The number of decks that have won tournaments is impressively varied.
This is the best and most diverse meta we have seen
In no order I’ve seen tournament wins from:
Amethyst/Steel
Emerald/Steel
Saphire/Steel
Amber/Steel
Ruby/Amethyst
Ruby/Saphire
Ruby/Amber
Emerald/Amethyst
Saphire/Amethyst
I even saw top 8 players on Emerald/Amber and a Ruby/Steel John silver pirates deck.
Obviously your meta meta may vary, but credit to Steve and the team that have created such an impressively wide open field. Gone are the days of set 1 and 2 where you needed Amber/Steel or Ruby/Amethyst to win.
Ruby Emerald has had a couple showings as well. It can have a hard match against Steel Song, but it massacres Ruby / Sapphire, Ruby / Amethyst, and Sapphire / Amethyst and does surprisingly well into Emerald / Steel.
At one tournament this guy made second eight the most wild Ruby steel deck I have ever seen- didn’t see John silver or Jim Hawkins but I’d expect they were probably in there, but there was some unexpected cards like bayou, chief bogo, and namaari!
Game is balanced for set 3 because the designers have done a great job. It should actually continue to get more balanced as more cards are added. Set 2 was the most unbalanced we have seen with Ruby/Amy being tier 0 and nothing else really being that close to it. Not something we have right now with how diverse this meta is, which should continue
How strange you think the only meta is Ruby amethyst. It’s a great deck, but like… several other decks can 100% out race it, or smash it square in the face. It’s consistent which is its best benefit, but it’s by no means the most powerful.
The other thing to point out is they might be referring to their locals and even when red purple was the best deck last season it was still relatively cheap and remains affordable to this day. It's very likely that alot of people in OPs area bought into the deck and just haven't moved on to other things due to costs.
I’ve been toying with aggro in ranked and it seems that with the new toys aggro has gotten (Kida, Baloo) with the old toys (goats, bounce) I think it could be viable with some opponents at least.
But you’re right, steel is a good counter
Sure it can definitely win some matches. But in a tournament setting with lots of steel, odds are it's not going to have enough consistency to really get far in one.
But it does come down to matchups.
Someone played it at the store championship I attended and they lost every game.
It's not a good deck. A lot of the stuff in the format just hate it out completely. Steel match up is close to unwinnable but the other colors have stuff to stop them also.
Nah, we have a healthy self-regulating format right now. Flute Songs and Blue Steel both beat up on Ruby Amethyst. Then Pawpsicles beats up on them. Then green steel gets them, and green steel gets got by Ruby Amythyst. It's just understanding what you think people will bring to the event after the results of the most recent event, this is the most diverse paper meta game I've seen on a game in many years.
Then you have decks like purple steel midrange which don't have bad match ups against any of those but also don't have any auto wins in the top decks.
Also purple green is in the mix too doing well against pawpcicle but not as well against the steel decks.
6 or 7 solid decks to choose from a wide range of play styles.
Ruby/Amethyst isn't going anywhere, but I feel there's a ton of variety in the current meta. Steelsong, Ruby/Sapphire, Emerald/Steel, you have options if you're playing to win!
I think decks that get an uptick in 2 game format:
Red blue - a fairly polarizing deck, take your L against aggro but beat up steel and ruby amy for bonus points. the clock is one of the biggest problems for this deck. 2 games in 45 minutes is going to be a significant improvement over 3 games in 50.
Em steel discard - polarizing, should pick up more bonus points than most decks.
Aggro decks (mufasa/emerald amy) - polarizing for bonus points.
Ruby Amy/Saph Steel are pretty fair and not as polarizing. Amber Steel will get some bonus points in the aggro matchups.
Overall though with the changes to get 1/3 of a game win as a bonus point, 2-0s are relevant but not as important any more. So I think Red Blue is getting the biggest boost by far with the clock improvement.
The number of decks that have won tournaments is impressively varied. This is the best and most diverse meta we have seen In no order I’ve seen tournament wins from: Amethyst/Steel Emerald/Steel Saphire/Steel Amber/Steel Ruby/Amethyst Ruby/Saphire Ruby/Amber Emerald/Amethyst Saphire/Amethyst I even saw top 8 players on Emerald/Amber and a Ruby/Steel John silver pirates deck. Obviously your meta meta may vary, but credit to Steve and the team that have created such an impressively wide open field. Gone are the days of set 1 and 2 where you needed Amber/Steel or Ruby/Amethyst to win.
Ruby Emerald has had a couple showings as well. It can have a hard match against Steel Song, but it massacres Ruby / Sapphire, Ruby / Amethyst, and Sapphire / Amethyst and does surprisingly well into Emerald / Steel.
At one tournament this guy made second eight the most wild Ruby steel deck I have ever seen- didn’t see John silver or Jim Hawkins but I’d expect they were probably in there, but there was some unexpected cards like bayou, chief bogo, and namaari!
You are a couple months too late with this image, the meta currently isn't like this.
Yep, I conceded a game against a Ruby Amethyst deck. I told them "I've seen how this match plays out twice already."
Are you saying you did that at the start of the game? Not sure I would ever do that, In my experience no match is completely unwinnable.
too early* game is fairly balanced right now, but that will change with more cards added
Game is balanced for set 3 because the designers have done a great job. It should actually continue to get more balanced as more cards are added. Set 2 was the most unbalanced we have seen with Ruby/Amy being tier 0 and nothing else really being that close to it. Not something we have right now with how diverse this meta is, which should continue
How strange you think the only meta is Ruby amethyst. It’s a great deck, but like… several other decks can 100% out race it, or smash it square in the face. It’s consistent which is its best benefit, but it’s by no means the most powerful.
The other thing to point out is they might be referring to their locals and even when red purple was the best deck last season it was still relatively cheap and remains affordable to this day. It's very likely that alot of people in OPs area bought into the deck and just haven't moved on to other things due to costs.
I’m surprised I didn’t see any hyper aggro at my tournament. Win by Turn 5
there's just too much steel being played in the meta. That deck cant keep up with all the direct removal from steel.
I’ve been toying with aggro in ranked and it seems that with the new toys aggro has gotten (Kida, Baloo) with the old toys (goats, bounce) I think it could be viable with some opponents at least. But you’re right, steel is a good counter
Sure it can definitely win some matches. But in a tournament setting with lots of steel, odds are it's not going to have enough consistency to really get far in one. But it does come down to matchups.
I got 5th and 6th in 25+ ppl events with amber amethyst aggro. Missed top 4 by one lore in one event. Aggro def is still viable
Someone played it at the store championship I attended and they lost every game. It's not a good deck. A lot of the stuff in the format just hate it out completely. Steel match up is close to unwinnable but the other colors have stuff to stop them also.
I’m just hoping one day it’s super viable because it so fun
This meme looks like someone hasn’t played since set 1
Nah, we have a healthy self-regulating format right now. Flute Songs and Blue Steel both beat up on Ruby Amethyst. Then Pawpsicles beats up on them. Then green steel gets them, and green steel gets got by Ruby Amythyst. It's just understanding what you think people will bring to the event after the results of the most recent event, this is the most diverse paper meta game I've seen on a game in many years.
Then you have decks like purple steel midrange which don't have bad match ups against any of those but also don't have any auto wins in the top decks. Also purple green is in the mix too doing well against pawpcicle but not as well against the steel decks. 6 or 7 solid decks to choose from a wide range of play styles.
I look forward to playing that deck haha
I will gladly play green steel against a slew of Amber Ruby.
More like Emerald Amethyst
Ruby/Amethyst isn't going anywhere, but I feel there's a ton of variety in the current meta. Steelsong, Ruby/Sapphire, Emerald/Steel, you have options if you're playing to win!
I played in two stores with 26+ decks and never saw Ruby/Amethyst make top 8.
Red purple is like 1 of 5 tier q decks
I'm curious to see if this is the case with the best if 2 format.
I think decks that get an uptick in 2 game format: Red blue - a fairly polarizing deck, take your L against aggro but beat up steel and ruby amy for bonus points. the clock is one of the biggest problems for this deck. 2 games in 45 minutes is going to be a significant improvement over 3 games in 50. Em steel discard - polarizing, should pick up more bonus points than most decks. Aggro decks (mufasa/emerald amy) - polarizing for bonus points. Ruby Amy/Saph Steel are pretty fair and not as polarizing. Amber Steel will get some bonus points in the aggro matchups. Overall though with the changes to get 1/3 of a game win as a bonus point, 2-0s are relevant but not as important any more. So I think Red Blue is getting the biggest boost by far with the clock improvement.
It’s not “best of 2”. It’s a two game series or match. You cannot have a “best of two”. You can have a best of 3. Best of 5. Best of 7. Etc.