March 29, 2024, 10:30:42 AM

Author Topic: Current meta  (Read 4462 times)

Knabbmaster

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Current meta
« on: March 11, 2019, 09:12:13 AM »
What does the current metagame look like, which mages are the strongest and how are players trying to beat them?

I haven't been very active lately and the last time I felt like I had at least some understanding of the mage wars meta was probably rigth before the wizard nerf. There are not a ton of discussions about the metagame and the ones I have seen have been about the strenght of specific cards like the bees and not about builds or archetypes.

Also how are cards like the disciple and leviathan treated in competetive play? They really do change things.

The picture I am currently having in my mind is that you can run gate wizard, disciple priestess and rushes with big creatures. But that there should still be an endless amount of 40% winrate books. How wrong am I?
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Kelanen

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Re: Current meta
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2019, 11:16:50 AM »
There isn't enough play for a global metagame. OCTGN is probably the closest, but I'm not qualified to comment on that, otherwise it's down to local metagames.

Disciple of Radiance is errated in most tournaments back to it's last playtest version (once per turn). AW told the playtestesters it would be errated, and asked us not to play it in in tournaments, but they have never gotten around to formally issuing that errata (or lots of others). In an environment allowing it to work as printed, it's absolutely the best book, and almost impossible to stop. It's also not much fun to play, or play against. It's generally banned/errated in fun and serious play.

Leviathan is a promo, so also not allowed in tournament play, although promos are played in most non-tournament scene (certainly all I've played in). It's impact on the metagame is nil (partly because Siren is pretty weak).

Other than that, personally I'd say Tier 1 is the 10 Channelling mages (in which I include Druid). Tier 2, and not too far behind is Straywood BM, both Warlocks, Paladin and maybe AT Warlod. Wizard is still good, and competent, and it's up in the top tier, but probably not the best, and certainly not dominant any more. If I had to call it, I'd say Necromancer or Priestess is probably the best, but individual skill and surprising your oponent count more than any given mage.

Bees are certainly very strong, and most books should have a way to deal with them, or accept they'll probably lose to them. There are reasonable answers, and on their own they can be beaten, but pretending they don't exist won't work.

So overall the meta is pretty wide open, which is the one good thing you can say for it.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2019, 11:18:48 AM by Kelanen »