What is the Meta?

For players new to the game (and even some of the old), there's this word flying around: 'meta' that doesn't seem to make any sense. Rather than sitting there nodding your head and pretending you understand what it means, here's some help.

The 'meta' refers to the current playing environment, particularly the types of decks being played, the cards that are being used most often, and what's popular in general. Understanding the meta allows a player to refine his or her deck to account for cards that are becoming strong (perhaps too strong).

For example, the prior post mentioned Madril and how powerful he can become given an Ithilien blade. If the meta of your local playing environment included many players with Madril decks, you could account for this by playing cards such as this:



By playing this wicked Nazgul card, you are countering the meta in several ways. First, you have given yourself a method by which you can remove the threats that are keeping your minions roaming. Second, you have a method by which you can play minions for cheap. This allows you to play more Nazgul, so even if your minions are still roaming, your opponent may not be able to discard all of them. Additionally, playing Nazgul in general is a good counter to this meta. Each one that survives should easily be winning skirmishes against a deck that is dependent on not fighitng.

So the next time you're playing at your local card store, ask yourself, 'What is the Meta?' and think about how you can beat it!

Roam If You Want To

As some of you may know, the release of The Hunters set was pushed back as Decipher makes sure that the set is as awesome as we all expect it to be. Unfortuantely that leaves little to write about or report on. While you wait for the set to be released (hopefully before 2006) think about this new combination that brings rangers back into the fold with a vengeance:



and



You read that card right, it says discard. That means that once you have five or six threats on the board, Madril makes all those minions roaming during the Maneuver phase and you can discard any of them for the low cost of two vitality.

I'll leave it as an excercise for the reader to find the companions that Madril can bring along to provide the vitality, and the cards that this fellowship needs to add just a few threats. Once you've got those cards, just sit back and think about how many minions you can discard as your fellowship roams over to site 9 unopposed!