Metagame Minute: Pro Quest: Singapore, Week 1

The mists are parting... the fog is lifting...

Fresh off the back of Pro Tour: London, the first week of Pro Quest: Singapore has dealt a sizeable shakeup to the metagame. Both Enigma and Zen have reached Living Legend as expected, opening up breathing room for Assassins, Guardians, and Runeblades to swell to the surface and contest Aurora for stardom.

Despite Aurora and Enigma's dominance, a wide range of heroes have claimed wins in the first week. With this latest shift, we're expecting strong heroes with robust longterm gameplans like Florian, Nuu, and Jarl to perform well when not trying to escape the Enigma puzzle.

Let's take a look at some interesting winning decklists from week 1...

Florian, Rotwood Harbinger

It's time to go green! Florian was a popular pick for the Pro Tour due to his strength into Aurora, Assassin, and many other fringe decks. The reliance on a slower setup plan somewhat struggled into Engima, but with that roadblock out of the way, Florian's petals are unfurling just in time for spring break! We've seen Florian be an exceptional "numbers" deck so far, but now he will have a lot more legroom to execute Runechant stacking strategies as well.

Once Florian gets going he can put out really good numbers, whether it's an attack with go again into Felling of the Crown or a 1-card 5 with Grasp of the Arknight and Reaping Blade. The key difference between Florian and an aggro deck though is that his numbers are split between offense and defense, allowing him to adapt to any gamestate with a reasonable crackback. Heroes like Aurora may struggle to consistently overcome these numbers every turn. Florian is also well-protected against Assassin, with a myriad of defense reactions, prevention, and disruption, such as Haunting Rendition, Well Grounded, and Face Purgatory. He can also play around Codex of Frailty with Felling of the Crown in the graveyard.

Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty

Long has Victor waited at the gates, his glory days cut short by the Illusionist regime. Now the Golden Son returns from his beach holiday to claim what he believes is rightfully his - the title of Aurora-killer. Similar to his role in past metagames when Zen was dominant, Victor seeks to punish Aurora and other squishy aggro decks the old fashioned way. Disruption like Concuss, Spinal Crush, Pummel, and even Crush the Weak to target Ninjas and Assassins, are often enough to keep aggro decks from flooding the combat chain.

Victor will still have a few sketchy matchups he needs to contend with - Nuu has inevitability which forces him to rely on racing her with big Visit Goldmane Estate turns, and Florian completing a landscaping project of Runechants is not good for the investment portfolio. We're already seeing some cool new tech cards such as Imperial Seal of Command, which Victor makes great use of alongside Crown of Dominion. Perhaps with a bunch of free sideboard space previously dedicated to anti-Enigma cards like Vambrace of Determination and Snapdragon Scalers with Enlightened Strike, Victor and Jarl can cook up a few ways to shore up these matchups and make Guardian great again.

Riptide, Lurker of the Deep

We haven't forgotten about the loyal Riptide enthusiasts who have been dutifully trudging along, popping ward auras with trap triggers just to get by. Riptide is in a unique position where he happens to be extremely strong into Assassin, and depending on how you build him, can actually be fairly decent into matchups that are conventionally hard for the Ranger class, such as Wizard or Illusionist. Of course, building to combat Verdance or Prism will come at a big sacrifice, and Florian may also prove to be a very uphill battle. You can't win them all, but maybe you can win just enough for an invite to Pro Tour: Singapore...

Traps are looking pretty tasty in the upcoming metagame, but it's Riptide's arsenal flexibility that really shines. Defense reactions are very popular right now due as a means of covering Aurora's 4-power breakpoints and Assassin's endless attack reactions. Dreadbore is the perfect tool to punish this, forcing double and sometimes triple blocks on 1-cost arrows with relevant on-hit effects. This does require you to pitch yellows, but for the turns where you want to stay lean and fling out a 0-cost arrow, simply playing a trap on the opponent's turn or a pump on your own turn allows you to rely on Riptide's ability instead of pitching for the bow.

Congratulations to our first round of Pro Quest winners! You've earned the right to fight for the ultimate title at Pro Tour: Singapore later this year. Next week we dive into a fresh new metagame - will Aurora remain in the limelight, or will she be ousted by the sudden turn of weather? Only one way to find out...