Mtg standard meta vine mare8/7/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() If I'm our opponents, I'd be chuckling that I got stomped out by Horse tribal. If I'm being honest with you, when I built this deck, I did with an ear to ear smile as it's mostly a meme that wasn't supposed to win more than a game, but we ended up getting more wins than losses. If we're paired against any planeswalker heavy decks, The Immortal Sun will bail us out (but it does ignore static abilities so be mindful of that). Our disruption will come from ripping key cards with Thoughtseize from opponents and then cleaning up whatever is left with Maelstrom Pulse. We do have a nice curve topper in Auspicious Starrix to mutate onto our "threats" for the unsuspecting opponent. However, Extinction Event makes us very sad as the exiling is a huge pain. ![]() This means Azorius Control decks will have to work harder than a simple Wrath of God to kill our threats. Another card that will synergize with our horses comes in at five mana, Crested Sunmare! This card will force a sweeper out of most control deck's hands. I do think Vine Mare is our best threat as it isn't targetable due to the hexproof. After that, its all about trying to curve out with all of our horses. Our most aggressive starts begin with Metallic Mimic that serve as our horse lord. I doubt that R&D worked on The Brothers' War with the predominance of Midranges in mind, but if it brings other equally powerful options for the other colors, it already helps to bring balance and diversity to the format, and that's what we should bet currently.We're a horse deck. That is, fixing Standard is not just about banning, but also about efficiently using new releases to broaden diversity. ![]() A few years ago, UGx were rampant, at other times, Blue-Based were part of the main strategies, and we can't forget that year when Goblin Chainwhirler was so prevalent that the best decks were basically Mono Red with splashes. However, the predominance of a color, combination or archetype is a natural part of Standard given the lower availability of efficient answers for every threat that appears in each new set. In that sense, we cannot say whether The Meathook Massacre was a good option, but it certainly was the only option. On social media, several people commented that "just" one sweeper won't be enough to end the Black Midranges' reign, and they are right: the card pool available for this strategy is very efficient, and banning too many pieces at once is a commercially bad decision that would cause even more backlash - Wizards has tried to intervene in what is actually present on most lists and surgically, the dominance itself will only be fixed by expanding viable strategies, including new pieces that will come out in the next releases. There is no "right" or "wrong" choice regarding what to ban in Standard today. One of the key pieces of this predominance is reflected in how well they can respond efficiently to all situations while accumulating value with a specific engine: Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Raffine, Scheming Seer, Soul of Windgrace, Invoke Despair and Reckoner Bankbuster are all widely played on their respective strategies, and unless Wizards wanted to make a sudden change in format by banning five or more cards at once, it would make no sense to deal with just one supposedly broken part and leave the others. If we look at the format's Metagame as it performed during the pre-ban weeks, of the ten most played decks in Standard, seven were into this category: Esper Midrange, Mono Black, Jund Windgrace, Rakdos Anvil, Rakdos Midrange, and Jund Midrange - together, they made up over 65% of viable archetypes in tournament play. Of course, Wizards of the Coast, through Ian Duke, published an article explaining the reasons that led them to ban The Meathook Massacre, in addition to addressing their view of other competitive formats, but context greatly matters: since the rotation, Standard has been dominated by Black-Based Midranges, whether monocolored, with splash, or multicolored. ![]()
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