World Tour San Diego marks the second Silver Age Calling and Showdown in the books. We've seen how progressively the meta has changed from London, and also how little it has changed.
As we can expect from an evolving metagame with such interesting deck building constraints, there's a lot to learn about Silver Age from these early events, and if it's anything to compare Classic Constructed to, we may be living in a world of Wizard Supremacy.
Calling San Diego
The field for Calling San Diego was a great deal smaller than London. The spread of meta game contenders was somewhat similar by comparison.
The top 5 decks all feature double digit representation. Early Silver Age has tended towards aggression, with the outliers being the Fatigue by Damage Decimator Great Axe Dorinthea and the arcane combo deck in the form of Kano.
It's the outlier decks which provide a great deal of extra spice. The three copies of Nuu that ought to have some special attention. Levia swinging Hell Hammer has been a fan favourite from London.
The day two metagame has a surprising show of the conversion rates. Vynnset fills the shadow void that Chane has left behind. It's more interesting to note that Terra was the best converting Guardian going into day 2, with a surprising lack of Bravo, Flattering Showman and absolutely no Oldhim converting at all.
The aforementioned Nuu and the surprising break out of Enigma has left many players surprised at the relative power of the Mystic heroes in this format. Especially in a format with midrange decks as resilient to disruption as Kayo or Ninjas as aggressive as Fai and Ira.
The diverse metagame had some heavy hitting players including legends of the game from Team Armory and members of the Arcane Games and Events pro circuit.
What is interesting to see about the Silver Age format is how differently certain match ups fair in CC. Back when both decks were legal, the Enigma/Kano matchup was significantly less Kano favoured, due to Majestic rarity cards like Manifestation of Miragai and Phantasmaclasm skewing the matchup in Kano's favour. With clever pitch stacking and consistent damage output, the Kano is particularly favoured.
Finalist Deck
Michael Feng brought what many consider the default aggro deck and one of the best decks in the format all the way to the finals of World Tour San Diego.
It's clear in the hands of a master deck builder such as this, that this version of Briar has been teched for all manner of matchups. With aua023-trip-the-light-fantastic-3-rosetta-blitz-deck-aurora-precon in the Blue Base for matchups like the Kano he faced in the finals; in addition to the Evergreen to have a consistent threat against Fatigue.
The offensive overlap of sending multiple 4 power attacks like the long lost Aurora, Shooting Star as well as a singular tall attack following multiple 0 for 3 pumps.
Winning Deck
Jacob Clements, hot off his win of the Showdown in London was able to take the win again on Kano in San Diego. The version ahs been refined greatly since London, however the gameplan is maintained. Emeritus Scolding in all colours is the key card to be pitched early. Once the Second Cycle rolls around and most of the opponent's prevention has been used, the above rate Arcane Damage on the Opponent's turn is devastating and game winning.
The new card Unyielding Grip offers the opportunity to block a substantial amount on a turn where you have blocked prior and when you had activated Kano to send Arcane.
Showdown San Diego
The Showdown provided a similar story for gamers at the Calling, with Ryan Brown also playing Kano.
What's noteworthy about Ryan's list is the inclusion of Red and Blue Reverberate. Playing these late, when the prevention is more scarce gives the Kano pilot a lot of agency to chain together lots of damage; especially if they're familiar with their pitch stack and can group together a good target to banish with Reverberate.
Wrap Up
This might be a Wizard world for early Silver Age. Kano can present so much inevitable damage that can combo almost any opponent. Time for your sideboards to include Arcane Polarity and Oasis Respite.
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