Metagame Minute: 2024 National Championships, Week 1

Welcome to Metagame Minute, where we tuck into the latest tournament results and discuss tasty trends, saucy highlights, and spicy decklists - all wrapped up in a bite-sized read!

Firstly, a massive congratulations to our first round of National Champions! We look forward to catching you at World Championship: Osaka later this year.

Right, let's dig in! Zen leads the pack this week, which probably came to nobody's surprise. But rather than an overwhelming Ninja sweep which many people expected, Zen's lead is actually only marginally thin, with seven other heroes chasing his tail.

The game has sped up considerably, with decks that can push out big turns performing well across the board - but niche opportunities have arisen to exploit these strategies, leading to some very diverse and interesting Top 8 brackets around the world. Riptide in particular was one hero nobody expected to see in the top cut, but it just goes to show if you prepare your lunch, you can eat it at the zoo.

Let's take a look at how National Champions are building their decks for the current metagame...

Go Again (Again)

We covered Zen last week, but let’s take a look at how things are shaping up for the Mystic Ninja in the wake of the United States National Championship. Despite presenting a very powerful threat to the metagame, Zen only secured 4/14 wins this week. Yes, that’s still more than other heroes, but only by a small margin. The dojo is still very much open to all visitors, and many of them are packing anti-Zen heat. As Zen decks hone in on the most threatening matchups, they’re exploring new options like Talishar, the Lost Prince in games they don’t expect to last very long. Tide Flippers and Spell Fray are also being experimented with as a means to dodge potentially fatal encounters with Kano.

Sometimes the best way to deal with aggro is to beat ‘em at their own game. Dash I/O hits the ground running this week, and it turns out if your opponent doesn’t block out a Boom Grenade, their gameplan tends to blow up in their face. Dash I/O also comes equipped with some shockingly good tech cards for the Zen matchup, such as Pulsewave Harpoon pulling a blue card from their hand, or Out Pace preventing them from triggering their equipment. Spikier cards like Tome of Fyendal and Maximum Velocity may not be as reliable in fast games, but High Octane remains a massive bomb to drop against any matchup. I expect big things from this hero over the coming season.

Mist Opportunity

Zen’s tigertastic spree may have commanded most of the attention, but Enigma is still a very real and very viable contender. Her matchup spread into anything non-aggro is extremely strong, and the latest results prove she can survive the faster metagame just enough to land a few trophies. Successful Enigma decks have hard-teched for Zen, bursting at the seams with cards like Dense Blue Mist, This Round’s on Me, That All You Got?, and Hold the Line. Those of you with National Championships coming up - don’t dive in without a plan against this hero. Miragai is a HOUSE, trust me.

The third hero to debut in Part the Mistveil actually has a fairly strong matchup against Zen. The Assassin toolkit is extremely effective at keeping aggro from completing their wombo-combo, while slowly breaking apart their deck piece by piece. Nuu players will want to be running Scale Peeler in order to stop Zen just chucking the whole kitchen sink at you and popping off. There are some awesome tech cards cropping up in Nuu decks this season, from Rowdy Locals discarding a spare token, to Exude Confidence backed by Slither to ensure a deadly follow-up attack connects, to Razor Reflex offering go again or forcing a Beckoning Mistblade to hit. The only thing standing between Nuu and world domination is simply a tricky matchup spread. But the longer people play this hero, the more streamlined and dangerous she becomes…

Drove my Chevy to the Heavy

Zen may have stolen Kayo’s thunder as the most popular aggro deck on the block, but he’s not going down without a fight! Kayo has a reasonably favoured matchup spread, a fanbase with lots of competitive experience, and naturally thrives playing Zen hate cards. Amnesia blanking Bonds of Ancestry, The Weakest Link snatching an Art of War or a transcend card, Send Packing cooking the arsenal, or even just ye olde Command and Conquer - playing all of these is just another day at the office for Kayo, and once Zen uses an equipment piece those rolling Might tokens open up a new world of hurt.

Hatchet Dori - in this economy?? Sometimes a straightforward gameplan you have lots of reps with is the best approach. There are so many different outcomes it can genuinely be a good strategy just to pick a hero you have lots of experience with and feel relatively comfortable playing into uncertain matchups. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up in a Dorinthea mirror match in the finals! In terms of deck building, there’s nothing overly fancy from Part the Mistveil to glam up the ol golden girl (aside from Battlefront Bastion against Illusionist), but the injection from Heavy Hitters still holds up strong, with cards like Ripple Away and Nasty Surprise putting in surprisingly good work against the new heroes.

Zen remains a prominent deck to beat this season, but the path is wide open for many heroes to take home that precious Championship title. With a variety of tools available, all it takes a little courage and a lot of reps and before you know it you're mopping the floor with your feline foes. Remember that all TCGs have a level of variance, so try not to beat yourself up about an unlucky game, just shake it off and stay focused for the next round. After all, you've got a National Championship to win!

Stay tuned for more trends, highlights, and decklists next week in Metagame Minute!