The Rules of Engagement in the Early Everfest CC Meta

by Red Riot Games CA

By: Yuki Lee Bender

With the fresh bannings and erratas in combination with the new Everfest season, the Classic Constructed metagame is once again wide open. However, as we enter the early Pro Quest season, we have begun to see decklists emerge from testing groups and from CC events like SCG CON and early Pro Quest events. In this article I will outline the strengths and weaknesses of what I currently see as the pillars of the format. The decks I have identified are not necessarily the de facto best decks, but instead the most popular and polarizing strategies that shape the early Everfest metagame. Identifying these decks is valuable because it helps players identify what they should be expecting and preparing for and explains what restraints decks face.

 

Bravo, Star of the Show

Crippling Crush  Oaken Old

It certainly took less time than expected for Bravo, Star of the Show, to start making waves. While many players cite the large card pool he has access to, I would argue the addition of lightning cards and the Bravo specialization to Oldhim’s card pool is not especially significant, since the lightning cards are not really on plan for what Guardian is trying to do. What has been very powerful however, is focusing on the hero ability and chaining dominated Oaken Old and Crippling Crush to pressure your opponent’s life total and hand. We’ve seen lots of well known players like Tariq Patel and Rob Cygul praise the list which has been credited to Matt W. Additionally, Star of the Show managed to win SCG CON, while also taking 5 spots in the top 8. We have continued to see success from Star of the Show in Pro Quest week one and going into week two you should definitely have plans to combat it.

 

Strengths: Star of the Show is especially good at dealing with aggressive strategies as he can grab and hold tempo very effectively, and just a handful of dominated attacks for 11 followed by the winter’s wail are already enough to push card hungry aggro decks into must block territory. Additionally, he has access to Awakening which allows him to reliably find his key threats against decks trying to race him. The aggro decks Bravo seems to prey on are decks like CMH briar, Aggro Viserai, Katsu and Lightning Lexi, which tend to play many 2 blocks and also tend to require lots of cards in hand to have respectable damage output. Against these decks the disruption is key, and Bravo can often get very far ahead early on and push these decks onto the defensive. 

 

Star of the Show is also very good at making up for his weaknesses with the ability to run hot. Not many decks can stand a chance against the best draws that Bravo has available. This ability to never be totally out of a matchup as well as the raw power level of the deck makes it very powerful and hard to fully account for. While purely defensive decks like Oldhim have shown some success against Star of the Show, they generally struggle into Prism which makes them not the most viable option for combatting Star of the Show.

 

Weaknesses: Star of the Show is very threat light due to the heavy requirement on Earth, Lightning and Ice cards. Realistically, he only has 3 copies of Oaken Old and 3 copies of Crippling Crush and maybe some chances at recursion with Remembrance or Pulse of Candlehold. However, on the turns when Star of the Show is not drawing these heavy hitting attacks, he may only be able to swing an Autumns touch for 9 dominate on a red, or 7 dominate on a blue. Additionally, when he is not able to activate his hero ability he tends to only attack for 4 to 7 damage. This means decks that are able to slow the game down with big defense reactions like Unmovable from the arsenal can buy a lot of time to set up their own gameplan. In particular Aura Prism, Dash Control and OTK Viserai are able to minimize the damage they take and capitalize on pushing their own proactive plan on his off turns.

 

Additionally, Star of the Show plays a lot of cards that block for two and generally wants to keep his entire hand so he can leverage his hero ability and fuse or pay for his big attacks. Because of this, decks that effectively attack the hand on a consistent basis can get out ahead, and force Bravo to play defense which is not where the deck shines. Examples of these decks include Ice Lexi and more assertive Bravo decks that run pummels and have access to big defense reactions like Unmovable and Staunch Response.

 

Finally, Chane has also had some early success into Bravo, I suspect largely due to his trusty Carrion Husk which can blank an Oaken Old turn. Additionally, since his hero ability provides card advantage, he is able to have decent turns even when cards get taken from hand.

 

Conclusion: Bravo, Star of the Show is quite a potent answer to aggressive strategies. Given the early success and popularity of this deck, I expect its metagame share to only rise, and players definitely need to come prepared to beat it. Remember, either being able to fight the deck for tempo or being able to slow down the game with big defense reactions and capitalize on his off turns are both recipes for success. Bravo will still be able to win some of these matchups, even if he is unfavored, just due to the incredible ceiling of the deck. However, I do not expect Showstopper to be as dominant as players learn to adapt their decks to account for him.

 

Prism

Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light Miraging Metamorph  Shimmers of Silver

 

Prism is a hero that has seen some success in premier events in both the Monarch and Tales of Aria metagames. Additionally, Prism got some incredible tools like Miraging Metamorph, Shimmers of Silver and Haze Bending which all help her be proactive and snowball her board state using auras. 

 

Strengths: Prism in Everfest now has a certain amount of inevitability. The introduction of 0 cost auras like Shimmers of Silver and Haze Bending make it very easy for her to set up multiple auras and get value out of them even if they die. Because of this, the approach of taking it slow and managing her auras and spectral shields is far less viable than it used to be. Decks may well have to manage some of her more threatening auras like Genesis, Shimmers and Parable, but be finding themselves forced to race much more than before. 

 

Additionally, Prism has always lined up well against Guardian, and Bravo, Star of the Show is no exception. While new Bravo definitely has some tools to combat the Light Illusionist, Prism is quite comfortable playing Soul Shields, Sink Belows and Unmoveable to slow the game down. Additionally, the discard effects from Crippling Crush and Oaken Old are less effective than usual against a class that can play at instant speed to get around them. While I do think Prism is quite solid into Star of the Show, don’t count the Elemental Guardian out completely, he still definitely has some tools to fight back.

 

Weaknesses: Prism has historically had a hard time into Runeblade as both Monarch Chane and Tales of Aria Briar gave her a lot of trouble. The large amounts of split damage and go again tend to make it hard to establish auras, and more aggressive Herald plans tend to be outclassed by the more explosive aggro Runeblades. While Prism gained a certain amount of inevitability and is better at setting up her auras even through go again, Runic Reclamation represents a huge problem for the light Illusionist. The breakpoint of 7 is very challenging for a class with very little armor and the value the card provides is unparalleled. Additionally, Runeblade continues to be able to pressure her shields and manage her most threatening auras with their abundance of split damage and go again. Similarly, go wide aggro decks that can maintain pressure while managing auras like Lightning Lexi and Katsu can also have quite a decent matchup into the more aura centric Prism builds.

 

Conclusion: Not many decks can compete with Prism’s endgame and the aura snowball now feels somewhat inevitable. Decks need to have a plan to manage Prism’s most threatening auras and close out the game in a timely manner, before she manages to get too far ahead. In general, Prism forces the metagame to be more proactive, and will make it very hard to play hyper defensive decks like Oldihm so long as she is prevalent.

 

Aggro Runeblades -  Viserai, Briar and Chane

Rosetta Thorn Revel in Runeblood  Swarming Gloomveil

Runeblade has been a very strong class historically and despite the bannings still looks to be well positioned. They got some truly incredible tools in Swarming Gloomveil and Revel in Runechants that allows for Chane, CMH Briar and Viserai to all play very explosive aggro strategies. More OTK oriented lists like the one Hayden Dale won Australian Nationals with are also still quite strong, and can also board into effective aggressive plans, however they seem to have been less popular so far than more dedicated aggro lists. Here is a more hybrid OTK/aggro Viserai list I have been working on and have been quite pleased with.

 

Strengths: Runeblade has very high damage output and due to the split damage and ability to go wide, tends to be very hard to block out. Additionally, in a new format where the metagame hasn’t been fully established, aggressive strategies tend to flourish. This makes any of the Runeblades a very appealing choice, and I would expect all of them to be represented early on in the Everfest metagame.

 

Conclusion: Early Everfest decks will need to find a way to combat the raw aggression of Runeblade. However, purely defensive decks like Oldhim may struggle into OTK Viserai and Prism, so players may need to find more proactive and midrange strategies to counter these decks. So far Dash, Ice Lexi and Star of the Show all seem to have potential to keep up with the aggro Runeblades of the format.

 

Honorable Mentions - Dash, Lexi & More

Lexi, Livewire  Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire

I think there are lots of decks that are poised to do quite well and are currently underexplored. However, they do not make it onto my list as defining pillars of the format either because they place fewer limitations on decks playing against them, or because they seem to be less popular, at least for now.

 

In week one of Pro Quest season we have seen Ice Lexi be a popular choice to reign in Star of the Show and so far she has had multiple top 8 finishes. Additionally she is quite strong into runeblade and has a respectable Prism matchup. Overall Lexi is proving to be a strong choice, against multiple tier 1 decks and is definitely a deck that should be on player’s radar. My current build of lexi looks something like this, however I’m sure more tried and tested lists will emerge as decklists begint o get posted.

 

While we have seen a bit of Dash in early Pro Quest season, I think overall the hero is quite underexplored at the moment. Dash has a very good matchup into prism due to her ability to be aggressive and gain extra action points to manage auras. Additionally, she naturally plays many defense reactions in the board allowing her to grind out Star of the show. While Dash has traditionally struggled with Runeblade, Signal Jammer and Dissolution Sphere are great new tools that should help shore up this weakness. Additionally, Dash is quite a solid pick against Ice Lexi as she functions well on hands with many cards as well as hands with few cards. While players are still largely sleeping on Dash, it wouldn’t surprise me if she comes out in full force later in the meta and becomes a top tier contender. She certainly seems to have all the tools needed to compete and strong matchups across the board.

 

Going into week two of Pro Quest season, I want to either play one of the top decks or play a deck that has some game into all of the pillars of the format. So far, it feels like every deck has some favorable matchups as well as some challenging ones. Players will have to do their best to predict their own local scene when selecting a deck to play and do the best they can to shore up those challenging matchups. Overall, this feels like a very healthy place for the game to be in. Hopefully it will continue to stay this way as we see the metagame continue to shift and evolve. I’m really looking forward to seeing what other decks emerge as players have more time to test, build decks and prepare. In particular, I am curious to see what Ninja and Warrior have to offer as I think they both got some new tools and we haven’t seen much from them so far in the Everfest metagame.

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