Subject: Another Article
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 11:57:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: GossNJ@aol.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

9/21/97
The Metagame Explained
By Goss Nuzzo-Jones

 The metagame, is, as you probably know, a type of play where you are playing
a deck designed to take out other types of decks (Metagame decks are also
known as foil decks, but metagame sounds cooler). The decks usually targeted
for metagame usage are popular tournament decks weak in a particular area. A
metagame deck focuses on destroying or disabling a popular decks offense
and/or defense by way of color hosers, card type hosers, or just cards that
work well against a certain deck. A good example of a metagame deck would be
the Turbo-Stasis deck. During the Black Summer, Necrodecks were populating
70% of all tournaments. The Turbo-Stasis was designed to throw Necropotence
decks for a loop by halting it's creatures and altogether dominating the weak
points of the deck.
 Building a metagame deck is not as easy  as it sounds. You can't just throw
a bunch of hosers in a pile, add land, and go beat a classic Big Blue. No,
first you must play against a Big Blue many times, and possibly even play
with one yourself. Find out how the deck works, what exactly it's weaknesses
are, and how they can be exploited. This gives you a foundation for building
your metagame deck. Next, find the cards that are particularly useful in
employing the weakness of the target deck. Against a Big Blue, City of
Solitude becomes a obvious inclusion, but weaker anti-blue/anti-permission
cards like Thoughtleech are left out. Then you want to playtest your deck
intensively. Run it against the targeted deck as well as other decks you
might encounter.
 Your main deck becomes a huge sideboard, devoted almost entirely to one
purpose, defeating the targeted deck. If you come to a tournament expecting
the kind of deck you targeted, and find large quantities of it, you're in
good shape. However, rest assured, not all people will be playing the deck
you targeted. Therefore, you need to have a portion of your deck and
sideboard devoted to the variety of other decks played frequently in
tournaments. This does not mean having a sideboard for hosing Buried Alive
decks with your anti-blue metagame deck, but your deck can't simply shrivel
up and croak at the first sign of non-blue. A versatile metagame deck should
be able to crush the targeted deck, yet still adequately deal with other deck
types. Of course, you can't be prepared for everything, so it stands to
reason that your deck could get beaten by something nobody has ever seen
before.
 The metagame is always a quick changing genre, and staying on top of the
latest tournament ideas is a must. It's also a great breeding ground for
completely original and immensely fun decks. Despite this, building and
playing with the metagame is not an easy task. It's hard to build an
effective deck, and easy to lose the focus of your creation. But with the
proper construction and attention, a knowledge of the metagame deck becomes a
devastating weapon.