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What is the best Uxx deck in European Highlander? And why is it Tempo?

Started by Ahnung, 22-10-2020, 10:42:37 AM

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Ahnung

Three-colored decks that revolve around blue as its main pillar have long constituted the core of the European Highlander format. Traditionally, players were drawn to Bant and Jeskai midrange or Esper and Grixis control as these archetypes were offering quality cards, were highly customizable and had a distinct identity and feel to them. Nowadays, the consensus of the broader player base seems to be that the heyday of such decks is over and ways of deck-construction that were viable two or three years ago now ought to be subjected to substantial reconsideration. The format has become faster, games require more interaction and the knowledge-base of the community is stronger than ever. Nevertheless, blue is still the most frequently used color and the three-color approach has proven a solid route to tackle the Highlander format due to its comparatively stable mana-situation and card quality.

Therefore, I want to attempt to rank all the Uxx variants according to their playability in the current metagame and try to make sense of the recent innovations in Highlander deckbuilding with blue. As I grouped the decks in different tiers, I should first of all define the ranking-criteria:

Tier 3 – These are decks that you can reasonably bring to a tournament and expect to win between 40% to 60% of your matches. They have quality in their core but suffer from structural deficiencies which can be mainly read back to either an ambitious manabase or a lack of focus in their overall game-plan. This shakiness hinders them from realizing their potential.
Tier 2 – In this category I grouped decks that have a realistic chance of top 8'ing a 6 to 7 round tournament. These are established archetypes and well-rounded decks but are generally cold to a certain deck-archetype on the opposite end of the spectrum or are prone to losing to the nut draws of higher-ranking decks.
Tier 1 – These decks are the decks that are known to everyone to have the highest chance of winning any given tournament they enter. Given their consistency and powerlevel, they set the bar for the other decks.

I included some non-Uxx decks in order to give you a point of comparison on how strong each variant is. I hope you enjoy reading this piece and feel the urge to respond. Please note that I am aware that my viewpoint is highly subjective and therefore I do not claim universality; instead, I would be happy to receive some criticism where its due.

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UWB (Esper) – Tier 3
Quite frankly, I don't know what to make of Esper. This color-combination has absolutely no appeal to me in any iteration whatsoever. Starting with the manabase, it becomes immediately obvious that it is disadvantageously positioned compared to all of the other Uxx variants. It does not have a triome, it does not have a blue horizon land (which is mostly relevant as it is one less untapped blue dual at Esper's disposal) and most of its appealing spells require you to spend either double black or double white mana. I am unable to see how you can construct a reasonably low mana curve that shields you from the randomness of the format. Granted, its top-end spells in Palace Jailer, Lurrus of the Dream-Den or Teferi, Time Raveler are insanely good, but its noticeable lack in proactive turn 1 and turn 2 plays renders it a weak choice overall.

UWG (Bant) – Tier 3
In my view, Bant ranks a small percentage higher than Esper as it can access Noble Hierarch, Veil of Summer, Sylvan Library, Oko, Thief of Crowns and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. Beyond that, it can muster an early board presence in Tarmogoyf and the likes, which makes it, say, half a turn faster than Esper and to some degree shores up its overall lack of good removal. However, being a bit more proactive does not always compensate for its continued reliance on mana elves in order to make up for the decline in card quality once you attempt to fill the last ten cards of the deck. Similar to Esper, the height of its curve subjects Bant to the same dynamics that make Esper an unappealing choice if you want to play a three-color blue deck.

Other notable decks in Tier 3: RG beats, Mardu midrange, UW control, UR control

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As I just pointed out, Bant and Esper suffer from not having enough meaningful plays in the first two turns and a comparatively high and color-intensive mana curve. This is not ideal as you are both less likely to determine the pace of the game or adapt to it. Being reactive in nature and having a higher mana curve subjects your draws to the variance of the format and makes you overly reliant upon high impact spells of which there is an insufficient density. This is probably the biggest realization among Highlander players in the last years. Now it becomes to question on how to circumvent this inherent flaw of midrange in highlander, and the answer seems to be found in the redundancy and consistency offered by tempo decks.

Now, I don't think the term aggro-control aptly describes what tempo is about. For me, it is all about role assessment and the ability to play the required game as cost-effective as possible, therefore accruing small mana-advantages in order to bring yourself into a position where it is possible to quickly shift gears. Your best draws of course involve a turn 1 creature on the play, but the strategy is appealing because the low mana curve can often negate the disadvantage of being on the draw. Ultimately, tempo is so attractive because your opening hands always contain cards that fulfill some of the very narrowly defined roles your game-plan demands from them. There is not much background noise and distraction going on, and a high emphasis is put on the raw effect-to mana ratio.

Some simple examples of this: if you talked yourself into playing Opt, then also play Sleight of Hand because it technically provides the same selection, a purpose which you have identified as meaningful to the overall functioning of your deck. If you play Spell Pierce, then also consider playing Flusterstorm or even Miscast because both serve the same role, which is protecting your creature against a removalspell or keeping your opponent off of fresh cards. If you play Daze, then also play Force of Will, Force of Negation and Mental Misstep because if you want to exploit tempo advantages, then it makes no sense skipping these cards.

Another factor that contributed to Tempo's rise as the premier style of playing blue is the increase in card advantage accessible either in the early game or for low mana investment. Here we are talking primarily Dreadhorde Arcanist, Ethereal Forager, Mystic Sanctuary, Wrenn and Six, Sea Gate Stormcaller, and also to some extend Brazen Borrower (as one bounce is almost always enough to render an immediate replay of the card meaningless in the face of all the pressure you subject your opponent to in the meantime). Most of these cards accrue value the longer they stick around, so once you dodge the initial interaction spell of your opponent, it becomes increasingly unlikely for your opponent to handle them while they snowball out of control. So why playing cmc3 or cmc4 threats when you might as well play a cmc2 threat with protection that is nowadays equally likely to win you the game?

The general trend you will notice in my reasoning is that I perceive the blue-red core to be a tiny bit stronger than the blue-black core of those decks. Although discard spells can turn out to be incredibly devastating to starting hands in a 100-card singleton format, there are currently only three of them which are playable on turn 1. Add to this the fact black's removal – while excellent against creature-based strategies – can turn out to be relatively dead cards in some matchups. (I am also not factoring in Demonic Tutor and Tainted Pact all too much in this equation, because tempo decks mainly consist of a few functionally similar card-types, thus mitigating the powerlevel of these tutors.) There is, however, a greater number of playable burn-spells than discard spells which, if things fall apart ingame, can be converted into direct damage and intensify racing situations. This inevitability in the lategame makes your earlygame pattern of creature + disruption more meaningful in the long run.

With that out of the way, lets continue on our list and see what constitutes the pinnacle of Uxx in European Highlander.

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UBG (Sultai) Tempo – Tier 2
Currently, Sultai's midrange iterations are very popular among Highlander players (and found a bit higher on this list). However, there is also some underexplored potential in Sultai Tempo variants, therefore I am mentioning it here. If it was to exist, it would be good. Its strengths are, of course, the amount of quality threats expressed in pure power/toughness-to-mana ratio, discard as well as tutor-spells. Additionally, it makes the most use of Deathrite Shaman and has a corresponding Zagoth Triome at its disposal.

However, there are some inherent problems to the color-pairing that, in my opinion, keep it from being consistently great. During deck construction, you might notice the following three things: first off, the mana-curve is skewed towards cmc2 spells - there is simply too much powerful stuff in blue-black and green-black that you cannot afford to miss out on if you bought into Sultai. You may think that this is a luxurious problem to have, but I perceive it as a structural weakness of the archetype as it reduces the chances of maximizing mana-efficiency during each of your turns. Although the cards are excellent, in some situations they are tempo-disadvantageous or too often tempo even, for instance if you use Abrupt Decay, Eliminate, Drown in the Loch or Assassin's Trophy to deal with cards that your opponent got for one mana or which already created something in terms of card advantage. Moreover, the deck is too graveyard-reliant: you have the problem of choosing between six delve-spells, possibly also Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, keeping Delirium for Traverse the Ulvenwald and Grim Flayer while also trying to make a huge Tarmogoyf. This naturally reduces your ability to effectively utilize Snapcaster Mage, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and precludes the possibility of leveraging potent turn 1 threats such as Nimble Mongoose and Pteramander. Last but not least, I think the mana-requirements of the deck are too intensive (color-wise) given the current degree of consistency Highlander manabases can ultimately offer. If the mana was a bit more reliable or if there were some more free counterspells, Sultai tempo would definitely rank higher on my list.

Other notable decks in Tier 2: UR Tempo, Maverick, White Weenie, Reanimator, 4c Blood, 4c w/o green, Abzan Midrange, Green Ramp

URW (Jeskai) Tempo – Tier 1.5
Jeskai has traditionally been a pillar of the format and continues to be a very solid choice in an unknown meta. The deck is strategically well-rounded, has a lot of cards with unique appeal and a strong base-color, as its splashes are light and revolve around blue to a large extend. Whenever I play another blue tempo variant, I am extremely sad to miss out on cards such as Mana Tithe (as a consistency boost in Force Spike-effects is always desirable), Lightning Helix, the best one mana removal spells in Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares as well as Teferi, Time Raveler. There are other great cards in Monastery Mentor and Geist of Saint Traft, but they are arguably less important to the overall strategy and more directly replaceable by other cmc-3 threats in different color-pairings.
However, what bothers me the most when playing Jeskai is its relative inability to muster an initial board presence, a premise that a lot of tempo's strength hinges on. The black delve-creatures and green onedrops are not to its avail, and the most sustainable board presence is achieved by three-mana investments in some of the cards I just mentioned. You can shore this up to some degree by playing Myth Realized, Pteramander and Grim Lavamancer. Long story short, Jeskai never disappoints, but also has a lower expectancy to quickly shut the door on your opponent.

Other notable decks in Tier 1.5: Red Deck Wins, Scapeshift, Sultai Midrange

URB (Grixis) Tempo – Tier 1
In late 2018, Grixis Tempo really became a trendsetter for how blue decks ought to be constructed going forward. The deck has won multiple high-level tournaments across different communities and continued to be on top of the metagame ever since. It can interact on the highest competitive level with almost every strategy. Its most impressive aspects, in my opinion, are its ability to play the control/value game for an insanely low amount of mana and then, once the situation allows for it, almost equally efficiently transition into closing out the game in quick fashion. However, it can sometimes stumble over its own mana and a good portion of its creatures are relatively feeble, but these are only minor issues to an overall excellent deck.

URG (Temur) Tempo – Tier 1
Temur has similar strengths and weaknesses compared to Grixis. However, the tendencies are more extreme. It seems to win more reliably against the good matchups (combo/ control) due to its faster clock and array of cheap counters. But it loses more against bad matchups (i.e. nonblue midrange/creature strategies) as it is less capable of catching back up on cards once it falls behind. This makes the choice of playing Temur in an unexpected meta generally a bit more risky, but the ability to create a meaningful board presence early and back it up with a large amount of inexpensive disruption is a formidable recipe for success no matter what deck you are sitting across from. If built with discipline, Temur is not a color-intensive deck. Coupled with the fact that it naturally has the lowest overall cmc of all the Uxx variants you will notice that you are only very rarely taking mulligans for strategic or mana-related reasons. Ultimately, the combination of Temur's proactivity and consistency give it the edge over Grixis, but you are sacrificing stamina and individual card quality for it - which will come back to haunt you.

Other notable decks in Tier 1: Oracle Breach, Academy Combo

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There you have it, my tier list of Uxx decks. I argued that some combinations are generally bad, that tempo is the most powerful way to play blue and that red is the first color to add once you transition into this style of deckbuilding. To conclude the article, I think it's a good exercise to reflect on the reasons underlying this development within the format. One self-critical argument would point out that what we are seeing is the outcome of a self-fulfilling prophecy. As this piece exemplifies, much is written on how tempo is a better shell for blue than midrange. This is a statement that dates some years back already and regardless if it is true or not, it definitely influenced how players have constructed their decks – which is reflected by a steady decline in curve by blue decks not entirely explicable by new card printings. Another reason could be that more tournament data and knowledge is being shared within the community, so we naturally progress towards a more competitive environment.

Be it as it may, while I think that blue decks in their tempo-variant are now "better" than blue has ever been played in the format, I do also strongly feel that the reign of blue midrange decks that so long constituted the core of the metagame has ended (apart from Sultai now being its prime exponent) and that more space in the fair middle of the format has opened up. Non-blue midrange is now far better equipped to beat fair blue decks due to having gained more proactivity and card-advantage, often crammed into the same card (think Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Skyclave Apparition, Wrenn and Six, Questing Beast etc.). What hinders them from entering higher tiers, however, is the current banlist. Said decks would either benefit from unbans in the form of Umezawa's Jitte, Skullclamp or Birthing Pod or we would need to see the hammer dropping on Treasure Cruise and Demonic Tutor, possibly Dig through Time and Tainted Pact as well.

t3nn0

Thank you for your input and overview.

Allow me for some continuing considerations:

1. Some Uxx-Archetypes are not properly classified in my opinion, f.e. Bant is GWu or Sultai is GBU. Blue is more a colour of support for these decks. The strong parts are Green respectively equally divided colors.

2. Bant performed strong in the last Continental Cup 2019. How come you list it as Tier 3? Your arguments are not thouroughly convincing.

3. Three-Colour-Piles are not necessary Happy Place. I would make the argument that the mana base is just slightly worse for Four-Colour-Decks against Mana-Denial-Strategies (Blood Moon, Back to Basics) and just works out fine to tweak in a couple more power in decline of mana base consistency. Especially 4-Colour Blood or 4-Colour-Tempo-decks are at the top at the format in my opinion (Lets say in your categories Tier 1 till Tier 1.5).

4. If this is just a long writing as argument against/for bannings, I think this is not completely thought through.
- Birthing Pod would start a new breed of Combo-Decks which start off to dominate the format.
- Jitte and Skullclamp are worth to keep on the watchlist (see Official Announcements). I would rather prefer Skullclamp over Jitte cause it is just an overwhelming force in every creature based deck. On the other side Skullclamp has more Combo-potential to it...
- I agree that Combo has to be watched more closely. But if you have played a Combo-Deck once there are mostly small windows for you to win and the hate is already out there (especially U and B). There I do not think Demonic Tutor, Dig through time or Treasure Cruise or Tainted Pact are the problem. If you throw these cards out of the format you kill combo decks once and for all. Besided you are trimming Midrange and Tempo decks in their tool kit. Fun Fact: Just take the next best Tutor from the list of MTG-card history.  

Highlander startet as a format where you could play almost any card from magic history. If there are more bans than necessary the format would contradicts its vision.

I think the better approach is to think about specific combos and ban cards that enable the combo itself (f.e. Underworld Breach, Tolarian Academy, etc.). And still the only reason to ban cards if you can not interact with the possibly banned card/combo.


To sum it up for me: Thanks for the read but better leave banning considerations out.

Edit
5. I disagree on your assumptions about deckbuilding ("if you play Opt, play also Sleight of Hand - If you play Daze, play also force etc."). This is not generally true! Yes sometimes you want redundant effects from cards, but sometimes you want to have more variance in your deck. For example in some sorta 60 card deck you play 4 llanowar elves and could decide to play +2 1mana accelerator elves/humans/birds. Or you can decide to fill the last 2 spots in your deck with 2 effects of the same kind or you with a 1-1 split and take your chances. All I want to say is, that more of the same is not always the right decision. Your example with Counterspells is also limping. Most of the tempo decks want to apply pressure on the opponent and try to stay on top because of interaction (counter). There is no threat (Creature) if you fill your deck with lots of counters (which is something Control Decks would tend to do).

Sorry but please be more precise - thank you.