Metagame Check- Spirit Bonds

Metagame Check- Spirit Bonds

with Samuel Wells

Hello people of the internet.

I am Samuel Wells, back with another Metagame check.

Last week I teased what card I was going to highlight in this article. I have set my eyes on Spirit Bonds this week. To give context, this was the card that I predicted to be one of the biggest impact cards coming in M15.

Spirit Bonds is a card that calls back to the Aristocrat decks of last standard. The concept of making 1/1 spirits to grind out the game and out value the opponent while still playing quickly to the board. Spirit Bonds even provides its own form of protection for the rest of your creatures. Truly does everything that an Aristocrats deck could want short of having Blood Artist’s text box as well. When I saw this card, I immediately went back and looked at what tools remained from the Aristocrats in the current standard. And I found a number of tools that seemed to synergize well with this card overall. Without further ado, here is the decklist:

Metagame Check- Generator Servant

Metagame Check- Generator Servant

with Samuel Wells

Hello once again!

Samuel Wells here, bringing you another Metagame Check. These next couple weeks I plan on highlighting some cards from M15 that I see breathing new life into decks. Either strategies that have more or less died as the meta has developed or decks that I see as stale ideas that could benefit from getting a reboot of sorts.

My article this week will focus on a deck in the latter category. If you follow Star City Games or Chris Van Meter at all, you will certainly have seen Jund Monsters as a deck that has been highlighted and defended as a top tier deck in this format. And for good reason, the deck has consistently put up good results. If you have read my article last week you will know that I agree with them that this deck is a pillar of the format.

This is a deck that I have had a growing appreciation for the more that I have seen and interacted with it. This growing appreciation had spawned a desire to create my own brew based on the deck.

When M15 was spoiled, one lowly red common stood out as a final piece to the puzzle that motivated me to make a Monsters list.

Metagame Check- The Pillars of Standard

Metagame Check

Hello all!

Samuel Wells again, bringing you another metagame check.

Last week I primed a GW aggro list that focused on a low curve and high consistency draws. And if you check the most recent SCG open, you will see that a GW aggro list took the tournament down. Congratulations to Scott Lipp for showing the power of the deck and playing incredibly this weekend. Here is his decklist for reference:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=70464

Moving forward, I think GW aggro lists will continue to make top 8 and be a major presence this summer. I am happy to see the deck that I called nearly a year ago to finally be relevant.

This week I will be doing something a little bit different. Instead of priming a new deck that I think is well set up for the current meta, I will be give you a look behind the scenes of how I build my decks and what I look at when I am trying to size up the meta.

The Metagame Check- GW "Zoo"

The Metagame Check


with Samuel Wells



Hello all! I am Samuel Wells bringing you another metagame check.


The first weekend of M15 in standard has come and gone. SCG Baltimore did not see much of
new decks. Mono-Black and Mono-Blue decks ruled the day taking 6 of 8 top slots. More has been said about these decks since the Theros release than any other deck in the format. Beyond this, no major innovations were made to existing decks. Mainly for comfort with the existing archetypes in a new M15 changing meta.


One deck did catch my eye in the top 8 though. That was Andrew Boswell’s GW aggro list.


http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=70271


For anyone who knows me, this should come as no surprise to why I am excited to see a GW
aggro list making waves. What struck me about this list was the lower curve of the deck.

The Metagame Check

The Metagame Check

with Samuel Wells

Hello once again everyone! I am Samuel Wells, bringing you your weekly metagame check. With the format winding down, you would think that the format has been solved. Or that anyone could predict the decks that are going to top 8 on any given weekend.

SCG Worcester broke this mold in a major way. When we saw 6 mono­blue devotion decks make the top 16, including a one making it all the way to the finals piloted by Reid Duke. We haven’t seen success like this for mono­blue since early in its existence. So that leads to the question, what has changed to make mono­blue the deck to beat once again? Let’s check out Duke’s list...

The Metagame Check

Meta Game Check

with Samuel Wells



Hello! once again to this special spoiler season metagame check. As I teased last week, the
card that I see as poised to takeover in m15 is Chord of Calling. 
This should come to no surprise to people who have seen this card in action. Unlike eternal
formats, Chord will not be used to find the missing combo pieces in the deck. What Chord does provide is the ability to reliably set up some very powerful engines. I will discuss two current Tier 1.5 standard decks that have the potential to blow up with the new tools coming out in the core set.

BSB Presents-The Metagame Check!

The Metagame Check -Week One

with Samuel Wells

Hey all! This is Samuel Wells and I am going to be going over the recent shifts in the standard metagame. What caused it, how people have adapted, what it is all about. Then, I will show you some of the tools that you have in the current standard to combat the tier 1 decks du jour.

First things first. The recent scg opens have experienced an unprecedented amount of success from mono red strategies in several forms. Most notably from Tom Ross at the invitational. Mono red aggro decks have been fairly non-existent in standard since about Born of the Gods. This all changed in the last month and three straight opens were taken down by the red aggressive decks. Before that, a mono blue devotion deck took the tournament down. Which is almost as surprising because the once powerhouse mono blue has seen next to no love since Journey to Nyx. This surge marks a massive shift in the format back to hyper aggressive decks, but what made this the right time for these decks to blow up.

That requires looking at what decks were popular just prior to this surge. Three decks were ruling most of the top tables at this time. Jund monsters, Black devotion, and UW control. But Samuel, you might ask, haven’t these decks been popular for quite awhile now and were strong when mono red was losing popularity. You would be right, to a degree. The green based ramp/midrange deck to a lesser extent, but all three decks have existed since about the beginning of this standard. But there is a key difference to all of these decks that wasn’t true a month or so earlier. They are slowing down. They are all trying to play for a longer game.