f13.net forums - Type 2, Serious

Seems like quite a few folks are getting back into Magic, so I thought I'd lay out what Standard looked like prior to Cock (Champions of Kamigawa..... jesus, Wizards, stupid?.... I know it's supposed to be CfC, but really!.... god) Block rotating in and Onslaught going out.

Tier 1:
Ravager Affinity (Ravfinity or just Ravager) - a couple variations, but none deviate too much. Ravager, Disciple, Frogmites, Myr Enforcers, tons of arty lands, Cranial Plating. Sometimes they run aether vial, sometimes Shrap Blast. Pure pain in the ass, and the dominant deck.

Tooth & Nail - Green/other. Accelerate mana to cast Tooth to get giant creatures/game winners out. There are G/R versions, G/w, etc. Basically comes down to a nut draw meaning having two Darksteel Colossi on turn 4. Or Akroma. Or the Triskelion/Mephindros Vamp Combo. (which is alot of fun)

Green/white Slide - Late comer after 5th Dawn. A G/W slide deck took Worlds this year. Basically, use slide to exploit the Eternal Witness and dominate the board. Obviously, major changes in store now that Astral Slide is rotating out. Probably dead, unless another G/W control variant comes in.

Tier 1.5, or metagame decks. These decks had alot of game against certain deck styles (land d owning Tooth, for example) and are played or not played based on the prevalence of their favored matchups:

Monored Control/Ponza - A mix of burn, land destruction, arty destruction. Avarax and Arc Slogger are your mvps. Slith Firewalker sometimes, sometimes has a fair amount of arties for accel (Chrome Mox) and Shrapnel Blast fuel.

Goblins!!1! - Monored/creature kill gobs, R/B Goblins (called Bidding, for Patriarchs Bidding), and R/g Goblins (metagame choice, better in mirror matchups). Exploit the Sharpshooter, use Electrostatic Bolt. Win. This deck is dead and buried, thank god, with Onslaught rotating out.

Tier 2:

U/W Control - Counters, board clearing (Wrath/Akroma's Veng.), mana fixers/recursion (Eteranal Dragon), Decree of Justice Win Condition. Pristine angel is a fav here. Blue gets some good cards, and white loses Vengeance, Eternal Dragon. Who knows if this will make a resurgence.

Mono-Green Control - Mana accel, Eternal Witness, Viridian Shaman, Troll Ascetic, Baloth. Rude Awakening for the the win. Still may have alot of legs in new format.

Krark Clan Ironworks (KCI) - Combo Deck. Use the Ironworks to accelerate mana, get off the win combo. Couple of variations, but they're all pretty similar. Can go off turn 3 despite counters/arty destruction, or fizzle. Pretty inconsistent, but it beats up on some of the slower decks.

Rogue. These decks popped up occasionally, and could do alright sometimes, based on metagame:

U/R Obliterate - Throw out alot of land, get indestructible mana accelerators out, defend with counter. Cast March of the Machines. Cast Obliterate. Win. This deck dominated Canadian Nationals, then pretty much died out.

Deathcloud - There are a couple of different versions running around, that pop up enough to be aware of. G/B, accelerate, beat, deathcloud. Monoblack/aggro black, sometimes comboing with Greater Harvester.

Clerics - There were two rogue cleric decks running around which would occasional post good results. Monoblack, with death cloud, and Unholy Grotto providing recursion. W/B, that could pull off an Infinite Life Combo.

Infinite life combo is alot of fun, and pulled me to a 3-1-1 showing in a store Extended tourney (decklist was type 2, so had some people pissed at me)

Broodstar! - This deck was dominant when Mirrodin first was released, but fell by the way side when ravager hit the scene. Use affinity lands/creatures/spells. Get out large broodstar. Win.

Have a buddy that's kept playing it, always posted pretty good results with it. He'll generally lose to G/W slide or Ravager played by a good player though.

-------------------

The quick overview of the prior scene there. Been out of the loop a bit over the summer, as I was tired of ravager and had alot of social activities that kept me out of the Magic loop.

If you've played a bit, you'll run into these same decks ALOT. Even in casual/for fun rooms. I've included the rogues because they will sometimes surprise you.

If I get motiavated, might post something on the Extended scene, though I haven't played Extended in a while and it's SIGNIFICANTLY different online, with alot of sets that are the base of extended decks predating MtGO.

As Schild has been saying, Champions is really going to shake things up. Lot of cards that shut down Ravager, Cranial Extraction (which will either single handedly change the metagame, or turn into a dud like Serum Powder was), the return of decent Blue cards, some tutoring making a return.

I came back to playing Magic last year, when a friend got me into it. Too close to 30, and bar scene/etc too expensive and too tiring anymore. That, and with friends starting to have children it's amazingly convenient to get a game going for an hour or two while the rugrats annoy you and try to help.