Welcome back to Meta Monday! With the start of the new season, there is always a shake-up of the meta in one way or another and this season is no different. So let's get to the various pillars of the meta game.
Pillar One: Surtur
The new season pass card Surtur has entered the game with a big splash taking over almost 30% of the meta game pre-infinite and about 15% post-infinite. While Surtur isn’t doing anything flashy he is a 3 cost scaler that can hit numbers close to both what Sage and Bishop can hit but has a supporting cast that is a lot beefier. This makes most if not all Surtur decks puer stat decks with little tech cards trying to disrupt the opponent's deck and instead opting for cards to protect those stats.
Surtur 1
Surtur 2
These are the two most popular lists but there are more other viable configurations with one or two cards different. The main idea here is to flood the board with as many 10 power bodies as possible to discount Skaar and grow Surtur while using Armor and Cosmo to protect those stats and just outnumber your opponent. While this can make gameplay predictable and the numbers face up a lot of other decks can't keep up power-wise with the amount of 10 power cards contained in the Surtur decks. With this deck being a large percentage of the meta game there are a couple of cards you want to keep in mind that are likely to come up as a counter.
Mobius M. Mobius
While this doesn’t do a lot this does turn off your Skaar discount which makes your last turn plays a lot more predictable and lessons your overall power output.
Shang-Chi
While Surtur decks do include Cosmo and Armor sometimes you don’t have the energy or even draw them to protect your cards and even an early shang can ruin your plans
Scorpion and Cassandra Nova
While these cards are not as popular they do lower the power level of all cards meaning that your 10 power bodies are no longer a Skaar enabler. These are more of a niche option but Toxic decks are a decent portion of the meta game so be aware.
Pillar Two: Discard and Arishem
With the majority of the meta game switching to Surtur decks there isn’t a lot of room left for other decks to be a big percentage of the meta game. So while Surutr is taking up almost 30% depending on your ranking the next highest percentage decks include Discard and Arishem with about 5-6%.
Discard 1
Discard 2
Arishem
There isn’t much to say about these decks other than they have started to become consistent staples of the meta game that might not be top tier but do well enough that you will climb and can content fairly well with everything else around them.
Pillar Three: Bounce
With the main pillar of the format being a pure stats deck that has little interaction other than Cosmo Bounce is in a decent position to combat Surtur decks by going over the top of them. Two main versions are bouncing around the meta game at the moment and while they are not super popular being only 4% of the meta game they have some of the best cube rates and win rates over the last week.
Bounce
Move Bounce
Both Cosmo and Shadow King can hinder Bounce and are popular in the meta game. However, the main pillars in the format above Bounce usually require sticking stats to the board making it a lot easier to throw priority to dodge a potential Shadow King as well as play for all three lanes meaning Cosmo is not as effective in the later stages of the game.
Pillar Four: Agent Venom, Scream, Toxic
Rounding out the meta game is a collection of decks that are carried over from last season and are still able to contend with everything the format can throw at them through their use of tech cards or the synergies within the deck that upgrade their power output.
Agent Venom 1
Sera 1
Scream
Toxic
Meta Outliers
Surtur Wiccan
I am throwing this deck in here because it is a slight combination of the Surtur decks and a Wiccan midrange-type shell which is trying to consistently attack anything that it comes across as well as having some slight interaction with Shang-Chi and Alioth. This type of deck has been floating around the last four or five weeks putting up decent stats but playing a very minor role overall in the meta game.
Meta Health
Determining the meta health a week after the start of a new season is never a great thing to do because there are many players still in pre-infinite and just playing the “best” deck leading to a lot denser of a concentration on one or two different lists. While the post and pre-infinite meta games typically mirror each other that is not always the case especially close to season reset. Post-infinite is usually more open because people experiment a lot more since there is less at stake unless you are going for a specific high ranking. The meta game looks a little lopsided with Surtur taking over but in a post-infinite meta, it is a lot more open as people diversify what they are playing and don’t just hyper-focus on what they think the “best” deck is. What do you think of the current meta game?