Like a daisy pushing through the final snows of winter, the Rosetta metagame well and truly revealed itself this past weekend. And just as the beauty of spring comes with its fair share of brambles, the new meta is equal parts wide open spaces and bristling thorns. Therefore, Let’s break down which decks we saw rise to the top of the Classic Constructed format this past weekend!
Last weekend, we all had the pleasure of watching Kano rise from the proverbial ashes of his falsely reported death and light the field ablaze on his way to a first place finish at Battle Hardened Sydney. However, if you thought we’d see lightning strike the same place twice then you couldn’t be further from the truth, because at the Calling Lyon we bore witness to the rise of the wizard's natural predator: Illusionist. 73 players registered Enigma at the genesis of the event, making her the #1 most represented deck in the tournament. The second and third most played heroes in Kayo and Aurora pulled a shade over half of that, with 47 and 40 representatives respectively. Azalea and Nuu rounded out the top 5 most played heroes in the 497 player Calling, but Enigma was not interested in sharing the spotlight with anyone else.
As Day 2 began, she continued to be the most represented hero with 28 players still in the running for the highly coveted top 8 spots. This nets her a 38% conversion rate from Day 1 to Day 2, meaning that 38% of Enigma players earned a spot playing the next day with a positive record. Aurora followed behind by a few feet with 13 players represented in Day 2 for a respectable 32% conversion rate and Azalea grabbed the 3rd spot with 10 players. Kayo displayed one of the biggest drop offs in the event with only 5 players making it to Day 2 on the explosive Brute, grasping at a disappointing 11% conversion rate. As the swiss rounds concluded, the mists parted, and the top 8 became clear, the dominance of Enigma and the Illusionist came into focus. Enigma held court by claiming half of the overall spots in the bracket, with the other seats claimed by Prism, Awakener of Sol, Aurora, Azalea, and Verdance. The finals saw Connor McGrath’s Azalea take on the legendary Pablo Pintor on Enigma, and although Azalea's arrows blotted out the sun, Enigma welcomed the shade and helped Pablo once again claim the title of Calling Champion!
What can we learn from this result? Enigma may have not impressed last weekend, but this weekend she well and truly lived up to the hype that so many in the community heaped upon her. She is very much a benchmark deck for the metagame, and any hero that wants to have a shot NEEDS to have a gameplan into the hero. Enigma was and continues to be presented as a “fair and balanced” Illusionist into which players no longer have to spend their attacks targeting permanents on the board. That perceived weakness is arguably her greatest strength: she can build a terrifying board with relative ease, all while protecting her permanents by blocking for them. By no means am I saying that counterplay doesn’t exist for Enigma’s wards, but her damage prevention and snowball tactics threaten to cut the metagame off at the stump if the deck is not actively targeted by the field. I expect to see continued success in the coming weeks for the hero, leading up to the moment that the Dash I/O Armory Deck boosts onto the scene.
But Calling Lyon wasn’t the only event going on this past weekend, because your very own MinMax Games hosted the Battle Hardened Milwaukee, where 119 players duked it out all day for a shot at the Top 8 and that precious Gold Foil. Looking at the breakdown of the metagame therein, this time we saw Enigma share the top spot with Nuu at 13 players apiece. Aurora, Azalea, and Viserai (he still exists, remember?) rounded out the top 5 with 10, 9, and 9 players respectively. It’s worth noting again that Kayo fell hard in representation and conversion this week with only 5 players bringing him to the Battle Hardened and none converting to the Top 8. Going into this format, many members of the community expected big things from the Brute as his matchup spread felt fairly even across the field. Whether it be the allure of the new Rosetta heroes or the dominance of Enigma (a contentious matchup for Kayo), his stock in the metagame has arguably never been lower.
The Top 8 of Battle Hardened Milwaukee wins the award for most unexpected and exciting storyline of the weekend. As absolutely no one expected, Alex Tyler's Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn carried an undefeated record into the Top 8 and claimed the 1st seed. To do so, he had to dispatch the Calling Tampa Bay winner, Lucas Oswald, on Enigma in round 6. They met again in the quarterfinals, and once again Alex bested Lucas with a masterful display of Boltyn skill. This brought him face to face with Nick Gabler on Viserai, Runeblood. The titanic clash of two D-tier heroes resulted in a win for Nick, securing Viserai a spot in the Finals, where he would meet fellow Wolfpack teammate Luke Magnuson on Verdance, Thorn of the Rose. Verdance had overperformed expectations all day and was on the verge of pulling the upset in the match, but the onslaught of the shadows was too much, and Nick Gabler claimed the top spot and became the Battle Hardened Milwaukee champion.
Yes, that’s right: Viserai won a tier 2 event!
The entire tournament served as a testament to how impactful Rosetta has been on the metagame thus far. Season after season, heroes such as Viserai have languished at the bottom of tier lists everywhere. Chalk it up to lackluster numbers or a lack of meaningful interactions, but to call Viserai meta relevant over the past few years would be ludicrous. The class support in Rosetta has allowed Viserai to transform his playstyle in a way that now forces meaningful interaction, relies less on the non-attack into attack game plan so heavily prone to disruption, and increases the value that he inherently gets from his hero ability. If your argument for steering clear of Viserai was simply “other Runeblades do it better”, it’s time to get a new argument. The results that Verdance put up in the Top 8 also deserve their time in the sun. Two different archetypes of Verdance were present in the semi-finals of the event, and both proved to be potent into the wider meta. If you’re looking for a hero that has the capacity to play a solid midrange gameplan into just about every deck, then Verdance is a fantastic option. If you enjoy playing a more defensive style that can build to an overwhelming combo, then Verdance is ALSO a fantastic option. We are only a few weeks into the new metagame, and the results that players have put up with Verdance have proven that community sentiment surrounding the hero needs to change.
So where does the metagame go from here? I see more experimentation on our horizon. We as a community have correctly assessed how powerful Enigma is. That was proven by the Top 8 of the Calling Lyon. If Battle Hardened Milwaukee was any indication, however, there is far more undiscovered territory ahead. ProQuest season begins again this weekend, and you have an opportunity to blaze a trail into this new meta. Which hero will you be taking along for the ride?
