Its 530am just took 1st at MTG born event. Must remember to reply later
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Well it slowed down at work this morning.
So I have some time to respond.
Lets define a few things before I move on.
Metagame - The composition of build archetypes in a particular format/tournament. Metagame can go from a store or play group level all the way out to a global level.
Tier One - The build at the top of the metagame. These are generally considered to be the best in a particular format. Tier lists are made by comparing how favorable your matchups are and how many good matchups you have in total, generally by community consensus. You then assign a score based on these results and rank them from best to worst.
When most people talk about the current meta they are looking at the games played on
OCTGN and the event results that are posted. With that knowledge people then rate the mages and sort then into different levels of power. This is not to say that the lower powered mages cant win just it is not likely if both are played by equal skilled players.
So whats makes that the wizard tier 1 in the current meta. Wizards have no school at triple cost and the toolbox spells in arcane are at normal cost. Other mages currently have some triple cost and are double for arcane cost. For the same reasons this puts the Warlord at tier 3, paying triple for arcane causes a player to make cuts in other places when building if they what a good arcane tool package.
( This next part is where I would say what would be the path need to balance out the mages again but since I am on design team I can not. Yes we are watch the meta as it changes and grows. ) We are always mindful of what is going on with the current state of the game.
PS: Yes MW does have formats for example we could play all base set or all apprentice books. We could play DvN / FvW but most people choose to play all sets with no promos.