Welcome to a brave new world. It’s been a minute since we peered through the looking glass at the state of the Classic Constructed metagame. As one chapter ends, a new tale waits to be told and with the injection of Tales of Aria into the CC meta, there’s a lot to unpack here.
When we last caught up with the 80 card decks of Flesh and Blood, The Calling Las Vegas had us casually dressed and deep in conversation. Tyler Horspool was the Light amongst the Shadow when he took the event down with his brilliant Prism control deck, designed with dethroning the one who is Bound by Shadow in mind.
Since then we’ve said goodbye to Seeds of Agony and Duskblade and hello to Earth, Ice, Lightning and Tales of Aria. Lexi and Briar have certainly made their mark on the early days of this new metagame with Oldhim descending from the frozen peaks of Isenloft chilling enemies’ veins and also making his presence known.
ProQuest Dallas Fort-Worth was our first glimpse of data on the world stage since the Tales of Aria release. 164 players battled it out and we saw an incredibly diverse Top 8 with six different heroes being represented.
1st Jack McHalffey (Prism)
2nd Jasiel Diez (Bravo)
3rd-4th Sam Yuen (Bravo)
3rd-4th Ryan McClain (Ser Boltyn)
5th-8th Christopher Higashi (Katsu)
5th-8th Henry Martinez (Lexi)
5th-8th Joshua Lau (Ser Boltyn)
5th-8th Kent Summerour (Dash)
At the end of the event Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light remained on top in the capable hands of Jack McHalffey in a masterfully fought finale against one of Prism’s toughest matchups, Bravo, Showstopper.
The following week saw ProQuest Cincinnati take place during The Calling weekend. The event started with 139 players and, again a wide open meta game with a lot of diversity. 14 heroes were represented and a plethora of archetypes within them.
After six rounds of brutal beatdowns the Top 8 looked (literally) like this.
Our Top 8 players and their chosen heroes were
- 1st Stewart McGirt (Bravo)
- 2nd Alex Keeler (Chane)
- 3rd-4th Brendan Patrick (Briar)
- 3rd-4th Christopher Higashi (Briar)
- 5th-8th Mathew Frye (Prism)
- 5th-8th Stephen Pierce (Lexi)
- 5th-8th Luke Hackbarth (Katsu)
- 5th-8th Jason Watkins (Prism)
Not only had Christopher Higashi “back-to back” Top 8ed, he’d done it with two different heroes, first Katsu and then an extraordinarily innovative aggressive Lightning Briar deck! Brendan Patrick of Arsenal Pass also took Briar, Warden of Thorns to a Top 4 finish in Cincy with a slightly different approach to the Elemental Runeblade. After going undefeated in six rounds of Swiss and hammering his way through a very stacked Top 8, Stewart McGirt was the star of the show going an easy 9-0 with his Bravo, Showstopper deck picking up a PTI and the beautiful Cold Gold Skullcap!
So...who is leading the race in the Tales of Aria metagame? With both Prism and Bravo picking up big wins one could make an early claim that a control meta approaches, however, much like the rumours of Chane's death, this may be greatly exaggerated.
Taking a look at the two ProQuest results the Top 8 hero breakdown across the two events looks like this:
- 3 Bravo
- 3 Prism
- 2 Briar
- 2 Boltyn
- 2 Lexi
- 2 Katsu
- 1 Dash
- 1 Chane
Finally, with Auckland in lockdown we unfortunately had to postpone NZ nationals which were scheduled to happen last weekend. However, with a lot of top players having booked their flights, we wanted to put on something for the players regardless, so in partnership with Sushi Knight there was a two-day FAB extravaganza in the capital city, with a T8 featuring;
- 1 Rhinar
- 1 Briar
- 1 Lexi
- 1 Prism
- 2 Dash
- 2 Bravo
It's fair to say that Bravo and Prism are the decks to beat. Both heroes have reasonably strong matchups across the board, Bravo often boasting of a good one even against Prism! Boltyn has been doing his best to set up those One Turn Kills thanks to Lumina Ascension, Cintari Sabers and friends however, control decks can cause the Breaker of Dawn some issues if the pieces of the puzzle don't come together. Lexi and Katsu keep the field honest with their aggressive strategies, putting pressure on the opponent from the get go, aiming to deny control decks as well as decks which like to set up the precious time to do so. Lexi has seen success in both Voltaire and Death Dealer builds. Only time will us what build, if any, is the best.
Chane. Despite not being heavily represented, the one bound by shadow certainly should not to be counted out of the Tales of Aria Classic Constructed metagame! The oohs and aahs of both awe and disbelief were heard around the globe as Alex Keeler took the Shadow Runeblade to a second place finish in Cincy with his new twist on an old....favorite.
With Bravo and Prism leading the pack and new kids on the block Lexi and Briar hot on their heels, once again, the Classic Constructed meta is wide open. All eyes will be on the first National Championship of 2021 happening this weekend in the United Kingdom to see what developments have gone on. Will Rhinar, Reckless Rampage rise up and disrupt the carefully sculpted hands and gameplans of Bravo? Will Lexi light it up and send lightning straight to the hearts of her enemies? Will Azalea decide that the time has come to seek and destroy?
Whether you're looking to figure out what to play, what to beat or simply want to be a part of history as the first National Champion of 2021 is crowned in Leeds, England, tune in to the brave new world of the Tales of Aria Classic Constructed metagame this weekend as Living Realms bring you all of the action!