In General: The Metagame Sheriff

It's a showdown. Pistols at high noon. An indeterminate number will enter, but only one will leave. Time to lay down the law! What am I talking about? Commander lawbreakers beware, there is a new sheriff in town...you!

Today I am going to be discussing some tips on how to adapt to a degenerate play environment. I call this philosophy: taking responsibility for your metagame. To best demonstrate what this means and when it is appropriate, I will begin with what it ISN'T.

This isn't the fun police. I am not encouraging you to pick apart your playgroup's interests. Don't single people out. Don't be spiteful or malicious. I am advocating increasing the interaction in your games; increasing the amount of mental skill, and decision density. This should enhance the fun you have with Magic, not ruin it. Done correctly, this will also help you, and everyone you play, with grow as a player.

How to spot the problem

If you are in a degenerate metagame, then you are no stranger infinite combos, 'broken cards', or unfair collusion between players. Those aren't the only issues that could exist though. Stagnation is an equally large problem, and one that will occur more often for some groups. By stagnation I mean: a deck or decks that consistently win with the same cards. Do you have several different decks in your metagame that are looking to land an Elesh Norn, a Mindslaver, or an Eldrazi? If your play group is experiencing convergent evolution in their decks. That is, they have identified what is strong and are now abusing it, then games can get boring. It almost defeats the purpose of even playing. I don't want to live in a world where, no matter who wins or what deck they were playing, the game always ends the same way.

Be a disruptive force

So how do you prevent this? How do you combat it? Well the answer is two-fold. You need to be disruptive; both in the game and the mind.

1. You need to inspire, and foster, a culture of innovation. If the primary goal of play is to create an interesting and unique experience, it is less likely that you will fall into the same habits. In essence you must create a new way to 'win', adjusting the reward structure so that you compliment, validate, and encourage unique decks and cards instead of stagnant ones.

2. Play disruption. Play a ton of it. Play so much that you can literally hate out the stagnant metagame threats. Imagine if you had a constructed deck that was pre-sideboarded. It would hard for your opponent to win. That is what we are aiming for. Come armed with so much discard, land destruction, counters, and graveyard hate that your opponents will have to come up with a new idea.

In a strange twist, Magic has literally dozens
of cards that reference lobotomy. Juicy.

I don't typically recommend this kind of card because it puts you behind on resources. You give up a card in your hand, but your opponent doesn't lose a card of his own. It does however let you dismantle combos and remove key win conditions. This makes it the perfect tool for what we are trying to do here. It also lets you see your opponents entire deck before you make your choice of what to remove; so this is even useful against unknown opponents. Kicking this is prohibitively expensive, but it is unlikely that an opponent can win after you resolve a kicked sacrament. You will simply have more removal in your deck than they have threats left in theirs, ensuring you win the long game.

A major cost will be incurred during deck building. You will have to use so much space on disruption and removal that you will have a dangerously low threat density. It is unlikely you will be able to win a typical multiplayer game. That is the sacrifice a hero has to make. It is no longer about you trying to win, but rather getting someone else to win in an interesting or innovative way.

Again, I am not advocating fighting a personal battle, but instead a philosophical one. Increasing the interactivity of your decks, increasing the interactivity of your games, and most importantly - your playgroup.

Next week, we will be discussing interaction more in-depth. The "Interaction Advantage", a phrase I first heard from Zach Hill, and how we can use it to build strong decks that promote the mental game of Magic. See you next week Zoners.