The block metagame has changed drastically since the introduction of Avacyn Restored, and with Grand Prix Anaheim being Innistrad Block this weekend I hope to provide a rundown of the new archetypes and metagame. For an excellent analysis of how decks performed during Pro Tour Avacyn RestoredÂ (#PTAVR), you should check out Paul Jordanâs article here.

The post-Pro Tour Block metagame, unlike the one that preceded it, really has no pillars. Each deck plays a pretty distinct set of cards, and there is no longer a best Huntmaster and best non-Huntmaster deck dynamic as there was before; instead, each archetype feels distinct, rather than just being a point on the how-controlling/aggressive-you-want-to-make-your-Huntmaster-deck spectrum.

There are viable aggressive, control, and âcomboâ (Angel of Glory's Rise) decks, and the format has a healthy metagame. (As an aside, a healthy metagame does not make a good/skill-intensive format. It seems to be the general consensus of many pros that this Block format is high variance and demands little play skill, making it not a particularly enjoyable play experience.)

Post-#PTAVR Block Metagame Chart

This deck is bad. Yes, I know it won the Pro Tour, but itâs still bad; it won under 50% of its matches, and the Canadian team was the worst performing large team at the event. In fact, the only thing good that came of this deck winning the event is that people got every imaginable miracle-related pun/joke/phrase out of their systems early into the abilityâs life cycle.

I guess I should explain why I think the deck is bad:

It is very reliant on Wrath effects and light on spot removal, so a player whoâs conscious of this can play around them effectively.

It has no way to interact with the graveyard, so reanimation strategies are particularly effective.

A Nevermore on Entreat the Angels is pretty close to unbeatable.

The Wrath effects are expensive when not miracled, so there are times when you just die with a few copies of Terminus in your hand.

If you ever accidentally miss a miracle trigger due to drawing too quickly, you might want to just off yourself.

Unfortunately, no one is playing this deck on Magic Online, so the table toward the end of the piece will have no further data about the deck. I think the combination of Avacyn Restored cards being very expensive (Entreat is around 10 tickets at the time of writing) and people realizing itâs not very good both contribute to the lack of its popping up.

This deck hasnât changed much since last time; itâs still the formatâs premier aggro deck and is capable of some scary starts. The deck gained a bit with Silverblade Paladin and has become more permanent-based (as itâs dropped from eight burn spells to three). This is another deck with a moderately bad match against Naya (as that deckâs creature quality is significantly better) but that is favored against control decks and can race the reanimator decks successfully.

The most popular deck at #PTAVR (and one of the best performing), the deck is as stereotypically midrange as you can be. The basic plan is to play some creatures and then take over the game with Huntmaster transformations or Wolfir Silverheart.

The deck is relatively consistent, but one of its main weak points is the mana, as itâs a three-color deck with three colorless lands (as well as four Cavern of Souls, which can at time raise the colorless count to seven). Itâs not particularly good at doing what it does, but the power of Huntmaster and Silverheart alone account for a large number of its wins. The deck performs poorly against Bant Spirits and reanimation strategies, so I assume the popularity of this deck will decrease at the GP compared to the PT.

The SCG Black deck performed spectacularly at the PT, putting two people in the Top 8, and it was the best performing archetype played by a significant number of people. The deck is essentially an updated (and much better) version of the U/R Stalker deck from my last article on Block, and it relies on creatures that are difficult to interact with and spells/creatures that enhance them in order to close games quickly.

The deckâs strength was most likely amplified by the caliber of pilots playing it, but it has also performed well on Magic Online. The deckâs main weakness is how poorly it mulligans (due to a combination of its mana base and the number of cards (such as Spectral Flight and Increasing Savagery) that rely on having one of the deckâs important creatures in play. Abundant Growth also happens to play quite well against Devastation Tide in the unlikely case the W/U miracles deck gains some popularity.

Robert Jurkovichâs reanimator deck performed very well at the PT, and while the deck is good, itâs not even the recommended reanimation strategy, as Angel Reanimator is just a superior choice, but I decided to leave this deck in for completeness.

This deck is another reanimation strategy, but itâs one thatâs much less reliant on the graveyard. Angel of Glory's Rise bringing back a literal army is an extremely strong play, and exiling all Zombies is an actually relevant bonus.

The deck probably needs post-sideboard answers to Grafdigger's Cage given the success of reanimator strategies at the PT, but the list doesnât exactly have room for much customization, so it will be relatively close to this. The deck performs well against both Naya and Bant Spirits and should be a strong contender at the GP this weekend

For a reason not to play this deck, please read Angel of Glory's Rise. If you still feel a desire to play it after reading, reread.

I once wrote an article about leveling, and this is a perfect example of a deck for which you have to have a leveled read in order to play. The deck has a very poor matchup against Naya, but at the same time, it has a good match against both Spirits and reanimatorâboth decks that beat Naya.

So, if you assume people are rational and will switch to playing a lot of Spirits and reanimator rather than playing a lot of Naya, playing this deck would be a good call. However, if a lot of people decide to show up with Naya, you might as well just pick up your cards, as your P (beating a Wolfir Silverheart) is about as close to 0 as you can get. Given the results of the PT, itâs probably wise to up the number of Blasphemous Acts (as itâs basically your only Silverheart out, but donât be too hopeful about the match even after that).

Magic Online Results

I donât even bother to pretend that any of these are in any way statistically significant, but I figured it wouldnât hurt to include some results (5 Daily Events tracked).

Row Labels Angel Reanimator Boros R/G Aaggro Jund Mono-Green Aggro Mono-Red Angel Reanimator 42.31% 0.00% 50.00% 50.00% 100.00% Boros 57.69% 0.00% 50.00% R/G Aggro 100.00% 0.00% Jund 50.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% Mono-Green Aggro 50.00% 50.00% 0.00% Mono-Red 0.00% Naya 33.33% 60.00% 0.00% Reanimator 0.00% 0.00% 100.00% Spirits 60.00% 50.00% 66.67% 100.00% Stalker 50.00% 0.00% 100.00% Zombies 14.29% 40.00% 100.00% 100.00% Row Labels Naya Reanimator Spirits Stalker Zombies Grand Total Angel Reanimator 66.67% 100.00% 40.00% 50.00% 85.71% 51.67% Boros 40.00% 100.00% 50.00% 100.00% 60.00% 53.70% R/G Aggro 0.00% 25.00% Jund 100.00% 0.00% 0.00% 66.67% Mono-Green Aggro 33.33% 0.00% 33.33% Mono-Red 0.00% 0.00% Naya 50.00% 40.00% 0.00% 50.00% 42.11% Reanimator 50.00% 100.00% 0.00% 37.50% Spirits 60.00% 0.00% 0.00% 25.00% 51.52% Stalker 100.00% 100.00% 0.00% 40.00% Zombies 50.00% 100.00% 75.00% 100.00% 54.17%

Sadly, I donât have any magical way of accumulating Magic Online results (as making an API would be way too much work), so every DE tracked means I have to track what deck each player is playing and then record the results; I have the spreadsheet pretty automated to reduce the time it takes (after recording each playerâs decks, each DE takes me around five minutes), but itâs still a super-tedious process.

An Aside on Cavern of Souls

Recently, the ruling on Cavern of Souls was reversed again with the following e-mail on the DCIJudge mailing list:

So, R&D has had lengthy discussions about Cavern of Souls. The card's templating is unique; there hasn't ever been a card before that has two invisible effects that have such different implications for the game state, and that wasn't anticipated before release. Given the problems that it causes, I suspect it'll be the last to use this template. In the end, the original designer intent of the card was that it always applied when you cast a spell with the appropriate type, whether you had actually remembered to activate it properly or not. Because of this, they've asked us to reconsider the ruling that you need to announce Cavern of Souls if you want the spell to be counterable. We're sympathetic to their desires and, as I said in the previous mail, there were arguments to be made for both sides, even if philosophy supported the original interpretation better. As a result, we're reversing the ruling. If a Cavern of Souls gets tapped for the appropriate creature type, the spell is uncounterable whether they say anything or not. We'd still prefer that players be clear about the game state, of course. There'll probably be a bunch of confusion about this initially. We did a good job (I think) of getting the word out the first time around, so it'll take a while to educate everyone about the reverse. I'd strongly encourage everyone to make reminder announcements at their events for the next few. I know I will be at the start of GP:Anaheim! Unique and messy cards are, fortunately, few and far between, and tournament-playable ones are rarer still. Apologies for the confusion, and hopefully this uses up the allocation for the next several years! Toby

This change in ruling makes me feel uncomfortable about both the ruling and the reason for the change.

Players would quickly learn the correct way to do things (after maybe having their âuncounterableâ creatures countered once or twice, the same as the learning process for countering Demigod of Revenge), and it would result in a bit of an edge for players aware of the ruling. It also allowed players to level their opponents, and by not announcing a Cavern use, allow their opponents to believe they âgotâ them by countering the spell, only to have wanted this result in order to resolve a more important creature of another type on a subsequent turn.

The new ruling removes any edge from players who keep up with the rules, and it instead rewards sloppy and ambiguous play, and it also removes any chance of tricking your opponent into countering a spellâsaying, âTap Cavern for colorless,â is much less than subtle. Whatâs to stop players from piling their lands sloppily and leaving a Cavern in the middle of said pile and leaving their opponents completely unaware that Cavern was used?

The reason for the change is also slightly unsettling: R&D told them to. While I have no problem with R&D contributing input during the process of making the original ruling (which took considerable time to arrive at), R&D completely overruling the judge community for no other reason than, âThatâs how we feel the card should work,â shows how little autonomy and authority the judge program possesses and also that theyâre willing to change a ruling that has been covered and announced widely (which will only lead to future confusion).

Itâs unfortunately too late to change the ruling back, but this is essentially putting us back into the era of where Time Vaultâs text was unofficially, âWhen this enters play, roll a 6-side die. Refer to the Time Vault Oracle text card for which version you get to play with today.â

â Chris Mascioli

Facebook

@dieplstks on Twitter