially strong match win percentage over sustained periods of time progressed as follows: NO Top -> Zoo -> Survival -> Maverick -> RUG. It was worth noting that during this time, there was a wide perception that although blue was still the best color in Legacy, non-blue decks were very much viable tier 1 options.

These data have not been available for a while, and the perception (especially within the SCG circuit) is "blue or GTFO". I would guess that blue decks have improved relative to non-blue decks in this time, due to the absurdity of cards like Mental Misstep, Delver of Secrets, Snapcaster Mage, and True-Name Nemesis, but I wonder if the perception of blue dominance is overstated. The BOM9 data is not nearly as complete as the SCG TMI data, but the top 8 penetration data suggests that at least at this tournament, perhaps that is in fact the case.

[lyracian]

Nice read.

Listening to the stream the commentators said the French team has been trying out Meddling Mage and the general consensus at the end of the day was that they had been playing with 11 card sideboards. Between it being so hard to cast, in BUG, and it not doing enough they just did not get used.

Seeing Leonin Arbiter make top 8 of Legacy and then win the Modern event was interesting. It will be interesting to see if more people try out this style of hate-bear deck.

[amalek0]

Like I commented on the article--Loam decks are doing well because of the greedy mana bases of the fair decks. Punishing fire gives an out to the decks with fair manabases (D&T, anything tribal). As the 4C loam list showed, having a backbreaking mainboard setup against fair decks enables a heavy combo-hate sideboard, and I feel that with the lower overall presence of delver decks in Europe, He was able to dodge more of the "delver into double wasteland with force/daze/spell pierce" starts that are the nearly unrecoverable starts for loam strategies.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

@lordofthepit: yeah, it'd be really interesting to see some actual surveys of the SCG metagame as it is today.

@lyracian: Interesting, makes sense, though, seeing as you really need the MMage on t2 to be effective while Whipflare should be fine on turn 4 still.

@amalek0: Gonna also quote my SCG response for completeness sake: That makes a lot of sense actually, especially as Loam + Lili + Bob + PFIRe also allows you to outgrind people you can't just Waste-lock. I don't think Delver decks should be the biggest problem for this kind of Loam list, though, between Decay, PFire, Lili, Chalice and Mox Diamond, the deck should be able to keep up reasonably often, especially as Wasteland is really just a tempo play against Loam (the card).

[infiniteJ]

@lordofthepit: yeah, it'd be really interesting to see some actual surveys of the SCG metagame as it is today.

@lyracian: Interesting, makes sense, though, seeing as you really need the MMage on t2 to be effective while Whipflare should be fine on turn 4 still.

@amalek0: Gonna also quote my SCG response for completeness sake: That makes a lot of sense actually, especially as Loam + Lili + Bob + PFIRe also allows you to outgrind people you can't just Waste-lock. I don't think Delver decks should be the biggest problem for this kind of Loam list, though, between Decay, PFire, Lili, Chalice and Mox Diamond, the deck should be able to keep up reasonably often, especially as Wasteland is really just a tempo play against Loam (the card).

I played the meddling mage BUG board to a top 8 scg in Atlanta not long ago. I definitely used the list and the idea from Lejay. I did not find them too hard to cast, and I found them back breaking due to the surprise factor vs combo decks. Also, they up the blue count for force of will. Maybe a couple revokers would work here as well but it's nice to have a cascadable disruptive permanent with a clock. Obviously, 1 tournament is not a large enough sample size.

-IJ

[sdematt]

@lordofthepit: yeah, it'd be really interesting to see some actual surveys of the SCG metagame as it is today.

@lyracian: Interesting, makes sense, though, seeing as you really need the MMage on t2 to be effective while Whipflare should be fine on turn 4 still.

@amalek0: Gonna also quote my SCG response for completeness sake: That makes a lot of sense actually, especially as Loam + Lili + Bob + PFIRe also allows you to outgrind people you can't just Waste-lock. I don't think Delver decks should be the biggest problem for this kind of Loam list, though, between Decay, PFire, Lili, Chalice and Mox Diamond, the deck should be able to keep up reasonably often, especially as Wasteland is really just a tempo play against Loam (the card).

I really like the intro paragraph ;)

-Matt

[infiniteJ]

I played the meddling mage BUG board to a top 8 scg in Atlanta not long ago. I definitely used the list and the idea from Lejay. I did not find them too hard to cast, and I found them back breaking due to the surprise factor vs combo decks. Also, they up the blue count for force of will. Maybe a couple revokers would work here as well but it's nice to have a cascadable disruptive permanent with a clock. Obviously, 1 tournament is not a large enough sample size.

-IJ


Also, I really enjoy your articles! Keep up the excellent content.

[lyracian]

I played the meddling mage BUG board to a top 8 scg in Atlanta not long ago. I definitely used the list and the idea from Lejay. I did not find them too hard to cast,
I assume you are Justin Parente then? http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=13058&iddeck=95842

I have not played the deck but am just repeating what was said on stream as it seems very relevant to the current discussion.

[Phelix]

I played vs at least a handful of bug players during Bomweek, that had 4 mages in the board. (most had scrubland there as well) Some boarded them in vs me, both when i was on lands, and when i was on elves.

I was never that impressed, but I realize that neither of those decks are the main target of this Little hater.

Perhaps quite alot more players used the sideboarding option, than understood how to use it.

[muscleb]

If people want to win the battle of the midrange, then I want to be the guy bringing the stifles and wastelands. Greedy Loam decks can easily be dismantled by Delver+stifle in my opinion.

[sdematt]

If people want to win the battle of the midrange, then I want to be the guy bringing the stifles and wastelands. Greedy Loam decks can easily be dismantled by Delver+stifle in my opinion.

Aggro Loam traditionally loses to Rest in Peace. Play Rest in Peace. I love the deck with all my heart, but you have trouble beating TNN (without Liliana) and swarmy decks can be a problem. Delver itself isn't actually huge problem - just wait to get out of Daze/Pierce range then bring on the Seismic Assault/P. Fires/recursion engines.

-Matt

[Richard Cheese]

If people want to win the battle of the midrange, then I want to be the guy bringing the stifles and wastelands. Greedy Loam decks can easily be dismantled by Delver+stifle in my opinion.

Have you tested that opinion? In my experience, Wasteland, Delver and Stifle are not really huge concerns for a deck playing Punishing Fire, Abrupt Decay, 25-26 lands, Mox Diamonds, Chalice, and Loam.

I'm more curious how that deck came out on top when 5 out of the top 8 decks had RiP in the board!?

[ESG]

Data-based articles are among my favorites to read, which is why I miss the "Too Much Information" series so much. I don't find a lot of value in parsing a top 8 when a tournament is so large (535 players). It's interesting, sure, and it's worthy of an article, but I think a more valuable starting place would be to look at the top 32, given that a good number of people simply missed the elimination rounds on tiebreakers, and that may have tilted the field to a 50-50 split of blue and nonblue rather than a more traditional, dominant percentage of decks running Brainstorm. (You seem to agree in the last section of your article.) Certainly there are U.S. brewers as well as European brewers, although results have varied. Wenzel Krautmann's build obviously performed extremely well for him on the day.

Player preference and card availability are large x-factors that aren't tracked at tournaments but would be interesting data to explore. I wonder what the responses would be if each player at BOM was asked while registering, "What deck would you play today if money was no object?"

I think Patrick Sullivan was remarking during the Cincinnati Open on Sunday that one of the reasons the Delver and Stoneforge decks are so numerous -- besides power level and consistent finishes -- might be that they still feel like normal Magic and transfer over well to people who may be more familiar with Standard and other PTQ formats. BOM is and always has been eternal formats, right? So that might be another piece of the puzzle. I would love for there to be Legacy PTQs or some other kind of series in the future (with travel vouchers) where the best European players and the best U.S. players could battle.

[lyracian]

I'm more curious how that deck came out on top when 5 out of the top 8 decks had RiP in the board!?
He managed to miss most of them

QF 2-1 vs Miracles
SF 2-0 vs Elves
F 2-1 vs BUG.

[Barook]

He managed to miss most of them

QF 2-1 vs Miracles
SF 2-0 vs Elves
F 2-1 vs BUG.
Lejay's BUG list packed 4 Leyline of the Void, though. Sure, it doesn't hit as hard as RiP, but it's still a huge problem, as seen in G2 of the finale.

[BVB09]

Lejay's BUG list packed 4 Leyline of the Void, though. Sure, it doesn't hit as hard as RiP, but it's still a huge problem, as seen in G2 of the finale.

In fact he only run 1 Leyline of the void. Definately a weird choice:

Sideboard
4 Meddling Mage
1 Savannah
2 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Night of Soul's Betrayal
1 Null Rod
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Notion Thief

[muscleb]

Have you tested that opinion? In my experience, Wasteland, Delver and Stifle are not really huge concerns for a deck playing Punishing Fire, Abrupt Decay, 25-26 lands, Mox Diamonds, Chalice, and Loam.

Well... My testing is probably a bit outdated against such decks, it was lists with devastating dreams, coutryside crusher and such, but still P.Fire I think. I won like 8 BO3 in a row or something. Anyway, my point was not specificly aimed a loam decks, but more at the midrange battle as a whole: Decks want to trump other decks -> expensive spells. I guess I also like RUG Delver more than most, so my point of view might also be quite biased.