The World Tour this season has been deeply devoted to the new Silver Age format. Even with the Showdown, we can expect high level play in the Showdown to affect how the format will develop.
That said, World Tour Montreal offered the first high level Classic Constructed events. With the remaining weeks of Pro Quest Vegas in the CC format coming up. The local levels need to know what's best going into this new Classic Constructed Metagame.
Calling Montreal
The Day 1 metagame is expectedly eclectic for the first major CC event in this Compendium of Rathe season. The heaviest metagame hitters are still at the top, as well as decks which many would have expected to be at the top.
Fai, Rising Rebellion was considered to be the stronger of the two Draconic Ninjas thanks to the advent of Fire That Burns Within and Art of the Phoenix: War.
Oscilio, Constella Intelligence was expected to shore up its worst matchup, Arakni, Marionette thanks to the new interactive Instant Temporal Wobble. It being a free to play, and relatively hard Negate effect for most non attack actions, it shores up the previously tricky Assassin matchup by denying cards like Codex of Frailty and Savor Bloodshed.
The Assassin was the one with the largest showing. Some versions of the deck sported the new Chaos cards from Compendium of Rathe, while the majority of decks ran the same stock cards from the previous season.
Vynnset, Iron Maiden and Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate unironically got on camera, and the decks generated surprisingly high buzz. Cards like Deep Recesses of Existence in Vynnset and the Ghost Protocol cards put both decks into another layer of consistency.
Conversion
The day 2 conversion rate at Calling Montreal painted a very interesting story of the overall metagame. What started out as so eclectic filtered out a great deal more decks that some were expecting to be higher.
The marked rise of Dorinthea Ironsong and Ira, Scarlet Revenger despite smaller numbers of represented players is staggering.
Oscilio did surprisingly poorly going into Day 2. Only 4 players, 16% of the representation making Day 2 shows the skill intensive nature of the deck, and the deck's tendencies towards bricking.
Top 8
As diverse as the metagame was both days, it showed in the diversity of the Top 8.
Despite my earlier comments about the Elemental Lightning Wizard, Oscilio did put 2 copies into the Top 8, however one of those players was former World Champion Michael Hamilton. That's some of the skill needed to pilot Oscilio to the top tables.
Vynnset made it to the final of Calling Montreal in the hands of the first seed June Lekstutis. After being on the feature match multiple times and winning the hearts of the casters, June walked away from that Calling as the people's champion and reshaping everyone's thoughts about CC's last Runeblade.
What's noteworthy about the deck is how it has no "Vanilla Rune Gates". The deck doesn't feature Vantom Wraith or Vantom Banshee. All the Runegate cards have effects. As well as this, it has a slightly accelerated Runechant generation package in the form of Mordred Tide and Runeblood Incantation alongside the usual Malefic Incantation.
The deck is successfully accelerated in reaching its power turns more consistently with Deep Recesses to recycle attacks when your banish is empty, or non-attacks like Cull or Funeral Moon for more Runechants or for hand attack. The new Runeblade spellbook Grimoire of Fellingsong is an on demand Runechant, which enables turns far more often than one would expect.
Dash I/O was the winning deck at Calling Montreal. The aggressive Boost Mechanologist, with access to instant speed Items has always been a potent deck, and in a new meta, I believe that Dash is one of the premium aggressive decks alongside Marionette.
The new cardTeklo Trebuchet 2000 is exactly the above rate, aggressive Blue the deck needed to gain a new level of competitive edge in this emerging metagame.
Showdown Montreal
Team Armory's Brodie Spurlock won the Showdown playing Briar, and I'm going to say nothing further, because this event happened after the BnR, and this deck was heavily hit by the bannings.
Wrap Up
World Tour Montreal kicked off the CC Metagame in earnest. Decks that were on the fringes of obscurity have risen to be meta contenders thanks to Compendium cards, with titans of the format like Verdance, Thorn of the Rose and Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter taking back seats to Dash I/O, Marionette, and maybe even Vynnset.
Keep up to date with the latest in competitive Flesh and Blood news and analysis right here on fabtcg.gg.
