Metagame

nifboy Wrote:I think it\'s nearly impossible to competitively play a CMC deck that does not contain:
1) decent damage-dealing creatures for winning,
2) some method of countering 1, meaning some kind of semi-permanent lockdown, be it by bigger faster creatures (beatdown decks with undizziers, etc) or effect-related means (Miasma factory, Slime Valley, Swords, etc)
3) some method of countering each kind of 2, meaning some of each of effect/location/creature destruction.
4) some method of countering 3, typically by overwhelming the minimal counters with additional creatures/effects. How many times have I destroyed a Miasma Factory or Stone Golem just to have another take its place?

That IS the metagame, basically.

Nifboy, I have seen quite a few fairly witty decks done that can skip one or two of those or all 4. The original version of my Mostly Harmless deck was decently successful and contained exactly none of those criteria. While it had about a 1/3 win ratio, it was fun, and when it won, it won big. Since then, the deck has a decent win ratio and contains exactly one of your criteria.

However, I do semi-agree with Zaen on that we do see some metagaming and it does partially damage CMC. Someone pointed out that rush deckers don\'t use effect D, but half the reason for that is because everyone feels the need to have tons of effect D which leads to no one using strong effects because someone will just destroy it. In the end, that rush deck becomes amazing because everyone\'s panicking over one soulsphere or cane like chickens with their heads cut off. This tends to stunt the growth of creative decks in my opinion, and if you don\'t believe that \"creative\" decks can exist because CMC\'s library is too small, play Lauritz or Pyrelight sometime.

Overall, I think some metagaming is necessary, but let\'s face it. Some cards are ludicrously over-powered, and I kinda hate the metagame in TCG\'s because the original cards are either ridiculously over-powered and original gamers walk around with this psychotic edge or the original cards become obsolete and useless. It becomes this never ending cycle of trying to trump the last expansion. Still, that\'s just my two cents. Personally, I think a bigger issue is that too many people are obsessed with winning and having the most efficient deck ever over just having fun, but that\'s another discussion.

I think a metagame will not be necissary, but inevitable. It\'s just not going to happen soon. For one thing, as previously mentioned, there aren\'t enough cards. There also just arent enough game mechanics. Counterspells and deck searching are just two things that would change how people play cmc completely. That would help build a metagame. You\'ll see a lot more metagame when cmc grows. When more discarding cards become available, or If an expansion allows for counterspells, thats an entirely new type of deck you\'ll have to worry about. I don\'t think nerfing overpowered cards has TOO much to do with metagame, though I do think nerfing gets out of hand around here and that people should work around cards instead of complaining about them. You can\'t really TRY to have a metagame, it\'s just going to grow on its own.